Hurricane Reminiscences

For school today, our family watched a National Geographic show about hurricanes, focusing on the hurricane season of 2004 – the year of Charlie, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne.  To remind you, Charlie went across the Florida peninsula, Frances also hit the peninsula, Ivan devastated the Florida panhandle, and Jeanne hit the Florida coast after devastating Haiti.

Now, you’re probably wondering, how does this affect someone who was living in The Great White North in 2004?  Fair question.  First of all, my parents live in West Palm Beach, Florida.  The don’t live near the coast, so they don’t typically evacuate.  They live in a solid concrete house, but it is surrounded by lots of trees.  They also have a screened in pool.  The screen was damaged after Frances, but it was about a year before they could get it fixed because all the contractors were busy with other jobs.  My in-laws lived in Brandon, FL.  They were also inland enough that their main worries were trees, power loss, and disruptions in other services.

In October of 2004, we took a trip to Baton Rouge to visit with Mr. Math Tutor’s grandmother (Grammy).  We also got to spend time with Mr. Math Tutor’s parents (Grandma and PawPaw) who came up from Brandon for a visit.  We spent some time on Sunday afternoon with Grammy, Grandma, and PawPaw, and Mr. Math Tutor’s brother and his family.  On Monday, we went to LSU (our alma mater) to show the kids Mike the Tiger.  Well, it was Mike’s birthday and there was a news crew out doing some filming and they interviewed PawPaw (Mr. Math Tutor’s dad) since he remembered the very first Mike the Tiger.  That night in our hotel, we watched the piece on the news.  Tuesday morning, we took Grandma and PawPaw to the airport for their trip back to Florida, and we drove north to Mississippi to meet my parents (Grandpa and Grams) at their trailer where they are going to build their retirement home.  Their trailer sits in the middle of one of three tiny spots in the country where we do not get cell phone reception.

At about midnight, my parents got a call from Mr. Math Tutor’s brother telling us that PawPaw had been taken to the hospital.  Thankfully, he had my parents Mississippi phone number from an old email since our cell phones didn’t work.  An hour later, he called to tell us that PawPaw had died.

Early the next morning (needless to say, we hadn’t slept much at all that night), we packed the van back up and headed down to Florida.  My parents had skipped driving I-10 to avoid any traffic hassles from the hurricanes since several areas of the highway had been badly damaged.  They had since, discovered, though, that the highway was passable.  The highway department had used pieces of the damaged highway to make a complete 2-way I-10 (only one lane each way) through the Panhandle.  As we got close to Brandon, I started calling to make a reservation at a hotel for us to stay at overnight.  We didn’t realize that there were almost no hotel rooms available since people displaced by the hurricanes were now living in hotels.  In addition, there was a PGA tournament in Tampa that weekend.  I managed to find a place for us to stay.  I should have known that we were in for an unpleasant night when we got there (totally exhausted and emotionally worn-out) and found that we did our transaction with the clerk through a little window and that the lobby was closed after dark.  Our room wasn’t too bad, but we’re pretty sure there was a drug deal going down in the hall.  EEK!

The next morning, Grandma told us that she had heard that our hotel was frequently raided on drug busts.  She had made some calls, though, and found a bed and breakfast with room for us.  This B&B was in a neighborhood very close to Grandma’s house.  It wasn’t supposed to be open because the wife usually did the hosting, but she was out of town.  The husband, though, opened the place for us after he heard about our predicament.  It ended up being wonderful.  We stayed in a little out-building right next to a little swimming pool.  I could bring the kids (ours and a cousin) to get out of all the grown-up emotion.

We did have one other interesting event during that week, although it wasn’t related to the hurricane.  After the wake, I was going to take the kids to get some food then to the hotel room to swim then watch a movie.  The cousin didn’t eat fast food – ever.  He had recently watched SuperSize Me and wouldn’t touch anything from McDonalds or Wendy’s.  We went by a Chinese restaurant and waited for 20 minutes to get him a meal.  Then, it was off to Wendy’s to get my kids something to eat – the 6 and 9 year old wanted good, old-fashioned fast food.  We stood in line for 15 minutes and got to the front to hear that they were out of french fries.  Out of french fries??  I wanted to scream at the person, “You can’t be out of french fries!  These children’s grandfather just died and the least they can have is some lousy french fries!”  But, not being given to confrontation, I calmly left the place and drove around for a few minutes to find a McDonald’s which DID have french fries.  Then, back to the B&B where the kids had a great time and I recovered from my exertions.

I will always remember the hurricane season of 2004 because of how it affected our lives several months later.  I’ll also be eternally grateful to the man who opened up the B&B so my family could sleep on  beds and not be in a drug-ridden area of town!

Death of a Childhood Friend

My dad called me a little while ago to tell me that a friend of mine from my growing up days died this morning from a heart attack. He was a year younger than I am – just 40 years old. This is the first person who has died from my generation of people I grew up with. He was a Christian and his family are Christians, so there is the comfort that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. But, it’s still disconcerting.

We lived around the corner from D’s family when I was in 6th grade through high school. During most of that time, there were very few other houses in the subdivision, so it was like we lived next door. We could walk through the vacant lots between our houses to visit. Of course, living in South Florida, we still took the road a lot because there were snacks and other critters in the woods. In middle school, D and my brother and I took the bus to school together every morning. One morning, we decided to skip school by hiding in the bushes until the bus passed and tell our parents that the bus didn’t come. Since we weren’t known for skipping school, the parents didn’t ask too many questions and we got away with it. I very clearly remember D teasing me because I was worried about skipping school and getting caught (I was quite the goody two-shoes).

For high school, D went to a Christian high school while my brother and I went to public school. We went to the same church for several years as well as living close to each other, so we saw each other frequently. His younger sister was born when I was 11 or 12 years old and I used to babysit her when D or his older sister wasn’t available. Most Christmas Days were spent with D’s family. We went over there for lunch, which included his grandparents as well.

Since I left home at 18, I’ve only seen D a couple of times. He got married and had a couple of kids. The last time I saw them, they were visiting my parents house with their little ones. The really funny thing is that D ended up becoming a professor of New Testament – yes, the same kid who convinced me to skip school in middle school. His parents and my parents have remained close. My mom helped take care of his mom when she had surgery. His parents now live about four hours from my parents, but they see each other (and both his sisters’ families) several times a year.

I’ll be praying for this family, but also for my parents. This was completely unexpected. I’ll hug my husband a little more tonight – and ask him to walk on the treadmill! And, I’ll be grateful, again, for a God who loved us enough to sacrifice his Son so that we can be with Him – and our friends – forever in heaven.

Rough Day

I’m not really sure why I’m blogging tonight.  My migraine started last night and has persisted all day today, albeit at a manageable level – at least, manageable if I didn’t do anything more than sit and read or knit.  But, research says that journaling about life and illness is good for people with chronic illness.  So, you might want to quit reading now if you’re reading expecting some point to this post since I’m just writing for the heck of it.

If you’re still with me, here’s a couple of random pictures of my kids to make you smile.

Are you smiling yet?  I am.  My kids are really cute – even if they are getting older.  Wild Man now has the drum set in his bedroom, but we’re still looking for a teacher.  And, no, he did not play drums today during my migraine.  I realized yesterday that next year, Wild Man will be in the Junior High group at church and Ga’hoole Girl will be in the High School group.  Yikes!  I’m getting old and I’m clearly not ready for this.

Ga’hoole Girl has taken up coin collecting recently.  She ordered some more nickel and penny books to hold her collection.  She found a dime yesterday that she thought might be missing the nickel cladding from the “tails” side.  To figure it out, she sent a question to allexperts.com.  They answered her back in about an hour and she was told that she needed to weigh the dime to see if it is likely to have a cladding error.  We don’t have a sensitive enough scale here (the dime should weigh 1/2 an ounce less than normal if it is missing the cladding) so she and Mr. Math Tutor are going to the high school to weight the dime in the physics lab.  It’s nice that Mr. Math Tutor knows the teachers.  He sent an email today to the physics teacher and she said to come by tomorrow morning during first hour and they could do the measurement.  If the dime really is defective, it could be worth $50.  Cool!

Ga’hoole Girl and I started watching a documentary about world-class whistlers.  Now she wants to get good at whistling and go to the annual competition.  Wild Man finished Discovery 2 in his AWANA book today.  It’s snowing now and we’re probably going to get another 2-4 inches – like we need anymore snow.  Then, it’s going to get wicked cold.  We were going to take Mr. Math Tutor out for his birthday on Wednesday night, but we decided that it would be OK to do it next week.  We aren’t real hip on the idea of driving 30 miles when the wind chills are 30 below zero.  But, the kids are excited about making snow ice cream tomorrow.

I made a huge pot of tomato soup on Saturday.  It’s a really hearty soup with lots of ham in it, along with cream and half & half.  Since I use the hambone to make the soup, Mr. Math Tutor doesn’t have to clean all the meat off when he’s cutting the ham, which is easier for him.  Then, we get tons of ham in the soup.  It also works out well today because I didn’t have to worry about meal planning.  Although, that doesn’t really make sense because Mr. Math Tutor made a frozen pizza for him and Ga’hoole Girl, and Wild Man made chicken nuggets for himself.  But, I don’t feel guilty about the lack of home-cooking because the soup was there if they didn’t want to do pizza or nuggets.

Enough rambling from me.  Feel free to post random thoughts in the comments.  I’ll post something coherent when my head isn’t splitting and I’m not seriously medicated.

More On The Not-So-New Me

I mentioned a week or so ago that I’m now working on eating better and exercising regularly so I thought I’d post an update.  My goals for this week were to track my eating and exercise and to do cardio on a regular basis.  I am happy to say that I have been successful on both counts.

I want to share something that has helped tremendously with keeping track of my both nutrition and fitness.  It’s a website called SparkPeople and it’s excellent.  On Sparkpeople, I can enter the food that I eat every day and see what my calorie intake is.  Their database is quite large, so I’ve only had trouble with homemade foods.  But, I found a generic “tomato bisque” that I use for my homemade tomato soup.  For green bean casserole, I entered the green beans and cream of mushroom soup separately.  It’s not perfect, but it is quite helpful.

Sparkpeople also allows me to track my exercise – both cardio and weight training.  The cardio is really easy to do – I just find my exercise (usually treadmill) and enter it with the amount of time.  Their weight-training section shows all kinds of different exercises using machines as bell as dumbells or exercise balls.  You can use it to plan a workout as well as record your workout, if you like.

There are all kinds of other helpful things on SparkPeople.  There are articles about nutrition, fitness, and motivation.  They have something called Spark Points to allow you to track your goals instead of just how much weight you lose.  The one really big problem I have with their site is that the main color is orange.  Yes, it’s petty, but I really don’t like the color orange.  I’m sure they used it because it’s supposed to be happy and all that stuff, but I just don’t like it!  Anyway, SparkPeople did not ask me to review their site, but I love it so much I figured I’d mention it here.  I did check out the tracking part of LiveStrong, but didn’t like it as much, and I’m sure there are other, similar sites out there that are similar.

I have noticed a couple issues with tracking my food and exercise.  First of all, even just recording this stuff for myself (although I do share it with my counselor) makes me far more likely to make good choices.  This is particularly true for exercise.  Second, it’s sometimes hard to be honest.  When I was working, I heard about a study that showed that overweight people usually underestimate how much they eat.  Being completely honest about how much I eat or exercise isn’t always easy.  Third, this week, my calorie count has been within my goal range (1200-1800) with tracking being the main change that I’ve made.  I’m eating less and better, but not hugely.  This tells me that my calorie count prior to tracking was probably not super-high and that I really need to work on increasing my metabolic rate (with strength training and regular exercise).

So, for this week, I have two more goals – one for eating and one for exercise.  My eating goal is to come up with several breakfast and lunch meals of 300-400 calories each and several snacks of 200-300 calories each so that I don’t have to think about what I am going to eat, and I can make sure that the food I need is in the house.  (I’m going to review Never Say Diet by Chantel Hobbs for Multnomah/Waterbrook Press.  That’s the book where I got the recommendation to eat 3 meals of 300-400 calories with two snacks of 200-300 calories each day.  Stay tuned for the review!)  My exercise goal is to get back to my weight training program now that I’m over my cold.  I started today by working out at the health club this afternoon.  I’ll do my home program one day this week.  It will be a challenge to do another day at the health club this week, though, because the high temps are going to be around zero for most of the week.  In any case, I’ll do my workout at home if nothing else.  Ga’hoole Girl and I did some exercise to an Irish Dance DVD this afternoon.  She wants for the two of us to do the warm-up together every day.  Sounds like fun!

Well, I’m sure that was more than you wanted to know.  But, it’s good for me to write it all down.  I see my counselor on Thursday so she and I will review how things are going.

 

Addendum: I lost 1 pound this week.  Not that I’m worrying about it or anything.

Book Review – The American Patriot’s Almanac

My book reviews are generally done on books that I’ve recently gotten from the library and are kind of a “public service” to help readers decide if they should read one of the books.  This review, though, is my first review for Thomas Nelson Publishers.  I received a complimentary copy of the book in order for me to review it. 

The American Patriot’s Almanac is a book of daily readings about people and events in the history of the United States of America.  The authors are William J. Benett and John T.E. Crabb.  The format of the book is pretty straightforward.  There is a daily reading of less than a page about some event related to that date in history.  Below that is the “American History Parade” – a list of five or more “this day in history” entries.  Between months are readings about other topics of interest such as “Fifty All-American Movies” or “How the Constitution Was Written and Ratified”.

This is a really fun way to get introduced to American History.  It’s little nuggets of info that leave the reader wanting for more (but in a good way).  I generally prefer World History to American History, but I thoroughly enjoyed the selections in this book.  As a trivia buff, I also loved the factoids at the bottom of the page.  Here are some random examples of the kinds of things included in this book: February 25 – Why the flag is called Old Glory; March 22 – Anne Hutchinson; July 14 (my birthday – which was NOT included – I’m crushed) – Presidential trivia; October 24 – the transcontinental telegraph; December 18 – the Tuskegee airmen.

I plan to use this book next fall when both kids start studying American History.  Already, Ga’hoole Girl has picked up the book several times to see what events were discussed on each of our birthdays as well as holidays.  She’s chomping at the bit to start reading this as a family.  The entries are just enough information to whet the kids’ appetites for more.

I strongly recommend The American Patriot’s Almanac for all families.  I certainly think it would be an excellent part of an American History curriculum, but it would also be nice just for a daily short reading.  Each entry gives us a reason to be thankful for our country and those who made it what it is today.

You can order this book from Thomas Nelson directly or from Amazon or Christian Book Distributors.

 

The Journey

This is what you get when you tell an artistic 13 year old girl to read about rivers and write a short paper:

Hello, I am a water molecule and this is my story.  I came from deep underground inside a mountain.  Then, one day, I found myself moving upwards with the rest of my friends and we came right up out of the ground in what is called a fresh water spring.  From there, we flowed through our drainage basin, which is like a trench in the mountain, and through the upper course of our river.  In the upper course, we were bounced, thrown, and jostled a lot and even went down a cliff in a waterfall.  During that time, our groups was crystal clear and free of mud and sand.  A little while later, we flowed through the lower course of our river.  In this part of the river, we were joined by other tributaries and I met many new friends.  A friend of mine who had been down the river once and had actually ended up back in our spring said that there was a large curve in the river, but all that was there was a straight stretch and odd curvy lake that older molecules called an oxbow lake.  Anyway, as we went through the lower course, we picked up some passengers.  Mud, sand, and silt were the main ones, but we also picked up some rock particles we wore away on our trip.  After a few days of that we came to the delta.  In the delta, we all split off into smaller and smaller groups until all that was left of our great river was a giant, mushy marsh.  In there, we picked up some green algae and had our first brush with salt water molecules.  the really weren’t all that different.  From there, we were swept slowly into the sea, and I’ve never seen my home spring again.  It’s not as bad as you’d think, though.  It’s actually rather fun being evaporated and condensed and rained down on the earth.  Since my first journey down the river, I have joined many other rivers.  In some of them, there are large dame.  When I run into one of these, I often sit for weeks on end and sometimes evaporate.  Other time, I am funneled through a machine that uses me and my friends to turn wheels.  What I have told you is the story of a water molecule.  It is the story of my journey.

My requirements for her writing are just that she shows me that she learned about the topic she was studying.  I think this paper does that nicely.

Our Week in Review – 1/9/2009

Can I just say that this was a great week for homeschooling?  Truly, things went far more smoothly than I could have hoped.  Starting back to schoolwork after a vacation is usually a challenge.  This week, though, things really went well.  I had a couple of headaches, but we were able to work around them with minimal hassle (well, except for Ga’hoole Girl’s missed piano lesson because of the migraine).  The kids took everything in stride and worked hard.

I planned this week on Homeschool Tracker Plus.  I had a daily list for each child, a weekly list for Ga’hoole Girl and a weekly list for me (mostly read-aloud stuff).  I had Wild Man getting up by 9am so he and I could start working by 10am.  Ga’hoole Girl was up by 10 so she could start working by 11am.  As I noted in my last post, I really focused this week on getting the kids’ schoolwork done before I got started on anything else.

I have a ton of stuff recorded on the DVR, so we watched one or more DVR shows each day.  Monday was a documentary on Sir Francis Drake, Tuesday was a documentary about Operation Valkyrie (the attempted assassination of Hitler), Wednesday was a show about birds of prey and another about light speed, then Thursday was two shows about Hitler.  Only the show about Sir Francis Drake actually fits in our curriculum right now, but the others were interesting and educational.  I realized while we were watching that watching DVDs at home is far different than watching filmstrips was when I was in school.  The kids talk and laugh during the movie.  When they don’t understand something or want to talk about it, we stop the show for a discussion.  They really engage the material more than I would have expected.

Ga’hoole Girl is learning some basic statistics in her math course while Wild Man is working on polygons.  Wild Man finished his Spanish course, but I’m waiting for Power-Glide to send me the password for him to start the next semester.  Ga’hoole Girl is finishing her Spanish course.

Wild Man and I are spending a lot of time these days on Language Arts.  He did spelling three times this week, handwriting three times, and Explode the Code four times.  He did some reading on his own (unassigned) but has been reading The Whipping Boy out loud to me.  Mr. Math Tutor is reading A Murder for Her Majesty to the whole family.

Ga’hoole Girl was ahead with her Bible work, so she didn’t do any this week.  Wild Man practiced the books of the New Testament and finished up the requirements for Discovery 2 in his AWANA book.  As as family, we are still reading in the book of Exodus.

Both kids wrote letters to their foster friends this week.  Ga’hoole Girl helps us sponsor a girl in the Dominican Republic so she tries to write every few months.  Our family has been sponsoring a child at the Children’s Shelter of Cebu in the Philippines for quite awhile, but I’m trying now to remember to write to her regularly.  She and Wild Man are the same age, so I’m having him write letters to her.

Ga’hoole Girl was feeling quite creative this week with writing.  For her history writing, she did a long poem about the life of Sir Francis Drake.  Her science writing is the story of a water molecule as it travels from underneath a mountain and out to the sea.  It is based on her reading about rivers in her Earth Science book.

I have had the kids doing thirty minutes of physical activity each day.  As an incentive, I will allow them to watch a movie while they walk on the treadmill.  They both walked and watched movies on Monday and Tuesday.  The rest of the week, though, Ga’hoole Girl went outside to play in the snow, and Wild Man walked on the treadmill while reading a Harry Potter book.

This was a great homeschooling week for us.  I hope that things continue to go well from now on.  I am optimistic because a lot of what went well was that the kids had good attitudes.  They did what was asked without complaining (too much).  What about you?  How was your week?  Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-Ups.

Heart of the Matter Meme – 1/9/2009

 

Here’s the prompt for today’s Heart of the Matter meme:

2008 is behind us and we are two weeks into the New Year! In considering your resolutions, or simply your hopes and goals for 2009, how do you plan on accomplishing them? What is some great advice you can give someone about homeschooling?..or maybe you simply have some encouragement for parents of your own! Can’t wait to read the posts…remember that many people struggle with the after-Christmas let down. What keeps you positive?

One of the things about our schooling that has really been bothering me is inconsistency.  Granted, a good bit of it is due to my headaches, but I would like to get a little better about getting our formal schoolwork done.  I still plan to keep the stuff on the list to a reasonable level to let the kids pursue their own interests.

This week, I started planning each day with schoolwork at the top of my mind.  The most important thing for me at any given moment during the day is the kids’ schoolwork.  This simple act of prioritizing has really helped us this week.  I made sure Wild Man was up by 9am so he and I could start working together at 10am.  I made sure Ga’hoole Girl was up by 10am and then checked in with her as she was starting her schoolwork at 11am.  When both kids were doing independent work, I could spend time on the computer or doing housework, but I didn’t put off their schoolwork while I was busy doing something else.

This week really was a great week in the school department.  Check out my Week in Review post later for details!  Now, go to Heart of the Matter Online to see how others are answering this meme.

Homeschooling Advantages

We have been back doing schoolwork for three days now, and it has been a really good three days.  Even today, when I felt yucky for a good bit of the day, ended up being really good.  I have thought several times this week how glad I am that we educate our kids at home.

Wild Man would certainly be in some kind of special education class because of his dyslexia if her was in formal schooling.  He still really struggles with reading, but his learning in other ways is well above average.  I also would hate to see how he would deal with a classroom setting all day every day.  When he is working on schoolwork, he is almost always singing or talking out loud.  Some of it is just because he likes to hear his own voice, but some of it is because it helps him learn.  He often talks himself through math problems.  These are things that simply can't be accommodated in a classroom.  I also wonder if he wouldn't be considered ADD.  His attention span is definitely short - but he's a ten year old boy.  Here at home, we can work around these issues and focus on learning, not on classroom function.

Ga'hoole Girl has been very busy today.  I asked her to get her room completely clean today, since it was neglected over the holidays.  She then swept the floor and cleaned it with Orange-Glo.  Then, she rearranged her furniture and sorted through her books.  It's been a good while since she's been so interested in cleaning.

I have Ga'hoole Girl write two short "papers" every week - one on history or Bible and one on science.  She has been very good about not procrastinating this week.  For her history writing, she decided to write a poem about Sir Francis Drake.   It contains the same info that a 2-3 paragraph assignment would contain, but in poetic form.  It's really cool to see her exercise her creativity this way.

I love to homeschool because I love to be with my kids, but the last three days have been really good to help me see other advantages.  It's apparent that Wild Man is thriving at home, but would not be at school.  Ga'hoole Girl is starting to stretch her wings more.  Whatever happens in the future, I don't regret that their education has been at home thus far.

Works For Me Wednesday - 1/7/2009

 

One of the challenges of living in The Great White North is keeping kids active during the winter.  They each have a 30 minute dance class during the week, and they are always trying to get me to take them swimming, but I have had trouble getting them to be active on a daily basis.  When it's not too cold, they both enjoy playing out in the snow.  Unfortunately, we have far too many days when even the high temps are far too cold for outdoor playtime.

I think I have come up with a solution.  First of all, I put physical activity on their daily school list.  It has to be done before they can watch TV or play Nintendo.  Here's the great part for winter: they can walk on our treadmill.  Both kids are now old enough to walk on the treadmill without constant supervision.  The incentive for them is that they can watch up to 45 minutes of a DVD as long as they are walking on the treadmill.  They are happy because they get DVD time; I'm happy because they are up and moving.

How do you keep your kids moving on a daily basis?  Are seasonal issues a concern for you?  Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday ideas!!

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday - 1/6/2009

Last week, I made Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup for the family on Tuesday night.  Everyone except Wild Man really enjoyed it.  For New Year's Eve, we had two of the kids' friends over, age 14 and 11.  The soup was all gone before 10pm!  The kids thought it was wonderful!  So, I decided to share the recipe on my blog today.  I found this recipe (by Darryl Kilsdonk) in the Appleton Post-Crescent a couple of years ago.

Ingredients:

• 6 large onions, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 2 heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 5 cups chicken stock or canned broth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions

• Preheat over to 350 degrees.
• Place the onions and garlic in a shallow roasting pan (I don't have a roasting pan, so I just split everything between two 9x13 pans which works quite well for me.)
• Add 3 cups chicken stock then sprinkle with thyme, pepper, and kosher salt.  Dot with butter.
• Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir once or twice while it is baking.  (Note:  I quite often bake for 1 3/4 hours to 2 hours which makes the onions softer and the soup creamier.)
• Remove the pan from the oven and use a blender or food processor to puree the onions and garlic with the liquid in batches, until smooth.
• With the motor on, gradually add the remaining 2 cups stock and the cream.  Pour the soup into a large saucepan.  (My blender won't hold all the soup, so I blend the contents of one 9x13 pan, empty it into the saucepan, then repeat with the contents of the other pan, then add the remaining broth and cream directly to the saucepan.  I usually puree the living daylights out of the soup so it ends up being quite smooth.)
• Adjust the seasonings and slowly heat through.  Do not allow the soup to boil.  Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.  Serves 6 to 8.

This soup is delicious with french bread.  But, make sure that your spouse or significant other enjoys it with you or the garlic could be overwhelming.  Check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace for more great recipes!! 

 

Tuesday morning

I've been up since 5:30am (you know that's not normal) with a cold and headache.  Actually, the headache isn't too terrible, but I can't sleep anymore because my nose is so stuffed up.  I have sleep apnea, so I use a CPAP machine at night.  If my nose is stuffy, I can't breathe through my mouth (well, I can, but it's hard), so I can't sleep.  And, I'm trying to avoid getting addicted to Afrin.

So, after I'm done blogging, I think I'll go play my daughter's Nintendo DS.  Perhaps not the best use of my time, but the best use of my time would be sleeping, and that's not going to happen right now, so I may as well figure out how to get to the next island and fight the big, bad monsters.  Confused?  That's OK, so am I.  I'll be coherent sometime in the next week or so.

Winter Camp Wrap-up

While at winter camp this weekend, I wrote four blog posts.  I couldn't post them until we got home, though, so they showed up on here about an hour ago.  We can't get Wi-Fi at camp, but Mr. Math Tutor was able to access the internet on his Blackberry.  Don't worry, though, he didn't use it for any entertainment purposes.  He only checked the weather.

My migraine Friday night kept me in bed until lunchtime.  Mr. Math Tutor and the kids were good enough, though, to bring me some breakfast.  I'm glad they did because breakfast was waffles and bacon - YUM!  After lunch, Ga'hoole Girl and I went on a sleigh ride.  It was definitely nippy, but fun.  If you look at the tree in the middle of the picture, you might see a brown smudge which is the porcupine that was up the tree.

Saturday afternoon, Ga'hoole Girl and I went to a class about maple syrup in which we learned how maple syrup is obtained and processed.  On Sunday, all four of us went to a class on snow ice cream.   We had tried to make snow ice cream a few years ago by mixing condense milk with snow, but I wasn't really thrilled with the results.  In this class, we mixed sugar with half-and-half and coffee flavorings, then stirred in snow.   Of course, since we were in the Nature Center, we learned about how ice cream forms, and why snow ice cream is possible.  I made a chocolate-mint ice cream, which was pretty good.

We were supposed to get 7-9 inches of snow on Saturday night, but it turned out to only be one inch.  Further south, though, there was freezing rain and rain.  We were glad that we were staying through lunch on Sunday so that the roads were in better shape.    We had a quiet night in our room on Saturday night and then enjoyed a delicious breakfast on Sunday morning.  Mr. Math Tutor and I went for a walk to and on the lake.  I still can't get over being  able to walk on the lake in January and swim in it in July.  Of course, I don't usually swim at camp since the water is so cold.  Wonder why that is?!

I was a little bummed that I didn't get to go skiing, but having a cold and getting over a migraine was a combination that did not lend itself to spending an hour falling down in the snow.  We really enjoyed the weekend, though.  It was a nice way to start the New Year as a family.

Menu Plan Monday - 1/5/2009

  The first full week of the New Year!  What to do for meals??  I made some beef and barley soup tonight, so that will be on the menu for three nights.  Otherwise, I'll be keeping it simple while we spend the week putting away the Christmas stuff and finishing rearranging our house (kind of a New Year's tradition around here).

1. Beef and Barley Soup with french bread

2. Beef and Barley Soup with focaccia

3. Beef and Barley Soup with salad (maybe - depends on how the salad greens look at the grocery store)

4. Macaroni, broccoli, and cheese sauce

5. Tacos

6. Chicken gumbo or chicken and dumplings

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie to see what's on the menu at other folks' homes this week!

A New Year, A New Me?!

I don’t really “do” New Years’ Resolutions.  I certainly don’t try to remake myself every year with the  “It’s a New Year, and a New You!” gimmicks that are out there.  I do like to take some time at the New Year and my birthday (which are six months apart) to evaluate how things are going and set new goals for myself.  I haven’t done much of that in the last couple of years since everything has felt so chaotic.  This year, though, is a little different.

I have been working with my counselor for almost a year to help manage my life and my headaches.  We worked through a workbook on chronic pain which was very useful to help me learn to manage expectations while living with pain.  Now, she and I are working on diet and exercise issues.

I have been overweight for most of my adult life, but it was mostly an annoyance until about three years ago when I gained even more weight because of some medication changes.  Unfortunately, the weight didn’t come off when the medications were stopped because I have become something of a couch potato.  I never liked exercise much before, but I have been less active than usual over the last three years, partly because of headaches.

My counselor and I are now working to get me to exercising as much as possible for my situation in life.  Mr. Math Tutor and I got a family membership at a local health club.  The kids will get to swim there as well.  So far, I have been very good about walking on the treadmill at home.  My trainer at the health club wants me to do weight training three times a week.  I think that’s optimistic, but I’m going to give it a try.  I’m also looking forward to doing some cross-country skiing this winter.

I am also reading Never Say Diet and the Never Say Diet Fitness Planner by Chantel Hobbs by Waterbrook Press.  I will be doing a full review and giveaway in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, I have enjoyed Hobbs’ candid writing about her struggles with healthy eating and exercise.

From Chantel Hobbs’ website, I came across sparkpeople.com.  This is a website that allows you to keep track of eating and exercise for free.  I really like the interface.  They have preset diet and exercise plans or you can just keep track of your own plan.

I don’t like to make big resolutions, but prefer to set reasonable short-term goals.  For the next two weeks, my goals are to eat a healthy breakfast (not a big problem for me), exercise every day that I don’t have a debilitating migraine, and keep track of my eating and exercise.

I don’t have any desire to have a “new me”.  Frankly, I’m pretty happy with who God made me.  I do hope, though, to work on some of these smaller goals to get to a healthier me.  Do you do New Years’ Resolutions?  What are they?  How are you going to meet them?

My Kid is Smarter than I Am

This really shouldn’t surprise me.  We were on a sleigh ride through the winter woods today when the driver pointed out a porcupine up in a tree.  I said to Ga’hoole Girl that I didn’t even know that they could climb trees.  She said that, of course they can climb trees, because they eat wood.  I didn’t know that they ate wood, either.  How does this kid know this stuff?  You can’t say she’s not educated!!

Something New!

My kids each got a Nintendo DS for Christmas this year.  I have never been a fan of playing video games myself, but I don’t see any harm to the reasonable use of such devices.  Last night, here at camp, I picked up Ga’hoole Girl’s DS and started playing Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.  I am addicted.  I have always kind of enjoyed watching the kids solve the Zelda puzzles on the GameCube, but I could never really get into the controls of the GameCube or GameBoy.  The Nintendo DS,though, uses a touch screen and stylus, which is quite comfortable for me.  I have gotten killed a bunch while trying to get used to how everything works.  I guess I’m still on the learning curve.  But, I’m having a blast!!

Winter Wonderland

I am writing from camp right now, but since there’s no internet connection here, this won’t get posted till we get home tomorrow afternoon or Monday.  This is our second year to enjoy a weekend in the Northwoods in the winter.  Our trip here was mildly interesting.  Before we left home, we couldn’t get the hood on the car to completely latch.  It was probably due to the cold, because we got it to latch when we stopped to pick up some stuff in town.  (We were going to stop at the car place to see if they could fix it before we left – thankfully, we didn’t have to.) 

When we were about 30 minutes from camp (about 2 hours from home), I realized that I left my coat at home!  It was cold when we left home, but I had just run from the house to the car in my sweatshirt and never noticed that I had left my coat, hat, and gloves inside.  We have made do, though.  Mr. Math Tutor had an extra pair of gloves and an extra hat, then bought a lined windbreaker from the canteen.  So, for $40, we managed to keep us from freezing.

We got here just in time for dinner last night and then hoped to ski or tube.  Sadly, though, it was below zero after dinner, so we stayed in for the evening.  I got a migraine in the middle of the night, so I didn’t do any outdoor activities until after lunch.

Mr. Math Tutor and Wild Man did some cross-country skiing after breakfast.  Then, Mr. Math Tutor and Ga’hoole Girl went ice skating.  They also did a session in the nature center where they learned to make snow ice cream.  After lunch, the kids and I did a couple of runs down the tube hill. It was fun, but I’m sure I’ll be sore from climbing the stairs.  Ga’hoole Girl and I went on a sleigh ride and then learned about maple syrup at the nature center.

We are forecast to get 5-7 inches of snow here tonight, so we aren’t planning to do any more Winter Wonderland activities tonight.  We’ll have to see about tomorrow morning.  Except for the migraine, this is turning out to be a great start to the new year!

The Simple Woman's Daybook - January 5, 2009

FOR TODAY January 5, 2009:

Outside My Window...

It is white and cold.

I am thinking...

How much I don't like my cold.

I am thankful for...

My kids and hubby!

From the learning rooms...

We watched a DVD about Sir Francis Drake today.

From the kitchen...

Beef and Barley soup and French Bread are cooking.

I am wearing...

Sweat pants and a T-shirt.

I am creating...

A sweater for Mr. Math Tutor and a poncho for Ga'hoole Girl.

I am going...

Nowhere - until tomorrow.

I am reading...

A book about the women of the Windsor family and an almanac of American history.

I am hoping...

For a quiet night tonight.

I am hearing...

The dishwasher running and Wild Man and Mr. Math Tutor setting up a drum set.

Around the house...

The cats are sleeping.

One of my favorite things...

Is fresh French Bread!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:

Doing scheduled "school work" every day.

Oh, My!

Mr. Math Tutor just brought home a set of drums for Wild Man to learn to play.  They are a very old set from someone at church.  It's going to be an interesting 2009.