Friday, August 26, 2011

Thinking about a blog post

I'm on the actual computer, what do you think of that?! Those of you who are my facebook friends or who regularly email me are thinking, "Isn't Julie always on the computer?" Those of you who've been paying attention would know the truth, "No, Julie is always on her ipod!" Not going on the computer keeps me at least semi-accomplishing life while I am also wasting time in cyber-world. It's a win win for everybody. Well except the person who sends me an email that is too complicated to reply to on the ipod. Then all of a sudden two weeks go by and I've yet to reply to an urgent request. Oh well, maybe it's more of a win some lose some scenario. Either way, I'm here now.

Well, I'm here on the computer smack dab in the middle of the organized chaos that is school around here. Jake just finished a spelling test, Jonathan is working on math, and Madi history. She just escaped to a calmer room though in the hopes of actually accomplishing something. You see we talk too much around here. We're all guilty. I'll tell everyone to be quiet and get to work, and two minutes later I'll be telling Jonathan about his scheduled "behind the wheel" driving classes. Then we'll just get back to work and he'll have the need to let us all know about the new Disney monorail that is up and running. Then Jake will chime in with "What are your three favorite silly songs?" I think you get the picture.

Jake is back on a Veggie Tales kick. I just recently noticed that Barney and Blue never show up around here anymore ( :( ), but Bob and Larry still come around fairly often.

Jake had an interesting observation the other day. He said he feels sorry for Adam and Eve because they never got to be children. I found his insight very profound. After he thought about it a little more, he realized he might just be a little jealous of them though because of "parents and rules". Not that he's the type to let rules (or parents) stop him anyway, so I'm not sure what he was thinking.

We are winding down a good week of school. Everyone is happy with their new classes, as the novelty hasn't worn off yet. Virtual School has had some changes that are taking a little getting used to, but it seems pretty good so far. Jonathan is thrilled to be back in Algebra (2), since he is much more of an Algebra guy than a Geometry guy. Madi is loving her new History (she is part of a co-op). It's quite a work load, but she's enjoying it and what I've read of the books (and there's a lot of them) I'm loving it too. For example who knew that corn was genetically modified to begin with?! I mean it's been fairly common knowledge of late that genetically modified corn is something to be avoided right? Well according to Charles Mann corn was genetically engineered by the native Americans from the get go. Of course, the book also talks about how the Natives knew how to combine corn with things like beans and lime so they could be nutritiously digested (and in the case of beans so they could grow better and help the soil too). I guess it's the nutritious part that's left out of the equation today. Jake's History is also making a big hit with both of us. Because he and Madi are both doing American History, he's spent the week learning about native Americans as well. To continue on the corn train of thought he's learned that corn, beans, and squash were known as the sister crops to the Indians of the South east Woodlands. Today he is potentially going to make a wigwam with cardboard, paper and glue. This is something Jonathan and Madi did a few years ago. Upon hearing about it they (the two teenagers) jumped at the chance to make one again. Jake on the other hand was much more excited about his multiple choice quiz this morning. He also has the opportunity to make an Indian longhouse out of gumdrops and tooth picks. Maid was all over that idea too. Jake, not so much! He's an oddity.

We made the yummiest thing the other day...homemade peanut butter cups!! I was desperately in the mood for a chocolate peanut butter treat (I was thinking buckeyes), but I only had about a cup of powdered sugar and buckeyes call for about 6 cups (a little excessive even for me). Well these peanut butter cups only need 3 cups of chocolate chips, one cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and a tsp vanilla. These are staples around here! Melt the chips, spread them in cup cake papers (I'm thinking a silicone muffin pan would probably work well too) mix up the peanut butter, sugar and vanilla, plop some on the chocolate and put more chocolate on top, cool, and eat! You could probably be careful and neat about the whole process, but I made them quick and sloppy (and extra delicious). They are long gone now, but after typing this, that is the next thing on my mental to do list!

We also had an extra yummy (and on sale at Publix) dinner last night. Phillycheesesteak wraps. First melt a little butter (or a lot) and saute the onion {that had been sitting in the pantry for months} with the peppers [that were rotting away that a nice lady from church gave us weeks ago] (we had eaten plenty, but she gave us a ton). Then throw in some Publix Roast beef that is on sale this week, and top with provolone also on sale. Then put it all on a BOGO flatbread. Now I want that too, but the rotting onion and never-ending peppers are no more:(.

Speaking of wraps, I was blog hopping yesterday and saw a picture of a greek salad wrap! You can bet that is on my mental meal plan for next week. There wasn't even a recipe or anything, just a picture, but I'm smart enough to figure this out for myself. It will have a lot of lettuce and ham and feta cheese, a little bit of tomato and some Greek dressing that was on sale a few weeks ago, and more BOGO flatbread to hold it all together. Everybody loves a chance to eat salad without a fork!

3 comments:

ann marie said...

I am dying for something sweet, but not something too sweet and those peanut butter things sounds awesome. We have a ton of peanut butter here, but I need to run to the store now to get the chocolate. Yum. Glad school is going well. Our first week has been great. I am so happy Anthony is home. Oh, I like that observation about Adam and Eve :)

Kirsten said...

Oooooo, homemade peanut butter cups. I am gonna have to try those. I can totally picture you guys all sitting around chatting during you day. It made me smile:0)

Melissa said...

Picked up the ingredients for the peanut butter cups this week - on my to do list.

Some of my garden blog buddies like to grow the Three Sisters as the indians did.