I decided to switch my skin for a little while. The old layout looked too fall-ish for me, but I’ll probably bring it back (or something similar) after summer is over
Archives for April 2006
“Lafayette Oatmeal Day” Raspberry Bars
This was listed in our local paper as the recipe of the week. The article says that you can use any jam or preserve. I had some cherry jam here and it turned out great!
2 1/2 cups Quaker Quick cooking oatmeal (I used regular though)
2 1/2 cups flour
Pinch salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups melted butter (I used earth balance to make this casein-free)
1 1/2 teaspoons Mexican vanilla (I omitted due to an allergy in the family)
1 12-ounce jar of raspberry preserves of the highest quality you can get
2 tablespoons Chambord liqueur, or water if you prefer
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan. Combine oats, flour, salt and sugar. Add melted butter and vanilla to dry ingredients. Combine until crumbly. Put about 3 cups of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of your pan and press it down. Mix together the liqueur or water along with the preserves/jam. Spread the jam mixture over the oatmeal mixture. Sprinkle the remaining oatmeal mixture on top of the preserves and press it down to make it even. Bake 18-23 minutes or until the top is very brown. Cool on rack and cut into bars. Store in an airtight container.
Being near without crowding my children
As an AP parent, I think I am constantly trying to figure out the balance between being there for my kids vs. crowding my kids and not giving them a chance to explore and grow on their own. I start to feel guilty if I am not interacting with them at all times, and yet I know that they really benefit from time to just explore and learn. This passage from “Home Education” made me smile because it includes a pretty good description of our day. I am often knitting, reading, cross-stitching, ect., while they play outside. I sit on the patio and watch them as they play, but I sometimes feel guilty as though I should be directing their play more. This passage gave me a little extra persmission to relax
Oh, and I initially read it as though she was saying that the mom should “check” the childrens attempts to discuss, but she’s actually talking about checking the MOTHERS attempts. Duh.
There are few things sweeter and more precious to the child than playful prattle with her mother; but one thing is better–the communing with the larger Mother, in order to which the child and she should be left to themselves. This is, truly, a delightful thing to watch: the mother reads her book or knits her sock, checking all attempts to make talk; the child stares up into a tree, or down into a flower–doing nothing, thinking of nothing; or leads a bird’s life among the branches, or capers about in aimless ecstasy;–quite foolish, irrational doings, but, all the time a fashioning is going on: Nature is doing her part, with the vow–
“This child I to myself will take:
She shall be mine, and I will make
A lady of my own.” [Wordsworth]
Queen Bees and Wannabes…
I came to a disturbing revelation today.
I was a queen bee.
As I was browsing through the library, I saw a copy of Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes, which made me very excited, because I’ve been wanting to read it for years. I remember when she was first on the Oprah show, and I was completely fascinated. I couldn’t wait to read the book and hate all of the Queen Bees.
Then once I started reading, I realized that my school life was split right down the middle. From 3rd until 7th grade, I attended a small private school. We moved in 8th grade, and I went to public school from then until I was done with high school.
In high school I was definitely not a Queen Bee. Our school was far too big to contain just one Queen Bee anyways. After reading all of Ms. Wiseman’s classifications, I think I was a “Floater” in high school. I had a lot of friends, including popular friends, but I was neither here nor there. I think I fit her description of
You can usually spot this girl because she doesn’t associate with only one clique. She has friends in different groups and can move freely among them.
She goes on to describe the floater as being nothing extraordinary… not the prettiest, but pretty; not the smartest, but smart… I definitely wasn’t a “target”, wasn’t under a Queen Bee, and wasn’t a “wannabe” (since I can’t even figure out who the Queen Bee was in our school), so “Floater” makes the most sense.
So then the disturbing part came for me. I was still trying to figure out where I fit in middle school. I was reading the Queen Bee description, and thinking how she sounded like a royal *****. Then I realized how much of it was me.
- Her friends do what she wants to do
- She isn’t intimidated by any other girl in her class
- You have to convince her to invite everyone to her birthday party
- She can argue anyone down, including friends, peers, teachers, and parents
- She can make another girl feel “anointed” by declaring her a special friend
- She won’t (or is very reluctant to) take responsibility when she hurts someone’s feelings
- If she thinks she’s been wronged, she feels she has the right to seek revenge
I feel like such an ass. How did I not realize this? As soon as I thought about it, a million things flooded back that proved this – things that I’d be embarassed to share. I am certainly not this way anymore, but this is a short list of things that I have had to work on in my life. These were the main issues that even plagued my relationships with men when I was younger – especially the part about not wanting to take responsibility when hurting someone.
Then I flipped back to where Ms. Wiseman says when speaking of the Queen Bee claiming that she is in a clique, but it is not mean
…she honestly believes what she’s saying…
So I did the only logical thing: I called people who knew me back then. Guess what they said when I asked them what I was… Yep, a Queen Bee.
I guess I can be thankful that I was knocked off of that rank when I was young. At least I wasn’t that way all the way through. Queen Bees can change, right?
So have any of you read the book? If so, what role did you fall into? Was it the same all the way through?