Stressed Spelled Backwards Is...

Desserts! (trust me, we will get to that later, but first the stress!)

School started for the teachers, administrators and staff in our district this week.  It has been a wonderfully lazy summer and I was so ready to see my school "family".  With that  comes my OCD need to please everyone.  I take the t-shirts, games, and prizes way too seriously.  All in all everyone enjoyed them and no one showed up at convocation topless - yea me!

The week went by really smoothly.  We even had a keynote speaker that told us what we were doing right!  Gotta love that.  Then Friday rolled in like my mama's old pressure cooker. It had a job to do even if it blew up the place in the process.  Proceed with caution! Every time I turned around, I had a new student ( I even got a new student as I was walking to the parking lot AFTER Meet the Teacher Friday night.)  Where do they come from? This seems to be happening in epidemic proportions in our schools this year.  Our teachers are troopers and the utmost professionals.  Basically-we rock! This is just one of those years and I know that it will all work out - it always does.  I just want it worked out already.

All of the lack of control found me in nesting mode Saturday. So up at the crack of dawn, I was off to tackle Wal-Mart.  Yes, by this point, I had probably lost my mind.  I was home by 8:30 and determined to make a week's worth of HEALTHY lunches.  I may need to explain that when teachers are given a week of inservices, they will generally eat out every single day and not make the healthiest of choices.  I whipped up a batch of gazpacho and a grilled veggie couscous salad.  The kitchen was clean, laundry done, and house spotless by 3:00. Yea me!

The gazpacho is easy, just put all of those veggies in your food processor and let 'er rip! Then I season with a little balsamic, salt and pepper.

For the Couscous salad with grilled veggies, I prepare the couscous according to the directions on the package only I add a veggie bouillon cube.

Next, grill your favorite veggies.  I used 2 zuchinni, 2 red onion, and 2 red bell peppers. After slicing, I seasoned with salt and pepper and brushed with olive oil.

 After the veggies are cooled enough to handle, chop and toss! 

 

Voila! Lunches are ready!

Feeling a little cocky, I did my nails and got caught up on the DVR.  My euphoria was short lived when the hubs woke up in the middle of the night with bronchitis!  I love my macho man, but illness of any type can transform him into the neediest creature I have ever seen.  So I did what any loving wife would do... I drugged him up, went to church, came home redosed him so that I could write this blog before I ride this summer off into the sunset.

Now for the best part- DESSERT! You can't have all of those healthy (but yummy) lunch items and leave out a sweet treat.  I mixed up a quick batch if snickerdoodle bar cookies.  Bobby ate three before he realized that snickerdoodles do not contain Snickers candy bars :)

These are insanely delicious and easy (bonus - your home will smell AMAZING!)

 

Snickerdoodle Bars

preheat oven to 350, grease a 9X13 pan

soften 1 cup butter

let 2 large eggs come to room temp.

using a mixer, cream butter and add 2 cups of brown sugar, eggs, and 1 tablespoon of vanila

in a seperate bowl combine: 2&2/3 cups AP flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt

Add dry ingrediets to butter mixture and spread into the prepared pan

before baking, sprinkle with a mixture of 1/4 cup white sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, allow to cool slightly before cutting

 

Love and Hugs!

Puddin'

Happy

This week one of our favorite television shows began a new season.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured myself a Duck Dynasty fan but I am and I'm proud of it- JACK!

In honor of the Robertson clan and their catch phrase "Happy Happy Happy", I would like to share the following list....

The Top 10 Things That Make Me HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!
(note: these are in no particular order and are mostly FREE so give them a try!)

1. Hugs!
I love hugs - getting hugs and giving hugs.  If you know me, this is no surprise.  I'm not sure when or how this came about - my family is not particularly huggy.  But I am bonafied  - so come over here and give me a hug.

2. The smell of clean laundry.
I love to do laundry.  The optimal time is when I can sort, wash, dry, fold, hang, and iron all while a good movie is playing.  I just have to get a big sniff of clean towels or my hubby's t-shirts.  The smells of fabric softener and bleach is intoxicating!

3. Puppy Breath
It's like crack ( I would imagine)  Only to be rivaled by round puppy bellies.  Bliss!

4. Coffee
I have been a coffee drinker since the age of five.  My Nanny said if I were going to drink it, then I would learn to drink it right - hot and black. Don't really understand the latte love, just give me my Community brand dark roast please.  Love the stuff! 

5. Good Hair Days
When they happen, enjoy them!

6. A Clean Car
It may just be the OCD in me and I'll own that, but I love driving a clean car.  So much so that I try to figure out who is driving out to the farm to pick up mom for church so I know just how long mine will stay clean.  I'm sure they make pills for people like me.


7. The Smell of Rain
There is nothing that compares. 

8. Snuggling with my furry children.
There are precious moments when Holly (the dog) is at my feet, Mully (the cat) is behind my head, and his brother Bogey is in my lap.  Yes, I usually need to be somewhere. And I am usually wearing black.  They love me and I am crazy about them.

9. Love Notes
Bobby is a man of few words and those words usually have to do with dinner, golf, or guns.  However, every now and then, he leaves me a post it with a sweet I love you.  Nothing better.

10. Shop Talk
I love sitting out at the shop with my dad. We sit on old milk crates and solve the world's problems and just cut up. Folks say that we are two peas in a pod - pray for my mom!  No other place that I would rather be.

These are just a few of the things that make me happy! 
Praying that your week is full of may happy moments - treasure them!

Love and Blessings!
Puddin'

 

Hard Lessons

As I write this, we are two weeks away from the start of my twentieth year in education.  It doesn't seem possible.  Still, the beginning of a new year brings excitement, anticipation, and eagerness.  I have missed my kids so much and cannot wait to see how they have grown.

The first weeks of school are always about routines - establishing and practicing.  Theoretically, all basic skills and procedures should be mastered during this time so that the "real learning" can begin to take place.  We practice walking in the hall, raising our hands, heading our papers - basic things that we will do many times each day.  Piece of cake? No.  There will always be a special few continuing to do the Electric Slide on the way to lunch rather than walk down the hall single file or yell out the answer in the middle of a test.  However, most will catch on quickly so we progress.

As we progress, some lessons prove harder than others.  In second grade, regrouping was always a challenge. Drawing pictures, using manipulatives and repeated practice were helpful, but they were hard lessons.  As a dyslexia therapist, I work each day with extremely bright children who struggle to read.  They often come to me defeated and lacking confidence. As we go through the years, I can see pride and confidence ooze from them as they beg to read.  Success comes even when lessons are hard.

Students aren't the only one learning hard lessons.  Teachers face them too.  Although they don't involve regrouping or reading, some things are just a bit much to wrap your head around (even with a college degree or two!)  We can't understand how some in the world view education by numbers while we see education as faces.  We can't understand how not everyone loves our children as much as we do. Children should be treasured, not abused or forgotten.  Yes, even as grown ups, there are hard lessons.

Tomorrow, there will be a memorial service for a former student.  He was the brightest of the bunch and his smile lit up our classroom.  His family loved him and his siblings and they were very involved in our school.  He went on to achieve academic and athletic greatness in high school.  He volunteered and helped others as a coach and a mentor.  Bad things like this should not happen to good kids.  I guess that it's just another one of those hard lessons.

When the bell rings on August 26, I will be ready.  Ready to see my kiddos again. Ready to start a new year off.   Some of the lessons will be easy, some won't be. But one thing is certain, I will hug my students a little tighter, listen to them a little longer, and try my best to help them through the hard lessons.

Love and blessings!
Puddin'

Sweet Sweet Summertime

August snuck in on me this week. I knew that it would - just didn't expect it so quickly.  August is the month that I buckle down and try to get all of my summer to dos done.  As I sat and thought about all that I still needed to do before the school bell rings, it dawned on me that this will be the first summer that I didn't spend with my grandmother.

Growing up in the country, spending summers with Grandmother and Granddaddy were always a big treat.  It meant going to the big city and all that Arlington, Texas had to offer...McDonald's, Six Flags, and air conditioning.  That's right, I said air conditioning.  Our big farm house had no AC and mama thought window units were tacky. When I arrived at Grandmother's I was prepared for Artic glory!  Many summers, I packed sweatshirts  because it was so cold in that house. Grandmother would tell me that I had better soak it all up before I had to go home.

Those weeks were so special to me.  I had my grandmother's undivided attention and she taught me so many things.  We would shell peas and make hot sauce.  Under her tutelage, I learned to bake bread, cinnamon rolls and dressing.  She would teach me hymns as we sat on the swing - we didn't always have the words right but that didn't matter.  "Bringing in the sheets" was a perfectly good hymn.  Grandmother taught me to do needlework and to crochet, things that I still enjoy today.  These were the things that kept me still as I would also have to endure hours under her hair dryer as Grandmother was determined to put curls in my waist length hair.

Even as a baby I'm afraid to move or I'll lose the curl!

Grandmother never drove a car, so going anywhere was extra special.  One day each summer, Granddaddy would drop us off at Six Flags on his way to work at General Motors.  We spent the entire day riding the train, the log ride, and the merry-go-round. We were not dare devils.  The most fun for us were the shows - the Crazy Horse Saloon and the Six Flags Review.  Grandmother always thought that I would star in one of those shows when I grew older. 

Six Flags wasn't our only summertime adventure.  Grandmother and Granddaddy would load my cousin and I up in the car and off we drove to Ft. Worth.  On the way, we would roll down the windows to smell the air as we drove past the Mrs. Baird's bakery.  Our destination was the Fort Worth Zoo.  Once there, we rode the train and ate snow cones before heading home.  It was years before I learned that there were actual animals at the zoo!  You see, it was so hot and the animals were smelly that Grandmother thought it best not to mention that there were animals to be seen.

As I grew older, summers became busier but I always found my way to Arlington.    Grandmother's house never lost its allure.  We still shelled peas and crocheted. Once I married, those weeks-long visits became day trips but they were just as special as ever.  Over the last few years, Grandmother's visits were bittersweet.  She was never the same after we lost my Granddaddy.  Her mind and body became weak but her smile, while rare, was still a treasure.

Bobby & me with my grandparents on our wedding day

Grandmother was called home last December and I haven't been to Arlington since. I count my many memories and our times spent together as precious. So this afternoon, before the craziness of back to school sets in, I will visit Grandmother again.  I'll turn the AC down to freezing, throw on a sweatshirt and flip through the photo albums one more time.  I may even make something special for supper as I sing "Bringing in the Sheets!"

Like me, Grandmother only had summers off. She was a cook at Hill Elementary School for many years.  She loved the kids and the teachers and they loved her in return.  She was called the Cookie Lady as she did all of the baking. (Yes, there used to be real cooking happening in school cafeterias)  One of the favorites were her Coconut Oatmeal Cookies.  I just may be bringing these to my teaching family this year.  Grandmother would like that.

J.L. Hill Coconut-Oatmeal Cookies
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 Crisco
1 egg
1 C flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 C rolled oats
1/2 C shredded coconut
1/2 chopped pecans
1 t vanilla

Cream sugars and Crisco.  Add the egg. Shift flour, soda, salt, and baking powder together and add to sugar mixture.  Add oats, coconut, nuts, and vanilla.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and flatten slightly with your finger.  Bake at 325 for 15 minutes.

Love & Blessings,
Puddin'