• A new day dawning

    Attention, please!

    WE NOW HAVE HIGH SPEED INTERNET AT OUR HOUSE!!!

    Yes, after four long years of dial-up, of hours upon hours spent waiting for pages to load, of getting booted off the web at random and inopportune times, of tears and swearing and intense exasperation and frustration, we are connected.

    Two men came to the house yesterday (Miss Beccaboo* was worried that the one looked too young to be holding a job—“he looks like a teenager!”—and asked me if she could ask him how old he was—I said maybe not this time) and hooked us up to the big wide wonderful web. I immediately called several people WHILE doing stuff online. I’m telling you, my stomach felt twittery-jittery all day long. And it still does.

    This change comes after an exceptionally bad spell with Juno, an evil four-lettered word if there ever was one, (I am such a traitor, using the company for ten years and then tossing it as far as I can throw it at my earliest possible convenience), in which I was reduced to a pile of blubbering snot and left home (for only several hours) in search of finding some connection, a connection, any connection. On my second stop (the first one produced more snot) I found it, along with a fabulous live band and lots of decaf coffee. And then, two days later, those glorious men came to my house and fixed my problem once and for all. (We didn’t do it before because there was some miscommunication, or lack of communication on part of the company that installed the new tower a whole freakin’ six months ago. Not until this past Monday did we even know we had this current option.)

    We’ve been basking in our new freedom, watching youtube (how a fly takes off, the young drummer), listening to NPR, looking up photos, and actually clicking on the links that people include in their blogs.

    And so now that I can (and I could before, too, but now it’s SO much easier), I’m going to pass on some links to you. These are all worthwhile reads—I’m not giving you this stuff just for the heck of it—so, if you have the time or the interest, please do take a look.

    The question of socialization? Pioneer Woman addresses it, by way of Mrs. G, on her homeschooling blog. I find it refreshing when people are candid (and she manages to be polite, too) about this question that plagues all homeschoolers (or rather, plagues not the homeschoolers, but the non-homeschoolers around them).

    Do your kids fight all the time? If not, don’t tell me. If they do, go read this little post (and its links) from The More, The Messier, one mother-of-six’s blog. It’s glorious, I tell you! The sweet words are balm for the battle-weary soul.

    And finally, one mother’s perspective on why she stays home. She makes a very good point.

    *A commentor referred to Miss Becca Boo as “Miss Beccaboo” and I much prefer the later name. Don’t know why I never thought of that myself. Ach, vell, the change shall be duly made.

    About One Year Ago: Greek Pasta Salad.

  • The fix

    Two nights ago I made the mistake of eating coffee ice cream before going to bed. The eating was not a mistake; the timing of it was. For the next several hours, I slipped in and out of the thin sleep of a caffeine overdose till one in the morning when I finally fell into a deeper sleep. Upon waking the next morning I resolved to not do anything so stupid again, or at least for a very long time (I made the same resolution multiple times between 10 pm and 1 am, but when I woke up that morning, I knew that I really, really meant it). And I also resolved to eat more of that ice cream ASAP. So yesterday afternoon when Mr. Handsome was leaving to go pick up Yo-Yo and Miss Becca Boo from Venture Club, I begged him to take Sweetsie and The Baby Nickel along for the ride. I wanted to have the house free of kids so that I could fix my bowl of ice cream and then eat it in peace.


    The only problem was that The Baby Nickel was burning up with a fever and curled up in a chair. When Mr. Handsome asked him if he wanted to go along, Nickel just laid there, his eyes searing holes in his head. I pleaded with Mr. Handsome, “Just take him! He’ll be fine.” But Mr. Handsome said no—he was obviously too sick. I looked at my little boy and said to him sternly, “Then if you stay here, you can’t bother me. I’m working.”

    I’ll do anything for five minutes peace…and a bowl of ice cream. Sad, but true.

    Mr. Handsome and Sweetsie went out to the car, I turned back to my work (I really was working; there was no ice cream in sight…yet), and then I heard some stirrings. I looked up and there was the Baby Nickel, wobbling and shaking, but standing upright. “Do you want to go with them?” I asked hopefully. He nodded woozily. Oh joy! I hustled him out the door and called to Mr. Handsome, “He changed his mind! He’s coming with you!”

    And then I rushed back inside and started fixing my fix.

    It wasn’t just coffee ice cream I was eating—it was a bunch of other stuff with coffee ice cream for the base. I got the idea for this ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (just as often I accidentally call the place “Stone Cold Creamery,” which reminds me of being dead or high on pot, and I’ve never been either, though I just realized that I do get high on ice cream, so maybe there is a correlation after all). They have some fancy name for this concoction that I can’t remember now, so I’ll just call it Coffee Fix Ice Cream. I fix it and it fixes me. It’s a pretty good deal.


    Coffee Fix Ice Cream

    The ice cream is the star player in this dish, so don’t skimp; however, the caramel and peanut butter are the highlights, and while it’s hard to exercise restraint when doling out these condiments, you really must. (If you mess up and add too much, you can always throw in more ice cream.)

    If you want the brownie to stay in nice little chunks and not get crumbly, then freeze it first.

    coffee ice cream
    creamy peanut butter
    a brownie
    caramel sauce


    Put the brownie in the bottom of the bowl and break it up with a fork.


    Add several large scoops of coffee ice cream.


    Smear one to two tablespoons of peanut butter over the ice cream.


    Drizzle one to two tablespoons of caramel syrup over everything.


    Using a combination of stirring utensils and fingers, mash the mixture together.


    Divide the ice cream between bowls (or, if you are eating solo, store the extra ice cream in a plastic container and freeze for another time), and enjoy.

    Serves two lucky-ducky people.


    About One Year Ago: A gazillion things, including Ricotta Cheese and Pesto Torte.

  • For hot chocolate and donuts

    Last night we had an impromptu back-to-school night. This is not like me. I’m not usually very impromptu, and we don’t celebrate back-to-school in our family because of the obvious—we don’t go to school. Besides, I don’t like to think of our studies as having a beginning or an end—it feels too un-holistic for my liking. (And yes, I realize that my strident idealism borders on obnoxiousness, but I normally don’t talk about it, except for here. My blog is my airing grounds for all irritating obsessions. Do forgive me. In real life I do a fairly decent job of holding my tongue. I think.) And furthermore, we have already started some of our studies—the impression of a cut-and-dried beginning was just a fabrication for the sake of simplicity.


    Anyway! So at dinner I told Mr. Handsome that I was going to take the two older kids into town to go to the library after supper and he shocked me by responding, “Can I come, too?” I did a quick mental calculation: I would have to help with the supper clean-up, get four kids spiffed up and out the door instead of two, my little hubby chore wish list (clean out the back hall, finish unpacking the clothes that are strewn about our bedroom floor, put away some of the canning equipment that is littering the downstairs bedroom) would remain untouched, and I would have the added stress of The Baby Nickel in the library. I smiled across the table at Mr. Handsome and said, “Of course!” (And then I laid down strict guidelines and expectations for how we would divide and conquer.) And we were off.

    At the library we loaded my giant LL Bean tote bag, and then when that was full, our arms, with books, videos, books on tape, and magazines. On the way back to the parking garage, I ordered the kids to walk in single-file, tallest to shortest (and then with me bringing up the rear), “like baby ducks.” They all started quacking, and Mr. Handsome, who was in the lead, started flapping his arms and waggling his head. Just for the record, a family of human ducks can make a respectable amount of noise in a large, echo-y parking garage.

    On our way out of town, we stopped at a gas station and I went inside to pick up a dozen donuts. When I came back out, the large box in my hand, the kids exploded with such rollicking excitement that the car wiggled from side to side.


    Back home they readied themselves for bed while I made a pot of hot chocolate (Mr. Handsome spiked the adult mugs with Baileys), and then I cut an assortment of donuts into quarters and divvied them out among four little plates. The kids ate and slurped until I told them they couldn’t have any more, and then they brushed teeth and piled onto the sofas with books. We all read together for a bit before hauling ourselves upstairs and tucking each other into bed.

    And thus begins a new school year.

    Hot Chocolate

    2 tablespoons cocoa powder
    2 slightly rounded tablespoons sugar
    a little bit of water
    2 cups milk
    a pinch of salt
    1/4 teaspoon vanilla

    In a small saucepan, whisk together the cocoa and sugar. Add a little bit of water till you have a thick sauce.

    Heat the chocolate sauce, stirring steadily, until it boils. (Boiling the mixture ensures that the final product will be creamy smooth, not grainy.) Slowly add the milk, whisking all the while. When the hot chocolate is hot enough for you (don’t boil it), remove the pan from the heat and add the salt and vanilla. Stir one more time before pouring the chocolate into mugs.

    Serves two.

    About One Year Ago: Family Photo Shoot. The picture of us up there in the right hand corner of the blog is one year old. I need to get a new picture up there…sometime.