Ark Valley News - In the kitchen

In the kitchen
By Lisa Strunk
Last Updated: August 23, 2013

Parenting tougher during school year

I think the kids are adjusting to being back in school. I've adjusted just fine. Of course, I'm at work all day while they're at school, so I've hardly noticed a change.

The difficult part is remembering to take off my summer parent hat and put on my school year parent hat.

That means I have to enforce bed times and make sure homework has been done and papers have been signed. I actually have to parent. Getting back into the parenting groove is never easy. I think back-to-school time may be harder on me than the kids.

We'll see how the school year parenting goes in about nine weeks. Every time I think I'm doing a decent job of this whole parenting thing, report cards come out. There's nothing like report cards or parent teacher conferences to make you question your parenting abilities. Thankfully, things have never gotten too bad.

However, I have never gotten three report cards with all A's on each. That will be the parenting pinnacle, if it ever happens.

I'm sure there are a lot of parents out there who have experienced straight A's on multiple report cards. Not us.

The good thing about starting school is you only have a few short weeks until a three-day Labor Day weekend. We've already been busy trying to fit everything possible into our weekend.

My brother is going to be in town from Boston. Ray has a tennis tournament and Chris' aunt and uncle are having an anniversary/birthday party. Hopefully we'll be able to do it all.

We went to Hero's on Aug. 17 to celebrate Ray's birthday. My mom treated us all to lunch. I had the bacon cheeseburger sliders, and they are wonderful.

For dinner that night, Chris grilled steak. We also had potatoes, rolls and watermelon. We finished off with coconut cake. I'm embarrassed to admit, it was a Pepperidge Farm coconut cake. I was too busy to make my coconut cake recipe, even though it's super easy.

Coconut Cake

16 oz. pkg. white cake mix

14 oz. can cream of coconut

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

16 oz. container frozen whipped topping, thawed

10 oz. pkg. coconut

Prepare cake according to package directions and bake in a 9X13-inch pan. Cool completely. In a small bowl, combine cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Poke holes in the cake with handle of a wooden spoon. Pour milk mixture over the cake. Spread whipped topping on cake and sprinkle with coconut. Serve chilled.

Lisa Strunk is co-owner of The Ark Valley News. Reach her at lisa@arkvalleynews.com.