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.

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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.