FOG

Driving around Saturday morning, I couldn't resist pulling over to capture the patchy, wintery landscape shrouded in fog. 

These pictures feel so much like home.

HEAVENLY HOMEMADE SYRUP

My cousin dropped off a bottle of homemade cinnamon plum syrup, and I ate the whole thing in a week. By myself. 

Holy Hannah. The combination of sweet, tart, and spicy was perfection, I tell you. It was so good I felt the need to document its consumption. 

Yes, I need help.




Next chance I get, the juicy details of my cousin's recipe will be mine! Until then, I googled a possibly similar recipe/tutorial here. I can't imagine it would vary too much.




THE END.

A DAY FROM HECK

Did I say heck? I'm sorry. I meant: H-E-double-hockey-sticks. 

I love my job...I really do. But every once in a while, I feel that I REEeaaally earn my 13 or so bucks an hour. 


1.) First off, a certain little someone in my class DEFINITELY forgot to take a certain medication today. Again. I could tell the moment this child waltzed through my door. This meant, I was to be this certain someone's full-time aid/ policeman/ ring leader. Every. single. blasted. second. 

2.) One of my students got kicked out of special education reading pull-out time for not completing homework. If getting 30 minutes of reading help each day is contingent upon completing homework...this kid will NEVER be getting this 30 minutes of reading help.
.
And it doesn't feel right to me.

3.) One of my students fell at recess. He came back to class with blood dripping down his neck from the gaping gash on the back of his head. After calling Mom, she showed up to get him stitched up. 

4.) A certain lonely little guy was chasing his crush around at afternoon recess. She got sick of it and asked him to stop. He threatened to get a gun and shoot her. She cried in fear. Classmates rallied in her defense...and took it upon themselves to physically drag him away from her. Things got rough. Blood was drawn.

I began to hear snippets of this story as they came back from recess, and spent the next hour sorting out the details. The principal got involved. The district social worker got involved. I was lucky to have a student teacher continue class as normal, so I could handle it all . 

5.) It was at about this point I began to get a throbbing, blinding headache. 

6.) With only half an hour to go, a student threw up and I once again, called a parent to come get their child.

7.) The students finally got on the bus to go home. Within 30 minutes, parents were calling my room to express concern over the death threat. I gave proper reassurances that it is being addressed. 

8.) Then, I unintentionally made a teacher mad at me...one that I really like and need on my side. As I watched her leave my room in a huff, I decided it was officially time for me to go home. 

So here I am. At home. Nursing this darn headache and still reeling from all that still needs to be handled tomorrow. This is usually such a peaceful, country elementary school. What the heck happened?!


But anyway. Enough about me. How was your day? :)

HOLES

Well, the Super Bowl is about to start. I'm still not sure who's playing...but I'm excited for some awesome commercials! 

I'm working on the above flag banner for our Young Women's football-themed New Beginnings this week.




This is what I looked like after a long weekend of paint prep. This phase of the house building pretty much sucks. 




First, we had to putty in every single nail hole...in the baseboards, around the doors and windows, in the closet shelves, crown molding, and the mudroom lockers...before sanding it and caulking every seam. 

Now I haven't really done the math, but I'm guessing there are approximately 500 BILLION nail holes in this here house of ours. Pretty close, anyway. 




But we...meaning Andrew and Lane...got the master bedroom ceiling up! Isn't it gorgeous? It'll be stained this week. 

LONG "i" FRIES

When our spelling list followed the long /i/ pattern, I typed up the week's words (smiley monster font), copied them onto yellow construction paper, and had kids sort them into the labeled French fry containers (is the long /i/ sound made with "-igh", "i-consonant-e", "y", or some other spelling pattern?) I know I've seen this on the Internet somewhere. The kids thought it was sooo cool.

To get the McDonald's boxes, I walked in and asked for them, simple as that. I felt foolish, but the teenage girl returned my explanation with a smirk and a handful of red boxes for free. 

BOOK PLACE MATS (homemade gift)

We drew Andrew's brother's family for the Christmas gift exchange, and I wanted to do something homemade. I spend 24/7 thinking up ways to get kids to fall in love with books, so this gift seemed right up my alley. 

I'd love to do this for my kids one day. While waiting for or eating their dinner, they are exposed to print in a fun, causal way. The little ones are learning to recognize new words and their minds are being conditioned to associate pleasure with books and reading. Early on, this can make a world of difference. 

Ugh. Do I sound like a teacher or what?

But the amazing parents of our niece and nephews don't even need this lecture, so I'll stop now. 




I took a trip to the local thrift store and returned  home with an armload of old books.

I sought after those with bright, beautiful illustrations...




Or those easily-recognized classics most people have memories of and nostalgic feelings for.




Then for FHE, we cut pages out of books...which I might add, was not easy. It totally feels sacrilegious to desecrate a book. I don't care how old and torn and thrift store-y it is. 

I am an elementary teacher, after all. 

For this one, we took apart an alphabet book. 




But I learned that my husband is a scrap booking fiend. We tag-teamed most of these, but Andrew could definitely hold his own. 

Except I had severe doubts over the nursery rhyme he chose for his brother's (not pictured). Andrew rolled with laughter while I had to stress about causing offense. I had nothing to do with that decision, Jeff!

Who knew there were such dirty Mother Goose rhymes?




We arranged a front and back side for each person. At least then, Jeff had choices.




When I found this book in the thrift store, I snatched it off the shelf and actually did a Napoleon Dynamite-style, "yesss."




This was from a book that little Adelle asked me repeatedly to read to her while she was visiting us. So I found another one I could *wince* tear apart. 




Then we dye cut their names, rounded the corners of the mats, laminated everything, and shipped 'em off.

It was a fun project that I hope they enjoy.


I've linked here and here and here and here and here and here and here!

MESSY HOUSE(s)

Keeping up with household chores as a woman with a full-time job, can be discouraging. How do just the two of us mature adults, who are hardly ever home, manage to make such messes?

 But now...we have two houses to keep clean and orderly. 

And one house is a lot worse than the other.