Burnin' Down the House

So it’s been a little loud around my house lately.  Fireworks are legal here and for the past week I’ve been catching bursts of color out the windows.  The booms before the color in the sky, those I’ve been able to hear from any room of the house.  But on the fourth, then it’s really on.  Everyone up and down the street is outside.  It starts with the colored smoke bombs and flying parachute men.  At dusk it moves on to the sparklers.  Then it gets dark, booms and bangs and bursts of color everywhere.  The air takes on that once-a-year haze of cordite.
 
I know I’ve told this story before, many of my friends and family have heard it.  It happened towards the end of this past school year and I guess all of the explosions this week reminded me of it.  It’s the story of the time that Older Son and his friends decided to explode my house, and then tried to convince me that he was just doing what I expected of him…
 
Exactly how far is a Mom supposed to go to promote education and instill the value of good grades?  I was faced with that problem this past school year when my son and his friends decided to blow my house up…all in the name of a grade.
 
I could see the local paper now:
 
Dateline:  Kids blow up house for grade
Three high school kids blew up a home when their teacher offered an extra credit opportunity making a satirical video depicting current topics.  When their script involved blowing up a structure, the students didn’t think twice. Older Son, a resident of the home, defers responsibility stating that his parents require he do whatever is necessary for his grades. His mom is quoted providing this parental caution “It may seem unnecessary, but I implore all parents to articulate to their children how far they can go, even to raise a grade.”
 
I’ve experienced first-hand (what parent hasn’t?) how kids can take what you say and twist it and change it and manipulate it and the next thing you know they’re blowing your house up.  Where did I go wrong?  Well, yes, in ever teaching them to speak in the first place but beyond that?
 
From the very first “NO” emphatically uttered by our (previously gloriously nonverbal) little angel we learn that our offspring will not only have a mind of their own, but will express it…regularly…loudly…  I used to try to put this behavior off on others.  I remember telling my youngest in our home “stop crying, honey, crying is for restaurants”.  And telling both boys when they went off to a friend’s house “now be as naughty as you can and get it out of your system before you come back home”.
 
But this was a whole new issue.  This wasn’t him doing the opposite of what I say (the occurrence I’m most used to).  This was my son doing what I had been telling him to do.  After all, I always tell him that no matter what his grade is, if extra credit is offered, just do it…

 

Older Son and Friend escaped by jumping off the back deck, phew

 
…so in the end he blew up the house, he got an “A”, and guess where I was.  Unless this is your first time reading this blog, you know.  I was in the kitchen baking.
 

Firecracker Red White and Blue Cake
(decorated in different color tones)

                                                                               

Firecracker Red White and Blue Cake

                                   ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients, Cake:
1 box white cake mix 
3.9 oz pkg instant white chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
red and blue food coloring 
                                                                                      
Ingredients, Frosting:
16 oz softened cream cheese
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk 
red and blue food coloring

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray bundt pan and dust with flour.
*Beat all cake ingredients except for food coloring.  Mix 1 cup of batter with red food coloring and 1 cup with blue food coloring.
*Pour the red batter into bundt pan, then carefully pour the white batter over the red, then the blue over the white.  Don’t mix colors together, just pour one over the other.
*Bake for 45 minutes or until it springs back when touched.  Cool for 15 minutes in pan before removing.  Cool completely before frosting.
*For frosting, beat cream cheese and butter together.  Mix in vanilla and milk, then gradually add powdered sugar (start with 1 1/2 cups, then keep adding till it’s at a drizzle consistency).
*Add red food coloring to 1/3 of frosting and blue food coloring to 1/3 of frosting.  Drizzle the frostings over the cake.

Independence

Every 4 of July, for many years now, I’ve made red, white and blue jello.  This jello is not what I’d call difficult, but it takes 6 hours.  You’re not working on it all 6 hours, this thing isn’t brain surgery, but you do have to commit yourself to it.  Each layer needs to set before you can gently put on the next.  If you don’t wait long enough between layers, they will bleed together.  If you don’t work with the gelatin correctly, that layer will gel lumpy instead of smooth.  It’s never perfect, but what is?
 
Teaching kids, at home and in school, is supposed to be a long term commitment. They learn best in layers, each one the foundation for the next.

Red, White and Blue Jello

 

 

When Older Son was in Middle School, he had a Student Teacher for Chemistry.  She was teaching something about balancing chemical equations and Older Son didn’t get it.  Older Son was a good student with good grades but he was struggling with this concept.  He stayed after school with the Student Teacher but she just repeated what she had said in class.  I e-mailed her asking what we could do to make sure that Older Son masters this part of the curriculum.  Could we come at this information from another angle?  She answered that this is how she teaches.
 
This is what I came to understand:  If they’re not learning, you’re not teaching.
 
It had been a long time since I had been in school, but I sat down with Older Son’s book and papers and studied.  Once I figured out the lesson, I explained it to him in a very visual way, using props. The next day in class the students corrected each other’s homework.  Few were able to do it, but saw that Older Son had done his.  The Teacher wasn’t happy, but many circled around Older Son, who explained it to his classmates in the way that he was able to understand it.
 
Teaching is difficult.  But here’s the thing, so is learning.  When my kids were little and they misbehaved, I used to take a toy away from them.  I’d put it on top of the refrigerator for a while.  They could see it but they couldn’t have it until they understood the behavioral changes that needed to be made.  I remember trying to talk to my Mom on the phone one day and not being able to because the kids were disruptive.  Mom asked “Can they go play for a little while so we can have a short conversation?”  “No”, I answered “at the moment all of their toys are on top of the refrigerator”.
 
What happens when the toys spend too much time on top of the refrigerator?  Did one of those layers not set before you applied the next?  If they’re not learning you’re not teaching; even if you're utilizing the expertise of others it’s ultimately on you.  So, no matter what, you’re gonna keep walking into that brick wall because you know this; it may come at a price, in some cases a much higher price than you ever thought imaginable.  But, in the end, the reward is Independence . . .for all.
 
Happy 4th of July, everyone.

Red, White and Blue Jello

                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
2 pkgs red jello, dissolve each (separately) in 1 cup boiling water, then add ½ cup cold water
2 pkgs blue jello, dissolve each (separately) in 1 cup boiling water, then add ½ cup cold water
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin dissolved (together) in ½ cup cold water
2 cups milk
¾ cups sugar
2 cups sour cream mixed with 2 tsp vanilla
 
 
Directions:
*Prepare 1 of the red jellos as indicated above and pour into a 9 X 13 pan.  Put in refrigerator until set (about 45 minutes).
*While red is setting, put milk in a pan and heat but don’t boil.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
*Remove from heat and add the dissolved unflavored gelatin.  Wisk in and let cool a little on counter.
*Wisk in the sour cream and vanilla mixture.  Leave on counter.
*Once red jello is set, carefully top with a layer of 1 ½ cups of the white mixture.  Refrigerate until set (about 45 minutes).
*Repeat with blue layer, then white, then red again then white again and finally the last blue layer.
*Allow final layer to set before cutting.

For Sale

It’s June, and June (at least in this part of the country) is yard sale time.  Yard sales are serious business.  They are planned for and neighborhood coordinated and strategized.  It’s a time of year when everyone puts all their crap out in their front yard in the hopes that someone else will take out the trash.
 
I’m not much of a yard sale kinda girl, so I’ve only had 2 yard sales in my life.  At the time of the first one, I had a ton of large baby toys, slides, tricycles, teeter totters, and playhouses.  The afternoon before the sale, I had Husband help me get the bigger items out front to be put into the garage for the morning.  What happened next shocked me.  Cars started screeching to a halt in front of my house.  We made about $500 the night BEFORE the sale started.  It was time to reconsider what kinda girl I was.
 
When Younger Son was really little we noticed that whenever anything was put out front (flags on the 4th of July, pumpkins at Halloween) Younger Son would put his pinecone and his seashell on the front porch.  He was only 3 when he started doing this and wasn’t able to articulate his thought process.  To this day I don’t know what this was all about, but I remember thinking during my yard sale that maybe Younger Son had just been a yard-saler before his time.  Younger Son is exceedingly smart and although he couldn’t tell me then, I think he was waiting for cars to come screeching to the curb for his pinecone and seashell.
 
Now for the yard sale the kids asked if they could have a lemonade stand.  Any parent knows that a lemonade stand means you buy the paper goods and lemonade.  You make the lemonade, set up the stand, make more lemonade, give them money for change, make more lemonade and then clean up the trash.  All so your kids can make a few pennies. It would be easier just to hand them each a couple of bucks, but it’s a rite of passage so you have to just go with it. You don’t have to make home-made goodies for them to sell too, but you know I did.
 
 

Chocolate Mint Bars

 

Older Son has always been a bit of a hoarder.  I don’t honestly know if he doesn’t want to throw stuff away or just couldn’t be bothered.  My guess is it’s 50/50, but either way this kid keeps some ridiculous stuff.  He keeps a year’s worth of papers in his backpack.  If I force him to clean it out and get himself organized, he apparently just puts it all in his room.
 
Years later, in our second and current home, I had my second ever yard sale.  This time I told the kids that I would put out a table for them.  They could put anything on it they wanted and set their own price.  We talked about being flexible in price and being willing to negotiate, but any money they made was theirs.  Older Son went into the house, came out with a huge pile of papers, plunked them down on the table with a sign that said:
 

Here was my sign:

Chocolate Mint Bars
                                        ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
½ cups plus 2½ cup chocolate chips
3 sticks butter, softened
1 pkg Keebler Chocolate fudge stripe cookies, finely crushed
¾ tsp plus 1 1/8 tsp mint extract
¾ tsp vanilla                             
1/3 cup milk
Green food coloring, opt
3 ¾ cups powdered sugar
 
Directions:
*Grease 9 X 11 pan.
*Microwave ½ cup chocolate chips and 1 stick of butter for 40 seconds.  Stir and keep microwaving and stirring  at 10 second intervals until smooth.  Stir in the cookie crumbs and press into bottom of pan.  Refrigerate 15 minutes or till cool.
*Beat 1 stick butter, ¾ tsp mint extract, vanilla, milk and food coloring.  Carefully beat in powdered sugar.  Spread over cookie crust.  Refrigerate 10 minutes.
*Microwave 1 stick of butter, the rest of the chocolate chips, and the rest of the mint extract for 30 seconds.  Stir and microwave at 10 second intervals until smooth.  Let cool while previous layer sets in fridge.
*Spread last chocolate layer over the powdered sugar layer and refrigerate one hour before cutting.