Friday Funny

Ban the sock.

I agree.

Friday Funny

Two sites cracked me up today: The "Blog" of Unnecessary Quotation Marks and the sarcastic posters at despair.com.

Enjoy.

Chocolate Cake-like Substance in a Mug

I'm listing this under the "Friday Funny" tag because the whole idea of microwaving a cake-like substance is funny to me. My kids thought it was hilarious to have cake in a mug. Faith asked if she could please eat it with a fork--she was apparently concerned that we would drink the cake.

The texture is a little odd--cakes are not meant to be baked in a microwave. But Faith was sad that she didn't get to attend a church activity this week, and this recipe was a great way to cheer her up. I suppose I have taught her a valuable life lesson now: when life is disappointing, chocolate is the cure.

Chocolate "Cake" In a Mug
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
a shake of cinnamon

Mix in a large coffee mug.

1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil

Mix in a small bowl, then pour into dry ingredients and mix well.
Microwave for 3 minutes. The cake raised over the top of the mug, but did not overflow in the microwave.
Allow to cool a little, and tip it out onto a plate if desired.
Serves 1 or 2, depending on age and degree of chocolate-neediness.

(recipe slightly adapted from an e-mail I received this week)

Friday funny

A few days ago I asked my daughters to return a pile of blankets to the basket where they belonged. The next day I reminded them to do this. Instead, they added more blankets to the pile they were building. By the third day, after more reminders, the pile of blankets was confiscated by my husband. (I usually require prompt obedience from the children, but the pile of blankets was in a location I don't view in my normal routine, and other than the reminders I gave them, I kept forgetting about it.)

My oldest daughter Faith is almost in second grade, and her spelling is still predominately phonetic. I am happy that she is sounding things out rather than memorizing the way a word looks, but she does need to practice some spelling words.

Faith became quite concerned that her favorite blanket would end up in a garage sale, and after the blankets disappeared, she brought us a note: "Please don't put my blankit in the grog sale."

Friday funny

I haven't posted a Friday Funny in quite awhile. Today I recommend you read The Unquiet Years blog for a chuckle about Angelina Jolie.

I've also found some laughs at Rocks in My Dryer.

kids and stuff

Two days ago Joy dumped salt all over the table and one of the dining chairs.
The same day, Rose poured raw sugar all over her plate.
Yesterday, Rose took my lipstick out of my purse and removed the lipstick from the tube, squished it into a little ball, and hid it under the couch.
Today Joy found a spray bottle, and all my tax paperwork narrowly escaped a bath.
Soon after that, she found Faith's lotion and annointed a doll and a plastic truck.
And Faith was walking around with a blue marker upstairs but I confiscated it before any artwork happened on the walls.

And Faith made me laugh by hiding under Joy's crib and saying "You're the government. We're hiding from you."

I also heard her telling Rose, "No, you can't have that. You're whining. Whining will get you nothing." Well said.

Friday funny: sarcasma

Just what we all need: http://www.katierush.com/funny/sarcasma.htm

(I have not explored the rest of that site; I'm not responsible for any inappropriateness found on other pages. Oh, and the link includes one word referring to an unwise donkey. You have been warned.)

preserving chocolate truffles

Do you know that homemade Christmas truffles are still yummy in March?

They need to be preserved carefully -- I recommend putting them in a ziploc in your mixing bowl and putting a small cookbook, an almost empty bag of flour, and a bag of apples on top of them. Change the bag of apples for a bag of bananas when the apples are gone, then a bag of grapes when the bananas are gone...you get the idea.

On St Patrick's Day when you use your mixer to make Irish Brown Bread, you will be pleasantly surprised to find chocolate truffles under your cookbook. You might think about throwing them away when you find them, but do hold on to them for a Friday morning when you almost forget to eat breakfast.

Serve with tea.

semantic feature analysis graphic organizer

I couldn't wait 'til Friday to share this funny with you. One of the homeschool moms at thehomeschoollibrary.com posted something hilarious today, and she gave me permission to post it here:

I am taking some free online courses so that I can change my teaching certification from inactive to active (may be teaching summer school). OH MY WORD. These courses seem to be designed for someone who has the IQ of a turnip, but by someone who wants to use a lot of fancy words as he/she educates the turnip. Today, I learned all about semantic feature analysis graphic organizers. Do you know what semantic feature analysis organizers are? They are charts. And, as I was told about 3,241 times during the audio-visual lesson, semantic feature analysis graphic organizers can help students to learn and retain information. Imagine that!!!!! Charts can help students to learn and remember!!! AND....GET THIS..... YOU CAN PUT SEMANTIC FEATURE ANALYSIS GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ON PAPER OR A WHITE BOARD OR AN OVERHEAD PROJECTOR OR...well you get the idea.In the audio-visual portion of the lesson, words come up on the screen, but there is also a voice-over who reads the words. You can't click onto the next screen until the voice is finished reading the present screen. I can read the screen with its totally obvious information in about 3 milliseconds, but must wait for the minute or so as the reader slowly and deliberately reads the information to me. Today, I read a book as I worked my way through the lesson. ARGHH!!!I keep telling myself that it's free and it will get my certification active again so that I can teach in a public school if need be. Okay....frustration over. You may go back to your lives and ignore the woman with the frothing mouth and glassy eyes cowering in the corner with her semantic feature analysis graphic organizer.
--Andromeda

Friday Funny

A story from the airplane trip yesterday:

As we flew over BigDesertCity, a couple behind me were obviously visiting for the first time. The man seemed to have done a bit of research and was pointing out the sights to the wife. They were amazed at "all those houses in straight rows." They observed the many swimming pools and gasped at the lack of trees. And then the man stated very seriously, "Water is very precious to these people."

As one of "these people" I suddenly felt like a member of an obscure desert tribe being documented by National Geographic. Especially when he followed this with another serious statement in a thoughtful amazed voice: "Imagine...imagine...people actually want to live here."

Thankfully my seatbelt kept me from rolling in the aisle with laughter.

I have updated my blog now, and the posts about my trip begin with last Friday, February 29.

Friday Funny--just a little late

My stressful Friday swept all ideas of funny posts away. But as always, the children insert bright spots into tough days.

My three year old is my dreamer, my story-teller, my future poet. We had dinner with some friends on Friday night, and during dinner, she suddenly went into a little dreamworld with her own music. She stopped eating, and hummed Beethoven's Ode to Joy for a while (thank you, Little Einstein creators, for making my child sound so cultured) before returning to her dinner.

The kids have been watching the Veggie Tales version of Daniel, where they've heard of a city named "Babylon." Today they were all eating bologna, but my three year old kept calling it "babyloney".

Friday Funny: Mr. Bean

Last night we watched Mr. Bean's Holiday. What an enjoyable way to spend an evening! I like the Mr. Bean episodes on dvd, but I didn't really care for the last Mr. Bean movie I watched (Bean: The Movie, where Mr. Bean came to America. It had a bit of an American movie flavor instead of that charming British humor that I appreciate). Mr. Bean's Holiday is set in France, and as is typical for Bean, there is little dialogue, just lots of physical humor. I highly recommend it for all ages.
(The only objectionable content is a Russian expletive that unfortunately they translate as "d**n", and there are subtitles when they translate this)

Friday Funny

Today my husband and I went out for brunch. It was a multi-purpose date, with a car repair and a chiropractor visit thrown in. We had good food but I was alternately distracted and amused by a Woman in Yellow at the next table. I would have thought a yellow baseball cap would be enough sunnyness in one's attire, but she was also wearing a yellow hoodie and a yellow shirt. Not soft pastel yellow, but the extreme color one associates with a large feathered friend on children's televsion. I kept expecting Ernie to pop in to invite her to play Hide 'n Seek with him. On a chair near her was a yellow purse that at first seemed fun and funky, covered with silver studs....until the light shifted a little and I saw that the silver studs were actually rhinestones. This whimsical ensemble was completed by bright pink lipstick.