Slowdown and Enjoy the Summer

Feeling on top of the world, okay town, with my kids. 

“Summer is going by so fast.”

I can’t agree with this statement, not to mention most of the people who have said this to me have added something like, I can’t believe it’s already June 24 (when it’s really only June 23) or I can’t believe it already July (it’s not it’s only June 28). I just want to shout, “Slow down people!”

Maybe this is the first time I can’t agree with this feeling and I think it’s simple. I’m enjoying every moment and every day. I honestly think I’ve been good at doing this since my kids were born. My secret? Every now and then I stop and stand back from the moment (sometimes literally, sometimes it just resembles me pressing the imaginary pause button on my nose) and just LOOK at what is before me. Yesterday it was capturing my children’s faces full of excitement and fun during a trip to a waterpark.

It may also be because this summer we have no big trips plan. There’s no focusing on weeks and months ahead of time, there’s no, we leave in two weeks, or in one month we’ll be in…

So, you’re summer may be going by too fast, but over here I’m just livin’ the life savoring my summer one moment at a time.

It’s taking the cliché, “Stop and smell the roses,” to heart. You should try it some time.

Baking and Blogging

I’ve been in a blogging funk lately. I continue to blog in my head daily, but few end up being typed and shared. I’m attempting to spend less time on my computer now that summer has arrived (read: school is out!). 

I’ve thought about sharing recipes with you that I’ve found on other blogs (a new hobby of mine) and have baked. As a result I’ve gotten into the habit of photographing my baking. Today I will share with you not a recipe I found, but one I was given years ago that has become a constant in my kitchen, especially during my annual Christmas/Hanukkah baking.

This was the first delivery of my cookies to the person who won a year of my cookies at the Blue Ribbon Ball. There’s got to be a shorter way to describe that experience and the year of baking and delivery in my future. Any ideas?

Michele’s Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

2 ½ cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 oz. packed cream cheese

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

½ teaspoon salt

1. Cream butter and cream cheese.

2. Add egg, sugar and vanilla until well blended.

3. Slowly add flour and salt. Mix well.

4. Add food coloring if desired.

Using a cookie press, place cookie son your cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Do not brown. Cookies should be soft and look creamy in color. 

Two dozen cookies for the lucky Parenting Place supporter.

Preschool: The Beginning or The End?

Tomorrow is my daughter’s last day of Preschool. She goes to the same preschool with the same teachers her older brother went to three years ago. It’s a district run preschool located in the same daycare center that he went to since he was 3 months old. She’s been there part-time since she was 3 years old.

On the eve of her “graduation” I have many thoughts and feelings running through my mind. None of which, I want you to know, are sadness about her beginning kindergarten in the fall. Many people, moms especially tell me that they cry when their “babies” start kindergarten. Not me. Am I heartless? No, I’m confident and secure in both her and the adults who have taught and cared for her along the way.

First off, I have to say that her three preschool teachers work together in such a way that if they could be morphed into one human being they would be the perfect teacher. They have prepared her, like her brother before, for kindergarten in all ways imaginable. So well, in fact I’m not sure the plant and note card I gave them fully embraces my gratitude.

Second, the school she will be attending in the fall, although there will be a yet to be hired new principal, is filled with competent, caring, smart and funny teachers. My son and I, unlike some friends at other schools has had no negative experiences with past teachers and I have honestly heard nothing negative about the teachers in the upper grades.

Lastly, having worked at a domestic violence shelter, I have taken precautions on who I leave my children with; especially when it came to daycare. I also take the time to get to know the teachers in the elementary school to the best of my ability to “feel them out” and so far I have not been disappointed.

But there is sadness, not for what lies ahead, but for what will lie behind us after tomorrow. This daycare family has been a part of my family’s lives for over eight years. There have been changes in staff and directors, but overall turnover has been low. I will remain on the board of directors for a few years, but it is the daily interaction with the staff that I will miss. Their smiles, warm open arms, and sense of humor will leave a void that I’m sorry to say elementary school teachers cannot completely fill. With no family nearby they have become a strong support system for me. Early this year a teacher told me that I had good people helping me; little did she know I included herself in her comment.

So, today I brought in a cake for the staff expressing my gratitude in the best way I know how; baking. What was baked as a vanilla bundt cake turned into a 9 x 13 dense vanilla cake topped with freshly picked strawberries and whipped cream cheese frosting. They are worth so much more than a flop cake, but thankfully I was told it was delicious, therefore redeeming myself.

Lastly on my mind this evening is that three years ago I was unable to attend my son’s informal preschool graduation because I was in Florida with my mother who was dying from cancer. I missed his last few days of preschool to be with her during the last few days of her life. I don’t often think about what I missed because it was not a choice, but a responsibility. But tonight I can’t help but wonder what he said that day and how he behaved. Was he sad? Happy? Excited? My daughter is experiencing them all. Sad to leave her teachers and school, happy to have a special day tomorrow and excited for kindergarten in the fall.

So, if you live in La Crosse, WI or nearby and are in need of a daycare center that is so much more than its building and toys look up Coulee Children’s Center, I don’t think you’ll be sorry. I wasn’t.