Curious?

Want to see the cute third graders that I work with each day? Click on this link.

Happy Wednesday!

Hey, Good Lookin'

I've been cookin' again.

El Maestro was excited about the fried rice. Not me. Been there, tried that. It's never as good as the "real thing" from our favorite Thai restaurant.

I was excited about the sweet and sour chicken.

If you're a fan of Chinese take-out, I definitely recommend the recipe.

Better!

Another try with the new dinners. Steak with spinach couscous, from RealSimple. I have to say that I loved it! The toasted pine nuts, spinach, and feta cheese with the couscous was absolutely delicious!

Cutest Classroom Ever!

If I may say so myself.

Our friendly little door

The Learning Center

Sink, drinking water, recycle bin, student computers, artwork, cute plants

Gosh, looking at these pictures is reminding me of everything I must do before the kids get there today! Gotta run...

I tried.

El Maestro had pizza while watching the Seahawks game today. I decided to make an interesting, quick, and healthy dinner for myself!

From my favorite magazine, Real Simple, I tried this recipe for quinoa with kale, sweet potatoes and mushrooms. Not too bad. I forgot the Parmesan cheese at first...I think I would have liked it better if I had remembered that at the beginning of the meal.

It's definitely not my new favorite dinner, but it was fun to try out new vegetables (I've never cooked kale or sweet potatoes before) and eat something healthy.

Tomorrow I've planned a meal that involves ground beef and canned mexicorn. Not so gourmet or good for you...but delicious for sure!

Help?

Does hanging around with emotionally troubled kids make one emotionally troubled?

Because I'm feeling particularly overwhelmed and whiny this evening.

But everything will be okay. Right? Even if the house is a wreck and I have 590.2 hours of prepping to do for next week?

I guess I'll have to take my own advice:

"In this class we don't whine or cry about our problems. We look for a solution and ask for support."

Go!

I've successfully made it through two days of teaching third grade!

Yesterday was quite a shock...not only was I returning to a classroom teaching position, but it was only my second time teaching on the first day of school! Additionally, I've never taught third grade! We had to move the furniture in order to fit the whole class in a circle! Third graders are big kids!

Today went even better than yesterday! My students are bright and eager to please. I was amazed when my students started gluing their projects together today--without my direct instruction! They looked at the sample and did it themselves! Wow!

I'm so excited to continue working with this group of fantastic kids!

Get Set...

Today is my last day to prepare for the upcoming school year! This evening I'll be in my classroom greeting students and parents as they come find our room and drop off school supplies. Then tomorrow, bright and early, we'll start our exciting year!

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had this weekend with my family! Very nearly everyone was in town! (And that's saying a lot when you're talking a few of my great aunts and uncles, 5 sets of aunts/uncles, 16 cousins, their husbands/wives, and six great grandkids!) Until I can sort through the 500 pictures we took this weekend, I'll just give you a glimpse into my family. This is my grandma, who is 80 years old, about to whack her birthday pinata...

We sure know how to party.

On Your Mark...

We've been getting ready for school and trying to squeeze in a few last summer activities this week. Last night was Grandma's 80th birthday party and tomorrow is a cousin's wedding.

Inspired by the cool weather I spent the afternoon/evening at the ranch to make Nancy's prize of personalized greeting cards!

And now I'm off again to enjoy the last day of summer. Monday and Tuesday we'll be working overtime to get ready for the school year!

Quinoa

I made a nice quinoa salad for dinner yesterday. It was a tasty, fresh, and healthy meal!

Quinoa, cherry tomatoes, green onion, fresh corn, black beans, cilantro, salt, and pepper!

Yay, even my vegan reader could eat this!

*****NOTE*****

Quinoa is pronounced keen-wa (keen like peachy-keen, and wa like in watermelon).

It is cooked much like rice. In fact, I used my rice cooker!