Our Million Dollar Chicken Nugget

I've decided to take Kathryn's 7 day blog challenge. She's pretty darn amazing, so I figure anything that she does I should do too. This is also challenge I think I could probably do. I've seen 30 day challenges before, but after 30 days of me every day, the three people subscribed to my blog would probably unsubscribe, and then where would I be?

Before I begin, no, we didn't buy any chickens in the past day that we then turned into a really amazing nugget.

I watched the children of a lady I visit teach last month, and she bought my kids and I McDonald's for lunch as a thank you. She didn't have to do that, but I'm always grateful not to have to make a meal. Adam was eating away at some chicken nuggests when he noticed this very happy chicken nugget.

I promise there was no picture editing done there except a little brightness/contrast control since the picture came out a bit dark and I really wanted you all to see that lovely chicken face.

After taking a couple of pictures, Adam ate the chicken, and I'm sure felt a lovely happy feeling inside.

A few days later I was telling some family members about the nugget, and my sister told me I should have listed it on eBay. DUH! I didn't even think about that. I don't know how much people normally pay for this kind of thing, but I've been kicking myself ever since. Maybe there is some rich old McDonald's chicken nugget collector out there. Even if it sold for the price of a brand spanking new box of chicken nuggets, that would have been a fine story to share for years to come. As it is, all we have are these pictures. Sigh!

Bawk! Bawk!

On the last day of our vacation mentioned in the previous post, we stopped at Cove Fort (north of Beaver, UT) for Cove Fort Days. They had lots of great pioneery displays and activities, including carriage rides, corn husk doll making, games, and of course Cove Fort tours. We got there towards the end, just as some of the activities were shutting down (barely got our carriage ride!).

While some of us were finishing up our corn husk dolls, some of the others wandered to where a guy had a couple of chickens pecking around. So when we finished we joined them. The guy asked if we have chickens (no) then asked if we are interested in having them (yes). He then proceeded to share lots of great information about chickens, plus a book recommendation (I always love that). We talked for 15-20 minutes, and now I really want some chickens!


We go through a lot of eggs at our house (Sammy's new cooking talent is cooking two fried eggs in the pan at the same time), so that would be nice to help alleviate that. Plus the kids are always asking about a pet, so why not get something useful?

I'm apparently not the only one in the area thinking this. There have been several changes and discussions about changes in chicken ordinances in cities around here. Karen told me the other day that in Clinton's upcoming elections they are expecting chickens to be a hot topic (more useful than many of the other things they talk about, I'd say).

Another proof I just found. I checked out a few books about chickens from the library. I put several on hold before going in, which was good because ours had none just sitting on the shelf. Even the co-head library lady that wanted to help me look again when I mentioned it commented that there is obviously a need for more. Thank goodness they just got another new one in, newly published this year.

And for a fun bit of chicken nostalgia...

Get It Out of Here!

We took a lovely vacation camping this past week, first just our family, then meeting up with our local church singles branch that Jamie is involved with. It was a wonderful few days, but something struck me on the way home. There was never any complaining from my kids about being bored, yet there were no toys there, no television, no video games. They spent their time playing games together, heading outside to look for interesting things, going on hikes, etc.

More inspiration to get tossing!

I ravaged the girls' room for the most part of yesterday. Since they don't want to take care of the things in their room, I decided that anything I wasn't willing to take care of could go. That ended up being one kitchen garbage bag full for the trash, and a big black garbage sack mostly full for the DI. As many times as I've done this you would think they would have nothing left in their room, but they still do. A LOT less, though. And I'm not even done yet. I still need to hit their clothes hard, because that seems to end up being a big portion of their mess. I've also told them that I'm liable to get sick of more stuff if I have to keep taking care of their things for them.

Before I started tossing Carolyn told me I couldn't get rid of any of her friends like her hippo and her pig and I told her of course I wouldn't. After I took the bags out she checked again about those, then asked me if I had taken her monkeys or her purse. I told her those were safe too. See, she really doesn't need much.

I'm not as extreme as Lara yet (a worthwhile read, I would love to hear your opinion), but I'm far closer to that than how I used to be.

The Shakespearean "rub" in this case is that it's far easier to do this with the kids' stuff than it is mine. I'm leaps and bounds better in that too, and I still blame time as a huge factor, but I NEVER get in my bedroom to do some real tossing. I also blame the fact that any time I go in there little people follow and I don't like everyone following me in there, and by the time they are in bed I don't want to think about cleaning in there.

Do you ever find yourself giving your children advice that you should be following as well? Like this morning, I walked into their beautiful bedroom to put some laundry away. Melanie was all spread out, lying on the floor coloring. Direct quote out of my mouth (after I said it I wrote it down): "Isn't it nice when your room is clean, and you have a nice place where you can go and hang out and just BE?" I need to talk to myself more often.

P.S. I have some really fun pictures from our trip that maybe someday I'll post, but when I'm in a cleaning frenzy I have to run with it seeing as how it doesn't happen all that often.

Ay, There’s the Rub!

At 4:30 am the night after posting that last post, I woke up thinking about another quote from L'Engle's "Circle of Quiet" (sorry folks, Madeleine is in me; plan on hearing about her for a while):

"You are basically not teaching a subject, you are teaching children. Subjects can probably be better taught by machines than by you. But if we teach our children only by machines, what will we get? Little machines. They need you, you as persons." And I quoted Emerson: "What you are speaks so loudly over your head that I cannot hear what you say."

So I know, with a sense of responsibility that hits me with a cold fist in the pit of my stomach, that what I am is going to make more difference to my own children and those I talk to and teach than anything I tell them. (156)

If my goal, then, is that my children are often coming face to face with greatness, I need to do what I can to become great. Ay, Hamlet, there IS the rub.

This reminds me of Mrs. March in Little Women telling Jo, "I must try to practice all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example. . . The love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward I could receive for my efforts to be the woman I would have them copy."

Back to Madeleine (feel free to substitute "teacher" with "parent"):

All teachers must face the fact that they are potential points of reference. The greatest challenge a teacher has to accept is the courage to be; if we are, we make mistakes; we say too much where we should have said nothing; we do not speak where a word might have made all the difference. If we are, we will make terrible errors. Be we still have to have the courage to struggle on, trusting in our own points of reference to show us the way." (181)

(Sidenote: I LOVE everything she said about points of reference. Get the book and read the rest.)

This "become what you want your kids to become" IS NOT EASY! Mrs. March was apparently excellent enough at it that her girls didn't believe she ever had any faults. But she is a fictional character, and you and I are not. It's a comfort to read all this greatness from Madeleine, yet have her confess things like "When I scrubbed the kitchen floor, the family cheered. I couldn't make a decent pie crust. I always managed to get something red in with the white laundry in the washing machine, so that everybody wore streaky pink underwear" (21).

I know I have plenty of areas to improve, things like personal discipline, housework, consistency, not procrastinating, housework, and housework among many other things. Madeleine gives a few others to add to her list as well. "I would, quite often, like to be grown up, wise, and sophisticated. But" she adds, "these gifts are not mine" (42). That brings out something I love about Madeleine - her word choice. She is excellent at finding just the right word, and I never would have thought of those things (except maybe being wise) as gifts. But if they are, then other things I wouldn't always see as gifts are also gifts. Like maybe the ability to play!

I've been trying to wrap things up for this post off and on for a while now but it hasn't happened yet. I will have to tie things up in another post, if even then.

Face to Face with Greatness

I have been feeling very uncreative lately. Like someone stuck a cork in my bottle of creative juices. I was blaming this on Madeleine L'Engle's "Circle of Quiet," which I am currently reading. Hands down one of the best books I've read. Beautiful and inspiring, full of greatness and truth, but maybe my head is so full of that that until I'm done with it my own thoughts won't flow as freely. Or maybe it's something else entirely. Maybe I just have nothing to say.

Because of that I'm going to share some of Madeleine's greatness. There are so so many things I could share (and I'm sure you'll be hearing more of her), but there is something that makes me say "YES!" every time she mentions something about it, because it's something I strive for and is a goal in teaching my children as well - coming face to face with greatness.

Oliver DeMille states that "reading and working with greatness inspires selves to become greater," and "who we are changes as we aspire."

Madeleine L'Engle talks about it in this way:

"When we talk about ourselves as being part of the company of such people as Mozart or van Gogh or Dostoevsky, it has nothing to do with comparisons, or pitting talent against talent; it has everything to do with a way of looking at the universe. My husband said, "But people might think you're putting yourself alongside Dostoevsky." The idea is so impossible that I can only laugh in incredulity. Dostoevsky is a giant; I look up to him; I sit at his feet; perhaps I will be able to learn something from him. But we do face the same direction, no matter how giant his stride, how small mine" (38).

When she was being rejected by publishers, "It was great writing which kept me going" (39).

And more:

"Nobody can teach creative writing--run like made from anybody who thinks he can. But one can teach practices, like finger exercises on the piano; one can share the tools of the trade, and what one has gleaned from the great writers: it is the great writers themselves who do the teaching" (61).

"A great painting, or symphony, or play, doesn't diminish us, but enlarges us, and we, too, want to make our own cry of affirmation to the power of creation behind the universe. This surge of creativity has nothing to do with competition, or degree of talent. When I hear a superb pianist, I can't wait to get to my own piano, and I play about as well now as I did when I was ten. A great novel, rather than discouraging me, simply makes me want to write. This response on the part of any artist is the need to make incarnate the new awareness we have been granted through the genius of someone else...

"It is beauty crying out for more beauty" (147).

I actually feel terrible in a way for sharing this now, knowing that she'll be dropping more gems on this through the rest of the book. But here I go to hit the publish button, all in the name of sharing greatness.

I am loving learning from Madeleine.

Feeling Adventureous

Wanted to share, I just made myself a green smoothie with spinach and frozen pie cherries. Wow. It's very different. I doubt my body will know what to do with all this wholesome goodness.

Sammy and Erin had some too (less than an inch in their cups) and both said it was good. Erin wanted more, Sammy didn't.

I thought about chasing it with a brownie, but decided that would defeat the purpose.

Help Me Help Myself

Given that scout camp is coming up and I always go crazy with some project while some of my men folk are gone, I've been trying to decide what to do this year. Here is a list I've been putting together of possibles, and I would love to have some input. An informal poll, if you will. I was going to include pictures, but just imagine the worst and you'll probably be close, so please chime in and let me know what you think I should do and why.

* Basement clean out (again)
* Paint (this would include areas of the kitchen and hallway especially)
* Garage clean out
* Sew my sister and brother-in-law's awesome quilt that I owe them for last Christmas (no, sis, you aren't allowed to vote)
* Our bedroom (let me just say ugh right now - ugh)
* Lay around, read, eat bon bons, and watch movies.
* Oh yah, and play with the kids (pretty much a given, as if they would let me leave them alone)

If I think of any more I'll add them on. Feel free to come back and vote more than once, because unless your really persuasive, it will probably be whatever I feel like doing when I wake up that morning, or after the kids go to bed and I can really get things done.

Dear New Journal,

So. I wrote my name in the front, declaring this officially mine. I've been thinking I need to journal more but I'm not into the "this happened then that happened"-ness of my journals in the past. I've been loving the blogging thing, but some thoughts are so random that I don't feel a whole blog post would even be worth it, though they are still my thoughts that I might want to use later.

Things like:

* I don't like being loud when I walk (think flip flops)

* Started potty training Erin again, going good so far

By the way, so far this is in pencil. I know pen is supposed to be more "archivalish," but I mess up. To me erase is better than messy scribble out. Plus sometimes I might not like my handwriting and want to rewrite more carefully.

Also, page 1 didn't sit back nicely, so rather than starting there I started here. Which could actually be a bonus. Maybe sometime I could create a little index of things I want to refer to.

Well anyway, here goes!

Recipe for Hyperactivity

For everyone out there that wants super hyperactive children like mine, make things like this for dinner.


That's right, chocolate waffles with chocolate syrup. They wanted chocolate milk too, but I've got to draw the line SOMEWHERE, right?


Here's Sammy in a stupor from the sugar high. We only do this about 3 times a week year, so they've got to load up when we do.

But see, no one is complaining! It's even plate-lickin' good.


Why of course I'll share the recipe! I know you're dying to make some too.

________________________
CHOCOLATE WAFFLES

½ c. butter (melted)
6 Tbsp. cocoa
¾ c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend butter and cocoa together, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth. Batter will be thick. Cook 1-3 minutes. Doesn’t make very many, so you’ll probably want to at least double this.
________________________

Another great dinner idea I got from my aunt (she has 8 wonderful children, so if she does it it's as good as gospel) is to make regular waffles and top them with ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream. Great for hot summer days, and yummy!!! Wait a minute - we'll have to try that with the chocolate waffles too!

Banana Boats in a Pizza Box

In this episode of "coolest mom ever," we'll start with the pizza box oven. Google pizza box oven and you'll find lots of descriptions that are basically the same on how to make one.


Basically, cut out part of the lid to use as a reflector to direct sunlight into the box, cover that and the bottom of the box with aluminum foil, cover the hole you made in the lid with saran wrap to keep the heat inside while still allowing the sun to heat things up, and put a piece of black construction paper in the bottom to help absorb the heat. They also suggest using string or something else to angle the lid just right so it can direct the most sunlight in.

One of the sites I looked at mentioned that they can get up to 275 degrees. You can see our thermometer in the picture above because I was interested to know how hot it would get. Ours made it to 217, and it was a pretty throw-it-together kind of project. Maybe we'll attempt to make it better sometime, maybe not.

My main goal in doing this was to make banana boats. I remember doing it at girls camp ages ago and thought it would be fun. Cut your banana open down the side with the peel on, open it up a bit, and shove in marshmallows and chocolate chips. I guess you can also do this around a campfire, wrapping your banana up in aluminum foil and setting it in the coals.

Melanie isn't a banana fan, so she used graham crackers instead to make a s'more.


A recipe I saw online said the campfire method takes about 5 minutes. We left these on for something like 20, though maybe they could have been taken off sooner. I noticed the temperature dropped quickly when we lifted the lid to put everything inside, so I didn't do any checking to see if they were ready besides seeing the chocolate chips really melted.

It also helped when the sun went behind a bunch of clouds and our temperature started dropping again. "They're done!"

They all loved them! I had more pictures but they involved a lot more goo on the face and in the mouth, so I'll spare you the gory details. But here is Adam trying to duplicate the expression of a woman on the back of our latest box of Cheerios (she is very excited to be lowering her cholesterol). I mean, showing you how happy he is to have such a really really cool mom.

P.S. I didn't get one. I planned on tossing one in after theirs were all done since our "oven" was already pretty crowded, but that cloud cover was there to stay. Major setback in a solar powered pizza box oven. Oh well, that just means we get to do it again!

Potion Station Sensation

First of all, a huge thank you to Kathryn who stole the idea from someone else but passed it on so I could steal it (I even stole the name of this post from her). I am always looking for ways to keep my "coolest mom in the neighborhood" status, and this is super cool.

So the basics. The idea is to gather fun things for your kids to mix together and make "potions." For our first time, I went with 4 colors of jell-o (the cheapest I could find), baking soda, vinegar, and water.


Disclaimer here - my children are not usually slow and methodical. To illustrate, I heard someone say once that when it's time to eat you can tell someone that comes from a small family vs. someone that comes from a large family. Someone from a small family will stand back and slowly make their way to the food. Someone from a large family jumps on it, because they know if they don't, the food is leaving. So yah, that's our family in a nutshell in basically any situation.


In this case, I set out some fun potion making items, four of our five kids jumped in to participate, plus two of my nieces and two neighbors were over. Only so much to go around, right? Eight kids around a few potion making items = lots of scrambling, lots of chaos, and lots of fun.

Again, nothing too high tech was involved, but the kids' reactions were priceless. I didn't tell them what any of the items were, just told them to mix and see what they could come up with. Carolyn was the first to get the baking soda/vinegar mix.

Immediately everyone else wanted theirs to foam, and wanted me to add whatever it was they needed. I told them to keep trying things, but when some still didn't get it to work I helped them out.

One of our extras repeated about four times, "This is so MESSY!" Yessiree!

When the ingredients were used up and they were done mixing their own potions with each others' potions, I asked them what would happen if someone drank their potion. I should have taken video of that, because by the time things were cleaned up and back to normal I couldn't remember what everyone said. One was really green so it was decided that would make them really strong and turn them green like the hulk. One would turn you into a frog or an ogre. One would make people fly. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time getting this one to my lips, let alone down the hatch.


Next time it would be fun to try red cabbage water, and for sure I've got to include glitter. When we were done with the "organized" activity (I use that term very loosely), the kids took off with the cups and mixed up mud, sticks, leaves, probably bugs, and who knows what else.

For more ideas, here are some other potion makers and magic stew makers. Oh, and probably the best tip Kathryn gave - do it somewhere that you can hose off when you're done. Love that easy cleanup.

Homeschool Bonus - Lots and Lots of Greats

I went to a meeting last night about a homeschool group Adam will be in next year. Before I go more into what I was going to say about that, first let's go somewhere else.

At this point a few years ago we would have been enjoying the summer, looking towards a new school year. Eventually upon arriving to back to school night, we would meet our children's teachers for the upcoming year and walk away either thinking a teacher would probably work pretty well with our child, really concerned about how things would work out, or somewhere in the middle, just waiting to see, ready to take things as they came.

Adam went to public school through 4th grade, Sammy through 3rd, and Melanie into a month of 1st grade. With all those teachers, I can think of two teachers that I look back and feel really grateful that my kids were able to work with them. Both are women I would love to live on the same street as me, one especially I deeply admire. Sammy had her, and he still gets a boost when we see her once in a while.

Back to the meeting I went to last night. This group will involve a couple of advisors (parents of youth in the group) plus a lot of mentors that will come in to help with different subjects/projects/planning/etc. (mostly parents, but others will be brought in as well as needed). Some of the parents there I had met a few times, others I hadn't at all, but leaving the meeting I was so excited about what great people they all were, and I cannot wait for Adam to be able to associate with them. Not to mention the good he'll get from being around the other great kids involved in the group.

Adam was involved with another group last year (that he'll be in again this coming year), and I was equally impressed with the women that mentors the kids in that group and the positive peer pressure from the other youth there. I was thrilled to drop him off every week, knowing he would hop in my car a couple hours later better from his time there.

I really enjoy being able to homeschool my kids and spending the time together learning that we do. But I feel like these extra opportunities, the wealth of great people and great kids my children are able to associate with, are amazing side bonuses that I can't imagine doing without anymore.

Thank you Kitty and Sherrylyn, thank you Renae, Salena, and Kathy, and thank you Mary and Tonya and all the other great moms, dads, and kids my children will get to work with this coming year! (I was going to link to some of them, but I don't want to make you all jealous.) Thank you for being the kind of women that make me wish I could trade places with my children and learn from you instead. I don't doubt that my children will remember them and the lessons they teach for years and years to come.