Pomegranate season

The kids are excited because pomegranates are in season. I think it was last year, they had a bunch of them in Dan's, on sale, and they had instructions there to take as well, telling you how to peel them. I didn't really like their instructions, so I started doing it my own way, but it's awful too. I bought 3 pomegranates at Walmart yesterday when I was there and Emma was begging for one this morning. I think it takes me 15-20 minutes (maybe more) to get all of the seeds out and when I am done my fingers hurt because my skin gets pulled away from my fingernails. If anyone has any tips on how to clean a pomegranate, I would love to hear it! I pretty much cut the top off, then start peeling the skin away with my fingernails and dig the little kernels out as carefully as I can because they squirt red juice all over. I always end up with red splatters on whatever I'm wearing, so I always make sure I have a junky shirt on when I'm peeling them.

I'm sure my family doesn't really know what pomegranates are, because I never even knew until last year, so I decided to take a few pictures of the grueling process of making this "super fruit" available to Gage and Emma.


I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before I started peeling it, but this is what it looks like on the inside. It would be similar to picking off all of the kernels on an ear of sweet corn, only there's a membrane that separates the pieces fruit into sections.

This is what they look like when they are out of the peeling and membrane. These are really good and I discovered last year that every time I eat them, I end up doubled over with severe stomach cramps. It took me a few times to realize that was what was causing it, and now I'm afraid to even try one. I wanted to this morning, but I decided that even the thought of having major stomach cramps didn't sound like much fun.

This is the mess that is created with the peeling and membrane. It's a sticky mess with juice splatters all over the place.

Other than peeling that pomegranate, I pretty much did nothing else today, except scrapbook a few pages. I have been thinking a lot about starting a new Girl Scout album for Emma. I have been planning to do a Cub Scout one for Gage, and have been collecting supplies, but just haven't dove into the project yet. I found some really cute Girl Scout and Cub Scout scrapbooking kits online and ordered several pieces of paper that go with them. I am so excited about it that I've been wanting to get started, but have just been thinking about how I was going to lay it out. I am usually very pleased with the results if I spend enough time thinking/planning before I jump in. For the past week I've been thinking of my title page for Emma's Girl Scout album. I don't always do title pages, but I wanted to do one for this album and I had the greatest idea and I can't wait to show it to you.

This is Emma's Daisy Scout uniform/tunic.

And this is Emma's title page for her Daisy Scout scrapbook! How cute is that?? I still have a few things to do on it, however. I ran out of S's on my sticker letters, so I will need to add an S to the Scout(s). I still need to add the flag above her troop number and have been thinking about how to do that. If I can find a sticker that has the waves in it that would be great, but I decided to try taking pictures of the flag patch and then cut it out and place it on the page. I have been taking pictures of all of the patches she earns, so if I can get it the right size, it will work out perfectly. I then have 2 pins that belong on the yellow insignia tab that I took pictures of to do the same thing with. How cute is that???? I'm so proud of it that I wanted to share because I knew Kysa would be asking me to post a picture of it anyway. I also have the new True 12x12 blue album that is very similar in color, maybe just a tad lighter shade of blue, that I am going to use for her album. I am going to have the Daisy Persona imprinting done on it and use it just for her 2 years in Daisy Scouts. Then, when she's out of Daisies and becomes a Brownie, I am going to start a new album in the chocolate color. I'm sure I'm boring all of you "non-scrapbookers" to death, but I am just so thrilled with how my title page turned out and the ideas I've had coming to me for her Scout albums and I know Scott would start snoring if I tried telling him about it. I'm hoping they will come out with a green color that is similar to the Junior Girl Scouts' uniform color as well. (I'll never let her quit if I get all of this money and time invested in these albums!) I also had a good idea for the last page in her album. I'm going to make the back side of her tunic with all of the pictures of patches that I have been taking on it. They probably won't all fit on the scrapbook page after she finishes 2 years of Daisies, however. I guess I'll just have to pick her favorite patches to do that with.

A friend of ours, Mark Lindberg, from Alaska, has been in town for the last week or so hunting in Tuttle. He is a mutual friend of 2 other sets of friends we have in town, so we all got together this evening and went out to eat supper. We had a really nice time. We went to eat at this Italian restaurant called DiDonna's, which we have never been to before. It was really good! We will definitely be going back there in the future. The kids had a great time as their friends, Ellie and Alan Adair, were also there. We didn't get home until 9pm, so they are going to be crank boxes tomorrow. I suppose I better get to bed earlier than usual tonight so I will have the patience to deal with them tomorrow!

Good Night!