The New Man in My Life

This is Edmund. He's my new nephew and he's wonderful and adorable and I love him. I can't wait to meet him and give him big kisses on those fabulous chubby cheeks!

Welcome to the world little Edmund!

Ms. Teacher Lady

It's been two months since I posted last. Whew. Where did the time go?

I've started working as a substitute teacher in a local school district. Not the one we live in. The one we live in uses the county sub database and they haven't hired new subs in over a year. And I've been waiting for over a year for them. Then the district two towns away was hiring so I went for it.

So, when I'm not working, I'm spending waaaay too much time on the SubFinder website looking for available jobs. They go fast. And when I'm working, well, I'm working.

Blogging and baking seem to be on the back burner right now. I think eventually I'll get my act together and be able to be organized and have things go smoothly. Maybe.

For now, I'm trying to work out the whole "who's going to pick up the kids after school" thing, which I thought I had worked out with a neighbor, but their schedule after school is not as available as they led me to believe and I'm constantly having to make alternate plans.

My plan for tomorrow is trading cars with a friend so she'll have a big enough car to transport all the kids to her house.

What I need is someone who is always home after school and can handle taking my kids with little notice. Not so easy. I could put them in the after school program, but I don't work every day, and if they were in the after school program, they'd have to go every day anyway.

Aside from the childcare problem, it's going pretty well. So far all the jobs I've done have been in junior high or high school. I'd like to try some middle grades, in the 3-5th grade range. Kids that age are a little less snotty and don't try to pull as much. For some reason the high school kids thought I was stupid enough to believe that their teacher ALWAYS lets them use their ipods in class. Right. As If.

So, that's the story. My life is in a big period of change right now and I'm just trying to keep afloat some days.

This is New

There's a Survey on the left. Please read the Baking post before voting. Thank you.

Bizzy's Baking Adventure

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but really, there hasn't been much of note to write about. But I've now decided to embark on a baking adventure. And I shall blog about it. I don't know how long it will last, or how often it will happen, but bake I will.

Today I started off with something simple. I made little strawberry tarts. I used my grandma's fresh fruit pie recipe, which is a big favorite in the family and always a hit at church socials. I thought I'd try something different and make little tiny tarts in my mini-muffin pan. So, first I'll post the pie recipe and then I'll share what I did.

Gram's Fresh Fruit Pie

1 1/2 quarts fresh ripe fruit, peeled and sliced if needed (peaches, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, etc.)

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 baked pie shell

fresh whipped cream (don't even think of using that canned stuff or cool-whip on this pie, you might as well just go buy a frozen pie at the store, I'm serious, don't you dare)

Mash up enough fruit to make 1 1/2 cups puree, then arrange the remaining fruit in a pleasing manner in the pie shell. Make it look pretty. This is the time to let your artistic, or OCD side show through.

Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and sugar in a bowl. Bring the puree to a boil in a pan. When the puree is boiling, add the sugar mixture, cook the puree for 7 minutes or until the puree is nice and glossy and thick.

Put the pan in ice water to keep it from cooking too much and to cool it down quickly. Then carefully pour the glaze into the pie, making sure not to ruin your beautifully arranged fruit. Poke around to help the glaze get down into the fruit.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve with the fresh whipped cream (it's very easy, just pour the cream into a bowl, beat it until it gets fluffy, add some sugar and a bit of vanilla and you're good to go.)

That's how you make the whole pie. Here's what I did:

First, I enlisted a helper. Ruby helped me cut out the pieces from the pie crust dough (I used a pre-made crust from Trader Joe's because I had one on hand, I'm not sure it was the best choice, it puffed up quite a bit).

Then we put the circles into the mini-muffin tin.

And baked and cooled them (see how puffy they are? Not a lot of room for strawberries). I had some extra dough at the end and made a couple in a regular-sized muffin tin, too.

Then I cut up the strawberries and put them into the shells.

And poured in the glaze. Note: If you ever try to make these on the small scale, because they're so small, it's really hard to get the glaze to go down into the berries. When I tapped the pan on the counter, the glaze in the bigger tarts did go in fairly nicely, but the little ones just stayed on top. I think it would have been a better idea to mix the glaze into the strawberries and then put them in the shells. Next time.

After their trip to the refrigerator, they each got a dollop of cream.

They were soooo good. I've always had a hard time eating a full piece of this pie, because it's very sweet and filling. But I ate a big tart and a little tart, washed it down with a glass of milk and it just hit the spot.

All in all, a definite success. I think the mini-muffin pan might be too small, though, to do it right. The regular-sized ones were a nice dessert size. With apple season upon us, I might try some apple tarts next. Or mini apple crisps. Stay tuned and you'll see!

Sometimes, I'm just awesome.

So, as I mentioned before, Ruby was excited about her new box. The problem was, that she didn't quite fit into it (you don't need a very big box to ship a backpack.) She got frustrated after it was all decorated, and then she couldn't even get in it. Then she got mad and threw it in the recycling.

Today, while she was at music camp, the other two kids and I went to Target. On the way into the store, we saw a big box from a car seat in a cart in the cart return. I mentioned that Ruby would sure love it and said we should get it. The kids didn't want to stop and go back to the car for some old box, so I said that if it was still there when we came out, we'd grab it.

And how lucky we were, it was still there when we came out, so we did indeed grab it.

Guess who was so excited when we got home with Ruby and the box? As is my habit, I closed the garage door after we pulled in, and Ruby had a panic attack that with the garage closed, she would never be able to get to her box out of the trunk (drama queen much?) We got the box safely into the house, and while I'm not sure what it will be when it's done, I'm sure it will be something very fun. Could be a house, could be a spaceship, could be a boat. You just never know.

Sometimes, I'm a good mom and I pick up other people's garbage for my kids to play with.

Happy Birthday Ruby

What? You're thinking Ruby's birthday was in February? You're right it was.

For her birthday present, we wanted to give her a new backpack. When she started school, we just bought a cheap Disney Princess backpack from Target and planned to get her a nice one from L.L.Bean for her birthday, as we did with the other two kids. Both of them still have theirs (Squig is going on 7 years with hers, and it's still in great shape) and we've been extremely pleased with the quality and usefulness.

The problem we ran into, was that February is not backpack season. We couldn't find the one we wanted in the color we wanted. So, we gave her a picture of the one we wanted and told her we'd get it as soon as it was available. And as soon as it was available, we did. It's the L.L.Bean Critter Pack, in pink and we had it monogrammed with her initials.

So, the backpack came today and after she got home from music camp, she saw it and she opened all the zippers and explored the pockets and was very excited about it.

Suddenly, she stopped and said, "Wait, where's the box?" And I said, "You mean the box it came in?" and she said yes, and I pointed to it. She said, "Oh, do I get the box for a spaceship?" I told her she could have it. She immediately ran and got the crayons and is now decorating her new spaceship; her brand new, much-awaited backpack tossed to the side.

Sigh. Happy Birthday Ruby.

The Puddle

Yesterday we were eating dinner on the patio by the pool, and Ruby finished eating and said she wanted to go swimming now (we're not so much proponents of the 30-min-after-eating guideline). So, John and I started joking around and he said, "Well, it's too bad we don't have a pool." and I said, "Yeah, go play in that puddle over there next to that chair" and I pointed at the pool.

A little bit later I realized that she hadn't ever gotten in the pool, so I asked John if he could see her, and lo and behold, she was playing in a puddle of water behind a chair, by the pool. Just sitting in the puddle, splashing.

Crazy kid.

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-summertime!

So, it's summer. School's out, piano lessons are done, the piano recital is over. No sports, no activities, no projects, reports or homework of any sort.

We're spending most of our time thus far not doing anything very important. Swimming, watching movies, playing video games, bowling. It's wonderful. I love summer vacation. I look forward to it every year.

This is our weekly schedule, though, since it's summer, we aren't married to it:

Monday: Library day, swim.

Tuesday: Free Movie, swim.

Wednesday: Other Free Movie, swim.

Thursday: Nothing in the morning, friends over to swim in the afternoon.

Friday: Free Bowling, swim.

There's a lot of free stuff to do where we live. A local movie theater shows two free G & PG movies on Tue, Wed, & Thur mornings. The two movies change each week, so you have three days to catch them. The library is always free and is full of, well, books! A local bowling alley gives out free passes to the local schools good for one game each day for the entire summer. And the school district got some kind of grant and offers free hot breakfast and lunch Mon-Fri at each of the school sites. Sometimes we make it over there, sometimes we don't. Breakfast ends at 9:30, and we aren't always up and dressed in time. It's summer, we're taking it easy.

Next week Squig is at girl's camp, so the other two kids and I might take a field trip to a zoo or something, but I haven't decided yet. It's summer. I don't have to.

What Do UC Santa Cruz Officials Drive?

The girls and I were walking through a parking lot yesterday, and Ruby pointed at a yellow VW Bug and said, "Look, there's a Banana Slug Bug!"

That's about the best thing I've heard in ages.

Mittens!

One of the current humanitarian aid projects we're doing at church is making quilts and knitting or crocheting mittens. I've always wanted to knit mittens, and these were a two-needle mitten, where you have a seam, so I figured I'd try them and see how they went.

And I did it! I think they look great. I had a little trouble following the directions the first time, but the second one went lots faster and I did a better job on it. It took me about two weeks to do both of them, and I worked on them here and there. I took them with me and worked on them while waiting for the kids, at the Science Olympiad, at school assemblies, at night while John read to me, etc.

Here they are:

There's a seam on the inside of the thumb, and a seam down the outside of the hand. I'll make some more for the humanitarian aid, but I think I'm ready to learn to knit mittens in the round, so there's no seam. I think it will be easier now that I understand how mittens come together.

Anyway, those are my mittens.

Not Gonna Happen

I mentioned that Squig was given a saxophone back around Christmas. For her birthday we told her that we'd take it in and get it serviced and fixed up so she could play it and get her a new strap and case (got a screamin' good deal on a really good case brand, more than 50% off). She was really excited.

So, I took it in to the instrument shop that is well regarded, and was recommended by her teacher. They told me they'd look it over and give me a call with an estimate. It got the call today.

The first thing the guy says is, "I'm sorry, I have bad news, it's going to cost almost as much to fix it as you'd spend on a new instrument. It needs a complete mechanical overhaul." The estimate was $693. I told him we couldn't do that and he said he figured as much but he thought he'd let me know anyway and that he'd send it back to the shop for me to pick up. He did say it would make a nice lamp. That price didn't include any varnish or whatever they do to the outside.

Squig was bummed, but she said that her music teacher had told her that a complete overhaul would run close to $700. I was really hoping it just needed some tightening and new pad and such. We'll look into other options.

On the upside: her new case should be arriving in the mail soon! I told her she could maybe take her lunch in it.

EV_L TW_N

While running errands today, I heard Ruby say from the back seat, "Hey Mom! I just beat my evil twin in Hangman!"

My children are brilliant.

Uno in the Truest Sense

Ruby came running into my room and said, “I just challenged myself to a game of Uno. The me that was closest to the TV won.”

I told her congratulations, and “better luck next time to the you that wasn’t closest to the TV.”

She said, “the me that wasn’t closest to the TV was the me closest to the gray chair”.

She leaned in close and whispered, “She’s my evil twin. She’s very evil.”

The Shirt Dress

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the waiting room of the dentist's office, waiting for my latest orthodontic torture session. I picked up a Martha Stewart Living magazine and flipped through it to see what magical things Martha had dreamt up for her readers.

In this particular issue, she had an article on ideas for things to do with men's dress shirts. Pillows, dolls, etc., plus one idea that I thought was just such a great idea that when I got home, I hopped online to see if she had the directions for the project. She did.

What was this fabulous project you ask? Well, thank you for asking. It was making a little girl's dress out of a men's dress shirt. I know! How awesome is that?

I read through the project on Martha's page, and read the comments at the bottom of the page and one of them directed me to this blog, which had a step-by-step tutorial with pictures of each step (the pictures are so important, I put them in italics, as you may have noticed.) She also used elastic in the neck and sleeves instead of a drawstring, which I thought was a better idea. The patterns are also significantly different and Martha does not have a separate piece for the sleeves, which I think makes it harder to custom fit the dress.

John is always wearing out the collars and sleeve hems on his shirts, so we had a couple of old shirts around for me to experiment on. I first made one out of a plaid shirt, but I measured the pattern wrong and the first dress I made not only looked funny, it was too tight on Ruby--she couldn't even button it up at the chest. I incorporated parts of it in the new dress, so it did not go to waste.

So, I tried again and took pictures this time. If you actually want to make one of these shirts, please go to the blog linked above, because her directions are fabulous. If you want to get a general idea of what this project involves, read on!

The first thing to do is to make a pattern. For me, this was the hardest part, but once you get it down, you can use it over and over. This is my second pattern, because the first one didn't work, as I already mentioned. There's one piece for the front and back, and one for the two sleeves.

I lined up the pattern on the shirt to see about lining up the buttons (there are a couple of options for the top of the opening, which will be discussed later.)

And then I cut off the collar, including the yoke in the back, and the sleeves. I made sure to include as much sleeve as possible, because I needed every inch of fabric I could get. Men's shirts are weird, and each shirt I checked out had a different amount of fabric for the sleeves. Also, make sure to smooth out any pleats on the back before cutting.

I had to do some finagling to get the sleeve pattern to fit. I had to undo some of the shoulder seam and undo the hem. I also had to make the pattern a little smaller. It's just important to make sure the edge that will be sewn to the front and back stays the same length, otherwise, it's very flexible. I shortened it side-to-side and top-to-bottom (top-to-bottom you can see in the next picture.)

Here are the pieces all cut out. The sleeve is sitting on top of the front and back pieces. You'll note that the bottom of the pattern doesn't line up. I left the bottom open-ended and left the shirt's hem in place so I could adjust as needed at the end.

The pattern from the blog creates a raglan-style sleeve (no top shoulder seam, it's commonly seen on sweaters). You can see that the front, back and sleeves together create the neckline.

After sewing all the pieces together, and removing the pocket, I sewed the side seams, which include the armpit. From the first dress, I made my own seam tape and used that to make the casing for the neck elastic. I also made ties and sewed them into the side seams.

I also made casings for the sleeves, and put the elastic in the neck and sleeves. While removing the pocket, I ripped a little hole in the shirt (it's an old shirt and the fabric is pretty worn and thin). I covered it up by making an iron-on applique flower and then sewing a button into the middle of it. I used the pocket from the first shirt and sewed it onto the skirt of the dress to use as a pocket. I sewed a simple hem around the bottom and put a snap in at the top. I ironed on another little flower applique to cover the back of the snap. You could just sew the top shut or put in another button, or cut the front just right so you're left with a button at the top.

Here's a picture of the dress all finished and hanging up.

And here it is on my Ruby. She was so excited about it, she wore it to church today and told everyone that I had made it out of one of John's old shirts.

Ta-daaa! And that's my first successful attempt at a shirt dress. I feel so pioneer-y! There are a number of things I'll do differently. I'll make the sleeves with less fabric so they're not so puffy, and I'll make it more of an A-line dress. Now that I've made a couple of them and have a better idea of how all the pieces come together, I think I can do it right.

Squig and I went to Goodwill last week and picked up a couple of men's shirts for $2.95 each! You can't buy the fabric for a dress for that price. One is pink and purple striped, and the other is a red and white gingham. I think they'll both be cute. The pink and purple shirt is long-sleeved, which will give me more flexibility when making the sleeves.

This dress was free. I used an old shirt, and elastic that I already had around. Can't beat free!

All Beautiful Stars and the Moon

We have this neighbor next door. Most people do. Our neighbor is kind of a crotchety old guy who used to be a sheriff's deputy, likes to tell stories and chat, has a "colorful" vocabulary, a heart of gold, and, most relevant to this post, is an antiques dealer. He and his wife used to own an antique shop down the road. They still go to auctions and estate sales, and their garage is full of all kinds of interesting things, the selection changing as they find new things and sell off others.

Not everything they have is good stuff, some things are kind of junk. When they clean out their garage, they like to pass stuff off to my kids, who of course eat it up. It's become a running joke that when their garage is open, he tries to get the kids to take something. Could be a picnic basket, an old stuffed animal, a little cabinet made in the woodshop of a Japanese relocation camp school (not kidding, it's Ruby's). Just depends on what they have.

Today we cleaned out our garage. This involved taking everything out of the garage and piling it on the driveway and front lawn. Our neighbor, who I will call "Ken", and his wife, who I will call "Lynn", came over with sort of a gleam in their eyes and kind of looked over our junk and said that we'd better watch our stuff or "Ken" would just come over and add to it and that we'd never know the difference. I was pretty sure he wasn't kidding.

He wasn't. While I was gone to take Sam to his piano lesson, "Ken" was chatting with Meghan about Copernicus's work. He was very impressed that she knew about him and with how smart she was and asked John if he could give her something that would help her learn. So Squig got herself an early 13th birthday present:

It's a Sears Discoverer (Model No. 4-6344) Equatorial Refractor Telescope. I have no idea where we're going to put it (it's HUGE), nor how to use it (it doesn't seem to have instructions, just the auction listing page). When "Ken" gave it to her, he asked John if he needed to get out his old bullet-proof vest before I got home. Grr.

She is, of course, thrilled and wants to go camping so she can use it (not so much backcountry backpacking with that thing). And yes, she's only wearing one sock. It's her new thing. I don't get it, so don't ask. I'm pretty sure she's doing it because it annoys me and tugs at the old OCD.

Kale Chips

Until about a week ago, I had never heard of baked kale chips. Someone mentioned them on the facebook page for the CSA farm. They're pretty much what they sound like. Similar to potato chips, but made with kale. And baked.

I had some kale kicking around in the fridge from the CSA box, and didn't feel like making soup again, so I thought I'd try them out and leave them around for the kids to snack on.

They're really simple. You take the kale and cut the leaves off of the stems, then cut them into bite-sized pieces (my kale was the super curly kind, so it basically came off the stem in bite-sized pieces). I washed the kale and sent it through the salad spinner. I had enough to do two sheet pans of chips, so I did half at a time. I put the leaves in a bowl and drizzled on some olive oil and tossed them around until they were nicely coated. Then I spread them onto the sheet pan, and sprinkled on the flavorings.

The first batch I used season-all, and the second batch I used salt & pepper & garlic powder.

Then I baked them at 350 degrees for about 12-13 minutes. I was roasting some asparagus at the same time, so if you try this, you might find they bake faster than that. You have to keep a careful eye on them to make sure they don't burn. You want them crispy and not limp. I let them sit on paper towels for a minute when they were done, just to absorb any extra oil.

Squig and Sam liked them (preferring the season-all flavor), but Ruby wasn't so fond, though she did sneak a few now and then. John just thought they were okay. I thought they were tasty, but when I finally get my braces off and can eat sandwiches again, I won't be eating kale chips with my subs. I set them out on the counter this morning, and they've been disappearing. They're a little bit addictive, you can't eat just one.

And then when I got on the computer this morning, I discovered that my sister also made kale chips last night! And we hadn't even talked about them. Weird.

Getting Lost

I just need to say how incredibly awesome this season of LOST has been. They've really kicked it up a few notches. This week's episode with Richard's backstory might just be the best episode ever.

It's great to get so many answers, and also to see so many little connections being made. Little things from years ago are making sense. It's just wicked awesome. They draw so heavily on so much out of history, literature and grand archetypes, I have to read a LOST discussion blog just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Every book shown on a desk, every pop cultural reference, every historical reference, even the names of the characters seem point to clues to the endgame.

Though the answers are coming fast and furious, it's a little sad to realize that in a couple of months it will all be over. We might just have to watch the whole series over just for fun.

They just released the title of the final episode: The End.

Sniff. Sniff.

Grrrrrr. . . .

Baseball opening day is a week away, and we still do not have game schedules for the season, nor do we have uniforms.

I am very unimpressed with this league so far. Sam had better make tons and tons of friends to make up for this.

Awesome Salad

I made an awesome salad for dinner last night. It was awesome. I've been trying to branch beyond the standard lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad. Especially since tomatoes and cucumbers are not in season now. And I'm kind of on a goat cheese kick right now, too.

It was a grilled chicken salad with a homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

For the Salad:

Red Leaf Lettuce

Endive

Goat Cheese

Bit-sized pieces of Navel Oranges

For the chicken, I do what I normally do, which is stand in front of the spice rack and pick spices and herbs that give the taste I'm looking for. I was looking for a sweet flavor profile, with hints of licorice and that fresh, clean celery/parsley aftertaste that would be a nice complement to the oranges and goat cheese. I took dried tarragon, fennel seed, a bit of celery seed and some cumin and a bit of salt and ground them together with the mortar and pestle and then just sprinkled it on the chicken, which I then broiled. You could grill it, but it was raining and I wasn't in a grilling-in-the-rain sort of mood.

The chicken was very, very tasty.

I served the chicken on a bed of the salad and then sprinkled crushed-up candied pecans over the salad and chicken, then drizzled on the dressing. (No, I didn't do my own pecans, I just bought some.)

For the Dressing (I got most of this recipe from allrecipes.com, but made a few changes with the amounts, less sugar than they called for, for one)

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar (found it at my regular grocery store)

1/2 cup olive oil (not EVOO, just regular)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

pepper

First you heat the vinegar and sugar together to dissolve the sugar. Then let it cool a bit and put it in a tightly-lidded container along with the other ingredients, and shake. I like to use a canning jar. I keep a used canning lid on hand for this use. I just wash it like any other lid and while I wouldn't try to seal a jar of food with it, it does a good job of not leaking when you're shaking stuff in it.

Next time I think I'll put some mint in the dressing and see what it's like. I used less sugar than the recipe called for, and thought it was plenty sweet. You could probably put even less. It also called for more oil, but I thought 1/2 cup was enough. This dressing was very light and very tasty. Nice intense raspberry flavor, and was fabulous on the chicken. I think it will be wonderful on a fruit salad in the summer. I liked that the recipe didn't call for preserves, which are just too sweet and need straining.

Anyway, that's my awesome salad. John and Squig and I loved it, Sam ate most of his and Ruby didn't like the endive and wouldn't eat the rest of the salad because it was in there with the endive. She loved the chicken, though. She's 6 years old and picky, so we'll forgive her.

Cups

Today I had to buy my son his first athletic support cup. For baseball.

He thought we were going shopping for drinking cups.

A Ruby Do

Sometimes, Ruby does my hair. And them I'm pretty.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Okay, as mentioned previously, I had tons of broccoli between my own bumper crop and the CSA farm's bumper crop. As I had never made cream of broccoli soup, I decided to give it a try.

First, I researched recipes online. Later, after it was done, I remembered that I had a basic recipe in my red checkered Better Homes & Garden cookbook. It was similar to the one I used. Oh well.

I picked a simple one from allrecipes.com, called

The Best Cream of Broccoli Soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

3 cups chicken broth

8 cups broccoli florets

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

ground black pepper to taste

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in medium sized stock pot, and saute onion and celery until tender. Add broccoli and broth, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot.

In small saucepan, over medium-heat melt 3 tablespoons butter, stir in flour and add milk. Stir until thick and bubbly, and add to soup. Season with pepper and serve.

I pretty much followed the recipe, and I used my stick blender, which saved time and mess. I didn't measure the broccoli, I just used a lot, probably a lot more than they called for and I think I should have used more onion. I used whole milk so it would be more creamy, and I used vegetable broth. I was out of chicken stock. And I steamed the broccoli ahead of time, mostly because I was using some of the stems and figured they needed extra time. Big mistake.

Thing #1 to note for next time: even if you cook them down, broccoli stems are stringy. And the strings are not fun to run into when you're eating the soup. Maybe peeling them would help with that. The smaller stems from the branches near the florets were fine, but the bigger ones were not. I picked out the biggest ones before I made the soup because they seemed too tough.

Thing #2 to note for next time: vegetable broth doesn't have as good of a flavor as chicken stock. I'm sorry, it just doesn't. Personally, I don't think it makes a good soup base, even for vegetable soups. But all I had was the veg broth, so that's what I used. The soup was kind of bland and not very exciting. Veg stock is also not as salty, and the recipe didn't call for salt, and while I did put in a little, it wasn't enough. Extra salt and pepper in the bowl helped, but it wasn't super awesome.

Thing #3 to note for next time: my kids didn't like it very much, but they ate it more after I offered them some parmesan cheese to sprinkle on it. They still didn't like it much. Maybe next time I'll do cheesy cream of broccoli.

All-in-all, not a complete bust, but definitely room for improvement. Here's a picture of the soup in my pretty soup tureen.

If any of you have a better recipe or any useful suggestions, I'd appreciate them. I do like broccoli and it grows so well around here in the winter. No bug or disease problems, so we grow a lot of it.

Baseball

In the past, we've signed our kids up for t-ball/baseball/softball in the next town over. Our town has its own Little League, but I didn't like the schedule. They have games all during the week and it seems like everyone playing in our town disappears off the face of the earth for months when baseball starts. It's crazy.

The next town over, on the other hand, has an eight week season, games are either on Saturday morning or one day during the week, though mostly on Saturday. Coaches have two one-hour practices until games start, then there's one on game weeks. It was great for me. The problem was that it wasn't great for the kids.

Because they didn't go to school with any of the kids on their teams, they weren't making friends. Isn't one of the points of joining teams to make friends? All the other kids on the teams knew each other and went to school together and they would just all naturally group together. So, this year we decided that our kids should play in the Little League here in town, because it's better for them.

All the kids from their school that play ball, play in our town's league. They'll be able to make friends, and also meet new kids who may live around the corner, but go to a different school. They'll get to know kids from school better and maybe find a new connection with kids they didn't know very well before.

I'm already hating it. We got the practice schedule for Sam, and tonight he has practice for two hours, then again Saturday night at 7 p.m. Who starts practice for kids his age at 7 p.m.??? They'd better not try to run it for two hours. That's just ridiculous. Since the coaches are parents, too, you'd think they'd be more concerned about schedules and such. Ugh. And we haven't even gotten the game schedule yet. When practice games start, he has three in one week, 4:30-6:30 p.m, Mon, Wed, Thur. AND, on top of all that, the season is longer than the other town.

I know it's the right thing to do for my kids, but I'm not sure I'm going to survive it.

We'll still do soccer in the next town--we have a very poorly organized soccer league in our town and everyone I know goes to the next town. Their soccer league is just as awesome as the baseball league, only there are tons of kids from our town in it.

And that's my Complaints About My Kids' Activities entry for the day. Thank you.

Broccoli

I have more broccoli than I can eat. It's starting to flower. So, on Friday, I'll be making Cream of Broccoli Soup, and I'll freeze a lot of it. Some of the heads are huge, and one head is good for the whole family, so we're not eating much at one time. Plus, after you cut off the main head, little side shoots start growing, so there's just a lot of broccoli in my garden right now. I'm thinking next year, I'll stagger the plantings so everything isn't ready all at once.

Anyway, I'll be reporting on my Cream of Broccoli Soup Adventure. I'm posting this so I feel pressured to actual do the report. I'm not much of a blogger, as it turns out. I'm sure no one wants to read about my very full, but rather dull schedule. Drive a kid here, drive a kid there, music, lessons, sports, scouts, science olympiad teams, drumline teams. We're so busy with three kids going three different directions. Just looking at my calendar wears me out.