Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Making the Grade

Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything.. tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math.
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him in the local Cat holic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner.
To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference. Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, Little Zachary got an 'A' in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity.



She went to his room and said, 'Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?'



Little Zachary looked at her and
shook his head, no. 'Well, then,' she r eplied, was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? 'WHAT WAS IT ALREADY?'
Little Zachary looked at her and said, 'Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around.'

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Home Economic Project


Gingerbread Recipe

Gingerbread today is quite different from what it used to be. Once upon a time, “gingerbread” simply meant preserved ginger. By the fifteenth century it was a “cake” made from a dense dough of breadcrumbs or ground almonds mixed with honey or spices. Often this dough was pressed into moulds with very intricate designs. There were many varieties of gingerbread in medieval times: ‘coarse’, ‘fine’, white, red (coloured with red wine or sandalwood), and gilded (with real gold).

Here is a small sample recipe

Grasmere Gingerbread.
8 oz. wholemeal flour
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 oz butter
6 oz brown sugar
1 level tablespoon

Golden Syrup.

Mix the flour, bicarb soda, cream of tartar and ground ginger. Rub in the butter. Add the sugar and Golden Syrup and mix well. Press into a greased 8 inch diameter tin. Bake in a cool (325oC) oven for 45-50 minutes. Leave in the tin 15 minutes. Cut into wedges.

Yorkshire Parkin.

4 level tablespoons Golden Syrup
4 level tablespoons Treacle
3 oz soft dark brown sugar
8 oz butter
¼ pint milk
8 oz plain flour
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons bicarb soda1 teaspoon salt
8 oz fine or medium oatmeal.

Melt the syrup, treacle, sugar, butter and milk together gently. Sif the flour, ginger, bicarb, salt together and add the oatmeal. Add the melted mixture to the dry mixture and beat till smooth. Pour into a greased and lined 11 x 7 inch tin. Cook in a cool (325oC) oven 40-45 minutes. It will shrink back from the sides of the tin, and look a bit sunken, but will spring back when cooked. Cool in the tin ten minutes before turning out.

Quotation for the Day ...

And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread. William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Not the Public School!


Guess what? Daughter has decided she does not want to go into th epublic school system. I called the school & they directed me to their school web site ... we read through it together & she didn't like all the rules/regulations & the punishment that went along with the rules if broken. Although I don't let my kids get away with much I'm very open to them speaking their minds & letting them get things off of their chest without much reprocation. Well, the school site says any derogatory remarks will result in after school detention. The number one derogatory no-no is using shut-up. It's my daughters favorite saying. She says public school isn't important enough to make her change the way she speaks. he he he

We got back into church so she is around kids there. She reconnected with some old home school buddies via the computer, she's called them up a couple times to and then theres still girl scouts which I'm trying very hard to get a hold of someone who says they can help me out. It's very frustrating to say the least. I'm still looking into homeschool groups since our cover school is so far away. =(

School is over today but we bought crafts for the kids to play around with. They made a gingerbread tree today ... they've already dove into it but not before I got cute pics to go with it. I'll have to come back & add a slideshow of all the pics. Some of them were really wild looking. I also purchased felt so they can make stockings. I'm hoping they'll want to give them to their cousins (twins) but I have a feeling daughter will want to keep hers. She's the type who wants to save all the things she makes whereas son loves to give all the things he makes to others.

Well, I guess that's all for me today ... have a few things to take care of before my day comes to an end. Have a blessed day.

Monday, December 1, 2008