Holy Week

My little second graders made their first confession yesterday, after I went. yuck. It's bad enough knowing your sins, then confessing them to the priest. It is supposed to make you feel better but I just feel worse afterwards.

When I was growing up, we were not allowed to watch TV during Holy Week unless it was a religious movie. Did you ever see the movie, "The Robe"? Well my siblings and I did. We were so desperate to watch TV, we found that in the TV Guide, got my mother's approval and sat through a terrible movie. Even as pre-teens, we knew it was a bad movie. But hey, it was TV, so we watched it.

We tried that one year. The kids and I watched the Greatest Story Ever Told and Jesus of Nazareth. The latter is wonderful. The scene where Peter realizes he has to leave his family to follow Jesus, very powerful. Kate cried. When he denies knowing Jesus, we all cried.

Another year, we tried saying the rosary every night curing Lent. That lasted about 2 weeks and by Holy Week we just said it 2x a week. Our intentions were good. I've been trying not to curse this week and I have already blown that. I'll keep trying.

What I am really looking forward to is the secular things we have planned this week. We are leaving around 2pm on Wednesday and going to my brother Matt's apartment in Queens. I want to go to "The Top of the Rock", "ESPN Zone" , "Mid-Town Comics" and a Borders or BN store. We have 2 days before we go out to the Island to see my parents, so there is lots of time to do fun stuff. Kate gets measured for her bride's maid gown on Saturday. Hey, maybe we will go to St. Patrick's Cathedral to say a prayer on Good Friday.


I will keep you posted on where we go and what we see. I'll say a decade of the rosary for you, will you say a prayer for me? I feel like I need them badly today.

Good People

I have been fortunate to work with some wonderful people over my years at Berlin Brothersvalley. I need to relate a story about a young man I work with and the people who have helped bring him into his own over the years.

This little guy was removed from a home where his diabetic mother (now deceased) in a wheelchair was slapped around by the dad and he and his brother were abused and neglected. CYS did the right thing and the children were removed from the home. I worked in the HS at the time but people in town said rats scurried from the trailer when it was hauled away.

I met this little guy "Jay" in the middle of grade 3. He returned to our district in foster care. He was hyper and stood by his desk to write and his foster family was overwhelmed with his level of need. He was tested for an IEP and knowing the trauma he had experienced, was identified Emotional Support. He became quieter, attentive and eager to please in grade 4. He stayed in regular education and marveled everyone with his math abilities.

I watched this little guy move into his aunt and uncle's home, who I forget are such. They look like they could be his grandparents. They adopted him and love him and want the best for him. They get mad at him when he gets C's! I watched and encouraged him and tried to get him out of his shell. Teachers have encouraged him and believed in him and his grades were decent throughout the middle school years and (only a PA teacher can appreciate this) he left 8th grade proficient in reading and advanced in Math.

The team saw his natural talent in computers and math grow in HS. This kid has taken many hard classes our school offers. Chem II, Algebra III/Trig, Web Design, 3D Modeling & Animation, CAD classes, etc. I am happy to say he rose to the challenge for each class. Math, computer and design classes - A's, Science's B's & C's. He is a great kid. Still tiny, still quiet and never quite fitting in but a smile that will brighten anyone's day.

Now in grade 12, he earned an A on his senior project, designing speaker boxes for his car, using the CAD program. He is taking Bio II and wasn't planning on going on his Bio II trip to Wallop's Island in the Spring. Well "his school mother" was not going to see that happen and when I was talking to some collegues in Elem and Middle school, everyone offered to help pay for his trip. I sold more candy for him than I have ever sold in a fundraiser for my own kids and many teachers in the district donated. Some who I never thought would. Good, kind people who are happy to see a child succeed. A little guy who could have been a tragic story of the neglect and abuse many of us in the service field see every day. Well he is NOT one of the casualities. He is a success.

In the fall he is going to Penn Highlands to study computer aided drafting. Berlin community, his family and school family have much to be proud of.

Snow Day Cooking -Torta

 

 

This is the Torta that my grandmother taught me to make! It is good hot out of the oven or the next day right out of the fridge.When I was pregnant with Jack, I craved this. I remember calling her for the recipe and she laughed as she did not really have a recipe. "Well you add some spinach to cooked rice and add a little bit o' onion, some milk and cheese" This is what I came up with and my kids love it. She made it with all freshly grated parmesan cheese but I use different kinds. When the kids were little they liked just eating the rice mixed with spinach and cheese and they never ate the crust. As they got older, they began to enjoy the crust so I added it to the recipe.

Here it is!!!

2 cups uncooked rice (cooked according to package directions) (sometimes I cook it with chicken broth and some garlic)
10 oz box of frozen spinach, cooked, squeeze out all the extra water and chop even finer (use a food processor if you have one.
1 small onion, chopped fine and cooked until softened with 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil.
Mix all these ingredients together

Add about 1/2 cup milk
1-2 eggs ( see how dry it looks and add the second egg if you think it needs it)
4 cups shredded cheese - it can be a mixture of mozzerella, provolone, cheddar and/or parmesan

add these to the rice mixture, add more milk if it looks dry

Crust:
2/3 cup flour,
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon olive oil

Mix these ingredients together until blended
cover with bowl and let rest- you can actually make this first and let it rest while you are cooking the other ingredients

Knead the dough after it has rested about 15 minutes, after you knead it, roll it out with a rolling pin so it will cover the bottom and up the sides of your 13 by 9 baking dish.

butter or oil a 13 by 9 inch baking dish (I like using olive oil)

Lay the thin crust into the baking dish
Add the rice and cheese mixture, spreading it out evenly. Fold over any extra crust.(you can oil the top of the crust that you folded over to help it brown nicely.

You can sprinkle fresh grated parmesan over the top, layer some tomato slices over it even mushrooms if you would like (This was not part of the "original" recipe but Kate likes the tomato on it and so do I, Jack doesn't like it.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes until the top gets browned.

Let rest about 10 minutes, cut, eat and ENJOY an authentic Northern Italian meal.

Snow Day Cooking-PIZZA

It starts with this 97 cent pizza crust mix...just add water. Then add some ragu pizza quick sauce- meat on one side for Jack and veggies on the other - for Kate....LOTS of cheese.



Then bake.









It is the best pizza I have ever made. The kids don't even want me to order any longer.


The one to the right is made on whole wheat tortilla, with cheese, yellow pepper, mushrooms and tomato.

THE OLYMPICS

I love the Olympics! Every 2 years when it is on, my kids and I watch the opening ceremony together and watch the athletes, cheering on the Americans and the under dogs and our nationalities: Italy, Ireland and England...so basically everybody. Looking for the challenging competitors and sucking up every personal story from the Chinese figure skaters to Jack's new favorite: Lindsey Vonn. We even watched the curling today and enjoyed the Simpsons episode on Sunday night where Marge and Homer won the gold for the USA in curling. We also took the trivia test on USA network, we scored a measily 4/10 but they have a new quiz everyday.

It also becomes a mini-history/geography lesson. We talk about the different countries and where they are located, google-earthing (did I just make that a verb?) the cities and different venues. We talked about the tragedy in Munich, which I knew little about so it made me read up on it. We talked about WWII and how the Olympics were cancelled during that time. Did not get to the boycotts of the 80's yet. We talk about Communism and China, which in my day was USSR and East Germany. Now, poor Russia has only one bronze medal.

They asked me what were the first Olympics that I remember. I had to look at a listing of all the years and places and realized I was Kate's age: 1976 the Innsbruck Olympics and Dorothy Hamill.  I had that haircut for a number of years to follow! The best were the 80 Olympics in Lake Placid with the Miracle on Ice. That was mezmerizing and wonderful and a wonderful story of the Underdog coming out on top. I will need to rent that movie. My droning on and on about it, did not do it justice. I remember running home from school because the game against yugoslavia (I think) was for the gold and it was on at 10am so we couldn't watch it. My mom did and told us all about it. There was no Tivo or taping it, no IMing or texting to find out about it in school. WOW 30 years ago. I am old.

The one movie we did rent about 2 years ago, for the 2008 Bejing Olympics was actually called "The First Olympics" It was a great story about some Harvard boys trying to get to Greece in 1896 for the Olympics. It is a great movie and if you haven't seen it, it will be a good one to rent.

Looking forward to the next 10 days and more people, achieving their dreams, over coming the odds, persevering and on these cold snow days, inspiring me to get off the couch!!!!

Snow Days :)

Okay-we have added two days onto the school year and have no Easter Break but I am trying to be optimistic. Stuck in the house with Jack and Kate has been....wonderful. I really enjoy their company and cheris every minute of this weird break. I can't really go into work, the roads are nasty. I only picked up TP today. I have been cooking ... lots, shoveling, doing laundry and dishes. When I am in the kitchen, I can hear them playing together and it is nice. We watched some movies, played Wii and also some board games. I also made them a fun breakfast today. No school again tomorrow. Gotta get my creative juices going for another fun day.

Maybe, if the roads aren't too bad, a road trip to Johnstown to see Percy Jackson? I am just glad I am getting paid tomorrow!

Kate is calling me for a game of Life.

College Memories and Dancing!

My dear friend Cathy just blogged about college memories and "being free to do what you want when you grow up" So I thought I would blog about some college stuff too. 

My college roommate Kelly, lost her father to cancer last week. I met Dick Devine the last weekend in August 1981. He was a fun loving guy and I remember how he paid the band to stay longer at Kelly's wedding.  At the funeral there were photos of his life and I feel honored to say there was a picture of the two of us dancing at that wedding! Kelly has a wonderful family. Her parents were so "cool" and so open and inviting. I spent weekends at her home throughout college. We were both special Education majors and had many classes together. She is a true, good friend and when we get together each summer, our kids love spending time together.

I didn't mean for this to be a sad blog. I am nostolgic for those innocent days of college when we would dance in the hallways when our friend Lisa would play all our favorites at the Marywood College radio station. Whenever I hear those 80's tunes I think of that crazy dancing and making popcorn and enjoying being girls who were studying to be teachers, musicians, dieticians, nurses or the next business mogul. 

Say a prayer for Kelly and her family. Dance this weekend! Whether it's out in public or in your home to a stupid old radio tune! But dance and love life. Dick Devine will be very happy!