Gratitude

We are back from the crazy music festival.  Almost all of the music was amazing. We took a lot of pictures with our Nikon (which of course are not uploaded yet) I created the above video from just the few pictures I had on my iPhone.

We had a great time with the friends we went with and we now have other friends who are interested. We met some cool people while there (Lindsey and Joel stood out as true kind folk) and we ate some interesting festival food. We had camping neighbors that were parents of the harmonica player for Horseshoes and Handgrenades. Another camping neighbor and I exchanged books; she gave me Wild by Cheryl Strayed and I gave her Left Neglected by Lisa Genova.  I also ran into an old friend that I've not seen for like 20 years. Strange things happen when you listen to the music.

Camping was good. I do not have a sore back. Positive. It stormed pretty crazily Friday afternoon but we all survived. One car did get crushed by a tree though.  Coming home we found a small bakery (donuts and great bread) and a cute diner in Wabash that fed us real meals on real plates with a real bathroom.

Getting back inside my lovely house I was happy to have indoor plumbing once again, a kitchen to cook in, and I bathed for the first time in four days!  Yes, that felt great. Whispering Pines Campground DID have a shower house but it was ice cold water as two of my camping mates experienced.  I opted to be happy with the dirty hippie brigade instead of cold water spraying over me.  My hot bath last night brought joy and order back to my world.  That and creating a feast for my two children who took care of each other while we were camping.  As we sat and ate together, just the 3 of us, I felt so grateful for my children who I love to the moon and back.  They, in return, were over the moon for the meal I made them.

Groovy Girl is on Pinterest and she'd asked me if over the summer we could make it a goal to make some of the meals on her "yum" board so I made one last night.  Only 28 more "Yum" recipes to go!

From The Recipe Critic-Crispy Parmesan Chicken with lemon pasta.  It says boldly on her page that this recipe takes only 30 minutes to prepare which must mean if you have all ingredients completely ready to go. It took me an hour to prepare which is no big deal especially because I made my own breadcrumbs.  My kids laughed about that-but of course I could not use something so pre-packaged! They know me so well.

Favorite new music from Blue Ox:

The Wood Brothers
Sierra Hull
The Pistol Whippin' Party Penguins
The Last Revel (we already loved this band)
Blitzen Trapper
Sam Bush
Railroad Earth
GinStrings - This group played right as the storm ended inside the merch lodge and it was beautiful.

It was also devastating to wake up on Sunday morning and hear about the tragedy in Orlando. I can only hope (and beg the people who govern us) to change our gun laws.