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Nebraska is in a bit of a drought now. Everything is so dry – the grass is sharp and crispy and the dust on the playground is so dehydrated it’s like walking on talcum powder. The children are so, so dirty at the end of the day. They run around and it’s like watching Pig Pen from Peanuts come to life.

Add to that: it’s harvest time. The machines are out in the dry, dry fields kicking up a bunch of dust that hangs in the air. Bleh.

Add to that: the continuous roadwork in town. A friend of mine lives right along 6th street/Highway 15 and said that she hasn’t been able to have her windows open June.

Bleh. I need to go powerwash my nose.

This is the day that Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall. Deborah’s daughter, Macy, moved to Florida this year to begin her teaching career. The school is closed the next few days and Macy has evacuated to the home of a friend’s grandparents.

I am freaking out about the whole situation, and from my home in the middle of a triple-landlocked state, all I can do is pray for everyone. My little mind shuts down with overwhelming information and emotions. There is just so much disaster – both now and as they work to repair everything in the future.

Please pray. (And donate what you can.)

Our local brewery sells giant pretzels that you can buy frozen and take home. You spritz them with water, sprinkle on the salt and then pop them in the microwave for three minutes. Boom. Hot pretzel, and they even sell dips to use.

They are a bit pricey, and of course, Cheap Lauren wanted to try making them on her own. The recipe is really easy, and surprisingly it doesn’t take a whole day. Here it is, if you want to scroll through the big story and see it at the bottom.

I made some mistakes, but that’s ok. I’ll know more for next time. Mostly, I am incredibly proud of me for following the recipe to the letter. I know!

My big mistake was not rolling them out longer and thinner. I knew it as I was doing it but didn’t stop myself. I was mostly worried about them fitting in my giant fry pan of boiling baking soda water, but now I know to make three of them instead of two. Also, Lauren, don’t flour the rolling surface when you shape them.

The pan has 9 cups of water and 1/2 a cup of baking soda. It gave me a reason to repackage my old box of baking soda and say, “That’s a lot of b.s.”

Behold the aftermath of splashing boiling baking soda water all over.

Here’s the final product. As I said, mistakes were made. They are good with a dipping sauce, but they needed a bit more time in the oven, and since they were so globby, they browned unevenly. I worried the dark parts would be burnt before the rest browned.

I’ll do better next time.

I have had a crazy craving for Cap’n Crunch cereal lately. I’ve done a pretty good job putting it off because 1) food is rather expensive now and it seemed like a waste of money, 2) my waist is rather expansive now and it seemed like ….. eh, you get the joke. I don’t need to eat sugary junk like that.

Or do I?

We were running errands in Lincoln on Saturday and stopped at Aldi for lime juice and looking at their junk aisle. I looked at their knock-off Crunchberries and dismissed them. “I don’t need those.”

When we were in line, Lloyd said, “It’s past noon and you haven’t eaten lunch. I don’t want to ride in the car with you when you transform into a monster. Should we get something here?” I I hesitated…… and he went to get the cereal.

I ate it with sticky hands in the car and with a spoon this morning. No regrets!

When Brad was here last week, I was telling him how hard it was to post because I go so long between them, I feel like I need to do a big ‘catch up’ post. He said just post about little dumb things, so that’s what I’m doing. (However, for the memory archive: my left wrist hurts. It’s probably tendonitis.)

1. Lloyd has a group of staff at school that started a book club last year. They get together once a week and talk about the book they’re reading. They are called the Lincoln Lutheran Speculative Fiction Society, because they can pick any type of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy or historical fiction, but they’re mostly doing science fiction.

2) Everyone and their dog at my work is using Canva to make posters and such. It kind of wears on my soul because we’re going through SO much paper and toner and it smacks of ‘coloring pages and crafts’ to me, but remember – I am a grumpy soul.

3) Whilst on the sofa one night, I decided to make a logo for Lloyd’s group….. using Canva. Here was my first attempt:

I was particularly proud of the eyebrows, because you can’t have real eyebrows unless you pay for a Canva account, and I wasn’t going to do that. Lloyd didn’t like it because “It looks like we only read Harry Potter books.”

Ok, ok, I see it now. Here you go:

(I like that it looks like an alien reading, but also kind of like a spider alien.)

Hey, Brady and Deborah, here’s the update:

Lloyd and I don’t have it bad at all. What has been a mild inconvenience for us has been a nightmare for the people living at the intersection north of us. Several are either elderly or have health issues and this has affected them greatly. Lloyd and I are gone by 6:30 in the morning so we are never around for the actual machines doin’ their thang.

They have legitimate concerns – someone had trouble with an oxygen concentrator that couldn’t be delivered from Lincoln because the delivery person couldn’t get to their house; they worry that with all the vehicles around, no emergency vehicle could get to their house; they deal with people speeding down the street and then screeching to a halt when they realize the road is closed; and a lady who hasn’t been able to park close to her house in months has had several surgeries and has felt like nobody cares about her situation.

I’m glad the meeting happened. People from the city, construction companies and the chief of police were there and I feel that the people were heard.

That’s about it for now. We’ll keep you updated later! 😀