Cherry Blossoms

In 1912, the country of Japan gave the United States a gift of 3,020 Cherry Trees.  The Cherry Blossom is believed to be a symbol equated with "the evanescence of human life and epitomizes the transformation of Japanese culture throughout the ages."  (source: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/history-of-the-cherry-trees.htm, accessed 3/30/2016)

These trees were planted along the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River, and extend from the Lincoln Memorial, down to the Jefferson Memorial and around Haines Point.

Ever since my family moved to the greater DC Metro area in 1979, we have made a point of going into see the Cherry Blossoms every few years.  We've taken picnic dinners and eaten under the trees in the moonlight, we've taken our young children who were bouncing with energy and enthusiasm and ran from tree to tree to tree, and we've taken out of town friends and family down there, some of whom were astounded by the beauty, and some of whom were just bored out of their minds at the thought of spending a day walking around trees, only to be awed by the sheer enormity of the blooms once they got down there.

This year, we hit Peak Bloom on Friday.  The trees were delightful, but the mall was packed!  We saw a couple getting married under the trees, and we saw people of all ages and nationalities, stopped under the trees and staring at the overhead canopy of trees in absolute awe.  The joy of spring, and the peacefulness of the trees - in the middle of all the insanity that is Washington DC was something to behold.  We walked over 8 miles Friday afternoon and evening.  We parked in a lot in Virginia, and walked across one of the bridges into DC and visited the monuments along the mall before finishing our tour of the cherry blossoms. 

The view from the reflecting pool up to the Lincoln Memorial.  Funny story here - there's a line of people on the top step, all turned around and taking pictures.  We took daughter up to the top - she's never been inside - and we almost couldn't get through the crush of people.  NOBODY was actually inside, looking around.

The view down the mall.  You see the reflecting pool straight ahead, the Washington Monument, and the Capital Building in the distance.  If you've never been to the Mall before, the Smithsonian Museums are between the Washington Monument and the Capital building.  From where I'm standing, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Nurses' Memorial are off to my left.  The Martin Luther King Memorial is to my right.  Just barely ahead at the end of the sidewalk, you can see the columns for the WW 2 Memorial.  It was a gorgeous day - one of the couples we saw getting married was at the bottom of the reflecting pool - just off to the right, out of the frame of this picture.

The WW 2 Memorial.  Words can't quite describe this.  The names of people from every state who died in the Pacific Theater are on the left, and the Atlantic on the right.  The relief sculpture along the wall as you enter the area depict the lives of the Greatest Generation as they were called to service and left their homes.

Cherry Blossoms!

And still more blossoms!  Down along the Tidal Basin.  Do you see the cherry trees on the other side of the basin?  They're those fluffy puffballs... absolutely gorgeous, and they smelled heavenly!

A look down the hill at the blossoms and the people.

Under the canopy!  I wish I had brought a picnic dinner!  This would have been a great place to just sit, eat, and people watch!

Running With Librarians

About 10 years ago, I was a public librarian.  As a new public librarian, I was required to complete a series of workshops that, put together, comprised the Library Training Institute.  These wonderful classes taught us about teamwork, customer service, public outreach, and most important - how to find resources in a constantly changing resource environment.  (We didn't learn available resources as much as we learned how to find and evaluate reliable resources.)  While the nature of the Reference environment has changed over the last many years, the ability to find reliable resources quickly and easily is a skill that is desperately needed.

These classes were held in a hybrid environment.  Some classes were online.  Some were held over teleconference, and some were in person.  The in person classes were the biggest challenge.  While Maryland might seem like a small state, we have a lot of land - if you look all the way out through the Western Panhandle and down to the very Southern End of the state on the Eastern Shore.  There is a lot of diversity to Maryland's counties, but every public librarian must go through these classes in order to remain a public librarian.

For every in person class we held, I would venture out with the other new hires from our county library in search of the LOTD.  (Library of the Day)  One of us was in charge of driving out there, and the rest of us piled into the car and off we went on our latest adventure.

The worst adventure was the library in a county west of us.  I have a terrible sense of direction.  GPS navigation has made my life so much better - no more roaming aimlessly through shifty neighborhoods, hoping to find the road I'm looking for.  Ten years ago, I didn't have GPS.  I had a coworker who "thought she knew how to get there".

You'd think it would be easy to find this place.

I really should have printed out directions.

We were supposed to be there by 9, and we left our location before 8.   We made it out to there before 9, but we weren't able to find the library.  We looked and looked.  Another half hour passed, and we were in the shiftiest of shifty neighborhoods.  Over the screams of protest of my passengers, I stopped the car and asked a group of young men standing on the street corner how to get to the library.

After a moment of stunned silence, one of the young men told me to continue straight for 3 blocks, make a left, and the parking garage for the library was on the right - with the library across the street.  He then cautioned me to "lock your doors - this isn't a great neighborhood".

(I still wonder if they were shocked that we stopped to talk to them, or shocked that I assumed they would know where the library was.)

My most favorite adventure was at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Central Branch in downtown Baltimore.  This elegant building was constructed in 1931.  Filled with high ceilings, large rooms, and bright corridors, this library is the showpiece of their library system, and the State Library Resource Center for the State of Maryland.  (I pulled my facts from their website, which you can find here: http://www.prattlibrary.org/history/)

Not only were we tucked away in one of the most beautiful rooms, we were allowed to explore the building at will during our lunch hour.  The lobby is phenomenal - with large study spaces, chairs, and a grand piano.  A large room was set aside for computers, and the children's area is phenomenally beautiful.  The architecture - the columns, is it Greco-Roman?  I don't know, but in many ways it reminds me of the architecture at the Met in New York City. 

The Central Library is located across the street from the Basilica.  (Which is another phenomenal piece of architecture!)  We went across the street and explored the Basilica on our afternoon break. 

Having learned our lesson with our first trip, we took the Baltimore Metro into town - which dropped us a few blocks away from the library.  Clear signage led us directly to the library front doors as we got off of the Metro.  I don't know that I'd want to walk that path late at night by myself, but during the day, I felt perfectly safe.  The Metro in and of itself is safe and well lit.  (It's just not as extensive as D.C.'s Metro.)

Book Review - House of Cards

image: Amazon

Note- this post contains Affiliate Links.

Not the television series, no.  This is the book that started it all!  Written by Michael Dobbs in 1989, this series has become an international bestseller that has withstood the test of time and geography.

Set in Britain in the 1980's, this book weaves the tale of Francis Urquhart and his rise to power - and the extreme lengths that he is willing to go to in order to seize the power he so desperately craves.

Fans of the Netflix series will find many similarities between the two stories - but enough differences to keep them involved and engaged with the series. The themes between the two stories are so entrenched that you will find yourself pulled into the intrigue of the tale.

House of Cards is the first book in the trilogy that continues with Play King, and ends with Final Cut.

One thing is certain - you will be struck by how people in power crave more power, and the lengths that some people are willing to go to in order to have more power. 

Easter Monday

I hope that you and your family had a wonderful weekend, filled with family, friends, and lots of love.

We had a fun weekend.  Middle child surprised us with a visit home Saturday night - he went back to school Sunday afternoon, but that left us scrambling for dinner after the stores had closed.  We ended up having roasted potatoes, salmon, quinoa pilaf, and fruit salad.  It was actually a very good meal.  Not what I would have planned, but it was about the company - not spending hours preparing the meal.  We had a wonderful group phone call with oldest child in the afternoon, it was wonderful!

Luna has acquired a bunch of fleas.  We don't know where they came from since she doesn't go out.  It had gotten so bad that she had bald spots on the backs of her legs from where she was scratching and licking herself.  We found some flea gel for her Saturday morning, put it on her that afternoon, and now she is no longer scratching.

We began our taxes this weekend.  We're behind.  They've usually been submitted long before now.  Not sure when they'll actually get submitted - but the clock is ticking.  Only a little over 2 weeks before they're due...  And papers are scattered everywhere!

We did make it into Washington D.C. last week and spent some time with the Cherry Blossoms!  I will be posting pictures later this week.  Let me tell you, this year was perfect!  The blossoms peaked on Saturday - and with the steady rain we are having today, they will be gone by the end of the day.  We walked 8 miles the day we went in.  I was exhausted when we got home - and I had a bruise under the middle toe on my foot - right where I push off when I walk.  Not certain how that happened, but good golly it hurt for a couple of days!

All the kids are back to school now - they've all got about 6 weeks left in their respective semesters before summer.  Daughter will be getting her wisdom teeth pulled the week after finals are finished.  We met with the oral surgeon earlier this week - and met his resident who is working with him through the rest of this year.  I verified - our oral surgeon will be the one actually doing the tooth removal.  I'm sure the resident is good, but I am paying for our oral surgeon to do the surgery - and I am more comfortable with him.  He's worked with our weird tooth conditions for years now.  (Middle child had one tooth grow out through the bottom of his chin....)

I hope you enjoy your week! 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This post contains Affiliate Links.  I have cross-posted this review on my "Books for Teens Blog"

Image: Amazon

This is the book that started it all.  One very imaginative, fanciful story about an ordinary boy who finds out that he is a wizard, and that hidden within his own world is another, unknown world of witches, wizards, and magic.  I stumbled across this book while cleaning the basement last month, and I've been rereading the series.  I enjoyed the movies - but the books just have so much more to offer - so much more depth of detail and plot that is necessary to help see the overall picture of the book.  If you haven't spent some time with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine lately, you might want to go back and spend some time with them!

Harry Potter is known as "The Boy Who Lived" among the Wizarding Community.  One dark night, when Harry was a year old, a dark wizard known as "He Who Must Not Be Named" showed up at the Potter's house with the express purpose of killing young Harry.  While both of Harry's parents died that night, Harry survived - and He Who Must Not Be Named disappeared.

Harry lived a quiet life with his mother's sister and her family - the Dursleys - and they were determined to stamp that magic nonsense out of him so that he would never know what he - or his parents truly were.

The joyful romp into the world of magic begins when Harry receives an owl from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, letting him know that classes will be beginning soon, what school supplies he will need, and where to catch the train for school.

Come and join Harry as he discovers the world of magic.  Discover the wonder of Quidditch, and the charms of a very old school peopled by students, eccentric professors, and ghosts.

While Harry revels in the challenge of a new school and new friends, there seems to be a dark presence lurking in the background that is slowly taking shape.

Is it true?  Could it be possible?  Is the dark wizard slowly taking shape once again?  Has he come back in order to finish the job he started on Harry?  Find out in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Brook Side Gardens

With the arrival of Spring in the Mid-Atlantic, I thought I'd take a moment to share the breath taking pictures that we took yesterday at Brookside Gardens.  The pictures don't even begin to do justice to the grandeur and beauty of this lovely public park.  We enjoyed roaming around the paths, and came home happy and smelling like sunshine!

University of Virginia

Last week, we visited several potential graduate schools with middle child.  Since we were roaming through the Mid-Atlantic Region, we decided that we would swing by the University of Virginia.   I've always loved the UVA campus.  It's beautiful, and the school is beyond compare.  I wish that they'd had the programs I was searching for when I went off to college. 

This gorgeous school was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.  It was intended to be an Academic Village.  In the picture below, you see the Rotunda.  It was (and still is a part of) the library.  Down in front, you see the lawn, and on the left and right sides of the lawn, there are the original rooms and the classrooms.  The individual rooms are very nice - they are single occupancy.  Each has a fireplace, and the original stone work.  And no indoor plumbing.  Think on that for a while.  It wouldn't even have been considered necessary 100 years ago.  Today, the residents go outside, down the stairs, and around back to access the bathrooms.  Think about that trek when it's snowing, cold, and icy.

When my sister graduated from UVa, the ceremony was held here, on the lawn.  We sat with our backs facing the Rotunda, and the speaker was downhill - at the other end of the lawn.  I know she absolutely loved her time in school, and had hopes that her kids would go to school there.

Is middle child considering attending the University for graduate school?  Who knows?  He's trying to decide whether to enter the work world or go to graduate school.  He must make that decision soon - applications are due by the end of the year (November, I think.) and GRE's and subject area tests need to be taken before then in order to be considered for admission.

I'm enjoying the continuing tour of college campuses.  Daughter has yet to apply, too.  She'll be graduating from the community college next spring, and she needs to have her transfer applications in by the end of this year, too.  You can never see enough college campuses.. never!  

The Rotunda.

The Ampitheater.  It was 70* when we were here.  Students were sitting all over the ampitheater, studying.

The library - part of the admissions tour, so I didn't get a good chance to take a lot of pictures.

The reading room in the main library.

Palm Sunday

Four years ago, I was teaching 7th Grade Sunday School with a very good friend.  We enjoyed teaching together no end, and we really loved what we were doing.  This particular year, the Education Director told us as we arrived that the kids would be reenacting Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The younger kids would line the hallway with palm branches, and lay cloaks on the floor.  Our class was to put a kid on a donkey and roll him down the hall.  The donkey turned out to be a wooden cut out of a donkey, held onto a stack of building blocks piled on top of a Radio Flyer wagon. Everything was held together with Bungee Cords.

Looking at the precarious pile of stuff,  my friend and I looked at each other and muttered "What could go wrong?"

The appointed time arrived.  We had a volunteer to ride on the donkey cart - and the rest of the class volunteered to pull/push him down the hallway.  Let's call the volunteer on the cart "Andy".

Andy perched on top of the blocks high atop the wagon,  and the kids began pulling and pushing him down the hallway.  The little kids enthusiastically waved their palm branches.

And then, the wagon hit the first bump as it went over the first of the cloaks laid on the ground.  The blocks began to shift and Andy stopped smiling.

Every time they hit a bump, the blocks shifted a little bit more, the little kids cheered a little bit louder, Andy held on a little tighter, and his friends moved a little bit faster.

By the time they reached the end of the hall, the little kids were screaming in delight, and Andy was holding on for dear life. 

As the kids stopped, the sound of our laughter resonated through the hallways, and Andy rolled off of the donkey cart, onto the floor and shouted "Land!  Sweet Land!" as he hugged the ground.

What Can I Say?

Source: LeMonde

https://www.facebook.com/lemonde.fr/?fref=photo

Voting

In honor of the primary elections in Arizona and Utah, I give you this meme....

source: Facebook

PLEASE get out and vote!

Manic Monday

Last week, we went to visit a potential graduate school or two with the middle child.  He's not sure what he wants to do next, but he definitely wanted to look at a couple of campuses before he decided whether or not he wants to apply.  Unfortunately for him, he's beginning to hit that point that we all hit somewhere in our schooling where we decided that we were just DONE with school, and needed to get out and get a job in the real world for a while.  Going into grad school with that attitude does not bode well for success.  We'll see what happens.  Only time will tell.

I'm finishing a few blankets for a friend of mine.  Her brother died, leaving behind several unfinished crochet blankets.  I've finished them all off - but this last one was a challenge.  It was such a riot of odds and ends of yarn.  I believe he was finishing off the small bits he had left from other projects.  But what to do?  I met with a friend last week, and we went through her yarn stash and found stuff to finish this out.  It was harder than I thought it would be.  We needed to make it big enough to use as a lap blanket, but not so big that his stitches were lost in mine.  I added a few rows around and took it out.  I think it finished out beautifully.  I'll post pictures of the finished work later on today.

One of the crochet blankets.  What to do?

Taken out a few inches - the blanket is finished!

We had snow over the weekend.  Not a lot mind you, but enough to remind us that this March is having more "Lion" days than "Lamb" days.  The snow was heavy at times, but it was the perfect kind of snow as it never really stuck to anything.

After 2 hours, this was the accumulated snow on the car.

The Easter Egg Hunt was held at church yesterday.  Husband, daughter and I went to help out.  Daughter helped with a craft station, and husband and I staffed the snack table.  It was great to see all the little kids and their families, so very excited about Easter and the eggs!  I got a charge out of them all!

Yesterday was the very cold first day of Spring!  Snow, blowy winds, and clouds.  And on Friday, it was in the seventies.  Ahhh... springtime in the Mid-Atlantic.  I love you!  After the fun of the Easter Egg Hunt, we went out to get our free Italian Ice to celebrate the first day.  Of course, it was so cold that we ended up eating in the car.

Pina Colada ice was awesome!

Lastly, I wanted to ask if you've heard about the nesting pair of Eagles at the National Arboretum?  There's a live link to the webcam here:  http://dceaglecam.eagles.org/.   The Eagles are named "The President" and "The First Lady".  They have two adorable little fluffy chicks that hatched over the weekend.  When you get a chance, hop on over and check them out.  They are so beautiful, elegant, and regal. 

Sweet Potato Fries

Middle Child made an awesome batch of Sweet Potato Fries over the weekend, and I wanted to share the recipe.  They were so good!

Sweet Potato Fries

Set oven to 350*
1 large rimmed baking sheet
3 or 4 sweet potatoes, cut into fries - your choice of size - big ones, matchstick ones, little ones, just cut them down
Pepper in a Pepper Mill (we use a 4 peppercorn blend)
Chipotle Powder
Kosher Salt
Olive Oil

Place cut potatoes on the baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with the peppers and the salt.
Bake in a 350* oven until done, stirring occasionally.  (About 20-30 minutes)
When the potatoes are soft, they are done.
Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

Tales From the Classroom

More and more, I find myself missing my classroom days.  I miss working with the little guys, and I miss the constant change and ebb and flow of days and schedules.  I've been rethinking a couple of decisions and choices that I've made over the last two years. 

Anyway, this is a repost of an earlier article about the kids.  I'd subbed several days in a row, and there were three very particularly memorable stories I wanted to share.

1) "That's Wrong!"

I was subbing for a Special Ed. assistant, and was sitting through a second grade math lesson with one of my favorite guys.  The teacher was going through a subtraction lesson with the kids.

(The key part to remember to this story is... 2nd grade.  Remember, at that time, they still made us move the big number to the front and then subtract the smaller number.)

The teacher had the problem 3-5=___  written on the board. 

"Now, how do we solve this?"  She asked.

My little friend promptly raised his hand and said "It's negative 2!"

"No, it's not," the teacher replied, "Can someone else help me?"

"No!!!"  He shouted.  "It's negative two!!"

"No, it's not," she replied, looking at me for help.

"Actually, it is," I answered, and turning to my little friend I said "In 2nd grade, most of the kids haven't learned negative numbers yet.  She's trying to get you to set the problem up the 2nd grade way, and put the big number first."

"Well that's just stupid."  He replied.  "The answer is negative two, and she's just making the problem harder for everyone to solve by making them switch it around.  If they're going to switch the numbers, they should switch the signs."

The teacher and I both sat stunned, staring at him for a moment.  The teacher recovered first and said "You guys are right.  BUT, we since we're in 2nd grade, we will do this the 2nd grade way."

"It's still stupid" said my little friend. 

2) The Voice of an Angel

Subbing again in special education, in a different classroom, I was with a friend in kindergarten.  He was working on a cut and paste number identification sheet.

While he was cutting, he broke out into a SPOT ON rendition of "Oh Danny Boy".

He knew all of the words, hit every single note, and sang in the most beautiful child soprano anyone has ever heard.  It brought tears to my eyes, and the classroom to a halt.

When he finished, the teacher whispered to me "I never make him stop singing.  He has the voice of an angel, and I feel like we are blessed every time we hear it."

 

3) Those Letters Spell WHAT??

I was subbing in a kindergarten class where kids were working on the sight word "this".  The kids each had a bag of cut out letters:  t, h, i, s, that they were to glue into appropriate places on a worksheet.

The first group comes up and glues the letters into place, with no comment whatsoever.

The second group comes up, and one little guy starts playing with the letters, rearranging them, moving them around, and finally comes up with an entirely new word and I hear him say "Oh, wow!  Look at what I can spell!"  (Take one guess what that word was...)


You know, there are some bad days when I'm subbing.  There are days when everything goes wrong.  But then, things like this happen that make me laugh, and I realize just how fortunate I am to be able to work in a profession where I get to see the world through the eyes of children.

Soap Making

A friend of mine recently decided to venture into making his own soap.  He is working on a degree in Herbal Medicine, and he thought that making soaps would be a nice detour down a side road of fun things to do.

He's made several batches, and I have been the very happy recipient of several bars of soap.  They smell so good, and they are so very easy on my skin.  I used a bar of his Lavender Soap this morning.  You can't see me, but I'm smiling because it smelled so good and was so much better than using a bar of a commercial brand of soap.

However, his very first batch of soap did not go so well.

The recipe that he was using called for 2 tsp. of oil, and 1/4 cup of cocoa butter.  he thought that had to be wrong, so he upped the oil to 1/4 cup, and the cocoa butter to a full cup.  The soap was beautiful!  It had Lavender, and it turned a beautiful purple color.  He used it in the shower the next morning to test it out.

You know how I said that he had increased the oil and the cocoa butter?  He had NOT increased any of the other ingredients.

He lathered up, and the soap smelled wonderful.

He rubbed it all over, and the soap smelled wonderful.

He went to wash it off, and the soap would not wash off.

It left an oily sheen, and no matter how much he tried to scrub, the sheen would not come off.

Disgusted, he hollered for his wife who came into the bathroom.  When she heard his tale of woe, she couldn't stop laughing.  He had long since run out of hot water and had turned the water off.  He begged her to run downstairs and see if she could find something to help him get cleaned off.  Once she finally caught her breath, she went to the kitchen and saw the bottle of Dawn sitting on the sink.

"Why not?"  she thought.  "It gets oil off of wildlife when they get stuck in an oil spill, it should help him get the oil off."

In the end, he used most of the bottle.  It wasn't terribly gentle with his skin, but the oil slick was finally gone.

Manic Monday (On Tuesday)

I hope your weekend was not terribly full of adventures and that you manage to catch up on your missing hour of sleep soon - very soon!

We took oldest child back up to college on Saturday - 3 hours up - made sure he had groceries - and then drove 3 hours back home.  It was great having him home!  He is at about the midpoint of his semester, and needs to do a lot of studying between now and then.  His grades are not as high as he would like for them to be at this point in time.

Middle child is home now.  He loves to cook, and he loves having his own kitchen to work in - not the teeny little faux kitchen that he has at school.  We came home from church yesterday to the smell of hamburgers, onions carmelizing in brown sugar on the stove, and the most amazing hand-cut and seasoned sweet potato fries.

I've got a ton of stuff going out of my house this week.  I'm cleaning out the last of my teaching stuff, and it's filling up the trunk of my car.  If this doesn't pop my total of random crap that I've gotten out of my house over 1,000 I don't know what will.  In addition to everything else, I've got a box of random small kids meal toys that one of my friends uses to give out as prizes to her students for good behavior.  I'm not certain how many little random toys are in that box.  It's at least 50, but I think it's closer to 100+.  I actually didn't count as I was concentrating on deciding what was more appropriate to give away and if we needed to keep anything.  (Not that much, as it turns out.)

A final thought for you all as we head into another day of Primary Voting:
Please get out and vote.  Please put some serious thought into what kind of candidate you want to support, and how that candidate not only treats other people, but how that candidate will treat other nations.  THIS is important.

source: Facebook

Frugal Fridays

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.    -Robert Burns

With oldest child home for the week, I had plans.  Big plans. He was to spend time with his grandmothers.  (check).  He wanted to visit one of the Smithsonians.  (check).  He needed to get a haircut.  (check).  I wanted to make several double batches of food for him to take back to school with him in order to cut down on the amount of prep time for meals for him.  He frequently comes back late and hungry.  I thought I'd help him out a little bit by making double batches of his favorite foods this week and then sending him back with the other half.

Here was the plan that I set in place:

Monday - Taco Salad

Tuesday - Pulled Chicken BBQ

Wednesday -Have dinner with Grammy

Thursday -Moroccan Chicken

Friday - Lasagna 

This is what actually happened:

Monday - I made a double batch of taco meat.  Two pounds of beef, Two big bags of frozen corn, 2 cans of black beans, two onions, and all of the affiliated spices.  It filled a large dutch oven.  Keep in mind, daughter is a vegetarian, so she had a separate pot full of taco goodness.   We had two heads of lettuce, cheese, a bag of Fritos, and a jar of salsa.  I had my serving, and noticed that husband and oldest kid kept hitting up the taco meat.  Guess what?  End of meal, and we had less than one cup of taco meat left.  No lettuce, no cheese, no salsa, and no Fritos.  

Tuesday - I picked up one of the large value packs of chicken thighs.  It filled my 6 quart crock pot.  Several hours later, the chicken was finished, and I pulled out the bones, shredded the chicken, saved out the broth and added BBQ sauce.  At the end of the meal, we had less than a cup of pulled chicken left.  (Are you noticing a trend here?)  The kid had also demolished 2 bags of frozen vegetables (heated) and two baked potatoes.  

Thursday- Moroccan Chicken.  Again, a double batch.  Again, I filled a dutch oven.  Since this recipe is made with couscous (wheat), I made a separate smaller batch for myself with quinoa.  Daughter has class on Thursday night, so she ate her brown bag dinner there.  This time, things changed.  There was NOTHING left at the end of the meal.

Friday - Lasagna. This might actually be the one meal he does get to take back with him.  I made two pans last night - I did everything but bake it.  One pan went into the fridge for tonight, and one into the freezer.  Since the second pan is frozen, I think he'll actually have some to take back with him.

We take him back up to school tomorrow.  We're planning on making a big batch of Salmon-Pasta salad for him and leaving him with the leftovers before we head back home.

Makes you wonder about what he's eating, doesn't it?

Not exactly a frugal week, but if it had worked out as planned, you see how this would work - cook 4 days, and have meals for 4 other days.  I thought we left the eat everything stage when he graduated from high school and stopped running cross country and track and field!

Terrarium

Have you ever been to a paint night?  You know, one of those events where you get together, paint a picture, drink some wine, and come home with something you've painted?  I didn't want to go to a paint night, but I wanted to get

together with some friends.  We found an event that centered around plants, and decided to go.  We made a little terrarium, filled with succulents.  Considering my dismal failure with the cactus garden in Coke Cans, I'm wondering how long this will last before the cacti just give up and wither away.  If you look at the picture on the right, you can see just how sad my succulents looked after just a few weeks.  I blame myself.  I'm a terrible plant mother.  Other people manage to make things like this thrive.  Not me.

The actual making of the terrariums was a lot of fun. We began with colored sand, rocks and a large glass bowl. Add the rocks in at the bottom of the glass jar, and then layer in the sand and potting soil.  It ends up looking really pretty!  I think I ended up with more potting soil than I was supposed to.  Most people had a nice, neat little puddle of potting soil in the middle of their sand, and then they put the succulents in the middle of the soil, so that only the sand showed up on the outside of the bowl.   Not me.  Boy howdy, I love making a mess, and I didn't have any tools to make the sand go in nice and neat, so I just poured in the sand directly from the big zip top bags.  No fancy schmancy gorgeous, even layers of sand nicely leveled out and even for this girl.  Nope, I've got sand that reflects me - just all over the place and in uneven, kind of messy layers.  What can I say?  It's who I am!

The raw materials.

The view from the top.  It's kind of cute, isn't it? 

I think my next project is going to be to get a big, closed top lidded jar and try and plant a terrarium with some kind of warm, jungle like plants.  I think I need a big pickle jar.  You know, the kind you used to find at delicatessens that held something like 5 gallons of pickles.  I wonder where I can find one of those?  I wonder how long it would be before I managed to kill off all of those plants, too?  Like I said, I am a terrible plant mother.  I'm hoping that because they would have a lid on the jar, I wouldn't have to actually keep track of watering them. 

Udvar Hazy Center

Oldest child is home on spring break.  On Monday, we decided that we were going to head to one of the Smithsonian Museums.  We quickly decided upon the Udvar-Hazy center, which is adjacent to Dulles Airport.  It's been several years since we've been there, and the sweet siren call of airplanes just couldn't be resisted. 

There is no admission to any of the Smithsonian Museums, but this museum does ask for a parking fee.  We gladly paid the fee, knowing that the money goes towards collection maintenance.

As you walk into the museum, directly ahead of you, you see the Space Shuttle Discovery looming over the catwalks.  I took this picture from the catwalk, looking down into the gallery.  Just to give you an idea of how big that shuttle really is, look at the size of the people on the ground next the the shuttle.  It's massive. 

It's hard to believe you can get this close to the shuttle.  I left this picture big so that you can see the heat resistance tiles on the bottom as well as the wear and tear on the outside of the shuttle from multiple re-entries into Earth's atmosphere.

Two separate super computers.  The one on the right, I recognize.  Dad used this one when he worked on the programming for his Master's Degree.  My phone has more computing power than this computer does.  Yet, this computer helped to design the first manned space flights and put people on the moon.  Think about that for a while - when my Dad was using this computer, he found his slide rule to be faster and less frustrating.  How things have changed.

The view down the catwalks to the right side - housing the modern airplanes.  The Wright Flyer, Enola Gay, Commercial aircraft, etc. are all located on the left side.  The space shuttle is straight ahead.

The conservation lab.  This is my favorite part of the museum!  I love watching the airplanes be restored.  You can watch the conservation guys at work on these gorgeous machines.  I see a modern day coast guard helicopter - and wait, what's that white circular stuff?  Bonus points to anyone who recognizes it!

Outside of the lab, on the observation level, the Smithsonian has signage letting you know what's being worked on and where to find it, as well as the significance of what you're looking at.

This is Mercury Friendship 7.

Flak Bait - as listed on the sign board posted above.

My favorite juxtaposition - Flak Bait sitting next to Gemini 4.

That big plane in the middle is the Sikorsky.

In addition to the I-Max theater, the museum has an observation tower.  This particular day was clear, and we could see out to the Blue Ridge Mountains to the West and Sugar Loaf Mountain to the North.  You can also watch airplanes take off and land from this perch. 

If you'd like to find out more about the Udvar Hazy Center, click here.

For a fascinating look at the Smithosonian's Air Space Blog, specifically the article entitled "Investigating the Writing on Columbia's Walls", click here.

Are you already planning your trip to the Smithsonian?

Short Cuts to Home Cooked Meals

Everyone knows, it's healthier and cheaper to make your own dinner from scratch every day.  Meals for a large family easily come in under $20.  BUT - everyone also knows that making meals from scratch can be time consuming.  When you're hungry and in a hurry, that doesn't bode well for a home cooked meal.

Everything cut and measured for dinner.  Just dump and go.

If you're willing to invest a couple of hours over a weekend, you can easily get yourself ahead of the game, so that dinner is quick and easy, even when you get home from work and have to turn right back around and be out the door in an hour for soccer practice.

These are simple and easy tricks that I've been doing for years, long before the internet was a "thing". Now that our kids are grown and we have more time, I still find myself prepping for the week ahead of time because most nights, I really don't want to chop a bunch of vegetables.

Go shopping early on the weekend, and get your vegetables for the week.
By early, I mean early - before 9 am, if possible.  If you frequent farmer's markets, you know that earlier is better as far as finding the best produce.  The same goes for the grocery store.  Get out there early so that you can get your weekly shopping done and get on with your day.

Pre-Prep as much as you can.  This means you need to have some idea of what you'll be eating for dinner each night.  If you're not certain what you're going to eat each night, pre-prep the vegetables you tend to use over and over again.  Mince the garlic and store it in an airtight container.  Same goes for onions, celery, and bell peppers.  Each one gets stored in it's own container.

Cook once, eat twice.  This is my mantra.  There's a movement out there called "Once A Month Cooking".  Basically, you give up two days a month to prepare all of your meals for the month.  One day is for shopping, and the second day is for prepping, cooking, and freezing.  I remember when I did once a month cooking.  It was nice to have all the food ready to go, but I was exhausted at the end of my two days.

Peppers are cut, spices are measured.

On Sunday, roast two chickens.  (The oven is going to be on anyway.)  After dinner, pull the chicken off of both carcasses and put them into freezer containers in the serving you will use for a recipe.  The bones go into a stock pot - either to make soup for another night during the week, or to make broth to freeze and use later.

Are you making a lasagna or casserole for dinner?  Make two.  Serve one for dinner, and then freeze the other one for another night.

If I know what I'm making for dinner, I will cut all of the ingredients and assemble them together so that all I have to do is dump it into the pot and cook.  I've even gone so far as to measure all of the spices and put them together in a container to make assembly go faster and easier.  (I've been known to leave post it notes on the veggies so the husband or kids can start it.  See those peppers?  I left the ingredients and cooking instructions on a post-it note on top of the container.)

For my lunches, I'll assemble salads in a mason jar a couple of days in advance.  I've found through trial and error that you really don't want to assemble one of those salads more than three days out - they get a little wonky after that.

Crock pots are wonderful resources.  Put food in, 8 hours later, you have a meal.  But if you're like me, cutting food on my way out the door can be overwhelming.  Enter crock pot freezer meals.  Assemble all of the ingredients in a bag, and freeze.  Pull it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge the night before, toss it into the crock pot first thing in the morning, and dinner is DONE.

3 prepped meals, ready for the freezer.

You can follow my Freezer Cooking Pinterest page here. 
My Slow Cooker Pinterest Page is here.

For our dinner tonight, I pulled a package of pre-cooked shredded chicken and pre-cooked black beans out of the freezer.  I am going to mix them up into two separate pans of enchiladas.  One vegetarian and one meatatarian (without cheese).  I'm planning on having rice on the side.  Last night, while I had time, I mixed up the spices for everything into separate little mason jars.  I'll dump the spices directly from the mason jars into our protein mixtures.  Since we are gluten intolerant, we'll use corn tortillas.  I'll be serving this with a light salad of some kind.

What do you do to help speed up dinner preparation in your house?