FamilyEducation Blogs

July 14, 2009

Food Mentors

I come from a family that cooks. My mom had me at counter level as a preschooler, measuring, mixing and pouring. My dad used to make his famous spaghetti sauce when I was a child, allowing me dictate small things like "3 bay leaves or 4?" as he created his delicious sauce. But beyond my immediate family I have aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws that can all cook and bake like rock stars. [more]

December 31, 2008

Golden abundance

I've always found New Year's Day to be a bipolar sort of occasion, marked by extreme opposite ranges of emotions all crowding in for time in the spotlight. Even as a young child, I always felt both the thrill of a new year and the weight of the passage of time. I remember being awed and saddened, too, by the idea that one year was gone forever. [more]

December 30, 2008

Bringing in the New Year

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and everyone is preparing for the celebration. [more]

December 23, 2008

Home for the holidays

T. and I officially finished all of our holiday baking yesterday. And even though I love holiday baking and cookie-making, I have to say that by the time the last of the dough remnants were scraped off the counter, and the last bowl washed, and the last tray of cookies taken out of the oven, I was more than happy to have reached the end of it all. [more]

December 15, 2008

Favorite holiday cookies

The holidays are all about tradition, and a childhood favorite of mine was (and still is!) baking peanut blossom cookies. And since I think everyone should indulge in this delicious treat, I'm offering the recipe to all of you:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated  sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped [more]

December 2, 2008

Snowflakes

One tradition T. and I started two years ago (a tradition which, thankfully, has not fallen by the wayside yet) is to make our own paper snowflakes the weekend we decorate the tree. The first year we did these, they were simple paper ones, and I used a hole punch to attach the string at the top. We hung them from the tree, from the kitchen ceiling lamp, from the dining room chandelier--we had white paper snowflakes everywhere. This year we got more ambitious and decorated them with silver and gold glitter. [more]

December 1, 2008

Unpacking the past (and future)

Even though all the evil super mega stores and malls everywhere decide each year to decorate for Christmas the day after Halloween, we pride ourselves on managing to hold out until a day or two after Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, we never decorated for Christmas until about a week or so before Christmas Eve. Every year as a child, I thought I would spontaneously combust on the spot from sheer impatience. I have always loved Christmas and decorating the house for the holidays. [more]

November 14, 2008

Storytelling

Apparently November is not only the month to write a novel, and a blog post/day (I've got that pretty much covered), but it's also Family Stories Month--the month you're supposed to focus extra hard on sharing the family stories that make up your rich family history, past and present. I love family stories. [more]

October 31, 2008

Spinning magic

Looking back on yesterday's preschool Halloween party, I think it's fitting that my last preschool Halloween party for my kids ever (sniff!) would be not unlike the first one ever, when L. was three. I didn't make those whoopie pies that year, but I did make sandwiches and cut them into pumpkin shapes with the same orange pumpkin cookie cutter I used this year. The year L. was three, I raced home after teaching my one and only class that day (I was still a part-time adjunct instructor back then) and I had a few hours in the morning to get things ready. [more]

October 20, 2008

Balance

This weekend was a long and difficult one, because we spent much of it doing the dirty work of parenting: enforcing consequences (also known as punishment). L. did hardly any work at school last week, and his teacher sent it all home ("Who's being punished here?" Scott wanted to know, which was a pretty good question), and we had to exact consequences on L. for a moment of extreme folly last week that ended up costing us $120. But enough said. Remember that adage parents like to pull out when they're discussing consequences with kids?
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