Icing on the cake

One of the things that has been keeping me busy this summer is a cake decorating class.

As it happened, a young friend of mine, “Lit’l Bit”, wanted to take this class and it sounded like great fun to me, so we’re doing it together.

We’ve gone twice and it’s been an absolute blast.  She and I have our own table so we just laugh it up the whole time.  She gets my jokes — imagine, someone who thinks I’m funny!  (Speaking of funny, we did clowns last week.)

We also discuss our creations, flaws and ideas.  I tell ya, if you are ever looking to take this class I would suggest trying to go with a younger person.  I say this because there are 13 other people in the class and they do exactly what the teacher tells them.  Lit’l Bit and I (though the “I” here is to a much smaller degree than she) get creative with it.  I LIKE that!

Now, here’s a bit of an oddity.

My family LOVES pies. . .cakes. . .mmm, not so much.

To top that off (pun intentional), my family really DOES NOT LIKE icing.

Yep, I’ll just let that one clatter around in your head for a bit. . .

We do like looking at decorated cakes; and I’ve been known to do a few, but you’ll almost always find the icing pushed off to the side when the plate is taken to the sink.

Anyhoo. . .

I have to tell you the icing that this lady has us making for our class. . .is totally “gag-me”.  It’s a version of buttercream.  Except, because she wants it pure white we use shortening instead of butter.  Ummm, that’s gotta be good for your insides!  AND she wants us to add marshmallow cream.  BLECH!

To keep me from gagging, Lit’l Bit has taken to making the icing for both of us at her house.  Something I’m ever so grateful for!

Anyway, I’ve been looking for substitute icing recipes.  I found this cake decorating site, which was informative, but not exactly what I was looking for.  I don’t know that I could explain exactly what I’m looking for. . .something healthier, perhaps?  Not so icky-sweet?

So, I opted for a cream cheese recipe.  (Which is the very same recipe my mom gave me eons ago, and that I use faithfully on all my carrot cakes.)  It’s also terrible for you (healthwise), but my kids like it, and it’s not so sickenly sweet.

Lit’l Bit came over the other night and we gave the cream cheese frosting a test drive.  We liked it better in a lot of respects (easier to squeeze out of the bag, more smooth consistency, taste, etc.), but it failed in a big way in that we can’t get it to “stand up”.  We need something more stiff.

Thus, the search continues.  And I thought that maybe someone here would have a recipe they could share?

And so it continues

I think my big problem is that I’m still around enough publicly schooled people that I believe the bunk about summers being relaxing.

Summer is my absolutely BUSIEST time of year (other than December).  Someone please remind me of that as April hits next year!

Oh, and did you realize it’s almost JULY???  Yep, which means I’m behind in my plans, again.

What’s worse, last week I kind of had a list of what remained to be done.  Except, I either forgot to write it down, or lost it. . .the story of my life.

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We are on the lookout for a new church.  We’ve been going to the current one for about 18 months.  I’ve been feeling it wasn’t the right one for us for quite some time, and Jay has come to agree.

Yesterday was our last day there and my last day teaching Sunday School.  It wasn’t terribly hard knowing I’d never see those kids again.  I mean, that’s something I’m very used to (leaving).  Not that you ever like it, but with military life you most assuredly get used to it.

Yet, there was one child (maybe two) that I really regret leaving.  A young girl — shier than anything.  I’ve known her the entire time I’ve been there.  For the first year she she would stand away from all the other children and just cry buckets of tears.  I’ve been working with her as I can, and for the first time ever, yesterday of all days, she spoke.  Not just “hello”, but a whole string of excited chatter.  Just telling me this and that.  I even got her to play with another kid on a couple of different games.

There’s another child there that has a serious speach problem.  Oof!  And whenever people would get frustrated with understanding him, he would come to me to “translate”.

I know the other teachers. . .  I know their hearts are in the right place, but I hope that they find it within themselves to learn some patience and understanding with these two.

*sigh*

So now the search begins.  You know, I have to tell ya, one of my least favorite things in life is searching for a church.  It ranks right up there with. . . (thinking about it, I don’t necessarily want to write down what it compares with in my mind, as it just feels so wrong comparing “church” — even though I mean the search thereof — with something so foul.) 

 

Curriculum Roundup

If you like these types of posts then the credit needs to go to FiddleDeeDee.   Sadly, if you don’t like this particular post the blame will have to fall on me. . .

Okay, let me review a few things first.

• I homeschool 4 boys (ages 17, 14, 7, and 6).
  • While we have been homeschooling a great number of years, we did not start out homeschooling.
• We are a military family (this will hold true for the next 36 days).
  • We move a lot.
• I may look like I’m terribly organized here on this blog, but this would be akin to observing 1/10th a percent of my real life.  (In other words, life is not as it appears here.)
• I constantly worry I’m not doing enough, or giving the kiddoes a good enough education.  I have learned to go to bed, and BRIEFLY list what went wrong that day, and then spend some good time reviewing what went right.
  • I do this in my head, and it’s known as a parent-teacher conference.
• Oh, and this absolutely, positively just has to be said, I’m ALWAYS behind in housework (if I choose to do it).

We school year-round.  This is almost a necessity for us due to the military thing.  Moving overseas in Feb. does nothing for your school year!  I used to try to plan how many days / weeks on or off, but that just kept getting messed with, so I stopped.  (Best laid plans and all that.)  We average 40 weeks of school.  Technically, our school year starts July 1 and goes through June 30.

I do not do a book-a-year.  Lots of people do this, but I found it not good for us (this came about due to math).  I finish one book and move directly into another.  This will make sense, if it doesn’t already, in a bit, so bear with me.

We start on lesson 1 and work all the way through the book.  I don’t skip lessons, nor do I end a book early.  You could tell me the first 20 lessons are all review till you are blue in the face and it won’t phase me.  I figure review is a good thing.  (And my kids have discovered it’s “easy” which makes them feel like they’re getting off easy.)  It also helps build some self-confidence, that I’ve discovered is priceless in at least one of my children.

I do not set blocked times for things.  I tried that for a period of time too.  It worked well when I just had one home, and it worked okay when I had two. . . but now it just doesn’t work well.  Part of that is due to the fact that my two oldest are more independent and they have very definate ideas of when they want to work on what.

I do schedule out all of our work. 

I used to have a “6-week” rule.  I would try a curriculum for 6 weeks before I chucked it (if it wasn’t working).  I’ve gotten to where I can do it in two weeks now.  I do truly attempt to make something work for at least two weeks, as some things just have a learning curve that needs to be adjusted to.  (I’ve tried a few that never even made it to the kids.  This goes back to the whole scheduling thing.  If I can’t make enough sense of the program to schedule it, it never gets to a child.)

I have tried a great number of programs, and I’m a curriculum junkie.  (Has nothing to do with anything on this post, I suppose, but I felt I should declare it nonetheless.)

Things I’ve learned:

• If it can’t be scheduled, it won’t be used.
• As often as everyone will tell you that a great thing about homeschooling your children is that you can get what works for them. . .you need to keep in mind it needs to work for you too!  (Unless they are completely independent of you.)
• “Time intensive” is NOT my friend.
• I do not necessarily agree with all the views presented in some of the texts we use, but they are fantastic for discussions!
• There are more, but I think I just sidetracked myself from the point of this post. . .

So, what will the kids be doing “this year”?  (That’s a good question!  I’m starting to fret that I may not know. . .)

Drew (17 yo)

• finish his Adv. Math book (ala Saxon). (currently finishing test 12) 
  • I hate this book, just FYI.  Oh, and the Saxon Teacher CD is worthless.
• finish his Physics book (currently mod. eight)
• finish his World History survey (currently in Rome)
• finish his World Literature survey
• will take a college course in Comp. Sci.
• will finish his current English grammar text and move to the next one.  I’m attempting to encourage him to take a college English class but he’s not biting. . .yet.
• Will start and finish:  Am. Gov’t and Econ. and
• WILL GRADUATE!

Tyler (14 yo)

• Currently working on Runkle’s Geography and Modern history.  When he’s done with those books he will move directly into Am. History.  (Actually, he’ll still be working on Runkle’s when he moves into Am. History — History of US with add-ons; including Am. Lit.)
• Almost done with Al. 1 then will move into Al. 2 (Teaching Textbooks)
• Almost done with Gen. Sci. and will move into Physical Science (Apologia)
• Rod and Staff English. (he’s almost done with one book and will go directly into the next)
• guitar

Garrett (7 yo) and Mikhail (6 yo)  (Right now I’m able to keep them together.)

• RightStart Mathematics B
• Pathway Readers
• Later this year we will add in Writing with Ease and possibly Rod and Staff 2
• We will finish off our Astronomy study in Nov or Dec. and then start on Botony probaby in Jan. (Apologia elementary)
• We are working on the How to Teach Art to Children book. . .I’m not sure where I’ll go after we finish that.
• World History Survey using A Little History of the World.  Then, we’ll move into Am. History (ala, ME – if I ever finish writing it)
• Piano — Alfred’s Piano Prep (A & B) 

hmmm, I feel like I’m missing something. . .

Ah, I suppose I could discuss organization.  Ummm, that’s actually a little scary at this point. . . I need to clean this room!  (school room)

Each of the older two boys get a 3″ binder (it’s used till it falls apart) and get their schedules printed off and placed in there.  All worksheets and test are placed in the binder directly behind the weekly schedule they are assigned to.Then, they just do their work, tuck it in my “in” box where I check it, and then put it in their binder under it’s subject. 

For the little guys, they have binders of their completed work.  They are still young enough that I’m always right there with them so we check the papers immediately and put it away.  I have a binder that contains their daily plan, and I work directly from that.

The “big” topic of late on homeschooling forums  seems to be independence.  I tell ya, schedules work fantastic for that!  I start moving the kids towards working at independence around 4th grade.  But, it still involves a lot of me.  (In fact, Tyler is still struggling with making good time choices.)  I actually don’t know if I  want to go on this right now, as this could be a big topic. . .

Okay, I realize that this isn’t written “well”, but it is written, which is more than I thought I might have time for.

Oh, one last thing:

DeeDee likes to say, “. . . you only have to stay one day smarter than they are.”   

Do that well enough and there comes a point in time where the “teacher” becomes the “student”.

It’s an instant of pride that is. . .humbling.