Friday, May 31, 2013

Can you spell better than a..

first grader?

So I'm confused.  First graders are between the ages of 5 and 7 correct?

Maybe I'm seeing things.  You know hallucinating.

Because Daughter's spelling list this week includes the word "courteous".  I'll be honest, I don't even know how to spell courteous without:

A.  Picturing the the word and concentrating

or which is much more likely

B.  Spelling it wrong and seeing what corrections Word pops up with.

Courteous - courteous - courteous  Nope, still can't spell it easily.

Spelling List

Where do these words come from?

Is there a master list of spelling words somewhere that I'm not aware of?

Who on earth thought "Hmm, courteous is an excellent first grade spelling word, those 6 year olds really need to have a handle on words with EOU in them."

Seriously?

And why are we still having spelling tests anyway?

Isn't school over yet?



Thursday, May 30, 2013

Cinnamon Twist..

..cookies!

Tea time!

So  have I mentioned that my kids LOVE cinnamon?  Well they do :)

I bought the puff pastry with the intention of making some Palmiers, but I decided to change it up and do Cinnamon Twists instead.  Here is my very own recipe, which isn't much of one, for your enjoyment. :)

Cinnamon Twists

1 box Pepperidge Farms puff pastry
3 T butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 T cinnamon

  1. Thaw puff pastry sheets in the frig
  2. Heat oven to 400 degrees
  3. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper
  4. Combine cinnamon and sugar, mix well
  5. Unfold the pastry sheets and cut in half, then cut each half into 1 inch strips.  Be careful to keep the strips close together
  6. Brush on melted butter and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture over the top
  7. Twist the cookies once, being careful not to knock off all the cinnamon/sugar
  8. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown
Defrosted puff pastry ready for action

First things first, yes you do need to plan ahead when making these cookies.  It is impossible to unfold frozen pastry.  Ask me how I know this?  Well, I've tried it and the sheets just break into pieces.

Butter it up baby!

My butter is melted and my cinnamon/sugar is mixed up and ready to go.  Remember not to use all your butter and cinnamon/sugar on your first puff pastry sheet, only use half.

This looks kind of gross, but it will taste great :)

Once the butter is on, sprinkle on the cinnamon/sugar.  Be sure to cover all the way to the edges, nobody wants a partially cinnamon/sugared cookie.

Cinnamon and sugar

The trickiest part of this recipe is twisting the dough strips.  I did it very carefully and sprinkled on any sugar/cinnamon that fell off back onto the cookies.

Twisted and ready for baking

Out of the oven!  I got about 2 dozen cookies from the one box of puff pastry

Cooling off

and they were gone the next day.



I had lot's of hands in my cookie jar :)

Enjoy!







Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Road Trip to..

to Sunnyvale!

We love road trips, driving in the car is so much easier than flying with 3 kids.

Since Nadim's Dad and brother live up north, we decided a Memorial Day road trip was in order.

Although, to be frank, the drive on 5 North is one of the most absolutely, mind numbingly boring drives ever.

But family is family and sometimes you've got to suck it up.

Anyhoo, here is our trip in pictures..




Day before

I've got the packing down to a science.  Two suitcases, one for Nadim and I, one for the kids.  Pillows, stuffies and toys for the car.  Don't forget a DVD player and the movie library.



5am Gas stop!

Yes we are crazy people who wake up at 4am so we can beat the LA traffic.  One year I let Nadim talk me into waking up at 6am and we spent an extra 2 hours on the road that trip.

I'm still traumatized.


5:45am Sunrise in Glendale.


6:15am Breakfast in Newhall.

I found the Egg Plantation on Yelp and since I needed a pick me up we stopped. They are known for their omelets but I got the strawberry waffle which was super yummy and my standard decaf wet cappuccino.


7:30ish Grapevine

At least the Grapevine is interesting, full of trucks, but interesting.  These are the last hills we will see until the Gilroy turn off.


7:45ish Fort Tejon field trip

Fort Tejon is now a state park.  The Fort being established in 1854 to stop cattle rustling.  I always try and include lots of education stops for the kids.  Plus Nadim and I usually learn something new too :)


8:30am  Central Valley

Ugghh, my least favorite part of the drive.  It is sooo boring.


Still the central valley, I've lost track of time.


Noon - Turn off to Sunnyvale - finally!

This is my favorite part of the drive.  We take Hwy 152 and I LOVE the landscape.  I think it is the contrast between green oak trees and the brown grass, coupled with the rolling hills.  Beautiful!


12:30 Gilroy

I like Gilroy, yes it smells like garlic, but I love the falling down barns and the homespun fruit stands.  It's also pretty fun to read all the signs out loud and torture Nadim :)


Fruit stand!  We bought some non-organic cherries on our way through.


1:00pm

Almost to Sunnyvale now.  We've seen more CHP officers on this trip than we have on all our other driving vacations combined. 


I hope you enjoyed your road trip to points north on the I-5.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of our road trip to Sunnyvale.


Monday, May 27, 2013

Un - volunteering..

.. has been derailed.

Well sort of.

To clear things up, I've written and re-written this entry three times.

The first was about how shocked I was that none of my friends believed that I was actually going to stop volunteering working for free.

Then I wrote abut how I was saying "no" to things.  I made a big list of what I had declined to do and included updates on what was happening in all my groups.

Then life happened.  You know the saying about best laid plans? Well, that's what happened to me last week.

My plans got derailed when I got an email from the kids' Principal saying that she is resigning.  The principal is new, I was on the committee that interviewed her just last summer. (Yes, that committee was another volunteer job.)

Now we are going to get another new Principal and I'm going to have to build a relationship with this person.

And really, building relationships is why I volunteer,

So that leaves me, stuck between a rock and a hard place.


So this past week, I've thought about things, tried really hard to do one thing but have ended up doing the exact opposite.

Of course my husband saw this coming.

There was a reason he kept saying to me, "Whatever you do, don't even think about being PTA President."

Because he knew I was thinking about it.

And

I've decided to do it.

So where, does that leave me?


Well, Cub Scouts is on a roll.  Everyone is pitching in and I've filled the other parent volunteer positions.

Of course that means I'm pretty much committed to my current Committee Chair position for the next two years, but honestly Cub Scouts is a pleasure to run, no complainers :)


My Adventure Maiden position will naturally run its course on June 1st.  I'll still be around but I won't be in pole position.

So that leaves my volunteer hours at school which are going to have to be cut back -

Way, way back.

But of course I've said I was cutting back before and look where that got me :)



Thursday, May 23, 2013

There is hell on earth..

.. and it is called lice.

Actually I shouldn't say that.  Lot's of worse things happen to people, so really what is lice compared to a heart attack, death, cancer or layoff?  Just a minor inconvenience really,  but boy does having lice suck.

Day 1

Son 2 is complaining of an itchy head.  I think that he just hasn't rinsed his head well from his shower and has soap residue.  Nope, Nadim checks him and sees lice.  I start freaking out.

I know people that have had lice and my sister is the health coordinator for a head start preschool that sees stuff like this all the time.  I know what is coming my way.

First stop, call my sister for all the details on what I should do, make a list and freak out some more.

I've now decided to treat lice as if it was the Ebola virus.  I'm going for defcon 5 or whatever the highest defcon thingy is.  I'm going nuclear.  I have a huge freaking pile of laundry.

I'm in full blown panic, work like a machine mode.  You know like you do when you have a newborn baby.  No stopping to think, just work, work, work.

Bags, bags and more bags.  It is possible to have any more soft surface toys in this freaking house???  Daughter has way, way too many stuffies!  I pretty much have to quarantine her whole room.

these shelves were full of toys

Nadim runs to the store to buy more bags, Nix lice hair treatment and a flea comb.

He comes back with bags and lice spray for the furniture.

Nadim goes back to the store and comes back with one box of Nix family hair treatment.

Now, Daughter has long, long hair and I have thick, thick hair.  We need at least 2 boxes and where is the flea comb?

Nadim goes back to the store and brings back all my requested supplies.

I continue to bag stuff, strip the beds, and vacuum every surface in the house.  Towels, bedding, curtains, pillows, back packs, all the kids clothes are thrown into my side yard ready to be laundered.

There is a literal mountain of laundry in my side yard.

Laundry still remaining after 2 days of constant cycles

Nadim starts treating the kids.  Son 2 is up first.  He is patient zero.  The Nix creme rinse stuff isn't that bad, but it stinks.  Open up all the windows.  Trying to figure out how to rinse the kids heads without the pesticide going into their nose/mouth/eyes is a challenge.

Nadim combs out Son 2's hair with a fine tooth flea comb that works great.  This comb is my new best friend.  Comb, comb, comb out the lice.

this is the best lice comb ever!


Repeat with Son 1, Daughter and then me.

I'm now thanking my lucky stars that I went defcon 5.  I NEVER EVER want to do this again.

My washer/dryer has been running for 12 hours and when Nadim and I call it a night.

Day 2

Start the washer/dryer going again.

I have a stroke of genius and decide to put the bike helmets in the dryer.  After a loud clunk, the dryer stops working.

I almost stroke out, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

I take out the bike helmets and bag them, who needs to ride bikes for the next two weeks?

I make myself walk away from the dryer while Nadim comes over and tries to fix it.  SUCCESS, Nadim is my hero and the dryer is working again.

More laundry and bags in quarantine

I am now re-evaluating my attempt to launder every single thing we own.  Nadim and I start bagging more and more items.  We vacuum the house for a fourth time.

We comb out the kids hair morning and night, the number of lice are cut dramatically and they are almost all dead.

We are making progress and the laundry outside is shrinking.  Twenty four straight hours of laundry will do that.

Day 3

I start up the laundry again, and I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

My office :)

I comb out all the kids' hair with some good news: Daughter and Son 1 are completely clear!  Nothing!  Son 2 still had a few dead lice coming out, but it's about 10% of what we found on day 2.

I just got a call from our neighbor that her kids are infected as well.  Nadim and I conference and we decide to keep the kids home from school because I don't want them exposed again.

I continue to clean, process the laundry and sterilize all the brushes and hair rubber bands after each use.


sterilized hair supplies

I call the school to see what they are doing.  My kids have reminded me about all the stuffed animals and pillows in the library and that the computer lab has soft cushioned chairs.  If I think to much about sending them back to school I start to hyperventilate.   Can you say re-infestation??

Home school is starting to sound doable.

The Principal calls and the home school idea fades into the background.  I feel reassured that the school has things mostly under control.

I might actually send my kids to school.

The laundry is going so well I consider un-bagging some of the stuff I bagged yesterday and washing it.

Day 4

The kids are back in school.  Hats off to the lice police front office staff, for being vigilante on sending kids back home that still have an active infestation of lice.

I'm beginning to un-bag laundry and wash it.  Somewhere along the line I've lost Nadim and my laundry bag, hopefully it'll show up in one of the bags.

I checked in with my sister who very helpfully reminded me that lice have a short incubation period and that if I missed even one egg I'll be back to square one.  I guess that lice comb isn't going any where yet.

The adrenaline rush has officially worn off and I'm exhausted, but feeling like I have things under control.

Is there such a thing as Lice related PTSD?  I might have it.

Five weeks later

No lice, let me say that again, no lice.  Ahh, that feels good.  Everything is unpacked and put away and the house is back to normal.

I'm still running the back packs and jackets through the dryer on high every day when the kids get home from school.  I'm not sure how long I'll keep that up, maybe the next year or two.

Things I learned

The very most important tool you can have when dealing with lice is a good comb.  The ones that come with the shampoo are absolutely worthless.  Buy yourself a good one.

The CDC has a ton of great information, but when you google lice the CDC website doesn't appear on the first page.  Check out these links:

CDC info on lice
CDC info on getting ride of head lice

By the way, after the lice epidemic was under control, I researched the defcon system.  Apparently Defcon 1 is the highest level of alert.  I guess I had the numbers backwards :)

Oh, and not to worry, I found this missing laundry bag.




Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Somebody IS listening..

Being a Mom is a full time job, whether you work outside the home or not, and sometimes it feels like all I do is say the same thing over and over.

But every once in a while a little shiny, golden nugget of what I've been saying shows up in the most unexpected places and gives me hope.

Like this morning.

The kids love to ride their bikes to school.  Today they wanted to take "the long way" so we agreed on a meeting place and off they went.

When we met up I realized that something was different.

Hmmm, one of these things is not like the other

Son 1 was carrying Daughter's back pack.  Apparently she was struggling with it during the bike ride, so he helped her with it.

Unsolicited.

On his own.

With no one watching.



locking the bikes



He carried it all the way to school, held it while she locked up her bike and once she was settled gave it back.

still back pack free

It was a May miracle,

or maybe just some parenting paying off :)

Happy Wednesday!


Monday, May 20, 2013

Staycation..

..to the Middle East.

My husband is from Lebanon and according to him, nobody does sweets like the Lebanese.  But when you aren't able to go to Beirut and enjoy Al Bohsali, the next best thing is Sarkis Pastry in Anaheim.

Sarkis has all the traditional Arab pastries and many French as well.  Why French too?  Well in case you forgot your world history, Lebanon was a French colony, hence the awesome French pastries.

In we go :)

Decisions, decisions

Arab sweets, in Lebanon known as B'alawa

In Lebanon, Arab sweets are known as B'alawa.  We know them here as Baklava, the western pronunciation.  The important thing to remember is that Arab B'alawa is not the same thing as Greek Baklava.

Greek Baklava is made with honey and walnuts, I am personally not a fan of Baklava.

Lebanese B'alawa on the other hand is made with a simple syrup (sugar and water, boiled and thickened) and pistachios or pine nuts - can you say delicious?!

"Znoud el sit" - cream filled pastry, one of my favorites

"Kol wa shkor" meaning - Eat and say thank you
French section filled with cakes and tarts


  The kids ended up with some great French pastries.  Son 2 is not a fan of chocolate, can you guess which pastry he chose?


Pastries for the kids

I chose Bourma and Kol Wa Shkor.  Bourma is filled with pistachios wrapped in shredded dough and the Kol Wa Shkor have very thin sheets of filo wrapped around pine nut filling.

Bourma and Kol Wa Shkor - my favorites

Best of all, though is the Knafa which is traditionally served for breakfast.  Knafa is made with a cheese bottom and a semolina topping.  Sounds weird, but tastes delish.  You serve it by warming it up in the microwave and then pouring simple syrup over the top.

Knafa - breakfast of champions!

Interested in more than dessert on your staycation?

Hit Zankou Chicken for dinner first, luckily it is right next door to Sarkis.  Zankou is run by some Lebanese-Armenians and they have awesome chicken and to die for garlic paste.

The best ever garlic paste.  As in top secret recipe garlic paste.

You might want to buy some extra garlic paste while you are there, seriously, its that good :)

Enjoy!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Summer lovin'..

..book club.

So I've been reading a lot of crap lately, well not necessarily crap, but brainless, fluffy stuff.

Since the new Great Gatsby movie came out (which I heard was not good) I've been thinking about how literature is wasted on high school students.

I think that by forcing 16 and 17 year old kids to read the classics, you ruined the classics  for them.  Most of us read Huckleberry Finn or the Great Gatsby in high school.  Some of us even read the Russian greats: Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, especially if you happened to have Fares Sawaya as your teacher at Troy High.

But really, what teenager can truly appreciate these books?  You have no life experience and its not like a high school teacher can explain the sexual relationships of the characters.  We all got the stripped down, sanitized version of the stories.

So, I've decided to read, or in some cases re-read, some serious literature over the summer.

I found this list by Wikipedia on the 100 Best Books of All Time, this same list has been adapted and is on Goodreads.com here.

What is interesting about this list is that it was composed by 100 writers, meant to reflect literary works from all time periods and countries.  The list isn't in any sort of ranking, except that the writers agreed the Don Quixote  by Miguel de Cervantes is the best literary work ever.



I've decided to start with Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  I've read this book before and loved it, but I haven't read the new translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.  Here is a link to the book on Amazon.

To be completely honest though, I've stopped buying books.  I read so much that I could probably populate my own library by now.

I use my public library quite a lot and my iPad even more.

I've found some of the obscure books on the list in .pdf format but my all time favorite place to get books is The Ultimate EBook Library aka tuebl.  Tuebl is a Canadian library where you can download tons of epubs for free.

So join me this summer in a literary book club, choose a selection off the 100 best book list and let me know how you like it.

No pressure to read what I'm reading or time limits, try reading a book that you had to read in High School.  Maybe even one that you hated.  Who knows, maybe you'll love it!

Keep me posted:)


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Well, we got trouble..

**Well we got trouble**
**Right here in Rivercity**
**Right here!**
**With a capital T**
**That rhymes with R**

Er, ok so T doesn't actually rhyme with R, but our trouble starts with a capital R and that stands for Raccoon!

I road my bike to drop off this morning and when I turned the corner onto our street I saw a big ole bushy tailed raccoon sauntering across the front of our garage.

I dumped my bike and chased the raccoon into our courtyard.

up he goes

look at that bushy tail!

The raccoon climbed up a large bush, onto our side yard wall and ran into our backyard.

running down the side wall

making a quick getaway

Not to be deterred I ran around the other way, through the house and out into the back yard - gotcha!  The raccoon was walking down our back wall looking for his breakfast - yep our loquat tree.

breakfast awaits

but not today :)

The raccoon spotted me and took off the other way into our neighbors yard.  I've been keeping a watchful eye, but no more wildlife sitings.

Last year we had a raccoon strip our garden almost bare, the biggest loss was the entire crop of peaches.

I'm not sure what we are going to do, but boy we've got trouble.