Tomato Soup, by Tia

When Tia was little, under 2, she was sitting in my lap while I was eating dinner, I looked down and saw her grabbing the tomatoes out of my salad and licking them.  The phrase, "don't lick my tomatoes" was born that night.  (File under a phrase you never thought you'd have to say.)

She does love tomatoes.  She and Kira wanted a tomato soup.  We tried one recipe last Thanksgiving, and I liked it, but the girls wanted something a little different.  Here's what Tia found; she made it and they loved it. (It's a winner, all 5 of us like it!)

http://coalefinnsoftball.blogspot.com/2016/06/today-i-made-tomato-soup-with-my-nanny.html

This summer, we are doing our reading and writing program.  The reading program started years ago, probably 6 or 7 years ago, and the girls would get paid a penny a page for reading.  The books had to be at or above their reading level and they had to write the titles down, the name of the book, the number of pages, and then at the end of the summer they'd have to total up what they earned.  They all read a ton.  They like to read so it's an easy way for them to earn some summer money.

As they grew older, and all are fantastic readers, we decided the program should evolve a little.  They started blogging for money a couple of summers ago.  They get paid a penny a word.  They blog, and at the end of the summer we grab all the blog posts and word count them in a word processor.  Again, they are responsible for the tallying and they get paid.

We now have a limit on how much money you can earn by reading (it's $75) and no limit on what you can earn by writing.   (Actually, the rule is apparently a little more subtle... After you earn $25 in blogging you can earn more by reading... Next summer it's going to be the simpler rule of 75 for reading and no limit for blogging.)

This summer, I decided that we should evolve the blogging program a little more and if you find a recipe, make it, and blog about it, you get $5 for that post.  (You get $7 if you create a recipe and blog about it.)  I like new recipes and I like the girls to cook.  (We'll see if the payment stays as high for next summer.)  So far, we've gotten a few new recipes.  This post links to the first one this summer.  Go Tia!