Fun Sunday Plans

Later today I will drive about 80 miles to Panera bread in Broomfield to meet up with some of my good friends from the Sonlight forums!

I have a lot of schoolwork to do before then, so I'm staying home from church today. It's Rally Sunday, first day of Sunday School for the new school year. Anthony is at church helping with that.

A lovely rainy day. I like rain.

Schoolwork - college is tough

This being in college, working full time, talking with Anthony about college things and doing some homeschooling too is hard stuff! Not that I thought differently, but gee whiz, it's time consuming.

Anthony is also busy - he's in public school 9:30 - 2 and is taking weight training, stage craft (stage tech), lunch, lifeguard training and advanced acting. He also was put in as head of stage crew for the fall play/musical - willy wonka. AND he is directing a one-act play which rehearses 3-5:30 or so two days a week.. AND applied for half a dozen colleges and the thinking about it/stress/discussions that causes. As mentioned previously we are working on a resume/portfolio of his stage/drama work and he may/may not also have a drama audition piece or two up his sleeve as he does enjoy acting. He comes home from school exhuasted. Our hoemschooling lately is him doing some reading, and studyng up for the ACT to increase his score. We're backing off math for now, and are using ACT prep as his math, as that's more important right now. Especially as all but one of the colleges he's looking at don't require thie 4th year of math and all will give him more scholarship money if he brings up his ACT score.

In the meantime I'm now going to 6th grade camp at High Trails High Trails Outdoor Education Center at Sanborn Western Camps this coming T-F with two 6th graders in the classroom I work with.

I'm supposed to be starting a Beth Moore Study (Jesus: The One and Only) on Tuesday, but will miss the first session as I'll be at camp, which from all I hear is a blast - and I lucked out and get my very own (kid free) cabin to sleep in - as I'm escorting boys and this cabin I'm in is near the boy's cabin and is a 10 bed cabin and the other half is the infirmary. So, since the school isn't using the cabin this week, and I'm escorting boys, I get a 10 bed cabin to myself to sleep in - the rest of the staff is sleeping in 20 bed cabins with kids. So I'll at least get some reading done.

A lot going on.

Not counting I'm supposed to be reading The Shack for book group, a study on Hebrews starts on Thursday and misc. other things.

YIPEEE Anthony had his first college admittance today. He has applied for 6 schools. One of his top choices, the University of Northern Colorado, at Greeley, admitted him today for the freshman class entering fall 2010. UNC and Valparaiso University (in Indiana) are his top two choices.

2 others are colleges he really wants to consider, one he will visit next month.

2 others he's applied to but they aren't his top choices.

After this first round of admittance, he re-takes the ACT October 24 to up his score and then has to audition/interview for the theatre department at all the schools which admit him. He is primarily auditioning for theatre tech/production, though he does like to act as well.

Tech/production students need a portfolio/resume of shows on which they have worked. He'll interview for those, it's usually not an audition. He is attending an interview at one school next month. University of Northern Colorado has their interview/auditions in January of February.

The process is to see where he is admitted, then interview for the theatre departments, then apply for financial aid when FAFSA opens apps in January, then in Spring when the financial aid packages come out, compare financial aid packages of the schools which have admitted him to their theatre programs. The theatre interview/audition process is one reason he has 6 schools to which he has applied.

Wednesday winds wildly

(as put on my fb page) Jan Mauzy is home from work, giving a friend a ride, putting gas in my van, getting Byron's car , putting away laundry, deciding what's for dinner, loading the dishwasher, paying phone bill - in 1 hr 17 minutes. Now to correct Anthony's schoolwork and start my own, make dinner, feed cat, and probably try to figure out pre-calc for/with Anthony as Byron's working nights and it's gotta get done. When all else fails do it myself.

In addition my afternoon also includes: Oh and pick up friend's DD from school at 6:50, and probably other stuff that I haven't thought of yet. And I need to get produce as we're nearly out of fruit and that simply won't do.

Pre-calc is driving me nuts as Anthony doesn't understand parts of it and he's in public school 9:30 - 2 and Byron works 3-10, so Byron helping him isn't working as they aren't doing it after Byron gets home. So I'm going to do pre-calc this semester I guess along with my teaching class (have 8 chapters in 1 book, 4 in another, 2 papers to write - fortunately short), 15 journal entries, 2 history chapters, a discussion question and a 3-4 paragraph essay - as well as Intro to Philosophy starts next Monday. Oh and discuss history/writing with Anthony.

Work's going well, everything is going well (except for pre-calc) , there's just lots of it.

Oh, I have to clean the family room/put away/wash blankets and things from this past weekend when I had friends here (which was great fun) and deflate the air matress/put it away.

Anthony will pick up Byron from work.

Best friend has my car for school, which is great, she often puts gas in it, so that's great too. I'll drive her home and probably pick up produce after that. I know I'm forgetting something.... Oh and I started playing Farmville on facebook, it's sorta relaxing.

my last few days and my next few

Fun- but busy

I had friends here from: Idaho, New Mexico, other parts of Colorado (though they didn't spend the night) and a 4 night guest from Michigan.

On of my forum friends from Sonlight was in town from Idaho so I invited people over, a friend came up from New Mexico, we had a potluck, that left me with a huge amount of leftovers, so I didn't have to cook Sunday or Monday. Friday my friend came up from New Mexico and my friend from Michigan was in town as her daughter is going to go to school here this year (University of CO at CO Springs). I can't even remember what we had for dinner, something easy I'm sure. Saturday was a potluck and my friend from ID and I had blood work done at the local hospital, she needed a test run (she has Deep Vein Thrombosis and needed levels checked) and I needed my vit D checked last week and didn't get it done, so I got it done Sat. Then we had the party at my house, a lovely potluck with about 10 ladies here and one darling 16 day old baby.

Then everyone but two people left and my bestest friends came over for part of that. We visited till 11;30 or so and then went to bed. The next morning my friend from New Mexico went home and my friend from ID went to church with a childhood friends who happens to live here now.

I ushered on Sunday morning. In the afternoon I did some schoolwork and then drove friend from ID to Denver where she was staying in a hotel that night. She bought me dinner (at Chipotle - yummy) and put some gas in my van for driving her there. I got home about 9;30 and talked to my friend from Michigan till 11:30.

Tuesday morning my friend from Michigan had to fly home - her flight was at 6:00 am, so we left at 4:30 (yawn), but she was leaving out of Colorado Springs, which was nice as it's 15 miles and Denver is 80 miles, though Denver is usually (but not always) cheaper to fly out of. Then there wasn't time to to come home, as it was 5:15, I would have gotten home at 5:45 and left for work again at 6:30, so I just went to work early.

Worked all day, then did checking people in at church for the photography sessions for the pictorial directory - that was 3:15 - 7, then I came home and did some schoolwork and corrected Anthony's and collapsed into bed at 10.

Today I slept in till 6 (haha) and worked till 2:30, got home at 3 and then did all the stuff in my other post, coming soon to the blog.

Tomorrow Thursday, I have schoolwork, Anthony has drama 3-5 (and regular school electives 9:30 - 2) and Byron's working 3-10.

Friday I work and we have our picture taken at church for the directory ( and a free 8x10) at 2:30, then home for schoolwork, Byron has Friday off. As long as we're there and will be taking extra pictures of us anyway, I might ask them to do one or two of Anthony as a senior picture. I have a 25% off coupon and there isn't a sitting fee.

Saturday I have the morning free and am helping with check in at church from 1-5 and then have the evening free.

Sunday is ushering at church (I think that's the end of the month and then I'm done ushering till spring).

I think that's it.

It's all fun, it's all worthwhile, I like all of it, it's just sorta busy.

Also, I'm trying to figure out if I can handle seeing Julie and Julia or whatever that movie that everyone is talking about is called. I know lots of people who have seen it, but I'm trying to figure out if it's my type of movie or if it will fuss me by being too emotionally based and not plot driven. I'm researching and asking questions about it. What do you think? Emotionally based movies make me crazy, but this sounds good and it might be plot driven enough, but I'm not sure.

Make your own pizzas for dinner - Garlic Pizza Dough recipe

This recipe is from my good long time friend Sandy, a wonderful woman I’ve known years and years online from a yahoo group and had the pleasure of meeting this past summer. She’s a pastor’s wife and a fantastic cook.

I made this in my bread machine on the dough setting and did the second rise in a bowl. I have it in the fridge now. We’ll have “make your own pizzas” with it tonight. I’ve also made pizza pockets/personal sized calzones with it before – it freezes really well.

Sandy's Garlic Pizza Dough Recipe

2 c Water
1/2 c Oil
3 cl Garlic; crushed
2 tb Sugar
1 ts Salt
6 c Flour
2 pk Yeast

Dissolve yeast in water and add sugar; wait a few minutes; add oil and salt and garlic. Mix in 3 cups flour and whip about 10 min till it leaves the side of the mixer bowl. Add remaining flour and with dough hook or by hand knead till smooth. Allow to rise twice in the bowl. Punch down. (I rush this a bit) Oil baking sheets; use fingers to press the dough out to edges.

Makes 2 pizzas, cookie sheet size, or 12 individual (pie tin) size. Let rise a bit and top. Bake at 425* 20 min.

Having a meet up this weekend

One of my good Sonlight friends, Denise is in Colorado Springs this weekend from the state where she lives. So, I'm going what comes naturally - inviting my Sonlight friends over to see her.

One friend, Alissa, should be here in a little bit, she's from New Mexico. Another friend, Marie, from Michigan, just happens to be in town getting her daughter settled here for college. A third friend, who has a 3 week old baby, is coming down tomorrow and a 4th friend who lives in down will be here tomorrow. Other friends were to come, but due to one reason or another, weren't able to make it.

I daresay there may be pictures coming soon.

Marry Me Matilda Muffins

I've been eating these muffins every day for breafkfast, they work out to 4 WW points each, I might try part (or all) applesauce for the oil and the the points down a bit. However, they are very tasty, fill me up and make a perfect muffin for work.

I don't know who Matilda is or if she ever got married, but I'm sure glad my friend Angi on the Songlight forums posted the recipe!

Marry Me, Matilda Muffins

1 - 20 oz box Raisin Bran
3 - cups sugar
5 - cups flour
5 - tsp baking soda
2 - tsp salt

**optional spices**
4 - tsp cinnamon
3 - tsp nutmeg
1 - tsp ground cloves
****

Mix all of these dry items together in a large bowl until well blended.

In a second bowl, beat

4 - eggs
1 - qt buttermilk
1 - cup oil

until well blended.

Pour over dry mix, stir until all ingredients are moist.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop into muffin papers in muffin tin (or grease your muffin tin liberally).

Bake 15 - 18 minutes at 400 degrees. Tops will spring at a light touch in the center of the muffin when done.

MMMMMMmmmmm! Mmmmmm!

The school year has started

I started back to work last week, this week school started. I work in a middle school in the north part of Colorado Springs. I work in the special ed department and love my job. This week we had the 6th graders only one day and then Tuesday the 7th and 8th graders started.

Tuesday we also started homeschooling Anthony for his senior year of high school and he started at Public School for Drama, Weightlifting, Stage Tech and Lifeguarding. Today was the first day of swimming - 20 laps - and diving for bricks in the deep end. Even for a boy who is very very in shape, he's worn out and has smarting eyes from the chlorine. It's been a long time since he swam in a pool. In Washington he swam in a lake often. Here in Colorado he's only been swimming a couple of times.

I had a college course in US history started Monday. For a wonder I actually like the textbook and it looks to be a very good course. The instruction (online through the community college) also happens to be the homeschool liaison in the school district in which we live, so I mailed her our Notice of Intent to Homeschool last week.

Byron's Spring Roll Recipe

I'm not sure what type of blog I want to have, so I haven't really posted. However I figure I can't go wrong with a couple of recipes. Right?

Here is Byron's recipe for chicken spring rolls. If you are vegetarian, sub in extra vegetables and/or protein source of choice - boca crumbles, etc.
Spring Rolls

2 pounds chicken thighs
1 cup teriyaki sauce
2 stalks lemon grass
2 green onions
5 cloves garlic
1 lime
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons sesame oil
Fresh mint leaves
Cilantro
Rice noodles, the thinnest kind is better
Spring roll wrappers (not egg roll wrappers – wrappers of rice and not flour)

Shredded cabbage, a couple of shredded carrots

__________________________________________________________

Skin chicken thighs, cut into chunks, including fat
Grind meat (food processor is what Byron uses) until it looks like hamburger
Cook in oil till done, drain, reserving juice
Put juice/drippings back in pan and add lemon grass, garlic, onion, pepper – cooking about 5 minutes

Add teriyaki sauce, lime juice (juice of one lime) – thicken to gravy consistency
Mix with chicken mixture

Use hot water – as hot as you can stand it – wrappers will soften faster the hotter the water donut over soften) – use as little water as possible, if the wrapper gets too slippery it might turn into a mess for that wrapper

Add filling, rice noodles, fresh mint, cilantro, shredded carrots and shredded cabbage
Wrap up on cloth napkin and/or kitchen towel, cloth napkin best, wrapper will stick if you try wrapping it on the counter.

Dip in sweet chili sauce or your favorite dipping sauce

Makes 24-26 spring rolls – could make more, depends on how much filling you put in them.

Can I feel a little bit pleased at what I've accomplished today?

Today I did my daily bible reading (which has been less than daily for quite some time). 365 day - One Year bible for August 6: Ezra 3:1-4:24

1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4, a reading which spoke to me today in a way Ezra didn't. But then Ezra isn't St. Paul, is he?

Psalm 28:1-9 and Proverbs 20:24-25.

Also, I went to the Verizon store and checked in on my cell phone which is refusing to charge when it is on the charger. Also, it is a casualty of an unfortunate Diet Pepsi accident when Byron and I went camping a week ago. in a Thunderstorm in the night, I had a Diet Pepsi on a makeshift nightstand (Rubbermaid bin with kitchen equipment in it). My cell phone, glasses and nitro tabs were also on the nightstand/bin

A rather large thunderstorm passed by in the night and the side of the tent came in to meet the contents of the top of the rubbermaid bin, knocking the Diet Pepsi, nitro tab bottle, glasses and cell phone off the bin, where they sat till light of day. Alas, the phone didn't apparently enjoy it's few hour swim in Diet Pepis. It dried out quite nicely, worked for a week and now won't charge.

Verizon tells me I need a new phone. however, not having $200+ handy, that's a bit of a problem. A nice customer service rep at the Verizon store gave me the name of three places to check out that might cell used cell phones and/or less expensive phones that I might be able to check out, saving me half or more. So he says. I thanked the young man and came home. The phone is working for now, but won't as soon as it runs out of charge - I have a day or two max till that happens.

Byron's making yummy spring rolls for dinner, from scratch of course (well, using purchased spring roll wrappers), I brought groceries into the house and then ... then, did my yoga DVD, which I've been *thinking* about doing for a year. Today I actually DID it. With a back which is having spasming issues in the lower right. Actually the back spasms is what drove me to stop thinking about yoga and actually doing it.

Now to eat dinner (it's 8:30) and then possibly Walk Away the Pounds DVD, or maybe a game of cribbage with Byron instead, at which point I'll have studied the Bible, exercised, shopped for groceries, gone to the dreaded Verizon store and possibly exercise more. At that point reading a book would be a good plan, don't you agree?

My Intro

I've been married since March 1988 to my wonderful husband Byron.

We have two children, Felicia age 20, engaged to be married and living in Washington state where we used to live and Anthony age 17, here in Colorado, about to be a high school senior. I work as a special ed paraeducator in a middle school here in Colorado Springs.

Also, I have recently gone back to college to get my BA/license to be a special ed teacher, with an eye toward a masters with an emphasis in autism after that.

I manage to keep busy. I enjoy Bible study, book club at church, helping with church activities, participating in email groups and the wonderful Sonlight homeschooling forums.

We have one cat, 6 year old Hermione and one parakeet, approximately 6 year old Jupiter.

I have a blog

Today is as good a day as any to start a blog. I just finished my first semester of college in 30 years. I don't start back to work for a week and I'm done planning homeschooling for the first few weeks of our school year. Why not start a blog.

I'm generally blog phobic - long story - but decided to get over it.