Sep 17 2008
My kindergartners would enjoy this one:
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~CasaSugar shares a stackable multi-fridge (might be a good idea for my eldest son as he enters the world of roommates and shared spaces!)
~Laura at Paint in My Hair shares a crate cover tutorial (fabric covers for those plastic milk crates that also tend to be used by poor starving college students!)
~Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen shares a recipe for Cinnamon Apple Cake
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Aug 27 2008
Yep, that’s what this blog is all about! (Click on the image to be taken to Wordle)
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My tip to new teachers? Write it down.
“Mrs. Sommerville, how come crayons won’t erase like pencils?”
“Teacher! You’re older than my dad! Can you put him in Time Out?”
“I’m confused. My mommy says to tell her if my daddy got her a nice present. My daddy says I’m not supposed to tell Mommy he got her a nice present. I’m gonna get in trouble with one of them!”
“Teacher, you’re pretty. Except when you start singing. Then you’re just silly.”
“If I’m a Super Star, does that mean my brother is a Super Star too?”
“Look, when I’m sixteen, THEN I’ll have a girlfriend, but not right now in kindergarten. Cause my mom said so.”
“I’m so smart, I wish I could give my brain a treat for doing a good job!”
“I know why it’s called ‘an accident:’ ’cause I didn’t do it on *purpose*!”
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~Kelli shares a wonderful tutorial on how to make aprons…
~CasaSugar links to Martha Stewart’s DIY baby blocks (I’d love to make some with a Halloween theme!)…
~Laura at Paint in My Hair shares a wonderful “any fruit” crisp dessert (and check out the peachy photos!)…
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Pre-Deal-or-No-Deal-fame, Howie got me ready to teach kindergarten:
Aug 11 2008
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It’s the first day of school and I’m up at four thirty in the morning, thanks to the toddler waking up, soaked through his diaper, shirt, and sheets. So much for getting potty training started! Of course I was sleeping restlessly anyway, thinking about my students and our activities for the first week. Being at a new school means I’m not only getting to know a new group of five and six year olds (their parents too), but new colleagues who will interact with my students daily for music, art, P.E., library, etc. Are the teachers used to kindergarten students? Do they enjoy kindergarten students? How will they take me staying with my students for this first week, observing in their classrooms? Good thoughts, good thoughts, good thoughts…breathe.
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Kissing hands~ basic sugar cookies with a chocolate kiss added immediatly after the cookies come out of the oven. The hand shaped cookie cutter looks a little odd, perhaps the cookies do too, but the story is sweet, and in the past my students have enjoyed having this special snack, taking home a cookie for parents at the end of the day too. I even have a little silver hand brooch with a heart in the middle and dangly charms that I wear on the first day. Have I mentioned how good it is to be back into teacher fashion?
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As a special gift, I made each of my kindergarten colleagues a banner/bunting using paper in basic colors and patterns, ribbon and buttons. As most kindergarten classrooms teach “colors” or have Colors as a curriculum unit, I thought it would be a great classroom decor item that we could use on bulletin boards or hang above a special center or display.
I’ll photograph mine once I have it hung in the classroom so you can see the whole thing!
Aug 05 2008
Migraine: Day Two.
Classroom: not as much progress made as I had hoped, but hey, inservice and professional development meetings slow everyone down, right?
Weather: hot. TOO hot, in fact. This Alaskan Girl is thinking she will never acclimate.
Motivation: none at the moment. Not good when laundry, dinner, chores, family time, and classroom prep all need attention tonight.
Remedy/Prescription: Singing Chickens.
Jul 22 2008
…when you sneak away for an afternoon and wander through some local antique malls!
It’s a 1950’s advertisement for refrigerators, but what caught my eye was the word “femineered.” Femineered? Femineered?
“Women dreamed them, home economists planned them…” And just what did the femineers want as features in their refrigerators? A bottle opener in the door latch, an “egg-o-mat” that would dispense eggs, one or two at a time, and an “exclusive diffuse-o-lite,” to light the “entire interior without glare.”
Here’s the outside:
…and the inside…
The Canada Science and Technology Museum has a collection it features about historical Marketing, Design and Consumerism, and shares:
Magazines, brochures and trade catalogues in the 1950s liberally promoted the image of the attractive and pleasant “homemaker” to tout the merits of electric ranges. Manufacturers appealed to Canadian women consumers’ dreams of grandeur by comparing their appliances to gems, with the notions of “deluxe,” “imperial” or “royal” embodied in the chrome or gold-plated decorations, dazzling colours, and ease of operation, and conferring upon them the virtue of being “femineered from top to bottom.” As early as the 1920s, commercial catalogues suggested that the stove was “as important as your husband.”
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Thank goodness for today’s ephemera humor!
(magnet found at Ephemera Inc.)
Jul 16 2008
Though I’m a chocoholic, here’s what I’ve been craving and enjoying this summer:
Yep, apples, celery, raisins, and walnuts.
My family doesn’t care for this salad (more for me!), so I only make enough for one:
1 apple
2 or 3 stalks of celery
1/4 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
1 tsp. of mayo, just enough to coat the apples so they don’t brown too quickly
Chop up the apple and celery stalks, toss in the raisins and walnuts, and coat with the mayo. It’s even better if the apple and celery have chilled in the fridge overnight- cool, crispy, fruity and green at the same time. I suggest you make this the same day you plan on eating it as the apples still brown rather quickly, and if the salad is left overnight in the fridge, the walnuts and raisins get soggy.
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Dear Daughter is expressing interest in learning about “meal preparation.” In tiny, baby increments. She’s good at mac and cheese, makes a terrific toasted ham/cheese/potato chip sandwich, and has learned how to make chicken flavored ramen noodles. I know, I know, basic stuff. Today she had some excess broth left over from the noodles as Toddler only wants “oodles” when it comes to ramen, no “juice.” For a reason that still escapes me, she put the left over broth into a glass, intending to let it cool off completely before pouring it into a sippy cup for the toddler, to see if he likes the taste of it. I asked her how she’d explain the “juice” to him.
She said she’ll tell him it’s chicken juice. From freshly squeezed chickens.
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*Michelle at Scribbit shares her Aunt Nancy’s recipe for Asian Chicken Salad (hey, more ramen!)
*If fruit smoothies are more your style, The Pioneer Woman Cooks a Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie (the color alone will amaze you!)…
*Amy at AngryChicken is making me wonder just where, oh where in my yard I can plant rhubarb, so I can make Rhubarb Hand Pie.
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Finding so many great blogs since my spring blogroll update means I’ll have to try to find time to update my links before school starts. I’ll keep you posted!
Jun 18 2008
After getting my daughter on the plane to see her grandparents this morning, I have to say I know another job I hope to never have: baggage inspector. It joins the rest of my do-not-ever-hope-to-be list of occupations: garbage collector, sewer maintenance repairman, surgeon (needles I can handle, literal blood and guts, not so much), and mortician.
Dear Daughter already had her boarding pass pre-printed at home, and wasn’t checking any luggage, but in order to guide her all the way to her gate, I had to obtain a parent’s pass at the ticket counter. Not a problem. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Burger King in the terminal, and headed upstairs to the security checkpoint. It was a rather long series of two lines since the first few flights of the morning were scheduled to leave in the next hour, but pilots mingled and chatted pleasantly with the passengers as everyone slipped off shoes, wrangled belts out of belt loops, with several young women wriggling out of tons of cheap jewelry and accessories that kept setting the alarm beeper thingies off.
After my daughter and I made it through the scanner beep and alarm-free, the only unpleasant, sour people we encountered informed my daughter her carry on would have to be searched. Yep, the baggage inspectors. Turns out her ziploc baggie carrying her toiletries was too large and that two of her three items surpassed the 3 ounce limit. Surprising, because the two items were a two-thirds used tube of toothpaste (and yes, it was obviously MORE than half used) and a half empty 4 ounce bottle (half would be TWO ounces) of sunscreen. Apparently the original container size itself determines whether or not the ever-deadly gingivitis fighter and its sidekick, anti-cancer cream make it on board. Dear Daughter said there wasn’t a problem, she’d just ask Grandma and Grandpa to let her stop by the store once she landed to replace the toothpaste and sunscreen.
To which Grumpy, the baggage inspector replied:
“Fine. But YOU (meaning me) need to take this downstairs, to your car, and then you can come back up here.”
I told Grumpy in a purposefully pleasant voice that if I took the toothpaste and sunscreen to my car, I’d have to go to the ticket counter, obtain another pass, then wait in another line to come through security, and therefore MISS getting my daughter to her gate. “Would it be possible to just dispose of those items here so I can make sure she doesn’t miss her flight?” Smile, smile, pleasant pleasant…
Grumpy growled. Oh yes, she growled. “Fine.” Then she slapped the lid down on Dear Daughter’s carry on case, and shoved the case down the roller ramp.
I couldn’t resist: “Thank you!” (smile, smile, smile) “Have a great day!” (beam, beam, beam)
Perhaps Grumpy was just ending a long, difficult shift. Maybe Grumpy had had a tough morning at home. Maybe Grumpy is just G-R-U-M-P-Y.
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*Perhaps installing one of these Passive Aggressive Anger Release Machines would help… (I’m not kidding! Go take a look!)
*…or maybe a hug from a Softie made from scraps would better soothe the inner-Grump?
Jun 13 2008
I’ve spent my stay-at-home-mommy-year blogging, crafting, reading, crocheting, baking, and reading some more, discovering fun new things to try, and searching out necessary materials and supplies at craft stores, yard sales, etc. Yesterday I thought I’d sort through all of the pretty ribbons I had found or bought this year so I could show and share them for my usual Thursday post.
I underestimated the widespread appeal of the ribbon however. I also underestimated my toddler’s determination to satiate his interest in “helping Mommy” with the ribbons. And I committed the ultimate faux pas: I turned my back on the toddler while he was in my crafting area. With…the…ribbon. ALL…of…the…ribbon.
Did I get a photo of the resulting tangled-ribbon-noodle-like-mess on my floor? Uh, no~I couldn’t take a picture because I was too busy putting myself in a much-needed Time Out. Just superimpose ribbons over the toys in this bedroom shot in your mind to get a feel for the mess I enabled the boy to create:
While I was rolling my ribbon back onto their spools, a miracle occurred! I got an email from Michael’s Craft Store with a fifty-percent-off coupon in it. I took a break from the grosgrain and satin, and searched the store online when lo and behold, a link for Martha Stewart Crafts took me to a page featuring ribbon storage boxes. Michael’s and Martha~ how did they know?
Here’s the midpoint:
(Did you notice there’s no sign of the toddler? I learned my lesson, and had Sister take him out to play in the water while I rolled, sorted, and organized!)
Muuuuuuucccccchhhhhhhhhhhh better:
Earthy browns, blacks, and black/white:
Golds, cream, white, and an extra roll of patriotic red/white/blue:
Purples, greens, yellow and orange:
Blues…
Solid pinks:
Patterned pinks and reds:
And look! With the lids closed, you can still see a little peek of what’s inside. Once we’re in our new home and my craft area is established, little tails of ribbon will stick out of the slots… just so my toddler can yank on them and unspool them onto the floor…AGAIN!
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*Don’t forget, Sunday is Father’s Day!
*The Pioneer Woman Cooks Cowboy Nachos
*GoodyBlog posted about Velcro’s Birthday (and shared a photo of a much-desired-by-me Velcro WALL…here toddler-toddler-toddler, here toddler-toddler-toddler)
*And how about a blog written by a dad? Perfect for this Father’s Day weekend!
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