100 Days of School

Last week, we celebrated being in school for 100 days.  It might not seem like a big deal to most of you who are not in the education field, but for teachers it means that we are have survived 100 days with the students in our class and we are on the downward slope to the end of another school year.









More important, it is a big thing for 1st graders to be able to count and write to 100 (and above).  In honor of our 100 day celebration, teachers and students dressed up as 100 year old people. They were all so cute dressed up!

Well in honor of our 100 days celebration, I wanted to share with you some of the funny things my students have said during the 100 days I have had the privilege of sharing with them.

Scenario 1 - Guest Reader (Student's Preacher) for Top Toucan Week (Star Student)
Preacher: "Do you have any questions for me?"
Student: "I have a 2nd grade question for you.  What size clothes do you wear?"
Preacher: Laughing and I am sure wondering what he had gotten himself into.   He nicely answered the question.

Fully embarrassed but glad that it was a man and not a woman. :)

Scenario 2 - Writing "Monkey Notes" (Conduct Notes) before Going Home for the Day
Student: "You know why I did better today and didn't have to get a note?"
Teacher: Puzzled "No, why?"
Student: "I got the wax out of my ears."

If that's the trick, maybe I should keep some Q-tips in my classroom.

Scenario 3 - End of the Day - Time for Dismissal to Start

Student: (Mad) "I am leaving and never coming back."
Teacher: "Oh really?  We will miss you."
Student: "You are really going to miss me when it comes time to pull that rope."

I was puzzled at first of what he was talking about, but realized he was referring to the tug of war competition at Field Day.  Needless to say, he came back the next day. :)

Scenario 4 - Guest Reader for Top Toucan Week (Star Student)

Reader: "Do you know what it means to homeschool?"

Student: "You sleep in school!"

Scenario 5 - Small Group Reading

Teacher: "I am so sorry.  I have the hiccups, today."
Student: "You need some pickle juice."
Teacher: "What does pickle juice do?"
Student: "It will get rid of your hiccups.  I saw it on TV so that means it is true."

Scenario 6 - Math Lesson on Geometry

Teacher: "Here is a trapezoid." Drawing it on the board.

Student: "A trapezoid is like a triangle's momma, because it's fat."

Scenario 7 - Dismissal Time

Teacher: "Please put your jackets on.  It is cold outside."

Student: "I don't like wearing this coat.  It makes me look like Fat Albert."

Hey, Hey, Hey!

Scenario 8 - Station Time - Students in Kapok Corner (Nonfiction book library)

Student to other Students: "Want me to show you some nasty pictures?"
Teacher: Not sure what to think, because I knew I had read every book over in the library.  I was quickly trying to figure out what the student was talking about.
Assistant: Staring at me wondering what is this student talking about.
Student: Showing the "nasty" picture to the other kids. "These are your blood vessels!"

Woah! What a relief!

Scenario 9 - Christmas time listening to Kids Christmas station on Pandora

Alvin and the Chipmunks came on Pandora and the class started all singing
1 Student: "This song drives me crazy."  He covers his ears.

Scenario 10 - Small Group Reading Lesson - Last group out of 4 - This group consisting of all boys
Teacher: "Does anyone know what this word is?"
Student: "Duty!"
Group: Laughter coming from all the boys

I did not get it at first, because none of the other groups had laughed.  Then I realized that the boys were not saying it right.  I had to explain how to say it and what duty meant.

Scenario 11 - Small Group Reading Lesson
Teacher: "Does anyone know what this word is?"
Student: "Wrap!"
Teacher: "Can anyone tell me what wrap means."
Group: Bursts out rapping a song.

Oh, those homophones!

Scenario 12 - Pack-up Time
Teacher: "The paper on your folder needs to go in your Left at Home pocket."
Student: "This paper feels like fried bacon!"
Teacher: "Fried bacon? It is called cardstock."

Scenario 13 - Students turning in papers
Teacher: "Make sure to put your paper on my table when you get done."
Student: "I kinda messed up so don't get worried if the paper is stuck to the table."

I guess he knows me way to well!

Scenario 14 - Discussing Fruits and Vegetables
Student: "Mrs. Elizabeth, do fruits of vegetables make you taller?"
Teacher: "I don't know. You should be eating both every day."
Student: "Well I need to know, because I need to get taller."

Scenario 15 - Free Time for Students
Student 1: "You should be reading instead of playing."
Student 2: "Mrs. Elizabeth said it was free time."
Student 1: "Yes, but no reading equals no learning."

 There is definitely never a boring day with these students.  I love every minute of it!

Elizabeth

Menu Monday

We are halfway through the month, and I still have plenty of things to cook.  I did go to Sam's yesterday and buy some more milk and a few other things.  Overall, we are eating out less and enjoying having sit down meals at home.

Look Back at New Things on Last Week's Menu

Monday: Little Meats and Gravy- This turned out really good.  We had it over egg noodles.  Kevin bought me a new crockpot for Christmas, and it has a stirrer that goes every hour if set.  We used it for this, and I think it really helped.

Thursday: Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole- This was good, but I wouldn't use it as a main meal.  It would be better as an appetizer.  I will say that it was easy to  make which I always like.  

Friday: Meatball Sub on a Stick - This recipe looked really fun.  However, I was not able to find the Pillsbury breadsticks, and I tried more than one store.  Instead, I tried using crescent rolls on some and pizza dough on others.  This made it extremely difficult to make.  If I was going to make this again, I would just use frozen meatballs instead of trying to make my own (even though that wasn't hard) and I would make sure to have the breadsticks.  I do think kids would love this!

This Week's Menu - 

Monday: 

Smothered Chicken & Cheesy Potato Casserole

It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I don't have to work.  I realized while cleaning that I need to use up some potatoes before they go bad so I figured this would be a great recipe to do tonight.  

Tuesday:

Salads

My family loves salads!  I really think I could eat them everyday  I don't get home until late on Tuesdays, because I try to spend an hour or two at the gym.  This makes Tuesdays a great night for an easy meal that I can already have prepared.  

Wednesday:

Leftovers

Our fridge is already full to the max with leftovers so I know when I make tonight's meal that we will have plenty to have leftovers for lunch this week and for this night.

Thursday: 

Tacos

Tacos are an easy meal that doesn't take too long to make.  However, when we have tacos I don't usually have anything to eat the next day for lunch.  Since we have so many leftovers already, I felt like this was a great place to fit tacos in on the menu for this month.  If for some reason we don't have any leftovers, I can order out from work on Friday.

Friday:

Pull Apart Pizza

I am not a big fan of pizza, but Kevin loves it.  I thought this was a good variation of pizza that looks pretty good.  It also looks fun for a Friday night movie night. :)

Here's to a great week!

Elizabeth

The Unforgettable Lunch Break

When I was a kid, I got locked in my grandmother's bathroom.  She had one of the old door locks, and my family still says to this day that I just didn't know how to use it.  I still say that it was stuck.

Fast forward to more than twenty years later to this week, it was a some what normal Thursday (whatever you can say normal is for a 1st grade classroom).  I had taken my kids to the bathroom and to lunch.  I walked back to the teacher's bathroom to wash my hands before eating my lunch.  Right as the door shut, I knew something was wrong.  You know how you get that feeling that something is not right.  Well, the door knob felt weird when I opened it, but I did not think anything about it until I got in the restroom.  As soon as the door shut, I saw that the lock was all the way out.  I immediately tried to open it, but you guessed it the door knob was broken and I was stuck.  To top it all off I did not have my phone! Here I am stuck in a bathroom with about 20 minutes left until my class would be waiting on me or better yet until my assistant realized something was wrong.  What was I to do?

The dreaded bathroom!

Right before I had went in the bathroom, another teacher was taking her kids to the bathroom.  I knew that she was in the hallway a little ways away from the teacher's bathroom that I was stuck in, and I figured if I yelled and banged that she might hear me.  Thank goodness she did!  She tried to open it, but it would not work.  She got our instructional facilitator who was in her office beside the bathroom, but no luck.  They called the main office to tell them what was going on.  Soon the principal was on the other side of the door making sure I was ok and not claustrophobic (Thankfully, I'm not.).  At this point, all I could do was laugh.

I tried to help out on my side of the door, but all I had was a door stop to work with and that did not help.  The others tried to break in with a card, but the card just kept coming through on my side underneath the lock.  Eventually, they decided to call the maintenance department at the Board to come help, but they were at lunch.  At one point the principal had went to tell my assistant what was going on, the teacher had went back to the classroom with her students, and the instructional facilitator had went to go get some tools from the gym teacher.  So there I was left alone trapped standing up in this tiny bathroom, when all of the sudden the door knob started moving.  I thought someone was trying to get into the bathroom to use it, so I politely said "I am stuck in the bathroom and the others have went to get help." Then our male custodian (one of very few male figures at our school) started laughing and stating yes he was just trying to help get it unstuck.  All I could do was laugh some more.  What an awkward situation!

 The sign on the inside of the bathroom door that I memorized while in there!

After more than thirty minutes of being stuck in the bathroom, the ladies were able to break the door knob off and get the door opened.  I was never more relieved to see my students in the hallway cheering.

Side note - A few years ago, another teacher got stuck in the teacher's bathroom that is directly across the hall from this one.  That is why I typically always go to this bathroom.

Lessons Learned:

• Any bathroom door can get stuck!
• Always tell someone you are going to the bathroom.
• Take your phone to the bathroom just in case.

The sign that is currently on the door.

Lets just say that I will never forget that lunch break or lack thereof.  (Don't worry I did get to eat my lunch after I got my students settled in the classroom with the assistant.)  Now, I really won't live it down with my family about bathroom doors.

Elizabeth

Menu Monday

I'm back with Menu Monday!  Lots of people have asked for this, and with everything going on in life it has been too crazy to even try to plan meals.  However, I have started back and plan on keeping it up at least until summer.

If you are new to the blog, I plan out twenty meals at the beginning of the month and make one big grocery trip.  On Sundays, I sit down and plan our menu for the week based on our schedule.  Our lives are extremely busy and this works the best for us.

There are many reasons why I write it down here.  First, it holds me accountable to actually cooking and not backing out of it.  For you see, I really don't enjoy cooking.  I just do it, because I don't want us eating out all the time.  I have realized that when I make a plan I will actually do it. Second, it makes me find new recipes to try.  I get really tired of eating the same thing all the time, and by doing this it allows me to try new things.  Third, I want to share with others my findings by linking the recipes to the post.  I hope you are able to get some recipes for your family.

Monday: 

Little Meats & Gravy over Egg Noodles
Peas
Mashed Potatoes

Sister Schubert Rolls

Tuesday:

Spaghetti with Meatballs
Garlic Bread

This is one of our family favorites.

Wednesday:

Leftovers

Our family lives on leftovers.  I take them for my lunch each day, and we typically always eat them one night during the week and on the weekends.  I plan a leftover night on a night that I already know that I will be too busy to fix dinner.

On Wednesdays, I have a Bible study at Englewood at 6 so it makes it nearly impossible to fix anything.  We will enjoy the leftovers from the nights before.

Thursday: 

Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole

I am not doing the "bags to dishes" process, but I do think it would be interesting to try it at one point.  

Friday:

Meatball Sub on a Stick

I try to plan some fun and different meals on Fridays.  After a long, hard week, the last thing I want to do is come home and make a meal that takes forever.  However, I want to plan a meal for this night so we don't always go out to eat.

All the recipes linked are new to our family.  I will let you know what I think of them next Monday.
I hope you have found some meals that will work for your family!

Elizabeth

One Little Word for 2015

Last year, I decided to stray away from making resolutions for the new year instead I decided to pick a word for the year.  My word for 2014 was "shine".  When I picked that word, I did not realize how much it would appear in my life.  It seemed like everywhere I went something reminded me of why I picked the word "shine".

In 2014, I spent a lot of time freeing up some "me time" where I could find my happiness.  I worked on becoming a better Christian, wife, mother, daughter, and so much more.  There were challenges that arose throughout the year, but I worked through them.  One of those challenges was when we sold our house unexpectedly.  If you know me, I always have a plan for everything.  Well selling our house in 2014 was not part of my plan, but it was part of God's plan.  I was very stressed with how everything was going to work out, but of course it did.

A few weeks after we moved, I realized what I would pick as my word for 2015.  This word seem to be appearing everywhere I looked.  I think it is very appropriate to have after the word "shine".  My word for 2015 is:

I have realized this past year that I can let others "steal" my joy.  I really do not think most people realize what they are doing when they do it, but they are able to just snatch my joy away in a split second.  This year I want to keep my joy and a smile on my face through all circumstances.  This is going to be hard, and I know that I will fail at times.  However with God, I know that I will be able to improve.

I know when most people hear the word, "joy", they think of the song, Joy to the World.  We typically think of this as a Christmas carol.  However, did you know that Isaac Watts wrote the song based on Psalm 98, and it was written with the theme being the second coming of the Lord?

I think this is so awesome!  None of the words associated with the Christmas story are in the song such as manger, angels, shepherds, etc.  One person wrote that "Christmas won't always be a joyful time, but when Jesus comes back, even the rocks will sing!"  What an amazing thought!  I have the joy down in my heart, and it's there to stay.  I want it to be seen through me in everything I do!

You know how I said this word, "joy", seemed to be appearing everywhere once I decided on it.  Well in December, Jordan Easley at Englewood preached a sermon on "joy".  He gave three reasons why you should have joy.

1) Joy gives you a new energy (Nehemiah 8:10)
2) Joy gives you a new perspective (Proverbs 17:22)
3) Joy gives you a new platform (Psalm 126:1-2, Isaiah 43:7, 1 Corinthians 10:31)

I choose "joy" in 2015.  Will you join me?

*I started this post last Sunday, but in the middle of writing it my computer crashed.  This wouldn't have been so bad, but all of Adelaide's pictures are on here.  What a way for the devil to try to steal my joy!  I am delighted to say that thanks to a great Dad, a praying Mom, and some awesome computer technicians I was able to get my computer back to working without losing anything.