2nd week of summer--more projects

Ryan and his companion are swapping places with the zone leaders this week...he'll now be in Albany, Louisiana instead of Amite. So, I can't wait to hear all about that in a week. There wasn't much work in Amite and there's supposed to be a lot more in Albany. Hope so.

Anyway, I've had a wonderful, full week. Glen's been busy, too (poor thing keeps getting drafted into my plans). Some of the week's highlights:

Glen and Alex made homemade whole wheat bagels to go with the cream cheese I was making...my cream cheese wasn't creamy, however, as I forgot to leave the milk whole, but had ladled off the top layer of cream. Next time, if there is one, I'll know better. The thing is, with the cost of the mesophilic culture needed to make cream cheese, I'm almost doubling the cost of my cream cheese by making it myself...$1.39 to buy 8 oz at WinCo but $2.70 to make 10 oz at home, and if I didn't live on a dairy farm you would have to add the cost of a 1/2 gallon of milk to the $2.70. Maybe I just need to find a cheaper source of the culture.

the finished product--it was pretty good

Along with making cream cheese, I also made a small batch of mozzarella...it was edible, but I think I added too much rennet and I zapped it too long, so it was not soft. It should come out better next time.

I finished up some pinterest projects I had started last week. I've been saving old keys for years and finally made a wind chime out of them. It sounds nice, but it doesn't get any breeze as I want it inside so I can see it:

Glen cut some wood for me and I used my silhouette cutting machine to make two 4th of July projects:

I tried many times to make a version of a family tree pendant that I liked but was small enough that I would wear it. I finally gave up and had the idea to make a sun catcher, of sorts (its diameter is only  2 1/2"). I like it:

Friday June 21st was the first day of summer and the day of the longest sunlight for the year. I wanted to take advantage of it. Glen was willing to go on our morning walk a little earlier than usual so we could catch the sun rise:

sunrise just starting

We had a family get together that afternoon as Glen's sister, Teresa, and part of her family were visiting. We chatted and played games all afternoon and evening, but Glen was once again a good sport and went on a walk with me at sunset so I could catch the sun going down:

sunset

3 of Glen's siblings: Kathy, Teresa, and Alan

Grandpa, Joseph, Michael, Sarah, and visiting niece Amanda

Speaking of Michael...his mission call should come in the mail this week!!!!!

Now if Friday was all about the sun, last night and this morning was all about the moon...it was at 99.9% brightness at 4:33 am. It's called a supermoon. The following definition is from wikipedia:

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon's disk as seen from Earth.
because that's when the full moon occurs when it's passing closest to the earth for a whole year.

The moon was big and beautiful, but I honestly wouldn't have known it was anything different if the internet hadn't told me so.

This is the moon rising...since the sun hadn't set yet, the moon was so pale I almost missed seeing it rise--I thought it was just a cloud at first:

And this was the moon at 4:34 am--I don't know how to make my camera take good photos of the moon:

(one of the best parts of summer is when you do crazy things like get up at 4:30 am to see the moon you just tell yourself you can take a nap later)

lasagna gardening, cottage cheese, necklace pendant, camping, read-a-thon, and Father's Day

The first week of summer vacation included a little yard work...lasagna gardening is where you make layers to make good soil and not planting things that would go in lasagna.

You don't have to dig up the plants underneath, though we did. The first layer is wet newspapers or cardboard, they you layer different organic matter. We didn't follow the official layering I found in a book, but I feel it'll be close enough--newspaper, grass clippings, old compost, manure, then when Glen mowed, he added some more grass clippings. We'll have to add more compost and/or manure. Don't know yet what we'll plant there next summer, though.

newspaper layer that is wet down

grass clipping layer, also wet down

compost topped off with old manure

Making cheese was one item on last summer's to-do list that never got done. Tuesday I tried my hand at making cottage cheese. In the end, it turned out and we really liked it, but it would have been easier if I had learned from a living person or a tutorial instead of reading how to do it in a book. I don't see myself doing this often, but it was fun to give it a try. This week I want to try making cream cheese.

heating the milk to 150º and holding it for 30 minutes to pasteurize it

the final product

I loved the family tree necklaces I had seen on pinterest. I gave it a try...I like them, but they are a bit big, so I need to try and make smaller ones. You just bend and twist wire and add the birthstones of your family members.

The Young Women in our ward kind of had a last minute Book of Mormon read-a-thon where we gathered at Kara's house and took turns reading out loud from the Book of Mormon-- and snacking-- while the men and teenage boys were at a special campout. Glen had some responsibilities there taking care of some guests and as a result got to go fly fishing with them. I hope to get a photo of him with his fish from Alan (who was also there)...

Anyway, the girls did stop to get a little rest during the night and Hannah and I came home for a while. They started up again early the next morning and Hannah and I joined them again after a little bit. We finally had to end in the early afternoon when we were just a little over 3/4 of the way through. Hannah finished reading the Book of Mormon at 12:30 that night. I plan on finishing up this week. It was really wonderful.

I think it's Cheyenne, then Maddie, Adia, Amber, Ashley, and Kelly

Hannah marking her scriptures while Becky reads when Christ visits the Americas

One of my projects over the last few weeks was for my dad for Father's Day--transferring our old 8 mm home movies onto a DVD. It was not smooth sailing, but I was able to burn some DVDs and get them in the mail in time for them to arrive yesterday so my dad could open them today. The quality wasn't the best and I hope to do a little editing some day, but for now, it's good enough.

my set up for the filming

So, the first week of summer was great. This next week has some good things lined up, as well.