A Dark Knight Date

Blogs are such fun! I love reading other women's blogs about how they raise their kids, keep their homes and marriages happy and keep their sanity (or maybe not so much). Yesterday I ran across a this website on Pinterest. It's all about how to continue dating your husband after your life gets crazy!

These "dating divas" are really into themed movie nights. I love this idea. It makes a regular old movie date so much more memorable when you put a little thought and effort into it.

So I skimmed through a few of their themes, ruling out movies we don't own, so it wouldn't cost anything.

Finally, I settled on "The Dark Knight."

This post is where I got my inspiration for our special movie experience. As you can see, I made quite a few changes to their plan to fit our personalities, time and budget.

Here's what you would need to replicate what I did:

A Facebook account and your spouse's "friendship"
(e-mail or another social networking site could also work)
black construction paper
Scissors
White paint, marker or crayon
flashlight
tape
inflatable mattress (cushions or lots of blankets and pillows are fine)
blankets and pillows (bonus points if you have black blankets and pillow cases)
Popcorn
Pickles
(or other snacks)
drinks
Something cute to wear-preferably black

First, I made a Facebook event only he and I could see. It told him the time I thought he'd be home (so he could correct me, if I was mistaken). I added a picture of the movie poster from Google and several trailers from Youtube for him to watch. In the event description, I put a quote from the movie--"It's simple we kill the batman!" This way he know some of what to expect, but he's also curious about what I'm planning. Periodically, through his shift I would add vague updates about what I was doing to spark his curiosity. (You made need to adapt this plan for text messages if your husband doesn't have a computer job, or even plan ahead and make him a paper invite to sneak into his lunch.)

Next, I started decorating. I cut out a bat silhouette from construction paper and painted the words "why so serious?" in white. This was for the front door. Then I cut 2 more, taped one to the porch light so it would be reminiscent of the bat signal and one to the microwave so he would see it when I made the popcorn.

I also made a bat signal of my own out of a flashlight.

I used black construction paper, scissors and pieces of the
flashlight.

I used the plastic lens cover as a template for
a circle that would fit in the light. I cut that shape out.

Then I folded the circle in half and cut out
the bat shape. I stacked that on top of the
plastic lens cover.

Then I screwed the case on. 

Perfect!

The bat signal has a special function for this movie date. When you turn it on, your spouse has to rush over and kiss you. It sounds really silly, but if you both get into it, it's great fun.

I taped the negative cutout from the bat signal to the plastic cover of our lamp. The lamp was too bright, but the room was too dark without it. So I took a black pillowcase and shaded it. This created a really cool ambiance. Especially when combined with the "bat signal" shining on the ceiling.

Ignore the "vintage" furniture. ;)

Then I inflated a camping mattress on the floor, covered it in blankets and pillows and set up the DVD.
When I knew J was almost home, I mixed up some chocolate milk (the drink he requested before he left work) and put his slippers by the door. I wanted him to feel like Bruce Wayne coming into his mansion, not a simple feat when you live in a little duplex.

When he told me I was way cuter than Alfred, I knew it was a success. ;)

I'm not endorsing this movie or the sequel. Just fun dates with your spouse. ;)

How I Survive Not Being a Morning Person.

This month I am taking an 8am class, and I don't like it.

I am not what you would call a "morning person." I never took an 8am class in my undergrad, because I hate getting up in the morning. I was the girl in high school who always wore her hair in a ponytail, or cut it short so she wouldn't have to fix it in the morning; I only wore makeup if I had a crush on a boy (that's a whole different discussion that we can discuss later), and I would only shower at night. I did all of this so I could sleep until the very last minute, throw on a t-shirt and jeans and go to school.  

Never in my life do I remember being a morning person (other than Christmas when I was a kid). This was highly inconvenient at times since I grew up on a farm. Despite my parents best efforts (which once or twice included using ice water), I am, to this day, not a morning person. 

You may well wonder why I am taking an 8am class this semester. I wonder too. But at the time of enrollment it seemed like a good idea, so here I am.

This issue is compounded by the fact that J. often works late into the night. I like to wait up for him so we can have time together. But this sometimes limits my sleeping time to 3-5 hours/night. I realize a lot of people sleep 5 hours or less and function well. 

I do not. 

I get grumpy, sometimes down right mean when I haven't slept enough. I find it hard to control my facial expressions, which have a tendency to express sarcasm.

Do you see how this can be a problem?

So my solution to this problem has come out of desperation. 

Coffee! 

I know what you're thinking: "DUH!" But let's be honest. When it's already 90 degrees at 7:30 in the morning  (Yay Texas!!!) do you really want a hot cup of coffee to start your day off? (My great aunt Shirley would say, 'Yes, and keep a full cup in your hand until you fall asleep at night.') Most normal people would not. 

I am not going to pretend like I'm normal, but I would agree with the majority here. 

A lot of people get around this by drinking iced coffee, they would purchase some designer frap each morning. But I can't afford this. $5/day on coffee five days a week is about $100/month--that's a huge chunk of change for a pair of newly-weds living on a meager income. 

So, you may say make ice coffee at home. That would be cheap! And I agree. I thought about this for a long time. But do you remember how much I hate getting up? What would induce me to get up early enough to make coffee, cool it so it doesn't melt the ice and get watery, ice it and add in the things that make it palatable? (I don't like black coffee, yuck!) 

Nothing is worth getting up that early and working that hard first thing in the morning. 

Also, we have an old school 12 cup coffee maker, no cute little espresso machine that makes a cup at a time. For some reason, I never can get the right ratio of coffee grounds and water to make good coffee for one. 

So I had to figure out a way around this. 

I was perusing Pinterest in a sleepy haze a couple of weeks ago when I ran across one of those funny e-cards. It said something about freezing leftover wine in ice cube trays. The joke was that the person didn't know what leftover wine was. While I'm not the type of girl to guzzle a bottle of Merlot in one sitting, this e-card gave me inspiration. 

I could freeze coffee in ice cube trays and make frozen coffee drinks quickly. 

They even look cool!

So one afternoon, I fired up Mr. Coffee and made a whole pot! I poured some into our 2 ice cube trays, let that freeze a couple of hours in our little freezer, then I put the cubes in a bowl in the freezer and filled the trays again. I repeated this process until I used most of the coffee. Then, when my bowl was full of cubes and I was tired of refilling the trays, I just poured the rest out. It took a while, but if you have a bigger freezer and more trays you could do it all at once. 

Now in the mornings when I need a little pick me up, I take a blender cup and put the cubes in it like if I were going to pour some iced tea. Then I pour milk over them. (Calcium anyone?) I add a little sugar, and sometimes I add in a little vanilla extract. (I'm thinking about trying chocolate syrup on Monday.) Then I just blend it until the coffee cubes are broken down.

It tastes great and only takes about a minute--start to finish. 

It's also cost effective. None of the ingredients are expensive at all unless you want to buy expensive coffee. Even that is exponentially less than buying a drink from a coffee shop each morning. It also takes less time than you would spend waiting in line at one of those places. 

Other perks include, we never throw out expired milk anymore; I'm getting more calcium, which almost all women need; and I'm a happier person in class every morning. 

I don't drink coffee every day, because I don't want to become dependent. But on those morning where I feel like any little thing may set me off, it certainly helps to have something sweet and energizing to start the morning.

I hope this helps some kindred spirit out there who also hates the morning. If you have other suggestions for me, please comment. I'm all ears! (...unless it's 8am.)

Doing a Little Dreaming

Today, I want to talk about some of my future goals. I'm doing this to prevent ranting about some things I see around me that I most definitely do not want to emulate. I find that focusing on the positive of who and how I want to be keeps me from being as negative as I sometimes am inclined to be. (Friends and family should feel free to remind me of this at any point in which I am sucked into a rant.)

With that said, here we go...

I would like to spend my life teaching in a number of ways. Not all of them are listed here. These are just the three most immediate ambitions I'm contemplating.

I wonder what Cat dreams about?

First and most immediately, I would like to teach in a middle or high school. Currently I work at a University assisting with undergraduate courses (mostly Freshmen), and in general I'm surprised at the massive gaps in their education up to entering the University. I feel like I would be better able to help them at a younger age and in smaller courses. By keeping standards high and personal attention higher, I hope I can make a difference in the skills students have when they step into the university they choose to attend. 

Please don't misinterpret this as an attack on teachers in these schools. I personally had some excellent teachers throughout my education. But I know that teachers get tired. The amount of work to be done often seems insurmountable, and the system seems to undercut many of their best efforts. For more discussion on these types of things you can read this blog. (I don't write Chalk, but I often agree with its content.)

Because of these factors, students often slip through the system unable to read, write or think clearly for themselves. I really want to zero in on those kids who aren't getting the attention they so desperately need.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish great results for these kids, but I think one on one attention is a place start. They have a lot of catching up to do, and they need to know that there will be a lot of hard work to do it. But I firmly believe that students are capable of attaining much, much more academically than they generally leave high school doing. So I want to jump in with both feet, and really work hard, for basically no pay, after I attain a master's degree in history to inspire, improve, and give confidence to every kid I can possibly herd into a classroom.

I feel like the amount of energy I want to pour into this may not be sustainable for a full 40 or 50-year career. At the point when I realize I am burnt out, I want to stop teaching and pursue something else. If nothing else, out of fairness to the students who deserve all the energy a person can put into their education.

If you have any direction for me in this aspiration, I would greatly appreciate it! (I know I have some excellent teachers and former teachers who may be reading, I am really hoping you'll comment or contact me with your advice.)

There's a second way I hope to spend my life educating, that is with my own children. (No, this won't be happening for a long time, Lord willing.) I know I could catch some flack for saying this so early in my life, but I really want to homeschool my future kids for as long as it's beneficial. (Right now I'm thinking maybe K-8th grade, but nothing is written in stone.)

I get so excited thinking about creative, personal ways to engage them in education. I want my kids to love learning and, I hope that by keeping them home I can really cultivate that desire to learn. I want to make sure that they get unlimited instructional time in areas where they struggle. (For example, if we don't adopt our children, genetics don't bode well for their math skills.) I hope this gives them their best chance at academic success. This is not the only reason I want to homeschool, but it's the one most relevant to this post.

A third way I hope to teach is through public history. I still hold on to the ambition of working in museums and publishing publicly accessible monographs on historical events. I grow so weary of the abuse and misuse of history in political debates, knowing that the public may be just unaware enough to believe what these men and women are falsely proclaiming. I hope that through public history I can promote a more educated public who is less susceptible to the falsehoods they are constantly bombarded with.

Beyond educating voters, I know that people often appreciate the deeper sense of belonging and identity history affords them. It preserves the legacies of people, the reality of their lives and their humanity. Museums especially give people a greater sense of the reality of history. When you can see the actual objects people touched, created and took for granted you can relate to those people and that time more concretely. I feel like it's sometimes a life-changing experience when a person can make that connection. I really want to be a part of cultivating and guiding that experience.

There are other reasons for this aspiration too, but this blog is plenty long as is, so I'll cut it off here. Meanwhile, I'll keep plugging away at these graduate courses and dreaming. Please let me know if you have any knowledge that could help me with any of these endeavors. I'm eager to learn how I can be better, how I can get closer to achieving my goals.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes recipe in review

Today I attempted a new recipe. I generally like inventing my own recipes, but this one incorporated one of  J's favorite desserts into a cupcake. Whats not to love?


Here's the recipe I used:


Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes Recipe:
(Recipe from Heck Fridays)

24 cake-mix yellow cupcakes, cooled and unwrapped (I used a butter golden mix)

1 (3.4 oz) box French Vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream

Make cupcakes according to directions on box. 

Mix together pudding, cream, powdered sugar, milk, and sour cream. Beat on medium speed until stuff peaks form. Cut each cupcake in half and add a dollop of filling. Put top back on cupcake and frost with ganache.

Ganache:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat cream in sauce pan until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat, pour over chocolate in a mixing bowl. Stir to mix together. Let cool slightly.

Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

So I followed these directions, and let me tell you, these cupcakes are a delicious and delightful mess! 

One of the less messy ones...

Here are a couple of mistakes I think I made along the way that may make yours come out better. 


First, I shorted the butter a little in the cupcakes. I was about a tablespoon short and didn't have any more, so I just went with it. I think this is what made the cupcakes a little flimsy and harder to deal with. Also they were a little flat on top. 


Second, I took the word "stiff" a little too literally. My filling didn't really form "dollops" in the traditional sense. They were more like spikey blobs from a bad science fiction movie. Doing it again, I might whip a little less. 


Third, I made too much frosting. I would say you really only need about half of what the recipe calls for. But, I LOVE chocolate, so I went ahead and used it all. The result is some drippy, messy cupcakes. 


While forks will be a must for these messy treasures, there are a few points of this recipe that I think are delightful.


This filling is delicious! I had a little leftover after I finished putting the cupcakes together. I will confess that I ate it. (Shhhh don't tell on me!) Delicious is not the right word; I think I may dream about it tonight. 


In fact, it was so delightful that it has inspired me to attempt a new recipe later after these are gone. 


I recently pinned a recipe for "Hocus Pocus Buns" that are supposed to yield hollow cinnamon-sugar pastries. I want to fill them with the Boston Cream filling (maybe dip them in chocolate) and freeze them like eclairs.  Do you think this will work?

Infant Kilt

Some good friends of mine are going to have a baby in September, and I wanted to give them something personal for the baby. So I decided to make a kilt for their baby. I didn't have a pattern or any real direction so it was all very trial error. Here I'll share with you how I did it and what I learned. 

I'm honestly not a great seamstress. It's something I dabble in, but I'm not enough of a perfectionist to be really good at it. With that said, you real seamstresses out there, may be appalled by my primitive techniques. 

The first thing I had to do was choose a fabric. I found a great plaid with lots of primary colors at Joann. It also happened to be very similar to the plaid the grandma-to-be suggested when we first started talking about me doing this. 

The fabric was just a simple cotton. I bought half a yard and roll of 3/4" elastic. I had white thread at home that I thought would look nice, so I didn't bother with any other stuff.

If I were to do this again I would have also purchased 1/2"-3/4" Velcro as well.  

I came home at a bit of a loss for how to get started.

I knew I didn't want to hem the bottom after I put in pleats. So, counter-intuitively, I started with hem. I folded the fabric twice, ironed it flat and hemmed the whole length. (I'm sure there's some great technical term for folding twice, but I've never been much for technical terms.) 

It took me a while to determine how long the kilt should be, but I settled on cutting it about 9 inches from the hem. I did this based on a baby skirt pattern I found online. I don't know how this length will work on the actual baby, but I have a feeling it may be too long.

Then I started making pleats because I knew I wanted all the seams on the top of the kilt to be on top of the pleats. 

I got my iron out for this part too obviously. 

It took me a while to figure out the easiest way to make this many pleats, but I discovered that I needed to stack them on top of one another rather than fold them under each other. I made the pleats an inch apart and folded about 1/4" under. I ironed and pinned each of them on the waist and hem. I left about 6" on the end for the front panel.

At this point I went ahead sewed across the waist to secure the pleats, took out my pins. I realize now that I probably should have left the bottom pins in so the pleats would stay sharp.

Then I set that part aside. I decided I wanted to make a separate waistband with elastic rather than adding elastic to the pleated part of the kilt. 

So, I made a waistband and attached it to the base of the kilt. I did this by cutting a strip that was 2" wide. (I would do 2 1/2" if I did this again. Then I sewed the edges right side together so it was inside out. I turned it right side out with a pen (a nifty trick I learned in 4-H as a kid), and put the elastic in.

I've never really learned how to work with elastic, so this part didn't come out quite how I envisioned it. If you are ignorant like me, you might seek out some help or internet tutorials on this. 

Front

I attached the waistband to the top of the kilt with a very small seam allowance. I didn't hem the top first or anything so there's a raw edge there. If I were to redo this part I might try a french seam there (thus the added width mentioned above), or just hem the top edge first. 

I did not attach the flat front panel to the waistband. I did a very small hem on the top of it and left it out. 

At this point, my sewing machine stopped working, so I hand basted the corner of the front flap to the bottom of the waistband. 

Back

If I were to do this again, I would have done this last part very differently. 

I would have used elastic in the entire top of the project and not closed it around the waist. Instead, for closure I would have installed Velcro on the front panel and front of the waist. This would make the kilt more adjustable and comfortable to fit the baby. 

That's how I would recommend someone wanting to try this do it. 

With all the trial and error, the finished product is pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Homework Withdrawal: A Bizarre Sensation

Today I'm going to write about the weirdest sensation plaguing students this time of year, homework withdrawal.

I think you all know what I'm talking about.

H.W.W. plagues students every May as they attempt to cope with the dramatic life change that accompanies the final day of class.

Planking may occur in severe cases of H.W.W. If a student
you love resorts to planking as a result of H.W.W., please go
out and purchase a coloring book or jigsaw puzzle for them.

Symptoms include:

• sudden panic attacks over imaginary missed due dates
• chronically sensing that one is forgetting something
• boredom and excessive sleeping
• renewed interest in random old hobbies
• leaping out of bed at 9:15 before remembering you don't have class
• forgetting what day of the week it is

Other symptoms may also occur. (Feel free to comment additional symptoms below.)

I think what makes H.W.W. so severe in some instances is the abundance of studying, assignments and final projects leading up and throughout to finals week. During these final days of a semester the student's life is often utterly consumed with school. All-nighters are not uncommon, which lower the student's ability to retain long term memories. These elements combine to leave the student in a generally confused and disoriented state on the final day of class. This mode of existence sometimes takes weeks to recover from allowing the effects of H.W.W. to occur. 

Things that help with H.W.W.:

• vacation-leaving the setting associated with school work will help the student cope with the sudden change.
• spending time with someone who is not a student-This helps because that person can usually remind the student what day it is and help them feel some sense of normalcy about life.
• swimming, eating snow cones, and other summer activities-These activities help the student reconnect with reality outside of school.

This is not an exhaustive list of cures by any means. (This is another opportunity for you to include suggestions in the comments section.)

I would like to include that although H.W.W. is a bizarre sensation, it is not altogether unpleasant. Certainly the chronic feeling of paranoia about forgetting an assignment is uncomfortable, but it is not more uncomfortable than homework itself. The cure for H.W.W. is certainly more pleasant than doing homework, which is generally the cure for having homework.

If you suffer from H.W.W., remember you are not alone. 

box of paper

So our anniversary came and went yesterday. It was such fun, and I'm so excited because I can finally share what I did.

I gave my husband a box of paper.

I thought and thought about what to get J, and hated every idea I came across.

I knew I wanted to make whatever I gave him myself, so I decided to just go to the craft store and try to get inspiration that way.

I was there for a long time. It seemed like hours but it may not have been. Then finally the idea donned on me.

EUREKA!

I purchased the following supplies:

1 unfinished wooden box with lid with a picture frame on top
2 tubes of paint, one white, one black
1 unfinished wooden heart
2 black wooden letters one J. for his name and one S. for my name
2 white wooden cutouts one of the word Imagine and one of the word dream.
1 paintbrush

I came home that day full of ideas and motivation and went right to work. First, I gathered the supplies I needed that I had around the house.

1 leftover engagement picture of us in black and white
1 bottle  of glue
scissors

Then I painted the base of the box white and the lid black and allowed those to dry. Once they were dry I diluted the paint a little and brushed white over the black and black over the white. I did the heart cutout this way as well, white first then black.

Finally, all of that was dry and I was able to glue on the wood pieces. I used a generous amount of Elmer's glue and they held very nicely. I cut our picture down to fit the frame in the lid and viola, my box was done.

Then I got on the phone. I called members of J's family, his friends, and some of my family he's close to. I asked each of them to write him a letter and mail it to me. I asked them to encourage him, tell him what they like about him and just be positive in general.

As the letters arrived I put them in the box, which I kept hidden.

I also wrote 2 letters myself. I attached one to the inside of the lid. It explained what the box was for and why I made it. The second was my letter of encouragement and praise for him and I nestled it in with the rest.

Another thing I put in the box was a Pez dispenser of his favorite childhood cartoon character and extra Pez. (He loves Pez.)

Finally, because someone had suggested origami and another suggested a kite (neither idea seemed the perfect fit for this year), I made an origami kite. (Well, I tried to. It came out pretty sad.) This kite had another silly little note on the inside.

So when the evening came I presented first the kite, then the box. He had a great time going through the letters.

And there's enough room still in it for him to use the box for other correspondence, or inspirations that come to him.

So all told, the box of paper was a success.