Back to Clubbing

I'm a very enthusiastic starter of stuff. I'm not that good of a finisher of stuff. I'm trying to do better. One thing I've picked back up are the Contenders of the Faith/Keepers of the Home clubs. I started these clubs in our home at the beginning of last year, and we really did accomplish a few things with the materials.

This year, I decided to bring back the clubs for a couple of reasons. First of all, earning the badges does force the children to LEARN. And in a really fun way. Secondly, we've decided not to do the mid-week church activities for the younger three. Since Alex is now in middle school, she has moved up to the youth group which meets on a different night than the younger kids' programming. I decided that, for my sanity, we are going to do just one night out at church during the week, and since I think youth group more valuable than elementary age programming, Alex gets the night. So anyway, now the kids still get clubs, and I get to slow down my Carschooling lesson plans.

Our first order of business for this session of clubs was, of course, learning how to make something delicious to eat: doughnuts! This week we learned about the different kinds of doughnuts, and we made baked mini-donuts; we will leave the more delicious, more fattening deep-fried treats for next week.

Our baked doughnuts didn't come out all that great looking, but they did sure taste good.



What was even more fun is that the kids remembered that the last time we made doughnuts, we read Homer Price and his adventure with the broken donut machine. Love that childhood story! So we read half of the tale this week and will finish it up next week.

Not a bad way to spend an evening...and certainly a tasty way to earn a badge!

In Which Things Get Quite Confusing While Pursuing a Cookie Badge

The kitchen looked a little like it had thrown up, but that was alright because my daughter was being independent and baking cookies. There are several different kinds of cookies she has to make to earn her Cookie Badge for Keepers of the Faith; she chose to work on the sandwich cookies today using a favorite recipe, which I cannot reveal because the cookies are a surprise for her daddy who often visits here since these are, after all, also his Treasured Chapters.

In an effort to quell the Control Freak in me, I left the kitchen while she worked. I came in upon her request after all ingredients had been mixed together. She wanted me to taste the batter.

"Are you sure you added enough sugar?" I asked.

She nodded and then offered, "It's kind of salty, isn't it?"

Very keen taster, this one. She described it better than I did--too salty, not necessarily, as I described, just not sweet enough. I verbally went through the recipe with her. And discovered that we needed to review again the fact that a capital T means tablespoon while a little t means teaspoon. Yes, salt can be good but not in tablespoons in a single cookie recipe.

(I've always wondered why Jesus tells us to be the salt of the earth. I get that salt adds necessary flavor, but you really can get too much salt. Of course, maybe this characteristic of salt is just to remind us not to be overbearing and obnoxious. Like the Jehovah's Witnesses that interrupted our school day this morning. Of course, they sent the sweet, little old lady to whom I could be nothing but nice. And I finally researched JW's after she left. Their literature looks so much like Christian literature, I've always been curious about the differences. Google it. Interesting stuff.)

So what was I talking about? Right. The Cookie Badge and the salty cookies. We washed the salty cookie batter down the drain and started over. The next batch turned out cookies flatter than unleavened bread (in sticking with the Bible theme). This new problem was mine; I had taken the original recipe and substituted butter for shortening because, as I've said before, I have a problem with feeding my children lard. Turns out you really must use lard to make the cookies turn out.

So...we used a completely different version of the recipe. By this time, we had gone through I don't know how many eggs, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. But this batch finally turned out. I inserted my Control Freak a lot in this last batch, but I'm going to pass the poor girl on her badge because the flatter-than-pancake cookies were my fault. She made them according to the recipe; I just took too many liberties with the recipe.

Plus she and her siblings are being so sweet. I'm not sure why this homecoming is different from any of TravelDaddy's other returns, but they have planned a full party for him. Our dining room is decked out with handmade decorations, and these cookies will be center-table.

Of course there might be a little something in it for them as well: We aren't sure exactly when TravelDaddy will get home because he may catch an earlier flight. "If Daddy gets home while we're having school," Jacob asked me tonight, "can we stop school so we can have our party?"

Clubbing

Keepers of My Insanity the Faith Club
The Positives and Negatives


Conversations with the children that turn the club into a negative:
--"I know how to ride my bicycle. Can I have the Bicycle Badge?" (For any who are completely unfamiliar with Keepers of the Faith Club, much more is required to earn a badge. Like usually some reading and, you know, learning something. The Bike Badge, for example, requires that the participant learn the names of the parts of the bike, be able to properly clean the bike, have the ability to repair the inner tube of the bike tire, and complete a 5-mile bike ride.)

--"Daddy, will you just play one more game of Chess with me tonight? I have to play 10 games. TODAY. I MUST DO IT TODAY!"

--"Will you please get me all the materials I need to knit a sweater today? Oh, and maybe later Dad could build me a dollhouse, so I can begin working to earn my Miniatures Badge."

--"Today I'm going to make drop cookies, molded cookies, rolled cookies, bar cookies, and filled cookies. Do you have any ice cream for my filled cookie?"

Although I will have to dig through all the literature, I'm pretty sure the children are permitted to earn a badge about character traits. I think perhaps patience will be the first we work on.


Positives:
--Alex did the dishes yesterday.
--Jacob read a whole book about chess yesterday.
--The kids are taking the initiative to take on projects listed in the book.
--The kids are excited about something that involves...shhhh...learning stuff.
--Both Mark and I are spending special time with the kids working on these projects.
--The kids are helping each other. Alex played Chess with Jacob today. She also helped Audrey with her Puzzle Badge.

back to the Real World

It's over. My Our Christmas vacation is over. Five weeks of baking and sleeping and shopping and playing and partying flew by at a much greater speed than any five school weeks could ever pass by.

Tomorrow begins the last half of the 2009-2010 school year in our home. Which means I can't stay in bed until 9:30 anymore. And our homeland security will reclaim tighter restrictions on video game, computer, and TV use. And a stricter bed time will be enforced. And which also means the children will probably appreciate the resurrection of the Hot Breakfast. Did I mention there will be no more sleeping in 'til 9:30 for me?

Speaking of breakfast and the kitchen and all...I've been perusing Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious again. I pureed some carrots the other day. Mark hid some of them in the burgers he made for dinner yesterday. The others went into the mac and cheese this evening. Boxed macaroni and cheese because that is the children's preference. Which makes hiding those carrots in there all the more important. I feel empowered.

They need the energy from the carrots because I have a very full, busy day planned for tomorrow. It's been great having 5 weeks to plan the last half of the year. One thing I've been working on is organizing our own little Keepers of the Faith Club. If you're not familiar with it, it's sort of like Boy/Girl Scouts for lazy people. And, no, you would never find that description on their website. It's just that I am lazy and do not want to have to take the children out anywhere for Scouts. So we're going to just do our own little club whenever we want, wherever we want. The kids still learn stuff (hopefully) and earn badges.

My plans are ambitious for the last half of this year. Here's hoping the kids rise to the challenge. Don't bother me at 6:30 tomorrow morning; I'll be pressing my snooze button.