It’s a go.

Well, over the last 2 months I’ve gone through a number of stages in the decision to homeschool, and as I suspected I finally got to a point where it no longer felt like a decision to make. The concerns I had have slipped away one by one as I have voraciously read and researched the subject. My husband and I had several long discussions, and we both feel that we’ve come to a point in time where there are many different ways to get an education, and we feel like focusing on experiential and interest-based learning at home may well be an excellent fit for our family.

I found that the more I researched, the more comfortable I became with the idea of stepping away from traditional school. At first I thought maybe we’d do an online public school that was very structured and followed all the state requirements. Then I thought maybe we’d purchase an all-in-one curriculum. Then I thought it would make more sense to purchase different curriculum for each subject. At this point, I’m not sure how structured we will end up being. I have purchased/downloaded curriculum (some of which was free!), and we will have some structure to our days, but we want to do a lot of interest-based learning, particularly for science.

This weekend we did a family project where we had the boys work with us to help plan, design & build a pea trellis for our garden. It included a planning session where we discussed our requirements and looked at some ideas, then a trip to the store where we looked at options, did price comparisons, and ultimately purchased our materials. Then we built our trellis and they helped us problem-solve and put it all together. That’s a lot of learning, all while having fun!

We have been talking a lot about what we personally think it’s important for them to know, and we’ll be doing a mix of what we think is important along with what interests them. We think math is important (and they enjoy it), so we’ll be following their grade-level curriculum via workbooks for that. We will be focusing heavily on literature & writing, because I believe those are the to most critical foundations of a good education. We will be studying World History chronologically, beginning with ancient history next year. We will be doing science units based on the boys’ interests. So far we’re planning to study dinosaurs, plants, animals, the human body. I also want to do units on evolution and the scientific method.

We’ll throw in some classical music/composer studies as well as some art history. It important to me in this first year to figure out what really excites them, and then focus on that. I know that I personally have a VERY difficult time studying anything I’m not interested in, so I’m not terribly concerned about trying to force them to learn about non-critical things they just don’t care about. For example, I want them to have a basic understanding of Chemistry, but I don’t think it’s necessary for them to study that thoroughly unless they want to. I got a D- in Chemistry in high school, and I’ve never felt that I wish I knew more about it.

We have entered an era where the whole of human knowledge is at our fingertips. If we build a foundation that includes a love of learning, the ability to independently access information, and the skills of logic and critical thinking to apply toward that information, then one really has all they need to pursue whatever it is they want to do.  I personally experienced having school drain all the fun out of learning for me, and I feel like instead of really being able to dig in to the subjects I loved, I barely scratched the surface of many subjects that were of no use to me at all. This is not what I want for my kids.

This is difficult for me to talk about, because I feel like when I explain our reasons for homeschooling I am implying that school is terrible and no decent parent should send their children to school. This is not what I’m saying at all! I think we all recognize that there are many problems with the schools, but I think that overall our community schools have a lot to offer. The fact is, it takes an unique combination of factors for it to even be a reasonable consideration for a lot of people. I get that most families need 2 working parents. And those who don’t, don’t necessarily want to spent all day every day with their kids. Some kids don’t WANT to homeschool, and some parents don’t WANT to be their kids’ teachers. So please don’t ever think that my decision to homeschool my kids is in any way a judgement of your decision not to. Who knows, we may be back at school some day!

I will probably be blogging our homeschool adventures. I’m not sure if I’ll do it here or elsewhere. I’m not really using this blog for anything else, so I may just let that take over this space. We’ll see.

Time4Learning Review

While I have read a TON of positive reviews of Time4Learning, it was not a good match for us. Both of my boys (6 and 9) found it babyish. I sat with them as they did some lessons, and I saw both of them become frustrated. The instructions were repeated a NUMBER of times, and they grew impatient waiting to get to the lesson. And then, if they accidentally did something wrong, the instructions were repeated AGAIN.

Both of my boys have been playing video games for years, and I think they are very used to playing around with something until they figure it out. Having to sit and wait for the instructions to be repeated made them extremely frustrated, as they both prefer to dig in and figure it out as they go.

I also found some of the voices in the lessons to be so annoying that I could hardly stand to sit and listen.

I am quite sure that this curriculum would be a good match for some kids, and it is definitely a bargain for parents looking for an all-in-one computer-based curriculum. The lessons were thorough and generally presented well. Unfortunately, we didn’t get very far with it, because I couldn’t talk the boys into giving it another try after they each did 2 lessons.

We’ve decided that computer-based curriculum is not our style. Instead, we’ll be using technology for supplementation rather than our core coursework.

In exchange for a free trial month of access, I agreed to give an honest review of our experience with the Time4Learning software. The opinions here are entirely my own.

Homeschool “Practice”

As I continue the process of researching homeschooling (nearly to death), I have made a conscious effort to kind of get in the homeschool mindset. We did some rearranging in the lower level of the house to add a computer for the boys, as well as upgraded them from a little-kid craft area to an actual table and chairs as well as storage for craft supplies, workbooks, library books & part of our own book collection.

Tate is in morning kindergarten, and I’d gotten in a pretty bad habit over the winter of  letting him spend entirely too much of his afternoon in front of the TV. Tate can be sort of grumpy and stubborn, and I can be kind of lazy & soft, so I just hadn’t really made the effort to come up with a better strategy.  So, in the interest of improving that situation as well as doing a little “practice” homeschooling, I’ve made some changes.

There is now NO TV after kindergarten. He does get some TV time, but it has to wait until after big brother gets home from school (only fair, right?). Strangely, he has had absolutely ZERO complaints about this rule. (You know it’s bad when the six year old is like “yeah, ok – i get it – enough is enough!”). Anyway, I pulled out a K>1 bridge workbook I had laying around from a few years ago and pulled out some pages. So we’ve been using Starfall for reading (which he really seems to enjoy), doing some workbook pages (which he initially complained about but ended up asking for more), and craft projects.

Tate is pretty fantastic at pulling out all the craft supplies and just going to town making something. Today he made a baseball guy out of some foam sheeting, pipe cleaners & tape with very little assistance from me.

At this point, I’m fighting off feelings of guilt about all the time we wasted this winter. The one thing we do struggle with (and the one thing that I kept trying over and over this winter) is that he doesn’t usually want me to read to him during the day. At night he loves it, since it’s a means of delaying sleep, but it’s a struggle during the day. HOWEVER, I have discovered that if I read to him while he is eating lunch or having a snack, he adores it and can’t get enough. I think in his mind, reading is a “waste of time”, and so if he can do it while he’s doing something else, then we’re being more efficient. As a person who LOVES efficiency, I can kind of appreciate this attitude.

In addition to the changes I’ve made with Tate, I’ve instituted a Family Word of the Day. Each morning I’m choosing a word to write on the chalkboard downstairs. I am trying to make them easy enough for Tate to read (with maybe a little help), yet fun and interesting for all of us. I created a notebook called “The Book of Words” in which we’ll have a page for each day where one of the boys will enter the date, the word of the day, definition, synonyms & antonyms. So far we have done: conserve, timid, and vile.

So, basically this week I’m feeling like a supermom and totally making up for the last…SEVERAL…months of being a total slacker. I’m also seeing how much Tate enjoys learning in a way that I haven’t seen for a while.

I feel like I’ve nearly decided we’re going to do this, but I’m completely afraid to just bite the bullet and make the commitment. Probably because I know I don’t have to and can back out at the last minute. And I do have moments where I think about our school and the fact that I’d be pulling high performing kids out of a good school with a community of people I really like and I wonder what the hell I’m thinking. But then I remember what the hell I’m thinking and I’m back on board. I just HAVE to try this. I know I will absolutely regret it if I don’t.

I have to say, this kind of stuff is what I dreamed about doing with my kids. But the fact is, when they were little, I just didn’t have the energy for it. I tend to be a pretty anxious (and kind of lazy…did I mention that already?) person, and up until now I just couldn’t even fathom it. But now, I’m SO EXCITED about it. I do want to give it some time over the summer – practice a little and see how it goes. Anyone who knows me knows my tendency to lose interest in projects quickly, but I don’t see that happening here. This isn’t really a project, it’s a total change in lifestyle. You can be sure I’ll keep you posted on how the practice and the decision making is going…

Time4Learning

Still doing lots of research to work toward a decision about homeschooling next year. I’m now leaning away from the idea of doing online public school, but looking for something that is comprehensive and affordable so as to make for an easy transition as we get our “sea legs”. One option that I’ve been looking at is Time4Learning.

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning is an online educational program that can be used in many ways including as a homeschooling curriculum or afterschool tutorial. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

I’m going to set it up for both of the boys and see how we like it.

Closer and Closer

The idea of making this leap is feeling less scary every day. Each time I speak with another friend who home schools, it helps to allay my fears that this is a completely crazy idea.

The fact is, I’ve made “crazy” parenting decisions in the past. Decisions that weren’t mainstream, but were embraced by others who parent their children intentionally and with careful consideration. And I haven’t regretted any of those decisions yet. Obviously, I’m not saying people who make different or mainstream decisions aren’t parenting intentionally, I’m just saying that GOOD decisions can sometimes look like CRAZY ones.

As I get closer to making a decision, I am focusing more closely on the “cons”, both known and theoretical. And while it’s easy to get caught up on those, I need to remember that there are pros and cons to every choice, and it’s the cons of what we’re doing now that have brought me to contemplate this in the first place.  Attending last night’s PTO meeting made me feel a little sad and panicky about the idea of disconnecting from our school community. But I know that even if we detach from the school completely, we have connections with so many families within a mile of  our house that worrying about feeling closed off is just not reasonable. And the fact is, our school has been in such a state of transition (we will have our 5th principal in 5 years next year, 10 teachers retiring) that we’re not exactly leaving a super stable environment.

I do have some guilt about being one of the few active families leaving a large, diverse, in-flux school community. But I just don’t think this is the kind of situation where I feel like I am willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good.  In fact, I think this is part of the problem with public education – some kids’ needs are sacrificed in order to suit the needs of all. I’m not saying this is WRONG, but I am in the position to make a different choice for my kids.

And so, we inch closer…

More on the Homeschooling Decision

My last remaining real concern about whether or not to choose the homeschooling option is that I would like to find a situation in which we do not have to divorce ourselves completely from our home school. We love our school community, and we’d like to stay a part of it to some degree. Fisher has expressed an interest in doing his related arts at school and everything else at home, so that he can see his friends regularly during the day . We’d also like them to be able to participate in the Spelling Bee (which I actually run, and would continue to do so if we were able to keep connected to the school) and social events such as the back to school party and year-end events. As they get older I’d like for them to be able to participate in sports & the arts (that is, if they don’t decide to return to public school).

Our school is in transition right now, and we don’t really have a principal I can approach with questions about this. I did talk to an administrator this morning who said this is an option, but I am waiting for a call back with more detailed information.

Last night I attended an information session for the Ohio Virtual Academy. There’s a lot to like about this option, particularly as a transition from brick & mortar school to schooling at home. The only problem is that it is an Ohio Public School, which I believe may render us ineligible from participating in our local school, since attending this school would pull funding from our own district. I do not like this idea at all. I am a supporter (and product of!) our local school district and want to continue our relationship with it. I have no negative feelings at all toward our schools, I just want the freedom to do more efficient & experiential learning, and to be more closely involved with my childrens’ education on a daily basis.

OHVA uses the k12 curriculum, and while there is the option of purchasing the curriculum and using it independently without enrolling in a public school, it is super pricy, and therefore not a viable option.

Right now I am looking at the Time4Learning curriculum. It is internet-based, and would give much of the structure we’d get from OHVA but with more freedom, flexibility, and the opportunity to still participate somewhat in activities at our home school.

I know I have a lot of unschooling friends who do not believe that a curriculum is necessary, and I don’t dismiss that idea. But I think for us (at least starting out), it’s the best way to go. I need and enjoy structure (as does at least one of my kiddos), and I think the leap will feel a little less scary if I feel like we’ve got a landing pad beneath us.

I am open to more suggestions for structured curriculum. It is very difficult to wade through the many MANY options that are out there. I’m meeting with a friend today, and will find out what she is using. I was really encouraged by the brief conversation with the administrative offices of our school this morning, and have hope that I will be able to come up with a plan that satisfies the wants and needs of the whole family.

Putting it out there

Been thinking about coming back to this blog and writing a bit. I get frustrated when there’s something I want to say that’s too long for Twitter but I don’t necessarily want to force on everyone over at Facebook. I prefer this more “read if you want” kind of environment.

Right now I’m in the throes of trying to decide if we want to homeschool next year. I’m not one to make decisions without researching them to death (I guess this is a good thing, right?) so that’s what I’m doing. I also find that once I begin to research something my ideas often begin to move in a direction that makes it difficult to rewind. By that I mean I come to a point where I feel like I’d be making a mistake to not continue in this direction. This has served me well in the past, but this is a pretty scary leap for me to make. From my research, though, most homeschoolers who have left public school after a number of years experience this, and the advice is to “just do it”. I definitely don’t want to be the person who stays on the safe and easy path, because I think most of life’s amazing moments happen when you step outside of your comfort zone.

In any case, both of my boys are very excited about the idea. Of course, they are 6 and 9 and although I definitely want to respect their opinions I am keeping in mind that they may not fully grasp the reality of what it means. My 6 year old has never particularly enjoyed school. My 9 year old has always enjoyed it, but I am starting to see ways in which it is wearing him down. He has a wonderful teacher he adores, a sweet and amazing group of friends, and is STILL saying he doesn’t want to go to school.

He is also very VERY much like me, and I had the same experience. People always seem so concerned about the social lives of homeschooled kids, but one of my biggest problems growing up was that that trying to learn at school felt like a distraction from my social life. From about 9 all the way through high school and even college, I was just really turned off to the learning process. I have come back to it and LOVE it now, but as a young person I really struggled with balancing learning & socializing. My experience, research & instinct tells me that this would likely be a VERY good change for my super-social kid.

I really think that for some very social kids, it can be beneficial to have learning time separate from social time.  Both of my boys have tons of friends that they spend time with after school and on the weekends, as well as sports & extracurricular activities. None of that would change by leaving school.

There are, of course, other reasons that I am considering this. Primarily, I really hate being so disconnected from what the kids are learning at school. We do a lot of talking/explaining/intellectualizing at home anyway, but I think it is difficult to really supplement their education after long, busy school days and homework every night.

The fact is, I am confident that I could be VERY GOOD at this. Actually, I can’t think of much I believe I’d be better at than this. I realize it may sound a bit like I’m doing this for me, but the fact is that this seed was planted years ago – before either of my boys entered school. I didn’t consider it right out of the gate because honestly, I was mentally and physically drained from years of raising tiny people. Now that they are older and more independent, I don’t need and crave the solid chunks of time away like I did when they were young and highly needy.  So as they’ve grown older, the seed has taken root and I feel like I’ve reached a point where I would be blatantly ignoring my conscience by not at least seriously examining this idea.

So, that’s what’s happening with us. Feel free to send your homeschooling friends my way to share their 2 cents!

Trip to Maine, part 1

Last Friday, July 27, we left Ohio for our longest family road trip ever – to Maine. Our destination was Mount Desert Island, where we planned to visit Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We chose this area because we wanted to visit the ocean, but we also wanted to hike. We liked the idea of a National Park, since visiting them is somewhat of a goal for us.

It was our first weeklong family vacation that wasn’t to visit someone else or with family. Just the four of us, to someplace we’d never been. And I have to say, it was really amazing. I did tons of research, and the trip really was just perfect. I did a lot of blog-searching to try and find ideas about what to do while we were there, so I figured I’d pay it forward and share our experiences.  I’ll break it down by what we did by day.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY – Drive.  We arrived late afternoon on Saturday. We stayed at Edgewater, and the cottage (#2) was just perfect for us. It had 2 bedrooms – one with a king bed (yay!) and one with two twin beds. It had a small kitchen, an eating area, and a living room with 2 love seats, a coffee table, and a TV with cable. Nothing fancy, but it was cozy and clean.  The back door was about 10 feet from the water at high tide, and at low tide, we were able to walk down onto the rocky shore and dip our feet in the water and explore the rocks, snails & tidepools. The view was beautiful, and at $159/night it seemed like a great deal – particularly since we were able to eat most of our meals there, saving tons of money on food. It was also situated almost directly between Bar Harbor and the mainland, which turned out to be super convenient since we were visiting both regularly.

The boys, hanging out down by the water at low tide with our cottage in the background.

That night we drove back into Ellsworth on the mainland for a quick dinner and to buy groceries. We saved a ton of money by eating most of our meals at the cottage (we ate dinner out twice more, but other than that, ate at the cottage.)

SUNDAY – It was grey and rainy, which was kind of a bummer, but after 2 days of driving we were happy to just sort of hang around and not do much. We decided we needed some binoculars for hiking, so we headed back into the mainland. After stopping back at the cottage for lunch, the rain had let up a bit and we decided to explore the park a little bit.

We were going to drive up Cadillac Mountain, but there was too much fog, so we headed back down to the Jordan Pond House and took a short walk down to the water. The house was packed because of the inclement weather, so we didn’t even go inside, but the walk was enough to whet our appetite for more exploring in the park.

MONDAY – Monday was Fisher’s 9th Birthday!

We got moving early so we could make the 9:30 launch of Diver Ed’s Dive-In Theatre. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun! We boarded the Starship Enterprise with Diver Ed, Captain Evil, a couple of crew members and a couple of adorable Newfoundland dogs.

I won’t go into great detail about the trip. Just read the reviews on Trip Advisor – which are overwhelmingly 5 stars. Diver Ed has a personality reminiscent of Jack Black and it was an absolute blast for all the kids and adults. Definitely worth every penny of the cost of admission. We loved it so much we bought 2 t-shirts!

Diver Ed, demonstrating the grabby suction cups on the bottom of a Starfish.
 

After another quick lunch at the cottage, we headed out to hike to the top of Gorham Mountain. Based on a book I got at the library and the reviews at All Trails, this seemed like the best choice of a mountain hike with the kids. It was a super fun trail for the kids, as most of it was over rock and sometimes scaling large boulders.

We made it to the top, then took the Bowl trail back down to the Sand Beach area, then took the Ocean Path back to our car. It ended up being about a 4 mile hike, and was just perfect for an afternoon.

After getting cleaned up, we rounded out Fisher’s birthday with dinner at Stewman’s on the water and some strolling and shopping in Bar Harbor. Oh, and ice cream. I insisted we go to Mount Desert Island Ice Cream since it’s small batch artisan ice-cream and I thought it might be similar to Jeni’s. Turns out, not all small-batch ice cream is created equal. It was NOTHING like Jeni’s. Lame.

All in all, though, Monday totally rocked. More awesomeness to come in Part 2…

Why I should stop waxing philosophical on twitter and start volunteering at the food pantry.

I had a very interesting dialogue on Twitter with a friend today. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a good philosophical/theological discussion with someone, and I really enjoyed it (probably more than all the people who read both our streams, sorry guys!).

We began the conversation discussing human rights, and the idea that in a godless universe (aka “the universe” to me), people do not have inherent rights. I agreed with this assertion (his), and continued to agree with him all the way through to the conclusion that humans have no inherent value at all and are essentially worthless. I believe our worth comes from being valued by other humans and that, generally speaking, we (as most species) are wired to value each other to a certain degree.  Obviously there are many cultural, situational, & biological exceptions to this “rule” – again, just as there are with many other species.

What I couldn’t quite gather was why it mattered. What benefit was there to the idea of having god-given rights, if humans are the only ones with the power to violate them?

He said that god-given rights “give you an unchanging basis for valuing humans. w/ implications for, say, slavery, torture, treatment of women, the poor…in the absence of such valuation, the social compact is tenuous and toothless, really, because there’s no reason I should care.”

Yes, I thought. That last part sounds pretty much like what we’ve got going on here on planet earth. A lot of people are being valued, a lot (more?) are not being valued. Our social contracts (governments) are constantly changing and shifting, and things get really ugly when people who don’t value other humans – or only particular humans – are put in powerful positions. In an high level view of human history, I see very little consistency at all, except that we seem to value each other just enough to not wipe ourselves out of existence (yet).

“So”, I said, “the world would look like it looks?” I mean, it seemed immediately obvious.

But he said, “no. the world would look demonstrably worse.”

Which is not at all what I expected he would say!

We left things there, because it had been a long conversation, which is challenging via Twitter for many reasons – and he acknowledged that this was the point at which we would hit an impasse.

So, if I’m understanding Joshua correctly, he’s saying that the current state of the world is evidence for the existence of inherent human rights bestowed by a creator. Because if there were no such rights, the state of things would be much worse. (I guess this is a bit of extrapolation – Joshua, feel free to correct me if I am wrong here.)

I will admit that I have been feeling pretty negative about the state-of-the-planet (SOTP) lately, and admittedly, my knowledge of world history is pretty weak overall. But still, things look kinda crappy from over here. Which is funny, because I am probably one of the luckiest motherbitches on the planet. The closest I ever feel to having my rights violated is when they are out of Snowville Cream at Kroger, for pete’s sake. Although, maybe it’s because I have it so good that things elsewhere look so bad? No, no…I’m pretty sure the horror of rape, torture, slavery etc. are never a matter of PERSPECTIVE.

But I am left wondering what some of you think. Would you have been as surprised at his response as I was?

I know that for some people, it sounds really bleak to say that I believe people have no inherent value. But I’m not saying people are worthless, just we’re worth something only to each other (though really, my dog likes me a helluvalot). This, of course, really gets down to the nitty gritty of morals and ethics and all that big philosophy stuff that you studied in college and people have been pondering since the beginning of time.  And honestly, as much as I enjoy a little existential pondering, when it gets to the really tough stuff, my brain starts to hurt and I have to stop. (I am this way about most things. I blame my parents for not fostering in me an ethic of persistence and follow-through).

I think mostly, I’m just fascinated by how differently we all see the world. We all have to build some kind of framework that helps us make sense of “reality”. And even more interestingly for me is that I tried to adopt a framework of faith for a long, long time and it just never “stuck”. It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole…it just didn’t fit me. And I know people who’d say the same about their faith – that it doesn’t make sense and they can’t logically explain it, but nothing else feels right.

What’s my point? I don’t even know anymore.  I am starting to feel trapped in a Pink Floyd movie.  Time for bed.

 

 

Stuff I Love : Meatloaf

I specifically recall being a kid and complaining about having meatloaf for dinner. And yet, as legend (aka Mom) tells it, I’d always ask for seconds. I guess I just thought it wasn’t cool to like meatloaf or something, and those of you who know me know I have always been the epitome of cool, amirite?

About 10 years ago my mom typed out all of her best recipes to give to me and my sister (thanks, Mom!).  I printed them all out and put them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder, and have added all of my new favorite discoveries along the way. I will say, though, that my mom’s meatloaf recipe is one of my very favorite things to make and eat. It’s also one of those magical foodstuffs that every single person in my house will eat without complaint.

Before I share this recipe with you, I must divulge that I am completely unobjective about this recipe. It’s the only meatloaf I ate growing up, and so there is a part of me that wonders if I love it so much because it’s such a comforting flavor, or if it really is that good.  Scott seems to like it, and he’s pretty picky, but if any of you make it let me know what you think, ok?

Ok, here goes. Sorry this isn’t in a pretty printable format. I don’t know how to do that. But I bet you know how to cut and paste!

Meatloaf

1 lb. ground beef

1 small diced white onion

1/2 diced red onion

(ok, let’s be real. 9 times out of 10 i just dice a medium white or yellow onion and throw it all in.)

3 T chopped parsley

1 t oregano

1/2 t dried thyme

1 T grated romano or parmesean cheese

(you can use the stuff in the green jar if that’s what you have)

1 t Worchestershire Sauce

1 T honey

1.5 T tomato paste

(i didn’t have this tonight so i left it out. but we all put ketchup on it anyway, so who cares?)

3 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

(we eat a mostly grain-free diet, so i use 1/2 c almond flour here, and i can’t tell the difference. and this is coming from someone who generally doesn’t believe anyone when they say “you can’t tell the difference!”.)
 

Salt and Pepper to taste

_____

Throw all your shit in a bowl and mix it up – using your hands is best. Then plop it onto whatever you want to bake it on (I use a deep dish round stoneware thingy) and mold it into something that looks like a loaf of bread or a baby’s butt or a giant hamburger or whatever.

Bake at 375 for an hour. Slap some ketchup on that business, and love me forever (maybe).

 

I had no idea I was going to post this until after we’d eaten almost all of it. But here’s what’s leftover. Doesn’t it look yummy?  That’s because it is! Lemme know if you make it, ok?