12 August 2024

11 August 2024

D picks up random words and uses them incessantly for a few weeks before abandoning them for the next phrase that feels good in his mouth.  For a long time when we first got to Maryland, it was "chicken nuggies". Last month it was "Wisconsin", and right now it's "thermonuclear war".

10 August 2024

In sacrament meeting last week, Nut Brown stood up and bore his testimony and shared that after skipping church while we were on vacation in Michigan earlier this year, he was surprised to find when he attended church the following Sunday how much better he felt. He concluded that there is something special about church attendance.

Rosebud also wanted to share her testimony but she was intimidated by the size of the crowd.  She wanted to talk about how she knows that God answers prayers because whenever D loses Legos, he prays and then he finds them.

And D had something to share too, but Nut Brown couldn't quite convince him to get up. So D wrote it down instead on his white board.

"I was thinking about word searches and realized that life can be a lot like word searches because we can't find out answers to the questions we want. However you can find your answers and sometimes you need help from God to find your answers."

I love to catch glimpses of faith growing.

9 August 2024

Busy day for me today! It's Friday so it was date day and Mr. Brown and I went out to Wawa for breakfast! Then Mr. Brown took D to his last day of STEM camp and he and Nut Brown and Rose Pink went on to the gym.  D says he has enjoyed STEM camp, and he talks a lot about the card games that he's learned how to play during breaks. He also says that they extracted strawberry DNA, built a radio from Snap Circuits, constructed furniture out of newspaper and built a teepee from newspaper, ate an MRE and met an active duty Airborne soldier. So I guess there was also some science.

Rosebud and I play tested her board game this morning. It was a pretty fun game. We tried a couple different rules variations and had a good time together. She "did her dots" (the four projects she's working on this summer - math book to learn multiplication, cursive handwriting, dribbling a basketball, and piano practice - these were all her ideas) while I did my shoulder exercises.

Rose Pink and I went clothes shopping and found a great consignment shop! Very excited for this, because the thrifting scene in town is really not good. So that was encouraging. 

This afternoon Mr. Brown and Nut Brown spent almost two hours on dance practice. Rose Pink was a helpful partner... My shoulder keeps me from being great at the moment. Rosebud and I dashed out for a rain walk in the last trailing storm from Hurricane Debby, and that was nice, to be out in the rain. It's been so nice to have cloud and rain for awhile instead of the unrelenting sun.

Mr. Brown danced with me in the kitchen 🥰 and it was so nice to do something so close. He said that we were meant to be dance partners because we dance so well together, and even twenty-five years ago it was that way. 🥰 It is so nice to be together with him.

I helped Rosebud make dirt pudding with a little kit that she got from her Primary teacher on Sunday,

 and we had pizza for dinner, and then the girls and I went shopping for a small surprise birthday gift for Nut Brown. He'll be away at camp next week when it's his birthday so we want to surprise him with a little gift on his birthday even though we're saving the big celebration until he gets home.

Busy, happy day.

9 August 2024

Tonight Nut Brown was driving to bro night with both of his sisters and me in the car. Rose Pink and I were giving him some flak about driving five miles below the speed limit on Wheel Road, and he responded irritably, "You all are pirates and robbers but I'm a law abiding citizen!"

Here are the proofs from his senior yearbook picture, proudly displayed on the fridge!

6 August 2024

We get a lot of compliments about Nut Brown from his teachers, his church leaders and his friends' parents. On Sunday, Mr. Brown was telling us about a young woman at church who told him that she was not looking forward to when Nut Brown left the youth program, because he is apparently the one who makes activities fun. Nut Brown says that this is because no one here, not the youth and not the leaders, know what makes a good activity. But since he's been in so many wards as a youth, he's had a lot of experience with activities and knows what it takes to make them fun. (Finally a silver lining to all the ward changes in Texas!)

Rose Pink chimed in to add that she was told at girls' camp that the young women think Nut Brown is "hot".  Mr. Brown looked at Nut Brown and said, "We-ell! What do you think, Nut Brown?" Nut Brown paused reading his manga and then replied, "I don't think I'm particularly hot, but compared to the other priests..."  It was such a classic Nut Brown response!

1 August 2024

Happy birthday Mr. Brown!! We started the day with Wawa breakfast. He asked for a pan of gyro meat from Mr. Souvlaki's for dinner, so we had gyros and they were amazing and delicious.

The kids made pillowcases for him, and he also got a popcorn popper, which will be great because we can't make popcorn on our stove!

Kids with the pillowcases they each made

Preparing to enjoy the first batch of popcorn

The next Saturday D and Rosebud and I performed the annual car cleaning for him. They are old enough now that I don't have to do too much, which was so neat to see. 

I was so glad because I got the birthday right this year. He had a great day and seemed very happy with how he was celebrated. I love you, Mr. Brown!

 

31 July 2024

D has invented a board game. It has lots of rules and borrows heavily from both D&D and video games.  Rosebud and I play tested it with him on Sunday, and it was actually pretty playable, if a little repetitive. (Like a video game) It was really fun to see how happy and excited he was about his creative effort.

29 July 2024

Tonight Nut Brown made a batch of cookies because he wanted some, and when I asked him how they turned out, he offered me one. I think my heart grew a size because of his thoughtfulness. He has a very kind, compassionate heart. 

Now I'm up in the middle of the night with D, who has some major nasal congestion, and while he's drinking hot tea, we're discussing how Starbursts get wrapped in two-packs.  I tell him that I think they start with a horizontal funnel at the end of the conveyor belt so that only one can get through at a time, and D says, "So they form an orderly queue," and looks at me and grins and nods up and down.  Sure love this kid.

28 July 2024

 

Pool day every Friday this summer 

There's been a lot of this lately... Lego story play.

27 July 2024

This afternoon we went down to Silver Spring MD and met up with Amri and Brett and Hugh and Jess at a park.  Two of their cousins who live in the area also came with some of their kids. It was kind of hot but it was fun to talk with them. The kids did their best to amuse themselves and since we ended up staying for three hours, they did eventually break the ice with Amri's kids and play together.

26 July 2024 (2)

Nut Brown plus bros at the demolition derby

26 July 2024

This morning Mr. Brown went to the gym with Rose Pink and Nut Brown (new this summer - but good for all three of them!) and Bobo and Rosebud hurried with the Saturday chores to earn a donut.  The three of us ran to ShopRite and got donuts plus smoothie ingredients, and when Mr. Brown got home he made smoothies for himself and me and coached others in making their own.  Yum.

We went swimming around 12:30:

Here we are sunscreening at the pool.  We stood in a circle and pushed water at each other and named fruit (Bobo's game) and then we held hands and walked in a circle to make a flow of water.  Nut Brown said it was like making our own lazy river.  Then Mr. Brown floated on his back and Nut Brown pushed him around the pool, and I walked back and forth with Rosebud and Bobo hanging on me, and then it was time to go.  We laid around in the sun drying for a little while, and then we went to Wendy's for a midafternoon meal.

After we got home, Nut Brown drove me and Rosebud and Bobo to the library.  We picked up books (less than we dropped off, so a net reduction for our house, which is good, I think it took us down to 30 books out instead of 50) and then Nut Brown drove us to his friends' house to drop himself off for bro night tonight.  They are going to a demolition derby up in Cecil County.  Rosebud and Bobo and I went to a different library, and Rosebud and I did a scavenger hunt with a compass inside while Bobo waited in the car with a book from the previous library.  She scored a stamp for finding all the pieces.

Now it's evening and Mr. Brown is simmering soup for dinner using vegetables from the farm CSA that we are experimenting with this summer.  It's pretty quiet.  Bobo is waiting impatiently for his friend Aaron to arrive for mini-bro night. Here he is:

Lovely relaxing day today!

22 July 2024

We went to visit my parents in PA this weekend!  The kids immediately found the climbing tree in the backyard and ascended.

Grandpa took us to buy fireworks - lots of them, and big ones too! Then we had dinner (lasagna) and rode our bikes to the Purple Cow for ice cream.  Yum.  The bike rides on the trail near their house are always great. D fell off and scraped his knee but he was a trooper after a little recovery time.

Then we set off fireworks!  The fireworks store was having a 2-for-1 sale so we had twice as many.  Rosebud was nervous about it at first, but Grandpa helped her and D learn how to light them, and they were even more excited about it.  There were so many and such spectacular ones!  We were up late.

On Saturday we went for a hike and a picnic lunch, very scenic and lovely.  Rosebud and D completed bingo cards along the path for various birds and bugs and trees.  That evening we went to an ice cream social with their ward.  It was a little hot, but the ice cream was good!  D and Rosebud really wanted me to come and see something on the playground so they made their best puppy faces:

What they wanted me to see was Rosebud riding a duck:

Sunday we went to church, and in the evening we had ice cream at home.  Grandma soaked sugar cubes in lemon extract and set them on fire on top of the ice cream.  Better living through chemistry!  

And we set off some more fireworks on Sunday evening. We lit off all the big ones and most of the small ones.  The buzzing bees, and the planes that shot out a little parachute guy were some of our favorites.  Besides the huge shiny loud ones.

The city library is directly behind their house.  There's not even a fence.  I'm jealous every time we visit.

Monday morning Rose Pink and I went antiquing with Grandpa for a couple hours (so many wild and fun things to see) and D and Rosebud hung out with Grandma at home.  Then we left to head home.  Grandma packed a picnic lunch for us to eat in the car and slipped in some M&Ms for dessert. She knows what we like!  

20 July 2024

Rosebud was grumpy with me for insisting that she take a shower one evening, and she gifted us her socks on the bathroom soap dispenser as a result.

17 July 2024

It has been a HOT summer, as hot as Austin was for weeks at a time.  Much hotter than last summer.  It also hasn't rained very much, which makes me sad.  We finally got a rainy day today and Bobo and Rosebud and I walked in the rain around the neighborhood and got all wet.  We splashed in the gutters and puddles.  We had an umbrella but gave up after awhile.  When we got home, Bobo had to scramble to get to Mutual but Rosebud and I got into dry clothes and then had hot chocolate together.  It was so nice to have a rainy day!

13 July 2024

Nut Brown and his youth group built a trebuchet. They worked on it for several weeks, and finally it was the night to test it out with potatoes.  It worked! He was very gratified. (It was his idea.) He asked me to make videos of it working to show Mr. Brown because he wanted to share.

Nut Brown is the one with the teal hair and teal shirt in the photo below.

10 July 2024

 I've been helping Nut Brown apply for jobs this summer.  One employer asked him to choose three adjectives to describe himself, and together he and I and Mr. Brown came up with: competitive, compassionate and conscientious. I thought it was funny that they all started with 'C'.  (Although we changed "competitive" to "driven" when he submitted it.)

6 July 2024

Bobo, tonight, was showing me how many marbles he had in his hand. "Not one, Mom, not two... Not three, not five... FOUR marbles, Mom, that's what I have!"

6 July 2024

 We traveled up to Detroit over this weekend to visit some old friends, the Scotts!  It took us about 12 hours to make the drive.  We stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant that had great atmosphere but mediocre food.

The weather while we were there was really nice.  We spent a lot of time outside, and Nut Brown and Mr. Brown were so happy to be completely free of allergies!

 

 

I had a chance to go out and see my aunt and uncle in Ann Arbor, and we also made sure to stop at our favorite place, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum:

It was a very fun time, spending quarters all over the place and enjoying ourselves. Favorite games included Guitar Hero, the fishing game, skee ball, and Fruit Ninja.

There was also a lot of Lego playing.

It was our friend's 40th birthday, and Mr. Brown led a game session using the rule system and our friend wrote himself!

And we made sure to do our other favorite activity, which is double-date escape room!  We succeeded!  Michigan has the best escape rooms that we have found anywhere..

Then it was 12 hours back on July 3.  The trip back was easier.  Here we are at a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania.

And we made it to the hometown 4th of July parade the next day too!  We found some friends from church there, and we had slushies from Sonic to get us through the heat.  It was hot.  But it was fortunately cloudy, and we had a pretty good time.