Gifted Education

Our gifted education group, Columbia Falls ACT (Advocates for Children with Talent) will be starting up meetings again in September.  We want to hit the ground running (love that analogy) so we are tentatively planning our first meeting on Friday, September 26.  We will try to stick with the 4th Friday of each month for meetings.

To keep things simple, we will have a "book group" format again for the year, but we will only do one or two chapters each month from the same book.  We are really trying a highly modified version of a SENG Model Parent Group (which usually meets every week for 10 weeks and does one chapter in the book per week).  This way, we won't put so much pressure on everyone's schedules or budgets.  If you are interested, the text we use is fantastic.  It is called, A Parents Guide to Gifted Children, by James T. Webb and others.

Mary Ellen Getts has the books already and you can purchase them directly from her.  Easy peasy.  Post a comment if you would like to reserve a copy.

Squirrels

Go on.  Tell me more.






Squirrel Wars:  Young Jedis in training.

Here I am on my trip to Dallas in 2012 outside of a great pecan store.


FontSquirrel  This is the BEST font website ever!  Font heaven.  And it is appropriately named after the best animal ever.





Hold on....<<<YAWWWWWWWWN>>>

Kids

On Thursday, August 7, 2014 Madeline got her braces off!  Beautiful.
But she's taller than me now.  Curse her.

Food

I love a new-ish restaurant here in the Flathead Valley called Stillwater Fish House.  Delicious food.  The first time I went, I got their Thai Curry Seafood which easily ranks among the top 5 meals of my life.  Yes, my LIFE.  I was craving it one day so I decided to Google how to make it at home.  I was stunned that recipes are actually out there.  I have not previously been an Asian foodie but I am liking it more.  Here is my in house creation of Thai Curry Seafood.  (BTW, I am NOT advertising for or promoting or getting any kind of kickbacks from Stillwater Fish House or Thai Kitchen brand of stuff shown below.  I just wanted to give you an idea of what I buy and what it looks like.  Makes shopping for ingredients easier.)

Thai Seafood Curry

Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped onion (I like yellow but you can use whatever you prefer.)

vegetable oil to sauté onion

1 ½ tablespoons peeled, minced fresh ginger (I just use a couple shakes of dry ginger, frankly)

1 can unsweetened coconut milk (you can use lite but I like the regular, more fatty version for taste)

2 tablespoons red curry paste (This is essential.  I get it at Wal-mart by the Asian sauces. Cheap.)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon fish sauce (I also get this at Wal-mart in the Asian sauce section.)

1 tablespoon lime juice

¼ cup fresh Thai basil (optional)

1 tablespoon mirin (also with the Asian sauces and also optional)

Red chili flakes (if you like it spicy; these are optional too)

½ pound small cocktail shrimp (from the cold seafood case)

1 cup uncooked jasmine rice

*If this seems too fancy, complicated or you don’t want to bother with the unusual ingredients, just get the coconut milk and red curry paste (assuming you already have onion, brown sugar, and dry ginger) and leave out all the other sauce items from the fish sauce down.  Jasmine rice is a must, though.

We always double this but you probably aren’t feeding an army so the original amount will suffice.  Unless you like leftovers.  I sure do.  So then go ahead and double it. 

Directions:

Start your jasmine rice cooking according to package directions.  Sauté onion in the oil over medium heat in a medium pan. Add coconut milk and bring back to a simmer. Stir in curry paste and sugar until well blended; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes.  If adding, stir in fish sauce, lime juice, basil, mirin, and some red chili flakes (only if you want a little kick).  Stir in shrimp (or cooked chicken chunks) and go back to a simmer, JUST until heated through.  Serve it spooned over the rice.  It should be very saucy.  Eat it with a side of veggies too.  So, so, so good.  Thank you, Thailand, for having such awesome food.

Tips:

The coconut milk called for is not the recently popular beverage can with the pop top.  This stuff is thick for cooking, not drinkable. 

Good luck finding fresh Thai basil.  Regular basil is NOT the same flavor.  After extensive Googling for a suitable substitute, I now opt for a sprinkle of regular dried basil, a sprinkle of dried mint (some people say that Thai basil has hints of mint), and a tiny splash of pure star anise extract (some people say that Thai basil has hints of licorice).  Since I can’t find Thai basil around here, I have no way to verify the flavor accuracy.  This may seem like it’s too complicated but I really wanted to recreate the taste of the exceptional restaurant version of this. 

Mirin is this weird but delectable fermented Asian “sauce” although it is clear in the bottle.  It was listed among the restaurant version’s ingredients so I decided to add it.  The restaurant also listed lemon grass but I have never tried that. 

If you don’t like shrimp, you can use sautéed chunks of chicken in place of the shrimp.  Some of my family like this alternative.  NONE of my family likes the shrimp.

We serve this with a side of Asian salad (cabbage or broccoli slaw with a rice vinegar-based dressing) or steamed veggies (like broccoli, snap peas, and peppers)

Reading

Our ladies book group has been going strong for 8 1/2 years.  Below is a list of all the books we have read so far.  Reviews to come!  Our plans for the next few months are tentatively as follows:

September  "Thinking in Pictures" by Temple Grandin  (at my house-hooray!)

October  "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte  (spoooooky!)

November  "The Kiterunner" or "I Am Malala"

December  "Write Your Own Short Story" with a Christmas theme.  We always have trouble finding a "heartwarming" Christmas book so we are trying our hands this year so to speak, to warm our own hearts.

January  Open

February  "Battle Cry of a Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua (Chinese New Year theme!)

Book Group Selections

2005

February  “The Hiding Place” by  Corrie Ten Boom

March  “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin

April  “The Persian Pickle Club” by Sandra Dallas

May  “The Giver” by Lois Lowry

June  “Winter Solstice” by Rosamunde Pilcher

July  “Dancing at the Rascal Fair” by Ivan Doig

August  “Kaleidoscope Season” by Sharon Downing Jarvis

September

October  “Danger in the Shadows” by Dee Henderson

November  “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Orczy

December  “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens OR “Shepherds, Why this Jubilee” by Jeffrey R. Holland

2006

January  “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith

February  “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

March  “Welcome to the Great Mysterious” by Lorna Landvik

April  “The Sunflower” by Simon Wiesenthal

May  “Goose Girl” by Shannon Hale

June  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe

July  “ The Virginian” by Owen Wister

August  “The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float” by Farley Mowat

September  “The Seven Daughters of Eve” by Bryan Sykes

October  “ A Town Like Alice” by Neil Shute

November “We Are Our Mother’s Daughters” OR “Founding Mothers” by Kokie Roberts

December  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” by Barbara Robinson

2007

January  “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks

February  “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey

March  “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd

April  “Blind Your Ponies” by Stanley Gordon West

May  “Age of Innocence” by Edith Wharton

June  “Poisonwood Bible”  by Barbara Kingsolver

July  “To America” by Stephen Ambrose

August  “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult

September  “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne

October  “Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith

November  “1776” by David McCullough

December  “How Far to Bethlehem” by Nora Lofts AND “The Other Wise Man” by O Henry

2008

January  “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott

February  “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine

March  Cancelled

April  “Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven” by Fannie Flagg

May  “The Edge” by Dick Francis

June  “My Antonia” by Willa Cather

July  “The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield

August  “Leadership and Self Deception” by The Arbinger Institute

September  “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” by Elizabeth George Speares

October  “A Cry In the Night” by Mary Higgins Clark

November  “Cold Sassy Tree” by Olive Ann Burns

December  “The Christmas Box” by Richard Paul Evans

2009

January  “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller

February  “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” by Lisa See

March “The Education of Little Tree” by Forrest Carter

April  “Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas

May  “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen

June  “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

July  “Fire of the Covenant” by Gerald Lund

August  “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankel

September  “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck

October  “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

November “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls

December “A Christmas Treasury” by Louisa May Alcott

2010

January  “Tales From Shakespeare” by Charles and May Lamb

February  “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” by David Wroblewski

March  “Bring Your Favorite Recipe Book”

April  “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

May  “The Diary of Mattie Spencer” by Sandra Dallas

June  “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie

July  “Plain and Simple” by Sue Bender

August  “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver

September  “John Adams” by David McCullough

October  “Middlemarch” by George Elliot

November  “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands” by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

December  “The Greatest Gift” by Phillip Doren Stern

2011

January  “Book and Food Potluck”

February  “Don Quixote Part I” by Miguel de Cervantes

March  “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte

April  “Blessings” by Anna Quindlen

May  “Crocodile on the Sandbank”  by Elizabeth Peters

June  “Tending Roses” by Lisa Wingate

July  “English Creek” by Ivan Doig

August  Summer Sabbatical

September  “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

October  “Left to Tell” by Imaculee Ilibigaza

November  “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemmingway

December  “The Melodeon” by Glendon Swarthout

2012

January  “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell

February  “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin

March  “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier

April  “Free to Choose” by Milton Friedman

May  “At Home in Mitford” by Jan Karon

June   “Mockingbird”by Charles J. Shields

July “The Constitution”

August “Mercy” by Jodi Picoult

September “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah

October  “A Tale of Two Cities” By Charles Dickens

November  “Murder by Mocha” by Cleo Coyle

December  “The Mansion” by Henry Van Dyke

2013

January  “Succeed” by Heidi Grant Halvorson”

February  “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand

March  “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel

April “Whose Names Are Unknown” by Sanora Babb

May “Deception Point” by Dan Brown

June “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis

July “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara

August “Leave it to Psmith” by P.G. Wodehouse

September “The Rent Collector” by Camron Wright

October “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon” by Washington Irving

November “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

December “Christmas at Fairacre” by Miss Read

2014

January “The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint” by Brady Udall

February “Enchantment” by Orson Scott Card

March “Gifted Hands” by Dr. Ben Carson

April  “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford

May  “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas

June  “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon

July  “Flags of Our Fathers” by James Bradley

August “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury

Running

The older kids and I ran the Bigfork River Run 5k today.  This was the first time any Jarvis has done this race which is partially a dusty trail run with a fall-to-your-death cliff on one side and partially a run through the lovely streets of Bigfork, MT.

Here are our times:
Mom 24:03  (8th overall, 2nd in age group)
Madeline  34:18 (She got lost on the very poorly marked course)
Mac  26:50 (27th overall, 4th in age group)
Flora  28:18 ( 23rd overall ,2nd in age group)
Aidan 26:09  (23rd overall, 3rd in age group)



For complete results (including video!), you can look here:   Bigfork River Run 2014 Results

To compare us to the Boogie to the Bank,a much bigger race, which the younger kids and I  did two weeks ago, these were our results:

Mom  23:06  (16th overall, 5th in age group but this was my personal best of all time!!!)
Aidan  24:33 (34th overall, 3rd in age group)
Gwen  25:39 (24th overall, 1st in age group)
Sullivan  33:21 (57th overall, 3rd in age group)

Here are the complete results (with video, of course) of the Boogie:   Boogie to the Bank 2014