Category Archives: Lessons

Date night and U2

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Hubby and I celebrated our 18th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, however, it was smack DAB at the end of the school year with a flurry of kiddo stuff, so we finally went to a nice dinner to celebrate last night.  Hey, better late than never, right?

Impressive building, eh? Not only houses the culinary school but the Photography school and Museum.

We went to the local state college because we had heard great things about their Cafe 101:  the culinary school that offers lunch (reservations only @ $10) and dinner on Wednesdays (reservations only @ $15).  The meal was fabulous.  I’m still full.  Four courses.  A limited menu, however, Hubby and I ordered opposite choices and pretty much sampled the menu.  I’ve never had such amazing conch fritters.  There goes my mouth, watering again!

Lovely, intimate atmosphere. Seats 75. I think there were 15 people tops the whole time we were there.

It was nice to get out.  We don’t realize how busy we are during the week, working and tending to children and family life.  Weekends are filled with chores and family outings (next weekend we have friends visiting–WOOT WOOT!!!) , so getting away just the two of us is rare.  Uninterrupted conversation, catching up on the week, etc, etc.  The funny thing is (or pathetic, depending on how you look at it), during the day, I jotted down notes on my phone of things I wanted to make sure we discussed during our date.  OY.  These aging, multitasking, distracted brain cells.  Know what?  It worked!

To top the evening off, we did a little price shopping on eyeglasses for our youngest and a new pair for Hubby.  Holy COW they are expensive, so we wanted to see if we could get a better deal than our ophthalmologist’s office–yes, about 1/2 off!!!!!

Came home to kiddos getting along, showered, full of pizza, settling in to watch America’s Funniest Videos and ready for bed.  It was a good night.  And my date was great!!  He smelled real good, too! Falling asleep, we both laughed recalling one of our first dates when he said something to me as U2 was playing SO SOFTLY on the radio that somehow I thought I heard “I love you”.  My response was , ” Love me?  You hardly even know me?!”  After laughing, he explained he loved U2—DUH!  That wasn’t awkward at all.  So we still laugh and we both remember EXACTLY where we were when I said it.  Good times.  Good times!  At least now I can say, “I love you, too”  and “I love U2”, because they are both still true!

Blessings and Happy GO SKATE DAY!!!

My boy, grinding a rail last year..generally he prefers to film!

Time management…..whatev! We can’t ALL be perfect.

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Here we are in our second week of summer.  Yesterday as I rolled into work late for the second day in a row it occurred to me that my time management skills are el sucko!  Actually, not so much that it’s my time management skills but that fact that I haven’t made a successful transition to our summer schedule yet. Nor have  I even tried.  Therein lies the problem.  And then I remember, for some reason it usually takes me about two weeks to make the transition to a new routine……..WHY?!??!!?

In the mornings I am now finding myself with a surplus of time and that is the foundation of my time management rearrangement challenge.  With all this extra time I feel I can do so much more, neglecting the clock and then rushing like a madwoman in the last 5 minutes and leaving late (BUT…..still managing to get it done….just late!).

Last night I looked at my morning and mentally readjusted my “plan” allotting myself a set time for my Quiet time in the morning with a definitive END time to my Quiet activities, thus BEGINNING my daily routine of getting the girls up, ready and out the door.  ON.  TIME.

Here we go.  Day 1 of readjusting the summer clock.  Wish me luck!!  Anyone else have problems adjusting to new changes in schedules, i.e. summer, back-to-school??  Or is it just me?

Summer time….work ethic in progress

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Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it’s off to mow we go….

He’s not always this happy to get going….but there was a nice breeze that day!

Gassing up to get it done!

Companions to the workhorse lawn mower

Big Blue. Crucial accessory to summertime outdoors activity, whether it’s cutting the lawns, skateboarding or hitting the beach. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!!

Our boys’ summer.  Once a week they have 4 lawns to take care of.  3 they actually get paid for in cold hard cash or check.  The other is paid for in food, lodging, love, laundry, food, privileges, hugs, food, guidance, boundaries, kisses, security and food.

Hubby helped them to procure the jobs last year and though they don’t always enjoy the work aspect of the jobs (please, I’m grumbling every Monday so I can’t exactly fault them here…who REALLY loves work versus recreation), they DO enjoy the payment aspect of the jobs.  (They do these jobs year-round, not just summer)  They are learning the value of a dollar, taking pride in a job well-done, interacting with the public, working for a difficult boss, honing their communication skills, team work, and it passes the time at least one morning each week during the summer.

Realistically, we can’t provide for their every whim and fancy.  We have four children.  We work full-time.  Their little whims and fancies are getting progressively more expensive as they age.  Out of necessity comes valuable life lessons in work ethic, saving, tithing and communication.  We hope to add volunteering to their summer plans to further grow their hearts and spirits to a spirit of serving others and taking the focus off of “self” (a lifelong effort for us all, isn’t it?).

And so, coming across this quote on Facebook yesterday by John Talpene (though I’ve not been able to fully verify it is from him–the message is SPOT-ON!), I feel even better about encouraging their lawn business because maybe, just maybe, we are on the right path….and THAT is encouraging!!

John Talpene quote, image from HERE

This quote has been running around Facebook for a few months and though I can’t actually verify if this principal is the one who quoted it, I must say the message is OUTSTANDING!!  I fully plan on printing this out and sharing with out kiddos.  The crux of the message is old-fashioned values don’t go out of style (much like Audrey Hepburn’s LBD).  You can’t go wrong here, in fact we’ve often gotten so far from this message in our “instant gratification” society that it’s not so difficult to see the difference of the fruit born of the polar opposite styles in parenting of the message below and today’s “I-want-it-all-but-I don’t-want-to-work-for-it” generation.  A generation that WE are cultivating.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Martha, your enterprise is safe. For now….

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Our youngest turned 9 last week and since I had the day off for her birthday, I agreed to make the cake she requested:  Red velvet with cream cheese icing AND chocolate with chocolate icing….layered up.  OK.  No prob.  I am sure her vision was something like this:

OK, maybe we watch too much Cake Boss….besides she knows me too well. I don’t even have a tiny square pan like the top layer!!

**image by yumsugar.com

More likely, her visions were of this type of cake…(just imagine some chocolate layers between the red velvet….)

I actually HAVE made a few layered numbers sorta, kinda similar to this. Really. I just can’t find the pictures right now…..
Image by southernliving.com

Off to Publix I went.  And lo and freaking behold, there was not ONE red velvet cake mix.  WTHeck!??!  So, I went on my phone, pulled up a recipe (which took FOREVAH–the signal is lousy in that store!) and procured the ingredients.  Confident of my preparations and time frame, back home I went.

Turns out, between the two cake batters I had enough for cupcakes, too!  BONUS!  This was going to be a spectacular cake.

When I began to smell burning cake (8 minutes before the timer went off) I quickly removed the pans and checked for done-ness.  With the exception of one pan, everything was ready.

The problem was that the red velvet layer cooked too quickly on the bottom.  So I brought out my serrated knife to cut off that portion.  The cake itself was moist and lovely, hence…the darn thing began to crumble as I cut off the burnt portion.

Crumble-palooza, Summer 2012!!

The issues continued as the second pan didn’t QUITE come out intact (apparently I missed a spot with the spray…)

I decided on making the best of it.  I cut the red velvet layer in two, turned it upside down and began to frost.  Then layering with the chocolate layer and “gluing” it together with frosting–there is no such thing as too much frosting, by the way.  Topped it with the red velvet layer and then used cupcakes to hold the darn thing together and up (as for some reason it was now leaning to the side…).

As I surveyed the damage final result, I pondered running back to Publix and purchasing one of their ready-to-go FANCY SCHMANCY cakes, but my husband said, “it will still taste OK.”

As our daughter arrived home from VBS, I Happy birthday-ed her to death, oohed and ahhed over her 9-year-old self and buttered her up for the sell.  She paused as she took in the confectionary conundrum, listened to her sister as she assisted in the sell (God LOVE that girl!!!) and turned with the biggest smile ever, “That is so COOL!!!”.  Phew.  Crisis averted.

**on a side note, my girlfriend recently revealed to me that she often enjoys “Cake in a bag”, the result of an ALMOST  thrown away iced cake (can you even IMAGINE such a travesty!?!?!) and that yes, indeed, even if it looks awful, it DOES still taste good.  I was clinging to that hope.

So. For now.  Martha Stewart has nothing to fear.  Give me time and perhaps a little patience, attention to detail and a concern about what other people think…..and look out.  So, until then….VOILA!

ZEE Masterpiece, non?

Throw a bunch of candles on it and there you go! Smiles!!

The leftover carnage….and yes, it was AWESOME! (especially the red velvet part)

To recreate this baking WONDER, I pulled the Red Velvet recipe from HERE.  As for the rest.  Any chocolate cake mix.  And throw all your cares out the window and let ‘er rip!  Bon Appetit!!

Galations 5:22 -23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Trendy VS Classic…there’s a reason trends come and go

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I’ll stick with the trends that won’t wreck my life, scar me or put my children in position they are not ready to be in before they can handle it.

This came and went….

This will never disappoint….

trend·y (trnd) Informal

adj. trend·i·er, trend·i·est

Of or in accord with the latest fad or fashion: trendy clothes.
n. pl. trend·ies

One who is drawn to and represents the latest trend
Fashion trends are one thing.  They come, they go.  They add a little zip into your wardrobe and shake things up.  I like a trendy piece here and there, generally though, I am a T-shirt and shorts or capris kind of gal.  I put a little extra effort in for Mass on Sundays and date-night with Hubby, aside from that, I’m happy in my regular outfit, or even workout clothes, it’s all about comfort for me!
 
                                                                          I just don’t get it….
Then you have tattoos.  Quite popular these days.  We live near the beach and believe me when I say we are SO in the minority here, having fresh, ink-free skin.  Everyone’s got ’em.  From a little wrist or ankle tat, to the tramp stamp to the full on sleeves.  A day trip to the water park is a quick education in all the varieties and evolution of the tattoo from the fresh 19 year-old skin to the been-there-done-that 40 something, few kids later and some sun damage and suddenly it’s not quite the tat it was 20 years earlier.  Other people can do what they want, it’s just not for me.  I can’t seem to pick something that I think I’ll STILL love 5, 20, 50 years from now.  Tattoo removal is a big business, big money,  pain involved and you don’t end up with the smooth ink-free spot you started out with when you are done.  I’ll stick with the trends that I can pack up and send to Goodwill after a year or so….
The one parenting trend that currently “wraps me around the axle” (as my girlfriend says) is the Co-Ed Sleepover for high schoolers.  Time magazine even has an article with tips on how to run your own child’s co-ed sleepover.  WHAT?!?!?!  THE??!!?? (insert expletive here!).  You’ve got to be kidding me!!!  For our family, we limit sleepovers to a few friends and are slowly phasing them out.  We don’t even host them.  We have boys and girls and as they get older, it’s just a mix I don’t want to  encourage.  There’s just nothing to think about here.  Add boy + girls + raging hormones and shut out the lights.  Hmmmmm   Really?  I’m just flabbergasted that anyone would think this is a good idea.  Implement all the “safety issues” you want, but believe me, “IT” can still happen, even with safety measures in place.
Recently, a Facebook friend took a poll on co-ed sleepovers and with the exception of ONE person, the majority was mightily against the idea.  It turns out my friend was polling to show proof that most parents oppose to her high-schooler.  It was refreshing to see those opposed, but it also made me wonder:  if it’s the parents that are pressured into the sleepovers by their kids, then what message does that send about how to stand up against peer-pressure to the kids?  Kids will do what they are going to do (and I was a kid and I DID make poor choices), but as parents, aren’t we called to guide those choices wisely?  To guard them against youthful mistakes?  With medical proof that brain development is HUGE from adolescence to age 20 or so (nothing we didn’t already know….but now have  proof!), a teen’s frontal lobes are still developing and learning to master emotions and decision-making skills, why would we willingly thrust them into a situation to further complicate matters?
Kids are going to mess up.  It’s a fact of life.  I don’t want to purposefully make it harder on them.  They NEED us to help them distinguish right from wrong.  They NEED us to say “no”.  They NEED boundaries.  They NEED rules.  They NEED consequences.  So for us, and our children, we will continue to call and verify the occasional sleepover, say “no” to uncomfortable intuitions, enforce boundaries and consequences for breaking rules and testing limits.  These are things that will help our children grown into responsible adults.  It’s hard.  It’s painful for all of us.  It molds our society for tomorrow.  Until they grow up and spread their wings, I’m fine with NOT being the cool parent.  It’s a work in progress and we are far from perfect, but at least we are trying.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.