contain your excitement

Glamorous blogger photo: ur doing it wrong  

   
       Proof that I'm still smiling. ;) And this is my tired-day outfit - a comfy old tee, the same ol' jeans, and a sparkly necklace.
      A little news about Room 25 (my fourth-grade kiddos):

•       After vigorous campaigning, tears, speeches, tons of posters, and some drama, Room 25 chose its two student representatives for Student Council. I was bemused yet tolerant of the hoopla.
•       I created a math practice sheet that let the kids use dice, and they thought it was immense fun. In reality, they were practicing place value and rounding.
•  While I've started cooking dinner, I've kind of slipped on packing home lunches. That meant I had "ocean treasure nuggets" (a.k.a. fish nuggets) for lunch from the school cafeteria the other day.
• I need some cute colorful clipboards, and as if on cue Linda of Little Tin Soldier posted this adorable and easy way to spruce up a clipboard. I might hit the craft supply store and pick up the materials to make some this weekend ... after all, that enormous and ever-growing stack of papers that need grading is going to grade itself, right? (Still waiting for the Grading Fairy and Organizing Fairy to stop by ...)

Happy Friday!

eat. sleep. repeat.

A few random photos and thoughts:

Spaghetti sauce with ground turkey and mushrooms.

• I actually did some cooking last week! The family was very appreciative. :) I'm doing so-so on the rest of my goals, but I've decided to give myself another month or so to get settled into the routine.

• It's been hot and sticky here, so a little rain on Saturday morning was a welcome relief.

•  I'm so tired by the end of the week that after meditation on Saturday morning, I go home, drink a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, then ... go back to bed for a couple of hours. I woke up to takeout - spring rolls and pho - on Saturday afternoon. 

• I bought this necklace from Groopdealz and am looking forward to its arrival! I'd really like to find a reasonably-priced knockoff of this one - there are quite a few floating around eBay but the prices are higher than I'd like.

• Went through a mind-boggling amount of training last week, looking at everything from curricular cohesion to math standards to implementing math workshop. The latter caused me to wake up at 2 a.m. one night and lie awake for a bit, stressing about what I had planned for the day. I suppose I'm going through professional growing pains?
• I've been trying to give myself a little "me" time, which usually translates into diving into a great novel. I just finished Tinti's "The Good Thief" (yes for long weekends - more time for procrastination!) and am working my way through "Cutting for Stone" by Verghese. 

What's going on in your little corner of the world? I'd love to hear. :)

the best-laid (lesson) plans ...

   
        So, I haven't been dealing with cantankerous chairs lately, but I have been putting in some serious hours to complete my lesson portfolio for my information literacy class. Sub in lesson plans for the chair and you get an idea of what I've been up to!
        Fortunately, I'm substitute teaching today for my friend's 3rd-grade class. Yay for a chance to earn a little extra money! Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to put the finishing touches on my portfolio until this afternoon and evening (it's due at midnight). I'm not really griping; I confess that I am a world-class procrastinator someone who does best under pressure.
        Last but not least, I get to spend the weekend completing 2 major projects for my Hawaiian resources class, which are due Wednesday afternoon.
      I might just need to treat myself to an end-of-the-semester cupcake on Wednesday, what do you think?