easter bread

Mom and I made Easter bread yesterday, two golden loaves. They are most delicious. They required two sticks of butter (oh heaven).

Coffee--not for the bread, for the bakers. :)

Little over an hour later....

I think we've already downed one loaf.

and now it's spring

We went to the park with the kids a few days ago, to play in the water and have lunch. Of course, since the weather is whacky (and not just in Georgia), it was hot and only the middle of March. 

Micah was very intent on throwing sand into the water, while Lucy daintily dipped her toes in and waved around a shovel. Henry was adventurous, though, and waded out up to his chest in the rather cold lake water.

Spring has come, and brought with it a thick layer of yellow pine pollen, as usual. I always hope it won't happen, but it always does. Luckily, I'm not too allergic to the pine pollen--it's the privet and other flowering monsters who get me later in April. I'm so excited. -.-

I've been feeling the itch to paint or draw something colorful (happens every spring). Maybe I'll get to that this weekend.

I've been trying to read more (not very successfully), but I did stumble upon an completely captivating book through an interview on NPR. It's called Design in Nature, by Adrian Bejan. He's the engineer who discovered the constructal law, as he calls it--the newest law of physics that explains the reason behind the designs we see in nature, engineering and society. It's fascinating, albeit scientific, and I've been reading the book on my Kindle app whenever I have a break.

Anyway, I need to get ready for school. Linguistics class--which, by the way, is just so cool.

I hope you have a lovely week!

- caroline

spring break

Hello again. I'm on spring break! My first official spring break, in fact.

Our tiny camellia shrub is in bloom, isn't it adorable? And the Bradford Pear trees are growing foliage before flowers, which is the strangest sight, considering we've been around Bradfords for a decade and they always bloom first and leaf later.

Did you know that rosemary plants flowered? A lovely periwinkle blue.

These pictures are of Quinn making a slingshot. He claims that it totally worked, but I was making lunch and cannot attest to having witnessed any such event.

I made tortellini, spinach and sausage soup for lunch -- it was so good that we just ate the leftovers for dinner. ;) 

What else is new with me... We've been watching Felicity, which is pretty entertaining. Oh, also, check out Sarah Zuniga. She's a very talented singer/songwriter who I met in my Linguistics class. Logan and I are hoping to shoot a video with her soon. :)

Today I've been reading Seth Godin's Stop Stealing Dreams, which relates his thoughts on the current education system and how we need to revolutionize schooling for our new age. It's so sensible and obvious and, frankly, infuriating that the taught mindset is based on Industrial Revolution era values. If you're interested in education or the betterment of America, it's a well-articulated, interesting read.

Anyway, on to homework and et cetera... 

Have a lovely weekend!

- caroline

Studying, studying & then some dinner

This weekend I had more homework to do than previously required of me in school. My list was/is as follows:

⎷ Skeletal English essay to write 

⎷ Political Science essay to write

⎷ Political Science test to study for (the first grade of the class so far)

⎕ Art Appreciation test to study for which covers seven chapters

⎷ Three art analysis short essays to write (of my own work!)

⎕ A short story to read ("Story of a Good Little Boy," by Twain)

⎷ Algebra homework to complete online/chapter to read

⎷ Linguistics exercises to write out/chapter to read

annnnd if I get to it, a scholarship letter to write, but I'll probably do that next week. 

Now, I have no real preconceptions of how much workload is a lot (but classmates do start swearing and moaning about writing just one paper over the weekend...more on that sometime later), but I do know that this is more than I've previously had to do! It's rather fun, though. I mean, working against a deadline can really be rewarding and it is such a relief to have a deadline! 

I've literally been at my desk or on the floor since Thursday night working on things. Of course, I'm known to take more time on things than some people might think necessary. ;)

Tonight, I made dinner for the first time in ageesss. Mom got a whole chicken from TJ's, so we made made coq au pot tonight. That pretty much means you stick a chicken in a pot with garlic and onion (no liquid), put a lid on it and stick in the oven for 40min or so. It's sooo good. I also made sautéed broccoli and carrots, as well as some mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, the sun went down before I could take pretty pics of everything together. :(

Anyway, back to work! There is more to study yet!