The Joys and Sorrows of Cooking With Children

Heart Of Dakota on Facebook posted some suggestions of what to do with your kids for breakfast. Since that first meal can set the tone of the day.

I replied saying I had trained my kiddos to make their own breakfast since I have a grumpy Gus, she has to be hooked up to her Vest Airway System for 20 minutes each morning. Letting her have control over this aspect of her life is beneficial for all parties involved. Not to mention the added benefit that Little Miss Sunshine now makes smashing omelets, and Sweet Potato makes great tho slightly wet scrambled eggs.

I have to admit this road was paved by my Mom. Can you guess who the grumpy Gus was in her house...can you? Huh Huh Huh? I was beyond annoying in the morning. I was hard to get out of bed and not fun to be around before 10am.  Oddly enough when Mom put breakfast squarely in my hands I became the pancake maker for my siblings. Looking back on the wisdom of my ancestors elders, I have followed suit.

I have to admit it took a good year to transition to self made breakfast.

The Sorrows... 

Look at that nice tiny dice and she's only 10!

 I lost sniff sniff my best beloved Calphalon Omelet pan in the process. I live in hope that when they grow up and realize how much one of those costs, they replace it. It's fine for other things now but no longer suitable for making omelets.

Letting kids in the kitchen means you will have large messes to clean up, and they might lose a bit of fingernail in the process. I'm a believer in giving a kid a SHARP knife to cut with. Once they have the mechanics of cutting down. Imho DULL knives cause more injuries than sharp ones. Sharp knives cut, dull ones slip off the red bell pepper and into child's hand, leading to a run to the bathroom for band-aids.

Was once a butter dish! Smashed 5 days after post. 

Don't forget if it's glass, it is going to break, expect things to fall and smash beautifully while your all walking around with bare feet.

They will put the $10.99 a pound cheese in their omelet and not leave any for you, because "MOM this Cheese is fantastic."  You will run out of eggs halfway though the week when you have no more money in the food budget envelope, because they burned them, dropped them and/or left them out.

Not to mention the time it takes to train them! When you can do it faster, and more efficiently by just kicking them out of the kitchen.  It's not easy having that little one with sticky fingers touching all the drawers and handles that will need to be cleaned up after. You know your not gonna be happy till all the honey is off the fridges handle, And your going to be the one to clean it. But as they age up they actually start putting away the eggs with out being told. Even soaking the pans.

The Joys...
The hard work of training them is beginning to pay off. No longer are my quiet times reminiscent of Nehemiah's emergency prayer requests. Quiet Time is in the morning before I get out of bed. I grab my itouch  and open up my bible reading program and read, think, pray. It's fabulous I can't believe I'm 62%  done on my bible reading plan!  It helps me be a slightly more patient Mom, and it gets me more awake and functioning. So I can face the math! Cause lets face it I'm still not really wake before 10am still! 

I have found my kids will eagerly show off their egg cooking skills, and make me a tasty breakfast in bed. Unlike some of the nasty burnt creations of my child hood. Those I lovingly carried up to my parents room. BTW Mom/Dad I'm so sorry for all the nasty eggs you had to secretly feed to the cat. My kids make food you can eat, delish even.

Allowing the freedom to fail, leads to creativity in the kitchen. It's amazing the MEALS yes I did say meals Little Miss Sunshine will make. I'm so proud of her when she asks to make dinner at 10 years of age.

Frying up spices to replenish our Garam Masala spice jar.

They can cook... think when they go to college they can cook for all their friends. Who are resorting to Raman cup-o-soup. 

They appreciate food more. If I made Sweet Potato eat eggs everyday for a week she would have a whine fest. Yet this same child can make herself eggs for 10 days in a row without complaint. Odd isn't it??? I think this falls under Giving Voice, in the ideal parenting model.  Like Burger King they can have it their way everyday as long as they clean up afterward. 

I now have helping hands, yes the pieces of green bell pepper may not be cut into OCD precise cubes, but hey you didn't have to cut them up!

I'm making memories, of failures fixed by a dash of this and that, or standing by and letting them cook it all by themselves. That first loaf of bread or batch of cookies they did while you "spotted" them in the kitchen.

The joy you feel when Daddy praises you for a great dish, and you nod your chin at the children and you coyly say "They made it." I swear their little faces beam back at you.
 
Update: Yup we have had a glass smash! added photos :-) 

Creation To Christ HOD Unit 1

Yesterday we finished Unit 1 took over a week but were easing into it.
The kids had a blast with the science experiment. Making a royal mess but having so much fun! 

Sorry about the blur they were moving so FAST!

Yeah! skittles, who knew the blue would be the hardest to find.

I love how I am able too work a bit with the kiddos then let them do a independent box, while I sweep the floor, or do some laundry, prep lunch. Last year running two programs, I was hopping back n' forth between them. Two programs are totally doable, but I can say my house is/will be cleaner this year.

Another reason is the new book shelves yeah! that give me ample room to store the school books. A couple of bins to box and banish the art supplies and all things that clutter up school.

Watercolor For Unit 1 CTC

So I thought I'd make a tutorial for how you can paint the Poetry/Art project for Unit One. 

Things you will need:

A wide brush

A skinny brush.

Water
Yellow paint

Brown paint
A pea size amount of each should work just fine.

3X5 card of poetry verse

Water

Newspaper to protect surfaces

Tooth pick (missing from supply shots) 

Art board (optional, helps keep art flat and neat.)

Masking tape (optional, helps keep art flat and neat.) 

Day 1

Do poetry verse

Day 2

Gather your supplies and lay down newspaper. 

Tape paper to the board.

Taping the paper allows it to have a nice clean edge and keeps it from curling.

This is optional but I recommend it, as it makes them much neater to store.

 Just a pea size is enough paint!

 Wet and wipe your bush then load it up with all the paint. 

Draw your brush across the top of the paper. 

See nice bright yellow!  

Dip brush, wipe on side of cup 2x and do it again.  

 And yet again. 

Keep dipping, wiping and drawing your brush across the paper. 

See how the yellow is gradually getting lighter and lighter.  

All done now set aside and let it dry. 

Day 3

Ok I forgot we need a tooth pick, so add that to this bunch of supplies.
Note how nice and flat my painting is. 

 Here again you only need a small amount of paint. A little goes along way. 
I washed off half that paint at the end so even that small amount was to much. 

  Here I have added 3-4 drops of water from my brush into the paint and I'm mixing it to make it smooth. 

Draw the trunk don't worry if its not big enough now, you can always make it bigger later. 

 Added branches. 

 I found I had to stop here and use the toothpick to draw the bark.
It is very very dry here in TX!
The paint was drying so fast.
So keep an eye on the trunk and once it starts to set,
grab that toothpick and scratch in some bark. 

 I added in branches as my fancy prescribed. 

Look here I went over the first branch I put in. Trees do this, so its ok to overlap your branches.
No seriously go look at a tree... I'll wait... Did you look?
Tree branches over lap and under lap and go every which way, so anywhere you want to put one go ahead put one.  

 Oh no! The top is not dry, but I want to paint on the other side. See how I stuck my pinkie down on a dry part of the painting to steady my hand. (Only do this if your finger is CLEAN!). 

So you don't think you can paint a leaf? On scrap paper, see what happens if you just gently press your brush to paper. If you like the results you can easily make a leaf this way.  Himm looks like a Ginko leaf. But I don't want a Ginko leaf, I think I'll paint my own.

 Painted my own... Now let dry. 

Day 4

 Add your poetry verse and your all ready to frame it... Ok it's not this weeks verse its unit 2's but it saved me from having to write it all out.  :-) Note how flat the painting is. 

Here is Little Miss Sunshine's painting. See how curled it is and not as nice looking.
If we had taped down the edges, it would be neater.
Even curled up I think it is FABULOUS! 

I'd like to thank Little Miss Sunshine for being my photographer today! She does great work! 

Just Go to BED!!!

Ever have one of those nights where your slacking and the kids are still up... it's way past their bed time and you realize; "They must go to bed now! Or I may end up in the funny farm."  Yup I had that kinda night.

My Knight in Shining Armor is really awesome he puts them to bed most nights.  When we first adopted I was working from home and I typically worked 7pm to 11pm. Thus he got into the habit of putting the child to bed. I have carefully nurtured this habit for a decade.

Tonight was a different story, work followed  him home today. It happens, we usually roll with the punches and carry on. Alas Sweet Potato did something with the right intentions but with bad results. I ended up helping her make a cloth book cover to fix her sisters quiet time journal, she accidentally "ruined." Bed time routine got delayed. I also felt it would behoove me to make a cover for Sweet Potatoes journal. I know the green eyed monster will rear it's ugly head as soon as she figures out her sisters QT journal is prettier than her plain old one. So I took the 20 minutes now, to stave off hideousness later.  I think this falls under the High Nurture part of I.D.E.A.L. parenting.  It was the last thing I wanted to do but I knew I needed to do it.

I have come to the conclusion that Sweet Potato is in no way a princess. How did I come to this conclusion you ask??? Well after I had managed to get them clothed in PJ's, snacks eaten, teeth brushed, hugs and kisses delivered, a drink of water given, Daddy is now required to pray with them before they can go to sleep.  Alas the room was in need of some clean up. A full morning working at the cafe, followed by a full day of school apparently means while we were away a tornado hit just their room.

I check on the mess Daddy is concern about and, yes it qualifies as a fire hazard.  A 5 minute room rescue is in order. I step out to let them work magic on their room. You know stuff all clothing in corners hide books under the bed...


Upon my return I note the classic pile and hide technique was employed by Sweet Potato. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. A 2.5 foot hump was at the end of her bed covered in a bright yellow poke-a-dotted blanket.  I pulled off the blanket and I found
4 pairs of jeans (clean)
4 pairs of shorts (clean)
2 pairs of shorts (dirty)
3 pairs of undies (questionable)
1 pair of leggings (clean)
a kitchen towel (huh?)
a bath towel (dry!)
coloring book
a Nancy Drew (now dog eared)
2 Star Wars graphic novels (fair condition)
1 set of pajamas (questionable)
1 adult slip (how did that get in here?)
3 blankets (assorted sizes) and yes we keep our house at 80 in the hot summers these are a necessity!!!

While sitting on the bed folding and sorting and making her put things away, I find something sticking into me... So I commence dissecting her bed.

Anyone who can sleep with the following IN her bed cannot possibly pass the Princess Pea Test.
6 leggo pieces ranging from Darth Vaders head to a 3x5 building plate.
4 pens
2 pencils (Sharp!)
2 markers (caps were on!)
3 Journals
1 3 ring binder
7 stuffed animals
4 blankets (including the weighted blanket) note were up to 7 blankets.
2 LIBRARY!!! books Yippie Found!!! (that are not allowed to be in her bed room for fear of them being eaten by the dog.) Why that dog loves library books is beyond me, but he cannot resist them! 
1 flashlight (batteries dead)
3 full size pillows (hello 2 of these are the guest pillows! No Dog Hair allowed!, needs must wash these now.)
and 4 pairs of undies... (now I know why she can't find any underwear.)

I have not been able to stop giggling as I write this, I'm sure my mom found as much stuff, if not more in my bed at various times in my life. I am absolutely positive, it was super uncomfortable, but since she managed to sleep without complaint she cannot be a princess. :-P

CTC First Day

Yet again it's August and the heat is on! We have heat advisories for the next few days, 106 in the shade!  My box day (HODies way of saying my books are here!) was last week and the living room is finished, painted and re-shelved. I have shelves of books for school in there now. Yippie! I'm going back to schooling around the kitchen table.

If the clutter gets out of control we'll go back to schooling in the kids bedroom. As it is, I love how I have homes for all the books. Mise en place works for school as well as the kitchen :-)

Little Miss Sunshine and Sweet Potato are able to share a curriculum this year. I love how I can combine them, they are very much in the same place in math, science, history, and reading.  Sad for Sweet potato that she is not progressing as rapidly as her sister but she is progressing! Little Miss Sunshine thinks math is fun and interesting.  While I wonder what is wrong with her I do rejoice that she likes math... 

I've chosen the history read aloud's as Sweet Potatoes extensions to push this curriculum in to "6th" grade for her.  Last year Sweet Potato did just the history and the quiet time from CTC, along with piles of Nuro-therapy work.  I do not recommend this path of repetition for an average student.  Since my eldest is in no way average and I know she needs input, input, input, and she likes Romans and Greeks. I feel this is a good call for her as an individual. 

As we were working through some math (review) on how to say big numbers, I was yet again reminded of my childhood. Ever have flashbacks to events when you were a kid? It was just like being back in my 3rd grade class room. Terrified of Mrs. Beecher the creature and that I had to say 10,506 in front of everybody. I failed miserably, Instead of saying ten thousand five hundred and six I gabbled out ten, five, six.  Zeros were a mystery to me.  It's as if they have some mystical power. Really how can you have 5 divide it by nothing and end up with nothing... what happened to the 5????  

It was hard to watch her struggle while her sister (who totally grasps how zeros work) just flies through the assignment. Sweet Potato says 5006 is 500 and 6.  I had to take her back to the number street. By the way teaching the number street from Math U See was like opening a window for me into the darkness that was place value... Once we revisited The number street she would give me the wrong answer then go "nooooooo" and say it right. I could see her tongue wiggling to force out the correct answer, while not saying the wrong one. I finally talked to her about letting it process.  "You need a bit more time. Take a deep breath and then think, Then take another deep breath, then answer."  All that deep breathing helps oxygenate her brain too :-) Bingo! she started getting them right. I jumped up and down and hooted and hollered for each one she got right. Big fist bumps and all that jazz. She started to blossom and smile doing MATH!  I love to see that, even tho I feel like a complete faker making a big deal out of accurate place value. Then I think "oh wait you were how old when you understood it???  um 37."  Yes this is hard!  Oooo and I'm supposed to be working on being more approachable, so humble thyself and be goofy.

We took two days to do Unit1 Day 1, I'm fine with taking extra time. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult. As I see it any "one day" we get done in the heat. Is a day off we can have during the great fall weather of November.

Connecting

After a pretty lax first day of school, working at the ministry, some emails for the ministry, and more school, I hopped out to water my gasping garden. Imagine my disappointment when I realized the birds had gotten all the ripe tomatoes. Booo Hoo! Bad Birds!!! Off to Rosemeade Market  I went to get tomatoes for homemade salsa.

The kids wanted to come with me, so I let them. I love my new to me car in that, the passenger side air bag turns off when a kid sits in the front seat. Sweet Potato asked "Can I sit in the front with you?" I said "Yes!"  oo getting in an extra yes today. Off we went, we saw our favorite cashier behind the counter and got a deal on red bell peppers .99 cents each!

As were driving back home I change to an oldies station. Normally I keep it on the Christian radio station because the music is so awesome, but lately they have been running so many boring commercials.  I notice Sweet Potato is pouting because apparently she doesn't like rock n roll. Does this mean I get an A+ in Christian parenting? On comes the song More Today Than Yesterday... sitting at a long light Little Miss Sunshine and I are car dancing to the music. Yes I have one eye on the road and the light!  So were being silly, Sweet Potato is looking out the window ignoring her weird family, but we start singing the song to her. She looks up at us, glances and looks away then looks back, starts to giggle. I love how most of this song fits how much I love her.
"Oh, I love you more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
I love you more today than yesterday
But, darling, not as much as tomorrow" 
The whole chorus can just be sung over and over at her.  I loved how she broke out of the "You Guys are so WEIRD" thing and just enjoyed being sung at till the light turned green. I could tell I was connecting and she was accepting my love, my words, Yippie.  You know who cares if the person in the car next to me thinks I'm as nutty as a squirrel. Being goofy with my kids makes me approachable something I need work on, not to mention it is also very fun.

Walking The Walk

Today we got together with another adoptive family and watched chapter 4 of Trust Based Parenting.

Usually we watch the chapter and then discuss it.  How it applies to our lives, where were going wrong, what were doing right, and is it working in our homes etc. Not today we were constantly stopping and starting the video to talk about how it worked in our homes. We could not stop chatting about our failures, yup like many other parents I'm sure I'm scarring my children for life, and our successes in the journey our families are on. I really enjoy these times with other like minded families, it's a place to share our growth and back sliding without fear.

We chatted about how other people just don't get it.  So often as an adoptive parent, your child displays grief of an unknown origin. If you mention this to a natural mother they often respond, "But they have so much love here in their new home why should they cry?" I love how my friend put it. "Can you picture me responding to this mom, oh so if I took your kid, and moved them into a new home you can just be replaced by another home and love?"

Sweet Potato used to fantasize about her birth mom, then she got angry at her, now she loves her, but it just makes her sad.  Today's chapter talked about letting the child talk about birth parents, and how the child will go though many differing chapters of their stories before they get to the heart of how they feel. Often children are incapable of handling the emotion of their life. They do not have all the tools in their tool box yet.  Think about it. Somehow we believe this story of everything is better now that the child is in a safe and loving home.  When adults who experiences these same type of traumas often need years of therapy, even when they are in a safe and loving home.

Where did we get the idea that children can handle the rough stuff? Ok, yes we see that they can adapt to many unusual situations.  I have a sneaking suspicion it's is out of necessity and not out of an inherent ability. If Karyn Purvis is right, the kids aren't necessarily adapting, but rather retreating into a lower level of brain function. So they are walking, but they may not be talking.

I do want to share how I managed to diffused a situation this week... yet again Sweet Potato was  purposely messing up the last problem in her math worksheet. She could do it, but was playing dumb. I really get annoyed at this behavior it can trigger my dark side. I so want to praise her success's, I hate to see her fail on purpose.  I figured out she was delaying, wasting my time and failing on purpose, she so knew the answer! Instead of raising my voice or flipping out, I told her she was gonna get it... I got an ice cube from the freezer and chased her like a goofy mom around the house, till I cornered her (she let me) and popped it down the back of her shirt. Yeah!  instead of me pulling a freak face, and blowing it.  I ended up with playful interaction and us in a giggling heap at the end of it.

Secret Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding

Caving to demand here is how I made it.

2 Avocados
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup Raw Honey
1/4 cup Peanut Butter

Tossed it all in the blender and blended well. Kids had no clue it was healthy. It's a great way to add fiber and guilt free chocolate to your diet. And I'm all about the guilt free chocolate.

Many recipes call for agave nectar. So I'm sure you can sub that in. I found as chocolate pudding it's a bit to bitter. When I tasted it it was also just a wee bit off. Adding the peanut butter helped boost the chocolate and creamy aspects of the pudding.

Eat within a few hours of chilling it. I noticed it got grainy overnight so it's not a make the day before dish. It only takes a few minutes to make, so I know this will become a family favorite. Especially when Avacados are .50 cents each (I tend to over buy at that price).

We love guacamole but even my family gets tired of it after 4 days in a row.

Hope you guys like it.

OH one of THOSE days

Today was pretty good over all but  Sweet Potato was a bit of a bitter pill, and in fact has been just icky lately. She finished her school books last week for 5th grade (just not math) and I told her we would start on 6th in about 2 weeks. Now her sister finished the first week of May, and we had sundae's and a movie. Gotta love that new Almond dream frozen Ice cream like stuff So Sweet Potato could participate in that. 

Now for the last week I've been on bed rest,  Saturday I managed to get to the Holt Adoptee picnic and last the whole time, after which I retired to my cushie bed and fell asleep most of the rest of the day. Sunday I managed to make Church, nap and go to a quiet get together with friends where I basically sat and listened to a sweet 20 something. Oh was I ever that young?  My my my... So since I have been on bed rest I figured the girls would pitch in and help. Last week the girls did do some work but left the majority of it to their father.  I thought I had them better trained than that. I'm finding evidence of slacking everywhere today now that I'm not totally comatose. 

Icky Additude examples:

Mom finds all the hard boiled eggs needed for Picnic are barely soft boiled... Mom knows she gave clear instructions. Child even checked with Mom when water was not boiling to makes sure it wasn't really boiling... then went and turned off the water so it wouldn't boil. Because she wanted them to fail. Her heart at that time:  Mom is faking needing to lie down and should do her own work and I don't care or feel like doing her work.  Yup I faked almost blacking out and asked you to finish this terribly hard job of boiling water, my idea of a good time is being asleep all day. 

Oh how bout me trying to encourage friendships. "I know honi not a lot of people call you for play dates why not call some one and invite them over here." 

Instead of calling and making a plan she calls 5 minutes before she wants to play, In which her friend says No sorry I have plans for "Right Now"  or makes a play date without checking in with mom, and has to send her friend home because its just not working out for us at that time because she knew it was a bad time for mom. Seriously she knew! before hand! I got the reason out of her today your gonna love this "Because I'm not a good friend and I don't want to make it work, or act normal."  Well at least she got the whole marching to the tune of her own drummer thing down. 

Today I find that for the last week Sweet Potato has been purposely putting things in the wrong place... this is her idea of fun... The hiding got so bad last year I had to make a rule: I find "it" any "it your directly responsible for" in the wrong place, you loose a token... You don't want to loose all your tokens (3). I gave her grace I found 5 "it's" in the wrong place all at once and only took 1 token because she was down 1 already...

Yesterday while I was taking a walk.. well I wouldn't call it a walk more like a saunter mixed in with a stroll,  around the block trying the whole "side hug" "low body language" "ideal parenting thing" of walking and talking with her while she was in a snit.  It WORKED! The reason she was displaying classic maudlin teenage  behavior is *drum roll please* 

We weren't there for her GRADUATION CEREMONY.  

Aren't we horrible bad terrible parents OH MY! Ya know she home schooled I didn't know we did ceremonies for catching up in the summer because you are behind. Oh wait did I say that out loud... noo just in my blog.  OH do read on... read on... 

You see 3 weeks ago we started attending Irving Bible Church because they have programs for special needs kiddos, and purposefully minister to adoptive parents. So we thought we'd give it a go to see if it would be a fit for us. Maybe our kids would feel more comfortable because they would be one of a crowd of adopted kids...   So Sweet Potato was put in the wrong class the first week. She was properly placed in the 5th grade class the second week... and the third week she GRADUATED FROM HER SUNDAY SCHOOL! Wow woo hoooo amazing *can you hear the one hand clapping alone?*  it's a very zen moment.   

Yup she in a all day chip on her shoulder snit, because we were one of the many parents that didn't attend the 5th grade Sunday school graduation. It was described to me by the Children's Ministry guy as "We pray over them as a big group."   Not one word about parents can come and participate... last week her teacher said "Oh she did great!" not one word about "Hey don't forget to attend the class next week because your kid is graduating." And oh yes only a handful of parents came, arn't we Just awful parents leaving her alone and NOT COMING... Oh the drama of it all. Man it sounds like my 13 year old diary reads, Ahh now you know the real reason I never journaled as a kid. I'd reread my diary and say ugh that's just awful! I wrote that eeew... 

Talking to my Mom today she was giggling over the "drama" saying don't worry she will turn into a fine young lady when she is 16.  WOW mom I'm totally holding you to that!!! 

Don't forget my Reusable Grocery Bag give away is still going on 

http://gardenforsara.blogspot.com/2012/05/chicken-give-away-hey-free-stuff.html 

face book shares off of my page count too :-) as long as YOU share Xiaoyun's story and I can track back to you and find you so I can ship it, is all that is needed to enter. :-) 

Chicken Give Away (hey free stuff)

Isn't it cute! 

I'm still super excited for the Chicks for Children Campaign.

So much so I made this really cool reusable grocery bag. 

I'm giving it away Free! 

https://www.mygfa.org/chicksforchildren/

The bag is made from 100% cotton. It is hand painted and one of a kind. I used acrylic paints, which my mom can testify... will only wash out if you mix Era and gasoline together and rub really well... I have hand painted art on fabric before and as long as you wash it in cold water and tumble it dry. It's good for years. 
I'd like to shout out to my friend Michelle who inspired me by showing me this style bag and the blogger who describes in detail how to make your own.  So if you don't win you can still make your own. I switched out the pocket for a simple strap.


From a usability standpoint the strap was just easier!!! It folds up nicely into a pretty compact package that can be stored in a purse or in the trunk.

It fits plenty! inside is 4lb. of sugar, 3 cans, one large container
of trail mix, 4 pounds of beans and a bag of chips.
* Disclaimer* You do not win the contents of the bag, just the bag.

So how can you get your hands on this bag?
It's quite simple...
Share the link to the Chicks for Children campaign on twitter, facebook, (or any social media) or in person to someone your standing next to in the grocery line.
Share my blog post about the bag and I'll put your name in the hat 2x.  (<----------click the facebook link up and to the left).
THEN... Comment* on this blog post and let me know how you shared the link/story/blog.
The Fine Print *You do need to "sign in" when you comment so I can track back to you and let you know if you won.  If you don't sign in, I can't contact you. Any anonymous or non signed in comments will not make it into the hat.  
This giveaway will be open from May 18, 2012 to May 30, 2012.
I'll stick all the comments and shares in a hat and whoever my Chinese adoptee picks, wins! 

Ahh The Search For a Car

So were at that place where our cars are getting beat into the ground, over 150k miles on each :-).  We know our cars have basically no trade-in value, $500.00 but it's a great car! We really regret having to turn in a V6 engine and the reliability it has given us over the years.

Last night we visited a Kia dealer who swears he can put us in a new Soul for the car payment we can afford. Not that I want a car payment! but I will if I must.  I'm perusing Kelly Blue book for realistic car prices.Oh wait no realistic prices are out there! I'm flabbergasted at how much used cars are commanding. We also decided to try the Toyota dealership that Ed Wallace  recommends He's the local guru of cars on the radio, so off to Toyota of Lewisville we went today. 

Fred shows us a nice Rav 4 2006 low mileage etc. Drives nice I hadn't considered a Rav 4 because I thought the gas mileage would be horrible, but it's the same as the car I'm driving now so no loss, no gain. Were honest about how much we have, how much we can pay, etc. We like the car It looks like a good buy.  Sweet Potato is IN LOVE  with it.  We ask the sale rep to run the numbers for us.  He runs off and does it, comes back with a car payment 76$ above what we said we could pay. We'd need 3k more down payment to even get it within range.  So we ask if he can move a bit on the price cause it's way too high.

He comes back with a sedan that we might be able to afford. But we don't want a Sedan we like the Rav 4, the Matrix 5, a hatchback type is in order. Sweet potato's medical equipment must go with us where ever we go and it takes up 3 cubic feet easy.  He goes off comes back with another car we really don't' want.

So we go home and I'm looking at the paper work he gave us, I realize there is no interest rate on this paper work.. curious I go to Kelly Blue book car loan calculator and punch in the numbers.  I put it on Used Car loan rates. A rate of 3.16% comes up so I use 4%... car payment for what we would be financing is below our requested payment. Himmm... I punch in 6% still within range, 8% slightly above... I'm thinking are car loans at more than 8% these days?? wow that's a lot. But wait....were still waaaaaaayyyyyy under the chart of car payments they have displayed on this paper. So I keep upping the interest rate I finally got the car payment they were displaying with 18% interest.  SERIOUSLY?????   This tells me they really don't want to sell us this car 18% is outrageous.

Ed Wallace I trusted you to send me to someone who would be fair and honest. I feel betrayed at this moment. We have great credit! We only owe on the house.  I could put the balance of this car on my 1% credit card, and have a car payment I could afford. Shhh don't tell Dave Ramsey I still have A credit card.  Yet they Toyota of Lewisville is trying to charge me a usury rate of interest.  Sorry Ed I'm thinking you need to have a chat with whoever in charge cause your both getting some bad press here...

Well I don't think they will be getting my business unless they want to be more realistic on interest rates.  I'm so glad we walked away and that we had an idea of what is realistic for us before we went in. We can go down to one car and deal with the hassle that is. I'm grateful I didn't have to take on more debt and we can just keep looking till we find someone willing to work with us.  Till then we'll just keep paying ourselves the car payment and waiting till this craziness in used car prices goes away, or we can find a car we can afford for cash.

Quick Marinara Sauce

Quick Marinara Sauce
1 16oz can petite diced tomatoes. 
1# ground beef
1 zucchini diced
1 med white onion diced
2 cloves garlic (minced/pressed) 
1 Teaspoon Basil *
1 Teaspoon Oregano*
1 bay leaf *
( * Or 2 teaspoons of Italian Spices) 
salt pepper to taste 
1 Teaspoon Parsley
2 Tablespoons Olive oil

fry beef and onion together till onion is transparent, then
add zucchini and garlic. Drive off as much water from the zucchini as you have time for. It helps the sauce not be to watery if you can fry it a bit before you add the tomatoes. 
Lower the heat to medium then In a corner of your pan ,add olive oil. Bloom your spices in the olive oil (blooming means you fry them briefly this helps them to release their flavor quickly). 
Add in the can of petite Diced tomatoes and simmer for 10 -20 minutes (or until your spaghetti noodles are cooked). 
Serve hot feeds about 4-6. 
If you want to make it stretch further, use 2 16 oz cans of tomatoes. 

Try to use the petite diced. Regular diced you must simmer for longer. 

Living With Dyslexia

Continuing on my series of blogs posts about literacy I thought I'd share what it is like to actually live with a Learning Disability.  I have 2 :-) One is a form of dyslexia where I invert numbers and letters. The other is a a short term memory loss issue.  I'll write a post on how that effects one quality of life later. :-P

if i was to tyep with out uisng spell chekc or goin gback an noorecting all my mistakes you woudl see all teh mistakes i make in jus tone stenence.  No I did not fake that... that is really truly what it looks like when I type. Go ahead MMORPG friends tell em you awarded me a typo cape... Isn't it pretty? 

I'll never be a typist. If my high school  typing teacher hadn't taken me by the hand and give me extra credit work, I would have never passed. He was a really nice guy, he gave me an A for effort, and sheer determination.  Even Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing can't help me.  My best score is 30 WPM with a 70% accuracy. What I really hate is, the more I practice, the weirder the errors become.  If I finally get my fingers to remember G is on the left hand, suddenly I'm typing H's instead of  G's! Why is my right hand reacting???HUH??? how does that happen. I have no clue!! my body is seriously miss-wired.

When I was in Mrs. Blacks class in 2nd grade, I remember getting my spelling test back from her. I saw I had spelled every word wrong. I had studied, and studied, and studied!!! It was so not fair.  I followed her around the classroom begging her to look again. Saying "Every word has all the letters"  10 words all spelled wrong yet only containing the letters they are made from. RED FLAG people... instead of help all I saw was the back of her dress, as she ignored my rather obnoxious pleas for a better grade.

My childhood was filled with tape cassettes of spelling words my father lovingly made up for me. Every day I had to listen to him spelling the word saying the word then a pause for me to write the word correctly... then spelling it again for me to see if I spelled it right. When I did this every day for a week I would pass.  No! I would not get an A a measly C- is what I would bring home.  I always wondered, if it was worth all the effort I had to put into it.  I never thought an A was possible. I just couldn't spell. Rote memorization was the method that worked enough to get me to pass.

I wonder how I would have learned to read if I had been taught using a phonics program.  When I took over teaching Sweet Potato to read around lesson 30 in 100EZ lessons I marveled... wow is that why it makes that sound. I spent a year learning as much as my child. You see our school used the whole word method. I remember memorizing whole words as the only thing I understood about reading.  Thank goodness because I'm an avid reader. I love to read. But for years I called sword "s-w-ord"  much to the amusement of my brother.  But would I have been able to learn to read if I had to parse the words??

In class, we would have to get up and read aloud. I would stand up and start reading... waiting for the teacher to "yell" at me to stop wasting class time. (I'm sure she wasn't yelling and I bet to high heaven I had auditory processing issues to boot, because any loud voice was Yelling in my world.)   Yet again I was not reading my paragraph correctly.  Yup one or 2 sentences in she would tell me in disgust to just sit down.
Years later like 20 years later when I went to a specialist in optometry for dyslexia, he was testing me and as I read aloud he would nod and circle nod and circle. My dear old eyes will follow a break in the words and jump up and grab a word directly above it insert it into my reading as smooth as silk. I knew I was reading all the words I saw but somehow they didn't make sense.  I'd be thinking "Why is there an extra "and" in this sentence?"  As a child I just learned to ignore words that intruded themselves upon me.  But by the time I was working my job required me to proof read my work  (Oh yeah that was smart. let's give the dyslexic proofreading to do that will be fun to watch.) 99.9% of the time I needed, a third pair of eyes on my work or "sausage" was spelled "suasgae."  I needed help.

Hence the visit to the Dyslexia Optometrist. He made me do all these weird exercises, light therapy, etc... I found out I was hardly using my right eye and that my peripheral vision in that one was really bad. Like was I in a car accident bad...  Um I figured out what caused that, Mom I know your reading this blog... remember the big Maple tree in the front of the house, next to the creek. Well I climbed up that one day when I was 13, and you were out convincing people to get tested for cancer. I fell out of it. Just like in the cartoons bouncing from branch to branch I was at least 2 stories high. I landed on that 2ft swath of grass you know the tiny patch of grass between the asphalt driveway and the concrete... smack on my right side... then just like in the cartoons I rolled into the rock garden and bounced down into the concrete creek culvert. I lay there unable to move in a half inch of water. Thinking to myself... "Good thing I'm face up or I'd be drowning right now. I don't think I'll tell anyone about this, as it was such a Stooopid thing to do!!!" after a few minutes (AKA forever!) I was able to get up. Nothing was in screaming pain, just dull pain, I washed all my algae covered clothes and took a shower before you got home.

So after I got help as an adult it was more manageable, but I still can't tell when a word is spelled right. Tho one bad thing about macs is the spell checker learns your unique words and starts adding them into your dictionary. I knew I was in trouble when it started accepting teh and intuited it was one of my unique words. nooooooooooo!  Some  people can look at a word and just know it's spelled right.  Not I! All words need to be checked and re-checked, thank goodness for spell checker, it makes blogging easier :-)

So if I've amused you today :-) donate a few $$ for women's literacy here: https://www.mygfa.org/gardenforsara/ and make my day.

Tandoori Chicken In A Grill

So as you all know by now I don't own a tandoor. I really like tandoori chicken. Do I have to resort to BBQ Tonight's take out menu??? if I want authentic tandoori chicken at home? The answer my friend is in your charcoal grill.

Years ago Cooks Illustrated explained how offset cooking in your grill can create a dry low and slow BBQ effect. One need not own a smoker to get smoked meat. How it works is you create a hot spot in your grill and put your meat around it. None of the meat should be placed directly over the coals.
I had a lot of chicken, and I worry about chicken I really wanted it cooked thoroughly and as authentically as possible. So I choose to keep my coals in the middle of my grill. I then placed the chicken legs as close to the heat as I could, I crowded it all in. I did have some of the ends of the legs poking a bit over the hot coals. When they got a bit charred on the end I wasn't worried.

Once all the chicken was on I shut the lid and walked off and prepared spiced cauliflower. After 15 minutes I came back and shifted a few pieces. I continued to rotate the chicken larger pieces closer to the heat moving smaller pieces away. I found I did not need to turn the chicken at all. So the yummy yogurt marinade clung to the chicken and created that nice dry coating with a tender juicey interior.

My recipe for the marinade is 2 fold due to me watching some swami of Indian cooking on YouTube. The night before I skinned the chicken and put the required 4 slashes in the meat.
Then I took:
4 Teaspoons of Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon red hot chili powder
2 Tablespoons of ginger garlic paste
a few dashes of ground sea salt. And mixed all the chicken up in this marinade. Then I took 8 oz. of yogurt (Brown Cow) and placed it in a coffee filter lined sieve on a upturned bowl inside a bigger bowl. I suppose one could have just used Greek style yogurt. But I really like the taste of Brown Cow. Now the Cooking Swami said this step was essential if you wanted your marinade to really stick.

He was right the next morning I added  to the drained yogurt in a big bowl!
a 2 second pour of mustard oil
2 Tablespoons of Garam Masala
1 teaspoon of regular chili powder
a dash of cumin,
and a tablespoon of paprika for red color without resorting to red food coloring.
Another 3 heaping spoonfuls of garlic ginger paste
 a dash of black salt,
a teaspoon of sea salt
and blended well.

I dipped the pieces of chicken in the marinade and made sure to work the mix into the chicken slits.
Now I was out of prep gloves. I recommend wearing gloves to do this part as the chili oil can make your fingers feel spicy! If like me you need to make due, you can coat your hands in oil. Before plunging them into the mixture. I find this protects your skin quite a bit. Lots of soap in cool water to get it off later. Don't use hot as it may open your pores up to the capsaicin still on your hands. 

You need to marinade for a minimum of 30 minutes I did it for 2 more hours.

Once I got the chicken on the moderate grill, spaced out, not over any coals. It took about 2 hours to cook. With me checking on it every 15-20 minutes. Even the breast meat did not dry out. Low and slow worked perfectly.

You really want to keep the lid down and have sufficient charcoal to burn for a long time. I used about 20 blocks for the naan (see previous post) and to those white hot coals I added at least another 50 more pieces. These burned up slowly over 4 hours so I could have used less.  After the chicken had a good crust on them. I plucked a few oak twigs from my tree and put them on top of the grill right over the coals. These gave off a nice smoke and added that authentic touch.

I hope you give my method a try and see if you to can have that authentic dry coating juicy inside tandoori style chicken at home. If not BBQ tonight still does takeout.

An Experiment With Naan

For those of you foodies out there that Love Naan... and don't own a tandoor!!! Home cooked naan can be a serious problem.

I love the taste of home made Naan, but not having a tandoor! I have resorted for years to a smoky house and pulling all the batteries out of the smoke detectors before I commenced cooking.  Cooking it in the oven just doesn't cut it. Stove top cooking is do-able but also lacks that cooked over coals flavor.  So today I have played around with Naan and Tandoori Chicken  (You will have to wait for my next blog post to find out how I faked a tandoor with my roadside grill).  Today's Blog is about Naan that chewy, lovely, yummy, buttery, garlicy, super special bread from India... I love so much!!!

You may notice my missionary style grill... its a roadside recycle :-) a gift from a man with a truck, who knew we didn't own a "real" grill... we added the bolted on handle and rearranged the stuff inside to make a recycled charcoal grill.  Also, I love my Tortilla griddle but alas it does have a crack in it and I have a new griddle I don't love as much, so I keep my old one around. Because its so handy to use in these types of situations and my Mommy gave it to me, and I think of her when I use it. Thanks Mom!  

Use your favorite Naan Recipe and if you have my old one could you send it to me??? I didn't like this recipe as much as my old one from 2003 but alas my email server purged it and Recipezaar seems to have become some other website! So I'm not sharing the recipe here, just the technique on how to cook Naan without a tandoor.

1. Get coals nice n' hot
2. Put on a griddle so you have a good flat surface for the naan to stick too. Close lid and let the griddle get really hot.
3. Roll out naan, open up your grill and toss naan on griddle, close lid.
4. Pre roll another naan peeking at your naan, half way though your rolling out the next one.
5. Flip naan if it is starting to puff, and it looks happy.
6. Brush on butter, close lid.
7. Finish rolling out naan... if you can before the one on the griddle finishes cooking...
8. Open grill and pull off perfectly cooked naan.
9. Use tongs and wet towel to remove any burnt flour or butter from griddle.
Repeat till your out of dough.

Special Thanks to my Knight in Shining Armor for stitching together all those segments of naan cookery. 

Spinach Curry Soup

Today is my Play in Cafe day. I get to go in to the ministry and make food for the staff that choose to eat in-house.  We have a few vegans who always come down, and many of the staff like to eat healthy.  We had lots of soups today perfect for a nice rainy day!

Usually our lentil soup is vegan but we had lots of ham left over at Christmas and some of it made it into today's offerings.  We discovered that this was the last of the last batch of lentil with Ham in it! oops can't serve that to the vegans. 

One of the other staff members donated a big bag of spinach. But oh no we aren't "Officially" cooking till next Wednesday, and we had more spinach than we could use up in the salad bowl. 

So I asked if I could make a vegan soup out of this and that... I got permission yippie! and put on my thinking cap. After a glance around the fridge and stock room. I knew I had to use up the spinach, and we always have canned black beans... and yes we still had Dried Shiitake Mushrooms... this bag of mushrooms is like Elijah's bin of flour every time I look in there there is another handful... I really did use all of them up this time tho.  

So here is how I made today's Spinach Curry soup. Which we had to pull out of the line and save the last bit... because all the non-vegans were gobbling it up.  LOL 

Take a cup of Dried Shiitake Mushrooms and add to
4 cups of warm water.

Add in the following spices:

Basic curry powder Sweet (2 big dollops) what you were expecting measurements???

Cayenne Pepper (a few hard shakes)

Black pepper to taste (more than a tablespoonful) 

Garlic powder (shake shake shake it up baby lots o garlic) 

Onion powder (Enough so you don't have to use onions, but the taste of onion is not overwhelming) 

Some Cumin Powder.

and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. 

let sit for 15 minutes. 

 

In a food processor add in 

2 pounds of Spinach by handfuls till it's finely chopped, not pureed but no big pieces.

Pour off the spiced mushroom water into a pot and start to heat it up. 

Add in the spinach and mushrooms when it is simmering.   Once the mushrooms are cooked add in 

1 can of black beans (washed no juice). 

Now I discovered while in the bowl a bit of sour cream really made this a treat to eat.... but that is not vegan! So If I was to make this on purpose again and keep it vegan I would add in coconut milk, a bit of fat is exactly what is needed to round out the flavors in this recipe. 

A Lesson in Enjoying the Journey

My good friend C invited me to go camping with her this weekend. and since it's pure luxury camping in a pop up tent camper I was excited. But Sweet Potato couldn't come because we have no electricity for her vest. Shes not a big fan of camping when its not in a cabin.  So Little Miss Sunshine was planning on a sleepover and pulled the I have a previous commitment on me. (whoa shes learning manners)  My Knight in Shining Armour thought wow I can play music as loud as I want to this weekend Have fun Honi go play out in the dirt...

Off I went with the help of a few baby sitters I was able to get on the road at 11am on Friday.. but then I had to pick up X and Y and Z and it was 12 by the time I hit the highway. An hour and a half later I'm thinking "Why does everything look familiar but wrong some how?" then I have a Bugs Bunny moment, you know when he pops up his head  from the hole looks at his map and says "Maybe I shouldn't have taken that left turn at Albuquerque."  Realizing the error of my ways... I'm on the road to A camp ground which is why every thing looks familiar just not on the right road. I'm 30 miles north of my destination... So I turn around cause I'm in TX in one of those You can't get here from there places, or so my map says. It looks like a good hour of back tracking...  I  promptly blow a tire.

Can you picture this?  *Hello you have reached AAA how can I help you?  I have a flat and need assistance... Ok I'll get someone out there right away, where are you located?  I have no Idea I'm lost!!! LOL! I'm on highway X headed east and I can see a sign in the distance for exit Y... Laughter.... Don't worry I get calls like this all the time... *

A side note here: If I had checked my tire pressure before I left I probably wouldn't have lost my tire. It was low due to the highs and low temperature changes we have been having lately. So before you hop in your car for a short 1 hour journey that you don't plan on making a 3 hour journey by getting lost, check your tire pressure... 


Thank you to my Knight in Shining Armour My phone was topped up and I could actually call AAA and get a rescue. Where I was on the high way I could not change that tire by myself.  If I had managed to crack the nut holding the doughnut in place... well it had been in there for 15 years and this was the first time anyone has ever tried to take it off...  So I pulled out my handy dandy classic Oliver Twist and settled down on the verge to wait. Lots of very nice ladies pulled over and asked if I needed water, help, a phone. Texas is so friendly.

So I'm all changed Doughnut is on I'm headed to Discount Tire In Greenville (excellent customer service) AAA has pinpointed my location and the guy was able to give me clear instructions on how to get  where I needed to go...  As I turn into the tire place the Doughnut dies Wooo hoo it got me here!!! hey it was 15 years old...

30 minutes later I'm on my way. How did that happen so fast? I have 2 new tires and a full size spare because the staff at Discount Tire were so incredibly sweet and made it possible for me to be safe at a price I could afford.

I arrived at my destination 4 hours later than I has expected but still happy.  Because I enjoyed the journey as much as my destination.  Take it from me vacation starts when you start your journey to it not when you arrive. :-)  

It was a great thing to think on as I was driving, I compared it to our adoption journey. My children are going to have flat tires and get lost along the way so we should enjoy the green grass and sunshine when we can. Even if semis are zooming by at 80 miles an hour behind you.

The Terrible Tympanogram

If you want to know in detail what a Tympanogram is you can see it here:
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/tympanogram

Speech acquisition was really slow with Sweet potato as a child, often her speech was slurred. and indistinct. I took her regularly to the doctor and every time everything with her ears checked out A.O.K.

After years of speech therapy and much diligence she started to speak properly.  This is a first step in learning to read. Saying the words right is important to being able to recognize those words when she is blending.

So after many rounds of Doctors to try and see why she still coughs so much. Jan Bedell told me to specifically ask for a Tympanogram. She had a sneaking suspicion all was not right inside Sweet Potatoes ears. She was right.

Today's visit to the ENT sounded like this:
Mom: Can you check her ears? She is complaining about them.
DR.: Sure thing, ooo nice and clean mom. I don't think the problem is there, I bet it's just sinus pressure she's really swollen. Lets try and even stronger Allergy medicine now that she is 12.
Mom: Can you do a Tympanogram? Her therapist is concerned her speech is slurred and wants to make sure all is ok in the middle ear.
DR.: Yes but I'm sure everything is fine. those tubes just finished growing out.
15 minutes later after a simple test.
Mom: So what is this graph showing? its all flat and is highlighted, again...
Dr.: Well... the graph should like an A  going up and down.
Mom: This looks like and EM dash not an A.... (ok I really didn't say that I just thought it)
Dr: And well this is bad it shows her inner ear is full of fluid. That can cause her to not be able to hear well. the sound is going through some pretty thick liquid. We are going to have to go in and clean them out and put tubes in her ears to keep it dry. Were looking at surgery this is not a good chart at all... Good premonition Mom... *picture my face if you dare* All I can remember is all the lost ear plugs, and no submerging of your head. Visions of the soup nazi saying NO POOL FOR YOU! fly around my head. 

Wow wasn't that fast??? I thought her ears were clean and fine, and wallah they aren't  So I wonder can 2 doctors in different fields manage to only put my Sweet Potato though one day of procedures???

I.D.E.A.L Parenting Baby Steps

Wednesday I really chose to pick my battles. Sweet Potato had yet another Doctor appointment. Yippie we get to go to the ENT weeeeeeeeee!!!  This was supposed to be a routine check up a just to make sure nothing is infected and her ears are clear of thick nasty fluid.  NOT!

Before we went the kids were reenacting songs from the Broadway Musical Cats. Little Miss Sunshine made cat tails "Like we did in China mom!."  Sweet Potato really does an excellent job of acting cat like. She can really emote feline.  So were 20 minutes to take off (leaving for the doctor) and the child is still in cat outfit.  I ask myself; is it modest?  check  Do I care that she is wearing a tail? nope Should I make her go out in public dressed properly? NAAAAAA.  I went out to my garden and checked on my peas and there were little leaves sprouting yeah!

I came back in unaware that in those few minutes Daddy picked that battle. And since she is a well trained child she said "Yes Dad" and took off her tail...  But sad to say her heart wasn't in the right place after that.  She used her actions to show her resentment.

13 minutes later I'm doing the last call shoes purses lets go to the ENT yippie! (they always have stickers and lollipops.) Can you believe it Sweet potato is changing her outfit... OH NO! this will take Forever (say it with a valley girl accent for proper effect).  Yup we were late to the Doctor and had to wait extra long.  Daddy was not a happy camper as we waved good bye 10 minutes later.

I took a longer view... its not my appointment its hers if she wanted to be on time she would have been. She is very smart when it comes to things like this. But what I do know is Dad + Late = Disrespect.  Then it all comes out at dinner. She was mad and wanted everyone else to be mad too. So the whole I have to Change  2 minutes before we have to leave was so on purpose!  Why?? because she couldn't wear the tail... Oh the Drama of it all *giggle* I just want you to all know I totally deserve and love this child :-) 

This was an excellent opportunity to use a redo, ask for a compromise, and talk about why we use our words not our actions to tell how we feel. Not a day I'd say we as parents "won" but a good day in practicing the pieces. As a step in our journey I'd say one of us stumbled and the other caught them. Marriage should be like that :-) Next time It will be my turn to fall down.