School Closing

We had to send the kids home last Thursday (2/23/23) due to a power outage on the School - Grand end of town. It's the second time in my 30 year career we've had to do that. Without power the fire alarm, door locks, heat, etc. don't function; not to mention the lights and laptops.

Today two different people pulled me aside to tell me how impressed they were with my son. Apparently, rather than hopping on his snowmobile and heading right home with the rest of the high schoolers, he went down to the elementary end of the building. He helped the elementary teachers keep the young kids calm and entertained until their parents could get to school to pick them up. 

He's such a good human around children. He tells me he's planning on teaching kindergarten and I think he's going to be an incredible teacher.

 

Full

This is what a full parking lot at the Mackinac Island Public School looks like: snowmobiles as far as the eye can see. I took this picture during Winter Festival's Sunday Brunch. 

We haven't had a Winter Festival since 2020 (due to Covid.) It was wonderful to celebrate again.

Happy Valentine's Day

There it goes...

My Valentine's Day present...

My husband packed up the kids and headed for the 9:00 am boat and then onto a weekend of fun. Leaving me home alone. All alone until I have to leave for work on Monday morning. I'm looking at two glorious days at home, all by myself. I can't even remember the last time I was home alone. I may do laundry, but I may also binge watch The Crown, or Star Trek. Only time will tell.

Busy

I am often asked what people on Mackinac do to keep busy during the winter. If you went around town and asked 20 different people you might get 20 different answers, but most people would agree on one thing. On Mackinac you have to entertain yourself - or better yet, organize something you'd like to do and invite people to join you.

We are lucky enough to have a very active Recreation Department, who are always organizing activities for both adults and kids. Pre-Covid I signed up for a stained glass making class. Unfortunately, the class was shut down when Covid hit, and my project has been languishing on a shelf for the past three years. Last week I decided enough was enough - I dug out the glass making supplies and set out to finish my piece. I'm shooting to have it done by March first. Wish me luck!

Playground Duty

Kids on Mackinac are tough. So when we head outdoors for recess on a day where, after factoring in the windchill, it felt like it was five degrees (- 15 C), it's no big deal. The kids had a blast and I was toasty warm inside my Lands' End parka.

Meals on Snowmobiles

Did you know that Mackinac Island has a Meals on Snowmobiles program? 

Our YAC (Youth Advisory Council) kids volunteer and deliver the meals after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's a wonderful way for the kids to give back to a community that gives them so much support. Tonight's delivery included:

baked ziti, a garlic herb roll, veggies, Caesar salad, and cake a la mode.  My mom gets meals when she is here and really appreciates them. 

Teen Night

Mackinac Island teenagers don't have a lot of options when it comes to "hanging out." To give the seventh through twelfth graders a hangout space, the Island community created "Teen Night." Each Saturday night during the winter, St. Anne's Catholic Church opens their meeting space for the kids to come together. The church basement has a pool table and an air hockey table, in addition to lots of room to just chill. The kids bring the music, the Mackinac Island Community Foundation provides the pizzas and pop, and parents organize baked goods and activities. It takes a village, right?

Recently I got the kids to participate in an epic Superfight battle. If you are not familiar with the game of Superfight, it's a hoot! Players draw cards to create a character who will battle another player's character. For example The Mario Brothers with the ability to turn all they touch to humus while carrying a magical protective blanket, might battle the Pope with a mustache that can stretch at will armed with holy hand grenades. (One student actually dew those cards!)

To battle the players argue about who would win and why. They argue like their lives depend on it, because the lives of their characters actually do. Once the yelling, I mean debate, dies down, the other players vote to determine the winner. The champion of that fight goes on to battle the next player, and so on, until the ultimate champion is crowned. The funniest moment of the evening was when our high school math teacher hit Darth Vader over the head with a very heavy Algebra II book. Sadly, she was not match for the Force...

Just Another Day

What happens when a student's

zipper no longer works? 

Mrs. Burt fixes it during recess of course.

Just one of the many benefits of keeping

a sewing machine at school.

Handmade Holidays

Now that it's Christmas I can safely share the ornaments my students made this year. Each of them hand sewed 20 yoyos, which they then stitched together to create a wreath. I try to have the kids hand sew something every year to then give to an adult they care about. I hope the parents appreciate them - my students worked hard!

I actually have seven fifth and sixth graders this year, but two of them were absent the day we took this picture.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours  a peaceful (and warm)

Christmas from Mackinac Island.

The Great Storm

The "Great Storm" of 2022 hit Mackinac just like it hit the rest of the Midwest - with a vengeance. The bridge closed to high profile traffic, the ferry cancelled trips,  the Island lost a few trees and, of course, we got quite a bit of snow. But somehow, on Mackinac, even a blizzard is beautiful...

Camilla's Antics

The kids have really enjoyed coming in to

school each morning to see what Camilla has been up to.

She brought them a kindness challenge

to work on for the month,

a joke book and a few great "dad" jokes,

she even asked me to read Rosie's Walk

out loud to them. 

After overhearing the kids wonder if she could bring each of them a million bucks, she brought them one million "clucks" instead.

And on our last day of school before vacation,

the day they knew would be her last day with us,

they asked if they could take a picture with her.

How could I say no?

Deliciousness

Due to a few scheduling constraints, my family and I weren't able to get together for our annual Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza. Which, to be honest, was a huge letdown. So much of the fun of that weekend is spending time with a few lovely people I rarely see, and, of course, there are cookies...

Since I couldn't get together with them, I was determined to make cookies myself - so I started early. Of course, I made the family favorites: zimtstern (cinnamon stars), zitronenherzen (lemon hearts), Nurnberger (roll out sugar cookies) spritzgeback (cookies made with a press, Mandlebarge (almond mountains) Scottish shortbread, and springerle (this year with orange essence and dipped in chocolate.)

I also made a few others including Linzer (jam sandwiches), ginger cookies (because we love them), glazed chocolate shortbread cookies (to try out some new cookie stamps), Earl Grey Cookies (because they sounded amazing),  and pretzel turtles (made with Rolo candies.)

Some changes I plan on making for next year:

1. I reduced the amount of cocoa in the chocolate cookies (as per the recipe's instructions) but I will decrease it even more next year. Instead of adding in flour to offset the decrease in cocoa, I will try using powdered sugar instead - at least for half of the flour. I will probably also add in a small amount of baker's ammonia to see how that changes the texture. They also need to bake for a bit more time than given in the recipe..
2.  I will add even more tea to the Earl Grey cookies. (I also glazed them with a glaze made from strong tea and powdered sugar.) Next year we are also going to try making a batch with Constant Comment tea.

In case you are wondering why the names of some of the cookies are capitalized: 

I wasn't sure about capitalizing the names of the German cookies with names derived from cities so I Googled what to do, here is the reason  I chose to capitalize them.

Deck the Halls

I have a thing for ceramic Christmas trees, especially vintage ones. Usually I get them out around Thanksgiving, but to keep my husband happy I don't switch them on until after we celebrate Thanksgiving. He thinks they're tacky, but keeps quiet since they make me smile. I'd actually never seen one until we got married. His mom puts two of them out every Christmas and I just loved them. In fact, she got me my very first one - she spotted it at a garage sale and snaped it up for me.

One of my favorite things to do is to find old ones without lights and bases at second hand stores and bring them back to life. The best thing about the base-less trees is they are generally quite cheap. I designed the white base above in Tinkercad, an online kid-friendly CAD program for creating 3D printable objects. I just print the base in the size and color I need, pop in new plastic bulbs, install a light kit and the tree can shine again.

The big green one below looked awful when I bought it. It was covered in grime, half of the bulbs were broken off with ends still glued in the holes, but a 1974 tree with a base for $10.00 was a bargain. My Dremel make short work of the broken bulb ends and the filth washed right off. Now it's my favorite tree. 

This one I actually bought separately. I found the base in with the lamps (for $4.99) at Goodwill and just held onto it. I figured I'd find a tree to go with it someday, and I was right. I think the tree, without any bulbs or the star was $5.00. Now that these trees are becoming much more popular, I rarely see them.

I think I actually like these better than my full size Christmas tree. They are a lot less work to put up and take down and they brighten up some of the darker corners of the house. What decorations are you putting up this year?

 

Busy

We've got chocolate shortbread (not iced yet),

chocolate coated orange Springerle,

Linzer cookies made with homemade

cranberry-cherry-orange jam,

and traditional Scottish shortbread.

So far...

Camilla Returns

Camilla the Christmas Chicken has returned to my classroom. I'm not really an Elf on the Shelf kind of girl; instead we have a Christmas Chicken. (Currently, all my students celebrate Christmas, but she'll become a Holiday Chicken when needed, and she is going to bring the kids books about Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice.

She's brought treats and a tree so far, and shared an interesting video on chicken communication. Who knew chickens could make over 30 distinct vocalizations!

It makes me smile to see the kids rush over when they get to school to read her newest note. A Christmas Chicken may be weird, but I guarantee none of there other teachers will have done it!

So Many Cookies!

So many cookies to make. So little time. 

Working full time has been getting in the way of my baking -  which is probably a good thing. I mean, how many different kinds of cookies does one family really need? Really. I'm asking for a friend...

Hooray!

Tomorrow is December so cookie season will officially begin. Hooray!

Surprise

Just after finishing Thanksgiving dinner my husband's pager went off; the Mackinac Island Fire Department was being sent to the Mackinac Island Public School due to smoke in the building. Thankfully, it wasn't a fire but steam from a malfunctioning boiler. The fire department went back to the school on Sunday afternoon, again for steam. Everything has been fixed now, but the kids and I sure were thankful for our extra day of vacation.

I used my extra time to shop Lands' End's 60% off sale, make a giant batch of Scottish shortbread, make a batch of Spritzgebäck (German spritz cookies), felt a pile of wool sweaters, and to start putting up the Christmas tree. 

Halloween 2022

Halloween this year was different as there were no mama-made costumes; both kids kind of did their own thing with what we had on hand.

My son 3D printed and painted a version of this mask, while my daughter created her own Dr. Horrible costume. Everyone thought she was a Ghostbuster, but she was using my Proton Pack as his Freeze Ray, so it wasn't surprising.

(Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible)

This year's candy haul was 17.6 pounds (about 8 kg) for my son and and 8.4 pounds (about 4 kg) for my daughter. It may seem like a big difference, but my sone and his friends covered quite  bit more ground than my daughter did. K and I just hit the houses close to home.