Screech is Not Amused

I don't know who I feel sorrier for. Screech, because Pete sprayed Silly String in her hair? Or Pete, because he got blamed for it when actually, DADDY was the culprit?

We're Alive!!!!

"Finally!" you're saying, "I don't have to look at a picture of that kitten anymore!!!!" I am SO sorry I haven't posted in ages. It's been so long that I forgot my Blogger password and it took me several tries to login! Here, in a nutshell, is what has been going on with us:

- I have discovered Facebook. 'Nuff said!

- This past summer, I went through a bad bout of clinical depression. Nothing brought it on, but life was a daily struggle for awhile. I truly didn't care about anyone or anything. After some medication and lifestyle changes, I am finally back to 100%!

- As if that weren't bad enough, soon after my depression set in Hubby lost his job due to the economy. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as he was there to help me cope everyday and took over all the major household duties. I don't know what I'd have done without him! Please pray for him, though, as he hasn't found work yet. He is looking for a management position in Health/Safety/Environmental or in Quality. We would prefer to live in the southeast if at all possible. If you know of any such openings, please let us know!

- Drama Queen and Pete will be in a play soon, "Hansel and Gretel". They will be playing a brother and sister who get lost in the forest. I am proud of both of them: Drama Queen for being so expressive, and Pete for having his first major role and memorizing his lines so quickly. I am in charge of costumes, which is SO much fun!


- We're still homeschooling and loving it! Drama Queen is especially loving math, thanks to Teaching Textbooks. Wonderful program! Here the kids are modeling the Egyptian costumes I made for them:


- Pete is thriving in Taekwondo. He recently earned his purple belt.

- Pete tried to scam the Tooth Fairy and received this note (created by a most clever fairy), which was later found wadded in a tight ball in the outside trashcan. (It was MIGHTY unusual that he offered to take the trash out by himself for the first time ever!) Any fairy communication was vehemently denied.



(You can download a blank copy here!)

- As you can see, Screech is still Screech! Yes, she's eating with her feet.


She is cracking us up lately with her affinity for bugs, dead or alive. She lets the live ones crawl all over her, then she plays with them for hours until they die. Here she is holding a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. The people at the nature center had to beg her to get it back!


The only reason she is petting this LARGE tarantula so delicately is because we bribed her. She'd have grabbed it out of the man's hand otherwise!


Here she is playing with dead beetles in lieu of dolls:


Last but not least, Sylvester the cat is growing like a weed! He's no longer that tiny kitten, but he's as sweet and cuddly as ever!


That's it for now. I promise, I'll update regularly now that my love affair with Facebook has begun to wane!

The Stealth Sickness

We've had some kind of stomach bug go through the house. I've nicknamed it "The Stealth Sickness" because a child will be fine and playing happily one minute, then will suddenly throw up without warning. This is followed by diarrhea. Lovely. Pete had it first a few weeks ago, and it lasted a few days. Then he got it again a few days ago, and then Drama Queen got it. This morning Screech told me that her tummy hurts. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least Pete and Drama Queen have the bowl technique down pat, so this minimizes cleanup. I have them keep a gigantic plastic bowl nearby at all times. A few days ago, Bunny watched as Pete, um, utilized his bowl. I would have expected her to be frightened or even disgusted, but instead she asked earnestly, "Is that cat food? Is that chocolate milk? What is it, Mommy?"

My son - the magical fountain of food. At least Screech didn't try to sample any!

We have had a few messes to clean up due to the stealthy nature of this illness. (They're better! Wait, they're not! It's all over now! Uh oh, here they go again . . . ) Early this morning, as I slept peacefully in my cozy bed, Hubby dealt with the aftermath of one of Pete's episodes. Pete had been bowl-less because we THOUGHT he was better. And this was after having had a huge dinner of a curried chicken and broccoli casserole. Emphasis on the broccoli, Pete's fave vegetable.

My hubby, he is a saint.

I didn't get halfway through typing this post when Screech started throwing up. Poor thing, it scared her to death. It freaked her out and there was a huge mess. The second episode (15 minutes later), she did her thing right in the bowl. I heaved a huge sigh of relief as she heaved in the proper place. Then she proceeded to wipe her mouth on a decorative Christmas pillow.

We're Ready!

Can you tell that Pete and Drama Queen are just a teeny bit excited about our upcoming trip?


The wild blackberries in our backyard are ripening. Yum! Hope there will still be some when we get back! Assuming there are any left when we leave, considering how fast as Drama Queen has been eating them!

Our Wonderful Week

I had an awesome "bloggy break"! We enjoyed our friends so much. Here are a few highlights:

We spent a lot of time just hanging out and having fun here at the house. Here is Doodlebug clowning for us:
Pete took Doodlebug for a ride on the wagon. It was so cute! They played really well together.
Here's Pete with Drama Queen's best friend, Gymgirl. (This is the same one he wanted to sleep with.)
Pete wrote Gymgirl this sweet note:
At the end of the week we went to Chattanooga together. The kids had a ball playing in the water outside the aquarium.
Pete played with girls all week and it shows. Here he is playing "mer-boy."
I had brought a swim diaper for Screech, but watching her waddle like a duck was so much more fun!
Petting the stingrays is always a highlight at the Aquarium.

We spent forever in the butterfly garden at the Aquarium. Gymgirl caught this one by herself.
Screech was so tickled to hold one by herself.

Poor Screech conked out after a long day with no nap.
Seconds later, she was like this:
Swimming in the hotel pool was a blast! (Screech wasn't getting her way in this pic.)

The Week in Pictures

It's been a busy week, so I haven't blogged much. To catch you all up, here are some pics from this past week and the weekend:

Had ice cream at this AWESOME little place:


Went to Yellow River Game Ranch to see and pet the animals:




Those who know me in real life will understand the significance of this pic:

And this one:


Open wide!



AWANA Awards night. Drama Queen and Pete each finished their books! Drama Queen will move up to TNT next year.


Drama Queen's first Girl Scout campout. She had a ball! She's only been in this troop a few weeks, and she's loving it.

A few girls from Drama Queen's troop participated in a Memorial Day ceremony.

Have a great week!

Easy Recipe Thursday: Birthday Special!

Today we celebrated Hubby's birthday! We had a wonderful day together. The kids did all the planning. They made homemade cards and poems for him, decorated, and chose the meal (Daddy's favorite pizza from an AWESOME local Mom and Pop pizza place). I made the yummiest cake (I will share the recipe below). First, I wanted to share Drama Queen's poem, which was written 100% by herself with no input from me (I have added a couple of comments in brackets):

Today Is Daddy’s Birthday

Today is Daddy’s birthday
For us to celebrate.
We’ll have some cake and candles
And I can “bearly” wait! [Daddy often calls her "Little Bear"]

I love Daddy truly,
I love him quite a bunch.
I wish today was Saturday,
Together we’d eat lunch!

I like Daddy’s moustache,
It’s nice and big and brown.
Whenever he is happy
He never makes a frown!

He takes us on a doo ride [This was Pete's word for "scooter ride" when he was little]
And we have so much fun.
We drive around the country
Until the day is done!

Sometimes we have movie night
And it is very great.
Then Daddy tucks me in at night
When it is very late!

I REALLY love my daddy,
That’s all I can talk about.
I really, really love him
Inside and out!

Here is the cake I made, in all its chocolatey glory:


(Yes, this is my own picture of the actual cake I made! Ain't it fancy?)

And here is the recipe from Allrecipes.com. By the way, this recipe is wheat and gluten free! No one in our family has issues with this; it's just an awesome cake! I was looking for a recipe similar to a flourless chocolate cake we had years ago at the old Berghoff restaurant in Chicago. I've found it! This is rich, dense and fudgy. It has a nice, dark flavor. I have never cared for dark chocolate, but I love this cake. The original recipe included a caramel sauce, but I left it off because I felt it competed too much with the rich cake.

Warm Flourless Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment paper. (I used a 9 inch springform and it turned out fine.)

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in chocolate, and continue to stir until almost melted. Remove from heat, and stir until melted and smooth. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups sugar and the cocoa powder. Whisk in the eggs until well blended, then whisk in the chocolate and butter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (Do not overbake! Set your timer for 35 minutes and test every two minutes. You can thank me later. Mine went from a runny, wet toothpick to a completely dry toothpick in 5 minutes!) Cool cake in the pan over a wire rack. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then remove the sides of the pan, and invert onto a serving plate. Remove the parchment paper. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar and garnish with strawberries or raspberries.

Serve warm with whipped cream (Cool Whip kind of reduces it from "regal" to "redneck"), raspberry sauce or vanilla bean ice cream.

Catching Up

I know that since my absence from this blog, you all have been waiting with bated breath to see what we've been up to. Well, here you go:

Sunday, we met my oldest brother for breakfast in Atlanta. (He was in town for a business trip.) We had a wonderful time together. Except that it was too short. And I didn't get to see my sister-in-law, who is so much fun to talk to. And I didn't get to see my nieces or nephew. Anyway, it was WONDERFUL to spend time with him, as we live so far apart now and don't get to see each other much.

Monday - Did school, made a major Wal-Mart trip.

Tuesday - Did school and also cooked all day for a neighbor who just had a baby. Tried really hard not to eat the peanut butter pie we made for her (and succeeded).

Wednesday - had playgroup with the local homeschool group. The kids had the BEST time! Unfortunately, said good times involved lots of red clay for which Georgia is so famous. Had to have everyone take two baths (the first turned the water completely orange). Fixed computer. (YAAAAAY!!!!) Went to AWANA awards night. (More on this later.)

Welcome to Podunkville

We live in a tiny community and we went to the local annual festival for the first time. This was about as dinky and hometown as you can get. The parade was, well, short. Had it not been an election year it would have consisted of 1 fire truck, and 1 ambulance, 1 church float, 1 group of baton twirlers and 1 vintage car. Not a marching band in sight. This is not right, people.

I felt SO sorry for the vendors, because this event was so poorly attended. I'm sure many lost money.

Except the $5 a pop bungee dude. He was makin' some serious moolah. He made ten bucks off us.

They had the obligatory pony rides, jumping activities and miniature trains. The kids had fun, at least! Hubby's favorite BBQ man was there, so we all had a plate of smoky heaven. Well, Hubby had a little more than that. He was so excited that he bought a half chicken at 10:00, then when we all ate together for lunch he had another, then when the kiddies didn't like theirs he finished them. He ate approximately half a flock of chickens.

While we ate, we enjoyed a singing group from a local church. I felt sorry for them also because nobody clapped for them except for us! I missed clapping for the first song or two because my hands were full of chicken and a squirming Screech, but even when we fervently clapped for all the other songs, almost no one joined us. There were a lot of seniors in the audience with their arms folded. I think they were a little offended by the drums.

We browsed the vendor booths and, with much restraint, managed not to buy any Capri Sun purses, marshmallow guns or pine knickknack shelves with cheap lace hot glued onto the edges. I did buy some fireworks for the kids, which being sold as a fundraiser by the local fire department.

Yes, that was, "by the local fire department."

It's a racket, I tell you.

Unbelievably Blessed

5:00 am

(whispered) Daddy, is it time yet?

No. Go back to sleep.

6:00 am

Daddy, is it time yet?

No. Go back to sleep.

7:00 am

Daddy, is it time yet?

Okay!

Drama Queen's Cafe

All entrees are prepared with love
and served on a lovely Disney Princess lap desk.

Tall Stack Pancakes with Syrup
Served on a special "You're the Star!" plate

All Bran Strawberry Medley Cereal
served in the coveted butterfly bowl

Fresh Fruit

Beverage (Diet A&W Root Beer)

Dessert (the sweetest kiss you've ever had!)

Drama Queen had plastered these signs on the doors to my bedroom and bathroom. I happily obeyed!


What a precious doll she is!

Later this morning Drama Queen said, "Now, Mommy, you are not supposed to do ANY work today! We are going to do everything for you! Don't. Do. Anything!"

I answered, "Well, I was getting ready to take a bath. Are you going to do that for me?

Drama Queen replied, "No! That would be GROSS!!!!"

Here is a miraculous picture of me and my three angels. (I say, "miraculous" because everyone [read:Screech] is smiling! This has never happened before!)

After church Hubby and the kids took me to Carraba's Italian Grill, my absolute favorite restaurant. The food is absolutely divine! I ordered Chicken Bryan (grilled chicken breast topped with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and a basil lemon butter sauce).

Oh.

My.

Word.

This is the best stuff I have ever put in my mouth! It was soooo juicy and just packed with flavor through and through. I don't know how they do it. No matter how long I marinate chicken, it always tastes so bland and chicken-y on the inside. Here's a pic (my camera doesn't even remotely do it justice):


Our server was AWESOME. I wondered aloud whether or not I would like goat cheese, then suddenly he dashed to the kitchen and returned with a small plate of it, carefully sliced and topped with herbs, no less! (It was yummy! If you like cream cheese, you'll love this stuff!)

And the bread! Oh, the bread! They bring you hearty, piping hot bread with olive oil and fresh herbs for dipping. This is not the Subway-tasting fluffy stuff that many restaurants serve; it tastes homemade! I could make a meal on the bread alone. (Well, that and the Word of God! Matthew 4:4)

Since it was my special day, I had part of my meal boxed up so I'd have room to splurge for dessert. I don't know what it was called, but words cannot fully describe its chocolatey awesomeness! It had layers of rich, fudgy brownie, chocolate mousse (or something similar) and real whipped cream. It was topped with the richest, most velvety chocolate sauce I have ever tasted. This obviously wasn't from a can! It would make Hershey's taste like water. If you take my recipe for Chocolate Ganache, use 1/2 semisweet chocolate chips and 1/2 milk chocolate chips, and add extra cream, you'd probably be really close to what this was like.

Not wanting the kids to be left out (I shared my dessert with Hubby), I ordered kids' sundaes for them. The cooks were probably a little distracted, because they accidentally sent adult size sundaes! Look at these!



The sundaes were topped with the same decadent sauce. They were incredible! The ice cream was wonderful by itself. It, too, was the real deal and didn't taste like it had artificial anything. The vanilla flavor was not overpowering so it complimented the chocolate sauce perfectly. Next time I'm getting this! Hubby and I ended up finishing (as much as we could, anyway!) Pete's and Drama Queen's. Screech, however, ate every last bite!


Happy Mother's Day!

© Homeschool Circus 2008
All rights reserved.

An Amazing Weekend

We had an amazing weekend recently. My niece was running in the Derby Festival Marathon in Louisville, KY, so we went up to see her and the rest of my family. It was a very long drive for us - about 10 hours - but the kids did great, as always.

So many amazing things happened during this trip! A few days before we left, I was talking to my best friend from KY (whose daughter is Drama Queen's best friend) and told her about our plans. She couldn't believe it - they were going to be in Louisville that weekend for a dance competition!

Long story short, we got to visit with them for awhile and see her children perform. Drama Queen and her friend were ecstatic! Here they are after one of the performances:

The next morning, the day of the marathon, we met them downtown for breakfast. After we were done, I called my brother from the restaurant to see where we should go to cheer on my niece. I wanted to be able to see her at several checkpoints. I was a little worried about how we were going to manage this, considering that many streets were blocked off, and parking in downtown Louisville can be a nightmare anyway. Then there was the matter of doing this with 3 kids in tow, buckling them into car seats and the whole nine yards. When I told my brother where we were, he said that all I needed to do was walk outside to the curb! We were already in the perfect spot, because she would be going by twice (crossing the bridge into Indiana and back).


It was so thrilling to see her run by! She looked GREAT! I was simply amazed at her strength and stamina. I called my brother (who was at a different checkpoint) to tell him that I saw her, and he was blown away to learn that she had already made it to that point. He had to get off the phone so he could rush to the finish line to see her, so it was just incredible that I happened to be in the perfect place to be able to tell him where she was.

My niece placed FIRST in her division! We were so proud of her! She also qualified for the Boston Marathon. Wow. I am just amazed!

We got to hang out with them for the afternoon and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum. It was great to spend time with them!

We were also blessed to be able to spend time with more of my family. We stayed with one of my sisters in Louisville and it was wonderful to spend time with her and my brother-in-law. We met with the rest of the family (my brothers, their families, my mom and her husband) for a wonderful meal. It was such a treat, because I don't get to see them much now that we live in Georgia. What a blessing this weekend was!