Girls Over the Shoulder and the Boy with the Orange Head

My son Nicholas is a typical pre-teen boy, I think. He doesn't come home every afternoon and expound on his day. As a matter of fact, he's outside like a shot the minute his book bag hits the couch. If I do want to have a conversation, I'm forced to chase him down out of doors. Even then it's a one-sided conversation, at best.

"How was your day?" "Fine."

"What did you learn?" "Nothing."

"Well, what were they TEACHING?" "MOM!"

If you have children, you probably know the drill. But some days, a miracle happens. Nicholas will arrive home from school with nothing but talking on his mind. I might as well drop everything and listen because he expects my undivided attention. And frankly, I'm just so happy he's talking to me, he usually gets it.

So, one of these miracle days happened this week. On this day, I was picking Nicholas up from school instead of him riding the bus home. He got into the car talking. He was excited about a speaker who visited his class that day. "This man got a room full of BOYS to like reading," he said. (In our world, getting active boys to read is also a miracle.) I heard stories about his friends and a girl he likes and what happened on the playground and who said what at lunch and on and on.

His favorite story that day was about how he picked one of his good friends up and slung her over his shoulder and carried her around the playground. Oh, I was sure this should have gotten him in trouble, but he assured me that the playground monitor thought it was funny, too. We'll chalk it up to boys will be boys.

My favorite part of our talk was my attempt at teaching a lesson while I had Nicholas talking. He was complaining about some character trait he wasn't happy about or maybe that he thought a teacher was picking on him. I used the opportunity to talk about faith in God, trusting that things are just as they should be, and couldn't resist commenting that things can always be worse. My intent, was to talk about children with physical affliction, people who don't have the same daily comforts we have, etc etc. But Nicholas beat me to it.

Before I could say anything more, he piped in with, "Yeah, Mom, I know. There is this boy on my bus who has an orange head."

I couldn't help but laugh, so I think maybe he thought I didn't believe him.

"I'm serious," he said. "This guy not only has an orange head, it's ROUND. You're right, things could always be worse." Not exactly the message I was looking for, but I will consider that one lesson-learned!

So, in honor of the boy with the orange head, here is my favorite recipe for Creamy Orange White Chocolate Fudge from Georgia Hometown Cookbook.

Creamy Orange White Chocolate Fudge

2 pounds white chocolate, melted
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
6 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Combine all ingredients; spoon into mini muffin/candy cups. Top with chopped nuts, if desired. Chill to set.

http://www.greatamericanpublishers.com/html/cookbooks/recipes/creamyorangewhitechocolatefudge.htm