Young Scholars Program

Alyssa was accepted into the Young Scholars Program this summer and just finished.

She spent 6 weeks researching at a USDA lab. She had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people (other students in the program and her mentor and people she worked with in the lab).

She was able to stay at home and commute into work, but the last three days all the students stayed together on campus for a conference.

All the students created and presented posters of the various research they had done during the program.

This was a great experience for her, something she will always remember.
Below is Alyssa with her mentor Dr. Scott Gold and Oge, who was doing a summer internship before going to pharmacology school.

Here is the whole group of young scholars. They were assigned to labs at three different campuses around Georgia.

 The students were divided up into four random groups for their poster presentations.
Alyssa won 3rd place in her group.

On the way home there was a gate open to the UGA track, she had me pull in so she could touch the track - always a runner.

Now her "summer" can start!

Save The Watermelon!

While one of the joys of summer is eating a piece of watermelon and have the juices run down your face, when you go for the cleaner, inside eating, diced watermelon option here's an idea I came up with to save the watermelon from sitting and getting over soggy in all the juices at the bottom of the bowl.

I don't know if many have the nifty metal veggie steamer you can put into your cooking pot to steam instead of boil vegetables, but if you have one or see one in the store, this is the perfect kitchen item to keep the watermelon from off the bottom of your bowl.

 After opening the veggie steamer and putting it in the bowl (it's great at adjusting to large and small bowls), cut up the watermelon and dump it in!

 The watermelon will stay perfect all the way to the end! Never sitting in watermelon juice at the bottom! No over juiced almost clear through pieces of watermelon at the bottom!

Maybe most haven't even thought about this, but soggy watermelon has never been a favorite of mine so I was so excited when I thought about this a couple of years ago.

Happy Summer! I love watermelon!

Wild Blackberries

On a walk with Alyssa one day, I saw a whole bunch of wild blackberries along the side of the road near our house. Because they were in between properties (on one, I'm sure, but in all the undergrowth of the unused wooded area), I went back and picked as many as I could.

I also found a patch of wild blackberry bushes in a corner of the backyard and picked those. I've also now cleared out around them and will start building up that area and hopefully encourage that patch to produce some great berries! Blackberries are Robert's favorite.

I love making jam, it is quick and easy and a great way to enjoy berries all year long.

I do also freeze a lot of berries to use later.

But this time was jam. I didn't have quite enough blackberries for a straight blackberry jam batch, so I  crushed up blueberries from the garden to make of the difference in volume.

 I've made freezer jam before, but I like making cooked jam a lot better - especially since it puts the jam on the shelf instead of taking up room in the freezer.

 I learned a lot of different canning methods from my mom growing up. We bottled peaches and tomatoes and other vegetables and we made jam.

I like the upside down method to self-seal jam jars. It's easy and it works, without having to use that large water bath and processing time. Here, you fill the jars, wipe the rims, secure the lids and turn them upside down for about 1/2 hour. Then you flip them back over and you'll hear the lids popping down, if they aren't down already. 

  You do let them sit for the 12-24 hours before moving them, but I've never had any problem with them unsealing or going bad using this method.

 I did take the scrapings from the pan for some immediate enjoyment of this deliciousness! 

Mini Tough Mudder

In thinking about what to do for Jake's friend party, Robert came up with the great idea to do a mini tough mudder!

We planned and prepped and got really excited.

For the cake, the boys helped me shape fondant into the different obstacles.

The course started in the front of the house, went through the back yard, into the woods, in and out of the river, back through the woods and ended at the back of the house.

Here's a closer look . . . 

Natalie got the mud pit good and thick.

They started by pulling themselves across the driveway,

 They ran down the hill, across the slip-n-slide,

over the trampoline, through the mud pit,

carried a log down the first part of the path in the woods, 

(this is one of the adult helpers we had that ran the course at the end as well)

roll a tractor tire down the next part of the path,

run through the woods to a fallen tree and walk across,

run down to the river, grab a tube, run up the river and float down,

climb up out of the river using a rope,

run through the woods (this included jumping over another fallen tree),

jump over a fire,

run up into the back yard and jump over two water barrels,

and run to the finish!! Gatorades and their headbands were waiting for them!

(my friend stitched "tough mudder" across the headbands for me - they were the perfect reward for completing the course!)

They enjoyed cake and ice cream and then got to run parts of the course and play in the river until it was time to leave.

They boys had a blast! 

And the bigger kids (the girls and adults) had a blast as well!

Here are some other pictures of people on the course:

The girls thought all the pictures of Robert were the best - it was obvious that the mini tough mudder was for more than just the boys!

Now, where's the next excuse to do that again!!

Happy Birthday, Jake!

Logan has been so excited for Jacob's birthday. He made a Minecraft birthday sign and had everyone sign it!

Natalie missed today, being at FFA leadership camp this week. Robert and Alyssa had to go to work, so the boys and I had a fun birthday day together.

It started with crepes for breakfast, then the boys spent the morning with string, tape, and papers.

I didn't get a picture of the "spiderweb" that covered the bedroom door, 

but I did get these of the parachutes, gliders, and zip lines for their Lego people.

We made a stop at RaceTrac for free slushie refills

and then spent a fun afternoon at the river. 

 I made sure Logan to get to and off the rock on the far side of the river (the deeper side), taking some jumps with them and racing up and down the river.

 Then the boys played some more while I read.

 

 We made pizza for dinner.

 

Then opened gifts,

 and had lemon meringue pie 

as requested for birthday "cake."

A wonderful birthday for our favorite Jake!

Happy birthday, we love you!