Life Everlasting

“Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.” 

The mother-daughter book club met last night to discuss Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.  I won't give away the big spoilers but will say that the book explores questions of the meaning of life and death and the meaning that death gives to life.

But the meeting wasn't all serious discussions--though, the majority of girls opted for the choice the protagonist Winnie Foster didn't make (except my Sis, and a couple, who agreed with Winnie)--we were treated to flapjacks, just like the ones Winnie enjoyed with the Tucks.

Even better, the hosts served them with buttermilk syrup!!  I had never heard of such a thing, but it is amazing, sweet deliciousness--all sweet creamy buttery-ness.  I bought buttermilk today to make some with pancakes later in the week.

Sis, during the discussion of life and death, said that if she could, she would grant Mr. P immortal life.  So sweet.  He is doing remarkably well, all things considered.  We put him on an appetite stimulant and he ate almost two small cans (which is what he needs to eat to avert liver failure.)  He is also moving more--he's been downstairs twice (he's here right now!)--and being more like himself. He has even made his usual "mac" sound that we haven't heard since before last Wednesday.  And he's been sitting on me and leaning up against me, even curling up in my arms.  It's good to see our Mr. P's little light shine brighter.

Of course, we recognize that he is at the end of his life.  Stats seem to say that cats with congestive heart failure--and 40% don't make it through their first episode--usually live just months (which makes sense--I think humans only live about 5 years?), so we know our time together is short.  But knowing this reminds us to appreciate every day.

Which, in many ways, was the lesson of Tuck Everlasting.


Buttermilk Syrup
via Six Sisters Stuff

¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup of sugar
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, sugar, and buttermilk and bring to a boil. Once it's at a complete boil, let it boil for 1 minute. Take off heat and whisk in baking soda and vanilla. It will foam up during the boiling, and especially when other ingredients are added. Serve with your favorite pancakes or waffles. Best served warm.  Good on pancakes, fruit, with a spoon!

Book Club Review

We had a meeting of our Mother/Daughter book club last night and I realized it's been about a year since we started.  We've met about ten times, reading historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, and classics.  The girls enjoy the relaxed gatherings, with some games and activities and always snacks, probably more than the books, but it's interesting to have their tastes stretched in reading books they might not otherwise choose.  And I get to re-read some of my childhood favorites and then learn about the next generation's favorites.

So far, we've read the following books, with some of the club activities (the ones I recall, anyway) listed in parentheses:

• Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (jump the chasm, draw a character, trivia contest)
• The Borrowers:  (build a Borrower's burrow, 20 questions withcharacter name taped to your back)
• Joshua's Song (tasted molasses, made newspaper craft)
• A Christmas Carol
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  (chocolate tasting)
• The Magic Half--I think this is the only one we completely missed, due to surgery
• Frindle (make up your own "Frindle" word)
• Tangle of Knots (character charades, cake tasting)
• Nim's Island (watch the movie)
• A Wrinkle in Time (draw Aunt Beast, book Jeopardy!)

The more we read, the longer the list gets of things we'd like to read.  Ideas for the near future:

• Anne of Green Gables
• The Giver
• Tuck Everlasting
• The Children of Green Knowe
• The Little White Horse
• Island of the Blue Dolphins
• The Candymakers

A Trio of Treats

Yesterday, I finished off three books through which I have been working my way.  The first was a Twinkie read, Susan Wiitig Albert's Tale of Hill Top Farm, which is a delightful and simple romp through the Lake District with a fictionalized version of the author/illustrator, her new neighbors, and all of their talking animals.  It wasn't much of a mystery and talking animals are a bit precious, but I enjoyed the ambiance . . . I even learned about arval, or funeral, cakes, and other details of rural life at the turn of the 20th century.  I had started the book during my long test at the doctor's office and finished it off yesterday.

I also finished another book I had read at that long test at the doctor's office (I got tired midway and changed genres), Vivian Swift's watercolored memoir, When Wanderers Cease to Roam.  Swift, who had traveled extensively, settled down in Pelham, NY, and recorded both her observations of life in her village and reminiscences of her world travels.  I liked the little illustrations and her art journaling of types of mud in March and snowflakes in December and her "memoir in five moments" where she reflects on different times she's been on a beach or been in the rain.  And she likes cats.  I've been experimenting with different kinds of journaling, having recorded my days each evening or so for years and also learned more doodling.  It's best to read her book a page or two at a time, or just a month; I read too much of it in one sitting, which didn't invite close looking.  I'd actually discovered it because I loved Susan Branch's A Fine Romance, an illustrated memoir of her extended travels through England and readers recommended Swift.  Of the two, I still prefer Branch, but I plan to read Swift's memoir of France soon.

Lastly, I also finished Lisa Graff's A Tangle of Knots, which was our mother-daughter book club read this month.  I'd actually started it just a day or two before and had tried to read it during an insomniac bout but found it too complicated.  There are a dozen or so characters whose lives are, unbeknownst to them, entwined--I just got confused at 3 a.m.  But in the light of day, it was a great story.  Each of those characters (well, most of them) has a special Talent, which is almost a magical ability to do something--whistle, tie knots, hide between walls, knit, even divine a person's perfect cake.  There are even cake recipes interspersed between the chapters.

So when our book club met this evening, we sampled a few of the cakes.  Three, to be exact:  yellow cake with chocolate frosting, peanut butter cake, and lime pound cake.  Beautiful and delicious (I had a bite of each, smaller than my thumbNAIL, just crumbs really, and will be curious to see if I suffer for the gluten and dairy.)  The recipes are in the book--and on the author's website.  We also played a game at the end--guess your mom's perfect cake.  A couple of the girls guessed "nutcake," which struck me as funny, and none of them guessed correctly, and then Sis stood up and said, "My mom's perfect cake is orange chocolate."  And you know what?  She is right.  I guessed that Sis would be either chocolate molten lava cake or yellow cake with frosting--she clarified that the frosting would be melted chocolate chips.

Which we had just made yesterday!  We tested a GF (gluten-free)/DF (dairy free) King Arthur Flour yellow cake, made into cupcakes.  Wonderful!  And not just wonderful for GF/DF.  (Or I've gotten desperate in 2 weeks.)  I had mine with marmalade and Sis had hers with . . . melted chocolate chips. It was nice to bake together, which is one of our favorite shared pastimes.   Sis has been great about the whole restricted diet thing.

And it helps that there is cake.

Renewed Books

I got a Kindle while I was recovering from surgery--it was easier to hold than a book and I could also read it at night without a light, while Mama slept.

And I'm loving reading historical mysteries, which was my preferred genre before the kiddos.  A friend in grad school turned me on to them more than twenty years ago--she was a huge Anne Perry fan and so I started to read her Victorian mysteries, too (first the Thomas Pitt series, then Detective Monk.)  Slowly I branched out--medieval mysteries, Elizabethan mysteries, eighteenth century, Victorian.  I never really took to the ancient Roman ones, despite my background in classical studies.  At the height of my reading, I was probably reading 20+ different series.

See, I'm not a great reader of "literature"--I tended to read non-fiction for school and then these "twinkies" after school.  I've never been one to fret over the great American novel or the hot trade paperback.  And then, with young children, I barely read much for myself; I'd read to them.  But now that they're finally reading books like Harry Potter, etc., that interest me, they want to read on their own!

And I've rediscovered reading my mysteries.  It started when I began reading the books on which "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" were based--I just love Phryne Fisher and her early 20th-century Australia!  And reading was made easier by the Kindle--they are cheap and easy to get.  I'm reading through many of the favorite series I was reading a decade ago, picking up where I left off.  And I'm enjoying it immensely, going through a few a week.

Just wait til I catch up with all the new historical mystery series started in the last decade!

I don't even have to make room on my bookshelves.

-=-=-=-=-=-
Medieval
Margaret Frazer, Dame Frevisse series (15th-century England)
Caroline Roe, Isaac the Healer series (medieval Spain)

Elizabethan
Fiona Buckley, Ursula Blanchard series
Karen Harper, Queen Elizabeth 1 as detective!
Kathy Lynn Emerson, "Face Down" series with Susanna Appleton

Victorian
Barbara Hambly, Benjamin January (early 19th-century New Orleans)
Victoria Thompson, Gaslight series (early 20th-century NYC, with a midwife and a detective)
Anne Perry, both Thomas Pitt and Detective Monk series (London)

Other
Laura Joh Rowland, Sano Ichiro (17th-century Japan)
Peter Tremayne, Sister Fidelma (7th-century Ireland)
Bruce Alexander, Sir John Fielding (18th-century London)

The Art of the Draw

We went to an art demo and book signing by Jan Brett this morning . . . at the IKEA, of all places (I guess it was the Scandinavian tie-in.)  Organized by RJ Julia Bookstore to benefit Read to Grow, the event was well-organized and fun.  There was a huge Hedgie character walking around, two Santa Lucia maids, books for sale--and even her painted rock-star travel bus outside that we posed in front of!  

Brett herself spoke and drew for upwards of 45 minutes, encouraging all of the children there to embrace their individual creativity, as unique as their own fingerprints.  And she gave a lesson on how to draw a bunny--basketball body, egg-shaped head, almond eyes, not a cotton tail, shading the edges, using prismacolor markers for blending; she takes an hour an inch, I think she said, and finds inspiration all over the place.  The resulting work is that bunny above.  Sis was ecstatic, especially when Brett brought out her own "bun-bun" and showed the audience.  

We waited awhile, in orderly and calm fashion, to have our copy of The Animal's Santa signed.  It went faster because we ran into our friend Miss M who works for Read to Grow.  She used to play with the kids when they were very little--puppet shows and fairy houses at the beach, baking cookies at her house; we've even been to a concert or two of her band.  We don't see her as often anymore--we changed churches and she's had a long run-in with cancer--so it was especially good to chat today.

And eventually it was our turn.  Sis very happily chatted with Brett about wanting a bunny.  Brett told her she had wanted a horse when she was young and finally got one when she grew up.  They posed for a picture and then we were off. . . . to buy foodstuffs in the IKEA marketplace

A delightful, inspiring morning.

Sticky Situation

Parenting fail:  last night at our mom-daughter book club, there was an art activity that involved cutting. But NO left-handed scissors, so I had to do the cutting.  Having no other lefties in my immediate family, I never think of such things.  But now I know to travel with lefty scissors.   (Sis hasn't mastered cutting with her right hand.)

Otherwise, our book club was fun.  The book was Joshua's Song, a fictional account of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston, coupled with a Newsies's-like story of newspapers and reporters. We had actually tried to watch Newsies, the Disney movie musical turned Broadway show about newsboys, in advance, but Amazon Instant Video was down. Another time.  Sis enjoyed the book, particularly the girl newsie who dressed like a boy to seel her papers.  My favorite part was the end, when Joshua comforted a woman trapped in the destruction of the flood by singing to her--it reminded me of hospice.  The kids really connected with the story and had lots of answers to questions and questions to answer.

They even got to dip their hands in real molasses to get a sense of its viscosity.

And then there was the newspaper-flower-cutting activity.  Sis attached her finished flower onto my scarf.

We also "won" the door prize--we were the only ones who wanted the unopened jar of molasses!!  With holidays coming up, we can use that.

I really like this book club--reading new books, discussing different points of view, socializing with girls we don't usually see (though, many of them are in our GS troop.)  Our next book is Dickens's Christmas Carol, with some wonderful book club activities planned.

Summer Fun 2013: Book "Widow"

The kids are reading.

Still.

Again.

Sis has finished HP 5 and started HP 6 today.  Bud is finishing HP 5 so he can start HP 6.

It's all they do.

Read and play Animal Jam.

I'm not complaining.

Well, I might be.

Sure, it gives me lots of time to do my own thing (like write those last two posts), but it's also kinda boring.

But it's great that they love to read so much, worth every penny we've ever spent on books (that we have then given away in large chunks.)

And I'll be glad when I no longer have to keep the secrets of Harry Potter from them, worrying that they might find out before they finish the series.

At this rate, they'll be done by next week.  Easy.

Family Food Fads

Mama brought me home a wonderful book from the library, Fashionable Food:  Seven Decades of Food Fads by Sylvia Lovegren.  It traces the food crazes from the 1920s to the 1990s and thus charts America's always-odd relationship to food.

You know how Michael Pollan says something akin to "eat what your grandmother would recognize as food?"  Well, I think I might have to go back further, because my grandmother started cooking in the 1920s and 1930s and, after reading this book cover to cover in just two days, I can spot the trends.  It's fascinating to know that her Tomato Aspic (yes, she made it and she I even tried it once as a tween; ick.), my dad's fondness for canned pear halves filled with cottage cheese (and sometimes wasn't there cheddar on there, too?) on a bed of lettuce as well as for canned asparagus, the family devotion to yams with marshmallows on top at Thanksgiving, and open-faced bacon, onion,cheddar, and pickle sandwiches browned in the oven come from this era?  From Gommie's mom, in the 1940s, comes Eggs a la Goldenrod and chocolate chip cookies.  Later, from the 1950s, there would be Spam cooked with brown sugar, canned baked beans mixed with bacon and bell pepper and brown sugar, shish kebabs, and Chex mix, called "trash" in my family.  There were even examples of foreign food fads, with hamburger chow mein and spaghetti with sauce from a jar, way back when Chinese and Italian were foreign.  As Gommie learned to cook as a newlywed and then a mom in the 1960s and 1970s, we get pot roast with the ubiquitous Lipton's onion soup mix (one of my all-time favorites), green bean casserole, chili con carne, Swiss steak, grasshopper pie, pumpkin bread, California dip (said onion soup mix in sour cream), rum or Tipsy balls, Tang tea, and lemon bars.  I was floored that I knew so many of the dishes from home on a regular basis and could recognize the rest from friends or one-time experiences, like nut-covered cheese balls, Jell-o Poke cake, chiffon pies, chocolate truffles, those creamy marshmallow-fruit cocktail salads, three-bean salad, and several others.

The recipes for many of the above are a bonus to all of the history (and many of the recipes are included just for edification, sounding awful), from the effects of Prohibition on fine dining (ruined it and the American palate) to the struggles of cooking under the ration system during WWII, which was then followed by the excesses of meat and alcohol in the 1950s.  A side narrative involves the influence of refrigeration and the obsession with chilled or frozen dishes.  And throughout most of the decades there was, according to Lovegrean, a huge separation between food for women and food for men, most clearly delineated by ladies luncheons and the tearooms of the 20s and 30s and the barbecues of the 50s.

What's also fascinating about the book is the continuity of sweet, creamy/gooey, and processed food (oh, the love of mini-marshmallows, Miracle Whip, Cool Whip, creamed condensed canned soup, and canned fruits and vegetables) from the 20s all the way to the present--oftentimes all mixed together!  What doesn't continue is the focus on homecooked food.  Intriguingly, Lovegren focuses on the homecook until the 1980s when all the foods and fads she discusses are clearly restaurant-based, with Alice Waters and California Cuisine, Wolfgang Puck, Paul Prudhomme, etc etc etc.  Even the recipes she includes in this part are beyond the pantry and skills of many regular homecooks.

I wonder, if she could add the last few decades, what she would write?  What were the trends of the 00s and now the teens?  She'd have to write about the rise in gluten-free and other allergen-free diets, the anti-carbs diets, the Paleo diet, and all the vegetarians and vegans.  Also, there would need to be something about the influence of the Food Network, internet food sites, the demise of Gourmet, and even Pinterest.

And yet still I make for my kids some of those dishes my mom made for us from her mom and my dad's mom.  Only, I don't use dried onion soup mix anymore.  Just real onions.


Next up:  The History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell, which is much less likely to be familiar, as it starts with ancient Egyptian bread, Viking dried fish, and Roman cheesecakes!

-=-=-=-=-=-

Note:  These are all taken from my family recipe archives and are not from the book!

Milk Toast or Eggs a la Goldenrod

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

milk

hard boiled egg

toast

            Brown flour in melted butter, until thick paste.  Add milk slowly, forming white sauce.  Pour over toast, grate egg, add salt and pepper to taste.

                                                                                                                       

Gommie Hungry

Mom's Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ½ cup sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup shortening

¾ cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs (Eggbeaters also work)

1 teaspoon hot water

1 cup nuts

2 cups oatmeal (quick or regular; uncooked—old fashioned regular are best)

1 teaspoon vanilla

14 oz. chocolate chips

            Cream shortening until soft.  Add sugars gradually, cream until light and fluffy.  Add eggs (1 at a time), beating after each.  Add vanilla and hot water.  Sift in dry ingredients.  Add nuts, oatmeal, and chocolate chips.  Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes. 

                                                                       

Bammie (Gommie's mom)

Spam

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon vinegar

¼ teaspoon mustard

liquid from spam or 2 drops of water.

            Pour mixture over spam.  Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.

                                                                                                                        Gommie Hungry

Baked Beans

4 slices bacon

½ cup chopped onion

2-1 lb. can Pork and Beans

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon ketchup

chopped bell pepper

            Cook bacon until crip, drain and crumble.  In 2 tablespoons of drippings cook onion and bell pepper unil tender but not brown.  Add with bacon to beans and other, mixing well.  Put in 1 ½ quart casserole dish.  Bake uncovered at 350°F for 20-45 minutes.

                                                                                                                       Gommie Hungry

Trash 

1 box Crispex (2+ quarts)

2 quarts stick pretzels

2 quarts Cheerios

4 tablespoons Worcestershire

1-2 teaspoons garlic powder

1-2 teaspoons onion powder

            Spray with Pam.  Microwave 8-10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.

Gommie Hungry

Pot Roast

3 lb. roast (chuck, pot, shoulder)

1 package dry onion soup mix

2 cups water

6 potatoes, peeled, cut in 1” cubes

1 onion, cut 1” squares

1 package carrots, peeled and sliced

1 green pepper, cut 1” squares

            Place roast in pan with soup mix and water.  Cover with foil; bake 350°F for 2 hours.  Add potatoes, onion, carrots, and pepper.  Cover with foil and continue to bake until tender (45 minutes).

Gommie Hungry

 Hamburger Chow Mein

1 lb. ground beef

1 chopped onion

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cup diced celery

1  1/2 cup water

1 small can sliced water chestnuts, drained

14 oz. bean sprouts, drained

4 1/2 oz. sliced mushrooms

1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons cornstarch in 3 tablespoons water

            Brown beef with onion, add salt, pepper, celery and water.  Bring to boil.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes.  Add remaining vegetables, heat until hot.  Combine cornstarch and water; add to mixture.  Cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly.  Serve over hot cooked rice or chow mein noodles.

Gommie Hungry

Green Bean Casserole

2-16 oz. cans whole green beans, drained (can also use frozen)

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

½ cup milk

Dash pepper

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1-2.8 oz. can of French-Fried Onions

            Combine soup, milk, soy sauce and pepper.  Stir in green beans and ½ can of onions.  Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until hot; stir.  Top with remaining onions.  Bake 5 minutes.

                                                                                                                       

Gommie Hungry

Swiss Steak

1 pound beef round steak, cut ¾ inch thick

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1-16 oz. can tomatoes, cut up

1 small onion, sliced and separated into rings

½ cup sliced celery

½ cup sliced carrot

½ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

            Cut meat into 4 serving-size pieces.  Trim fat.  Combine the flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.  Coat pieces with flour mixture.  In a large skillet brown meat on both sides in hot oil.  Drain fat.

            Add undrained tomatoes, onion, celery, carrot, and thyme.  Cover and cook over low heat about 11/4 hours or til meat is tender.  Skim fat.  Serve with hot rice or noodles. 

Gommie Hungry via Better Homes and Gardens

Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar

3 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons each nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon

4 eggs

2 cups fresh or canned cooked pumpkin

1 cup oil

½ cup water plus ½ cup apricot or peach brandy (or another ½ cup water)

1 cup each chopped pecans and raisins (optional)

            Preheat oven to 325°F.  Combine sugar, flour, soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon in large electric mixer bowl.  Mix eggs pumpkin, oil, water (or brandy) and combine with dry ingredients; beat until well mixed.  Fold in pecans and raisins.  Bake in large greased Bundt pan until cake tests done, about 1 hours and 30-45 minutes.

                       

Gommie Hungry

Tipsy Balls

Makes 100 balls

small 12-oz. box vanilla wafers (3 cups)

4 jiggers whiskey

3 tablespoons karo syrup

1 cup powdered sugar, dissolved (?)

2 cups chopped nuts (fine)

            Mix, roll in balls, coat in powdered sugar. 

Pop's mom

                                                                                              

Crème de Menthe or Grasshopper Pie

Just a note—Crème de Menthe gets much stronger with age! 

2 cups whipping cream

7 oz. marshmallow cream

¼ cup crème de menthe (or to taste)

            Whip cream and then add crème de menthe.  Then add marshmallow cream.

Pour into crust.  Freeze.  Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Crust

1 stick melted oleo

24 chocolate cookies (1 ½ cups crumbs)

            Combine and form to pie plate, chilling for 1 hour before filling.

Gommie Hungry

Tang Tea aka Russian Spice Tea

1 cup instant tea

1 cup lemonade

1 cup Tang

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

            If pre-sweetened ingredients are used, no additional sweetener is needed.  Otherwise, add 1 cup sugar.

Lemon Bars

Makes 25 bars

1 cup flour

½ cup butter, softened

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, optional

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

powdered sugar

            Heat oven to 350°F.  Mix flour, butter, and powdered sugar.  Press in ungreased quare pan, building up ½ inch edges (8x8 or 9x9).  Bake 20 minutes.

            Beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on high about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Pour over hot crust.

            Bake 25-30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched in center.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Cut into 1 ½-inch squares.  

Gommie Hungry

And as an added bonus, 

Mrs. C's Cheese Ball

2 packages cream cheese

1 can deviled ham

            Mix cream cheese and deviled ham.  Chill.  Serve with crackers.

Isn't it Ironic?

I have lost the book I was reading . . . about cleaning house!

It was Cleaning House: A Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her House of Youth Entitlement  by Kay Wills Wyma.  It's certainly not my usual read, though I have been reading some self-improvement, parenting, non-fiction books in the last few years.

But I don't think I've ever read one that has a blurb from Focus on the Family on the cover.  Or that was written by a person who worked in the Bush White House.  A woman who decries the socialism of our current government and the entitlement of the welfare state, all while exploring why her youngsters don't pick up after themselves and she had let them get away with it.

Yeah, that's equivalent:  food stamps and unemployment vs. kids thinking it's their mom's job to clean the house.  Why do I think no kid in public housing would ever say that to his or her mom??

So, right away, my spine is up about the author's politics.  I just wanted to read why and how she went about encouraging older kids to be more pro-active in household chores.

And I'll admit, Republican Tea-Partyism aside (and I feel quite proud of myself that I can read a book from across the aisle, so to speak!), I liked her idea about the $30 jar.  Essentially, kids are giving a jar with 30-$1 (or 31 or 28) bills in it at the beginning of each month.  Everyday that they do their assigned clean-up in their rooms, they get to keep their dollar; however, in the event that they leave clothes, toothbrushes, toys out and about, they lose the dollar.

I have a pile of ones ready for April.

I was curious to see what she did the other months--each month was a new household chore like laundry, cooking, gardening, etc.  I wonder what 12 chores I'd want to train the kids in--opening cat food cans and scooping the litter box?  taking the recycling out?  dusting?  washing windows?  They already unload the silverware (they can't reach any of the dish or glass cabinets), "shark" the kitchen floor, and help with feeding the cats and with laundry.  With no remuneration because we firmly believe it's part of their responsibility as members of the family.  But we also realize that the time has come for a bit of an allowance, which they can earn.  We're also prepping them to take care of their own spaces as we get ready to put them in separate rooms this summer (which will involve moving about 1000 books, dressers, a bed, etc, and has repercussions across 2 floors and the basement.)

She also wrote about how, while she was taught responsibility and had chores (though, she admits not many because she had sports and studying, and, speaking of entitlement, she got a BMW for her Sweet 16), she hadn't required any of that of her four kids.  I'm particularly interested in this because I had no chores or responsibilities as a child:  I did not help with dishes, laundry, the yard, garbage, feeding the pets.  Nothing.  My mom had me mow a row of grass once but decided she didn't like how I did it and thought it would be easier to do herself.  I figure I got out of all the work that way.  Otherwise, I  kept my room impeccably clean because I liked it that way.  I did my homework and made As because that was my only job (but I'm not even sure how expected that was; I never really talked about grades with my parents, probably because I had good ones.  They certainly never inquired about much less looked at my homework.)  But I left for college never having handled money because I had no allowance (but had perfected begging and borrowing to buy whatever), never having done my own laundry, etc etc etc.  And when I had my own apartment, I scrubbed toilets and tubs for the first time, unsure how to do any of it.

My kids aren't going to be that lucky.  Though, in retrospect, I'm not sure that's what you call it.