In the last couple months I’ve started making recipes from the website Skinnytaste.com Thanks to Aaryn Richardson that introduced me to this fantastic site!
I LOVE rhubarb anything. My mom found some rhubarb at the grocery store and I was looking for a couple recipes using strawberries and rhubarb (my favorite combination). My favorite one was a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. It was really easy to make, healthy, and delicious…especially with some cool whip! You can find the recipe at http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/05/strawberry-rhubarb-crisp.html.
Another thing I love and feeds my fall obsession is ANYTHING pumpkin. We had a big can of pumpkin that my Mom used half of. Well I found a recipe to use the other half of the can…Pumpkin Pie Dip! Besides the pumpkin, the recipe is made up of things you would have around the house for the most part (assuming cool whip and greek yogurt is normal to have around the house). I made it with vanilla greek yogurt which added lots of sweetness. The dip is perfect with apples. I just recently started eating the dip with honey crisp apples and it has been the perfect combination! My picture wasn’t at exciting so I also added the picture from Skinnytaste.com I could never take a picture with the apples posed because I just wanted to start eating 🙂
You can probably guess which one is mine and which is from skinnytaste.com. I do promise you thought, it tasted AMAZING 🙂 http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/11/pumpkin-pie-dip.html
Today I had to go to the dentist to get my 6 month cleaning and get some fillings. I had some fillings a couple weeks ago as well. I didn’t go the dentist forever so I am now paying for it (literally and painfully). I noticed last time I was getting fillings that I started to fall asleep. That definitely can’t happen because what if I start to fall asleep and jerk awake and he has that drill in my mouth? So during my cleaning today I felt very relaxed at first. I think after driving through torrential downpour it felt nice to just lay back and have no responsibility. Once the fillings started I started to get sleepy. No idea why this does this to me. It got really bad during the last 15 minutes so I started singing that 100 bottles of beer song to myself. I kept “drifting off” and skipping numbers or forgetting where I was…I ended around 52. Sadly I have to go to the dentist next week again, but then I will be done at the dentist for 6 months! Hoorah!
Off to sleep and try to get over the aching pain I have in my mouth!
to start blogging again. This is one of the rare Sundays I can stay up late because I don’t have school tomorrow. Thank you to my Jewish friends!!! So I am using this extra time to change up my blog and also to get stuff done for the week. There is nothing that feels better to me than relaxing after I know that I’ve been productive.
So my new blog title of “trying to do both” has to do with my little subtitle, which is a quote from Benjamin Franklin. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” While I really enjoy my days of being lazy and wish I could go back to summer when my days included working out, coffee, Criminal Minds, and napping, I want to also go back to doing some more exciting things! In that spirit, I will mention one of those things from my weekend! One of them was yesterday when my good friend Terah and I went to Dutch County Farmers Market! http://www.burtonsvilledutchmarket.com/ This was an Amish Market in Laurel that was pretty much the greatest place I have ever been. Terah said they are only open Thursday-Saturday and then spend the rest of their week getting ready and making all the food. I was also told by Terah that I have “old taste.” Here is what I bought…soft pretzel sticks, peanut brittle, beet chips, strawberry rhubarb pie, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, and a sour cream donut. Old taste?? I just got what I loved! 🙂 Next weekend may involve a trip to the Renaissance Festival!
Well I do have to enjoy staying up late one of the rare Sunday nights that I can and what better way to spend it than catching up on some episodes of Criminal Minds!
Till next time!
Sooooo here is what I have been up to! I finished two more books in the last month. So far I read Handle with Care, When Crickets Cry and The Pact. In the last month I finished The Mountain Between Us and The Hunger Games!! It had just been Charles Martin and Jodi Picoult until I read The Hunger Games. So first, The Mountain Between Us, was very good! I am not someone who would usually pick a book about people that get stranded after their plane crashes, but the story of what happens after the crash was really interesting to me. Once I started the book, I finished it pretty quickly. It made me really really really hope I never end up in a crashed plane in the middle of nowhere. On Monday I started to read The Hunger Games and finished it tonight! I wanted to finish it so Matt and I could go see the movie tomorrow night. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start to read the books, but with the movie coming out I decided to just give it a try. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book. Like the last book I read, it wasn’t a story I thought I would get into, but I wanted to use every spare second to read it! So my next book to read will be Catching Fire (2nd book in the Hunger Games).
Now, we had MSA the last two weeks and I was testing students in a small group. I was with a hilarious kid who just said the silliest things…
- “Ms. Schmidt I can’t wait till I get home to take a shower…I smell rotten!”
- “Do you wanna come over to my house after school today…I’m not busy…”
I wish I could remember more cause there were a TON more funny things, but these really stuck in my head.
Last thing…I had been having this horrible foot pain that started to travel to my ankle as well for the last three weeks. Last Friday I went to the podiatrist and he said I have really bad tendinitis. So today I had my first physical therapy session. I’m supposed to go 3 times a week to hopefully fix this all up. Today she just evaluated everything and told me that my foot is messed up haha. Then I got a sweet massage on my foot that felt good and hurt like crazy at the same time…I guess it was to break up everything in my foot and ankle. Then we did some exercises and finished up with ice and stim. Three times a week is a lot of my time to give up when each session is like 90 minutes so I hope it makes things better!
Okay time to go to bed!
So I usually wouldn’t post a video or anything for people and half the time I don’t get into what everyone else is posting, but this is soo important to watch. See what this horrible man is doing to children in Uganda and other parts of Africa. It is truly horrible.
It is amazing that since Tuesday, this video has gotten 40 million views…definitely using today and how the world views information to the advantage of this cause. Also after looking at facebook groups, I can see that teens all over Howard County are now aware (because of this video) and trying to get involved. Starting with the event on April 20th that they talk about in this video.
I know it’s 30 minutes, but definitely give it a watch, it is worth it.
So today was a day of strange, silly, and weird things…they may be funny as well but a little different from the usual amusing things
- When learning about Tchaikovsky I mentioned how he wrote the Nutcracker music and how my 3rd graders would remember the music from watching Tom and Jerry Nutcracker when they were in like kindergarten.
One of my students: “WAIT…did he write ALL the music for Tom and Jerry??”
Me: “No, just the Nutcracker music that is in Tom and Jerry Nutcracker episode.”
The kid (sadly): “Oh mannn that’s too bad…if he wrote it all he’d probably be REALLY famous.”
Ohhh poor Tchaikovsky…
- My 3rd grade chorus desperately wants to know what the pop song is that they’ll get to do for their concert. They asked for a hint today…
Me: “It’s in a movie.”
Girl in chorus: “I know what it is!!!”
Me: “How could you know when there are hundreds and thousands of movies?”
Girl: “Well I know it’s a song in a movie with a lot of singing!!”
- One of my students was sitting there in class today and taking his shoelaces out of his shoes
Me: “Why are you taking out your shoelaces?”
Him: “Because I want to wash my shoes”
Me: “When you get home? Why would you need them out now?”
Him: “Because I want to be able to put the shoes in the wash THE SECOND I get home.”
- In Chorus today I was waiting for some of the kids to settle down before we start and then all of a sudden it was absolutely silent………except for my one student who “whispers” quietly enough for everyone to hear…”awkwaaaaaaaaaard.”
- I was sitting at my computer today doing work. My computer faces the back of the room so my back is to my door. I was sitting there doing things not hearing anything and then I heard someone say “Ms.Schmidt.” And I pretty much jumped out of my seat and peed my pants. A kid had walked into my room so quietly that I had nooo clue he was there till he said my name and was right next to me. Sneaky kids…
So yeah not the usual funny stuff but still amusing…just in a stranger way.
Ohhh and I’m almost done another book! Hoorah!!
Well I just finished my third book of 2012. The first one was when I read “Handle with Care” by Jodi Picoult, but I read the majority of that during Winter Break. I am however, impressed with myself and that I read two books in between January 17th (when I did my book review post) and yesterday.
The first one was When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. This was my favorite book of his that I have read so far. It was about a man who has a secret past that is revealed throughout the book as you flash between present-day and the past with his wife as they are growing up. The other main character is a little girl who needs a new heart. I don’t want to go into too many details but this was a really good book. I also found out more than I ever thought there was to know about the heart. It goes into a lot about the heart since you find out the man’s wife had a similar condition. I would definitely recommend it. I probably only picked it up a few times since each time I did, I read a huge chunk of it.
The second book that I just finished last night was The Pact by Jodi Picoult. I truly love Jodi Picoult’s books because I cannot put them down and I think she is a fantastic writer. Her books are sooo well researched and they are based on topics that are really tough to read about but at the same time, the topics really intrigue you and you can’t put the books down. They are definitely not “uppers.” The Pact is another story that goes between “Now” and “Then” and has to do with a high school couple (in the “Now”) where after the first chapter of the book, the girl is dead and the boy is not and you see how everything unfolds. I just love books that go between multiple times! Anyways…a good book and tough to put down but it definitely won’t put you in a good mood.
I’m about to start a new book by Charles Martin called The Mountain Between Us. Hopefully I’ll like it as much as I did the last one of his that I read!
As always, I’m interested to know of any really good books that you’ve read! I try to read during the school year to relax me and if I have a really good book I definitely make the time to read!
I have been saving up lots and lots of quotes from kids in anticipation of a hilariously funny post of students’ sayings…
- When we played a new song on the recorder…”Ms.Schmidt, this sounds like home to me.”
- One of my kids for 5 minutes kept singing “Don’t touch it!” instead of “Can’t touch this.”
- When a class came in, there was classical music playing. A kid said “this music makes me feel smart…kind of how like when I come home, my mom’s boyfriend has rock music playing and it makes me want to work on stuff like my skateboard.”
- A student slipped and fell in the cafeteria, got up, looked at the floor and yelled “Curse that spill!”
- I was told that someone’s grandmother was in the hospital for bronINchitis and Amonia
- We were passing out recorders (that are kept in bags) and when one student got their recorder, they brought it up to me and said “Ms. Schmidt! My recorder smells like __________.” (another student in her class
- A male student had a necklace that had a pendant-type thing with writing on it. A boy went to touch it so they could see what it said…the student who it belonged to said “STOP. You can’t touch that…only girls, boys I care about, and grown-ups can touch that.”
- When I was given a Valentine’s Day gift from a student he gave it to me and said “Ms.Schmidt, this is for all the extra time you give up for us for chorus and Advanced chorus rehearsal. I love you.” How sweet 🙂
- “Ms. Schmidt, does my shirt give you nightmares?”
- We were playing longtones on the recorder (holding different notes for a long time) and a student told me, “Ms. Schmidt, it sounds like we’re calling to aliens!”
- There were a group of students the other day that cracked me up cause they kept walking around the music room during Strings tuning since “Tra la la laaaaa” over and over and over
- “Ms. Schmidt, _________, is mad at me and is being mean.” “Why is he being mad at you.” “Cause I cheated in gym.”
- When passing out recorders, there was an extra one in a class’s box and everyone already had their’s…a student asked “Who’s is this?” and another student said “God’s!! He sent it to us as a gift!”
- Conversation at the lunch table…
A: Ms. Schmidt, B called me a punk
B: No I didn’t
C: B, you can’t lie! It makes God mad!!
D: Yeah and then you can’t become an angel!!
Me: Yeah, B don’t you want to become an angel??
B: Noooooo!!!!
C: If you’re not an angel, then you become a DEZON!!!
D: Yeah, that’s a BAD angel!!
At this point I can see that student B, is pretty psyched about becoming a dezon…haha
Well there they are…hope you enjoyed!!
My students have been saying such funny stuff this week and it’s only Tuesday…here’s just a couple:
-“Ms.Schmidt can we please play the song with B, A, and G? What’s it called….Hot Cross Muffins!”
-I’m teaching 1st grade and trying to decide which song we should do and I’m talking out loud. I said “well we could do this song orrrrr….” and a kid followed that up right away with “…go to vegas??” Well Vegas would definitely be more interesting than singing “Starlight, Starbright.”
-We’re learning about Brahms as our Composer of the Month in 2nd grade and I had just mentioned that he spent half of his life in Vienna. A new 2nd grader (it is like his 2nd day at the school) raises his hand and goes into this long story saying “My family and I went to Vienna the other day and we kept asking people about that guy, what’s his name? Oh right, Brahms. And people kept telling us he was dead, and we were so mad that we wasted a trip to see him and he was dead.” Ohhhh myyy this kid will be interesting for sure!
-In 3rd grade we’re playing recorders and I had each kid play a “B” for me so I could hear them individually. When one student went to play, right before he blew in the recorder, he said “B….activate!!” Hahaha yessss love it!
I can’t wait to see what other funny things are said this week…maybe I’m just being amused more easily this week…maybe no one else thinks these are funny…who knows…
🙂
Well this Tuesday was much different than last. My school didn’t have an oil leak and I had to go buuuut it was a teacher workday so I just got stuff accomplished the whole day. Days like that are so necessary…especially at the mid way point of the year. Here are some reflections from the year so far…some serious…most just silly
- If I go in expecting the best of my students I am much less likely to be disappointed
- I shouldn’t sharpen a ton of new pencils and expect none of them to be broken or have the erasers bitten off in a couple days…I will be sad every time (keep in mind these are my 3rd-5th graders, not the Kindergarteners-2nd graders)
- It is not impossible for several 4th grade boys to put their legs behind their heads
- No one likes to sit next to the computer when I use the projector…it’s way too hot
- I have been fired and given an A+ several times by the same student this year
- Just picking up a Dry Erase Marker to put a tally on the board is enough to silence 60 noisy 3rd grade chorus members
- Beethoven wrote a piece called “Fur Ellis.”
- I am pretty every day
- The recorders the students get are beautiful
- Students are drawn to the old music room like “a horse drawn to its farm.”
- Russian is the best language to sing
- My 5th graders would give up their recess time for extra chorus 🙂
Okay time to read my book and go to bed. I’ve been reading “When Crickets Cry,” by Charles Martin and so far it’s very good. A story with stories going on at two different times and lots of mysteries I can’t wait to be revealed!!
Well today was a little strange. I usually leave on Tuesdays at 4:35am to get to the gym at 5am for 5:15 Body Step. Well I woke up and it was 4:45. AHHHHH!!! I have an alarm clock that I need to get up to turn off and I must have done it in my sleep which is scary and annoying and frustrating! Well I made it to class juuuuuust on time. Class was good but on the way to school I had to stop and put a little gas in my car since I had enough gas to get to the gym, but not to Glen Burnie. So after I did that I was on my way to school. I was 5 minutes away from school when I got a call from the school saying we had a leak in the boiler room and there was NO SCHOOL today!!! At first I was worried teachers would have to go in and work but nooooo. So I just turned around and drove on home! Hoorah!
So I said I would post a book list of the books I read in 2011 and I’ll try to leave a little comment. Keep in mind I do not have nearly as much time to read during the school year as I’d like…I liked all the books I read (except maybe Pug Hill haha…that was probably the only one that wasn’t that good) but I bolded titles that were some of my favorites!
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon)…written from the perspective of a boy who has autism…being some who works with kids like this all the time, I really related to the book and enjoyed it, but it would be entertaining for anyone. It was very good, had great insight into children with autism, and was also funny!
- The School of Essential Ingredients (Erica Bauermeister)…great book if you love stories with LOTS of cooking in it or stories with several story lines. Awesome book about couples and individuals who go to a cooking class and all of their stories.
- Pug Hill (Alison Pace)…I just picked it because I love pugs haha. Okay story about someone who loves pugs but has a fear of public speaking. I may not have finished it because it wasn’t that good but I just can’t not finish a book.
- Wrapped in Rain (Charles Martin)…this is one of Matt’s mom’s favorite authors and while I wouldn’t describe his books as Christian fiction, there are definitely Christian themes and some aspects of Christianity in each book. This one was about a man who, while having some of his own issues, helps an ex-girlfriend and his schizophrenic brother and they form their own kind of family. Definitely inspirational.
- Love Walked In (Marisa de los Santos)…love story with a main character that starts off single and in her thirties before she falls for the perfect guy. Lots of unexpected things end up happening that contribute to a different kind of happy ending and with different characters than originally pictured.
- Belong to Me (Marisa de los Santos)…a sequel to Love Walked In (but you could read it as a stand-alone as well). The start of main character’s Cornelia’s life after her happy ending from the last book. Pretty good book but Love Walked In was much better.
- The Passion of Mary-Margaret (Lisa Samson)…another Christian fiction author that Matt’s mom really likes. I have read a couple of her books and really liked her. The book is about Mary-Margaret who is a religious sister that can talk to Jesus. She also has a childhood friend that she ends up saving in many ways. I liked this one especially because it didn’t just paint Christians as people who never struggle with their faith and are perfect. Very interesting and has lots of surprises.
- Firefly (Kristin Hannah)…this was the first Kristin Hannah book I read and I did it based on a staff pick I had seen at Borders. I love stories that span over lots of time so that you can see all the different changes from social expectations, to fashion, world events, schools, etc. (one reason I like movies like Forrest Gump and Mr. Holland’s Opus). This story is about two very different girls that become best friends when they’re younger and it goes through their entire lives so you see their relationship change with each other, other people, and the overall progression of school, jobs, life, etc. Very good book! Could not put it down!
- Songbird (Lisa Samson)…Again a reason why I love Lisa Samson’s books is that the Christians in her stories are not perfect. The main character deals with abandonment issues and some of the other characters deal with other emotional issues as well as indulging in “worldly pleasures.” The book also includes traveling music groups as well as evangelical tours and an adoption story that goes wrong. I read this one very quickly and I really enjoyed it!
- Something Borrowed (Emily Giffin)…This author has wrote a lot but this is the first book I read of hers because there was a movie of this book coming out. A story of two friends that may be torn apart by a certain relationship with the same guy. Interesting because Giffin has you siding with the main character who you want to “win,” but you realize that is technically the “bad guy” in the story in a way. Movie was pretty good, too.
- One Day (David Nicholls)…this book was out about a year before I read it, but just like the last book, I read it because the movie was coming out. The two main characters, Emma and Dexter spend a day together after their college graduation and there is something there. Each chapter that follows is the same day but the next year. Some of the years they’re with each other and some they’re not. The story is about their friendship but also how they change as people over time (again I like books when they are spread out over time!). This book has really good characters. I did find the beginning of the book a little hard to get into at first, but after the first couple “years” I was really into it. I also really liked the movie!
- Distant Shores (Kristin Hannah)…I wanted to read another Kristin Hannah book after Firefly and this was her book that came out this summer. This is a story about a mother and wife who finally puts herself first and goes off on her own. The story is about her discovering who she really is away from her family. Pretty good book but definitely not as good as Firefly Lane.
- House Rules (Jodi Picoult)…so after last year I said I would never read anymore Jodi Picoult. I had already read 4 of her books and I got nightmares all the time (not even ones related to the stories). Her books are soo good but they are always about such tough subjects. I can never put them down but they intrigue and disturb me at the same time. This was my favorite book of hers that I’ve read so far. It’s about a teenage boy with Aspergers who is obsessed with forensics. He shows up at a major crime scene and becomes involved. The book is about the court case that follows. Very captivating and you can tell she really did her research on autism and its characteristics. Also makes you think a lot about the legal system and how it works with or against people with special needs.
- The Last Letter from your Lover (Jojo Moyes)…just picked it at Borders after reading the jacket cover. There are two main characters. One is Ellie who finds an old love letter and she becomes obsessed with the letter and the lovers. The other main character, Jennifer, from the 1960s who can’t remember anything about her life, husband, or who she was because of a car accident. She finds a love letter as well and starts to remember things about a relationship she had before the car accident. The stories eventually intertwine. I read it on vacation in Costa Rica and it was a really good vacation book.
- Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)…yess another Picoult book. This one is about a shooting that takes place at a high school and the aftermath as well as the court case (since the shooter is still alive). Like most Jodi Picoult books, the story is told from the perspectives of several characters and while being a hard book to read, it was a very good book. Definitely made me think about how I deal with bullying at my own school. Harder to read than House Rules and definitely more disturbing but still a great book (like all of her’s).
- On Folly Beach (Karen White)…if you’ve read all these you can see that I have a couple things that I love in books and I read lots of books like this (e.g. multiple story lines, books over a long span of time, books with characters and stories in two different time periods). Like Last Letter from your Lover, there are two main characters, Emmy who is living during “present time” (probably around now) and dealing with living in a new place after the death of her husband and buying a book store, and Maggie who is on Folly Beach during World War II times and trying to take care of a younger sister and an irresponsible cousin while also falling in love. Maggie’s younger sister is around in Emmy’s story as well and through lots of “letters” or notes in books she finds, Emmy starts to put together parts of Maggie’s story. There were one or two times that I had difficult getting into this at the beginning, but it was VERY good.
- Handle with Care (Jodi Picoult)…so I started this book back in August, but I just finished it today haha. Again I don’t have much time at all during the school year to read unless I am in a time during the school year where I really make it a priority to read. Well for some reason I had some trouble getting into this book the couple times I picked it up in August and September. I started to read it again maybe 4 days ago and immediately got really into it. I found myself reading 100s of pages at a time. It’s about a girl with this disease where her bones break really easily (she has broken 60 some and she’s only 6 years old) and a lawsuit that her parents start after a bad experience on a family trip at Disney World. Not as disturbing to read as some of her other books, but still deals with tough topics, mainly abortion (also has some about eating disorders and self-harm). Very very very interesting, thought provoking, and a great read.
Hoorah! That took longer than I thought! Let me know if you have read any of these or you have any other recommendations based on what you like/you think I would like. I’m starting today to read When Crickets Cry, by Charles Martin (he wrote Wrapped in Rain that I read this year). I did get a Kindle for Christmas but I still have some actual books I need to read first before I feel like I can start using the Kindle. Hope you enjoyed!!
Trying to do both 