Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Funny Delightful Son told me today that he kissed his girlfriend, and it scared him to death. My response was, "Well, despite that, was it everything you thought it would be?" He grinned, saying, "Yeah. It was." For nearly two months now, Funny Delightful Son has been seeing a very lovely young lady. She is the one that got away for Homecoming. Another young man beat Funny Delightful Son to asking her out, so she accepted his invitation. This led to FDS playing it cool, waiting for Homecoming to come and go, biding his time until he felt the dust had settled, and he could ask her out without another young man being in the picture. When that time came, FDS asked Lovely Young Lady out to dinner and they've been seeing each other ever since. They've written each other letters and poems. They Skype during the evenings they don't get to see each other. They Snapchat constantly. When they're together, you can tell they simply enjoy each other...

Tonight's dinner, a rather late dinner since I sat down to watch the Boilers lose to the Badgers (sad face), was individual chicken pot pies. Last night, I made coconut crusted cod on a bed of seasoned spinach (and had to saute a second batch of spinach as both boys wanted more), and other meals throughout this week included chicken enchiladas, and broccoli cheese soup with crusty Italian bread. Most of the meals I've been putting together take around an hour and a half from start to finish, but in the end, hearing the boys say, "Mmmmm, that was good" and "Thanks, Mom" make the time well worth it. I've also found, too, that the entire process is almost a meditative one. I've never been so mindful about a knife chopping an onion or the thickening of a sauce like I find myself now. Another change I've noticed is the more I cook, the braver I'm becoming with using herbs and spices. I never used to work with anything beyond a bit of salt and pe...

I'm into a fascinating read-- Mind, Brain, and Education --and I have all these ideas swirling around in my head for what I can do in the classroom to more fully engage the students in the concepts. The author of the chapter I just finished suggests helping students understand how their brains work when it comes to learning, so they realize they truly do have control over how well they learn something. For many years now, I've been trying to get through to students that they are the ones in control, but that's all I ever said. Now I have solid information by credible neuroscientists to back up what I'm saying. It's like I've found the lost piece of the puzzle, and I can't wait to put it into its spot. For instance, did you know there's a part of the brain that's called the reticular activating system (RAS) that acts as a sort of gate-keeper, and when input registers, if that input creates stress or fear, the input goes to the lower brain, the fligh...

Every now and then I have a restless night. Last night was one, mostly due to the window near our bed that, when it was hit with a gust of wind, created a high-pitched whistling. And I'm not talking about a melodious whistling, a la Francesco Bonifazi. No. I'm talking about an ear-splitting trill. Not real conducive to sleeping (although Hubby snored right through it all). At 2 am I went searching amidst the kitchen odds-n-ends drawer for some tape to run over the gap between the bottom and top windows, finding only some electrical tape. Being desperate, I stretched the tape along the gap, only having enough to do a partial job. It would have to do, so I snuggled back under the comforter. The next blast of wind whined through the gap. The little bit of tape didn't do. I pulled the comforter up around my head, leaving just a small hole through which to breathe. The unfortunate whistling continued. After ten more minutes of the obnoxious noise, I folded a hand towel and put...

For awhile now, I've felt the pull to write some poetry. I don't consider myself a poet by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy dabbling in it every now and then. The last couple of weeks, one idea in particular kept nudging me, so after writing down the thoughts that kept pestering me, this is what I came up with while enjoying a beer and after some rearranging and revision. Untitled The green tape wrapping the handlebars is stained, black chain grease smears have worked themselves deep and no amount of soapy water can loosen their grip. I worry over the smudges marring the once pristine color, wanting what was before the miles of gray road that sometimes stretched long into the distance, with no clear markings to ease my anxious need to know what lie ahead at the horizon, and other times ascended until the thin air brewed protesting wheezes within my aching lungs. Before has vanished, Lachesis' whim turning the crank, grinding away my minutes, hou...

That time has come: back in the classroom for the next 16 weeks. Today was the first day for the students, and as per the usual, there were those who didn't show up. A couple might show up on Wednesday, wanting to know what they missed. A couple will never show up, and I'll be left wondering all semester why they paid for a class then didn't follow through. I do drop these students at the ten day mark as I think they should get a refund, and I don't want my retention numbers affected by someone who never attended in the first place. Especially this semester. A funny thing happened in the fall when it came time to register for spring courses. The day registration opened, a day in late October, my English 102 classes filled quickly. I was scheduled to teach 4 sections, and from what I heard from students, all four of my sections filled within the first two hours of registration opening. Registration opened at midnight. This means students stayed up until midnight to be ...

Though it's only January 11 and there's lots of winter still in store for us, my thoughts have turned to summer. I've already planned out my June and July, and I'm seriously stoked about my plans. At the beginning of December, I had approached my boys about me riding the Northern Tier summer 2014 with Bike the US for MS, and while Angel Baby said, "Yeah, go for it," I got this from Funny Delightful Son: "Noooooo. Who will take care of me?" I thought he was kidding around, but as we talked further, I realized he really didn't want me to be gone for two months. I love this kid so much. He and I are alike in many, many ways. Truth be told, I am a homebody at heart. If I don't absolutely have to go out of the house, I won't. I can stay right here, all day every day, and be content. So can Funny Delightful Son. I knew I needed to listen to him, his not wanting me to be gone, so I started to think of other ways to get the long rides in and st...

Sometimes I sit here with my fingers on the keys, ready to type, but nothing comes out. It's not like I don't have anything going on in my head; there's plenty of thoughts racing around. I just can't get hold of them long enough to get them down in real text. Or sometimes, I do get hold of them then decide I can't write what I'm really thinking. So I end up sitting here, letting the minutes tick by, getting frustrated, and finally closing my laptop not having accomplished anything. Like right now, yeah, I'm typing, but this isn't really what I want to write about. I'm not even sure exactly what it is I want to write about, but I do want to write. I can feel the need to express "something," whatever that something is. As I'm worrying over wanting to write but not getting to the heart of what's flittering around inside my head, I can hear Funny Delightful Son in the next room, talking in that voice he uses when he's joking, po...

On a cold, winter evening, a hot bowl of chicken and dumplings just seemed right. And it was. Not only did the chicken and dumplings turn out delicious, but it was also really inexpensive. The chicken was free as it was the second in a buy one get one free. Given that the veggies and dumplings were negligible in cost, I'm guestimating the cost per bowl at around $1. The only drawback was the chicken wasn't pastured. I've finally found a local farming family who sells pastured chicken, so I'm going to start buying from them. That will definitely make the overall cost go up, but my peace of mind in what I'm preparing for my family is worth every penny spent on good, quality chicken.

Had a dinner fail last evening. The cornbread. Took my first bite and immediately the baking soda overpowered the rest of the flavors. Almost as soon as the concept "baking soda" registered in my mind, I realized my mistake. The baking soda should have been baking powder. Which explains why the cornbread turned out nearly flat, more like a corn tortilla. As I was preparing the cornbread, I was also trying to listen to Hubby tell me something (which, my bad, I can't even remember what it was he was saying to me). I know I read the recipe, but I wasn't truly paying attention to what I was doing. At least it was only the cornbread. The chili was yummy and perfect for the cold day, and since it was some that we'd made a couple of weeks ago then froze for a night like last night, it gave us day 6 of eating in. This morning, I was determined to make up for last night's fail. For some time now, like several years, I've been trying to find the best buttermilk pa...

This morning the temps registered at -17 degrees. Yikes. That's cold. The wind chill is making the real feel a very, very bitter -30something. We have our thermostat set at 66, and the furnace is running nearly constantly. Not much we can do about it except layer and just enjoy the day inside, with hot tea, chocolate chip cookies, and a good read. Fresh from the oven As I was finishing cleaning the kitchen this morning, I thought, "There's one last bowl of shepherd's pie left. I'm going to have that for lunch." Happiness washed over me at the thought of having that one last bit of what had been a simple yet delicious meal last night. Then I saw the container in the sink. The container that had held the last bit of the simple yet delicious shepherd's pie. Someone had beat me to it. I'm pretty sure that someone was one of the boys, as both have become late-night scavengers. My happiness was quickly replaced by dismay. The consolation is I'm de...

Though the snow and wind arrived later than predicted, both arrived. Fashionably late, I guess. Most of today, right up to about an hour ago, the snow fell. Because of the wind, we have some pretty good drifts around the house. Tomorrow there'll be lots of shoveling going on, but since work already posted notice of not being open for business tomorrow, I have all day to remove the snow from in front of the garage. Plus I have two strong boys home to help me out. They both are more than ready to return to school, so it'll do them good to get out and work off some energy. I love snow days. What better days are there to stay inside and laze about? I read, made a loaf of honey-wheat bread, baked chocolate chip cookies, concocted a new body scrub, and watched the Boilermakers lose to Minnesota. After a dinner of yummy homemade shepherd's pie (day 5 of eating in--didn't have much choice due to the weather), we played a round of bid euchre, with the boys coming from behind t...

It's like a collective holding of the breath right now. The sky has turned dark gray with snow clouds, and the weather service has issued two warnings: snow accumulation and wind chill. Looks like anywhere from 6-8 inches of the white stuff and bitterly cold winds are creeping our way. I'm all set. Got my next book underway ( Driftless by David Rhodes--loving it!), got plenty of eats in the house, and got quilts at my fingertips just in case the house gets chillier than it already is. Yesterday we had frozen pipes going into the washer, but thankfully Hubby was able to get those taken care of with no disaster happening (like the unfortunate soul who burned his house down trying to thaw out pipes by using a blow torch). I'm just hoping we get past tomorrow's arctic blast with pipes intact. Burst pipes are no fun. I'm truly thankful we dodged the bullet yesterday. Today, I peeked into my hoop house, thinking no way was there going to be anything growing, but surpri...

Salisbury Steak, Garlic Mashed Taters, Tossed Salad, and Homemade Bread As I stood at the meat cooler, trying to find the grass-fed ground beef (which there was none of), Hubby goes into his shocked mode that he does when I want to buy the more expensive options. Yes, grass-fed beef is $6.99 a pound where the grain fed, pumped full of antibiotics, standing knee deep in mud and feces along with hundreds of other cattle crowded in a feed lot beef is $1.99 a pound. I'll buy the grass-fed all day, every day. Unfortunately, the store was out. I had to settle for the next best option: "all natural," whatever that means. It was $5.99 a pound. That "all natural" ground beef became our Salisbury steak tonight. It, along with the leftovers, brought tonight's dinner cost to around $15.00 (not including the red wine I used for the sauce--but again, I only used part of it for the meal; some I drank while cooking, which is why my math is fuzzy at best right now, and...

Tonight's Homemade Dinner: Fish and Scallops Stew with Homemade Bread   Update: I got to thinking after I posted the picture about how much it cost for this dinner. It fed three (Hubby isn't a fan of fish--he bought himself a frozen pizza, which I am not figuring into the cost for the meal), and speaking for myself, the one bowl with one piece of bread was very filling. The boys ate a couple slices of bread. Angel Baby loved the stew and told me as much at least three times. I think he was disappointed in only getting one bowl of it. Funny Delightful Son liked the stew but wasn't enamored with the scallops. Their texture reminded him of bacon fat and he's not a fan of bacon or bacon fat (sigh--bacon is simply delicious). Anyway, back to the cost. When I added up the costs of the ingredients, the stew and bread together came to $4.58 per person, or $13.75 total. While the stew was completely gone, I still have bread left over for toast or sandwiches. The total...

To kick a habit. That's the general consensus for getting over the hump and moving away from whatever the habit was, right? If that's correct, the next two weeks are going to be very interesting. Yesterday kicked off my reducing the amount of TV I watch. In being very conscious about not watching, I realized just how rote I was about turning on the TV throughout the day. First thing in the morning, as I sit down for breakfast, I turn on the TV to see the weather. If I'm cleaning house, I turn on the TV to listen to whatever. When I jump on my bike on the trainer, I turn on the TV to help pass the time. After dinner, I would settle on the couch and watch whatever Hubby was watching, sometimes spending two or three hours in one spot. Not turning on the TV all day yesterday though I did all these same things (I didn't settle on the couch after dinner--I went upstairs and read) showed me just how much time I truly spent watching and letting life pass me by. A sad state of...

A new year. A, for the most part, clean slate to work with. What to do with it is almost paralyzingly intimidating. I know for sure I want to get back on the bike and ride, piling up the mileage like never before. I had the same idea for 2013, right after completing the cross-country ride in 2012, but when 2013 actually rolled around, I could feel the desire to get out on a daily basis just wasn't there. Each day I would get up with the intention of going out for a couple of hours, but deep in my core I kept feeling hesitation. Almost like something was gripping my insides and saying, "No, not today. The time isn't right." I listened to that voice, mostly just cycling to work or to the store. On a few occasions I did go out for longer rides, but these were few and far between. Now, I can feel the desire building to get back out, rack up the mileage. I'm glad I listened to whatever was telling me to not cycle, as this allowed me to turn my attention to gardening ...