Friday

So much for keeping up with my new blogging schedule, but I did at least keep a list of things I wanted to blog.

1.  I now have an ad on my blog. It took awhile to go through the process and get approved, partly because I forgot about it for a couple of months, but I'm happy to report that I have made 10 cents so far this month.  I have no doubt that soon I will be one of  those bloggers who are able to stay home and blog all day. :)

2.  We are all watching "Jurassic Park" right now.  I told Toby it is a horror movie and he is very excited.

3.  We made marshmallows in school today.  It was fun and I finally came up with a way for everyone to be involved without 20 children trying to crowd around one table.  My other strategy has been to have everyone stay at their seats and come up individually and do things, but that's pretty boring for the other students.  Today I had them take turns holding the ipad using the camera function to project what was happening in the mixer and pan onto the big screen.  They still participated individually but they were able to see what was happening from their seats also.  We all enjoyed watching the candy thermometer climb up to 240 degrees!

4.  I've been having this weird thing happen to me for the past few weeks.  My ringtone was this song that started quietly and then got louder.  Well, I began hearing it even when it wasn't ringing, like really hearing it, over and over again.  I was always thinking my phone was ringing.  I started frantically googling "hearing things that don't exist" and saw that it is a symptom of bipolar disorder, along with other things...so I decided to switch my ringtone.  I switched it to a normal telephone ringing sound, and I've been fine ever since.

5.  Sam and I watched this last weekend and loved it.  Gladwell: David and Goliath  I'm on a big Malcolm Gladwell kick lately and I really enjoyed Eric Metaxas' interview.

6.  I read this a few days ago and thought it was perfect.  It's exactly why I don't like Christian women's conferences.  The False Glittering Promise of Christian Conferences  minus the parts about being asked to speak. :)  I feel like they are a lot of hype, mainly built on the premise that we are all depressed or struggling in life, and the conferences encourage us to feel joyful, without realizing that maybe some of us do enjoy life on a pretty consistent basis.

7.  I finished David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants  It's non-fiction and I highly recommend it.  I think everyone should read it.  It's a fairly quick read because each chapter deals with a different topic, related to the main topic.  One very interesting chapter was about the Ivy League colleges vs. Non-prestigious and how people are so set on prestige that it often makes them a "little fish in a big pond" instead of "a big fish in a little pond", which then leads these top high school students to know longer be top because they are competing with students of the same caliber, which often leads to students who know longer feel as capable as they were before and thus more likely to drop out or change majors. He had some interesting data to back up each of his premises in his chapters.

8.  I also finished reading The Secret Keeper which is another one of Beverly Lewis' Amish fiction books.  Light reading, but I do enjoy them.

9.  I received The Book of Common Prayer for Christmas.  I was interested in reading it and using some of the prayers in it.  It was fascinating.  Every word that the priest is supposed to say each service is in there.  It's so different from what I am used, with ministers writing their own sermons.  I was left thinking that Episcopal priests must have it pretty easy.  I wonder if they memorize the different parts or do they have it available for them to read?

10.  On a different note, I had borrowed a book from a co-worker.  I read it and then put it in a bag of things to bring back to the school.  Some of those things were books that I was giving away.  I often put books in the teachers' room for people to read.  By mistake I put the book I borrowed in the teachers' room and someone took it!  When my co-worker asked for the book back, I realized.  I asked everyone on the elementary faculty if they had taken it, but no one had.  So I ended up having to tell my co-worker and then send out an email to the whole school asking for it to be returned.  (I could have just bought a new one, but this one had been highlighted and had notes in it from the owner.)  The next morning when I came into work, it was in my mailbox!  That was a relief.

11.  Right now I am reading Tim Keller's The Meaning of Marriage.  I'm not far enough along to say much about it, but it's been a pretty slow read for me.

12.  I've been asked to be on a new committee at school that is going to discuss lengthening the school day.  I think it is interesting that I was asked because I don't know definitely how I feel about it, but because I lean more and more towards the unschooling philosophy and believe that learning at school could actually happen in a smaller amount of time, it should be an interesting committee to be on.  I also wonder how it would work with after school activities that the students are involved in.  With that said, as a teacher, I'm not opposed to working a longer day.  I could definitely fill the time.

13.  We have finished our study on Northbridge and now we are moving into ways we can help our community.  Next Friday we are going to visit a local rest home.  We will be going during coffee hour and visiting with the residents.  I let the students think about something they would like to do during our visit and many came up with performances.  We are going to have singing, instruments, and dancing, along with recitations.  They are also making crafts and cards for the residents and we have been talking a lot about what to expect, and discussing the fact that these people used to be in 2nd and 3rd grade also!  We are also setting up a trip to the Northbridge Food Pantry and we will be bringing them decorations to decorate their space with.  The students are too young to stack or help out with the food, but this will give them a tour and give them a way to help others.  Our food drive starts the next week, so it's perfect.  After those visits we will be starting a science unit on Magnets and Electricity, and have a field trip to the MOS for their lightning and electricity exhibits.

14.  I made Sausage, Kale and Cauliflower Pot Pie for dinner a week ago.  It was actually quite good and everyone ate it.  Next time I would cut up the cauliflower smaller.  It was my first time using puff pastry and that was fun.

15.  My cousin gave me a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup and it is the best soup I have ever had.  It calls for 16 oz. of cream cheese, but I only used 8 and it was creamy and delicious.  I also used butter instead of margarine.  I could eat it every day, and I did eat it for lunch for quite a few days.

16.  I made blue cheese dressing using an online recipe.  It said I could use sour cream, yogurt, or something else but I forget what it was.  Anyway, I used yogurt and it was horrific.  I had to throw it out.

17.  I made the lettuce wraps with pork again this week because it was such a hit last week.  It was a hit again this week and so easy to make!

18.  I purchased 6 Week School Lunch Plan this week.  I love her website and I am excited to have a good plan in place for making healthy lunches.  It's very well organized, complete with recipes, grocery lists, and plans telling you when to make each thing.  You make a few things over the weekend and then you are good to go for the week.

19. There, now I am caught up.  Tomorrow Lucy has a basketball game.  Toby has hockey practice and then we are celebrating my birthday and my father's birthday at my parents' house.

20. No school on Monday, but Amelia has a birthday party at 9:30am and Lucy is going over a friend's and has basketball practice in the afternoon, so there goes that day.