Dec 28 2008
The yard…
Driving to KC…
Some seriously sunny, sparkly trees!
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~Scrabble furniture, shared by Haute Nature…
~Scribbit’s Purple Cow recipe…
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Keep your fingers crossed that I’m able to get back to the classroom tomorrow for some quick preparations for second semester!
Dec 27 2008
Apologies, no photos of the classroom’s January decor today…and this is why:
…after the rain and hail storms last night, we woke up to icy trees, icy fences, icy vehicles, and very icy roads. Seems like a good day to stay home!
I guess we won’t be grilling tonight either:
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The sounds of vehicles sliding back and forth as they attempt to drive through the neighborhood are echoing into the house- talk about *acoustics!*
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I’ll spend much of today straightening up my crafting nook, trying to brighten up the area a bit before the urge to make valentines hits me. I love how Christmas Red morphs right into Valentine Red!
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If you’re staying or stuck at home:
~ why not bake Smitten Kitchen’s Gramercy Tavern’s Gingerbread Cake…
~ sign up for Cartolina Cards’ newest card giveaway before Monday (December 29)…
~ make a cute Wall-E sandwich that your kiddos will enjoy (many thanks to Anna the Red for sharing this cute idea and many others at her site- who knew playing with food could be so much fun?)…
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Dec 22 2008
…that my students and their parents ~*know*~ me:
A gift tin full of cookie-makings…
…and multiple batches of coffee, Starbucks goodies, Pampered Chef items, hot chocolate mix, sparkly ornaments, and my magic-teaching-vitamins: peanut m-n-m’s. Also received (but the photos turned out blurry) nummy smelling candles and bath treats~
Yep, my Stars and their parents see *everything*!
Merry Christmas Super Stars and Super Star parents- thank you for making me feel so special!
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Need some holiday inspiration or just want to look at pretties that other bloggers have shared? Take a peek:
~ A Storybook Life shares the most beautiful cupcakes (could you ever really bite into these without feeling guilty?)…
~ The Pioneer Woman Cooks fruit and crumbled left over chocolate chip cookies- should there ever *be* left over cookies in my house (um, never), this is the recipe I would try. Those of you with better self control than me, give it a try and let me know how it turns out…
~ Check out Motley Mutton and the Gangly Goat’s felt animal necklaces (VERY CUTE!) at Etsy…
~ Saucy’s bake sale goodies at Bloggedy Blog Blog just might convince me to pull out the ol’ parchment paper one more time this month…
~ Should you ever want a strawberries and cream colored Christmas, head over to Everyday Beauty’s Pretty Little Christmas for ideas…
~ Heather Bailey shares a flower pinwheel pattern over at Hello My Name is Heather- check out the poinsettia!
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Tomorrow is my 39th birthday and I am THRILLED! Wonderful husband and kids- *check*. Terrific family and friends- *check*. Awesome students and colleagues- *check*. Roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and food in our bellies- *check*. Hope, optimism, healthy bouts of laughter, with some quiet time for myself thrown in- *check*. Master’s Degree… uh…
Guess it’s time to start the New Year’s Resolutions.
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~ A Little Blog of Art features art/illustrations by Emma Block- my favorites so far are her holiday watercolors featuring ice skaters (along with some cute banners and ornaments), which you can find here…
Oct 19 2008
Apologies for being away Friday and Saturday~
Gown ironing, hair curling, make-up applying, and high-heel teetering was taking place Friday afternoon after school since Dear Husband and I had the MP Ball to attend:
We enjoyed a wonderful meal, sat at a table with funny and friendly soldiers and spouses and even did a little dancing before the clock struck twelve, though we didn’t make it out of the ballroom quickly enough before my aching feet demanded to be freed from shoes that *felt* like glass slippers. Ouch.
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Though my carriage was a Dodge Ram driven by DH, here are some inspiring pumpkins from BlogLand:
~ Oscar the (Pumpkin) Grouch? See it at Craft and Clutter!
~ Smitten Kitchen makes Pumpkin Swirl Brownies…
~ CakeSpy posts a letter to the editor from the Mellowcreme Pumpkin (TOO funny!)
~ A Storybook Life shares painted pumpkins…
~ Bella Pink Cafe visited a pumpkin patch…
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Carriage found here…
Oct 11 2008
Now that EduBlogs is back up and running (*keeping my fingers crossed here that I didn’t just jinx it all*), let me link you back to Kindergarten’s 3 R’s (which was NOT off line for a few days) so you can get caught up:
We’ve put up our Halloween decor:
Halloween at Home
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…and I’ve posted tips for upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences too!
Sep 22 2008
~Nancy at Teacher in a Strange Land advocates FOR recess, though others want to increase academic time for students by reducing or taking it away (you know how I feel, recess isn’t a reward, it’s a REQUIREMENT!)
~Blogwalker shares a link to Childnet International resources available in the U.K., promoting knowledge over fear when teaching students how to use the web responsibly. From their intro:
“Digital citizenship isn’t just about recognising and dealing with online hazards. It’s about building safe spaces and communities, understanding how to manage personal information, and about being internet savvy – using your online presence to grow and shape your world in a safe, creative way, and inspiring others to do the same.”
I’ve worked for some school districts who would benefit from shifting the fear paradigm from which they operate to a more constructive and productive one in regard to online resources and their use.
~Jim Horn at Schools Matter reminds us all, no matter our voting affiliation, that the most significant educational reform that can take place is ENDING POVERTY.
~My students just finished taking this district’s required assessments (beginning of the year, but they’ll take it again at the end of the year to “document their growth and progress”). I was glad to read Jennifer’s post at Inside Pre-K discussing a more holistic approach to authentic/accurate assessment for our youngest students. I keep anecdotal records, work samples, and assess both informally and formally, and I ask my students themselves what they feel they’ve learned, have more interest in, or find confusing. How students “perform” with me year ’round is a much more reliable indicator on whether or not they’re ready for the first grade than is their performance twice a year clicking and dragging words, photos, or the cursor on a computer screen.
~Finally, parents of wiggly, fidgety students (who are perhaps experiencing difficulties in school) may find Open Education’s blog post “Improving Academic Achievement – Executive Function Could Hold the Secret” VERY informative and helpful. Frankly, so would many teachers! Executive function is defined as a “set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors.” Executive function is necessary for GOAL-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR.
MindDisorders.com further notes: Executive functions “include the ability to initiate and stop actions, to monitor and change behavior as needed, and to plan future behavior when faced with novel tasks and situations.” Therefore, “executive functions allow us to anticipate outcomes and adapt to changing situations” while providing us the specific “ability to form concepts and think abstractly.”
Children must develop the skill to resist distraction before they can stay on task and focused.
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Here’s the next book on my reading list…
Jul 21 2008
We’ve stalled a bit indoors as I won’t be able to set up the toddler’s playroom or my craft area until my kindergarten materials, books, and decor are delivered to my new classroom later this week. Dear Husband checked the trees in our yard today instead, looking for branches that needed to be trimmed while the kids and I checked on the seeds that we planted for “filler-type” greenery and flowers for the remaining summer months.
The nasturtiums and pumpkins have sprouted, though I’m not sure if we’ll actually get any pumpkins grown in time for Halloween with such a late planting. The kids were inspired by the pumpkin photos at Chance Family Happenings:
Dear Husband trimmed back some branches that were obscuring traffic/street signs:
…and he discovered a few branches that the electric company will have to come out to cut and remove (see where the power line is?):
Later this afternoon I’ll re-pot some of my indoor plants into larger containers, anticipating what new greenery I can find to put into the newly emptied pots!
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Thanks for being green, Kermit:
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~SmittenKitchen shares a recipe for Sauteed Radishes (yes, radishes!), Sugar Snap Peas and Dill
~Paper-and-String is working on Christmas in July (check out her trees, reindeer, and puddings)
~Doug has “heavier” reading on his summer book list than I do, but I’m intrigued after reading his thoughts on Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. NCLB is an issue that has ties that stretch much further than our classrooms, school district offices, states, even country.
~Dear Daughter enjoyed her birthday, but wanted a plain ol’ vanilla cake (with purple streaks swirled in) with strawberry icing. Guess I’ll have to wait for another celebration to try The Pioneer-Woman-Cooks’ Yogurt and Orange Marmalade Cake.
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Happy Monday!
Jul 17 2008
There is ONE advantage to packers dumping, shuffling, and resorting your belongings when you move: you stumble across wishes and inspiration from your past!
This was my “dream wedding gown,” torn from a bridal magazine when I was either a senior in high school, or a freshman in college, twenty years ago:
What you can’t see is the powder pink embroidery along the bodice hem and train. The foofy hair? I *still* try for that look to this day! I love the feminine seed pearls and tulle rosettes along the neckline, and I even love the ribbons hanging from the-not-quite-Star-Wars-fantasy hair barrettes. It’s strangely funny and interesting to me that when Dear Husband and I got married so many years later, I wore a white gown, with “rum pink” embroidery, and had ribbons hanging from a bouquet made of tulle and satin rosettes with seed pearls.
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*One of my favorite bloggers, Saucy at Bloggedy Blog Blog, just flipped a house with her husband Veto. Here are some before and after photos (amazing!), and while I’m not brave enough, nor have the time or inclination to flip a house myself, she’s posted some pretty incredible renovation tips here. Ladies, she even included suggestions for how to store your lip gloss and how to protect your hands, nails, and manicures while you’re on site!
*Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting… is making her own military move, family style. HER story had me laughing and crying after our own trip necessitated by Uncle Sam. Military spouses, unite!
*Vicki at This Art That Makes Me Happy has inspired me to try my hand at paper covered letters…once I finish unpacking of course!
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Let’s get back to the foo-foo-froo-froo, shall we?
It’s everything the name implies:
For the Love of Cupcakes and Everything Pink
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Jul 12 2008
I hope you enjoyed greeting the surprises in our rental yesterday! To continue on with our housing adventure…
On Day Three of being back in Oz, Mother Nature gave us a rainstorm, followed by a hailstorm. I didn’t mind either as we were inside and the show was a change from the usual tumbleweed/dirt storms experienced in Texas. And look at all of that *green!*
Do you remember me mentioning the duct taped gutters yesterday? Apparently the duct tape was merely a cosmetic issue, the real problem easily obscured by the fact that I couldn’t see INTO the gutters themselves from the ground. From out of our bedroom windows, we could hear what sounded like a flood, coming off of our roof, more intense than the rain and hail itself that was falling. When we looked out the windows, we saw two rivers of water being shot up and out away from the house four or five feet before hitting the ground. With special lighting and Liberace playing piano, we would have had our own Vegas Water Show!
Sigh. Maybe not. I don’t have the epaulets for that kind of production.
Anywhoo…the gutters were clogged, plugged, full of who-knows-how-many-years’-worth of debris.
And the in-my-opinion hazardous exposed fiberglass insulation garage? Flooded.
Another call was made to the property manager, and after this pearl, “Oh, it’s normal for the garages around here to flood,” he actually produced a ray of hope: he called a Gutter Service/Repairman to come out and clean the gutters.
While Dear Husband made plans to seal the walls of the garage himself (and wowzer, can I just tell you how SMELLY, horribly NOXIOUS the fumes from sealant are?), Walt arrived. Walt got on top of the roof, and cleaned out what he called our “compost pile” that had accumulated in the gutters. Walt removed the duct tape that was holding the gutters’ joints together and made sure the assembly wasn’t dumping water along the garage walls. Walt ran some scary tubey-chompy-snakey looking thing through the drain pipe to clear out any clogs that were hiding.
And once Walt was done, he made balloon sculptures/animals for us. No lie.
Here’s a pink kitty, but if he had had an orange balloon, Walt said it would make a cute tiger:
My husband’s favorite, a motorcycle:
A sweet faced bumblebee (MUCH nicer than the wasps!):
And if you can imagine this one made out of a green balloon with a red tongue, it’s a FROG!
I’m thinking Walt the Gutter Service Repairman just might need to come in for Show and Share sometime this year!
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Want to learn more about balloons and balloon art? Check out the “Pop” Culture at Balloon HQ!
Here are ideas for balloon games and decor for childrens’ birthday parties…
…and check out balloon fashion at Secondose!
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Congratulations to Daisie and Andy! They got married in Hawaii yesterday!
(bears found here)
Jul 10 2008
Hello again! I’ve managed to get the computer unpacked, the desk and chair situated, and thanks to Time Warner Cable, have internet access once again. Just don’t look around the rest of the house. Really. You’ll get to see photos of the mess sometime this weekend, I promise, but for today, check out some scenery from the trip:
Here we are, moments before we hopped into the trucks (Dear Husband drove mine, with the kids, hauling the big trailer, while I drove his white Chevy, pulling the Harley, with the cat in her carrier on the seat next to me):
Driving out of Texas, in the morning before triple digit heat set in for the day (ooh, look at all of that lovely…BROWN…):
The first of two blown tires on the trailer (yes, I’ve gained a few more gray hairs thanks to driving behind my family, watching helplessly as tires smoke, shred, then pop):
A tire repair shop that for some strange reason, we had trouble finding at first:
A storm rolling in (the weather service put out a hazardous weather warning over the radio as we were driving, telling all to “take cover”):
Driving past some wind power on Day Two:
An ominous looking sky later in the day:
Stopping for lunch (no, not at Walmart, we just parked in their lot) before the big push “home:”
Me checking on Anni the cat:
She loved the air conditioning:
Look! A patch of green:
…and another!
Honey, I don’t think we’re in Texas (or Oklahoma) anymore!
Where our adventure picks up:
**Spoiler alert: This is the photo I took BEFORE we were able to get inside. Other than the patchy grass, we weren’t at all concerned…until…
…to be continued…
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Here are some quick links for you (I read through 1300+ blog posts on NetNewsWire yesterday!):
~PhotoJoJo has a Photo Chain idea that I’d like to try! Anyone up for it?
~Cream Puffs in Venice just might lure me away from my usual stress relief food (peanut M-n-M’s) with this strawberry tart…
~I’m back to teaching in a few weeks, so with the hopes that parents who are still in the dark about NCLB and recent “school reforms” can better understand what is *really* going on, here’s Schools Matter, advocating for students and their teachers.
Sweeties, when we were in school, were we just taught the ITBS (or whatever version YOU took one time each spring) year ’round? NO. After watching Dear Daughter’s eighth grade curriculum material consistently being replaced by “test preparation” for the ENTIRE YEAR in Texas, I was appalled. Remind me to show you the DOG TAGS (military style) necklace her school gave out as “rah rah’s” for the TAKS. This military spouse, parent, and teacher hasn’t been amused for some time.
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I’m off to unpack some more boxes, but hope that all of you are enjoying a happy and sunny (yet not-too-hot) summer!
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