I have discovered

Mulch. Mulch is a beautiful thing. It takes tired, dried-out-looking flower beds and gardens and makes them look healthy and lovely. And the best part about it is that the mulch actually makes them healthy and lovely. With the help of our dear neighbor, King of England, we became the proud owners of a huge load of mulch from the local landfill.

Pre-mulch:

Post-mulch:

It's even more spectacular in natural sunlight, but we didn't finish until about 9:00 last night.

Here's Mr. Perfect showing off his amazing muscles.

Now, isn't that worth all the hard work of shoveling and grating and weeding? I think so, too. Just wait until the tomatoes start ripening in August. Yummmm!

(Yeah, we know that the last picture looks like it's snowing. It wasn't. The lens just needs some serious cleaning.)

I have discovered

I live quite nicely with a more-than-limited exposure to prime time American television. We have streaming NetFlix, and that works just fine for Mr. Perfect and me. We watch older shows (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bones, and the now-defunct Lie To Me -- why am I always getting addicted to shows that have been cancelled after just a few seasons?) Both kids came for Tuesday night dinner a couple of weeks ago, so decided to let them pick something for us to watch. Drama Queen chose New Girl. We hadn't heard much about it, but it has Zooey Deschanel, who I think is just fun and fabulous, and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt. And the episode had a lot of fun and fabulous moments, but it also had a lot of "I can't believe I'm watching this with kids" moments.

And we used to think M*A*S*H was racy. I miss those days.

I have discovered

For years and years and years I have thought that my favorite color is green. Not just any green, but a green so dark that in some lights it looks black. I have fully embraced my love of this color, but I've discovered a strange phenomenon lately. When I make a purchase for clothes or home items (sheets, towels, kitchen gadgets), the color I seem to pick the most is maroon. Hmmm.... this may require a shift in my mental paradigm. I have a plethora of both in my wardrobe, but more maroon than green.

What's a girl to do?

At least they are very complementary colors.

I have discovered...

I miss traveling. Serious traveling. To far away places with strange sounding names. There are so many places that I've been that I want to see again, especially with Mr. Perfect. There are places he's been that I so want to see with him. And there are places that neither of us have been that I want us to see.

I have big plans for future travel. Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, the South Pacific, Australia. Sigh. I miss traveling.

I have discovered...

I love the Wasatch Front Mountains. I also love the Uintah Mountains, but I don't have any fall pictures of them. Because of all of the late moisture and then sudden extreme heat, we are experiencing an especially colorful fall this year. Can't you smell it in the air? I can. And it makes me happy.

I have discovered...

Pie is a great way to teach a Family Home Evening lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It looks cool and tastes great!

(Just in case you are wondering, it's peach pie with a sun, moon, and star on it.)

I have discovered

I find clouds fascinating. I wish that I could take pictures of them and have them come out the way I see them. Is that me or the camera technology? Maybe I just have a strange skew on things that doesn't translate to film (or digital images).

Oh well. I still love clouds.

I have discovered

Sleep. I love sleep. There are times at work I yearn for sleep.

I sometimes wonder if I will ever get enough. Yet, here I am at 11:03 at night, not in bed, not asleep, but still yearning for it...*sigh*

I have discovered...

When you are reactionary, you are allowing someone else to control you. It's better to be proactive. To take the initiative. To do what you believe and feel is best. To tell the truth. To be calm and collected.

Of course, you have to do this with filters on. Doing any of this without filters on is social suicide. You'll spend the rest of your live wondering why people don't want to talk to you.

I have discovered...

My mom is amazing.

Seriously, she does some of the most amazing things. Canning (or bottling) is just one of those things. We're splitting a bushel of peaches for bottling and pie-making.

Bottling peaches is not as easy as I remember it being as a child. And it's not as easy as bottling tomatoes. But we will be excited to eat them this year. It's cheaper than buying them at the Costco.

We still have two more batches of peaches to put up because all of the fruit wasn't quite ready yet. It should be by tomorrow or Thursday.

I have discovered...

I could spend days and days and days at Little Lyman Lake. I would just need to head into town occasionally to have a nice hot shower.

I have discovered...

Having a cold is not a good thing. I really hate being sick. I hate how poorly I sleep when I'm sick. I hate having a runny nose. I hate coughing all the time.

I love how much Mr. Perfect loves me and watches over me when I'm sick (he did all of the hand-wash dishes last night). And he better. He gave me this thing.

I have discovered...

Pumpkins.

Everywhere.

They are taking over the WORLD!!!
At least they are starting to turn orange.

I have discovered...

I love this man more every day.

I mean, who wouldn't really?

I have discovered

The perfect pie crust. When I made the dough this morning, I was a little worried. It seemed way too sticky. But this afternoon, when I went to make the pie, it rolled out beautifully! I am a happy girl.

I have discovered...

I function much better, on an emotional level, when there are no boxes of kitchen things in the living room. To tell you how bad this feeling was, I didn't even take any pictures of the living room during this episode. Any. At all. None. Wasn't going to happen. I felt bad enough making my Visiting Teachers sit in it while visiting me.

Seriously. The kitchen is finally, official ready for a new floor (the final stage of the remodel). Once the bathrooms are finished and paid for (We love paying cash! Woot woot!), we will start shopping for kitchen flooring. That and one other big surprise are what we currently have planned for Christmas.

It's going to be a really good Christmas.

I have discovered...

If you give a kid a cookie, he'll only want more. And he can be very cunning in his attempts to win you over and get more cookies.

I promised the Primary children cookies last Sunday. They've been doing so well learning their music for the Primary Program (it will be in October). They have also been very good during Sharing Time and being on their best behavior. The promise of cookies will do that to kids.

(I brought them raspberry cookies a few weeks ago for winning a game during Singing Time, so they've actually been asking when I was bringing more cookies for a while.)

This time I promised them lemon cookies. And they each got one. I had several kids ask me if they could have another one, but Mr. Perfect considers cookies to be one of his four essential food groups, so the answer was "No, everyone gets one cookie." There were enough for the leaders and the Bishop and I could still take a few home for Mr. Perfect and Game Boy.

One of my favorite kids was more creative. He asked if he could take cookies home for his cousins who were coming over for dinner. He only needed about 10. That one made me smile. Later, when Mr. Perfect was picking peas from our garden for dinner, this same boy came by and asked about the cookies again. You have to admire persistence. Plus, he helped Mr. Perfect guide some of the straying pumpkin vines back into the fence.

However, he still didn't get more cookies.

I have discovered...

Virtual correspondence is a horrible way to hold a conversation with someone when trying to exchange ideas between diverging opinions.

You each read what you want into the other person's statements. You can't read body language. You can't stop them before they get too far off the deep end on what they think you meant. And they can't hear you laughing at yourself. I think this last point the is biggest reason it's so bad.

Also, I think texting makes it hard to teach kids how to communicate in the real world, away from the electronics. And you don't even want to get me started on the deterioration of handwriting skills of the rising generation...

I have discovered...

I love the smell of rain on fresh cut grass.

Mowing during a rain storm? Not so sure about yet. At least it wasn't pouring, just lightly sprinkling.