the grand finale

Last Thursday was our last day at camp with campers. We successfully completed 8 weeks of summer camps with kiddos and I feel really good about the mission we accomplished.

Friday was a massive work-project day, cleaning each site, taking down tipis and tent cabins, moving bunk beds, taking apart cots, giving the community garden some serious tlc, organizing all of the art, day camp, team-building equipment and cleaning every nook and crany imaginable. Truth is, I LOVE a good work-project day. I am just like my dad in this respect...I love organizing and getting things back into place. It was a great day for me.

Saturday was the annual Carol Joy Holling Quilt Auction day. It was superb as always and I've got lots more to say about this day.

Sunday was our last day with summer staff before they departed for the school year. We worshipped and ate together one last time and then said goodbyes 73 times. I am really going to miss this staff. I felt really connected to this group of people.

Now it's Monday and I am utterly exhausted. But in a good, fulfilled way. Camp is quiet today and it feels like a good day for lots of deep breaths of gratitude for a safe summer, another growing summer and all sorts of funny one-of-a-kind memories that summer camp provides so faithfully.

minnesota bound...

We've got big news. We're moving back to Minneapolis in early September. This baby growing inside of me has already changed our lives, and as we talked about raising this kiddo we were both in full agreement that we have grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins who are all ready to love on this baby and more than anything, we want our baby to have that love close by.

The timing of the move is happening earlier than we had imagined, after our (fabulous, the best you could ever hope for) renters told us they were going to look for a bigger place. We got that news last Spring and initially thought of trying to sell our house, but after a sobering visit with the realtor, it was obvious that selling the house would be a financial mistake at this point.

So suddenly we had a house (that we ADORE) to move back into just 8 weeks before the baby arrives. During all of this, Rory was able to lease his Omaha office space out, and has been working from the 2nd bedroom in our apartment which he turned into the nicest home office he's ever had. With the office leased, and his work being mobile and with the likelihood that my work schedule was going to change considerably after having the baby anyway, it just seemed like a good time to move back.

It feels too soon to leave Carol Joy Holling Camp, but I also feel like the work I have done here has been solid, beneficial and fruitful.

So that's the news. We are very excited to be heading home and have started playing a game we call 'Perfect day in Minnesota' where we tell each other every detail of a wonderful day in the twin cities: where we eat, who we visit, where we go, which lake we end up at... It's a good game and has us so excited to live out these days when we return.

you've got to try this...

diana's bananas
Here's a new find we discovered at Target: Diana's bananas. When we got in the car we broke open the box and were immediately delighted. I even said, "I'm just going to pretend like this is the food I'm craving during this pregnancy so we can eat these nonstop for the next three months." To which Rory replied that I should just make them on my own...how hard could it be to freeze a chocolate covered banana?

My mind started racing, I told him I would call my version Banana BeccaAnna and we made jokes about Speggy and Meatballs from King of the Hill. I went home and froze some bananas, and the next day melted my chocolate. I learned a lot. Like how a frozen banana will immediately harden your melted chocolate. By the end, I was scooping chunks of partly solidified chocolate onto my bananas. I put them in the freezer, and let's be honest, they didn't look at all like Diana's bananas.

A few nights later I was running around telling Rory I needed to bring something to the women's potluck at our church. He opened the freezer and said, "you could bring these frozen turds."

All this to say, I am going to leave the chocolate-dipped bananas to Diana.

my weekend creative: color crayon abc's

I saw these molds used on another blog, and I loved the idea. They are Sillycone brand. I ordered them a week ago after realizing I had missed yet another 3 year-old's birthday...this time my niece, Ruby. It seems I have a lot of 3-year-olds in my life right now, all of them the kiddo of someone very dear to me which makes me want to give a gift to all of them...

I figured I could get the molds and then have this be my creative, thoughtful and inexpensive gift to be given to every kid for their birthday for ages to come. Paired with a blank art tablet, I think it's a pretty fun idea.

Craziest thing was that I have no old crayons in my life. I find this worthy to note, because within four years my guess is that I will have an abundance of old crayons surrounding me. But in this season I had to go out and purchase BRAND NEW crayons to be peeled and broken. There was no re in this recycling...

And here's the thing. Taking the paper off of brand new crayons is ridiculously hard. Crayola wants their paper wrapping to stay put. I had to use a knife on every single crayon, peeling the paper off. And then I used that knife to cut up the crayons into tiny pieces because if I broke them by hand, I could usually only get four parts per crayon.

All this to say: I thought this was going to be a quick project, but it took a lot of time. Thankfully I had the time today, but I way underestimated the prep work involved in this one.

Once I had the crayons peeled and broken into their letters, I placed them in the oven on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 275 degrees. This was a complete guess, and maybe there is an exact science to this, but it worked for me, and it just might work for you too.

When I took them out of the oven, it was obvious that the letters where I used two contrasting colors ended up more vivid and bright than the letters where I used two similar colors. I liked the letter I, because both colors were still so bright. I'll keep this in mind for next time...

I read on one site that the fumes from melted crayon wax aren't very good to inhale. I was mindful of this, and had fans running everywhere and I tried not to breathe too deeply. I have no idea if this is actually true, but I figured I would be careful anyway. I left them in the freezer for 15 minutes and then let them come to room temperature before taking them out.

The Sillycone molds were awesome...I popped most letters out without a whole lot of heartache. The letter N and S both broke on me, so they went back into the oven. The N came out the second time with no problems and the S broke again...and it is just going to be broken. S is for sorry, as in, 'Ruby, I am sorry I sent you a broken S.'

I packaged them up and am super excited to get them in the mail.

laptop vacation #3

Are you ready for another tour of my favorite sites/blogs/internet places? Remember to right click on the link and to "open in a new tab" so that you don't have to reopen this page every single time. (Mostly that tip is for my mom. Does that make sense mom?)

First, 1,000 Awesome Things. This is a really cool blog and I am guessing a pretty cool book. I like the premise and am excited to take a look at the paper version the next time I'm at Barnes and Noble. Until then, the blog is entertaining and so fun and positive.

On Friday I posted a great video by Andrew Peterson. He is a really talented songwriter, who I was first introduced to through Sara and Troy when they toured with his Christmas tour a few years back. He hosts a collaborative blog of sorts, called The Rabbit Room, written by artists, song writers, pastors and authors. Whenever I revisit The Rabbit Room I end up staying for a long, long time. The store at this site has all sorts of book and music recommendations that are either 1) by the artists who write the blog 2) recommended by the blog authors or 3) Christian classics that have stood the test of time. When I looked through their book section today I realized this should be my "next reads" list. Annie Dillard, Walt Wengerin, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Madeleine L'Engle and Flannery O'Conner all frequent the list and it makes me excited to get reading.

I've also been drooling over Heather Bailey's website, especially her sewing patterns. It makes me want to learn how to sew so badly. I would love to make that fabric ring baby toy pictured right in the middle of the page when you click over to her site...

And finally, I saved this one for last, because you may never, ever leave this site once you find it. I remember when my brother sent this on to me when they were picking names for their kiddos. It is a super entertaining way to look up your kid's names, how popular that name is, when it was most popular, what it means, as well as possible sibling names that would go with your pick. Just take a minute to play...I think you'll be hooked too. It's called babynamewizard, but I am going to link you directly to the Name Voyager. Get ready to play.