Learn Something with Me

Return of The Learner

2010-05-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Howdy everybody!

I just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that I'm back in Learning Mode! My respite took a little longer than I was planning and included several trips to the hospital (by various family members) and a variety of other learning adventures. I've got pictures and stories to share and plan to post them tonight in my update. :)

In the meantime I'll share one of my new favorite sites :) I confess that I stayed up much later than I'd planned last night looking at pics on this hilarious photoblog:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

And as a special treat, later this week I'll post some of my own awkward family photos. How about you? Have any hilariously awkward pics of your family?

I'll be back later - to keep you posted. :)

Spring Lessons in the Works

2010-04-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring Everybody!

My little posies. :)

Oh, my dear month of April. Every year it's here and gone before I know it. I've had to take a little detour on my path to learning. It seems that while you can learn something new every day and tackle spring cleaning and write a blog and keep up with all the everyday stuff . . . it usually comes with the price tag of a 2 a.m. bedtime.

My husband keeps offering to build me a padded Velcro wall so I can put the kids in little terrycloth suits and just, ya know, stick them up there. "They'd think it was fun and just think of all the stuff you could get done!" Every time he mentioned it I always chuckled and thought how funny my husband is and what crazy and unique ideas he has. Until I learned today that Velcro walls actually exist.

And you can rent them.

I gotta say, that looks pretty fun . . .

"Why do you need a Velcro wall?" you might find yourself asking yourself.

(If you are the sort that would ask such a thing of yourself.)

Well, I will give you the example of my daughter's recent birthday.

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I Learned to Laugh "Today"

I set out to make a layered birthday cake. It was on my to-learn list ever since my lesson on how to make a cake from scratch. Of course, I was also running around trying to get the house prepared for the Par-tay that night. What a bustle of activity! I whipped up the cake from a box. Although I am a new fan of scratch cakes, I still have a few boxed ones to use up. I planned on putting my extra time into decorating the cake, anyway. Most girls I know that are her age want ponies or princesses or butterflies on their cakes. And their parents buy beautiful works of art from the local bakery. Because of Waybum's food allergies we can't get a lot of bakery items. And it's alright because those cakes cost more than the presents we bought for her.

Waybums wanted a dinosaur cake. A pink dinosaur cake.

So, I got started . . .

Mmm. Strawberry cake.

I put the cake in the oven and set the kitchen timer
and bustled about on the preparations.

Like clearing off the table.
Which on that day was a hefty order. . .

AAAAAHHH!

I had started sorting the kids' clothes and downstairs toys on top of the table and somehow other things layered on top and before I knew it, FEMA showed up and asked if I needed some help. . .

I worked on it for awhile and was ready to throw my hands in the air and have people eat their hamburgers on the driveway. And then I started scolding myself. Out loud. Why did I volunteer to have a party when I am in the midst of an ongoing, massive organization project? Am I crazy? What was I thinking?

-BeeP!-

Cake's done.

I took the cake out of the oven and put it on
the rack on the back of the counter to cool.

I figured, "I'd just let Super Hubby clear the table when he gets home and I'll work on the bedroom."
Because the biggest design flaw in this place is that you can only access the main floor bathroom by going through the master bedroom. So I was in there reclaiming it from the laundry (again) and pondering that I don't know who remodeled our house, but it seems to me that they didn't really think it through.

Here is one example of their throw-it-togetherness:

Let's put an arch in the bedroom - wouldn't that be cool?

Oh, but there's a window frame in the way.

Ooh! Let's just cut the original 1900s window frame to accomodate

the cheesy plaster decor. But we'll paint it after we put it in....

I mean, really?

Anyway, I was contemplating this when Waybums came running into the bedroom.

"Mother! Come to the kitchen quick!! It's an EMeRGeNCY!"

I ran to the kitchen, going over the possibilities in my brain on the way there.

Fire? Don't see how that could be. The oven's off.

Flood? Sink's off and dishwasher isn't running...

Tornado? Well, it may look like one hit. . .

I got to the kitchen and realize that the natural disaster was . . .

Little Sister.

I had taken the precaution of pushing the cake to the back of the counter, but it seemed that I underestimated the ingenuity of a little person that smelled
strawberry cake and wanted to sample it. On the sly.

Little Koda, tiny thing, had dragged a chair to the kitchen and climbed up onto the counter and was leaning over a decimated layer of cooling strawberry cake.

AAAAAAAHH!

LoL! Ok, so I can laugh now.

In fact, it didn't take me very long to laugh then.

(And now you know why a Velcro wall would be so handy for me.)

I guess what I learned from this experience is that

things get stressful it sometimes and make me want to . . .

. . . well, you know.

But I am trying my hardest to take everything in perspective.

It's just a cake.

It's just a messy table.

It's not going to ruin life as I know it

and I am sure that we'll all survive.

Super Hubby picked up another mix from the store

and instead of a two-layer cake . . .

Waybums got a three-layer cake.

Tah-dah!

She said it was the most beautiful cake she ever saw.

(Of course she also thought the apple-flavored potato-starch Easter grass was yummy,

so there's no accounting for taste, there.)

And because she's just such a sweetheart,

she had insisted that Koda should get her own cake, too.

That is, after she served her sentence in time-out.

And as for the table . . . it got cleared off.
(Thanks to heroic measures from Super Hubby.)

Although I found it amusing to see what it looked like after the party....

What was all that fuss for again?

You'll be pleased to know that it has fully recovered since then.

When something seems overwhelming I am just learning to stop and evaluate.

My new motto is

"If it's going to be a funny story someday, why not laugh now?

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Just one of the many lessons I've been learning. Anyway, with April being such a busy month, I plan to take a brief hiatus until after the first week of May. I have been lining up some pretty cool learning experiences, so I'm excited to keep you posted!

Until then - Get out there and learn something fun! :)

Today I learned to strengthen my Organization-Fu

2010-04-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

There are two groups of people in the world. You can tell what sort of person they are by their purse. (Especially if they are guys. Of course, people call those "murses" - You know - "male purses" and whatnot. You know I love that things just need an "M" in front of them to become "man-ified" objects. Manny - male nanny. Mantrums. The one that makes me chuckle most is "moobs" - Hehe.)

Oh. Where was I?

Ahh right, the categories of people with purses...

The first category contains the Born Organized (BO) people. You probably know at least one. They are the ones that can find things in their purse. Their purses are typically small and orderly and full of useful things. They have a compartment for their lip gloss and the lip gloss is in it. When their phone rings, they open their purse and pull it out. When someone tells them something interesting they pull out their little notepad and pen and write it down. Clicky-click. And they put it back where it belongs.

The other sort of person is a SLOB. I tried to think of a few acronyms that would go with SLOB. I came up with "Sadly Lost Object Borrower" but that's all the further I got. Their purses are typically large and and chaotic and contain completely random objects. They do not have lip gloss, and they did not even realize that's the purpose behind that compartment. When the phone rings, you get to listen to the entire chorus of their ringtone because every time they move something around their phone gets buried deeper. When someone tells them something interesting they pull out the crayon that somehow wound up in the lip gloss compartment and write it on the back of a receipt from two years ago.

Ummm.
I belong to the latter category . . .

Because when you realize that you are somehow carrying around a barnacle in your purse you just have to admit that something went wrong when the organization part of your brain was developing in the womb.

Anyway, today I was looking for some place to put away stuff in my over-stuffed pantry and I had a rare organizational moment. In a previous fit of trying to be organized, I had hung an over-the-door shoe organizer on the inside of my pantry door in a (failed) effort to sort mail. It was a good idea in theory, but a bad location.

As I swung the door open and lamented my lack of space, I noticed that in my previous haste I had put a box of spaghetti in one of the compartments. *Light Bulb*

Check out my newly organized pantry!

Tah-Dah!

It turns out that those extra couple of inches between the door and the pantry shelves were extremely valuable. I was able to clear two and a half pantry shelves of stuff and had a little room to spare!

I feel so brilliant. And organizy.
*patting self on back*

And since I have a birthday party to prepare for tomorrow,
I'll let you get back to the daily grind. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tomorrow I'll be learning to make a layer cake!

I'll keep you posted!

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Bonus Lesson

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Last week I called my husband up on his way home.

"Hey, Sweetie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you pick up some shampoo? We're almost out..."

"Ok."

(Real riveting stuff, I know.)

So he came home with some Herbal Essences "Hello Hydration" shampoo. He figured just the shampoo would be fine since we still had some "Color Me Happy" and "Long Term Relationship" conditioners leftover. But on the back of the shampoo bottle is asked the question,

"How many bubbles are in a bottle of champagne?"

and it teased,

"For the answer see the Hello Hydration conditioner bottle."

Mwahahaha! How sneaky is that? Because they realize that "inquiring minds want to know" and chances are the consumer is going to be curious enough to at least pick up the bottle of conditioner in their hand next time to read the back. And if it's already in their hand it's a short trip to the shopping cart.

So the last time I was at the store, I looked up the conditioner bottle.

*******Drumroll*******

There are 58 million bubbles in a bottle of champagne.

(I know it was just eating away at you sweetie, and I have to take care of my #1 fan.)

According to Wikipedia, the early process of making champagne was so perilous that cellar workers had to wear iron masks to protect their faces from spontaneously exploding bottles. And if one bottle burst it could set off a chain reaction that would cause 20-90% of their profits to turn into a pile of shattered glass and sticky champagne on the floor. Talk about bursting one's bubble.

Anyway, I prefer drinking my grape juice before it spoils. :)

Hope you are gearing up for a great weekend!

Toodles for now...

Lessons Resume! - My Latest Learning Updates

2010-03-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Howdy readers! How have you been?

Sorry about the gaps between postings. My "brokened" wrist, as my Waybums calls it, is well on its way to being mended and I am pleased to report that postings should be more regular now. :) I would have popped on and let you know about my days off, but I just didn’t trust myself to stop at a paragraph. Because I’ve still been learning new things every day. Some funny things, some shocking things and some things that just made me wish I could sit down for an hour and hammer out a post so you’d know these things too. :)

One of the more interesting things I learned about?

Kumquats.

Cute little things, aren’t they?

I used the kumquats for an object lesson in a Sunday School class I substitute-taught. Because you know how kids are with substitute teachers, and it’s doubly true about Substitute Sunday School teachers, right? The memory verse they are working on is Psalms 147:5 - Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

Which fits in with the blog, come to think of it. As mere humans, there is a limit to our understanding. We have to learn things as we go, usually by experience or by what we’re taught by others. But sometimes our experience does not equip us, and others don’t fully know how things work and have to make “best-guesses.” I asked the students if they had eaten a kumquat? No. How would they know what it tasted like? They could make a guess. A pretty good guess. They could even ask me what it tasted like.

But until you’ve eaten a kumquat, you don’t really know.

My favorite information gleaned about kumquats was from my independent study on how people thought kumquats are traditionally eaten. Ten out of ten people I asked thought that you peel and discard the rind and eat the slices of fruit inside. They do look like mini oranges, after all. But those who have experienced the enigma that is the kumquat know that the inside is pretty tart and the rind is the part that’s citrusy and sweet. So most people who eat kumquats eat them whole with the rinds on, or peel off and eat just the rind. No kidding.

I just love the idea of serving a God who knows what a kumquat tastes like without ever needing to taste it, and understands how its molecules are arranged and can remember the first time anyone ate one. Quite frankly, it takes some of the pressure off of me. There’s only so much information I can fit in this brain. I already have a hard enough time remembering where I put my phone.

Kumquat.

I think I will use this as my new exclamation when I stub my toe.

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Oh, and since I’m on the subject of produce,

I learned something interesting about potatoes.

I learned that you can explode a potato in the oven. (And - hey - I didn't even do it myself this time.) I'm pretty sure I already knew that, but seeing the results first-hand really drive the lesson home.

I went to a birthday party at my aunt's house over the weekend. When Auntie opened the oven she was surprised to see tater confetti all over the innards of her oven and an empty potato-skin jacket. Of course I had to look up the phenomenon when I got home and found out that's why it's so important to prick the potato skin all over. The tiny pricks work like teeny release valves to allow steam to escape from the spud. So –warning - a simple stab in the middle may not be sufficient. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have been jabbing potatoes for decades and never really appreciated fully why I had been poking them. This is learning in action . . .

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And since I’m on the subject of exploding,

I’ll tell you about this show on YouTube I learned about:

“Is It A Good Idea to Microwave This?”

A couple of guys came up with a brilliant idea to test what things are microwavable.
And by brilliant, I mean often resulting in fire or sparks…

I have operated a microwave for a long time. In fact, I remember the day my parents got our first microwave. It was such a big deal. Wow. That makes me feel a little old. Anyway, one of the things I learned very early on is that you don’t microwave your silverware with the food or you will suddenly have a shocking display of fireworks over your mashed potatoes.

Well, don't do that sort of thing unless you want to have a popular show online that people will get sucked into watching just to see if you survive. . .

Here is the episode where they find out if it’s a good idea to microwave fireworks.

And if it’s not obvious enough, I’ll make it extra clear:

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

I’m not really proud of this fact, but as a learner this show is fascinating.

And as a mom, this show is also pretty terrifying.

I watched them microwaving everything from a can of shaving cream to a roll of Bubble Tape. They even microwaved a microwave. Well, chunks of the microwave they had killed in the previous episode. And, yes, it was a bad idea. Fumes and sparks and choking smoke and a couple of guys killing off microwaves. The worst part is that I keep looking around at things and wondering what would happen if they were microwaved. Holy Smokes, Batman!

That reminds me. My husband did an accidental test on whether or not it was a good idea to microwave the little ants that were trespassing in his microwave.

It was a bad idea. Both for the ants and the microwave.

Here is an exhaustive page about all things microwave from the USDA.

Hmm. I didn’t see anything on that page about fireworks…

Well, it’s great to be back in the swing of things and I look forward to learning more stuff!

I’ll keep you posted. :)

No microwaves were harmed (by me) in the making of this post...

Today I learned how balloons are made

2010-03-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

I never even thought to wonder how they're made...

Cool.

I'll keep keeping you posted.

Today I learned the rest of the song

2010-03-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid my mom used to sing part of a song to me.

I caught myself singing it to my girls today:

A - You're Adorable...

B - You're so Beautiful....

C - You're a Cutie full of Chaaaaaarm...

And she'd continue through the alphabet until right around "I" where it trailed off.

Her mom used to sing it to her when she was a little.

I remember asking Gramma how the rest of the song went.

She also trailed off around "I" too.

Must be genetic.

Well, today I decided it would be the perfect lesson to learn

while I'm behaving myself.

Awww.

We'll sing it until it's stuck in our heads forever.

(LoL - Loving her cookie)

I had started singing it when I put Koda in her shirt.

It says "Beautiful" and was a hand-me-down from Waybums.
Waybums got it from Gramma on one of those everyday shopping trips.

She paid $2 for it, on clearance. She was one heck of a bargain shopper.

That's genetic, too.

I learned other cool stuff and I'll put it up in the morning

so I can take a break between typings. :)

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned my lesson . . .

2010-03-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I woke up this morning and my fingers and the palm of my hand felt numb. And occasionally when I pulled something out of a drawer, or picked up a toy off the floor, the sharp shooting pain returned to my forearm. Blasted carpal tunnel! By noon I was cringing when I went to pick up the bag of bread to make the kids' sandwiches. ~Owie~ I had looked high and low for my wrist brace and had no luck finding it. I had to bite the bullet and get a new one.

Eez preetty, no?

I was told a few years back that I am supposed to wear it to bed and when I'm on the computer. But after awhile I got out of the habit and then when we moved I couldn't find it . . . and here I am again. I bumped into my "substitute" doctor at the boo-boo aisle at the store and she gave me a few reprimands and pointers. I'm on light and limited tasks only for the next day or so until it has a chance to rest.

Bummer. :(

So my plan is to learn something absolutely fascinating tomorrow that I can write about in two paragraphs or less. And hope for marshmallows on Friday.

So aside from learning to behave myself and be good about wearing my brace,

I also learned to make sure ALL of the groceries are put away FOR SURE

BeFoRe letting our house bunny out to play.

Because tonight I came into the kitchen and my bunny had his entire upper body

inside one of my reusable grocery bags. The only thing I could see was

his big ole feet and the tail atop his furry behind.

I thought it was funny until I tapped my foor on the floor twice

(the "come" command) and he exited the bag with a sack of carrots!

THAT LITTLE WASCAL!

So he got a time-out - back into his pen,

and I have to pick up some fresh carrots for my cowboy mashed potatoes tomorrow.

As far as my wrist progress goes...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned to make granola bars from scratch

2010-03-16T23:28:00.002-07:00

OK, I goofed. My original plan was to learn about homemade marshmallows today. I was doing some last-minute reading up on the process when I spotted the tiny-print tip saying that too much humidity can affect your success in mallow-making. Aw, MaN! My dryer vents into the house right now to keep up the humidity, and it's right off the kitchen, so my marshmallow-making area is in the hot zone. Literally. It feels like a rain forest in there. Since I'd already started the laundry process (and am in dire need of fresh socks) I figured I would just have to delay for a day. But since I promised to learn something tasty from scratch, I came up with a back-up idea:

Today I Learned to Make Homemade Granola Bars

I love granola bars. They are my favorite thing to eat for breakfast.

Unfortunately, my daughter is allergic to peanuts,
a common ingredient in granola bars.

Fortunately, there's a great brand that makes their bars in a peanut-free factory.

Unfortunately, they stopped selling them at my grocery store. *sniffle*

Fortunately I learned today that it's really, really easy to make granola bars
AND they are even tastier than the ones I bought at the store!
(I just love it when things end on a "fortunately" don't you?)

The Ingredients for Homemade Granola Bars

(For a big batch - you can cut the recipe in half for a smaller batch.)

5 cups quick-rolled oats

1 cup Rice Crispies

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup softened butter

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup granola bar "definers"*

*This is the fun part! What type of granola bars are these going to be? Cranberry Raisin? Apple Cinnamon? Chocolate Chip? Raspberry Almond? M&M? Reese's pieces?

What sort of dried fruit or tasty candy bits or nuts would you use?

One tip I'd offer is to grease your measuring cup before putting the honey in, and grease your spoon before stirring so the honey doesn't stick.
My mom taught me that trick.
(Hi Mom!)

Step #1. Mix ingredients together

Put everything into the bowl and stir. Use your hands if you like, it's more fun.

Just be sure to work the butter before the honey.

Now, you spread into a pan and pat it in evenly. This amount makes enough for both a 9x13 and an 8x8 pan. Bake it at 350F for about 20 minutes,
or until the outside edges start to become browned.

Pull the pans out of the oven and allow them to cool completely

before cutting it into bars.

This allows them to set, so they're not crumbly, so it's important to wait.

I mean, unless you haven't eaten more than a few cheese and crackers at lunch

And your tummy is grumbling at you because it's hungry and there are warm,

mouth-watering granola bars sitting there.

Then it's ok to crumble a few.

I won't tell. ;)

The finished product:

You can store them in an air-tight container with parchment paper in between layers.

And you can use those mini "snack bags" if you need to take one "on the go."

You know, I've never eaten a warm granola bar before, and I have realized quite a lot lately that things are tastier when they are fresh out of the oven, and made from scratch. Scratch cooking is awesome.

I can't wait to try homemade marshmallows tomorrow!

I'll keep you posted!

I've been learning about the losses of adoption and "The Family that Came with the Frame"

2010-03-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

Posted March 31/2010

For about the past week I have neglected my postings because I have thrown myself into collecting information for someone else this past week - my little unassuming two-year-old.

Ever since Christmas, I've had this frame hanging on my wall. I went ahead and hung it up for its own protection. It was just a matter of time until one of the kids started using it to surf down sofa cushions or something equally as puzzling and hazardous. It has kind of become part of the scenery. It didn't have pictures in it. Well, it didn't have any of our pictures in it.

There's just the family that came with the frame.

And every time I walked by it, I felt this tugging sadness.

The family looks so happy.

They're playing together at the park.

Little Girl is reading a book and blowing bubbles with Mom,

and riding on Dad's shoulders.

It looks like the sort of family my adopted daughter could have had.

A protective, attentive father. A nurturing mom. A brother to romp around with.

It breaks my heart because all the pieces are there
- a mother, a father, even a brother.
But her family didn't work. It was fragmented and broken.

The person I know best in The Family that Could Have Been is her brother. We had the great honor of being his foster family before she was born. He is the reason she is our daughter. We took in a two-year-old boy for a short-term placement and ended up fostering and adopting his newborn sister. People thought we were crazy signing up for an additional two-almost-three-year-old. (Our biological daughter was two-almost-three at the time, too.) And they thought we'd completely lost it when his sister wound up in foster care and we took her in, too. We thought it was crazier to say no - this was his little sister! No way we'd want to be the ones to split them up if they could be together. But then Big Brother was sent to the East Coast to live in a kinship placement. And little Koda was left behind with us. She was a year old when the court terminated the rights of the other family member we knew best - her birth mother.

In the two years I have known our daughter's first mother, I've thought she was a difficult person to nail down. She loves her kids. She would even die for her kids. If there were an out-of-control bus careening toward her kids, I believe that she would rush to save them. But living for your kids, that's a lot harder demand to fulfill. There's no more sleeping in when baby's awake for the day. You have to drag your sleep-deprived self out of bed and fix her a bottle and change her diaper and get the day started. You have to provide stability with things like a place to live and food to eat and supervise baby while she plays. You have to locate and screen responsible people to look after your baby while you go out and earn the funds to make all those necessary things possible.

There are a lot of young mothers that pull it off. But it is a lot of responsibility and a lot of work and I think the siren call of a life run her own way was just too hard for her to ignore. Why work flipping burgers when you can make easier money other ways? And she was fighting the lure of the wrong kind of friends, the wrong kind of "partying", the wrong kind of guy - that assured her that it was ok for her to do her own thing. I remember once when there was a well-baby appointment she was going to attend. I kept waiting for her to show, and then right before doing the shots she arrived, drenched in sweat. Her boyfriend was going to drive her but he decided that she shouldn't go, so she walked the whole way to the hospital. She told me, trying to catch her breath, that her baby came first. It was one of the times that she really shone as a mom, and I will share that with her daughter some day.

Her birth father is another story. I never met him. I have no stories about any efforts he made to be a dad. The court contacted him with information about her, but it returned unacknowledged. I had only his distinctive name and an address. I watched the movie "The Blind Side" last Saturday. (My mom jokingly forbade us from watching it because she was sure we'd have an uncontrollable urge to adopt twenty more children. :) Anyway, there's a part when the main character was asked if he knew his father and he looked off in the distance and had remarked that he hadn't.

And so after I got done watching the movie I sat down at the computer and decided to do a search. I've been working on a family tree with her great grandma and thought it would be helpful if I had something more than question marks on her birth-paternal branch. I'd looked up his name before and it took me an hour before I found anything. I guess the plus side was that it's not a common name and I didn't have to filter through a lot of information about other people. I used to work at a newspaper and so I wielded my sleuthing skills to find some little blurb about an encounter with the authorities. But that was it. A tiny footnote. So this time, I sat down hoping maybe I'd find something more, that I'd think of some backroad way of finding information. Maybe I'd find out what high school he attended or information that would lead me to a birth certificate if I were lucky. I started with his name and city and was shocked to find immediate results. A few articles popped up right away. The little daughter in question wandered up to me and crawled up on my lap as the link opened.

It was an article on his homicide.

He'd been shot to death during some shady dealings.

I looked at my daughter and burst into tears.
"I'm so sorry, baby."

I had hoped to find something about her father and his story, and the only part I got was "The End." It just seemed so unfair. I spilled tears in her ears for the loss she's too young to understand yet.

I kept digging deeper and finding more information about him. Mostly it was a list of offenses against society. Which are numerous. And alarming enough that I would not have allowed him to be around her if he were alive. I printed all the information I found and put it in a sealed envelope for our little daughter to open someday when she's grown. I'll ease her into his story as she grows up so it's not some shocking revelation. But none of the information told me what his favorite food was. Or whether or not he used to pick bouquets of dandelions for his mom when he was a kid. It's a record of what he did, but not who he was.

In the meantime, I have filled the picture frame with our pictures.

There are pictures from the day she was born, with her mom and brother.

We were behind the camera that day.

There are pictures of her proud biological brother with his arm around her shoulder.

There are pictures of an adoring adopted sister "reading" books to her.

There are pictures of a protective, attentive Daddy

who gives her rides around on his shoulders

and pictures of a mommy who will stop everything

when she asks for a hug.

We may not have been the family she came with,

but we'll do our best to fill her life with lots of good memories.

And capture the moments in photos for her frames.

Being part of an adoptive family is a constant learning process.

I'll keep you posted as I learn more...

Today I learned how to make some soda pop alternatives at home

2010-03-15T23:55:00.001-07:00

Hi. My name is Joy. And I'm a soda addict.

Growing up, my parents had three options of beverage at home: Milk, orange juice and water. We occasionally had Kool-Aid, or some Hershey's choclate syrup stirred into our milk. But soda wasn't a regular thing for us as kids. We got it sometimes as a special treat when we went out to eat. My addiction began when I was in high school. I had begun earning my own money babysitting and there were soda machines in the lunch room. I sampled a variety of types and chose my favorite:

It was citrusy and sweet and always my first choice.

The caffeine in it was also handy because I often stayed up late writing.

(A habit which continues to this day... Well, the writing, but not the caffeine.)

My soda habit followed me through college and young adulthood. I think it was at its worst when I worked at the newspaper. I was in an across-the-country long-distance relationship with my hubby (who was my promised fiancé, serving in the U.S. Navy at the time) and the late night, four-hour phone calls left me feeling a pretty groggy in the morning. I drank about a pot of coffee a day, a 16 oz. Mountain Dew mid-morning and another mid-afternoon. I would get terrible headaches on the weekends and didn't figure out why until one weekend I was going somewhere with my sis and grabbed a soda from a gas station. About halfway through drinking it, my headache stopped and the lightbulb went off. I started cutting my caffeine consumption drastically and the weekend headaches went away.

I got married and moved around with my sailor and we finally ended up spending three and a half years in Japan. Living there drastically affected what I ate and drank. The grape "soda" I drank there was made with real grapes. It was just good old carbonated grape juice made from REALLY tasty grapes. And everything there had a subtle sweetness and a lot less sugar.

There was Mountain Dew available for us to buy at the Navy exchange, but why would we drink that when there was delicately sweet Royal Milk Tea that came hot out of the vending machine? Or hot Calpis. Or Pocari Sweat. Ok, the beverages were tasty, but the names could use some work. People thought it was a hoot when I told them I drank hot Calpis. Because with my midwest accent it sort of sounds like I was ingesting very fresh cow pee. And Pocari Sweat is a type of grapefruit flavored sports drink. With no actual sweat. For goodness sakes, people. ;)

When I moved back to the states someone bought me a 12-pack of my old favorite soda as a Welcome Home present. I cracked open the first one and it was so syrupy sweet I didn't even make it halfway through. I have dabbled in different types of soda since my return to The States, but never found anything that I liked as much as my Japanese favorites. I dabbled with a few cherry colas. I did vote for Mountain Dew Voltage, and could palate the "throwback" version of the soda. By far, my favorite soda beverage upon my return has been Lipton's sparkling green tea. Aside from being similar to the tea beverages in Japan, it was lighter tasting and had the perk of those antioxidants that made it seem more wholesome.

I saw a commercial for it and figured out the reason why I hadn't given up

my quest to find a decent, not icky-sweet soda:

It's all about the bubbles.

But my big problem is that it's too sweet. And really, I've never been a fan of the taste or chemicalness of artificial sweetener. I kept wishing that I could just make my own soda - whatever flavor I preferred without the extra sugary high-fructose corn syrup taste and calories. And now that I have been learning things, I figured it was time to learn if there was a way to make my own soda.

I learned there is a process that uses yeast to "brew" soda and create the bubbles.

Here is a fun instructional video on brewing soda:

Loving the 'stache. :)

While this was cool and informative, it still seemed heavy on the sugar.
And it takes a long time to make it.

So I decided to look up an easier recipe and found one for "almost Coke" soda.

2 Tbs. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 t cinnamon

1 tsp. lime juice

1 cup club soda

I made some substitutes - agave for sugar and seltzer for club soda.

I substituted the agave because it has a lower glycemic index than sugar

and won't leave you with that crazy sugar-buzzed feeling.

It also mixes better in fluids and has a lighter flavor.

It's like a thinner, plant-based version of honey without the honey taste.

I swapped out the club soda because it has added sodium,

and seltzer is just carbonated water.

Basically, you just mix the ingredients and pour in the bubble water.

I licked off the spoon I used to mix the ingredients and it tasted

(surprisingly) very similar to cola.

Now, just add bubbles.
I'll just unscrew the lid to the carbonated water . . .

AAAAAAH!

Oops. Didn't plan on that bonus lesson.

Make sure to set apart the bottle of seltzer water that you dropped on the floor.

*soggy sheepish smile*

So, after a quick mop-up on aisle four, I poured the bubbles into the cup.

Whoa. That's got some froth to it . . .

I wonder if it's because the seltzer had been shaken,

or if agave reacts that way to carbonation.

After the fizzles settled, I gave it a sip.

The verdict:

While the initital syrup was quite promising, when I mixed in the carbonated water

and took a sample sip, it reminded me of apple cider.

Not in flavor, but in the cinnamon grit that attached itself to my teeth.

It didn't taste bad, and actually had an interesting flavor.

It just wasn't cola.

Next I tried another type of kid-favorite soda

flavored with a familiar old staple:

It passed the taste test.

Basically, you follow the recipe for Kool-Aid, but you substitute agave for sugar and seltzer water for plain. Agave is sweeter than sugar so you can use less of it. I poured a pack of Kool-Aid, agave and about half a cup of water into the bottom of an empty selzer bottle, swirled and swished it around until it was all mixed together. Then I poured in the carbonated water. And you don't need to use Kool-Aid. You can use whatever flavor extract you like - root beer for instance. I just used Kool-Aid because it has added Vitamin C and it only cost me about ten cents per packet. And our littlest child is really, really sugar sensitive and has a family history of Diabetes so this is an alternative that she can enjoy, too.

So far my favorite soda alternative uses the following ingredients:

I just mix the ingredients to taste.

It's like a fizzy raspberry lemonade.

The carbonated version of this recipe for cream soda is really good, too.

Tomorrow I'll be making marshmallows from scratch!

I'll keep you posted.

About the Author

2010-03-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

Post in progress

Today I learned I was singing the wrong word - and how to prep an artichoke.

2010-03-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

Hi there, readers. :) How's it going?

Things here are good, despite the lack of sleep and general wonkiness that accompanies sleep deprivation. I have that song stuck in my head:

Running onnnn...Running on empty

Running onnnn...Running drrrrrrrry

Running on, Running into the sun

But I'm running behind. . .

This one always pops into my head when I have no energy. Funny thing is that I just looked up the lyrics and found out I was singing it wrong all these years. It's not running "dry" - It's running "blind." Oh. Alright. I guess that makes sense, too. You ever have a song that you were singing with the wrong lyrics? Well, that's just one of the little things I learned today.

Remember this fellow?

I bought him a little while back during my lesson on unfamiliar produce.

One by one, I tackled the strange produce.

For starters, one thing I learned about the weird produce I bought

is that there aren't a lot of recipes that call for

one parsnip or one turnip or one artichoke.

The rutabaga and celery root were sizeable, and so

I had less obstacles figuring out what to do with them.

I chopped up the celery root and boiled it with my mashed potatoes. Aside from adding extra nutrients and visual interest in the potatoes it improved the flavor, too. I put it on my grocery list for my most recent trip to the store, and was so disappointed
when they didn't have any more. Awww, man!

Isn't that just how it goes?

Ah, well. I'll just keep watching for it.

One thing I learned about the rutabaga is that it is HARD to cut. I had bought the largest one I could find, and got my knife stuck in it a few times. Perhaps my mad ninja skills have gone rusty. At any rate, I bought smaller rutabagas at the store last night.
Lesson learned.

I diced the rutabaga up and oven-roasted it with olive oil, garlic salt and parsley.

And I diced and added in that lone parsnip:

Which smelled very much like a carrot when I peeled it, by the way.

It was a huge hit. Both of the kids loved it and Super Hubby had a look of surprise

when he tasted those roasted outcasts and said, "Wow! That's actually good!"

While the inner wanna-be chef in me cringed a little at the "actually" part -

I knew what he meant. I mean, just look at them.

I think it's time to boost the Produce Section Roots' self-esteem.

Because under those bland exteriors, they are just so mild and sweet.
I mean, at least "wall flowers" are pretty.

These poor things get a bad rap because they're badly wrapped.

And usually hiding in dirt. ;)

I picked up some more turnips at the store to go with the one that I bought.

They are pretty easy to prepare. And since rutabagas are in the turnip family,

I feel a little experienced in handling them.

And that left the artichoke.

I think he's the most intimidating fellow I picked up.

Especially when you consider that he used to be part of a thistle.

I hate letting food waste away in the fridge,

but I do it more often then I'd prefer to admit.

The one I bought went all wilty in the drawer and so I decided

to share him with the outdoor bunnies in my yard.

I bought new ones last night and decided that I would learn how to prepare them
from a nice fellow on YouTube:

What a great accent.
He also has a helpful video about choosing artichokes.

I'm making dip with my artichokes, and so we'll see how it turns out...

I am still trying to behave so my wrist has a chance to recover. Between the joint pain of my early onset arthritis and my carpal tunnel tingles at night, the quality of my sleep lately has been somewhat lacking. I'm still searching for my wrist brace and I'll probably have to cave and go to the doctor if it doesn't start improving soon. It's a good thing I have a lot of how-to lessons planned this week because I'll be able to let the pictures speak for themselves. In the meantime...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned to Tiptoe through the Tulips...

2010-03-13T03:03:00.000-08:00

Here I am up late on Friday night/Saturday morning. Actually, it's late enough to be early.

The main thing I learned today is that I am starting to have problems with my wrist again and so I'm going to have to find my brace before I get back
in the full swing of writing for my blog.

But not to disappoint my dear readers, I have learned a bit
about a few comic performers...

My favorite type of comedy is good, old-fashioned, clean, goofy, silly humor.
I had heard of these performers before but had never seen
any of their performances or knew much about them.

Tiny Tim

Here's a video in case you are unfamiliar:

Here's an article on his biographical site.

The Blue Man Group

Article about Blue Man Group

LoL! Ok, so they both embody my silly sense of humor.

I can't reach quite Tiny Tim's range of falsetto, but I have been known to sing in
a chipmunk voice around the house from time to time.

And just like that last Blue Man,
I've been known to do things the complicated way before.

I'll post my weekend lessons on Sunday night
and once I find my wrist brace,
I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned about crazy apple contraptions

2010-03-12T02:02:00.000-08:00

Lesson Learned Thursday, March 11, 2010

My mom loves apples. Her kitchen is decorated in apples. Her fridge is stocked with apples. We have an annual apple-pie assembly day with our extended family. She even works at an orchard seasonally. And today we learned about her cool apple contraptions.

I should start by saying that we recently learned that not all contraptions are useful.

Although we got a LOT of entertainment value from her handy-dandy egg-cracker.

Here is attempt #1

Attempt #2

Attempt #3

ROFL! To quote Larry the Cucumber:

"I laughed, I cried. It moved me, Bob."

The funniest part about that is that she is a total pro at cracking and separating eggs.

With all the batches of homemade bread she's made, she could do it in her sleep.

But there's such allure in those late-night infommercial wares.

Especially if they sell them at the store where she works.

Oh, and BTW, I totally covet her Perfect Brownie Pan.

I love edge pieces and in this cool thingie, they are ALL edge pieces!

It's the little things. :)

But back to mom's apple contraptions...

Of course, she introduced us to that standard corer/slicer long ago.

Tonight she showed me her twist-corer. It's pretty neat.

You just twist it right through the apple . . .

And then you pull it from the apple and just push the core through the device.

Aw, man! Cinnamon under my fingernails.

(My husband is going to give me such a hard time about that...LoL!)

Oh! And look! What could that be???

Yet another unintentional doughnut sighting!

I'm going to have to start tagging them...

And now that your apple is cored,

you can bake it in this cool microwave apple baker!

Baked apples are such a good dessert! They take 20-30 minutes in the oven

But only about 4 min. to "wave" them. (That's what they say in Japan. :)

They're especially good sprinkled with a little cinnamon or apple pie spice.

The last cool contraption is one that I've seen her use before but never learned how to use it. It comes in really handy on our pie-making day. Last year we made over a hundred pies. With about five apples in a pie, you can probably guess that peeling apples and slicing apples and coring apples would get pretty tiresome.

And that's why this gets Top Apple Thingie-Bopper award:

And if I find any other cool apple contraptions -

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned the ewwws and awwwws of blogs.

2010-03-10T23:24:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I start the day already knowing what I plan to learn for the blog. For instance, I need to have the ingredients or look up a recipe the day before if I'm making something. And then other days there's a lesson that comes along and claims the day whether I like it or not. Today was a little bit of both.

I set out today to learn about the variety of blogs available in the world.
And I learned other things along the way.

I started with my established favorite blog:

I just love this blog. If it were a place it'd be the Main Street candy shop because it's fun, sweet and people just love to stop by to inhale. Chocolate Friday recipes alone are worth the trip. What do I like most about it? The philosophy behind the name. Each one of us has something that has an uncanny knack for lifting our spirits when we're going through the regular everyday chaos of life. The blog's author, Lisa, loves chocolate. For some it's that morning jog with the birds and sunshine. For others it's kneading a batch of fresh bread dough. After I visited her blog the first time, I realized that's what learning new things is like for me. When I learn something new I feel like I have gained a cool new do-dad for my Toolbox of Life that I can pull out if I need it.

When I visited Lisa's award page, there was an award from The Homesteader's Heart blog, so I stopped there to see what that page was like.

The Homesteader's Heart

This place is already a new favorite. I found a post about boogers. LoL! I love that. You know, people never come over to my house when it's tidy and I'm at my domestic finest. Oh, no. They always stop by when I have dishes in the sink and have hauled all the stuff out of my cupboards to reorganize it, and when I'm comfy in my sweatpants. (Ok, which is admittedly been too often since I lost my job. But I'm doing better. :) Anyway, my first trip to her blog and I already feel like we have something in common because I don't stop by for the first time on the day that she made a really awesome apron out of an old pair of pants. Nope. I stopped by on a day when she posted a very brief story about her son asking how boogers are made, musing how silly kids' questions can be. So already I have to like this site. Cool enough to make an apron from an old pair of pants and casual and funny enough to talk about kids' questions about boogers. And of course, if someone asks a question, I find myself just itching to learn the answer. *sigh* It's a blessing and a curse. So here's the scoop on boogers, and how they are made. I'll keep the answer as classy and scientific as possible.

We call them "woogers" at our house. I don't know how it started. Probably the same way Waybums got her nickname - Baby Waybums. We were probably wiping "boogie woogers" from her precious little baby nose and the name stuck. Woogers are really just dried mucus. And mucus is a secretion that contains all sorts of defensive agents of the body like antiseptic enzymes and white blood cells. The basic function of mucus is to filter harmful things away from and humidify the organ that it hangs out with. So in your nose, for instance, it works with the cilia (nose-hairs) to trap irritants like pollen and dust and viruses or bacteria so they are not inhaled into your respiratory system. If there's excess amounts of an irritant in your nose - you sneeze. (If there's excess of an irritant in your lungs, you cough.) Usually woogers form in the nose when the humidity is low and the mucus dries. And that's how woogers are made. Oh. Ok. That's not too traumatic. Well, until I found this out:

An Austrian doctor believes that wooger consumption has health benefits.

Ok - Everyone together: EWwWwWwWw!

His theory is that it is much like a low-level flu shot, introducing virus/bacteria to the digestive system where the body can attack it more forcefully and make antibodies.

Gee. I don't know where in my Toolbox of Life that little tidbit of information is supposed to go... It's plenty scientific, but that is where classy just jumped out the window shrieking and running away. But since it is by far the most, er, ~~fascinating~~ ~~disturbing~~ informational thing I've learned in a long time, into the post it goes. And now I can't help but wonder what new reader is going to show up today now that I've not only written about woogers, but about eating them. :S Yeesh! There goes the neighborhood. *sheepish ducking*

So anyway, I learned today that there are some things I don't want to learn.

*Disclaimer - As my children will tell you, I do not encourage the consumption of woogers, nor their removal with anything but a tissue. And I do not normally write articles about woogers, so I encourage any new readers to check out my archives to verify that I typically tackle more appealing subjects. Thank you.*

Oh, and I happened to mention what I learned today to the manager of a

local dollar store and she led me to this product:

LoL! :) Well that was an interesting side-trip.

Anyway, back to the blog in question, I can tell I will have a lot of fun visiting her site because A.) It's fun there, and B) It's fun there. She is an award-winning blogger with a great site full of Friday funnies and laughter and useful information on everything from recipes to homeschooling. And did I mention that she made a really cool apron from a pair of old pants?

I think I might have to learn about aprons soon. I always put one on at the beginning of the day when I mean business about cleaning house. The kids know when I have The Apron that I'm serious and they start running around picking up their toys so they don't get sucked into the vaccum...

My next stop led me to . . .

The Dorky Dad

This fellow is a good ol' working Dad that is not ashamed to wave his Dork flag. He's got some hilarious posts, and as many mom blogs as there are, it's a unique chance to see parenting from a Dad's perspective.

There are probably thousands of blogs that amount to online diaries. This is what my family did today. This is how much my kid has grown. I broke up with my boyfriend and am moving to a new city. So let me tell you about my colonoscopy . . . That sort of stuff. I used to have such a blog (without the colonoscopy-ing), and will probably resurrect it when I finish with my Household Recovery Project. I suppose those are really more interesting to people who know the authors. While I really love the idea that everyone has a story, there are just too many stories to read!

And there seems to be a blog for everything . . .

Looking for deals on stuff? Visit This Coupon Blog

Or maybe one of these sounds interesting to you:

Memoirs of a Stay at-Home Dad

And the oh-so-funny and popular:

Cake Wrecks

"When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong"

Seriously, I got sucked into that site for about an hour today

and it was tears-down-my-face-laughing funny.

And there's the adorable
Cute Things Falling Asleep Blog

AwWwWwWw!

Wookit da widdle hamster who's donna fall asweep.

*cough* Ahem. Ok, so it's pretty cute.

But mostly it's funny watching cute things doing what I refer to as

"narcoleptic head-banging."

And, there are even blogs about Learning New Things Every Day. So, I hear. There are other ones out there. Usually a new word a day, or trivia fact. But I haven't found anything quite like this one yet. None that talk about woogers, anyway. Or that takes reader suggestions on what to learn. So far I have two requests:

1. A lesson on CPAP machines
2. Making juice with a juicer.

The readers have spoken and I will answer their call!

Now that the weather is getting nicer and the outdoor lessons can commence I have some fun things planned. I am so excited! Stuff like learning how to canoe. Or learning how to retrieve your oars after you fall out of the canoe. *sigh* It's gonna be so fun.

And send in your suggestions. Is there something you'd love to learn about but don't have time? Something you've always wondered about but never learned? The sky is the limit! (Well, actually my friend wants me to learn how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute, which I would be willing to learn how to do if the costs are not prohibitive. So really, even the sky is not the limit...)

I'll keep you posted!

Today I learned a new 'do to add to the list.

2010-03-09T22:49:00.000-08:00

When I had my Waybums, she was born with a full head of hair.

It was dark and soft and required little care.

I'd wash it, comb it, trim the bangs every once in a while. . . and it was good.

Well, except that one random and really bizarre hair-day.

We don't really know what happened there. She woke up this way.

I think the aliens that abducted her were doing electroshock experiments.

But all other days it's been wash and wear and cuteness.

And then three years later . . .

Another baby came to live with us. We didn't know how long she'd be here.

We just knew she was adorable and we wanted to take good care of her

while she was with us. And that included a crash course in AA Hair Care 101.

I bought books and did research online. And I was overwhelmed.

Thankfully her initial baby-fine hair was easy to care for. . .

And it just got cuter with every little tendril curl that started popping up.

I was a little nervous when I read one of my books on the subject that

"washing too frequently will dry hair, lead to breakage and cause hair to fall out."

I was especially concerned because she thought that barbecue sauce not only

worked well as facial toner, but was great for hair gel as well.

I told her that while it effectively glued the hair in place,

it seemed a little too stiff for her to use regularly.

With the help of special shampoo and hair lotion and tedious and gentle combing

we survived the toughest part of the baby months with her hair in tact.

And to our delight, we found out that she would be living with us for good.

We adopted her in November and she just had her second birthday on Sunday.

And now that I've accepted the position as permanent Mom/hairstylist

and now that her hair is finally long enough for me to play with it a little

I've really been wanting to learn new ways to do it. Variety is fun.

So today I scoured the web looking at pictures of adorable little children for ideas.

And I came up with a style called The Four Rosettes.

Tonight was hair-washing night, so I started with freshly washed
and conditioned hair. I adore her curls. They are so spunky and beautiful.
Just like her. I love it loose and natural like this, but being a baby sometimes
having it up makes it easier to take care of it.

I always comb it with a wide-tooth comb after its been conditioned.
And I have a stack of books for her to read so that it's a fun experience.
She used to hate having her hair done until I figured this trick out.
Now, she'll bring me a stack of books and say, "Make so pretty?"

First I section the a little bit in front for her "bangs" because her little curls are so cute.
Then I section the parts and put the hair-ties in to make the two "puffs" on top.
And of course, you have to use the special rubber bands so they don't break the hair.
I also always cut the hair-ties instead of pulling them out. Less stress = happy hair.

You just wind the puff around your finger into a larger curl, and wind that into a rosette.

And then you repeat the process for the bottom two rosettes.

It didn't take very long to do, and it looks pretty cute.

It might look sweet with some little flower clips or barrettes, too.

And of course, she wanted to show off her new 'do.

She's kind of shy sometimes around the camera.
But she was actually asking me to take pictures tonight.
She kept grinning and asking, "Say cheeeeeese?"

Making a tidy pile of books for her bedtime stories.

And she was even hamming it up tonight.

Look at those smiley eyes.

While I was looking through hairstyles today, Waybums sat with me.
We got to a photo of a beautiful African woman with big, puffy natural hair.
Waybums was speechless, "Mother! It's so beautiful! Can Kodi have that hair?"

I love Waybums' straight and long and light brown hair.
And I love Koda's short and kinky dark black hair.
Waybums will probably want to curl hers someday. And that's fine.
And Koda will probably want to straighten hers someday. That's fine too.
There's nothing wrong with wanted to change the way you look.
Just as long as you're comfortable with who you are.

Both my girls are beautiful. And unique.
But I hope they understand that their truest beauty
comes from their character . . . .
. . . the mind under the hair, and the soul under the skin.

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned a simple way to prevent household accidents.

2010-03-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to find a little pile of bandage debris on the bathroom counter.

"Uh-oh," I thought, "What happened here?"

Later that morning my husband called me and I found out what happened.

Apparently, if you somehow forget to shut the bottom drawer

of the dresser after retriving some pajama pants . . .

it is hazardous to your early-rising spouse's health.

Super Hubby's Boo-boo.

Apparently his "kryptonite" is my knack for setting up booby traps.

How I missed the howling that must have accompanied the accident

is a mystery to me. Ouchie. Poor fellow. So gracious about his injury, too.

Most fellows would not have offered the gentle reminder he did,

"Just be sure to close the drawer, sweetie."

For information about safety tips

in preventing home accidents -

Click here.

For other helpful information,

I'll keep you posted...

In the meantime...

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Band-Aids.

This weekened I learned about substitutions and posed with the Wienermobile.

2010-03-07T23:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the wait. I had a few technical difficulties with this post.
Thanks for your patience! :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have learned A LOT this weekend during my getaway to a conference with some of the ladies from our church. I could share all the lessons I've learned but it would take a few days to write everything, so I'll keep it to the most universal lessons.

Lesson #1 - Sometimes there's no substitute for the Real Thing.

For instance . . .

This is not peanut butter. Tasty. But not peanut butter.

In fact, it has been nowhere near peanuts,

which is why it's allowed to play at our house.

That is to peanut butter as a tuna sandwich is to this:

Mmm. Grilled Tilapia. To perfection.

Tuna is the only fish that's allowed into our house

and although I did just find and learn to make tuna steaks

(with herb-roasted rutabaga that was shockingly tasty)

it's just not the same thing.

With a husband that's allergic to seafood and a daughter that's allergic to peanuts,

I do not get very many chances to indulge in these favorites.

So that was my first order of business at the IHOP after our first meeting.

For those of you who have never heard of IHOP (yes, to the incredulous, those people do exist), it stands for the International House of Pancakes. And they have all sorts of breakfast foods. Of course, there I was searching the menu for fish, and then thanking God profusely that somewhere in the world they have grilled tilapia for breakfast. So I ordered my fish. And asked if I could order a side of peanut butter. The waitress looked at me without batting an eyelash and went on to the next person at the table. This raised all sorts of questions for me. Do other people order peanut butter with their fish? Did she just assume that our orders would be strange after she saw our group come in all grins and goofiness?

Ooh-ooh! Side-note! I have to write this one down to commit it to memory.

I learned that the opposite of eggs over easy is . . . eggs over hard.

I'd never heard of such a thing until one of my pals ordered their eggs that way.

We were all looking at her funny, but she worked as a waitress and is well informed

on the subject matter. You can also order "over well" and "fried eggs, hard" alternately.

I prefer runny eggs, but I'm just getting the information out there for the rest of y'all.

And so you don't look at your buddy like she's getting all creative with the breakfast lingo.

(Short-order lingo! *light bulb* That would be fun to learn!)

Anyway, my food arrived and so did my peanut butter on the side:

Oops, she brought me honey.

I took a picture of the table where my peanut butter was supposed to be.

Funny thing is that I didn't take a picture of the PB when it arrived.

About halfway through my heavenly fish, she brought the peanut butter.

I opened the little Smuckers packet and just smelled it. Ohh. Nice.

I swirled it on my spoon, put it in my mouth and deposited it on my taste buds.

Right as the waitress began to ask me a question.

You know . . . The alternative is much weaker.

I forgot how thick peanut butter is.

Especially right off the spoon.

Makes it hard to talk.

I smiled dumbly.

There are parallels with hot cocoa.

I usually use the hot cocoa mix:

While the crunchy miniature marshmallows are weirdly charming,

I am usually a little disappointed when the mix settles to the bottom.

This is the hot cocoa I had at the IHOP:

The only thing at the bottom was melted chocolate chip morsels.

I was thinking about all this that night as I was getting ready for bed. We had all congregated in the hotel room where my sis and I stayed and we told stories and laughed and talked into the wee hours. Over the course of the weekend, I had a chance to get to know these ladies, to find out our common interests and share our stories, and just spend some time together. And it was a blast. I just enjoyed their friendship.

I've had times in my life when I've settled on substitutes, and one thing I've learned is that when you are choosing your friends there's no thing like the real thing. Imitation friends seem like the real deal, but when you get to them there's just no substance. Real friends will listen when you have something to say. Imitation friends can't wait until you're finished so they can get to what they have to say. Real friends are there when you need them. Imitation friends are there when they need you. A Real friend will tell you when you get back from the bathroom that the back of your dress is tucked into your panties. An Imitation friend will tell everyone else. Oh, yes. I know it's true. Thankfully not from this weekend.

Just like the hot cocoa, a really good friendship takes a little time and attention to simmer and mix. But if the ingredients are good and you can be patient, the reward is well worth the wait.

Lesson #2 - It's ok to ask.

This might seem like a simple thing, but can you think of a time when you wanted something and never asked? I know I'm not the only one. Just because you ask doesn't guarantee you'll get the answer you want, but at least you'll get an answer. Kind of generic, but I thought I'd toss that in there.

Lesson #3 - The Wienermobile is still seriously cool,
even though I don't like hot dogs.

Shivering in my four layers for a pic with the Wienermobile.

I mean, really. Can you imagine driving this thing around?

I will just say that I really want to learn how to drive this thing.

Just so I can pull up next to someone and ask,

"Pardon Me...do you have any Grey Poupon?"

Lesson #4 - Your old stories have new meaning to someone else.

My sister and I had a story-off at the hotel the first night, telling all the funny and embarrassing stories about each other we could think of. Like the time when we were teenagers and I was teasing her about something during a car trip with our parents and so in retaliation she crammed a blue Sweet-Tart up my nostril. And it got stuck. Hopelessly stuck. And I envisioned my future-photos album. Senior pictures, with a blue nostril. Wedding day, with a blue nostril. Posing with my firstborn child, with a blue nostril. Little old lady at the retirement home with fourteen wiry chin-hairs and a blue nostril. The last one made me laugh so hard that the Sweet-Tart went shooting out of the nostril across the back seat of the car.

I forgot to tell the ladies that one day last year my then three-year-old Waybums came to me in tears because she had crammed a blue bead into her nose. I saw her blue nostril and all those images came flashing back to me, and though she insisted that it was NoT funny, I couldn't help laughing. I told her my story and it made her feel better.

My mom told me once that one of my accomplished uncles once had to go to the hospital when he was a little kid because he had gotten something stuck up his nose. I asked my Gramma about it and she said that indeed he had. I asked what it was and she said that it was either a clover blossom or a sheep poop. This fellow is a brilliant patent-holding engineer, so I take comfort that one can make mistakes and still go on to make great achievements.

As far as my plans for achievements this week...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned the science of ice cream

2010-03-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

Homemade ice cream is a tradition in our family. When I was a kid, Gramma would bring out the old ice cream maker at birthday parties and other summertime special events. She'd whip up the ingredients in the kitchen, pour it in the tall metal cylinder and sit that inside the bucket with the ice and salt. And then The Uncles would all have their chance to turn the crank until their arm felt like it would fall off. And then the cousins would all compete over who got to eat the ice cream off the paddles inside the churning cylinder. And we'd eat our ice cream in the yard until our brains would freeze.

But until today, I did not know about the science behind the process. So grab your scoops and sundae bowls and prepare for a tasty lesson about the science of ice cream!

I made ice cream with two plastic freezer bags

and a depressed freezing point. With stuff around the house.

For this fun project, you need the following:

1 gallon freezer bag

1 quart freezer bag

Ice cubes

Large crystal salt

Ingredients:

1 cup milk -OR- Half and Half -OR- whipping cream

(These vary in creaminess and the amount of exercise required post-ingestion.)
2 tbs. sweetener - you can use regular sugar - I used agave nectar.

1 tsp. flavoring - any kind you like. I went with regular old vanilla.

First you mix the milk, sweetener and flavoring in the quart-sized bag.

Congratuations! You've just created a solution!

(No, not the "problem" kind of solution. Unless you're thirsty for flavored, sweetened milk.)

The solution I'm talking about is a homogenous mixture of two or more substances. *cricket chirp* OK, so science isn't my strong suit, and the first time I read the definition of a solution I was thinking, "Um - What?" (Oh, to challenge my limitations!) I know the everyday meaning of homogenous, and the scientific one isn't much different. Homogenous, in this case, means that these ingredients are now combined in a uniform substance. After you mix it together fully, the components do not settle or separate on their own, i.e. the vanilla won't rise to the top, the sugar won't settle to the bottom. While the milk, sugar, and vanilla retain their own chemical uniqueness, they have come together to create a new substance. When they join together, they create a solution! (Hey, if you need a speech at an ice cream social feel free to take that and run with it.)

And with that little tidbit of information, I now also understand homogenized milk. During that process, the fat molecules that would normally rise to the top and separate from the milk are shot through teeeeeny-tiny holes so that they will be small enough to intermix with the rest of the milk. Here's a link that explains the process.

So, wait a sec. They infuse the fat molocules into the milk? Hmm. I wonder if that's why the milk with the cream that rises to the top tastes better... It seems I'll have to take my blog on a field trip to the local creamery when the weather gets a little nicer.

Ok, back to the ice cream science...

Next, take your gallon bag and fill it 1/4 of the way up and add 3 tbs. of salt.

I always wondered as a kid why they added the salt. The grown-ups told me it was because it melted the ice. But I found a more in-depth explanation at this site. "When you add salt to the ice, it lowers the freezing point of the ice, so even more energy has to be absorbed from the environment in order for the ice to melt. This makes the ice colder than it was before, which is how your ice cream freezes."

This is also why it's important to salt the roads when it starts to get icy, and why parts of the ocean don't freeze even when they are well below freezing. This site is really interesting and explains it well.

Next, add the WeLL-SEALED bag of milk solution.

And add 1/4 more ice and 3 more tbs. of salt on top.

And now comes the fun part. You shake the bag for about five minutes. This is where you can get the kids involved and make them do the work. They can play catch with it, or hula hoop with it in their hands, or do cartwheels with it in their teeth. Just as long as it keeps shaking. My kids were sleeping when I did it, so it wasn't nearly as entertaining as it might have been. My hands started getting cold, too.

As frostbite started claiming my fingers, I thought it might be brilliant to try sticking it in the washing machine and letting that agitate it. But I remembered it doesn't agitate without water. Then I thought I could toss it in the dryer on air-only cycle. But then I imagined the seals not holding up against such vigorous mixing and then imagined my husband's face when I explained the reason why we needed a new dryer.

"Well, sweetie. I was going to make ice cream . . . "

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah, ice cream."

"What's that got to do with the dryer?"

"Well, I had to keep shaking it, and my hands got cold . . . "

"So you put the ice cream in the dryer?"

"Um, yes. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"In the dryer?"

"Yeah! Think of all the people that would read a post entitled, 'Today I learned to make ice cream in my dryer.' You have to admit that sounds intriguing."

"As opposed to 'Today I learned how to install a clothesline in my living room because I tried to make ice cream in my dryer.'"

So, readers, be warned that this is the direction your mind can go when your hands start freezing because you are making ice cream in Ziploc bags after everyone has gone to sleep. Fortunately, these thoughts can be easily assuaged by A.) a pair of mittens or B.) a pillowcase. I chose the pillowcase because it was fun to swing around in circles.

Speaking of ice-cream induced mental impairments here's more science as

this link explains ice cream headaches.

So, after my five minutes were up, I checked out the bag of ice cream:

I scream - you scream - we all scream for ice cream!

Now you just serve it up. I recommend cutting one of the corners and squeezing it out soft-serve style. And if you have any aspirations of ice cream photography be sure that your batteries are at max power, because sundaes tend to pout if they're kept waiting.

But they are still tasty.

I learned a lot more science about ice cream,
like crystallization, emulsification and pasteurization.

And I learned that ice cream made in a bag
is just as tasty as the stuff from the store.

I'll post my next lessons on Sunday evening
since I'll be offline for a bit.

I'll keep you posted!

*No dryers were harmed in the making of this post.*

Today I learned that libraries are still relevant.

2010-03-03T23:59:00.000-08:00

Can you remember the last time you set foot in a library?

The last time I visited a Library was when I lived in San Diego. I was a newlywed with a LOT of spare time on my hands because my sailor was gone for long stretches and I didn't know many people out there. My goal was to check out the thickest books in the place and spend my lonely nights trekking across the wilderness with Sacajawea or giving War and Peace yet another chance. Three times I've tried to make it through that book. Three. I own it now, and I still haven't gotten through.

I remember the library program I attended when I was a kid. I devoured books, so it was a piece of cake for me to complete the goals. And there were other kids to do crafts with, and Sonya the Librarian. She was so sweet and relatable and she knew a lot about books. She had pretty blonde hair. And I didn't realize it then, but she was also a little person. It was probably less noticeable because I used to be little then, too. And little kids have this wonderful ability of seeing people as just purely people, regardless of color, size, age, physical ability, or economic status.

And from Pre-K to high school, I loved visiting the library. It was sometime around college and Internet access that I stopped going. And then after I got married we moved around so much that we never settled anywhere long enough for me to get really acquainted with the local library.

I was looking online for new things to learn when I stumbled upon an article asking:

Will libraries become obsolete? It's an article from 1999.

When I read the title, I was a little worried. After all, I loved my library experiences as a kid. And so today I set out to discover if libraries were all that I remembered them to be, and whether or not they'd become an abandoned gas station along the Information Superhighway.

The first thing I noticed when I got to the library was that this place has a really nice building. Three stories, (LoL - Oops, I mean levels... It would be a short article if there were only three stories at the library), comfy chairs to lounge in while you read and very friendly people at the circulation desk. We felt immediately at home.

The first stop was getting our library card. One for me, and one for Waybums.

She was so proud.

I didn't realize what a right of passage it would be to her.

I started looking around for books and the kids were pretty good about keeping quiet and not running around like crazy. Within five minutes I felt like I had won the "learning-things" jackpot. I've already added "vermiculture" and "geocaching" and "dairy farming" to my to-learn list. And I found out that our library has an immense selection of pretty cool-shaped cake pans that you can check out. So, I see cake decorating lesson in my future, as well. :) After perusing around for a bit I decided to take the kids to see the youth area. After five seconds I felt like I had won the "kid-entertainment" jackpot. Wow!

They even had a Lego table so Kodi-Pie would have diversion.

No, wait - what's this? A whole PLAY AREA??

With wooden trains and Dr. Office beads and The Works!

I had been worried that our trip would be short

because Little One would get bored.

With Kodi occupied right there,

Waybums and I start looking around at the books.

There were so many. This is just a tiny section...

It was like a reunion with old friends. Ramona. Barbar. Clifford. She looked around in wide-eyed wonder. "Mother! It's just like when Beast gives Belle a library! There's so many books everywheres!"

But her indecision came to a swift end when we found the dinosaur section. She did a little happy dance and started making a pile. Once she'd selected her books, she brought them over to a plastic playhouse castle where an adorable little girl asked if she wanted to come in. They sat there looking at the books and giggling. Kodi continued playing with the Lego table. I sat down and checked over a few articles in a Parenting magazine. It was delightful and laid-back and I enjoyed it, too!

The only thing I didn't account for was that it would be too fun.

So fun nobody wanted to leave.

Poor kid was heartbroken when I told her we had to go.

She was on the brink of tears when a nice young fellow on staff saw her sadness and reappeared with a special treasure that brightened her day immediately. Her very first bookmark. :) It said, "My heart belongs with books" and he gave it to her because he could tell that she loved books a lot to be so sad to leave the library. She smiled shyly and gave me a huge hug and we went home with our glorious loot.

She read herself to sleep, and cuddled with her bookmark.

The Internet is great and so full of information, but the trip to the library offered one thing that the Internet could not. A connection with real people, in real time. I had a chance to chat with other moms, and the girls had a chance to play with other kids. We got to know the librarians, and one of the staff even made my daughter's day a little brighter. We haven't really been plugged into our community here. My husband goes to college and works in our previous town and I used to commute to get the kiddo in our previous town. We visit family out of town often. I feel like we had a chance to get to know our community better today. And that's a lesson worthy of note.

As far as which cake pan I'm picking out first...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to make bouncy balls, and shared a photo essay.

2010-03-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Put on your lab coats and safety glasses, readers, because we’re about to get scientific. :) After my long evening of Turkish Delighting I decided to stray from cooking for a bit to do an easy science experiment and make a different kind of recipe:

Bouncy Balls ala Borax

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

1 tbs. white glue

1/2 tsp. borax

1 tbs cornstarch

2 tbs warm water

Food coloring

2 plastic cups

2 stirring sticks (chopsticks work fine)

A quick note is that borax is an irritant in its powder form and shouldn't be kid-handled.

It's fine for kids to play with it after it's made as long as they're old enough to know

not to eat it, slobber on it or otherwise ingest it. (Which is true of all bouncy balls.)

Step # 1- Put glue into cup and mix in whatever color you like. Waybums picked pink.

Step #2 - Mix the borax and water in the second cup with the other stirring stick.

Step # 3 - Add cornstarch and borax solution into the glue cup

and let it sit for 15 seconds.

We forgot to let it sit but it still turned out ok.

Step #4 - Stir the mixture with one of the sticks until it's hard to stir

and then begin rolling it into a ball.

It's sticky at first and hard to roll,

but give it some time and it'll get going.

Step #5 - Get bouncing!

It's not going to bounce as high as your average superball,

but you can't help but feel a little cool and MacGyver-like to have made it.

And that's how you make bouncy balls from household supplies.

*cricket-cricket*

That's it?

Really?

Hmm.

I thought it would be more difficult.

Uhhh, Something to stretch it out a bit....? Oh! I have just the thing.

- Photo Essay on The People in the Background-

I've been a lot of touristy places before and when I've looked at the photo afterwards I always seem to notice the people in the background. I don't know these people, but here is a picture of them captured in the same place that I went. It makes me think...

"How many people have photos of me in the background of their pictures?"

Provocative thought, eh?

Well one day when we lived in Japan we took my visiting mom-in-law to Kamakura. It was a particularly busy holiday weekend and there were throngs of people everywhere. Kamakura used to be the capitol of Japan and so the place we took mom-in-law to see used to be the palace.

There were a lot of stairs.

And Waybums was still a baby in a stroller then . . .

. . . asleep.

So I told Hubby and Mom-in-Law to go ahead. I'd just stay behind.

And I shot pictures of them on the steps and at the top.
And I started thinking about those people in the background.
Why not let them be the focus of a few pictures?

Mom taking pictures of her kids.

Teenagers glad to have a day off from school.

Tired couple.

Dad and daughter.

Ladies and their pups.

Beautiful woman in purple.

Kid in the red hat.

Man left behind at the bottom of the stairs.

There at the steps of Kamakura it was just us. People going through our day.

A lot of people get so caught up in what they're doing that people become part of the background to them. The cashier at the grocery store. The childcare worker at daycare. The person sitting at the next table in a restaurant. Static. Extras in the film of their life. And what I learned that day is that just because someone isn't the focus of my picture, doesn't mean they aren't part of that moment.

Just something I learned...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned HOW-TO Make Turkish Delights!

2010-03-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

After my drastically failed attempt, and then a LONG evening of dedicated do-over,
I have done it! So here's the learning process in action:

The Ingredients

You know, I learned with this recipe that one of my pet peeves is when recipes lump together a sum of an ingredient when it's actually added in various increments throughout the recipe. I very nearly had 1 1/4 cups of cornstarch in my gluey mixture because of this practice. Who wants to stop and do mental math at a critical juncture of the process when every second counts?

I broke down the recipe for you according to the steps of the process:

To Coat the Pan

extra light olive oil

Sugar Mixture

4 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 tbs. lemon juice

Jelly (Gluey) mixture

1 cup cornstarch

1 tsp. cream of tartar

3 cups water

Last Ingredient

3 tbs. rose water

Powder Coating

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

This recipe is very close to the last recipe I tried with a few minor exceptions that made a big difference. The last recipe I tried, while quite close to this one, was not as clear in its instructions and contained some inconsistencies. For instance, the video told me I needed 1 1/2 cups of corn starch, the written recipe told me that I needed 1 1/4 cups of cornstarch, the instructions told me to add 1 cup of cornstarch, but that recipe never told me what to do with the remaining 1/4 or 1/2 cup of cornstarch after making the gluey. So one of the most important things I learned is to study the recipe before you ever get started. I probably would have noticed earlier but I was distracted by the video with its cool bop-iddy-bop-bop Middle Eastern music in the background and the tutorial lady's charming accent.

Before you start, I would recommend measuring all the ingredients and having them ready to go. You need a larger pan and a smaller pan. Start the sugar mixture in the smaller pan because you'll be pouring it into the larger pan.

Step #1 Make the Sugar Mixture

Tah-Dah! My lovely new Tramontina stainless steel saucepan!

I'm not getting any endorsements from Tramontina or anything,

(LoL!) but I have to say that they make nice, heavy-duty cookware.

They're thick bottomed, heat evenly and are great quality.

There are some purchases where you can pinch pennies,

but I have learned that a quality product is worth the extra.

Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way...

*Sniffle*

I bought this a month ago because it was a big beautiful shiny wok for my stir-frying.

Be sure to look for stainless steel because the only thing this is good for now

is gonging intruders over the head.

Anyway, back to Turkish delight...

This is the water, lemon juice and sugar mixture over medium heat.

(I began this process at about 10:15 p.m.)

You keep stirring this until the sugar dissolves and it starts to boil.

Then you turn the heat to low and let is simmer

until it reaches 240F on the candy thermometer.

This part took MuCH LonGeR than I anticipated.

I probably spent a good hour waiting for that blue vein to rise.

I stood there listening to Enya music and watched this sort of hypnotizing bubble ballet.

The bubbles would appear from nowhere within the mixture.

They'd form and then pop up to the surface.

Sometimes there would be little bubble geysers.

I spent a lot of time watching the hypnotic bubbles.

After about an hour of watching the little bubbles and not

seeing any temperature increases I decided my "low" setting was too low,

and that these bubbles were lazy. I turned up the heat and finally got to 240F.

Step #2 - Make the Gluey Mixture

Now you mix the cornstarch, water and cream of tartar over medium heat.

I didn't get any photos of this part of the process,
mostly because it was the part that left me wary.

Basically you stir like crazy until it starts to boil.
After it boils it will start to become gluey.

I found a trick is in the sound of mixture.
Stirring sounds less splishy as it gets thicker.

Early warning signs are extremely helpful to the process
and I'm glad to have tagged this one.

Now as soon as it starts to become glue-like you pour the Sugar Mixture
into the cornstarch mixture.

Stir it like crazy for five minutes until it starts to look like this:

Kind of reminds me of the goo from lemon meringue pie.

Now comes the labor-intensive part. You stir. And you watch. And you stir some more. And you watch. And you stir until your arm feels like it's going to fall off and you watch until your brain cells will start dying off from lack of stimulation. Having done this solo, I would recommend having someone available to relieve you. About 45 minutes into this part of the process (about midnight) I realized it wasn't really simmering, it was just warm, so I turned up the heat. It probably varies from stove to stove. While I was waiting for it to heat, I became so bored for something to do that I decided to learn how to make lemonade from lemon juice.

I was into a rhythm at this point and knew I had about two minutes before it started bubbling and I'd have to stir again. I stirred and ran to Google "lemonade from lemon juice." As soon as I found a recipe, I dashed back and stirred the goo. After stirring, I ran back to the computer and copy-pasted into a word document and popped the Turkish delight recipe print-out in so I could print the lemonade recipe on the back. I printed it and dashed with it back to the kitchen, glad to be done with the back and forth part of it. I looked at the Lemonade recipe:

AAAAAAH! OH NO!

No Lemonade Recipe and now no Turkish Delight Recipe! SO back and forth I dashed again until I reprinted the Lemonade Recipe and the Turkish Delight recipe. I used my sugar mixture pan to make the simple syrup, stirring my Turkish Delight every two minutes or so. I added the lemon juice and water it asked me to add, mixed it up and stuck it in a cup with some ice cubes.

Ah! What a refreshing-looking diversion.

Of course when I took a big gulp my face turned to a permanent pucker and

I immediately sprouted 37 chest hairs. Whoo! So, I won't be sharing that recipe with you.

Unless you have some furniture that needs stripping...

So, back to the Turkish Delight,

I noticed as I waited that the mixture began to lose its cloudiness

and become much more gel-like and thicker.

It was also harder to stir.

Either that or my arms were giving up on me and going to fall off.

I amused myself by making up songs about life with no arms.

They were quite inspirational, I'm sure.

The mixture also became a slightly darker golden color,

and I could tell that it was a lot closer to the consistency that I was looking for, although it said in the recipe when it "has become a golden color"
so I was looking for some sort of notable change.

When I realized that the consistency was right where I wanted it,
my gut told me if I kept stirring, waiting for some color change

that I would have missed my mark.

I added the rosewater and poured it into my prepared pan
and waited for morning to come.

I'm pretty sure I was stirring with an imaginary spoon in my sleep.

I had a dream about stirring Turkish Delight over a fire
in a huge cauldron with a giant spoon.

When I woke up I remembered it was a real spoon I saw in Hakone (Japan).

Waybums is in this picture, too. Sort of. Behind the spoon.

And then came the morning!

It looked perfect and gelled. So I followed through the rest of the recipe.

Turning it on a surface was easy.

I would recommend a light layer of olive oil to keep it from sticking.

Close-up of the Delight and its waxed-paper wrinkles.

Coat in cornstarch and powdered sugar...

Be sure to mix the cornstarch and sugar well first.

Turkish Delight!

I tasted a piece after I had them all powdered and put away.

I was most surprised at how smooth and creamy they are.

Yum-may!

So, I gave my sample plate to the most discerning palate in the house.

She took a bite and regarded the candy.

And then declared it "the best most tasty ever in the world."

Even our house-rabbit Jazzy tried to steal a piece.

I thought he was going for the rose petals but he hopped away with a candy in his mouth!

Hmm. Related to the Easter Bunny?

Waybums suggested all the flavors she'd like to try.

Cherry. Strawberry. Orange.

You can make it any flavor you want.

As it is, it tastes like a rich honeyish lemon flavor.

This recipe can be found here.

So, all-in-all not a bad experience. Turkish delight dates back to 1500s so it's kind of cool to make an ancient candy recipe the traditional way. I won't be making it every day, but I can definitely see making it again for special occasions. Waybums has already put an order in for her birthday.

I know you had to wait a while for me to post this lesson, but one great thing I learned from this experience is that whether something turns out or it doesn't, waiting for the outcome will at least grant you more patience.

And Tramontina - feel free to have your people call my people. ;)

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned that I've learned a lot in February

2010-02-28T23:43:00.000-08:00

Here it is the last day in February and so I’ve decided to review what I’ve learned this month from my Learning Something New Every Day challenge.

I've had fun playing with photos in Elements 8.

Thanks, first of all, to you who take the time to follow this blog. I always have more fun doing something when I know that I can drag someone else along. :)

I feel like I have learned more in the past month than I ever thought possible. I’m not just talking about the posts I’ve made either. I’m talking about the hundred other little things that come and go in the course of the day. Because I’m so focused on learning new things for my blog, it’s like I have my learning radar on. Beep-beep-beep…lesson detected! It’s like when you focus on the color red and suddenly you see all the things in the room that are red. I’ve been focusing on learning new things, so when I learn something new, that lesson blips on the radar. –Oh, cool! You can use a wad of aluminum foil to scour your pans? –Beep!- Hey – I just learned something new. And I’ve had this epiphany that just stopping to notice that you’ve learned something helps you learn it better!

And the same way that my learning radar goes off when I learn something new, it blips when I see something I don’t know about. I feel sometimes like my childhood curiosity has been rebooted. When we were making something with eggs the other day I held an egg in my hand and wondered how it got from the chicken to my house. Do they inspect these on a conveyor belt? If they do, how do they keep them from cracking and rolling around? We drove past a herd of horses the other day and I realized that I don’t know how to put a saddle on a horse. And then I wondered when the first saddles came about and how many different kinds of saddles there are and how much a saddle costs.

And when my four-year-old daughter starts asking me questions, I’m right there with her wondering the same thing. “I don’t know why – let’s go find out.”

Like this stuff.

I’ve passed it a hundred times in the grocery store and never gave it any thought. But recently when I saw it – after I started the blog - I wondered about its purpose and function and origin. What do you do with it?

It turns out that you can do A LOT of things with it. There’s an eight-page pamphlet on the Borax website that tells you about SOME of its household uses. Wash laundry. Clean your garbage disposal. Preserve flowers. Extinguish flames. But a little extra research turned up even more interesting info. Like you can use it to make homemade Super Balls or Silly Putty! (You can bet I’m going to learn how to do that!) This stuff is crazy awesome! My sink is shinier than I’ve ever gotten it before! And I never would have known if my learning mindset hadn’t piqued my interest.

You know, I’m the sort of person who easily gets stuck in a rut. I’m the kind that gets the same thing every time I visit a restaurant because I know I like it. I take the same route to the grocery because I can go there on autopilot. Before this blog I ate either Eight-Grain hot cereal or a granola bar for breakfast pretty much every weekday. I never had to think about it. Recently on a day my husband was home we decided that waffles sounded good for breakfast but we realized we were out of batter mix. It’s so much trouble going to the store just for batter mix, and we probably would have just had our standard breakfast if I hadn’t thought to just look up a recipe for waffles from scratch. Oh my goodness. They were WAY better than the box mix. And breakfast has been completely morphed at our house. Now I eat fresh-cut mango or a poached egg with hollandaise or even scones with flower petals in them. Breaking out of the rut and going off the beaten trail, I’ve realized the scenery here is much more impressive.

A trip to the grocery usually ends up looking more adventurous than it did before.

Tonight I bought these:

Can you tell me what these are?

Because before tonight, the only one I could identify was the artichoke.

This one is a rutabaga.

Did you know that they carve into jack-o-lanterns in Britain and Ireland?

The Recipe I Plan to Try

Hello, Mr. Parsnip.

Did you know that parsnips are related to carrots, and until the discovery of the Americas they were the main starch on the menu? What new starch came from the New World that made everyone ditch their beloved tuber? None other than the potato. The Romans thought parsnips were an aphrodisiac, but how sultry can they be if they were replaced by potatoes?

The Recipe I Plan to Try

This one is a turnip.

The Persians believed it was a remedy for treating the common cold. And that was even before they knew these babies are high in Vitamin C.

The Recipe I Plan to Try

An Artichoke

I knew what this is. Well sort of.

I didn't know it's actually part of a thistle.

The part that the little purple poof grows out of...
I bet Eeyore would like this dip:

The Recipe I Plan to Try

Celeriac –AKA Celery Root
Is it just me, or does it look like it's smiling?

I’ve read that tossing some of this in when you’re boiling potatoes to mash not only increases the nutritional value, but also the flavor. Hmm. Interesting. Health Benefits

The Recipe I Plan to Try

Another thing I’ve learned is that I’m not the only one who doesn’t know these things. I was driving my shopping cart around the store with this surfer-headed looking root and I had about five people stop and ask me what the heck it was and how the heck you use it. (Hi to my fellow midnight grocery shoppers! Thanks for asking about the address to this site. I hope my recipe ideas help...)

OK, and here’s another produce-related Learning Experience I’ll toss in for fun.

The fruit on the left is a pomelo. This is basically what a grapefruit would be like if it were in a good mood. Sweet, and mild-mannered. The one on the right is what happens if Waybums uses her imagination and pretends that the one on the left is a T-Rex egg and hides it away in a nest somewhere in the house until it become petrified.

I will spare you from what happened to the avocado/brachiosaurus egg…

It was not pretty.

What else have I learned this month? Well the most surprising thing I learned this month came from a conversation I had at the store tonight. I had a happenstance meeting with a reader that thanked me for my snowblower post. I'd never met her before but she heard about the site from her friend, a grocery store employee that I shared the site with the day that I bought mangoes. :) It's a small world, after all.

She said that the idea of learning something new every day sounded cool so she went back and started at the beginning and was sucked in by my stories. And she said that when she got to the snowblower story she read the part where I wrote about my husband explaining that the snowblower was supposed to do all the work and that I was pushing it too hard. I wrote that something in life "will either work or it won't, but pushing something harder than it's supposed to go will wear you out," and she said that it hit her like a ton of bricks. You see, she had been in an abusive relationship and she realized that she was working so hard at constantly trying to keep him happy that she was wearing herself to nothingness. So she left him that day and although it's been a challenge stepping out on her own, it's been completely worth it to feel so freed. She said that reading about me doing things that I used to be afraid to do or unmotivated to figure out helps her to think outside of her box, too. She said that her boyfriend always did the engine maintenance on her vehicles and that she figured if I could push past eating moldy cheese, she could figure out how to check her oil. Wow. How humbling!

(Oh, dear reader, how I treasure that you shared that with me, and thank you for allowing me to share that here. I could barely keep myself from becoming a big puddle when you told me your story. You are a very brave person and I am glad to have met you. You single-handedly made those nights that I stay up waaaay too late working on this blog worthwhile.)

So, the greatest thing I've learned from this blog is that we all have something to learn in life. We just have to make sure our radar is on so we can catch the opportunity to learn it.

Thanks for a month of fun and . . .

I'll keep you posted.

Bonus Post - I learned how to make eggs from scratch

2010-02-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the link for Waybums' YouTube Tutorial

How to Make an Egg from Scratch

Today I Learned How NoT to Make Turkish Delight

2010-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

-Lesson from Saturday, February 27, 2010-

If you don't know what Turkish Delight is, you should check out the following video link:

Edmund Eating Turkish Delight

*Sigh* - It looks so tasty. Now, on to the lesson.

You know...there are moments in life that you can look back and revel in your great success, in your achievement and the glory of that moment.

And there are moments like these when you begin to wonder if the Frankencandy you created will ever release your teeth from its powerful grip. Will I be forced to suck my nutrition from a straw for the rest of my life? How can something so tasty be so evil? Can you die from laughing this hard? Sometimes trying to learn something will just leave you with more questions...

I have been excited for days now about the possibility of making Turkish Delight. I even made rose water from scratch in order to make it. But, unfortunately I did not learn the proper way to make Turkish Delight today. That's not to say that I didn't learn anything today. Quite the contrary. I learned how NoT to make Turkish Delight today. Probably one of many ways. Although I prefer not to learn any more.

I'm not a big Woody Allen fan, but I read one of his quotes recently that could certainly apply to this situation:

"If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative."

So, in reviewing this process I will take comfort in the idea that at least I tried to do something interesting, and can move forward with the information I've gained and apply it to my next attempt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is how you're supposed to make Turkish delight...

Step #1 - Mix sugar, lemon juice and water together and heat until 240F.

What did I learn from this?

1. Wire whisks and Teflon pans do not mix.

2. I am overdue to buy a new medium-sized saucepan.

3. Teflon flecks are not an appetizing ingredient.

So, after scrapping that batch of ruined sugar mixture, I went on to mix up a better one, in a better pan. Going good. For the moment anyway. Until I faced the next step.

Step #2 - Mix cornstarch, cream of tartar and water over heat until it's glue-like.

Now, the directions said,
"when the mixture achieves a glue-like consistency, stop stirring."

I think this was the major hitch in our attempt today.

In the recipe video, their mixture looked like a thicker version of Elmer's glue.

Now that I look at theses pictures I realize that ours looked more like

the school paste that comes with an orange lid and a stick.

What did I learn from this?

1. Gooey and gloppy is better than pasty and thick.

2. This stuff may look like frosting, but is NOT tasty. Bleh.

Step #3 - Add gluey mixture to sugar mixture.

What did I learn from this?

1. If it's pasty, the mixture turns into hard little flecks the consistency of cartilage.

2. No amount of stirring will fix this.

At this point, I was torn. Do I follow through with the rest of the recipe even though I know this batch is ruined? Do I scrap it all and start over? It was time to call My Reinforcement back to the kitchen.You remember the guy . . . Super Hubby

His solution was simple.

"Let's just strain out the flecks."

I laughed out loud. Pouring molten hot candy through a sieve? First of all, that sounded dangerous. Second of all, it didn't even seem like it would work. But he smiled confidently at me, with a "What do we have to lose?" expression.

Ok. Alright. Let's give it a try...

What did I learn from this?

1. Sometimes crazy ideas work.

2. Sometimes crazy ideas work, but it still doesn't matter.

3. My husband is willing to sustain injuries to find out what Turkish delight tastes like.

No wonder Edmund was willing to betray his brother and sisters.

The intrigue of this stuff makes you do crazy things...

Well, we continued to follow the directions. We were aware that it might not turn out as planned, since a good portion of the gluey mixture didn't get integrated into the batch. But we marched on, anyway. And after the long stirring time was done we poured it into our pan and hoped for the best.

After the cooling time had passed we tried it.

Instead of being jelly-like and soft,

we had made the largest Sugar Daddy I'd ever seen.

And even though it glued my teeth together, it tasted really good.

I'll keep dreaming of what it will be like to bite into a soft jelly Turkish delight.

Until then, I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned to stop and eat the roses.

2010-02-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

I love roses. They are just classic. They smell nice. They look beautiful. They remind me of summer. My oldest daughter's middle name is Rose. (We gave our little one a floral middle name, after we adopted her. We'll probably have a whole garden by the time we're done having kids.)

Anyway, this is usually what roses do in my house:

Sit there and look purdy. Purely decor.
Until today.

Spoiler Alert - On Saturday I plan to learn how to make Turkish Delight. You know, the "sweetie" that Edmond betrayed his siblings for in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When I was a little kid and read the book, I always wondered what it tasted like. So I plan to make it this weekend to appease my curiosity. One of the ingredients is rose water. I looked around quite a bit for rose water locally, and did not find it. Normally that sort of thing would have left me shrugging that maybe I'd find it someday and then be able to make it. But now that I am challenging myself to learn new things, I was just excited to have another new thing to learn. What is rose water? How do you make it? Off to learn, I went!

What is Rose Water?

Basically, it's water that's been infused with the smell and flavor of rose petals. Rose water is probably one of the oldest perfumes in the world. It's not like the heavy rosy perfumes or soaps that you're probably thinking of. It's much more delicate. Romans used roses in their baths and noticed the astringent qualities, and those are the purposes it's most known for here in the U.S. - as as a body mist or as a facial astringent.

However, rose water has also been a staple for cuisine in the Middle East for a very long time, in savory dishes such as mutton or sweet - as in Turkish delight or marzipan. When we lived in Japan I remember seeing rose petals and dandelion leaves in a salad at a fancy restaurant. And I've found an English recipe for rice pudding that uses rose water. But flowers just aren't really found in food here in The States like they are in other places of the world.

How Do I Make Rose Water?

There are different methods for different purposes. The method I chose was for culinary rose water, and the first task is finding suitable roses. If you are eyeballing your drooping Valentine's bouquet I suggest you forget that route. Most roses in such bouquets have floral preservatives and probably pesticides and wouldn't be suitable for eating. The best place to look would be your own rose bushes since you know what has and hasn't been used on them. But since it's winter here now, you can contact your local florist and ask them if they could get some organic roses. They have more contacts than you might. Unless you are a florist. Hello to all you florists out there! (Especially Jean!) I was able to score two roses locally that were pesticide-free. You can also ask about getting misfit roses with missing petals or broken stems for a discounted price.

My Wonky Rose

Step #1 - Remove the petals from the stem

The easiest way to do this is cup the rose in your hand at the base and pull them down to a right angle. It takes a lot less time than the loves-me/loves-me-not way of doing it. You will need to put the petals in a colander and rinse them in cool water. I did that after I measured:

You need one firmly-packed cup of petals (about two roses).

And two cups of distilled water.

Put your petals in a bowl.

Put your two cups of water on to boil.

You can go ahead and snack on a petal while you're waiting, if you want.
I'd suggest taking off the white part of the petal first, as it's somewhat bitter.

Waybums is a regular aphid.

Pour the boiling water over the petals and let it steep until the water is cool.

The petals will turn a different color as their pigment transfers to the rose water.

Ours turned almost purplish-pink.

Now, pour through a strainer.

You can squeeze the petals over the strainer for extra essence.

Now, funnel your rose water into a sterilized container.

I used this one because I like recycling and it seemed an appropriate match:

It will need to be refrigerated to stay fresh,

or you can freeze it into 1 tsp. cubes if you need it to last longer.

If you want, you can also use this culinary rose water as a body mist.
You could even use it as an air freshener.
Just put it in a spray bottle and spritz away.
Just remember to refrigerate it,
or to add 1 tbs. of rubbing alcohol as a preservative
if it's not going to be used for food.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW, what to do with those blanched rose petals?

I hated the idea of throwing them out. During my research into rose water I found a scone recipe with shredded rose petals in it. But when I searched for it again, I couldn't find it for the life of me.

So, I just made one up!

Rose Petal Scones with

"Roseberry Razz" Icing

You know how when you cut onions your hands smell funny afterward?

Oh, the delight of dicing rose petals! :)

I'm the type that likes a recipe to follow, but since I'm eating flowers today and moldy cheese yesterday, I decided I might as well live a little on the wild side. I looked at about a dozen scone recipes so I could get the basic format and then I pieced together bits from each that I liked. Here's what I came up with:

5 cups flour (all-purpose)

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Two sticks of unsalted butter,

(still cold and it helps to cut them up a bit)

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/3 cup milk

1 cup shredded rose petals

2 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. rose water
(You could add fresh raspberries or 1 tbs. of raspberry jelly if you like, too.)

The almond extract is kind of my signature ingredient. I LoVe almond extract. I put it in everything from hot cocoa to chocolate chip cookies. My husband thinks it has a very strong flavor and the second he walked in the door tonight he said something like,

"Went a little wild with the almond extract, did we?"

It was the one thing I remember seeing in the original rose scones recipe that I can't find. But, if you prefer you can use vanilla or raspberry or whatever flavoring you think would be good. I have to say it's pretty good with the almond extract, though. Adding it made sense to me since rose water and almond paste are co-ingredients in marzipan.

You mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and then cut in the butter with a pastry blender. (Or a fork. I'm just excited to have a pastry blender and enjoy getting to use it when the occasion comes up.) Then add the sugar, rose petals, milk, almond (or whatever) extract. Stir them a bit until it starts to form a dough. (If it's still crumbly add a little bit more milk until it's just starting to be doughy, but not sticky.) Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead it a dozen times or so. There are two schools on scone-shapes. There are round, biscuit-like scones and there are wedges. I made wedges. If you want to make circles, just roll them out and use a biscuit cutter or upside down cup and cut them like biscuits. If you want to make wedges, divide the dough into four equal parts and make them into circles like so:

Now, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet and slice them like you would a pizza.

You can even use a pizza cutter, if you like.

Leave the slices together if you like moist edges,
or separate them a bit if you want them crispy.

Bake them at 425F for about 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown on the top.

For the "Roseberry Razz" Icing
(which my husband named)

4 1/4 cups powdered sugar

3 tbs. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 tbs. rose water

1 tbs. raspberry jelly (seedless)

Blend together until smooth and then spoon over scones.
(This is kind of an estimate since I didn't measure as I made it...)

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

And wrapped inside a lovely scone - it is a tasty treat!

Ok, so I'll keep my day job. :)

This blog is really helping me to see things in new ways, to think outside my little "known" box and branch out into new places of creativity and resourcefulness. Man, I'm having fun. And thank you, readers for tagging along with me as I go...

~~~~~~~~~~~

PS - I did learn how to make paper cranes today. Although, Waybums thought it was a flying dinosaur. I thought it looked sort of like a crane. Maybe one that had been gnawed on by an origami predator...

I've just learned this is a skill I'm going to have to practice.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'll Keep You Posted!

Today I learned to give moldy cheese and Ugli fruit a chance.

2010-02-24T23:30:00.001-08:00

I had plans to learn how to make an origami crane today. It’s something I’ve always wanted to learn how to do, but just never got around to it. But after spending so much time tinkering on the blog yesterday, I had to catch up on some housework and do a little grocery shopping. Ok, a lot of grocery shopping. (I had cheese and crackers for breakfast so the kids could have the last of the milk with their cereal.) The day flew by with all the tidying I had to catch up on, and it was late afternoon before I got to the grocery store. And when we got to the store, today’s lesson was waiting there.

Right inside the store, Waybums shuddered and pointed, making her “blech” face:

“Mother! What is THaT?”

That sticker can’t be good for a fruit’s self-esteem.

It was an interesting find, since I had learned about these during preparations for my mango lesson. I took pity on the fruit and its sticker of shame and came to its defense.

“It’s called an Ugli fruit. But I hear it’s really pretty tasty.”

“It doesn’t look tasty.”

“Well, looks can be deceiving. Just like with people, it’s what’s on the inside that matters.”

Patting myself on the back for my lesson in non-judgment, I went back to the dairy section. I scanned over the various types of cheese, thinking how cool it had been to learn how to make cheese, when I saw The Blue Cheese. I looked at it, warily. It challenged me. Just last week I had posted my lofty standards. "No fuzz." But wasn’t one of the main reasons I started this blog to stretch myself? To learn about and experience new things? I've tried octopus, for goodness sake. Is moldy cheese really that big of a deal? *shudder*

I picked up the cheese and deposited it in the cart next to my Ugli fruit, realizing my new lesson for the evening would be: Learning to give unlovely food a chance.

The Ugli Fruit

This fruit was discovered growing wild in Jamaica, and it's what Bob Ross likes to call a "happy little accident," as a hybridization between a grapefruit, an orange and a tangerine. I've always been fascinated with hybrids. Ligers and Tiglons and Mules - Oh, my. I have much less knowledge of plant hybrids, though. I remember one summer when my Mom had a garden that accidentally produced a few bizarre cucumelons. They weren't very tasty. The Ugli fruit is another story, though...

Obviously these fellows have some skin problems, and the rind is thick and soft.

They're very easy to peel.

The first thing I noticed was that there was this gaping cavity in the middle.

Look! Another unexpected doughnut for the blog!

Slices, pictured with Skilpad, our trusty mascot, for size reference.

The smell was exceptionally alluring - sweetly citrusy. Very summery and warm. When I took the first bite of one of those big slices, the thing I noticed most was how juicy these are! And the flavor was unique. Sweet, and yet retaining a little of that grapefruit zing in there to keep it interesting. I got Waybums to try a piece. And she came back for another. And another. It's pretty satisfying, and being so large we have leftovers for breakfast in the morning.

The Blue Cheese

So, I shouldn't have done my research BeFoRe I ate the cheese.

Because it did nothing to prompt my desire to try it.

The legend behind blue cheese is that a shepherd was hanging out in one of the local caves with his cheese and other lunch staples when he saw a cute girl off in the distance and spent the next few days trying to find her. Supposedly, when he got back to the cave, he saw that his cheese curds had been attacked by mold spores and he decided to eat it anyway. I don't know. I have a problem with that part of the story.

One time when I lived in San Diego I accidentally ate some moldy peanut butter toast. Well, I ate the toast on purpose, but not the mold. The worst part was that when I went to put the last two pieces of bread away, I flipped the butt of the loaf over and it was bright green. I'd just eaten four pieces of that bread. Bleh. I just can't imagine finding that loaf of bread and knowing it was growing with who-knows-what, shrugging and chomping on it anyway.

Of course, I did just buy pre-moldy cheese.

Hmm.

Ok, but I know it's moldy on purpose and that it's regulated mold that other people have been eating and surviving. Yeah. That makes it ok. But then I found out that the bacteria prompted to grow on this cheese is the same bacteria that causes foot odor. Yum.

So, I trudged on with my lesson, knowing all these things. There were a few crumbles that fell off the end of the cheese and they seemed like a good place to start. I poured a glass of sparkling grape juice so I'd have wash-down capabilities and popped the crumb in my mouth.

I've never tasted anything like it before in my life.

I'm not saying that I loved it right away and was savoring it. I'm just saying that it completely perplexed and dumbfounded my tastebuds. The texture is creamy and crumbly, smooth. It was such a unique flavor, and hard to categorize. It was kind of earthy, and reminded me of the frangrance of morels we'd found mushroom hunting. It had the boldness of "tangy" without the twang. Instead of twanging at the end, it sort of tingled. It was savory, but not really salty. The white part of the cheese was very mild and the moldy part was much more powerful tasting. I kept popping more crumbs in because I was trying to figure out how to define the flavor.

I Did Not Like

Green Fuzz on Cheese

Would not try it

Thank you, please.

But after just a teeny bite

I thought that it

might be alright...

By George! I kind of liked this moldy cheese! So I looked up a recipe for it and tried it out - Blue Cheese and Broccoli Soup. I thought it was really pretty good. I had some heavy whipping cream that I had to use up and I substituted that for one of the cups of milk. And I put more onions and thyme in. The Blue Cheese really made it.

It's also a little less intimidating when you can't see the fuzz.

My mom was always pretty good about encouraging me to try new things when I was a kid. Even if it was just to take one bite. "You never know until you try it," was the motto I remember. It's led me to some interesting culinary adventures through the years. And now I've had one more.

Thanks for coming along, and I'll keep you posted about tomorrow's adventure. :)

Today I learned more than I ever wanted to know about HTML.

2010-02-23T23:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our new and improved blog layout! YaY! :)

I'm going to jump right in because I am easily impressed with this little learning tidbit, and I'm sure there's someone else out there in the World Wide Web who hasn't figured it out yet either... I know how to do the accented " é " now! You simply hold down the "Alt" key and type 130 on your number pad (not above the letters - the ones over to the side...) and when you let go of the "Alt" button your little é pops up! Tah-Dah! é
*Sigh* :) It's the little things.

Alrighty, then. So, the most time-consuming thing I learned today was my crash course on Blogging 101. I’ve only been doing this for a few weeks now and I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest this little project has generated. I am getting five times the number of visits I had in the first week. (Wait. Is that right? Carry the one…add the seven…and…um… It looks like I need to pencil in a lesson on “basic math on only a couple hours of sleep.” :)

At any rate, I never dreamed I’d be up to triple-digits per day by now. Although, I noticed that my BlogSpot odometer seems to be stuck at 140. It’s been stuck there for about a week now. I keep tapping it, but the thing doesn’t budge. Ah, well. My other counter is working just fine, and if people are posting messages they’ve obviously been here. Unless they are ninjas. Hmm…

Well, anyway, upon seeing the amount of traffic the site is getting I decided it was time to take it up a notch and get my blog some fancier duds. So today I tackled templates and layouts and screen ratios. Even learned a little Photoshop pointers in there. And the dreaded HTML. Which, by the way is hard to is a hard process to translate for my readers...

This is the code for italic:

Add Your Words In Here

See the problem?

I suppose I could put spaces in between everything.

But I'll leave HTML Lessons to the experts.

And when I learned all I could about formatting my website and how to make it three columns and where to just get an easy template that I could download (Thank you Deluxe Templates!) and I couldn't get any further, I called in . . . My Reinforcement.

Super Hubby to the Rescue!

Handsome. Intelligent. Government-trained. Makes the world's best pancakes. My Hubby tried out for The Geek Squad and was turned down because he was overqualified. I knew he was the one I needed for this job. Only he and his Computer Fu could untangle me from the treacherous clutches of the evil and sinister Hypertext that held my remaining brain cells captive.

"Help!" I cried. (Well . . . texted.) "I found a new template but I can't figure this thing out!"

"Aha! I see your problem here! It's not compatible. You'd need Google Chrome for this template and so would all your trusty readers! You must find a different template that will free you from such glitches!"

"Thank you Super Hubby!"

Hehe.

Alright, so it went a little more like this...

~~~~~~

Hubby:

"Alright, Sweetie. Now you gotta click on that link there. No. The other one. Yeah. That one. Did you click it? Hmm. It's not going there. Try clicking it again."

Me:

"Yeesh! I'm clicking it already. Give me a minute."

Hubby:

"You know, you can make the images bigger if you..."

Me:

-groan- "I KnoW that already! What am I, in kindergarten?"

Hubby:

"I was just trying to be helpful. . . in case you didn't know about that."

Me:

"Oh. Well, I already knew that."

Hubby:

"Well, I'm just used to giving specific information when I'm going through the process."

Me:

"Well, I already know that."

Of course five seconds later he mentioned another thing that I already knew how to do and again I was quick to assert my knowledge on that laughably microscopic corner of his stomping grounds.

~~~~~~

So here's what I realized that I learned today.

My husband is one of the most patient people I have ever met, and that is one secret to his success in providing such good tech support. When we lived in Japan our conversations with family would often turn to tech support problems. My husband spent hours guiding his mom through the process of accessing her e-mail account or helping my dad trouble-shoot a problem on his computer. He would patiently guide them through every step of the process, even if it were obvious to him what needed to be done because it was in that order of things he usually found the problem. It was often some step that was missed or little thing that would have been overlooked if he had not been so meticulous.

It's a fairly obvious lesson - without order, there's disorder.

Tonight I learned to appreciate the simple fact that patience and order go hand in hand.

Thanks, Super Hubby.

It's a lesson we probably all need from time to time.

Touché!

---------------------------------------------------------------

I have been brain-storming about new lesson ideas and I have quite a few collected.

I asked Waybums what she wanted to learn about and she said...

"Well, mother. I'd like to learn about chickens."

So if there are any chickens out there willing to give lessons,

you'll have to keep me posted...

Today I learned about the history and mystery of seashells.

2010-02-22T23:38:00.000-08:00

I love shells. I have loved shells since I was just a kid. I remember we had this giant conch shell in our yard and when I heard from a classmate in school that you can hear the ocean in a shell I was determined to test the theory. Being landlocked in the Midwest, nowhere near an ocean, I was really curious to know what the ocean sounded like.

When I got home, I went straight to the yard and picked up The Great Shell. It had sunken into the dirt with time and when I picked it up it was muddy and there were earthworms wriggling, exposed, and protesting its removal. I put the shell up near my ear, and I cringed as I imagined an earthworm popping out and tickling my earlobe. But sure enough, I heard the roar of the ocean. Wow! Magical!

And I think that’s when my love of seashells began.

I have a basket of shells in my bathroom. They remind me of the years my husband was in the Navy and beaches were more easily accessible. As I cautiously slid the shells into their weekly sink-bath I mused that as much as I admire shells, I still have a lot to learn about them. So, today I learned about my favorite beach adornment.

Obviously, there’s the whole original purpose of a seashell. A house for an invertebrate. (Which is why those wormies must have felt right at home in The Great Shell from our yard…) But I already learned all about mollusks and bivalves and all that in high school biology class. Here’s what I learned today:

What I didn’t know is that the study of seashells is called Conchology. Which is fun to say. To me, it sounded like a celebration word that you'd shout during salsa music. But when I said it aloud a few times in a row, Waybums thought I was pretending to be a train.
One of the world’s best collections of seashells is at the Smithsonian in D.C. Now, there's a place to learn stuff...
I learned that seashells were one of the earliest recorded forms of currency, and the greater inland they traveled, the more value they held. (Actually I knew this to some extent, having read Anna Lee Waldo’s book Sacajawea. Lewis and Clark’s expedition loaded up on seashells when they finally reached the Pacific because they would be able to use them for trade on the way home.)
I always wondered why seashells had perfect little holes bored into them. I thought perhaps it was just something stores did before the shells were sold, but today I learned thats not the case. If an octopus is hungry and catches a snail, it’s not like he has some sort of gastropod can-opener he can use. But he does have a handy built-in drill that he can use to bore into the shell and do some damage. There are a lot of sea snails that drill into other shell-bearing critter's houses and then use their proboscis to suck them out of their protective shells. Yeesh. Who needs Sci-Fi when there's stuff that freaky in the real world? And it makes sense that these holes are found in the shells that wash up on the beach because their owners are no longer around using them. So, predation is the leading cause of holey shell syndrome in seashells. The other leading cause is jewelry makers.
This little fact is of particular historical interest. I learned today about antique collectibles known as Sailor’s Valentines. The Girls Back Home probably prefered to believe was that their seafaring fellas would collect teeny shells from their destinations and during their downtime they would make fancy designs for their ladies’ fair while they were pining away for them. Usually the designs would adorn the top of a box, or a bit of jewelry. Or a jewelry box. As romantic a notion that may have been, it was much more common for sailors to swing by Barbados and pick them up at a souvenir shop. Handy for those sailors with a gal in every port, because they’d never have time to swab the deck if they was always makin’ purdies.

But the thing I really learned today was that collecting seashells was just a great excuse to go to the beach. It's times like this, driving down snow tunnels on every street, that I miss the sand in my toes and the salty sea air. It's like a treasure hunt, to dig around in the sand and find a swirly shell or an oyster shell or even bits of driftwood.

Baby Waybums and Me at a beach in Japan

As I was drying off my bathroom shells, I handed one to Waybums and told her that she could hear the ocean if she put it up to her ear. She put it up to her ear and her eyes widened, she sat the shell down and she ran off. She came back with her trusty kitty mug, held it to her ear and said:

"Mother! Did you know there's the ocean in my cup, too?"

I held it up to my ear, and sure enough there was that ocean sound. You know...that might have been nice to know before I got dirt and earthworm goo on my face as a kid. ;) I take comfort that Waybums is a bit more clever than I was.

Yep. You learn something new every day. As far as tomorrow goes...
I'll keep you posted.

This weekend I learned how to squeak by without Internet and about rehydration.

2010-02-21T23:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,

I did not forget about you over the weekend. Indeed, I thought about you very much. On Friday I planned to feature what I learned about my mother’s heirloom collection of antique and quirky salt and pepper shakers. (My favorite is a long dachshund with salt coming out its head and pepper out the other end.) Unfortunately, I also learned that day what life is like without the Internet. With my tech support hubby out of town I was sadly without reprieve.

Saturday morning I had planned to go to the local Health and Safety Fair, which I was certain would be filled with remarkable information on how to keep from getting myself killed off. And the Waybums was excited because I would get to take photos of her with Smokey the Bear. Instead, the things I learned were not really reader friendly as I suffered much of Saturday with grave intestinal discomfort, and I’m not much for potty humor. Particularly not at my expense. Although, I realize the coincidence of being so ill on a day when I was supposed to go to the Health and Safety Fair.

Is it just me, or does it seem like between the continuously nasty weather and everyone being sick all the time that this winter is trying to stomp us out?

And since I left my camera at my parents’ house and am now without my salt-and-pepper pictures, I find myself hard-pressed for a lesson from this weekend to share with you, my readers. So, in an effort to pass some grain of helpfulness from my weekend – here is my contribution:

ORAL REHYDRATION SOLUTION

1 liter of water

8 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

If you happen to find yourself in a pinch without any Gatorade, this is the solution the World Health Organization has prescribed to help prevent people from becoming dehydrated, and has saved millions of children worlwide from cholera and other particularly mean outbreaks.

One interesting thing I learned is how much your body depends on salts and sugars to keep in working order. Your body secretes 20-30-grams of salt into your intestines every day and then absorbs it back in as you digest. But when your body is flushing things through the intestines too quickly, it doesn't have a chance to reabsorb the salts. And without the salts, your body does not retain water. So, not only are you not receiving the water you put into your body, but you're also losing what water's already in there. And the sugar works with the salt to help absorption. I got a biology and chemistry lesson from this ordeal.

Here's an interesting link on the subject.

And now, I'm off to bed, as ordered by Dr. Hubby.
Off to a healthier week of adventures.
I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to start a furnace fire, and tips on longevity from a raccoon.

2010-02-18T23:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a day full of busy activity. While I've been learning all these fascinating things, I've also been working on a month-long lesson on how to organize and simplify my house. (Which I'll share when I've finished that lesson.) We have moved four times in six years including a cross-country move and an international move, and I'm tired of living out of boxes. There's a glorious, spacious bedroom upstairs that has been moonlighting as a storage area, and it's time to get settled and get to use the space. I've been doing a lot of sorting and purging and regrouping.

So, today, when I wasn't playing with the kids and attending to their many cabin-feverish requirements, I was working on the house and trying to think of something interesting to learn. I came up with a couple of ideas that will work well for later, but nothing that really worked for today. My husband is a chaperone for our church's youth retreat and so I decided to have supper at my grandpa's house with my mom and hang out with my parents for awhile. When I got there, my mom suggested that I could learn about Grampa's wood-burning furnace. I thought that was intriguing and so I went out to the car to get my camera and stumbled upon another lesson.

Grampa's dog Drake (AKA "Get-Down-Dog") sat on the swing, looking like some kind of furry sentry, watching for mountain lions or something and so I snapped a picture of him.

Just as I was about to go into the house I heard a startling and unfamiliar sound coming from near the barn. Whoah! What IS that? If you don't mind spoilers - it sounded like this.

Drake went rushing off to the source of the noise and I followed him...at a distance. I might be curious but I'm not ready to sign up for rabies shots. I couldn't see anything, but there was a lot of noise. Drake was lecturing the critters for trespassing, "Grrr-snarl-ruff!" And they were trash-talking him, "Chareeka-chatta-grruhchuk." And then Drake just stood there barking.

Silly raccoon.

I learned a couple of lessons from this incident.

Petty bickering amongst yourselves can lead to much greater confrontations from elsewhere.
If you are going to stir up a ruckus, you better have a good retreat available.
The raccoon that runs has a better chance than the one who climbs a slippery metal pole in winter.

I tried to distract Drake, but he was pretty worked up. I suppose he understood the raccoon cussing better than I did. The masked bandit kept slipping and then climbing up and slipping and climbing up and finally fell from the pole and was snarling before he hit the ground. He got chewed out and chewed on, and to his credit he solicited more than a few yelps from the ol' dog. Drake came away and I didn't know if the racoon escaped or if he was dispatched. But I know enough not to go into a dark barn where there might be an injured animal. He's probably in the haymount, nursing his wounds, thinking that he's not going to argue so loudly around this farm again.

So, I went inside with my camera and commenced my lesson on Grampa's woodburning furnace. Before the lesson I knew two things. The first was that Furnace + Baking x Cooking = Hotter than the Sun. There have been a few years when I made the mistake of wearing a sweater to holiday festivities and wondered if the doctors would chuckle and call the press if they got a heat-stroke patient in mid-December during sub-zero temperatures. The second thing I knew is that I can tell if something's been at Grampa's house by its faint campfire meets echoes of homemade bread smell.

Here's what I learned tonight:

You need fuel for the fire. Obviously.

Here Grampa takes the Waybums into the firewood room so he can show her how they get the wood down there. All my life I knew that the room used to be a "cistern" but I never knew what a cistern was until I looked it up tonight. I always thought it was a kind of septic tank. LoL! Not quite. When I learned that a cistern is a kind of water reservoir, the references my grandma had made to using it suddenly made more sense. That's just one of the many back-burner things I'd never got around to really learning about. I thought I knew what it meant and so I never thought to ask. I know it probably seems dorky to someone who knows the meaning of the word. But we all have things that we think we understand but don't have it quite right. Just clarifying the meaning of one word suddenly helped shift a dozen stories my grandmother told me into focus. The most distinctive memory I have of this room was during a tornado when I was a kid. My brother, sister, grandma, mom and I were all crammed in there. I remember it felt like an adventure.

The furnace has two doors.

The larger door on top an the smaller one underneath.

The top is where the firewood goes...

And the lower door is where the ash is collected.

I realize this picture is sideways, but I kind of get a kick out of all of you turning your heads to the side to look at it, so I think I'll keep it that way. :) Sometimes it's more interesting to look at something from a different perspective.

After Grampa's demonstation I decided to do a little research on this furnace.

The furnace is a Longwood dual fuel furnace that can burn either oil or wood, and the name "Longwood" comes from the fact that it can burn logs up to five feet long. The founders of the company that manufactured it actually started out as earth-movers working with their Caterpillars, hauling mud around when people built houses or needed a pond somewhere - that sort of thing. Well, when this gentleman built his own house he didn't really like electric furnaces and so he designed and built a custom wood-burning furnace for his house. The neighbors liked it and wanted one for their own - word of mouth spread and they went from moving dirt to manufacturing furnaces. I love stories of such versatile people who stumble into success by accident, but had the good sense to run with it.

It was a good learning day. A little bit Wild American. A little bit This Old House.

Most of all, I just learned how much fun it is to see Grampa teaching the kids about things. He's such a stand-out fellow. Guys nowadays don't even have enough gumption to change out of their jammer pants before they go to the store for a gallon of milk, and my 80-something Gramps uses a cane to go up and down the stairs and make a fire twice a day. They just don't make 'em like they used to...

This was the cutest moment. He went to all the trouble of lowering the seat on this old-school exercise bicycle so Waybums could reach the pedals. She's barely there, but Grampa told her he'd help her try it again once she grew some more leg. :)

Off to sleep perchance to dream.

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to make and appreciate homemade crackers

2010-02-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

Back at the beginning of the year, I read a slave narrative published in 1861, entitled “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” It is an amazing true account of the lengths this woman went to simply to have the right to own her life. It should be on the required reading list of every high school.

The main character’s grandmother, a freed woman, was an important character in the story and she mastered many trades to help support her family and earn the respect of her community. To quote a passage:

“She became an indispensable personage in the household, officiating in all capacities, from cook and wet nurse to seamstress. She was praised for her cooking; and her nice crackers became so famous in the neighborhood that many people were desirous of obtaining them. In consequence of numerous requests of this kind, she asked her mistress to bake crackers at night after all the household work was done...”

- "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" - Page 12

This woman would work herself bone-tired all day and then made crackers into the night, using the earnings to buy clothes for her children and saved back the extra with hopes to buy her children. Wow. How humbling! This woman worked so hard. I read that and thought about how much I take for granted. My freedom, my children, my right to choose what I want to do. I toss my clothes in the washing machine and press a few buttons. I place my dishes in the dishwasher and press a few buttons. I set my food in the microwave and press a few buttons. We take it for granted how easy things are for us in this country, in this generation.

The crackers were really what kind of clicked with me. I’ve never made crackers before in my life. Why would I when I can just pick them up at the store, all tidy and prepackaged in a box? But reading that passage made me think about the fact that back in the 1800s, if people wanted crackers they had to roll up their sleeves and make some. Over a fire.

I admire all those who came before us, to make things easier for us, who dared to singe off their arm hair snatching out soon-to-be-too-done batches from the toasty ovens. And today as I learn to make crackers I will do my best to appreciate the fine electric stove I will put them in, and the handy mitten-shaped potholders that will protect my tender fingers.

INGREDIENTS FOR HOMEMADE CRACKERS:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup water

1 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick of butter (works better than margarine)

Step #1 - Mix ingredients

First, mix the dry ingredients.

Waybums has been particularly excited about this lesson.

My little "cracker attacker" loves everything
from Grahams to Goldfish crackers.

After the dry ingredients are mixed, add 1/3 of a cup of melted butter
and the 2/3 cup of water.

(Save back the extra from the stick butter.)

Mix these ingredients together until it forms a smooth dough...

...like this.

Now, divide the dough into two sections and cover for ten minutes

I don't know why.

In my research I read something about the flour absorbing the moisture.

Step #2 - Form the crackers

Now, put half of the dough in a square on a 17x9 cookie sheet and roll it out.

Trim the edges straight and cut into squares.

A pizza cutter works great.

Well, as great as your aim, anyway.

I did end up with a few crooked crackers, but that was operator error.

Now, poke a bunch of holes into the crackers.

This is so they don't bubble up.

It also helps when you've had a frustrating day.

Take it out on the cracker.

Go ahead, they won't judge.

Now, bake in your preheated oven for 8-14 minutes . . .

OH, WAIT!

I FORGOT AN IMPORTANT STEP!!!

Melt your remaining butter and brush it over the crackers
and then add table salt or coarse salt to taste.

Yeah. I remembered about halfway into the cooking time.
Oops.

But like I said, the crackers are pretty forgiving.

NOW put them in the oven 8-14 minutes, or until they are golden.

Not only are they way less expensive than store crackers,

they are also tastier. MoRe Tastier. Or is it MoRe TasTieST?

A couple tips...

No, those aren't multigrain.

They're just the reason why you want to cook them

in the middle of the middle rack.

And since you're doing it yourself - you might as well have fun.

Giant cracker anyone?

I already (accidentally) made a giant doughnut

so I thought maybe this could be fun...

Or how about interesting shapes?

I hear Stegosaurus tastes just like chicken...

And don't forget that you can pair your crackers with other things...

Homemade cheese and homemade crackers.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Stay tuned for tomorrow's lesson...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned to make cheese!

2010-02-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

I came upon today’s lesson by trying to think outside the box. And I’ve got to say that I even surprised myself a bit at this level of ambition. But that’s kind of the reason why I started this project. I wanted to stretch myself past what I already know. Since I started the blog I’ve been on the look-out for new things to learn and eager to take on challenges.

And I’ve never made cheese before.

Though, I certainly have eaten it. My husband was the one that started introducing me to new cheeses and the interesting ways they compliment various foods. Shredded Colby Jack is the most versatile cheese I use - for casseroles, potato topping, even in chili. I love Provolone and Baby Swiss when I'm making my sandwiches. I enjoy all manner of cheeses, though I prefer mild . . . and mold-free. No blue. No green. No thank you. Not that I would be above trying it, it's just that I'm not adding it to my shopping list anytime soon. And after developing a love for the various personalities of cheese, that processed "cheese product" in a box seems like such a wannabe. I KnoW it melts better than cheddar, but, let's face it - it's an imposter - the Elvis impersonator of the food world. I also think it's pretty funny that the selling point of this product is its ability to ooze. (And, by the way, cheddar actually melts fine if you know how.) I'm not a cheese snob, but if I'm buying it for myself, those are my standards. Real cheese, no fuzz.

Lately, I’ve been buying those little circular cheeses with red wax around them. You know, the ones with the cow on the label. Waybums loves the soft cheese and begs me to let her have my “circle cheeses” instead of the boring old string cheese. So, I share, even though they are spendy and I don't get them often. I was nibbling around the edges of one last night and began to wonder about the process of making cheese. And so I looked it up, and then all the recipes for homemade soft cheese started popping up. What?? REALLY? And feeling like a domestic conquerer with my tidy-folded fitted sheet, how I could say no to such a challenge?

So here I am today, learning how to make Farmer's Cheese -

aka Fromage Blanc.

INGREDIENTS

2 quarts whole milk (pasteurized)

2 cups buttermilk

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp salt

TOOLS:

heavy-bottomed saucepan, rinsed cheesecloth,

large strainer, stockpot

~~~~~

Step #1. Heat the Milk

Turn it on low heat and warm it until it's about 180F degrees. You have to stir constantly, and it's important to have a thick-bottomed pan so that it doesn't burn on the bottom. When it reaches 180F, turn off the heat and go right to step #2.

Step #2. Add the curdling agents

Stir in the buttermilk and the vinegar. Then you just sort of stick your spoon in there and nudge it around because the curdling starts pretty quickly.

The curds are the white parts that will become cheese. The whey is the watery part that is separated from the curds. And in case you ever wondered, a tuffet is a little footstool-type children's chair with a skirt that hides its feet. (I learned that today, too. :)

Now, you let the curds and whey sit like that for ten minutes. While you wait for those minutes to pass you can set up the strainer over the stockpot like so:

Then double-layer the cheesecloth and line the strainer with it.

My own little Miss Muffet wanted to make her own little cheese,

so I let her join in on the fun.

The strainer sits above stockpot so it can catch the whey.

Step #3. You drain the moisture from the cheese

After the ten minutes are up, you begin to ladle the curds into the strainer.

A slotted spoon would probably work well, too.

You let the curds drip for another ten minutes like this.

Next, you pull up the edges of the cheesecloth and tie it:

I did a little squeezing to drain the whey.

One recipe I found said to tie it to a spoon

and prop the spoon over the top of the stockpot.

My stockpot had handles, so I did this instead:

Now, you let it hang there for half an hour to drain.

After that half hour is up, you can open your cheesecloth and find...

Homemade Cheese!

I tried a morsel of it and was surprised at the cheese texture. It was creamy and mild and a little sweet. A couple of recipes said to stir in salt at this point. I decided that I'm going to make cheese blintzes with my homemade cheese and so I skipped adding the salt. I conditioned the outside of my ball of cheese with a little olive oil and put it is a plastic baggie in the fridge. Waybums planned to simply eat her cheese and I had the notion to use popcorn salt to avoid the grainy feeling of regular salt.

She really liked it. :)

She asked if we could make some more.

Farmer's Cheese stores well in the fridge for about five days...

...although I doubt very much ours would ever last that long.

Off to my next learning adventure - I'll keep you posted.

Today I Learned How to Fold a Fitted Sheet

2010-02-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

With this winter as bad as it is, I’ve had a couple of fun learning ideas that I’ve had to scrap because the weather messed up the roads or closed places I’d planned to go. (Grumble-grumble-snow-grumble.)

When it gets nicer out, I’d like to have more “field trips” like my outing to the flower shop. I’m dreaming about all the fun things I can learn when it’s warm, like canoeing or building things. And in the meantime, I sit and try to think of things to learn indoors at home. My husband, who is a full-time college student, tried to convince me tonight to learn about his homework. “Hey! You should look up everything there is to know about Teledesic satellites!” He was dashing out the door wearing a tuxedo at the time. I felt a bit like Miss Moneypenny stuck at the office while Bond, James Bond goes off to his next adventure. And just like Moneypenny, how could I say no to a handsome fellow in a tuxedo?

So, I whipped up some Google-Fu and took a gander at this Teledesic satellite system that, much like some of my previous posts, was an example of what not to do. But as I read it I realized it would make for a very dry blog that would probably read something like:

They came up with an idea to blanket the sky with satellites . . . everyone could be connected to everyone else . . . blah-blah-blah . . . really ambitious and costly . . . yadda-yadda-yadda . . . failed . . . techno-babble . . . and now people in the middle of the desert are sad because they can’t have the all-important life-skill of knowing how to Google things.

So after I looked up enough information to familiarize myself with the subject so I could help with the inevitable proofing that would come with this homework assignment, I looked up the real subject of my blog tonight:

-HOW TO FOLD A FITTED SHEET-

I have this theory that fitted sheets were originally invented as a prank to perplex people. Some person got a good chuckle filing those plans at the patent office. How many times have you been trying to fix the bed by yourself and just as you pull the corner up, the one across the way comes undone. We’ve all been there. At least until some clever person invented these.

Of course, I don’t need those because I’ve got my own personal Bond to help straighten those corners into submission. And yes, I admit to going a little more quickly so he’ll get stuck with the last corner. But he was in the military and one of the handy skills he learned in boot camp was how to make a bed. So I don’t feel bad. Except that a military-made bed requires a crowbar to break in. I think I’ll have to make him teach me how to do that. It could come in handy when I’m tucking the kids in…

Anyway, not only are they difficult to put on the bed, they're difficult to tame off the bed, as well. I'll use a fitted crib sheet to demonstrate. This is how my fitted sheets usually look when I pull them out of storage:

And actually, this might be a wee tidier than the typical wadded ball off cotton covers you'd find here. Funny - It looks to me like a penguin on its tummy sliding on a piece of ice. And no, I did not see Jesus on my homemade waffles yesterday morning, although they were heavenly.

You are going to be using your wingspan to your advantage, and so you want to make sure your sheet is horizontal like this, before you start. Shake it around to knock off any dryer fuzz and then fluff it up to loosen the wrinkles. These wrinkles are already set because of the previous couple of weeks they've been wadded into their penguin-shape.

The corners are going to become your ally.

Locate the point of the corner.

Now, poke your hand into the corner, with your finger in the very tip.

Now, nestle that corner into the one above it and repeat the process with the other side.

Now, stretch the sheet out with fingers pointed into the corners, like this:

Shake a bit and it will fall into the first fold.

This helps smooth out the edges and create corners for tidy folding.

Now, rest it on the bed like this:

Fold in the sides and tidy up the edges so they are straight.

Now, just start folding...

...until you have something that looks like this:

Ok, so I have to say this made me feel a little giddy.

I never thought a fitted sheet could look so tidy and orderly.

Something so simple, and yet I feel so accomplished. :)

Tomorrow I am going to learn how to make cheese!

That should be interesting, so . . . I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned about the colorful language of Hawaii.

2010-02-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

My older daughter and I love “treasure hunting” at thrift stores. You find things there that you can’t find during your basic Wal-Mart/Target/K-Mart experience. There are quirky things at a thrift store - like a set of ears of corn with little shoes glued on the bottom, little hats glued on the top and big eyeballs glued on the middle. One hat had a bow - I'm assuming it was the girl corn. They were cute. . . in a weird, anthropomorphic food sort of way. Kind of made me wonder if the reason they ended up in Goodwill was because they were overpopulating their previous home with those little baby corns you find in stir-fry. I mean, why else would you give up something so fascinating?

Anyway, during our most recent trip to a second-hand kids' store we found a bright green book entitled “Na Waiho’olu’u” or “The Colors” in the Hawaiian language. My daughter was born in another country, Japan, while my husband was in the Navy and we lived overseas. She has a certain innate desire to learn about the far corners of the world and especially enjoys learning words from other languages. So when she found out what the book was, she excitedly asked if we could get it for part of our “Mommy School” lessons. And I love it when my daughter is excited to learn about the world, so we came home with our bright green book and started learning...

The Hawaiian Colors:

‘Ula’ula – Red
‘Alani-Orange
Melemele – Yellow
‘Oma’oma’o-Green
Polu – Blue
Poni-Purple
Akala-Pink
‘Ele’ele –Black
Keo’oke’o-White
‘Ahinahina-Gray
Maku’e-Brown

(You can highlight the color names with your cursor

if you have problems reading them.)

I googled “Na Waiho’olu’u” and learned there’s a children’s song about colors, that my daughter will no doubt sing on a loop until she has it memorized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2qX9elO6XU

I think about Hawaii sometimes because it was a path that we didn’t take. My husband had the choice of being stationed in either Hawaii or Japan, and we chose Japan. But there are times when I ponder what it would have been like if we’d have made the other choice. Our home has a lot of Japanese art and influence, our lives and habits have a lot of reflections of our life there. What would be different? What would we have learned about instead? Hula skirts vs. kimonos. Aloha vs. konnichiwa. Pineapple vs. mochi. While we have no regrets whatsoever about our choice, it’s an intriguing thought to entertain the “what-might-have-beens” of those three and a half years. I blame too much Sci-Fi, with their conveniently interesting parallel universe story lines. :)

I would love to visit Hawaii someday, and I suppose you could say it's a goal since a trip to every state in the U.S. is on my Bucket List. We'll see where life takes us...

Hmm....What should I learn tomorrow?
I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned what "learn" means

2010-02-13T23:18:00.001-08:00

It's a shorty lesson today since I put a lot of time and fun into yesterday's lesson and I still have catching up to attend to...

I decided that if I am going to have a blog about learning new things every day, I should learn the meaning of the word “learn.” It seems appropriate to know what I’m up against.

According to Merriam-Webster:
Learn (verb): to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience.

So, it would seem there are three basic methods of learning – study, instruction and experience. So . . . you read up on it, you have someone teach you, or you just jump in feet-first. Alrighty! Good to know.

I’ll keep that in mind, and I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to make mochi and the principle of "hana yori dango"

2010-02-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

It will be apparent to my regular readers that one of the things I learned today was how to upgrade the design on my blog. If you popped on this afternoon you might have seen any number of the backgrounds I tried out. Barn wood with sunflowers. Antique floral. Rococo patterns. And because it’s now my job to learn things, I naturally ended up researching Rococo. It’s a French style of interior design, coming from the words rocaille (stone) and coquilles (shell), since those bits of nature are incorporated in the motif. It's also a little too busy for me.

I found the simplest one available, assembled my new banner and here we are with a new layout. I could have spent hours looking through backgrounds, but when I was looking up my mochi recipe this morning I learned a Japanese saying - “Hana yori dango” - which means, “dumplings over flowers.” It refers to the value of practical things over aesthetics. So, after fidgeting on here for way too long, I got back to rotating the laundry and picking out my mochi recipe.

What is mochi? The most definite answer I have is that mochi is an acquired taste. Or more accurately, it’s an acquired texture. The taste is subtle and sweet. And tasty, in my humble opinion. The main ingredient of mochi is glutinous rice flour, so the texture is unlike anything else I’ve ever eaten. It is somewhere between chewy and gooey. Chooey?

My husband hates mochi. The first time he ate it, he took a honkin' bite and it about glued his mouth shut. After that initial gag-inducing reaction, he hasn’t had much motivation to like it. But my mochi experience was with my dear Japanese friends who warned me to take small bites. Oh, I love it. When we lived in Japan, I’d go down to the Family Mart and buy tasty mochi goodies: Purple mochi with anko paste inside, pink mochi over sliced strawberries and cake, white mochi in little potato-starch dusted balls. *Sigh* :) Since there are no Family Marts handy here in the Midwest, I have been longing for mochi since we moved back. But no longer! I took some initiative and found an Asian food market that sells the glutinous rice flour and decided to learn how to make my beloved and weird little treat.

INGREDIENTS FOR
CHI CHI DANGO MOCHI:

1 lb. mochiko (glutinous rice flour)
2 ½ cups white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups water
1 tsp.vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 (13.5 oz.) can coconut milk
¼ tsp. red food coloring

For coating after cooked:
1 cup powdered sugar/½ cups corn starch

The recipe says that the first step is preheating the oven to 350F.

The first step I took was this:

Haha! See – I AM learning things.

After the chocolate-cake-from-scratch incident

I am now prepared.

Oh, and there’s something else I already learned but will pass along to you in an effort to be helpful. For years, I hated aluminum foil and cling wrap because they would jump out of the box at me when I tried to use them. And then last summer I found out there are tabs on the side of the box to keep the rolls in place! I sheepishly thought this was common knowledge until I mentioned it to other people, a lot of other people, who didn’t know either!

So, Internet, here is my helpful tip for the day:

It says to grease your 9x13 pan. Knowing the sticky nature of mochi, I didn't want to take any chances and so I lined it with foil first and then greased the foil. It was easier to take out later when I had to invert it, too.
Now, mix all the dry ingredients together. I learned that rice flour is very dusty, so keep that in mind when you're prepping your area. (Like hiding your camera from the rice cloud, for instance.)

Now mix your wet ingredients together. The recipe said to use red food coloring. I should have listened to the recipe. But NoOoOo. My favorite color is green, and I miss the grass. So I used green. Green is maybe not the best choice. Particularly if you are writing a blog and are trying to get people to think - "Hey, that looks kind of tasty. I might try to make that." Oh dear. When I mixed it all together I took one look and realized with dismay that it had both the color and consistency of the slime that they pour on people on Nickelodeon.

My daughter was concerned.

"Don't worry, mother."

"Maybe it won't look like this after you cook it."

Thanks, Sweetie.
Yeah. And adding more green? Not really helpful.

Anyway, I poured the batter into the pan and watched it cook. The warm, sweet rice smell wafting through the house was SO delightfully reminiscent of my old stomping grounds in Japan. I would catch those smells walking to the train station, mixed in with the jasmine blossoms and ocean air. It's amazing how smells are connected with the memory center of the brain. It completely transported me back to a happy place and time. It's nice that colors don't have a smell. Because after that lovely hour of fragrant baking, I took it out of the oven and suddenly all I could think was:

SoYLeNT GReeN is PEOPLE!!!

:/ Which is not the vibe I was really going for...

After I recovered from my laughing at my folly, I inverted it on the powder sugar/cornstarch powder and began slicing it up into pieces. I couldn't help but break off a few nibbles off the edge. Delight! It tastes exactly like the mochi I had in Japan...even if it doesn't look like it.

-THE FINISHED PRODUCT-

~~~~~~

So, coincidentally, I learned the true meaning of "hana yori dango" with my accidental Soylent Mochi experiment. Because although it is somewhat unusual in its appearance, it's exactly what I was hoping to find from the recipe.

~~~~~~

Now, I'm searching for the perfect recipe for my favorite

Japanese hot-out-of-the-vending-machine beverage...

Learned a lot today.

As for tomorrow...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to move mountains....of LAuNDRy.

2010-02-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

I’ll start with this photo that was taken by my Waybums. She wanted to learn something today for the blog, too, so I taught her how to use the camera. And dinosaurs being her favorite thing in the world, I now have about 42 pictures of Momzilla from different angles in different places around the house.

~~~~~

RawR!

And since inquiring minds want to know -

here’s the progress of our “Grow A Dinosaur” project.

You know , it reminds me of a weirdly-formed Cheeto. Like when people see Jesus in their waffles... You think Jesus chuckles at the people who keep their Rorshach waffles? Does he think, "Not only did you miss out on tasty breakfast food, but that picture is actually a sea lion balancing a ball on its nose. See right there...No wait. This way it looks more like a cactus playing a banjo."

~~~~~

Where was I....?

Oh yeah.

~~~~~

Now, on to what I’ve learned today…

There are certain areas of our house that are catch-alls. My breakfast nook. The table. Basically any flat surface in our house. ..Now that I am “un-daycare-ing” the place, there are a lot of sorting projects and attempts at new order surfacing. But this morning when I was looking around, it was apparent that the worst catch-all in the house was our bedroom. Since it's a play-free zone we have a lot of stuff in there that the kids can't play with it - like Jesse's computer, uh, doodad thingies. (I feel a lesson coming on...) And the most common thing the bedroom catches? LauNDRy.

It is a busy time of year for laundry. All these extra layers and long-sleeved and long-legged everything. Just think about that – you have at least twice the laundry that you have in the summer months just because the clothes have to cover more of you, and usually in much thicker fabric. (Well, except that girl I saw in the Wal-Mart tonight. She was wearing a pair of fairly short cut-off sweatpants. They looked pretty out of place with the thick winter coat, hat, scarf, gloves and insulated boots she was wearing. That Sesame Street song popped into my head…”One of these things is not like the other one…”)

Annnyway, I have been working within an imperfect laundry system and so in order to better achieve my goal of a well-oiled laundry machine, I set out with two goals in mind. The first is to study our laundry situation and make an assessment on how to improve it. The second is to take back the bedroom so I can get some kind of system up and running.

Today I learned that our laundry has various stages, in numerous places.

-IN THE DRAWER-

It’s nice to see the clothes where they’re supposed to be stored.

-IN TRANSIT-

We enjoy regular visits at the Grandparents’ house and so we

often have clothes in suitcases, or boxes

that Nana uses to corral our stuff.

-IN A CLEAN PILE- It’s laundered and folded and ready to be put away. But that’s usually after a long evening of laundering, and Hubby has to get up early so let’s hurry up and clear the folded, sorted laundry off the bed. But you know what’s going to happen to this tidy pile at 5 a.m. when Dear Husband needs to find a pair of trousers…in the dark? The same thing that happens when Ava commandeers a blanket from the middle of the pile to construct a makeshift pagoda…they fall over and end up …

-IN A DIRTY PILE-

Here’s a pile of bedding that needs to be washed in one of our most common places to toss used laundry – in front of the closet. Yeah. Hubby shouldn’t have to climb a small mountain of laundry to get to his taekwondo gear in the morning.

-IN LIMBO-

We have far too much laundry in our mix that is too big for Little Kid, too small for Older Kid, or too summer for anyone. We just need to find a good storage place that’s not our room, or just donate the stuff that doesn’t fit anybody right now.

-IN USE-

Hi, my feet! And…

-INDECENT-

Hey! Where is the little kid that was wearing this?? Kodi?? Get back here and put your shirt on. Little streaker…

Well, once I figured out all the places and stages of the laundry I realized it was no wonder that we are constantly overwhelmed at the task. So, now the first step in laundry wrangling – reclaiming the bedroom.

Hmm...I know there’s a dresser under there somewhere.

For now, I just moved the unlaundered laundry and the limbo laundry to our Great Room so I can easily launder it or file it for storage or donation from there. There’s lots of room to sprawl out and work on that project, and I am planning on having it all done by this weekend. With that stuff out of the way, the clean laundry piles went to drawers and closets. So after the bulk of the laundry was taken out of the equation, it was just a matter of tidying things up.

My tidy room. Oh how delightful it will be to not trip over bedding and boxes of too-small clothes in the middle of the night. It’s so nice to see the top of my dresser again. It hasn’t been this tidy for a couple…few…how long ago was Christmas again?

See? The bottom of the mirror!

AND I found some interesting things while I was straighening up.

A picture of me from middle school, the battery cover to one of our remotes that had been missing this past week, deodorant that I bought and then misplaced and already replaced, a humidity meter (oops, looks like I need to refill that humidifier) and $27 in cash. Tidiness is profitable! Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that disorder will cost you. . . at least the price of a new deodorant.

Oh, and another find…
LoL! Some things shold remain lost...

Oh yeah. That’s going in a frame.

And to top it off – Waybums’ makeshift pagoda:

I had a lot of traffic on the blog today, and a few people offering to teach me new things – so thanks! The most intriguing idea that came up today was real power toys, er, tools. Like learning how to use a airnailer and tablesaw. Mwahaha! I am thinking of all the projects I could learn if I had those skills... It’s kind of hard to come up with ideas that will work with the weather right now, so I’m open to suggestions. :) No, really. Suggest away.

Tomorrow I’m going to learn how to make one of my favorite Japanese treats – Mochi! It is unlike anything else I have ever eaten and it’ll be interesting to try and make it!
I’ll keep you posted!

Today I learned about finding confidence and the art of flowers.

2010-02-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

I think flowers are delightful. They’re bright and cheery. They smell beautiful. And in our culture they are a symbol of one person expressing something nice to another. What’s not to like about that? And today I was able to see the art of floral design first-hand.

The place of my study was Floral Designs by Jean, a quaint small-town flower shop owned by my best friend’s mom. Before her flower shop, she’d worked two factory jobs and was laid off from both. When she had the opportunity to go back to school for training, she took floral design and business classes. She explained that there were classes that covered specific aspects of floral design – bouquets, weddings, funerals, corsages, etc. that she had to learn before she could get her certification.

The most interesting thing I learned was that there is a LoT of prep work that goes into the flowers before they are all purdy and ready for us to buy. They arrive at the flower shop in a box, from exotic places like Columbia and California. It’s somewhat amazing to think that somewhere in the world there are sprawling fields of flowers that are destined to grace our wintry domain. As soon as she receives the flowers, she sets to work to condition them. She puts a special flower preservative with the water in the floral buckets and sets them to soak. (It’s the same type of stuff you get in those little square packets that come with your bouquets.) She explained that sometimes flowers will come in tightly closed, and in those instances she puts them in warm water. So, take note, if you receive flowers that have shy blossoms, putting them in warm water will help them bloom.

The next step she takes is stripping the flower stems of their leaves. She explained that only the stems should be under water. Leaves that are under the water line will start to decay and breed bacteria that will shorten the life of your blooms and discolor the water. And usually make it smell funky. This was sort of an “Aha!” moment for me because my fresh garden flowers usually had that problem, and now I know why.

With the roses, she said it’s good for the flowers to keep their leaves, above the water line. The thorns, however, had to go. Those things are wicked! It’s not just for your sake, either. Can you imagine reaching your hand into a bucket of rose fangs all day? Yeouch!

When I usually get a bunch of roses, I run water over them as I cut their stems. But at the shop, she cuts the flowers in a bowl of water. Snip- snip-snip. What a handy idea! You save on water, time and moola on your water bill. She lets the flowers sit to condition awhile at room temperature before putting them in her cooler.

I watched her assemble a pretty springy bouquet…

…fix up some standard Valentine’s Day bouquets for the cooler…

…prepare a plant for someone in the hospital…

…and turn a broken-off rosebud…

…into something really lovely.

I learned a lot about flowers today. (I also realized that it’s nice to have grown-up conversation over salmon spread and crackers.) It was great to see someone who is skilled in their trade at work. A couple of weeks back I helped take down the Christmas decorations at our church, and I was tasked with arranging some silk flowers in the entry. I'd jab a few flowers here and poke a few fillers there, but I was never really sure about what I was doing. So I took notice today when Jean was assembling the flowers and fillers. She'd narrow her eyes, spin the bouquet around and poke what needed to be poked where it needed to be poked. After 18 years of assembling bouquets, she knows what they're supposed to look like. She has a vision in her mind of what it's supposed to be and then she just follows that vision. Now there's a thought worth exploring.

Confidence and vision go hand in hand. If you know where you're going, you can take surer steps to get there.

What a great day of learning. And fun! So, for taking the time to teach me today’s lesson, Jean at Floral Designs should get a blue ribbon…

…I’m sure there’s a dozen shades of blue in there. :)

~~~

A lot more lessons to come…
…I’ll keep you posted.

Today I learned that when life gives you snow, you make snowmen.

2010-02-09T21:14:00.000-08:00

Snow? More snow? And another arctic-blast? The forecast made my eyebrow start to twitch. It’s not that I don’t like snow. In fact, I have a lot of fond memories sledding down the hill at my grandparents’ pasture in the stuff. (Well, except that I had accidental talent in making my sled spin around halfway down the hill. And then I’d be rushing down the hill backwards into the ample supply of prickly gooseberry bushes …
...hehe good times.)

I figured out today that this is a lot of my problem with the vast amounts of snow we’ve gotten this winter. It’s always accompanied by a bitter cold snap, or arrived when my kids are battling the latest of the ten-thousand strains of cold and flu going around. If you take out the sledding and the snow forts, snow is just what stows away on your shoes and melts into puddles that you inevitably find with your stocking feet.

It’s barely the second week in February, and winter’s still going to be here for awhile. So even though our fun plans for the day had been cancelled, buried in the latest avalanche of snowfall, I made a decision to make the best out of my situation. I realized I was going to have to make friends with snow again. And if I couldn’t take the kids out to play in the snow, by golly, I’ll bring the snow in to play with the kids… So, armed with a snow shovel and the largest storage container I could find, I harvested a bathtub full of snow.

The kids loved the idea.

Snowball fight with the back wall of the shower.

Good throw, sis!

Lil Kodi looked apprehensive, but gave it a try.

Unfortunately, her release was a little too soon. :)

Snowman construction underway.

Inserting the carrot nose...

Kodi offers Frosty her scarf and

Waybums applies the popsicle stick arms.

Ava pats her new friend's head and Kodi blows him a moochie.

So proud of their work! :)

I asked if they had fun...

These kids couldn't smile any bigger.

~~~~~~~

Sometimes things don't go how you plan. And I could have spent the afternoon bummed about how the snow ruined our plans. But this was SO much more fun. I learned today that it helps to put a little thought and creativity into solving a problem.

Tomorrow I will be visiting a business to cross off one more of my "100 Things to Do in My Lifetime" - and it should be fun...

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned how to confront a mango.

2010-02-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I’m a little scared off by certain produce. And I don’t just mean when a potato grows a somewhat disturbing set of antlers:

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m talking about produce that is mysterious to me. Kumquats. Pomegranates. Avocados. Turnips. Parsnip. These are all things that I never had growing up, and so I do not know how to select them, use them, eat them, prepare them – anything them.

Now, anyone who knows me can tell you that I am quite adventurous when it comes to trying new foods. Over the years, I’ve tried everything from octopus to green tea ice cream. Well, when I was in college I had one particularly interesting eating experience.

One of my friends had a kindred spirit of spontaneity, and we would do completely random things from time to time, like drive to the nearest playground and see who could swing the highest. Well, one night he had accompanied me to the grocery store and we saw a display of mangoes and decided to try them.

We sat in the parking lot eating them, skin and all, like you’d eat an apple. They were delicious – so juicy and tropical. It was like someone had bound sunshine into a peel. We were chatting away and got closer to the seed in the middle and were gnawing at the remaining flesh when we both suddenly realized we had something stuck in our teeth. Little did we know that mangoes are booby-trapped and that there is a layer of dense fibers around the seeds that, if eaten in the way we tried, will leave you feeling like you have just flossed with a string of twine. We grinned for each other and could easily see the hundreds of poky strands jutting between our bicuspids. We laughed until tears, and that night I learned how NoT to eat a fresh mango.

It’s been a dozen years since then, and since I’m embarking on this mission of exploration I figured I should give it another try. This time armed with a little research. I looked up how to choose a ripe mango (smells good with a little give when you press the skin), and brought one home from the store.

Ready for round two.

Mango juice is good, but the fruit is so tasty, too.

I love the idea that this fruit has been somewhere warm, soaking up the sunshine.

You can see here that a mango’s shape is like a flattened football. When you stand it vertically, like so, the parts on the sides that bow out are the best part of the fruit’s flesh.

First step is peeling. Something else I learned about mangoes today is that mango trees belong to the family Anacardiaceae. Another family member in that group? Poison Ivy. Now, from what I've read, mango fruit itself is pretty harmless. However if you are particularly sensitive to poison ivy you may be sensitive to the sap and natural oils on the peel and should be careful to wash the fruit well and wash your hands after handling the peel. I didn't know that before. And since I'm somewhat sensitive to poison ivy, I was careful to wash right up afterward.

Cut off the part of the fruit that bows out, on each side of the seed,

aka stone.

Is it making a face at me?

Now, dice the flesh of the fruit.

And when you're done with that, you can trim more off of the seed.
Don't be caught off-guard by the siren call of the fruit left on that seed.
~~~~~~
I washed and scrubbed the remaining flesh off
so you could see those tricky fibers underneath:

I spent many hours flossing and laughing....
so you could know what NoT to do. ;)

It was every bit as tasty as I remembered it.

Now that I know how to do this, there's a recipe for mango sorbet I've always thought looked tasty... Again, it's not a cooking blog, but I'm also not afraid to enjoy a season of food exploration. Especially since lessons about the outside world are largely unavailable right now.

And if any of you has an idea of something I should learn, or something you can teach me - please feel free to let me know. :)

I've got some exciting things lined up for this month. I'm in the process of setting up interviews with a few businesses and I already have a date with Smokey the Bear (!) and some other mascots in the near future. Awesome.

And, to throw in something extra, I am trying to teach my daughter patience. So here's our pet project for this week:

~~~~~~~~~

My daughter's new pet.

Baby T-Rex and Skilpad hang out in the pool.
He's supposed to grow 600x his size.

I'll give you updates on progress at the week's end.

Have you learned anything new, lately? Come on, don't be shy...

~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll be back tomorrow as usual, and,

I'll keep you posted.

Today I learned something about myself.

2010-02-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of the day wondering what I was going to learn. Although a lot of what I've been learning and posting has been new skills, today I learned something about myself. It was toward the end of the day that I was at the local dollar store and saw this coloring book:

~~~~~

It’s the question most every little kid hears –

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Some kids want to be a fireman or a ballerina, or a rock star. But as I flipped through the pages of astronauts and teachers and doctors, I had a realization come to mind. Even when we’re little kids, it’s drilled into us that our identity is tied to our profession. And I know a lot of people who have lost their jobs lately that have really struggled with that loss. And this picture just kind of hit home:

Where am I going from here?

And, how do I get there?

~~~~~~

The truth is that I don't know what the future holds. But I am choosing to look at it as a sort of exploration into the unknown.

I realized today that I have become an adventurer. :)

This past week has been really good for me. I'm learning to stretch myself and leave my comfort zones. I've learned a lot of things and I am looking forward to learning more.

As far as what I'll be learning tomorrow...
I'll keep you posted.