Pancakes

This is not a brag. I don't mean it to be, anyway.

My kids got up today and it's a snow day. I offered to make muffins for them, to make the day more special. They said they wanted pancakes. I was reading to my son, so I asked my daughter to pull the Joy of Cooking off the shelf and look up the recipe in the index. They got the idea of making the pancakes themselves. My daughter got out the flour: whole wheat and white. "Where is the baking powder?" I heard from the kitchen. Now, they are both out there. "Careful cracking the eggs!"

I put the butter in the pan and got the temperature up to medium-high. Batter in, we watch for bubbles. Flip. A little too light, didn't flip quite right. Wait. Flip again. Ready!

They eat, knowing that they made them themselves. They taste better that way.

Father's Day

This photo was featured today in The Storque: Etsy Finds!

I'm never quite sure what to get my Dad or my husband for father's day. This year, I will be taking our family to a German restaurant so that my husband can get all of the traditional sauerkraut and sausages that he can eat. That is his wish, and that's what were gonna do! My tradition with my Dad is that I send him a card, but always write in it something that I am grateful that he taught me or a good memory that I have of him. One year, I wrote to him about playing "horse", a basketball game. Long after my brother had lost patience with his little sister trying to make a basket, my Dad stayed with me and let me shoot and shoot until I got the hang of it. Most of my (underhand) shots slammed against the barn door and went flying back at me, but eventually, I got the physics of it right and made a decent shot. My Dad is a natural teacher. He was a professor of engineering when I was growing up and just always had the heart to stick with his students until they "got it". Thanks, Dad!

The Mysteries of the Museum

My children love the Buffalo Museum of Science. We have explored the great marble halls since my daughter was 3 and became obsessed with dinosaurs. She learned all of the names of dinosaurs and so we would go faithfully, every week, packing our lunch in a backpack, to check out the tracks and the bones of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. We learned about space, about plants, about trilobites and eurypterids. I took my two children yesterday. My son loves the Ancient Egyptian exhibit. What fascinates me about the place is the volume and mystery of all of the collections. There is a Victorian spirit to all of it, finding, cataloging, protecting and preserving. We benefit, explore and learn about things we may never have seen or learned about in any other way.