we interrupt this conversation

Heather and I were driving to dance tonight, discussing her day, when all of a sudden there was a pause.  Then ~


Heather: Wait - lemme start over.

Me: Oh good, cuz I got lost.

Heather: Well, because I just now saw a flag and was doing the pledge. (Then she restarted her story.)

Well then, God bless America!

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puker update

I have two stories about The Puker to share with you. He hasn't puked in two and a half weeks, but he's having a hard time living down his reputation in my mind.

First:
The other day after lunch, some of my boys came out of the boys' bathroom to report to me that there was vomit all over the place in there. You know where my mind immediately flew! I found the fella in line and asked him if he puked in the bathroom. The Puker looked at me incredulously and said, "No!" Sorry, buddy. It was wrong of me to even fathom it was you. Ahem.


Second:
Yesterday, I picked the kids up from lunch and scanned the table for The Puker, as has become my habit. I need to see if his tray is full of puke, if he looks like he's gonna hurl, or maybe if he's fled to the heath office. No sign of The Puker. This can't be good. I asked the kids where he was and they said something. The lunchroom is loudish and I didn't catch their mumbles, so I assumed he went to the health office.

On our way down the hall I popped my head in the health office. Nope, no Puker there.

I sent my kids on their way with Suzanne while I went to the office to see if he had early dismissal. Nope, not that either.

Now, I'm feeling a little panicky. I usually don't lose any children in the course of the day. I decide he must surely be in the bathroom in the lunchroom. Once I reach my kids at the end of the hall I tell Very Responsible Boy to go in the lunchroom bathroom to see if The Puker is in there. Very Responsible Boy gives me a very puzzled look at says, "Mrs. Robinson, The Puker is absent today."

Right.

I knew that.

Carry on, then.

t.g.i.f.

I am glad it's Friday. This has not been a horrible week, really, but Friday I am glad to see your face.

This week:

• I helped out with some of the standardized testing for the ELL students. In 2nd grade, we don't do these particular tests (just 3rd-5th). I had forgotten how draining they are for both students and teachers. 
• My own students are bored of me. It's spring. Enough said.
• The weather can't make up its mind ~ is it gonna be warm or freezing ~ so I can't make up my mind about what to wear.
• I'm getting tired of what's to wear in my closet.

See? Nothing big and bad. Just ready for Friday.

This weekend, it is time for The Great Try-On. Wish me luck. There could be tears.

new, new, new

This Saturday I hung out with Grandma Smith and Heather while people considered buying my stuff.  Not a whole lot of buying was going on, but I did have a nice day with the two ladies.

I'm working on listing some of the new stuff in my shop.

These are some things I listed this morning.

There will be more to come.

Some really cute flower pins will be showing up soon.

she's got toes

A few weeks ago, it was my birthday. We were on track break and Greg's day off that week changed so he had my birthday off. Coincidence? Probably not. I had big plans that included a breakfast cooked by the kids that I was pretending not to know about, pedicures, visiting a museum, maybe shopping, and of course lunch and dinner out. 

I'm typically the first one up in our house, so I was messing around on the computer (instead of doing the 87 things I was supposed to do) when the kids came to tell me that Daddy was sick. Huh? This is no time for April Fool's jokes. I've got plans.

Sure enough, I go downstairs to find him cramped up on the couch ~ same as I was the week before. My birthday plans were foiled ~ again.  Did I ever tell you about the time I got chicken pox on my fifth birthday? How about the time when my boyfriend and best friend couldn't see fit to spend my twenty-first birthday with me? Or the time a close friend of mine just about ruined my 30th birthday party (not that I'm that old!)? 

I felt bad for Greg, really, I did. The memory of a week on that couch was fresh. I was full of sympathy. But seeing that the memory of that couch was so fresh, I couldn't sit still on my birthday. Knowing that he would be wanting to just sleep all day, I announced that I had no intention of staying home.

So we did just some of my plans. 

The kids and I headed out for pedis and lunch.

But first, we needed shakes from Sonic. Might as well do this up right! The girls have never had pedicures besides the sorry ones their mama gives. They were giddy with anticipation. So let's just top that off with some sugar, right?

They don't have my favorite peanut butter/chocolate shake anymore, so I tried something new. Since then I've been a little hooked on the Mocha Java Chillers. I might have had a couple more.

Heather was too short to sit all the way back in the chair and get her feet done. Still, she enjoyed herself.

The girls' future husbands will probably not appreciate that I am introducing them to the finer things in life.  First, the full hair salon experience.  Now, pedicures. They might be hooked.

They both got cute little flowers. So girly. Don't they look wonderful in their new-for-the-season flip flops?

Afterwards, we went out for lunch and did a little shopping. Then we went home and took care of the sick boy. We ordered pizza and wings for dinner.

Although I wish Greg hadn't been sick and could have spent the day with us, I had a great day afterall. Pretty much because I got to spend it with my two favorite girls. And there was ice cream involved. And nobody fought.

menu plan monday - april 19

With a few big projects behind me, I feel like I can rejoin the bloggy world. In the last few weeks I've had a lot going on.

I am part of the yearbook team at school (there's two of us) and the yearbook was due at the beginning of April. In true procrastinator fashion, I waited until the last minute to do my half of the pages.

In the middle of all that, throw in writing report card comments.  I always want to make sure I say just the right thing. I want to give the parents as much information as possible about their child, as well as be accurate about what I say. No sense saying Hilda knows her addition and subtraction facts like a breeze when she doesn't!

Then, this weekend I had the craft show at Grandma Smith's community club house. I was up the night before keeping company with the owls finishing up just a few more things.

For now ~ no deadlines loom in my near future. I feel like I can breath again and go at a relaxed pace. For a minute

This week for dinner:

• BBQ chicken (crockpot)
• beef strogonoff (Greg cooks this dish.  Awesome.)
• breaded chicken & mashed potatoes
• hamburgers
• ground beef enchiladas
• country chicken stew
• steak & noodles

As always ~ visit orgjunkie.com for more great dinner ideas.

What's for dinner at your house?

still here

I'm still here.

Don't give up on me.

I've got about 89 things going on and only two hands.

Be back soon.

making meatballs

A few days ago, Stephanie said she wanted to learn how to make meatballs. This kid loves spaghetti ~ always has. For her first birthday party, we made sure to serve spaghetti because it was her favorite. How can you make spaghetti even better? Well, meatballs, of course.

Last night we set out to make spaghetti and meatballs. She did the meatballs all by herself as I stood to the side and instructed. She giggled and giggled when she first put her hands in the cold meat to incorporate all the ingredients.

Once she got the hang of what size to make the meatballs, she made perfectly shaped ones that were pretty much all the same size. Awesome for her first time!

Handy tip of the day ~ cooking meatballs in the oven is soooo much easier than in a skillet.

While she worked on the meatballs, I made the sauce. We made this recipe for spaghetti and meatballs. Very easy and delicious.

I'm so proud of her and her desire to be in the kitchen (for activities other than doing the dishes). Now I just have to remember to slow down enough to let her be in the kitchen. Maybe next week we'll have Swedish meatballs for dinner so she can make meatballs again.

chicken and noodles

Do you have a go-to meal? You know, a meal that's a little more substantial than fend-for-yourself, the blue box (hi, Amber), or another kind of box?

A while back I was experimenting in the kitchen and came up with this recipe ~ for which we almost always have the ingredients on hand. It's probably a knock-off of something fabulous and I botched it up. And I never knew what to call it, so we call it Chicken and Noodles. It's a meal I hardly ever put on my menu plan, but is a regular attender at our dinner table when I don't know what else to make or don't feel like making much else.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts - cubed

8 oz. penne or rigotoni noodles

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can sliced mushrooms

olive oil

worcestershire sauce

parmasean cheese

Montreal Chicken Seasoning

Directions:

Start the water for the pasta. I like to use penne or rigotoni noodles, but really, any kind of noodle will do. Cook pasta according to package directions.

Cube raw chicken and sprinkle with Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Pour some olive oil in the pan and some worcestershire sauce ~ maybe 2 tablespoons of each. Cook chicken until done. The chicken will get a lovely color from the worcestershire sauce and caramelize just a little at the end. 

Once the chicken is done, pour in the cream of mushroom soup. Mix well, getting the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the mushrooms, stir. When the noodles are done, stir those in as well. Heat for a minute or two. Sprinkle the top with the parmasean cheese. Turn off the heat and let it sit for just a minute to let the cheese start to melt before serving.

There you have it. Nothing fancy, but delicious.

Bon apetit!

one-post recap

The past week and a half has just whizzed by, yet has gone so slowly in some respects. Lots of things happened, yet nothing happened at all. Make sense?  Of course it does! It started off strong and promising ~

Heather and Maddy had extended their sleepover to second night.  They had a grand time outside getting some Vitamin D therapy.

The weather was gorgeous and they were happy to be a part of it. 

I spent a fair amount of time working on a project that involves burning the edges of fabric. I worked on this while the kids played outside.  Then I used my needle and thread during our family movie day last Sunday.  Here's just a peek ~ they are not all finished yet.  Burning the edges of fabric? A little addicting, I have to say.

Greg and I were watching Good Eats and got inspired.  We made homemade soft pretzels.  The results were totally easy and tasted amazing!  You should try them.

This is not the performance ~ just goofing off.

Stephanie had her Orff Festival performance at the university.  Thirty schools from our area participate in a performance that involves singing, dancing, and playing instruments.  Only eight students from each school are selected.  Stephanie was honored to be selected. She and her classmates practiced once a week after school since about October. Then there were two long Saturday rehearsals with all the students. Stephanie was awesome!  She has quite a stage presence and smiles the whole time she's up there. She had a great time.

Then...Monday came along.  Monday brought along with it a bout of nausea, vomiting, and well, other.  Lovely, right? It took me the rest of the week to completely recover.  Every time I thought I was going to be feeling better, it hit again.  I spent a lot of time on the couch with my friend, TiVo.  A week whooshed right by me.  A week that Greg had off work.  We should have been going to the museums we'd planned.  We should have been outside.  We should have been doing something else besides what I was doing.  On the up side? A least I had the time to just be a blob on the couch and didn't have to deal with a class full of little people or call in sick.

Right smack in the middle of it all, I was feeling just fine on Wednesday. Suzanne and Aiden came to visit.  The girls took him for a ride on the swing after I showed him the progress of my Greg's prize winning broccoli.

He was duly impressed.

I got some lovely fabric in the mail.  What will I make? Any ideas? Any requests?

Greg is finding new uses for the hurricane sitting on his end table that is currently empty. Maybe that's a hint to put something cute back in them.

And as long as we are riding the classy train, we brought Heather's mattress downstairs and plopped it in front of the television.  When Heather fell asleep while we were watching t.v., we didn't have to wake her to put her to bed ~ she was already there!  Living room sleepovers at their finest, I tell you.

It makes for some convenient morning t.v. viewing too!

Monday is upon us again.

Greg had to go back to work this morning. Sniffle.

I have to work on the yearbook, lesson plans, and report card comments this week. All on spring break. Ok, maybe I shouldn't have procrastinated this long.

Heather is laying on the bathroom floor moaning and crying because she feels like she's gonna puke, but can't. When is the last time that floor was mopped, I wonder?

Fabulous!

wait and see garden

Last year, we planted some romaine lettuce in the winter.  Greg enjoyed homegrown lettuce for his salad lunches in the spring.

A few months ago, Greg planted some more lettuce seeds.  And some other stuff.  He planted some seeds in the planters in the island since we don't have plants there right now. He just tried out a few different spots in the backyard.  But then, when the shoots started coming up, Greg didn't remember where he planted which seeds.  Ooops. It looks like we have a wait and see garden.

As the first sighting of green, we tried to guess what it was.  He was certain that he planted more lettuce, some carrots, and beans. After the shoots came up more, we were able to tell which were the carrots and lettuce.  The others?  Still a mystery.

Until now.  This plant is broccoli.  Yay!  We love broccoli. 

But right now, even the biggest head on the plant is pretty tiny.

Look what else we found growing in the backyard!  Ha ha!  Heather's buddy, Maddy, had a sleepover at our house last night.  Rumor has it she might be staying another night.  Check out their matching missing teeth.

honeysuckle vine 

Sleepovers in the middle of the week?  Double sleepovers, even?  Say wha?  That's right ~ we're on track break.  And what's even better than track break?  Yesterday started Greg's almost two-week vacation. We are well on our way of messing up our sleeping schedule by staying up too late and sleeping late the next day.  Alarm clock?  What alarm clock?

go, go, go!

Stephanie is having a sleepover tonight. Since it's her sleepover, she's in charge of most of the house cleaning today. Seems fair enough, right?

There's a lot of rushing around and deep-voiced, staccato shouting going on ~ punctuated with go, go, go at the end.  Heather informed me they are playing "Army Cleaning." They have a mission and the enemy is a messy house (which isn't even really messy). I was even briskly instructed to plug in an ipod for charging with a sweet little please at the end.

Hey, whatever gets the job done.

Over and out.

pay it backward

 

Let me just start by saying I debated about sharing this with you because it's kinda braggy. But then I decided to share it with you as an invitation to a challenge.

Suzanne shared a story with me about a girl we know who was having dinner in restaurant with her husband. When it was time to pay, they were told that someone had already paid for their meal. They don't know who ~ just a random act of kindness.

Inspired by this story, a little later while in the drive-thru, Suzanne paid for the order for the car behind her ~ paying it forward ~ well, I guess it's paying it backward. She was at a drive-thru close to school and it turns out she paid for the order of one of our friends without realizing it. Later she found out whose order she paid for. They had a little laugh about it.

I had been pondering doing that very thing right around the time Suzanne told us this story at lunch. Hearing her story inspired me to ACT. 

Yesterday, I was bringing lunch home. As I paid for our meal in the drive-thru, I looked in my rear view mirror to see if someone was behind me. I told the clerk to run my card again to pay for the car behind me. I don't know who it was. I don't care. They don't need to know who I am. I do sort of wish I could have seen their face, that look of surprised disbelief, when the clerk told them that their lunch was free. But I felt all squishy and warm inside knowing that I'd done something that would made someone else's day. Being "sneaky" about it added to that feeling.

So here's the challenge ~ perform your own random act of kindness. Do it soon. You can pay it backward like Suzanne and I did. Or maybe you can find another way to put joy in someone else's life ~ on the sly. 

Do the unexpected.

Make someone's day.

Feel warm and squishy inside. 

I dare you!

count it a good day

I've got a puker in my class. He wasn't a puker at the beginning of the year.  But now he is.

He doesn't often make it to the bathroom. The floor, down the side of the trash can, his lunch tray, or in his hands then into the trash can I shoved in his face have been the spots of choice lately. I think the feeling surprises him every time. He should be able to recognize those belly signs by now and get himself to an appropriate vessel ~ preferably one I don't have to witness. The day I saw him spew his intestines into his lunch tray was traumatizing. It.just.didn't.stop.

At first they were sending him home when this happened. Now? They clean him up and send him back to class. No fever, so Mom says he can stay. Uh, great, thanks. Frankly, I'm a little hesitant to stand too close to him. A girl peed on my sandals once ~ I don't know how I will react if he pukes on my feet. It's a little sad, I know.

He's puked three out of the four days this week.  Lately, I count it a good day if I do not have to witness or hear about him puking. Today was not a good day. There was puking. I feel sorry for the teacher who witnessed it, but relieved it wasn't me.