No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Recipe:

1 pre-made graham cracker crust

1 block of cream cheese, softened (8oz)

½ cup sugar

8oz cool whip

1 package of strawberries

I walk into the kitchen to make my favorite dessert. We don’t make it often because we always want to eat too much of it! I remember when I learned about this recipe…It was 2 or so years ago at a spring cookout we had at work. I saw it sitting with the other desserts, but it stuck out among the rest. Seeing the fresh strawberries on top made me want to try some. I am sure glad I did. It is now a family favorite and delicious also!

I start to gather my ingredients to make this delicious cheesecake. I walk over to the refrigerator and open the door. I grab the block of cream cheese, the container of cool whip and the package of strawberries. I feel how cold they are in my hands. I sit these items on the kitchen counter and hear a light thud as they land.

I turn around to grab the sugar container off of our kitchen counter. I open our kitchen cabinet and get out our cutting board to use it for the strawberries. I sit the cutting board on the counter and hear the thudding as the two connect. I turn on the faucet and begin to rinse off the strawberries so they will be clean. I smell the fruity smell that I love as I feel the water run between my fingers, rinsing off the dirt and germs from the strawberries.

I pull off all of the green leaves from the strawberries and throw them into the trash. I hear a ripping sound while doing this. I start to chop the strawberries on the cutting board and hear a rhythmical chopping sound. The rhythm is calming to me as I hear it over and over. Chop, chop, chop, chop. I take the knife and slide all of the strawberries into a small bowl so they are ready to be used.

I measure out the sugar and pour it into a mixing bowl. I pour the cream cheese and cool whip into the bowl also. I hear an indescribable noise as the cream cheese and cool whip lands in the bowl. It makes a funny sound, and makes me smile. I mix it all those ingredients and get them ready for the cheesecake.

I take the crust and pour in the mix that I just made. I make sure it is approximately the same amount throughout. I take strawberries and drop them onto the cheesecake and attempt to make it look pretty. I can smell the sugar and cream cheese, as well as a hint of fruit. Once I finish putting on the strawberries, I cover it and put it in the refrigerator to solidify some before eating.

I begin to clean up all of the utensils and bowls that I used to make the recipe, and begin to count down in my head how long before we can eat it. Delicious, strawberry goodness.

Final Blog Entry

I don’t really know how to do this final blog post, but I will give it my best. I can honestly say that I am glad that this assignment is over. When Lesson 4 first started and I learned that we had to do 25 blog posts over a significant period of time, I thought it would be an enjoyable assignment. I thought I would have interesting things to write about and that the assignment wouldn’t be that bad. The first few blogs that I did took a long time to write initially. It was hard for me to get the words out and even get to the word count requirement. After the first few days, however, it became easier and easier to complete each blog. I am not sure how my blogs will fare in regards to others, but considering that this is was a freewriting assignment, it shouldn’t matter.

The biggest challenge that I had from this assignment was not having any feedback from our instructor. Throughout this assignment it would have been nice to have at least one piece of feedback to know how I was doing with my writing, and what things I could work on to improve. Since I have no proof if my blogs have even been read by my instructor, and no feedback from her, I have no idea if I have grown as a writer or if any improvement has been seen. If I would have received feedback, it would have let me know if I was growing or making any improvement with my writing.

Another challenge that I had was the inability to see other student’s blogs from this semester. There are other blogs posted from previous classes on Ms. A’s website, but I wanted to be see my fellow student’s blogs. When this assignment started a few classmates, as well as me, kept asking when our blogs would be posted on her website for us to see, and they were never posted. As I am typing this now on the day of the final post deadline, they still haven’t been posted. I wanted to see how the other students in my class were doing and what they were writing about. Due to a fellow student posting her blog link on Blackboard, and other students following her lead, I was able to see a few student blogs from this semester. If my fellow classmate wouldn’t have started that thread on Blackboard, I wouldn’t have had any access at all.

The only thing that I discovered during this assignment is that I can essentially type out a journal entry once a day. The assignment felt only like a daily journal entry since we didn’t have a whole lot of direction or feedback. I also discovered that my typing speed has improved since I have been typing these throughout the last month.

I initially liked this assignment because I thought it would help me become a better writer and learn more, but I soon realized it was a totally different situation, and that I hated this assignment. I don’t understand the point of an assignment where we are just writing, writing, and writing, with no feedback or help along the way. The only way this type of assignment would help us get better is with feedback and better instruction of the assignment.

Due to no feedback and very little direction on this assignment, I don’t feel like I have changed as a writer. If the assignment would have been laid out better and better instruction from our teacher, I believe I would have changed as a writer and actually learned something. For now, I am just glad that this meaningless assignment is over.

Word Count: 620 words

Post #25

We are going to be starting occupational therapy for him next week. He will be getting therapy twice a week. I am still in shock in a way, and scared also, but I trust that this therapist has my son’s best interests in mind. She is very talented in the things that she does, and I know she will do what she thinks will help him the most. One of the things she wants to incorporate with him is called iLS. iLS stands for interactive learning system, and it helps sensory kids learn and do things the way that they should. I have seen other patients use it before, but I have never seen them enough to understand what they were doing, or if it was truly helping them or not. He is going to be getting occupational therapy twice a week, but iLS therapy three times a week. I am ready to get him going and begin to work on things that he needs help with. I am ready to see my son behave and do things how he should. I know that there will always be differences, but with therapy, it should get easier. I am ready to learn how I can adequately help my son with things, and not unintentionally harm him due to the sensory issues that he has. We are also going to try to pursue occupational therapy in the school. He has an articulation disorder and receives speech therapy in the school as well as in a private therapy clinic setting, but we want to get occupational therapy set up in the school alongside the therapy clinic. I don’t know if he will qualify though. He scored terribly on the tests that she did, but I don’t know if he did bad enough to get school therapy. School guidelines are pathetic with how bad you have to be before you can get help. A lot of kids that I think actually need therapy fall through the cracks due to their guidelines. I am grateful that regardless of what happens in school that he will be able to get therapy in the private clinic.

Word Count: 359 words

Post #24

Also this week we took in our son for an occupational therapy evaluation. He has been having some sensory issues as well as behavioral issues. He had been having some issues for quite some time with certain things, and one day I decided to try to figure out what might be causing them. No matter what we tried, things never got better with these issues. Some of the issues that I was noticing was an issue with brushing my son’s teeth, washing his hair or face, trimming his nails, as well as inattention and not following directions. I decided to google issues trimming nails one day and it led me to a website that said that this might be related to sensory issues in a person. Thankfully, I work for a private therapy clinic full time, so I knew just where to go. I decided to ask our occupational therapist and see what she said, and she agreed that this might be a sensory issue he was having. I mentioned the other above issues that I had noticed at home, and she said that it sounded like we had a sensory kid on our hands. At that point we decided that we probably should pursue an evaluation to see what might be going on with him. Fast forward a few weeks....last week I sent off an order for my son to have an evaluation (I send off orders for all of our patients in our clinic, so I did his also), and we got it back. He had his evaluation on Tuesday, and we received the results on Thursday. He has quite a few sensory issues, and a lot of issues that I didn’t even realize would be sensory related. The therapist had me fill out a questionaire called a Sensory Profile, and I was amazed at some of the questions asked. I never would have thought that some of these things would be sensory related. After the evaluation she said that he has Sensory Processing Disorder. Part of me was shocked, but part of me was glad that we had a diagnosis for the way he acts and does things, and can start getting help.

Word Count: 366 words

Post #23

Well this week has definitely been an interesting one for me. First I find out that my daughter will most likely end up having reactive airway disease for the rest of her life due to getting RSV last week. Her lungs were so irritated that they will probably always be that way. She will probably wheeze off and on unless we give her breathing treatments. We had to give her breathing treatments three times a day for a week, and we stopped that on Wed. She was doing really well, but tonight she started wheezing again. I hate that she keeps getting wheezy, but at least I know what will help her. We gave her a breathing treatment, and within minutes her wheezing had stopped. The only good thing to this is that since we are starting this at such a young age, as she is growing up she will know no different and think that breathing treatments is a normal thing and not try to fight them. She does very well with her treatments now. We use the spacer instead of the regular mask due to her fighting and screaming with the mask. With the spacer, she likes to gum on it and suck on it, and it makes the treatment process so much easier. I love how easy it is for her. I hope the easiness stays that way for the future, if we have to keep giving her breathing treatments. She is also starting to get her first tooth. The very tip of her tooth has poked through, and now we are waiting for the rest of it to pop through. She has been super fussy recently due to this, and loves to have her gums rubbed. It seems to calm her down and help with the pain in her mouth. Oragel seems to be helping also. We use an amber bracelet on her ankle to help with pain also, as well as occasionally giving her Tylenol.

Word Count: 330 words

2/25/15: Free-writing Post #22

Once a week our “adopted” sister comes over to our house to hang out. She spends times with our children and usually helps us make dinner. Occasionally she will make the whole meal. My kids love it when Jenna comes over. My almost 8 month daughter gets so excited when she walks in the door and wants to see her immediately. My son runs through the house yelling, “Jenna is here…Jenna is here…Jenna is here!” We consider her adopted because she gets along well with all of the members of our family and we get along great. Over the summer she will be living with us and helping take care of the kids. She goes to BBC here in town and lives on campus. She has to pay rent over the summer and has no access to food. The cafeteria is closed over the summer, so she would have to purchase all of her own food. With her staying at our house over the summer, she will save money, and so will we. She won’t have to pay anything except a storage unit for part of her stuff. We will be paying less in babysitting because she will watch our daughter a few days a week. We also needed someone to watch my son all summer since school will be out, and couldn’t afford for him to go to the babysitter every day of the week. It is a win for everyone. The only thing that I wish were different was that our house were bigger. We have a 3 bedroom house, and every room is currently being used. We have our master bedroom, Joseph’s bedroom, and my daughter’s nursery. While Jenna stays here she will be sleeping on the couch and keeping her basic living essentials in our living room. I don’t mind though. She will have it organized in here though so you won’t even be able to tell.

Word count: 321 words

2/24/15: Free-writing Post #21

I am so far behind in my assigned reading for The Heart and the Fist. I try and try to get to read my book some more, but I just haven’t had time. I have been dealing with so much everywhere else currently, that school work has got so far behind. My daughter has been so sick over the last two weeks, and were getting hardly any sleep. She is also getting her first tooth currently, so she has been very clingy and fussy. Two weeks ago she was diagnosed with double ear infections, double pink eye, and an upper respiratory infection. Last week she was diagnosed with RSV. She was given steroids for 5 days, and we were supposed to follow up with her pediatrician on Friday. When we went on Friday, her wheezing wasn’t any better, so he wanted her to start breathing treatments. He filled out paperwork for her to have her own nebulizer, and gave her one at the office. We have to give her 3 breathing treatments a day for a week to help get her breathing under control. At first we tried to use the regular breathing treatment mask, but it didn’t work well at all. She would fight us and scream her head off. She kicked and writhed around wanting to get out from the mask. I think the problem was that she doesn’t like to be restricted, and we had to restrict her to give her the treatment. Her nebulizer came with a spacer that could be used when she was older, but we decided to give that a try. We were desperate to try something else that might work for her to still get her breathing treatment without all the trouble. We tried the spacer and she would either “chew” on it or keep it by her mouth. She would fuss a little for the beginning of the treatment, and would settle down right after. We have been doing the treatments like this for a few days now, and it is working wonderfully. She hardly fusses now, and is able to get her treatments done much easier.

Word Count: 356 words