On Saturday MaryAlice and I attended the CHAPLET Homeschool Conference and had the privilege of meeting Danielle Bean!

Danielle flew in from New Hampshire to speak at the conference, and MaryAlice and I acted as her chauffeurs for the weekend. What a blessing to meet Danielle in person. In my earliest days of parenthood, I remember reading Danielle’s first book, My Cup of Tea, and feeling very uplifted by her words and perspective. Unlike many other parenting books I had read, Danielle always seemed to focus on the positive side of things, drawing moral lessons from her personal parenting experiences, without being judgmental or preachy. I loved her approach to motherhood instantly, and I have followed her writing and her daily blog ever since.

Many of the builders see Danielle in a similar light, and, amongst ourselves, some of us jokingly call her “Queen Bean”

Danielle is truly a mother-encourager extraordinaire. Her talk, How to Handle Burnout, was full of humor, humility, and wisdom, as well as practical tips for excelling in my vocation as a mother, spouse, and friend. Since burnout is something that I have very recently struggled with (remember that awful 1st trimester!), the doubts I had about mothering a larger family AND homeschooling were still fresh in my mind. After hearing Danielle speak, and being around so many wonderful mothers, I left the conference with a renewed excitement about our plans for this fall.

And, as a funny aside…

I pulled into the parking lot of Danielle’s hotel Saturday morning and I turned too sharply, scraping the side of my minivan into an unforgiving yellow pole. Danielle watched the entire scene unfold, and then helped me back out and avoid further damage to my car. I was quite embarrassed! Danielle is of course so gracious that she assured me of her own driving trials, which I’m sure were grossly exaggerated for my own benefit.

As I was flipping through the local newspaper this morning, I came across a delicious recipe for Shrimp, Corn, and Tomato Stew. I clipped it out of the paper and started reading the recipe to see if I had the necessary ingredients, and was surprised to see that this recipe calls for 1 cup – yes, that’s 2 sticks!! – of butter. Now I must confess that I’ve never made a stew that calls for a rue, but 2 sticks of butter seems like a lot for a recipe that’s only supposed to serve 8 people! Does anyone know of a lighter alternative for making a rue that doesn’t compromise the taste and texture of the dish?

In a large coffee mug stir together 4 T flour, 4 T sugar, and 2 T. cocoa. Add 1 egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in 3 T milk and 2 T oil and mix well. Add a small splash of vanilla extract, and if desired, add 3 T chocolate chips. Mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t worry, it shouldn’t make a mess Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. You may decide to share this with someone if you’re feeling generous!

As I titled this post I laughed remembering writing an email to the builders in our pre-blog days titled “avocados and chicken pox” and Red wrote back how disappointed she was when discovered it was not about some obscure link between eating avocados and getting chicken pox.

So, on two unrelated notes:

I know Mary Alice has confessed a similar love of Costco’s organic peanut butter. My question is this. How does one stir in the oil that separates out from natural peanut butter without making a complete mess?? Is is possible? Every time I open a new jar I approach it with renewed resolve to get it right and not make a mess on my counter and leave a coating of oil all over the outside of the jar.

And every time I fail. Miserably.

Does anyone have any tricks? If so, please be specific! Despite my tenure in the engineering department of an ivy league university I am perplexed beyond belief!!

And also, since we are at the beach this week (this is auto-posting) –this just a friendly reminder from Texas to throw out all your old, expired sunscreen and stock up on new stuff. We have had friends get severely burned because they used expired sunscreen. It still takes me 45 minutes to get the kids in coat/gloves/hats, but I can lather a kid in sunscreen in my sleep!