We Will Rock You! - Homeschool Blogger

lonely house ... but a yummy dinner

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:06:00 -0600

Wow .... what a quiet and lonely house I am in right now. Cindy and the three kids are in Sarasota, FL for about 10 days at her mothers place. So I have the opportunity to work late every night, hang out with a neighbor across the street, do my HONEY-O-LIST and most exciting of all ... I get to expand my cooking. I miss them all ... most of all I miss hearing about how and what they learned during the day while I am gone at work.

I received a magazine yesterday about the Homeschool Meeting in Winston Salem in May. I am praying that Cindy and I will be able to attend. I can see from the schedule that we could get so much from the speakers. I know that Cindy is not as excited about going as we are still trying to sell our house and we are a bit tight on cash ... that happens when you are out of work for 8 months out of the last 24 months ... ouch! I hope if you read this ... you will pray for us going as well.

I did make something very fun this week that I want to share with you ...

Monkfish alla Diavola

(Monfish in a spicy tomato sauce)

1 pound Monkfish (2-3 filets), cut into 1 inch pieces

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chipped

4-5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Hot Serrano Chilli Peppers, chopped

1 cup red wine.

8-10 plum tomatos, diced

3 tablespoons fresh basil, coarsly chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat a heavy pan on the stove top then reduce the heat to medium. Add olive oil, saute garlic and onions until translucent. Add monkfish and cook for about 3-4 minutes stirring frequently. Remove the monkfish and set aside. Add the peppers to the pan and saute till tender, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat up to high on the pan, then add the wine and deglaze the pan making sure you scrape all the pieces off the bottom. Add the tomatos, bring to a boil, reduce the heat on the pan to medium and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Return the monkfish to the pan and simmer until the fish is opaque, about 4-5 minutes. Add the basil and simmer for about 1 minte longer. Salt and pepper to taste. This will be like a soup so it can be served in a bowl with some crusty Italian bread or over a linguini pasta or even over rice. Add a little red pepper flakes and fresh chopped basil to top off the bowl and enjoy.

You can make this hotter by using more peppers or by using a hotter pepper.

Have a great day .... In HIS Service, Mark C

EASY ... Sweet & Sour Chicken

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 06:21:00 -0600

My job is going very well. It is a bit boring as I am in training for the next 6 to 8 weeks ... but I will have fun when I am out there ... selling. Things seem to be going well at home. I am trying to help Cindy by helping with the cooking and groceries. So last week her and I went over some recipes and she pointed to a few that sounded good to her. I grabbed a few of them and off to the Bi-Lo I went. One of the recipes that Cindy wanted to try follws this note ... I can not tell you how EASY this recipe will be ... and it will taste GREAT.

EASY Sweet & Sour Chicken

1 Package cut up Chicken. (Usually a whole chicken cut up will work.)

1 Package DRY Onion Soup Mix

1 8 oz Jar (or one cup) Apricot Preserves

1 8 oz Bottle (or one cup) Thousand Island Dressing.

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Arrange chicken in a 13 x 9 baking dish, skin side up. Salt and Pepper each piece. Spoon Apricot Preserves on each piece of chicken. Sprinkle some of the onion soup mix on each piece of chicken. Spoon some of the Thousand Island Dressing on each piece of chicken. (I told you this was going to be easy.) Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Put in the oven for 90 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve with rice, soy sauce and a salad.

Enjoy ...

Hi Ho Hi Ho ... its off to work I go ...

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 06:41:00 -0600

Yes ... the LORD has blessed me with a new job. I started this week. (Thank you GOD) And I have to tell you it is fun to be at an office with all the hustle and bustle of "business" going on around me. But ... I miss being home with my wife and my family. The excitement of homeschooling is much more pleasing to my ears. I understand that I am making sure they can homeschool by working for a living ... so I will keep a good attitude.

In the mean time I am doing what I can to keep the load off my wife as far as running the house. I have made sure that she did not have to think about dinner each day as I left. Monday ... left overs from the weekend, Tuesday was chicken tacos, Wednesday was sauce (pasta) with Italian Sausage ... and this eve it is chicken that is roasted in the oven with a little salad and broccoli. (the kids will hate the veggie) I am trying to make sure that Cindy does not have to worry about the dinners so that she can focus on the kids and on herself.

The other thing I am trying to do ... and I am really bad at this ... is taking care of the finances in the house. It is difficult with this new job as there is not enough money for everything going on at the moment ... but I am sure the LORD will take care of us. The key thing I need to do here is just to make sure I am on top of everything.

I think the other thing I need to do is to keep writing in here ... it seems to help me to keep my thoughts clear and I can read about what others are doing in the homeschool world ... this lets me see some of the issues that you Mom's are having and then try to react to those issues in my own house ... please do not read this as a husband going out to fix things ... just trying to LOVE his wife as I am supposed to. Well it is time for me to sell something ... talk to you soon.

In HIS Service, Mark

Blessings that rise in the air ...

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:02:00 -0600

If you are reading this ... well you already know who I am. So you also know that I am out of work as of this writing. I am sitting upstairs at our house while my wife and three children sit in the living room that is downstairs. I am a bit stressed about not working at this point ... but with each moment as I hear my wife teaching I become more and more calm.

It is truely a blessing to hear. I have been around for too many weeks now and I am not in the room ... so they are not performing for me ... they are going over the daily routine. Bible study then memory verse then math and so on ... hearing them doing the bible study and the memory verse I am reminded of the fact that storing these verses in our hearts will make us stronger. I am blessed in knowing that my wife is showing all three of our kids how to deal with adversity. When we are hit head on with problems and issues in our lives we tend to want to pull up our boot straps (well that is what the men would do) and "just do it" on our own. We push the LORD aside and then we "show" him just how good we are. But what he wants is for us to look to him and hike up our "bible" and fall to our knees. So on this Monday Morning ... I am still not working ... we are running out of money, but not creditors who want money from us ... I was beginning to run thin on patience and strength ... but I have been filled with blessings, strength and hope ... all because of what I am hearing from downstairs.

I thank the LORD for my wife and what she is doing ... I pray that she will be blessed today ... and I also pray that all the women who are homeschooling this morning are blessed as well for they are filling our children wiht the strength of the LORD to deal with adversity.

The Realization ...

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:45:00 -0600

The only reason I even got started thinking about a "blog" for homeschooling was because my wife left on vacation for a week ... so I wanted to get on here and put in writing my thoughts and feelings about what my wife has been doing. I also believed that I could shed some light on homeschooling from a "mans" point of view.

So the first thing I want to say to my wife is ...

I AM SORRY ...

I am sorry for the things I have thought when we were on the phone and I was driving home from work ... I am sorry for the things I said after we got off the phone ... and most of all I am sorry that I have not done more to help you out and really be a "leader" for our home school. So today, on this Valentine's Day 2006 I pledge that I will become the real LEADER of our house for homeschool. I will help you with organization of the house so it is easier for all of you to use the computer and printout the pages and pages of "stuff" that you really need. I will really take over the bills and our finances ... because now I know that it is impossible to do what I have expected you to do these past two years. As far as the food ... well how dumb could I have been? I love to cook and to write recipes ... and I have cooked for the family ... but each time I did it so that I could get "something" for you not so I could help you and help lead our family. So now I vow that I will work with you to develop our meals and help to make it easier to put dinner on the table.

The last thing I would like to do is to document in here what I learned while you were on the cruise with all of Marybeth's girlfriends! This will take a few weeks ... so by the time you see this I should be done with telling you how much I have misunderstood what you are doing as a Homeschool Mom.

I also want you to know that I LOVE YOU. You are my best friend and my Lava! I vow to go back to our vows ... and Love you and our family as CHRIST loved the church.

Love

Mark