Evie's Neapolitan Cookies

Evie did not get accepted into the Saturday morning art class because I signed up too late, so I decided to do a weekly art lesson with her at home. She asked if we could make cookies together and that is a form of art so we decided on baking Neapolitan cookies. I've been avoiding these for a long time because they look time consuming, but once she sets her heart on something she's bound to return to it again and again until we get it done. So I actually had the freeze dried strawberries on hand for 10 months, thinking we'd do them over last Christmas vacation. Glad to say we finally made them, and they were awesome!

We followed the receipe from Sarah Kieffer's 100 cookies book.

Voraciously Reading Children

I don't read to my kids.  One time, I tried, I got 3/4 of the way through my favorite book as a kid, "Treasures of the Snow", when the oldest was in grade school and the youngest a baby.  I don't think anyone retained anything but it haunts me that I never finished that book with my kids.  After a time, it was impossible to go back without starting over.  I finally realized, I'm not meant to read to my kids.

I see other parents rapturously extoling the virtues of reading to their kids.  Look at my darlings read, they crow, with a sanctimonious hand over the heart, and it's all due to the fact that we read to them as they were young.

Well, mine turned out just fine.  Perhaps a little too fine.  Obsessive to the point of writhing around in sheer utter agony when they do not have a book in hand.  Oh the drama, had I only read to them as children how much worse would it be?

My 4th child, who is now 7, is in love with the Kingdom of Wrenly series.  As a gift, before our Montana trip, I bought books 9 and 10.  To her sheer horror, book 9 has pages 67 - 79 cropped due to printing error so she's unable to read the story in it's complete and utter glory.  I've been reminded continuously to replace the book to the point of finally writing to Thriftbooks and alerting them to the dire situation.  I'm grateful to them for sending a replacement copy.

My 3rd child, who is now 10, is hooked on the Wings of Fire series, as is her oldest sister who got all the books for Christmas last year but refuses to let her sister borrow them.  So, while in Montana, she begged to spend her chore money to buy the digital version of book 6.

My 2nd child, who is now 12, is probably the most addicted to reading but doesn't quite realize his ability to absorb mass quantities of data in a short period of time.  Prior to the one month trip, I noticed he'd begun re-reading the Harry Potter series and helpfully suggested he take all the books.  We had room in the book box, it was only half full, he said no need.  One week into the trip and he was found listless and brokenhearted, having read every single one of his books with three weeks to go.  We scoured the local thrift stores of Polson, MT and nearby towns to no avail, surprisingly there were no bookstores.  Either no children live in that area, or they don't read books, or maybe they do and never let them go.  Just as he believed all hope was lost, we remembered that our local library offers books on an app called Hoopla, and all Harry Potter books were available.  Now he could combine his two loves, iPhone and reading and be able to do both outside of phone time.  Since we've returned he's gone through the Fablehaven books 1-3 in less than a week and was stopped only due to the fact that the library hasn't located book 4 yet.

My 1st child, who is now 14, reads at more leisurely pace than 2nd, but is also lost without 5-6 books in rotation at any given time.  She's currently reading the Aru Shah, White Bird the graphic novel, has a dog book from her birthday, and has developed a love for WWII stories.  

One of the many hurdles with VRC's (Voraciously Reading Children) is not only keeping them in books but resolving the squabbles that occur when more than one passionately loves the same series.  Who gets to read the new release first?  Should every reader have the entire series in their room?  Convincing those who are adrift when their series ends to try something new.

I grew up with two brothers and I don't think we read the same book unless it was mandated by school.  Oldest read Hardy Boys, I read Nancy Drew.  Youngest didn't like reading.  We literally never had these problems.

Perhaps the solution lies with not buying any more books?  Let all books be library check outs!  To which the two oldest, who have managed to find this blog and actually read it shall now end this post by screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO while I laugh manically in the background.

Finally, if you are still reading, and have the sudden urge to come and interrogate me on not buying any more books, there will be a quiz on some of the random words used here today.  Unless you've grown up and can now afford to buy your own books, carry on, and hopefully you have better luck with your children.  

Part 3 of our Summer Break

Part 3 of our summer break began the day after we returned from Montana.  It includes all the basic doctor appointments such as dental cleaning, eye doctor, orthodontist, and even a foot doctor to assess an ingrown toe nail.  Managing appointments for 4 kids has become a side job.

Next we will tackle school supplies which also means reconciling with the fact that the school website needs updated (another side job).

School clothes - my third child is 10 but has outgrown 10/12's, the next size is 14/16 which my 14 year old daughter wears.  They attend a private school so we buy Lands End polo's and I guess it's time to assign colors.  This tall girl needs to slow down.  No one expects girls who are 4 years apart to wear the same clothes!

At some point we really should clean the camper as we did live in it for almost a week but it's currently parked at the church because my mom had a driveway issue that needs addressed so it's been put on the get to later list but hopefully this month we can get it back to mom's house and give it a proper cleaning.

The dishwasher is making a crackling sound so we need to get those guys back to fix it.

Aisha, our black cat, and Charlotte discovered a mouse on a sticky pad in the kitchen today.  To make a long story short, we now need to search for it's friends and make sure they evacuate.  As if having a Jack Russel Terrier and 2 cats wasn't enough to drive fear into the hearts of small creatures.  I really can't imagine what the mouse was thinking but maybe, just maybe it was only one who didn't have time to facebook all his little friends and family to join our terrifying abode.  

I need to get caught up on a month and a half of bills.  Boo hiss.

One of the apartments in our rental property needs updated.  I think we're looking at 2-3 months of repainting and repairs, needless to say we'll be there every weekend until it's done.

Our lawnmower needs fixed. 

All the kids must learn to ride a bike this summer, we've simply crossed the line of reasonable timeline in which our oldest should be proficient.  Our oldest is my size, she's literally wearing my clothes and only 1/2 size smaller in shoe size and probably the same in height difference!  Henceforth, she cannot ride the medium size kid bikes anymore.  Husband has gallantly offered to build her a bike using 3 old bikes, each of which have some issue that somehow requires rebuilding one with the working parts of three.  Prior to this proclamation we had gone to a bike store and found the most basic bike to be over $600.   We've tried working with her on my college bike but the seat is too high, we can't get it any lower, and despite being almost my size she's unhappy with a bike that I've dearly loved and apparently got quite used to stopping while on the tips of my toes.  It gives me the best turning stride and I used to get every ounce of speed out of that machine.  Alas, my oldest wants to be able to put her entire foot on the ground so we are now going to build her a bike.  How will this fit into the above schedule?  Lord only knows.

2020 Spring Break ~ Staycation

Last year we had an epic trip to Florida, it was our first attempt in quite some time to make spring break memorable.  I think prior years I had just worked through the kids spring break but in 2019 I got an extra week of vacation and that's what allowed us to make the trip.

This year our finances are tied up in an upcoming investment venture so we needed to be more frugal.  We also had a long list of parent errands to attend and both our jobs required some presence so we tried our best to give the kids a special thing to look forward to each day.

Monday

• Inspection for Truck
• Worked 2 hours in the morning
• City Park
• Little Caesars Pizza
• Bank appointment for investment venture, dropped kids at mom's house while we went to the bank
• Mike had play practice in the evening
• Library for books and movies

Tuesday

• Finish paperwork for investment venture
• Dad go to school in morning to grade papers, mom do a couple hours of work
• Onward Movie after lunch

Wednesday

• Breakfast at Cracker Barrel with mom
• Try to fix mom’s printer
• Print art forms, chore list and make menu
• More calls for investment venture
• Call JCPenny for hair appointments
• Finish pricing consignments
• Change oil in SUV in afternoon 
• Work in back yard for two hours

Thursday

• Finish new bedding in master bedroom
• Science Center downtown Hagerstown
• Swim class in evening

Friday

• 9:30am – Mike doctor’s appointment
• 10-11am – Walmart Pick up, got canceled so had to go inside to shop during pandemic craze with my four kids plus visiting kid!
• Mike went to Costco in Frederick for supplies
• 3pm – bank appointment for investment venture
• Michaels to frame family photo
• Kids went to my mom's house for the afternoon while parents did banking/Target/Michaels trip

Throughout the week the coronavirus news got worse until Thursday at 4:30pm, it was finally announced that all Maryland schools would be closed for two more weeks.  Our school, who started their spring break a week early, was now facing 3 weeks off school!!!  They will still have homework sent home complete each day so basically we're now homeschooling for two weeks.  No big deal, husband is a science teacher at their school so he can preside over their homeschooling activities while I continue to work from home.  

I'm glad we stayed home.  It might have been more stressful to deal with the news if we'd been traveling and by Friday stores were selling out of food fast.  Imagine coming back from a trip to striped down stores?  I'm sure they will be restocked soon enough but still the idea of coming home to such chaos makes me glad we stayed local.

1st Snow of the Season

I was really hoping the kids would get a day off, but sadly all they got was a 2 hour delay.  It really derailed my morning because I lost all focus.  I slept in till 7am, then sat for 40 minutes drinking coffee and reading news.  I then wandered upstairs and reorganized Violette's clothing bin so we could find her school clothes, got two girls dressed for school and by this time the youngest was pushing quit urgently to go outside and play in the snow.  I pushed back more insistently that she must eat breakfast first, get her hair done, then go outside and that took until 9am.  I don't know how it took that long, I spent time in the basement looking for boots, then again for gloves which I thought had already been placed into the snowsuit bin.  In between jumping up to look for things I ate bites of butternut squash bread.  By 9:15 three girls had made it outside, I still hadn't finished breakfast or made lunches!  I was exhausted, still hadn't showered, and it's a work day!  See this is why I wanted a "snow day" and not a delay because the delay just delays the kids leaving for school and letting me get on with my day!  At least they had fun making snowmen and various other things.

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 4 Odessa, TX

We limped into town with our sad travel trailer in tow, sad because it was only used one night.  We had such high expectations.  Thankfully Mike was able to get it fixed in town for considerably less than what Camping World had quoted us.

This is our favorite DQ, just outside of Dallas.  

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 3 Texarkana, TX

It took half a day to finish at Camping World, so we only made it to Texarkana, TX but at least we made it to Texas at the of day 3.  We had planned to go to a really exciting water park in Texas but by this point we just wanted to be done with the trip.

We stayed in another hotel for the night.

Trip to Texas 2019 - Day 2 Memphis, TN

We made it to Memphis, TN around dark, it was incredibly hot outside with about one million mosquitoes that descended upon Sam with a furious vengeance.  Just as we got the electric on and door firmly shut, we realized the air conditioner was broken!  The heat was so bad we immediately packed up everything and went straight to a nearby hotel.  This is one reason I'm glad we didn't have the dog as it can be been hard to find a place that allows dogs.

We were near Camping World, so the next day we went over to see if they could fix it.  The cost and time was greater than what we wanted to deal with, so we decided to get it fixed at our final destination. 

Here's photos of the kids enjoying the hotel and lounge at Camping World.

Evie adopted this towel as her new best friend.

We let them swim in their pajamas the next morning.

Trip to Texas 2019 - first stop West Virginia

* this post is back dated for those getting email blast

This is our first trip with the travel trailer and we were a bit nervous about so many details.  We knew it would take longer to get places from pulling the extra weight, more gas stops, considerably slower in the mountains so hard to predict our stopping point.  We didn't know how long it would take to set up the travel trailer each night, how long to pack up the next day, so we planned to take an entire leisurely week to get to Texas.

Our first major stop was middle of West Virginia, about a five hour drive, to drop our dog Bitzer at a dog kennel for the duration of our trip.  He's stayed with this family before and they are friends of ours. 

Our stop for the night was Wytheville, KOA.  It was a really nice spot and I'd like to return when we have more time to enjoy.  I like KOA's because there's an app where you can schedule a site and it was all very easy to navigate and get same day service.

We had electric, water and internet but we couldn't figure out how to get hot water flowing so I took my morning shower at the KOA bathrooms.

Panning the water for gold.

1st Adventure in Travel Trailer

Having no prior experience with a camper, and it's been years since we've done any sort of camping, my criteria was just find a place and park it.  I probably picked the most difficult state park possible for our first outing.  We had to back the travel trailer up a slight incline hill and angle it to fit into the assigned space, along with adding various objects to level the trailer.  It may or may have not taken an hour to set up!  Good thing I had supper made in a crock pot that was already finished and ready to eat!!  I also picked a site with no water hook ups, we learned later that more educated campers fill up before parking.  We were not going to re-park as it was a one night camping experience so we just made it work with repeated trips to the bathroom, which is what we'd have done if we were tent camping!  No big deal.  

Kids reading on the top bunk.  

They waged an endless campaign for top bunk privileges that went on all summer.

The Natural Bridge, VA

The Natural Bridge does not involve much walking to get to the bridge, it's about a hundred stairs to get to the bottom and then a short walk to the bridge which you walk under.  I think for the cost it's worthwhile to take the entire hike to the end waterfall, even though it's very far away and not easy to see.  There is the Monacan Indian village along the way that has people doing various jobs who teach their craft.  We found that very interesting.  In total we walked 3.7 miles! 

Luray Caverns, VA

My brother invited us to go with him to visit Luray Caverns.  We're both sure we went as kids but neither of us can remember it.  Our dad used to take us on lots of road trips so we remember the places we went regularly but memories are starting to fade.

One of the reasons I blog is for my kids to have a road map of their childhood - "Hi kids!", if you are reading this one day! 

Luray Caverns is quite a vacation destination for the area, they have several free museums and a really fun rope park.  Thankfully they have free parking and plenty of it!  We brought lunch and ate at the picnic tables before going in.  

We walked 3 miles!

Strawberry Picking

I have fond memories of picking strawberries with my mom and brothers when I was a kid, so when my cousin invited us to go with her, we jumped at the chance.  I pulled out the kids giant Easter buckets and a few ice cream containers.  The patch was surprisingly full, sometimes they only have very small hard to find berries.  I tried to educate 4 kids on what to pick but they were dazzled by the biggest berries regardless of bad spots so we ended up with some not so great berries but overall they did pretty good. 

I was astonished at the amount we all picked in 30 minutes - 22lbs!  At $3.00 per pound it was $67.89!  Egads.  Next year we're taking smaller containers!!

We cut up enough to take to a church evening picnic and froze the rest because we were going away for Memorial Day weekend.  I kinda wish I would have had time for one fresh strawberry pie!

Cousin with my youngest

Brohard Dog Beach, Venice FL

High five to the city of Venice, FL.  It was free parking and entrance.  The layout of picnic tables before going into the park was outstanding, an entire parking lot with one long row of picnic tables next to a pretty wild life preserve lake.  So nice and convenient.  Very clean restroom area before going into the beach area and double gates before going through to keep dogs from bolting into areas that are not safe for them. Did I mention free!?!