A Time To Grow

I've always felt that people do most of their growing to adulthood over summer vacation as kids. Physically, people would come back to school in the fall with fresh hair cuts, healthy glows and revitalized spirits. Emotionally, we grew through the simultaneous ecstasy and heartbreak of summer flings. Mentally, we came that much closer to the understanding that nothing lasts forever, especially the things you most want to. Yes, summer vacation as a child is a time for much growth and learning. However, today, as Lily left for her first, last day of school, I realized the school year takes its toll, too! Take a look!

Lily's first day of school back in August:

Last day of school this morning:

My oh my how we've grown! Welcome, summer! I trust you'll treat my growing girl well.

Ode To The Blueberry

Summer is here! Let's bake!

I adore the summer months, probably more so now that I'm a teacher (hmmm wonder why that is? Riddle me that!) Along with the smell of babies in sunscreen, the visits to the sugar-white sands and clear blue waters of the coast and best tasting seafood of the year, one of the greatest heralds of the summer months is the majestic blueberry (yes, they're majestic. Don't try to argue). I eat these things like candy, ya'll, and I wanted to be sure I got the most out of their season. To start my blueberry bash, I decided to try a classic blueberry pie. But, like everything else in my life, this seemingly simple dish comes with a story!

You see, I have never been able to create a decent blueberry pie. Apple pie? No probem. Peach cobbler? Kid stuff. But my blueberry pies have always come out delicious, but in the form of blueberry syrup or blueberry mush rather than a free-standing piece of heaven. I would always just end up using my cooked filling as syrup over ice cream and the crust for texture, but not this year! This year, I did my research. I googled, I blogged, I put the feelers out, and, with the help of my dear friend, Alisha, and few more attempts at tweaking everyone else's recipe, I think I nailed it! Seriously, it's always the easy recipes that seem to be the hardest. We won't even get into how long it took me to master a grilled cheese...

So, without furthar ado, here is my successful blueberry pie, mastered just in time for Memorial Day!

You'll need:

Pillsbury pre-made pie crust - two for a 9-inch pie dish (one day when I'm amazing, I'll make the crust on my own)

3 cups blueberries (a pint and a half - eat the other half as you're baking)

Just over 1/4 cup flour (just over 1/4 C, not quite 1/3 - it's a fine line, people!)

Just under 1 cup white sugar (JUST UNDER 1C otherwise you get into blueberry mush territory - DON'T GO THERE!)

2 tsp cinnamon

Half of a lemon

Butter

Then you:

Preheat oven to 425

Line the bottom of the pie dish with one of the crusts

Mix the flour and sugar and cinnamon (add more or less cinnamon to taste!) in a bowl

Fold in blueberries

Pour the mixture into the pie dish and squeeze the lemon juice over the top. Dot with butter.

Place the second crust over the top, sealing the sides and adding slits to vent. I prefer to get my fancy pants on and do the lattice crust (what can I say, it almost makes up for the crust not being homemade!)

Melt a bit of butter and "paint" the crust. No joke, I used one of Lily's new paint brushes. Sorry, Lily.

Sprinkle the top with sugar and place in the oven

Bake 35-40 minutes. Now, this part is very important: let it cool a bit before cutting in! Otherwise, mush city! Let it get to that "daybreak in July" temp, not cool, not hot, just warm. Serve with vanilla ice cream or on its own. Nailed it!

Up next? Blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry/blackberry cobblers, the possibilities are endless! 

Goodness Gracious I Am So Sorry!

First off, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! The Lazar family is incredibly grateful for the work and sacrifice all of our men and women in arms face each and every day. For those who have passed while serving this country, thank you.

We're still here, I swear! I have fallen so terribly behind, there is absolutely no excuse for it. Well actually, there are several excuses, but we won't get into it. That's tacky. I'm sorry, and here's a list of all the wonderful beautiful craziness that has gone down since the last post:

1. Lily took to the Terrible Twos like a titanic trout to tranquil water (I had too much fun writing that. I need a vacation).
2. St. Patrick's day weekend was a great opening number to Spring Break! Jason and I went down to Orlando for a beautiful wedding and spent the next few days in Disney World. Just us. Lily's time will come later :-)
3. Easter was fabulous.
4. Another wedding! My friend and coworker was married late April and Jason and I once again got to spend a night out all gussied up and looking fierce.
5. Spring recital has come and gone. The dancers I teach rocked out for the last time of the school year. I am so proud of them!
6. JASON WAS HIRED! Jason is now a serving officer, keeping this city safe just like he always dreamed of doing! Extremely proud family!
7. Jason's gradfather sadly passed away. Jason and I went with his parents to Virginia to say our goodbyes and visit with family. Daniel Lazar, Sr. was a kind and loving man who cherished his family. Jason and I loved his stories about growing up in Romania and fighting in the many battles that helped shape this country. While his passing was devastating, it did help us to reconnect with our family up north, and that was just lovely.
8. Uncle Will graduated high school! Last out of the nest, my baby bro is all grown up!
9. My first year of teaching is over in a week. My eighth grade students have graduated and I am thisclose to being able to call myself a "veteran" teacher. I've told them this, and I'll tell you now: they taught me more than I taught them. I am so grateful to them!

10. On a sadder note, our school lost its assistant principal on the night of the eighth grade graduation mass. The wonderful woman who had been in office even when I was a student at this school lost her battle with leukemia. She was a good and wonderful woman who lived her faith and inspired everyone around her to do the same. She was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a teacher and a mentor. Our school will never be the same without her. We were all so lucky to have known her.

With the crazy school year behind us and the beautiful summer ahead, I hereby promise to keep this thing updated! Until September, at least!

February - All of it!

Wow it's been a while! February was a crazy/busy/beautiful month! It started with preparation for Valentine's Day, when I realized we are now at that age when we have to bring valentines to classmates at school. How did we get here so quickly? I remember in grade school decorating shoe boxes which would soon hold little messages of love, and would swear to the moon and back they were heartfelt, genuine sentiments from my peers. No no, y'all. It's totally from and for the mamas! The kids definitely get a kick out of it, but I'm fairly certain I had more fun with this than Lily did!

This year, Lily sent Bear Hugs to her classmates!

Baby girl came home with a bag full of goodies, the most impressive being a personalized cookie with the child's name written in perfect cursive with frosting. Next year.....next year...

After Valentine festivities were over, it was time to move on to Lily's birthday celebrations! Because things have truly been crazy/beautiful/really totally and completely crazy, we decided to go way more low-key than last year! No Ladybug Ball, but it was a hit, nonetheless! The family gathered for a meal of Lily's favorite foods: Chicken nuggets, french fries and cupcakes! The little girl's eyes grew to the size of baseballs seeing all this junkfood on one table - definitely a birthday treat!

Playing with Daddy and her balloon!

I'm TWO! Touchdown!

Birthday Cupcake!

She knew just what to do!

She also got a cup full of sweet tea - YUM!

Playing with her new toys with Grandpa

So tall!

Family Shot!

Ending the day cuddling with Daddy and watching Eloise. Just perfect.

Lily is growing so quickly! Dancing and clapping all the way. This girl is personality and a half, letting us all know the way things should be done. She is as opinionated and headstrong as ever, preferring to do things on her own and prove she can. She climbs anything that sits still long enough - even brother puppy Mowgli! She shares for the most part, and delights in pleasing other people. She knows the correct identification of "mama", "daddy" and even her own "Lily" arouses applause, and she eats it up. She's a star, a dictator, a leader and a scholar, and we love her so!

Thank You

Happy new year! 2011 brought so many wonderful changes and opportunities - I got my fabulous job, Jason got even closer to achieving his career goals, Lily started school. With Jason finished with Police Man School and Lily about to enter her *terrific* twos (haha), it seems certain that 2012 will also take us into new territory. And I can't wait! To say farewell to 2011, we dropped Lily off with Kiki and Po:



Then we raced back to the house to host a small wine and cheese dinner. Several types of reds and blushes, crackers, cheeses, salmon, nuts and cookies - Oh la la!


The rest of the night, dear friends, is a bit of a blur. Literally. Every single picture I have is either out of focus or too dark to see. Apparently, I was not nearly as concerned as I ought to have been when I noticed the flash on my camera was not turned on. We had a wonderful time out with friends - just getting out of the house after 8:00 together at all is a treat - but we have definitely, for sure and certain, without a shadow of a doubt, reached the point where 9:30 is late and 1:00am is just ludicrous. I felt like I was back in high school and had missed curfew. That sneaky feeling when you first realize, "Holy cow! There's a whole other kind of life happening after I go to sleep!" We'll have to work on getting out more often. Maybe. OK not really. We were pretty tired this morning. But it was fun for a night.

I started this tradition two years ago and I absolutely love it. I wait until the first of the year to write my thank-you notes from Christmas. It's really such an awesome feeling, starting the year by saying "thank you". This year, I plum ran out of stationery. I have so many wonderful people in my life; family, friends, students, colleagues. So much for which to be thankful. So I begin the first day of the year by giving thanks and end it nursing an achy hand - I've never been happier about an achy anything. 62 Thank-you notes later:

So I will end this post in the same way I begin the new year. With thanks. Thank you to all who play a part in my crazy beautiful life. Thank you to those who speak kind words, who care about my husband, who love my daughter. Thank you to those who read these posts, who glance at the pictures, who write comments and send messages. Thank you to those who provide encouragement and words of advice - solicited or not. Thank you to those who provide criticism - both negative and constructive - we all need to take a step back and re-evaluate what we're doing. To those who speak words of hatred for making us strong, and those who speak words of love for keeping us strong. And to the Lord for His many many blessings - those we see clearly and those which are not meant to yet be seen. Thank you.

HO HO HO Y'all

We hope y'all had a very merry Christmas! The camera actually caught some of ours! Can you believe it?

Christmas Eve dinner! Standing rib roast, mac n' cheese, stuffing, green bean casserole and some YUMMY deserts!

Aunt Brenna made a yummy chocolate pie!

Listening to Christmas carols after dinner

Dirty kitchen and dishes to clean!

Table cleared, guests gone, dishes done and jammies on, it's time to prepare for Santa's arrival!

Placing the cookies

Cookies and milk out, Christmas tree aglow, we said our prayers and went to bed.

Mowgli was the first one awake Christmas Morn!

Mommy started on breakfast and lots (LOTS) of coffee!

Good morning!

Checkin' out the loot!

Between Santa, Mommy, Daddy, and Mowgli, we were off to a bountiful start! After our first Christmas in the morning, we headed off to Kiki and Po's - Aunt Brenna took pictures there, so those will come later. We had a wonderful time with Kiki, Po, Aunt Brenna, Uncle Will and Great Grampa! After the second round of gifts and food, the boys went out to the shooting range (another tradition we started this year!) while the girls started cooking dinner!

Once the boys got back, our little family left Kiki and Po's, and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas #3. We had a lovely third round of gifts and food, and while the grown ups visited, Lily had a blast in her latest gift:

Nice!

After visiting Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Heather and Cousin Puppy Tally, we headed home. It was just about bedtime, but before we turned in, Daddy and Lily had a little story time:

So sweet. It was a busy, bustling, exhausting day, but we are so blessed and thankful to have it all. Lily had so much fun this year, and her enthusiasm for this beautiful day will only grow in the years to come. She showed a lot of interest in her nativity this year, too. I can't wait until we get into more details with her next year! Merry Christmas, y'all!

A Month In Review...

SOOOOOO in the month since my last post:


1. Daddy graduated from Police Man School!!! Of course, our camera was dead so I have NO pictures to show. Yet. I'm working on it. Anyway, we are all SO proud of Daddy! He worked so hard and even won a special award for all of his effort and achievement!


2. The family took a trip to Pensacola to visit Mommy's side of the clan. The Pensacola crew had rented the most beautiful beach house for all of us to enjoy! The family played on the beach, put puzzles together, opened gifts and ate - my oh my we ate, and played a large game of Dirty Santa - Daddy won some new tools and I got away with a book of vintage cocktail recipes with the history behind each drink - LOVE! It was fabulous! Again, didn't take the time to charge the camera before going (I'm usually so prepared! It was obvious I needed Christmas break to get here FAST!). But we did manage to get one picture from the weekend:

3. Mommy made it through her first semester of teaching! Woot! I got read a book! A fictional, non-educational, unnecessary, slightly sad, whole book! It was wonderful.

4. CHRISTMAS! But those details are in the next post...