Thanksgiving Requirement

In my world, it just isn't Thanksgiving without my favorite pink salad. Or Christmas either for that matter. So in the spirit of giving that comes with the holiday season, I am going to give the recipe to you.

Pink Salad

1 bag (12 oz) cranberries (can be frozen)
1 can pineapple tidbits (chunks or crushed work too)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 bag of mini marshmallows (more or less to taste)
1/2 pint whipping cream

The night before, chop up the cranberries in a food processor. Mix cranberries, pineapple (drained first), sugar and marshmallows in a bowl. Let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, an hour at least before you plan to serve, whip the whipping cream into stiff peaks. Fold whipped cream into cranberry mix. Let the flavors blend until you are ready to eat.

This is one of my absolute favorite things in this world to eat. And we all know there aren't many things I say that about. I generally buy a few bags of cranberries this time of year and freeze them so I can make this at other times of the year.

Thanksgiving Eve

So I promised that today I would be thankful. So here goes, in no particular order.

I am thankful that:
• my headache is gone.
• nothing annoying happened at work today.
• all of my dental work was completed today.
• I don't have to cook tomorrow.
• my boys' eyes light up and twinkle when they see me after work.
• those boys are healthy and happy.
• sweetP read sweetE two books tonight when they were supposed to be falling asleep.
• Velcro is happy and healthy too.
• I have a wonderful teaching partner.
• I got a pedi last night and they put snowflakes on my toes.
• I have four days to relax and get stuff done.
• I have most of my holiday shopping done.
• online shopping exists.
• my cute new pink ipod keeps me happy after school each day.
• Ducky is my coparent, copilot and buddy in life.
• I live where I can run into friends in all kinds of places.
• that ice cream was on sale today.
• my headache is gone (I know I already said it, but it makes a huge difference).

And a whole host of other things. I could go on and on, but it is late, I need sleep and nobody wants to read all the things I am thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

And Then...

Today we were asked to get by with even less.

And then I read this blurb on Reuters,
"Life insurance companies, nervous over massive investment losses that could ultimately threaten their viability, are hoping they are next for a bailout."

Can education have a bailout so I can photocopy freely?

That is all. Tomorrow I will be thankful, tonight I am still cranky.

One Day

One day I will be able to do my job to the best of my ability. I will not be given a script to follow. I will not have my schedule prescribed to the minute. I will not be asked to teach things that are not effective. I will not be asked to make due with less, and then less than that. I will be treated like a professional. My class size will be small enough that all students will get the extra attention they deserve to reach their potential. I will be allowed to make judgements based on how I know each student to help them learn better. Someone will once again realize that these are children, not widgets and one size fits all does not work with children.

There were extra frustrations today.

Amazon, How Do I Love Thee...

In an attempt to maintain my sanity in the coming holiday season, I am shopping now. We had the boys write their letters to Santa this weekend. And it is a good thing we did it early.

My dear little sweetE, wants a Spiderman iDog. The one that came out a year ago and is no longer available in stores. Thank you Amazon and all your shopping glory, it will be speeding my way sometime in the next week. He loves his music and he and sweetP don't always see eye to eye on what they should be listening to. "Santa" will be packaging it up with an old iPod shuffle, that has been laying around forever, loaded up with Wiggles and other preschool favorites. It even has a hard plastic, waterproof case to keep it safe in 4 year old hands. Ahhh, to be the child of a music loving and iPod crazy family.

And my bigger sweetP has his heart set on a LEGO Tie Crawler that was in last years holiday catalog. The LEGO store no longer carries it, Target no longer has it and I am not setting foot inside Toys R Us to see if it has it. Lovely Amazon did it again. Santa will get the credit, but he will be a happy boy.

What did we ever do before Amazon and internet shopping? I still love the homemade gifts, but purchasing online makes the whole season easier and less stressful. Especially if you get done early.

Cold Feet

Winter has arrived. I can always tell when it happens without a calendar or a thermometer. I will be in a perfectly warm house (70˚) and I will be cold. The chill seeps in through the layers and settles in my bones. I radiate cold.

I don't live in a particularly cold climate. Can you imagine if I did? But, during the winter when the humidity is up and the temperatures are down, I can't get warm. I walk around in sweaters and socks. I sit under a very warm, very soft blanket when on the couch. I have to stop working at the computer to warm up my ice cold fingers. I have to wear socks to bed.

My feet are my thermometer. If they are cold, the rest of me will feel cold as well. Once they are cold they are impossible to warm up. Last year I laid in bed one night for two hours waiting for my feet to warm up. They still felt like ice. After two hours! I will sometimes put them on Ducky's leg (he lets me) and I make his leg cold to the touch, but my feet are no warmer.

I have special booties that go in the microwave (buckwheat hulls or something). I have warm, fuzzy booties to wear while watching tv. I have fuzzy socks. I have learned that if my feet are cold, then I must put those on before I go to bed or else I can't fall asleep because my feet are so cold.

What I do love about winter is sitting in the house with a fire in the fireplace. It vanquishes the cold and makes me all toasty and warm. I love to just watch the flames and listen to the crackle and pop. I will happily sit in the dark watching the flames for hours. So I have to make sure that I have some free time if I am going to build a fire. I also love my snowman socks. It is one of the joys of teaching that it is acceptable to wear goofy socks.

Update to the Perfect Turkey: We made them today in class. No one had time to finish, but we had fun. I still love my perfect turkey. I haven't had time to do any else perfectly this week.

The Turkey of Perfection

There is an ongoing battle to get students to do their homework. Students don't realize what a drain it is on a teacher's time when work isn't done on time. When correcting papers you get into a rhythm, memorize the key and after a few can just whiz through them. When there are stragglers, it takes a lot of time. Find the key or make a new one. Remember what exactly you were looking for. Check it, record it and then return it. I hate, loathe and despise late papers. Late papers make me further behind, and I don't need any help getting behind. I do it entirely too well all by myself.

There is the thought that if you wait until all the papers are in, then it isn't an issue. But, then all those students that did get their papers in don't get feedback. And a huge pile of grading can accumulate. And sometimes you never get every student's paper.

So we attempt rewards to entice those papers to come in. The end of the grading period is rapidly approaching and I don't want a huge pile of papers to grade because they all waited until the last minute. This week we are doing an art reward. On Friday, if a student is all caught up, they get to make a turkey centerpiece. If they are still missing work, they get to go to study hall.

Today I brought my turkey in to encourage them to get their stuff in. We have lists on the board of what is missing. Only I can cross off my assignments. In theory, all those lists will be gone by Friday.

Last Friday I brought home all the supplies to make the turkeys with the boys. I thought it would be a fun project. And it was. I cut out the body of sweetE's, and he cut out most of the feathers. Ducky helped him a bit. A four year old's attention span is only so long. SweetP made his (except the cutting of the cardstock) and it turned out really cute.


SweetE's bird, isn't he cute.


SweetP's bird, I love his quote. He came up with it entirely on his own and I really couldn't blame a turkey for saying that. In case you can't read it, it says, "Eat Pork."

Then there was my bird. I am carefully cutting out each and every part. I colored the edges of the feathers with Sharpie to make them stand out. Ducky interrupts my reverie with, "You know it doesn't have to be perfect." Shows how well he knows me. I am a frustrated perfectionist. There are so few things that I can take the time on to make them perfect. I hate, hate, hate it when I can't do things up to my own standards. I procrastinate on a regular basis rather than do a half-way job.

Between my ability to get easily distracted (I started this post almost two hours ago), and my need for perfection, I am ripe for disappointment. But my turkey is perfect. It was a small enough project that I could take the time to make him exactly the way I wanted to. It wasn't difficult, just fun.

Perfectionism is my turkey. It drives me nuts, but now I have the perfect turkey.