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.

Gearing up for Halloween

I love Halloween. I love how much my students love it too. We also have a shared love of candy. This year may be one of my best Halloween costumes to date. Pictures will be posted with a write up of what it is after our Halloween parties at school. I don't want to give it away to any students. It is also that time of year when my second grade students take a pumpkin and decorate it to look like their favorite book character. I will also post pictures of that when the halls of school are fully filled with them. What book character would you dress up as?

Just for enjoyment and possible guessing of my costume, a sampling of a few of my past costumes.
Friar tuck
rainbow bright
pippi longstocking (3 times)
alien
ghost
Skeleton + dog in skeleton costume
Jack in a Box
Old Lady
Gypsy
Hippy
static cling