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! 

     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 other great things about camp:

• My friend Neomi who was there did a remarkable service for me.  She contacted all 6 of my children, 5 of my grandchildren and talked to my husband and had them write me letters! She gave me some each day while we were at camp.  (In other words, she made me cry everyday!)  I will cherish those letters for the rest of my life!  
• We had some really awesome wilderness survival people at camp who taught so well that the girls were completely mesmerized at every class I witnessed.  We all learned new skills.
• The girls had no cell service or electronics.  They interacted with each other and with nature in a way that city girls ever get a chance to do! It was awesome.  There was a creek running through camp from which many crawdads were captured! 
• There were wonderful spiritual experiences throughout the week for everyone, besides my own personal answers to prayer. One of my favorite moments was listening to my group of girls leading the rest of the camp in hymns as we prepared for a spiritual trek through the forest.  They sounded beautiful and as we were the last group to leave on the trek, they told me about special memories that they have had with some of those hymns that we had sung. I felt honored to be with them at that moment. Then the trek itself was so great, as we trekked and stopped at sites where people portrayed characters from the scriptures and history who had faith in prayer and the answers they received.  I was amazed by it all and so touched by the Spirit.
• In our church, we address one another as "Sister".  So, as I served in this assignment over these 16-18 year old girls, I grew to love them so much and every time they needed something, they would call, "Sister Reynolds?"  And I just loved to hear them call me like that and know that they were trusting me to help them.  It made me remember two things.  1st: We come to love who we serve.  2nd:  Our Heavenly Father loves for us to call on him.  
• The food was really, really good.  There wasn't even a kitchen so our cooks had to use grills, camp stoves and all kinds of improvised ways of cooking and they did a fantastic job! What an act of service on their parts.

     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! 

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.

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!
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     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!)

     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! 

    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! 

     I am on my way to Girls Camp tomorrow! Don't worry, the rest of the 3 Winks team will be taking care of the blog! 
     Do you love to go camping? Our family has done a lot of camping trips over the years.  There have been a few times when I have forgotten something really important.  One year, the only utensil I had to cook with was a big butcher knife! It turned out to be pretty fun meeting that challenge.  I flipped pancakes and cooked everything with that knife! I felt like the kid in Gary Paulsen's book, Hatchet.  But, usually, it would be much better to not forget anything! There's just so much to remember! Packing everything from the food to essential tools to ways to keep the kids busy makes for a stressful day, but I found this really useful printable pack from The Dating Divas that I wish I had found when my kids were young! Their Family Camping Trip Kit would have made it so much easier for me to get everyone and everything ready for some family bonding in the great outdoors!

If you want to camp more with your family and make it easy, this set is perfect because with the Family Camping Trip Kit, you get:

Camping Binder with a packing checklist and to-do list.
Camping Menu to make meal planning easy.
Camping Games for some fun family bonding around the campfire.
Scavenger Hunt to keep the kids entertained around the camp site.
Campfire S'mores Kit to make the BEST part of camping an even bigger treat!

One of the best things about camping is that it's an inexpensive getaway for anyone. So if you're ready to plan a stress-free trip for your family, grab the Family Camping Trip Kit today!