Weblog Entry - 09/30/2004: "Julia Reads Shrimp"

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09/30/2004 Entry: "Julia Reads Shrimp"

A couple of things I'd like to mention this evening. One thing goes back almost week. Last Friday night, I made broiled shrimp with lots of garlic and Ritz crackers. And it was really good. And here's why it's important. In the past, when shrimp season in Maine rolled around, I'd buy a bunch--say five pounds--pick them out of the shell, and freeze them. When you do it that way, you get a big clump of frozen shrimp. So, you can spread the picked out shrimp on a pan, and then freeze them. After the individual shrimp are frozen, you can put them in a bag and have individual frozen shrimp. But you have to have a freezer big enough to hold a sheet pan, and two freezing sessions takes more time.

So this year, I tried something different. I picked the heads off the shrimp, but left the tails in the shells, and froze them that way. And, I promised Mom and Uncle Roger I'd report my findings. Well, the shrimp had been frozen since what, January? And I'm pleased to report it's a quick way to get them frozen, and the quality is great. In the future, I'll freeze all my shrimp that way.

Next up, Julia. She's starting to read. She read to me tonight. It was amazing! Reading is something that's very important to me. Julia's been very interested in books since she was little. But she didn't seem all drove up to read. She was just as happy to make up her own stories. At the end of Kindergarten, her teacher told us she was on the verge of getting it. She just needed to get a handle on her vowel sounds. And now, to sit next to her on the couch and have her read me her homework, it's just fantastic.

Know what else is great? She loves Bible class. It's her favorite class. In it, over the course of the year, she'll need to memorize the order of all 66 books in the Bible. They're starting with the Old Testament. Last week, she brought home a list of the books of history: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 + 2 Samuel, 1 + 2 Kings, 1 + 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Neimiah, and Esther. (I think I got em all...) She announced tonight that, without us having helped her with them yet, she had them all memorized. To proove it, she rattled them off to us. Great stuff!