My Big Fat Turkey

Disclaimer: This is not a Thanksgiving post.

You know how the "Diet Experts" will advise you to use a smaller plate, such as a salad plate, for your meals because it will mentally trick you into not thinking you are eating smaller portions? (Yeah, cause fat people are dumb.)

And, you know how "plate" is often used as a metaphor for life? Such as "I have a lot on my plate right now"? (Well, I do.)

Right now.

It feels like my life is one of those "tricky" smaller salad plates and my "life" that is piled on top of it is an oversized, steroid-injected turkey that you buy your first year on your own without realizing it will never thaw so Thanksgiving morning is spent sodomizing it with a hair dryer (or at least, that's how my first Thanksgiving on my own began). (Neither the Butterball hotline nor I recommend this method of defrosting poultry.)

First, I just have to pause and take a moment to mourn the passing of summer. Many joke that the top three reasons teachers teach are: June, July, and August. That is certainly not the case with me. I love my job - my career and my school. Even when those particularly stressful years end, I am anxious to get back and start all over again.

This abbreviated summer though made me realize the importance of those months away, to renew and rebuild. Even though I spend many a summer day floating on a raft at the water park mentally plotting out a new lesson plan, I am still physically away from the daily grind.

This summer though after teaching summer school and then doing remediation, and then coming back early to work on curriculum in my new role as Department Head, and then starting in-services before most in my new role as a Mentor to new a new teacher, my actual summer seemed only about two weeks. I know, I know! The "average" person only gets a two week vacation anyway (and you already have off every weekend and holiday, you spoiled teacher). Perhaps had I known it was going to be such an abbreviated summer, I would have planned a better use of my time... but probably not, as it was far too much of those two weeks was spent watching TV court shows. (Love me some Judge Alex.)

I am thankful for the monetary gain that some summer activities brought and thankful for the workplace recognition the other opportunities brought. The main effect was that this school year didn't have that "Kick Off" feeling that punctuates the end of summer and begins the school year. It feels like I never left... because basically, I didn't. There is, of course, nothing that I can do about that now. I just want to make note of it, so when reflecting back on this summer in planning for the next, I am more inspired to take advantage of the days away from school.

I have also made a weak-hearted pledge to myself that I will not bring home any school work for Thanksgiving or Christmas Break and make the most of those times to unplug and reconnect... but we'll see how that resolution goes.

I loathe when people complain to me about how busy they are. Well really, it's the people that always do it... and who I don't see doing very much at all. They are just "too busy" surviving life and thriving on the attention from being overwhelmed. I try so hard not to be that person, not to complain about how busy I am. I know there are times I fail at that. I know there are times when I am a hypocrite for doing the very thing I loathe so much. I know there are ridiculously egotistical times when I want to compare my "busy" to someone else's "busy."

All that being said... I am really damn busy! And, I don't mean my normal busy (see, there's that egotistical slant). I mean busy to the brink of insanity (literally, I will explain in a second). Having come into school earlier than most this year, I could have been in a position to start the year off ahead of the game, but then a new twist made that impossible. I was honored to ask to be English Department Chairperson (even if by default) and the duties of that role were manageable. I was so very happy to finally get the chance to Mentor a new teacher. I strive to keep a positive helpful attitude about the kids we teach and the school we teach in, and that is the attitude a new teacher should be greeted with. It helps that our new English teacher comes in with experience, a wealth of knowledge on differentiated styles, and a student-focused attitude. It has been many years since I had that kind of shared philosophy and peer-connection with another teacher.

The stickler to that smooth transition into my tenth (10th!) year of teaching was taking on a fourth class. This is not uncommon in our budget-compromised school. However, it wasn't a traditional English class and needed some curriculum development from the ground up. So that has been consuming, and I have had to stay several steps ahead of myself to feed the needed material to another teacher working with this "Freshman Success" program. Thankfully, it's only a quarter class so I get a whole new batch of students next week and know the tweaks to make to the program after the first run-through. So, I feel like I am over the hurdle on that one... but it was a painful, mud-drenched, final leg of the race kind of hurdle.

I am serving as Chairperson for the School Leadership Team this year. It speaks to how big of a dork I am when I wanted so much to do it in an atmosphere where everyone calmly avoids eye contact not to be nominated. That considered, I am also picking up the secretarial duties of the team. Not to continue my questionably-over-reiterated-cheerful attitude about school though, I would really like to see this team grow and lift the school's culture of success with it. Many roles I take on knowing the actual duties are not time-consuming or frankly, that important in the wider scheme of operations. This is one case though that I would like to hold the spotlight myself down on the group and work with them to achieve great things in our school.

If I can find time.

In my new role as Department Head, I am back on Staff Council, which is good because I am intrinsically nosey and like to know what's going on. This year our school is undergoing evaluation for continued accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools (SACS). I was asked to chair the committee on our school's Purpose & Direction. Even though this is potentially one of those positions that involves extra time and stress, I am honored to be "voluntold"  as a representative for our staff in this manner. For all those days that I question if I am doing too much, acknowledgement in this manner is invaluable to me.

I stepped up to the role of Sophomore Sponsor, but that is one of those rare times that I know it is more title than work, with my primary duty thus far having been writing receipts for Class Dues. Key Club, of course, is quite the opposite. We are going into this year with 87 members, more than 10% of the school. We are pretty much booked solid through Christmas Break (and several events afterwards). There are many weeks during which we have events every single day, often several on the same day. I think this role is enough to define my life as "busy" if none of the others existed. I have been worried about this graduating class. Although many developed Senioritis before the school year even began, I will be graduating my last strong wave of leadership. I am latching onto a few younger ones and trying to pull them up in the ranks. Thus far, things are looking more promising than I had thought.

Outside of school, the new Relay Year is starting to boil. I was dreading the added stress of it at first, but after just one meeting with Rochelle and Billie I am ready to get things rolling (especially if measured by proportion of Pinterest time spent pinning Relay ideas!). Thankfully, so very thankfully, Billie who pretty much did serve as a Co-Chair last year, although she refused the title, has embraced it this year so I will be able to narrow my focus more and hopefully feel less stressed and more involved hands-on, than behind-curtain, on Relay Day.

Busy and all this seems, it is only shades of grey (heh!) from my "Normal." The biggest life adjustment right now is in relation to Jason's health. He has had to medically withdraw from college this semester, maybe year, due to the painful and unmanageable cocktail his life has become of competing medical issues. There is a teetering scale in our lives measuring the lessened stress of Jason not being in school on our day-to-day schedule with the added stress of health concerns and the life-hold caused by him not being in school.

We are slapped in the face with the news that we need to improve our health. It is so wrong to even refer to that as "news." We know this. We've known this. I have purposely avoided writing about anything weight-related during this blog's resurrection because in the past writing about it, and then failing at whatever trail to success had inspired me to write, was too hard to look back to. This is where praising my busyness fails. I can't take the time to plan a meal or cook a meal or take a walk because I am so overwhelmed by all that I have to do. All that I always have to do. Always. "Nutrition" is about the quick & easy. "Health" is about the dealing with it only when I have to.

Obviously, I have to.

I'm not dealing with the medical crises that Jason is, but I am constantly lethargic. It takes a great deal of effort to do anything. Anything. I used to rely on my brief spurts of energy through the day and night to tackle the waiting tasks. They don't come any more.

I went to the doctor this week. I have been having issues with half of my face going numb for a while. Of course, I just shrugged it off. Mainly I contributed it to my overdue dental needs or ever-present eye issues, maybe coupled with sinuses. Well last Friday, the numbness moved to the other side of my face completely, and that left me a little freaked. I didn't even Dr. Google it and I could only wonder if it was the precursor to having a stroke.

The doc wants me to see a neurologist, and suggested that it might be a response to stress. I replied ... wait for it... that I don't get stressed. I don't have time in my life to be stressed, nothing would get done. Logically, I know this is not true. I just try to bottle my stress and sit it tucked away on a shelf behind the counter for none to see... as I volunteer to take on more work, and more work. Following the doctor appointment, as I have monitored when the numbness is happening, I think it very well may be a response to stress. My body rejecting what my mind is denying. Ultimately, and I know wrongly... I know... I'm just going to shrug it off, for now, with other medical concerns I don't have time to worry about.

So, perhaps that is the genesis for this ridiculously long self-serving, self-reflecting blog post. I am, and always will be, very reserved about what I post on "Them Internets" but maybe I need to reconnect to the therapy of writing it out. I feel a bit less weighted just putting these labels on all the bricks weighing down on my shoulders right now.

And, should any of our family manage to read through all these ramblings, perhaps they will understand why last year's Christmas gifts are still sitting in our Dining Room.

In closing, I will share my new phone lock screen image.

Slow Low Country Boil

This was my first post to Instagram Friday night. I know, I know, not too long ago I was just on this very blog proclaiming to boycott the (not so) newest social media trend. Then... I caved.

I will quickly be one to laugh at the Key Clubbers when they take pics of their food at convention or on other adventures. It's as if "they's not use to such fancy eatin' ." So, it's a little ironic that I post a meal pic. However, I told Jason that I was documenting the dinner meal I cooked so if he were to so foolishly suggest that I never cook, I could produce evidence otherwise. Of course, we are near approaching a week since the displayed meal and I have yet to crack an egg since then.

The cheddar biscuits are from a Red Lobster box mix. The recipes for Slow Low Country Boil and Coca-Cola Cake (a Cracker Barrel knock-off recipe) are posted below.

Slow Low Country Boil (a crockpot meal)



Ingredients

4 quarts cold water
1/4 cup Old Bay or other spicy seasoning
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more, to taste
4 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow onion, diced
1 head garlic, halved
2 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
4 ears corn, shucked, each cut into 4 pieces
2 pounds smoked sausage, cut into 1 1/2-inch slices
2 pounds medium shrimp, in the shell, deveined
(halved lemons for garnish, optional)


Directions

In a slow cooker combine the water, Old Bay seasoning, salt, celery, onion, garlic and potatoes and cook on low heat until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, 4-6 hours.

Add the corn and sausage to the crock pot and simmer until the corn is tender, 1-2 more hours.

Add the shrimp and simmer until opaque, 20 to 30 minutes more. Taste the broth and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper, if necessary.

Serve immediately.


Notes

This made a massive amount of food! Our family of 3.5 hearty eaters got two full meals from it! Also, we have a pretty large crockpot, which could only hold 4 quarts of water. So, following each step I have to remove a few cups of water to fit more food in the pot, and it all worked out deliciously fine. The pic may make the meal appear a bit bland, but after swimming in an Old Bay broth for two hours (there is no substitute for this Eastern Shore girl!), all the contents were very flavorful (and cooked just right using the low end of all the time estimates provided). Happy Eats!


Recipe found at cdkitchen.

40 months

Dear Benjamin,

We have had a rather relaxed summer. In the past month, we have taken a trip to the zoo, the playground, your first movie, Busch Gardens and Water Country. You have still gone to pre-school two days a week at Gingerbread House. You love it there and I think your first "Ginger Momma," Miss Patty, is still your favorite. You are just getting to the age that you will tell me about your day, unprompted, when I pick you up. Last week you told me that you "made" a beach and the ocean was blue.

 

You have lots of friends at Gingerbread House and recently you went a birthday party for Addie. It was at the gymnastics studio in Windsor. Daddy took you to the party and was quite proud that, unlike the other young party goers, you would leave your cluster of friends often to come to tell him what you were doing.

It is still rare that you will wake up in the bed that you were put to sleep in at night. Usually around 2 a.m., although it often could be earlier or later, you will wander out of your room and look for Dad or me. For now, we have compromised by making you a small nest of blankets on the floor by our bed to house your nightly wandering.

You have grown just enough to reach Expert level at Counter Surfing. We have to "Benjamin-Proof" the house now by keeping the bananas and fruit gummies on top of the fridge and making sure the pantry door (with its child-proof door handle) is closed tightly at night. You have enjoyed the abundance of blueberries at your easy reach over the past couple of days, but bananas and "macaroni and cheeeese" would still have to be your favorites (other than anything on our plates.)

Dora doesn't quite hold your undivided attention as she once did. I would venture to guess that "Bubble Guppies" and "Team Umi Zoomi" are your favorite shows right now, both of which drive me bonkers. Dad says I do not like "Team Umi Zoomi" because it is about Math. He may be partly right. You, on the hand, are quite the Math Whiz. You can just about count to 20 perfectly. You can count backwards from 10 easily, and to 5 in Spanish (Thanks Dora!). You can even tell me how many objects are in a grouping.

We were also very surprised that when you were playing with your Magna Doodle the other night, you drew a face with eyes, a mouth, and hair. When I asked you what that was, you said "That's Benjamin McHenry." Your first self-portrait! This really shouldn't be such a surprise to us since you  have already mastered the "Selfie" on my i-phone. You have no problem even flipping the camera to take pictures of yourself versus others. You also love playing with the flashlight on the phone, using it to play doctor and check our eyes and teeth. Most funny is your new game of shadow monsters, played by shining the light on the wall behind our heads as your "Monster" hand shadows attack our silhouette.

You surprise us everyday and we find ourselves asking over and over, "How does he know that?" One thing that you can't quite grasp yet is the idea of "going home" versus "leaving." I guess it's because you see all your friends "go home" from the Gingerbread House. However, whenever we leave the house to go somewhere you ask "Are you going home?" Cameron has been volunteering with the Summer Reading Program at the library. So, on most Tuesdays, he's gone all day. Because of this, you think "the library" is very far away and it must take a long time to get there." So, occasionally as we are leaving the house to run an errand you will warn us, "Don't go to the library! It's too far away." (Actually, it's barely a mile from the house.)

Unfortunately (or not?), you do however, have quite a grasp of "bad" words. I guess this must be from school too. Any time we say a "bad word," even passively in conversation to one another, you will quickly retort "Don't say that!"

The other funny thing you will do is ask "Alright?" whenever not immediately responded to. Then, if needed, you will further prompt with "Say alright." And when finally, we give in and say alright, you will respond "Okay?" And await that second confirmation from us.

Your imagination is always at work. You have set up chairs in the library filled with "animal" friends to watch a puppet show. You have also come to show me many times the "volcano" exploding from the top of your head. You also like to "cook" us imaginary foods, special ordered to what you think we want, such as cupcakes with ketchup...

Dwindling Summer

Next week is supposed to be my last full week of Summer Break before returning to kick off the school year with two weeks of in-services and planning before the kiddos arrive. I had already decided to try (if rooms were available) to go in next Thursday & Friday (the week before our scheduled return to get a head start). Earlier this week... I was asked if I would come in to work with a committee to help plan Student Activities. Of course, I said yes because I love our students (and their activities). Shortly thereafter... I received a letter from the boss asking me to be a mentor to our new English department teacher. This will be my first time "officially" acting in a mentorship capacity, although I have always (well, most always) tried to take new teachers under my wing to encourage & collaborate. Then... having stopped in to use the office fax machine the other morning while picking up Cameron from Cross Country, I was given an "invitation" to the School Board Meeting on Monday night to celebrate the Key Club's achievements at International Convention this summer. Well, my eagerness to do that should not need explaining. And thus... school is starting back a whole week earlier than planned.
While I am excited to get this new school year kicked off, I have tried making the most of my few days of Summer Break. On Monday, the boys and I went to Water Country.

The weather was nice, if not a bit too cool, especially for Benjamin who spent a great deal of time transitioning between attractions bundled in towels. I often refer to the tot as "fearless" and the water park proved to be no obstacle to our resident Super Buddy. If unattended for just a moment, he was racing off to the next big slide or pool.

The first few times he went down a slide, he was none too happy, yet he kept wandering back. Once he figured to actually close his eyes before he emerged, twirling knee over elbow, in the rushing waters he was fine. It didn't take long for him to be bored by the kiddie slides and race off to those more suitable for school-aged children.

When approaching the bundle of slides at Rock & Roll Island, he informed me that he was going to ride the red one. When I explained that no he wasn't, he replied "Why? Am I crazy?" Then, he tried to get Cameron to sneak him off to the big (BIG) slide anyway. Thankfully when Cameron told him that he was not allowed to wear his life jacket going down it, he replied, "Oh, I can't do that."

In addition to all the splash parks and cruising on a raft in the lazy river, we also went on Hubba Hubba Highway and in the wave pool. Benjamin kinda shocked me with how brave he was. As long as he was holding on to a finger (and in his life jacket), he was bobbing right along. In the deeper waters of the wave pool I commented what a good swimmer he was and he replied, "I know. Look at my tail. I'm a mermaid."

After hemming and hawing, going back & forth, wrenched with indecision, I threw the boys in the car Wednesday (or gave them 20 minutes to get completely ready, packed, and out the door... same difference) and headed to Busch Gardens. We have Season Passes to both Water Country and Busch Gardens and I am pretty irked at myself for not using them more this summer... or at all, other than 1 pre-summer trip to BG.

We rode trains, flew planes, swung swings, played in Dinosaur Land and Elmo's World. We rode the merry-go-round and Benjamin was big enough to lay down on the parasail this year. He certainly wasn't all smiles and giggles this trip though. We wanted to get him measured and an arm band to know if there were any new rides he could go on. Well, you might think he would want to have surgery again rather than have his height measured by the fuss he was making. And, roller coasters... which were his favorite part just two months ago, scare him now.

We did make it late into the night though, aided by Wolf, which Cameron won playing a soccer game, and turtles. I took Benjamin into one of the overpriced touristy stores to pass away time while we waiting for the final show to start. There was a tub of small plastic animals and you could fill a little plastic briefcase with them for a souvenir. This distracted us for a great while. Surprisingly, Benjamin wanted no animal other than turtles, 12 pairs of them. This was very odd indeed having seen no particular affection towards the hard-shelled friend before.

Benjamin enjoyed the rock & dance mini-concert that ended the night, followed by fireworks, which he watched perched from Cameron's shoulders. When I awoke him, sleepy, after arriving home and asked what his favorite part was he said, "I have two- the music and the fireworks."

I had a couple of serendipitous events on both days out of town. At both Water Country and Busch Gardens, the "Preferred Parking" was open to the general crowd and we got (for free) the kind of front row parking you usually have to pay $20 for. I also stopped at a different thrift store during each road trip and found some good books- for my classroom library and for myself.

Not so fortunate was the drive home Monday. We pulled up to the ferry just as it arrived at the opposite dock. Waited 30 minutes for it to board there. Waiting another 30 minutes for it to depart from our dock, so the ride home took near three hours! Thus upon leaving the park yesterday, I decided to take the "city" way back home, which can be confusing and thus I usually avoid it at late night. However, the trip home was less than half the previous unplanned journey. THEN!!! Today Jason heard on the news that there was an accident on the ferry last night, with the barge pulling away while people were boarding, causing a car to actually go into the river! So, I guess it would have to be serendipitous too that we didn't venture that way last night.

Treasure Hunt

I'm the Map. I'm the Map. I'm the mappppppppp!

If you are Mom (or Dad) to a fan of the Latino Goddess of Toddlers, better known as Dora (Dora, Dora, the Explorer!), you totally read that opening "in character," didn't you?


Today, I went yard saling for the first time this season. I wish I had the chance to have gone more, but between budgets and schedules, it just didn't happen. So, I was determined to make the most of this first Treasure Hunt of the year.

I don't go to local yard sales. It's not that I am too much of a snob or embarrassed to be seen by neighbors and such. It's just that I live in such a small and rural community that stopping by becomes a chat... punctuated by a guilt-induced purchase because I don't want to walk way empty-handed. It's also a numbers game. There may be 5 yard sales around here on any given in-season weekend, whereas if I drive into a neighboring city there could be over 50. Lastly, the few times I have stopped at a local yard sale, the goods just don't compare overall to the finds elsewhere. More crap, less treasure.

For the past few years, the routine for Saturday morning sales, has been to print the online listings and pack the GPS. I would rank the listings to those I was most interested in and plug the address into the GPS, from one location to the next, stopping at any random drive-bys displaying wares on their front lawn. In a city the size of Virginia Beach, heavily populated, small area, I could easily hit 30+ yard sales on any given Saturday morning.

For today, I came up with an even better method to maximize the number of yard sales we could visit within a typical four hour window. (There must be a mathematical equation for that.) Last night, on Google Maps, I plugged in the addresses of all the sales and saved each to a map. Then, I was able to look at the overall area and plot the best route from one end of the city to the other. This cut out on a lot of the circling back or driving completely across town between stops with the previous method. I then cut & pasted the listings in that order. So while I drove out of town Cameron (trip hostage) plugged all the addresses into the GPS, and we had a Treasure Map to follow.

It honestly wasn't time consuming. I did all the computer navigating last night while passively watching a movie. And at the risk of sounding like a Yard Sale snob, an added benefit was that most addresses popped up with a little window showing you the picture of the house and you could decide if it looked like a good find, or possibly not. I didn't bother with that added step last night but I will next time. We found ourselves in a couple of shady neighborhoods today, where I wasn't getting out the car, let less permissibly trespassing into someone's yard.

We came home with an adequate bounty from the hunt. I collected an entire wardrobe's worth of clothes for Benjamin in his next size up. Little ones outgrow clothes so quickly I am happy to stockpile at 50 cents a piece, knowing most will be ready to sell off come next year. I picked up a few crafty odds & ends, several books, a few kitchen items, and, of course, some toys- among which were a big tub of Little Tikes waffle blocks, a puppet theatre, and a horse on a stick that Cameron was far more enthused about than Benjamin ever could be.

I'm A Gust.

I thought I needed a new bathing suit. Thus, I have put off trips to the beach and water park all summer. I cannot even remember when I bought my previous bathing suit. It had to be well over ten years ago. Unfortunately areas of the bathing suit had worn too thin and became transparent, as  a mother (of a probably traumatized toddler) told me at the water park one day on vacation. As I went back to the locker room and check the back view... I'm pretty sure that level of exposure could be a criminal offense.

A year, maybe two, ago I saw bathing suit on the clearance rack at the sporting goods store and grabbed it. My Speedo. It's meant for functionality, not comfort... and there is no comfort to its function.

So, I needed a new suit this year. Buying a bathing suit is the Dante's level of Hell equivalent to dental work involving large drills, to me. So I put it off. And put it off. And... put it off. Until my only options were ordering on-line and spending about $100. I just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money. So, I put it off. And put it off. And... put it off.

Well, here it is A_gust (don't want to fully admit to the nearness of my return to school date), and I just knew I needed to get to the beach. If I make it to the beach at least three times, that's a good summer. Even though I don't go to the beach nearly as much as many folks I know around here, I have always felt the need to live no more than an hour away from the beach. It's like some kind of geographical claustrophobia. I could never survive in a landlocked state. I need to know that at any point in time I can hop in my car and drive a convenient distance to see the ocean.

Alas, yesterday, I wrestled myself into my Speedo and Cameron and I headed to the beach. I like taking Benjamin to the beach. He is as enamored by it as I am but I wanted a long, relaxing pseudo-vacation day in the sand, so we left him home for this late-season inaugural trip.

Most folks in this town, and the surrounding few, head to The Outer Banks, North Carolina, for their beach escape... but that's just too droll and abandoned for me. It's like a setting for a Nicholas Sparks movie. I love the tourist traps! I like anonymity in a crowd, being the oxymoronic people watcher that I am.

We are at the height of tourist season and the coast was packed! The waves were calm. It was an overcast day with a mild breeze. The kind of day that makes you underestimate the sun's rays as your skin fries. Grrr! Frustrated. Apparently umbrellas do not offer UV protection. Still, it was a peaceful day. I brought three books to be sure that I had good reading material. After tossing the first choice one chapter in, I became enthralled with Lisa Scottline's,  Save Me. I did not find the last of her books I read that appealing so this was a good surprise. It was a real page turner. I finished half the novel.

Mainly, I just allowed myself to be... present. This is a task that I need to work toward constantly. Tucked in my beach bag was a notebook and pen (and backup pen) so I could make a To Do list, sketch out a Key Club summer newsletter, and start planning menus for August... excuse me, A_gust. Thankfully, I was so swept up in this book that I never even opened the Ziploc bags containing those tools of self-imposed micro-managing.

 

Instead, I took deep breaths, inhaling the ocean air into my lungs until I could taste its salt lingering on my lips. I thought about the vastness of the ocean. I watched the Naval jets roar overhead and disappear into the far-off clouds. I allowed myself to just... be present... for six nearly uninterrupted hours shared just between a good book and my thoughts.

I came. I saw. I baked.

 

On Saturday, Cameron and I went blueberry picking. Prior to this year, the closest I came to picking anything was... honeysuckles off bushes as a kid. (You so thought I was going to say my nose, didn't you?) Earlier this year, they boys and I went strawberry picking and had great fun. Thankfully, we had the foresight to leave Benjamin home for this adventure. Blueberry picking was a bit more or a meticulous and time-consuming endeavor.

 

Jason and I went out to breakfast earlier in the morning. Due to putting off doing laundry (and shaving my legs), my Saturday attire was an ankle length skirt. One might think this was a poor choice for blueberry picking, but au contraire. I quickly devised a method of sitting on the ground, laying out my skirt before me and twiddling (yes, that's a technologically agricultural term) the group of berries. I discovered that only the ripe berries would easily fall from the bush. Then, I only had to scoop up my skirt and add the berries to the collection. I was easily able to fill my large basket in under an hour.

 

Sunday morning Jason made blueberry pancakes (I think from scratch, but you know I was still in bed!). Benjamin has had a Joker-style blueberry grin over the past few days. I have pinned enough blueberry recipes to rewrite the Bubba Gump shrimp monologue to a fruity equivalent (blueberry sweet rolls, blueberry ice cream, blueberry hand pies, and on, and on). (Yes, seriously, "hand pies.")

 

And, then the cake.

Ooohhh, the cake.

 

I suggested to Jason that it should have some Victorian or Pioneer name like the "Patience" cake because it took a whole lot of patience to get it done. Jason, on the other hand, suggested the Veni Vidi Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) because making this cake... was a freaking battle.

 

Let me add the disclaimer here that many eons before I began to detest cooking, I actually had a modest side business in making cakes. This predates the current artistic fondant creations but was during a time when aspiring cake decorators gathered in craft stores after hours to perfect the Wilton rose. My point is, I know how to make a cake. If you were around this house the past few days though, you might think otherwise.

 

My journey with the Blueberry Lemon pound cake began Saturday afternoon... and it ended four days later. Between feeling sick, then having a back ache, then thinking there was a leaky sink, then having the fam descend on the kitchen just as I was about to go Betty Crocker.

 

Finally, eggs start cracking and mixers starts beating to realize I added double the amount of cream cheese that the recipe required... but didn't have double the amount of other ingredients to just go ahead and double the whole batch. Baking was halted by trip to store for new cream cheese and lemon... only to get back home and  find that I didn't have enough sugar, even after raiding the sugar container for coffee.

 

So, the cake was put off until this morning when we could make yet another store run for the needed sugar... and now eggs. Miraculously at this point, four days later, the cake gets baked. Ohh, but wait! As I go to make the glaze, there's a fleck in the confectioner's sugar... and it's moving. An ant? Seriously? An ant in the sealed 10x bag! So back to the grocery store... AGAIN... to pick up the needed sugar for the glaze. So finally, finallyfinallyfinally, I came back home to put the final touches on the cake to discover...

 

 

that a culprit bigger than an ant was my problem. More specifically a 3-year old blueberry-loving bandit and helped himself to a few pinches of cake while I was out.

 

Eventually, the cake is finished... four days later than anticipated.

About to go get a slice now and really hope it was a labor of love!

 

Click HERE for Recipe!

 

Lemon Blueberry Poundcake

INGREDIENTS

Cake

1/3 cup butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 egg white

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened blueberries

3 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) lemon yogurt

 

Glaze

1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

 

 

DIRECTIONS

 

Grease and flour a 10-in. fluted tube pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until blended.

Add eggs and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beat in lemon peel and vanilla.

Toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons flour.

In another bowl, mix the remaining flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with yogurt, beating after each addition just until combined.

Fold in blueberry mixture. 

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to wire rack; cool for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Gradually brush onto warm cake, about one-third at a time, allowing glaze to soak into cake before adding more. Cake needs to still be warm!

NUTRITIONAL FACTS (Cover your eyes!)12 servings per cake: 1 slice equals 434 calories, 10 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 78 mg cholesterol, 281 mg sodium, 80 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 7 g protein.


Credit: Recipe from Taste of Home

 

The Birth House

The Birth House by Ami McKay

This was the selection for July's Book Club. I had quit attending Book Club when I left the Woman's Club that sponsors it. Just last week I was thinking that I'd like to start attending again and sent a friend a message to only discover that they were meeting in just four days. So, feeling far too much English teacher guilt to attend without having finished the book, I spent a lot of time over the past few days- right up to 30 minutes before the meeting- finishing the novel. It was not a difficult task though because I enjoyed reading it. I really enjoyed it, unlike a lot of other readers in the club it seems.

The novel is broken into three parts, which are framed by three stages of the protagonist and narrator, Dora's, life. The majority of the book takes place in a small rural shipbuilding community in Nova Scotia. When Dora had become too old for it to be decent for her to snuggle with her older brothers downstairs by the fire during the cold months, she was sent to live Mrs. B. Miss Babineau was the local midwife, often easily accused of witchery due to her potions, prayers, and Cajun ways. A Doctor of Obstetrics and Women's Health moves into town and causes most of the community to question the antiquated and "backwoods" ways of Mrs. B. The men of the village take pride in being able to afford doctor's care for their expectant wives, which though accessorized with the modern tools of chloroform and forceps, does not prove to be the best care available. Thus begins a conflict between Mrs. B and Dora, as her apprentice, of new medicine and the legalities to avoiding such care.

When I first read the summary of the novel, I was not too enthused to read a book set during the war, thinking it would be too historical in nature (yawn). However, the real focus on history through the novel's development is on the rights of women and how women were treated by the medical industry. The big topics, such as suffrage and being trapped in an abusive marriage by society were touched, but much more interesting were the excerpts from medical texts warning women from cold drafts and reading too much.

In Part One, Dora's younger years, the narrator's voice reminded me some of Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird) but mostly of the young girl from The Secret Life of Bees. I expected the narrator's voice to grow into one reminiscent of The Help, but that didn't quite happen. Unfortunately, in Part Two and Three I think the narrator tried to squeeze in far too much. There are lots of interesting developments in Dora's life, from assisting victims from an explosion in Halifax to moving into an adult orphanage with lesbians next to a whorehouse. But there are just too many developments. So, they are over nearly as quickly as they begun and there is a void of missing details ripped into the seam of the narrative.

I did like that even though Dora was born into a family with a long genealogical line extending back for generations in the rural community, she found herself only really able to connect with the "others," women brought back from other villages to be the wives of men unable to find one at home. I liked the exchanges between these women and wanted to be part of their clan. I liked the believable ways in which Dora exerted her freedom and independent thinking within a society that wanted to force her into a very sheltered and defined role.

I also greatly liked that although the ending of the book is predictable, it is not. I would have been a bit angered had the novel not concluded in the direction I had hope, yet the twist given to the conclusion by the author stops the predictability from being boring.

Saturday's Sensational Six

Several years ago, my Key Club officers were comprised of a group of friends that dubbed themselves the "Fab Five." To rebuff the exclusion, another group of friends on their periphery created their own moniker as the "Sensational Six." It was all very...

 

Random thought for a random blog post. I want to write tonight. Perhaps need to write. But my mind is heavy with a topic that I really don't want to take the time organize thoughts about right now, so I am going to do one of the random list postings like the ones so popular on "Five for Friday" link parties... except it's Saturday, so I give you the Sensational Six.

 

One.

I need a haircut. With guys, it's a little more obvious when a haircut is in the "need" stage. With the ladies perhaps not so much so. I know, I know, one should visit the hair dresser every six weeks or so (Is that right?) for a trim and touch-up. Reality is though, it is rare that I go more than once a year. But, I am really feeling that I need a "Back to School" haircut.

 

 

I was going to compare the current state of my hair to The Great Oz. However, upon Googling an image of his locks, I realized, sadly, that his hair is actually in far better condition than mine.

 

 

I would really like to go just above the shoulder in length. But I don't think I have the nerve to make that big of a change right now. I really like everything about the hair on the left but I have to admit the fact upfront that I will never take the time to actually "do" my hair.

 

 

Thus, despite how much I love-love-love the "busy-ness" of this hair, I don't think I could ever pull it off. It still may be the pic I take to the hair dresser with me though. This would be a good chunk of hair off but still not feel drastic. Hopefully it would cut most of the perm out, whose remnants is what's really making my hair tragic.

 

 

Two.

I spent far too much time today following a blog link party for elementary teachers to post their top ten Pinterest ideas for decorating the classroom. Here are my three fave:

 

 

I currently have three filing cabinets in my classroom. I would love it if I could condense to one and position it between the desk and wall like this. It would open up a lot of area behind my desk I also like the maximized use of the cabinet, especially the impromptu bulletin board on the side (as opposed to taping important papers to the wall by my desk).

 

I am going to aim to create an Instagram-inspired bulletin board for the beginning of the year, which shows pics related to all the literature and is labeled with hashtag quotes from the lit.

 

I used to roll my eyes (not even metaphorically) at the frivolousness of curtains in the classroom. However... the idea is really growing on me. This method of hanging them looks neat & easy. I am going on the hunt for key or book themed fabrics.

 

 

Three.

I was about to watch an episode of "Big Brother After Dark" today and paused to watch the commentary on William and Kate  rather than fast-forwarding to the show. One of the clips showed the royal couple at the alter just about to be wed and you can clearly see William whisper to Kate, "You look beautiful." It near brought me to tears. I am absolutely enchanted by this couple. I cannot wait for the day to come when William takes the throne. They are such a real-life fairy tale.

 

 

Four.

I may (or may not) do a post soon about reactions to my favorite reality trash television. I am loving the casts of Big Brother and Project Runway this summer... and I can't wait to see Sugar Bear & June's wedding...

 

 

(Looks just like the Royal Wedding, doesn't it?) The sleeper hit that I may be enjoying most this though is Pretty Wicked Moms on Lifetime Tuesday night. I wish I could get a Live Feed of that show rather than be limited to the 60-minute weekly dose! It's like "Real Housewives" with sippy cups. They are just the most eclectic bunch of frenemies, which I guess is the purpose/premise of the show. My faves are Alpha Mom, Nicole B., and the Southern Belle, Amanda, which is kinda funny because they are nothing alike. The one I think is as forgettable as her post-accident memory though is Meredith. She's dimwitted and she's barnacle clinging to the Mean Girls. 

 

 

Five.

As I was bouncing around Pinterest today looking at ideas for inspirations for all the jewelry I am going to make once upon a time, I came across several boards dedicated specifically to Resin Jewelry. I guess I had kinda heard the word thrown around with different jewelry ideas but had not really seen the massive possibilities for creative and inexpensive trinkets with resin until today.

 

 

I really want to get into the craft room and just CREATE. With all the cleaning and purging and organizing, the craft room gets cleaned out, then get more stuff moved into it. I just have to admit that I have become a Craft Hoarder. Have space, will fill. Is there any chance I will ever use half a shelf's worth of foam shapes? Nope, probably not. Unfortunately I really think I am going to have to prioritize and thin some supplies out to make more room to be functional.

 

 

Six.

 

 

I never played Angry Birds... mainly because I didn't have a Smart Phone in the heydays of its popularity. I am definitely on the tails of this newest game craze though. Honestly, I don't think I play that often. It still is a favored activity among my purposely unproductive time though. Intermittent positive reinforcement, what causes gambling addictions, is the exact principle that fuels this game. I have had enough psychology and education (same theory in behavior management) cases to know this... yet I still get a "Rush from the Crush" each time I reach a new level.