Puttin' On The Teacher's Hat Again

Today I taught my first lesson in 7 years.

I did.

Granted, my students also happen to my offspring.

But hey, still counts.

We started school today. And surprisingly, the day went quite smoothly. I wasn't sure what to expect, or how to expect it. I didn't know if I'd be able to pull off the transitions and segues that the girls would need to keep going. But I must have figured it out somehow, because they did.

And you know what the best part about the day was?

They smiled.

I sat them down for lessons, and they grinned with glee. And listened.

I sat them down with work to complete, and they smiled. And completed their work.

I had them working at their computer stations, and they giggled. And used the computer with a strange amount of saviness that I didn't know they had.

Will this peaceable behavior continue? Who knows. (But let the record state that I am choosing to turn a blind eye to conventional wisdom here and proudly shout out, "YES. Yes it will. All year. Smiles, smiles, smiles galore. I'll be the Woman Whose Children Smile During Homeschool All The Time. So there.)

Day One: Score.

The Night Before First Grade

A little diddy, in honor of our new adventure with Ohio Virutal Academy.

'Twas the night before First Grade

and all through our house,

everyone was sleeping,

but not Genie, our pet mouse.

Our school things were put

on the shelving with care,

awaiting the morning,

which soon would be there.

The children were 'snuntered',

all snug in their beds,

while visions of Tinkerbell erasers

danced in their heads.

And I in my "Teach's Cap",

and OCD on my brain,

had finalized my lesson plans,

and felt much less insane.

When out on the roof

there arose such a clatter!

Wait. No, it was just one of the roofer's

leftover ladders.

It fell from a peak

to the sidewalk below,

narrowling missing the shingles,

and avoiding a row.

Both of the PCs on small tables

with tiny chairs pushed in

gave the lustre of "An Office"

and of working there-in.

But wait!

What to my wondering

eyes should appear

but a blue screen of death...

the thing all techies most fear.

More rapid than a junky's,

my heart how it raced.

 And I whistled and  shouted,

as 'round the room I did pace.

"Now how could this be?

Now what shall I do?

Stupid computers!

What's the matter with you??

My daughters start school

and I need you to teach.

Without your help, we're

left in a true breach.

And as odd thoughts that before

a wild dream comes to an end,

as the chemicals of waking

cause conciousness to begin;

up to my brain the Seratonin, it flew,

I awoke with a shudder and in an instant, I knew.

The blue screen of death

was no phantom, or haint.

It was a meaningless dream!

Oh! Thank you, sweet Saints.

As I cleared out my head,

and was turning around,

my alarm clock rang off,

with the usual, unnerving sound.

Still fresh from my nightmare,

I meandered downstairs.

I turned on the computers and

at the screens I did stare.

No blue screens awaited me!

No message of doom!

Just familiar homepage,

so I danced a jig 'round the room.

Let the school day begin!

Let this new year start.

Our courses are ready...

I've even made a chart.

The crayons, how new

and how perfectly tipped.

The pencils so sharp,

and by two girls, hand picked.

And with cupboards full of materials,

and books filled with such knowledge,

We'll get this thing started,

and pray "Scholarship" for college.

But before I call

those two ladies to wake,

another look around the room

I quickly must take.

We're ready to go.

And now I shall say,

Happy "Day One" to all!

(And let's rock out First Grade.)

Back To School

School starts for us on Monday.
For the girls.
For me.

Last year I started the year with tears, sending them off on their way with moisture blurring my eyes.

But this year is different. When they start school on Monday, I will be sitting right along side side them; teaching them this vast, expansive plane that is First Grade. We'll walk it together, they and I. We'll share a new journey, one day at a time.

I've spent today putting the final touches on our learning spaces; organizing it just so, and then reorganizing it again. Pulling out my lesson plan book and making last minute changes to how we'll approach each subject, each lesson. I'm dusting off my Teacher's Cap; gosh I missed it.

I'm ready for this new adventure. More than that, I'm excited for it.

I hope my students are too.

Learning A Lesson Of Patience

I am an impatient person. It's a fault to which I will readily admit.
I have a very extremely hard time waiting to see the fruits of any true labor, whatever it may involve. All through my  life, a constant companion on my journey has been the ever multiplying question of When.
                                        When will I get a teaching assignment?
                                                 When will I get pregnant?
                                                         When will we get a house?
                                                              
Often times those questions of "When" are joined by their sinister second cousins, the "What If" family.
                                          "When will my babies be born?" marries with
              "And what if everything goes wrong before they have a chance?"

                             "When will they potty train?" joins the train of thought with
                       "And what if they never do??"

Voila. Now you have the granddaddy of all troublesome mental states: Doubt, which so eloquently parlays into Uncertainty.

I find that my tendency towards impatience often leads to doubting so many things.
             I worry.
                    I hedge.
                          I fret.

In general, I have the power to make myself completely and utterly miserable. All on my own, thank you very much.

And I'm working on that, earnestly. Being a mom has taught me to slow things down. To take a "Wait and See" approach with so many things in my life. I have gotten very careful about wishing the present away; planting my feet firmly in the Terra of Today. Here and now.

I pray about it. Constantly. But carefully. Praying for patience can be a tricky thing, you know. Sometimes His answer is to hand off more "practice opportunities", after all. Not that I'm not in need of practice. I am. I surely, surely am. Sometimes I just feel like I've got all I can handle right now.

But I'm progressing. I think so. But slowly.

                                                  I'm learning a lesson called Patience.
                                                         Can't wait till I have it all learned.

This whole Adulthood-Responsibility-Growing Older & Wiser thing is a lot harder that I thought it was going to be. But I'm learning an awful lot along the way.



                                        
                                                         

Let Them Eat Cake. And Let It Be Moist.

I love to bake. Oh, I sure do. Put me in the kitchen, hand me a bowl, a wooden spoon, a couple of ingredients, and I'm in heaven. Love it.

I'm always on the lookout for some stellar new recipes to add to my repertoire; always seeking out new ways to make my favorite things even better.

My current search has been for a yellow cake recipe that stands up for itself with some pride. I'm not knocking the boxed mixes (they're great), but sometimes only homemade will do. There's just something irresistibly homey about from scratch vanilla cake. So good. And yet, so incredibly coarse and completely unlike what I've come to associate with Yellow Cake.

I know that thanks to the folks at Betty Crocker I have been programmed to believe their version of yellow cake IS yellow cake, but I've always felt there is something else out there calling to me. Some yellow cake recipe that is greater than the mighty Betty which could stand up to her and her boxy old ways.

I was aiming to knock Ms. Crocker down a peg or two.

For awhile, I was starting to think Betty had won.

But today, Eureka!  A bakery success worthy of accolades and much glad tidings. Using a combination of recipes and techniques, I may just have stumbled upon one of the quickest, easiest, and tastiest from scratch yellow cake recipes I've encountered yet.

It was light, yet had a moist, tender crumb. Hallelujah. Bring out the forks and plates. No ice cream for me; this cake deserves to be enjoyed un-a-la-mode, thanks.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

What You'll Need:

1 cup butter OR you can also use a 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening

(Shh, fat haters. This is cake. Cake has fat. Cake has calories.

 If you're balking, go eat a rice cake.)

2 cups white sugar

(Sugar-haters can join the fat haters in rice cake bliss).

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

(Use the good stuff here, please.)

1 package (small) Vanilla Instant Pudding

2 3/4 cup cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup milk

(Don't use skim for this. Fat helps in cakes so go for 2% or higher. You've already got all that butter going on, might as well finish the race, right?)

What You'll Do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cake pan (9x13 or 2 9 inch round pans), line with parchment, then grease and flour. (I know that sounds redundant, but it works, okay? Why must you always question me? Geesh).

In a mixer, beat together butter (or butter/shortening) and sugar till creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, and pudding. Turn the mixer to medium, and let it go to town on the mixing for 8-10 minutes. Sound like alot? Maybe. But the longer you beat the sugar, the more it will mix into the fat and the less grainy your final product will be. Grainy cake = boo. Keep on mixing, my friend.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk until very well blended and light.

Add flour mixture to the now fluffy and beautiful wet mixture, alternating with the milk. Mix until well blended.

Pour batter into your prepared pans. Stand back and take a moment to admire your handiwork. You just made a cake, darn it! From scratch, no less. Lick a beater, pat yourself on the arm, and say "Well done, self. Well done."

Bake for 30-45 minutes until cake tests done, depending on your pan size.

Note that if you've gone the all butter route (which I did), you'll want to watch for browning after about 15-20 minutes. Cover cake with foil to stop that from becoming over browning.

When done, cool completely and frost.
Note: Be very careful with 8 inch pans with this. 9-10inch round pans work better. If you use 8 inch, watch carefully for overbrowning. I'd let it get the color you like and then cover with foil for the rest of the time.

Why yes, I'll have a piece.

Don't be a hater, Betty Crocker. You had your day in the sun.

Why do today what you can deal with tomorrow?

Getting ready for anything feels like a crazy thing.

At least with kids attached it does, anyway.

Quick run to the store? Alone, sure; add the munchkins and not so much.

Just want to go out for a fast paced walk? Err, guess again.

Need to head out to a doctor's appointment? Too bad it was set for 5 minutes ago, oh ye who was never late.

The funny part of all of this is that when the girls were babies, truly time consuming babies, I had my routine so ironed out that we were able to plan a trip to the store and be on our way in under 15 minutes.

(I'm taking a moment to remember those amazing feats of diligence. Sigh).

Now it seems there's always some small crisis separating me from the car. A lost shoe, another round of pee, a sudden affliction of thirst or hunger, a misplaced toy.

Out. All I want is to open the door, walk through it, and close it. Bye-bye. Off I go.

They're slowing me down, these two.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it. More like, just curious. How is it that when they were tiny and stereotypically supposed to be slowing me down, we were out the door in a flash. And now when they should be more independently adept to this cause, they're bringing our truck to a screeching halt?

I'm pondering this even as I sit and wait for them to get themselves pulled together enough to walk out the door. Sure, I could impose more rules on the topic: We're out the door by the count of 20, or Whatever is in your hand when I call Blue is what you bring, or No Toys, etc, etc, etc.

But mostly I just don't care at the moment. Mentally, it's not a fight I want to deal with today, so I'll put it off till tomorrow.

Yes, I know where that tricky road leads. I've been down it before.

But sometimes, you just got to revisit places, right?

Keeping Your Feet On The Ground

May it just be said that although I love adventure and discovery, I do not love heights. Take me out into Nature and I'll explore the heck out of it; I'll check out the local flora and fauna, tramp about from one path to another, and even sit and stare at the wonder of some amazing site.

Just please let me keep both feet on the ground.

And I prefer to not do anything the involves raging speeds either; I am more of a meanderer, if it's all the same to you.

Caedance, on the other hand, is my speed demon. Show her a hill and she wants to stand on the top of it. Go a bit fast in the car, and she'll be calling out from the backseat to go faster.

And she loves roller coasters.

A lot.

Yesterday she went on the Magnum at Cedar Point for the first time.
205 foot hill and speeds of 72mph. I watched as my 6 1/2 year old waved to me at the base of that first lift, smiling as the cars started going up. I watched as the train pulled higher and higher, and gulped when it went higher still. I held my breath when it cruised over that first hill, soaring down, down, down, and out of sight. And I smiled with relief when I saw her grinning face as the train made it's way back to the station.

She did it.

And she loved it.
A lot.

Caedance & Dan