The Press-Dispatch
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C-4 Wednesday, May 1, 2019 The Press-Dispatch HOME LIFE TO ADVERTISE: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: ads@pressdispatch.net Visit: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Deadline: 5 p.m. on Monday Youth First Today by Laura Arrick, Youth First, Inc. 21st OFFERS FINANCING FOR: HOME ONLY LAND HOME LAND IN LIEU BUY-FOR USED HOME FINANCING SECONDARY HOUSING VISIT: Apply.21stMortgage.com FAX: 1.877.312.2100 *Certain loan conditions must be met. NO APPLICATION FEES OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS TO APPLY. WE FINANCE CREDIT SCORES ALL * 814 NIBLACK BLVD., VINCENNES • 1-800-743-7004 • WWW.BAIRDVINCENNES.COM Includes full drywall and many other outstanding features! JUST $66,900! DON'T MISS THIS ONE! Fully modern kitchen, spacious rooms and so many amenities! HOMES NEWS forecast It's Raining Deals! All day every day! STRAWBERRY MUG PIES MEALS IN Monica's MINUTES Share your favorite recipe! www.facebook.com/mealsinminutes Monica's Meals in Minutes PO Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567 mealsinminutes@pressdispatch.net FACEBOOK MAIL EMAIL By Monica Sinclair It's almost time for me to go get strawberries from my fa- vorite farm market! I love to just cut them up, put some sugar on them and let them sit in the re- frigerator for a bit while they get juicy. Then I can just open the container and eat them like that. However, it is nice to switch it up every now and then. So, this week several strawberry recipes arrived in my email and I thought it would be nice to try a couple of them this year. I looked through the recipes and found a really easy one, and since we love pie, it will be perfect! Enjoy! INGREDIENTS • 2 pounds of fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour • pinch of salt • 1 thawed puff pastry sheet, cut into 4 circles/ squares to sit on the mugs • 1 egg, lightly beaten DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 2. In a baking dish, combine strawberries, sugar, flour, salt and mix to combine. 3. Divide the mixture into 4 mugs or ramekins. Place cut puff pastry over top of the mug or ramekin and brush with beaten egg. 4. Place the mugs on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 25 -30 minutes, checking once in between to see how the pastry is coming along. When pastry is golden and puffed, remove and let cool to the touch (about 5 minutes) then serve. Source: howsweeteats.com It is a very busy time of year in local schools. ISTEP and ILEARN have tak- en over the past couple of months. Fi- nals and end-of-year exams will close- ly follow. These tests can bring about a lot of pressure and stress for our stu- dents. Learning how to manage that stress is important as students face these testing demands from year to year. These tests often heighten anxiety, which we know is something that af- fects children on a regular basis. When we look at test anxiety in par- ticular, it's not all bad. We want our children to have some anxiety and nervousness that will push them to perform and take testing seriously. But for some kids, their fears kick in and overwhelm them, which can lead to ir- rational thinking and powerful physi- cal symptoms of anxiety. "Anxiety has the potential to shut you down," explains neuropsycholo- gist Ken Schuster. "When kids are having test anxiety they can't think clearly, they can't judge things the way they could if they weren't anxious. All of your other abilities get clouded up by anxiety." Your overall ability to perform and think clearly when the test is in front of you is diminished. Add on the time re- straint of a test, and you have a recipe for feeling out of control and helpless. When thinking about how to best help your child it's important to listen. You don't want to dismiss their fears and worries by saying things like, "It's not that big of a deal" or "Quit worry- ing." Instead, spend time with them and help them rationalize a plan to feel more in control. TIPS FOR STUDENTS: • Control what you can control. Spend your time learning how to man- age your physical symptoms, practic- ing positive self-talk, and preparing to the best of your ability. • Manage your physical symp- toms. Anxiety often manifests through physical symptoms, and we know the body and mind are connect- ed. Identify what physical symptoms you experience and work to calm your body through deep breathing and vis- ualization techniques. Practice this at home before you start studying. Close your eyes, focus on concentrating on your breath, and feel your body re- lax and your physical symptoms slow down. • Practice positive self-talk. Your attitude will reflect your performance. If the words you are preparing with are, "I'm a failure," "I might as well not even try," or "I can't do anything right," your performance will match that. Work on developing new habits around how you talk to yourself. Re- place those thoughts with things like, "I am prepared for this," "I will do my best," and "I am in control." • Prepare and study. When you know you have a test coming up, spend time each day studying a little bit at a time. It is not effective to cram the night before and expect the informa- tion to stay in your memory. Spending time mastering sections in small dos- es will definitely aid in the comprehen- sion of the material and not just mem- orizing. Also, think about the test for- mat the teacher uses and study with that in mind. Make practice tests or flashcards that match that style. Talk to your kids about how they can be at their best when taking a test. Test anxiety is real, but it can be managed and controlled by using the above tips. This column is written by Laura Ar- rick, LCSW, school social worker for Youth First, Inc., a local nonprofit ded- icated to strengthening youth and fam- ilies. Youth First provides 55 Master's level social workers to 76 schools in 10 Indiana counties. Over 38,000 youth and families per year have access to Youth First's school social work and af- ter-school programs that prevent sub- stance abuse, promote healthy behav- iors, and maximize student success. Managing test anxiety "What would you call this dress? " I asked the salesgirl. "I'd call it... 'Little House on the Prai- rie' chic." "And that's a thing? " I asked. "It's most definitely a thing," she re- plied. I don't understand fashion. I would say I don't understand fashion any- more, but the truth is I never really understood it. It's just becoming more pronounced the older I get. I looked down at the dress I was wearing. The tiny flower print. The ruffles. The poofy shoulders. It looked as if it should have come with a free bonnet, but nothing was free in this store. For some indescribable reason, I liked the dress. Perhaps it was be- cause it reminded me of days when I'd stay home sick from school. Not the barfing part but the part where I got to snuggle up in my parents' big bed all day long, watching little Laura Ingalls learn about life from Pa. The salesgirl looked at me, as if trying to decipher what I was thinking. "Simpler times," she said, nodding her own head as if she thought she'd said something profound. I continued to peruse the store. There was a section of pure neon. Or I think it was neon; my eyes were seared by the sunlike brightness, and I had to turn away. Luckily, my gaze landed on a display of scrunchies — from the 1880s to the 1980s. What is happening here? "What do you call this look? " I called to the sales- girl. "Bodacious baby look." "You say 'bodacious'? " "Yeah, it's, like, lit but current," she replied. I've never felt so old. I remember when styles from the '60s and '70s came back into fashion when I was in junior high. My parents were both ex- cited and mortified. What did it say that the cool clothes of their adoles- cence were now adorning the current cool adolescents? It meant that enough time had passed that these items were back in vogue. I borrowed my dad's well-worn rain- bow T-shirts from the Woodstock era. I borrowed my mom's leather jackets. To my seventh-grade dance, I wore her beloved bell-bottom jeans that she had traipsed around Europe in during the mid-'70s. They ripped at the crotch, my skinny, prepubescent body put- ting more pressure on the seams than my mom had in her 20s. I couldn't tell you what was worse, walking around school all day with everyone seeing my underwear poking out of the pulled seams or having to tell my mom I had busted her most prized pos- session from her pre-parent- ing days. A few nights ago, my best friend from college sent me a text with a picture of her at a bar. She was wearing a Brit- ney Spears T-shirt from Brit- ney's "Baby One More Time" days. It was accented by two slap bracelets on her wrist and a scrunchie in her hair. She proudly announced that she had seen all of these items on sale at Tar- get but didn't have to buy any of them because she had them at home in her closet. Benefits of being a nostalgia hoarder. Perhaps the real tragedy of the resurgence of boho-cool while I was in school was that my parents wer- en't able to wear the clothes of their youth when they came back in style. The benefit of the loose-fitting clothes and pliable jewelry of my day is that they accommodate our postnatal, ev- er-changed, much older, slightly sag- ging bodies. Thanks, '90s! I rounded the corner, out of "Frankie Says Relax" and into the pure grunge that existed in tandem with the resur- See FASHION on page 5 Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Fashion forward and back