Books, books, books...or at least 10 more for this month!

This month when I was picking out books, I decided to choose 5 by the same author.  I choose Cynthia Rylant.  She has published over 100 books and she has an amazing talent.  For the most part, I enjoyed the books I read but there were a few that really stood out as good possibilities for classroom use. 

The Dreamer by Cynthia Rylant
2 out of 5 stars

The Stars Will Still Shine by Cynthia Rylant
3 out of 5 stars

In November by Cynthia Rylant
I need to buy this for Taelin next November...the language was incredible
5 out of 5 stars

The Star People: A Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson
3 out of 5 stars

Snow by Cynthia Rylant
5 out of 5 stars

Mockingbird Morning by Joanne Ryder
5 out of 5 stars
This could be a go-to book for someone looking for a model
 of incredible descriptive language

January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco
5 out of 5 stars
Another one of my favorite authors.  This book is simply amazing.
Any kind of Civil War/Slavery unit would not be complete without this book.  

4 out of 5 stars
I really, really liked this book.  A story with a message that if you
stick with someone and don't give up, you can do it!

3 out of 5 stars
a cute book about the importance of sharing

As Fast As Words Could FLy by Pamela M Tuck
5 out of 5 stars
An absolute must for a civil rights unit...perfect for this month

Photo a Day Jan 20-26

I am keeping up with posting my photo a day on a weekly basis and it is really helping me keep up with my 2014 Project Life album.  I am still at the end of September in my 2013 album, but I am hoping to make some major progress this coming weekend!

We have had some AMAZING weather this week.  It is cold but has been so sunny...and I will take it! The cold isn't that cold and the sun is much preferred over the rain.  I am sure the rain will return, as it is much needed to keep our wonderful Oregon beautiful, but for now but I am thankful for the sun.  

jan 20, 2014
Taelin's friend birthday party is going to be at the carousel and
 we had to go sign paperwork...so of course we had to take one quick ride

jan 21, 2014

jan 22, 2014
the last of the Halloween candy...making decisions is hard when you only get one

jan 23, 2014
I am so glad to see they are writing stories in preschool!
They are obviously giving a lot of help but I am so glad they are doing it at all!   

jan 24, 2014
Taelin and I drove down to Newport and met Nana at the aquarium.
  It was a beautiful day...60 degrees in January!

jan. 25, 2014
painting a Valentine decoration at Create A Memory
"I love painting here because I can paint however I want."

jan 26, 2014
Joe bought a new popcorn popper for Christmas and has been eating popcorn
in incredible amounts. So much, that a Costco sized container was very much necessary!

Oh Pinterest....how I love and hate you!

I tell you, Pinterest is chock full of more ideas than any one person could ever even try to do. And I do love it!  But, I would not be surprised if Pinterest has also been a cause of many a mom bursting into tears while trying to make a birthday cake.  (I have been recently been gathering ideas for Taelin's birthday and I have to say, it doesn't take long to feel like a sub-par decorator when checking out some of those cakes.)

One of the things I have put on my list is to actually do some of the things I have pinned; twenty of them in fact. This shouldn't be too hard as I have almost 1,600 things pinned which is nothing really in the Pinterest world. I have one whole board that is dedicated to decorating my walls.

If you have been to my house, you know some of my massively large (mostly blank) walls.  They are a result of the vaulted ceilings that we loved from the moment we looked at the house.  There is one wall in particular in the living room that has been in need of something for awhile.  We had some of my sister's art up in there but when we did the remodel it came down and never went back up.

Last summer, I started talking to my sister about screen printing some quotes for wall to mixed in with some large collage frames I picked up.  I knew when I asked Lorie, I was asking for something that was far below her talent.  But she agreed and I consider it a gift that she suspended her fine art eye for her visually challenged sister.  I picked out the quotes and bought the large panels and she did the rest!

It isn't done, by a long shot but here is what it looks like so far!

My sister gave me two more panels as Christmas presents that I want to put up but don't trust myself to know the right place to put them, so will probably wait until she comes down for Taelin's birthday.  I also picked a big C and want to pick up a few more things to add.  Maybe a mirror?  You know what that means....back to Pinterest for more ideas.

 





Well, 1 down....at least 19 to go!

Tortellini with Pesto and Spinach

Meatless Mains.  It is a new board on my Pinterest and there are a few (but only a few) recipes that I have found that I want to try.  We are not planning at all to become vegetarian but in an effort to expand things a bit, I thought I would challenge myself to try 20 new vegetarian recipes.  But then really, what I meant was meatless recipes...that meat wouldn't be at the center of the meal. (I say that because this recipe called for chicken broth, which I used, which wouldn't make it vegetarian.  Ok...you can see what I am getting at.)


I found this recipe and thought I would try it. It measures things in ounces and I didn't  So, I kinda guessed.  But what I made turned out really good, so I am sticking with it.

Ingredients
1 package of cheese tortellini
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced
a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes (really precise...I know)
4 cups of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1/3 cup of pesto (I used my homemade pesto that doesn't have oil but has chicken broth)
1/2 cup of chicken broth (I suppose you could use vegetable broth but I had chicken broth in the freezer.)
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup of parmesan cheese

Directions
1. Cook tortellini as directed on package.
2. Heat oil in pan and add garlic and red pepper flakes until garlic is cooked.
3. Add spinach and toss until it is wilted.
4. Stir in pesto and chicken broth.
5. Add in cheese tortellini and toss lightly in sauce.
6. Top with pine nuts and parmesan cheese lightly toss one more time.

This recipe was super easy and really yummy! I am not a huge lover of pesto so I didn't add as much as the original recipe called for but I did serve some on the side, which Joe did add to his plate.  I do have to say that this dish is full of flavor and completely stood on it's own for dinner.  The only thing I would add next time is a hunk of crust bread.

Top Five Friday: Jan 24, 2014

This week I have really been thinking about Taelin's learning more than I have lately for some reason.  I don't really know what that is...that I have been thinking of it more than usual, but I have.  So, this week, my Top Five Friday is a list of 5 things that I need to do with Taelin in the very near future.  It is such a tricky thing to not get too "teacher-y" on Taelin but at the same time since I know how to do a few things it seems silly to not do a little something now and again.  And so, here are 5 things that I think need to do with Taelin in the not to distant future...


1.  Salt Tray

 Taelin has known most of her letters for awhile, but there are a few that are still a bit inconsistent.  I don't want to get all "kill and drill" about it so this salt tray will be a perfect sensory experience I just know she will love!

2. Stamping Ten Frames 1-20

Taelin loves stamping.  She is intrigued by counting but they don't do a lot of it in preschool...or at least I can't tell if they do.  I think she will have fun using some free ten frames activities I have using some of her stamps!

3. Ant Farm 

This summer we got caterpillars and then eventually butterflies, which Taelin loved!  She asked the other day when we got do to something else like the butterflies.  She asked specifically about ladybugs or tadpoles but it is a little cold for that right now.  But an ant farm, we could do that!

4. Marble Run

I have been saving cardboard tubes since I started wrapping Christmas presents last month.  Then since I started saving those, I started to save toilet paper tubes too.  I think some masking tape, scissors and marbles are going to be in our future and it will be fun!

5. Crayon Resist Art

We have appropriately 2 gazillion crayons and a few less watercolor paints.  I have been meaning to do crayon resist art and then we don't. But we will...soon!

Photo a Day: Jan 13-19

What a week last week was... It started out with a sick and sad Taelin and ended still a little sick but a whole lot happier one!   The rest of us...well, our week pretty much revolved around that!

jan 13, 2014
sick kiddo :(

jan 14, 2014
at least eating and sitting up

jan 15, 2014
oh little tulip!  not yet!!!

jan 16, 2014
our house just got a lot louder...and happier

jan 17, 2014
taelin and lucy at the children's museum in portland
they were both so happy to play

jan 18, 2014
making a monster at a michael's class

jan 19, 2014
i didn't want to...but they were
BOGO and I had a gift card and they were really pretty
 and i am going to share with my friends...i didn't want to but i had to

Fuzzy Socks and Black Beans

Taelin finally is on the mend (knock on wood) although I think it is taking a little longer than usual for her ears to be completely unplugged.  Yesterday I tried to tackle some of the house and get it back under control and as I was cleaning off the counter I found the homemade heating pad I made this week to try and help Taelin manage the ear pain she was having.

If you haven't ever had an ear infection, count yourself lucky.  They can be so painful and it doesn't take very long for your entire head to hurt.  Ibuprofen kind of helps but really, until the antibiotics do their thing, you are in pain.  And Taelin is most like people that when she is pain and it doesn't really get better, she get cranky.  I don't blame her at all...but a cranky 4 year when I have only had 3 hours of sleep?  Let's just say, there wasn't enough patience to go around and everyone needed some sleep.

I remembered the rice bags that I used when I was younger for my own ear infections and climbed off the couch (where I had been glued with a miserable little girl) and went digging through my sock drawer looking for the softest sock I had.  What I found was a pair of bright blue fuzzy socks that I actually don't wear that often.  I grabbed one and headed off the the kitchen to look for rice.   I was completely out of rice so then started digging through the cupboards looking for something that could serve in the rice's place.  And way in the back, was a bag of black beans.  As I dug them out, I again vowed that I really needed to clean out the cupboards sometime soon.

I set out to fill the sock and spilled more beans on the counter and floor than was reasonable but finally got a fair amount in the sock and tied it off.  I popped it in the microwave for 30 seconds and relief was on it's way.  She looked at me like I was a bit crazy when I told her to hold the sock to her ear but it was seconds before she laid her head back down in her lap with the sock on top.  It was only a few minutes before she was asleep.

At some point, probably only a few minutes after that, I fell asleep too.  It wasn't a very long nap but it was exactly what we needed.  When we woke up, we reheated the black bean fuzzy sock and instead of watching the next episode of Pinky Dinky Doo, we got out her beads and some ribbon and made necklaces. It was the first normal thing we had done in two days.

So this week I am extra grateful for my slightly used fuzzy socks and the long lost bag of black beans.  Grateful not only for the pain relief that they provided that day and in the few days that followed, but for the nap that recharged our bodies and the beautiful bead necklaces that recharged our hearts.

Top Five Friday! My top five happiest simple pleasures this week

This week has been long, cold, stressful and long.  Did I mention it was a long week? I decided early on this week that I needed to be keeping track of the the simple pleasures that made me smile. I ended up with way more than five (YAY!) so I had to weed out a few.  After the week of a damp, dark days, a sick kid, sleepless nights, and trying to catch up at work because of it....here are my top five simple pleasures this week!

1. Seat Warmers: The seat warmers in my car was what actually triggered this list.  This time of year is hard in my job for lots of reasons.  I am in multiple building during the day, some with horrible parking, which means cold and wet quickly.  Even when I am not working, if I go outside from running errands (or taking a kid to a doctor appointment) I get wet and then cold. Once I am cold, there is not much warming me up, but this week my seat warmers were to the rescue.  It seemed like such a silly little feature when we bought my car in July the year before last.  But this week, that silly little feature was not so silly and much appreciated.

2. Paper Calendars: I know that I am supposed to be going digital.  I have to keep my work calendar electronically. And last year I tried.  I really did. But I forgot things...like when and where I was supposed to be...all the time.  My mileage...a different document...that I lost all the time.  My to-do list...scattered among too many different colors and sizes of sticky notes....that I lost all the time. So this year, when the school year started I walked myself into an office supply store and bought a paper calendar. (Well, it was actually a lot more complicated as I spent over an hour pouring over pages and styles and covers.)  This week there have been several times that I was so grateful for my little lovely purple paper calendar.  I might literally love it.

3. Shredded Lettuce: I was shamed for this simple pleasure earlier this week.  I was told it was a waste since it was basically just water.  Yeah, I know...and I still love it.  Think of the last time you ate tacos at some restaurant. You know that lettuce, the really shredded kind that kind of looks like paper that has been run through a paper shredder?  Yeah, that kind.  It is my absolute favorite lettuce for taco salads. Last weekend I made tacos and we had a bunch of leftover meat which is perfect for making taco salads for lunches.  And to make things easier, I also bought my favorite shredded lettuce for the weekend and lots of it left too.  So, this week I had lots of shredded lettuce taco salads...and I smiled every time.

4. Waking up to Taelin singing: Before Taelin turned four, I woke up every morning with her singing in her bed.  She would sometimes sing for 30 minutes until finally she would start to chant, "Mama...Mama...Mama..." until I came to get her. I would just lie in bed listening to her voice until she called for me. I loved the days I woke up that way. Then morning of her 4th birthday, she just got up out of her bed and came into our bedroom declaring, "When I am 4, I just get up by myself."  No warning that something I loved so much was going to end, just like that.  Then this week, I woke up to "You are my sunshine...." and it brought tears to my eyes.  So, then I waited, hoping for the chant of my name, my most important name.  And then it came.  And so I went.  I was lovely.

5: Tap Shoes: Watch this and you will understand.

Photo A Day Week of Jan 6-12, 2014

What a weather week this has been for our little family.  We started out with a beautiful sunny day and ended our week digging ourselves out of a foot of snow.  And, of course, because we live in Oregon we had a bunch of rain in between.  

Here they are...

jan 6, 2014
spin art...and enjoying the sunny day

jan 7, 2014
nothing sunny about this day.  it is days like that make it hard to travel between schools

jan 8, 2014
hanging out with some 5th graders during a class meeting.  you can't tell, but there
 are 33 of them.  that's right, 33.  two carpets have to be shoved together to fit them all.

jan 9, 2014
we have changed dance studios and the new one has a dress code...so I had
to figure out really quick how to make a bun.  turns out it was way easier that I had thought

jan 10, 2014
cabin in the mountains. complete with fireplace.
(you can't tell, but I was holding a glass of wine in my other hand)

jan 11, 2014
there wasn't much snow to start our weekend, but we made the best of it.
 run, Joe, run!

jan 12, 2014
after 24 hours of straight snow.  amazing!

Snowman Built. Check!

Taelin wasn't too happy we didn't have a carrot.  I wasn't that prepared!

He isn't much, but he was ours.  We spent the weekend in Government Camp, hoping for snow.  And boy did we get it.  This little buddy was made Saturday morning before the storm settled in.  We had a fantastic time during the weekend and Sunday afternoon was a wonderful lazy afternoon of relaxation once we got home.  (Sadly, Taelin isn't feeling super great although she felt fine all weekend.  Achy ears, stuffy nose, upset tummy, scratchy throat.  Hoping a good nights sleep will help....)

Top Five Friday!

I will admit that I wasn't sure about going back to work this week. I love being at home and this break was no exception.  

I love my work....but I love the rest of my life too. 

So it is a bit of a surprise that my top five this week is about my top 5 work moments. I got home Thursday and felt so proud of the work my teachers did this week and any little part I might have had in it. 

1. I watched one of my teachers teach an amazing reading mini-lesson. It wasn't just the content of the lesson but the dignity and kindness she showed her students. I left that classroom wishing my daughter could be in that classroom. I sent the teacher my feedback and sang her praises. I don't know what was going on but I got a response back saying my words had some good timing. 

2. I watched a class meeting in a classroom that was hard for me to watch. To say there are some tough kids in the class is a huge understatement. The teacher knew it wasn't going well and when she came back from taking her kids to PE we talked a lot about ways to make it easier for her to manage those kids. With a promise to come back the next day and some strategies to try, I left wishing their was more I could do. When I came back the next day, it was better because the teacher made it better. Her resilence amazed me. 

3. I was in another classroom where the teacher was wearing little wings. Like the kind that Taelin wears when she is pretending to be a butterfly or a fairy. I have seen her wear them before and I wasn't ever sure why she wore them. But when one of her students answered her question in Spanish she said, "Remember, we have our bilingual wings on. Answer in English this time." Bilingual wings. I loved it. 

4. I sat and had a conversation with a teacher that was feeling so overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with everything and a crabby note from a parent and an offhanded comment from a coworker did not help matters any. It took a little while but before I left we had composed a note back to the parent and prioritized the things on her massive to-do list. I did good work in that hour. 

5. Many of my teachers were observed by their principals this week. The middle of February is when all probationary teachers have their evaluations completed for the year (seems early bit they have their reasons I suppose). Anyway, I have a teacher whose principal had a long list of expectations after the last observation. The teacher and I have been working hard to making those things a reality. That teacher had an observation on Thursday and it went so well. The teacher texted me a picture of the email she got from her principal and the principal sent me an email too! I was so proud of our work together!

I guess all in all, I felt like my job mattered this week. A lot.  Who doesn't love that. 

Photo A Day Jan 1-5 and a glimpse at my Project Life 2014

I am continuing my photo a day...there isn't really a reason not to.  Here is not quite a week's worth of photos but since I am starting a new Project Life and am hoping to keep up with it, I thought I would just go ahead and post what I have as part of keeping up.

jan 1, 2014
I was feeling miserable all day but thought a selfie would
be a good way to start this year!

jan 2, 2014
sitting on the couch with orange spice tea and my scentsy warmer

jan 3, 2013
we finally ventured outside the house and our destination was the library.
 she loves signing up to play on the computer and
 we actually got her own library card on this trip too

jan 4, 2014
her entire Duplo collection in one structure

jan 5, 2013
a cold afternoon at the park

When I finished my first full year of a photo a day, I felt like I wanted to do something with them.  Early last year I decided to take a look at Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I started at the beginning of the year and was instantly behind.  But while I try to catch up with 2013 (I am in late September) I wanted to start 2014 on schedule in an effort to stay caught up.  Here are the pictures from this week! (You will notice I added a few extra!)

the cover page

the two page spread

page one...a little larger

page two...a little larger

While I still love the more traditional scrapbooking, especially making mini-books, I just don't have the time.  Doing Project Life allows me to kind of scrapbook and play with pretty paper, do the journaling so I can capture the story behind the photos without getting so far behind.  I absolutely love it and I hope you enjoy looking!