When life gives you tomatoes...

You have to draw the line somewhere.  You can only stuff so many cherry tomatoes in your mouth in a day.  And then there are the big ones.  Only so many sandwiches, or wedges drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette or sprinkled with sugar... Why do they seem to ripen ALL at once?  What do you do? 

I developed a tomato sauce routine years ago, when I was averaging 30 plants and had just a garden to take care of - not kids.  Now I am down to a more reasonable 18 (I started with 20).  Two are cherries and the rest are an odd collection of mismatched pairs of either store-bought plants or starts my dad gave me.  I have a new favorite though - German Strawberry.  Oh.  My.  That one is good! 

I begin by doing a massive picking.  I drag out the colanders and pick every red tomato I can find.  This includes the cherries because they have an awesome flavor.  I even pick the ones that have evidence of a bug or two, splits or end rot.  You can always trim that stuff away and use the good side.  A good-sized batch is enough to fill an entire cookie sheet - mounded up in a pile.  That is where I got the name for my routine - the cookie sheet method.

You begin by assembling your stuff....

* A cookie sheet full of a mound of tomatoes. Why a cookie sheet?  Because one cookie sheet (like the one above) will be exactly enough to fill your crock pot - an inch or two from the rim.

* Crock pot, set on high for the first hour.

* slotted spoon for retrieving tomatoes from the boiling water

* A large stock pot filled halfway with water, set to boil

* another cookie sheet

* a cutting board and empty bowl for the stuff you cut away, and for the skins

* a colander in the sink

* an empty plastic bowl in the other sink

* most importantly - a fan!  It's going to get hot standing by the pot of boiling water...

You set up in assembly-line style.  I begin by trimming the tops and cutting away the yucky stuff (if there was any) and then dropping it into the colander in the sink next to me.  Then Rylan (having a helper is great!!) will wash the tomato and put it into the bowl in the next sink.  Rylan is currently suffering from what I call the Cinderella Complex.  She insists on wearing a princess dress while performing menial household tasks.

Take the bowl of washed tomatoes and gently tip them into the boiling water.  The water should be at a full, rolling boil.  Let them stay in the water while you trim up another batch of tomatoes, and rinse them.  That should be ample time for the skin to split on the tomatoes in the boiling water.  The trick is to keep the cycle going continuously.  When you're done washing the next batch, remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and set them on the spare cookie sheet.  Leave them there to cool as you continue the trimming, washing and boiling routine until all of the tomatoes are done. 

At this point. all of the tomatoes should be on the cooling cookie sheet.  If you can, set the tomatoes from back to front as you go, so that you won't inadvertently pick up a hot one and burn yourself.  Pick up a tomato, and squeeze it gently as you hold it over the crock pot.  It should just slip out of its skin.  You might have to give it a little pinch where it attaches on the underside of the tomato.  When you are done, the crock pot should be full.

Add some fresh basil (if you have it) and a good heaping teaspoon of dried oregano, and a teaspoon of salt.  I grew some basil for the first time this year, and it is absolute awesomeness.  It is amazing how it immediately fills the entire kitchen with a heady aroma the second I cut it.  I am lacking in the knife skills department, so I've found a pizza cutter to be a very effective tool for making long cuts like this.  I also use it to cut noodles or wedges for my crescent rolls.

Next step is to take two large serrated knives and work them in opposite directions to cut up the tomatoes until no large chunks are left.  Then cover the crock pot and switch it to low.  Let it go for about 8-10 hours (or even overnight).  Your house will smell amazing as time goes on...  When it is done, the liquid should have reduced by quite a bit and you should see the level in the crock pot drop by a good amount.  Let it cool for a couple of hours.  This time around, I started in the early afternoon.  I got up with Dean around 1 am (he was leaving to hike Long's Peak) and turned off the crock pot.  I let it sit, uncovered, until I got up again at seven, and by then it was cool enough to bag it.

Using a 4 cup liquid measuring cup, ladle out the tomato sauce until you reach 28 oz.  Why 28?  Because that is the usual size of can that is called for in recipes that use diced or crushed tomatoes (like spaghetti, chili, stew and so forth).  Pour it carefully into a quart-sized ziploc, and then seal it - make sure to push all of the air out as you go.  Then lay it flat on a cookie sheet.  Label it and then place it flat in the freezer.  If you don't have the temporary freezer space for a cookie sheet, lay the bag on top of a flat surface, like a pizza box or something.  This way, it will freeze nice and flat.  Then, once it is frozen solid, you can store it upright, or stack several of them together.  To defrost one, I recommend putting it on a plate and leaving it in your fridge over night - or your counter for several hours.   A full crock pot will yield about 6 - 7 of these bags.  This whole process took me about 45 minutes, plus the cooking and cooling time.  The taste is absolutely amazing and well worth it!

I love it best with elbow macaroni.  I just add several ladle-fulls on top of the cooked macaroni in a bowl.  Yum!  Like I said, you can use it whenever a recipe calls for diced, crushed or stewed tomatoes.  Enjoy!

Camping, the Girl Scout way

Last weekend we went camping at Meadow Mountain Girl Scout Ranch with our Girl Scout troop.  We went with five other families - yes it was for the whole family, not just moms and girls.  We were situated in a cluster of units, called 'tabins' (stupid name) that surrounded a campfire ring, tables, and a supply shed.  Here is our tabin.  It had eight bunks (the most uncomfortable sleeping platforms on this earth), a wooden floor, and a split between wood and canvas walls.  It was actually very nice to have room to spread out and we could set up Colin's bassinet near our beds and so forth.  I didn't get a whole lot of sleep on this campout, but it was nicer than being in a tent.

There were three main activities that the girls were focusing on during this campout.  Now, Rylan is too young to be doing badge work yet, but she will get a couple of participation badges out of it.

First up was making gorp.  Every family brought something to add to the mix...

It was very good - and was going to come in handy for the next activity - Geocaching.  There were seven (I think) geocaches spread out over the property, just for the purpose of the scouts to find them.  We split into three teams, each with a GPS and waypoint coordinates, and set out.

The camp property is pretty vast... this was going to be a bit of a hike!



This was our team, on our way to our first waypoint. 



Onlookers...



Brush pile.... NOT a bonfire waiting to happen...



Mt. Meeker, to our north...



Another troop was preparing to ride...



A meeting between teams.  There was some confusion about waypoints.



See all the berry seeds?  Bear scat.  Luckily, a few days old...



Now that is a happy hiker!!



We rested the remainder of the afternoon.  The kids explored around the campsite...

Not what you think...



Colin's first time in hiking boots (they were Owen's)

While the older girls settled down to do some Basic First Aid training.  Rylan sat in on this but quickly became bored.  About this time an afternoon rainstorm blew in, so we were in our tabin, napping with the boys, while Rylan was with the rest of the girls.  The girls were also to do some solar cooking with pizza boxes on this day, but the sunshine just never did show up.

Then it was dinner time.  Each family had signed up for one of the meals.  Tonight's dinner was 'Hobo packets'.  This was the highlight of the camp for me - it was an awesome dinner!  To make hobo packets, you can use beef, chicken, maybe even pork, and a variety of vegetables.  We had sliced chicken breast (pre-cooked), raw ground beef, diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, sliced zucchini, sliced carrots, and a bag of frozen corn to choose from.  Then you add some sauce or seasoning - jarred spaghetti sauce, salsa, minced onion, S & P, seasoned salt... the list is endless.  You make your packet by taking a generous square of foil, spray it with nonstick spray, make a central pile of the meat, veggies and seasoning you choose, and then wrap it up.  I would put in several dabs of butter for good measure.  Then just nestle it into the hot ashes of the fire, or on the grill plate above the fire, and give it a good 30-45 minutes to cook.  If you are using raw meat, I would go with closer to 45.  Pull it from the ashes, put it on a plate, and open carefully.  The great thing about this dinner is that it stays hot for a long time.  The kids really enjoyed it, and ate a decent helping for a change!

Then it was time for s'mores and a talent show. 

We had a good time, and being able to visit with the other parents was fabulous - especially as a family.  We don't get together as "families" nearly enough in this group - it's mostly just moms and kids - so I like it when dads can be involved too.  This Girl Scout troop is a homeschool troop, so there is a kinship there.

The next morning we all settled in for a group breakfast, and wished Dean and another dad a Happy Birthday and sang to them.



All in all, it was a good experience.  The camp itself was a wonderful facility.  There was plenty of firewood, water and a pit toilet was nearby.  We had a nice shed to store our coolers and food boxes overnight.  There were several other troops in the camp, but we were spread out enough that you couldn't hear them very often.  But.

A couple of concerns...

1) I cannot stand screaming girls.  I just can't.  Especially the screaming for no apparent reason.  Most of the girls slept in the same tabin - so the screaming was intense at times.

2) There was an issue of the older girls being exclusive and shutting others out.  I have no idea, because I was mainly focused on not losing two toddlers in the woods or keeping them away from all things deadly, like the campfire, hot water and the cook stove.  I hope the older ones sort this out - I gather this is an ongoing issue.

3) One girl in particular, (I don't know her very well - in fact this was the first time I had ever met her) did an incredibly mean thing.  I won't repeat it here, but as soon as Dean and I heard her shout out something extremely inappropriate about another little girl, we looked at each other, too stunned to speak.  It reminded me of those horrible camp movies of the 80's, like Little Darlings or something like that.  The wonderful thing was that the other girls immediately told her to not say stuff like that - that it could hurt some one's feelings.  Good for them!! - Huge kuddos for doing the right thing.

But that got me thinking... Girls can be so mean.  The kind of emotional havoc that can ensue when a little queen bee is around can be devastating.  That is one of the primary reasons why I don't want Rylan in public school.  The subversive psychological warfare is unbelievably effective - worse than any bully who takes a swing on the playground or snatches your lunch money.  It's the same stuff that leads older girls to consider suicide when it gets bad enough.  But it seems that, whenever you get a bunch of little girls together, there is an unspoken event taking place. They are categorizing, sorting, sizing each other up, and determining who is on top.  No matter the age.  Alliances form and the low woman on the totem pole is shoved out.  I know.  I was one who was shoved out - in Bluebirds.  I even remember the day it happened - at a meeting at Suzi S.'s house.  That is the sad thing.  You don't ever forget it!

I will try my hardest to prevent it from happening in our own Daisy troop, but I have my concerns.  I suppose, in my role as a Daisy leader, I need to help guide these girls and help them manage their feelings and emotions as they grow (so much happens when their parents aren't watching...), but I don't want my own daughter caught in the fray either!   I suppose this is where I need to consider what is to be gained in the big picture.  I know that, at some point, there will be hurt feelings in our group.  Behaviors will have to be addressed (even more so since some girls are not accustomed to being in a group such as this - I know Rylan isn't), and life lessons will be learned.

There are plans afoot to return to the camp this November.  I'm not sure if this will be a whole family thing again, but I imagine since it might be considerably colder, the little ones would stay home.  We'll see!

On the inside...

Owen's chest x-ray, 9/3/2011

As I sat there, in the little Urgent Care exam room, looking at this copy of Owen's chest x-ray, I couldn't help but feel the very same feelings I had when I first saw him, 20 weeks old, during the ultrasound.  All I could think of was, "Wow.  I made that!"  I made this!  My body put this amazing little person together.  (Sure, sure, I know, Dean gets half the credit, but I'm speaking of the actual, physical product...).  My body regulated every process (spearheaded by explicit instructions from the DNA, of course) that created this little human.  It fed it, protected it, kept it at a certain temperature...  Amazing...  I see his little heart up there and I remember hearing it for the first time when he was ten weeks in utero.  His vertebrae, diaphragm, ribs, lungs...

Oh yeah.  The lungs.  Now those are a problem.  Ever since this little boy caught RSV at ten months of age, those pesky lungs act up every once in awhile.  See that circle?  Pneumonia.  No idea he was sick 24 hours before this chest x-ray was taken.  Really.  No cough.  No wheeze.  Not even a drippy nose.  Sneezing yes.  But of course, our whole family has been sneezing, courtesy of the pollen, for a few weeks now.  Owen got very wheezy and gurgly at bedtime, but steadfastly refused to have a turn on the nebulizer.  I was too tired to argue.  By 6:45 am. when I heard the very distinct sound of him coughing so hard he was throwing up, then it was time to take action.  The first round of Albuterol worked.  Four hours later, it didn't.  No idea, even then, that he was going in a very southern direction.  I didn't even know he had a temperature...  (LAME!)

Urgent Care is great.  Especially since emergency medical care concerning your children has this annoying statistical trend to occur outside of regular pediatrician's office hours.  Our local facility (a block away) is okay, but the one across town is better, so we made the drive and they ushered Owen right on in.  The nurse was terrific, the Dr. was a little annoying.  I know Owen is three, but please don't talk to him like he has a learning disability.  He 'gets' it, and doesn't need to be told that he has bananas in his ear when you turn the otoscope on him.  Geesh.  The x-ray tech (dressed in a glaring bright red shirt that screamed Husker Fan) gave Owen a really hard time for the fact that he was dressed (courtesy of his father) in OU regalia in honor of the first game of the season.

It is not an easy task to get a three year old to stand still for a chest x-ray.

But there it is.  Owen is currently on the mend.  He gets winded going up the stairs.  He enjoys a steamy shower each morning (thanks SIL for the tip) and has been able to sleep pretty well at night.  I don't know what the future holds here.  I suspect that an asthma diagnosis is pending... but he is a long way off from using an inhaler yet.  We also have some uneasy suspicions about Colin as well.  He has been very wheezy for about a month now.  I am wondering if pet hair may be a contributing factor.  Only time will tell.

Last thought.  I am forever grateful that we have the medical insurance that we do.  It is comforting to know that in times of worry - how we are going to pay for it isn't one of them.  We are very, very fortunate.  It is easy to see how one little medical crisis can set into motion a financial disaster. 

Don't do it...

Word of advice...

If you ever feel inclined to look on Facebook for friends from the past, you're going to come upon something unexpected.  Like a name you recognize on another friend's 'friends list'.  And you will stupidly click on that name, even though you know you shouldn't, because you will see something you don't want to see.  And then you see it.  Photos of your exhusband.  With the whore he left you for.  And his two beautiful twin boys.  And then you will throw up.

Birthday Bonanza

I am a really lame mom.  I have a blog and I don't even post about any one's birthday (but my own....)

So I am going to make up for that.  Now.  Since we have all now officially celebrated a birthday this year - I might as well regale you with pictures and cute moments from each birthday.  Be careful not to choke on the sappy sweetness of it all...

First up - Colin!  He turned the big '1' on Feb 5th

My gosh - he looks so tiny then - and it's only been six months!   This was such a fun birthday - we had brunch at home with family and close friends.  Come to think about it - I may have blogged about it.  I am too tired to back looking through my posts, so I will just do every family member here equal justice and call it good.  The best moment of this birthday was the second my brother, SIL, and three nephews entered the house and helped pull all of the last-minute party prep together.  You all saved me some serious face that morning!

Next up is Owen, turning three on Feb 28th (although his birthday is really on the 29th)

I think I did a blog post about our visit to the WOW museum the day before (the car picture), but for whatever reason, I never did come back and mention his actual birthday.  Owen didn't really specify what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  I knew that he was sad about losing his Thomas train that he got for Christmas, so I picked up a new one, and made a train cake to go along with it.  For me, store-bought cakes for birthdays are absolute sacrilege - I won't do it.  so I made up a train cake on my own.  And it looks it.  I never said I was good at this.  But the boy loved it (I mean *look* at that face!!) and it was priceless.  What made it all the more special is that his Oklahoma grandparents were able to link up on video chat and sing along with us as Owen blew out his candles.  That was the best little family celebration ever! 

Jordan turned 11 on May 9th.

For us, what has worked best for our kids is birthdays in small doses.  We don't do big parties.  We don't do sleepovers.  We don't invite lots and lots of kids that we only 'sorta' know.  We invite a close friend or two.  We do a family dinner and cake - ON the actual birthday.  Jordan did have a 'big' party when he turned five.  I had only known him for two months at that point.  I remember making two cakes.  We invited kids and their parents.  We served appetizers and drank beer and wine.  It was such a nice party - but I didn't know anybody except this little girl pictured above, standing with Jordan.  Here we are, six years later, and they are still the best of buds!  No birthday would be complete without Abbi.  It also happens that Rylan just adores Abbi.

We began with a small family celebration the day before his birthday, which just happened to be Mother's Day as well.  One cake for three kids - three sets of candles for Owen, Rylan and Jordan.  My brother and his family brought up birthday presents for all three kids- so it was quite a day!  On Jordan's birthday, I made his favorite cake - Chocolate Blackout Cake.  You black out from the sugar over-load.  Jordan was a trooper - he had to wait until after his scout meeting for his cake.  The Oklahoma grandparents arrived a couple of days later, and we went out to dinner to celebrate both Jordan and Rylan's birthdays.  The restaurant pick was Jordan's: The Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse.   Jordan brought along his good friend Gabe for the evening.  A couple of weeks later it was miniature golf and dinner out with friend Abbi.

Rylan turned five on May 12th

Poor Rylan.  Last year it snowed on her birthday.  This year it rained.  But she hauled in so much in the present department that she didn't seem to mind.  She began the day with a gigantic pink doll house that dominated the kitchen table.  She went shopping with Oklahoma grandparents and added stuff to it.  Then we worked on her fairy birthday cake.  Shortly after Owen's birthday (like the next morning), she said she wanted a train cake too.  Really?  Why?  "Because I want those chocolate railroad pieces".  Oh - the KitKat bars that I had used for the train tracks.  I bargained with her that I could use the KitKats and build a fairy hut or something.. Well, I forgot about that, but kept the fairy idea.  She loved her cake.  If the fairies didn't cost $6.99 a piece, there would have been more of them.  It would seem to be, judging from the reaction, that the best gift of all was the Rookie Perplexus that Jordan gave to her.  Bless him - he even paid for it too.  That hug above says it all.

Kirsten - 40 on August 8th.

Okay - most of you knew that anyway.  Here is my picture with my birthday cake.

My *lovely* children (with the help of my mother) decided that I needed ALL of my forty hard-earned candles on my cake.  That is a 13 x 9 pan of Mississippi Mud deliciousness there.

Dean - 41 on August 28th


Dean began his birthday by being serenaded by a campsite full of Girl Scouts.  Another dad (in green) has the same birthday (small world!), so they both got the Birthday song treatment.  We got home from camp, did lots of laundry and showers, and closed the day with a yummy dinner and Buster Bar ice cream cake for dessert.  Oh.  my.  yum.  See?  Only one candle.  Dean claims that when you hit '40', you get to start over again with the candle counting.  Cheater.

Bless you before you depart...

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.  Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the world, your return.
-Mary Jean Irion



I have used this quote before - in my very first blog post ever.  I love this quote, and I need to be reminded of it from time to time.  We had our normal day today.   Nowhere to be, nothing to prepare for... just 'be'.  It was wonderful.  Owen and Colin ran around the house in just their diapers for two hours this morning.  They fussed and hit and pushed and shoved occasionally - yet it was all good.  They were tired, and rightfully so after a string of crappy, busy days with missed naps.  They went down for a nap right after lunch, and slept for four straight hours.  When they woke up, they were much more pleasant to be around.

Rylan and I enjoyed our four hour break by doing a relaxed stint of school work and calling it good.  She completed a math workbook and finally got to use the giant sticker for the last page.  We put it on the fridge.  She played with attribute blocks, built a mini dollhouse out of an empty Pampers box, drove her Barbie around and did Reading Eggs for a solid hour.

I sorted receipts, opened the mail, washed dishes, started a load of laundry, cleaned off the desk and got Rylan's first science lesson ready to go for tomorrow.  We had a very nice dinner, and played a dinner table game while eating.

Nothing of what I just wrote about was spectacular.  No pictures to share.  Yet, I too, want to bless this normal, average day before it departs...

I didn't have to nurse a sick child

I didn't have to worry about not having enough food to eat or clean water to drink

I had a safe home to enjoy my time in

I went about my day with the quiet assurance that multiple family members were only a phone call away if I needed them

My husband was working hard at a job he loves

My car was in the garage, if we needed to go somewhere

My computer connected me to my friends, my library, my bank, my world...

The sun was shining and a soft breeze blew all afternoon



When times get hard, don't complain and cry out "Why me??!!"  Just remember that there were plenty of normal days when it was just not your turn...

Winning!



This morning, while lots of wonderful moms and dads were escorting their brood to their local educational establishments for the first day of school, I was enjoying a leisurely walk through the neighborhood.  Alone.  It only lasted four minutes, but my, was it glorious.  My therapist is a four minute walk from my house, so I walk there and back while Dean stays home with the kids.  We had a great talk this morning.  I haven't had an appointment in several weeks - she was on vacation.  She still feels like I put everyone on the "I must worry about/take care of" list above me, and I must stop putting myself last.  You can't fill anyone else's cup when your own cup is empty... that sort of thing.  She is correct - it is just so hard to do.

When I got home, Dean drove the van to work, which meant that I had no transportation for the day.  I actually love those days.  I have the perfect excuse to stay put - and it helps me focus.  So we got a lot done - Rylan's entire lineup of Monday schoolwork, which was a first!

* Core Knowledge - read a few poems and worked on rhyming words - which she totally gets.  Added some new vocabulary: bill, window-sill, cocked, wealthy and wise.  Later in the day I heard her quoting Benjamin Franklin verbatim.  Wow.

* Explode the Code - Short 'i' words - pig, mitt, dig, bit, wig, pin, hit, fin, fill, sit, big.  Decoded with ease, spelled them and wrote them.  Rylan can write beautiful little 'g's.  For whatever reason though, writing a 'p' is difficult.  ???

* Carson-Dellosa beginning reading workbook - 'color' words.  She is reading them correctly - but if you remove the picture clues, then she gets bogged down with the decoding.  Thus 'blue' and 'black' become one and the same... interesting.

* Reading Eggs - She is loving this program!  She completed today's lesson in 17 minutes.  I don't know what she did other than that she was reading 'am' words.  I was upstairs during most of it changing diapers and switching laundry around. 

* Read aloud - I read a little bit out of a question/answer science book.  (Q: What happens to the stars during the day?  A: - - -)  I made it about 10 minutes and then I fell asleep.  I had just put the two boys down, so she let me sleep and kept herself busy playing with her dollhouse (which we keep in our bedroom, so that it can be set up all the time)  I love, love, love that she is such a wonderful, dependable child.  She stays out of trouble, keeps quiet, and doesn't try to sneak out of the room or anything like that.  Most of the time she will eventually lay down beside me and fall asleep herself.  I don't nap often, but today I was really struggling after I put the boys down.  I needed a rest - too many late nights staying up trying to get stuff done.

* Thinking Kids Math: we did tally marks for the first time.  Most of it went over her head.  She hasn't really grasped skip counting yet, so counting by fives is difficult.  The task was to look at a calendar graphic, which had one of four possible weather symbols on each day - sun, cloud, rain or snow.  The task was to count up the days it was sunny, and make tally marks.  Count up the cloudy days, make tally marks and so on.  We did that, and then I extended it by showing her the calendar basics.  Again - she is really struggling with this.  Time is difficult anyway - it is such an abstract concept.  So we ended the mini-lesson by counting up the number of days until Jordan came home (24) and called it good.

*MEP - inequalities.  She has the signs down (<, >, =), but she continues to be stumped by comparison questions.  She will totally get which way to  'face the alligator mouth'.  But after counting up one side of the equation (ex. 4 daisies) and then counting up the other side (ex. 3 tulips) answering the question "How many more daisies are there than tulips?", she will invariably answer '7' - because she thinks she just needs to count them all.  Only when I match up each flower, one-to-one, will she see that there is one daisy left over that 'does not have a partner'.  THEN she understands what I was asking her.  We have gone through this scenario at least twenty times.  I try and bring it up any time the situation presents itself - "Rylan, how many more goldfish crackers do you have than Owen has?".  She will count them ALL.  sigh.

* Carson-Dellosa math preK-1 workbook - fill in the missing number.  It never ceases to amaze me all the different ways you can check a child for true understanding of a concept.  Your child can count from 1-20 (1-100, etc..) a thousand times over - but when you skip a number and ask them which one, they are stopped in their tracks.  If you switch up the order and ask them to sort it out correctly, they struggle.  That is good.  It means that their number sense is still developing, and you should never assume that they 'get it' and move on just because they can count correctly.  They really need to 'know' their numbers.  Number sense is the true foundation on math - and you need it to be solid before you start building!

So - I had all of these little teaching epiphanies aaallll day.  And it felt good.  I felt like a true teacher today - not just some frazzled parent going through the motions, like I usually do.  Yay me!