Church Dinners

I love church dinners.  I have been a Baptist church girl my whole life long. That’s not lying – my parents took me to a Baptist Church almost as soon as I was born and until I was sick in the summer of 7th grade, I could count on my fingers the number of Sunday morning church services I'd missed.  So, when I tell you that I’ve eaten a lot of church food, that’s the absolute truth. . .

 “Dinner on the grounds” – that’s what we used to call it,  I think it’s called that because you eat on the church grounds. I’ve eaten in fellowship halls, in Sunday School rooms, on a blanket outside, standing, holding my plate in my hands.   When my daddy pastored at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, which is in-between Davenport and Loughman, they had and still have the best outdoor pavilion for dinner on the grounds I’ve ever seen. Do you know how much food can fit down that table in the center?

 There’s a unique set of smells that comes with dinner on the grounds. Of course, for most church dinners, you simply must have fried chicken.  Add in ham,  macaroni and cheese,  and casseroles – oh the casseroles.  Potato salad,  pasta salad, cole slaw, potatoes – scalloped, au gratin, it’s all good.  Butter beans, lima beans, green beans, it just goes on and on and on.

And then, there’s the dessert table.  There’s always banana pudding and chocolate cake. – it’s obligatory for Baptists.  Personally, I think it’s the 11th Commandment  -“Thou shalt have chocolate cake and banana pudding.”  One time at one of our churches, a lady made banana pudding specially for my daddy – and left out the bananas.  It might be better that way!  Mrs. Viola Wooten used to make a cake that looked like this:



It was fabulous!!! Those little tiny skinny layers and the  homemade chocolate frosting - I can still taste it.  My mama always made 7 Minute Frosting for her cakes  – it’s made with white Karo syrup and it gets crystal-ly after a while. Most ladies have their thing - certain recipes that they are known for. It's a slippery slope to make something someone else is known for. It can be a scary thing.  Personally, I only bring things Publix makes. Today I had some grape salad that I was sure Debbie C made, but she didn't.  I'll always eat Gail Thompson's potato salad - it tastes like my mama's. 

Of course, now, we call them “Fellowship Dinners." We eat at nice tables, with flower arrangements and cushy chairs. It's a lot different than eating outside in a metal chair that is sinking into the ground. Some things are still the same - you can still smell chicken when it’s over.  There really doesn’t have to be a reason.  Sometimes it’s as simple as the 5th Sunday of the month.  My church fed my family after my mother’s funeral and my dad’s funeral.   Today, my church celebrated our Music Minister’s retirement.  He’s been serving God and churches for 45 years. It was bittersweet - we are happy for him, but sad for us.  Sometimes it’s a happy reason, sometimes it’s sad but the food is always good.   
If you’ve never had dinner on the ground, you just don’t know what you’re missing. I love church dinners - there's nothing like them in the whole world. 

Back to My Blog

So I’ve decided to come back to my blog.   I originally started my blog as part of my assignments when I was taking classes in London in 2008. After I got home, I kept writing it, but lately, since I started my "new" job (I’m in the 4th year!) I just haven’t written much.  I really don’t even know why. I like writing this, even if no one reads it. I write about stuff that makes me laugh, makes me crazy, whatever.  It is sometimes just completely random thoughts from my head.    My mind is a crazy place and sometimes with no focus, it’ s an absolute mess.  I write just like  I think so I’m positive it’s not always grammatically correct, but oh well. It's mine and I can do with it what I want.
The title of this is “At Least We’re Not Being  Bombed by the Nazis.”  There’s a reason for that. During the 6 weeks, I was in London, we heard that during our Orientation to the FSU Study Centre.  There are tunnels and walkways underground that are used to get from one building to another during certain times of the day.  During World War II, those tunnels were used during air raids. The Director of the Study Centre said that even if you had to use them late at night,  and it was a little creepy, and a longer walk, at least you weren't being bombed by the Nazis at the same time.  When I made the blog, I just liked the way that sounded.  It also puts a lot of things in n perspective. No matter how bad things get and how crazy my life gets, at least we’re not being bombed by the Nazis. 

So, what’s going on in my life this week? I’ll tell you.  This week would have been my parent’s 58th wedding anniversary and my daddy would be 80 this week. That’s a little sad to me.  Also on August 30th, some dear, dear friends of mine celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  Today  Mr. Donald said to our kids in Junior Church  “It seems like just yesterday.”   That’s a great thing to say.  There are three couples I know who have been married 50 years this year. That’s quite an accomplishment. A lot of people don’t last to 50 days or 50 months, must less 50 years. It takes a lot of hard work.


I start checking out books to students this week, finally!   I’ve been moving textbooks for 2 weeks. I figured out one week we moved quite literally over a ton of books. It’s craziness what it appears it takes to teach little kids to read and write and do math. Yay for library time!!! Yay for seeing students besides at the bus!! Yay for reading!!! 

Textbook Inventory

So one of the things that happens in my job is I get stuck doing textbook inventory. That’s one of those things that technically isn’t my job, but it’s one of those things that people just expect me to do. It’s just like what it sounds like – I have to take an inventory of all the textbooks at my school.  Sounds pretty simple right?

At my old school, I could do textbook inventory in a day. Well, once I got rid of over 6000 books that we didn’t use any more that no one had gotten rid of for YEARS .  Tomorrow morning I’m going to collect the middle school books at my school.  It will take me a couple of hours.  So many of our books are online now, I only have class sets to check in and teacher’s editions.   Ah, but my school now is not just a middle school.  . . and elementary textbooks are a nightmare.

Our county uses Reading Wonders for elementary school. Let me attempt to explain what it takes to teach little kids how to read.  For Grades 2-5, every teacher gets 2 books per student – a literature anthology and a reading/writing workshop. Yes, 2 hardback books per student. Luckily, at our school we departmentalize for grades 4 and 5, so even though each ELA teacher teachs two groups of students, they only get one set of books. Each teacher also gets a Teacher’s Edition for each chapter. . .  That’s a LOT of books. 
Oh, but that’s still not all.  Kindergarten and first grade. Oh my!
Kindergarten doesn’t get textbooks for students.  They get big books instead. 43 big books for each teacher to be exact. Yes, I said 43. . . each teacher. Plus all the teacher’s editions.

But NOTHING beats first grade. It apparently takes 100’s of items to teach first graders how to read. . . They don’t get 2 books per students.  They get (are you ready for this???) 8 books per student. Yes 8!  4 Reading Writing Workshops – one for each unit and 4 Literature Anthologies – one per unit. They also get teacher’s editions – 6 of them. Then, just in case that isn’t enough, they also get 22 big books.  One of my first-grade teachers had 216 items checked out when she came to me.   This is what it takes to teach first grade. 

None of this even counts Math Teacher’s Editions- that’s the green books!   And we also are NOT counting Leveled Readers.  Tiny little books in 4 levels for each story in the book.  It’s unbelievable. Today, leveled readers almost pushed me over the edge. 

Now, here’s my question. I was a late reader.  I didn’t learn to read until the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade.  (Of course, I did start kindergarten when I was 4 so I was a baby.)   My teachers didn’t have all that stuff – but they taught me to read. I remember my kindergarten teacher having blow-up people for every letter – Mr. M had a  munchy mouth, Mr. F had Funny feet. and Ms. A said “Ah, ah choo!”  I don’t believe that kids today are dumb.  I don’t believe teachers now are ignorant.  What’s the deal?  I would be fascinated to see how much money our county spends on textbooks.

Now, why do I LOVE textbook inventory so much? So many reasons. I can’t ever do it fast enough to make people happy.  It takes a LONG time to check in that many books. You have to check them in, put them in storage and attempt to get them in some sort of order so you can give them all back out again.  And the storage rooms are hot. I was sweating before 8:30 and that was just the beginning.  And just for funsies?  I  get to take them all up, store them all, and check them all back out again in 8 weeks.  Yes, 8 weeks.  Seems like a lot of work for 8 weeks doesn’t it?? 

A Partially Plagiarized Post about Pumpkin Bread

So some of this came from my sister.  In order to avoid plagiarizing and to add my own two cents, I’m using different fonts and colors.  My thoughts look like this: 

If it’s in this font and this color, it’s my sister Robyn’s story! 

The story of the pumpkin bread.
All of my life, my mom made pumpkin bread. My dad loved it, and we all loved it, but the ones who probably loved it most was Daddy and my youngest sister, Sandi. (That’s me!) A lot of people know Sandi, but not everyone knows that her real name is Saundra Jean. She was named after some really good friends of our parents, Saundra and Jean Scott. That is important later!

Mom made pumpkin bread for everything - when we were in school, she would make it for our teachers and we would take it to them wrapped in tin foil. In later years, Daddy became the "mixer". Mom would throw all the ingredients together and Daddy mixed it for her. I would call from time to time and get the recipe and make some (often for my boys to take to their teachers wrapped in foil), but I always jotted the recipe down, made it and threw the recipe away - I never wrote it in one of my recipe books.  I have never, ever made pumpkin bread in my life.  I just eat it.  My mom used to call me sometimes and say she had warm pumpkin bread – to come and get some. It would be warm with butter melted on it – fabulous!!!

When Mom went to heaven unexpectedly in May of 2001, it wasn't until the fall that Daddy and Sandi began to ask - how are we going to get our pumpkin bread? I searched to be sure that I didn't have it written down, and then I began to bake recipes I could find, trying to make it just like Mom's. I made many pumpkin breads for a couple of years - and although they were always good, they weren't just right.   They were always a little off. Sometimes the color wasn’t right, or the texture. My friend Mrs. Sharon makes pumpkin muffins that are pretty close. . .

When Daddy decided to sell their house and was cleaning it out he found an old cook book called "Glades Goodies" from the Pahokee Junior Woman's Club. Inside was written "For Betty, From Cecelia, Christmas 1968". The book just opened up to a worn out page that was stained and old - and there was the recipe for pumpkin bread. I still didn't get it right until I finally remembered that Mom always substituted the cinnamon and nutmeg with allspice - that was when it was "right".  Okay, here’s the weird thing – I knew about the allspice thing.  I have no idea what goes in pumpkin bread,  and I don’t even know what allspice is, but somehow, I knew Mama put it in pumpkin bread.  Since Daddy has joined Mom in heaven, it is Sandi that still always asks for pumpkin bread - usually for her birthday in October. Making pumpkin bread always makes the house smell like Mom's…....and brings back such happy memories- and - guess who submitted the recipe into this cook book? Saundra Scott!

My sister wrote this today, because she brought me pumpkin bread for my birthday.  Sometimes, when I eat it, it makes me cry.  I don’t love pumpkin spice everything – I don’t even particularly like pumpkin pie, but there’s something about pumpkin bread.  It’s a beautiful thing.

My Everything Tree

I have this tree in my living room.  It’s a skinny tree, fake of course, or it would be dead. . . It stands in the corner.  My sister got it for me several years ago for Christmas, but it's not a Christmas tree.  It’s my Year-Round Tree.
I saw it in a catalogue. In the catalogue, there were  kits you cold buy to decorate the tree for every month.   I thought that was  a neat idea, so my sister bought me a tree. 
I do change the decorations by the season.  Last Saturday, I put all my FSU stuff on it.  September starts college football so it gets my FSU decorations. 


In October, it gets bats and monsters.
In November, fall leaves and  Thanksgiving things.
In December, I put my special ornaments on it that might get lost in my big tree.  ( Or sometimes I make it my purple tree and only put purple stuff on it!)
In January, it’s gets snowflakes. (Yes I know, we live in Florida – pretend snowflakes on a tree are as good as it gets!) February, on go the Valentine hearts.  In March I sometimes do Easter and sometimes do spring.  April gets lambs and more spring.  May I usually just ignore and summer time gets flip-flops and sea shells.
But I have some special ornaments that stay on all the time.  They are my favorites. 
I have book ornaments, and old keys just because I love them.  I have a teacher ornament.


This one I got from my sister when we got her annual pass for Disney World. 


This is my Bubba cat. I miss him, even though he was mean and no one liked him except my Daddy and me.

This is my newest ornament. It’s my Feed the Birds ornament.  I love Mary Poppins and I got this at St. Paul’s Cathedral when we were in London last month. (It cost a little more than “tuppence.”)
 
This is my pearl S.  My friend Jennifer had a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” themed birthday party and these told us where to sit. 


My sweet friend Ashley found this set in her Christmas stuff and gave them to me. It’s  a whole set of Dr. Seuss ornaments!


There are several ladybugs, because my Daddy called me “Bug” until the last time he talked to me.

This one may be the most special.  My Daddy told us for years that when it was time for him to go, to call Kersey’s and let them take care of him.  Kersey’s is our local funeral home.  They did a wonderful job taking care of all the stuff for us.  Every year, they have a memorial service for all the people that they have taken care of during the year.  They have ornaments made and decorate their own Christmas tree. The year  my Daddy passed away, we were all just too raw to attend the service.  It was in December after Daddy died in September.  A few days after the service, I got this in the mail. I don’t know why it came to me instead of Mrs. Betty, my daddy’s wife or even my sisters. But it hangs on my year round tree. 



I love my tree – and I love the stuff on it. Maybe you need a year round tree.

The Proms at Royal Albert Hall

Beautiful music in a beautiful space.

So today we went to Royal Albert Hall for The  Proms.  I have seen these on BBC and had no idea quite what it is. The Proms are a concert series in the summer.  They are mostly held at the Royal Albert Hall, although according to my research, some are held elsewhere.  “Proms” is short for “promenade concert,”  and comes from the practice in the past, of strolling through gardens while an orchestra plays. 

Today was a Ten Pieces Proms.  It’s a program designed to teach children about classical music.  Today, we heard these songs:

• No Place Like by Kerry Andrew
• Anthology of Fantastic Zoology – Sprite; A Bao A Qu by Mason Bates
• Symphony No. 1 in G major – Allegro (1st movement) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
• Rodeo - Hoe-Down by Aaron Copland
• Symphony No. 9 in E minor, 'From the New World’ – Largo (2nd movement) by Antonín Dvořák
• ‘Enigma’ Variations – Theme (Enigma), variations 11, 6 & 7 by Edward Elgar
• Carmina Burana - 'O fortuna' by Carl Orff
• Abdelazer – Rondeau by Henry Purcell
• Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
• The Nutcracker - Waltz of the Flowers and Russian Dance by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I wish I could show you what a beautiful space Royal Albert Hall is. . . It’s simply breath-taking. It’s HUGE – it holds up to 5,272 seats and opened in 1871.  You wouldn’t believe all the people who have appeared there = every musical act you can imagine as well as important people.  From the Spice Girls to Muhammed Ali, everyone has been here it seems.  Classical musicians to sumo wrestlers to Cirque de Soleil, it’s amazing. 

There is a great interactive “map” here that shows you people who have appeared: http://appearing.royalalberthall.com/

So here are a few pictures I took today before it started.

B

A New Adventure

In January of 2007, I started a program called Project LEAD to become a media specialist.  To say that this changed my life is an understatement. I think I blogged about it before. . .

Part of that adventure involved  a 6 week stay in London in the summer of 2008.  One of our professors was teaching two classes that we needed in London in the summer.  I decided to go – I had never even stayed in a hotel room by myself before so flying to another continent was really out of my comfort zone. It was fabulous! I don’t even have enough words to say what a wonderful experience it was.  I started this blog during that trip – it was actually an assignment. 

I spent a weekend in Paris and a weekend in Scotland, saw the white cliffs of Dover and  walked through the home of CS Lewis.  We saw castles and cathedrals and buildings still showing damage from World War II. . . 

So, my professor has taught in London many times since then. I’m always fascinated when she goes and follow along on her journey through social media.   Before Christmas, my friend Harry (my professor’s husband) said  “We’re going to London again this summer – you should come!”  I thought I’d love to, but then just sort of let it go.  But it kept sticking in my head. 

So here, I am in a flat, in London, with Dr E, Harry and my sister. We are having a fabulous time.  A new adventure is here!