The family all back together. . .

We picked Sprat up at camp yesterday morning and then had to jet to an All Star baseball game.   They got beat but, it was a good game and a tough loss.  We are still in though, it is double elimination so we play again next week sometime.  We had great weather, it was overcast and breezy.  It was not supposed to be that way but I was so glad it was.  Dear hubby, Big T and I sat under the trees on a hill and watched the game.  I felt bad for the boys though because it was hot on them down on the field.  They played well out in the field but we could not buy a run to save our lives.  I think they can beat the team we play next, I hope so anyway.  You just hate to see these kids practice all this time and then not be able to pull one out.  Sprat is getting to play with one of his friends this time and they are having fun.

Recipes. . .

I am a recipe junkie.  I have so many recipes and the bad part is that none of them are in any kind of order.  I have several groups of recipes on my fridge, most of them I use fairly regularly.  I have a file folder full of recipes that I have torn out of magazines, only a few of these have I made.  I have many cookbooks that I have purchased and been given over the years.  I have one in particular that I have had since I went out on my own after college.  It is a Church cookbook from a Church where I grew up, not my Church but one near by.   These recipes are old and time tested.  I even have a little wooden box with recipe cards in it from various places.  Now that we have the internet we have a whole new recipe box to dig through.
I love the hand me down recipes from my mom and my sister too.
I like to bake and cook, and yes baking is different than cooking.  Baking implies bread or sweets of some sort and cooking refers more to meal type recipes.  I made molasses cookies a couple of weeks ago just because I had a craving for them.  This was a new recipe I found and it was so good.  Today I am making sourdough bread for us.  Dear hubby has been eating my sourdough  bread for breakfast and so have the kids.

Zucchini and other garden goodies. . .

We have a lot of zucchini out of the garden this year.  I have been making a good zucchini cornbread casserole.  At least 2 zucchini chopped fine, add 2 eggs, and a cup of shredded cheese and a box of jiffy corn muffin mix.  Mix all of this together and sprinkle top with a 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and bake at 375 for at least 40 minutes or until golden brown.  When we have jalapenos I add a couple of them chopped up fine and only a few seeds for some added heat.  This is a good casserole.  It keeps well in the fridge if you have left overs.  I eat it cold the next day for breakfast most of the time.
I made some zucchini bread last night and it was good too.  I like the casserole better.  We are freezing peas for later and I also made some mountain stew to freeze for this winter.  Mountain stew is really good.  Brown some ground beef and throw it in the crock pot.  Add some tomato sauce, I like to add a little V8 juice, cumin, chili powder, dry mustard, cilantro, garlic powder, onion powder.  Add carrots, some cut up potatoes, and some chopped cabbage and cook over night in the crock pot on med high.   This is a great hearty stew and good served with sour cream and shredded cheese with tortilla chips or crackers.   The carrots, potatoes, and cabbage soak up the flavor of the stew and make this really good.

Ghost Tour of Wilkesboro. . .

We went on our first ghost tour.  Wilkesboro offers a ghost tour once a month starting in April.  It is a walking tour that lasts about an hour and a half.  Ours lasted almost two and a half hours, we had really good guides.  We learned a lot of local history from the Civil War era.  We got to see some historic spots in Wilkesboro and hear the local lore of who haunts what.  Our guides were very knowledgeable in the local history and Civil War history also.  We heard two stories of one hanging and how the great, great, great grandson of the hangee went into law because he said if his great, great, great grandfather had a good lawyer he might not have been hung.   He is a prominent attorney in the area today.  We saw the old jail that held Tom Dooley, yes the one the song is written about.  We were able to go in the slave quarters of an old home, the slaves had put a curse on the family that lived in the main house.  The curse was written on the wall of the slave quarters.  There were skeleton heads of a horse, a dog and some other small animals hanging from the ceiling.  Sprat swears the horse head was moving, we all said it was a draft, but the other heads were not moving.   Big T felt the cold spot where a little girl was run over by a carriage in the drive way of the main house that had the curse.   We got to see where the Tory Oak once stood.  The Tory Oak was where they hung British sympathizers.  The oak stood for more than 300 years but in 1989 Hugo took its toll.  There is another oak in its place, still young and not yet as grand.

Sourdough Bread. . . .

My sister gave me some of her sourdough starter a year or so ago and I have been making loaf bread with it for my family.   I have made muffins with it  too.  This particular starter is a wild yeast starter, that means you do not add yeast to the starter.  It picks it up while it sits out in your kitchen growing.  Once you have it going you can put it in the fridge, you just have to remember to feed it once a week.  The feeding is what I have a hard time remembering.  If you are using it regularly the feeding does not come in to play because you feed it after  you pull off of it.  I made muffins for my dear hubby this morning for part of his Father's Day.  I tried something a little different.  For muffins you have to start the night before.  You combine a cup of starter and 1 cup of whole wheat flour and let it sit for at least 7 hours.  So this morning I got up and added all the other ingredients:  1/3 cup molasses, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 egg, 1/4 cup butter melted fold these in to the starter mixture.  Mix this well and last add 1/2 cup fresh fruit of your choice and 1 tsp of baking soda. This makes 12 muffins, bake at 350 for 20 min or until done.
This morning I used oranges as my fruit and I used the zest of the orange too.  Mark and I like these the kids do not.  They are a whole wheat muffin so they are better for you.  I used apple sauce the first time I made these.  They were ok, they were not near as moist as the ones with the orange.
The loaf bread I make with the sourdough everyone loves.  The kids beg for it.  The bad thing is, it only makes two loaves at a time.  We can go through a loaf in a week or less.  This bread has a low glycemic index so it is good for diabetics or anyone watching their weight.  This bread has more protein in it than bread you buy in the store.

Summer School online. . .

I am taking one class online this Summer.  I don't know if any of you have ever taken an online class before but,  they give you scenarios that you have to respond to on a discussion board.  This is what I have noticed in my class; I am an old fart, they are not teaching proper grammar in school, we are all going to be in trouble if this is a sample of what will be running things when the rest of us get older.
I know it is typical of the younger generation to text in incomplete sentences but I do not.   Actually when dear hubby and I text and when I text anyone I do so in complete sentences.  I also use spell check.  I heard someone say that using good manners is showing respect for those around you.   I believe that speaking and texting in complete sentences also shows respect for the person you are speaking with.  You would think posting something to a discussion board for an online class that these folks would want to use good grammar and spelling to make an impression on the instructor.  I believe I am the oldest in this class and it is obvious that they believe I am a dinosaur.  I am learning a great deal about computer security and network security and this generation.  I must say I am concerned about it all.  There are people out there that believe we should all be tracked so that advertisers can send us ads and track our buying habits.   What is sad, is that we are already getting some of this through all the reward card programs we belong.

Official Start of Summer. . .

My kiddos slept in and my house was nice and quiet up until about 10 minutes ago.  I heard the groaning and  pitter patter of little feet on the way down the hall.  It was Big T, of course, he hardly ever sleeps in.  Sprat is still sound asleep.  The boys had a big day yesterday.  Sprat had a pool party with youth fellowship and Big T had his baseball party.  They both got to play in the water though.  We had a big slide with water for Big T's team.  We had good food, fellowship with friends, and lots of laughs.  Sprat may sleep till noon.  
Summer vacation officially starts today, they didn't go for their last half day of school.  Jack starts All Stars tonight and has Church camp later this month.  Thomas has Church camp next month and somewhere in between we are going to try and go to the beach.  Stay tuned for the update.

Last Days of school? ? ? ?

Ok, so all of my teacher friends out there please forgive me.  I don't think I am sending my kids to school on their last day, which is only a half day.  Is anyone else doing this?  They have both cleaned out their desks and their lockers and the teachers have given them their school work.  Big T's teacher told him to bring a board game.  I don't have a problem with goofing off after the tests but, if they are not going to do any teaching why keep them in school.  The kids are done and don't want to be there and the teachers don't want to be there and some are going so far as to tell the kids not to come on the last day.
If the kids are not going to do anything productive after the testing why are we testing so early?  Why not wait and test later and then have a couple of days to work in field day and all the awards and parties.?   I know I am just a Mom but, I think they should consult the Moms on these school schedules.  I really think my kids are not going to school on Monday.  I think we will all just sleep in, if Basil will let us.
Games are canceled today I see "Star Trek" in my future.

Vacation? ? ? ? ?

My kids keep asking, are we going some where this summer?  I always reply, I am going crazy want to come along.  Our family is a little nutty.  We have not gone on a true "vacation" in two years so we are talking about trying to this year.  The kids have been busy with baseball and football camps the last two years,and it just has not worked out for us.  Jack played All Stars the last two years and of course that takes up a lot of time.  This year he said he didn't want to do All Stars so he could go to our Church camp.  We said that was fine.  The coach, however, talked him in to playing All Stars but told him it was ok if he missed practice or a game for Church camp.  We said that was fine too.  So I have to try and work in a trip somewhere in between camps and All Stars.  Big T informed me that he wants to go on the ghost tours around the beaches of North Carolina.  He has developed quite an interest in ghosts and the paranormal.  They have been studying North Carolina history in school this year and of course they have talked about pirates and the light houses also.  I have found several different places around that offer ghost tours and pirate tours.  If you guys know any interesting places to visit please post a comment.  We are going to have quite the adventure this summer.  Check back to see what all we find.

Big Night in Baseball. . .

In the Minors (boys 9-10yrs old) the team Big T plays for won the regular season 14-1.  So proud of these boys.  Now comes the tournament, it is double elimination.  The one team that beat us is stacked which means they took the best kids out of their league and put them on one team.  We don't have but one team.   I am against the "stacking" of teams.  It is not fair to the kids.  You have one team that dominates and then one team that is ok and one team that may not win a game.  What is that teaching your kids?  We have one team and a couple of our kids have not played ball since t-ball.  All of our kids play and have equal time in the field.   Our coaches are very good with our kids too.  They don't yell and act ugly, they don't fuss and berate the kids.  They do coach and fuss if they are not paying attention but they also encourage and love these kids.  There are only 3 or 4 kids that would make the "stacked" team in this league and Big T is not one of them.  The thing is, our kids work together and encourage each other, they hug each other when they make a big play or big hit.  It is really funny to watch.

So on to our Big night of baseball.  Our tournament was double elimination and the "stacked" team beat us so we had to play them two more times.  We won the first game after they tried to take our kids out at the plate and at second base by playing dirty at their coaches direction.  I am all for trying hard to win but I don't like playing dirty.  Trying to knock kids down and hitting them in the face.  This coach is not a good sport at all and he is teaching his players this too.  That is so sad.  We had to play them again the next night for the championship.  They come out right off the bat and say that we are going to play a 2 1/2 hour time limit.  Our  regular time is 1 1/2 hour.  Our kids will not go to 2 1/2 hours till they move to Jr. on the big field.   This coach is trying everything possible to beat us.  We have seen him tell his kids to step in so they get hit by the pitch just to get on base.  He had his kids chanting at our pitcher that he could not pitch and chanting ugly things at out kids.  Well, we won!!!!  Their kids were very ugly going through the line to shake our kids hands and some did not even shake hands.  That is a t-ball kids response to losing.  I am sorry I am big on sportsmanship and this guys and his kids have been everything but sportsman like.  Our kids have always behaved with class and win or lose they always go through and say good game and they mean it.  We beat this team 3 times in the regular season and the first time we beat them the one kid went through the line and said, "you suck" to each one of our kids.  That is a poor sport!  Last night when we won he did not even shake our kids hand or clap for our kids when they got their pin for winning.  If our kids would have lost, it would have been sad but I don' t think our kids would have acted that way.  I know if mine had I would have snatched him up.

I have used this as a teaching moment for my kids.  I have talked to them about sportsmanship and how it is easy to win but it is hard to be a "good" winner.  We have talked about being a gracious person and a gracious winner.  I hope and pray that my kids will not ever behave the way these kids have.  I don't think they will because dear hubby and I try to set good examples but, so much of how our kids act is what they see other kids doing.  

Proctoring. . .

So, I am proctoring for the middle school this week for testing.  It is a duty I feel as parents we should do, to help out with the school.   It is very boring, sitting there watching these kids taking this test.  It would probably be more fun watching paint dry.  I feel so sorry for these poor kids having to endure this torture.

As a proctor your job is to watch and make sure nobody cheats or causes a disturbance during the test.  I feel our job is to make sure the kids are staying on track with their answer sheet and questions in the book.  You know you're answering question # 1 then you should be bubbling on the answer sheet answer # 1.  You would be surprised at how many get out of sequence on those things.  My own Sprat got out of sequence on one of his tests when he was in the third grade.  The poor kids are guarding those answer sheets so much you can barely check them.  I always try to make sure they don't skip questions either, on their answer sheets.  I caught two that had skipped a number on their answer sheet this morning.  So glad, I would hate for a child to get a bad grade just because they skipped an answer blank or because they bubbled wrong.

I really wish they would stop this EOG and EOC stuff, there has to be a better way, I don't think the common core is the answer either.  I told you about Sprats' social studies test, all the questions were on finance and government, and they spent maybe a day or two on that in class.

Felt like cooking. . .

After all morning at the baseball field I felt like cooking today.  I dug out all my old cookbooks that have been boxed up and in my basement since we moved to this house.  I found my "Joy of Cooking" I got for a Wedding present, and a couple other good ones I forgot I had.  The first thing I made today was some molasses cookies.  I found this recipe in my "Joy of Cooking" book.  They are so very good.  I love the Archway ones from the grocery store.  Mine were not that big but they were that soft.  Yummmm!!!

Next I decided I needed to fix something good for dinner.  I found an old Mexican cookbook in my box and went through it.  I found a chimichanga recipe that sounded good and simple.  I checked my cabinets and I actually had everything I needed to make these for dinner.  Big T was at a friends house so I started on dinner about the time I knew he would be home.  I rolled my chimis and deep fried them in coconut oil.  I had some flour tortillas left over so I fried a couple of them by themselves and then sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar.  That was our dessert.  Big T did not like the chimis but he ate the salad we had with it and I was thrilled with that.  Everyone liked the cinnamon tortillas.

I hope they don't get to used to all this.  I just had a burst of energy today.  Whew!!