Just Dance

After a week of the kids being in Long Grove with the Greens, we celebrated their homecoming with Easter in Saint Charles.  

It began with Mike and I scrambling to find enough egg hiding spots that would be safe from the dog, blocked from the cold wind, out of the mud, easy enough for the little ones, yet challenging enough for the older ones.

I've decided egg hiding's a task adults have to be in the right mood for it to be fun.  Or maybe just buzzed... either or.

But most importantly, we had dancing.

The performance was riveting; as evidenced by the cheering section.

Lots and lots of dancing.

Easter evening, Goose caught a rabbit.  As the kids watched him devour its intestinal system in the backyard, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Happy Easter!"

Tooth in the Pancakes

The photos tell this story better than I could....

Cooking Help

Molly and I have been cooking. 

"That's donut sugar on her face"

Almost constantly. 

This girl will have Freshmen Cooking skills down pat by the time she starts kindergarten.

Are you surprised?

She's even reached a point where she's able to help me out with Heidi's Kitchen.

She can accurately measure dry ingredients.

And knows all about clean-up.

She's also my food photographer assistant.  Yep, this is a 'behind the scenes' shot of her helping me with the backdrop to a new menu item.

The winning shot.

And lighting assistant to these bad boys.

I've got two new soups and five new 'mini-cookie' flavors launching this week as well as a kids cooking day at the church scheduled for June.  

Evidently I'm not good at down time.

I was tempted to make a recipe for the kids called "Bunny Tail Crunch". 

But then I discovered the recipe must have been copyrighted.

Goose already had that recipe down pat.

I was just relieved it wasn't the cat.

Happy Spring!

Easter Dresses

I took the kids + 1 friend of Ross' to the mall yesterday.  I remember a time in life where I panicked at the thought of having a kid out-of-sight at the mall.  Yesterday I told Ross and his friend to meet me at VM's in 45 minutes.  Watching them ride the escalator upstairs and out of my view was a weird feeling. But, times are changing. 

The girls barely made it out of VM's.  Incase you weren't around pre-2008, VM's stands for Von Maur and where G'funk (aka Grandma Claussen worked in alterations).  While the girls ooohed and ahhhed at all the Easter dresses, and an old lady played the piano by the escalator, I swear I smelled her. 

The girls were laughing and racing from dress rack to dress rack as I looked around the store, imagining her hobbling toward us with a 'sale item that was so cheap it might as well hang in the closet'.  But there was nobody.  I chalked the smell up to memories, the way VM must smell and with old ladies in the store; at least one probably wore White Shoulders, right?

But as we rode the escalator upstairs, the smell vanished.  We were entering the Better Sportswear department and it smelled like regular old Von Maur.  But downstairs, so many little girl dresses, my giggling girls, the piano playing and that smell.  I've come to the conclusion that's where she was yesterday.  Sunday afternoon at VM's.  Of course she was.  She wouldn't have missed those giggles for the world.

The Casserole Unit

I incorporate a Casserole Unit into Foods 2.

Why?

Because Casseroles are nutritious, budget friendly, perfect for freezing, and great for taking to a neighbor who just had a baby or knee surgery.

Casseroles are a life skill and I teach life skills.  Therefore I teach a casserole unit.

First semester casseroles in Foods 2 were expensive and underdeveloped. 

Second semester was different.

Below is the email I sent to my Principal and Superintendent Thursday afternoon.

Heidi Boyd <hboyd@i-35.k12.ia.us>	Mar 10 (2 days ago)
to Kevin, Steve

Good afternoon,

I want to share a couple photos of the Foods 2 Class donating 210 servings of meals to Freedom for Youth (a program for underprivileged kids in Madison County) this morning.  These students developed their recipes, adjusted the recipes to create enough servings and used groceries from the Food Pantry to do it.  This was an independent project and I am beyond proud of their effort and skills to pull this off.

Enjoy the attached photos,

Heidi

My principal forwarded the email to the I-35-6-12 grade teachers with the message, "Too good to not share."

These are my kids making a difference in the lives of others.

Isn't that the point?

Spring and the Girls

Spring is on the horizon; I can smell it.  Literally, there was an organic smell in the air this afternoon.  I assume Mother Nature is shaking out her rugs letting us know we're turning a corner.  Either that or the dog farted. 

Mollys had a loose tooth for several months which made me concerned she'd be toothless for years and it'd look like she had a rotten tooth or was homeless.

Nope, I discovered her permanent tooth has broke through the surface.  Looks like we've got an early bloomer.  She's also begun reading.  For real reading.  I don't remember any of my other kids reading in preschool. 

I'm preparing for her period next week.

Maisie is taking voice and piano lessons.  Her voice instructor told her the vocal students perform songs at a church in the spring as a 'recital'.  Maisie wasn't thrilled about singing 'churchy songs' and told the instructor she was only interested in Rachel Platten and Taylor Swift- type songs and didn't want to sing churchy songs. Lo and behold, the instructor said that was A-Okay and I was uber-impressed with Maisie's initiative to speak up.  You go Girl!

Maisie's biggest concern these days is whether her best friend is moving to China.  According to her best friend, if a certain person is elected president, their family is moving to China in the fall. 

Oh, to be in second grade. 

Kratt turns out to be a hitchhiker.  He's skedaddled.  The basement door was left open overnight (relieved I didn't wake up to a possum in the house) and Kratt was outta' here.  So relieved we didn't spend $400 on an amputation surgery. 

Meanwhile, Kuda decided to start pissing on the couch.  Not only that, but I actually watched him take a duke on the couch. 

Guess who has a new outdoor cat and is shopping for a couch?

Either He and Goose will work out their differences or we'll have our own version of the Hunger Games.

Only time will tell. 

Meanwhile, I'm welcoming Spring with open arms.  Dog farts and all, bring it on.

South of I-80

Somehow or another, life led me here. 

South of I-80.

Ross recently made a comment hinting to the fact that his mom is a 'redneck'.

I'm kinda-sorta-guessing I was supposed to wind up here. 

No offence to the other South of I-80'ers, but things are just a bit different here than they were growing up in Long Grove, Iowa.

For starters, these people eat cinnamon rolls dipped in their chili.  What?  No cornbread?  I can't judge because I've never tasted the combo, yet my inner voice screams 'eewww' and what a waste of a good cinnamon roll.

They call porta-potties 'kaibos' and many refer to 'wash' as 'whersh'.   Concrete is referred to as 'see-ment' and lawn-mowers are considered tractors.  I don't believe I'd heard the phrase 'Biscuits and Gravy' as many times in my life as I did my first week teaching at I-35.  It's basically a food group in these parts.

It's my job to teach these kids to survive on their own, so I realized teaching them to prepare Biscuits and Gravy was a no-brainer.

Thanks to a Perkins Grant, Mrs. Boyd got a brand new demo-mirror in her classroom!

On a side note, we actually have an FFA dress-up week at our High School.  One student actually drove his tractor to school on Tuesday.  It was 18 degrees outside Tuesday morning.

Also, one of my 8th graders had this book on her desk.  Seriously?  I remember reading this book in '88.  Must have been her moms' copy or the school library found a missing box of books up in the attic.

Thumbs up on the dry ingredients.  And I'd kill for this girls' hair.

Brown that sausage boys, brown it.

It's okay to go a little 'cross-eyed' when measuring liquids.

Small schools = Large portions in Foods Class. 

Meanwhile, I was teaching my Foods 2 class Eggs Benedict complete with perfectly poached eggs and hollandaise. 

They nailed it... as I knew they would.

South of I-80.

Good people.

Cowboy boots.

Big hearts.

A few rednecks.

Gravy.

Life led me here...