Lauren

Well, apparently staying at a KOA campground in mid-October is becoming a tradition for me. Last Friday, the weather was supposed to be nice enough for a real camp, but Lloyd had promised a friend that he would go to a Home Brew event at our local brewery. Introverted Lauren bowed right out of that and booked a night at the new KOA campground just south of the interstate.

I had been curious about it for a while. The owners are parents of some former preschool children, and they are go-getters. They turned a blank piece of land into an entire campground with a pool, hot tub, playground and a lake that they built.

It was fun! I rented an Apod, which is like a tiny A-frame house. There are two that are bare-bones, but because the owner recognized my name when I booked it, she put me in the nice one with a fridge!

The weather was crazy windy, so I didn’t do an evening fire. I took along my fire can for Council Fire, but I could have left that at home. Their fire ring was a Solo stove/gasifier style! (It was probably for the best. Nebraska is still so, so dry.)

So, it’s not my best video. There are verbal typos and an abrupt ending. I also left in the hilarious start when I was trying to take just a photo with my phone and watch, and wound up making a very awkward video.

A couple of weekends ago, Lloyd and I spent a little time tidying up the nook upstairs. It had all kinds of junk jammed into it, so this is an ‘in-progress’ photo:

We made some hard decisions about the toys that were kept up there. There was a small assortment for the children of friends that would come over, but since the youngest of those is a high school senior, it felt ok to let a lot of it go. Someone else would benefit from this stuff.

I did my traditional ‘put it in the back of the pickup and list it on Facebook’ thing. Most of it went by the end of the day.

And the nook? It’s much better.

I have it in my mind to be a great baker. Unfortunately, my skills leave a bit to be desired. I haven’t mastered pie crust, as you know, and now we can add biscuit making to the list of things I’m not great at doing.

My mom always wanted to make some southern lady’s biscuits (I can’t remember the lady’s name right now), but we never got the chance. The lady had a giant bowl of self-risin’ flour and she’d just throw in a knob of Crisco and some buttermilk and mix it until it was right and then put them on a skillet to bake.

Well, I wanted to try layered biscuits, so I halved a recipe and did it all wrong. They were in the oven for a good long time, but they were doughy and gummy and not right.

I know that the only way to get better is to try again, but the problem is – I don’t really like biscuits unless gravy is involved, and I only have that when there are leftovers from school. I guess I’ll try again in a month?

In the meantime, I had torn-up toast and gravy. Mmmmm….

In the past two weeks, we have had four disastrous drink spills. I think this house might be cursed.

The first was when Brad was here. I got a pop from the entry, opened it, then set it on the table to go get a glass of ice. As it turned out, the can had a rounded bottom and tipped over as I was walking away. Ugh. Sticky pop all over the table, floor and chair.

The second was when I was putting a glass down on the side table/crock one evening and missed it. BAM!! Shards of glass and a sticky drink I was angry for that one.

Third was when Deborah was over and Lloyd was getting gin and tonic fixin’s. He dropped a can of tonic and spent the next ten minutes mopping the floor and closet doors.

The fourth was me, trying to juggle too many things to carry to the car on Saturday. I dropped a can of pop that EXPLODED in the living room. After the shock, I laughed and laughed because it was EVERYWHERE – the walls, the t.v., the windows, the carpet and sofa. Lloyd helped me clean and kept saying “Take a picture – it’s a post!” but I was too embarrassed.

Here’s the aftermath, when I realized I should have done this right away. The floor was wet and sticky underneath.

Ugh. I’m getting too old for this nonsense. Get a grip on your drinks, people!

A while back, Lloyd was heating up some chili that had been in the freezer with some plastic wrap on it. I started to unload the dishwasher and smelled burning plastic.

“Did you forget to take the wrap off?”

“No.”

I scoffed inwardly because I knew he had….. then I saw this in the bottom of the dishwasher.

Dang it.

It got it real good.

I mean, real bad.

Eh. I had three spatulas and now have two. That’s one more spatulas than a person really needs, so it’s all good.

I have a weird obsession with lights. There are not many flashlights that I don’t love, although I am currently drawn to lights that you just plug in to recharge. Let me tell you about some lights around here.

There is a nightlight at the very top of the stairs. It’s plugged into an extension cord, but it exists so that we see Emme and don’t crush her. (Can you just barely see her? That’s the reason.)

Next, I bought a tap light for my sock cabinet. I get ready in the dark in the morning, and we are entering Sock Season. I don’t usually care, but it is preferable if the color of my socks matches what I’m wearing. This has been helpful.

Behold the light!

Last, I bought a dumb light for the shed/camping. It is currently in the shed right now and I am too lazy to go get it, so here is a photo of the tag that came with it. It is a tap light – you just tap the top and it cycles through three settings: warm/cool/daylight. It’s also dimmable! It recharges with a USB cord, so it ticks all the boxes!

….. I recognize that I have a problem…..