Disappointment: Learning 9

Once again, apologies for neglecting this poor little blog. Also, fair warning that this post may come off slightly rant-y, and is not meant to stir up pro-choice/pro-life debates, although at least one person on my facebook wall has already taken it as such. Ok, so here we go.

I don't know how many of you saw this picture circulating the interwebs, but it got a lot of attention. I had seen the picture in passing, but didn't know anything about it, other than gleaning the fact that it obviously came from a pro-choice rally of some sort.

Well, last night I learned more about the girl who was holding the sign. Turns out she is a 14 year old girl in Texas. It also turns out that a whole bunch of strangers online started calling her a whore, just because she was holding this sign. There were other comments too, such as the ones saying her parents should be arrested for child abuse or that her dad probably has all her friends come over to play abortion clinic. Truly awful stuff. And this nastiness from strangers wasn't limited to anonymous internet people - A grown man shouted in their faces at the protest that she and her friend were ugly, should shave their heads and become lesbians, and that no man would ever want them. An adult man shouting nasty insults in the face of a 14 year old girl. And all that nastiness is why she wrote this response.

I find her response to be incredibly classy. Even more incredible considering it's coming from a 14 year old girl, and she's questioning why grown ups are the ones calling her nasty names. I think that's a great question. I think her response highlights so much of what is wrong and missing from our dialogue, or lack thereof. How adults are unable to disagree appropriately, a skill we try so so hard to teach our students. But how will that skill really sink in when the role models they have all over internet and media and in real life sink immediately to nasty vicious name calling instead of discussion?

So I posted her response on facebook with the message that regardless of what you thought of her sign, we should all be able to agree that no one should be calling her a whore and that her response to such insults was incredible. I truly believed that. And then this morning I find a comment from a family member, who I like very much despite differences in opinion on various topics, who replied that while the term 'whore' was incorrect, she was really a nazi indoctrinated baby killer.

It left me speechless and angry, and I dashed off a couple of carefully worded comments in response, but my blood was still racing and he had not replied again, hence my blog post here. I have to wonder if he even read the article? Does he even hear what his words sound like in his own head? I have no idea how to even communicate with such a person. Feeling pretty disappointed.

Wood: learning 8

Ok, I'm behind on this challenge. So Phyl picked up a second job working in a warehouse a couple weeks ago so that we could put all the excess money toward student loans (yay paying loans off early!). His job is basically to sort and grade many different sheets of plywood. Today I learned something about that from a factoid he just posted on Facebook during his break. Apparently birch and maple are very similar and hard to tell apart. One difference you can look for is that birch is fuzzy to the touch.

And now you know!

The Dentist: Learning 7

Today I went back to my dentist for the third time in the last 5 months to have the same filling put back in my tooth. Now, this makes it seem like I have a lazy dentist, so let me back up and say I LOVE my dentist office. I've never been super afraid of dentist offices, and having 4 years of braces in high school/college has left me resigned to letting dentists and orthodontists do whatever they want to my teeth, but I am always rather tense, especially when they bring out the little drill. Everyone at my dentist office (Southern Indiana Smiles, if you're wondering) is always so friendly, they learned my name right away, and do everything they can to make me feel comfortable. And both times I've had to go back to replace the filling after it's fallen out they've done it free of charge and gotten me in for the appointment super quick.

So today I learned a couple new things about what can make a filling come out of your mouth. I always thought it was just eating too much sticky stuff. Now that didn't make sense with this filling for a couple of reasons. Number one, I haven't eaten very much sticky stuff and don't even chew gum. Number two, the filling is on the outside of my tooth on the gumline, not on top where I chew. The dentist wasn't positive what makes this specific filling so tricky (I got 3 other fillings at the same time which have all stayed in just fine). Her hypothesis was that something about my saliva was reacting with the bonding material in a bad way, so they took extra steps to keep my saliva away from the filling this time. I had no idea saliva was that powerful! I knew it was the first step in your digestive process, so obviously it has some dissolving properties, and I knew it was bad for chapped lips, because if you lick your lips when they're chapped they get worse, but I didn't know it could make my filling come loose. Hopefully it's nice and dry this time. The other possibility was that I might grind my teeth without realizing it, because apparently teeth grinding also weakens the gumline, which is where this tricky filling is located. My mom is a teeth grinder, but I have never noticed it myself, and they took a little impression and said it wasn't likely I grind my teeth from what they saw.

So that is what I learned at the dentist office today. Hopefully I will not need to go back until my semi-annual cleaning next month!

Pickles: Learning 6

Phyl is a good cook (usually he is the one making dinner). However, he also likes to play around with weird food combinations, which leads me to this post. He made cheeseburgers, and as usual his had many more additions than mine. Then I did a double take. "Did you put cucumbers on your burgers?" I asked, as though he were crazy. "Yes," he replied, as though this were perfectly normal. "Cucumbers?"  I repeated, still with a you're-crazy undertone. "What, they're just like pickles," he replied.

Which led to a further conversation about how pickles are made from cucumbers. He said it was just vinegar. Turns out it's vinegar plus lots of pickling salt and different spices to make the brine. So that's what I learned.

But the real question is, should one put cucumbers on their cheeseburger? Chime in in the comment section.

SCOTUS: Learning 5

I'm going to do a quick and blatantly obvious learning post today, since everyone who isn't under a social media rock should be aware of this learning today.

The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act! Hooray! I learned that while this doesn't make gay marriage legal across the country, the federal government now recognizes ALL legal marriages as defined by the states. So if you live in a state where gay marriage is legal and get married, you can file your federal taxes jointly and your spouse won't be deported if they're from another country and take advantage of hundreds of other benefits as well. Presumably the federal government will also recognize your marriage if you get married in a state where gay marriage is legal and then move to one where it isn't. Which will cause all sorts of interesting legal logistics, I am sure.

The Supreme Court dismissed (that may not be the correct legal term, as I'm going by paraphrased memory here) the Prop 8 Case, which means that gay marriage is once again legal in California, because it reverts to the lower court which already struck down Prop 8! Hooray! I learned that if the Supreme Court had actually issued a ruling striking down Prop 8, gay marriage would now be legal all across the country no matter what state you live in, which would obviously be ideal. However they said the private citizens group that was fighting the not-so-good fight to uphold Prop 8 didn't have the legal grounds to bring the issue to court because they could not demonstrate how the law harmed them (EXACTLY! My gay friends getting married does not harm my marriage in the slightest!). So there is still a lot of ground to cover, but significant historical progress made today. And I learned about it.

Kroger: Learning 4

Today I felt like I'd spent too much time cooped up inside at home, so I decided to walk to the library and post office (have I mentioned lately how much I love being able to walk downtown from our home? because I do. That is my absolute favorite thing about Bloomington and a major factor in not moving to a nice apartment, because the ones we can afford aren't as close to downtown as our trailer is. but I digress). Anyway, I passed by Kroger as I walked down the B-Line and learned that it was finally open again! I say finally as if this Kroger being closed for a few weeks has greatly inconvenienced me, when really there are three other Krogers also in Bloomington within an easy ten minute drive. I just got spoiled having a Kroger right down the street.

So I stopped in and looked around. The construction isn't done yet, but we're allowed inside again. The store is a little bit bigger and the layout has been changed to be more like the modern stores. What struck me most though, is how pretty the store is now! The walls are all painted pretty colors and have graphics and modern signs. The outside of the store also got a paint job, covering up the old graffiti on the wall. Of course, there are already a couple new graffiti tags up. I generally disapprove of such, but this one made me laugh and I thought it was rather clever.

Also saw this cute little bunny nibbling on sidewalk grass by the courthouse.

UnPlugging: Learning 3

Many of my friends are able to honestly say that they do not check facebook very often - maybe just a couple times a week. I admire that and must admit that I check facebook constantly every day. It is my go to website on my computer. If my computer is next to me and I have nothing else to check online, I check facebook, even if I just checked it 5 minutes ago. No lie, I have been on facebook, realized there was nothing new to see, and then typed facebook.com into my address bar while I was still on my newsfeed in the first place!

So when I came across an article on unplugging at one of my favorite blogs, A Practical Wedding, I was intrigued.* I did give up facebook for Lent one year in college, which was an interesting experience. I have a hard time giving up facebook altogether now, because even though a lot of what is on there is nonsense, I do legitimately communicate with family and share pictures through it. So it's not all bad, but the amount of time I am on facebook is definitely bad. I don't like the fact that I waste hours on the internet mindlessly, but it's a hard habit to break. I learned that I am far from the only one who feels this way, and that while there are wondrous things the internet can do, unplugging can do wondrous things for you as well. 

Alexander Nazaryan described his Internet usage in a way I can definitely relate to: “I don’t want to call it addiction, to trivialize the suffering of alcoholics and compulsive gamblers. It is more like reliance, a psychological craving that will only be satisfied by the calming swipes of my finger across the smooth, shimmering screen of a device." Yes, my current websurfing is mostly out of boredom as I'm on vacation, but when I am checking facebook every 5 minutes after school despite having a ridiculously long and super stressful to do list? That is exactly why (although he described it in a much lovelier way than I could). 

So what's a person to do? I can't, at this point, bring myself to entirely give up the internet and ipad games every weekend altogether, the way Meg is doing over at APW. However, I am trying to be more intentional about taking time away from the computer. We gave up internet and cell phones during our cruise for 10 days out of necessity and that was wonderful. When we went back home for a very short weekend trip yesterday I left my ipad at home and didn't worry about checking facebook in between seeing friends and family. I'm taking time out to read books instead of mindlessly read my facebook feed (for some reason this is much easier to do on summer vacation than during the school year). I'm trying to actually cook some of the new recipes I'm finding online instead of just admiring them on pinterest. And when I feel like I just need some sort of 'noise', I put pandora radio on my ipad instead of playing a game or searching for a video on youtube and go do some organizing project or something productive around the house. I still spend a lot of time online and usually check facebook just under a gazillion times a day, but I'm learning, slowly, to try to make my internet time a little more intentional and a little less mindless. 

* [Sidebar: You may be asking yourself, why does Sarah still read this wedding blog when she got married 2.5 years ago? or, why does a wedding blog have a fascinating article about unplugging? I'll tell you why. This blog is not just about making favors no one cares about and giving you frighteningly unrealistic budget templates *cough*like theknot.com*cough*. This blog, while it does talk a lot about sensible and practical wedding planning advice, is also about marriage, life, and starting a business. They even talk about divorce. It is also written by a fabulously sassy, independent, smart, witty feminist and is one of the only places on the internet where I can click on the comments and actually get a thoughtful, caring, considerate, smart conversation with various viewpoints and advice. Okay, end sidebar.] 

House Flies: Learning 2

Since my earlier post was what I learned yesterday, I thought I'd post again with what I learned today. The past couple days we have noticed a housefly buzzzing around our home (I was going to correct that extra z, but then decided I liked it). It's only one, so at first it wasn't super annoying, it just buzzed angrily around the windows while I sat on the couch. But recently, it has become more fond of us and keeps landing on us and following us around the house. This morning Phyl left for work at 6:30 and I went back to sleep (yay summer and going back to sleep!) but it was made more challenging by the fact that the fly suddenly appeared and kept buzzing around my head. I'd sleepily swat at it, it would leave for a minute, come back, repeat. I covered my head with the sheet but even then I could hear the buzzing. Mr. Fly is still buzzing around (he was waiting for me on the bathroom mirror, and then he kept landing on our legs this afternoon) so I decided to research house flies to learn more about him. Here are some things I learned:

1. House flies can carry diseases. Like leprosy. I hope Mr. Fly doesn't turn me into a leper.

2. House flies have tiny hairs called tarsi on the end of their legs that work like taste buds. So when Mr. Fly keeps landing on us, what he is really doing is tasting us. This is slightly disconcerting.

3. House flies can only ingest liquid food because they can't chew. If they want to eat solid food like a grain of sugar, they regurgitate saliva and digestive juices to dissolve their potential meal. Apparently this is the real reason you don't want flies to land on your food while you're eating, because if they decide they also like your meal, you may end up with regurgitated fly juice on your food. Ew.

4. House flies can live up to 3 months, but their average life span is 3 weeks. So Mr. Fly will be leaving us by September at the latest. Hopefully we will swat him long before then.

5. House flies are not entirely useless creatures. They break down decomposing materials in the ecosystem and provide protein to birds and lizards that eat them. Some scientists also think larvae can be used to make cancer medicine, and apparently there are housefly farms in China for this purpose.

6. Some ancient civilizations had fly gods that they made sacrifices to in order to keep houseflies out of their homes and temples.

Apologies and Learning 1

Ok people. I think we have all learned that I still cannot be trusted to regularly update any sort of blog or journal device. I have not given up on the project 365 photo idea even though my track record isn't great (although not as abysmal as my blog would lead you to believe - check facebook, I'm slowly uploading pictures there). However, I think we can agree that at this point, project 365 entries are not the best idea, namely because I have a ridiculous amount to catch up on. SO, I am switching focus to Lee's blogging challenge about learning.

Last night I learned that if you replace half the flour in a chocolate chip cookie recipe with cake mix and add a bunch of sprinkles, you get SUPER delicious cake batter flavored chocolate chip cookies. These are seriously delicious. Dangerously so. I've had 6 already today for breakfast. I also learned that if you are following a recipe for oven baked fries and it tells you to coat the baking sheet with oil, make sure you use a sheet with RAISED edges. Otherwise the oil will drip onto the bottom of the oven and make your eyes sting with smoke. Heh.

You can find the recipe here. You really should go make them. Like right now. I ate two more while uploading the photo and linking the blog. They're that good.

Day 48

The two personal days I took off for the choir concert were timed well, because right before we left I found out Grandma had been diagnosed with lung cancer and given a couple months to live. So after the concert we drove to Findlay and spent most of Saturday with Grandma Grandpa and AJ, who had flown in to take care of them. Grandma and Grandpa were both in good spirits and very much themselves, just much more easily exhausted and not very hungry, so that was nice to see.

Now I find myself in a weird mood the past couple days. Part of it is changes happening at school that are still very unknown, which is always off putting. Part of it is being overly invested in some of my tricky kids, given they showed up in my dreams Thursday night and I couldn't sleep. Part of it is the excitement of the school year drawing to an end but not quite believing its here and still having lots to do. And part of it is knowing in the back of my mind that in the midst of all of this end of school year excitement I could get the phone call about Grandma any day now and spend the last days of school at a funeral instead. While she is remaining in good spirits, she is deteriorating pretty rapidly. The last update from AJ a few days ago gave her 1-4 weeks. 

Day 47

A month ago I took 2 personal days to go back to Goshen for the weekend and sing at their high school concert - it was the first time we'd done an alumni event like that. It was also the very first time I'd been able to even go to a concert since I graduated practically, so I was excited. It was a lot of fun, and we had over a dozen alums there. I knew it was going to be a fun time, but it was even better than I expected. It was such a nice feeling to be on stage again and singing with all those familiar faces. Afterward a bunch of us went to IHOP just like old times. Summer brought her darling baby with her to dinner (so did Caroline), so it was fun to meet their cute kids. Garth is having a staring contest with Summer's baby above.

Day 41 - 46

Okay, again, sorry for the once a month post. Here are a bunch of pictures, to give you a quick overview of the end of March and beginning of April.

 

March 20 - one of my student's soap sculptures after studying Indiana Limestone for Artful Learning.

 

March 27 - I assembled this strandbeest sculpture for our Artful Learning unit despite entirely Japanese directions!

 March 29 - walking home after seeing Next to Normal

 April 6 - lovely day for the first Farmers Market

April 7 - cat I saw on the walk home from school

April 9 - walk downtown for Hartzell's, my favorite ice cream shop in Bloomington.

Days 34-39

Yikes! Clearly March was a bad month for keeping my camera charged and being stressed. Lets quickly update the few March photos I have to share:

March 2: Playing Talisman with Phyl (I'm winning, that's why he's concentrating so hard).

 

March 4: The beginning of my lovely's graham cracker episode (*sigh*).

 

March 5: Evening snow.

 

March 8: Some of my lovelies excitedly changing into slippers for pajama day (faces blurred for those without signed photo releases!).

  

March 11: An organized spare room!

  

March 12: Playing bananagrams with Rachel on spring break!

 

 

 

Days 28-33

Alright, time for another long overdue blog post. I did take more pictures this past week, I just didn't them on my computer to blog about them. First up, last Sunday I finished scrapbooking all our cruise photos and reorganized some other photos, hence this lovely empty photo envelope:

 

We just had our school book fair and I made a wish list for people to see, not really expecting anything. These were the six books I received as gifts from parents and the pto. Yay free books! So exciting. I have There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shamrock, The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah, The Quiet Place, I Love Horses and Ponies (great pictures in this book, and I have several horse lovers in my room), Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet, and Game On - a step into reading Wreck It Ralph book.

Tuesday I went to the dentist and got 3 cavities filled. Yuck. It actually wasn't too bad. I really like our dentist here. I have bad memories of getting a cavity filled when I was younger and not being completely numb - the drill was fine, but when they blew the air it landed on a nerve and was a sharp pain - so the only bad part was I was tense the whole time they were drilling waiting for that same sharp pain, but it never happened. I was totally and completely numb. I have to go back next month to get one last cavity filled on the other side. I swear I brush my teeth - these cavities were all hiding between my teeth apparently. So I'm trying to be better about flossing. Below is a cool blurry abstract photo of one of my teeth - my breath kept fogging up the lens as I tried to take pictures!

 Friday we had a 2 hour delay due to icy sleety conditions overnight. This is what I walked out to - I expected it to be time consuming to clear off, since it looked like a decent coat of ice, but luckily the last couple hours of weather had been rain and it had warmed just above freezing, so it actually slid right off.

 Saturday when Phyl got off work he suggested we go on a walk before it got dark. I like walking around our neighborhood - we're near downtown and right by a historic district, so there's lots of nice houses. I particularly like the porch swing and trim color on this house.

Sunday I went into school to get some planning done and deliver some desperately needed data to our lit coach. When I walked outside it was so sunny and almost mild I decided to walk - it's only a 20 minute or so walk, about ten blocks, and since one of the things I like so much about where we live is our ability to walk places, I decided to actually take advantage of it. This is another house along the route - I really like the detail and the little balcony.

Day 27

Phyl and I aren't big on Valentines gifts, but he had flowers (tulips - think warm spring thoughts) and Reeses (he knows me well) on the table waiting for me when I got home. I made a concerted effort to leave school at a reasonable hour so that I could actually make dinner for him for once (I even washed all the cooking dishes before he got home). It was a nice night.

I don't have a picture from Friday (which is when we did the valentines party for my class and also when we had the school valentine dance) but I definitely have a good story. In my class I have a pair of students who have definitely had 'secret' crushes on one another. For internet sakes and a fun dr. seuss reference, i shall call them Thing 1 and Thing 2. Thing 1 came in Wednesday morning and told me she asked Thing 2 to the dance the day before. I asked what his answer was and she said he said he was just about to ask her! That afternoon they made hearts in art class and traded them. At the dance last night they both were there with their parents. For the first little bit their families were just standing next to one another. Thing 1 was dancing all around with her dad and little sis, Thing 2 was just kind of standing there (very shy). Eventually, they started dancing/chasing all around the dance floor. I spoke to Thing 2's mom at one point and she told me that he came home on Tuesday (the day Thing 1 asked him to the dance) and said it was the best Tuesday of his life and that his secret wasn't a secret anymore and Thing 1 had the same secret. They are just too cute, I can't take it!

Day 25/26

I really should be going to bed, but I wanted to share today's photo very quickly, so quick post. First, Sunday's picture - more scrapbooking.

 Today I went to see one of my students play basketball. She's been practicing for a couple weeks now, and it was a lot of fun to see her play! She even scored a basket. Teacher friend Katie was with me because I'd been helping her run an errand, and she thought it was so much fun that she wants to go back again to see her game next week! Below is a picture of the game - no worries of identifying kids on the big bad internet because I took the picture with my phone and it is just a bunch of blurs, but it gives you an idea how fast and exciting it was!

Day 22 - Day 24

Not doing so well with taking pictures - I'll blame it on the fact that my camera battery was very close to dead for most of this week. Phyl and I made a long overdue trip to the laundromat on Sunday. The fact that our timing coincided with the SuperBowl made for a very quiet laundry session, which was nice. And now I have clean socks again, which is always nice. We spent the time playing Blokus and playing with the shiny new ipod, which we won in a sweepstakes we entered for a free cruise quite a while ago (I convinced Phyl to keep it, he wanted to sell it, but I think its a fun shiny toy).

There was a pretty snowfall on Monday, although my camera was unable to capture the falling part. Here's the view of our snowy school playground from my classroom. There's been a lot going on at school this week, but then, there usually is!

 

No pictures from the rest of the week, which we'll blame on the previously mentioned low camera battery and busy school week. Today I meant to go in to the school while Phyl was at work, which I did not do, but I did clean the kitchen and tidy up the living room, so still productive! Look at our shiny clean table - oooh, aaah. 

Day 19-21

 

I'm back again! I was feeling some stress this week and realized much of it could be traced back to my crazily cluttered desk (seen above, on Wednesday) so I spent some time after school clearing it off. I feel really lucky to have a built in desk and a teacher desk, but it means twice the clutter when I let it get to this point. Bonus picture below shows the clean desks.

Aaah, much better.

 Thursday it was snowing off and on all day, but nothing was really sticking to the ground. I stayed after school for a baby shower for another teacher (lots of fun) and then for a little bit to prep my classroom, and sometime during those 2-3 hours when I wasn't paying attention the snow decided it was serious, so I was very surprised to find the parking lot (and all three roads I use to go home) completely covered in snow. Luckily my drive home is short and straight, so I made it home just fine. And we had a 2 hour delay the next morning (for wind chill, not snow, but still, yay sleep).

Today I did another scrapbook page from our honeymoon cruise. Can you tell I opened the circle cutter I got for Christmas today? Haha. I really like how it turned out though. If I keep doing a page or two every weekend or so I should be able to finish the cruise photos this month. I might go back to Christmas photos after that. I also really need to do Harlaxton photos, I have a whole box of those photos that I haven't touched in ages...

Day 13 - Day 18

I did warn you all that I am an awful blogger. I have at least been taking some pictures even though I haven't been blogging. To save time I am putting my last few pictures into one entry.

 

Last Thursday I reorganized the bookshelf so that my scrapbook albums were more easily accessible. They had been in the stack on the bottom with the picture frames - now I can pull them on and off the shelf. You can also note some of my favoritest books on the top shelf - Harry Potter series, Tamora Pierce books, Ella Enchanted and Fairest... 

 No pictures from last Friday or Saturday as I was not feeling well with a sinus infection.  Last Sunday I got my scrapbook supplies back out. This page is a work in progress. I actually just finished it last night - matted the pics at the bottom and fixed the title, as well as adding a journaling block.

This picture is from last Monday - we had the day off school for MLK day, at night I bundled up against the windy cold to get some stuff ready at school. We ended up having a 2 hour delay due to the below zero windchill the next morning.

 Phyl bought flowers on Tuesday for no reason. They look very nice on our kitchen table.

 More scrapbooking from last night. My goal is to finish scrapbooking our last cruise before we go on our next cruise this June.

My teacher ipad and my two student ipads. I'm loading different storybook apps onto them all so I can start using them for listen to reading tomorrow. The apps are taking FOREVER to install....

And we're all caught up, for now...

Day 12

 

Great day at school today. My kids are L-O-V-I-N-G math by myself. Mostly because they love this graphing dice roll activity. We did it today and you could here a pin drop in my room. When we stopped to go to art, there were many complaints and people begging to do it again. Yay for loving math! 

You get a bonus picture today because a particularly delightful child wrote me this letter. I love it. The last line makes me smile every time. I wrote her a letter back and I can't wait to read her response. I'm hoping she answers my question and tells me how I am like a rainbow. Did I mention I love it? Because I do.

Day 11

So today I decided to make cookies, for a couple reasons. One, we had milk that was expiring and needed to be drunk, and two, I wanted to do something at home that was productive (ie not sitting in front of a computer/tv screen all night as has been my pattern as of late) but also not related to school. Phyl pointed out as I was making these that we still have cookies leftover from Christmas. I say those cookies are stale and nothing goes better with the milk that we need to drink than warm, gooey, chocolate andes mint cookies. You may notice there is already a cookie missing from the tray - it was delicious. The chocolate was also still very melty, and dripped on the floor. These cookies are very messy until they get a chance to cool down.

In other news, launched math daily 5 yesterday and continued with it today. The kids are really excited about it, which is good! I'm really excited about it too, although still working out the best way to organize materials so they can be easily gotten and put away so that everything stays in the right place for next time and no one is stampeded in the process. This week - math by myself and math writing. Next week - math with technology and maybe math with someone, depending on how kiddos are doing with stamina in other areas. Then we can start groups, and hopefully keep our stamina up at the same time! Also will be starting group conferences in literacy daily five after MOY benchmarking is done. So lots going on in daily 5 world in our classroom right now!

Day 10

Today I spent a ridiculous amount of time at school, getting ready for the week and especially organizing to try to get ready to launch daily 5 math this week. I felt bad staying away from home all day on Phyl's day off, but I came home to a lovely clean living room and kitchen, with the Christmas tree put away. What a nice husband I have.

Day 9

This is yesterday's picture. Phyl and I went to Red Lobster to use some of our Christmas gift cards. we had planned on going to a movie afterwards, but Red Lobster was busy and had a wait, so we ended up coming home and watched netflix instead. It was a lovely lazy Saturday.

Day 8

 

This is one of my favorite Christmas presents, I got it from my sister. Just to show that great minds think alike, I got my sister one of these cups too, but hers says "Keep Calm Teach On". I came very close to buying one for myself but decided to wait till Christmas. Glad I did! She even filled it with chocolate, she knows me so well.

Day 7

 

This photo is actually from Wednesday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday I fell asleep on the couch before making it to bed. Getting back into school routine is hard. My kiddos are also experiencing this, as more than usual complained of being tired. I noticed it today especially. Of course I promised myself that last night I would go to bed early, but then I played the first episode of Downtown Abbey out of curiosity on Netflix while writing report card comments. I was promptly compelled to watch the entire season in one setting. So I went to bed at 1:30 and did not even finish the report card comments. Ahem. 

Day 6

This is yesterday's picture. First day back to school and the tree which we said would come down over break is clearly still up. Ah well. As I told Phyl, we can look at my procrastination as a good thing because I received two handmade ornaments from one of my students as a belated Christmas present. If the tree was all put away, we'd have to drag the boxes back out to put away those ornaments. Unfortunately I don't have a good reason as to why the tree has not been put away tonight...

Day 5

 

This is actually the picture from Monday. Classroom all ready for kiddos again =)