Update at 2 A.M.

I like my house after midnight. Sure, come tomorrow I’ll wish I’d been sleeping–especially since the alarm is going to blare around 4:30 A.M. at which point I’ll have to jump from deep slumber and get my two older girls up and dressed in cowgirl apparel so they can rodeo with Daddy at work today. Sigh…can you hear me yawning in advance here? Well, I can fully blame myself. The reason I’m rambling here at 2:20 in the morning? I began my cinnamon cucumber ring project without mentally registering the full soaking times for my cukes. I actually forgot they needed to soak for three hours in ice water before simmering for 2 hours on the stove. And I remembered that around 10 P.M. Yeah, wish I’d thought of that earlier in the day, but I knew I needed to get to the grocery store for cinnamon red hot candies before beginning the syrup, so I didn’t even double check the recipe. So sad. I have about one hour left to watch them simmer before throwing together the syrup recipe. So there’s the wherefores.

I just sneaked a “Cream Cheese Spiral”–easy to do in a sleeping household! This delicious tea-time canape with a streusel-type filling all rolled up into a croissant looking treat is Yum! My ten year old found the recipe in The Cookie and Biscuit Bible she gave me last Christmas. I’m in awe that she likes to try these tricky recipes all-by-herself. Yesterday she made a chocolate mint cookie that required her to boil sugar water to hard ball stage. And we don’t own a candy thermometer. She figured it all out and now we have these Christmas-y tasting chocolates with a crunchy peppermint chew to them. Delicious. And horrible for my “diet”.

Yes, I began exercising again three days ago…after taking the last month off. You remember my poison sumac incident? That kept me off the equipment for a week, and by the time I was feeling great again, we were full swing into homeschooling. I stepped on the scales with bated breath last week after avoiding them like the doctor and couldn’t believe I hadn’t gained much of anything. Did I ever update here and tell you guys I’d lost thirty pounds this summer?

My mommy moment this week came yesterday when my 8 year old proudly brandished a stack of spiral notebook pages under my nose, titled, “My Horse, Midnight”…she’d been secretly writing a “book”! It has five chapters, each chapter is half a page long in tiny, neat handwriting and accompanied by detailed illustrations! It’s got bad guys, intrigue, clues and lots of exclamation points!!! The COOL and awesome thing about this is that my 8 year old is finally coming around to scholarly pursuits! It’s been a long road to get to this place. She loves it when I read to her, but she’s only this year gotten past the hump of reading because she HAS to for school, to reading because she WANTS to for pleasure. I can’t tell you how many times last year I threw in the towel to God and hubby, telling myself that it wasn’t worth the angst. It’s a tough act to be your child’s teacher. Sometimes you just want to be the nice guy. You know how ecstatic the kids get when daddy arrives home from work at the end of a long day? Well, the 24-7 homeschooling mom is lucky to get the crumbs off the royal table–and SHE prepared all the food!

You know…this year it’s all paying off. In some ways it’s even more thrilling because I’m so acutely aware of how hard it was last year.  To be able to coast through 6-8 hours a day of school and enjoy 98% of it so much we don’t realize that time is flying as opposed to watching my then 7 year old fight tears over every little brain flex! Last week, I got up from the couch (where we do the majority of our schoolwork), went to the kitchen to pop some popcorn for an “afternoon” snack and I happened to check the time: 6 P.M.! We had no idea it was that late!

So this story she wrote was a milestone of sorts. She’s writing in. her. free. time. Amazing. Not only that, but her math facts are clicking, she’s reading for pleasure and to her little sister. So true that each child learns at their own pace, and some just aren’t ready as early as others. So hang in there, moms and dads. Don’t judge every child by your firstborn.

Well, my cucumbers are calling me. I hope I can see straight in the morning, I have a whole lot on the agenda. With the older girls spending the day with their daddy, I decided to fix a bunch of meals for the freezer. BBQ Meatballs, Chicken Lasagna, and Pizza Pockets to be exact. Hoping for time to mix up a couple buckets of my mom’s refrigerator Ice Box muffins, and just maybe get around to making pear-apple sauce out of the box full on my back porch…oh yeah, and at some point, I’ll have to can up the cinnamon cukes.

If I can prop my eyelids open, that is!

Have a great Tuesday!