Rules to Pickle-Fun Family Card Game

Post by Samantha!

Have you ever been bored on a Saturday night with nothing to do? Well, you are in luck. Pickle is a fun game with 4-17 players. Ages 10+ and up can play. In these instructions, you will learn how to play pickle with your family and friends!

The set up is very easy you get the number of stacks of playing cards according to your number of people. For every 6 people add a stack of playing cards. Put the rest of the cards in the middle of everyone face down. You should deal 11 cards to each player. Do NOT look at them. Take 3 cards from the top of your stack of cards and place them in front of you like so=

• The rules are quite simple. After you “set up” the game each player can look at their cards. 
• Pick 3 of your highest or a special card (special card list will be at the bottom of the paper) and place them on top of your face down cards. 
• Now you should have 5 cards in your hand. 
• The person to the right of the dealer goes first. 
• The first player will play their lowest card in their hand. So if it is my turn and the card is 7 and I have an 8 I should play that card. 
• When it comes around to you then you place your next highest card on the pile. 
• If it is your turn and you can't play higher than the card on the pile then you can either place down one of your special cards or pick up the pile. 
• You play till you run out of cards in the deck. 

When you run out of cards in the deck you just play till you don't have any more cards in your hand. After there are no more cards in your hand you use the face-up cards. When all of your face-up cards are gone and it is your turn you just flip one over and hope that it can play. So that means if all my top cards are gone and it is my turn and it is a 7 I have to randomly flip ONE over and hope it is bigger than a 7. If it is not then you have to pick up the whole pile. 

1. The objective is to run out of cards first. 

2. The special cards are 2 and a 10 
3. 2’s start the hand over so if there is a king and you can't play you play your 2 and the next person can play anyone they want because a 2 is the lowest number. 

4. The 10’s clear the pile.

5. The aces are above kings, not a one. 

What the set up should look like=

No Child Left Inside Week

June 10-15, 2013 

This is the time to get outside.  I think it's kind of ironic because usually in June this is not a problem to get outside because it's such nice weather.  It would be awesome to have this week during a time when it's harder to get outside and you have to be creative to do things outside.  Anyways, get up and move outside.  The movement is to emphasis how important it is for children to learn and grow while in their outside environment.  I just love to go up in the mountains and breathe the fresh air, hear a musical river run, and feel the dirt and the sand in your hand.  If you live in Cache Valley there are events everyday of this week.  It is especially for elementary aged children. Click here: For a list of these activities 
Here are some simple ideas you can do with your kids to get outside:
Have a scavenger hunt at a park
Have a picnic at a local park or just in your own back yard
Go camping
Play Frizbee
Play catch
Go insect hunting
Take a walk to visit someone who is ill or elderly
Play catch with your dog
Play follow leader with your whole family and have each person choose a way to walk
Mother May I
Red Rover
Duck Duck Goose
Go weed your garden or a neighbors
Invite a friend and their kids to the park and have a playdate in the park
Grab a coin and take a walk-when you get to a corner flip a coin to see if you turn left or right see where you end up.

Drops of Awesome

I just read a blog post by Kathryn Thompson whose blog is entitled "The Daring Mom" that was truly inspiring to me (Thank you Tracy for sharing it with me).  I would encourage you all to read this to really get a feel for her thoughts on Drops of Awesome.   Basically her idea (inspiration) in a nutshell is that as we do things in our life that are good we should acknowledge it and let it encourage us to continue the good and not let thoughts of doubt and discouragement fill our lives.  She give some real life examples of things that she does and the thoughts that creep in.  It was so real for me because I do it all the time.
For me this is a real life example of something I did today that I tried "Drops of Awesome" on.  My daughter, Pumpkin, got sick a few nights ago and threw up on her floor.  It was yucky.  In my half daze, because it was 1:00 am I cleaned it up the best I could and put both of us back in bed.  Well today as I went into their room I could still smell that it wasn't quite clean enough.  So I got out the Kirby and Wet cleaned the carpet.  It felt so good and now it smells again lovely in their room.  Because I just read this article I really wanted to focus on the good I did.  I have to admit their was a few thoughts in my mind of, "look how much junk came out of this carpet, I can't believe you haven't cleaned this carpet once since you have moved in this house.  But I quickly remembered her thoughts of "Drops of Awesome" and said self, you have done a great thing in getting this room clean.  I want to keep this up and do another room next week.  It didn't take all that much time and it really felt good to get a deep clean in that room.
Do you find yourself being critical of yourself and letting thoughts of negativism come into your life even when you are doing something good and trying to be a good Mom?  Then this post is just for you.  Just as it was for me!
Just from me to you, You are an amazing Mom!  You do so many things that are Awesome!  Keep it up!  Keep smiling and being a great example of awesome to your kids.  Remember that you are not perfect and are not expected to be.  Christ will make up the difference for you!  Keep him close to your heart and he will fill up the rest of the cup when you are filling empty!  I know he will because he does for me so often.
Keep the Faith!