Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Entries from October 1, 2009 - November 1, 2009

Entries from October 1, 2009 - November 1, 2009

Monday
Oct122009

Aging with Adventure: Tales From The Back Porch II

In the spring my claim to my back porch is challenged by bees. Come fall Mother Nature lays a different challenge before me. Acorns.....yes acorns. There is a very old oak tree on the property next to ours, a tall, tall oak tree. When the kids were toddlers I couldn’t let them play on the back porch in the fall because if they were hit by one of those acorns falling from about 200 feet it would have knocked them out. As it is Ichabod got a nasty cut near his eye from an acorn hurling from the heights down at him just the other day.

I have my QT times on the porch most days. Coffee, me and time with my Lord is how I prefer to start my day. No acorn is going to deny me the pleasure of the porch. So as the weather cools, if you get up early enough (don’t bother showing up before 7:30), you can spot an middle age woman wrapped in a blanket, with her Bible and note book spread on the table, coffee cup steaming in the cool air protected by the ugliest golf umbrella imaginable.

All in all I prefer acorns to bees!

Saturday
Oct102009

Cooking in the Real World: Stained Soup, A Second Cup Recipe Suggestion

Quick no brains needed meals become more useful as school is in full swing. Stained Soup is a family favorite.

4 cans of chicken broth

1 pkg hot Italian sausage, cut into pieces

2 pkgs thawed frozen spinach

1 chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

1 lb box noodles

Parmesan cheese

In a soup pot toss the broth, sausage, onion and garlic, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmered covered for about 45 minutes. Add spinach; bring the soup to a boil again. Again turn down the heat and simmer for another 45 minutes. Cook noodles on the side. Ladle soup over the noodles and pass the cheese. Serves 6 unless you have teens than double the recipe to feed six.

Thursday
Oct082009

Parenting Teens: The Clothes Battle

There is an upside to having just two kids in the house! Let the battle for a neat laundry room begin. We live in an old house that is seriously closet challenged. Ichabod lives in the basement. He doesn’t have a closet but since he would not store his clean clothes in it anyway that is not a problem. He has a dresser but it is too difficult to move the clothes 6 feet as the crow flies from the washroom to the dresser. He has a clean clothes basket in the washroom. Everyone has a clean clothes basket that in theory was supposed to travel from the basement every Tuesday night upstairs filled with clean clothes and return empty sometime before Monday when I start the wash. Reality is no one (meaning those under 21) toted those baskets up to their bedrooms where the closets and dressers yearn to store those clothes. The clothes would be tossed over the laundry room as people searched through the baskets for their clothes. By the end of the week the laundry room looked like a bomb exploded in it. To complicate the situation I couldn’t tell Princess’ clothes from Ichabod’s. On them Princess’ clothes looked very feminine and Ichabod very masculine, not to mention the sizes were very different. As I pulled them out of the dryer I couldn’t tell them apart.

Princess is now at college and I know exactly whose clothes are tossed over the laundry room. I am now thinking through the most effective plan to motivate Ichabod to keep his clean clothes in his basket.

Anyone have a clever suggestion?

Tuesday
Oct062009

Tales From Yesteryear: Davey and Goliath

Dear Aurora,

Oh my goodness, how can I not tell you about Davey and Goliath!!! I saw an ad for these TV shows on a web site and I was transported back to elementary school. We all went to Catholic grammar and high schools. Navy blue plaid and solid navy color skirts for the upper grades were all we were allowed to wear to school. I had to wear a beanie as part of my uniform in the early years of my education. If you forgot the beanie on a day when we were going to mass, a nun would bobby pin a tissue to your hair. She would most likely pull the tissue and bobby pin out from one of the big sleeves of her habit. I always wondered how they carried so much stuffed up those sleeves. That Mary Poppins could pull so much out of her bag was no surprised to me. I was sure Sister Bernice had twice as much up her sleeves. The bell would ring and everyone would line up by class than teacher and we would march up 2 by 2 (practicing to enter the Ark) to our classrooms.

Catholic schools in the early to mid sixties were a little different than schools today. There were still more sisters than lay people serving as teachers so both the students and the teachers wore uniforms. Corporal punishment was not frowned upon. The principle was third in line in the running of heaven and earth, behind the senior priest and God Himself.

Back to Davy and Goliath. It was a series of animated kid shows with moral lessons. Sort of like the Veggie Tales of my generation without the catchy songs. I loved these shows and the fact we got to watch then during class time was all the more special.

Oh my I actually remember watching is episode!!!!!!!

More to follow.

Love Aunt Carissa

Did you watch Davey and Goliath? Memories


Sunday
Oct042009

Parenting In The Real World: And Now There Are Two

Haggi and Princess have been gone for about a month now. We are adjusting to having just two kids in our home. Tech Princess is homeschooled so she is around during the day. Ichabod is in that weird time some kids go through where they used to have lots of friend but now they don't have any one to hang out with after school, so when he is not working he is home also.

We don't see much of either one. Tech Princess is so connected to the web and her phone that she is never at a lack for company even if none of her friends are in the house. Ichabod is trying to crack the top 100 in Guitar Hero so we know he is around by the constant drumming and shrinking food supplies.

Towels are coming out of the wood work. Princess moves to college and suddenly we have more towels than we know what to do with. It is quieter. My husband likes the quiet, me not so much. The house was gong 24/7 durng the summer which I found grating. Now usually everyone is tucked snug it their beds by 11 Pm during the week. Tech Princess seems to be making it a goal to sleep over a friend's house every weekend. Her friend's parent think she is wonderful (which she is usually) so she doesn't lack places to sleep out.

I though once the other two returned home and to college there would be more time with the remaining two. It is not working out that way.I have more time. they don't.

Not liking this empty nest thing so much....

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