Jake's Birthday Celebration: A Few Photos

 My handsome birthday man going through his Paintball Safety Briefing.

 Nick, Jake, and Friends ready to eat some paint.

 Group shot after a hard afternoon of paintball fun.

 Someone had to throw that last smoke bomb. 

The small things that entertain male preteens....red smoke and paintball masks...LOL!

Tasty Tuesday - White Asparagus Soup

While I was in Germany for my graduation I ate at a local restaurant and had some homemade White Asparagus Soup.  It was WONDERFUL!  I came across some white asparagus at our local grocery store and attempted to make some myself.  It wasn't as good as what I had in the restaurant but it was pretty yummy.  So....today I am going to share this awesome recipe.  Hope you enjoy it :)

For copyright purposes, this recipe was found at:  White Asparagus Soup.

White Asparagus Soup

Makes 6 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. chopped onion (1 small)
• 2 T. butter
• 1 1/2 -2 lb. white asparagus, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces, heads reserved
• 6 c. broth, either chicken or vegetable
• 1/2 c. half and half cream
• Salt, to taste
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Dry white wine, to taste
• Parsley for garnish

Preparation:

Make sure you peel white asparagus before you chop it into small pieces.

Sauté the onion in the butter until soft in the bottom of a 4 quart saucepan. Add the pieces of asparagus (minus the heads) and steam for 5 minutes. Add the broth and boil gently for about 30 minutes, or until the asparagus is very soft.

Purée the soup in batches in the blender (place a towel over the lid and hold down the lid so the hot soup does not splatter) or with a hand blender and return to pan.

Bring to a simmer and add the reserved asparagus heads. Cook at least 5 minutes, or until they are fork-tender. Turn down the heat and add the cream. Do not boil further.

Taste and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. You may also want to add a few spoonfuls of white wine, if you think the soup needs acidity. Garnish with parsley.

I am such a MEAN mom!

We just made it through the first week of summer and I am already hearing "I don't have ANYTHING to do" a gazillion times.  Let me mention that last week we kept pretty busy.

Jake's week at a glance:

1. Karate Camp

2. Baseball Practice

3. Open Rec at the Youth Center

4. Early Birthday Party at Paintball facility.

5. Family afternoon in Bury Saint Edmonds

Kortney's week at a glance:

1.  YES Volunteering for Scholarship Money

2.  Pilates with Mom

3.  Work at Commissary

4.  Tea Party with Mom

5.  Family afternoon in Bury Saint Edmonds

Since October we have moved to another country, taken a trip back to the states for a funeral, made 2 trips to Germany, and been on several local trips here in England.  Not to mention just normal life stuff thrown in between that mix.  For this summer we have decided to keep things low key, mixed with structure so that we can all feel a sense of normalcy. That means we are not traversing the world on trips and we are staying close to home for a nice quiet summer. 

Kortney's Summer at a Glance:

1.  YES Voluneering for Scholarship Money

2.  Yearly job at Commissary

3.  Summer Hire job at Base Hospital

4.  Youth Camp at Wales

5.  Study German 2 materials so she can test out of German 2 when school starts and jump right into German 3.

6.  Study/Read AP European History summer enrichment materials to prep for August's class start date.

Jake's Summer at a Glance:

1.  Baseball all summer

2.  Water Zorbing field trip

3.  Karate year round

4.  Laser Tag field trip

5.  Youth Camp at Wales

6.  Swimming field trip

7.  Universal Class - Math Review Course

8.  Universal Class - World Religions Course

I love my kids and I love spending time with them during the summer break; however, I don't feel that it is my job to entertain every minute of every day there is not something going on. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. So, I have come up with a solution for my family.  If there is enough time to be bored, then there is enough time for learning.

Here is where I am now a MEAN mom!  I just signed Jake up for two Universal Class Courses.  If he has enough time to be bored, then as I said there is enough time for learning.  It is obvious that there needs to be more structure and routine for Jake.  That said here is our new structure:

Before videos, computer time, and video game time is allowed the following has to be completed:

1.  Daily chores are complete.
2.  Two chapters from the Bible are read.
3.  Personal Prayer time.
3.  One hour of reading from a text list I created for him.
4.  One assignment from Universal Class has to be done everyday.

Kortney is pretty self-motivated so as long as she is keeping up with everything then I let her do things in whatever order she pleases.  If that changes, then I will add structure to her days too.

The big news today in my family is that I am a MEAN kind of mom!

More
Educational
Assignments
Nightly

I think I like my definition of "mean".  Cheers!

Danielle