CW Poetry Class: Tabloid Poem

This poem was written using a tabloid headline from my teacher and four random words that came along with it.

Woman with Four Legs Opens Dance Studio

Alright ladies and gents! Tap those toes!

I know you only ‘ave ‘alf as much as me, but do try!

Agatha stop moving your shoulder like that!

Its all in the ankles. Don’t give me that withering look

Bart. You still have plenty ‘o forward cramprolls to do

before you feet fall off! Trust me I tried.

That’s it! And 1-and-2-and-3-and-4 . . . !

You know I wasn’t always this talented. Didn’t walk proper

‘til I was four. Imagine that! A three year old girl crawling

‘round like I don’t know ‘ow to be a lady! Well, I’m an ‘ard

worker, I am and I worked ‘arder than a gypsy

fortune teller with ’er last dollar. Boy my mama got misty

eyes when I got it right! Front left and back right then

right front and left back! Gotta do it like that otherwise a leg gives

out. Once I got that rhythm it was a matter of months

‘fore I was at the top o’ my dance class! Now, let me get

back to my students. That poor old two-footed man would

stay off ‘is feet all day if ‘e didn’t have to come to my class.

Experiments in Cooking: Banana Nut Muffin Edition

So the boyfriend recently went on a banana buying rampage and then didn't eat them fast enough, so I brought them home to make muffins. I went on Pinterest (aka THE best website for moms, homemakers and people that aspire to be those things) to find a recipe and came across For the Love of Cupcakes and a Tootsie Roll's website. The recipe is listed as follows:

Ingredients:

1 Stick of Butter (8 Tablespoons)
1 Cup of Sugar (or 1/2 Cup of Truvia baking blend)
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Cups Flour
2 Eggs
2 Very Ripe (brown) Bananas

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put cupcake liners into a 12-er muffin pan.
Cream butter and sugar (I popped my butter in the microwave for a few seconds).
Beat the two eggs and add them to the sugar/butter.
Mash the bananas in a bowl.
Combine bananas, flour, baking soda, and sugar/butter/egg mixture.
Fill each muffin hole about 1/2 way.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

The recipe was awesome and the muffins are delicious! I had a lot of fun making them, but I did do a few things differently to make them my own.

First I half melted the butter, then added the sugar. This was partly because the sticks were frozen but it seemed to make the butter/sugar cream fluffier. Then, I added the eggs directly into the bowl with the sugar (to cut down on dishes) and whipped them together. In a separate, smaller bowl, I combined the baking soda with the flour. Before adding the wet to the dry, I eyeballed about half a teaspoon of vanilla into the wet mixture.

I filled the muffin cups nearly all the way, and they didn't rise too much above the top. I also cooked them for 20 minutes instead of 25. Maybe it was because of my oven, or maybe I live in a different part of the country than Jamie from FLCATR does, but mine were done faster. 

My Personal Recommendations for Recreational Reading

With summer coming up, I'm gearing up my recreational reading list. I love reading new books, but I also have a few favorites that I read every summer.  I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, and I can hardly ever find any good ones for people my age. Some of the books listed are a little young for me now, but for some reason I just can't resist picking them up again. I love looking at them from an older age and giggling at all the silly things that the male and female leads do. Other books are more recent finds and series that I have yet to finish. So without further ado here they are:

Katie's Old Favorite's

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

A Wrinkle in Time and accompanying books by Madeleine L'Engle

The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols 

Major Crush by Jennifer Echols

Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton

New Finds

Clare de Lune and Nocturne by Christine Johnson

Dairy Queen Trilogy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Pretty Tough Novels by Liz Tiglaar

The Grover Beach Team Series by Anna Katmore

All of these books are new to me, and as far as I know the authors aren't done writing yet. I'm super excited. The Pretty Tough books and the Grover beach Team series are an easy example of my favorite kind of book series. They each revolve around a group of kids who all live in the same area, but each new book tells the story of a different character in the group. The books can almost be read separately, but if read in order follow a timeline in which one book ends almost as the next is starting. Anna Katmore is great about telling stories from both the male and female lead's perspective which I also like (it helps reduce narrator unreliability). Murdock, Tiglaar, and Katmore also center their books around athletics which is fun for me, cause they go into detail about things I know nothing about so I learn something new. 

Books I Plan to At Least Read the First Chapter Of

The Gossip Girl Series (13 books) by Cecily von Ziegesar

The Maze Runner Series by James Dasher

Body and Soul by Bethany Hamilton

If anyone has any more reccomendations, I'd love to hear them!! I'm finally getting into the place where I love reading for fun alongside reading for school and I am ready to devour a bookstore!!