Monday, August 30, 2010

August 31: National Trail Mix Day

As much as I would love to take a hike to celebrate the day, we just won't have time. Little Lady has volleyball tryouts, Middle Lady has a yearbook staff meeting and Grammy Lady is going to come for a visit. However, to celebrate the day I made these little personalized bags of trail mix. I even made one for myself :).



August 30: National Toasted Marshmallow Day

Mmmm Hmmm! Our little family loves ourselves National Toasted Marshmallow Day! The Mister even re-worked the fire pit for the occasion, recessing some stones in the ground and re-working the border of the pit. It looks amazing! I love him.

Here is a picture of one of the S'mores we made.



I love toasted (burnt) marshmallows but admittedly do not like S'mores (pretty un-American huh?). I eat one every time we make them hoping to suddenly like them, but I still have not developed a taste. Does anybody have any takes on this dessert I can try?

Sunday, August 29, 2010

August 27: National Petroleum Day

So, I totally screwed up and missed National Petroleum Day (oh darn) and then proceeded to move all of the other days up. Therefore, we are going to have to look at those days as observances, skip today (which we thought was Toasted Marshamallow Day) and move on. On second thought, I think we will just celebrate Toasted Marshmallow Day two days in a row. :)

Oh, and in celebration of National Petroleum Day I guess we can say we burned up gas driving to and from work.

August 29: National More Herbs and Less Salt Day

Wow, my favorite day of the year. Not! Anybody who knows me understands my penchant for all things salt. It really doesn't matter if it is in rock form, iodized, kosher or soy sauce, I love it. However, the day (and my doctor actually) called for consuming less of it. And, I'll have you know, I did not add any salt to anything I ate. Despite the yawn quality of this National Day, two things brightened it up.

First, Middle Lady misheard what I said when she asked what the holiday was for the day. Instead of "more herb and less salt" she thought I said "more urban assault" day. She thought the day was going to be really fun for a minute, especially considering she had plans to do a ride-along with the local police department for a school project. Good times.

Second, I made this salmon dip using garlic, green onions, pepper and cream cheese with no salt. It was scrumptious!



Did I mention the salmon was smoked and extremely salty, and the crackers we ate the dip with were not exactly salt free? Oh well, it's the thought that counts right?

Friday, August 27, 2010

August 28: National Sauntering Day?

I had a pretty good idea what it means to saunter, but I thought I would look it up to make sure I was doing it right. According to the Merriam-Webster website to saunter is "to walk about in an idle or leisurely manner". In other words, stroll around. I do this darn good everyday, and Middle Lady said that is pretty much the only way she walks, but Little Lady and Mister are not much for sauntering. Little Lady said she only walks with a purpose. Sounds about right!

August 26: National Cherry Popsicle Day

Yummy! Another food day! To celebrate this day we....wait for it....had sugar-free cherry popsicles for dessert. Here is a picture:


August 25: National Kiss and Make Up Day

I like part of this day (the kissing part of course!). However, the other half of the day involves having been in a fight. Don't like that so much. So, to celebrate the day, I came home, gave each of my daughters and my husband a little slap (gently of course). When each of them said "Hey! What was that for?" I kissed them on their heads and said "Happy Kiss and Make Up Day". I think this is going to be such a fun experiment!

August 24: National Knife Day

Hmmmm. National Knife Day. Yikes. How exactly does a family celebrate National Knife Day? Well, we already had plans to attend the Volbeat show at the Knitting Factory in Boise. While singing one of his forlorn songs about lost love, the lead singer of the opening band, Dommin, made a sort of cutting motion across the heart (I'm assuming to illustrate how hurt he was?). We counted this as good for the day's celebration and were excited to be moving on to the next day. By the way, Volbeat rocked!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

August 23: National Spongecake Day

Mmmmm, I think I am going to love when the National Day is a food day! In honor of National Spongecake Day my 12-year-old daughter made her delicious trifle. Typically, she uses pound cake, but she tried it with spongecake for the day. It was delicious with strawberries, raspberries and freshly picked blackberries from the Hells Canyon trip the day before. A little bit of banana pudding, whipped cream and a dash of orange juice added to the mix made for quite the heavenly dessert. I failed to get a picture of it before it was consumed....but trust me....it was fantastic!

National Days


As you can see, it has been quite some time since the last time {and only time} I have posted something. I always think: *if I actually blogged, I would probably blog this* and then, of course, never do. Now, however, my family and I have started something that I think would be fun to continue and blogging about it might help us to do that. So, without further ado, my next/first/in all actuality probably last for a while post:

My husband and I were recently eating at our local Chinese restaurant and while waiting for our food we read one of the "Monthly Tidbits" thingy that all of our local restaurants seem to have. One of the "columns" is a list of the month's "National Days". We thought it would be fun to start celebrating each and every "National Day", in some way, to the best of our ability.

This new adventure of ours officially began on Sunday, August 22. According to http://www.louderbacks.com/home/dict/days.html this day was "Be an Angel Day". So, in honor of this day (not really, but you will see why we think it counts), my husband and I hiked to the top of the Seven Devil's fire lookout. Yes, we realize a hike to a place called Seven Devils in Hells Canyon does not seem like an appropriate celebration of "National Be an Angel Day". However, once we reached the top, we saw this little angel and thought it was just about as perfect a celebration as you could hope for:





And, here is a picture of the view from up there:






They say you can see Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana from up there on a clear day.