A Cautionary Tale

Three little monkeys wrestling on the bed. One fell off and hit the dollhouse. "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye." Brenna is just fine, but she is sick and tired of people asking her about that shiner. I hope she learned her lesson.

Bean Soup

I haven't forgotten about my food storage recipe quest. I adapted this recipe from a cookbook called Cooking Light. My kids even ate this one.

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup dehydrated celery
2 Tbsp. dried onion (more or less to taste)
1/2 jar real bacon pieces
1 tsp. garlic powder (or use canned tomatoes with garlic)
1 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. basil
1 chicken boullion cube
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups water

combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until celery is tender.

Add 1 cup whole wheat pasta, such as elbow macaroni or small shells. Raise heat and boil until pasta is tender.

Book of the Week: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
This book is one man's musings on why some people are very successful and others are not. He draws from a bunch of studies and real-life stories. I can't say that I completely agree with everything he says, but the book definitely gave me a lot to think about. In fact, I found it fascinating. Right after I finished Outliers, I ran out and got another of his books from the library. I'll let you know how that one turns out.

Book #2: Stolen Innocence by Mary Ann Broberg
We read this for my Ward Book Group. It's a true story about a 12-year-old girl, Jan, who was kidnapped and brainwashed by a family friend. The book was written by Jan's mother. You get to have the perspective of the kidnapped girl, but also of the family at home. I couldn't put it down. I just had to get to the happy ending. But along the way, I wanted to smack every single character about 12 times. They did so many stupid things! I did learn a little bit about keeping my own kids safe. And I discovered a deeply-buried violent streak. I really really wanted the mother to torture this guy and find out where the daughter was. Maybe I've been watching too much 24.

So, 2 books that I couldn't put down. No wonder I haven't been blogging. I'd better go dust my house now.

Beatings

Last Wednesday Taylie was being a snot, so I smacked her with a pillow. It made her mad, so that night at dinner she was complaining about it to her Dad. She didn't get much sympathy. In fact, he informed her that some children get hit with belts.

The following night was parent-teacher conference. Here was the conversation:
Taylie: What do you do for teacher development day, when I'm not at school?
Teacher: Good question. We have classes about all sort of things. How to teach writing better, how to teach math, how to improve our classroom environment.
Taylie: What's classroom environment?
Me (should have kept my mouth shut): It means how to get the naughty kids to behave.
Taylie: Oh. My Dad hits me with a belt when I'm bad.

I turned bright red and was trying not to laugh. The teacher laughed as well. She told me that kids say those kinds of things all the time, and that she's learned to take it with a grain of salt. Still, it was embarassing.