Monthly Archives: May 2011

>The Icing on the Cake

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Recipes from Moms
Have lasted the test of time
Nineteen fifty-eight.

This is a standard in my mom’s repertoire. I remember it being delicious on poppyseed cake, but it’ll work on others, too. The last line of the haiku refers to her source for this recipe: Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two Cookbook, published 1958.

Brown Sugar Icing
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 Tablespoons milk
3/4 to 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in brown sugar. Boil and stir over low heat 2 minutes.
Stir in milk. Bring to boil, stirring constantly.
Cool to lukewarm (120 degrees, if you’re measuring)
Gradually stir in confectioner’s sugar. If necessary, place pan in skillet of ice water and stir until thick enough to spread.
Recipe states that this is for an 8 or 9 inch cake, but it’s really enough for a 13 x 9″ rectangular cake.
Daisy’s note: it melts in your mouth, it’s so good.

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>Sorta Square Foot Gardening

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I garden the way I teach and the way I cook; I don’t always follow the script exactly.
In Square Foot Gardening, it’s only right if the garden has a permanent grid and uses the perfect mix of soil. Well, I applied some of the philosophy. I rarely plant in rows; I usually plant in groups, often squares, to use the space more efficiently and choke out weeds whenever possible.
My soil, however, is the basic backyard garden soil with twelve years of compost mixed into the ground. It’s not a perfectly lovely store bought mix, but it drains well and grows lots of vegetables. I don’t use a permanent grid, either. I like the concept, and I measure (well, I estimate) when I’m planting, but I don’t build a grid. I use temporary guidelines of masking tape or in this case, string. Again, not perfect, but it gave me the guide I needed to plant seeds in the right portions and the right places.

The walkway is an old board. I’m not even sure what it was anymore. Fence? Deck? Now it provides a boardwalk so I can stay out of the mud and avoid stepping on my precious plants.
This, my friends, is the before picture. In a month or two I’ll post a during shot – if I remember. The after picture, the one with results, might not happen. Hopefully, I’ll be too busy harvesting and preserving the goodies!

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>A Mother’s Garden

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My garden is only just started. I’ve put in the bean and pea seed and a few shallots and onions. Mine isn’t nearly as well fenced in as this one.

Of course, I’m only fending off bunnies, squirrels, and woodchucks.

Since I don’t have to worry about monkeys, I think I’ll sit back and have a cup of coffee and relax. Weather permitting, I’ll see if I can get a few more seeds in. To me, that’s a renewing and relaxing Mothers’ Day.

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>Treasuring Simple Pleasures & Everyday Joy

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MomCentral calls this blog tour in honor of Mother’s Day “Treasuring Everyday Joy.” I added Simple Pleasures to the title because the everyday happy moments are often simple.

My little darlings are entering adulthood; Amigo is 19 and La Petite is 24. Chuck and I are gradually getting tastes of what the home will be like as an Empty Nest.
Since my children are not home every day, I treasure the days and nights that they’re here – mostly. I’m sure we’ll reach the point where we love it when they arrive, and we like it when they leave. We’re not there yet. I still get a tug on my heartstrings when my young adults leave for school and work in other cities.
Simple pleasures include eating supper together at the table, watching Jeopardy as a group, and exchanging stories of our time apart. Simple pleasures might be shopping with La Petite; we’re both bargain hunters. Amigo is a fan of Public Radio, and listening to Old Time Radio Drama is his favorite Saturday night routine. When I join him, I might listen, or I might just relax with my laptop and work while we enjoy each other’s presence.
Simple pleasures are different when the “kids” are gone. La Petite and I email, text, and chat online when she’s not busy. Amigo emails me or calls me with news. He called last weekend as his bus left the site of their forensics meet; he’d earned a first place medal! Thanks to cell phones, we were able to share the celebration right away.
Yes, my babies are gone. They haven’t been babies for a long, long time. If I need to fulfill the urge to snuggle a small one, our bunnies are usually willing to step up. Hop up. Okay, I pick them up.

In honor of Mother’s Day and babies everywhere, Johnson’s is contributing $1 to the March of Dimes for each “promise” (like) on their Facebook page. They are also hosting a series of photo contests on Facebook; check out the page for details.
This was not a typical product review blog tour. I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour sponsored by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Johnson’s. I will receive Johnson’s Baby products and a promotional item as a thank you for my participation.

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>The Depression roller coaster

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>Some days. I mean it. Some days my anxiety level goes up and down like a roller coaster, and my stomach feels like it rode one, too. Yesterday, for example:

Woke late, with sinus headache, after nightmares: high
I know better than to go back to bed when I wake near my regular time. I don’t know what possessed me to go back to bed, but I paid dearly for it.
Drank coffee, concentrated on data entry for local politicos: med. high
Sinus headache started easing, but still painful; entering data is a tedious job, but it feels good to make a contribution. I kept thinking, though, about how I wouldn’t be able to keep up the volunteer work when school starts. School – now that’s another nightmare.

Showered, employed Neti Pot (apologies for that image): improvement. Lowered pain & anxiety
Between Neti and the steam from the shower, sinus headache finally eased significantly.

Lunch, noon news: low, somewhat relaxed
No news may be good news, but I still like to check in mid-day for the Ag Report. Just kidding. My favorite segment is really the PetSaver.

Ran errands to pharmacy & credit union: anxiety rising
Staff meeting looming at my new school; almost forgot to use my own bag at the pharmacy, I was that distracted.

Sent daughter to vet with rabbit: medium anxiety (routine visit)
But she was driving my minivan with the rabbit cage in the backseat, and paying with my debit card. Okay, I shouldn’t worry. So I didn’t. Much.

Killed time before staff meeting: anxiety rising higher and higher
This was my first staff meeting at my new school, my first staff meeting since going on medical leave. I was manufacturing stomach acid by the quart, if not the gallon.

Attended staff meeting: anxiety high, but stable
Introduced myself to new principal, participated in reconfiguration routine (don’t ask, it’s a routine procedure, but wickedly stressful for those changing grade levels).

The roller coaster analogy came to me as I put up my umbrella and walked the short distance home. My heart was still pounding, but my mind was listing all the reasons this was a good move for me. Good coworkers, escaping the bullies at my previous school, heading into a positive change. Maybe. Hopefully. Stomach acid subsided, and I went to meet a friend for soup and salad at our favorite family restaurant.
Then the anxiety level went up suddenly as I plugged in my laptop and the cord began sparking and smoking at a spot that had been spliced. Aargh!

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>Strategies: Building consensus or conflict

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>I’m a mediator by nature. I keep plugging on, working for solutions. I’d rather look for commonalities than differences, and I’d rather build consensus than conflict.

That’s why I’m so frustrated by my current state leadership. Wisconsin’s state senate and assembly are not just dominated by one party, they’re ruled and controlled by the majority. Amendments suggested by the minority party are automatically rejected, discussion ignored, and the constituents of those districts end up unrepresented. Demonstrators are taking to the streets because they’re feeling unrepresented and they’re not feeling heard.
I’m a problem-solver. I want to see issues resolved and compromises reached. I know budget cuts are inevitable; we teachers have been working under budget cuts for years. We, like the teachers on Jeopardy, are fiscally as conservative as we can be.
Chuck and I noticed that the teachers on Jeopardy’s Teacher Tournament always bet conservatively in Final Jeopardy. Chuck suggested it’s because teachers are so accustomed to not spending money that given a chance, they’ll keep what little they have. In a Jeopardy tournament, that is a losing strategy.
If I keep teaching, I’ll continue doing more and more with less and less. I’ll keep writing grants, I’ll keep getting as much as I can for as little as possible. It gets harder and harder to educate children well while doing more with less while our schools are funded by people who believe in conflict, not consensus. And that, good people, is a losing strategy, too.

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>Mother Nature, give us a break!

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A few short weeks ago, this was the view through our front window. It was 2011’s version of April Showers.

A close-up of the branch looked like this. Some neighborhood trees lost branches; they were just too weak to hold the heavy, wet showers. Er, snow.

It’s all melted now, and the weather theme since has been wind. The backyard is either swampy or squishy, depending on whether it’s raining or not on a given day. The garden beds look good; they’ve been raised and composted enough that the excess moisture is draining well. It’s still too cold and too muddy for me to spend much time prepping and planting.

Well, if April Showers bring May Flowers and Mayflowers bring pilgrims, what do April Snowstorms bring? Besides a swampy, spongy backyard, that is. Well, readers, do you have an answer?

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>Chicken Breast with Herbs

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>Before I even post the recipe, I’ll note for you: be flexible with the herbs. This recipe is likely to still be delicious if you run out of parsley and have to use fresh spinach. Guess what – that’s what happened here! I have lots of fresh oregano, though, and that was the main herb. I added onion, too. Here goes:

Chicken Breast with Herbs
Ingredients
1/3 cup chopped parsley (or spinach, if your pet rabbits have eaten all the parsley)
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
1 Tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel
1 Tablespoon finely chopped garlic (about 3 cloves)
1/4 cup diced onion
3 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
1/4 cup chicken broth
Directions:
1. In small bowl, stir together parsley, oregano, lemon peel, and garlic. Set aside. This will smell good!
2. In 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat, cook onion and chicken until chicken is browned on the outside. Remove chicken from skillet; set aside. Leave onion in the pan. Stir in half the herb mixture. Add broth; bring to boiling, stirring to scrape up any browned scraps from pan. Return chicken to skillet; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
3. Serve with pan sauce; sprinkle with remaining herb mixture. Serves 4.
This chicken dish worked well over long grain rice.
I do plan to plant parsley so I’ll consistently have enough in the house for cooking, even while I’m keeping the bunnies fed and happy.

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>Daisy and the Gatekeeper

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Actual phone call with clinic; I am not making this up.

Me: I’d like to make an appointment to see Doctor DHH (deaf- hard of hearing).

Gatekeeper: Regarding?
Me: Creating a letter discussing medical accommodations for my job.
Gatekeeper: Oh, we don’t make appointments for that. He just writes a letter.
Me: He already wrote a letter, and my attorney says it’s not suitable.
Gatekeeper: In what way?
Me: It needs to be specific, suggesting an accommodation and giving a medical reason for that accommodation. I need to talk to Dr. DHH. Could you please check his schedule?
Gatekeeper: We write letters to employers all the time. The one you have should be sufficient.
Me: I’ve run it by my attorney, and she says it’s not specific enough. I’d like to talk to Dr. DHH so we can draft a new one.
Gatekeeper: We send these out all the time to employers and SSI for disability cases. No one has ever had a problem with this.
Me: Please schedule an appointment for me so we can resolve the letter completely.
Gatekeeper: Oh, no, instead let’s see what’s in your file.
Me: (pacing next to phone)
Gatekeeper: Okay, he sent a more detailed letter to your family doctor and a short one to you. You picked it up two days ago.
Me: Yes. I have it. It’s a short summary, and it needs detail. Maybe Dr. DHH could call me.
Gatekeeper: Let’s see if the family doctor letter has what you need. We could send that one.
Me:(pausing while she looks it up)
Gatekeeper: Maybe you don’t need a doctor’s letter at all. You just need the audiology report.
Me: No, I’ve already asked. I need a letter from an MD. If I need to include audiograms, I have several years of them on file.
Gatekeeper: Oh, Dr. DHH won’t need more. He has the one from November.
Me: If he needs to show that the loss is progressive, he’ll need a series of audiograms over time.
Gatekeeper: Oh.
Me: Shall we schedule an appointment?
Gatekeeper: No, I’ll ask Dr. DHH if we should use the medical letter.
Me (firmly, but politely): I will stop by to pick up a copy. Do not send it to my employer until I’ve reviewed it with my attorney.
Gatekeeper: Oh. Well…
Me: I’ll pick it up Monday morning. See you then!
Notes: I managed to make an appointment a week later by going through a different receptionist. Dr. DHH was appalled to hear that his “gatekeeper” had refused to schedule my appointment the first time I called. We’re still working on the disability documentation, but at least I made it one more step up the ladder.

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>Redecorating

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La Petite has an internship in another town, so she’s only home about half the week. Just so we don’t miss her too terribly much, Chuck redecorated the fireplace mantel with something uniquely hers: her collection of Converse shoes.

Yes, this is only part of the collection. We were able to “borrow” from her supply because she is dressing more professionally now and wears dressier, but still comfortable, shoes. I guess that means she’s grown up now. Maybe.

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