Blueberry Muffins and Scrabble

We are on the late (1:00-4:00 pm) schedule for church this year so that means lazy Sunday mornings. This morning I treated the kids to home baked blueberry muffins.

They are fairly simple to make, but it has been quite a journey to find just the right ones. Years ago Marie liked to use a triple berry muffin mix (with fake berry bits made of sugar). The kids loved them, but I longed for muffins with real berries inside, the kind I had when I was a kid, made with a can of berries from inside the box. I found the kind I remembered and they were quite tasty, but then Sarah had a seminary lesson. In that lesson about pornography her seminary teacher called trans fats (partially hydrogenated oil) "the pornography of food." To make the point he rolled out all kinds of information about how harmful trans fats are. They are genetically created fats that cannot be broken down by human digestive systems and that congregate in hearts thus requiring triple by-passes. He explained that they are used because they make you think these foods taste better and look better. Plus they also last longer. Sarah was inspired by the lesson. She gave up trans fats! She now reads food labels and if it has trans fats she abstains. To my frustration first one muffin mix (with canned berries) and then another have met their match in Sarah's all searching eye. Happily the other day I came across a new muffin mix that does not have trans fats. I baked them. Sarah was happy, the boys were happy and I was happy.

Next up on the lazy Sunday morning was a game of scrabble. Scrabble has long been a favorite game of mine, I remember many Sunday evening Scrabble games with my siblings and parents. (We also liked to play on the houseboat at Lake Powell and while traveling in the motor home). One game Grandma Fife even joined in. We still smile at her choice of words. Perhaps influenced by her cattle trading husband, Veara decide to play the word S-H-I-T. We accepted it with a smile. Who knew that on a follow up turn she would think to expand the word with an ending T-Y! No such words were played in our game.



Amazingly Sarah's first play--TRAILING-- used all seven tiles which gained her a bonus 50 points. A few plays later rookie Will came up with SLENDER which also used all seven tiles. I am pretty competitive at Scrabble, but this morning I met my match. The best I could do was 48 points for QUEST.

Poor Joel struggled with just a few too many vowels.

Will won.