I love this kid.

Today I was listening to students play pieces they had written. When one particular student came up I asked "are you ready?" The answer? "Let's let er' rip!"
When I asked if something was missing from the piece and they did not know, I told them that when I send it to the publisher they will not know where to send the money when it sells. Response: AAhhhhh! My name!  
The performance went well and I congratulated them.
"Well, when you get a million dollars, send it my way!"

The lines kept rolling from their mouth. I wish I had written them down while they were being said.
Oh and did I mention that for no particular reason this child speaks with a Texas twang? They have lived in Northern Illinois their whole life. 

A good day was had by all.

So today I was lucky enough to spend entirely in yoga pants. I like this way too much. I also got to spend time with many of my favorite people. This is even better. Kyle and I woke up leisurely and picked up silent five as she was in the are and needed things to do. We had a lovely pancake breakfast together and then read every single issue of food network magazine that I own. We call it food porn. She then stayed the day and we made pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds. Things were delicious. I highly recommend the pumpkin pie recipe in the last month's food network magazine.

An Evening at the Symphony

Tonight, I am looking forward to an evening at the symphony with my DH and best friend silent five (and her first mate as she calls him.) We are being fancy. Well, sorta. We are lucky enough to have my husband working for the CSO and because of this, he can acquire tickets for us at a rate that is less than what the real fancy people pay. This will be a nice night out because I really miss her and I also need some relaxing, creative stimulating time.
But Katie, you say, you spend your whole day singing and playing music.
Well yes I do but, I spend my day doing kids music, explaining the most basic parts of music, and I also do everything a minimum of 8 times. 1 time for each of my classes in that grade level. It puts you in a rut.

There is a magical part of listening to a world famous orchestra playing that takes you out of yourself. They are also playing Beethoven tonight. I am in love with Beethoven's music. It is powerful and emotional. I can be anywhere and when LvB's music is playing, I am instantly somewhere better. A place where my emotions are pulsing and making my brain do all sorts of flip flops. Many composers have music that cause this phenomenon as well. Brahms gets my creative side moving. Listening to Brahms makes me want to pick up an instrument and play along. Not because I can, because I feel I must. 

Do yourself a favor and go get some orchestra tickets. Find the nearest professional orchestra and purchase tickets to the next thing that they are performing. It will cleanse your soul.

I don't feel like cooking cooking.

So, because of this week's ailment I have not wanted to prepare dinner for most of this week. What's a girl to do? Answer: easy food!

Tuesday I had put together a pot roast before leaving for work. It basically cooked itself for 9 hours while I went to work, came home at 10:30, and slept the rest of the day. WHo knew I could cook a delicious meal for 9 hours while sleeping on the couch?

Tonight was Mom's dump it all together Turkey noodle casserole.
step 1 Start boiling water for pasta, when ready, dump in pasta. Drain pasta when it is done.
step 2 While pasta cooks, brown a pound of ground turkey in a pan.
step 3 Throw a bag of frozen veggies (any blend will do) in the now empty pasta pot.
step 4 When the veggies are no longer totally frozen, dump in the now cooked turkey and a can (or 2 if you like) of cream of mushroom soup. Stir it up and then add the pasta and stir.
Step 5 Add any extras you like- cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Eat it straight out of the pot.
Step 6 (this is the extra step if you really want to make it better) Pack some casserole into a casserole dish and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. (or crunchy things) and bake until the thing is bubbling and hot and crispy on top.

This took almost as long to type as it did to make.

Me and the stomach flu.

I had the stomach flu this week.
Yes, I know it is not real flu but, calling it what it really is seems less accurate. When you have the flu, you feel like you are going to die. Possibly just from sheer exhaustion. Gastroenteritis makes it sound like you just have some tummy ache. This was no tummy ache. This was 2 days of pain and suffering and fever and more pain and suffering and no energy.
The end.

Things I promised.

Here is my fantastic Halloween costume. My teaching partner and I dressed up as big cereal boxes and trick or treated in each classroom for box tops. It was also a contest for each class.

Ghost Cupcakes and Jake's Birthday Cake

Our little cottage in the woods, near the river

Home Sick

I am spending the afternoon at home. Something nasty is going through my school building. There are 3-6 kids out in each class and our sub board is full. It was only a matter of time until it got me.
I went to work today feeling a little wobbly but not !00% but, I do that all the time.By 9:15 I knew this was not going to be a good day. I stumbled up to our school office and asked one of the secretaries if we could find me a sub for the afternoon. She said it might be difficult this late but she would try. 30 minutes later I had a sub and I could go when she got there. Whew! I would not have made it through a full day today. So, here I sit, on my couch, going back and forth between sleeping and feeling miserable.

Dinner smells delicious. Thanks Gram!

Tonight, I needed a challenge with dinner. I was sick and tired of the old standbys. I am a half decent cook so why not use my skills? Well, I also have a picky eater for a husband. I love him but, I am an adventurous eater. Ok, maybe not that adventurous but I like a lot of things.
So, tonight I walked into the grocery store and bought two cornish hens. I had seen a beautiful picture of a finished product in my Nigella Lawson cookbook and needed to eat it. Now, Nigella calls for sweet potato but DH wont eat those. I am using regular red potatoes. There are also a few spices that are called for that are not the typical Thanksgiving type bird roasting spices. I will forget to mention those to him and see what he says when tasting.
I also have a great grandmother who happens to live close by. She is 94. She used to live in New Jersey but she came out here to Illinois when she sold her house. I love her. She also reminds me of normal things when I become too absorbed in the crazy world. My great grandmother recently gave me her roasting pan. It is red, oval, and has off center handles. It also has a huge, domed lid. I am using it tonight. This is also very exciting.

The birds should be out of the oven in 5 minutes. It smells so good right now. It better be delicious.


*update*
It was more than delicious. It was amazing. Also, DH loved it too!

       The end result

          Holding Gram's red roasting pan and wearing the apron she made me.

                     Charlotte is not letting that out of her reach.

Today will be the day...

Today is the last day that there is only one paycheck in my household.
Tomorrow Kyle will get his first paycheck from a job he loves and loves to go to every day.

Today is the last day that my house is a total disaster.
Tomorrow I will start the day with a (mostly) clean house.

Today my dog has skin issues.
Tomorrow, hopefully, she will be back on the way to not being covered in icky hairless, scaly spots.

Today I have major money issues.
Tomorrow I will be taking care of many of them. They are not going away but I am working on it.

Today is the day I start getting my life back in order the way I want it. I am not letting it control me.

Rant rant

I have red hair. I have always had red hair. Why do people need to point this out to me? Today at the grocery store I was in a self check out and a random dud comes right up to me and says "wow, that looks like almost real red hair. How'd you get it so good?"   "Um, it is real hair"  then the guy keeps talking to me about it. I just ignored him. really dude, do you think I don't know what color the hair on my head is?

gems

Today in first grade we were trying out different percussion instruments and hearing all of their sounds and classifying them int o 5 groups: woods, metals, shakers, scrapers, and drums. I always save the windchimes for last. Today, in one of my classes I ran my hands through it and a little girl remarked "It sounds like sparkles!"
Then I melted into the floor and wanted to take her home with me to say cute things all day.

My school is also located very near Six Flags. We noticed how the rachet sounds like going up the hill on a roller coaster. So, we pretended to be on a roller coaster. Me and 24 first graders. We all tilted back and pretended that we were all on the roller coaster. Then I slowed the rachet down  and when it stopped, we all tilted forward and gave out a little "Whooooooeeeeeeee!"

I love them

Today was one of those rare days when my job wears me out and I end the day feeling like I want to cry. So many of my students are going through such tough stuff right now and often times it translates to really tough times in this classroom. When you have many students like this in one room, it makes for one teacher who is at a breaking point. I nearly cried in front of a class today. I just did not know what to do with them.

naughty but oh so Hi-Lar-I-Ous

I have several sets of siblings that I teach. I love seeing how children from the same family work. This particular set is a third and first grader. Both boys with oh so much energy and on their minds. Today was their day for inappropriate for school but appropriate for the moment comments.

In the first grade class we were singing my special birthday song for another classmate. (We don't sing the traditional song. More on that another day.) He ended it by wishing the other child  a "Happy Burp Day." Totally what a first grade boy who is really quick would come up with. I have family members like this and I envy their brain speed and wit often. So, I try to stifle my laughter and remind him that was not a school appropriate topic.

In third grade, the older brother attends some higher level classes and meets his class in my room about 2 minutes after the rest of the class gets there. These students have the backpacks with wheels on them so they can tote all their books and things to the other classroom on the other side of the building. I had instruments all over my room and the kids know that they are to NEVER EVER step over an instrument. Especially an expensive one like a xylophone. (they cost lots of box tops) This class also is particularly challenging and difficult to manage. Lots of characters. So he is expertly driving through the field of xylophones and I comment on his excellent and safe driving. One of my darlings yells at him, "hey can you drive me to Dunkin' Donuts?" My awesome but slightly inappropriate student's response was "No, But I can drive you to the dumpster!"
I am guessing that the Darling who commented pesters the backpack driver enough and the comment was the last straw. I wanted to laugh and congratulate this kid so bad. But I knew once again I had to stifle the laughter and tell him to use school appropriate tone of voice and use the PBIS type behavior that we use. I also had to reprimand the Darling about shouting at others as well.

Maybe I will tell their mother at conferences how her kids make me laugh.