Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made these for an after school snack. They were yummy. I didn't say they were good for you.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk
1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and chocolate chips into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Bake for 20 minutes.

Little Ms. Troublemaker

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Back to School

Abigail is officially in high school this year. Can you believe that? Am I really getting that old? So far high school seems to be going well for Abbey. She comes home tired, but happy. I fear she has a heavy load academically, but I try to keep my lectures about keeping up on her homework to a minimum. Afterall, it is only the first week of school.
Lydia is starting her 8th grade year. She is still adjusting to her schedule. She has Dance this semester and is not very excited about that. It is a beginning ballroom dance class. This was not her first choice. I think her biggest fear right now is that she has a "test" to see if she can do the splits. If you can't, you fail the test. And apparently, she can't. Lydia is not accustomed to failing tests. I told her to start practicing. She gave me a whole list of reasons why she should drop the class. I listened, rolled my eyes at a few, and then told her she could go ahead and try to drop the class. The deal was she could try and if she couldn't, she would have a good attitude about it. She couldn't drop the class. She is trying really hard to have a good attitude.
Amy was worried about her teacher. She heard she was mean. I told her not to worry about it. She has a mother that yells, so if her teacher yells no big deal!:) I don't know how reassurring that was. However, all is well and Mrs. Lovell turned out to actually be very nice. It so happens that Mrs. Lovell is Mrs. Werner's daughter. Remember her? Sixth grade teacher at Hawthorne? I found out that Mrs. Werner passed away a couple of months ago in Finland. She was visiting with her son, got sick, and died in the same town she was born. A little ironic.
Eliza of course loves second grade and loves her teacher. Not too much drama there-thankgoodness.
Ruthie is my job insurance, for the time being. I am her sole source of entertainment from 8:00am to 2:00pm. I fear I am not very exciting. At the mere age of two, she enjoys cleaning, laundry, cooking, washing dishes, and running errands in the car. It's good to have a friend!