The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1122967
C-4 Wednesday, May 29, 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 Jordan Beach, Youth First, Inc. Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Bucket list Fun ways to occupy your child this summer 3-bedroom, two of them with master baths. A spacious great room, laundry room, plus the kitchen of your dreams. THIS ONE WON'T LAST LONG! HURRY! SAVE $20,000 Plus AffordAble luxury can be yours! HOMES 814 NIBLACK BLVD., VINCENNES • 1-800-743-7004 • WWW.BAIRDVINCENNES.COM EASY STRAWBERRY LEMONADE FREEZER PIE 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 With the temperature heat- ing up, I thought we all might need a dessert to cool us down. Since I'm going to get straw- berries this weekend, this rec- ipe will be perfect and will be so easy to whip up. Even though it calls for frozen strawberries, I'm sure it will work with fresh- ly sweetened ones. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS • 1 container (23.20 ounces) frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed (2-1/2 cups thawed) • 1 package (3.40 ounces) instant lemon pudding mix • 1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed • 1 graham cracker crust (9 in.) • Optional: Additional whipped topping and fresh strawberries DIRECTIONS 1. In a large bowl, combine the strawberries (with juices) and pudding mix; let stand until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. 2. Fold in whipped topping. Spread into graham cracker crust. 3. Freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight. Let stand 5 -10 minutes before serving. If desired, serve with additional whipped topping and strawberries. Source: tasteof home.com Summer vacation is here. If you ha- ven't done so already, it's time to start planning summer activities for your children. We perceive summer to be a laid back, more relaxed time, but parents know this is actually a time that re- quires a lot of forethought. With more hours of the day becoming your re- sponsibility, the pressure to find fun, enriching activities is definitely on. Have you resolved to limit your child's screen time this summer? If so, great. But now how will you fill their time? You don't have to be a Pinter- est-perfect parent to create a memo- rable summer for your children. Summer camps are the obvious first option, but they can be pricey. There are summer camps and programs of- fered all over the area that range in price and provide children with ample opportunity to have new experiences. Camps are also helpful for working parents. However, keep in mind that this option comes with a price tag that might not be reasonable for your fam- ily. There are a lot of ways to have fun and create memories for your children at home without spending a lot of mon- ey. If you're looking to have more of a "Do-It-Yourself" summer with your children, there are a lot of options to spark their creativity and nurture their imaginations in your own backyard. Here are some suggestions: • Build a fort. A fort can be left up for days. All you need is chairs, blan- kets and a little imagination. This can be used as a reading nook or expand- ed into imaginative play for younger children. • Create a breakout session in your house. There are many ideas online that can help you design an escape room for your kids. This is a good way to mix in some academics with the fun. Topics range from math to con- flict resolution. Your options are real- ly limitless. • Put all of those Amazon boxes to good use. Cardboard boxes are gold in the world of imaginative play. You can create a living room "drive-in" where your kids sit in the cars they've de- signed while watching a movie or read- ing a book. You can make instruments using cardboard and rubber bands. Al- so, free drawing on boxes with mark- ers or paint always seems to be a good time for little ones. • Help your kids expand their culi- nary skills. Let them pick out recipes and help you shop for the ingredients. This is a great activity to help your child become creative in the kitchen while also teaching them planning and budgeting. • Go for the classics — water bal- loon fights, running through the sprin- kler, washing the car. It gets hot in In- diana during the summer months, so cool off in fun ways. This is in no way an exhaustive list of summer activities. A little creativity and planning can really help you and your children stay busy while bonding this summer. This column is written by Jordan Beach, LSW, school social worker for Youth First, Inc., a local nonprofit ded- icated to strengthening youth and fami- lies. Youth First provides 55 Master's lev- el social workers to 76 schools in 10 In- diana counties. Over 38,000 youth and families per year have access to Youth First's school social work and after- school programs that prevent substance abuse, promote healthy behaviors, and maximize student success. I'd like to make a suggestion, if I may: Not all buckets are meant to be shared. Bucket of popcorn, share away. Bucket of baseballs, game on. Buck- et of ice, take the challenge! Buck- et of blood, which happens to be the first thing that pops up when I Google "bucket of," sure, I guess. But maybe wear some protective gloves? Unless you're a vampire and this bucket is to feed your vampire family — in which case, who am I to judge? Most buckets and their bounties should be shared among the masses. Bucket lists, how- ever, should be kept to yourself. A while back, my husband and I re- alized that we needed to write down all the things we want to do with our kids before time slips away — as it does so rudely, without asking and with no apologies. It wouldn't be a kick-the- bucket list, per se, but an "end of fami- ly dynamics in which my husband and I can at least pretend we are in control" list. Writing it was exhilarating — jot- ting down our far-reaching hopes and the more attainable dreams, putting them down on paper and taking stock of the life changes we need to make in order to attain these goals. We ranked them, both in desire and in possible attainability. Then we ranked them again. We set them to goal years. We told our children about the list, gauged their interest and re-ranked one last time. There it sat, written in pen in my notebook, with scratch-out marks and arrows, a list to live by. A dream list. A do list. The world's most perfect list. We knew, in theory, that this list was for us and just us. It was built with care, suited to our particular family — to our needs, desires and limita- tions. We knew, of course, that our idea of fun is not others' ideas of fun. And oth- ers' ideas of fun are not nec- essarily ours. So what harm could there be in sharing? We told a friend about the list. "Huh," he replied, "I guess the on- ly thing on my list is seeing the Boss in concert." My husband turned to me. "Bruce is on my list, too. Maybe bring the kids? " Oh. OK. I looked for a place to add concert-going. Seemed doable. We told my parents about the list. They said the only thing left on their list was going to Madagascar but flights were far too expensive. A week later, I saw flights from D.C., where my parents live, to Madagascar for $700. They booked the flight. They told us to come, too. C'mon, this is a buck- et-list item! And it is. But it wasn't on our bucket list. Hmm, what could we knock off to go to Madagascar? Surely, a deal like this won't pop up again. May- be our list is too limiting. My cousin chimed in: "You want to go through hiking with your kids when they are teenagers? Clearly, you don't have teenagers yet." He does have teenagers. "What you want is a resort where you can get away from their eye rolls. You don't have a single resort on here." I looked for a place to add a resort. I scratched out "road trip." The more we shared our bucket list the more feed- back we received. No In- dia? Isn't that where a big chunk of your family is from? No Paris? I guess you can't miss good food if you've never had it. No Shakespeare theat- er? No Kentucky Derby? No Mardi Gras? No Carnival? No bungee jumping? No shaving your head? No month abstaining from speak- ing while living alone in a redwood for- est? No sweat lodge? No learning to knit sweaters? No bucket of blood shared with your vampire friends? Our list became a jumbled mess of words and arrows, with items scratched out and written again. So, no on visiting Japan but yes on eat- ing fried tarantulas. Can a pescatari- an even eat a tarantula? I guess it is crablike... We scratched out summer- ing in Thailand and added a summer of silence and foraging for our own food in the drug-gang rainforests of South America. Sounded... fun? Who needs Arches National Park when we can shave our eyebrows off and draw on our own arches? The bucket list was no longer ours. We sat down and rewrote it from memory. Exactly as it was — with an extra line for Bruce Springsteen. Like Katiedid Langrock on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/katiedid- humor. MIDWEST REALTY 1704 E. National Hwy., Washington Check out these listings and more online at midwestrealty.net Ranch home with 4 bedrooms on almost 2 acres just north of Petersburg. MLS#201917400 THIS PROPERTY IS SOLD "AS IS" MLS#201918861 HOUSES FOR SALE Call Angela Clinton: 812-257-1708 Call Mary Roark: 812-486-6363 $ 79,500 $ 29,900 812-254-3918 NEW LISTING! NEW LISTING!