Frozen Peach

I saw a viral video in which a girl froze a peach then used a grater to shave it. She drizzled honey on hers. Anyway, she said it’s amazing, so I had to try it (I made a TikTok of my own).

Spoiler: It really is delicious.

Here are a few things you should know, though:

• Grating a frozen peach is not that simple. The peel is much harder and slower to grate. I ended up removing it after a while, which sped up the process.

• It’s SO COLD on your hand! I had to take lots of breaks.

• I first used a micro plane then switched to a box grater. I think the problem was the peel, not the micro plane.

• I drizzled sweetened condensed milk on mine instead of honey (that’s what some commenters suggested).

I think that if you were to cut a peach, remove the pit, freeze the slices, and then just pop them into a food processor, it would be a very similar texture and (maybe) much easier. I’ve not tried it yet!

On a related note, someone commented on my video saying, “Or you could just eat the peach like a normal person.” Listen…I’ve got very thin skin… so this made me defensive and irritated. I replied (nothing rude!), then instead went back and deleted the comment altogether. All that to say, eating a plain peach is delicious, but it’s silly to suggest you can’t enjoy it in other ways too! 😅 And I think there are too many people online who are just crabby and looking for a reason to say something negative.

Busy Month!

August is a busy month for our family. We’ve got our anniversary and several birthdays (mine, my brother’s, my niece, my cousin, my childhood best friend…). And, like most of everyone else, school is starting back up!

This will be mine and Cam’s 14th anniversary. I remember my own parents’ anniversaries: every 5th one, they’d take a trip. Like their 20th was Hawaii, and their 35th was Alaska. Cam and I don’t usually do TOO much because I’m either pregnant or we’ve got a baby. 😄 I’m not comfortable leaving Bea at night for a while, but maybe next year (on our 15th) we can take a little couples trip.

Do you have any anniversary traditions?

As for school, we’ll be moving in to my 7th year of homeschooling. I’ve got some fresh ideas for everyone, so I’m excited about that. I’m looking forward to the return of some structure, which I think will be beneficial for everyone. Charlie will start doing some structured learning - we tried last year, but he wasn’t ready. I think he’s ready now!

The other day, he saw “48” on a puzzle box and said, “Eighty four!” Cameron said, “Eighty-four would be eight-four. This is four-eight.” And Charlie said, “Oh, forty-eight!” I’ve never taught him how to read numbers beyond 1-10, so that’s pretty cool! (Cam also pointed to 36, and Charlie did not know how to say “thirty.” But it’s always good to know that things are being learned just through playing, through life!)

Chobani Flips and Sourdough

I was at the grocery store last week and saw that Chobani Flips were on sale. They’re a 2-section container: one side has flavored Greek yogurt, and the other side has mix-ins. There are so many different flavors! I picked up 6, and they were ALL delicious. Next time I see them on sale, I’ll grab new flavors to try!

The 6 I tried:

• Almond Coco Loco

• Chocolate Hazelnut Haze Craze

• Salted Caramel Chocolate and Toffee Crunch

• Red Velvet

• Chocolate S’more S’mores

• Strawberry Cheesecake

My friend on Facebook said that her 3 favorites are Peanut Butter Cup, Cookie Dough, and Key Lime Crumble. 😇 So I guess what I’m saying is, if you’ve ever seen them but haven’t tried them, you should pick one up. They seem to all be really good!

I’ve been eating a breakfast sandwich every day with English muffins. I’d been wanting to try sourdough English muffins for a while, and I finally decided to give them a try. Here’s the recipe I followed. Here’s how mine turned out:

As you may be able to tell from the last picture, there aren’t as many nooks and crannies as I like! And they also are not as salty as the ones I get at the store. AND they aren’t really sour! I’m going to try again and add a little more salt. I’m also going to let them rise for longer the second time (after you cut them) as well as cook them on lower heat for 30 extra seconds per side. We’ll see how that goes!

Interesting Coffee Shop Ideas

Have you ever been to a coffee shop that was really interesting? Or there was a unique menu item?

I love seeing coffee shops that have a play area attached, where the parents can sit and watch their kids play while getting to enjoy a coffee.

One of our local places has seasonal flavors that are usually really unique, and I always try them out. Wedding Cake Cold Brew! That sounds divine, but I haven’t tried it yet.

On TikTok recently, I’ve seen two cool things. One was an in-store can-maker. Basically, they’d make an iced coffee in a soda-can-shaped cup then use a can press to seal a lid onto the cup. It created a unique to-go, pop-top can of iced coffee. Here’s a video if you can’t picture it!

The other idea was itty bitty baby cups that are presumably for samples of different flavors? I think something that can be reused would be even better, but the cute little cup and itty bitty straw were so cute.

What about you? Any fun coffee shop experiences?

Random Thoughts

(1) Financial literacy. (2) Names of God.

I lucked out when I got married to Cameron. When we were first married, I had about $15k student loans, plus a little credit card debt, in addition to his $10k in student loans. Within the first year of marriage, he had paid off all that debt and also set aside 6 months of emergency funds for us.

I’d been making a decent salary for 5 years at that point with very low rent and had managed to save nothing nor pay off anything. I wasn't ever taught financial literacy at all and made a lot of bad choices… like why did I buy a $100 hat, in 2 colors, then lose one of them and buy a replacement?! I wasn’t even a hat person!

Anyway I’d love for my kids to be really good with money and that is just something that needs to be taught, I believe. I’ve suggested to Cameron to teach a course, maybe at our church, at our homeschool co-op (for the youth there), and then in our own home. The things that come naturally to him now could be valuable to a lot of folks, I think!

I'd also like to make a course to teach, for my own kids at first. It would be about the names of God. I think it’s really interesting and want to learn more myself. There are so many names of God: El Shaddai, Jehovah-Jireh, Yahweh, and about 20 more. I think it'd be fascinating to look at the history of the words and their significance thousands of years ago vs today. Additionally I want to come up with an interactive activity or craft for each name.

I’m sure something like this already exists, but it is fun to create your own thing sometimes, ya know?

Last things

I started sewing a vest a few days ago but kept having to rip seams and restart, so now it’s just sitting there on the counter, staring back at me. If I finish it I'll let you know! But i’m tempted to just buy a vest now🤭 (The pattern!)

Here’s a picture of my college dorm room, circa 2002. Did everyone else have so. much. stuff. hanging all over their walls??

I made buckeyes for the last family meeting, along with pizza bites and lemon blueberry cake (it was from the freezer, I just reheated it). Here’s the buckeyes recipe!

Thanks for the movie suggestions!! Here's a suggestion for you: if you have HBO max, “In The Eye of The Storm” is good. Lots of actual footage plus interviews! (Note: I think it's funny they switched back from max to HBO max😆 it’s like twitter and X… I don't use either one, but they'll always be tweets to me, you know?)

If there’s anything specific you’d ever like to know about, let me know so I can include it in a future email!

Hope you have a great weekend ❤️ Bethany