When we were cleaning out Mama's farm house, Mark took Mama's biscuit bowl, sifter, and biscuit cutter. I brought Gold Medal Self-Rising flour (the ONLY kind Mama ever wanted to use) with me on the plane, not sure if I would be able to find the exact same brand in New Braunfels.

I never quite did perfect Mama's biscuit techniques, even though I watched her hundreds of times and made them myself dozens of times when my children were young. Scout remembers helping Grandma Lois make biscuits, so she was eager to try to recreate Mama's classic.

The secret is in the "well" made from the flour...add melted Crisco and milk and mix it just so, not too little and not too much.

Sometimes Mama cut her biscuits out into perfect circles, but mostly she just formed them by hand. Scout and I did a combination of both.

And I have to say, they were pretty darn tasty! Mama would be proud of us!

The weekend flew by way too fast, as fun-filled weekends always do. Saturday evening before we all were scheduled to depart the next day (notice I said "scheduled"...stay tuned for tomorrow's post...things don't always go as "scheduled"...), Ethan rolled out their House family specialty...a homemade cannon.

Mark and Ethan handcrafted this cannon, which has commemorated many special events over the past few years.

Doesn't everyone have a family cannon to commemorate special events?!

It was fun seeing my own grandchildren Abram and Lucy had added their signatures and birthdays from when they shot it off during their Spring Break 2021 visit just a few months before.

Ethan is the master gunner for the House cannon.

Unbeknownst to us, he had mixed a special ingredient into the gunpowder to give it a little extra pop and kick: Grandma Lois's favorite Gold Medal Self-Rising flour!

Who knew?!

After a rousing rendition of "Happy House Glue Renew to Us" (sang...well kinda...to the tune of "Happy Birthday"), Ethan lit the fuse...

Man-oh-MAN!!! That was LOUD!!! 

And the blast caused the cannon to fly backwards several feet!

Oh YEAH!!! Nothing more satisfying to military types than a successful artillery launch!

Barb, who undoubtedly has the best handwriting of the four of us siblings, inscribed our name on the cannon barrel...

You did a bang-up job, Barb! (Mark's corny humor inevitably rubs off on us all...)

Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then everyone packed up to go their separate ways.

The menfolk relaxing on the porch before heading out...

Our family loves pictures so of course we had to do a quick photo session before we scattered. 

And what better place than on Mama and Dad's old porch swing, now hanging on Mark's front porch in Texas. Mark crafted that swing for them many moons ago and it was our go-to spot at the farmhouse for family photos.

Here's a few that I dug up, since I'm walking down memory lane with teary eyes....

Mama and Dad with Seanna, Wyatt, and Austin...

Dad pushing some of his great-grandkids...Mira, Maci, Austin, and my two grandsons Kaden and Karter...

I've never noticed until now...look at the porch posts...very similar to Mark's! And the swing is in the same spot on Mark's porch as it was at the farmhouse.

Mama and Dad with Karter and Kaden a few years later...

And Mama with us girls in 2017...only 4 years ago, but SO MUCH has changed.

Okay, enough of that. A few more from our recent photo shoot on the swing...

One last sibling portrait to document our first annual House Glue Renew. (And we won't mention how tightly we are wedged into the porch swing...no we won't...no big butts in the House family...)

And that officially wrapped up HGR #1.

No more fitting way to end it than with...

...biscuits and a BANG!