Test

I made it through the 3 hour test. Yay! No problems with traffic or blood draws, either. I left here about 6:50, and I got there about 8:00, which is really good for that time of day.

They do things a bit differently at this lab. They drew blood to test my fasting blood sugar level, and they wouldn't let me drink the nasty orange sugar stuff until after that had come back. So at around 8:30, the tech called me up to the desk to tell me that my fasting levels were a bit high--"105", which of course meant nothing to me. He told me that if it was lower than 105, then they would just go ahead and give me the drink, but over 105, he had to clear it with a doctor. The doctor said fine, but still--that's not a good omen at all. And it meant I didn't start the 3 hour part until about 8:45. Grrr.

I was done about 11:45, having enjoyed a quiet time of reading, doing crossword puzzles, and starting to write our Christmas letter. I think people must not come in a lot the week of Thanksgiving, because Bethesda was really not crowded at all! When I was taking my 1-hour test last week, people were having to wait for over an hour for a blood draw, but today there was hardly any wait at all for everyone else. (Of course, I got to take my numbers from the "VIP 0-7 and above or glucose tolerance test" button and go straight to the head of the line!)

I still haven't heard anything from the hospital, but that does not necessarily mean anything at all. The tech wasn't sure the results would get to the doctor this afternoon. She will only call me if I fail, so I'll just have to wait another day and see.

Worrying . . .

So here I am, worrying about my 3 hour glucose test tomorrow. When I was pregnant with Grace and had to take it, my big worry was finding veins in my right arm. But since there was no problem last time, I can cross that worry off the list, LOL. Now my worries are more of a generalized, I don't think I can deal with one more thing, kind.

I've been having those really vivid pregnancy dreams, and a few nights ago, I dreamed that I forgot I was taking the test, so I ate a good hearty breakfast and had to reschedule. That same night, I also very clearly dreamed that I was in labor. I pushed the baby out in bright, colorful detail, and it was very disconcerting to wake up and realize that in fact, I was still pregnant. All that pain and pushing for nothing?! LOL

I ate 2 hard-boiled eggs and had a glass of milk a little while ago, and that'll be all I eat for awhile. I packed myself a peanut butter sandwich and some fruit, so I'll be able to eat before I come home without braving the Bethesda food court. I'm going to try to leave by 6:45, so that hopefully I'll be there by 8:30. Pray for no Beltway accidents on the Inner Loop tomorrow!

Decluttering

I spent yesterday decluttering. You would think that in a day I could possibly have made real, noticable progress, but alas, it is not so. Now I remember why I rarely spend a day decluttering, LOL--lack of visible reward! I tackled the coat/shoe closet in our laundry room first. Since that is how you get to our garage, it is where all the shoes and coats end up, and it was a real mess. It didn't help that apparently the last several times the boys have outgrown tennis shoes, I have not thrown the old pairs away, but rather have kept them around, in case they needed them for . . . ? Yesterday I must have tossed a good 7 pairs of ratty old shoes and consigned several pairs of sandals and church shoes that even Jonathan has outgrown back down to the dreaded shoe tubs of the basement. Bob hung up a better set of hooks on the wall of the laundry room, so hopefully the winter coats will stay up on those this year. It all looks so organized! Let's see how long it stays that way . . .

I also worked in the study. We have a set of yaffa blocks (stackable crates, basically) that have all our art supplies in them. I was ruthless over there, asking myself, "If we were moving, would I keep this?" I think that's the real problem--we haven't moved in 4 years, so the stuff has built up! Then I moved on to the top of the computer desk, which also has a big hutch on it. I was able to (drum roll please . . . ) clean off the top of the desk and the bottom shelf of the hutch. Yes! That's as far as I was able to get! So as long as you don't look up very high, the desk looks great! I will say that the amount of paper we generate and accumulate really is spectacular. We should win some sort of medal or something.

So a day of cleaning and decluttering produced one clean closet, a decluttered corner of the study, and a clean desktop and shelf. At that rate, I think it would take a year for me to get through the whole house! Maybe Monday I will be motivated to tackle more. Maybe.

Well-Older Child Visit

Today I took Nathan and Luke in for "well-child" check-ups. They haven't been in for one of those since, well, since we lived in Ohio for sure. I would say maybe 2003 or 2004. It seemed like we were always in for another younger child's well-baby appointments, and obviously both Nathan and Luke were well children, so it was certainly never a priority. But with Bob possibly retiring next year sometime, I figured I would take them in one more time and make sure they were current on shots, and that I wasn't missing anything.

As it turns out, they are both healthy. What a surprise! The doctor who saw them was so very nice. I have been nothing but impressed by the pediatrics doctors at Bethesda. She spent a long, non-rushed time with us, and she was very keen on waiting to give booster shots for stuff like chicken pox and also shots for menigitis until they go off to college, where they'll be in more danger, adn the booster will be newer. She recommended I not get any shots for either boy, but I did go ahead and get a tetanus booster for Nathan. She said he would need to come back in about 3 years for one, and I just decided to get it done now. Luke was quite happy to hear he didn't need any shots.

They did vision tests for the boys, and Nathan had some trouble. His eyes were 20/50, although it is possible that they aren't that bad. This clinic uses a chart with shapes on it, instead of letters, and some of the shapes were very non-intuitive (a coffee cup, a sailboat, etc.). It was very difficult to see what in the world it could possibly even be! Anyhow, the doctor recommended that Nathan have his eyes checked by an optometrist, which I think we will go ahead and do. I remember that I got glasses in 5th or 6th grade too, which I only ever used to see things like chalkboards or screens in class, and I pretty much never wear anymore at all. Possibly Nathan would have had more troubles already if he wasn't being homeschooled. Luke's eyes were fine. I guess he inherited Bob's good eyes!

One other thing the doctor did mention about Nathan is this weird white splotchy patch he has on his right side/back. It's been there ever since he was little, and we first noticed it because it never tans. It's just non-pigmented. The doctors at Wright-Pat looked at it and decided it was nothing to be concerned about, and we haven't given it anymore thought since then. I just make sure it gets sunscreen when he swims outside. The doctor today said mentioned vitiligo, although when I looked into that, it doesn't really seem like what Nathan has. His patch has never gotten bigger, and it doesn't look sort of pinkish, like the pictures I see on the internet--his patch is all white. Anyhow, she thought a dermatologist should maybe look at it, and she emailed a friend of hers who is a doctor at the dermatology clinic there to ask about what he thought. The doctor just called and said that dermatology would like to look at it, so the consult is in, and I'll call Monday to make that appointment. It is always good to make sure nothing is wrong, but it has never changed all htese years, so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully we can get the appointment out of the way before the baby comes!

Nathan is in the 20th percentile for both height and weight, and Luke is hanging out in the 10th percentile for both. That is actually up from the 5th percentile, where he used to be, so he is really porking up, LOL. I told the doctor we were the poster family for "anti-childhood obesity". We don't grow them large!

So although not too much happened (and it took a 3 hour chunk out of our day with the drive), I do think it is good to establish a record every so many years that they are healthy, growing, and meeting developmental standards. One can never be too cautious, especially with a new, possibly hostile administration coming into office.

Happy Birthday, Amy!!

Today is the birthday of Amy, my best friend! She has been such an invaluable support for me this past year, when things have been difficult. I can't imagine what I would have done without her! She flew out to visit us in October , and that was such a time of refreshment for me!

I was thinking about Amy last night. The boys have started a new unit in co-op, one on drama. The older 2 watched some clips of movies to demonstrate showing emotions, and some clips were from The Princess Bride. The boys had never seen the movie, but those clips certainly whetted their appetites! Since we own the movie, the boys and Bob all watched it last night. I stayed upstairs and finished a Christmas project, but I got nostalgic. Amy and I used to wake up every single morning to the first 2 songs fromthe Princess Bride sound track. It was in her CD player, and that was the absolute most gentle way to ease into wakefulness! Those songs are beautiful and dreamy! But then someone had to get up and turn it off because the 3rd song is some village festival song, and it is filled with clapping and otherwise jarring sounds--NOT a restful way to wake up, LOL. So I had to dig out my soundtrack and listen, just for old times' sakes. Fun memories! Sometimes I play the game, "If I had an iPod, what would I put on it", and those first 2 songs would definitely make the list, especially for labor!

So nayhow, Amy can know we are thinking about her today! A card is on the way too, but it will be late, since I didn't think I would have to be mailing it!

Pregnancy Update

I'm 29 weeks along today, and I have another appointment. It's been 6 weeks since my last one, and let me tell you, I am loving this hands-off, come-every-6-weeks approach Bethesda has! I know I'll have to start coming more frequently, but it's been very nice to only have a few appointments so far.

I'm feeling pretty good, I guess. I am feeling big and unwieldy already, and I already have started having a lot of pressure on my pubic bone, which is achy. But other than that I feel fine. I'm not really motivated to do anything though.

Today I also have my 1 hour glucose tolerance test, and I am not looking forward to that. I failed my one with Grace, and I have certainly not been eating better or exercising more this time around than with her. I can't wrap my mind around how I would even get to Bethesda for a 3 hour test--leave at 6:00 so I could be there around 8:00?! I don't think I want to be driving the Beltway rush hour having not eaten! So I am praying that God, in His great mercy, would allow me to pass and not have to go back for the 3 hour test.

I'll take this test today after my appointment, which is at 11:15. This will be the first time that I haven't fasted before the 1 hour test, so we'll see if that makes a difference. I have read that people say it shouldn't matter (and that's what the doctor said last time), but I have also heard other people say that fasting is better. So that's not good. At least I'll have a nice quiet hour of reading.

**Update** The appointment went well, and I did indeed fail the one hour test. Sigh. I can't say I'm surprised, though. Tomorrow I will call to schedule when I do the 3 hour one. I'm hoping for Monday, personally. The bad news is that I will have to be at the lab at 7:30. Gulp.

All's Well That Ends Well

You may remember the Presidential fitness run fiasco a few weeks ago. Basically, the lady in charge messed up on the distances, so Luke only ran 1/4 mile, instead of a half mile. He ran it again that same day, but it was really hot, and he had just eaten lunch, so he was still off on his time. He got 3:48, but he needed 3:30.

Today was the day he reran it. We went to the park where we usually do the run in the years past, where there is a half-mile circle to run on. The McCs were there, as well as a few other kids. Luke and Caleb McC ran the half mile, but both of them didn't get the time. Luke's time was 3:44, and Caleb's was 3:47. They were disappointed, but not devastated.

As we (the parents) stood around talking, we looked at the time the boys would need for presidential if they ran a whole mile. That time was 8:31, considerably more than double the half mile time they were shooting for. So Craig McC convinced Caleb to give the mile a shot, and Luke said he would run it too. Nathan also decided to run, even though he had not planned on running at all today. I think all the cheering and race-time excitement motivated him, LOL. So they all set off, and Nathan ran a mile in 7:52, which was better than his other time of 8:01, but not good enough for presidential, since he needed 7:32. But he was only national in the shuttle run too, and he was fine with that. Luke came in at 8:01, well under what he needed, and Caleb got 8:18, which was also under. So both he and Luke will win the Presidential Physical Fitness award! Everyone was very excited. That's pretty good, considering they had already run a good fast half mile! We were glad Nathan had decided to run it with them, because he was definitely a good pace-setter for them. So the fiasco has been resolved, and everyone is happy now!

Apple Pie Squares

Alright, alright, I have heard your impatient clamorings! : ) The reason I could not immediately leap to the computer and post the recipe is because a girl from church who is having her first baby in a few weeks came over for lunch and the afternoon. We talked about childbirth, especially natural childbirth. She is having a homebirth, so an epidural won't be an option, and I wanted to give her some tips and hints. I had to spend the morning getting ready for that by copying a few things and printing off some articles. (Johanna, she's the one who is using your midwife.) I think she'll do just fine. She is the second of 12 kids, and her youngest sibling is 18 months, so obviously her mom has a lot to offer on the subject as well! We had a lot of fun, and it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon!

But without any further ado, here is the recipe, which I got off of cooks.com.

Apple Pie Squares

2 1/2 c. flour
1 c. shortening (real butter would be fine, Melinda)
1 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
Milk (obviously I used soy milk)
1 c. crushed corn flakes
6-8 apples, peeled & sliced [I only used about 5, because that's what I had--it was fine. An apple peeler/corer/slicer sure did make it go faster!]
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg white, beaten
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour and salt and cut in shortening. Put egg yolk into measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 2/3 cup. Add to flour mixture and toss lightly with fork to form dough. Roll 1/2 of dough to fill jelly roll pan (ungreased). [I had a hard time rolling out the dough--it is very sticky--maybe add more flour.] Sprinkle corn flakes over the crust. They keep the filling from being too runny.

Combine sugar and cinnamon; toss with apples. Place apples on dough. Roll remaining dough and place on top, pinching edges. Brush egg white on top of dough. Bake 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Watch time. (May be too long.)

Combine last 3 ingredients. [You will definitely need another tablespoon of water or so to make it the consistency where you can drizzle it on or really do anything with it.] Frost while still warm.

A Few More Thoughts

I am so tired. Just weary. Yesterday we went to the church for a few hours to set up, and I stayed up late getting together last-minute details. Also, I cooked yesterday. I baked all that chicken, plus a pan of apple pie squares. (I baked another pan Sunday afternoon). The apple pie squares turned out really well! I'm never baking a regular apple pie again! These made so many with so much less work! One of the other moms, who has 8 children, asked me for the recipe, as she was thinking about Thanksgiving coming up.

At the feast, the other moms and I were laughing at how I always seem to get stuck in the "dress-up" units while I am quite noticably pregnant! When I was pregnant with Grace, I was part of the ancient Greek unit, where we all had to dress up for our 5th week Greek Olympics in Greek chitons. The maternity chiton was a questionable fashion choice! This time I did not have any appropriate medieval maternity dress either, if you can imagine! Oh well. Of course, last year, when I was NOT pregnant, I taught the reptile unit--no dressing up there!

The boys went over to the McC's house with 2 other boys from co-op after it was all over. They played Star Wars Risk for several hours, which means they disappeared into the basement and no one heard from them. This meant Christine could take a nap too! As soon as I got home, I uploaded the pictures from my camera, posted on my blog, put the girls down, and then I took a nap myself. My feet hurt so badly!

The nicest thing was that someone from our church brought us dinner tonight. She did it last week too, when I was teaching! That was just the absolute nicest thing that could have been done today--what a blessing! I love our church!

The final thing I was thinking is that I just want you to know that I am not a "fun mom". This is the great things about our co-op. Since it's not academic, but rather filled with 5-week-long unit studies, this is where the boys get all their messy stuff done. And I only have to be involved with one unit a year! If it were simply up to me here at home, we would never do messy stuff. It's a hassle, and I don't like to clean up, LOL. I am not crafty. So co-op leaves us the other 4 days of the week to focus on our academic stuff--the stuff I like, like Latin and math, which is all cut and dried and not messy, LOL. It's worked out well for us. I can't believe this is our fifth year with this co-op!

Medieval Day!

Today was finally the big day--the wrap-up for our medieval unit at co-op! I was in charge of the unit and the wrap-up activity, so it was a big responsibility, but I had a great group of ladies working with me. We set up the church like a castle, with a few different rooms and activities for the kids to go around to.

There was an outdoor tournament activity, where the kids got to launch tennis balls out of a catapult that Craig McC had built. This was a very popular activity! Bob was able to be there again today, so he helped Craig out with this. Also outside, the kids participated in an armor relay, where one kid was the squire and another kid the knight. The squire had to get his knight dressed up in a bunch of hockey equipment and pads so the knight could run off somewhere.

Inside, we had a monk's room, where the kids illuminated a page which had their first initial printed on it. We had paint pens and other colored markers for them to use. The best part of this room was that the ladies in charge told the kids that the monks had taken a vow of silence, and so they had to be quiet too. I had brought 2 CDs of Gregorian Latin chant music, which they played through out the day. This room was such an oasis of peace and quiet, as the kids busily and quietly worked away at decorating their letters!
I was in the armory, where the kids decorated foamboard swords that we had previously cut out. We also had paint pens to use to "etch" the blades, as well as glitter glue and lots of shiny plastic jewels.
Elizabeth and another lady were in the apothecary room,w here they talked about different herbs and spices, and what they were used for in the Middle Ages. The kids all got to take home a sachet with lavender or apple potpourri.

After all the kids had cycled through all the rooms, they marched into the main room for the actual feast part of the day.

The Feast

We ordered 20 pounds of turkey legs from a bulk food co-op, expecting to get about 120 smoked turkey legs that were a little bigger than chicken legs. Instead we got 20 turkey legs, with each one weighing a pound! They were enormous! We gave them to the fifth and sixth grade boys, who had a great time eating them! The younger kids all ate chicken legs. I bought those (84 of them!), marinated them in Italian dressing, and cooked them all yesterday. It was five pans of chicken legs, and we had none left over!

The kids ate on pita bread "trenchers". They also had cheese cubes, slices of bread, carrots, celery sticks, and cream puffs and apple pie squares for dessert. All we had left over were a few carrot and celery sticks. It worked out perfectly!

We had entertainment during the feast. First, a boy from the high school part of our co-op came and acted like a jester, doing some gymnastics and juggling. Then 2 men from the fencing club that gave the boys lessons came and did a demo. They talked about the different kinds of fencing blades, and showed some theatrical fencing. They dressed up 3 kids and let them have a go at fencing the instructors. The kids really enjoyed the demo.

Here I am with my 4 knights in shining armor!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!!

We celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday today! We just celebrated as a family, which was still fun. Caleb asked for a Bionicle cake in the shape of "Toa Gali", whom he had received as an early present from Grandma and Grandpa G, before they left Monday. I discovered that I am a lot less motivated when no one else besides our family is going to see a cake, LOL. It didn't help matters any that while I was making dinner, Grace took a knife to the side of the cake, knocking off whatever the round thing in front is supposed to be--some sort of eye replacement?

Here is another picture of the cake, but I could never really get a good shot of it. Obviously my graham crackers wings or whatever those gray pokey things off the helmet are supposed to be are way too short, and I only had royal blue icing gel. I needed navy blue or something. Plus, the actual mask on the left is too small for you to see what the face actually looks like! You'll just have to trust that there are these weird eye parts on the one side. I think I'm done with Bionicle cakes. They just are not that satisfying!

Here is Caleb with his presents! We got him the Veggietales Pirates movie, and we bought him another Bionicle with money from Bob's folks. He was obviously very happy! After cake and ice cream we all went downstairs wand watched the movie. It was really good! They have seen it over at the L's house during Bible study. Anna is quite the "Rock Monster" dancer!

For Caleb's birthday dinner, he again requested tuna pockets and pierogies, that easy convenience meal. He told me that next year he was going to request fish sticks! LOL! Soon he'll be asking for sandwiches, or maybe bowls of cereal! We did have a nice day though--Johanna and her kids stopped by this afternoon. She brought us their baby swing, since they are done with it. Let me tell you, it is much nicer that any swing we have ever had! This baby will be living the good life in it! The boys had a great time running around with her boys, and the girls admired her cute baby girl, Olivia. Johanna and I just relaxed and talked, which was very nice!

Last night, Caleb enjoyed hearing about how I started having contractions with him while I was making dinner (some sort of fish). I was mindful of my mom's experience with me, where she too had made fish for dinner the night she had me, and she tasted fish the whole time. I only ate a little bit of the fish, so I wasn't bothered! We went to the hospital around 9:00 or so, and Caleb was born at 1:10. He was a big baby--9 pounds, 5 ounces--almost 2 pounds heavier than Luke, my lightest! I could tell he was bigger when I was pushing, LOL. Interestingly, his birth was the last time I went into labor on my own. I was 2 weeks overdue and induced with Jonathan, I was 5 cm dilated but not in natural labor with Anna, so I was induced, and with Grace, I had that paranoid doctor who induced me a few days before my due date just because she was worried. I am hopeful this one will not have to be induced, but I'm not holding my breath!

Caleb is such a fun boy to have in our family! He has a beautiful smile and a caring heart. He is a wonderful big brother for Anna and Grace. He loves to write me notes (creatively spelled!) and draw pictures for me. We're so thankful he's been in our family for 7 years!

Happy Anniversary to me!

I just realized that today marks the 4th year anniversary of my starting this blog! Wow, a lot has happened since then! Although I went back and reread my first and second posts and realized that not everything is different--the kids still don't like Halloween, and we are going back yet again to Chuck E. Cheese's with friends instead. In fact, it is marked as a red-letter day on the calendar for the boys, and time is marked by how close an event falls to "Chuck E. Cheese Day", as in "When will our last soccer game be?" "Saturday." "Is that before or after Chuck E. Cheese Day?"

I did have a bowl of ice cream tonight in celebration. Actually, it was just because it sounded good at the time, but it could have been in celebration!

A Cryptic Message

There is a puzzling message written in my mother's handwriting on a green sticky note next to my compter. It reads "Fat buffalo eat cheese". Hmmmmmm. What could this mean? Why would my mother write such a phrase? I asked her about it. She said that it was actually Jonathan's message. One night, he kept running back and forth between the study and the family room, asking her to spell various things. Finally she told him to just tell her everything he wanted her to spell, and she would write it on one piece of paper. "Fat buffalo eat cheese" was what he wanted spelled. Why? Who can know the mind of a 5 year old?

In other funny things, for English the other day, Luke had to think of 3 questions "that you might ask an older person about long-ago days" (this is Rod and Staff grammar). Here are Luke's questions:

1. Why was Satan evil?
2. Why did he go to hell?
3. Why were bugs created?

So, Grandma or Grandpa, would you like to take any of these? Or maybe we should just hunt up Adam to ask him. LOL!

Medieval Morning

This morning I taught the 4 and 5 year-olds at our homeschool co-op. We're in the middle of a medieval unit. That happened to be a very popular theme at our house a few years ago, and so we had many medieval things at home, including this mega-bloks castle. This was a very popular item today. Even the 6th graders thought it was "cool".

This is a picture of a little Down's Syndrome boy who is in Jonathan's K-5 class. He is really sweet, and I think it's great for the kids to have him there. He's the youngest of 6, and the fmaily has been in the area for a long time, so this little boy is really popular among all the older kids in the co-op. He's a neat little guy.

During the past 2 weeks, the class talked a lot about castles, so this week we talked about all the people who DIDN'T live in castles. Everyone agreed their mud and stick houses sounded cold and smelly, and non one wanted porridge and soup all the time to eat.

We also talked about knights, and the code of chivalry. Then the kids decorated shields, which they will carry for our big medieval feast in 2 more weeks. Some kids had elaborate designs, such as the one above, and other kids scribbled a few scribbles and that was that. Those kids just wanted to play.

I brought our Little People castle, and all the knights, royal figures, horses, etc. that go along with it. It was very popular. I also brought a bag of miscellaneous knight figures that we have lying around the house. These are pretty elaborately decorated, and they have lots of detailed weapons, shields, etc. The boys liked those.

Bob got to come as well, which was a big help in keeping especially the 4 year olds on track. They were like little pieces of popcorn, jumping in and out of their seats! Now I am exhausted and ready for an early night. Next week we'll talk more about the 3 stages of becoming a knight, and we'll make helmets to go along with the shields for the feast.

Last Fencing Class

Nathan and Luke had their last fencing class today. The best thing about it was that the 2 really young, out-of-control boys were not there! The instructor brought in the equipment for electric fencing, so they could keep score while they fenced each other. They had so much fun!

Here is Luke is lunging at Caleb McC. They had a sort of tournment, with Luke starting out fencing Daniel McC. Luke won that one, then again against Johnny (not our Jonny), and again against Caleb McC. Finally he lost to Isaac McC. Nathan lost to Isaac too. It was really fun to watch! They've learned so much over the past few weeks.

Here are Nathan and Luke fencing each other. The boys all got turns to fence each other, and the instructor even let the class run longer so there was more time.

This is Caleb, all suited up. He didn't even take the class, but during the regular class times, he, Jonathan, and Joel McC would do the same stuff with foam swords that the instructor also had. This time, the instructor even let them get all dressed up, which was very thrilling for them! Obviously Caleb has been observing, as you can see from his lunge!

Here are Jonathan, Joel, and Anna playing with the foam swords. It was so nice of the man to always let them play too. It definitely helped keep everyone happy and occupied while the older boys were having their class!

We didn't sign up for the next session of classes, because they run up to Christmas. We are planning to be gone for a few weeks around the holiday time, so we didn't want to miss classes. Hopefully they'll be able to take another session in the new year, though. Fencing so is great for coordination and mental accuity! Plus, it's fun to watch!

A Stressful Time

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately. We're in the middle of a crisis that I can't really talk much about here. Suffice to say, it deals with health issues, and it will definitely impact our immediate future. My parents are here to help, and they have been absolute God-sends. I know I would not be coping even as well (?) as I am without their help. We should know more about the future in the next week or two. In the meantime, it's been very stressful. Thanks for praying with us.

A Cooking Experiment

This afternoon our church had a little shower for those of us who are pregnant with not our first child. There are actually 6 of us in this situation, due from now until me in February, and at the shower we found out about another lady who is expecting her third child the end of May! We are on a real nursery growth explosion here. There is another woman who is expecting her first in December, and we've had 2 more new babies born over the summer.

Anyhow, the church had a "neccessities" shower for all of us, where we each got little things, like some diapers and a lullaby CD. Mainly we ate, talked, and prayed. It was so nice! I had volunteered to bring dessert. One of my friends, who is also pregnant, can't eat gluten during this pregnancy because it was giving her terrible skin problems. I wanted to make a dessert she could eat, so I decided to try a flourless chocolate cake. I had printed off a recipe someone had posted a long time ago on the old Well Trained Mind boards, but as I looked closer at it, it seemed a little intimidating. Also, even though it called for I think 7 eggs, you only baked it for 15 minutes! Then you just refrigerated it over night. With all these pregnant women, I didn't think that sounded all that good, so I googled. I found several possibilities, and I decided on this recipe from allrecipes.com, mainly because it seemed easy and I had all the ingredients on hand.

I made it last night, and this morning I dipped the pan in hot water and inverted in onto the serving plate, just like the recipe said. Then I got the bright idea to drizzle white chocolate on top, which would have been a good idea, except my chocolate never really melted all that well, so it was really thick and didn't "drizzle" very well. I should have just dusted it with powdered sugar--note to self. I still wasn't sure what it would taste like, however, and I had actually made a second dessert last night to take as well, in case the cake totally flopped.

Well. It was absolutely delicious. Everyone raved about it, and people thought it was store-bought. It was like a fudgy truffle. Yummmmm. And it was so easy to make, I thought I'd share the recipe right here, in case any of you are too lazy to click on the link.

Flourless Chocolate Cake I

Submitted by: Maggie
Rated: 5 out of 5 by 213 members
Yields: 16 servings
"A dense chocolate cake for those of us who can't tolerate wheat or gluten."

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate (I used Baker's semi-sweet squares because that's what I had)
1 cup unsalted butter
6 eggs

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.

3. Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.

4. Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.

6. Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.

Awwww, man . . .

. . . I lost one of the diamonds from my wedding band today. I have a solitaire for an engagement ring, and then the wedding band wrapped around that, with a triangular diamond on either side. I dropped off a bunch of clothes to try to sell at one of our big consignment sales around here before Bible study, and when I got to Bible study, I noticed the empty prongs. I think a prong must have caught on something there at the sale place, since I know the diamond was there earlier in the day.

I had been thinking that this might have to be the pregnancy where I get a cheap plain gold band, since I am already feeling like my rings are a bit tight. I guess that will happen sooner, rather than later, although I am not up to my 4th trip to Wal-Mart in one week, so I guess it won't be all that soon! Hopefully in the meantime no one will mistake me for a single mom, LOL.

An Exercise in Futility

Wow, do you ever have days where you feel like everything you touch is not going to work out?! That's how I'm feeling today!

Today is our co-op day, and it was the day the kids were going to do the run for the Presidential Physical Fitness test. They would do the run during the non-teaching part of the morning for each of them, so for Nathan and Luke, that meant they ran first, then came back for teaching. So I decided the girls and I would go watch them run. They were running on a portion of a wide, nicely-paved bike trail (used to be train tracks) that's not too far from the church where we meet.

When we got there, the lady in charge was giving instructions--the fourth graders had a choice. They could either run to the first lady and then turn around and run back (making 1/2 mile total) or run to the second lady, turn around, and run back (making 1 mile). The 6th graders all ahd to run the mile. This was explained several times for emphasis, and then they started off. Luke (4th grade) and his friend Caleb were #1 and #2 in the half mile, and everything seemed great. But there was starting to be a bit of a commotion with the timing people and the lady in charge, and when the first 6th graders crossed the line, those people started shouting at them to start running again--they needed to turn around and do it again! Keep running! It was very confusing, but they started off again, losing a bunch of time though. Nathan was 4th in the 6th grade group, and his time ended up being right around 8 minutes. He needed 7:32 to be presidential, however. But it was all very confusing, and I couldn't figure out what had happened. Obviously something was very wrong, though.

Then the girls and I left to go to Wal-Mart. I needed to buy a bunch of t-shirts (80 to be exact) to make tunics with for our medieval unit. Since we're associated with the church, we are allowed to use their tax-exempt number on purchases, so armed with that info, the girls and I set off. Of course, Wal-Mart had a terrible selection of boys t-shirts. They still hadn'[t restocked the boys extra-large ones of the cheap brand, so it took me forever as I tried to figure out what other sizes could work for the different grades. Finally I took my cart full of t-shrit packages up to the front to pay. When I said I had a tax-exempt number, the cashier wanted the actual paper from the church. I said I didn't have that--they told me I just needed the number, as well as the church's address and phone number. The lady tried to enter the number several times, but it always came back as invalid, so obviously something was wrong. Very frustrating! I ended up just paying for all the t-shirts, because I knew if I left them and came back later, they would probably all disappear, and I had taken all the packages of cheap t-shirts, so there weren't anymore on the shelves to get. All this took forever, though, and so we ran home, I threw together sandwiches for the girls and me, and we leaped back into the car to eat them because it was already time to pick up the boys. Whew!

Back at co-op, I got the piece of paper from the leader, so I decided we'd head back to Wal-Mart after leaving the church. We were already out, and we didn't have other plans or schoolwork this afternoon, so it just made sense.

I also discovered that Luke was out rerunning the half mile with Caleb McC and Craig, Caleb's dad. Odd, I thought. Plus, it was really hot out there--in the 80's. He had to run a second timed half-mile in less than 3 hours in the heat, and after eating lunch? And what was the deal with making the 6th graders go back again? Well, it turned out that the lady in charge had totally hosed up the distances (duh). She had originally thought that the little guys (1st-2nd), who only have to run 1/4 mile, were also going to run on the bike path, so she had measured out 1/8 mile, so they could just go there and back. Then the second line was actually 1/4 mile out. But somehow (? She is a mom of 9, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, but still . . . ) she forgot she ever did that, so she basically told the 4th graders to run 1/4 mile, and the 6th graders to run 1/2 mile. When Luke and the other 4th graders started crossing over, the timers realized the times were way off, and not 1/2 mile times, so they told the 6th graders to turn around and do it again, so they would have the right distance. Of course, when you think you are coming to the end and you start printing, then pull up, only to be told you are in actuality only halfway done and you need to start running again . . . . well, that's not really right. So no one in Nathan's class was Presidential in the run, which was very disappointing for people like Nathan, who pretty much just needed the run to be Presidential overall (and he still lacks the shuttle run).

When Luke came back, we all piled in the car, and Luke immediately started crying. He was so upset. His time was 3:48, and he needed 3:30, so he didn't make it. They told him he had "done it wrong" the first time and only gone 1/4 mile, so he needed to run it again. Well, that is true, and I know they said they TOLD him wrong, because the lady in charge was very clear that it was her fault, but he was still devastated. He was hot, tired, and full from lunch, and he didn't understand what had happened--he had done exactly what they told him to do, so how could he have done it wrong?! This is the only event Luke lacked to be a Presidential award winner, and he's a good runner, so he wasn't anticipating a problem.

They are trying to work out a time for Nathan's class to rerun the mile of they want to, and I am hoping they will let Luke try it again as well. I'm going to email the lady in charge, anyways. I hope she doesn't think that should be his only chance, when it was their fault. Anyhow, it was a frustrating day at co-op for Nathan and Luke, who had both been looking forward to the run, as well as training for it.

So we went off to Wal-Mart again, discussing the run over and over again until everyone understood what had happened. When we got there, I brought all the t-shirts back in to the return counter, where I proudly displayed my correct form from the church, and asked for have the tax taken off. Well, the lady said I needed to fill out another form to put it on file, and there was no one there who could help me with that--I needed to come back some morning. Really?! No one who could help with that?! Obviously the lady I was dealing with couldn't help me. She was one of the many non-native English speakers who work at returns, and it was hard to even get her to understand what I was talking about. But there was nothing I could do except turn around and head back out to the car with everyone in tow. And now I have yet a third trip to Wal-Mart to look forward to, this time during a morning when we should be doing school. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So now I'm wondering what else I should attempt today, just to see if it turns out as poorly as everything else has.