On Sunday morning I received a call from my sis, the one I knew would be coming. My Dad had taken a turn for the worst, and I should head to his home soon. Two years ago Dad was found with colon cancer, the following month we learned it had metastasized to his liver, and he has fought it through surgery, liver ablations, and chemo. Amazingly during this time he has also traveled extensively, gone on cruises, met a new great-granddaughter, and enjoyed his time between medical treatments.

I packed up the boys on Monday and we drove to his home with the plans of spending a few days. It turned out that Dad really wanted me to stay all week, so we did. It has been a difficult week as I have watched Dad go downhill, losing strength, becoming disoriented and then gaining it back again, being able to eat and then not being able to do that. Just at the start of this month he had driven to Maine and back, eating in restaurants, driving, and now he has no strength to even move from the bed to a wheelchair. It has been difficult, meeting with hospice, setting up the funeral arrangements, while still caring for Dad.

Oh man, I could so bitch about several items, and as I traveled home today I composed this post several times. Writing it in my head what I wanted to share; including all the complaints but then I thought about the NICE Award Kitchen Table Learners awarded me. (They must not know about all the times I am far from nice.) So I thought of something else to share instead, something ScienceKid said:

“The good thing about all this (the past two years) is that Granddad has respect for you now mom.”

See, my dad didn’t know me, he never seemed to really want to know me. Sure we were always physically present to each other, and physically in each others lives, but the past two years I have been there for his surgeries, and taken care of him as a loved one should. His change in attitude is quite visible to even my boys. Today when we parted, as he hugged me goodbye he thanked me for being there all week, and for being such a huge help to him. He still has never, ever said he loves me, but I figure he just figures that I know that.

This is a usual sight in our campground, most everyday that we are in a beautiful location with hiking, kayaking, swimming, fishing…. MK is eating, SK and DH are reading.

And when the sun goes down, MK is eating s’mores, SK is reading and DH is reading…

I think DH takes it a bit far though with bringing his book along on a kayak trip but there he is again. A usual sight:

What an avid reader, wouldn’t you say?

Yes, this is a very rare sighting.

Can you guess what is so rare?

A photo of Me, sitting, reading, and being almost being near the end of the book.

The book is Sea of Trolls, a Historical Fictional book about an 11yo boy in England who is captured by Vikings. What a tale. 11yo MK finished the book in 24 hrs and he isn’t a fast reader, or an avid reader. He requested I get other books this author has written.

Need I say more. Glad someone recommended it to us. Hope you feel the same!

Breakfast. I dream about breakfast. While taking my morning shower I plan what I will eat. Never cereral. There’s got to be some protein in my breakfast, but for the boys, well they love their chocolate. Several years ago I took a simple muffin recipe, alterted it a bit and it has become a morning breakfast staple at our home.

Aren’t they delicious looking?

We call them Chocolate Chip muffins and they do have over a cup of chocolate chips in them. Plus MK wanted to use up the chocolate bars from the camping trip so he put a piece on the top of each one prior to going into the oven.

I didn’t taste them this morning but the boys devoured them as usually. Oh, one thing I have found with this recipe is NOT to be exact. Muffins are very forgiving so while I exactly measure flour for say a cake recipe, I do NOT do that for this recipe. And they still always turn out great. Here’s the recipe:
Preheat oven to 375
Into bowl mix:
2 eggs
1-1/4 c sugar (too much is OK, and I just use the 1 cup measurer for everything)
1/4 c oil
3/4 c milk
Mix it so the sugar dissolves then add:
2 heaping cups flour.
4tsp baking powder

Mix again and pour in 1 cup chocolate chips, or 1 cup blueberries. If the mixture is really runny then you need to be more heaping with your flour. Add some more flour in. Grease 18 muffin tins, (I just spray them with PAM), fill each tin 2/3 of the way to the top, and pop them in the oven for about 18 minutes.

I guarantee that these will be on the breakfast table at our home on this Monday, our first day back to doing school full-time.

Oh, and if you have a chocolate-lover-kid like MK put a Hershey Kiss into the muffin instead of chocolate chips. Those are great too.

ScienceKid had a BLAST on his trip to Mt. Washington. He talked non-stop since I picked him up at 8:30 until we got home at 10pm. He gave me a minute-by-minute account of his days. Details galore. I introduced myself to each of the leaders when I picked him up and all 3 leaders praised how he behaved, how positive he was, what a big help he was, a great hiker, pleasure to have on the trip, he can come again on any of their trips,….. everything a mom wants to hear.

ahh, another birthday.  What a year!

The house is quiet today. Too quiet. My thoughts keep drifting off to ScienceKid. What is he doing? How is he doing? Where is he, exactly?

I’m sure he is safe. No news is good news, right?

This is the first time he has been away from me, really away. Further away then he has ever been and I’m trying not to worry. Is he behaving? Is he helping out? Is he keeping himself under control?

I know I shouldn’t worry, but I’m a mom, so I do.

This past Friday AnnMarie spent the day here listening to the Classical HS Conference online with me. Sometime in the late afternoon we talked about how much ScienceKid had enjoyed being with her son, and vice-versa last Wednesday.

“We really should get them together next week.” I suggested.

“Oh, M*** will be going north to hike Mt Washington with his boy scout troop.” This is in New Hampshire, the highest peak in NE USA, and boasts some of the most severe weather anywhere in the world.

“Please don’t tell ScienceKid cause he will be so jealous. I should get him into BSA cause he would love to do that too.”

AnnMarie quickly made some phone calls and soon ScienceKid was signed up to go along. There were just a few more hurdles to cross. On Saturday we found a walk-in clinic that gave ScienceKid a physical so he would have the required medical permission slip, and by late Saturday he was at AnnMarie’s home, camping gear packed and ready to go. SK spent Sunday at AnnMarie’s Mormon Ward, attending service with them, hurdle #2, meeting the leaders and the other scouts, hurdle #3, — we aren’t Mormon —,… He left with the group for NH very early Monday morning. The plan is for them to set up camp near Mt Washington, hike Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, before returning home on Friday.

I hope he is having a blast. He so loves to hike and we have had quite a boring, uneventful summer.

I can’t wait to hear whether they really did hike to the top of Mt Washington and whether they hiked one of the other dozen mountains in the White Mts of New Hampshire.

And so the question was posed to me.

MOM, Can I make pretzels?

What could I say? It’s too hot to cook. But no, I said GO FOR IT.

MilitaryKid went to the net and found the recipe for Auntie Anne’s Pretzels or one claiming to be quite similar to it. And this time I was ready with my camera from the beginning.

He mixed the dough:

and mixed so quickly that the fork is a swirl of motion:

He moved the dough onto the counter and started kneading:

He added some flour to the counter and started twisting the sticky dough.

Soon it was dry enough for MK to start pushing the dough.

And lean into the dough:

Isn’t this beautiful. MK did a great job kneading the dough into an elastic and smooth dough:

After an hour the dough had doubled in size and it was time to move to the next step. But MK didn’t pull out his ruler this time when he rolled out the dough. He just eye-balled the correct rope length.

After rolling, he spun the rope into a pretzel shape, dipped them into the baking soda water bath, sprinkled on the salt, and popped them into the oven. Just like the photos on yesterday’s post.

This time I was ready though to take photos of the eater.

Notice the bulge in the mouth? That’s the delicious pretzel. After the pretzel came out of the oven it was dipped into hot butter. Just like Auntie Anne’s.

Notice the hat? MilitaryKid has a very appropriate name doesn’t he.