Old Black Witch

There's a book entitled "Old Black Witch" by Wende & Harry Devlin (ISBN 0689716362). My grandma Jane bought the book for my Uncle Craig when he was a child. Later, when I was a child, I had frequent sleepovers at her house. I remember her reading tons and tons of books to me before we went to bed, including Old Black Witch. The next morning, we'd make the pancake recipe on the back, complete with the "magic spell" that you chant as you mix the blueberries into the pancakes.

As an adult, I'm not crazy about pancakes, but these sleepover/pancake breakfasts with my grandparents are among my most cherished memories.

Today, I bought a flat of blueberries on sale. I decided to make blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight. I borrowed the same book from my grandma, and read it to my kids. Then the "mama witch" (me), and the "baby witch" (Sabrina), and Zack made the recipe, complete with the magic words.

The pancakes really were amazing.

I feel like I'm cheating my kids out of a special memory with my grandma. I got her a flat of blueberries too, so maybe I'll arrange a sleepover with her and them next weekend so they can get the special event too. I think some things, like this, are just better if it's done with a grandma or great grandma.

Here is the recipe for the pancakes (I doubled the recipe when I was cooking it so it would feed my entire family):Bewitching Blueberry Pancakes

1 1/4 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 tbl. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c. milk
3 tbl. vegetable oil
1/2 c. washed blueberries

Mix all ingredients until fairly well blended. Some lumps will still be present. Stir in the blueberries. VERY IMPORTANT (this is the magic part): As you stir in the blueberries, say the following three times:

Gobble dee gook
With a wooden spoon
The laugh of a toad
At the height of the moon!

Pour on a hot griddle and watch.

You can make things disappear just like Old Black Witch. Put three pancakes in front of any hungry boy (except Mr. "I don't like fruit in pancakes" M) or girl any watch them go.

Funny story from a stranger

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to visit with interesting people. As such, I strike up conversations with many strangers that I pass. A girlfriend of mine once accused me of finding the weirdest possible people to be friends. She went on to say she can't believe I became friends with her because she was going through a very difficult time in her life when we'd met, and she thought she had to have been absolutely unbearable to be around. Nope. She was interesting, which is good. Plus, I could also see the makings for a very good friend, and knew if I stuck around, she would end up being a treasured friend.

Yesterday, I was at Wal-Mart. I got into a conversation with the greeter, who told me a really funny story. Recently, a man was leaving the store with a cart full of groceries. He had a very large watermelon on the bottom of his cart. As he walked out of the store, the cart hit a bump, and the watermelon went rolling right off the cart. The store is on a slight hill, so the watermelon took off, gaining momentum as it went. The man began trying to chase the melon making a run for its' life, dodging cars, carts, and people as it went. The melon picked up speed, and the man was falling behind. It got a couple hundred yards ahead of him before the man finally threw up his hands in disgust and frustration and gave up.

Run away and be free, watermelon. Find a nice resting spot to have babies in the Golden West Credit Union flower bed.

Digital Scrapbooking

I never really could get into regular scrapbooking. I hated the idea of cutting up pictures, spending an hour (at least!), and several dollars to make ONE page with one or two pictures. Compounded by the fact that I was never meticulous enough to make cute pages. I'd lose patience and end up with crappy pages.

Enter digital scrabooking. Totally mess free, and your photos stay intact. I make a lot of cute pages using photoshop, and then use a site like Inkubook to make a bound book.

To make cute pages, you need "electronic paper". I have managed to amass a ton of really adorable things.

This week I decided I was really, really sick of my current blog background. I've been looking for some new fall/halloween paper so that I could make a new blog background. Today, I came across this cute set. Isn't it adorable? It's from a scrapper named Robyn. You can find her website HERE.

Check back to see if I managed to set aside enough time to make a cute blog background from her darling kit.

Crookneck Squash

I see nothing dirty here. Really.

First Day of School Pictures

I'm late in getting this posted, but wanted to post pictures of the three older kids on their first days of school. K & M started a week or so before S, which was deeply upsetting to S.

Everyone has settled in nicely to the school year again. I am excited that all three of my kids have amazingly talented teachers. I've really loved all of their teachers they've had so far. I feel blessed that we have gotten such wonderful people to teach our children.

Almost cried at church. Again.

Or, as an alternate title to the story: "How the Bishop and I Ended Up in the Ladies' Room Together"

A month or so ago, the cub scout pack leader asked if I wanted to teach the kids how to use pocketknives at our next pack meeting. Show 15+ kids ages 7-10 how to carve with knives and then let them have at it? Sure! Sounds like LOTS of fun. The scary thing is, that was my honest attitude.

Tonight was the big night. We do the regular opening- flag ceremony, awards, etc. Then, the pack leader announces that I'm taking the kids outside to carve soap, and the adults will all stay inside and have a meeting.

I was a teensy bit nervous to be doing it alone because a bunch of boys, their siblings, pocketknives, and soap can be a dangerous combination.

Things were going smoothly. The boys seemed properly impressed on how to use a knife safely. I handed out soap and let them go to town. I had three little girls around me, age 8 or so. I offered to carve them something into their soap, as I wasn't sure if their parents wanted them to use a knife.

One little girl kept begging me to let her carve herself. She is a very cautious, good girl. Her older brother was a cub scout of mine, and he was always perfectly behaved as well. If she was my child, I would let her carve. So, I decided to let her.

She was doing remarkably well, so I took my attention off her a little to see how everyone else was doing. She suddenly said, "I don't want to do this any more", and got up hurriedly.

Of course I immediately knew something was wrong, so I run over. Sure enough, she's cut her finger. Not bad enough to need stitches, but bad enough to think about consider the idea. She bled all over the place. So, I had to leave everyone outside alone while I rushed her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. She was extremely upset about it. Lucky for both of us, her dad (the bishop) happened to be hovering by the door, so I got his attention, and he got his wife, and they joined me in the bathroom to clean her up.

She went home with her mom to get some special tape to seal up the wound.

Honestly, I felt so awful about the whole thing. I came soooooo close to crying over it, but managed to hold back. This little girl is just the sweetest little thing, and I felt responsible for her getting hurt.

There are still good people

The other day J was jogging in an unfamiliar place. He used his iphone to look for a jogging path. He was following the signs and jogging along. Suddenly, the area was looking less like a jogging trail and more like a ghetto. He stopped someone walking down the road and asked for directions.

There had been a wrong turn somewhere along the way, and yes, he was in a pretty bad part of town. The stranger was really worried about J getting back to the hotel ok, and gave J his phone number. He asked J to call when he got back, and said he just wouldn't sleep well that night unless he knew J was ok.

I thought that was very sweet of the guy.

Now, as I type this out, I realize it's entirely possible that the guy was subtly hitting on J. My darling husband would be oblivious enough to not get the signals.

Regardless of his intentions, it reaffirmed my faith in humanity.