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 I am home from our church's girls camp! It was a lot of fun, yet a lot of work! We were in a beautiful area of Arizona, with lakes, streams, tall pines, billions of stars and bumpy roads. As you can see from the photos above, I loved being by the water. There weren't too many days when I could just sit and dip my toes in the water, but I did it when I could. We thought that there was going to be mostly cool temperatures up there, but a high pressure ridge over AZ made it very warm. We were thankful not to be in the 120 degree weather of Phoenix, though. And, the rain that came a couple of times helped to cool things off. When you are working with a bunch of teenage girls and their leaders, there are bound to be some tears and frustrations to deal with. The first day we were there, as my partner leader and I tried to get the girls busy doing their tasks, I found myself getting frustrated less with the girls and more with some of the other adult chaperones. I knew that it was because I was tired from the long day of getting up there and the long weeks of preparation. I hated feeling irritated like I did. It was silly and I knew that I didn't want to ruin my entire week and possibly the week of everyone else by being a grouch. I needed a positive attitude and fast! "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. That was the theme of camp this year. I knew that I lacked wisdom. I needed to know the best way to lead my girls. I needed to know the best way to connect with the other leaders and how to be positive and humble and to have a good attitude. So, that evening I poured my heart out in fervent prayer. I knew that the only way to change how I felt was to change myself. So, I prayed and then I got some sleep! The next morning, my perspective had changed and the fun of camp really started. I tried harder to talk to people one on one to understand them and share good times. I especially tried to connect with people who I was feeling self conscious around and I learned that they are just real people, too and I didn't need to feel bad about myself at all. I had nice conversations with the girls and listened to their ideas and feelings. They often helped me to feel less worried or confused about our schedule and the way we needed to be organized. One of my girls had given us a daily devotional idea that went as follows: "Compliment, don't compare. Look for Christ in others." I tried to implement that in my perspective. I tried to find the good attributes in everyone. My partner, Jazmin, also helped me in that area. She noticed good qualities about people and pointed them out to me, too. The answer to my prayers came quickly and life was so much better.  Here are some of the beautiful girls I was with. They were back from doing the service of picking up trash from around the lake! How could I have anything but fun with this group? Here are some other great things about camp:
 Down by the creek! Camp was such a great experience and although I started to feel my age as I walked over all of the bumpy ground and dealt with high altitudes, I am so glad I went and learned the things I learned. Even old ladies like me have a lot to learn! What a blessing these girls have been to my life this summer!
Even if you don't have the opportunity to go to a church camp like I have, there are a lot of lessons to learn by being in the great outdoors and by turning our thoughts to our Heavenly Father who blessed us with the beauties of this earth. I hope you can take the time to get out in it, turn off the electronics and just commune with the Spirit and with your loved ones and remember what is really important in life! P.S. The camp bags I made were a hit!
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It has been quite a week for PH and I. If you didn't know already, we live in what is known as the Valley of the Sun in Phoenix Arizona. You may have heard stories of planes that were not allowed to take flight this week here in Sunny AZ, and those stories are true. I was born and raised in Phoenix and the summers come as no surprise, it just gets plain hot here. Granted, 120 degrees in June is a bit early, but it always comes. We live in a desert you know, and the desert can be such a truly beautiful place, but it's also hot. Very, very hot. However, the most important thing to have in 120 degree weather is an air conditioning unit. Well my friends, our a/c unit died on us.  Actual temperature in our house, but not at 4:30 AM. This was probably one of the most awful things to have ever happened to us, which shows how blessed we are. Since there was no way I was turning on the oven or staying in that hot house to make anything, we ate out a lot. So I don't have a recipe for you this week.
I want to direct your attention back to this post. Since posting my zoodle recipe we have come into contact with Michael from Nutrition Advance. It turns out he has this great guide to zoodles and why they're so healthy and he even has some additional recipes that you can check out here! Summer time is a great time to zoodle it up. You don't have to turn on the oven, and while everyone is thinking about eating healthier and having that great "beach body" why not swap your pasta for zoodles? Happy zoodling! This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Thanks for your support!  Last year on this post, I told you all about our family favorite Root Beer Pancakes! Well, pull out those griddles, because I have another amazing pancake recipe that your kids will love! On another blog, (I think it was livelovesugar.com but now I can't find it), I saw a recipe for Cherry Coke Cupcakes. That got me thinking about root beer, because I love it and I wondered if I could make root beer cupcakes. (That will be for another day!) Then, I thought about Root Beer Pancakes and I wondered about Cherry 7-Up Pancakes because they would look so nice and pink. The cupcakes had added maraschino cherry juice in them and I thought the cherry juice added to the pancake batter would make the pancakes even pinker! Well, of course I had to give it a try. (Now you see how my mind works!)  Here is a nice stack ready to be embellished! These pancakes have a subtly sweet flavor and delicate texture. I didn't have any cherry syrup to top them with so we just used our regular maple. It was really good, but I think a cherry syrup would be extra good! For the 4th of July, you could give these pancakes a patriotic twist! We added blueberries and whipped cream to make them red, white and blue!  You've got to have the cherry on top, and a few sprinkles makes everything more festive!  Here is the pink, fluffy goodness on the inside.  Whipped cream just tops it off perfectly. The blueberries gave us the final patriotic touch. This is a quick and easy breakfast to make for you family this summer! I hope you give it a try. Just click the button above to print off your recipe! You will love it!
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Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to ten and counting! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, and my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! 
Click this link and visit 3WinksDesignShop on Etsy. Find our Hot Cocoa Bomb Idea Book, our For the Love of PIe e-book and more of our creations!
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