The Search for Miss Direction: Rollin' With It

I'm not the best at going with the flow and rolling with the punches. It is in my nature to plan. I like things to be prepared and know what's coming next. I know this about myself and have been working on my ability to adapt and be flexible (especially when it comes to stuff with the kiddos) but I know it's not my strong suit.

So this morning at 11am when I noticed that the sun was shining gorgeously I decided to go with the flow, pack up lunches and surprise the kiddos with a trip to the park after we ran one quick errand after VBS. This is exactly what happened until on our way to the park, dark clouds started to roll in. The weather hadn't said much about rain and I knew I was going to have two super bummed out kids if I just threw in the towel, so we improvised! We made it to the park, I braved the downpour and put the seats down in the back of the van and we had a picnic in the car. The kids thought it was the best thing ever and I felt like I earned a "that'll do pig" ;-) Our perseverance paid off since by the time they finished up their lunches the storm had rolled through, the sun came out and soaked up most of the rain (and a nice grandma playing with some kids helped us out by drying off the equipment) and we were able to get in some playtime at the park. Sometime you just gotta roll with it!

We continued to "roll" with it this afternoon as we started work on our Nevada project for the week - making dice! The errand that we ran after VBS was to JoAnn's to nab us some wooden blocks they are going to paint and 'number' over the next few days. They got started with the first coat of paint this afternoon and are very excited to be able to try them out. We'll keep you posted on how this Nevada project 'rolls' along.

Speaking of Nevada, I tried two recipes 'inspired' by Nevada for dinner tonight. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, though the largest impact to Nevada's economy is from tourism, mining, especially of gold and in the past, silver, brings in quite a bit of revenue. So in celebration of that, tonight I made Golden Pork Chops and Silver State Potatoes. (I warned you yesterday I was reaching a bit on the culinary front this week...) The pork chops were pretty good and everyone RAVED about the potatoes. One of Grant's favorite foods is a very similar recipe made with frozen cubed potatoes that is a holiday staple from his childhood so I knew it would be a hit when I picked it. Added bonus on this recipe - it comes from the former Governor of Nevada, Bob Miller. (I recently stumbled across this website with recipes from current and past governors, senators and representatives, kinda fun!)

I had a fun dessert plan (you can try it here if you'd like) but nixed it in favor of a salute to our activity for the evening - The All-Star Game! My crew of baseball enthusiasts have been excited all week (especially after the Home Run Derby got rained out last night and they had to go to bed before it got started. I watched it, and honestly, they didn't miss anything. Changed format or not, it was still waaaaayyy too long!) to get the chance to root on Cabrera, Kinsler and Scherzer as the Tigers representatives tonight. They're currently munching away on their baseballs and keeping our fingers crossed that the AL wins so that we'll have home field advantage in the Series this year. (Yep, totally just said 'we' - GO TIGERS!)

Oh, and in case you haven't heard the story yet and are really in need of a laugh... The Bean has been 'practicing' the lyrics for some of the songs from VBS. The one lyric is "We are the clay and You are the Potter". Last night, loudly, I heard Mikayla sining "We are the clams and you are the butter." You think I kid about her love of seafood ;-)

Looks like the weird weather (who ever heard of 68 as a high in July?!?!?!) is going to continue tomorrow and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for maybe a better park trip to take advantage of it. I'm hoping to finish up the dice and dabble in a little Basque cooking tomorrow as we continue to trek through Nevada. So until then...

Nevada Fun Fact of the Day: Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, with its highest point at the 13,145 foot top of Boundary Peak near the west-central border.