I'm glad

the busy week is over.  I want some down time.    This week has been kind of good and kind of awful at times and I'd like to get off of the physical and emotional roller coaster for a while.   VBS and the field trip were good, but a lot of other things have been going not as well.  My work, for example,  has been very, very difficult this week with my computer locking up multiple times and my husband has been working on figuring out the cause but it's not completely resolved yet.   I never know when it's going to lock up and so I am kind of a nervous wreck about it.   It's kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  So far, so good today but I'm not counting on it to continue.  It might and it might not. 

This is what I feel like doing.

Field trip. :-)

We took a field trip yesterday to Fort Harrod.  It is a state park and therefore counts as one of our summer adventures.  It was also very educational and so is being counted as a field trip for this school year.  We've already taken 2 field trips and we aren't officially starting school until August 9. 

One of the coolest things about the state park there is this tree, it's an osage orange tree and it's about 200 years old.  It's grown along the ground for some reason and is great for the kids to climb on.   The thing that was not cool was the weather.  It rained just before we went which apparently turned the whole fort into a sauna.  We were lucky that the sun did come out for our visit, but boy was it steamy.  Still, fun.

July 28.

It's a busy week, but nothing compared to the summer reading week where we were only visiting our home occasionally, for 10 minutes at a time.  The younger two kids are having a great time.  The older one is just having a regular week, I guess.  He's teaching himself a programming language (unschooling!) called Python and making some games on the computer that are fun.  My daughter is almost finished with the beanbag chair and then the 20 year cleanup can begin.  I'll take a picture of the chair when it's completely done.   It's a good thing because Freckles seems magnetically attracted to that room and keeps going in there and coming out covered in styrofoam.  She came out the other day completely white with some even stuck to her eyeballs.  Eeek!   Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of that and this is just a regular, sans styrofoam, picture of Freckie. 

In the back of my mind, I'm planning school.  I've come up with a start date and a list of potential subjects.  I'm thinking of rotating everything on a 2 week basis so I can get everything in.   I'll try and post more information on our schedule as it becomes more fully formed. 

Another busy week.

This week the kids have VBS but since it's in the morning, I can drop them off and then come here to Mom's house to work using her high speed internet.  Then, I can go get the kids and come back here and continue to work.  I wish I could get it all done during the 3 hours while they're gone but I can't.   Still, I've got my dictionary back, I'm logged in as myself and there is work so I am definitely not complaining. 

I haven't really made much progress in planning school but I did make an extensive list of what I want the kids to learn and do this year.   It's probably way too much but some subjects I want extensive practice in (like math) and others we just need to touch lightly on to make sure they have some familiarity with them.  I'm also going to try and make sure that we have time this fall to do the rest of our adventure list and put in plenty of exercise and outdoor time.   I think I need to amp up the home-economics requirements too.  They all know how to do laundry and general cleaning, but they need to do more meal preparing and planning and a few other things.  They'll be so thrilled, but hey, they need to be able to do these things.  

Even if I don't have all of my plans in place, we'll get started, we'll add things as we go and drop off things that we get tired of or that don't work.  It'll be fine.  We'll probably start school on August 9. 

Okay, I did it.

I opened up my Rainbow Resource catalog and started looking through it.  So far, that's it.  I did fill out out a couple of blue cards to request that the library buy me a couple of things, but I haven't bought anything myself, I have not finalized any plans and I have no idea where to start. 

Is that progress?  Probably not. 

So many ways ...

that my workday can go wrong.  It's Murphy's law in action around here this week.  The other day it was a virus that made me lose my dictionary.  Since that happened, I've had to stay logged in to my husband's administrator account or not be able to access the internet.  I can't access the internet as myself for some reason.  My husband did come over here and get the dictionary working, but I walked away from the computer for a few minutes this morning (because I had no work - another thing that can go wrong and will) and when I came back, I was no longer signed in as my husband and couldn't get anything to work.  I couldn't re-sign in as my husband because he does not trust me with any of his passwords.  So finally, I got logged in as a new user under a new profile that my husband made for me when the virus stuff happened and it seems to be working although I've had to go in and make all the adjustments to Microsoft Word that my company requires (not letting it make automatic changes to things like 1/2 and hyphen, not correcting words with numbers in them, not spell checking things that are all capitalized, etc.) and so anyway, it is 1:27, I have barely even begun to work and I'm already tired.

I hate Murphy's law.

Addendum:   Now it's 1:35 and I've discovered that since I can't sign on as my husband or myself, I've lost my spell check dictionary. 

Again. 

:-(

Pumpkins.

We are not be the best gardeners in the world but our pumpkin vine is growing all over the backyard and we were pleased to find this big boy under the edge of the deck. 

and this one came up voluntarily in the front flower bed, probably because of the jack o lanterns being carved there last year. 

Where to begin?

 I've barely begun to look at what we are going to do this year.  I am starting to feel ready to get back to school, even though, of course, I haven't got half the stuff done this summer that I wanted to.  Pretty much the same thing happens every summer, so I am not surprised.  Anyway, for the planning, over the next few days I'm going to write down the subjects I want to teach, then I'll start looking at my catalog for resources and then I'll start trying to fit it into a schedule/checklist for each kid and one for me.  I have to tie my exercise to the kids school or I won't do it -- ya'll know how I am!  I might also put writing a few pages of a book (I really want to write a book) in there for myself to do.   Right now since I was cleaning and grocery shopping all day, I'm tired, so I don't know how far I'll get on the list. 

The picture is of the new board game we picked up today at Goodwill.  It's called Cranium Super Showdown.  It's really fun, similar to Apples to Apples but the judge has to decide who would win a contest.  In the picture above, the contest is a game of pin the tail on the donkey and the contestants are  Tarzan with a lightsaber and Dora the Explorer with an extra half an hour to get ready.  We laughed a lot while playing.  In this case, the judge wisely decided that Tarzan with a lightsaber, blindfolded, playing pin the tail on the donkey, would be too dangerous.   :-)

Adventures?

So far, here's our summer adventures list.  I think it may extend until fall since my oldest can't walk very well yet and the summer is just going so quickly.   We're going to try to do at least one today, in addition to cleaning.  I may actually start looking at my Rainbow Resource catalog and planning the school year.  Hey, it could happen.  Anyway, here's the list.

Camp somewhere. (This could include the living room.)


Go feed fish (at large local pond).

Go feed ducks at the lake.

Go for a walk someplace we've never walked. (you see so many things you don't see while driving.)
1.   By the lake.
2.   Across a big bridge.
3.   At a local campus.
4.   At a historical site.

Rent a movie from Redbox.

Get a pizza. (This may not seem special to anyone else, but we almost never do it. Of course mom won't be able to partake, but that's okay!)

Play a board game (or 4)

Go wade in the creek.  (We should have done this earlier because the water is getting pretty low).

Do a science experiment from one of our books that looks fun.

Make s'mores.

Go to a park.

Go to a movie.

Make alka seltzer rockets.

Water balloons.

Visit local museum or landmark.

Visit local state park.

Look through the telescope.

Go fishing.

Make giant bubbles.

Sidewalk chalk art.

Eat dinner outside on the deck.

Catch fireflies.

Pick blackberries.

Visit an orchard.

Go to the farmer's market.

There are a few more we've thrown in the jar including some I threw in and can't remember and some my daughter threw in. 

Attacked.

Everything was going well this morning.  I was working and idly looking about for graphic design programs for my oldest son when I was attacked by a virus.  I had to call my husband to come over and straighten it out and he did and now I am working again (an hour or so later) but now I've lost my custom dictionary and he's gone home now and I can't figure out how to get my dictionary back.  :-(  Yes, I have been a medical transcriptionist for many years, but no, I do not instinctively know how to spell every single word from arachnoiditis to Zenker's diverticulum, so of course I am being slowed down by looking things up when normally I wouldn't have to. 

One more picture.

A 2 hour cruise.

It will probably be the closest we'll ever get to a  real cruise ship - we took a 2 hour cruise on the Belle of  Louisville today.  It was homeschool day on the Belle.  It was a lot of fun and it really emphasized  to me how people from all walks of life homeschool.  Here is one of the bazillion pictures I took today.  The rest won't upload.  :-(   It started out cloudy and raining and we were afraid it wasn't going to be a good day, but the weather cleared.  It was a fun trip.  I had a lovely discussion with my 12 year old about kinetic friction (he explained it to me) and we are going to read a little about steamboats, so that makes this an educational trip and we've officially started our 2010-2011 school year. 

Starting to seem like a bad idea.

We watch a lot of Mythbusters.  It seems like almost every episode one of the guys on the show, Tory, says "This is starting to seem like a bad idea."  Like that time he agreed to fall off of a roof and let awnings slow down his fall or volunteered to get dragged behind a horse.  Anyway, here's our bad idea.  My daughter got the idea to make a bean bag chair and found a pattern on line.  On the pattern page, it said that you could go to the post office and they'd give you free packing peanuts, but if you didn't want to do that, try a furniture store dumpster for free styrofoam and just break it up.  So she got fabric and zippers and started making it and we went to the post office and asked.  It was a no go.  We priced the filler in the store and it was 25 dollars for about 1/4 of what she'd need for this big old bean bag chair.  That's out of her price range.  So we did the furniture store dumpster dive and came home with a bunch of styrofoam which she is breaking up into tiny pieces in her room.  The trouble is, when she comes out of her room, some of the styrofoam comes with her.  Also, Freckles really likes the fabric and sneaks in there to lie down on it and comes out covered in foam.  We vacuumed the living room 3 times last night.

Girl with styrofoam.

Freckles with her adornment of styrofoam.

Styrofoam stuck to wall with static.

This is starting to seem like a bad idea.

4H County Fair Results.

The kids did pretty well at the county fair, bringing home 45 dollars in prize money and numerous red, blue and purple ribbons*.   There were some surprises as at least one of the ones that we thought was very good did not get chosen to go to the state fair.   My 2 older kids will have 2 entries each at the state fair.   We're excited about it.    We love going to the state fair.

*I think every entry gets a ribbon.

Break time! Kinda.

So okay, after working today, going to pick my daughter up from a sleepover with a small stop at the farmer's market and a yard sale and an impromptu open house home tour of a house I've always wanted to see the inside of ... I'm done for the day and get a break.  There's only one teensy little problem.   I am not the kind of person who can go to work, the fair, summer reading, work, summer reading, homeschool meeting, work, summer reading, family swim night, work, summer reading, skate night, work and the summer reading pool party and the grocery and make a cobbler out of the peaches with bad spots, (the last 5 days in a nutshell) and keep a clean house.   This place is a mess and we have very little clean laundry, so guess what I get to do now?   Hey, at least I get to stay home and do it.  That's one good thing about housework.  :-P

Still busy.

We're doing summer reading again today but this is the last day of the regular activities and tomorrow, it looks like we'll just have work and go to the pool after that.  Not too bad.  Today, I could have spent the morning at home, but I wanted to go to a local orchard to get some peaches, so my daughter and I did that.  It's not as local an orchard as one would hope, but it's the closest I can find.  We have to drive about 40 minutes to get there.  We ended up buying peaches, tomatoes, peppers and blackberries and I think it's going to be so worth it.  We went straight from there to summer reading and we're still at the library so I haven't tasted any of it yet although my daughter ate about half of the blackberries between the orchard and here.   I think that even I have had enough of the library this week.  I'm tired of being here and I'm glad the week is almost over although we have enjoyed it, I'm just tired of not being home. 

We have been neglecting our summer adventure list a little because we've been busy and I think it's probably going to stretch into fall.  I need to go through the list and make sure that we do the ones that we can't postpone until fall so we can get those done.  Interestingly, I saw a book at Walmart the other day about summer fun with kids and it had almost all of the same ideas that are on our list, so I guess we're doing good.  Last night, the younger 2 kids set up the tent in the living room and slept in it, much to the confusion of the dogs, but the kids enjoyed it.  I was going to camp with them, but they decided not do to the air mattress and I would have had to sleep on the floor so I wimped out.  Some things you just can't do after  a certain age or maybe it's a certain weight?  I don't know which it is but sleeping on the floor makes my bones hurt. 

Only 25 more minutes and I get to go HOME! 

Thinking and keeping busy.

It continues to be a very busy week.  We've been doing summer reading every day for 2 hours,  I've been working and we also had a meeting with the homeschool group for last night.  Tonight, we're supposed to go to the city pool (we usually do on Wednesday) and tomorrow we've got skate night and Friday night summer reading will be hosting a pool party.  I don't know if we'll do all of them.  It seems like a bit much to me.  I'm getting tired, not as tired as I would have been before I went gluten free, but still tired. 

In the back of my mind, I have been thinking about our curriculum choices and activities for fall.  Last night I learned of a person who does guitar lessons for 5 dollars!  I'm excited because most lessons are 20 dollars for half an hour.  So I'd like to put at least a couple of kids in music lessons.  One kid is going to have to go to occupational therapy for his handwriting/dysgraphia issues.  We are thinking of doing a Spanish co-op with the homeschool group.   I still have the biology that we had last year but didn't ever do much of.  I still have the grammar program we had last year that we didn't finish due to stress (if you don't know about my stress this year, go back and read my January-May posts).   We have teaching textbooks for math and math review.  It seems like the basics are mostly covered already but I would like to add in some things, I just don't know what or how.  That's the part I need to work on.

Late night swim.

Last night I decided to get into the pool at 9:00 p.m. and the 2 younger kids got in with me.  It was fun watching the bats and the lightning bugs instead of our usual blue sky and horseflies.  :-P    It was nice not to have to put on sunscreen.  We played a game of tag in the pool, then floated around and watched the sky for a while.  I don't know about the kids yet, but I slept like a baby afterwards.  (or maybe like a teenager since babies really don't seem to sleep all that soundly...).

Today, we've got summer reading and a homeschool group meeting.  Busy, busy.

Many things.

We've been up to a lot of different things around here.  It's been a very busy day.  First, we had to get up early and take the 4H county fair entries to the fairgrounds and get them registered.  That took a while because we had several projects and there seems to be quite a bit of paperwork to do on each one.  We could figure out which category to enter my daughter's homemade littlest pets in (she's made another smaller one since I put that one ((pictured above)) on my blog a while back).  Finally, we entered it in the home economics section.  The registration person didn't know how to describe it so I told him it was a stuffed cat and baby.  My daughter looked at me indignantly and said that the big one was a cat and the smaller one was a chipmunk, so the boy writing the description wrote "Cat with adopted chipmunk" on the form. 

Then, I went to work.  At 1:20 I stopped work so I could take the younger 2 kids to the library summer reading program.  They don't actually ask the kids to read for the summer reading program anymore because they feel like the kids have to read so many books during the school year that they don't want to burden them.  Is it just me or is something wrong with this picture?  Anyway, the kids made a water garden/container pond in a jar with live plants which they got to bring home and then they had a drawing for door prizes.  My daughter won a betta fish in the drawing, so now we have a fish.  I hope he lives longer than the last ones did.   We've already had one "I think he's dead!" scare.   Tomorrow's theme for the summer reading program is a pirate party.

After the summer reading program, I had to work for another hour and then we finally got to come home.  By this time it was after 5 o'clock.    My husband had cooked pork chops last night so I cooked a couple of veggies to go with them and we had dinner.   Now we need to decide what to do with our evening.  Maybe the pool? 

In other news, I won a blog award, a Versatile Blogger Award from Waterdreamer.   Thanks for noticing me!   I don't wanna pick 15 other bloggers to award it to because I'm very tired today but I will share 7 random things about myself, just for your reading enjoyment.

1.   I have had about 14 different jobs including being a receptionist, a head start teacher and a food stamp caseworker. 
2.   I put salt on butter pecan ice cream, yes on purpose.
3.   Except for when I was in college and lived in a dormitory, I have always lived within the same 3 mile radius. 
4.   My toenails are currently blue.
5.   I check so many books out of the library that today one of the librarians publicly thanked me for boosting their circulation numbers.
6.   I grew up with one brother but was reunited with my long-lost sister, the child from my Dad's first marriage, 2 years ago.
7.   I like to make a lot of lists. 

Thanks again for my award!

Summer passing so quickly!

 I was talking to the lady in the bookstore the other day and she said that school for the public school kids starts on August 3.   That's a little over 3 weeks.  I find that it helps me be a little bit more disciplined if we follow the public school schedule somewhat.  So that means I really had better get on the ball and decide what we are going to do this year!  This is my oldest son's last year of homeschooling and my last year to squeeze in all those subjects that I've always wanted to teach and haven't.   I feel kind of overwhelmed.

I'm going to focus on what I need to get done today, the county fair 4H entries.   The pictures need to be framed and everything needs to be gathered up.  Tomorrow, I'll worry about curriculum.  Maybe.  If I'm not too focused on working, summer reading and calling my son's ankle surgeon to ask if it is normal for it to still hurt this much. :-(

Feeling kind of crabby.

Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?  Maybe it was because my husband turned on a bright light when I was sleeping or then when I went back to sleep the phone rang and woke me up, but whatever the reason I got up crabby this morning.   I'm at Mom's now, working and trying to get in a better mood but I've got a headache and I am typing echocardiograms so I don't know if that's going to work out.  I am happy about not having to work tomorrow so I need to focus on that.  I haven't had Sundays off in 8 years.  Wow, I guess it was 9 years in May.  That is the longest I've worked anywhere, even though I quit for about 6 weeks last year (thankfully they took me back) it still counts because before I quit it was still the longest I've worked anywhere.  The only time in my adult life that I have not worked is one year from when my oldest turned 1 year old until he turned 2 and during that time I completed my medical transcription training so I don't know if that counts. 

Anyway, I am really feeling the need to decide what we are going to do with the kids for homeschool this year, but still have not worked on it even the littlest bit.  I guess we all 5 need to sit down and hammer out a plan?   Blah. 

I think maybe some chocolate would help.  My chocolate flavored Slim-Fast just is not getting it today. 

:-0

Slow transformation.

I've been gluten free since November of last year about the same time my son broke his ankle, coincidentally, so I know it's been about 7 months.  I feel like a different person.   First of all, the 'brain fog' that has characterized a lot of my life is gone.  I don't have daily headaches.   I don't ache all over (fibromyalgia) and I'm not exhausted and needing a nap every day.  I did take a short nap, about 15 minutes, one day last week because the dogs had woken me up the night before and I was sleepy.  Prior to giving up gluten, naps were my life.  I planned every day around my nap.  I planned vacations around my naps.  I'd get up in the morning feeling okay, but right after lunch, I'd have brain fog, a headache and all over body pain.  The only thing that would help would be a nap.  If I had to go anywhere during my regular nap time, I had to medicate the pain with Tylenol. (I didn't feel comfortable taking it every day as much as I needed it because it can damage your liver).  My joint pains are also gone but I'm not sure if that's temporary because they've always come and gone so we'll see about that, I guess.  I hope they don't come back. 

The thing is, I'm not sure how to act now.  I don't feel confident planning a full day without knowing that I can come home and take a nap if I need to.   This is going to take some getting used to after 20 years of feeling pretty awful all the time.  

To sum up, the symptoms that are better or have completely disappeared:
brain fog
headaches (still have one occasionally but not every day)
body aches/fibromyalgia
restless legs
complete daily exhaustion by 2:00 pm/nap.
joint pains.

I don't think I'll be going back on gluten any time soon.  :-)

Getting a few things done.

We are doing some long overdue spring cleaning this week, working on it for a while each day after I come home from work.   In the boy's room, spring cleaning is taking on more of the character of an archeological dig and they are finding things they haven't seen in a while.  The way it has been working is I send all 3 kids into the boy's room, because my daughter's room doesn't need to be cleaned up and she is (obviously) the only one of the 3 of them with much cleaning skill.  They don't want me in there because I use way too many trash bags when I clean their rooms.  So I've been doing things like cleaning out the fridge, the cabinets and washing curtains and they work constantly on that one room.  It's actually going better than I expected.  They have found the floor!   Usually they argue a lot when asked to clean together, but this week, they're not.  It helps that we're listening to Ranger's Apprentice on CD while we clean.  Entertainment definitely helps the cleaning go better.  

Reading.

Triumph: Life After the Cult--A Survivor's Lessons  I picked this up at the library recently and I'm actually reading it.  I read Ms. Jessops first book called Escape, about her escape from the FLDS.  It's interesting.  That book was about her own personal story and this one is more about the kids who were taken from the YFZ ranch in Texas a couple of years ago.  She was (is?) a public school teacher and her opinion is very much in favor of the public schools and more homeschooling laws.  She says that having stricter homeschooling laws in Texas would be good for the kids of the FLDS.  It made me think. 

Homeschoolers tend to always be against more regulation because most of us are doing a good job and we know it and we don't want or feel that we need government oversight.  My youngest son is a right brained learner and they have a tendency not to learn to read until later than left brained learners.  He started reading really well at 10 and now (he's just turned 12.) we have a hard time keeping him in books, he reads so much.  I wonder if we'd had to report to the government during that time he wasn't really reading, ages 6-10, if we would have been made to put him in school or fail him a grade? 

But, in the case of the FLDS, I don't know, maybe stronger homeschooling laws would help?   Her case is that the kids are not educated about the world outside the compound and they are married or working long hours as young as 12 and that the cult hides a lot of child abuse, which she believes would be detected at the public schools.  Whether it would or not, I don't know.   There is no perfect answer. 

She also says that only certified teachers should teach children.  I do think parents can do an excellent job without certification, I've seen it, but we as homeschool parents need to know when there is something we can't teach and find someone who can.  For example, if my husband was not able to teach Algebra II this year, we'd definitely need to find a math tutor.   I know enough to know that I shouldn't even attempt it. 

Really, really random thoughts.

That is what this blog is all about, random thoughts, right?  (Look at the header ;-P)  Anyway, here are some of my random thoughts for today - and trust me, they are not related to each other at all.   

Cascade works better in the dishwasher than I could have imagined.  I thought the store brand would do just as well and I have always used them, but then another blogger (someone whose blog I can't find my way back to) said that Cascade is worth the money, so I tried it and it is.

Heaven to me would include a lot of summer things, hammocks, pools, watermelon, peaches, flowers, homegrown tomatoes, butterflies and blackberries, but no mosquitos, ticks or allergy eyes.   

Oldest son is not walking today.  Yesterday he must've gotten ahead of himself, because today his ankle hurts.  :-(

Finally, we got started on our spring cleaning!  Better late than never, right?   I made a list of all the things I want to get done for "spring" cleaning and the kids started on the boy's room and I started on the kitchen.   We made some really good progress.  I am very proud.   I got a NCIS DVD from Netflix today and I'm cleaning for a while, then watching NCIS for a while, my own clean and screen. 

I made my youngest get in the pool.  Is that bad?  His sister really wanted him to so I told him that he had to because he needed the exercise.  I feel funny making someone do what should be a fun activity (and he is having fun out there, I just checked), but he tends to choose inside things too often lately.

Thai rice noodles make a really good substitute for spaghetti for non-gluten eaters.*  I bought them a month or so ago and just got around to making them today.  I really enjoyed them with meat sauce and parmesean cheese.    Some of you who know me personally will note that I am cooking again.  For a while after my Dad passed away in January, I was not cooking, not reading, not homeschooling and not cleaning.  My family picked up the slack while I was in a grief induced kind of inertia.  I still miss Dad very much, but I am beginning to do things again.   I still am not reading much, which is not like me, but there it is.  I hope to get that part of myself back soon.  I used to really enjoy reading.   :-(

Reading reminds me of my next random thought -- my daughter got a letter from the county attorney today regarding an overdue library book.  Can you believe that?  They really want that book back.   We had planned to take it yesterday, but we forgot.  I guess we'd better get on that.  I don't want my daughter to have to do any jail time.

*Update:   Apparently these taste exactly like the real thing because I just went in the kitchen to get some more and found that my youngest son had eaten the rest of my gluten free 'spaghetti" instead of eating the regular spaghetti leftovers and he didn't even notice a difference.   Although, you should take his opinion with a grain of salt, because my daughter said that he once ate taco meat on a bun because he thought it was Manwich ...

He walks! and Blackberry Cobbler.

Yesterday my oldest son did a lot of walking without his crutches!  He had to put ice on it last night, but hey, it's progress!    

We delivered our meal yesterday.  I sincerely hope they enjoyed it.   My friend is not feeling so well after her surgery, poor thing.  After delivering their meal, we came home and made hamburgers, baked fries and a gluten free blackberry cobbler that was very good.  I found the recipe here .  My mom picked blackberries yesterday with her sister and gave us some. 

Blackberry Cobbler
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 cups flour (I use Bob's Red Mill gluten-free)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 cups blackberries 
2 cups boiling water

Cream 1 cup of sugar with the butter; add flour, baking powder, salt, and milk; mix well. Pour into a 12x8x2 baking pan (or an 8-9 inch square pan if you've halved the recipe). Pour blackberries over batter. Sprinkle remaining sugar over berries. Pour boiling water over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

I halved the recipe, substituted brown sugar for half of the white and added about 1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon.  (I almost never do a recipe exactly as it is written.)  I had never seen any recipe that called for pouring boiling water over the top of the rest of the ingredients and I had some doubts that it would work, but it did.   It was extremely yummy. 

Things to do today.

I'm working this morning, although I don't seem to be getting much accomplished.  I have tomorrow off and then I'll work Sunday, but then, after that, I have been approved to switch from Sundays to Saturdays after I-not-sure-how-many-years of working on Sundays!  I'm happy about it.  I think Saturday will be better for me.  Sunday is more of a family day for us and now both my husband and I will be off work on Sundays.  Much better.

Later today I will be taking a meal to a dear friend who had surgery yesterday.  I hope she's doing well.  I'm going to take my standard friend-in-need meal of a chicken pot pie.  Comfort food.    At first I thought that we wouldn't have time for a summer adventure today, but then I thought about the 'good deed' summer adventures.  We'll count this as one of those and I'll let the kids help.  My daughter usually assembles and bakes the pies anyway because she just likes to.  I may have her make a 'get well soon' card as well.