Springtime Delights

Well folks, again I have let myself become delinquent with my blog.  However, I am vowing to be better!  Sometimes things get a little crazy around here...or a little dull and there is not much to write about.  Today I do have something to write about though!  On Sunday, I met up with my mom who brought me some fresh-picked strawberries from a patch called Greeson's where I've been getting strawberries as long as I can remember.  One of my best friends, Mary, is the one responsible for this love and obsession.  You see, her family owns Greeson's so I could get strawberries all through the season for basically free.  Thus developed a love for these particular strawberries that I can't quite escape.  No others taste quite as good!

Anyway, I digress.  My mom brought me a whole flat of strawberries.  They were absolutely beautiful and smelled utterly delicious.  I immediately began thinking of the ways I could enjoy these sumptuous berries and the delicious recipes I could make.  Of course, about half of them went into the freezer for later use since we can't berries this good all year.  Next I set to searching for a great recipe to make with my berries.

 Justin, being the dessert-lover he is, suggested I could do a strawberry cobbler.  I had never made one before, so I set about finding a recipe that seemed simple enough for a Sunday evening dinner, but looked like something my husband would love.  I found my recipe on Pinterest on a really cute blog called Never Enough Thyme.  It was delicious!!

Basically, you just cut up four cups of strawberries and make a filling that is sugar, corn starch, and water with the strawberries in it.  Just so you know, this filling on the stove smells absolutely amazing and will certainly make your mouth water.  The topping is just basic flour, corn starch, baking powder, butter, milk, and egg.  You drop the topping on in big spoonfuls and then bake for about 25 minutes "til gold and bubbly".  Much like my Steel Magnolias counterparts, I served this over vanilla ice cream "to cut the sweetness".  Needless to say, Justin was a big fan and we have since enjoyed several bowlfuls of this sweet treat.

So the lesson today is, during the springtime when life gives you strawberries, make strawberry cobbler!!

Delinquency & Disdain

Hello out there!  I realize that I have been quite delinquent in my posts as of recently and I apologize.  School has loaded quite a bit on my plate in the last two weeks and obviously that is my first priority.  I have had tests, skills check-offs, and presentations occupying my thoughts entirely too much recently.  Now I am in the final week of my first semester of nursing school and am trying to squeeze studying in while trying to complete a poster for a presentation, make a PowerPoint and outline for another presentation, and remember to actually take my Communications final before Friday.  My Nursing final is also on Friday hence the reason I am trying to fit studying in as well.

All these presentations are leading me to have total and utter disdain for the idea of group projects.  It's a crock if you ask me.  I came from Wake Forest University to a community college and group projects are totally different in these two atmospheres...as is almost everything else about the education process.  At Wake, when group projects were assigned, the groups actually got together to discuss the topic and the group members actually contributed the part they were assigned because everyone in the group genuinely cared about making the best grade possible.  Community college is quite a different story.  Group projects are kind of thrown together and I have found that I tend to take the lead so that I can be sure the project is done well and my grade doesn't suffer due to someone else's lack of preparedness.  For example, I have a final outline and presentation due tomorrow and have been begging my group members to get me their information so that I may complete the outline and also so that I can include visuals in the PowerPoint that are relevant to what each group member is going to be talking about.  As it stands right now, my portion is complete...however, my classmates have yet to send me much of anything and at this point, I am ready to turn in what we have and notify my instructor via our anonymous grading of our group members that none of them have contributed anything nor demonstrated any sense of urgency about getting this presentation done.  It is quite frustrating to come from a school where people valued their education and knew they were moving on to something bigger to a school where people just assume that projects will complete themselves and are satisfied with mediocre, average grades.  I mean, as long as they pass the class, that's all that matters.  Well for me, that's not good enough. 

I am a notorious over-achiever and anyone that knows me will agree.  I like to go above and beyond and education and grades are really important to me.  I think James Cash Penney put it well when he said, "No serious-minded man should have the time for the mediocre in any phase of his living."

Thank you for listening!  Rant over!