looking back and looking forward

i read a woman's blog this evening in which she wrote about her family making the decision to home school their child. i found that it made me remember when my husband and i made the same decision. only our oldest one wasn't even of the age to start regular school. we had watched and listened to the stories our friend's, whose children attended public schools, would relay. stories of children not getting the assistance they needed. or of homework being sent home in a different language, and the class wasn't a language class.

so we figured that when the time came for our first born to start learning his abc's and 123's we would take the task on ourselves. it became my responsibility, and it turned out to be one i have enjoyed. i enjoyed "seeing" our wee son's gears turning in his growing brain. it was fascinating. i discovered that his way of learning was for me to explain it a couple of times and then to leave the subject alone. i would then return to to the topic a few days later and "ta da!" he would have grasped the concept.

 i loved it when he showed an interest in a certain topic, because then we could investigate that idea in every way possible. through discussion, reading, writing, researching on the internet, talking with people, or maybe even watching a program. i looked at every thing that happened in our day as a way to learn. there was even a time when we, as a small young family, were going through a very hard time.we, our then small son of 5 and myself, were sitting outside one evening, it was dark and the stars were out. i started to pray about our circumstances out loud to God. it wasn't intentional, it was just one of those moments when you just need to seek solace in a higher being and it just tumbles from your mouth. my son looked at me and asked who God was? it wasn't that he had never heard of him or that the concept was foreign in our home, his question was one of someone really wanting an explanation of who this was. and so my moment of fear and doubt turned into a lesson on religion and faith.

now at the age of 16, i still find our oldest son's way of learning thrilling and exciting. most times, now a days, if he gets an idea into his head or becomes curious about something he researches until his heart's content. case in point, i read something in the news about some happening in space. i mentioned it to him and he popped off with all this information about black holes and crab nebulae. it blew my socks off, and it was wonderful.

i am older now and i have two, new young minds to help fill with, hopefully, useful knowledge. these two are definitely different. our middle son does not want any recognition that he got something correct. no pats on the back. the youngest one wants fanfare and applause for simply repeating a right answer his brother already gave. i do worry about our middle boy, though. i feel, often times, the information is not sinking in. i can not "see" his gears turning. i haven't learned his learning style as yet. and that concerns me. but then out of no where, when he doesn't think any of us, older ones, are listening he will inform, or correct his little brother on something. i have heard him say "no it's 'a' ", and the little one responds with "oh, okay".  heaven's forbid i walk in and try to tell the middle one good job for helping out his baby brother. as soon as i make a positive remark, the middle one starts to whine, frown, and tells me to stop. odd little duck. but i just keep moving forward and hoping that one of these days, in some small moment, i will catch the faint hum of tiny gears turning. i feel it's a sound i shall never tire of.

cheers!

16 years ago i gave birth to our oldest son. 

today he is the best teenage guy i have had the honor of being around. 

he is kind, strong, intelligent, funny and a smart aleck

sometimes he can be a big pain in the hiney, but those times are really far and few between.

so to one of the greatest guys i have ever met

Happy Birthday!!

we love you

happy halloween

Spooks
- by Sandra Liatsos

There's a goblin at my window,
A monster by my door.
The pumpkin at my table
Keeps on smiling more and more.
There's a ghost who haunts my bedroom,
A witch whose face is green.
They used to be my family,
Till they dressed for Halloween. 

http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/poems.htm

have a safe, fun and happy halloween.

cheers!

have a cuppa and a wee berry tart

well good afternoon one and all. here i sit (trying to stay alert and awake) after a morning and early afternoon of baking. that and chasing the wack-a-doodles

in one of jaunts around the internet one day i ran across this recipe:

2-2-2 Pastry Recipe

Recipe from Mrs. Jessie-Mae

This recipe makes the wrap and you can add any of your favorite fillings in the wrap. 

Example: strawberries, apricots, pears, apples, meat, etc.

2- 4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)

2 sticks margarine (room temperature)

2 cups all purpose flour

Mix up and roll out into 2 1/2 inch squares. Before putting in filling, place in refrig. and chill for an hour or two. Then when ready to put in filling, put 1-2 teaspoons. Filling and then bring each corner up to meet and mash together. Bake at 350 degrees.and it didn't have for how long on the recipe.

( i baked them for about 16 minutes at the 350 degrees)

(i found it on this website . )

when i saw it i wrote it down in my cooking journal, as i do when i run across an interesting sounding recipe. and yes i do have a cooking journal. it's nothing fancy it's just a blank journal that i quickly jot down recipes in. the wee wack-a-doodles got a hold of it one day and were flipping through the pages and landed on that recipe.  it sparked my creative juices and i remembered that i had some wild blueberries in the freezer. hmmm maybe some wee berry tarts are in order, my creative juices were saying.

i was a wee bit hesitant to try a new recipe, because the new recipes that i had tried as of late had not been real winners. i felt safe in trying a halved version. so i made a 1-1-1 pastry dough. i mixed up a quick blueberry filling with some frozen wild blueberries and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. 


this dough mixes up quickly and  after it chills it's very easy to work with. i rolled it out on a floured surface. even with the slight addition of more flour and my rough handling of the dough, it did not get stiff or hard. it actually became a little more stretchy.  the flavor of the dough after baking is slightly buttery. so it would complement wither sweet or savory fillings. i followed the directions in the recipe and made squares and smooshed the ends together. but while baking the ends sort of separated and some of the filling  tried to make an escape ( i guess you have to watch those wild blueberries, otherwise they are apt to run amok).  i figured the next time i made this recipe i would use my mini muffin pan and make tarts instead of bundles.

so yesterday i was daring and made a full sized batch of the dough and chilled it in the fridge over night. for i had decided that today would be a good day to make tarts with various fillings.

i then created three different fillings. (i wasn't too exact in measurements for these fillings)

mushroom filling 

chopped some mushrooms - about 4 or 5 button or regular

chopped a green onion - i used 1

sauté them in butter - about 2 tablespoons

add a little bit of bread stuffing - about 1/3 of a cup

a few dashes of tabasco sauce

after filling the cups i sprinkled the tops with some grated parmesan cheese.
at the time i took the photo i didn't have any of the mushrooms tarts left. they were a big hit and plus i hadn't made that many of them. the wee wack-a-doodles even liked them.

berry filling

blueberries- i used 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries which are smaller than regular blueberries 

blackberries - about 1/2 cup 

granulated sugar - about 1/2 cup or sweeten to your own tastes

lemon juice - 1/2 -1 teaspoon

cornstarch/flour - i used a table spoon (not a measuring tablespoon, a spoon for eating with) i added one at a time until i had the consistency i liked. which was actually fairly thick.

i also used some wickedly wonderful strawberry jam that i was given.

now to ease your tart making path by learning from my errors, i would strongly suggest that you use a strip of parchment in each muffin cup. place a strip of parchment in the cup, with the ends of the strip sticking above the rim of the cup, before lining with your pastry dough. it makes it far easier and less messy to lift these somewhat dainty tarts out of the pan. of course i didn't remember this clever baking tip until the last five i baked. (durh! who's a dork? im a dork!)

cheers!

my crazy wack-a-doodles but i'm better now

as i have mentioned before, on several occasions, i am the vintaged mum of three boys.

our first born, unbeknown to me at the time, was a wonderful and amazing wee child. i should say i knew at the time that he was a fun and loving little boy. but what i was unaware of, when he was small, was that we would be surprised with two other little boys later in life. and these two....these two make me question why we don't eat our young. these two give me a run for my money EVERY single day. not one day goes by that i am not having to literally chase one of them through the house, or threaten to throw one, or both of them in the garbage, (at which point they usually just giggle and say yeah momma throw me in da' garbage) i wish i could say i'm one of those amazing mum's that have all the patience in the universe and is able to work with her children with grace, style and complete presence of mind. but reality is reality. and our wee boys are wack-a-doodles. they cause me to say such crafty and profound things like, "if you don't behave yourselves i'm gonna beat you." (which i haven't done but the threat and loudness of my voice seems to get my intent across)

so this morning after coming home from work and the market, i came home to the boys being their normal demanding selves. i want, momma i don't want to watch, momma can you put on this movie, momma i don't want anymore breakfast.....etc etc etc. so out of frustration and a mild attempt to do something with my hair after sneaking in a shower, i decided since they couldn't agree on which movie to watch that i would turn off the movie they were watching, lilo and stitch, and do some school work. out comes the worksheets and the colored pencils.

the middle wack-a-doodle decided the best tactic to use was to pout and look pitiful. i ignored his valiant attempts. i asked him to pick a pencil color he would like to use. whether he was being cagey or not was hard to tell, he chose a white pencil for the white paper. ummmm yeah not such a good choice. i suggested he pick another color. while i'm helping him the youngest wack-a-doodle is anxiously (read bouncing in his chair) waiting for his turn for help. after the middle one finally decides on a different color he informs me that "o.k. momma, i'm done" it was a nice try, but i forged on and showed him what he was to do.  i then turn my attention to the youngest wack-a doodle and told him to pick a pencil color. he chooses....white, and then looks at me with a wee glint in his eye and then smiles at me. yeah, don't tell me there isn't some master plan these two have to drive me nuts. i sighed and suggested that he chose another color. we made it through the worksheets. a whole three before they both decided that was enough of that for the time being. we went back to lilo and sitch and then on to the movie we're back. i figured this might be a good time to put my feet up and try to relocate a recipe i had seen online. the youngest wack-a-doodle would come and give my feet and legs a hug every few minutes. i didn't think much of it, until he came up, bent over my legs and licked my ankle. at first i wasn't really sure if he had licked me or just breathed hot air. but then he wiped my leg looked at me and announced, "there you're better momma" . oh good. up until that point i hadn't been aware i was unwell, or that i needed to be licked. but i guess i'm better now. thank goodness, it had me worried there for a minute, i guess.

cheers!

And here is what it looks like....

i thought you might want to see how my decorating for ol' hallow's eve turned out. so here are some gratuitous photos.

taken with the light off

and obviously taken with the light on 

i hope every one is getting in the "spirit" of the month. i'm off to start on my christmas bunting. it's going to involve some cross stitch, something i haven't done in a fairy's age. i would have said "coon's age" but raccoon's can freak me out sometimes. i think it's the whole little hands and mask thing. plus the fact that if they get miffed they can become quite unpleasant and unruly.


cheers!

soft in the head about halloween

i'm not sure why but halloween is my favorite holiday. nope not christmas, nor easter, thanksgiving is so-so. i'm not sure if it's the implied possibility of magic happening, or the concept of being able to fly around on a broom. maybe it's the true beginning of fall for me. the corn mazes. the apple picking. the ability to start baking yummy things because the weather has cooled. i don't like the gruesome, ugly, commercialized concept of slasher movies and horror flicks bit of halloween. i'll pass on that stuff.

i mentioned in the last post that i saw these lovely and amazing beauties on flickr. they inspired me to create my own felt skullies bunting to display with my other halloweeny things. i finished the last one tonight. i thought i would show you the collective group before i sew them onto the vintage black ric rac i found recently.

the color is a little wonky in the photo because the skull on the bottom here, that sort of looks gray is actually a lovely pistachio color. i used glow in the dark embroidery thread on it. i'm not sure if it will really glow that much since i only used two strands. i'll have to let you know. i'm rather partial to the red, black and white ones. they seemed the easier to do. isn't that odd?

i am going to be sewing these to the ric rac after i complete this post. i'll watch one of my "fall" movies, bell, book and candle, one of my favorite movies (i seem to have several). kim novak, jimmy stewart, elsa lanchester, hermione gingold, ernie kovaks and jack lemmon. kim wears a beautiful red velvet dress that at first glance looks black. it's simple in shape and form, but the color simply captivates me every time i see this movie.

off i go to start stitching.

cheers!