Author: Robin Chartier

kitchen gadgets galore

Today is Carter’s 10th birthday so Josh took the boys to a movie (Hoodwinked 2 — something about Red Riding Hood. Who knew there was even a first one?) and I stayed home with the baby. Something about paying money to chase her around the lobby of the movie theater wasn’t really appealing since I’ve done that before. Did you see The Santa Clause 2? Me neither, thanks to a toddler that wanted to run up the aisle, shrieking with laughter, every time I tried to catch 5 minutes of the movie.

Well that toddler is 10 today and I’m home making our traditional birthday breakfast (dinner). We have our bacon ($8 for 1/2 a pound) and I’m making chocolate chip waffles with strawberry ice cream.

I wasn’t sure whether we were going to have pancakes or waffles so I started with the sure thing: whipped cream. I pulled out my kitchen aid mixer and saw the ice cream maker sitting next to it. Hmm, I bet Carter would like ice cream with his breakfast . . . so while the whipping cream was beating, I pulled out frozen strawberries and my hand blender.

I made up the ice cream base with milk (lowfat), frozen strawberries, sugar and lemon juice. I pulverized the frozen strawberries with the hand blender until the mix looked like a strawberry milkshake. Then I poured it into the ice cream maker and started it up.

Pancakes or waffles? Lucy made pancakes for breakfast yesterday (crepes, actually) so I got out my waffle iron and have the batter ready. When they walk in the door, the waffle cooking will commence. I have the European version of M&Ms– Smarties (not the little pellets of candy that I love on Halloween. These Smarties are made of chocolate), so I’m going to try making Smartie waffles. I did make them with 1/2 whole wheat flour, so they aren’t completely unhealthy.

I’m thankful for my modern conveniences of a waffle iron, hand blender, mixer, and ice cream maker, but there’s one thing in my kitchen that is old school and can’t be improved upon — the cast iron skillet. Josh, the bacon pro, will pull out one of our many cast iron cooking devices and cook the bacon while I do the waffles and then we’ll throw the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Did you hear we finally got a dishwasher? Someone moved out so one became available and they installed it last week. Happy day.

Since dinner is all prepped I think I’m going to relax with a drink using my newest gadget. An ice shaver/sno cone maker. My mom and dad saw my sister using one with her kids and thought the boys would love it so they sent it as a surprise. When Camille hears the ice grinding she comes running. Kris, if you haven’t tried DP over shaved ice yet, you’re missing out. Dr. Pepper slushie . . . mmm.

the middles

This week was hurried mornings and rushed evenings, broken up by blurry stretches of mid-day. I don’t remember what I did each day, but here are the highlights of my middles:

went to the gym (once. I’m easing back into it)
had a pedicure and lunch with a friend
met another friend for coffee and book discussion
took baby girl to get her vaccines
ran errands with Josh and Camille
stretched out on the couch while Lucy cleaned the house
went to coffee with Josh and baby
edited Josh’s Turkey trip report

I’m tired, but satisfied and content. Tomorrow I don’t have to wake up at 6:30 or 7, but baby might think differently after a week of early rising. Our days look different now, but I’m enjoying the time I have with the boys at breakfast and in the evening before bed. The evening of their first day of school I went to tuck them in and kiss them goodnight to find they had all crawled into the same bed — some of the best things haven’t changed.

 One thing that has changed is since it’s only the two of us (or the three of us if Josh is around) during the day, I have time to let this little one lead the way and see where she takes us.

 

*** this is one of those videos that will be sleep-inducing if you aren’t related to her. Unless you find toddler walking entertaining . . .

Two peas

Lately I’ve been amazed by how much Camille looks like Carter at the same age. And from this video I took today, it looks like she’s taking after him in more ways than one:

Curses! Homework again.

Carter + homework? Is going to be the end of me. Yesterday was another great day at school for all of them. Even better, Carter came skipping in the door saying, “I don’t have any homework! We did all our math in class today.” Praise God, because I wasn’t up for another handholding/standoff that evening. Besides, it was the first rugby practice of the fall, so the boys got home at 4:15, grabbed a snack, threw on cleats and uniforms and we were out the door by 4:45.

By the time we got home it was 7. The boys showered, ate dinner, and then had a few minutes to relax before  they had to get ready for bed. Even though they didn’t have homework, I had lots of it. They each brought home papers from their teachers to be filled out by me: What are your hopes for your student for this year? How does your child learn best? What is your child’s greatest academic weakness? Is there anything I need to know about your child to help him or her succeed?

All of it is essential information for teachers to have, but you should have seen me staring cross-eyed at the pages: “Which kid is this form for? Is this the one that cries and throws a tantrum when he is overtired or am I writing about the one who thinks he can’t do anything right if he doesn’t get it perfect the first time? And how much of this do I reveal up front and what should I leave to be discovered as a “happy” accident?”

As I’m putting papers back in their folders, I pull out Carter’s homework book and find that not only does he have homework for tonight, but he has an assignment that he completely overlooked the night before. Good grief. In the chaos of the drama over his math assignment, I didn’t even notice that he was supposed to create a “mind map” (basically a brainstorming diagram) about himself.

I burst his happy, computer game playing bubble as I pointed out that he actually had two assignments that needed to be completed that he had written in his homework book himself, plus one from the night before and by now it was 8:00 and almost time for bed. He was supposed to check out 3 math resource websites online (easy) and then “tell someone about VCOP.” We quickly looked at the math websites. “Great, all done with that. Now tell me about VCOP.”

Carter: “I don’t know what it means. She told us in class, but I forgot.”
Me (prompting): What subject were you studying when she talked about it? Does it have to do with the classroom rules? How can you not remember if you wrote down that you were supposed to talk to me about it?”
Carter (sighing): I don’t know, she wrote it down on the board and talked about it some, but I only remember the V stands for ‘vocabulary.'”
Me: (head meets wall)

Giving up on VCOP, I whipped out a sheet of paper and said, “Here, you need to do the mind mapping assignment that you forgot to do last night. Write down six things about yourself. You should be able to do this quickly.” Carter was of the opinion that it could not be done quickly and it was the most horrible, awful assignment ever given, and why did he have to do it if he couldn’t think of anything to write. He sighed and scrawled and erased and scribbled for a few minutes, declared that he couldn’t think of anything else to write about himself, and stomped his way upstairs when I gave him the choice of “finish or head to bed.” This is what I was left with:

Based on past experience I though he purposely wrote, “I want to be a moron,” but it turns out that he was trying to write I want to be a Marine. You know how they say “Good readers make good spellers?” Yeah, we’re still working on the first part. I decided preserving my pride was more important than the “logical consequence” in this situation so I wrote his teacher a note that we (he?) forgot to do the assignment and plan to have him complete it and turn it in in the next few days — after I sneak in a few extra spelling and handwriting lessons. Still trying to figure out why people think this is easier than homeschooling . . .

***to be fair to Carter, I need to update that tonight he finished all of his homework with less complaining than the previous nights. I’m not ready to make another attempt at the mind map yet . . . baby steps.  

The day

*** I just realized this title might make people think this post is about THE DAY, the anniversary of 9/11. I could write a post about what I was doing on that day, but since I was a week overdue and out of my mind with anxiety about giving birth, having a second kid, and anything else I could think of, I really don’t have any poignant or deep thoughts to share from that day. At that time my thoughts revolved around ME, ME, ME, ME, ME, ME . . . and whether I would be able to get to the base hospital to deliver if I ever went into labor, which I probably wouldn’t because I was going to be pregnant forever. Much crying over my terrible plight . . . you get the picture. It wasn’t pretty. 

The big question everyone has is “what did you do all day while the kids were in school?” Sorry for the disappointment, but I didn’t have the day of luxury and pampering that everyone imagines. After getting home from checking on the boys, Josh went to go speak Arabic to people and I took the baby to the grocery store. Since we walked there and it was really hot and humid, by the time we arrived she was almost asleep. I grabbed only the essentials and went right home, hoping to get longer than a 20 minute stroller nap out of her. I honestly can’t remember the rest of the day until boys came home, but I was so tired I went to bed that night at 9:30. Since that only happens if I’m sick or pregnant (of which I am neither), I can add “not schooling my kids” as one of the most tiring things I’ve ever done.

And what did the boys think about school? Well, at dinner Carter was trying to figure out how many days of school he had left until we move. I was a little worried until I realized that he didn’t want to leave before the end of the year. Then he added, “And then I want Dad to work here for three more years so I can go to TAISM.” Something he didn’t love was the homework he was assigned. One of the reasons I like TAISM is because they assign minimal homework. Well in Carter’s world, anything more than “nothing” is too much. He made a big fat flopping deal over his two pages of math (one of which had only 4 problems), but in the end he finished it saying, “I really like school because you are doing things all day that don’t feel like school, but I hate homework.”

The other two boys had great days too. Over dinner they were all sharing stories and telling about the different classes they had (music, art, PE, Arabic, etc). Calvin told us his language arts teacher read a passage “from this weird book, something about a ghost and a booth of some kind” (hmm, I’m guessing that was The Phantom Tollbooth?) and his other exciting news was that he can order cappuccinos from the cafeteria and Dairy Queen blizzards at lunch on Sundays and Mondays if he wants since he’s in Middle School. He was pretty surprised to find out that we had already tested the coffee bar and found it worthy. Coffee and ice cream – that’s my boy, getting his priorities straight.

Every single story Caleb told related to recess or PE. No matter what question we asked, it always came back to that. He even got up and demonstrated something that looked like the chicken dance. I don’t know if that was a game they played or a stretching exercise they did, but he thought it was worth sharing. I have no idea if they did any reading or math, but I did find out he ate his granola bar at snack time before first recess.

We dissected Carter’s day the most closely, trying to get an idea if he had any :cough: deficiencies. :cough: Classic Carter — he pocketed the rial I left for him, but didn’t bother to read the note. He just stuck it back in his locker. He also said they had a group brainstorming project where they had to write six ideas down and they could do it in groups of two or three. He said he found a group of three so he only had to write two things. They were assigned a word search and after they found all ten words they had to use at least four of them in a sentence. He said some kids used six or eight words. We asked him how many he did. With a sly smile he replied, “Four.” God bless and help Ms. F.

As far as being easier or more relaxing than homeschooling? Yes and no. While they were gone mid-day it was easier, but morning and evening were harder. It seemed like all their neediness and questions were compressed into four hours instead of across the entire day. The evening was jam-packed with sorting through paperwork, figuring out which kid needed to wear a PE uniform tomorrow, which kid has homework to sign and return, scrounging money for lunch tomorrow (it’s Pizza Day – they bring in Papa John’s), trying to dodge Caleb’s incessant kisses (the first 25 were fine, but then he started hanging on my neck and practically giving me a hickey), and making sure we finished it all in time to go to bed early enough to get enough rest to do it all over again tomorrow.