Day One Hundred Eighty-Five

In news that will surprise me forever and ever and ever, Mila is continuing to do a very solid job of getting her school work done each day. Most of her classes are self-paced and there's no real deadline, and YET. She continues to do the work.

She is a master procrastinator in training. The fact that she's doing anything before she's told she HAS to is ... amazing.

But she's doing things a full week ahead. Purposely. Because she actually likes what she's doing.

This whole thing has been a shock for three weeks now. I thought it would wear off, but just today she promised to work ahead more so she wouldn't have to do school stuff on Friday. It's not going to entirely work out the way she wants it to, but I'm game for her little experiment. If she manages to get another full day ahead between now and Friday, I'll only ask her to do one thing on Friday. I'm of the opinion that she's going to lose interest in all things school at some point, and it will be good if she's ahead of the schedule when she does it.

The reason she's managing to be interested is because her school work is very much so designed to be what she wants to do. She watches a learning video, plays a game that reinforces the topic, and then takes a test. That's the cycle. Over and over - video, game, test. It's the same for nearly all of her classes and it means she's never far from getting to watch a video or play a game, both of which are activities she would do all day every day, if given the chance.

That test thing, though. Surprisingly enough, she doesn't hate the tests. She gets instant feedback on how she did, which is a HUGE bonus. She's not one for delayed gratification, you know? But ... it turns out she has been using that instant gratification thing as a way to game the system. Last week I learned that Mila tries every answer on the test until she gets it right. She has figured out how to always get 100% just by trying over and over and not even reading the question.

Obviously, this had to stop. But when confronted with what she was doing, Mila said, "I'm learning from my mistakes. It's fine," and really. It's really it's very hard to argue with logic like that.

Day One Hundred Eighty-Four

A repost of an old recipe because new blog content is so 2014 ...

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The signs that summer is coming to an end are everywhere. We have Alexis' teacher assignment for third grade. (Which, THE HELL? THIRD GRADE?) Football was on my TV this weekend. The sun is setting earlier and earlier every night. Peaches are all over the farmers market.

That peaches thing is key, you know. I do love me some peaches.

Especially in a cobbler.

Especially, especially when paired with blueberries.

I don't know what it is about the two things that makes them so perfect together, but they are.

Yep. Perfection.

The cobbler topping in this recipe is one that I got from a friend nearly twenty years ago. Annnnnnd ... now I'm going to go drown my sorrow over writing "twenty years ago" in a sentence in a giant pile of Blueberry Peach Cobbler. I thought the summer flew by until I thought about the blink of time that was twenty years.

Blueberry Peach Cobbler

Fruit Filling
1 pint blueberries
3 medium peaches, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Cobbler Topping
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes/chunks
1/3 cup boiling water

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Throw the peaches and blueberries in a 9" square baking dish. Throw the sugar, cornstarch, allspice, vanilla, and lemon juice in there, too. Stir everything up gently to coat the fruit.

3. Toss that much in the oven while you make the cobbler topping.

4. To make the cobbler topping, whisk together the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Toss in the butter cubes and mix it all up with your hands. The goal is to not melt the butter, but rather to coat it well with the other stuff.

5. Pour the hot water into the cobbler mix and stir until the batter is just barely mixed.

6. Pull the fruit out of the oven. Drop the cobbler mix on top by the spoonful. It won't spread on like a cake mix, but rather be clumpy. Clumpy is good in this case.

7. Sprinkle a little granulated sugar on top of the cobbler.

8. Bake the cobbler at 400 degrees for 22-27 minutes. It's done when the top is a golden brown.

9. Allow the cobbler to cool for a bit before serving. It's super good when still just a little bit warm and topped with a giant mound of vanilla ice cream.

Day One Hundred Eighty-Three