>In memory of those who died at Virginia Tech, and in honor of those who survived:
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Monthly Archives: April 2007
>Backyard surprises and muffins, too
>The first spring in our home, eleven years ago, we discovered all kinds of fun things growing. We’d moved in late enough in the fall that everything except the grass was brown, and nothing was blooming. We enjoyed the show as daffodils, tulips, daylilies, and even a beautiful bleeding heart bush made their appearances on the stage. Tucked into the backyard next to the garage we found rhubarb.
I had never cooked or baked with rhubarb before, so I decided I’d better learn. This one’s tried and true, a regular product of my tiny kitchen.
Backyard Rhubarb Muffins
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup applesauce or 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 large egg or ¼ cup egg substitute
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh rhubarb, cut in ½ inch dice
Topping:
1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
1/8 cup chopped walnuts
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with non-stick spray. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil (applesauce), egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the rhubarb. Scoop batter into the muffin cups.
Topping; Combine the brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over the tops of the muffins, dividing equally.
Bake for 20 to 23 minutes or just until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean and dry. Remove from oven and cool on rack. Makes twelve muffins.
Alternate topping: After cooling, drizzle with a simple powdered sugar icing.
>spring surprises
>
Hey, where did that tulip come from? I didn’t plant any tulips in the daylilies.
It must have been moved there by a squirrel. I know the humans didn’t do it. 
Oh, well, it looks healthy and happy. I hope it doesn’t miss its friends.
Wait a minute — are those daylily leaves sneaking up next to my tulips?
>Random Thoughts and random links on a lovely spring day
>Can I call it window shopping if I’m looking at a computer screen? I was surfing through some of the deals the pretty Mir discovered at Overstock.com, and I found this. I’m not sure why anyone would want a serving platter held up by elephants, but it is, um, well, unique.
It’s Friday. It’s a true TGIF. I’d love to do nothing all weekend, but I have a heavy bag full of papers to correct and score before Monday. Maybe I’ll do them on the deck with a cup of hazelnut coffee by my side. Ah, now we’re talking! I made these muffins last weekend. Maybe it’s time for a batch of rhubarb muffins. I could use up the rhubarb in the freezer before the fresh stuff grows and ripens.
I ordered/ downloaded the ebook Jumble Pie by Melanie Lynne Hauser. It’s a definite “girlfriend” book, and I plan to read more of it this weekend. Just me, my laptop, and a bagel and I’ll be happy.
We’ve had a cold week, and our heater was temperamental. Husband changed the batteries in the thermostat, and now all is well. Is that all it takes to heat a house — two AA batteries?
I’ll be judging another music festival next weekend. Amigo’s IEP is coming up soon. After that, I have a long day at a track meet with my students. And then, well, I’ve arranged for a personal day to regain my sanity and bring a few empty boxes to La Petite to help expedite her move home for the summer. And if I just happen to stop at the outlet mall on the way there…well, it IS on the way.
And then I’ll have another three and a half weeks to finish teaching my students everything they need to know, pack up my own teaching materials, and clean up the classroom I’m leaving. Included in that time period is a school-wide field day, a tour of the middle school, and numerous other events. Somehow, I know I’ll get it all done. I might have to buy out the neighborhood Starbucks to gather enough energy, but it’ll get done.
>just dreaming, not wishful thinking
>Coming home from the annual sixth grade trip to camp always leaves a little wistful feeling that I call “Camp Hangover.” The symptoms are feelings of relaxation, peace, and good will toward students…at least until the first bell rings. This year the hangover was stronger than most — perhaps because it was my last school trip to camp. When I woke up in the cabin each morning and climbed out of my bunk, usually before anyone else in the cabin, there was such a crystal clearness in the air, a crispness so strong I could almost taste it. I felt like pouring a cup of coffee, sitting down at the picnic table and listening to nature around me. Now, for a hearing impaired person, listening is a relative term. But here, on the edge of a small lake the locals call a pond, the area was so quiet that I could hear several different kinds of birds, an occasional fish jumping, bullfrogs (yes, bullfrogs!), and a distant woodpecker. I could see the still surface of the water reflecting the birch trees on the island across the way. Most of all, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace.
That’s where the dreaming comes in. I’ll never own a cottage on water. They’re simply too expensive. Buying a small vacation cabin in the woods would be impractical, too. To get privacy and distance would require buying acres of land, and therefore paying mega-taxes and spending large amounts of time maintaining it. Uh-uh, not likely.
I can, however, pour my coffee and sit out on my own deck in the summer. We live in an older, almost historical neighborhood of many trees, lots of birds, albeit with an occasional car or lawnmower in the early morning mist instead of bullfrogs. The sense of peace can still be around; I just have to look within to get it, rather than without. If I can do just that, perhaps the dreaming isn’t wasted after all.
>supermom can rest for a few minutes now
>Last week was an incredibly busy one. My calendar was so full the dates ran off into the wilderness to escape. Oh, wait, that was me.
Monday: meeting with school nurse to go over meds for camping trip; react and grieve for those at Virgina Tech
Tuesday: Public Health training (Oh, my, stock up on the bottled water and canned food!)
Wednesday: Off to camp
Thursday: Still gone to camp
Friday: Home from camp, start post-camp paperwork, retrieve over 150 emails at work
Saturday: early morning phone call from La Petite, camping out at the local Love Sac store’s grand opening; suffer through a forty-five minute power outage mid-morning
Sunday: go to school (with Amigo’s help) and begin catching up on regular classroom planning and paperwork
Each of these could probably rate its own post. I’ll work on Saturday’s event first.
Our local mall was recently graced with the presence of a Love Sac store. I read the newspaper blurb aloud because Amigo loves his simple vinyl bean bag chairs. La Petite was home for the weekend and got all excited, calling out to her boyfriend in the other room, “Honey, we’re getting a Love Sac!” Huh? It seems he adores the store and its product line. He was one of the first in line when the store opened its doors, and therefore found out about the megasale coming up. The first 100 people in line on the magic day would receive a sizable discount of at least 50% off on their purchases.
To make a long story (including midnight breakfast at IHOP, a big crowd, and a lonely nervous security guard calling for backup) they joined a few friends and lined up in the mall parking lot at about 4:00 AM. She called us at 6:00 to say, “Hey! I’ve got an 87% discount! Can you come get me in an hour in the van?” Husband headed out that way in my minivan and met her at the mall. Unfortunately, she didn’t get into the store itself until 9:30 because they were only letting a few people into the small store at a time. Fortunately, the two of them shopped with her discount and picked up over $1000 worth of fabulous furniture for around $300.
Yes, they came home and slept. Meanwhile, Amigo fluffed our PillowSac and sat on the rocker frame for the entire Brewers-Astros game. Rock on, kiddo, and go Brewers, too!
>for Earth Day and every day
>I was going to write a quick poem about the value of teaching kids in nature, but it was turning out sappy and silly, so I think I’ll let a few pictures speak for themselves.
In or outdoors, fail or pass, Teachers never lose their Class.
>What a difference a day makes
>I am teaching in a different school today — the school of the outdoors. I took my class to a YMCA camp about 75 miles north of our school on the edge of a national forest. Before we left, I was tense, worried, to put it bluntly, stressed to the max. We left our helicopter parents (you know, the ones that hover) behind and took only those who were experienced campers and decent chaperones. And I’ll admit it, with each mile away from school I felt the weight of the world get a little bit lighter.
There is a sense of magic about camp. Kids who are difficult between the four walls of the school building often find that the outdoors is their ideal classroom. Children who struggle with long division can be experts at steering a canoe. Pre-adolescents find their social pyramid tipped sideways and upside down and begin to see each other in a different light.
This trip is time consuming, tiring, and a lot, I mean a lot of work to prepare, and requires many personal sacrifices on the part of the teachers and their families. Due to my upcoming job change, this will be my last sixth grade camping trip. I can look out the cabin windows, fine-tune my ghost story for tonight’s campfire, and say yes, this was worthwhile.
>This strange new world goes to college
>It’s a roller coaster of emotions.
Grief for those at Virginia Tech, the dead, the injured, and their families and friends.
Relief that the shooting wasn’t at my own child’s campus.
Guilt for feeling relief when others are suffering.
Gratitude toward those officers who responded.
Worry — what if the violence spreads?
Hope for healing — for all.
>One mom and a truck — er, minivan
>
I taught in six different classrooms in my first six years of teaching. By the time I settled into room seven, I was tired of moving, but I sure didn’t have any “junk” in my closets! I had cleaned and de-cluttered every spring before packing my boxes and dragging them up or downstairs or across town.
Now I’ve been in that same room for six consecutive years, and I’m moving on to a different grade in a different building next fall. Six years makes for a lot of junk. Fortunately, we adopted a new science curriculum this year, which meant I purged most of the old materials last spring. Now I just need to go through six cupboards and nine storage drawers and two file cabinets and… the rest.
I’m determined to do something, no matter how small, each and every day. Here are the small contributions I’ve made to my June moving day thus far.
- cleaned out my old fifth grade math folders from six years ago
- emptied the folder with sixth grade camp files (my last trip is later this week)
- brought home three vases and a tiny teddy bear sporting a “Think Snow” sign (gift from co-worker hoping for a snow day)
- packed up my fingerless gloves, worn many mornings when the Energy Savings dept. decided not to turn the heat on until the students arrived, and heck with the teachers preparing for the day
- recycled and/or threw away the contents of an outdated science binder (one down, two more to go)