Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Back to School Interview

I decided to try to do homeschooling with Mia twice a week this year to get her ready to go to preschool next year. She is so interested in going to school but hasn't totally mastered the potty yet. To start out the year I thought we could make a time capsule and fill it with drawings and writing samples and other things so that at the end of the year we can compare how far she has come. I also thought a good memory to have would be a list of questions for her to answer about herself. Yesterday, while she was sitting down for lunch I asked her the questions and recorded her answers.

What did you do this summer?
Play, painted, go to Nana's house, we go to Louisville, we saw Lillian, we rode Small World (she then started singing, "It's a small world after all...")

What do you think you will learn at school this year?
I don't know. We are reading and coloring. (more singing, "It's a small, small world."

What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite movie? Peter Pan
What is your favorite food? Cheeseburger (what she was eating for lunch)
What is your favorite TV show? Dora
What is your favorite toy? Toy Story--I like Jesse and Woody
What is your favorite outfit to wear? My butterfly dress and my turtle dress

Who do you like to play with? What do you like to play?
Bryce and Collin...and ummm, Kylie. I like to play blocks. Kylie don't usually go to Nana's house. You member last time Bryce and Collin come to Nana's house and he say, "Building!" That was fun.

What makes you happy? Playing, bouncing and I like to jump (then she started singing "dancey, dancey dance....dancey, dancey, dance")
Sad? Zane's messing all my toys up
Excited? My makeup with curling iron with dryer. I can dry my hair and put make up. (more singing--"today is the day you have made...")
Mad? Zane's wearing my bib. He eating and I'm mad...I'm really mad.
Scared? The dark makes me scared. (then she started acting silly, looking down at the circles we had just made for a project) OOO...cirlces make me scared! Ahh!

Where do you like to go?
Nana's house. Sometimes Bryce comes.

What do you like about yourself?
Myself is sparkly...that's all I wanted to do

What can you do to make someone else happy?
Somebody to give another toy to anybody who doesn't have any toys.

Is there anything else you wanted to say?
My face looks like I'm sparkly. That's all.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A Spoiled Brat? Or an Opportunity to Help?


Well, I was really put in my place today. Once again, my 3-year-old daughter inadvertantly taught me a lesson. We had a huge stack of library books that were due back today and even though it feels like we have been running around all week, I wasn't about to rack up a fine on that many books. Although Mia whined all morning while we were getting ready, I just shrugged it off and decided that she would be fine once she had some breakfast. So as soon as she finished her milk and fruit we headed out the door to return the nearly overdue books and to hopefully get a new stack. She and her brother did wonderfully at the library. Mia picked out a huge pile of books and proceeded to read them all while I fed Zane his bottle. We gathered up all the books, checked them out and it was only until we started to head out the door that the whining returned. She had wanted to carry some of the books but they suddenly became too heavy and she dropped them on the floor, sending her into one of her drama queen moments.

Though Mia was a little cranky, I continued with my original plan...to get milk while it was still on sale at Kroger. I let her browse through the book aisle before heading back to the dairy case in hopes that I could spend a little more time checking out the sales that were going on this week. When we finally had to head home, I told Mia that we were not going to buy the books and we had to return them before we could leave. This is a common practice and it usually works out fine...she is usually tired of the book by the time we need to leave the store and we put it back and move on. But today, she decided that she wanted to take those books home and her whining escalated into yelling which turned into a high pitched, ear splitting scream that could be heard all over the store. Her face was red, her eyes were blood-shot and she was jumping up and down in the back of the buggy. This is where I also need to mention that I decided to let Mia wear her Ariel costume out today. I don't usually let her wear those kind of things out, simply because it makes it awkward to get her in and out of the carseat. So, I have in my buggy, a lethargic 5 month old who is slowly falling asleep, 2 gallons of sale priced milk...and a screeching 3-year-old in an Ariel costume.

I don't know about anyone else...but there have been plenty of times where I have seen a child dressed similarly to the way Mia was dressed, screaming the way that she was and thought, "What a spoiled brat! That parent doesn't even have control of what that kid wears. I am sure they have no sense of discipline. I am so glad that my kid doesn't act like that...." and other similar degrading thoughts. I was immediately put in my place. As her mother, I knew this was the absolute biggest fit I had seen her throw in months, maybe even a year...and the Ariel outfit was not a cave in discipline but a reward for being so cooperative and obedient the last few days...and I had pushed her way past her lunch time so that I wouldn't have to go back out later to get milk. As all the people stared, I began to realize just how those mothers (the ones that I found so easy to judge before) must feel.

I learned that it is entirely unhelpful to stand by and judge a situation like that. Who am I helping when I assume that I know what is going on and proceed to pass my own judgement on a family that I don't even know?...I'm not helping them, and I'm not even helping myself. I hope that from now on, I will try to view a screaming child as a way to comfort and encourage a struggling mother and not a way to make myself feel better, because in the long run I'm not making myself feel better but enforcing my pride and judgemental attitude. And it doesn't matter if that child is a brat every single day of their life because the parents don't discipline them...I can view these people through the eyes of Jesus, pray for them and offer my help in the moment knowing that I would want someone to do the same for me.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Recipes

I'm attempting to gather all of my family's favorite recipes in one place so that not only are they easy to access when I want to make something delicious for my family but so that when the time comes, I can pass the well worn book of recipes on to my daughter. I've started by making a list of every dish that I could think of that my family enjoys and now I am in the process of putting each recipe on a 4x6 note card. When this step is complete, I'm going to put each recipe in a cute photo album...and somewhere down the road I would like to put a picture with each recipe (but we'll see how that goes)

I wanted to share one of my new favorite recipes...I just used this one for Mia's birthday party. Lasagna is one of my favorite foods, so I have eaten a lot of it. And over time I have become somewhat particular as to how I like it...firm noodles, not too much sauce, lots of cheese, not too garlicky. This recipe, in my opinion, is perfect

My Favorite Lasagna












1 1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large skillet cook ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning and 1 tablespoon parsley.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
5. Bake for an hour. Remove foil after 30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.