33 posts from January 2008

How do you stay organized? 
Submitted by devillibrarian. 

Organized? What's that? Is that asking me how I manage to keep my innards where they belong? Well...not compromising the largest organ I have which would happen to by my skin would be a good start. I avoid situations that might involve major fractures since the bones, in part, help keep my organs in place. The nice thing is that these are entirely involuntary functions and involve no effort on my part to keep me organized, yes sir!

Oh.

You mean that kinda organized.

Huh. Well haven't you ever heard that a clean desk is a sign of a sick mind? Or was it a messy desk is a sign of intelligence? I can't remember. I can't get my thoughts organized.

I know I've been bad about responding to tags lately (I'm sorry!), so I decided to get on the ball when I saw Jen tagged me.

5 Things I Want My Kids To Know Before They Grow Up

1. Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your soul and with all your mind. No matter how bad--or good--things get, you should always remember God should be your everything.
   


2. Remember who you are. Never think of yourself more highly than you ought to and learn to put others first.
   


3. Unkind words directed at you are more of a reflection of the people who say them, not you. So be an edifying person or keep quiet.
   


4. Learn to think and love to laugh. Don't be a lemming! Don't be afraid to think and act outside the box and don't forget to find humor where and when it's needed.
   


5. Learn to argue. No matter what, you will eventually find someone you don't agree with. Learn to discuss your point of view with respect to the other person and learn to be respectful if you are still at odds in your opinions.
   

He's four! He's four! He's four years old today! Happy birthday J!

So why is he upset?

"Noooo! No mom, I'm still three!"

I guess it's not official, according to him, unless there's a birthday party. It really made him upset to hear he was four today. So much so that he was all teary-eyed.

Does that mean I still get to say I have a three year old for one more week?

A little help for those who need to get veggies in kiddo diets.

2 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/2 c. wheat germ
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 beaten eggs
3/4 c. each brown sugar (well-packed) and oil
1 c. each sugar, shredded carrots, shredded zucchini
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla (I didn't have any but you should put it in)

Grease two 8"x4"x2" loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift cocoa. Add flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Sift until mixed together.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add oil, sugars and vanilla and make sure they're well-blended.

Add the wet to the dry ingredients and add the grated veggies. Mix together gently until moistened which isn't easy to do as it's a very thick batter.

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (no batter).

Notes: this is based on some recipe I found on the internet and I've since lost the source. I have several other carrot-zucchini bread recipes because I was trying to replicate the version sold at Trader Joe's in California. This version seems to have come the closest in terms of texture. Of course...I added the wheat germ and cocoa as well as eliminated the walnuts so it tastes a bit different from the TJ's version. There's no reason not to add the nuts, though. I would think that if you have kids with nut aversion that ground nuts would work.

The nice part about this is that my kids eat it like it's their last meal. That's after they helped me make it! The trick is that I made it once and brought it with us to church. They had it afterwards when they were good and hungry and not paying attention to the green and orange confetti in their food. We established it was good stuff first and only then did I let them help make it. Hehe.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the original recipe I had called for only 1/2 c. each of oil and brown sugar but it wasn't moist enough for me so I increased. Also, it works in a square pan (8x8), but needs to bake a little bit longer.

What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't? 
Submitted by Janette.   

1. Petted a sea cucumber (Hundred Islands, Pangasinan, Philippines). But only my brother can claim he got squirted by one.
   
2. Witnessed my father push a coin unto dry ice to hear the sound (don't do this at home!).
3. Rode down a steeply sloped street in a kid's pedal-powered red Jeep with my brother who managed to avoid hitting cross traffic. At age 4 and 3 (him).
4. Watched my father joke about putting one foot in one province, one foot in another province and pretending to do what only boys can do into a third province in the Philippines (his father was a surveyor, so he knew where things had to go).
5. Witnessed a truck flip over in front of us and land on it's top.
6. Almost died falling out of the back of a truck bed while 4x4 riding in the desert.
7. Painted a portrait of my hubby. As far as I know, no one else has used him as a subject.
   
8. Ate---and enjoyed!---military surplus MREs. I see you cringing. I happen to like freeze-dried strawberries.
   
9. Have a baby born with teeth.
10. I'd like to say: *not* enjoy watching a USC/Cal football game but my SIL can attest to the fact that everyone else there was just as bored!
    

3 lbs stew meat
8 oz. brown mushrooms
1 bay leaf
3 tbs. each butter and flour
1 1/3 c. beef stock
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbs. chopped fresh parsley

Finely chop half of the mushrooms and slice the rest. This is so little ones with mushroom apprehension disorder can still enjoy them and can't pick them out.

Melt butter over medium high heat and add flour. Whisk until they're blended together. Slowly add your broth while whisking to avoid lumps. Add the mushrooms and boil for a little bit.

Put everything but the parsley in the crockpot and set to cook for 6 or 8 hours.

When it's nearly done, check to see if you need salt or pepper. Add in the parsley and stir. Serve over hot egg noodles.

Note: I think this was a little runny and needs to be thickened. Maybe adding more flour and butter will help with that because a tbs. of cornstarch so far isn't helping. This recipe was based on one in a book called Beyond Macaroni and Cheese which called for canned mushroom soup and sherry so I made quite a few substitutions for those and added the bay and parsley leaves.

Here's a beef that I have with *some* of the schooling NM has gotten so far: it has made learning a chore, a burden, an amazing hurdle he'd rather turn away from rather than tackle. Coming to the decision to homeschool, for this reason, was a "no brainer." We've tried to spend the last week just getting to know each other again, in terms of learning and hanging out. We've had a couple of rough days, but that's no surprise really.

One thing I am emphasizing to him, with the materials we are using so far, is that I really don't care if he gets it right or not. If he misspells "beginning" that's ok. I'm not grading him, I'm not going to test him. If he doesn't get 432-287=___ then that's fine. What we're after, I told him, is the attitude. If he makes a mistake, it's ok. "Use your eraser. Cross it off. Let's figure out how to get to the answer." It's more about developing a good attitude towards his mistakes, profiting from them and learning in general.

He's enrolled in a robotics class that uses Legos (no surprise?). A homeschooling mom and her teen aged boys are teaching the kids how to do it. I asked NM yesterday what they did in class and he enthusiastically explained to me that they were going to break into teams and build robots to compete against each other then the whole class would be involved in competitions. His voice, as he spoke, had a decidedly upbeat tone to it, unlike earlier in the day.

I told him something that I thought was a minor revelation to him, but it turned out to be a huge one: "You know that's your science class, don't you?"

"Huh? What kind of a science class is that?"

"Robotics! That's a major deal."

"What?"

He was just confused. "I don't know what you mean. You're confusing me."

I have to admit to being a tiny bit sad that he didn't consider what he was doing in that class to be of much importance. But I just told him that robotics is branch of science and it involves physics and engineering. He said it was too easy to be science so I told him he is just good at it so it's just that easy :D

I'm not sure he was convinced. But I hope we've gone back down the path of "learning really is fun" and not "learning is frustrating."

IMG_4657
Originally uploaded by Phisch

So far, so good. I'm making the second-to-largest size and good thing, too. I knew this pattern ran small. My gauge was tight, but I had no idea just how tight. This is going to fit more like a second-to-the-smallest size.

No photos of them yet, but one front panel is done and the opposite side nearly so.

It's actually pretty quick and I'm happy that I've not crossed any cables wrongly so far. I did catch one that was a boo-boo but it was only a row down so no major trauma.

The first cabled project I did was a beanie. That was intended for my nephew but it was too small for him so his little sister is the beneficiary.

So someone---I don't want to bother looking up who is responsible---wrote some song in the same spirit as Bob Carlysle's "Butterfly Kisses." The lyrics tug at your heart just as strongly and even though I don't have daughters and I am a mom, not a dad, the idea of the fleeting time we have our kids in our care just hits me way too hard.

I have to turn it off and pretend it's just because I have to make sure to listen to the boys chatting with me in the back seat.

And then when it happened this afternoon that I heard that song again, I see in the rear view mirror the top of J's head, I raise my eyes to look at him and I just want to bawl.

He's turning four---FOUR!!!---in four days.

Did we play Hotwheels enough together? Did we read enough stories together? Have I listened long enough to him tell me his stories? Because he has so many of them and you'll hear them play out in the mornings when he's hanging out with his Jojo lion and he teaches Jojo what he is learning (today it was how to wield a light saber).

It goes by so fast!