A Date With My Husband

I was able to get out for a couple of hours with my husband yesterday for a date. Despite my attempts, I only get a date with my husband a few times a year. This was my fourth date in 2008. It was a refreshing and wonderful time.

It didn’t start out that great as we realized en route that neither of us knew the address of the place we were headed. We spent about fifteen minutes driving around “the big city” trying to locate this spot before I finally stopped to check a phone book. It then took another fifteen minutes to drive to the adjacent town where the place was actually located.

We finally arrived at our destination – an indoor shooting range. We waited about fifteen minutes for a lane as it was lunch hour and busier than we expected for a weekday. Then, it was our turn. I spent a glorious half-hour shooting at targets with a 9mm handgun.

My hands got a bit shaky and arms tired near the end, plus reloading was tough on my thumbs. But I did manage to just barely shoot better than my husband on all the targets we tried. Except for a couple times shooting rifles out on a relative’s farm, I haven’t done any serious shooting since I was in grade school getting my Hunter’s Ed. certification.

I was surprised that about one-third to one-half the shooters there were women. Some looked to be “regulars” with a few occasional or first-timers like me. There were some loud and interesting fire arms there!

I left the range feeling happy with my experience and looking forward to going again . . . sometime. Maybe next year? It was definitely more fun with my husband along. I wouldn’t have wanted to go by myself. We returned to pick up the children relaxed and recharged. I definitely encourage it as a marriage bonding activity.

Nightmares & Daydreams

Two nights in a row, I have had bad dreams. One was someone breaking into our house in the middle of the night and another was my father dying. In both cases, I was woken up by my youngest child crying. Both were disturbing and things I won’t forget for awhile. I can still remember the few other times I have dreamt of my father passing away. (For some reason, it is never my mother who dies in my dreams.)

On the other side of the coin, it struck me in the last half a day how different my life would be if I sent the older two children off to the local public school. I have a small case of envy for the stay-at-home mothers in the neighborhood who either have no children at home during the day or only have one small child left. We dropped our older two children off for their first ever sleep-over at their grandparent’s house yesterday afternoon. We will go pick them up this afternoon.

Last night, it was SO EASY with just the younger two. This morning was SO EASY with the younger two. I had the time and attention to catch our youngest before he got to work “cleaning” the toilet! I was able to read “age appropriate” books to Child #3 that we haven’t read in a couple of years. I didn’t yell even once.

Now, my life wouldn’t always be easier. Mornings would be more hectic and more difficult because we’d be hurrying to get the older two ready and out the door. Afternoons, we would be “on the clock” to go pick them up.

I will keep my small case of envy, but our decision to continue homeschooling our kids stays intact.  The benefits are just so much greater.

Brownie Cheesecake

As I was entering our local grocery store a couple of weeks before Christmas, I noticed a sign posted. It touted “A Chocolate Christmas on the Square” in my part of our little town. I think I noticed this sign amongst the many, many others on the huge bulletin board because it had my favorite word, chocolate, on it. If “peanut butter” were also listed, it might have stood out in neon colors in my mind. But I digress.

I completely ignored the listing of fun activities to focus in on the Baking Competition invitation. The public was invited to submit a favorite “something chocolate” treat to be judged. The winner would get a $25 gift certificate to local merchants and a hand-crafted ornament. They were also giving prizes for second and third place. I love to bake. I love chocolate. This sounded like a winning combination to me!

You had to register in advance and they wanted to know what you were making. I hadn’t made up my mind yet and they allowed me to leave this section blank on my form. It was my husband who suggested that I make a Brownie Cheesecake.

Brownie Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers (about 45 wafers)
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
6 tablespoons baking cocoa
6 tablespoons butter, melted

FILLING:
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup baking cocoa
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2 cups crumbled brownies
Whipped topping and pecan halves, optional

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the wafer crumbs, confectioners’ sugar and cocoa; stir in the butter. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in milk and vanilla. Beat in cocoa until well blended. Add eggs; beat on low just until combined. Fold in brownies. Spoon into crust. Place pan on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen. Cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
Remove sides of pan. Garnish with whipped topping. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 10-12 servings. 
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I had a small snag as I didn’t have any vanilla wafers on hand to crush for the crust. Not wanting to make a trip to the store just for them, I ended up substituting animal crackers. I don’t recommend this as the taste, texture, and hold-togetherness of them is not as good as the vanilla wafers. But, it worked in a pinch.

Results? As I was told afterwards, the six judges originally had some bon bons and my cheesecake in a tie for first. In the taste off, the cheesecake lost and I ended up with second place. This was absolutely acceptable and I was glad I entered.

Sorry no pictures of the entry as I was in a hurry that night to get everything done and it over to the judging location. I completely forgot to take any pictures.

Christmas Day

We’ve been “off” from school since last Friday. The kids have been working on crafts and making gifts for friends, relatives, and neighbors.  I have been doing some cleaning and catching bargin prices on some of our curriculum picks for next year. I’ll tell you more about those later!

I admit that the kids sleep in until 7 a.m. on most days we are in school. This has been the case also when we have been off from school. Not so on Christmas morning, though!

Much to my surprise, three of the four were awake before their father left for work at 5:15 a.m. Because of work schedules, the children didn’t see their dad at all on Christmas Eve and usually he would have left before they woke up. This meant we wouldn’t all be together until after 7 p.m. Christmas night and opening presents would have to wait until then.

However, because of their early morning wake-up, they were able to open theit gift from St. Nicholas (what we call “Santa”) before their dad left.

I had hidden the other presents so I didn’t have to keep them away from them all day. Those came out right before he arrived home and we had supper first. The kids were as patient all day as you can ask for – with only an occasional, “I CAN’T wait!” or “Can’t I open a present NOW?”

When the kids were putting away the  presents right before bed, Child #2 was picking up pieces of the generic, off-brand MagnaDoodle that Child #3 received. Two of the magnets stuck together. She pulled them apart, let them snap back together, and then laughed delightedly. She announced, “They’re ALLERGIC!”

We, her parents, laughed at this statement and her dad asked, “Are they really allergic?” She calmly unstuck them again, looked up at him, and replied, “No, not really. They’re just friends.”

White Texas Sheet Cake

I had the occasion to make yet another birthday cake recently. My specialty, chocolate cake, was notrequested. The birthday girl wanted a WHITE cake with WHITE frosting. I decided to try yet another new recipe – this time for a White Texas Sheet Cake. I’d tasted something called this back in my working-office days and thought it was moist and scrumptious. I should have known it wouldn’t be great as I had taken it from the same cookbook that had given me the Waldorf Astoria Frosting fiasco not too much before! Alas, while the cake and frosting looked nice, they were too sweet and dense to choke down much of, no matter how small the pieces were. I ended up throwing half of it out. I’ll give you the recipe so that you can compare with any you have and don’t suffer the same fate. DON’T MAKE THIS ONE!

 

White Texas Sheet Cake
1 c butter or margarine
1 c water
2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Frosting:
1/2 c butter or margarine
1/4 c milk
4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 c chopped walnuts (optional – I didn’t use them)

In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour into a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 375°F for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and tests done. (I used a 9×13 pan and baked 35-40 minutes. Was this my downfall?) Cool for 20 minutes. Meanwhile for frosting, combine butter and milk in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, add sugar and extract, mix well. (Optional – stir in walnuts.) Spread over warm cake.

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Funny line at the end of the recipe: “This cake gets better the longer it sits, best made a day ahead.” All of us had a piece of cake the night I made it and it seemed fine. The next day and almost two weeks later (when I tried hard to get someone – anyone – to take another piece), no one (even me) could swallow more than two bites at a sitting. It was dense and super sweet, even without the frosting. Definitely got WORSE with time.

Reading Comprehension

I’ve written previously about some issues we were concerned about with our oldest child at the beginning of the school year. We had her evaluated by a Vision Therapy Professional to see if something between her eyes and her brain was causing her to have more trouble learning than she should. While we ended up not pursuing vision therapy at this time, we were very glad we had the testing done.

One of the things I was really concerned about was her reading – or lack of desire and ability in this area. In the spring of 2008, she was reading on second grade level (while at the end of her first grade year). In the fall of 2008, she had regressed to reading very little on her own and tested at a comprehension level equal to a beginning first grader. She struggled. She hated reading.

Fast forward four months to today. It has been a fast and amazing ride with this child. Twice a week, we use McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons for Reading. Per the instructions, we average every ten tests to see where her reading comprehension is. Here is a summary of her results after thirty selections.

First set of 10:             Average 2.7
Second set of 10:         Average 3.4
Third set of 10:            Average 4.1

I have been having a hard time making sure she has appropriate level reading material because of her amazing progress in the past four months. It is a good problem to have!

We can definitely thank our wonderful local eye doctor for helping us make sure she has clear vision. My spouse and I have discussed how we might have attributed this zooming progress to the vision therapy had we done it. I’m not knocking Vision Therapy – I have heard WAY too many success stories and encouraging words since we embarked on this path to say it isn’t worth it. But, I am content in our decision – at this time – not to pursue it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, Child #1’s spelling hasn’t improved very much in the same time period. It has improved – but not by a huge amount. Her coloring (in the lines) has greatly improved to where we have a hard time telling the difference between her coloring sheets and those of her younger (artistically-inclined) sibling. And she still hates to use a pencil to write anything.

Holy Hero’s Advent Adventure

At the invitation of a friend of ours, we checked out Holy Heroes at the start of Advent and signed up for their “Advent Adventure.”

The kids have really been enjoying the daily video and the coloring pages.

The daily video always starts out with one of the owner’s kids saying, “Welcome to Holy Heroes Advent Adventure. I am [child's name], one of your guides. Today we are …”

My kids do their own version and have expanded it some. They start with, “Welcome to Holy Hero’s Everything Adventure. I am [child's name], one of your guides.” They changed the name to “Everything Adventure” because they have covered Mary’s sinlessness, including her Immaculate Conception, checking the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, the wedding feast at Cana, and several other non-Advent topics. They do cover many Advent-related things like “Here is what a stable looks like.”

You have less than a week before Christmas, but perhaps you and your kids want to have a little advent adventure yourselves. Check it out! [Note:  The site is unabashedly Catholic. Keep that in mind!]

Great Coffee Cake

This is some really good stuff. I sometimes make this the night before and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. It is moist and scrumptious. I do not add any powdered sugar/milk glaze or butter before serving.

Great Coffee Cake Batter:
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 c flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 c milk
1 t vanilla

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla. Combine, beating well after each addition. Pour into a greased and floured (9″x13″) pan.

Topping Mix
1/3 c brown sugar
3 T butter
2 tsp cinnamon

Blend the topping mix together and sprinkle over batter in pan. Bake at 350°F for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

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I don’t like to dirty very many dishes so I don’t usually use a mixer when making this and I definitely don’t mix the flour/salt/baking powder in a separate container. Here’s how I do it:  I use one bowl, melt the margarine partially in the microwave, add the sugar, then beat with a (Teflon) spoon until thoroughly mixed – but definitely not fluffy. I add the egg and beat until combined. I then add one cup of flour, all the salt and baking powder, and half the milk before beating again. I add the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk plus all the vanilla and beat until it is one homogeneous mixture. I pour it out into my greased/floured (or just “Pam”-sprayed glass) casserole (9×13) dish. I clean up the bowl and reuse it for the topping mix. (Little fingers love to clean the brown sugar/butter combo off the bowl after I’ve sprinkled most of the mix onto the cake. Just rinse the bowl and wipe it dry before making the topping mix.)

Sam’s Store

It seems that many people we know have a membership to Sams Club. Friends, relatives, and mere acquaintances all casually mention their trips to that place. Earlier this year, I had a homeschool mom friend say she picked up a math curriculum book at a great price for her daughter. Emboldened, I asked another HS mom friend to pick up a “K” or 1st level math workbook for Child #2. She found a “complete curriculum” book which has been a huge hit with my “color, write, draw” etc child.

My spouse is the one who started asking questions. How much cheaper is it? How many cans in a flat? How is the selection? What is it really like? With the economic downturn, we wanted to explore a possible cost-saving option.

We were unable to get satisfactory answers from those who have been there, so we set a date to go take a look ourselves. After following correct procedures for our trial visit (we were guests of a current member), we embarked on our first foray, all four children in tow.

My impression
It wasn’t what I expected. This one seemed smaller than a normal (non-Super) Walmart. Higher ceilings, yes, but not as big as I expected. It reminded me of the warehouse of the manufacturer for whom I used to work except that it lacked the large dock doors. In selection, it reminded me of Alco (i.e., none).

Lessons learned:
- Sam’s only carried name brand labels. In many staples, we buy generics. Thus, there would be no savings or it would actually be more expensive to buy the same type of item. (Canned vegetables like corn & green beans or liquids like lemon juice and oil fall into this category.)
- Where we buy name brand of something (some canned fruit, Cheerios, tomato sauce, diapers), the price versus previous (recent) Wal-Mart trips was comparable – plus or minus only a couple of cents per item. Even diapers were less than fifty cents cheaper on a huge box. The one exception was on Bisquick. Sam’s has a five pound box vs. Wal-mart’s six pounder and when you adjust for that, Sam’s is cheaper by over a dollar.
- The bulk packaging (smaller size cans packed together) would be more convenient than a bunch of individual items when handling in the quantities we tend to buy.
- Sam’s often didn’t carry the usual size product we buy. One example is baked beans. They had them in smaller cans 18 oz(?) vs the 26 oz(?) we purchase. This wouldn’t make it a good buy for us as we would end up using two cans or ’short’ everyone some in order to use the smaller can.

Overall, I wasn’t very impressed.Except for the fact that some of the items were bulk-packed together for easier handling, it wouldn’t be much of an advantage for us. It is a longer trip for us and prices for the items we would be purchasing were definitely in line with Wal-Mart (where we usually go).

We would still have to make a trip to Wal-Mart to fill in the gaps of the items we couldn’t get at Sam’s. Definite thumbs down on the value for us. Other people obviously have come to different conclusions for themselves. This is just my opinion based on our situation.

Pencil Grip

Ever since Child #1’s Vision Therapy evaluation, I have wondered about both my older children’s pencil grips. Neither have the traditional “tripod” grip and the VT eval said our eldest had an “age-inappropriate” pencil grip. I recently saw a post about pencil grips on a message board I read. One friendly poster included some links *with pictures* of inappropriate and appropriate pencil grips.

Lo and behold, my kids have an ACCEPTABLE pencil grip. So, I will no longer be pestering them to change to the more traditional grip, especially since Child #2 has absolutely no pencil-holding fatigue and loves to color, write, circle, draw, or anything to do with scribbling.

And, for those of you who want some tips on how to help your child with their pencil grip, check out this thread; on The Well Trained Mind Curriculum board. It has a variety of tips, links, and what-worked-for-some.