SOLD!

Sometimes, the Ten Things of Thankful just writes itself, and this is one of those weeks! Here's why:

The sailboat is sold!

In a TToT posted the last week in August, I wrote that I had cleaned (as well as I could or was inclined to do) the sailboat that had been sitting in the carport at the lake house for - I kid you not - 32 years. 32. Years.

Step into the Wayback Machine with me for this one.

In 1988, my parents drove to Las Vegas for an Ace Hardware buying show (my dad owned a farm supply store that also sold Ace). My brother was living in Yuma, Arizona, at the time, and he met them in Vegas, and then all three of them went to Los Angeles for a couple of days. Now, I wasn't there and have only heard the story second hand, but rumor has it that my dad found out there was a boat show in Long Beach, and he didn't want to do any of the activities (which included attending a Tonight Show taping) that my brother had planned once he found this out. By this time, they were all at sixes and sevens, so in the interest of family harmony, it was decided my dad would drop my mom and brother off at the Tonight Show taping, and he would continue on to the boat show.

When the taping had ended, my mom and brother were waiting for my dad to pick them up when what should pull up to the curb but my dad TOWING A SAILBOAT ON A TRAILER. Apparently, he walked into the boat show, saw the sailboat on display, sails up and in all its glory, and he wasn't going to leave without it. And he didn't. What makes this even better (because I wasn't there and didn't have to put up with any of it) is that everywhere they went from that point on was with a 26 foot sailboat following them. Hollywood. Santa Monica. Sailboat. Picture it.

After a couple of days, my brother headed back to Arizona, and my parents towed the sailboat allllll the way back to Missouri. They took the boat to Stockton Lake, about an hour from their home, and my dad learned to sail it (he had a small sailboat that they took to the lake occasionally, but this one was much bigger and could sleep 6 if two of them were very short or very limber). My mother was not a sailor and mostly went out on the boat because she didn't want my dad to go alone, but they did spend two summers going out on it, my dad loving it and my mom tolerating it. 

Fall of 1989, my parents started looking at lake houses on Lake Taneycomo (3 hours from where they lived). At first, it was just for fun, but then they found one they loved and they bought it. They pulled the sailboat out of Stockton Lake for the winter, parked it in the carport of the new lake house, and there it sat until this past weekend.

My mom was always after my dad to sell the sailboat, but he insisted he was going to get it out again (the lake house is NOT a sailing lake - the water is 45-50 degrees year-round), but he didn't. All the cushions and sails were stored inside the house, the boat got an occasional power wash, but otherwise, it just sat, forlornly, in the carport for 32 years.

In the summer of 2019, my dad said he thought maybe he should sell the boat, and we put a sign in front of the house, but no takers. This summer, after making plans with a builder to add on a real garage to the house and turn the carport into a shop for all his tools and saws and stuff, my dad said he might sell the boat on an online auction site, and I told him I would try to sell it on Facebook Marketplace first.

The only time I've been aboard the boat
is to clean it....

I cleaned the boat at the end of August, took pictures, and listed it on Marketplace. We had a couple of lookers, a lot of inquiries, all wanting to know if it came with a motor (it did not), and then I got a message that seemed too good to be true: someone who once owned the exact same boat saw the listing and wanted to buy it, and this weekend, the man drove to Branson, paid what we were asking for it, hitched it to his pick up truck, and drove off with the sailboat.

My daddy.

We couldn't have asked for a better transaction
and transfer of my dad's beloved sailboat.

My dad was wistful. "I wish I could have taken it out one more time," he said the night before it was sold, even though he knew that physically, at almost 87, he couldn't really have sailed it.  As long as the sailboat remained in the carport, there was a chance, but when it was gone, the chapter was finally closed. 

I'm not going to lie: I had a lump in my throat when that boat disappeared down the street behind the new owner's truck. Then I drove my car into the empty space in the carport and parked there for the first time in 32 years, and it was good.

I hereby invoke the TToT's Secret Rule 1.3(c)(iii) that states when one finally sells a boat after 32 years, that's thanks enough!

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Really, The BEST Of Intentions

I had the best of intentions on Friday, really, I did. 

When I arrived at school that morning, I hit the ground running. Father's Day kind of slipped up on me, and I had been rushing all week to get the gifts made for my kids to give to their dads (or grandpas or other significant men in their lives). 

Naturally, I had had technical difficulties with getting photos I needed printed in the size I needed (thank you, Annie and Addison, for getting me past THAT hump). I neglected to take a picture of the finished product (which wouldn't have been finished without Annie's help - darn her for getting a "real" job and leaving me at the end of the summer to teach first grade), but they were river rocks (thanks, Vandine, for purchasing them for both of our classes to use), painted with acrylic paint (another thanks to Vandine for buying paint; I thought I had some - and I DID, but it turns out I only had white, black, and springy, Easter egg shades). A half-dollar sized photo of the child was glued onto the rock, "My Pop Rocks" was written on them, and then they were painted with Mod Podge for protection and an aesthetically pleasing glossy look (four more thankfuls to Annie for the circle cutting, gluing, writing, and Mod Podging). End product is a paper weight, if that's not already obvious, and it was a project I used to do with preschoolers at my previous school; in fact, my husband still has the one my daughter made nearly 20 years ago ("I can't throw it away - it has her picture on it").

If you followed that whole paragraph of the making of the paper weights, go back in time with me to the portion that says I had to have photos printed. After much frustration, I was finally able to get an 8x10 photo printed at Walgreens that was a collage of individual photos of each child (correction: all but TWO children, because it appears I left two of them off; the only good news is those students weren't at school that day, so their gifts to their pops were going to be belated anyway). That's one thankful for getting the collage made and printed, minus a thankful for leaving two photos off. The thankful math is getting as convoluted as this story.

So I drive to Walgreens to pick up the photo while the kids were outside with Annie and Addison. It was boiling hot outside, already 90 degrees at 9:30, so I texted Annie and said I would bring back candy and Sonic drinks. I was super proud of myself for using the Sonic app for the first time, ordering three Route 44 drinks (if you aren't familiar with Sonic, they are 44 oz drinks) for half price (also paying for them through the app), pulling into a stall, and getting them delivered to the car in a flash. The car hop brought them out on a tray, then seeing I was alone, asked if I would like a drink carrier. Hmmm, I thought, as I had just planned to stick them in the car's cupholders (foreshadowing here), that would make them SO MUCH easier to carry into school, so I said yes, he put the drinks into the drink carrier (the flat kind that pops into a 4-hole box with handle), and I put the drinks on the floorboard of the passenger side of the front seat and headed back to campus. One Diet Coke, one Diet Dr Pepper, one Vanilla Dr Pepper. Several thankfuls there.

It was only about a mile or two, straight down the main drag, and all was well until a traffic light ahead of me suddenly turned yellow. I am a rule follower, so I hit the brakes to stop at it instead of blowing through it like most people in town would have, and CRASH - the carrier tipped over to the right, dumping the drinks onto the floorboards. I threw the car into park, took off my seatbelt, said ALLLLL the bad words, and set the drink holder upright, but not without one of the cups losing its lid and spilling its contents all over the floor of the car.. I texted Annie that, due to a rapid stop at a light, I was now one drink down.

I continued down the road, CAREFULLY turned onto the road leading to the campus while bent over, my finger hooked in the edge of the drink carrier as I did so. Whew! I waited for traffic to clear, slowly, S-L-O-W-L-Y made my next turn, and CRASH - over it went again. I whipped into the parking lot of the school, set the carrier upright again, aaaaaand, another drink down.

I parked the car, texted Annie that I had lost yet another one, picked up the soggy drink carrier with two empty cups, one mostly full but quite battered cup, the photo I had printed, and the candy and trudged, dripping, into the building. I set everything down in the room (Annie and Addison were trying not to laugh at my idiocy, but they were unable to hide it), told them I didn't know whose drink it was that actually survived, and went back outside to deal with the car.

As I approached my car from the passenger side, armed with a trash bag and a roll of industrial paper towels, I saw that a small stream of soda was actually running out the bottom of the passenger door onto the parking lot. Running. Out. The. Car. Door.

Opening the door, I was greeted with about a half inch of soda with crushed ice swimming around in it; the rest of the soda (and let us remember that it was 88 OUNCES OF LIQUID) was both UNDER the floor mat or absorbed INTO the floor mat. I swear that floor mat weighed ten pounds when I pulled it out of the car and dropped it onto the parking lot. I used the paper towels to absorb all the liquid I could out of the floor board (turns out "all I could get" was less than a sufficient amount), then dragged the floor mat to the front steps of the building, leaving a trail of soda across the parking lot. I lifted the mat up by the corner to rinse it off, and soda continued to pour, POUR, out in a stream onto the ground, so much that I could have refilled one of the cups with it. I'm really thankful that we had hoses hooked up to the spigot in front of the building (thank you, Ceason, for buying new hoses to use for summer water play, watering the garden, and the occasional washing of car mats that have absorbed half a gallon of soda) and I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and RINSED and was able to declare them relatively soda-free (and a lot cleaner than it was before). I laid it out to dry (didn't take long in that heat, by the way) and finally returned to my classroom.

By this time, my kids were already sitting down to lunch (thanks again, Addison and Annie). I walked into the room, sweaty and disheveled, feet sticky, hair wild, and asked which of the three different drinks survived the trip. In unison, they said, "Yours." Oops.

So, see? I really DID have the best of intentions by getting the drinks to offset leaving to get the photo while Annie and Addison supervised the little nugs on the playground. I tried, I really did. 

A swing and a miss.

Trail o' soda

This was a live photo and was easier 
to see that way, but you can see the
stream of soda pouring from the lower
right corner

I took this selfie as I was heading out
on my errand because I was having
a really good hair day. I did not take
an after photo, but I can assure you
it was the opposite of this....

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Here I Am, Late Again

Is there a vaccine for people who can't get their shit together? I will volunteer to be in the test group for that one. I was late getting this week's link up posted, because I honestly couldn't believe we had finally made it to Friday. I thought this past week was never going to end. And since I have Monday off in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, today didn't feel like Sunday and I nearly didn't get this post written.

Here's my list, better late than never....

My daughter found out this week that she has been accepted to three law schools she applied to. She had already been accepted at Arkansas, and now she only has one outstanding application.

One of the law schools she applied to has offered her a full scholarship for tuition for all three years. Major thankful! Here's hoping her negotiation skills are such that she can get at least one of the other schools to match it.

And she came home for the long weekend, and that always makes me happy.

I've been looking at thrift stores for a small tray to hold Nora Pearl's food dish. The boys' bowls are on a cafeteria tray, but she prefers to dine alone. However, she is a horrid pig, which necessitated the hunt for a tray just for her. Found the perfect one at the Salvation Army thrift store:

Nora agrees: Troy is dreamy.

We had a little snow on Friday, and while it fell pretty much all day and evening, it only stuck to cold stuff, like cars, left a dusting on the grass, and didn't stick to the streets. 

I made a cookie cake for the first time (think Great American Cookie Company), and while I got it a little thicker than I would have liked, it still tasted amazing!

Betty White just celebrated her 99th birthday.

The Chiefs won today. Hoping Mahomes gets over his concussion quickly - it was a scary moment. My daughter said if he had been a cartoon character, there would have been little birds flying around his head.

How adorable is he?!

There was a lot of snot in my classroom this week. A lot. A LOT. That is not a thankful, but I'm about 95% sure the itchy, runny eyes, congestion, headache, and scratchy throat I now have came from them and is a cold and not the Covid.

I'm in a purging mood. Today, I cleaned out our butler's pantry and our glass cabinet (as in the one that holds drinking glasses).

Found in the back of a cabinet, tucked away
from a previous life. Didn't purge them.

This week could be a rocky ride. I fervently hope not, but y'all, be safe out there, just in case.

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Time For Joy, Time For Cheer

 Christmas, Christmas time is here,

Time for joy and time for cheer.

We've been good but we can't last,

Hurry Christmas, hurry fast!

It's heeeeeere!

This Christmas will be different than the past 25, as my son is spending the holiday with his fiance's family. This takes me to my first of Ten Things of Thankful this week:

I now have until mid-January to shop for my son and future daughter-in-law's gifts, so I can take advantage of after-Christmas sales.

I'm thankful that the caramel corn factory that has been my kitchen is winding down. Only have to make a batch when my son comes next month and one for my husband's sister's family for whenever we get to see them.

I'm thankful for warm flannel shirts.

And sleeping with kitties at my feet.

For homemade peppermint marshmallows (shout out to my brother - I. Ate. Them. All.).

Holiday cards from friends.

Clothes that fit again.

As of Tuesday of this week, the days are now getting longer! 

Extended family Zoom call scheduled for this afternoon and for my cousin Delaney for setting it up.

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating!

Lewis on the second floor, Finn in the basement.

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You Are My Sunshine

You know that feeling when you start a new job and you're more than a little overwhelmed and maybe a little lonely from leaving your former work friends for your new adventure? That was me just over a year ago, when I started my new teaching job at the university child care center, and while I had no regrets about making the change, and I was surrounded by little humans and college workers and all sorts of commotion, I was still kind of lonely.

Enter Annie.

One morning, I was in the office area when a college student walked by the window, saw me, and began wildly jumping up and down and waving. To my joy, I realized it was my daughter's friend from high school, and she was coming to work for us. I immediately claimed her to work in my classroom, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

It wasn't easy telling them apart during
show choir performances (Annie on the 
left, Emma Kate on the right)

For the past fifteen months, we have worked together nearly every day. Annie opened in my classroom, arriving every morning at 6:45 (okay, make that 7:00, maybe 7:15) and started the day off for my little nugs. When I transitioned this summer from teaching one year olds to two and three year olds, Annie came with me. We quickly developed a pattern and were a well-oiled machine. And did we ever line those little houligans out! They went from feral to reasonably domesticated in just a couple of months.

The downside to working with college students is they, just like the littles in my preschool class, grow up and move on, and sadly (for me, anyway), that day came this week for Annie. She will be doing her student teaching starting in January, followed by her college graduation in May. 

I knew this day was going to come, but as FREAKING SLOWLY as this year has progressed, these final two months have flown by. Whyyyyy???

This week, my Ten Things of Thankful are for Annie (I could list a hundred more, but I won't). Thank you, sweet girl, for:

~finding my phone countless times a day. Also my big cup, my glasses, my whistle, the pointer, the remote, stray preschoolers (just kidding), my face mask, and numerous other items.

~seeing what needed to be done and doing it.

~endless hours of potty time duty, so I could spend more time in the classroom rather than spending it in the bathroom.

~singing duets with me - we especially rock Hamilton songs

~encouraging me when I felt I was failing.

~being both my second daughter and my friend.

~random texts, funny photos, and memes.

~handling dozens of duties throughout the morning that made my job easier.

~all the tech support.

~the laughter. SO much laughter.

~being my daily dose of sunshine.

Good luck, Annie! I will miss you, but I know you are going to do Great Things and be an amazing teacher. I love youuuuu!!! 

I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying.
(It was me; I was crying)

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Overly Long But Overly Thankful

I was a liiiiiitle worried the Ten Things of Thankful wasn't going to come off this weekend. I had a dreadful time getting the whole linky thing to work out, but thanks to Kristi coming to my rescue (repeatedly), I did it! Now on with the show!

I thought it was going to be hard to go back to work after Thanksgiving break, but it was good to get back. Don't get me wrong; I believe I was born to be a woman of leisure and unlimited means, but as rest of the world is not in agreement with this, work it is!

My classroom is decorated for Christmas. There is no picture to show you how cute it looks. Why didn't I think to take a picture? My little humans were so excited! Candy canes and gingerbread boys and girls on the walls and windows. Christmas lights. It's festive without going overboard.

I bought a small Christmas tree at the Salvation Army thrift store that is preschool-height. It was supposed to be $8, but the lights didn't work, so they let me have it for $4. Grab bags of ornaments (hopefully, non-breakable ones, but time will tell), garland, and a new string of lights, and we are in business! The kids just love it! They get to decorate it and un-decorate it to their hearts' desires, unlike at home, where they are most likely not allowed to touch the tree.

I'm really thankful that my assistant teacher painstakingly cut all the old Christmas lights off the new tree. It was not a fun job, but she never complained once. To me, anyway.

Another thrift store score, only this time at Red Racks: I found a cute lamp to use as a nightlight in my classroom during nap time that was marked $5.99, which is a terrific price, considering it also included a decent lamp shade AND a light bulb. I also picked up three Santa hats for the dress up center; one was 97 cents and the other two were $1.99. In the checkout line, a rude man pushed his way in front of me when a second register was opened, so when it was finally my turn, the checker apologized to me. I said it was fine, but as she rang up my stuff, she said she was going to charge me 97 cents for all three Santa hats, plus give me 50% off. Then she asked me if I qualified for the senior discount, to which I answered WHY YES, I DO! 25% off the total. I'm not sure what she charged me for the lamp, but my whole bill was just over $5.00 and it would have been $11.00 without all the discounts. Happy dance!

It was cold this week, with threats of snow flurries one morning that didn't actually materialize, but there was some rain and cold wind. And then, by some miracle, this weekend has been warm and sunshiny and gorgeous. Welcome to Missouri weather!

When I saw the forecast for the weekend, I told my husband that we were going to take a little trip to Roaring River State Park and hike on the trails and hopefully see some eagles (we did not). He tried to talk me out of hiking, because he had been on those trails before when camping with our son many years ago and said they were pretty rugged trails, plus he was having flashbacks of the last time I insisted we go hiking, which was on his birthday, immediately pre-Covid shutdown, when, among other fiascos, he had a serious chafing issue which caused him to complain that his balls were on fire for half the hike (read about it here). Guess who won THIS showdown? MEEEEE!!!

We only hiked on one trail today, and neither of us fell off the bluff that we were following and rolled down the hills into the river, so I'm calling it a win.

The trail was not a loop, but THIS time, we both knew it. It was an up and back 

I didn't hit my head on a tree that leaned dangerously across the trail and that I didn't see because I was watching my feet instead of looking ahead.

I didn't hit my head on the same tree when we came back through. Can you tell it was a narrow miss?

I think that's more than ten. Isn't it terrific to be overly thankful?!

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Thankful For These Gems

Ahh, Thanksgiving! The family. The food. The weight gain.

I was lucky enough to get to spend the holiday with both my kids, my son's fiancee, and my dad. Oh, and my husband. We ate. We talked. We napped. We played with cats.

The best part, the VERY BEST part, is my dad had found boxes of slides in the basement, dug out the slide projector that he bought in 1958, along with a projector screen, and we watched slides for HOURS. 

Y'all, I saw pictures I had never seen in my life. OF ME. 

It was bittersweet. Pictures of loved ones, either long gone or more recently departed. Places and events remembered (future post on one of THOSE). Some of the slides were badly damaged from age and from water damage (I have written before that that basement has seen more than its share of flooding, from rain water to broken pipe water to broken SEWER pipe water).

One box was of photos my dad took when he spent almost a year in Korea from June 1957 to May 1958. He remembered all the places, all the people. Oh, the stories!

For my Ten Things of Thankful this week, I'm going to post ten of the photos I am most thankful to have discovered. In all honesty, I could do this format for months and months, because each photo is such a treasure, but I will spare you. 

Nah, probably not. You will see more of these in the future.

My daddy, South Korea, near DMZ

Taken from his camp, that mountain is North Korea.
The white spot is an observation area. 
They were watching each other....

Easter, maybe 1965. In the background is my great aunts
Ecie and Daisy's car (which once belonged to my mom)

My first birthday, sampling cake with my mom in the dining
room at my great aunts' house. I have that cake stand. 

Christmas 1965, I believe. Pat-a-burp doll in new stroller.
Baby Kissy on the floor next to me. Christmas apple and
orange from stocking on coffee table.

My grandpa on the farm outside Urich. That's a dairy barn
behind him and a contraption my dad built to take feed into attic.

My mama, Easter, maybe 1965. She 
reminds me of Jackie Kenendy.

With my brother, 1964-ish, standing in the driveway of our
Ruskin Heights house, in front of our Falcon station wagon.

I think my brother must have still been staying with my 
great aunts when these newborn photos were taken.
Check out my poor club feet! Took years of casts
and corrective shoes to straighten those babies out.

Because the "new and improved" Blogger won't let me
organize the pictures, this one is more grossly out of order
than the others. Field training camp, South Korea.
8" Howitzer pointed up and at the ready in middle of camp.

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Sugary Thankfuls

I started this week's Ten Things of Thankful post, and you'll be happy to know that I chucked it, because you would have died of boredom before you got to the end. I probably would have died of boredom before I even GOT to the end.

Then I was making cookies this evening, and not just any cookies, but an old family recipe that are a tradition in our family on Thanksgiving. They are big and cakey and have sugar sprinkled over the tops, and my extended family finds them heavenly.

My great aunt Edith (called "Ecie" by all of the cousins) got the recipe from a neighbor, and my mom grew up calling them "Josie Barth's sugar cookies." We call them "Ecie's sugar cookies." 

Here are the reasons why I'm thankful for these cookies:

My great aunt Ecie and her younger sister Daisy were like grandparents to me. I've written about them before, but suffice it to say, when visiting them, my brother and I never heard the word "no." Ecie always made the cookies when we came to spend the weekend.

Ecie, on the left, and Daisy, ca. 1973

The recipe has been in the family since probably the early 1940s.

I have Ecie's cookie cutter.

My cousins shout with joy when we get together and I bring the cookies.

I taught my cousin Delaney how to make them. It may not seem to you that making cookies is that complicated, but when I tell you there are two CUPS of buttermilk in them, you might then see why they might require training to make.

When the Great Stomach Plague went through the family last Thanksgiving while at my brother's house, my dad was the first one to bite the dust. When he finally returned to the side of the living, the first thing he wanted to eat was one of Ecie's sugar cookies.

The recipe yields about 7 dozen VERY LARGE cookies. You can feed a lot of people on that.

They leave your lips dusted with sugar.

Folks outside the family, or new to the family, don't always have a taste for them, leaving more for the ones who do!

Eating them reminds me of loved ones, both here and gone, and that makes me feel warm and sweet and tender, just like an Ecie's sugar cookie.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Stay safe! 

Ecie's Sugar Cookies

3 c. sugar

2 c. shortening (part butter)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

4 c. flour or enough to make a dough* 

Cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. I use my Kitchenaid mixer. My great aunt used a wooden spoon, a very large bowl, and muscles I don't even possess.

Refrigerate at least an hour before rolling out and cutting with cookie cutter.

*It will take a minimum of 6 cups of flour to get past the liquid stage, or as my mom's friend Betty said when she once tried to make them and called my mom in a panic, "I have SOUP!"

Flour the work surface thoroughly and work more flour into the dough before attempting to roll them out. All in all, you're probably talking 8 cups of flour.

Sprinkle each with sugar and bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes for a cookie that's 4" across. Makes about 7 dozen cookies of this size. Not kidding.

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The Week That Wasn't A Total Loss

It's been quite a week at work. Covid is knocking at our door. We are stuffing towels in the cracks and hammering boards across it, and leaning against it, but Covid is pushing hard from the other side. We are armed with masks, soap, and hand sanitizer. Let's hope our stronghold doesn't fail.

These are the times finding thankfuls is most important. It's easy when life's highway is smooth. When the road is rocky and full of potholes and dead armadillos, we have to search harder. But they exist. They always exist. Here are Ten Things of Thankful to prove it:

1. The week went by really fast. 

2. I had a long visit on the phone with my Person. I was supposed to get to see her this weekend, and that didn't end up panning out, but the long phone conversation helped a little.

3. I scored some cute clothes at Red Racks during a half price sale.

4. My husband and I went to a local conservation area to take a walk. It's in the middle of nowhere with a small lake (or big pond) and with a lodge built by the WPA. We were the only ones there, and it was quite peaceful.

5. Part two of the walk: the last time I was at this park was when the med school student was in about 4th grade for a field trip. I had charge of a group of kids, and the teachers had activity centers all around the grounds (including catch and release fishing and identifying trees). Our group was walking around the small lake/big pond when one of the kids pointed out a GINORMOUS black snake on a tree limb that was hanging over the water. As we walked, I found out there were MANY tree limbs with ginormous black snakes draped over them, and I was afraid I was going to faint dead away by the time we made it around the pond. I can state that there were no snakes on our walk last weekend, and for that, I am SOOOO grateful.

My husband is leading the way because (a) snake 
potential and (b) I was annoying him by singing
the Lumberjack Song from Monty Python

6. I know there is a very real risk of obliterating these from the planet by my very mentioning of them, given the Grape Propel Fiasco that continues to this day, but peach Outshine Frozen Fruit Bars are making my mouth and tummy very happy. It's like eating a frozen peach without the yucky parts, like the fuzz, the hard, stringy stuff around the pit, and the slippery texture. Side note: I also love peach Propel water, but it only comes in bottles and not in packets. Side note #2: my husband says I don't love peaches, I love peach flavoring.

Peachylicious. 

7. Speaking of grape propel, one of my wonderful preschool mamas sent me a little gift today with her son's birthday cupcakes: GRAPE PROPEL PACKETS!!! WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT NOW?! Yeah, still her son's, but how thoughtful is that?! 

8. We played in a big pile of leaves at school this week. There were leaves in hair, leaves in clothes, leaves in shoes, leaves in diapers, and it was totally worth it! And no, there's nothing wrong with your eyes. I blurred the video (keeping those sweet babies safe!).

9. My poor, old iPhone 6S+ is still hanging in there. It takes hours to charge it, because the pie hole spits out the charger, and it's given to seizures where it vibrates violently for no reason and sometimes completely blacks out, but every day it holds on to life is another day when we don't have an iPhone payment to make. 

10. One of my daughter's roommates tested positive for Covid. The roommate's symptoms have been mild, and my daughter has both tested negative AND not had any symptoms. Cautiously optimistic here.

See? Ten thankfuls in a week that might have otherwise been chalked up as a loss, had I not sat down and listed them. You can do it, too. Link up with us below!

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