Hello Out There!

Guess it's high time i posted. I finally feel like myself again (after a month off of work). This past semester was very stressful. The kids were great. I couldn't have asked for better students. Some of the coworkers were less than great. Needless to say, i love my summers off.

I had been nominated for two teaching awards. They required a lot of effort for very little results. At least, the one reward let me know i didn't win. The other just left me hanging. I finally figured out, hmmmm, don't think i won that one. But, hey, I did it and can say, been there, done that, brought the crappy tourist tee shirt back.

Oh wait, I didn't even get that.

But I'm not bitter.

lol.

At least I had good experiences with both of my student teachers. They were very capable and both are gainfully employed now. One of them is even going to get her first level in Orff Schulwerk (an approach to teaching music, the approach I use). Ah, it does one's heart good, after that harrowing semester, with the awards I didn't win, and the butt headed teachers I work with.

But, I'm not bitter.

At the end of the school year, we had to attend various meetings, one of which focused on the power of positive thinking. We then were handed a sheet with the names of all of the school staff on it. We had to write one positive attribute beside each person's name. One of my collegues, who gossips about everybody, moaned the entire time.

I. was. ready. to. strangle. her.

But, I'm not bitter.

I love me some time off.

up next, beach pics. We had a great time at the beach, and i had fun taking pics. good to be back :-)

A Break

Hey you all, I'm going to take a little break from blogging until I get a school break. Yes, work is going well, and I am in my new room, but it is too busy. I've got a small army of university students bouncing in and out of my classroom, student teaching or observing, and a few other professional things going on. It's fun and exciting, but my creativity for writing is zapped. If all goes well I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I'll be catching up on some reading, dreaming about gardening and watching reruns of "Chuck".

Stay well :-)

Lydee

yep, it's one of those days.

Emmy, hamming it up for the computer camera.

Or maybe one of those weeks.
Or maybe one of those months.
It could even be one of those years. I can't tell yet, since we're only into the second month.

(Ugh.)

We have not gone a week without someone in our small family getting sick. I brought in the New Year with pink eye and strep (3 bouts with each, 3's a charm, eh?). Little Bibi developed an ear infection a week ago. And Dear Hubby came down with strep throat on Sunday. Now Emmy's complaining about her ear.

(Check my tonsils mommy.)

My "not a classroom" finally turned into a classroom on Monday. PP said, "It's done but the workers left a mess in there." Nobody wanted to clean it up. I said, "can I have classes in there? I'll move the junk." "Yes" she replied.

(Phooy to those messes.)

So 2 classrooms of kids, 1 student teacher and I got it cleaned out. We moved yucky tables, 1 shop vac and some leftover plywood. We pushed junk shelves and unwanted boxes out into the hall. The kids popped the furnace vents on. They helped me move the majority of the music stuff, including 4 carts of instruments, 6 drums, a cart full of textbooks, a desk, a rug and a puppet stage. They were angels whose enthusiam knows no bounds. They said how nice it was not to have to push carts anymore after music class. They thought the purple paint was cool. I passed out "good coupons" to all.

(Sweet Angels)

And then there was the crap we couldn't throw out: comments that I'd be shoveling the path to, and cleaning the annex because I moved in before it was opened "officially" and it wasn't in anyone's contract. Everyone whose anyone in the school had an opinion to share, about the state of the renovated bldg., about the kids traveling to an outside bldg., about what should have been done better, about that d@m purple paint on the wall. My magic phrase became, "You're going to have to talk to the PP about that."

(The Boss)

The kids and I set up the instruments, hopefully never to be moved again, or at least for the next 4 months. I pounded a new makeshift peg into my Bass Xylophone, one of the casulties of demolition derby cart riding. I was just in the process of moving some shelves when the teachers'  aerobics group came in and wanted to hold their after school class in there. I felt like the Little Red Hen. "Who wants to help thresh the wheat? Who wants to help grind the grain? Who wants to help make the bread?" "Not me! Not me! Not me!" Who wants to eat the bread? Me! Me! Me! 

Nope. Not. going. to. happen. 

I'm not on their christmas card list for next year. 

Drip Drip Drip

That's all it's doing here. We had beautiful snow and then...rain. Rain on old snow is sad. Rain on fresh snow? Mother nature should be locked up; that truly is a criminal act. What could be more pathetic than patches of snow, once pristine, running, puddling, down a muddy driveway? 

Drip. drip. drip. 

Even Emmy's piano practicing sounds like it:

(in a low octave)  

drip.       drip.drip.

              

  drip.         drip.

Ugh. The only change is the threat that all this will turn back into freezing rain and snow within a few hours. Ugh. 

Tubby says, "Please, please take me away."

Some Cooking Tips and a Recipe

I have been using my crockpot more since I went back to work. It's much easier to come home to dinner when I know that something has been cooking all day. Mmm, the house smells good with very little effort on my part. 

So, spaghetti sauce, one of my favorite easy recipes: put 1 lb of lean (very lean) ground meat (chuck, turkey, whatever you like) in the crockpot. Add 1 jar of your favorite sauce, 1 can of whole tomatoes, and 1 can of tomato paste. Maybe add a dash of red wine too if you have some. Put crock on low heat and allow to cook, 6-8 hours. Oh! The meat is so tender. Break apart with wooden spoon and stir. The tomatoes will be cooked down and add a homemade taste. Add cooked pasta and salad and you're set.

Use more or less tomato paste depending on how thick your like your sauce. If you don't like store sauce, add another can of whole tomatoes, or canned plain tomato sauce and your favorite seasoning. I've done it both ways. 

You can freeze extra sauce for another day. Next is a recipe I adapted to use my (accumulating) leftover frozen sauce. 

Baked Ziti (adapted from Saving Dinner, by Leanne Ely)

Leftover meat sauce (equivalent to 1 1/2 jars or so. I guesstimated :-)

1 lb Ziti Pasta (cooked al dente)

3/4 C of low fat sour cream

3/4 C of cottage cheese

6-8 oz of Provolone Cheese

1-2 C of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

9 x 13 pan or lasagna pan

• Put sauce in fridge in the morning or night before to thaw. Sauce needs to be thawed. 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
• Mix the sour cream and cottage cheese together in a small bowl. Set aside.
  
• In the 9 x 13 pan start layering (like you're assembling lasagna): spread sauce on bottom of pan, then a layer of ziti, then the sour cream mixture, then a layer of provolone, then sauce, ziti, sour cream mixture, etc. Repeat until it's all gone.
• Top with mozzarella cheese
• Bake in the preheated oven until it's heated through, about 20 minutes.
• Eat and enjoy. Add a salad and garlic bread if you wish.

 Oh! This is so yummy! My whole family enjoyed this, especially hubby. 

I forgot to mention that I added spinach to the sour cream mixture. If you would like to do that, add 1 10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and well drained) to your sour cream and cottage cheese mixture. Mix well. 

Sorry I don't have pics. Probably the only pics I would have taken would have been me sipping wine while I cooked, lol!