Chocolate Cake for Breakfast? Yes, I think I will.

Today we had leftover chocolate cake for breakfast! Have I mentioned how much I love summer... so much! On my defense, I did look up recipes for "what to do with leftover chocolate cake" there was a lot out there on how to make cake balls from it, or how to crumble it and put it in pudding... but I'll admit... I was looking to have it for breakfast and those ideas just were telling me to make other things and that required work. So, here's what I did. I toasted it like toast (in the oven under broil) and then buttered it. For my kids, I drizzled a little bit of chocolate syrup on it too. :) OH YES I DID! -with a 'z' snap! I'm cool like that! Hey! I made them eat strawberries with it too.. and yogurt! It's all good. Fresh fruit and yogurt with it makes it healthy, right? Summer vacation is great. I love time off to play with my kids. Here's what we had for breakfast today:

On Monday nights our boys go to Boy Scouts and it's just me and the girls here... so usually we do something just with us.. take a walk and look for lightning bugs, or go to the park... So tonight, they had a meeting that was supposed to last a long time, so it was just me and the girlies for dinner. I decided to try one of my favorite plates from one of the blogs that I love "Meet the Dubiens" She has great ideas for making food fun. Here is our attempt at our 'girlie' dinner making 'girlies' with our food. I wish so badly that I had taken a picture of Josie's that she made... she loves scrambled eggs and kept piling hers on. In the end her girl looked a little like Marge Simpson.

Fun! Thanks for the idea, Jill at Meet the Dubiens. Check out her blog here:

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I say.. Let Them Use Knives!

Today, when talking to an old friend of mine, she asked me about a picture that i put on FB last week of the dinner that my son cooked for us. She said, "I can't believe that he made that and you let him." -- what??? I don't understand.... First of all, my son is 11 years old and has been cooking since he was 3, but has been making things on his own without help since he was probably 6 or 7. I have taught him to cook. Sure, it started with pudding and cookie dough, but now he makes several things on his own, including dinners. He's home after school and most days, while driving home, I will talk him through how to AT LEAST start dinner while on the phone, so that I can finish when I arrive. Sometimes he can go ahead and finish it before I get there. HOLD ON TO YOUR IPAD NOW>>> he also uses knives to chop veggies... whoa.(eye roll) I also have a 7 year old with Down syndrome that cooks and cuts and a 3 year old that is beginnining now... NO, I am not a chef or anything, I just think that cooking is a missing art that should be shared but has gone missing somewhere. I don't let them run around my living room with knives swordfighting.. but I do teach them how to use them properly to slice tomatoes or carrots or potatoes. "Aren't you scared of them chopping their finger off?" she says... well, I guess I am because.. gross!! But, is that really going to happen? Probably not. I have showed them how to properly use them and to be careful. They probably will cut themselves. Don't gasP! They're probably going to burn themselves while stirring a pot too... Don't GasP! They'll be ok. I'm NOT going to let them carry boiling water across the kitchen yet... but I've seen my 11 year old make a pot of water for tea and not even blink before carrying it to a pitcher (that was safely placed into the sink by him first to pour into without me telling him) and pour it out while carrying on a conversation with me. I didn't teach that.. it just comes with maturity and confidence in the kitchen. He was ready - on his own terms. I swear that my 7 year old could make spaghetti for herself and WOULD DAILY.. if she ever got to go through with it without us catching her. She knows to put the pan on "M.E.D" she knows to break the pasta and put it in and wait for it to get soft. I'm quite sure that if she could figure out how to get that big spaghetti jar open, she would make this for herself with complete confidence and we would not even have to know anything... OF COURSE, I'm not sure that this would be from learned confidence as much as sheer desparation, not to have to eat what we are having. Sometimes Down syndrome brings along with it... picky eaters. It's ok.. have your spaghetti, sweetie! You made it! :) So anyway..here's what the 11 year old made for dinner.. nothing you can't do for your family today... it's sooo easy...

Here's how you can make this at your house: Take 2 PKGS OF CRESCENT ROLLS unroll them and put them on a cookie sheet flat and kind of press all of the perforations together so it makes one giant crescent pizza dough.. cook it. Follow the directions on the can. While it's cooking brown your meat and add taco seasonings. Use a packet if you want... - by the way - on a side note, I usually buy my meat in 4- 5 lb pkgs and brown the whole thing and season it , then I separate it out in freezer bags and keep it for dinners like this. Then I can just go to the freezer and pull out a bag and go for it!- so when the crescents are done pull them out. Spread out a can of refried beans on top (no, I didn't cook them) then your meat, then lettuce, tomatoes,sour cream and I did green onions and black olives and avacadoes. Notice that Jack added fancy stuff to our side.. but left their side blank, and left some without sour cream for my 3 year old who only likes hers cold.. Add your shredded cheese all over the top and back into the oven for about 10 minutes of so, until your cheese is all melty on the top. YES, IT IS REALLY THAT EASY. Make it tonight and eat it together at the table. Enjoy it and teach your kids to cook even with knives!

51 - the countdown begins

This is a bittersweet day for us. Friday, March 16th. The last official day of spring break. Sadly, again this year we had no trips planned but we still spent time together just me and my kids. One of these years, we're going to have extra money and we are going to take a trip somewhere.... even if it's just a few hours away.. it would be nice to not be here in the house. Although, I do enjoy a recharge. I always think this week is going to be a refresher for school. It's really not. It's hard to refresh something that wasn't actually fresh. This is my 18th year teaching and I really think every year that I may need to think about something else that I enjoy. I do enjoy teaching, but that's just it.... I enjoy teaching. I'm not really teaching anymore... I'm disciplining, I'm mommying these sweeties that have women at their home, but sadly enough, do not have a real mommy because the person that decided to have them doesn't have time for them, or doesn't want to be the selfless person that you have to be to actually mommy. I'm also analyzing test data... that's what I do.. instead of teaching... I collect data. Because "that's all we care about.. I don't care about the kids.. all I care about is the data" I still can't believe that I actually heard those words from my leader, but that's the reality. They don't really care if these kids grow up to be respectful, or grow up knowing from their 1st grade teacher that they're wonderful in their own right, or grow up knowing how to show compassion to others, or grow up knowing the difference between reading and loving to read, or grow up knowing how things work rather than how things compute. to anymore. And next week they'll want performance on something new... that was drAll they want is performance on a standard that was set by people that aren't even listened eamt up by someone in a suit that never put their child (if they even have kids) in a public school. This is why teachers need spring break.. and relish everything about it. Ok, I'm done for today. I am still sad that my week is dwindling. I have seen BeAuTifUl BeAuTiFuL weather this week. I have seen my kids all week, every day for every hour during the day. THIS WEEK.. I have seen my kids more than their teacher did.. and for that I'm soo thankful. So, I guess on one note, I'm glad to be a teacher...because I do get spring break. And on Monday I will go back and I will "teach the test" and I will hate it, but I will try to squeeze in some fun and I will try to squeeze some lessons on respect and compassion. I will definitely sneak in moments when I share with my young impressionable kids that reading is something that you experience.... not labor over. I hope something sinks in, but I cannot honestly say that I hope it's the first thing on this list! I will count every moment that I get to see my own kids at home even during the madness of homework, dinner, and bathtime. I refuse for their teacher to know them better than I do. I want to mommy!! I want to be everything to them. Afterall, I am raising 2 future mommies and a daddy. I will start my countdown on Monday.. 51 days until Summer break! Peace and love, go read a book and enjoy it..jen