Restore, Year 2

I enjoyed some more fall happenings this week, such as autumnal trails and our fourth batch of grape juice this year. I can't ever recall having that many grapes! Often we're lucky to get one batch.

We bottled some of the third batch of juice so we can have it at Thanksgiving

But the real highlight of the week was the second annual Restore Gathering by Faith Matters on Friday and Saturday, which I also attended last year. Faith Matters is largely geared toward progressive/nuanced/intellectual Latter-day Saints from a faithful perspective. Wayfare magazine is one of the projects they work on. I paid to register for Restore, and immediately the executive director refunded my money because of my work on Wayfare. 

There were a variety of speakers, musicians, and poets. I don't care for poetry, so I could have done without those, but I'm glad other people enjoy it. I'm going to share some of the highlights from the conference (I think it would bore you, and me, if I shared everything).

Friday morning had a conversation with Governor Spencer Cox and his initiative to "disagree better" during a polarized climate. I'm glad Cox got the Republican nomination in 2020. When I think of him and his fellow Republicans, I think of a line from The Nightmare before Christmas: he's "the only one who makes any sense around this insane asylum!"

Jared Halverson talked about helping minister to people going through faith crises. It's important to see the individual who is struggling and listen to them.

My favorite part about Friday was hearing from Brandon Flowers, the lead singer of the Killers. He started by singing two songs from the album Pressure Machine, which is about the town of Nephi. (I have that album in my Pioneer Day playlist.) He is a wonderful wonderful singer. (See what I did there?) He chatted with Patrick Mason, and he talked about hymns. He quoted the second verse of "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" (my favorite hymn) and said, "That's better than Lennon-McCartney!" Then he sang a country song written by his great-grandma that Slim Whitman recorded in 1955. (I'm familiar with Slim Whitman because I bought a CD of his Irish songs for my St. Patrick's Day playlist. How many of my playlists can I mention in this post?) 

On Saturday morning, George Handley talked about being good stewards of the planet. That was right before they let us take a break to go out and see the partial eclipse. It just looked like a C in the sky. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't join my parents to see the total annular eclipse in Flowell, but I was glad to be at Restore.

Eclipse shadows on my hoodie. Do you like looking up my nose?

There was a young singer named Emma Nissen. There are so many talented but generic singers that I was expecting her to be one of them, but she was surprisingly talented and soulful. Not what I was expecting from a white girl of Swedish ancestry.

Fiona Givens talked about her own grapples with faith in light of children being killed in Africa and the story of the Egyptians' firstborns dying. It was refreshing to hear an honest perspective of difficult topics. 

The only one I didn't really care for was Jennifer-Finlayson Fife, who deals with relationships and sexuality. That doesn't apply to my situation, and I get that; not everything has to be about me or for me. But she showed a long video about her widowed mother taking dance lessons. It didn't seem to have to do with anything she was saying. It felt like she wanted to show the video and had to make a stretch to get it to fit.

Daryl Davis (not a Latter-day Saint) is a Black man who used to play piano for Chuck Berry. His message was about listening to different people to change hearts. He has befriended multiple members of the KKK, even attending their rallies, and they ended up revoking their racist associations. And he ended his presentation by playing a boogie-woogie piano number. His was a wonderful presentation.

Peter Enns (also not a Latter-day Saint) gave a mindblowing presentation on the scale of the universe. He read Psalm 19 and talked about the way David in the Old Testament viewed the universe. Then he updated Psalm 19 for how it should read according to our current understanding. I found this presentation especially fascinating and thought provoking.

The conference ended with a performance by Millennial Choirs and Orchestra. (I have their Easter album in my Easter playlist.) I don't ordinarily love choral/classical/orchestral music. But they were tremendously talented, and it was stunning to hear music like that in just an event venue.

It was a wonderful conference, and I look forward to next year. I met some new friends and saw some old ones. (I even saw one who I haven't seen in four years who still complimented my Spotify holiday playlists.)

Then tonight my blog is up later than usual in part because I was making pizza. For the topping, I used yellow squash, tomatoes, and green pepper from my mom's garden. And I made the sauce using tomatoes and mint leaves from the garden.

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There were a few items I forgot to include in last week's pumpkinundation roundup, so here they are.

There's an interesting phenomenon with Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bars. I often buy boxes in the fall, but then trail season ends. Then when trail season resumes, I take them with me. So they remind me of spring and early summer almost as much as they do fall. They have nice spices; there's a reason I buy them every year. 7/10.

I got this pumpkin cookie at a church function; it's ordinary. 7/10.

The same function had Panera Autumn Squash Soup, which was pleasant, as long as you enjoy squash. 7/10.

Kirkland Signature Pumpkin Streusel Muffins are OK. They're not worth the calories. 6/10.

While I'm still catching up, I might as well include the things I reviewed for The Impulsive Buy this summer:

Sour Patch Kids Apple Harvest aren't very sour at all, and they just kind of taste weird. Disappointing. 6/10.

Brach's Fall Festival Candy Corn was a pleasant collection of flavors, though I did think they were more appropriate for summer: kettle corn, caramel apple, cotton candy, lemonade shake-up, strawberry funnel cake, and lemon-lime snowcone. 8/10.

Now I can proceed to this week:

The Dirty Dough Pumpkinella Cheesecake Cookie is my first time at Dirty Dough, one of the companies that Crumbl was suing. It's a pumpkin cookie with Nutella topping and cheesecake filling. I think I was distracted while I was eating it, because I don't remember much about its flavor. So I guess it can't be that amazing? But I really liked its texture. 7/10.

Skinnydipped Pumpkin Spice Almonds taste more like ginger than anything else. And I feel like ginger is an optional ingredient in pumpkin spice. They're OK. I do appreciate that they're not as "indulgent" as more traditional pumpkin pie almonds. 6/10.

I like supporting North Salt Lake businesses, so I was happy to have a JJ Donuts Pumpkin Cream Cheese Donut. The donut is pumpkin spice with a cream cheese topping. It was good but not exceptional. 7/10.

Private Selection Harvest Apple Spiced Apple Snack Mix is better than most mixes that have apples in them. The apples here are chewy, in a good way. I especially like the cinnamon pecans. 7/10.

The Sodalicious Pumpkin Spice Cookie is a snickerdoodle with pumpkin frosting. And the frosting has an authentic pumpkin flavor, instead of just fake spices like so many other things. 8/10.

I was disappointed with the Wendy's Pumpkin Spice Frosty. At this time of year, there are so many ice creams and shakes with actual pumpkin. A Frosty isn't quite either of those things, but it was still disappointing that there wasn't any pumpkin that I could tell. It was just spices, and it reminded me of a candle scent. 6/10.

I honestly don't remember much about my experience with Trader Joe's Pumpkin Overnight Oats. The oats seemed chewier than I'm accustomed to, though I've never had packaged overnight oats like this. (What does that even mean?) The flavor was fine, I think? 7/10.