Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

Sorry. For those of you that follow my days on Facebook, I'm still trying to get all the details of my cake baking experience written with enough words to give you the full scope of the day, but still staying within the allowable memory limits of Blogger.

But for now, watch this movie that a friend of mine posted on her Facebook profile. (Just click in the title below)


Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy


Very true...very funny!

The Celebration (and Finale to the Different Cake)

Today we gathered with many of the Geertsema family to celebrate Devin and Hadiya's 10th birthday.

It was a gorgeous day, and the ice on the lake at Grandma and Grandpa's was perfect so skating! Especially thanks to the efforts of Uncle John and David!
So after a quick lunch of Grandma's special soup we headed out to the lake.

The boys enjoyed a great game of hockey with their bigger cousins;


Shannon had a fab time skating with the girls


and we all enjoyed cake after! I LOVE this picture that Trish captured of Devin! Angel Food Cake, Chocolate Whipped Cream, Chocolate Sauce, and Caramel Sauce. Doesn't get much better than that! But he has told me (a few times) since, that NEXT year, I have to remember to add the cocoa!

A Different Kind of Cake

Just so you don't think I am a goddess in the kitchen, I have to report on my Valentine's Day.

My mother-in-law called Friday afternoon; I finally got back to her Saturday morning. She invited us over to her house on Sunday to celebrate Devin and Hadiya's birthdays. (Hadiya is Devin's cousin who was born the day after him). Sounded like fun. Lots of family would be there. She asked me to bring a cake.

I wasn't in a 'fancy cake' making mood, and I was really running short of time. Fortunately, when I asked Devin what he would like for a cake he answered "Chocolate Angel Food Cake." A quick google search told me that making an Angel Food Cake from scratch is a CRAZY production, and I could easily add a little cocoa to an Angel Food Cake mix and get similar results (many added unidentifiable chemicals, I'm sure, but I just didn't read the box).

As Devin and I discussed further, we decided that a great addition to our creation would be chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce. Easy, cheesy, DONE!

I also decided that since I love my husband so much, and the oven was on already, I would make him some Caramel Macchiato Brownies; a recipe that I found while attempting to organize my recipes recently.

A quick call to my sister-in-law in the big city secured chocolate whipped cream in a squirt can as I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it in Chesterville. Off to town I went to get a cake mix and the sauces.

On my way past my mom's house I wondered if I should stop and pick up her angel food cake pan, but decided to 'go it on my own' and just use the bundt cake pan that was gathering dust in my basement. Besides I could add enjoyment to the exercise by replaying "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in my head while making it. "It's a bundt cake" "A Bun?" "A BUNDT" "Oh! A bun!" (Whispering to her sister...) "There's a hole in this cake."

The following is how the afternoon played out. Better switch to point form or this could end up being PAGES long!

1. Arrived back from town. All ingredients in hand. Preheated oven.
2. Decided to wash dishes on counter after baking, since there would be many more to do then.
3. Started making the brownies. Off to a good start. Line pan with foil as suggested. In the oven.
4. Whipped up the angel food cake. Waited for brownies to be done.
5. Timer beeps. Can't find cake tester in the mess on the counter. Refuse to acknowledge that over the last year and a half we have owned our stove the oven has ALWAYS taken longer than what instructions suggest. Take out brownies because they kinda look done, and I'd rather them gooey than dry.
6. Put the Angel Food Cake in the oven.
7. After 5 minutes I'm supposed to remove the brownies from the pan and remove foil.
8. Place cooling rack on top of brownie pan and do a flip-a-roo.
9. Remove foil from brownies.
10. Notice a dent developing in the middle of the brownies.
11. Notice brownie goo seeping through the cooling rack onto our island.
12. Grab the brownie pan and stick it back on top of the brownies.
13. Vividly remember my high school chemistry teacher saying "Hot glass looks the same as cold glass!"
14. Flip the brownies back into the pan, and place pan on island.
15. Realize that brownies have substantially decreased in volume in the pan, and that the pan is resting on the missing portion...which had dripped onto the island, and apparently the floor.
16. Move pan and taste test squished, dripped goo. Mmmmmm! (Light brown dots are butterscotch chips)
    
17. Can't put brownies back in the oven because the AFC is hogging up all the room.
18. Check on the AFC. Notice I forgot to add the cocoa. Sorry Devin!
    
19. Realize that the bundt cake pan isn't going to hold all of the AFC. Throw a cook sheet in the oven to catch the overflow.
20. Wait for the smoke alarm to go off as all the drippings begin to smolder on the cookie sheet.
21. Timer beeps. Remove AFC.
22. Read box instructions. "Place AFC upside down on a bottle to cool."
    
23. Deduce that AFCs don't come out of the pan easily.
24. Realize why they sell AFC pans.
25. Put brownies back in the oven.
26. Leave brownies in for extended period of time. Remove.
27. Do dishes.
28. Taste test brownies. Very tasty! A little dry on the edges. Try Pampered Chef pan next time.
    
29. Time to remove AFC. Cut off all overflow edges and jam knife between baked-on overflow AFC and pan edge.
30. Work knife down the sides of the pan. Not easy with all the fluted bumps. Mark suggests that maybe its a jello mold thingy and not a cake pan!
31. Use my (washed and sanitized) hands to scoop down to the bottom of the cake to loosen.
32. Mission successful. On both accounts. Sort of.
    

My Father's Farm

When I was getting the photo of the memory work box for the post below, I found this picture on my camera. Finally got one of my sunset pictures to turn out! This is the view out our west window; my Father's Farm.

Our Memory Work System

February. The month that I always begin evaluating our home school curriculum. What's working, what isn't, what are we missing, what do we want to do next year. Some years it's a bigger job than others.

Today, I'm posting one thing that works great for our family. The Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System.

As the boys attended Sunday School, and as we began learning at home, they soon accumulated several verses that they knew. But as time progressed, they began to forget the first ones they had learned.

Enter the Charlotte Mason System. It provides an easy to follow review method that makes sure you know the verse well to begin with and then repeats it on an ongoing basis so that you don't forget. Very Cool! We use it as part of our supper devotions, so everyone takes part. It's amazing to see what even Shannon is able to memorize. And it only takes maybe 5 minutes!

Here's how it works.

Step One: Get an index card box and forty-one tabbed dividers that fit inside it. It doesn’t matter if the dividers have letters on them; you can flip them over and use the other side for labeling.

Step Two: Label the dividers as follows and place them in the box in this order:

• 1 divider — Daily
• 1 divider — Odd
• 1 divider — Even
• 7 dividers — Days of the Week (Sunday, Monday, etc.) (We just use 5, Mon-Fri)
  
• 31 dividers — Numbered 1-31

Step Three: Copy onto index cards any verses your family already knows. Beginning with the Odd tab, put one verse behind each of the dividers, starting with your most recently learned verse (but don't go crazy trying to get them in exact order...like you know I would...). Just do as many as you have, you don't have to fill the box, that'll come later.

Next write cards for verses you want to memorize. Put one verse card behind the Daily divider; this will be the passage you’ll work on memorizing first. Then stack the rest of the verses to be learned in front of the Daily divider to learn at a later time.

Step Four: Each day you will say together the verses behind four dividers:

• Daily
• Odd or Even
• Day of the Week
• Date of the Month

So if today is Tuesday, the 3rd, you will say the verses behind Daily, Odd (because 3 is an odd number), Tuesday, and 3. The next day (Wednesday, the 4th), you will say the verses behind Daily, Even, Wednesday, and 4. Keep in mind that only the verse behind Daily is a new one that you are memorizing; all the others are just review.

To learn the new verse I simply read it out loud in phrases. The rest of the family repeats. As we begin to learn it I make the phrases longer.

Step Five: When you have memorized the Daily verse, move it behind the Odd divider. Move the verse that was in the Odd slot back to the Even, the Even to Monday, Monday to Tuesday, and so on. Friday's card gets moved to the next available numbered divider. You can then put a new verse or passage to memorize behind the Daily divider and you’re ready to go again.

In this way, you will review a new verse every day, then graduate to every other day, once a week, and finally, once a month. Use the system every day of the month and you will review all the verses you know every month of the year!

When we first started we only had cards up to 15, so for the rest of the month I simply subtracted 15 from what ever the date was and used that number (on the 21rst we did the verse behind 6)

Eventually you will have advanced enough verse cards to have one placed behind each numbered divider. Then , start at 1 again and add another card to each.

If you're interested, I have most of the verses we've learned in a Word document that I could send you. Just print it out, tape to cards, and you're on your way!

Parental Avoidance

Devin and Brent came up to me the other day while I was unloading the dishwasher. "Mom," they asked, "What is a period?"

My mind began to race. I'd waited too long for the talk. THIS was not the time. "Well," I said cautiously, " What do you think a period is?"

In instant unison, "20 minutes of hockey!"

Of course. They knew. They were just asking to see if I knew. It was all making sense now. I could relax.

"But," continued Brent, "there's this commercial on TV..."

I knew I wouldn't get off that easy. I knew exactly what they were talking about. "Have yourself a Happy Period" Of course they were confused. Not a hockey player in sight in that commercial. Time to ask another question.

"So," I once again started with great hesitation, "What did this commercial say?"

I can't remember the exact wording, but their reply was something like this.

"Dodge has the best trucks. Period"

Ahhhhhh. Sigh. Relief. We're not in health class. This is all about grammar! THAT I can handle!

So I jumped right in explaining how a period finishes a sentence, and they were using it to finish a conversation. No discussion. Dodge is the best. Nothing else to say. (Although I think the commercial may actually have been for Ford...but I just couldn't get myself to type those words in the same sentence)

Now, time to go and find those Health Class books to pass on to their father...