Homemade Pizza – TMTT June 29, 2009

So, everybody has some version of homemade pizza.  What’s so special about mine?  Well, it’s mine!  Is that narcissistic or what?!  Anyway, we had homemade pizza the other night and it turned out really well, so I decided to share what we did.  You might like to try some of our ideas.

Ingredients:

• Pizza crust recipe – I adjust this to use bread machine yeast
• Olive oil
• Contadina pizza sauce
• “Fake Alfredo sauce” – it’s “Healthier Cream Sauce” with parmesan cheese added
• Assorted shredded cheeses
• Pepperoni (we usually also have spiced ground beef)
• Diced, sauted chicken
• Diced, sauted garlic (pieces as large or small as you like)
• Olives
• Pickles (for my daughter)
• Spinach (for me)
• Anything else you like

Technique

• One of the nice things about my kids now being 11 and 14 is that they are old enough for things like doing their own pizza crust.  Everyone took their ball of pizza dough and formed it into an eight inch diameter crust.
• My son and I put our pizzas on insulated pans because we don’t like crispy crusts but my daughter and hubby used regular pans.  In a perfect world, we’d have a pizza stone, or at least an unglazed patio stone (per Alton Brown), but we haven’t gotten around to getting one yet.
• Brush the crust with olive oil.
• Spread on sauce – I like white, everyone else likes red.
• Add veggies and meat.
• Add cheeses.
• Put on pan or pizza stone or patio stone and bake for about 10 minutes at 475-500 degrees or until cheeses are melted and crust is browned.
• Eat and enjoy!!!

This is my pizza with white sauce, spinach, chicken, garlic, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.

 

 

Wild Man’s pepperoni pizza.

 Rosie Girl’s pizza with olives, pepperoni, pickles, and lots of cheese.

 Mr. Math Tutor’s pizza with a little bit of everything covered with a lot of cheese!!

 

So, check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic for more great recipe and domestic ideas.  And, definitely leave any new pizza ideas here in the comments.  It makes me feel loved!!

Wise Words

Last night’s reading from Proverbs was Proverbs 18:4 – “A person’s words can be life-giving waters; words of true wisdom are as refreshing as a bubbling brook.” (NLT) My words can be life-giving; they can be wise. Then why is it that they are sometimes stupid? I open my mouth and say things that are critical or make a promise that I know I might not be able to keep. I sin with my words. And I know that I hurt people this way.

Words have power. I know this. But, I don’t pay nearly enough attention to it. Proverbs 10:19-21 says “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.” (NIV) I can relate to this. There are days that, the more I say, the more of a mess I make. Sometimes it’s best to keep my mouth shut.

But, mostly, my words must be preceded by prayer; they must be the words of “the righteous”. Who is righteous? In the final analysis, only Jesus is truly righteous. For my words to be nourishing to my family and friends, I must be close to Jesus and say the things He wants me to say. The more that I talk, the less I’m listening to God – hence, “when words are many, sin is not absent”!

There is so much the Bible has to say about our words. Today, I pray that my words will be wise words, words that build up my family, spoken with love and grace. And, I pray that for you as well.

I Have Never . . .

Here’s a cute little meme that I thought would waste some time while I’m NOT cleaning my house (which I should be doing since my mother-in-law is coming tomorrow but I have a headache and my mother-in-law is quite forgiving about the whole messy house thing):

I Have Never . . .

1. 1. Been to Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, or Antarctica.
2. 2. Jumped out of an airplane.
3. 3. Read To Kill A Mockingbird
4. 4. Worn a bikini (and the world gives a deep sigh of relief!)
5. 5. Been on a cruise.
6. 6. Been downhill skiing (and am pretty happy with that).
7. 7. Been arrested.
8. 8. Driven a semi.
9. 9. Been to a mosque.
10. 10. Learned Japanese.
11. 11. Learned to weld (or wanted to, for that matter, although my daughter says it’s fun!).
12. 12. Met all my cousins (there’s a zillion).
13. 13. Had frostbite.
14. 14. Been to Canada (although I hope to remedy that one day)
15. 15. Painted daisies on a big, red, rubber ball.

Doesn’t this meme remind you of “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” from Veggie Tales??

Thanks to Marcy at the Glamorous Life Association for the idea!  Your turn!  Leave a comment with something you’ve never done or make your own blog post!!

A link

Read this post from The Internet Monk.  I can’t add anything to it.

Our Timeline

On the Sonlight Forums, I was trying to tell someone about our timeline, but I couldn’t shrink the pictures.  I’m going to put a description with pictures here so people can link here and see what I’m talking about, OK?

We made a once-for-all-time timeline! What I mean is that once we made it, all we need to do is add names and dates to it. Ours is actually three different timelines - bear with me, I think it will make sense when I'm done. We did them with butcher paper and put them on the wall above some bookshelves. We have to stand on a chair to get to them, but you could use a bare spot of wall, we just didn't have a bare spot anywhere in the house!! The top line is black and goes from 4,000 B.C (with space before that for undateable events) to the present and is marked off into 1000 year increments. The second line is green and goes from 800 to the present and marked off into 100 year increments. The bottom line is blue and goes from 1820 to 2020 (we're optimistic) and marked off into 20 year increments.

 

On the top line, the section from 800 to the present is also marked in blue to show that it corresponds to the second line and the section from 1820 to the present is also marked in green to show that it corresponds to the bottom line.

 

Each item is added to the timeline on the bottommost line where it fits - so, something from 1950 would get put on the bottom line. Something from 1200 would get put on the middle line.
We did it this way because we wanted plenty of room in modern times for modern events, but didn't want lots of wasted space. From 1700 to the present, there are lots of important events to add, but it's a bit sparse in the 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. We were concerned that our kids wouldn't quite understand the concept of the three lines, but my son was 6 or 7 when we did it, and he seems to be just fine with it.

I put off this project for about six months.  When I finally pulled out the butcher paper and markers, it took me less than an hour to do the whole thing.  We even moved it from our previous home to here without much trouble.  As you can see, the ancient history stuff is more filled in than anything else.  I’m going to use some time this summer to review Medieval History and fill in the middle line.  Most of the bottom line will get filled in over the next few years during American and 20th Century history.

Hope you enjoyed that little tour of our timeline and that you are inspired to make your own!!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. It’s a baseball summer around here!! Wild Man is playing baseball at least 4 days a week. So far, his traveling team is undefeated!! And, of course, since we all bleed LSU purple and gold, we watched the College World Series this week and celebrated mightily when the Tigers won!

2. Rosie Girl came home from camp with a little bit of a sore throat last Friday. She has had some pus right in one crypt of her left tonsil (actually a little bit of superior tonsillar tissue that’s not part of the tonsil itself) but without much sore throat. We’ve been watching this get bigger and smaller for a week. I talked to our doctor on Thursday and we decided to have her looked at if it’s not completely gone by next week. In the meantime, I have her trying to gargle with Listerine or else swab some on that spot. What a frustration!! There’s definitely a downside to being a doctor. I know that she doesn’t have strep and doesn’t need antibiotics right now, but I also know that a crypt that keeps plugging up will eventually cause a true tonsillitis. I hate waiting! (Quick, what movie is that from?)

3. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that we’re going to have to follow something of a schedule next year if Rosie Girl is going to finish all of her work to get the credit hours for high school. (The alternative is to let her do whatever she wants and try to sort out later what it all amounts to – not my cup of tea, and she won’t willingly do enough of some subjects to please a college entrance committee. Besides, she’s pretty happy about having a plan to follow.) I have all the books on my desk and am setting about putting the schedule together in Homeschool Tracker Plus (which is an excellent program, by the way).

4. Wild Man is going to be in the Middle School Band next year. He’s already taken drum lessons privately, so he had a drum pad, but his band director said that he needs a bell set. OK, no big deal, right. Wrong! These things are $300+ new and $200+ used! Yikes. I should have encouraged him to play trumpet or clarinet – we already have those instruments. But, the music store is renting us a used bell set for $15/month. Not great, but we can still buy groceries.

5. Rosie Girl couldn’t sleep last night – and I never can sleep – so we sat up and talked for almost an hour about literature. We discussed how I got a bad grade on a paper in college because I didn’t understand The Prince by Machiavelli and how much I love Paradise Lost by Milton even though I typically despise epic poetry. She told me about the fantasy books she’s reading and how there are so many similarities and who she thinks influenced whom. I think these are the things that are going to protect her from making bad life choices more than lectures and scary filmstrips. Knowing that Mom and Dad love her and want to hear from her is so important.

6. I got the kids to write to their great-grandmother this week. Rosie Girl had no problem. She just went to the computer and wrote a nice little letter about her life and wishing her Grammy well. Wild Man was quite another story. I asked him to dictate his letter to me, but he completely clammed up. I finally started pretending to be Grammy and asking him questions the Grammy would ask them (she’s 94 but pretty spunky) and finally got some good stuff from him. I’m going to have to remember this during the coming school year when he needs to write. He doesn’t do well yet with just a prompt. He needs specific questions.

7. I bought three new dresses this week (two of which were on sale) from Lands’ End. This is an event for me. I even called my mom. She was proud of me!! I haven’t been much of a clothes shopper since high school, but I really haven’t been into shopping for clothes the last couple of years. I’m pretty much a jeans and T-shirt or sweatshirt kind of gal, ya know. During the summer, I love wearing loose, comfy dresses. My last three were purchased at Goodwill about three years ago, but I’ve had no luck this year with quality second-hand stuff. Mr. Math Tutor also bought shoes today – he had to buy expensive running shoes because he’s been having foot pain for about 3 months now. The way we live here is to not have very many (or very exciting) clothes, but have good ones (I like to buy second-hand, but it’s not always easy). My dresses will probably last a good long time. Mr. Math Tutor is going to have to wear his running shoes pretty much all the time until his feet quit hurting. But, I don’t mind buying him good shoes, especially when it’s one pair at a time!!

So, that’s it for my 7 (not so) Quick Takes. Check out Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes Friday posts!!

The Discipline of Prayer and Praise

Remember in Sunday School when we learned about the story of Paul and Silas in jail after they had been severely beaten and how they prayed and sang praises to God and then God sent an earthquake that opened the prison to let them out? No? Well, check it out in Acts 16:16-40. Anyway, every Sunday School picture that they had of that incident showed Paul and Silas smiling and almost giggling while they were singing and praying. In fact, they might as well have been in a first century Disneyland for all we knew!

But is that what it was really like? Let’s face it, these guys had just been beaten to a pulp and probably could barely move, but yet were still chained up to make sure they didn’t escape with all that spare energy they had. The blood loss had to be impressive, leading to weakness and fatigue. Their happiness level had to be sitting somewhere around –25. Yet, they prayed and sang hymns. How does this happen?

I’ve never been beaten to a pulp, but I have been in so much pain that I wished for unconsciousness. I know how pain can make you seriously unhappy. And I didn’t even have the added stress of suffering purely for sharing the Gospel and wondering if God was REALLY on my side!

Yet, they did it. They ignored the happiness level of –25 and prayed and praised anyway. They took the objective truth of God’s love and said, “This is what we know and this is what we will rely on.” And, maybe they did eventually get some smiles on their faces and maybe their happiness levels did come up a few notches.

But, I do know that their JOY levels were high. Why? Because joy is not dependent on circumstances, but on God. In fact, James tells us to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds [even the –25 happiness level kinds – CCM] because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (James 1:2-3). (BTW, James has a lot more to say in that first chapter about trials, so take a look sometime.) Paul spends the whole letter of Philippians telling us about joy. My favorite section is 4:12 – “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

And that is true joy – relying on Jesus for our needs, to be able to pray and praise through severe physical and mental pain – beatings, migraines, divorce, whatever. It doesn’t come naturally – and I seriously doubt it came naturally to Paul and Silas. I really think that it was a supreme act of obedience on their part to start those prayers and songs. But, what honor they brought to the God of the Universe!!!

Here’s the question? Can I do that? I’m fighting a migraine tonight. Will I have the discipline to pray not only for my own pain relief but for the hurting and hopeless in my neighborhood and around the world? Will I have the persistence to praise the God who got me through yet another day? The God who deserves so much more than I give Him? What about you? What is your reaction to your struggles? Is it easy to pray and praise? Do you think it came naturally to Paul and Silas and does it come naturally to you? How do you make it work in your life? All comments are welcome!

Psalm 142

My reading from the Psalms tonight was from Psalm 142. It starts this way: “I cry out to the LORD; I plead for the LORD’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.”

Wow. Sounds like God has really big, soft shoulders or is the repository of all of our cr*p. But, He can really handle it. It’s OK. He’s God – great awesome power and all that. I mean, there’s a lot worse stuff going on in the world than my headaches so I expect He can manage some pain.

But, in verse 5 the psalmist says, “Then I pray to you, O LORD, I say, “You are my place of refuge. Your are all I really want in life.”

Cool. God is my refuge. He’s all I want – really!!! He can handle all the junk that I cry out to him – the headache, messy house, loneliness, fatigue, etc. And when I’ve thrown all my junk at Him, I can just rest right there. I can know that He’s protecting me. Maybe not from my headaches, but from despair, evil, anger. And, that’s all I really want out of life. I just want you, Lord.

My Old Testament reading tonight was from 2 Kings 6 where the Aramean king sends his army to surround and capture Elisha. Elisha, though, prays for God to open Elisha’s servant’s eyes to see what is really there – horses and chariots of fire. These protected Elisha and the Arameans went to Samaria instead. There is a whole reality that we can’t even see (which my rather scientific brain can’t even handle) but it’s there. God uses His supernatural “whatevers” to make sure that His plan is what happens. It doesn’t mean that my life will be the way I like it, even if I always make the right choice.

It does mean, though, that God is big enough to handle the bad stuff that He lets in my life. And that I can then come curl up in that safe refuge He provides. Thanks be to God!!

What Happened to Summer Boredom?

And I’m not talking about overscheduled kids here!  I was planning on doing formal schoolwork through the first part of the summer, but we had to stop because of some family issues.  But, I was looking forward to summer because I figured I could take advantage of kid boredom to get my windows cleaned and basement straightened.

Folks, it ain’t happenin’!  Both kids are in the summer reading program and are reading books or listening to audiobooks for a couple of hours a day.  Wild Man is playing baseball every day for over an hour with his traveling team and then two nights a week with him local team.  When he’s not doing that, he’s begging his dad to play catch or he’s outside hitting on the swingaway or watching the LSU Tigers in the College World Series.

Rosie Girl is setting up a Fantasy Literature class as an elective for next year, so she just ordered nine books from the library.  I doubt I’ll see her doing the writing needed to get credit for the course, but I’m sure she’ll be doing the reading.  She’s been taking care of her part of the garden.  Today, I found her putting out newspaper on the less grassy parts of the yard and wetting them down well in order to induce earthworms up out of the ground.  She wants to collect them for their fishing trips this summer.  (Although, frankly, I think the earthworms are using their five neurons in their nervous system to keep themselves down in the ground away from the 94 degree heat.  Maybe she’ll get some later tonight.)

Add to that the regular video game playing that they’re allowed and the board and card games that they play, and I’m not seeing my windows getting clean unless I do it myself!  What’s the point of summer break if not for slave labor kids helping around the house?!

Holiday Flexibility

I love holidays!  Celebrations are always fun.  The last few years, though, my migraines have interfered far more than I would have liked.  We have taken to becoming rather flexible with our holidays around here.

Rosie Girl’s birthday was yesterday, but we celebrated on Friday.  For one thing, she came home from camp on Friday, so coming home to a birthday celebration was a real surprise for her.  For another thing, I figured that I’d better go ahead and bake a cake while I felt well.  But, things didn’t go quite as planned.  Mr. Math Tutor drove up North to get Rosie Girl and Wild Man rode off to the baseball field to get on the bus for his game.  I started making the cake – a chocolate pound cake in a tube pan that would be filled with strawberries and surrounded with strawberries that had been dipped in white and milk chocolate.  All was going quite well until I checked on the cake about an hour into the baking process and realized that it wasn’t rising.  In fact, it had a big ole dip in the middle of it.  On racking my brain, I couldn’t actually remember putting in the baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  I knew they had been on the counter, but I wasn’t sure they made it into the batter.

Well, Rosie Girl was not going to see a perfectly made cake when she got home.  I let the cake finish baking, hoping that I was just mistaking what a normal pound cake should look like halfway through baking, but it was, indeed a total loss.  When Rosie Girl got home, she got to see a mass of chocolate wanna-be cake, lots of strawberries, and some birthday presents.  We let her open the presents, though, which were both video games and kept her plenty occupied (along with telling us all about camp) until I could make another cake and get it decorated.  And when it was done, it was positively decadent!!

Today is Father’s Day, but we’re not celebrating today.  For one thing, I have a migraine and have already taken a long nap.  We are also planning our celebration for tomorrow because LSU is playing the Texas Longhorns in the College World Series tomorrow night.  We’re going to have steak and watch baseball, so we’ll make that our Father’s Day celebration – with Mr. Math Tutor’s approval, of course!!

A little flexibility goes a long way in this house.

The Garden

I got a new camera!!  So, I went out last night and took some pictures from our garden.  For those of you in the South, remember that we didn’t even get to plant until about a month ago.  While you’re harvesting, we’re just getting started.  And, this week is the first time we’re seeing temperatures consistently above 80 degrees!

This is Mater, the tomato plant.  He’s actually now hanging upside down on the shepherd’s hook with Larry the Cucumber.

Rosie Girl’s mint plants.

Larry the Cucumber in the foreground growing upside down.

Rosie Girl’s raspberry bushes.

Watermelon (I’m pretty sure!)

Leaf lettuce

Onions – lots of onions!

Carrots!

Spinach

Corn (in the four squares in the near corner)

Morning glories – I’m hoping they’ll grow up the rail.

I’m loving the new camera.  It’s not exciting – just a Canon point and shoot, but it’s lots faster than my previous one.  I’ll post more pictures later!!

My Fairy Name!

Your fairy is called Thorn Goblinfly

She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives in brambles and blackberry bushes.

She is only seen at midday under a quiet, cloudless sky.

She wears purple and green like berries and leaves. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Of Schedules, School, and Summer

Since we homeschool, I figure that we shouldn’t tie ourselves to the public school schedule and we should do something resembling year-round schooling.  In fact, that’s what we’ve done up until now.  Things are changing, though.

This summer is very busy for my kids.  Wild Man has baseball every day of the week until he goes to camp at the end of of July.  When he comes back from camp, he has two weeks of daily band lessons.  Rosie Girl is at camp right now then will be working on some math lessons.  She will have two piano lessons and works on piano daily and will have a week-long dance intensive in August.  They have more outside structure on their time during the summer than they do during the school year.

This school year, though, they are both going to be involved in classes at the public schools and co-curricular activities.  Wild Man will play percussion at the middle school and Rosie Girl wants to take choir at the high school.  So, we will have to follow the school schedule to a certain extent next year and we won’t be able to take time off on a whim.  In addition, we need to finish when the public schools finish so that Wild Man will be ready for baseball next summer (now that I know how crazy the baseball schedule is for traveling teams).

This is going to seriously impact my scheduling plans.  Last year, I scheduled a week at a time.  We did our Sonlight Core work together so our progress was determined by how I felt as well as everyone’s schedules.  This year will be a lot different, I think.  Rosie Girl will be largely independent in her work.  There isn’t much in the way of new skills to learn, except in math (which her dad will teach her).  I am going to schedule her work at least a month ahead of time, but allow her to work ahead if she wants.

Wild Man’s scheduling will still be done mostly a week at a time.  I’ll probably schedule his Sonlight work several weeks ahead, but his progress in spelling and other language arts subjects will depend on how his skills are progressing.  His reading is much improved this year over last, but I just don’t know how many of the readers he’ll be able to read on his own and things like that.

I guess I’ll spend the next several months trying to sort all this out!  I guess it’s a good thing I like being organized!

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

Hi.  I’m back.  I know, it’s been a while.  I know the little mini-posts and memes I’ve done in the last few weeks are rather pathetic.  But, please, don’t get all uptight on me.  Listen, it’s me, not you.  It’s been a rough month or so . . . Don’t look at me like that! . . . it really has been hard.  I’ve had migraines, been out of town for 2, count ‘em 2, funerals, gotten my daughter off to camp . . .

But, I’m back now.  I make no guarantees that I won’t have another little “vacation” in the future, but I’m back to my normal (whatever that is) blogging routine.

So, some updates.  Rosie Girl is at camp this week.  I was supposed to make cookies to send to her, but I got too many migraines (see above), so Mr. Math Tutor bought some of her favorite candies and sent those instead.  That being said, her birthday is Saturday, and I’ve gotten the greatest idea for a cake.  It involves a chocolate pound cake, lots of strawberries, and white and milk chocolate drizzled all over the place.  YUM!

Wild Man is having a great time with baseball.  For one thing, we have been watching the College World Series and cheering on LSU – Geaux Tigers!!  Wild Man is on a traveling team that plays in other towns in the area.  They won their first game which they played yesterday.  Wild Man plays first base in that league and does a great job.  He had a practice last night for his night-time league, but he came home and said that he prefers the discipline of the daytime traveling league practice because they goofed off too much at the night-time practice.  Wow.  That’s a cool thing to hear my kid say.  The traveling team is in a  competitive league where they don’t guarantee playing time for the kids while the night-time league is more for skill development and they try to let the kids play through most all the positions but they’re less concerned with winning.  My very competitive son likes to win!

I keep saying that I’ll post pictures of the garden, but my camera is with Rosie Girl at camp right now.  I did buy a camera yesterday (technically it’s a birthday present from the family to me!) but they didn’t have it in stock, so they ordered it and I’ll get it on Monday probably.  Anyway, the garden looks lovely.  Almost everything is growing.  I have a few open squares that I will probably plant with broccoli this week.

I was going to go grocery shopping today, but Mr. Math Tutor is working so I think Wild Man and I will take a trip to the library and then to get ice cream.  We’ll have to drive, though, because we have about 20 books to return!!  Can’t do that on bikes!  Then I have to do laundry because Wild Man needs his baseball uniform clean for tomorrow.  And Wild Man has a double header tonight.  I really hope it doesn’t rain.

So, there it is, blog.  I haven’t forgotten you.  I have been neglectful and for that I apologize.  No, I don’t think relationship counseling is in order!  I’ll just try to be a better blogger from here on out.  OK?  Hey, I don’t think comparing me to those professional bloggers is exactly fair, either.  Let’s just start over with a clean slate, huh?  OK?  Hey blog?  Did you hear me?  Oh, come on . . . don’t be like that . . . .

 

7 Quick Takes Friday – June 12, 2009

1. Wild Man had his first baseball game Wednesday night.  They lost 3-0, but he played well.  His first traveling team game is Tuesday morning.  It’s going to be a baseball-heavy summer.

2. Rosie Girl leaves for camp tomorrow.  She has such a great time every year at camp.  We’ll miss her here at home, though.

3. Both kids went to a waterpark yesterday with the church group.  They came back exhausted, but they had a blast!!  It’s really cool to see them growing up and having fun with people outside the family.

4. I had my annual visit with the pulmonologist (lung specialist) for my sleep apnea this week.  He is always so pleased and almost surprised that I use my CPAP machine every single night when I sleep.  A lot of people with sleep apnea don’t stick with the machine long enough to get used to it, but I was seriously motivated to learn to use it (long-term effects of sleep apnea include high blood pressure, heart disease, and pulmonary hypertension).  It took me a couple of weeks to really get the hang of it, but now I never sleep without it!

5. The kids and I did some marathon shopping on Monday – Goodwill, Savers (kind of like Goodwill), Kohl’s (bathing suit for Rosie Girl and shorts for Wild Man), Dick’s (baseball pants for Wild Man), Sam’s Club (staples), and Woodman’s (groceries).  I hadn’t done a full grocery trip in 3 weeks, but I spent less at Woodman’s than I normally spend on a 1 week grocery trip.  Lesson learned – make the 30 minute drive into town!

6. I’m on day 2 of this headache.  I want to drive Rosie Girl to camp with Mr. Math Tutor tomorrow, but I really need this headache to be gone (or a lot better) before I get in a car for a 2 1/2 hour drive.

7. I’ve been trying to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand for the last couple of months.  I’m enjoying the story, but the overarching themes of materialism and hyper-capitalism are wearing.  The author is very negative about anything non-materialistic, such as spirituality, charity, community, or other such ideas.  I’m more than half-way through and I hope to finish before the end of June.  Sigh.

A Great Read!

Here’s an excellent post about Christians and the Culture War.  He expresses what I think much more cogently than I ever could.

7 Quick Takes Friday – June 5, 2009

It has been a tiring and stressful couple of weeks for our family.  I think we’re back to something of a routine, though, and I hope to do my usual blogging. 

1. My daughter is now a high school freshman and my son is in 6th grade.  How did this happen?  I’m really looking forward to starting “school” again since we’re studying American History.  Rosie Girl will be doing a good bit more work this year than she has been used to, but I think she’s up to it.  Wild Man is reading so much now that I’m much more optimistic about 6th grade.

2. I used to love Popeye’s fried chicken.  When we were down South, we made sure to get some Popeye’s chicken and dirty rice.  It wasn’t as good as I remember.  Deep sigh.  At least my craving is satisfied for the next five or six years.

3. We did not get any crawfish while we were down South.  That is a bummer.  Crawfish are more common down in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, not in SW Mississippi where we were, and we didn’t have time for side trips.  Next time, though, next time.

4. Our garden is growing pretty well.  I don’t have pictures right now – maybe next week.  I have a few open squares where I want to plant peppers and/or more broccoli.  We’ve decided to build another small box to grow asparagus, but I need to research how to do that.

5. What are the odds of having an aunt and uncle (brother and sister, not spouses) die in the same week of completely unrelated causes?  And, they were twenty years apart in age.  My poor family.

6. My mother-in-law went home yesterday after staying here for almost two weeks.  While Mr. Math Tutor and I were gone, she got the kids to all of their dance rehearsals as well as all three recitals.  We are sooooo blessed!!  She comes back in a few weeks to join us for family camp.

7. Wild Man had his annual orthodontist appointment this week.  They said that he doesn’t need anything done right now, but they’ll look again in a year.  My daughter has beautifully straight teeth.  My son’s teeth don’t look bad but he has a cross-bite that the orthodontist is waiting to see whether it needs fixing.  I’m praying not!  I have lots of other things I can do with a couple thousand dollars.

See what others have to say at 7 Quick Takes Friday!!

Menu Plan Monday – June 1, 2009

So we're back home and it’s time to get back in to the swing of things.  Of course, I’m pretty tired from driving to the Deep South and back as well as going to two funerals in the course of a week.  I’m not going to do a lot of cooking since I still have some casseroles in the freezer.  Here’s my plan:

1. Lasagna (from freezer) with broccoli and/or salad

2. Lasagna (leftovers) with broccoli and/or salad

3. Grilled chicken with corn on the cob and grilled asparagus

4. Chicken and dumplings

5. Chicken and dumplings

6. Chicken divan (from freezer)

7. Chicken divan (leftovers)

Not exciting, but doable.  Whole chickens are on sale this week so I’ll get one for the freezer and maybe cook it next week.

Check out Menu Plan Monday to see what others are doing this week!