The Johnson's Jungle

What I did for Halloween...

2011-10-31T10:31:00.000-04:00

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I just love it.

But this year caught me unawares and unguarded...

...I mean, here it is, October 31st...and I don't have a single decoration up. There are no Halloween cookies or pumpkin seed bark in the treat jars. I'm not hosting a pumpkin carving party. I am SERIOUSLY off my game.

Why? Well...I'm adjusting to a new Girl Scout schedule and program and lots of extra training...which has sucked up a lot of my free time.

And I'm dealing with kids schedules becoming more hectic and involved that is sucking up even more free time...I spend a LOT of time driving people around, lately.

And the last bit of my free time has been devoted to getting ready to run a race.

I wanted to run a half-marathon, and Miami hosts a Halloween Half Marathon that looked like lots of fun (lots of great people-watching and costumes). I thought running my first half-marathon on the weekend of my favorite holiday would be the BEST way to celebrate!!

I trained really hard, but in the end, I struggled...not so much with the course or the length...but with my own feelings of insecurity and self-worth.

After all, running is 90% mental...and if your head is tripping you out, you're going to suffer.

When I was finally able to shut up my inner demons, I actually had a really good time. My pace wasn't great...but I made new friends, enjoyed beautiful scenery and fun people, and I know at my next race my time will improve because I know that I won't have to battle the same issues.

I can only share some of my photos...because the cord that connects my camera to the computer has mysteriously disappeared. But here is a sampling of my race!!

This is me at 6:30am...excited and ready to run!!

Almost there!! WHEW!!

It's the ".1" that really kills you...

Hot, sweaty, and DONE!!! With my cool glow-in-the-dark medal!!

Jason survived, too!!

Some of the GREAT costumes we saw...

This was my favorite!! "Caw-caw!! Caw-caw!!"

This 80's-themed work-out couple finished the race in style...with him proposing to her at the finish line!!

This guy just needs a bikini wax...seriously...

So I wasn't in costume...but I still had a GREAT time!! And it will be my most memorable Halloween EVER!!

Nicolette's 7th Birthday

2011-10-02T21:42:00.000-04:00

There's so many things on my mind about this birthday.

There's the very real idea that my baby...my youngest...is growing up. Now don't get me wrong...she's still young. And she still needs me.

But not as much.

And there is no one beneath her to need me. She's the...(gulp)...last.

It should be kind of a celebration. See, we started our family so young...that while all our friends were out dating and being rowdy singles, we were already changing diapers. And then when they were newly married and "honeymoon-ing", we were carpooling to preschool. They were on couples cruises, and we were scraping money together to buy a house, afford dentists, and and buy a bigger car that would fit an entire row of car seats.

We consoled ourselves that we would be done just as everyone else was in the throes of child-rearing. By our calculations...our baby would be 18 when we were only 46 and 48, respectively. We'd be YOUNG...and empty-nesters. And we'd be able to go out and do all the fun stuff we missed out on.

When we'd share our theory with our parents, they's always say something like: "Yeah...but kids come back," or some such nonesense.

But now...I can see the end of the tunnel. That magic time...when all my kids are grown and gone...is only about a decade away.

And time, it seems to me, moves remarkably fast lately. Like I'm stuck in warp drive.

And suddenly...it doesn't look so fun to be an empty-nester. Remarkably...I'm kinda hoping that kids DO come back.

So as Nicolette celebrates this birthday...I have a mild heart attack. It's small...just a stutter in some far corner of my chest. But it doesn't dissipate. In fact, I have the sinking suspicion that for the next ten years or so...it's only going to grow.

It's aggravated by the fact that as we are preparing for Nicolette's birthday, I am paying Kaitlyns application fees for college.

Like...when did THAT happen? I mean...I KNEW it was happening. I've been preparing and pushing and nagging her for years to be able to be in the position she is in now...preparing for higher education. And all the time I was doing it...I felt like the time was SO FAR AWAY. We had AGES.

And now...here I am.

Actually DOING it.

And instead of jumping around and whooping for joy...I'm utterly perplexed.

Wait...it's here? Already? But wasn't she just a freshman or something?

So all my kids are doing this amazing thing called GROWING UP. And when they were all small...I couldn't imagine it ever happening. It's not that I was one of those parents that couldn't WAIT for their kids to get older...I just honestly couldn't FATHOM it.

They would always be here, right?

Under foot?

Needing help?

Asking questions?

Discovering their world?

Holding my hand?

What do you mean Joseph is graduating middle school and preparing for high school?

I'm sorry...did you say Savannah STARTED middle school this year?

And Brigham? Oh...he's only 5 years old. No wait...he's NINE you say? No...that can't be right...

And yes, yes...Kate is GRADUATING. I know, I know...I know...

And wittle bittle Nickel-Pickel...she doesn't want me to talk like that anymore? To call her that adorable little pet name anymore?

Why not?

It EMBARRASSES her?

Oh.

Okay.

(Dramatic pause inserted here. I'm literally sitting here staring at my keyboard...knowing that I am supposed to be writing about Nicolettes fun-filled, wonderful birthday. But all I can do is just...sit. And contemplate. I'm kind of struck dumb. Give me a minute...let me pull it together...)

Ahem...

The funny thing about the years in which we allow the children to pick a family activity for their birthday is that sometimes they pick things that not EVERYONE wants to do. For example, Savannah picked Color Me Mine...a ceramics studio. The boys moaned and complained about it for days...and then after they arrived, they discovered that they actually REALLY enjoyed going.

Or when Joseph picked Ski Rixen...an activity we all went to...but only Joseph (and Jason) could participate in because of age restrictions on the activity itself.

So...Nicolette's choice was the same kind of scenario. Except...she picked a place popular with the little kids...but a dreaded establishment of chaos for the adults.

She choose...Chuck E. Cheese.

Ohhhh...there is no place more feared and robustly avoided than that giant mouse infested kiddie casino. And yet...it was Nicolette's birthday. Hence...it was HER choice.

We tried to persuade her to choose a different venue. We even threw out some suggestions that we realistically could not afford. But she stood firm in her decision...and Chuck E. Cheese it was.

Thankfully, we picked a slower night. The usual riff-raff was there...trailer park trash and ghetto bunny mommas all huddled into too small booths devouring overly greasy pizza while their hellion broods ran amok throughout the place. But we found ourselves a quieter corner. And with Kaitlyn and Josephs help, we were able to assign a "chaperone" to everyone so they could play the games fairly and collect their all-too-precious tickets to cash in on their all-too-junkie prizes.

And once Jason and I let go of our mutual contempt, we thoroughly enjoyed watching Nicolette happily skip from game to game collecting tickets...and were even surprised and PLEASED to see her older siblings win tickets and give them TO her (it was, after all, HER birthday) without any provocation from Jason or I.

Afterwards, we went to Yogurtland and let her load up on frozen yogurt and toppings...

...and then headed home to unwrap gifts. It was, all in all, a huge success.

I thought I would share just a couple photos from the evening that normally wouldn't make the cut. I am doing so because they feature Nicolette unintentionally giving some of the funniest expressions I have EVER seen. I was, quite literally, ROLLING while I uploaded these pics.

I hope they make you laugh, too. And from afar, wherever you are, I hope you wish Nicolette a very Happy 7th Birthday.

Meanwhile...I think I'll look into retirement homes or something.

Savannah's 11th Birthday

2011-09-11T10:57:00.000-04:00

It's birthday time again!!

This time for my sweetie-pie Savannah.

And since it is the year of family outings, she had the daunting task of choosing where to spend her birthday. After weeks of deliberating...she finally decided that she wanted to take a special trip up to Palm Beach and visit Rapids Water Park. We were all really excited to go...

...but then, disaster struck...

Brigham, who was playing his first year of tackle football, was injured in practice and got a broken wrist. And we couldn't afford the extra money to get a swim cast.

And so, Savannah...always the caring and sensitive child...decided to switch birthday locations. She didn't want to spend her birthday with Brigham sitting on a lounge chair while the rest of us splashed and played and slid all day at a water park.

So instead, she choose to visit Color Me Mine...the local "paint-your-own-pottery" studio.

At first, the boys groaned and moaned. But after we arrived, and they saw all the cool stuff to paint...many of it designed specifically with boys in mind...they changed their tune.

Even I got into the act.

We were there a couple hours...painting and decorating...and then we had to leave our pieces behind to get fired.

We had a late dinner at Jasons restaurant (Savannahs choice)...and headed home.

A couple weeks later, I went to pick up the pieces. It's amazing to see how different they are AFTER they come out of the kiln...

Nicolette BEFORE...

Nicolette AFTER...

A beautiful mug to hold treasurers in!! I love how Nicolette swirls paints and colors to make her own designs...

Brigham BEFORE...

Brigham AFTER...

Brigham loved this fighter jet piggy bank. Now he can keep all the spare change he finds around the house SAFE!!

Savannah wanted her's to be very special...so she made a mermaid, and chose her colors so the mermaid would LOOK like her...trying to match paint with the color of her hair and eyes and her skin tone.

Savannah BEFORE...

Savannah AFTER...

I'd say she did a very good job with the matching, wouldn't you? It looks very much like my sweetie Savannah!!

Joseph BEFORE...

Joseph AFTER...

A gargoyle friend to guard Josephs desk of ~~junk~~ treasures. He did a really cool job on the wings...you can't see them properly in this shot...but he faded a dark blue into a purple...and it came out looking really cool.

Kaitlyn BEFORE...

Kaitlyn AFTER...

Kaitlyn's, of course, is beautiful. She'll use it as an incense holder in her room...and it's something else to add to her portfolio as she applies to Art School this fall...

And Me BEFORE...

And me AFTER...

I had a darling little ice cream cone I painted several years ago with my Girl Scouts...so I thought the sundae fit. And it's a piggy bank, too...lol. I couldn't help it...I just thought it was adorable.

We had a great time...and the kids really liked having a lasting memento of the day.

Jut one more birthday left this year...Nicolette's. I wonder what family adventure she'll take us on for HER special day?

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines: September 2011 - Peanut Butter!!

2011-09-11T10:34:00.001-04:00

I am really super-duper behind on my posts...partly because I'm trying to figure out how to take photos from my camera and upload them into my photo files without them becoming teeney-tiny little thumbnails.

So far, I've been unsuccessful.

But until then, I will try and keep current with what is happening NOW!! And one of the things that just happened was the start of another season of Iron Chef Pembroke Pines!!

The secret ingredient was peanut butter. I hosted...which means there was a low turn-out ("Are you un-poopular? Do you pop out at parties?"...Name that redheaded comedic genius)...but we had a fabulous time and got to enjoy some wonderful food.

And best of all...I had a marvelous excuse to make my yummy Peanut Butter Stuffed Hot Fudge Cupcakes.

Sinfully divine...and worth each and every 632 calories per cupcake.

I first made these babies for my birthday...

They were a HUGE hit. Especially with me. So it was a total no-brainer to make them again. They're even fun to make...there are several steps...but my favorite is when I get to actually "stuff" the cupcakes with the luscious peanut butter buttercream frosting...

It might have something to do with the slightly messy nature of it...because if it gets all over my hands...that means that later, I get to lick them clean :)

I know...I'm naughty, huh?

Angel also brought a dessert...some rich and decadent Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars.

Sherie AND Heather both channeled Asian cusine and brought noodle dishes. They were both very different...Heathers was more peanut-y...and had fresh veggies on top. I seem to have misplaced the recipe though...as soon as I find it, I will post.

And Sheries had this fantastic spicy element to it, thanks to the addition of chile oil. I absolutely loved it...

It was called Udon Peanut Butter Noodles. I highly recommend it.

So we sat around and chatted and ate...laughed and joked...and had a marvelous time. I always really look forward to Iron Chef...besides great food, it's just some much-needed girl time with friends.

Until next month...

The Way Things Are

2011-08-17T08:21:00.001-04:00

Did you know my printer broke? I mean...flat out busted. And right when I was gearing up to do the most interesting weeks of summer school (in my opinion)...two weeks of India, France, and Australia. I was so looking forward to these...and then...BOOM!!

I guess I could've begged people to print stuff for me...but the fact is that it is A LOT of paperwork (worksheets, coloring pages, graphs...and lets not forget my highly detailed and highlighted lesson plans)...but I felt guilty requiring that much ink from anyones printer but my own.

Hey...times are tough...and ink is expensive.

Likewise, to go and spend hours at a Kinkos sifting through my stuff and printing there didn't seem feasible either.

And besides, I have been known to get a sudden idea and run to my computer, look it up, and print the directions or article or WHATEVER...all on the fly. And I couldn't very well do that if my printer was...well...not HERE.

So...we stopped.

I mean...we still swam, and went to the beach, and the dollar movies. We still did scripture study, and had time for reading, and I broke out the old handwriting worksheets...but for the most part...summer school ended.

And I was kinda sad.

My kids weren't. Although they won't admit it while they are in the throes of school, they actually ENJOY summer school. When I'm gearing up for it, they get all excited about it starting. And when it's over, they are always mourning the loss. But in the MIDDLE of it...when they want to go out and play and I make them write their journal entries first...there's a lot of moaning and groaning.

So at first...they were all excited. More time to play!! More time to be on the Wii!!

After about 4 days, the: "Mama...what can I dooooooooo?" 's set in.

I hate the "Mama-what-can-I-doooo"'s.

Bane of my existence.

Seriously.

Anyway...there are so many things to write about...we have Brighams short career in football (and just like summer school, yet another example of not appreciating what you've got till it's gone).

And there's my birthday (which really is just a story about a cupcake, and might get relegated to the Food Chain portion of this blog).

And there's all the upcoming Back-to-School...what with insane supply lists (they get more elaborate every year), all the "special circumstances" that each child seems to have this year, and even the weather (we're already on storm name "G"...can you believe it? None of them have come close...but still...we're just careening through the alphabet and it's not even September!!)...

But today I wanted to share this article from the New York Times about over-booking kids.

I am a purist parent. And it's mostly because of finances. We simply cannot afford to put 5 children in every activity they desire. It's not that I wouldn't LIKE to...it's just not feasible.

I think Kaitlyn would really benefit in private voice lessons and art or photography classes...just to build on her strengths. And Joseph could use private music lessons as well, along with joining a swim team. And Savannah wants to dance, and cheer, and play sports, ride horses, and learn music...all at once. And Brigham NEEDS a sport (although his foray into football was a slight disaster...but more on that later)...and Nicolette has a SERIOUS talent for gymnastics and/or diving...and I would LOVE to build on that.

But I just can't. I have them signed up for Scouts because it is the most reasonably priced activity there is...and I stay very active and involved in it so THEY stay very active and involved in it.

But finances aren't the ONLY reason...I also believe that children gain more from being at HOME...with their FAMILY...than they do out in the world. Children learn everywhere...how many of your kids picked up a swear word after hearing a random construction worker utter it as you walked past? (Just for note: My kids didn't need a construction worker...they learn all the swear words they'll ever need...plus many for special occasions...right from their mothers mouth every time she stubs her toe). I'd rather have my kids getting those learning moments at home...from me...than from a coach, teacher, or other parent. After all...I think there's a lesson to be learned about seeing your mother wash her own mouth out with soap.

It's not that I don't believe in extra-curriculars at all...I just believe in moderation.

And in almost direct contradiction with the above statement...I DO wish I could do more. And when I talk with other moms, and the conversation rolls around to: "Well...MY kid does____________________ (fill in the blank with multiple activities)"...I always get uncomfortable.

First of all, these moms that talk about the expense and the time commitments LIKE they're complaining...but they're really not. There's a hint of bragging in their voices, like we're all supposed to be impressed that their kids do 20 different activities a week, or spend every weekend traveling for various sports teams, or that her husband and her haven't seen each other for WEEKS because they're so busy chauffeuring different children to different commitments. And then, when other moms chime in about THEIR kids, and the sacrifices THEY make to ensure their future soccer stars and art prodigies are successful in the world of fame and fortune...it becomes an almost-argument...the whole: "My-kid-is-better-than-your-kid"...which is really a cover for: "I'm-a-better-mom-than-you-are".

Eventually, these moms notice that I have not offered any assertions of my parenting prowess, and like hungry wolves, they stop bickering amongst themselves and collectively turn on me.

"What do YOUR kids do?"

And I am caught...like a deer in the headlights of a monster truck. And I weakly offer: "Scouting."

"That's IT?"

They are condescending...incredulous at my obvious lack of mothering pride. They gang up and start spewing random facts they read in their latest issue of US Weekly and Better Homes and Gardens about how kids NEED sports, and MUST have multiple extra-curricular activities to fill in the gaps of what they are NOT receiving in our budget-cut schools...and how will my kids grow up and be functioning members of society without joining three separate traveling tennis teams?

I'm all but accused of contributing to childhood obesity, the fall in scholastic performance scores, and the rise in crime.

"Busy children are happy children," I'm told...and with a sniff and a flip of their $250 highlighted hair with feather extensions, they stomp off to further berate me out of my presence.

I used to try and justify myself...I'll admit it, I was a little ashamed that we couldn't do more...and I wanted to prove that I was a good mother, too. I'd start by giving excuses because we have a large family on a single income, only one car, and that we do A LOT of activities together as a family. But these excuses often fell on deaf ears, and I realized that no matter what I said, these women held the opinion that I obviously didn't love my children, because if I did, I would happily go bankrupt paying their activity fees.

And so...I stopped arguing, and let them tirade against me...figuring that they weren't exactly the kind of women I'd want to make friends with anyway.

I, personally, can't stand reading Us Weekly.

And, as time has gone on, I've stopped feeling (as) ashamed. True...I still wish I could do more...but not to prove to other moms that I am, indeed, a qualified parent. But rather because, as I previously stated, I see a lot of untapped potential in my kids, and I wish I could help them develop it. I would like to assist them in finding a sport, or hobby, that they truly enjoy.

But alas, the world is an expensive place. Gone are the days that you could go to the local community center and sign your kids up for a slew of classes. Everything is privatized, and EXPENSIVE...amounting in hundreds of dollars a month for membership fees, supplies, uniforms, gear, food, gas, and competition entry fees (in my area, some sports, like swimming and horseback riding, require you to enter so many competitions a month in order to stay on the team).

And I do believe that too many activities can hurt your children. I believe kids need down time to relax, to engage in creative play away from technology and structured activities (getting my kids away from technology is tough...getting ME away from technology is tough).

I believe that families need time together...that meals need to be shared, that regular activities and meetings need to be scheduled and honored...but also that impromptu moments need a chance to blossom.

And I believe that moms and dads need time to re-connect...time alone without the pressures of kids and family. And that can't happen if you're always heading in different directions.

Everyone has a different situation. I'm not saying that sports and classes are in of themselves bad things!! Like I said...I wish we could take part in more activities...but not an endless conveyor belt of extracurriculars. You may have that kid that really IS a prodigy, and traveling soccer is exactly what your kid needs. But I believe the majority of activities are just overkill.

I think a lot of kids don't need ten different sports and five different classes. I don't think that if the only time you spend with your kid is in the car while you shuttle him all over town necessarily makes you a good parent.

Every once in awhile, I find an article that agrees with me...and this is one of them. I encourage you to read it. Whether your a feather-extensioned soccer mom, or a dedicated homebody like me...it's an interesting read.

And you can weigh in on this debate...ARE children over-booked? And what does that say about us, as their parents?

Hemingway Days and The Most Brutal 5K EVER...

2011-07-24T21:19:00.001-04:00

Jason and I had the chance to visit Key West this past weekend. Believe it or not, after slightly over 4 years living in South Florida, we have yet to visit Key West...this was our first excursion.

We went to take part in "Hemingway Days", a 5-day celebration/festival that includes contests and festivals, a HUGE 3-day marlin fishing tournament, and a 5K race around the island.

We stayed in the Douglas House, an absolutely CHARMING boutique inn right on the corner of Duval and Amelia streets. We arrived LATE Friday night, and woke up at the crack of dawn to begin exploring Key West. Our first stop was the obligatory photo op of Southernmost Point. Here we were able to not only get our picture, but see several Key West staples...rampant chickens, guys in drag, and elderly Cubans screaming: "Asesino!!" across the water towards Fidel.

It was only 9am, and already sweltering. As I locked my bike, sweat literally dropped from my face in pools...my make-up had already worn off, and my shirt was plastered to my back. I was already nervous about the upcoming 5K race I would be running in 10-and-a-half hours...

Next stop was the Ernest Hemingway House. This was AMAZING...I learned so many colorful and unique stories about this prolific American author, who actually completed most of his works here in Key West. I would love to share all these amazing stories with you...but the post would be immense.

One of the things Hemingway was famous for was his cats. He had received a polydactyl cat as a gift from a captain of a wrecker. Hemingway believed these cats, who are exceptional mousers, thanks to their additional toes, were good luck. He collected and bred them. They are featured in MANY pieces of artwork around the house...including an original sculpture given to Hemingway by his good friend, Pablo Picasso, who knew of his love for these cats.

(That sculpture has it's own very real, and immensely tragic, story.)

Today, more than 44 cats live at Hemingway House, and they are known the world over as "Hemingways".

Most of the 44 are polydactyls...just like our beloved cat Jay...who somewhere down his feline family tree is related to the famous first cats of Hemingway.

After the museum, we rode our bikes down Duval Street to Hemingways favorite watering hole, Sloppy Joes...where we had conch fritters, Sloppy Joes, and several gallons of water while waiting for the "Papa Hemingway Look-a-Like" contest and the "Running of the Bulls" race/event that took place just outside the bar.

I even managed to get a picture astride one of the hobby-horse "bulls" with two "Papa Hemingway" contestants.

By now it was mid-afternoon, and the heat was really taking it's toll. Both Jason and I were literally soaked to the skin and feeling the drain of heat and humidity...so we rode back to the Douglas House and changed into our swimsuits and cooled off in the pool. We also stepped around the corner to share a piece of Key Lime pie...figuring it would be indecent to visit Key West without sampling that particular treat.

We tried to keep cool and rest the remainder of the afternoon, venturing out only to get our race packets and a light bite of soup and salad. At 7pm, we headed back down to Southernmost Point for the 5K.

It was still sweltering.

There wasn't a large group of racers, and looking around, it was obvious that most of them were seasoned runners. I guess you'd have to be pretty dedicated to drive all the way down to Key West to run a 5K in 93 degree weather with a 66% humidity.

I knew within the first half-mile I was in trouble. Earlier in the week, Jason and I had run a "mock" 5K...running casually and not racing, per se...but timing ourselves all the same. On that day, I ran a 10:14 mile...my best time yet...and I wasn't even working that hard. t was an almost 2 minute improvement over my last race pace taken on July 4th when I ran the Westin 5K. I was confidant about my abilities.

Alas...although we ran through beautiful, shaded, and historically interesting neighborhoods, I had little strength to look around and enjoy my surroundings. I felt sapped and energy drained. As it ended, I ran a an 11:14 minute mile, making my time 34:50.5...an improvement from my last time by about 45 seconds. Although an improvement is, I feel, miraculous...it might be more telling to share my place stats. I'm used to being in the "middle" of the competitors and age group racers...neither being the worst, or the best, runner.

But in this race, which had the smallest amount of participants of any race I have yet run, I came in at 302 out of 401, and 24th out of 30 racers in my age group. Ouch...

Nevertheless...I DID improve my time, and in conditions that I felt were extremely unfriendly...so I'm going to call it a win.

After the race...we didn't hang around...and headed straight for the blessed air conditioning and an ICE COLD shower. After the shower, we had tickets to go on a haunted ghost tour of Key West, supposedly the fourth most haunted city in the United States. The tour included a visit to the museum that holds Key Wests' most creepy resident...Robert the Doll.

A doll supposedly imbued with dark voodoo magic that has wrecked havoc in the lives of all who possess him. I was the only one brave enough to "ask" the dolls permission to take photos. While I spoke with him, the girl next to me, who was holding an EMF reader, let out a gasp...her reader was fluctuating all over the place.

When I had finished photographing Robert, it calmed down again. This made the other people on the tour EXTREMELY spooked, although Jason and I took it as "all good fun". I am, as far as I know, the only person to get photos of Robert that night from our group...so I guess it's pretty interesting.

We walked home from the tour, drinking in the insane night life that infects Duval street as the hours tick closer to midnight. Too tired to hang out and party, we went straight back to the Douglas House and gratefully climbed into bed. We had to get up VERY early the next morning so we could drive home and Jason could go back to work.

We had a lovely time on our mini-vacation...and hope to return to Key West again someday, hopefully with the kids.

The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience

2011-07-19T07:07:00.000-04:00

I didn't take any pictures of summer school last week because Jason had borrowed my camera and repeatedly left it at the restaurant...and it's a real shame, too...because last week we studied Morocco...and I could've shown you pictures of the kids studying and learning, making couscous and Moroccan flatbread, going to the beach at Bill Baggs, learning to wrap turbans around their heads...and all kinds of other fun.

sigh

So, in lieu of that, I thought I'd post this article I discovered. I keep going back and forth about homeschool...wanting my kids to be home and able to freely grow in intellect...but also daunted by the fact that I am an incredibly fallible human and my terror that it actually might do more harm than good.

And I'm not as worried about my kids in the charter system as I am about Joseph...

bigger sigh

Think I'll ever get the nerve to homeschool my kids? I don't know...but this article (printed in Scientific American) makes me want to...

The educational value of creative disobedience

By Andrea Kuszewski

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers” –Jean Piaget

Looking back on my childhood, the times I remember most fondly were spent with my father, learning how to be a scientist. He’s not a scientist himself, though—but an artist. He’s one of those people who knows a little bit about everything, quite a bit about most things, and loves sharing those bits of insight with anyone that will listen. He is a perpetual observer, a noticer of peculiarities, a collector of knowledge. Being a relentlessly curious child, I saw him as my walking encyclopedia. My afternoon routine consisted of perching myself on a stool in his workshop, peppering him with random questions as he worked.

Why do chameleons change color? Can lightning follow a trail of water? Why do we go in the basement during a tornado? How do those guys karate-chop planks of wood without breaking their hand? (Because I had tried this myself and believe me, it wasn’t pretty.)

No matter how silly or trivial the question, he always had a generously detailed answer for me, thick with scientific evidence. I was perfectly content with this symbiosis until one afternoon—I must have been about 7 or 8 years old—when everything changed.

The Irresistible Taste of Color

There was a question that had been plaguing me for days, and I wanted my dad’s full attention. He was working on a new project, so I bided my time, respecting his need for silence during his creative flow. I loved watching his process, trying to imagine what was going on behind his eyes right before his pencil struck surface. His arm moved swiftly across a large sheet of paper, effortlessly laying out a composition in a series of graceful sweeps and snaps of the wrist, a conductor creating life in a symphony of strokes, dancing and multiplying before me. The intensity of his concentration was clear in his grimace. I held my breath. A minute or two of heavy staring at the page, a few more swipes at the paper, and he stepped back, smiling to himself. That was my moment.

“Dad?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“What are black holes ? I mean, how do they work?”

He turned to me and laughed a little. I had managed to shock him with my latest inquiry.

“What specifically do you have a question about?” he asked. He was probably regretting buying that set of World Book Encyclopedias, which I had since claimed as my own.

“Well, where does all the stuff go after it gets sucked inside? I thought matter couldn’t be created or destroyed? It has to go somewhere, right? So—where does it go?”

“I’m not sure,” he responded “I don’t think it follows the same rules.”

I was stunned. He didn’t know? How? Why? In my young schema of the world, my father knew everything there was to know. I looked to him to be The Teacher of All Things Important in Life, and I was watching my reality crumble away in one unanswerable question. Realizing for the first time that my father was not a god was life-altering enough, but my world changed in an even more profound and quite unexpected way: in that uncomfortable moment of dissonance, when my thirst for knowledge went unsatisfied—I was exhilarated. There was a scientific mystery, and neither one of us knew the answer. It was ridiculously exciting, and I didn’t quite know why, but I was drunk with wonder. We spent the rest of that afternoon discussing black holes—looking through books, making little diagrams, trying to make some sense of theoretical physics—together.

My mind awakened that day. I fell in love with not just knowing things, but in solving mysteries. No longer content to just get an answer, I went seeking answers, pleased with my newly discovered investigative prowess. And when I came upon something interesting, I shared it with my Dad, and we discussed it like colleagues, sorting out the little pieces of the puzzle together—not always succeeding, but having a splendid time trying.

It was as if a whole new color was added to the world’s palette that my eyes had never noticed before. More and more hues revealed themselves in time. Life became deeper. Things moved slower, had more parts. There was so much I didn’t know, and so much I wanted to find out, layers upon saturated layers of discoveries waiting for me to uncover. I was hooked. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was when I first became a scientist.

The pain of withdrawal

I wish I could say that was the happy ending of my childhood story. Instead, it was the beginning of a rather torturous developmental period. My new outlook on life, which could be summarized as “Don’t tell me—I want to figure it out myself!” was not an attitude that went over too well in school. For many years I struggled with wanting to please my teachers—listening to directions and following the rules—but feeling creatively unfulfilled and unchallenged. At times I had an instinct to speak up and offer an alternate explanation, or an urge to try something a different way, but I quickly learned that only ‘undisciplined and obnoxious children’ challenged authority and caused disruption. These were not the kinds of students that teachers favored. I learned to ignore the pangs of my creative spirit, which only seemed to bring me misery when answered.
As much as I loved learning, school was uninspiring and left me hollow. I saw school as a necessary time commitment, but not much else. I ended up doing most of my learning and exploration on my own with whatever tools I had at my disposal—books, observation, watching people, and of course—my imagination.
Obviously my love for science and learning was not completely destroyed by my early school experience, or I wouldn’t be where I am today. But I certainly bear some scars. Now that I know a lot more about neuroscience and psychology, I wonder:

What effects did the discouragement of creativity and independence have on my developing brain, and how much of it was permanent? How much of a role did the inflexible, rule-dependent nature of school play in my cognitive development, versus my own independent or experiential learning?

Even bigger question: Was school helping or hurting my intellectual growth?

Before I answer those questions, let’s take a look at this from the other side first—how creativity and exploratory behavior is diminished by traditional teaching models—then I’ll explain how that relates to intellectual development overall.

We already know that everything we do changes the brain in some way, but to help frame this in a practical context, I’m going to put out a few broad hypotheses to consider as we look at some research and discuss what it means over a child’s lifetime.

Hypothesis I: Teaching and encouraging kids to learn by rote memorization and imitation shapes their brain and behavior, making them more inclined towards linear thinking, and less prone to original, creative thinking.

Let’s take a look at our typical education paradigm: From the earliest days of school, we hammer specific scholastic values into our students: pay attention, watch the teacher, imitate what the teacher does, stay in your seat, don’t question authority, and receive praise. But instead of teaching children to think, we are teaching them to memorize. Instead of encouraging them to innovate, we expect them to follow the outline and adhere to rules.

There are two very interesting studies recently emerging from the field of developmental psychology that address the issue of early childhood education and teaching methodology. The first one, by Elizabeth Bonawitz and colleagues, has to do with direct instruction and the limits it puts on exploratory behavior. The second , by Daphna Buchsbaum and her team, looks at imitation of action sequences—what situations and specific criteria make a child likely to imitate an act, or to perceive it as a “correct” answer.

Alison Gopnik, a researcher that worked with Buchsbaum on the second study, wrote an article for Slate, Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School: New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire, in which she explains both of these studies and what their results imply for learning. The two studies each took a different approach to assess how teaching style influences learning, but both drew the same conclusions. The type and intensity of direct instruction we give children, from a very young age, has a profound impact on how they approach learning and creative exploration. They found that too much direct instruction—showing a child what to do, rather than letting him figure out the solution himself—can severely affect his ability and/or instinct to independently and creatively solve problems, or to explore multiple potential solutions.
Gopnik explains:

Cognition

one from a lab at MIT

one from my lab at UC-Berkeley

This “new and unexpected solution” she is describing is at the core of creativity, and what we should be encouraging in children. However, it seems that by directly instructing children—giving them the answers to problems, then testing them on memory—we are inhibiting creative problem solving, to quite a significant degree.

She goes on to describe one of the methods used in her study on action sequences:

The same nine sequences were used with all the children. The only difference: in one group she acted as if she had no idea how the toy worked—trying out different actions until it made music—and in the other group, she acted like a teacher—telling them to watch her, making it clear she was showing them the correct sequence to get the toy to make music. The children who were shown the “correct” three-action sequence (the direct instruction scenario) were indeed able to imitate the researcher and get the toy to make music. Good, right?
Well, the “correct” three-action sequence demonstrated by the researcher was not actually the best solution; a two-action sequence worked better. However, the three-action sequence was the one demonstrated, so that’s what the children imitated. No need to explore other possibilities, right? The scientist in me likes to think that I would totally be the type of kid to find my own solution to make the toy work, but then I remember how obliged I felt as a child to follow the teacher’s rules, and it saddens me. I probably would have performed exactly as the children in the study.
Gopnik explains,

That last sentence is key. When the teacher instructed the children and gave them a working sequence, they were able to replicate that correct response effectively. Some would say that the children “learned” that information. But what did they learn to do? They learned to imitate. The fact that they generated the less intelligent response immediately, then stopped looking for alternate solutions, is quite troubling to me. Yet this is the type of behavior is expected and encouraged in most schools. Do we want children to learn how a system works, exploring lots of possible solutions—even if some of them fail—or to merely copy one “correct” method of arriving at a solution? What happens if that one solution stops working? Then what?

As a behavior therapist, teaching children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other learning disorders, this has been one of my hot button issues, and the subject of quite a few battles I’ve had with defenders of the Errorless Learning paradigm. The goal shouldn’t be getting a correct answer; the goal should be learning why that particular answer is correct, and why others are not—as well as knowing when and if there are multiple correct answers to one problem.

What these two studies showed, is that children are very susceptible to adult instruction. We seem to be hard-wired as children to turn to adults for direction, and from an evolutionary perspective, this would make sense. But the inclination to obey and follow adult instruction is both good and bad. On the one hand, if very young children weren’t instinctively driven to listen to adult directions, there would be some major safety concerns. Let’s face it—the world can be a dangerous place. But we’ve come a long way since the days of running from wild beasts in the woods and living in caves.

Creative problem-solving skills are increasingly important in this age, and over-instruction inhibits their development. We shouldn’t be so quick to teach everything to a child in explicit detail and hand him the ‘Instructions for Life’ just because we know things and he’s still naive—that prevents him from developing the urge and the ability to explore and solve problems independently. Also, what if the adult is occasionally (gasp!) wrong?

Hypothesis II: Teaching kids to ask questions and think about problems before receiving the solution encourages more non-linear, divergent and creative thinking, to produce better innovators, problem-solvers, and problem-finders.

The studies we just discussed looked at how direct instruction and teaching imitation of one solution can inhibit creativity and exploration, so now let’s take it to the next theoretical level, only this time—reverse it. If restricting kids from asking questions and teaching them one solution (or giving them the correct answer) inhibits creativity and encourages less innovative behavior, then what happens if you encourage asking questions and require them to think problems through and come up with their own solutions? Will this tend to result in greater creativity over time? What about learning? Will they learn at the same level as kids who are taught in a more traditional method?

You know what? There’s data on that, too. Short answer: Yes. Also, they’ll learn better.

In previous post I wrote on increasing your intelligence, I mentioned a study done by Dr Robert Sternberg, called The Rainbow Project [PDF]. The goal of this project was to find out if it was possible to develop both teaching and testing methods that were a better measure of the quality and quantity of material learned over a college course. He wanted to see if by teaching creativity—both using creative teaching methods, as well as teaching students to think creatively about a problem—then testing for practical application of the material learned, if more learning took place. Basically, he wanted to show there was a better way to learn rather than sitting in a lecture hall, listening to facts being presented to you.
His results? A huge win. As I summed up in my previous article:

also

scored higher on that test as well

score higher on a completely different cognitive test of achievement

There are an increasing number of studies on educational methodology that demonstrate the same types of results—they find increased learning and participation in classes that use an integrated approach to teaching, as opposed to the traditional lecture. A recent report in Science showed that a group of students taught by an inexperienced instructor, but one that utilized hands-on demonstrations and student involvement, learned twice as much and was more engaged in a Physics course, even when compared to a similar group taught using traditional methods (lecture) by a highly rated experienced professor.

The quality of the instructor didn’t have nearly the impact on student learning that getting the students actively involved in the learning process did. Just by moving the students from passive observer to active participant, you are lighting a fire in the brain—making more connections across association areas, increasing plasticity, and enhancing learning. Not only that, students that are more actively engaged are more intrinsically motivated to learn—no bribes or artificial rewards needed, just pure enjoyment of learning .

So the good news is, the brain is plastic, and these types of thinking patterns can still be taught, even into adulthood. It may take more work to break habits of behavior the longer you’ve engaged in them, but the brain can still adapt to new ways of thinking.

Here’s something to consider: those last few studies involved college students. Can you imagine how much increased learning could occur over a lifetime if we started utilizing some of these teaching principles in grade school?

The fringe benefits of teaching for creativity

In this age of innovation, even more important than being an effective problem solver, is being a problem finder. It’s one thing to look at a problem and be able to generate a solution; it is another thing to be able to look at an ambiguous situation, and decide if there is a problem that needs to be solved. That’s a skill that isn’t really targeted by traditional teaching methods, and in fact, it is often discouraged. In order to teach problem finding, more creative methods must be utilized. Rule-breaking , to an extent, should be tolerated and encouraged, and yes—even taught.

Teaching how and when to break rules and take creative risks isn’t a neat and clean process—it can get a little messy, and errors will be made. But we should be aware of this from the beginning and reward smart risk-taking, even if it leads to an error.

You need to make mistakes in order to learn. If you never know why an answer is wrong, you will never be able to come across a novel situation and make a good decision about how to act. Making errors and struggling through problems is what increases cognitive ability . Spending time pondering a question, weighing choices, thinking about whether or not an answer fits, and why—this is what drives positive change. That’s what learning is. That’s what our education system should be focusing on.

So how can I put this information to use?

Data and research is interesting to read about, but you may be thinking: How do I use this information? Direct instruction discourages creative thinking, but I want to encourage my child to be an independent problem-solver. Yet I want to provide him/her with a rich learning environment, so completely backing off seems counter-productive. What are some other ways I can teach my child and encourage independent problem-solving, while still providing guidance, without falling into that single-solution-answer-trap?

Glad you asked! It’s really not difficult, just takes a little more time and patience. I’m so used to taking this approach with my young clients, that this has become my baseline response pattern to children’s questions.
When your child asks you a question, rather than immediately delivering the answer, hold back for a moment, and say, “I’m not sure—what do you think?” He may be unbelievably off-track with his answer, but that’s ok. At least he tried. If he gives an obviously incorrect answer, explain why it’s incorrect, or why that method won’t work, maybe a give a general set of rules for that condition. And if it’s a novel response, and there’s the slightest chance it may work, consider that possibility and reward that response like he just won the gold medal. In fact, reward all attempts at novel solutions to problems, even if he makes errors. Provide differential reinforcement, though—more praise for answers closer to the correct one—so he has a benchmark to gauge the worthiness of an acceptable response. This teaches him to make decisions about choosing the best answer, given a selection of multiple correct solutions.

Another method I like to use is purposely making a mistake, such as getting ready to play a game, without having a critical piece there, like the spinner (you can increase the subtlety of the missing piece as he gets better). Act as if you have no idea there is a piece missing, and see if he catches it. If he realizes the piece is missing and brings it to your attention—reward this like crazy. He is on his way to being a problem-finder, which is exactly what you want.

Finally, take a lesson from the research referenced earlier on imitation patterns—don’t always play the role of teacher. When you act like a peer, engaging with a child on his level, he is less likely to imitate you and expect answers. He will probably be more independent and try more things out on his own if he isn’t inclined to turn to you for instructions on what to do.

Time for action

In summary, we’ve looked at quite a bit of information that shows traditional teaching methods:

1. Encourage linear, single-solution thinking, rather than exploratory learning (rewarded for the single correct answer, i.e. standardized tests, conformity is expected)

2. Hinder creativity and discourage innovative thinking (once students have the answer, they aren’t motivated to look for alternate solutions; errors are not rewarded when resulting from a potentially beneficial risk)

3. Don’t measure up to other types of integrated teaching models in regards to the amount of information retained by students (less effective at actually teaching material)

4. Aren’t as motivating or engaging for the students (students report less satisfaction and show poorer attendance)

5. Really aren’t that much fun for the teachers, either

So—why are we still using these out-dated methods in our schools?

The biggest problem I see: once the research is conducted, the data collected, and the conclusions drawn, the researchers move on to the next study and everyone forgets all about that most important part—putting the research to practical use in actual schools with real students, not just subjects in a lab.

I see this as a collaboration problem and a funding problem, especially in regards to the research done with new technology and education. First, when teams collaborate on this type of research, there should be a final leg of the initiative that involves implementation, in the event of a useful outcome. I realize you can’t set up implementation programs ahead of producing a valid result, but there should always be an option of a Part II. That Part II should automatically considered for funding, provided there were significant results from Part I that support it. Nothing more frustrating to me than to read a fantastic study on new educational methodology that really works well, like increased student learning utilizing virtual world technology, only to find out the team went on to the next new problem to solve and the findings were left to collect dust in a journal because there was no money or plan to get those results put to actual use. It makes a few headlines, provides for an exciting read on a few websites, then: nothing. Is that really solving the problem? That’s only the first step.
Once data has been provided that demonstrates the usefulness of a new educational method, as a society, I feel we are obligated to make sure steps are taken to put it to actual use. Otherwise, why are we funding educational research, anyway? Just because it’s cool or fun to see what kinds of positive change is possible? Don’t we actually want those changes implemented in our own kids’ schools so they can benefit as well? I see lots of talk about the government’s new commitment to funding non-traditional research on education, but what about the next step? As well as funding the research behind these studies, we need to think of some funding to get the methods implemented in practice.

Now of course, there are exceptions —schools that have gone the extra mile to implement brain and technology research in actual classrooms, and their efforts should be applauded. I also know of several experimental schools that are doing their best to encourage creativity and fight against the traditional model, but it’s not enough. We need more of this—much more.

Some final comments

I can look back on my childhood and see the transition from passive to active learner, at first asking questions and receiving answers, accepting them as truth, not bothering to contemplate other possibilities. I think as a child, that’s our baseline. But once I crossed that bridge over to the other side—experiencing the pure joy of solving problems and arriving at a completely novel solution—it was painful to try and cross back, just for the sake of conformity and obedience to whatever the status quo stated was appropriate behavior for someone in my position. Once you’ve taken flight with your ideas and experienced all those brilliant colors, is it fair to force a child to live back inside a box, lined with a black and white filter?

I’ve shared my own personal story, but I am not the only one who has lived it. Many children today face a similar fate, and it’s tragic. Whatever curious drive any one student might have entering school, it is pretty much beaten out of you by the time you graduate. The lucky few are the ones who are too stubborn to follow the rules arbitrarily. They suffer the consequences for their rebellion, but might have a supportive other (typically a teacher or non-family adult) that provides just enough encouragement to keep them on their path, even when it proves to be treacherous. Walking that path alone is scary, lonely, and wicked hard.

We say we want children to achieve at the highest level—to be the next generation of great scientists and innovators and artists and world leaders—yet the system we’ve put in place makes it nearly impossible for each child to reach their potential. Those worst off are typically the ones whose unique skills and talents we need the most—the most creative thinkers, the natural innovators, the ones who find comfort in the discomfort of not knowing, fearless in the pursuit of their vision.

What is supposed to be the most critical learning period for shaping children into the leaders of tomorrow has evolved over the years into a stifling of the creative instinct—wasting the age of imagination—which we then spend the rest of our lives trying to reconnect with. The time has never been more ready for systemic change than right now, and we’ve never had better tools to achieve this level of creative disobedience, to successfully prepare our children for the big challenges that lie ahead. It might be uncomfortable and take a bit of work, but our future depends on this radical change in order to survive.

Third Week of Summer School...

2011-07-08T11:25:00.000-04:00

After a week off, where Joseph and Jason went up to Camp La Noche for Boy Scout Camp, we resumed our Geography-themed Summer School with our first country, Ireland.

We did our usual vocabulary and journaling, along with history, mythology, and folklore lessons.

We went to the movies...but we didn't get to spend hardly ANY time swimming, either at the pool OR the beach...as it was grey and rainy all week long...although since we were studying Ireland, it was strangely appropriate.

We also "caught" a leprechaun that left us chocolate "gold", and graphed Skittles while we watched a PBS documentary about Ancient Ireland.

We baked Irish Soda Bread...SEVERAL loaves...

...and on the last day, made Rainbow Cupcakes with Cloud Frosting.

It's been a fun week!! Now...on to NEXT week's country...

The Fourth of July

2011-07-08T11:11:00.000-04:00

We had a VERY busy Fourth of July this year...so busy, that it was rather difficult for me to take pictures...I was too busy going from here to there, frantically cleaning, cooking, or administering first aid, and really just enjoying spending the day with my family and friends.

Jason and I started the day by running a 5K race in Weston. It was a lot of fun...I improved my time by two whole minutes, and Jason SMOKED it...coming in just UNDER 30 minutes, with a 9-and-a-half-minute pace time. I'm pretty jealous.

Then it was home for quick showers and over to the chapel for the annual Pembroke Pines Ward Waffle Stomp...the Fourth of July breakfast, Pine Wood Derby Race, and Volleyball Game.

Since none of our Derby cars placed, and we were expecting company for barbecue, we skipped the game part and headed home to spruce up for the evenings festivities. We had several families come over to join us for barbecue, and spent the evening chilling and talking, with several small fireworks shows to keep the kids interested until the BIG show after dark.

After fireworks, we all sang Happy Birthday to Jason (he swears it was his best Birthday Song ever with the off-key screeching of no less than 15 children...not all of whom are pictured above...and 7 adults) and enjoyed Coconut Cake.

It was a great way to celebrate our countries birthday...we LOVE July Fourth!!!

Second Week of Summer School...

2011-06-27T07:57:00.002-04:00

Week Two of Summer School focused on Mapping Skills. Here is the week...summed up in pictures...

We did worksheets, played games, and mastered vocabulary words that pertained to cartography...

We made our own treasure boxes, put treasures in them and hid them somewhere in the house. Then we drew maps to our treasures. I took the maps...shuffled them up, and passed them out again so each kid could find someone else's treasure...

We made Sugar Cookies with frosting and drew compass roses on the, had a treasure hunt for all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies and made those, and assembled a "Pirate Trail Mix"...

We spent Tuesday at Ft. Lauderdale beach with many, many friends...went to see Ramona and Beezus at the dollar theater on Wednesday...and on Friday, we took part in Mayors Kids Day, and enjoyed driving around town and picking up all the free and discounted activities there were to do, such as free frappuccinos at Starbucks, free tokens at Chuck E. Cheese, and lunch with the Mayor (as well as a rousing trivia game where both Brigham and Savannah were chosen to play).

All that on top of normal scholastic activities, trips to the library, and almost daily trips to the pool!! It was another busy school week in the jungle!!

(to see the lesson plans...visit Summer School Safari)

Next week is a week off from school, as daddy is off for vacation, and Joseph is away at Boy Scout camp. So the kids and I will get to hang out and chill out and get ready for the NEXT week, where we actually start exploring some countries...starting with Ireland!!

See ya then, fellow Summer Travellers!!

First Week of Summer School...

2011-06-17T13:50:00.002-04:00

The first week of summer school...in images:

We made giant paper-maiche globes...

We invented our own imaginary countries...

We cooked Rice Krispie globes, pizza, homemade ice cream, and brownies...

And we went to the library, to Ski Rixen, and to the pool each and every day...

And that's on top of actual handwriting, vocabulary, math, science, reading, and history lessons.

What a week!! Can't wait for all new fun NEXT week!!

Josephs 13th Birthday

2011-06-17T09:22:00.001-04:00

Since this year is a "Family Outing" year vs. a "Birthday Party" year...we took off on a journey to celebrate Joseph turning THIRTEEN!!! (I still can't wrap my mind around it).

He has really been wanting to try "Ski Rixen"...and cable-pulled ski experience in Deerfield Beach. He's been wanting to do it for a few years, but you have to be at least 12 years old...so now was the PERFECT time try it. Best of all...Joseph got to go with his Dad...while the kids and I watched and picnicked from the dock...

Joseph started on a kneeboard, while Dad rode a wakeboard.

Okay, bud...here you go...HOLD ON!!!

And he's OFF!! Without a hitch!! What a natural!!

Of course, there were a few wipe-outs...Joseph had a hard time negotiating the first turn. It'll take some practice...I think Jason had to ride the cable 4 or 5 times before he mastered that first turn...but once he did, the other turns were conquered much more quickly and now he takes the whole course 3 or 4 times.

It won't be long until Joseph is right up there with him...he had such a good time that I'm sure we'll be back several times this summer as he works on mastering this new-found love!!

After skiing a couple hours, we had a great picnic lunch and then opened presents...

Joseph got several new books (he really needs something new to read...he has been just TEARING through books), and a new cell phone!! Hurray!!!

At the end of the day, we headed over to one of Jasons managers house to have dinner with their family, and the kids got a chance to go swimming again. They have 5 kids, and WE have 5 kids...so it was a rambunctious, busy, and very LOUD evening!! (Just the way we like 'em!!)

With a couple beautiful ice cream cakes and pretty sparkler candles, the day and evening was made complete!!

Here's wishing for a great 13th year for my wonderful, beautiful, fun-loving, and geek-y (in a loving, adorable way) son...

I love you!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Summer School Kick-Off 2011!!

2011-06-13T07:58:00.001-04:00

It's time for the annual Johnson Family Summer School!!

I'm really excited AND trepidacious about Summer School this year...and I'll tell you why...

This year Summer School was a challenge because all my children are getting so much bigger…and the cutie little “Gospel-themed” lessons just won’t cut it anymore. Nicolette will probably still enjoy counting goldfish and learning about pioneers…but the other kids have gotten older, and have this “been there – done that” mentality. I wanted to be able to challenge everyone…but I’m not qualified to teach higher math and science concepts. I also wanted it to be fun and engaging…for the older kids AND the littles.

Not only that, but we have the additional challenge of a dwindling budget…meaning that I can’t spend a lot of money on supplies and field trips. I have to meet everyone’s needs AND do it economically. That means walking to the pool and library, and doing more activities at home.

Finally, I wanted to shorten our lesson time. In past summers, we sometimes worked all day…but this year, I wanted to be done by lunch. That means that I couldn’t have all these grand activities planned…everything had to be short and sweet.

I am pretty daunted by the task.

I decided the easiest way to solve my dilemma was to pick a subject we could study all summer long that everyone loved.

I settled on “Geography”. Our family loves to travel, but we have never been able to take big family vacations. Geography seemed like an easy theme to work with that I could adjust to fit the many different learning levels and attitudes in our home. I would have the first couple weeks be about actual geography, and then focus on a different country every week after that, skipping the week Jason is on vacation.

Each child will have a “travel binder” with dividers in it. We can keep our work and progress in the binders.

I also wanted to have a “mascot”…someone that would “help” our studies all summer long…I really wanted a parrot, and I wanted to name him “Rio”. But then a movie came out about a parrot with the same name, so I decided against it, and instead used a giant stuffed monkey that I already had hiding in my closet. I named him “Columbus”…

It's true that many things will be below Josephs level...but I am hoping he will step in and take a more "leadership role"...helping the little kids complete their tasks. I do have activities that are geared more for the older kids, but what I really want is for Joseph to be a "teachers aide". I will also be working with him on several merit badges this summer...so that will DEFINITELY keep him busy if he needs a little extra boost.

Kaitlyn has her own on-line courses this year, a new part-time job, summer activities to get ready for the new school year (like choir practice), AND has her non-profit to work with...plus she's taking off 3 weeks to visit her Dad in California...so although she'll participate and help with the lessons, she's really going to have her own stuff to do.

So anyway...this is my plan. I post the lessons on the "Summer School Safari" part of my blog. They won't update automatically onto Facebook, or if you're on the e-mail list, they won't automatically e-mail to you...so you'll have to actually go on the blog page, and under the title click the "Summer School Safari" link, and then it will take you to the lessons.

I make sure to list the links where I pulled and adapted ideas, so if someone else is interested in what I do and where I got the inspiration, they can go to the source. It's also because a lot of these ideas are NOT mine...they are created by other people...far more talented people who I am sure want some credit for their very hard work. Therefore...if I have borrowed an idea...or even if I've used an idea as a platform from which to jump and spin my own little lesson...I include the link.

Here's to a successful and fun Summer School in 2011!!!

Savannah Smiles

2011-06-12T15:47:00.001-04:00

This cannot be happening.

Wasn't I writing and balling all over the computer about Josephs 5th grade graduation...like, YESTERDAY?

Didn't that JUST happen?

So how is it possible that Savannah is now graduating 5th grade, and preparing to enter middle school? It really CANNOT be right...it just CAN'T!!!

STOP FATHER TIME!!

Stop stealing my children from me!! Stop letting them grow up!!

It's so conflicting...there are times where I WANT them to grow...to become more independent...and then when they actually DO it...all I can do is whine and moan that they are no longer little and curled on my lap.

Savannahs 5th Grade Graduation ceremony was very nice, from the tasteful decorations to the fast-moving program...

Look how excited she is...in a pretty new dress, with new shoes and coordinating clutch...just like a big girl...

(sniff, sniff)...

There are about 120 graduating fifth graders from her elementary school...

...and she accepted her certificate from the Mayor of our city, Mayor Frank Ortiz. She looks so grown-up!!

(where's a tissue?)

She's getting taller, too! Soon she'll be as big as me, and borrowing my heels, and...and...who IS this big girl? With the beautiful green eyes and little bit of lip gloss? What did she do with my chubby little blonde baby? The only thing she still has is that smile...that sweet Savannah Smile that has made my life brighter every day since she was born!!

Okay!!

That's it.

I tried...I really did...

...but I can't help it. It's time for a big 'ol reminisce...queue the sweet and sad music...it's gonna be weep-y...

My sweet Savannah was born in late August. She weighed a lucky 7 pounds, 7 ounces. An easy pregnancy, a quick and easy birth, and she was an easy baby...hardly ever cried...enjoyed her nap time...and was a Daddys girl FROM THE START...

Look how YOUNG Jason is in this picture!! (Sorry for the glare...my scanner doesn't work so I had to take pictures of pictures...and this is the best I could get...)

Savannah was always happy...always sweet...

I still can't get over how young Jason looks...

Savannah was an absolutely beautiful child, with golden ringlets and a chubby little angelic face that just lit up when she smiled...which was all the time. Everyone gravitated towards her...from little children who wanted to be her friend to little old ladies who wanted to pinch her cheeks and stroke her curls...

Oh my...I remember these days...three little's all under my feet all day long...

I remember how mad Jason got at me for putting that temporary tattoo on her belly that read "Sweet"...he accused me of trying to turn her into Britney Spears (at three years old!!)...

Oh my oh my...these were my favorites...taken by my friend Courtney Milius. Darn that glare...she's so cute!!

And here's where it started...Savannah in kindergarten. From this point I haven't been able to stop her...she just grew and grew and grew...sweet and lovely the whole way...always trying to be the peace-maker, the sunshine, momma's little helper.

It's only been recently that she's started to show a little bit of attitude...I guess trying to be "all grown up"...

I can't complain, though...because underneath her little bursts of independence, she's still my darling little Savannah...

...and there's still nothing that beats a Savannah Smile...

Memorial Day Fun!!

2011-06-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

This past Memorial Day, we did something we never do...we went to the beach.

As you know, we are BIG TIME beach fans...but we tend to stay clear of days and times that the beaches are crowded...preferring them to empty and all "ours".

But we decided to break tradition and head up to John U. Lloyd State Beach in Ft. Lauderdale. Jason (miraculously) had the day off, and we thought it would be a fun family day. We figured if we went early enough, we could beat the crowds.

John U. Lloyd is typically a very empty and quiet beach...and we arrived shortly after the gates opened, but there were already several families there (and some had even started grilling!!). Still...it wasn't AWFUL...so we decided to stick it out...claim some sand, and have some fun.

The red and purple flags were up, so we had the kids stay in water that was only waist deep...and they really had a blast playing in the waves, which are an extremely rare treat in our neck of the woods.

That is, if you can call 2 foot swells "waves"...

When they got tired of rolling and tumbling and being dragged around by the undertow, they constructed oversized sand forts and in honor of Memorial Day, they had a "war"...

All the while, Dad and I "observed". We were asked a couple times to go out in the water, but frankly, we were very content to lounge in our chairs and watch our kids have a good time.

We stayed a couple hours...leaving when the kids got hungry (because SOMEONE forgot to load the cooler...no names, but he looks really hot in Aviators, so I forgave him), and by time we left, there was a line at the beach gate that stretched on for almost three miles...even up to the freeway off ramp.

WHEW!!

I'd say our timing was just right.

The rest of the day was spent watching patriotic movies, grilling brats and burgers, and playing a couple rousing games of SCUM...

...it was a perfect, wonderful, relaxing day.

Caught Between A Boy and A Man...

2011-06-10T07:47:00.000-04:00

Joseph has had a really rough school year this year.

REALLY ROUGH.

I think I spent more time in conferences and on the phone with teachers and principals than all the other years combined. He's struggled at home, too...with bursts of irrational anger and long periods of self-inflicted isolation.

In other words...he's caused us a lot of stress and anxiety and been the focus of many prayers.

We've tried all kinds of things to get him to do better in school and control his emotions at home...threatened, bribed, pleaded, begged, cried,and researched. Nothing seems to make a dent in the seemingly impenetrable bubble Joseph surrounds himself with. Nothing interests or excites or inspires him...so we have no leverage to work with.

There is one thing that Joseph likes to do ...and that is to play cello. He's not a master at it...in fact, I believe he is last chair. And he is still getting an atrocious grade in the class because he always "forgets" to bring his cello home to practice (probably a main reason why he is last chair). But...it's something he enjoys doing, and doesn't feel stressed about. So, in my mind...it's a really good thing for him to do. And that is why, although we have taken away practically all other privileges in response to his failing grades, we haven't taken away cello...because he needs SOMETHING that he feels confidant about doing.

Joseph did advance to Advanced Orchestra this year as a second-year cello student...and he got a little trophy at the Awards Banquet.

He looks really excited, right? Despite his "smile-without-smiling" expression, he was very happy to get an award.

Even little plastic trophies make you feel good...especially for a kid like Joseph who has had a rough year without any successes to speak of...someone who hasn't gotten praised or awarded or received any kinds of accolades whatsoever...this makes you feel important, and not forgotten, and not worthless.

We tell him how wonderful he is all the time, but we also ride him hard about his schoolwork, and his attitude...and I know his teachers do, too...so I wonder what he really thinks of himself.

We also had the pleasure of attending Josephs End Of The Year Concert and watching him play. I really love watching him play because he seems to really have fun doing it.

The middle school orchestra shares the night with the high school orchestra...which is also very small but is VERY good, and churns out top musicians every year that get accepted to top music programs all over the country. Joseph really likes listening to the high school orchestra and cannot wait to be in high school so he can play in it, too.

He promised me that next year, in eighth grade, he'll try harder. I offered to get him private lessons on the cello...hoping to inspire him to really delve into something that he likes, but he just shrugged and said: "I already know how to play. I don't need to learn anything else. I just want to play."

*sigh* The concept seems to be escaping him...

Anyway...although Joseph has had a trying year...I really am proud of him...I love him and see this young man struggling to break out of a little boy who doesn't want to STOP being a kid. I wish there was a way to make these transitional years easier on him...but Joseph seems to have picked a lonely path that he has no desire to deter from.

So I'll be here...waiting...hoping...if he needs me...

Being a mom is so hard...a pendulum swinging between unbridled joy and immeasurable heartbreak...

Kaitlyn Receives Her Young Womans Medallion

2011-06-10T07:19:00.001-04:00

Like most religions, ours has a program for our youth. It's divided by gender...Young Womans and Young Men, and then further divided by age. As a Young Woman, you start at 12 years old as a "Beehive". Then at 14, you advance to "Mia Maid". And then at 16, you become a "Laurel". At 18, you join the woman's organization in the church, the Relief Society.

In the Young Womans program, their is an advancement program called Personal Progress. Young Women complete several different goals at all age levels based on the Young Woman values: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue.

Some goals are simple, short-term goals, while others are long term...and all involve projects in exploring one's own relationship with their Father in Heaven, the Gospel, and the Young Woman Values.If you complete the program and meet all your goals, with the approval of your Young Womans leader and your Bishop, you can be awarded the Young Womans Medallion.

Kaitlyn has been progressively working on her Personal Progress...and she completed her goals several months ago. Since she had promised her Papa that she would complete it, she felt it was only fitting that she be awarded the medallion while they were here to visit.

So on the Sunday after her Birthday Beach Day, she was called up in front of the church and awarded her Young Womans Medallion.

We are all very proud of Kaitlyns achievement, and her willingness to work and stick with these goals, the program, and the gospel.

Papa and Yaya were especially proud...and honored to be able to witness this special day...

We're extremely proud of Kaitlyn, as well...

It's very pretty...she opted to get it in silver...and it has the three symbols of the three levels of Young Womans...the Beehive, the Rose for Mia Maids, and the Laurel wreath...all highlighting the next and ultimate goal...being able to go to the Temple.

We are building a new Temple here is South Florida...quite literally in walking distance to our house. The ground-breaking is next weekend, and in a couple years, it should be finished.

Perhaps Kaitlyn will visit THAT temple when it is done?

Kaitlyns 17th Birthday

2011-06-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

I have been so busy writing about Spain that I have not been able to keep up with the everyday family stuff...and now I am going to play catch-up with that.

The first big family event that I need to go back to is Kaitlyns 17th birthday. Kaitlyn actually had her birthday WHILE we were in Spain. I know, I know...bad parents...we missed it to go overseas.

But actually, Kaitlyn was okay with us missing her birthday...that is, as long as we brought her back a REALLY nice present.

When we returned (and after we showered her with a large book highlighting the art collection in the Prado and a beautiful pair of damascene earrings from Toledo), we celebrated her birthday.

Since this year is a "family outing" year and NOT a "birthday party" year...Kaitlyn chose to spend her birthday at the beach. So we packed up some extra nice beach food and headed for the sun and sand.

We took Papa and Yaya, Kate's boyfriend Pedro, and our neighbors, the Charrons, and headed to one of our favorite South Florida beaches, Haulover Beach in Miami.

The kids played in the sand and water...and Brigham (as usual) dug himself a hole to be buried in. But this time, Brigham did not take into account that Papa was at the beach, too...and...

...well, I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Yup...so much for best-laid plans...especially when there is a 69-year-old KID at the beach...

After the beach, we headed home for cake. Pedro took Kaitlyn to a salon for her birthday to get her hair cut...so you get to see her short and super-cute new "do"...

After cake, we gave gifts...and as if the presents from Spain weren't enough, we gave her some new make-up, and Yaya and Papa gave her a gift certificate to Charming Charlies...but the main event was a much-needed and desired brand-new cell phone!!

This birthday has been kinda hard for me...I cannot believe that my first-born baby is already 17 years old. It's even wierder when I consider that I was just 17 years old when I had her.

I just cannot imagine being pregnant at that age.

I don't even want to THINK about Kate being in that situation.

So Kate is now half as old as I am. I won't be half as old as my mother for another 14 months.

The world is a very strange place.

I actually shouldn't worry about that...because Kaitlyn is NOTHING like I was at her age. She's motivated, driven, and smart. I'm not saying that she's immune to the pitfalls of youth...but she's got a big world in front of her...she'll be a senior at Miramar High School. She's been voted as Vice President of COTA (the Drama and Arts Club on campus), as well as the Music Head. She's still on the Homecoming Committee. She has been invited to join Varsity and Show Choir. She's already taken her SAT's, and takes her ACT's later in June. She got a part-time job at our local frozen yogurt stop that she starts in a week. She is still working with the non-profit organization she started, Pads for Paws...which makes special washable pads for the bottoms of cages in animal shelters. She applies for college in the fall.

She'll be all grown up in no time. And she seems to be holding it all together just magnificently.

Hold on, please...I have to go cry...

The Trip of a Lifetime...The Couple from La Mancha

2011-06-05T09:37:00.002-04:00

This guy is my hero.

From his grizzled appearance, to his misplaced sense of chivalry, to his stubborn Rozinante, and his choice of simple yet poetic companions...

...to me, he symbolizes all the hope of a better world than the one we live in.

For this reason, when given the chance to spend the day in Toledo, in the heart of La Mancha...I, of course, jumped at the opportunity.

Well...that's not the ONLY reason...

Toledo is a stunning medieval city perched on top of a hill and surrounded on three sides by a river. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It was here on this hill before Spain was Spain...and was actually the capitol of Spain for centuries before a King moved the capitol to Madrid. It is still the religious heart of the country.

Unlike the grid-planned cities inspired by the Romans, Toledo was primarily planned by the Moors, who believed that a city with extremely narrow, twisting streets would be more defensible...

...after all, who wants to bring an army into a city with streets no more than 3 men wide, that twist and turn like a great cobblestone serpent, with no apparent rhyme or reason?

Add a HUGE stone wall several feet thick with turrets and towers, and the natural moat created by the river, and your have a highly protected city that has never been taken by force...only by siege.

Toledo's twisting, hilly topography makes you feel as if you are always walking uphill, and the high walls of ancient buildings make it impossible to see distant landmarks that might help you orientate yourself. For this reason, the guide was adamant about is sticking together...because getting lost in Toledo is VERY easy to do.

However, that's EXACTLY what Jason and I wanted to do...get lost.

We wanted to spend the day zigzagging and meandering, stumbling upon hidden treasures and secrets, and unveiling the arts and craftmanship that Toledo is famous for...pottery, damascene jewelry, mazapan, and most famously...Spanish steel.

But as we wandered the alleys and streets with our guide, we saw what she meant...we would be walking down one treacherously steep cobblestone path, and suddenly, she'd open a great wooden door in a wall, we'd walk through and be on a different street altogether , going in an entirely different direction.

Instead of making us feel paranoid about getting turned around, it made Jason and I all the more keen to peel away from the group.

One of the first places we visited was the Cathedral of Toledo. After all the cathedrals and churches and museums we had toured and admired in both Barcelona and Madrid...there was none to compare with this Cathedral. It took 250 years to build, from about 1226 to 1493, making it one of the oldest buildings we saw.

It was the most ornate as well...the high Gothic architecture, the lofty interior...every surface seemed to be made of rich walnut, gleaming alabaster, and gilded in gold.

And then...there was the Sacristy.

The Sacristy is a private room where the bishops and cardinals would get dressed, and has only recently been opened to the public. Crammed inside this tiny space were more famous paintings by famous artists than I saw in any museum...including the Prado. Every inch of every wall, floor to ceiling, was covered.

This small room housed El Grecos "El Expolio", and masterpieces by Goya, Titian, Mengs, van Dyke, Velazquez, Ribera, Caravaggio, and Bellini. I stood for many precious moments...struck dumb by a small painting by Raphael...hung at chest level and squeezed between larger, more ornate pieces, seemingly added there as an afterthought...as if they had no place else to display it. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen...

If there was one room I could have died happy in...I can safely say that it is there. When I'm old and gray, wheel me back to Toledo and stretch me out in the Sacristy...rotate me every few hours so I can see and ponder it all...and let me slip into oblivion among masters...

After I was forcefully removed from this room, we continued on our journey to see many more churches, buildings, and beautiful sites in Toledo...but as we traveled, we started to get antsy. We were running out of time and had some very specific things to see...and so, when our little group stopped for a break (some of our entourage were not accustomed to the cardiovascular intensity the terrain in Toledo was providing), we peeled off to look for the main two things we knew we HAD to buy in Toledo...swords and mazapan.

Being famous for the production of Spanish steel, sword and weaponry shops abounded in Toledo...but we had heard that the BEST mazapan came from Santo Tome. We had seen Santo Tome when we entered the city...but now didn't know where we were in relation to that point. So we opted to start with the steel...

...besides, the mazapan was MY thing...Jason came to Toledo with the express purpose of buying a sword...and since this was his trip...it was really important to me that he get what he wanted most...

So, we teamed up with another couple, and backtracked through the twisting alleys, up a great hill, through a door in the wall, around a building or two, back down a few steps, until we re-located a shop that had caught our eye. Inside, Jason haggled and negotiated, and purchased a large two handed sword patterned after the Knights Templar and made right there in Toledo. It had to be shipped home (no WAY we were getting that sucker on a plane...can you imagine explaining it at customs?).

Once done, we had to race back to find the group. We passed several convents, all with hand-written signs that said "Vente Dulces". I thought if I couldn't buy Santo Tomes mazapan, I should buy it from the nuns of Toledo...but we could not stop, we were out of time...and soldiered on to catch up with the group.

After several more stops, we came to our lunch destination on the outer wall of Toledo, outside the cities gate. We knew that after lunch, we would be heading home, and I was disappointed about not getting the mazapan.

Jason, ever my hero, seemed to know about where we were, and was confidant he could get us back to the square where we saw the shop. So, we asked our friends to hold a spot at the table for our lunches, and went to our guide to explain what we wanted to do.

She was not encouraging.

"You cannot do this, " she said with a rich accent. "It is straight uphill...you need to catch a taxi. You will never make it in time."

She tried pleading, chastising, and even had the manager of the house offer to order it for us and have it delivered. But Jason was adamant...No, we wanted to go ourselves.

With a dramatic sigh of resignation, she warned us if we missed the bus, it would be a VERY expensive cab ride back to Madrid...and with that, we took off.

We raced around the corner, and sure enough, found the city gate. We had driven through it upon arrival in the bus...and it was at least a mile and a half to the top, and almost STRAIGHT uphill.

Jason looked at me and said: "Ya know...I know why she didn't want us to go. A lot of people in our party were struggling with the tour around the city. I'm sure she sees that a lot...out-of-shape Americans who don't want to exercise."

"But we're not like that, are we?" I said.

Jason smiled. "Nope..." he said. Then he hunched down in a half crouch and said: "Are you ready?"

I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and mirrored his crouch.

"Let's Go!!" he said...

...and we ran.

The cobblestones gave us a little lip to push off from as we climbed up the hills, like miniature steps on a giant Stairmaster. The residents of Toledo who were carefully picking their way up or down the hill looked at us with amazement and a fair amount of amusement...crazy Americans!!

But we high-stepped it up that hill in less than 10 minutes, hot and sweaty at the top, and jubilant in our conquest of Toledos formidable terrain. I found Santo Tome, purchased an insane amount of mazapan, and we reverse raced back down the hill, arriving back at the restaurant, sweaty and flushed, just as our companions were being served their salads.

After lunch (which was one of the best meals we had...large and simple and delicious), we saw our guide again. She saw my bulging bag from Santo Tome and said: "Oh!! You made it!!"

Hopefully she'll never underestimate Americans again.

And was the mazapan worth it?

...ohhhh yeeaaahhhh...

Toledo was our FAVORITE part of the trip...the most beautiful, romantic, inspiring place we had been. In my mind, it was everything that symbolized Spain...

And I even got to rendezvous with my hero...

...how could it possibly be any better than that?

POST NOTE: About 2 weeks after arriving home, Jason received a very large rectangular package in the mail.

Mission Accomplished...

The Trip of a Lifetime...Flamenco, Bullfights, and Tres Pelirojas Locas (Oh, My!!)

2011-06-03T10:02:00.000-04:00

There's still just so much to share about Spain...but I really do need to wrap this up, because me life is speeding by and I have more to post about family and if I don't do it soon...I'm going to be playing catch-up foooreevver (name that movie).

I wanted to tell you about an amazing flamenco show we saw at El Corral de la Moreria, currently the best Tablao Flamenco in the world. Flamenco is a beautiful, haunting, passionate, and often misunderstood (by gringos) style of dance. It's gypsy in origins, and therefore has a strong Middle Eastern feel to the singing (think of the sound of Muslims being called to prayer). It's about the hard life of gypsies...nomadic, often despised, hard, with the pain of love and the ache of loss. The dancers rarely smile...in fact, they often look to be in pain...and I guess in a way...they are.

The crowd was rowdy and drunk...and it took awhile for them to get into the feel of it...to really appreciate it as a beautiful art form. Jason and I knew what it was about, and both of us were getting rather fed up...but then the old man playing guitar stopped in the middle of his solo and waited until he had the crowds attention...demanding, with out any words, their respect.

It worked.

And from that point on, we had a very engaged and appreciative audience...which made our experience a million times more enjoyable.

I was also thrilled to wear this pretty "Spanish" dress I borrowed from a friend to wear at the event...I felt like I fit right in!!

The next night...we went to a bullfight in Madrid. We actually visited Madrid in the middle of the Festival of San Isidor, who is the patron saint of Madrid. San Isidor was a poor farmer, but he and his wife always managed to feed the less fortunate, even if it meant that they went hungry. He was also kind to animals. It is said that his master often saw him plowing in the fields, with an angel plowing on either side of him, showing that his work was equal to that of three men. His generosity, empathy, and strong work ethic gained him the respect of all his neighbors and community.

Today, he is celebrated by a 3-week festival that hosts bull fights every night of the week (which I think is rather ironic, considering his is the saint of farmers and farm animals, and gained that sainthood partly by his reputation for being kind to animals). There are six bulls killed a night over 21 days...do the math.

The bull fights sell out years in advance...so we were very lucky to get tickets at all...let alone at such good seats. Our evening was sold out...all 23,000 seats were full...and the King of Spain was actually in attendance...

THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC IN NATURE

I'm not going to go into the details explaining all the parts of a bull fight...who does what and when, what everything stands for and means. I am glad that we went, because I wanted to experience Spanish culture...all parts of it.

However, I can tell you that it is something I have no desire to ever do again. And from my seat, looking around at the audience, I can tell you that it was a very mature crowd...it seemed we were some of the youngest people there. This told me that bull fighting is a dying tradition in Spain...the young, future generation of Spaniards want no part of this custom.

And although we stomached all 6 bull fights, and I know that these bulls are treated better than any cow that ever made my hamburger, and I know that every part of this bull will be used for food and leather and whatever (in fact, the meat of these bulls is awarded to the top restaurants in Spain)...

I still found it to be barbaric, cruel, and a completely unnecessary form of "entertainment". However, I can tell you that the third bull fighter was a master at his sport. He was as beautiful and majestic as one could be, doing what he was doing, and earned several "Oles!!" with each pass of the bull...so close that by time he was done, he was covered in the bulls blood.

In fact, it was so well done that he was actually awarded BOTH the bulls ears...a rare gift. He was paraded around the ring while flowers and hats and shawls were thrown at his feet from admirers, treated to a salute of the entire audience waving white handkerchiefs in the air, and carried out of the stadium on the shoulders of the people. Receiving both the ears of the bull you have killed is such a seldom treasure (the last time it happened was decades ago)...that it was actually broadcast on ESPN that night.

I only have one more post about our trip...and it's from my FAVORITE activity that we did. I will write that tomorrow (I hope)...but before I go, I wanted to say that one of the reasons I had such a good time on this trip (besides the beautiful locale, amazing food and excursions, and being with my best friend in the whole wide world)...is that I really enjoyed spending some time with friends.

We were able to spend some time with several couples we met last year in Hawaii, and made lots of new friends as well. I could name LOTS of names...but let's just say that I'm REALLY hoping we all make it again next year because I don't think that I can get enough of these people.

I was REALLY glad that there seemed to be a good amount of REDHEADS on this trip.

There were a couple of us that had a really good time together, and that I really enjoyed spending time with...Erin and Colleen. I called us the "Tres Pelirojas Locas"...although they were FAR crazier than me. But they had me in stitches every time we were together, and their good humor and witty jokes were infectious. So I wanted to thank them for making my trip all the more fun.

Thanks, girls...because of you, my memories are all the more golden.

Or should I say: Auburn, Strawberry, and Bronze?

The Trip of a Lifetime...The Hunt for Churros con Chocolate

2011-06-01T08:10:00.001-04:00

There is a delicious rumor of a delightful dessert that has been perfected in Spain. A magical, savory, sweet, rich, decadent, marvelous, elation-inducing Spanish treat...known locally as "churros con chocolate".

It is NOT like the fat sugary churros we Americanos buy at amusement parks. The chocolate is NOT your average package of Swiss Miss.

No...this is an entirely different animal altogether.

Jason and I had hunted for churros con chocolate in Barcelona...discovering the famous place where they are supposedly THE BEST...approximately 15 minutes after the churro-maker had gone home for the day.

Undaunted, we picked up our quest in Madrid.

Along the way, we discovered many other famous Spanish treats...the famous Orxata drink (made from chufa nuts), Torron (kind of like an almond bark)...and in Toledo...mazapan (but that, my friends, is a different story). And of course, I sampled chocolate every where I could. (Most chocolate in Spain is NOT sweet...much more like dark chocolate...so I could eat it all day).

Our hunt also took us on a tour of downtown Madrid, where we discovered many beautiful sights and treasures...

...the very center of Spain...from which all stories start...

We toured the Royal Palace...

...and spied upon the adjacent Cathedral.

We looked for the treasured symbols of Madrid, such as this Bear and Madrono tree (the bears are all extinct, but their are still Madrono trees)...

...and the monument to King Carlos III, the "Mayor of Madrid", a king that believed in improving his cities for the people, and subsequent hero of this city.

We found many, many interesting places to eat as well...

...for example, another market. Unlike the bustling Boqueria in Barcelona, this market was orderly, refined, and upscale. It still had the amazing selection of produce and meats and various other goodies, but lacked the scale and local color of the Boqueria in Barcelona...

That doesn't mean that I wasn't just as enthralled with the wares...

...we also found a Puerte de Sol institution, La Mallorquina, a bakery famous for it's napolitanas and rosquillas (of which I tried both...rosquillas are like Spanish donuts...splurge for the ones that are listas..."all dressed up").

There's something utterly charming about getting your bakery purchases all wrapped up and tied with a string, isn't there?

By time Jason had explored this slightly disturbing meat locker, I had begun to lose hope. But then, we stumbled upon friends, who inspired us onward, and with the help of a a couple locals, we wandered down a twisting alley...

...into another, smaller alley...and came upon the local-kept secret of the BEST chocolateria in Madrid...

...San Gines...selling freshly made savory churros with thick, decadent hot chocolate (or cafe, if you prefer) since 1894...

We snagged a table outside (after I had been yelled out for my enthusiasm by the girl behind the counter...in ENGLISH, mind you...)...and placed our order...

My sweetie, who has indulged my quest all day, is grateful for a chance to rest his aching feet...

...and ur friends, who urged us not to give up, joined us to relish in the spoils of conquest.

And here it is!! The source of my angst and desperation...the famed "churros con chocolate"...piping hot and rich and, can I just say...AMAZING!!!

So now I must go...because it's time to dig in...

Thank you, Espana...I love you more and more each day...

The Trip of a Lifetime...The Palace Hotel

2011-05-29T20:48:00.000-04:00

I loved Barcelona...I left a piece of my heart there...

I loved the modern Hotel Arts, as well...

...but the gorgeous Palace Hotel in Madrid was my favorite of the two.

Why, you ask?

Well...because I am, at heart, a classical kind of girl. Technology is great, but I love old-fashioned luxury. There's something about rich woods, crown molding, and turn-of-the-century aesthetics. I'll take the stairs over an elevator, plush over plastic, and simple beauty over ornate elegance any day.

Relatively speaking, The Palace Hotel isn't even that OLD...but in cosmopolitan Madrid, it was practically ancient. It was, in truth, a palace...that the King sold to turn into a hotel. There are suites inside that would leave you breathless...

Now, of course, our room was very simple...comfortable...peaceful. No extravagant suites for us!! But we had a lovely little balcony and a plush-y bed to rest our weary heads for a few hours...so really, what more did we need?

There were several things that I loved about the Palace...the first was our bathroom...

Although not nearly as fancy as the Hotel Arts, it provided something that made my husband extremely happy (which then, of course, makes me happy)...the shower had a knob that let you choose the EXACT temperature of the water.

See, the shower at the Hotel Arts was spacious and awesome, with a bench and 3 different shower heads that shot at you from all angles and got you SERIOUSLY clean...but the temperature knobs were testy. Jason and I have very different opinions when it comes to showers...I like mine piping hot...so my skin is all red and blotchy when I get out. He likes his lukewarm (which to me equates FREEZING)...

...so at the Hotel Arts, we spent a lot of time just figuring out how to adjust it to our PERFECT temperature (especially after following one another in or out)...

...whereas at the Palace, we just had to set the knob at the desired temperature (in Celsius), and viola!! Perfect showers!!

Another favorite was The Rotunda...the great central room where we had breakfast each morning...

The whole room is covered by a GIGANTIC stained glass dome, centered by an ENORMOUS chandelier. As the day travels the hours from morning to night, the stained glass takes on different hues and shades, alternately lighting and shadowing the room as it reflects the sun. And at night...reflecting the glowing lamps from INSIDE...it's sparkling.

Every time we stopped back at the hotel, we took a few moments to stroll into the Rotunda and see what changes were playing out across the dome...it looked different throughout the trip, and each viewing was more beautiful than the last. I enjoyed these moments searching out the small nuances and changes throughout the day...it's rewarding to look for the small, seemingly inconsequential, beauties in life.

It didn't take me long to find the signature of the artists, either.

Another favorite I wish to share wasn't IN the Palace, but rather...NEXT to it.

The building next to our hotel had a great clock...and on the hour, it rang a beautiful tune with bells, and little Spanish puppet people came out and did a little dance.

It was a little reminiscent of It's A Small World in Disneyland...and since I am a BIG Disney fan, I saw this as a plus. Of course, all these colorful characters represented different facets of Spanish life and culture...from the matador, to the flamenco dancer, the revolutionary, and the country woman. I tried to time our exits with the clock so I could see it as often as possible...I never tired of it...and thankfully, my husband was very patient with this piece of child-like wonder.

Madrid holds the promise of being as thoroughly magical as Barcelona...and I cannot wait to share it with you!

The Trip of a Lifetime - Adios, Barcelona!!...Hola, Madrid!!

2011-05-28T08:45:00.001-04:00

I can't believe it's already time to leave Barcelona...and there's still so much to share with you...

Our ramblings through the bustling neighborhoods, the many amazing restaurants we had the pleasure of eating at (can I recommend The Hoffman to you? AMAZING!!!), the colorful characters, eclectic shops, and have I already mentioned that Spainiards LOVE their chocolate? They even have a museum dedicated to it...

But to write about every little thing in Barcelona would require so many posts, and as everyone has lives, and needs to do more than read epic blog posts, I guess it's time to leave artistic, original, and beautiful Barcelona for the much more urban and cosmopolitan capital of Spain, Madrid...

We had to leave VERY early in the morning, so since we were up. Jason and I jogged down the pier to take pictures of the sun rising over the Mediterranean...

With the boats and endless blue ocean...it was truly stunning...

From all shades of pink to fiery oranges, the sun rise took us on a kaleidoscopic journey through the passionate colors of Barcelona.

Then it was on to a part of the trip that I had been excited about for weeks...truly one of the things I had been anticipating most...a ride on the AVE high speed train from Barcelona to Madrid...

I know it's a little nerdy...but I couldn't wait to ride a bullet train...to watch the scenery speed by at 300kmh...to make an 7-8 hour car ride turn into a 3-and-a-half hour train ride (and only that long because we called at all stops...without stopping, it would've taken only 2-and-a-half-hours...but I'm glad we stopped, because I loved seeing all the charming little villages).

The trains were sleek and modern...and best of all, we got to sit in the Club Car, where we were waited on hand and foot by servers, and had great seats by gigantic windows.

I am VERY excited...

I am also VERY tired...we hadn't slept more than 4 hours a night since we got there (except that unfortunate night that the hotel lost power and our alarm didn't go off and we woke up 3 hours late)...

See...in Spain, they eat VERY late...lunch is between 2-4, and then dinner doesn't start until 9pm, at the EARLIEST. And then, the first hour is all cocktails and socializing, with the first course being served sometime around 10-10:30pm. So we weren't returning to the hotel until AT LEAST midnight...and we'd always promise ourselves that we were going to go STRAIGHT to bed...but it never failed that we'd meet friends and they'd want to go out and we'd always say: "SURE!!!"...so we were dragging our butts into bed at 2 or 3 in the morning, only to hop up at 7...just a few hours later.

Almost everyone was in the same predicament as I was...and the minute the got on the train, they reclined their seats and went to sleep...including my husband...

But I had been looking forward to this so much that I didn't sleep at all...instead staying glued to the window as a beautiful pastoral Spain whizzed on by...

Hundreds of miles of orchards, vineyards, and quaint and crumbling villages, all with ramshackle gardens that exploded with color and vegetation...little people pulling carts or leading horses...women and girls wrapped in shawls, little boys playing games...no cares for the ancient medieval walls that deteriorated around the fields...probably once marking various lands of noble families...

Hardly a paved road in site...

I managed to stay awake the whole time, soaking it all in, reveling in the experience of being able to ride a high speed train in Spain. And all the while, marvelling at the science and technology allowing us to speed that fast over ground...

We arrived in Madrid, and without barely a breathe began the second part of our adventure. Like Barcelona, Madrid was a whirlwind "how-much-can-we-do-in-one-day" adventure...so I was grateful for the blissful hours I got to spend in a quiet sleepy Club Car, enjoying the provincial and rustic beauty of Espana...

The Trip of a Lifetime...Gaudi

2011-05-27T10:52:00.001-04:00

Barcelona is teeming with artists...both old and new. The old artists have left their marks all over the city...painting world-renowned art, sculpting breathtaking statues, and building towering cathedrals. New artists have covered Barcelona the same way...with modern sculptures along the beach, interestingly shaped skyscrapers that reach for the sky, and even some of the most beautiful graffiti art I've ever seen scrawled on doors and in alleys...

(although I have a problem with people who spray paint something illegible on a medieval building...it seemed the REAL artists...the ones that were actually painting ART...kept to brick walls and metal grates...the annoying "taggers" had far less respect for their predecessors and should be shot)

One of my favorite artists was an architect, and a fairly modern one, at that. His name was Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi lived from 1852 to 1926, and spent primarily all that time in the Catalan area. He is best known for his part in the Modernisme art movement. His work is thoughtful, inspirational, deeply devoted to his religious persuasions and his love of nature. He believed all creativity stemmed from the people of the Mediterranean...while the people of the North could only imitate .

The bountiful amount of art I saw in Barcelona leads me to believe he may have been on to something.

In Barcelona...we got to see several example of Gaudi's genius...

The first was the Parc Guell, originally designed to be a Master Planned Community, and now a beautiful park with an amazing common area surrounded by a giant mosaic undulating bench.

I could go on and on about this park...from the Hall beneath the common area, the aqueducts, the buildings...and the sheer genius of Gaudi and how he thought of every little thing even how to drain the excess water when it rains...

His mosaic work, though...was the real treat. He pioneered using "trash"...broken glass, teacups, plates...ANYTHING...to make amazing mosaic accents to most all of his work...

We also had the opportunity to tour Casa Mila...one of the most recognizable examples of his work...with it's characteristic "cake melting in the rain" facade. Although the house and all it's intricacies is truly beautiful...the most stunning part is the roof...

With hills and valleys, tunnels and tile work...it's a playground several stories above the bustling Exiample district below...

With panoramic views of the quaint streets and inner alleys and gardens of Barcelonas people...and most importantly...

A gorgeous window to the pièce de résistance of Gaudi's work...the La Sagrada Familia.

No trip to Barcelona would be complete without taking even a whirlwind tour of this stunning church. I could spend pages and pages describing his inspiration, the plans, the genius...everything...but being that this is a blog...and needs to sum up a story quick...let me just tell you...

It's breath-taking.

There is NO comparison. You simply wander around...unable to close your mouth...forced to ignore the crick in your neck as your eyes are raised ever higher and higher...

The stained glass is brilliant...and soon with grace every sunlit opening...

There is even sunlit being funneled from within the lofty columns to shine through great glass ovals that are strategically placed to light the church within...

Gaudi died before the church was completed...but he knew he would, and left extensive notes and plaster casts and models so future architects would be able to complete his vision. Many of those artifacts were lost in the Spanish Civil War...but with what has remained, and with computer technology, they continue work on the church today...feverishly trying to finish it before it's hundred year birthday in 2025.

There is another famous residence built by Gaudi in Barcelona...just 4 blocks South of the Casa Mila...known as Casa Batllo. Gaudi built it as a symbol to the patron saint of Barcelona, St. George (as in the St. George who slayed the dragon).

If you use your imagination...you can see how the roof resembles the back of a great dragon, and the chimney a sword with a cross on the handle, piercing the dragons back. The balconies look like skulls.
In the first picture, you can see a queue of people lining up outside this house, desiring a tour. They had come a long way to explore this magnificent home...but were bring turned away.

See...the house had been reserved for a private party that evening, and since they were setting up...tours were cancelled that day. The people were very upset...but although Jason and I wanted to go inside...we weren't upset...because that private party was actually for The Cheesecake Factory.

That's right...our Gala dinner in Barcelona was to be in the Casa Batllo, where we would have free run of the building and it's docents all night long.

We had a marvelous evening there...touring the building, learning all about Gaudi and his work...I even got to ride in the teeny-tiny elevator. Everyone said it was like being in the house of Dr. Suess...all twisting and turning without a straight line to be seen...

But I loved every minute of it...and so did Jason. It was such an amazing opportunity to play and dine inside one of the most beautiful houses in the world...

And at night...looking up at the house with it all lit up...those balconies really DO look like skulls...

I loved every bit of exploring Barcelona...and there is just so much more I want to share with you...the restaurants, the hidden corners and gems, the interesting people we encountered along the way...

Until next post...

The Trip of a Lifetime - Las Ramblas

2011-05-26T10:47:00.001-04:00

Las Ramblas is this gigantic pedestrian walk down the heart of Barcelona...from Placa Catalunya to the Columbus Monument by the sea. It's maybe a mile to a mile-and-a-half total...about 30 minutes if you walk pretty much straight through and don't look at anything.

But why would you do that?

There is so much to SEE...for example...dozens of the most elaborate street performers I have ever seen...each trying to out-do the next with the intricate nature of their costumes (take levitating Buddha-guy up above)...

There are carts set up with people selling small animals (birds and rabbits), beautiful flowers (MUCH cheaper, bigger variety, and in far better condition than any floral store I've EVER seen in the United States), tourist trinkets and postcards...you name it.

Plus, the sides of the streets are lined with interesting shops, bustling markets, and tempting restaurants.

And then...if you're not satisfied with turning loops on Las Ramblas, you can take a twisted side street and explore the narrow alleys of Barcelona...ending up in the Barri Gotic, or in tree-lined neighborhoods lined with balconies overflowing with flowers and supporting the days laundry...out to dry...

Our favorite stop on Las Ramblas was St. Josef Market...La Boqueria.

It was a crowded, bustling, shouting, shoving, eye-popping mecha of food and produce that made our heads spin and our stomachs rumble. Carts upon carts of the most delicious looking produce and meats and cheeses I had ever seen...in fact, carrying some fruits and vegetables I had NEVER seen...except maybe in pictures.

And everything was gigantic in size (cherries only slightly smaller than golf balls), shiny and ripe...without the wax and polish they put on fruit and vegetables in the States to make them look appealing.

These edible gems needed no make-up artist...they were GORGEOUS.

You could have traced us all over the market without ever seeing us...just by following the sound of my voice, saying over and over again: "LOOK at THIS!! Have you ever seen ANYTHING like it???"

Fresh pink fish, legs of famous Spanish jamon, freshly plucked chickens, pigeons, doves, and pheasants, nuts and seeds, stacks and rolls of beautiful milky cheeses wrapped in thick rinds, olive oils and vinegars, spices and herbs, homemade wines and sangrias...but by far, my favorite carts were those with the chocolates...

Rows upon rows of decadent chocolates...covered cakes and pastries, melty bon bons and truffles, little chocolate teacups filled with espresso...the chocolate-covered cherries were so liqueur-ed that they burned a bit as you sipped the filling around the cherry...the caramels were thick and rich...and Jason had a piece that was some type of chocolate-covered coconut-cream cake that quite literally melted in your mouth.

Even after all our adventures...he still claims that as the best thing he ate the entire trip.

In La Boqueria, we also found our favorite little tapas spot...we wandered in the first day and had such a great experience that when we had a bit of free time the next day that found us back on Las Ramblas...we headed straight there for an afternoon meal.

Plates of tapas, bowls of ensaladas and soupas, lined the bar. The staff was patient with our broken Spainsh...and humored us as we insisted that we try at least one of EVERYTHING. And just when we thought we had tried it all...each item being better than the last...they brought out different plates!!

There were patatas bravas...stuffed mussels...pork skewers with roasted jalapeno peppers...marinated squid... grilled anchovies on a roasted red pepper strip and pinned to slices of thick, soft bread...salads of feta, tomatoes, and chickpeas in a fragrant, rich herb-infused oil...soupas loaded with seafood and shellfish...

Need I go on?

If you can waddle away from the bar (we eventually did)...you can continue your walk, soaking in the sun and incessant Spanish chatter and calls of vendors until you end at the Columbus Monument...a giant statue symbolizing the return of a triumphant Columbus to Spain.

It's architecturally gorgeous, but seriously politically incorrect...with images of the Native Americans that he "brought" back with him, kissing the feet of the Spanish monks and nobles...looking every part as the "uneducated savages" they were profiled as.

It's also rather ironic...the return of Columbus marked the end of Barcelona's heyday as the main port for commerce and trade in Europe. With a new continent to plunder and pillage...all eyes turned away from the East and towards the West...and the ports closest to the Atlantic would take Barcelona's place in history.

Still, it's a beautiful end to your walk...and for only a few Euros, you can ride a small elevator to the top for fabulous views all around Barcelona.

Or, you can just head back up Las Ramblas to try and catch all the sights, sounds, smells, and adventures that you missed on your way down.

You know you want to...

The Trip of a Lifetime...The Hotel Arts, Barcelona

2011-05-25T05:58:00.000-04:00

As you know, my husband and I had the opportunity to travel to Spain this month. He had earned the trip by being one of an elite top 10% of his companies General Managers...and the trip was the companies way of saying: "Thank You for working 80+ hours a week".

The trips are always amazing...we stay in the best hotels, visit the most beautiful places, have access to exclusive excursions and experiences, dine at world famous restaurants with menus specially designed by the worlds best chefs just for us...and it is all FREE...

We started our trip in Barcelona, Spain. We stayed at the Hotel Arts, which is a Ritz-Carlton property...right on the beach by the Mediterranean.

The view from our room...

There were several things I LOVED about the Hotel Arts...it's very very modern...lots of art and original flower arrangements (i was very fond of the bright purple pussy willows in giant stone pots that lined the hall to the elevators...and felt obligated to touch them every time we walked by...)

In our room were several very modern luxuries as well...like this cool "control panel" by our bed that allowed us to make executive decisions regarding the lighting and ambiance of our room while still beneath the sheets.

There was even a button that alerted the staff if you needed housekeeping or if you wanted to be left alone...all by turning on a light just outside our door...WAY better than hanging that little "Do Not Disturb" sign on our doorknob...

There were bowls of anise seeds placed around the room that gave it a delicious, spicy smell that had a strange (but much appreciated by Jason) effect on me...

And lastly, I was enamored by the magazine racks. I really think I want some in my bathroom...

We arrived in Spain in the afternoon, and had a few hours to kill before our presence was required at a Welcome Dinner served poolside. We decided to spend those few hours hunting up some food (we were STARVING) and relaxing by the sea.

So we changed into our beach gear and headed to the sand. We made a quick pit stop at a deli on the boardwalk that ran along the hotel, picked up some delicious bocadillos, and hit the sand.

We knew our whole trip would be busy and jam-packed, so we were really looking forward to this time where we had NOTHING planned but enjoying a Spanish beach by our hotel. We wanted to take lots of pictures...but had trouble taking any that didn't include a naked someone...

...gotta love those European beaches.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the beach...and I even remembered to collect several water bottles of sand.

From the beach, you could look back at our beautiful hotel and see a giant sculpture, called "Fish", that was done by Frank Gehry (yes...THE Frank Gehry...of Guggenheim Museum fame)...

The fish sits right over the pool area of the hotel (The Hotel Arts is the tall blue building on the left).

This was a great way to start our trip...after a long and cramped plane ride, and the with the knowledge that this vacation had nothing to do with relaxation, and everything to do about adventure...to sit back and enjoy the perfect 75 degree weather on the icy blue Mediterranean...

...which...by the way...was colder than expected...although not unbearable. I went swimming in the water, turning quick laps through the little bay. I even ~~conned~~ convinced Jason to get in, as well...although he high-tailed out of it after I started splashing him (big baby).

Kissy, kissy!!!

Gearing Up To Go...

2011-05-03T17:03:00.000-04:00

I know, I know...

I just posted something...

...but I can't help it!! My trip is just a few days away and I am SO FLIPPIN' EXCITED!!!

And today, we received our departure packet from The Cheesecake Factory...and it came with GIFTS!!

I just love all the special treatment involved with earning these trips. And I'm not even the one that earns and deserves them...it's really all about Jason...but he still let's me get all giddy and goofy over it all.

First is this cute little travel bag. Maybe we can call it a "European Shoulder Bag" (after all...it WAS a gift!!) or better yet...a satchel!! (Hey...Indiana Jones carries one!!)

Then there is this little portfolio that keeps all our travel info...complete with 2011 Presidents Circle logo...

Inside are our plane tickets, maps, travel guides, hotel brochures, itineraries, and, of course, our extra-special luggage tags!!

And last, but certainly not least...a super cool electrical converter...which would be SO MUCH COOLER if I hadn't just purchased one LAST NIGHT!!!

Oh, you can bet I'm hunting down that receipt!!

So that's it...all our stuff!!

Now if I can just survive the next 8 days without exploding into spontaneous flamenco...we'll be good!!

Ole!!

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines: May 2011 - Spinach

2011-05-03T15:50:00.001-04:00

It's that time again...time for another wonderfully tastefully yummy Iron Chef!!!! And this month, our hostess is Terri Metts, and the secret ingredient is: SPINACH!!!

I was very unhappy with my Iron Chef entries last month...and that was a first for me. I don't think I had ever cooked anything truly bad before. Maybe unique...but not bad. And the sad thing was that it was a REMARKABLE secret ingredient...lemon was soooo good. And everyone's food was delicious, and amazing...and mine...

well...

...mine sucked.

Anyway, I swore that this month I wouldn't make the same mistake and would stick to something that I am experienced at making and KNOW...without a shadow of a doubt...is GOOD. No new recipes...just a tried-and-true family favorite. Maybe something like "Quick Italian Spinach Pie" or "Florentine Soup".

But then I saw an ad in my Sunday coupon insert from Sorrento cheese...it was an offer to download their FREE lasagna cookbook, titled For the Love of Lasagna. There was a picture of a BEAUTIFUL slice of Spinach Lasagna...

And I just HAD to have the cookbook (if you are unaware about my cookbook needs, see this post.)...because I HAD to make that lasagna.

So I went on the website, www.greatcheese.com/lasagna , and downloaded my free copy. All you needed was the code, which is LOVE1.

It's an appropriate password...because that's just what I did...fell in LOVE.

I've never seen such gorgeous and unique lasagna creations!! There is the recipe I made for Iron chef...but oh so many more...recipes with names like: "Pumpkin and Spinach Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce", "Eggplant Ricotta Lasagna with Arrabiata Sauce", "Portobella and Pancetta with Parmesan Lasagna", and "Chicken, Roasted Fennel, and Cauliflower Lasagna".

And then there are OTHER pastas...like "Gnocchi with Italian Sausage,Mozzarella, and Rappini", or "Linguine with Herbed Ricotta and Eggplant".

And finally...ohhhh finally...there are desserts..."Chocolate Pistachio Cannoli Lasagna" and "Strawberry Grand Marnier® Lasagna".

And the pictures are gorgeous. And it's an e-booklet...so no cluttering your already burgeoning bookshelves!! So I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend you download this cookbook.

And then make THIS lasagna FIRST...it's what I made for our Spinach-themed Iron Chef...

...and it completely redeemed me by winning 1st place in taste!!

My Spinach-Artichoke Lasagana!!

I was WAY too busy eating and enjoying all the wonderful conversations going on around me to take PEOPLE pictures...but I did get pictures of the food...

Rose brought this light and airy Spinach Souffle...and I am instantly jealous because it wasn't fallen...and my souffles always deflate...

Angel whipped up my family's FAVORITE appetizer...Spinach and Artichoke Dip (with Homemade Tortilla Chips, no less)...

Sherie made this delicious Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Spinach ...my favorite part was actually the delicious gravy that had CAPERS!!! YUM!!!

Sherie won for Most Original...

Rachel made the COLD version of Spinach Dip...served artfully in a bread bowl with lots of things to dip...she won Best Presentation...

Incidentally, the thing I love about using bread bowls as dip containers is that after the dip is all gone...you get to rip up and eat the BREAD!!! I guess admitting that gives lots of insight as to why I've spent so amny years struggling with my weight.

Now this was our hostess with the most-ess entry...Terri made this delicious Tomato-and-Spinach-Stuffed Chicken Roulade, and in my opinion, it was a tough contender for Best Presentation.

Bonnie played the purist role this month, and highlighted the effortless elegance of a simple Garlic Sauteed Spinach. It was divine.

Last, but not least, Jason whipped up a family favorite...one I HAD been considering (until that fateful Sorrento ad)...Quick Italian Spinach Pie.

As usual, there were some omissions...Heather made a different kind of Sauteed Spinach, but I didn't get a photo of it because she came a little later and I was already stuffing my face, and Heidi made this really delicious pasta dish with spinach and chicken and kalamata olives...and I got a picture...but no recipe...

All in all...it was a scrumptious Iron Chef. We only have one more before summer break...and it promises to be delightful...

...until then, fellow chefs...

Allez Cuisine!!

EVIL STARE!!!

2011-05-01T09:37:00.002-04:00

On April 28th, it was Take Your Child To Work Day.

My kids LOVE going to work with Jason...they love getting the back of the house tour...they love getting to taste sauces and simple syrup (Brigham even tried to order a whole glass of it to drink!! YECH!!), and they love wearing ties all day...just like Daddy.

See? There's Daddy in the background, opening the restaurant for the day...

This year, Nicolette couldn't go, because the school wouldn't recognize an absence for this activity for anyone under the age of 8...and she was VERY sad. But then she learned that Dr. Sponer, her kindergarten teacher, would have a special visitor at school that day...her own daughter, who just HAPPENS to be named "Nicolette" (I think the name is why OUR Nicolette was placed in Dr. Sponer's class in the first place...she is apparantly the FIRST Nicolette Dr. Sponer has ever had. We LOVE Dr. Sponer...and couldn't be happier with the coincidence). So, Nicolette was very excited to meet Nicolette...if that makes any sense.

And the kids told her they'd bring her back a treat.

Which is really all she wanted anyway.

After the tour and office work, I came to pick them up, and we all got to sit down for some of the Grand Lux's signature desserts...

Savannah chose the Cupcake Collision...which is A LOT of cake and ice cream...

She thought she could handle it...

Brigham ALSO got a Cupcake Collision, and still managed to still eat one of my chocolate-covered bananas from my Banana Wafer Pudding. Joseph indulged in a Creme Brulee Duo, and Kate blissfully enjoyed her White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake (plus managed to polish off Josephs leftovers).

Needless to say, everyone was sugared out.

Ya know...I have to say something about Kate here..and how proud I am of her. She is currently studying for 6 AP tests, her second round of SAT's, her first round of ACT's, and staying after school until 6pm everyday to rehearse for her upcoming COTA performance, in which she has several bit parts and sings 2 solos...one as the Nightingale from the Emperors Nightingale, and "Time to Say Good-bye" by Sarah Brightman...in ITALIAN, no less.

All that on top of normal seminary, school work, church activities, and starting her own non-profit organization to sew absorbent pads for the bottom of cages at animal shelters.

She's pretty cool...

And I totally thought this day would be a nice break for her. But Jason told me that rather than take the tour AGAIN (because she's done this for many years, now)...she commandeered a booth and crammed for her AP Art History Exam . No rest for the soon-to-be-Senior, I guess...

But Kaitlyn isn't the only amazingly talented member of my family...

Brigham has been working very hard, too...

...he has been perfecting his new signature look...

The EVIL STARE!!!!

The Free World Beware...Global Domination has a new face...

...and it's WEIRD...

Easter Fun...

2011-04-30T20:52:00.000-04:00

I know I'm a little late...we've just been so busy that I haven't had time to upload my Easter pics!! And there are quite a few to share!!

We started our festivities on Saturday, when our ward had an Easter brunch and egg hunt...

Nickel-Pickle

The kids made their own Easter buckets, and were really excited to use them. After that, we dyed Easter Eggs...they came out REALLY nice...

Savvy with our beautiful eggs...

Of course, we made our Easter Story Cookies. and then went to bed to wait for the Easter Bunny.

In the morning, we had A LOT of fun surprises...

Beach gear and candy...PERFECT!!

...and then the kids went out to hunt eggs. Funny thing was, the bunny put all 150 eggs out at 5am. Then Florida decided to bless us with it's signature torrential downpour at 6am...which made the bunny scurry like mad to pick all those eggs up...it the pouring rain. The rain stopped after about 45 minutes, and the bunny had to re-hide all those candy-filled eggs before the kids woke up...avoiding puddles.

Oh my poor cotton tail.


No one sees the egg on the sign behind them...

Fabulous egg-hunting fashionista...

The kids got A LOT of loot...which made up for the slightly LESS fulfilling Ward Easter Egg Hunt...


Happy girl...

Do you HAVE to take a picture of my bedhead?

After egg hunting, we had to check on our Easter Story cookies...


Perfection!!

They came out great!! And I really love this little Family Tradition...if you've never made Easter Story Cookies with your kids, I highly recommend it...it's a GREAT object lesson...


Yummy little meringues...

Then we all got dressed up and headed over to the restaurant to have breakfast with Daddy...because it's the only time we see him on this holiday...

While there, I took lots of pictures of the kids posing by the decorated alligators in the courtyard in front of the Lux...

Pedro pointed out to me that the mosaic alligator he and Kate posed next to had a shopping bag with a certain name scrawled on it...

Barcelona

Well...that just got me ALL KINDS of excited for our big trip!!!

We had a lovely breakfast at the Lux...lovely except for the fact that I can't seem to get Joseph to abandon this half-crooked "I'm-too-cool-to-really-smile-now-that-I'm-almost-13" smile...

GRRRRRRR!!!

After breakfast, we went to church and then came home and I made dinner. It was a nice spread...Ham with an Apricot Glaze, Roasted Asparagus, Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Green Beans, Grilled Grape Tomatoes with Chives, Pineapple Casserole, Buttery Rolls, and a platter of Fresh Fruit, including Strawberries, Mangoes, and Pineapple.

I didn't get a picture of dinner...sorry.

But I DID get a picture of the piece de resistance (which misses something with the appropriate apostrophes)...a Strawberry Shortcake Baked Alaska...

This absolutely BEAUTIFUL a SCRUMPTIOUS dessert I DID get a picture of...and was kind enough to put the recipe on the Jungle Food Chain.

So please...by all means...make it...

It's WONDERFUL!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

101 Cookbooks

2011-04-09T11:01:00.001-04:00

I discovered a new foodie blog/website about a week ago, called 101 Cookbooks...and I wrote about it on the Jungle Food Chain section of my blog...but I thought I'd share it here, as well...

101 Cookbooks is based off a lady named Heidi who was a self-proclaimed impulsive buyer of cookbooks. She always purchased them with the very best intentions...and she read them...and dog-eared the pages and marked favorite recipes with post-its...and then stuck those cookbooks on her shelf and never actually cooked anything from them.

One day, she looked up and realized that she had over 100 different cookbooks...and decided right then and there that it was time to stop buying, and start COOKING. So, she started a blog about her foray into all 100+ cookbooks, and the blog evolved, and she gainmed some notoriety, and now...

Guess what?

She has her OWN cookbook!!

Heidi's own cookbook...just recently published!!

Heidi focuses on cooking with all-natural ingredients, and is also a vegetarian. Since our family is becoming more and more health-focused, this appeals to me.

But her story got me thinking about my OWN love affair with cookbooks. I have no where NEAR 101...but I have many. And I always want more.

For example, I don't own a single Julia Child cookbook...and I think this is tantamount to a sin. Julia Child is quite possibly the Saint of Foodies...so I feel this growing urge to engage in some kind of repentance.

I also want the Pioneer Womans cookbook. And the one above by Heidi. and there is one being published by another of my food goddesses...Smitten Kitchen. And then there's Molly Stevens classic, which I'd love to have because Braising is my favorite style of cooking, and I'm tired of looking up recipes on-line.

And that brings up the Internet Conundrum...I know I can find all these recipes, and millions more...on-line. and I love surfing for recipes...but there is something about a cookbook vs. a computer screen. For one thing, I hate running from my kitchen to my desktop to check what the next step is...

...and I could never bring a laptop in my kitchen because when I cook, I throw my whole soul into it and make a MESS.

So that means I'm forced to print the recipes, and that just wastes ink and paper.

It's kinda like my quandary about purchasing a Kindle...I LOVE the idea of an electronic book that holds thousands of my favorite novels and fits in my purse...but there is something about holding an actual book in my hands...turning the pages, feeling the worn paper...

I know it's a bit romantic of me...but it sums up my issue with cookbooks as well.

True, my cookbooks get worn and trashed...you can tell my favorite recipes by how bent the spine is in that spot, and how many spills and stains are on the pages. But they are trusty, and loyal, and won't suffer crashes or computer glitches. They can handle the splashes of water and sploshes of sauce, and still faithfully return to my kitchen every night.

I love them.

And so I thought I'd share my favorites with you.

Despite my utter failing at having a Julia Child's cookbook in my collection, I do possess some classics...such as Joy of Cooking ...

What other book explains how to properly trim a whole bear?

And of course, this baby has graced American kitchen for generations...carefully updated for every new breed of home chef...

I bet ya'all have this one...

I have some cookbooks that are purely nostalgic for me...

My mother had this cookbook...

I have tender, slightly whimsical memories of this cookbook...all centered around baking cookies from it's pages for Christmas with my mother and sister. She would let us choose new recipes to try every year, and I remember carefully pouring over the pages to pick which confection would grace our holiday tables.

I love the old pictures,,,

A few years ago...the publishers re-released it with all the original 1960's photography and design, and I literally BEGGED Jason to buy it for me, which he did (good husband). Now I use it to plan my own Christmas cookie attack, and let my own children crowd around the counter, ohhh-ing and ahhh-ing at all the beautiful cookies gracing it's pages.

Some of my favorite books aren't classics OR nostalgic, but more seasonable in nature. For example, I absolutely LOVE this cookbook on grilling...

Absolutely GORGEOUS photos...

It has some of the best pictures, and fabulous recipes, I have ever seen and tried. I have cooked many, many things from this cookbook...it is very close to becoming my Summer Bible, as it were, by the grill...

Doesn't that look heavenly?

Some cookbooks are more about styles of food...for example, this one:

So much fun and creativity...

I also have some cookbooks that came with their own soundtracks. No, really...they did.

They have recipes that revolve around a certain type of music and/or entertainment...and have a CD that accompanies them...

For your evening at the San Francisco Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, and Garden Classical Event...

I even have cookbooks that are religious-based (and no...I don't mean kosher)...

Yup...they say "Essential MORMON Cookbooks", and yes...they have the green jell-o recipe...

Some of my cookbooks are from places I've been...

From a famous restaurant in Maui

It was a gift from Presidents Circle, and it's even signed!!

...and some are from places I want to go...


From a restaurant located in Martha's Vineyard

So beautiful...but I've yet to make anything from this cookbook, although I've owned it for years...

Some cookbooks, like the one above, I haven't actually cooked from yet. I will...I just haven't...either from intimidation, or...well, it's mostly intimidation. But some day, I will get over my fear and actually create something from them.

But I do own some cookbooks which I never plan on cooking from...ever. They are simply to look at...

perfect example...

This book on cakes is AMAZING...but as far as I'm concerned, completely unattainable without training. I have used it to inspire some (intensely) simplified ideas, but I will never be able to create cakes like this:

Yes...this is an actual CAKE...

Or this:

WOW...and that's all fondant, molding chocolate, and marzipan...

I have cookbooks for kids, too. They are lots of fun...especially if I can tie them into a story, or a project. I find I use them a lot over Summer School...

We did a lot of the magic one while reading Harry Potter...

...and I, of course, have my fair share of those little "grocery store" cookbooks...ya know the ones...the little cookbooks in the check-out aisle next to the tabloids. My mom buys those for me...I like the holiday-themed ones...they always have insanely simple but very clever ideas for celebrations...

I have about 4 of the Halloween-inspired booklets...

But my collection is special to me for another reason...the fact that I have a couple of my grandfathers cookbooks from when he ran his own diner in Chehalis, Washington, called the Eat Shop.

My grandfather was the cook, and my mother and uncles waited tables and washed dishes. It's how they grew up. Now, many years later, and long since my grandfather has passed away, my cousin, who is a chef, has re-opened the shop in the same location, calling it Dan's Eat Shop.


My cousin, Dan Ewing...

I have these old cookbooks...and they are like the grocery store variety my Mom buys me. But they are OLD...

My collection...

My Mom says they used to be Grandpas...and I haven't ever cooked anything out of them...although I thumb through them frequently.

Look!! It's NEW!!

Only .25 in 1953

My grandfather passed away when I was just 2 months old from emphysema and liver cancer. He was a hard drinking, tough smoking, all business man...I guess not always an easy man to live with...but my Mom adored him. She talks about his sparkling black eyes (like my Brighams), and the way he's tease her, and call her Ginger-Puss.

I didn't know him, and honestly, I'm not as close as I'd like to be with that side of the family. I don't know why...maybe the massive age difference between me and my cousins (although that hasn't been a deterrent to my younger sister, who has always been accepted up there), or the fact that I'm forever running around the country and living in places that increasingly get further and further away, or maybe it's the actual lifestyle choices I make, or maybe I'm just darn un-likeable. Whatever the reason, I wish it was different.

So this is my piece of him...my little bit of Ewing pride.

I'd like to think I got some of my love of cooking from him, and although I don't think I'll ever be good enough or cool enough to run my own restaurant, I hope my own style of kitchen finesse makes him proud...

...as proud as I am to have him be part of me.

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines: April 2011 - Lemon

2011-04-06T11:50:00.002-04:00

The beautiful and glamorous Tina and Angel...

Oh - we had such a wonderful Iron Chef this much. There was a wonderful turn out, and excellent choice for the secret ingredient, and a beautiful hostess.

A hostess who is my good friend...someone I love and adore...someone who is an original Iron Chef member (which has been going on almost 3 years now)...and someone who is MOVING!!!!

Our little group was already rocked by the loss of another original Chefinista...Melodee Cooper...

Melodee is on the right, holding her son Ryan...

Melodee was an AWESOME Chef, and a wonderful friend...a fellow sarcastic commiserater on our plight of living in South Florida.

But then, Mel's hubby finished school, and they upped and left back to Texas...leaving a big hole in our posse...and in our hearts.

And now...we're losing Heidi Tyler too!!! She's moving to North Carolina...

Heidi at last months Iron Chef...

Now it will just be Tina and myself as the original Iron Chef founders...we'll have to keep the ball rolling all alone.

*sigh*

We really had a lovely time, though. It was a BEAUTIFUL day...perfect Spring weather for such a sunny and happy secret ingredient.

Oh - did I even tell you what that was yet? Well...I'm sure you saw it in the title of this post...it's Lemon.

I took lots of pictures, and tried to compile all the recipes. There are a couple that I don't have pictures for, either because the girls sent in their recipes, but couldn't come at the last minute...or because they just arrived late after it was over (we still ate their food!!) Those recipes are Candied Citrus Peel ...which was EXCELLENT, and I highly recommend, and Lemon-Orzo Salad with Veggies and Chicken , which has the bonus of being a Weight Watchers recipe!!

But wait until you see what I DO have pictures for...

How about Angel's scrumpt-diddely-umptious Lemon Cheese Squares? They were creamy and smooth and I was lucky enough to take some home to my kids who DEVOURED them...

And then Heidi herself whipped up this wonderful Lemon Chicken Piccata ...which is easily the best I've tasted outside of Jasons restaurant.

This was my entry...Lemon Snowdrop Cookies. Honestly...they're okay. Good...but not AMAZING. In fact, half of my kids loved them, the other half were ambivalent. They are awfully pretty though...and remind me a lot of Mexican Wedding Cookies, but with lemon jelly.

Incidentally, I made another dish...Lemon Pancakes with Honey Poppyseed Glaze. And...how can I put this?

They were awful.

I mean...really, truly AWFUL. I was so embarrassed...I don't make awful tasting food...but these were just BAD.

So, I will never, ever use that recipe again...but will make up my OWN version of the dish...which I know will be 100 times better. In fact...it gives me a bit of a challenge to work on...and I can't wait to smoke that crappy yucky recipe...

This is an interesting conondrum...Tina made these to-die-for Lemon Pepper Shrimp...but never turned in a recipe. So Heidi substituted HER Lemon-Pepper Shrimp recipe so everyone would have a copy of SOMETHING...but she admits that it's not nearly as pepper-y as Tina's version was.

So you get the picture of ONE dish, and the recipe for ANOTHER.

I guess you can all play with it and figure out your own version...

Rachel made divine little Lemon Posset's...they were perfect little explosions of lemon bliss. They would be perfectly served in little shot glasses...I'm going to go and purchase some so I can make this and serve it to my family...

We have a newer member to our group, and her name is Bonnie. She is a friend of Tina's. We all really like her...and we're gonna KEEP liking her as long as she keeps gracing us with DELICIOUS dishes such as THIS...it was a winner for Presentation. It's called Lemon Fusilli with Arugula, and is an adapted Barefoot Contessa recipe...

Teri Metts made these perfect Lemon Bars.

No, I mean it...they are PERFECT...what all Lemon Bars should want to be. I went on and on about the crust...so simple, so PERFECT.

Yup...that's the word...PERFECT.

Another perfect entry was this completely unassuming, modest, and plain-looking Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake, submitted by Heather.

This cake is a lesson in: "Never judge a book by it's cover"...because this cake WON the Taste portion of the competition. It was SO GOOD...even Jason (who is pretty hard to impress, when it comes to cakes)...was melting. No seriously...he was floored.

Heather really deserved to win...this cake was AMAZING.

Heathers wasn't the ONLY cake, either. Jason competed, and just like with Strawberries, he made an amazing confection by adapting MY favorite cake recipe, Lemonade Extravaganza Cake, and making it completely his own and utterly original.

The cake has a lot of steps, but can be made over time, and if you want something totally different and completely eyes-roll-in-the-back-of-your-head decadent...this is the cake for you. He dubbed it Lemon Pineapple Extravaganza Cake (have you noticed we like the word "extravaganza"? It's a private joke...you should really get us going on it sometime...of course, we're the only two that think it's funny...so maybe you shouldn't).

He, of course, won for Originality. And Taste. And Presentation. Let's just say he cleaned house, shall we? My man is a BEAST in the kitchen...

Jason and Teri

I recommend you make it. Soon.

There were, of course, a dish or two where we had no recipes. The one I am devastated about is Sherie's It was the prettiest, most lovely thing I'd seen...

This absolutely gorgeous Lemon-Blackberry Torte. I think I'm going to have to hunt her down at church...literally stalk her until she hands it over.

Because I HAVE...

...no, really...I just HAVE...

...to make this myself.

I don't know what it is about Sherie...but her style of cooking sings to me. I LOVED her Carrot-Coconut Soup, and her Berry Scones with Cranberry Butter (for which I ALSO need a recipe), and her Parmesan-Stuffed Strawberry Chicken, and now her insanely beautiful lemon contender...

Sherie and Heather...

I think I'm gonna have to hang out with this girl more than once a month...

List-Mania

2011-04-02T20:47:00.001-04:00

I have this compulsion...

...and no, it's not buying shoes...

...well, actually, I DO have that compulsion as well, but this isn't ABOUT that...

...this is about "lists".

I make all kinds of lists. And schedules. And routines.

Some people would say that this makes me a highly organized person.

But seeing as I only make the lists, and don't actually complete anything on them, I think it only makes me neurotic.

Now, wait...that's not entirely true...I DO complete things on my list...but usually only the things I actually WANT to do. For example, if on my list I have "Clean Bathrooms" and "Go Pick Out Shoes On-line For Spain"...

...guess which one I'm gonna do?

I don't just make lists for me...but for the whole family. I'm much better at making sure that everyone in the family follows THEIR lists, than I am on making sure that I follow MINE.

For example...this list hangs on my front door. It's a list AND a little reminder for our family everytime we step out into the big, bad world...

That one is sweet...but posted in three VERY DISTINCT spots in my house is the business side of momma...and that goes something like this:

Rules...

And this:

Josephs Morning Routine

Savannah, Brigham, and Nicolettes Morning Routine

All the kids Afternoon Routine

I also have more business-like reminders posted around, and not just little love notes...

Posted right on the kitchen cabinet...

And then there is my fridge, which holds my menu (which I've written about before)...


Dinner Time!!

...and the "Chore Chart"...which is a bit fancier, because it's laminated, and I can rotate the kids names around so they have different chores every week...

I still have to remind them DAILY...

I think making lists is genetic, because my Mom makes them, too...except she's uber-self competitive and actually finishes her lists...even if it takes her half the night. She even made a list for me...kinda like a chore chart...except it's for Family Home Evening. I know every stalwart LDS family has one of these, but I'm really glad my Mom made me one...even if it IS yet another list...

At least it's CUTE!!!

This next item goes with things that are not quite lists, but are still posted all over my house.

I always have random quotes stuck in places...on my mirror...on my windshield...in my purse. They change with my mood...sometimes appealing to my religious side (such as: "Worry looks around, Sorry looks back, Faith looks up" )...or my artistic side (such as: "Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech")...or sometimes just my ornery side (such as: "Be the kind of woman that when she rolls out of bed in the morning, the Devil says: "Oh shit...she's up.")...

Right now it is more inspirational...reminding me to just be me...and nobody else...

Anyway...the point of this lengthy and pointless blog is to say that sometimes...I just get carried away with the whole list "isshh-you" (name that animated feature)...

...today was one of those days...

I had to make a list for both myself and Jason to organize our weekend tasks...and I got a wee bit carried away.

Mine isn't so bad...

It says:

Lady Shannans List of Things to Accomplish

1.     Clean the filthy dwelling

2.     Make a list for victuals and necessities for our larder

3.     Organize an activity for Young Ladies of the Scouts with which to earn an emblem

4.     Plan educationally stimulating activities for the young masters and misses of the household with which to entertain their summer months

5.     Assist in the gathering of materials for the Family Home Evening with Miss Nicolette

6.     Record random thoughts and musings on the electronic journal

7.     Plan geocaching event for family on Monday

Hey!! I actually got half of number 1 (which is amazing...because it was exactly what I DIDN'T want to do), and I am in the process of completing number 6!! Cool!!

Then I made one for Jason...

It says:

Pirate Captain Jasons List of Things To Plunder

1.             First and foremost…plunder The Red-Headed Mistress of thee heart…good and often

2.           Create a log of expenses and incomes with which to manage the ship

3.           Estimate the debts to be paid and treasures and provisions to purchase with the loot returned to the ship from the government

4.         Assist in leading a treasure hunt for the crew to prevent mutiny

I posted it on his dresser after he left for work...so he won't find it until he comes home tonight.

Think he'll like it?

I know most guys don't really like when their wives make them "honey-do" lists...but I really don't think I'll have a problem with #1...

Brigham Graduates to Bear

2011-04-02T19:57:00.001-04:00

At our last Pack meeting, (which is, incidentally, only the 2nd Pack Meeting Brigham has ever been to as a Scout himself), our Briggie was awarded his Wolf badge. It signifies that he has completed all the requirements needed to advance in rank in Cub Scouts from a lowly Bobcat to a slightly-less-lowly Wolf...to a great, big 9-year-old Bear.

The Pack Meeting was about "Compassion", and the activities revolved around learning about what people with disabilities must overcome to navigate life.

There were some clever games...which the boys all took as fun...but hopefully taught them a lesson to be appreciative of their gifts.

Learning to navigate as if blind...

They had to sort change with big gloves, and tie their shoes with their hands taped together...

How about "Simon Says" with ear plugs and goggles covered in vaseline?

At the end, Brig had to prove he was a true Wolf by eating a plate of raw meat (turkey lunch meat) without his hands.

Go Brigham!!

It was a fun night...and we're very proud of Brig reaching this milestone in his Cub Scouting journey...

And now...ON TO BEARS!!

Mad Scienctist

2011-03-25T07:46:00.001-04:00

One of the reasons her project won was because of it's well-designed presentation

Savannah was very excited to win a First Place ribbon at her Science Fair this year. Her project was called Bubble-ology...and it determined whether or not adding different ingredients, like corn syrup or glycerin, improved the longevity of bubbles...or if the simple soap and water solution that we've all come to know and love is best.

It was a very simple project, so I'm genuinely pleased that she won.

The coveted ribbon...

Savannah always participates, and is always awarded a very nice "Participation" certificate...which I think is great. But she wanted a ribbon.

I'm glad she finally got her wish!!

So happy and proud!!

Now it's on to the district Science fair to represent her school!!!

Congratulations, Savvy Jane!!

Brighams 9th Birthday - 2011

2011-03-15T17:03:00.000-04:00

Ready for birthday fun!!

We have a tradition in our family...on even years, our family celebrates birthdays by having a party.

On odd years, we do a family outing.

Sometimes that tradition is broken...for example, Kate hasn't wanted a party in years...preferring intimate outings with a small group of friends or family. But, for the most part, we stick to this tradition.

Don't 'cha LOVE the pizza and soda all over his face?

This year, being an odd year, it is a year for birthday outings...and Brigham has the honor of having the first birthday of the year. He choose to visit Boomers, a Family Fun Center in Fort Lauderdale. It's very much like a place I grew up with that was called "Bullwinkles"...

There is miniature golf, Go Karts, carnival rides, Bumper Boats, a big roller coaster, Laser Tag, bowling, and lots and lots of arcade games.

Everyone was really excited to go...

...we started with a round of mini golf...

This was a very interesting excercise with so many different mini-golf levels of expertise...

...and had a very "healthy" lunch of pizza and pitchers of soda. Then, we headed over to the Go Karts so Joseph could race around the track...

Go, Speed Racer!!

While Joseph did that, I took the littler kids to the Bumper Boats. I just LOVE the pictures from these boats...unlike the boats from when I was a kid, these have built-in continuous-fire water guns...and they were just getting SOAKED!!

Oh Boy...if that isn't a "I'm-Gonna'-Get-'Ya" look, then I don't know what is!!

Look at all these GREAT expressions!!

Aahhh!! Brigham is SOAKING Savannah!!

She's gonna get him back!!

My kids try and corner each other for a good dousing...

Then, we hit the carnival rides...

Savannah is happy to fly!!

I love Nicolette looking through her legs down at Jason...

WHEEEE!!

After many, many rides, we hit the arcade to blow some points...the boys stuck with shooting games...

Put 'em up!!

...and the girls dominated the Air Hockey tables...

Nicolette SCORES!!

When we got home, Brigham got his gift...a couple of Manta Ray pool floats with built-in-continuous-fire water guns (sound familiar? I am really glad he loved those Bumper Boats!!)...

Bring on the Pool Domination!!

Now I'm off to bake a Brownie Cake for his birthday...which was his special request!!

Happy Birthday, Bubba!!! We had a GREAT time with you today...it was an EXCELLENT choice for a family outing!! We can't wait to see what adventures this year with you brings!!

I Love You - Momma

Who Says I'm Too Old To Color?

2011-03-15T09:48:00.000-04:00

I love art...especially what is commonly referred to as illustration. Or animation.

I like it in movies.

I like it in graphic novels.

I like it in childrens books.

I think there is some really amazing art and artists out there, and a lot of people don't know who they are because their work doesn't hang in a galleries, but rather graces the pages of literature.

I wonder if it was always that way?

I watched an AMAZING animated feature the other day with my kids. I highly recommend it...it's called The Secret of Kells.

The animation style is AMAZING, the story engaging...and it is an animated story about...well...illustration. Specifically, the artwork and drawings made in books in the medieval ages by monks who copied the stories.

I thought it was all fiction...but it turns out that there IS a Book of Kells...an illuminated manuscipt Gospel book, written in Latin, and containing the Four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks circa 800 A.D. or slightly earlier. The animated story is, of course, fictionalized...but it retains the spirit of the work the monks did to illuminate text and preserve history. And it shows how amazingly creative these "illustrators"...or, in this case, "illuminators"... were.

The book is fascinating, and on display at Trinity College in Dublin.

And there are many, many more texts decorated and illuminated in this style in other museums around the world.

The Book of Kells, though...is widely renowned as the best example of Insular style. It's intricate artwork is unsurpassed. I researched it and read about it and became more and more fascinated with it and other works.

Then , I had the opportunity to take my Girl Scouts to visit the Spanish Monastery here in Miami. I've visited the monastery before, and wrote about it here. It is still as beautiful as it was when we first visited.

On the way out, I was lingering at the Gift Shop with the other girls as they picked and chose what to buy, and I saw this:

A coloring book filled with artwork from various Insular texts to color. It even has work from the Book of Kells!!

I HAD to have it...and for only $6...I indulged.

I had it on my dresser for a couple weeks...taunting me. I WANTED to color in it, but I never seemed to have the time. How do you justify taking the time to color in a coloring book when you have all these responsibilities? How do you color in a coloring book when you're (gulp) 34 years old?

Well...I FINALLY carved out some time for myself to work on my book...

This is the opening page. I used colored pencils. It took me a LONG TIME...and I loved every minute of it.

And know what? As I sat at the table and colored, my kids stopped what they were doing...watching T.V., playing poker, doing geometry, arguing over whose turn it was to chase the cat...and came to watch me. And after watching me color for several minutes...they went and got their OWN coloring books. By time I started on my second page, I realized that my house was...for once...blessedly quiet. I looked up and saw all 5 of my children sitting around the table with their own coloring books, quietly coloring with me.

Jason came into the room, also drawn out of his activity (he was reading) by the silence, and said: "What's going on?"

I looked up at him and smiled, but the children were fully engaged and didn't answer. He gave me this bewildered shrug and smile and disappeared back into our room and his chair to resume his book...in peace.

I was able to finish another page...

And I explored the book...the artwork is amazing...

And what's REALLY funny is the words they use for each letter. For example, that beautiful peacock I colored was for the letter "A"...and this is the word for "A"...

At least it had an explanation of what the word was. Not all of them did...and I found there were a couple I had to look up...such as...

...and...

...and, lastly...

And some of the words are just strange choices...especially for a supposedly childrens coloring book. For example...

..."H is for hedonist"...and also for "hmmmmm"...

There's also:

..."Q is for quantum theory"...

But my favorite page is one for the letter "F"...

..."F is for floriferous"...which my spell check is telling me is not even a real word...but it is such a beautiful picture that I can't wait to "illuminate" it...

...and if coloring in my book brings so much tranquility into a life and home, I can see why the monks of old spent so much time doing it...

...and I can tell I'll be doing more illuminating in my very near future...

Renassiance Festival...Round Two

2011-03-13T13:40:00.000-04:00

I got to go back to the Ren Fest with my older girls this weekend...I had lots of extra fun because we had a really big group...and it was rather a motley crew of Scouts!!

So one of our challenges was to find Robin Hood!!

We had 11 girls from my own Cherry Bomb troop, plus two Boy Scouts, Joseph and Adam. Then, because Kate was taking her SAT's, and I had both Joseph and Savannah with me at the Fest, I had no one at home to babysit Brigham and Nicolette...so I had to bring them along, as well.

Then I had 3 moms and one dad who came to help out. So, I brought Jason as well to keep the other dad company and kinda keep up with the Boy and Cub Scouts, in case they didn't want to stick with the girls.

Jason chaperoned the Boy Scouts so they could get in on the fun and merriment of the Fest!!

So, I ended up getting to spend the day not only with my beloved Scouts, but almost my ENTIRE family as well!!

Having already done this year's Fair once with my Daisys, we were extremely efficient with the older girls, because i knew the layout and requirements of this years patch Program. We got to do all the fun stuff...explore encampments, watch the performers and parade, see the joust, and play the games.

Learning about herbs and cures at Ye Olde Apothecarie

Medieval armory instruction at the Paladin Society

Sword-swallower at the Hanseatic League

And, of course, the Tournament of Knights and Joust!!

This year, the girls were REALLY into getting fox or coyote tails, so that was the big purchase....but there was also plenty of pixie dust, elf ears, and dragon claws as well.

And we even managed to find the dastardly scoundrel, plague of the rich, and hero to the poor...Robin Hood!!!

There he is!! Robin of the Hood!! If only Kaitlyn were here...she'd start singing "Men in Tights"

Now...if only we can get him out of that tree to collect the bounty!!

Sand in My Britches...

2011-03-11T14:16:00.003-05:00

I have been posting so much about stuff that's going on in our lives, and it's all very interesting and pertinent to those of you who actually read and follow this blog...

...but it's been awhile since I've posted something random.

And this morning, as we are dealing with some family issues, and watching the crisis unravel in Japan...I felt like posting something fun...

...frivolous, even...

...not to make light of anyone's misfortune...but just to give me something to do that doesn't involve worry and sadness and fear.

I was inspired by thinking of all the "treasures" in our lives. When one faces a crisis, one always asks themselves: "What will it cost me? What will I lose?"

We take a personal inventory of all that we value...and discover what we truly treasure.

Now I know, and you know, that the only treasures that truly matter are people...everything else is just...well..."things". "Things" have only the value we place on them , and that value varies from person to person.

I admit that I like "things". I'm not overly obsessed with possessing stuff (unless we are talking about shoes...and then I freely admit that I have a problem), but I do like to have possessions.

However, my most cherished "things" are not the most expensive, or the most useful, or the most beautiful.

I have a couple unique collections in my house, and one that I am most proud of is my collection of sand.

I try to get sand from every place we visit. Not necessarily each and every beach (good golly...I'd have thousands of samples!!), but from each place.

Additionally, I try to get friends and family who travel to bring me ziploc baggies, or an empty water bottle, filled with sand.

Most of the time, they forget. They're so excited to be on vacation, getting sand for me is the last thing on their minds.

Hey...even I forget...I came back from Maui without a single sample...not even any in the bottom of my suitcase.

But sometimes, they remember...and because of that, I've gotten some great samples.

I'd like to share my favorites with you...


Waikiki Beach, O'ahu, Hawaii

This sand was collected for me by my friend Michelle Marlowe on her visit to Hawaii...so even though I didn't get any sand from Maui...I do have SOME from Hawaii...

Baokes Beach, Naples, Florida

I collected A LOT of this sand over the years...I love it because it is so fine...like sugar...

North Hollywood Beach, Hollywood, Florida

Look how different the sand is from just across the state!! Rough, grainy...with lots and lots of broken shells...

Fat Zachary Beach, Key West

I especially love the NAME of this beach...my good friend Jenn brought it back for me from one of her families escapades to the Keys.


Savannah finding the bottle...in the beautiful, crystal clear water...

And the bottle is one that Savannah found at the bottom of the ocean at Bill Baggs State Beach on Key Biscayne...it is engraved with words/measurements in French...so I think it is an especially cool find...

See? There it is...put to good use!!

I wish all my bottles were that cool!!

La Jolla Shores, San Diego, California

My dear sister-in-law, Tara, sent me this sand from one of their favorite beaches on HER side of the coast...it helps me not forget that I am a California girl at heart...

Fifa Beach, Phucket Island, Thailand

This is one of my ultimate favorites...my brother-in-law, Don, got this for me while his ship was docked in Thailand (he's in the Navy). It was my most favorite surprise ever.

I especially love the little cylindrical shell/coral thingy that came with the sand...a total bonus!! Phucket Island is on Jason and my bucket list...we have a large photo of part of the island hanging in our house...


Our inspiration picture to get us to travel more...

See? Isn't it beautiful? I know Don was there to work...but I still think he's SUPER LUCKY to have gotten the chance to go!!

Red Sea, Jordan

Here's another favorite...but I can't tell you who got it for me, because he/she would get in trouble. I don't know the beach...or any other details. It's all very clandestine...

...well, perhaps not QUITE as clandestine as I'm making it...but it's so much more fun to imagine that there was intrigue and danger involved in getting me a sample of sand from the Red Sea in Jordan...even though I'm sure it was a very simple matter...

I especially love the little stone that came with...smooth and polished...with just a slight rosy tint.

It's a VERY small amount, and for the longest time, I had nothing to put it in. But then we went to Maui, and one of the gifts we received was a basket of bath luxuries, and in it was this little bottle of bath salts. As soon as it was used, I cleaned it up, found a cork, and added it to my collection.

So, I may not have brought back any actual sand from Maui...but it wasn't a TOTAL loss as far as my collection is concerned!!

Clearwater Beach, Clearwater, Florida

My friend Jenn got this for me Up North...from the part of Florida where she originally hails. Like the Naples sand...it is smooth and fine. I wonder if all Gulf Coast sand is like that?

I love the little tags on my bottles...they make my collection more fun, I think...especially when there are terribly interesting places listed...

It makes it so much more than crushed rock in a pretty bottle...it turn the sand into actual stories...

This is a sampling of my strange little collection of sand. I hope you enjoyed viewing it as much as I enjoyed sharing it.

If you happen to travel anywhere with a beach...try to remember to grab me some. It doesn't have to be salt water...and it doesn't even have to have water (Anyone passing by the Death Valley, Great Salt Lake, or the Dead Sea?). I'll happily add it to my collection and give you the credit...

...unless, of course, you are an international double-0-something spy who can't be indentified as a collector of sand...

...in that case...your secret is safe with me...

Basic Skills Core Camping with Girl Scouts

2011-03-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

Just a quickie little update...

I'm having a great week, but am VERY busy...so I don't have a lot of time to waste away on the computer.

However...I wanted to share some pics of last weekend.

I was privileged to go camping with some of my Junior Girl Scouts over the weekend to our FAVORITE Girl Scout campground, Camp Nocatee. We attended a Basic Skill;s Core Camp, where the girls got to learn basic wilderness first aid, go hiking, try geocaching/letterboxing, practice their canoe skills, learn how to tie knots and wield a knife, and hone up on their tye-dying skills. We also learned fire safety and they cooked their own meals over a fire, roasted marshmallows for s'mores, and sang countless camp songs.

We really had a fabulous weekend...I truly love serving as a Girl Scout leader...I especially cherish all the extra time it gives me with my own daughters...but after all these years, the girls in my troop are like daughters as well, and I love each and every one of them.


My Cherry Bombs...Chuckles, Bandit, MarshMELlow, Cuckoo Bird, Peaches, Oreo, and Little Feet

We stayed in a campsite we have never stayed in before...called "Little Critter Village". Thankfully...it didn't live up to it's name...

New site!!

Although we DID see many cockroaches (big ones), spiders, and a darling frog the girls caught in the bathroom...

The little frog the girls caught in the bathroom and set free...

There wasn't a lot of animal action...definitely not as much as we've seen in previous years. I'm thinking it's because we normally visit Nocatee in May...and it's only March. Less critters...but also, much cooler weather...which was a bonus...

One critter we found...sadly, he was already dead...

The girls loved all the classes and skills workshops...but their FAVORITE activity was canoeing...


Savannah has lots of canoe experience

They also really loved the hike/geocache activity...it was REALLY fun. Geocaching is something our family is discovering with Joseph, since he is looking to earn a merit badge in it...so Savannah and I were both really keen to have fun with this activity...

On the trail...

The girls cooked their own meals over the fire. Most were really excited to break out their brand new mess kits for the activity...but Savannah has a very special mess kit.

It used to be her Grandma Sandys...who is no longer with us. Grandma Sandy had it when SHE was a Girl Scout...and it is actually a vintage Girl Scout treasure.

They don't make THESE anymore...

It even has Grandma Sandys initials painted on it in red nail polish..."SJ" for Sandra Johnston. How awesome is it that Savannah's initials are the very same? Using it in Girl Scouts has made Savannah feel that much closer to her Grandma Sandy...

I think it's great that Sandra and Savannah share something like Scouting...

We really had a great time, and I can't wait to go again. I really love doing this...and I hope my girls know that and feel my love for them, too...

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines: March 2011 - Potatoes!!

2011-03-02T13:34:00.000-05:00

I Love Iron Chef...but every time I hostess, everyone backs out.

Maybe I smell.

Maybe my cooking is absolutely atrocious.

Well...whatever the reason, we had a very small and intimate Iron Chef this month. And in a lot of ways, it was a lot of fun...because it meant we got to spend more time chatting and not trying to be heard over a gaggle of women and kids. And we had a REALLY good time.

Angel and Rose share stories...don't you love my polished-off plate in the picture?

The secret ingredient was potatoes...in honor of it being:

a) Winter...and nothing warms you up like potatoes (although in Florida...we don't really HAVE winter...but still...)

b) St. Patty's Day...and I am an Irish/Scottish lass.

There were only 4 entries...but they were all REALLY good...

I made Shepherds Pie...adapting a recipe from Danny Boome. It was really good...if I do say so, myself!!

Jason whipped up a family favorite, Potato-Ham Casserole. It's ALWAYS a crowd pleaser...

Heidi made this yummy Cilantro-Avocado Potato Salad...which I was REALLY excited about because it's a potato salad recipe that I actually didn't already have!!

And last, but certainly not least, Angel made her Ranch Mashed Potatoes...which are yummy and easy and amazing!!

We all had really full and satisfied tummys afterwards...and really full and satisfied hearts, too...after getting to hang and chat with our girlfriends and enjoy each others company!!

Heidi is the next hostess...her secret ingredient is LEMON!!

Next Iron Chef...THIS lady is hosting...and I hope she has a better turn-out...although I think maybe she won't mind another gathering like the one we just had!!

Until then, fellow foodies!!

Allez Cuisine!!