Alright, I know I haven't been posting much and I'm really sorry! I really want to, I've got plenty to rant about, but I have NO TIME. Ugh.
Anyway, Spring Break is next week, I hope to keep this up while my family and I are on vacation, but no promises.
I will slowly, but surely, get these posts typed out for you!
...Eventually.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Sleep Needed
I realize I have not posted for a while, and I apologize for that. It has been difficult to put thoughts into words recently, but I have finally found a topic I am passionate about this week.
Sleep.
I can never get enough of it. Nobody can. Exhaustion is an endless cycle here in highschool. I have taken three 2-hour naps this week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). My mother asked if I was sick.
I'm not. Just tired.
Let me put it into perspective for you. Teenagers, like me, need to get about 9 hours of sleep a night. I get about 6-7, more or less. Most often less. And the pathetic thing is that when I count up my hours of sleep for the night, I consider 7 hours a success.
So, say I get an average of 7 hours of sleep a night. That's 49 hours a week. Add a few extra hours for Friday night (when I can sleep in on Saturday), and it's about 52 hours.
I am supposed to get 63.
63 hours of sleep a week. I am 11 hours under.That's OVER a full night of sleep. Ouch! That's like pulling one all-nighter a week...and then going to school. And taking tests. And giving presentations.
And I know people who actually do.
What causes such a lack of sleep, you may ask? Typically just being so busy. School, homework, friends, maybe a job, homework, sports, extra activities, homework...did I mention that one already?
I am the type of student who, when I am too tired to function, says, "Forget homework, I need sleep." If you know you are exhausted, what is the point of trying?! It will just take you longer to get everything done than it would if you took a nap first and then finished! Plus, then you are even more tired for school the next day, and the cycle continues.
But I know a lot of people for whom getting homework done trumps rest. They get even less sleep than I do. I also know several insomniacs who get about...3-4 hours of sleep? And then go to school, just like everybody else.
Double ouch.
Now, I have to be fair - if I was a bit more proactive in getting my work done, I would probably be able to fit more sleep in. I tell myself all the time, "Megy, you know you are gonna regret this if you don't do it now!" But do I ever just do the work right then? Rarely. I know, I know, how silly of me...but after over 6 hours at school, I am just about dead. Depending on the day. It always seems that I am the most tired through school and the afternoon. When it is actually a decent time to be going to bed, I am finally awake. Not a good system.
Whoa...Scripture Mastery coming on...drum roll, please!
Doctrine and Covenants 88:124
"...cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."
Great counsel. For highschoolers, very seldom followed. At least, the "retire to thy bed early" part. Many, including myself, arise plenty early for seminary.
But that is a blessing in and of itself. If I didn't go to seminary, I would be even more exhausted and unable to focus.
Here is a nifty little article I about how to get more sleep - Six Ways to Get Your ZZZs
What about you? Your average hours of sleep a night?
Sleep.
I can never get enough of it. Nobody can. Exhaustion is an endless cycle here in highschool. I have taken three 2-hour naps this week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). My mother asked if I was sick.
I'm not. Just tired.
Let me put it into perspective for you. Teenagers, like me, need to get about 9 hours of sleep a night. I get about 6-7, more or less. Most often less. And the pathetic thing is that when I count up my hours of sleep for the night, I consider 7 hours a success.
So, say I get an average of 7 hours of sleep a night. That's 49 hours a week. Add a few extra hours for Friday night (when I can sleep in on Saturday), and it's about 52 hours.
I am supposed to get 63.
63 hours of sleep a week. I am 11 hours under.That's OVER a full night of sleep. Ouch! That's like pulling one all-nighter a week...and then going to school. And taking tests. And giving presentations.
And I know people who actually do.
What causes such a lack of sleep, you may ask? Typically just being so busy. School, homework, friends, maybe a job, homework, sports, extra activities, homework...did I mention that one already?
I am the type of student who, when I am too tired to function, says, "Forget homework, I need sleep." If you know you are exhausted, what is the point of trying?! It will just take you longer to get everything done than it would if you took a nap first and then finished! Plus, then you are even more tired for school the next day, and the cycle continues.
But I know a lot of people for whom getting homework done trumps rest. They get even less sleep than I do. I also know several insomniacs who get about...3-4 hours of sleep? And then go to school, just like everybody else.
Double ouch.
Now, I have to be fair - if I was a bit more proactive in getting my work done, I would probably be able to fit more sleep in. I tell myself all the time, "Megy, you know you are gonna regret this if you don't do it now!" But do I ever just do the work right then? Rarely. I know, I know, how silly of me...but after over 6 hours at school, I am just about dead. Depending on the day. It always seems that I am the most tired through school and the afternoon. When it is actually a decent time to be going to bed, I am finally awake. Not a good system.
Whoa...Scripture Mastery coming on...drum roll, please!
Doctrine and Covenants 88:124
"...cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."
Great counsel. For highschoolers, very seldom followed. At least, the "retire to thy bed early" part. Many, including myself, arise plenty early for seminary.
But that is a blessing in and of itself. If I didn't go to seminary, I would be even more exhausted and unable to focus.
Here is a nifty little article I about how to get more sleep - Six Ways to Get Your ZZZs
What about you? Your average hours of sleep a night?
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Orange Rolls
I love to bake, especially delicious treats that make the waistband of my jeans fit a little snugger just by thinking of them.
So, after a monotonous day of school, why not make some ORANGE ROLLS? :D
Homework? ...Naaaw! These take a few hours...
But never has there been a better use of butter, sugar and oranges.
First, I had to set up my work area. A preparatory snack of a warm tortilla and cheddar cheese, then stealing the speakers from the old computer downstairs and struggling to hook up the tangle of wires to my netbook, so I can hear my music better. Yes, I sing while I cook, and yes, it is loud in my kitchen. =]
I give credit to the wonderfully ingenious Mama S for this recipe, I don't know where she got it, but I got it from her. Warning - I don't really have detailed instructions, I usually just go for it and see how it turns out. So, sorry if you are an exact direction-follower kind of person.
Fasten your seatbelts (not too tight, because these rolls will definitely shrink your jeans), and here we go -
Orange Rolls
Dough
1/2 C butter
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 C milk
2 T yeast
2 eggs
6 C flour - more or less ;)
Orange butter
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
4 T grated orange peel
Orange glaze
(basically enough powered sugar to make a good glaze with the juice from the zested orange)
1 C powdered sugar
2 T orange juice - if you wanna be technical
Alright, starting with the dough -
(Note-unless you have a KitchenAid mixer, use a VERY large pot - you will be putting over 7 cups in it, which will then rise...)
Melt the butter, and combine in the sugar, salt and milk. Let it cool to lukewarm, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.
At this point, I transfer it to out super-fabulous red KitchenAid, but you can keep it in the pot.
Add the yeast, and let it sit to activate, until it looks rather brainy, kinda like shown below, though I did let mine sit a bit longer than necessary...but no biggie.
Then add the flour, roughly 6 cups. Mix that up, but not too much, let it be stay a bit floury (Is that a word? oh well). Let that rise. I like to cover it with a cloth soaked in hot water and COMPLETELY wrung out, but I have no idea if that actually helps. Could all just be in my head...
Anyway, when that is risen pretty well, time varies, knead it out on a hard, floured surface,
like your counter. I use my handy-dandy pastry mat. Then roll it out into a rectangle, about 1 ft. by 2 ft?
Now make your orange butter! Grate/zest (whichever word you prefer) an orange, and add that to the butter and sugar. Melt it all together, of course! Yum!
While that is still warm, spread it evenly over the dough, to the edges. Use a pizza cutter or such to cut it in half longways, then cut 5 even-ish, long strips from each half. Confused yet? Just wait.
Stack the 5 strips! On the fifth, flip it over, so all the yummy butteryness is kept inside.
Then cut the strips into your little rolls, about an inch? Guesstimate - they just need to fit into your muffin tins and not overflow when they rise. Place them in the muffin tins, it takes 3 pans for me.
Put them in a nice, warm-ish place to rise, I usually set them in the oven with the light on, but NOT HEATED. Don't bake them yet...
When they are risen, nice and fluffy, take them out of the oven (if you put them there), and preheat the oven to 350 F. Then bake them! About 8 minutes for me, until the edges are golden brown. Let them cook on a wire rack, then drizzle the glaze over them.
The Glaze - juice the orange you zested previously, then add powered sugar to that until you reach your preferred glaze consistency. Simple as that.
So, after a monotonous day of school, why not make some ORANGE ROLLS? :D
Homework? ...Naaaw! These take a few hours...
But never has there been a better use of butter, sugar and oranges.
First, I had to set up my work area. A preparatory snack of a warm tortilla and cheddar cheese, then stealing the speakers from the old computer downstairs and struggling to hook up the tangle of wires to my netbook, so I can hear my music better. Yes, I sing while I cook, and yes, it is loud in my kitchen. =]
I give credit to the wonderfully ingenious Mama S for this recipe, I don't know where she got it, but I got it from her. Warning - I don't really have detailed instructions, I usually just go for it and see how it turns out. So, sorry if you are an exact direction-follower kind of person.
Fasten your seatbelts (not too tight, because these rolls will definitely shrink your jeans), and here we go -
Orange Rolls
Dough
1/2 C butter
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 C milk
2 T yeast
2 eggs
6 C flour - more or less ;)
Orange butter
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
4 T grated orange peel
Orange glaze
(basically enough powered sugar to make a good glaze with the juice from the zested orange)
1 C powdered sugar
2 T orange juice - if you wanna be technical
Alright, starting with the dough -
(Note-unless you have a KitchenAid mixer, use a VERY large pot - you will be putting over 7 cups in it, which will then rise...)
Melt the butter, and combine in the sugar, salt and milk. Let it cool to lukewarm, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.
At this point, I transfer it to out super-fabulous red KitchenAid, but you can keep it in the pot.
Add the yeast, and let it sit to activate, until it looks rather brainy, kinda like shown below, though I did let mine sit a bit longer than necessary...but no biggie.
Then add the flour, roughly 6 cups. Mix that up, but not too much, let it be stay a bit floury (Is that a word? oh well). Let that rise. I like to cover it with a cloth soaked in hot water and COMPLETELY wrung out, but I have no idea if that actually helps. Could all just be in my head...
Anyway, when that is risen pretty well, time varies, knead it out on a hard, floured surface,
like your counter. I use my handy-dandy pastry mat. Then roll it out into a rectangle, about 1 ft. by 2 ft?
Now make your orange butter! Grate/zest (whichever word you prefer) an orange, and add that to the butter and sugar. Melt it all together, of course! Yum!
While that is still warm, spread it evenly over the dough, to the edges. Use a pizza cutter or such to cut it in half longways, then cut 5 even-ish, long strips from each half. Confused yet? Just wait.
Stack the 5 strips! On the fifth, flip it over, so all the yummy butteryness is kept inside.
Then cut the strips into your little rolls, about an inch? Guesstimate - they just need to fit into your muffin tins and not overflow when they rise. Place them in the muffin tins, it takes 3 pans for me.
Put them in a nice, warm-ish place to rise, I usually set them in the oven with the light on, but NOT HEATED. Don't bake them yet...
When they are risen, nice and fluffy, take them out of the oven (if you put them there), and preheat the oven to 350 F. Then bake them! About 8 minutes for me, until the edges are golden brown. Let them cook on a wire rack, then drizzle the glaze over them.
The Glaze - juice the orange you zested previously, then add powered sugar to that until you reach your preferred glaze consistency. Simple as that.
And there you go! Killer deliciousity =]
They are great to give to friends, or ding-dong ditch your neighbors (nicely) with.
Questions, comments, or clarifications? Let me know! =]
Sunday, April 3, 2011
General Conference
It is basically amazing. That's all I have to say.
A couple of my favorite talks where by Dallin H. Oakes and Russell M. Nelson, but they were all great. Of course. I would give you guys some wonderful spiritual thought or something, but I'm still trying to soak it all in (not to mention quite exhausted and braindead). I will definitely be studying those talks again when they are printed, I think everyone should. There is some amazing stuff in there.
Videos of Conference talks at LDS.org, texts will be there soon
A couple of my favorite talks where by Dallin H. Oakes and Russell M. Nelson, but they were all great. Of course. I would give you guys some wonderful spiritual thought or something, but I'm still trying to soak it all in (not to mention quite exhausted and braindead). I will definitely be studying those talks again when they are printed, I think everyone should. There is some amazing stuff in there.
Videos of Conference talks at LDS.org, texts will be there soon
Friday, April 1, 2011
Uhm...Funny?
Me. Running on five hours of sleep. Plus April Fool's Day.
What a great combination.
As soon as I woke up, I knew this was going to be...interesting. After such a draining, emotional week, the day was either gonna end with me ranting and slapping people, or skipping around singing ridiculously. I went for the latter.
School started with a seating change in my biology class - those always have the potential to end badly. Fortunately, I ended up at a table with my best friend Mister D. Who then, unfortunately, went on to develop the thesis that I am actually a guy. Which is awkward on so many levels....
Apparently, I am not girly enough. So he renamed me Alan. Which I will not answer to. Under any circumstances. At all. Ever.
I got back at him by delivering the trick cupcake my mama had made. It appears to be chocolate cake, but is actually meatloaf with dyed mashed potato frosting. They are actually surprisingly delicious. They don't compare to an actual cupcake, but still, a nice meal.
In band we basically had a party, since we had a concert yesterday. Which pretty much equals a bunch of band geeks listening to music, eating cookies and peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches, pulling pranks, and me dancing. My friend Mister R was having issues with band-aids and an injured elbow (his parents are doctors, for crying out loud! You would think he could put on a decent band-aid...), so me and my friendsister Miss E took charge and had fun with the first aid kit. I decorated his bandage. Patriotic stars and smiley faces. I even signed it. Very manly.
My history teacher then decided to pull a prank as well, he dropped the bombshell of a huge essay to be done next week as homework. Ha. Ha. Yeah...not gonna happen.
School continued as usual. I got angry/frustrated at my English teacher. My math teacher got people to unwittingly admit (falsely) who they had "kissed". Mister T and Miss T had another M&M fight in Spanish class. Typical day.
I get home, only to open my bedroom door and find all my books gone. All of them, from off of all my shelves. Which is not a small number. I kid you not, it took me less than two seconds to realize it. My mom finds that hilarious. Like anyone needs more proof of my nerdyness...
I opened the door -
Me: "Mom! Where are they?!"
Mom: "What?" (she is in the kitchen)
Me: "You know exactly what I'm talking about! Who was it!? Dad or the kids?"
Mom: "You can thank your dear, sweet brother."
You mean the dear, sweet brother for whom I was helping orchestrate a surprise birthday party that night? Yeah, that brother. He had stolen all of my books for April Fool's Day. How kind.
Well, his surprise party went great, but then I had about 10 fourteen year old boys running around my house. Needless to say, I hid in my room, reading and reorganizing all my books that had finally been returned to me. And then blogging about it all.
What a great combination.
As soon as I woke up, I knew this was going to be...interesting. After such a draining, emotional week, the day was either gonna end with me ranting and slapping people, or skipping around singing ridiculously. I went for the latter.
School started with a seating change in my biology class - those always have the potential to end badly. Fortunately, I ended up at a table with my best friend Mister D. Who then, unfortunately, went on to develop the thesis that I am actually a guy. Which is awkward on so many levels....
Apparently, I am not girly enough. So he renamed me Alan. Which I will not answer to. Under any circumstances. At all. Ever.
I got back at him by delivering the trick cupcake my mama had made. It appears to be chocolate cake, but is actually meatloaf with dyed mashed potato frosting. They are actually surprisingly delicious. They don't compare to an actual cupcake, but still, a nice meal.
In band we basically had a party, since we had a concert yesterday. Which pretty much equals a bunch of band geeks listening to music, eating cookies and peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches, pulling pranks, and me dancing. My friend Mister R was having issues with band-aids and an injured elbow (his parents are doctors, for crying out loud! You would think he could put on a decent band-aid...), so me and my friendsister Miss E took charge and had fun with the first aid kit. I decorated his bandage. Patriotic stars and smiley faces. I even signed it. Very manly.
My history teacher then decided to pull a prank as well, he dropped the bombshell of a huge essay to be done next week as homework. Ha. Ha. Yeah...not gonna happen.
School continued as usual. I got angry/frustrated at my English teacher. My math teacher got people to unwittingly admit (falsely) who they had "kissed". Mister T and Miss T had another M&M fight in Spanish class. Typical day.
I get home, only to open my bedroom door and find all my books gone. All of them, from off of all my shelves. Which is not a small number. I kid you not, it took me less than two seconds to realize it. My mom finds that hilarious. Like anyone needs more proof of my nerdyness...
I opened the door -
Me: "Mom! Where are they?!"
Mom: "What?" (she is in the kitchen)
Me: "You know exactly what I'm talking about! Who was it!? Dad or the kids?"
Mom: "You can thank your dear, sweet brother."
You mean the dear, sweet brother for whom I was helping orchestrate a surprise birthday party that night? Yeah, that brother. He had stolen all of my books for April Fool's Day. How kind.
Well, his surprise party went great, but then I had about 10 fourteen year old boys running around my house. Needless to say, I hid in my room, reading and reorganizing all my books that had finally been returned to me. And then blogging about it all.
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