On Hiatus

I’m officially on hiatus.  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and Happy New Year to all my relatives, friends, and virtual friends.  I appreciate every one of you.  (But I just feel like taking a blog break!)

Merry Christmas!

St. John Fisher Nativity Creche

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas Eve

So far we’ve spent the day cleaning the house, doing some laundry, and finishing up our gift wrapping.  Ryan and Danny got busy mid-morning on their project for Grandma Wenning and Aunt Jane’s gift:  making meals to stock their freezer.  We managed to make some chicken-noodle casserole, beef stew, individual meat loaves, and a small lasagna.  Here’s hoping my mom hasn’t just filled her freezer with Stouffer’s!

Allie and Molly are now commencing the sugar cookie cut-outs.  They are going to use the cookie cutters we have on hand to make the cast of Harry Potter in sugar cookies.  The 3 kings (in robes, naturally), will be Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  The dove will be Hedwig.  The cat will be Mrs. Norris.  Two snowmen holding brooms will probably get orange sugar for hair so that they can be the Weasley twins, and we have a ghost who will be Nearly Headless Nick.  This could be interesting.  I’ll report back later on how this scheme turns out.

Christmas Eve is usually a day in which we try to do something together as a family, like go for a hike at the Nature Center.  However, several of us are fighting colds, so we’re staying at home this year.  We’re going to make a big fancy dinner tonight and celebrate.  We always have Christmas crackers–those things that snap when you pull them apart, then spill out a paper hat, a joke or fortune, and a little gift.  After dinner, we open the kids’ exchange gifts to each other, and Dennis and I give them each a box filled with some good books to read.  Then they read until it’s time to go to the 10:00 mass.  Dennis and I go to choir rehearsal before mass and then sing.  It’s probably my favorite mass of the year.

I’ve been trying not to talk today in order to rest my throat.  Often when I get a cold, it results in one of those incessant tickly throats that causes coughing fits bad enough to make me light-headed and overheated.  So I’m dosing up with Delsym, big time, swilling down “Throat Tamer” tea several times a day, and praying.  I sooooooo want to be able to sing tonight.  I’ve no idea why it seems to work out this way, but I’ve had laryngitis only a few times in my life, and every time, it was Christmas Eve, and I was unable to sing!  It doesn’t ruin Christmas.  But it definitely takes a little of the shine off of Christmas Eve.  If I can’t sing, I hope at least I can sit in the congregation with the kids and enjoy hearing the singing.  Wish me luck!

And just in case I don’t get a chance to come back and post tomorrow, I’d just like to wish everyone a

Holiday Album–December 21

The journaling reads:  There are lots of movies and TV specials  to choose from at this time of year, and I watch my share of them.  But nothing really reminds me of the true spirit of Christmas like the Charlie Brown special, in particular the moment when Linus takes the stage and says the following:  “And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.’ That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

This layout is based on Tiffany Tillman’s “Scrappable Single Template No. 44.”  The background paper and border are from Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” kit.  The circle art under the photos is from Julia Makotinsky’s “Life in Color” kit.  Also used Ali Edwards’s “Circled Numbers.”

Thanks again for looking!

Holiday Album–December 18

Journaling:  “LOL!  I had to run over to Danny’s school to drop off something
he forgot.  As I got back into my car to go home, I noticed this.
Now I’ve seen everything, I guess.  I used to think it was kind
of funny that people would tie wreaths onto their grilles or put
Christmas lights in their rear windows.  But elf ears and a hat?!!
You’ll never see them on my car, but I have to admit I sort of
think it’s cute.”

Tiffany Tillman’s “Scrappable Sparks No. 3″ was the base template for this layout.  Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” kit for the papers and button and Katie Pertiet’s “White Stitching” (recolored) were the other supplies used.

Holiday Album–December 19

Just for fun, I decided to try some templates by Tiffany Tillman.  This is “Scrappable Spark Template No. 2.”  Once again, I used Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” papers and Ali Edwards’s circled numbers.  The alpha is from Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Deer Santa” kit.  This one practically scrapped itself!  Thanks again for looking.

Holiday Album–December 16

Back with another installment of my holiday/December Daily album.  I used a few new items on this one.  Starting with one of Ali Edwards’s December Daily Templates, I added in stitching (Christina Renee’s “Shabby Stitches”).  Then I used Jessica Sprague’s “Half-Circle Templates” and her “Four-Square Template” (I think the latter was only available to those who took her second digi class).  One of my favorite items in this layout is the background paper, which comes from Katie Pertiet’s “Classic Embossed Christmas” cardstock.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

I apologize for the cut-outs in the journaling.  For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to show the names of my kids’ schools here.

Again, thanks for looking!

Holiday Album–December 10

It’s all about the singing, as in choir practice.  Every Thursday, 7:00-9:00.  And we’re working on the tough stuff.  The choir has around 50 people in it.  The only photo I have was taken during a 5-minute break. Anyway, here’s the layout:

I used the usual host of characters for this layout, and once again I tried one of Dani Alencar’s templates.  Thanks for stopping by and checking it out!

Holiday Album–December 3

Here again I’m using the same supplies, for the most part, as I used for the previous pages.  The template, however, is one of Dani Alencar’s, from her set, “Blocking Templates 3.”  The only thing I added was the circled number.  Thanks again for looking!

So all you scrappers out there who may have stumbled upon my blog, are you finding any time to scrap this December? Some people really plow through the layouts on a regular basis.  Normally I’m a much slower scrapper, but I’ve just been on a roll lately, I think.  It’s a good thing!

Holiday Album–Dec. 4

Working in random order here!

Pretty much still using the same supplies as for previous holiday layouts.  I’ve got to admit, templates are really growing on me.  I’ve never used them much before, because it seemed a little like cheating.  But honestly, if I weren’t using templates, I probably wouldn’t be getting a single page done.  I’ve gone for 2 or 3 years without having made a single layout for the big album I made of all our Christmases from 1985 on.  So this is making me feel really great!  If you are on the fence about using templates for your digi scrapping, give it a try.  You might find out, like I did, that it makes the difference between hoping to make an album and actually making one!

Holidays in Hand–December 13

Once again, I started with an Ali Edwards template, but changed the text of the word art.  Also used her circled numbers.  The papers and brads are from Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” kit.  The tags and strings from from M. Zimmerman’s (Manu’s) “Build Your Tag,” set.  And the border is from Ali Edwards’s “Hand-Drawn Borders:  Months,”  but I did a little PSE magic to edit out the name of the month.  Mom’s Typewriter and CK Ali’s Writing are the fonts used.  Thanks for looking!

Holidays in Hand–December 5

Wow, I’m churning them out this weekend.  I’ve decided I love templates!

Still using the Ali Edwards’ December Daily Templates and circled numbers, with Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” papers.

Holidays in Hand–December 11

One more layout:

Journaling reads:  On Friday I got a call from the school nurse.  Danny had jammed his finger while playing a game of “Ga-ga” in the new ball pit.  She wasn’t sure if it was broken.  So we went to see the doctor.  Diagnosis:  not broken, but a big fat splint was put on to keep it immobile.  This ended a week in which his glasses got scratched and he left his band instrument on the bus.  Yikes!”

Holidays in Hand, December 12

You may have noticed that I have been uncharacteristically silent on the subject of recipes and baking.  That’s because I haven’t baked a single thing since the gingerbread!  Well, I did make PW’s apple dumplings, but I’m not going to post a recipe that you can get from Ree, even if mine is not really the same as the original anymore.

If you are disappointed not to be finding recipes over here this year, don’t worry, I might do some baking this week.  Maybe.

Until then, here’s another page from my December album:

Yesterday was Christmas Card Day!  90 of ‘em.  And there are still people I’d like to send a card too, but at some point I just have to say, enough is enough. When my hand cramps up, that’s it!

The journaling reads:  “One of the tasks I have mixed feelings about at Christmas time is sending out Christmas cards.  I enjoy the chance to spend a few moments thinking about each relative or friend as I am addressing the cards and adding a short personal note.  But overall, it’s a big job.  We send out about 90 cards each year, and until I have them delivered to the Post Office, I admit that it does feel like the job is hanging over my head.  Once the cards are in the mail, though, I can breathe a sigh of relief and move on to my very most favorite activity of the season:  baking!”

Supplies used include one of Ali Edwards’s “December Daily Templates,” AE’s circled numbers, CK Ali’s Writing font, background paper from Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market,” and Anne-Made’s “Festive Swirls.”  The other font is VT Portable Remington.

Holidays in Hand, Dec. 6 and 7

I guess I’m making these in kind of a random order.  You haven’t missed Dec. 3, 4, and 5.  I just haven’t made them yet!  Here’s Dec. 6 and 7.  I’m still using Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” kit, Ali Edwards’ Circled Numbers, Ali Edwards’ December Daily templates, CK Ali’s Writing for the script font, and this time it’s VT Portable Remington for the typewriter font.  I’m keeping these super simple in order to get a layout done for each day in December.  Otherwise, I think I’d be too daunted to even try this album!

Holidays in Hand, Pages 2 and 3

Here my Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 layouts:

Recipe: Dark, Moist Gingerbread

When I was little, my mom made the best gingerbread in the world.  I thought it was totally awesome.  Dark and moist, with a rich smell of spices, topped with a mound of whipped cream–gingerbread is the perfect winter dessert.  And it’s even more perfect during the Christmas season, as the smell of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves is an aroma that can quickly get a person in the holiday mood.  Try this.  I really think you’ll like it.

Gingerbread

1 cup boiling water
2 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick butter, softened (unsalted butter is preferred)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup unsulphured molasses (I used Grandma’s brand, yellow label, found in the syrup aisle)
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or spray a 9 x 13″ baking pan. Set aside.

Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, combing the flour, spices, and baking powder. Set this aside as well.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the molasses and mix well. Add the baking soda and water mixture, again mixing well. Add the flour mixture, by spoonfuls with your mixer on low speed. Finally, lightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then add to the batter. Beat the mixture until well combined, about 2 minutes on medium speed.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes. Use a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake to determine if the cake is done. Remove and cool in pan on a wire rack.

When cake is completely cooled, dust with a little powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

_____________

Yum! I can practically imagine the spicy aroma filling my house as I write this. If I didn’t still have pineapple upside-down cake leftover from the other day, I’d throw one of these into the oven tomorrow. Hmmmm . . . with 7 people in the house, that pineapple cake will surely get eaten, right? I’m thinking we may just have gingerbread tomorrow after all.

Enjoy!

Digi Freebie Alert

For all of you digital scrapbookers, Catscrap is giving away parts of a huge collab kit each day during the month of December.  You have to go and download the zip each day, though, so get going!  Do some shopping while you’re there, too.  They have a lot of gorgeous scrappity goodness!

(Click on the image to go to Catscrap.)

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you know, I like to bake.  I like it a lot, mostly because I have always had a sweet tooth, and when you bake, you get to eat fresh baked goods.  See how that works out?

My mom made me fearless about baking.  She gave me all kinds of tips, but more important, she just told me that anyone who can read can cook and bake.  Hey presto, just follow the directions and you’ll get the hang of it–that was her basic philosophy.  That and, just do it and don’t get all hung up on whether it’s perfect.  I might have missed the last part of the lesson, because I do tend to want everything to turn out all pretty and perfect.  But when it doesn’t, that doesn’t stop me from getting out the flour, sugar, and vanilla and trying again another day.

Today I am going to start the onslaught of holiday recipe blogging with a fairly easy one, just in case you are only a sometime baker and don’t want to go to a lot of fuss this early in December.  This recipe will stand you in good stead through the year, but it’s always a popular cookie that is not “too plain” to make for the holidays.  It’s the basic chocolate chip cookie.

Let me preface this by saying that, because I was told I was allergic to chocolate when I was about 4, I never really ate chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate is not my go-to dessert flavor.  However, once I found this recipe I was hooked.  These are soft, puffy cookies, and I like them because I put milk chocolate chips in them, which is my favorite.  Some of my kids are hard-core and want semisweet chips or dark chocolate chunks in them, and you can do that if you want to.  But try them.  I think you’ll get good reviews!

Best Bet Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup softened butter (unsalted is preferred)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed into the cup
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I use milk chocolate, but use your favorite)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together the first three ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt).

In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until uniformly mixed. Add the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, by spoonfuls, keeping the mixer at its lowest setting. Scrape down the sides once or twice to ensure that you end up with a smooth batter. Now fold in the chocolate chips. It’s best to do this by hand so that the mixer blade doesn’t break the chips up too much.

No need to refrigerate the dough. Simply scoop up large spoonfuls of the dough (about 1/8 of a cup or slightly more), roll gently into a ball, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Place the cookies 2-3 inches apart for best results. Flatten the tops of the dough balls slightly and bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are light brown. This takes about 12 minutes for soft chewy cookies. If you like crisper cookies, you can bake them for up to 15 min.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for several minutes before removing to cooling racks.

Decorate Your Desktop for Christmas

Just in case you are in the mood to do a little Christmas decorating, but aren’t quite ready to haul out all the holly, here are a few sites that offer free computer desktop wallpapers with Christmas or Winter themes.  These sites are fairly trustworthy and I’ve never had a problem with viruses when downloading the wallpapers.  Enjoy!

Better Homes and Gardens Winter Scenes

Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Food

Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Scenes

Mary Engelbreit Desktops

American Greetings Wallpapers

Holidays in Hand, Page 1

Recently I took a nifty little online digital scrapbooking class offered by Jessica Sprague.  It was called, “Holidays in Hand,” and it was generously offered to anyone who wanted to sign up for free.  HIH was basically a week-long class designed to get us inspired to make some sort of little album documenting our various holiday traditions and celebrations.  Ali Edwards does a similar sort of album, which she calls, “Daily December.”

Jessica’s class focuses fairly strongly on the journaling, while Ali’s idea is just to get everything down in pictures, making one layout per day to show what your family was up to during the month building up to Christmas.  I think my pages will be a combination of the two.  Here’s my first page.  I didn’t wait until Dec. 1 to start my album because we traditionally head out on the first weekend after Thanksgiving to cut down our own Christmas tree.  We’ve been doing this for probably 20 years now, and I wanted to finally have one page that really shows what trooping out to the tree farm is like.  Unfortunately, this year only about half the kids were able to come with us, but I managed to get a few good pictures.  They don’t really need journaling to express the story, so I kept it simple.  I used one of Ali Edwards’s December Daily Templates (available at Designer Digitals) and Shabby Miss Jenn’s “Xmas Market” kit.  It went together quickly and painlessly.

Thanks for looking!

Black Friday Miscellany

Today I was wicked:  I stayed in bed until almost 7:30 a.m., while my husband took our two oldest sons and one daughter to the mall for some Black Friday shopping.  We had offered to get suits for the guys for their Christmas gift this year, and so they headed off to the Macy’s suit sale, scoring perfect fits within about 15 minutes of arriving at the store.  And there’s nothing better than Black Friday pricing on a designer wool suit.

While at the mall, DD#1 saw some Sperry Top-Siders that she has been coveting.  She tried them on for size and decided which style and color she most wanted.  I’ve already ordered up a pair from an online source-for $25 less, with free shipping and handling both ways!  I was pretty psyched about that.  Normally I would not spend that much on a pair of shoes for a high schooler, but at Christmastime, we make a few exceptions.

Next, Dennis and I went out to Furniture Fair in hopes of buying some pieces for our family room.  From 8-10 a.m., it was 20% off everything in the store.  But the set we thought we had decided on didn’t seem all that perfect for us when we went back today, so that was not to be.  I was disappointed, but the truth is, our family room is an ill-designed affair with multiple doorways and an assymetrically placed fireplace, and I just can’t wrap my mind around how to furnish it, even after 10 years of living here.  I’m anxious to replace our 20-year-old sofa, but I don’t know what we should choose to put in its place.  So those are the breaks, I guess.

When we got back from Furniture Fair, it wasn’t even noon yet!  (That’s the weirdest part of the after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy, I think.  The stores open earlier every year, and you can get in a full day’s shopping before lunch.)  I had plenty of time to make my first digi layout in months, using a brand new kit from Christina Renee Designs. I especially love the alpha in this kit.  Check it out:

And after that, we drove out to the tree farm and cut down this year’s Christmas tree (I think it’s about a 13-footer; maybe more).  I didn’t take many pictures this year, because the whole family wasn’t able to go, so I was relegated to actually doing some of the hard work this time around and couldn’t fool with the camera too much.  :-[

After dinner, I made two pumpkin pies and got everything ready for a spinach salad.  All that goes with us to our Connair family get-together, tomorrow.

So what did you do today?  Did you participate in the shopping extravaganza, put up holiday decorations, or lie around in your jammies?  ‘Fess up!

Over the River and Through the Woods

It only takes us an hour, by interstate, to get to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving.  No horse, no sleigh.  Straight shot in our trusty minivan.  Besides, in Ohio you just never know if there’s gonna be any snow for the sleigh to ride on, kwim?  In fact, unseasonably warm weather led us to take a trip over the river and through the woods, quite literally, yesterday.  We loaded up the car and headed to Hocking Hills.  Two and a half hours, more or less north, straight into the most gorgeous part of our fair state.

Our first stop was at Ash Cave.  Of course, I had to get a photo of the group before we got too far into the woods.

Here’s a shot of the actual cave, taken as I stood on the precipice of the cliff overhead:

Just so you understand the scale, I’m going to include one of Molly’s photos from inside the cave.  (If she threatens to sue for copyright violation, I will have to take the photo down, though, so look quick.) See the teeny people?  That’s my point!

Ash Cave is where my husband found his lucky rock, about 40 years ago, when his parents took him on a family outing to Hocking Hills.  He picked it up because he noticed it was different from all of the other rocks lying around.  (Would you have even noticed something like that?  Seriously.  His lucky rock was only about half an inch square.  This may tell you something about why he ended up becoming a geologist.) I think he was hoping to find another lucky rock to replace the original, which was lost about 9 years ago and never found.  He’s still a little broken up about that, but alas, the lucky rock’s brother was not jumping up and down waving at him yesterday.  Rats.

Next we moved on to Cedar Falls.  On the way to the grotto, we of course clowned around some more.  Outcrops plus Connairs equal hours of good, clean fun!

The falls were low volume yesterday.  I guess there hasn’t been a ton of rain in that area lately.  But the grotto was still gorgeous.  See?

You’re probably wondering, “hey, did Jan actually participate in this outing, or what–I don’t see any photos of her!”  Well, I anticipated your disbelief, so I took a shot of myownself:

About three shakes after I took this photo, Danny slipped into the freezing cold crick while trying to cross it, just in front of where I was standing.  He was soaked from waist to ankle in cold muddy water, not to mention that his jacket, T-shirt, and face got splashed with grime.  Fun times.  And of course, none of us brought extra clothing along.  All we had was Wet Ones, a hoodie that Danny had thrown in the car in case he got cold, a mover’s blanket to cover the seat of the minivan, and Danny’s great attitude.  Honestly–the boy didn’t even complain.  He didn’t want us to head home, because we hadn’t yet seen the main attraction:  Old Man’s Cave.  So he paced around in the sun until he got somewhat dried out.  But I knew he had to be pretty uncomfortable.  I mean, it takes me 60-70 min. in the dryer to get his cargos dry.  But he just marshaled on.  Never complained once.  Actually had a good time.  Man, I love it when I am inspired by my very own children!  In case you think I’m joking about how decimated his clothing was, looky here:

It really was worth hanging in there.  Old Man’s Cave and Grandma’s Grotto (I think I got that last name right . . . .) were pretty spectacular.  Shady, but with lots of bright green moss lighting up the place.  Artistically twisted tree roots.  It was like being in a fairy glen in the heart of Ireland.  Here are a few snaps:

The Devil's Bathtub

Natural tunnel, about 15 feet long

Footbridge near the cave

Honestly, we could have spent a lot more time in Hocking Hills, but there wasn’t time in the day, really.  So we hit the little gift shop and then hit the road.  On the way out, Dennis remembered that I had wanted a picture of this, so he pulled over and I snapped it.  I mean, how could I resist?!!!

Remember: Only YOU can prevent forest fires!

And finally, I am happy to report that we stopped at the outlet mall and I snagged a pair of jeans and a sweater from Eddie Bauer for $48, because I remembered my 25% off coupon.  That was about a 45 min. stop, I guess.  The kids decided to stay in the car and doze/read, so we just kept in contact via cell phone and hurried up.  Oh, and Danny’s muddy clothes?  The pants came clean, if you can believe it.  The underwear and left sock–not so much.  But the pants and jacket washed up nicely.

Okay, this is probably going to be the only post I get in this week, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you relax and make some wonderful family memories as the holiday season begins.

Come to Jesus

I had one of those “come to Jesus” talks with one of my kids today.  Well, really, with two of them.

Things have been a little out of control on the schoolwork and chore fronts around here lately.  Marching band put the pressure on the girls, and they had trouble keeping their assignments going on time and getting the grades they would normally get.  Dennis and I have had to be way more involved in homework prioritizing and helping with studying than we would normally be.  We haven’t felt able to expect a lot of help around the house, either.  And last night was kind of the final straw.

Last night Dennis was out of town, and at the eleventh hour, I found out that Danny had one of those big projects due in the morning.  As in, he was supposed to have been compiling an anthology of poems, song lyrics, and short stories on the theme of change.  Each entry required a written response from him about how the item expressed the theme of change.  Oh, and he was supposed to make a bookmark on the theme, using Paintshop or Photoshop (neither of which he really knows how to use all that well).  That last one baffles me.  When I was in 6th grade, I was lucky to be able to blow my own nose, and the biggest art project I was expected to do still involved a scissors and some Elmer’s glue.  Photoshop?  Really?!!!

We were up until 1:30 a.m., and he still had to get up in the morning, write one last response, and dash to the bus.  Ugh.  You can bet I gave him Lecture No. 50:  Why We Must Not Procrastinate/Why It’s Better to Do Big Projects in Bite-Sized Increments.

Meanwhile, DD#2 stayed home for a second day with the world’s most persistent and incessant cough.  She wasn’t feeling all that bad, but she was still spewing germs left and right, so she spent the day here.  And since she wasn’t feeling that bad, I naturally expected that she would spend a good part of her day getting caught up (or even, dare I imagine it, ahead!) on her art, social studies, chemistry, or math.  I think you can guess where that expectation got me.  She got lecture No. 51:  Take Charge of Your Life and Accomplish Something.  She also got a dose of Lecture 10:  Mom is Not Your Slave and Everyone Is Expected to Pitch In Around Here.

I got tons and tons done today, and even managed to catch a short nap.  So it’s not all bad.  But sometimes we seem to get caught in that cycle of stressfulness that I could do without.

So how’s it going at your house?

Most weekends just seem too short, and therefore I find that . . . .

Madame Librarian

I did something new and different this week:  I worked outside my home, for pay, for the first time in nearly 20 years!  It felt terrific!  For 3 1/2 days, I substituted for the Media Center Specialist (my good friend Karen) at the local middle school, and no one died.  No preteens were irreparably scarred by the library sub.  I think I was actually competent and useful.  For pay, people!  Did I mention that part?

Sean is almost 23, and if I’m remembering correctly, I quit working to stay home with our kids when he was around 3 years old.  At the time, I had been a career woman for longer than Dennis, who had stayed home with our oldest son for almost 2 years and done the “Mr. Mom” thing while he was trying to write his master’s thesis.  Even after he graduated and found a job, there were several years where my salary was actually the highest one.  But when it reached the point where his career was really taking off, it made sense for him to keep going and for me to switch careers from Editorial Wizard to stay-at-home mom.

At first, I found it thrilling to run errands and do housework–to be able to get it all done without rushing, being crabby, feeling stressed.  I wasn’t really sure I would have the patience to deal with toddlers all day, and frankly, it was a growing-up process, but I eventually found my stride.  I did some freelance editing work, which made me feel like I still had a toe in the water.  Eventually we had 3 more kids, and I became a multi-tasker extraordinaire.  I was the chatelaine of the keep, and I knew my stuff.  All was good.

But as the years turned into decades, I began to wonder if I had any marketable skills left at all.  “Is there anything out there someone would still actually pay me to do,”  I wondered.  (Oh, and whatever this wonder job was, it had to begin after 9 a.m., when our youngest finally gets on the bus, and end at 2:30, when the high schoolers get home.  Yeah.)  Certainly the world of publishing has advanced so much since the days of hand paste-up and Selectric typewriters (yep, it’s been that long!) that I would have a huge learning curve if I ever tried to go back to that sort of work.  And in fact, I have changed so much as a person in the last 20 years that I don’t think I really would even want to go back to editorial work, per se.  So I’ve been in a funk, wondering what I want to be when I grow up and also wondering if I would even be able to find any sort of employer who thought I was worth paying for anything.  Plus, I still believe that my job as a mom is not done.  I think it’s important for me to be here until our youngest gets on the bus at 9 a.m., and to be here when the high schoolers come home at 2:30.  I don’t know about you, but in my experience it seems it would be challenging to find employers who want someone operating on that schedule!

Well, I know 3 1/2 days of work is not a career.  But it was a start.  I found out that I can still learn new tricks, like how to operate the circulation desk, make spine labels, or give a new student a quick tour of the school library.  Frankly, a lot of my “mom skills” translate easily to the work world.  For example, I’m sure not shy now about hunting down whoever I need to talk to and asking whatever questions I need to ask to get a task done!  If you’ve been the mother of babies, toddlers, or teens, you just go ahead and get the job done, whatever that job is!  And I’m not afraid of hard work or dirty jobs.  So there.  I’m not hopeless after all.

So thanks, Karen, for needing a few days off to take care of your own family.  You thought I was helping you out, but really you were helping me just as much!  (Oh, and I’ll see you on Monday.  I’m your scheduled morning volunteer, lol.)

 

 

Ever Really Thought About It?

This is not a position post about whether the words, “under God” should be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance.  I just thought the rest of the video was cool.

Hilarious Halloween School Traditions

My kids’ high school has some fairly awesome traditions.  They have a great Spirit Week prior to Homecoming, which all the kids seems to love participating in.  They have the kids make time capsules in 7th grade, to be opened at the end of their senior year.  But perhaps the one thing they all look forward to the most is the senior costume contest.

On the last day prior to Halloween (today), seniors only get to wear Halloween costumes to school all day.  The crazier, the better.  They can go with an individual costume or do a group theme.  At the end of the day, seniors are called to an assembly.  Every participant (from what I could tell, that was 95% of the senior class) goes onstage in the auditorium and tells what their costume is.  Some of them have little skits or routines prepared to show off their theme, even.  Parents are invited to come and take photos, and they select several moms and several teachers to be judges for the contest.  At the end of the day, they announce overall winners and give awards for most original and so on.

Allie’s friend K. had what I thought was a legendary idea:  Super Smash Brothers.  And because K and Allie are members of the marching band, which has 130 members, they had no trouble getting participation in their group.  In fact, about 22 or 23 kids dressed as characters from Super Smash Brothers.  It was awesome.  Allie dressed as Link (from Zelda).  I wish I could have gotten a group shot, but I decided to go for videos instead.  Fortunately, a friend of mine had her DSLR camera there and was taking pictures of every participant just before they came off the stage, so I should be able to get a copy.  But when Allie walked up to the mike and said, “We’re the Super Smash Brothers . . . and we’re gonna brawl!”  I almost lost it.  Totally cute.

In addition to Allie’s group, I saw characters from Alice in Wonderland, the Smurfs, Pac Man (those kids had built structures around themselves that were about 5′ w x 6′ h!), a Lego man, vampires, a barbershop quartet who sang, and 4 girls dressed as trophies (gold from head to toe, and they posed as an Emmy, a running trophy, a ballet trophy, and  . . . . I can’t remember the other one, dang it).  We also enjoyed a performance of “ABC” from the Jackson 5, and laughed our a**es off when one of the football players came onstage dressed in a cheerleading skirt and a blond wig and led a well-known cheer for the audience in a high-pitched squeal.

Can’t wait to see this again in a couple of years when Molly hits the big time!

Shame on Me

I was totally mean to someone today, and have spent the last couple of hours shaking my head and wishing I could apologize to the anonymous driver I purposely cut off in traffic on my way to yoga this morning.

Seriously, what was my problem?!!!  I got this sudden spurt of “oh no, she ain’t” when a big honkin’ SUV rode up on my right and tried to jump the line and get back in front of me.  I cut her off behind a parked car, and it was so obvious I was being mean, too.  She and I were both feeling a little testy, I guess, because she was going to just come on over in front of me, regardless, and I wasn’t going to give in.  We could both have ended up calling our insurance companies, and for what?  I should just have let her come over, resented her for doing it (because I know I would have), and forgotten about it 5 minutes later.

The ironic elements to the story are:  (1)  I was listening to a Deepak Chopra audiobook in the car on my way there–a book about reinventing my soul, (2) I was heading to yoga, which is really just as much about the spiritual as it is about the physical, (3) and the driver followed me up the street and saw me turn into the church parking lot where the class is held.  Honestly, at that point I was dreading the idea that I had just been a witch-with-a-capital-B to someone I was about to spend 75 minutes in the same room with, and at the same time I was kind of hoping it was someone who was going to pull into the lot behind me, because I soooooo wanted the chance to jump out and say, “I’m so sorry; I don’t know what came over me!”

So what did I learn from this act of stupidity?  That, even at 50, I still haven’t grown up enough.  And that it’s better to let someone else act juvenile and write it off than to act juvenile back and spend the rest of your day regretting it.  Karma, people.  Karma!

How about you?  Have you done anything silly, mean, or juvenile lately and regretted it?  What, if anything, did you do about it?

Channeling Julia Child

Last week my friend Barb and I played hooky and went to the movies.  We saw, “Julie and Julia,” which is about one woman’s quest to cook her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year’s time and keep a blog detailing the experience.  One of the classic French dishes we watched “Julie” cook during the course of the movie was Boeuf a la Bourguignon, and I think both Barb and I left with our mouths watering for a taste.

Normally my recipe for Beef Burgundy is one of those 5-ingredient crock pot deals that uses jarred mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, and burgundy cooking wine from a little bottle I find in the salad dressing aisle at Meijer.  It’s not at all fancy, and I know a lot of people would cringe at the very idea that I consider this a tasty meal.  But it’s one of my favorites. In fact, I serve it to company and take it to friends when they are laid up!

But sometimes it’s worth it to go all out, and that’s what I did today.  I started with the following ingredients and 5 pages of recipes for the overall dish as well as for the mushrooms and onions:

The first step is to cut the bacon every quarter inch and throw the whole mess into a saucepan, then simmer it in water for 10 min.  I have no idea why this step is necessary, unless it somehow helps to rid the bacon of some of its saltiness.  The next step is to brown the bacon, and what I noticed when I browned it was that the little bacon pieces fried up almost like pork rinds.  Wish I knew if that was what I was supposed to be going for!

After removing the bacon from the pan, I began browning the beef.  You know what?  It does brown up a lot nicer if you pat the pieces dry before adding them to the skillet.  I have been cooking for decades, and I never knew that!

After browning the meat, I removed it from the skillet and added in my carrots and onions.  I’m not clear on how this was supposed to go, and I may need to go back and review the directions again to see if I did this part right.  I ended up browning a bunch of baby peeled carrots and about 4 small onions that I had peeled and sliced.  At the time I thought they were to go into the dutch oven with the beef, but later I was honestly pretty confused about the whole veg deal.  I couldn’t seem to see any step in the directions where it said to cook them any further than just the browning.  So I ended up putting the carrots in with the beef about 45 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

I also prepared the mushrooms in butter at this point, and Oh Holy Crap, did they look delicious.  Don’t tell anyone, but I had a little “Julia Child” moment while I was working and dropped a few mushrooms on the floor, but I just rinsed them off and used them.  I think she would have been proud of me for that.

While I was doing this, I was also preheating the oven to 450 in anticipation of adding a bit of flour to the meat and popping it into the oven for a couple of 4-minute doses to get a bit of a crust to form on it. And that’s where my second “Julia Moment” occurred.  You see, last night I cubed up some stale bread, put it on a cookie sheet, and popped it into the oven.  My mom always has bread cubes sitting in her oven.  She lets them sit and dry out, sometimes popping them in after baking something so they can toast a bit in the warm oven.  Then she crushes them for breading or saves them to make stuffing.  She always remembers they’re in there though.  I don’t.

So there I was, ready to pop that casserole dish in.  I pulled open the oven door and a cloud of black smoke rolled out of there and hit me in the face, such that I was pretty much blinded.  I could see just well enough to pull the tray of bread out of the oven and dump it into the sink.  Prettiful!

After the smoke alarm stopped chirping and the windows had all been thrown open,  I was able to finish up the assembly of the dish and get it back into the oven for its 2 1/2 hours of slow cooking.  All that was left was to warm the onions and mushrooms and thicken the sauce.  And voila!

Was it worth it?  Well, the meat was gorgeous and tender.  The carrots were nicely flavored and still just a teeny bit firm.  The onions and mushrooms were magnifique.  The flavor of the sauce was a bit bland, though, I have to admit.  Most of us added a sprinkling of salt.  I’m not convinced that the full-out version of beef burgundy would be worth all this trouble on a regular basis.  Most days, I’ll probably still stick with my crock pot version.  But I’m really glad I tried the real deal at least once in my life.

Oh shoot, I forgot to shout, “Bon Appetit!” when I served my masterpiece.  Darn it, maybe I will have to make this again!

Not sure if the appropriate title is “Peace,” or “Gag me with a spoon”–you decide.

The week leading up to the big Homecoming game is Spirit Week at my kids’ high school.

• Monday was PJ Day. All the kids wore their pajamas to school. (I am still waiting for the year when everyone comes to PJ Day dressed as the principal, whose nickname is based on her initials: “PJ.”)
• Tuesday was Twin Day. The kids paired off with a friend and tried to dress as twins.  Molly and her best friend are mistaken for twins on a regular basis, so they decided to dress as nerd twins, just to give it a twist.  Allie chose a classmate I’ve never seen, but I hear they look a lot alike as well.  Apparently they did such a great job that the band director called them by the wrong names at practice after school.
• Today was Decade Day.  This one is probably the most fun of all of them, and the seniors especially look forward to it.  You see, each class dresses in the style of a different decade.  Freshman do the fifties, sophomores the sixties, juniors the seventies, and seniors always look forward (for some reason I can’t fathom) to dressing in eighties style.  I had no problem helping pimp the girls out in sixties and eighties styles, having lived through both decades.  It was really kind of fun, although I still shudder every time I realize what it means that it was easy to go to the mall and find Allie lots of eighties gear (leg warmers and neon are apparently making a comeback!).

Here they are, dressed for the day:

This is Allie’s chemistry class.  Hint:  Allie’s wearing really bright colors.  (Oh wait, I guess that doesn’t help much, does it?)

• Apparently tomorrow is Class Color Day (green for Molly and black for Allie), and Friday is School Colors Day.

My high school was NOT this much fun.  How about yours–did you have any big “spirit” events that everyone really got into?