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Ninja Power

Posted on April 20, 2012 by auburnchick

My weekly morning routine is as follows:

  • Get up and get ready for work
  • Get Molly and Pele pottied and fed
  • Leave a chore list for Rooster

Rooster, you might remember, graduated early.  Though he’d found a job, he only lasted one day due to his dislike of the conditions.  So, he’s still unemployed, still sleeping in, and still enjoying his life of freedom.

I would be a bad mother if I allowed him to twiddle his thumbs in boredom each day.

So, I make a chore list for the boy.

Every.  Day.

I wasn’t sure how Rooster felt about it.  He knows not to argue.  Heck.  I’m spending ten hours a day at work.  He knows that doing these chores is his contribution to the household.

What I found on my blank sheet of paper Wednesday morning made me chuckle…

He has a sense of humor, as you can see from his drawing.

He gets it from me, as you can see from my response.

Oh, and just to make my point clear, I left him with a list of new chores (some of them change daily, according to my whim)…

For the record, I’m not telling him to poop.

He’s got that down…mastered that one before he turned a year and a half, thank you very much.

That’s shorthand for “Scoop Poop” (as in dog poop…which there’s a lot of with four dogs doing their business in the yard).

I’ve gotten lazy.

But not so lazy that my Mama Powers can’t beat out his Ninja’s.

😉

Filed under: children | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

What’s To Come

Posted on April 19, 2012 by auburnchick

Take a look at the following picture…

On Saturday, the Mr. and Rooster went to Target for a bit of shopping.  They came home with the pillow, sheet set, towels, and kitchen stuff in preparation for August, when Rooster leaves home to attend Auburn University.

Really?

It was a shopping trip that I just couldn’t be a part of.

I’m not quite ready to start preparing for what may be one of the hardest goodbyes yet.

I did it once, when Chicky left, and I don’t even want to think about it again with my youngest Chicklet.

Sigh.

Part of me is excited, but part of me is dreading what’s to come.

Filed under: children | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

Juggling the Hodgepodge

Posted on April 18, 2012 by auburnchick

It’s time for the Hodgepodge, and Joyce has some fun questions for us this week!  Play along, blog your own answers, and link back up with Joyce!

1.  Spring is in the air (at least in my neck of the woods) and the birds are singing…what’s your favorite bird?

I don’t know that I’m much of a bird-watcher.  I guess if I had to name one, I’d say the eagle.  When we were on our Alaskan cruise last summer, we saw a LOT of them flying around the islands.  They were AMAZING!!  It’s no wonder that our forefathers chose this animal to represent our country!

2.  Speaking of birds…do you tweet? If so tell us your screen name and we’ll come flocking to your Twitter site. Even if you don’t let’s all pretend here that we do-in 140 characters or less, sum up your week so far.

I tried tweeting.  Twice.  I hated it.  Both times.  I deleted my account.  I just think it’s too much with Facebook and blogging.  I don’t really get the point.

Now, as far as summing up my week, I think the title of my previous blog post will work just fine:  Juicing, FCAT’ing, and PMS’ing

3.  Its been reported recently that employers are not only viewing the Facebook pages of potential hires but they’re also requesting your Facebook password to have a look at what you’ve kept from public view. What say you?

It’s one thing to view your Facebook profile; however, I think that employers are crossing the line with asking for a password.  THAT is an invasion of privacy.  Might as well give them your bank password so they can see how much money you have in your account.  Me thinks this smells like someone’s taking advantage of desperate job seekers to play Peeping Tom.

4.  It’s April and you know what that means-Major League Baseball is back in action. What’s your favorite baseball movie? If that’s too hard, what’s your favorite sports themed movie?

I’m not much of a baseball fan, although I have enjoyed the few high school games I’ve attended recently.  As far as baseball movies go, I guess I’d have to say Field of Dreams.  Who doesn’t like Kevin Costner?

5.  Something else this season brings-asparagus. Yes please or no thanks? If it’s yes please what’s your favorite way to have it prepared?

Oh, I LOVE asparagus any way you serve it up!  I first tried it from the can, and I still like it this way…a little mushy but fine in my opinion.  I’ve been enjoying it grilled from several restaurants.  I also like it in sushi!!

6.  What drives you? (Don’t you love how I sandwiched that one in between asparagus and jugglers???)

I have a deep-seated fear of disappointing others as well as myself, so I’m driven by the need to obtain perfection…something I know I’ll never achieve but will try nonetheless.  I simply cannot accept less than my best at something, and I drive myself nuts when I don’t do things like I think I can or should.  I’m trying to learn to let some of this go, though, because my high expectations are leading to too many late nights and stress-filled weeks.  There’s very little downtime when you’re constantly thinking about ways to perfect something or ways you didn’t do something right.  Sigh.  I’m ready to ride in the passenger seat for a change.

7.  April 18th is International Jugglers Day…can you juggle?

Funny you should ask, Joyce.  I’m the queen of juggling 500 things at once…a calendar that consists of parent/teacher conferences, IEP meetings, team meetings, faculty meetings, lesson plans, online classes, assignments for online classes, computer training, mommying fur babies, mommying grown human babies…shoot, the list goes on and on.

Sure, my show will never be headlining in Vegas, but I’m thinking that my name might be up in lights in heaven one day.  🙂

8.  My Random Thought

State of Florida public school students are taking the state reading assessment this week.  Being a test administrator might seem like an easy job; however, it’s exhausting!!  Watching students take 70-minute tests is mind-numbing, and the stress of watching those you have worked with for eight months is even worse.  We won’t even find out results until the summer!!

I’m also starting Day 5 of a ten-day juice fast.  Yesterday was the first day that I felt remotely human.  Hence, it’s been a stressful few days.

As a treat, my friend, Barb, who’s also administering exams, and I went and got our toes done.  We found this adorable blue polish in the salon…

Barb left when her feet dried, but I decided that since I needed my nails filled in, there was no better time than the present.

I was feeling adventurous, so here’s what I had done…

I love them!  They are funky and fun.  The silver line going across the tips add a sparkle that I can’t keep my eyes from.

My students are going to like them.  They notice things like this, you see.

 

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: | 5 Comments »

Juicing, FCAT’ing, and PMS’ing

Posted on April 16, 2012 by auburnchick

Wow.

What a crazy start to the week!

I’ve been contemplating a “reset” to rid my body of the Mt. Dew addiction I’ve acquired over the last few months.  I’m still eating a vegan diet, and, for the most part, I’m sticking to it very well.  I rarely, if ever, eat dessert, but the Mt. Dew thing is getting out of control.  I’ve also noticed that I haven’t been eating much fresh fruit and vegetables.  What I’ve been eating?  Veggie burgers from Burger King (minus the mayo), veggie sandwiches from Panera, and black bean burgers from Chili’s, to name a few dishes.

Ultimately, I just haven’t been feeling as comfortable in my own skin as I did last summer.

Hence, my decision to embark on another ten-day juice fast.

I started on Saturday.

But I made a big mistake.

I didn’t prepare ahead of time.

I didn’t buy the fruits and vegetables that I needed for my juice.

So, I drank water all day.

No biggie, I thought.

Until Sunday, when I got out of bed and thought I was going to pass out.  My heart started racing.

I was in trouble.

The Mr. and Rooster had gone to church, so I made my way to the porch and sat there for a while, watching the dogs play in the yard.

After the Mr. got home, I asked him to buy me orange juice and the fruits and veggies I needed.

I think my blood sugar level had gotten too low, so I needed to quickly pump it up so I could stand for longer periods of time.

Normally I do not drink store-bought OJ.  It loses its nutrition in the pasteurization process.

Plus, the sugars are just too high.

Still, I needed to do what I needed to do.

I wound up spending Sunday on the couch.  I just was not feeling well…dealing also with feminine symptoms.

Can someone please say MENOPAUSE or HYSTERECTOMY?

Oy.

On Monday, Florida students began taking the FCAT.  I have to proctor all week.

It’s a nervous time for the students and teachers…especially Reading teachers such as myself.  We spend eight months strengthening the skills that will ultimately be measured through this test.

It was a rough few hours for me.  Physically, I was hurting from my feminine symptoms.  I was also tired, despite going to bed early last night.  When you fast, the first few days are the worst.  Afterward, there’s an energy burst that you don’t get from anything else.  I think I hit a wall today.

So, if I’m a little quiet this week, you’ll know why.

I’m dealing with the big 3’s.

Don’t be jealous.  It doesn’t become you.

😀

Filed under: Teaching, This-n-That | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Murphy’s Law

Posted on April 14, 2012 by auburnchick

Murphy’s Law:  That which you speaketh of wanting to do will never, in fact, occur.

Take, for instance, last night’s post about sleeping in until noon-ish.

I jinxed myself as I typed those words.

I stayed up late reading a book and then hit the sack figuring I had a solid twelve hours of snoozing ahead of me.

That is until I woke up…

At 7am!!!

Seriously?

The house was still quiet…no dogs whining (Rooster didn’t sleep over at anyone’s house, so Gambit was snuggled in his arms).

I did, however, roll over and go back to sleep…

Until 8:30.

Sigh.

So here I sit, awake, and about to tackle a huge mound of grading.

I’m trying to help my students pull their grades up, so I’m allowing a lot of formative work to go into the gradebook.

I also have to grade a “Take-Home” test my classes worked on for two weeks.

Fun stuff.

Happy Saturday to me!

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Tuckered Out

Posted on April 13, 2012 by auburnchick

I just got home from school…

Fourteen hours after leaving home.

I stayed to watch one of my students play in a baseball game.

Then, I stayed to watch the varsity team play.

After a frenetic week of final FCAT preparations plus the extracurricular activities from the week, I am tuckered out.

I feel a lot like the person in this photo…

Tomorrow is Saturday.

If you need me, do yourself a huge favor and don’t call me before…say…twelve-ish or so…

If you do, things will probably get ugly.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

 

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

The Future of Us – A Book Review

Posted on April 12, 2012 by auburnchick

Last night, I finished reading The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler…

A few things drew me to this book.

First of all, its main characters are high schoolers.

I’m all about young adult fiction these days.

The second thing that drew me was the theme of the book…what do you do when you catch a glimpse of your future?

The book takes place in 1996.  It tells the story of two best friends, Emma and Josh.  Their friendship hit a snag six months before when Josh makes a move on his best friend, wanting to escalate the relationship beyond friend status.

When Emma is given a new computer, Josh walks over with an AOL CD he received in the mail (remember those days?).  He’s not allowed to install it on his computer because his parents don’t believe in making the internet available at will.  Emma’s mom is supportive though, figuring it will help Emma with her homework.

After Emma signs on to AOL for the first time, she sees another window and is asked for her password.

She enters the one she uses for everything and…VOILA…she’s taken to a blue and white screen with the word “Facebook” at the top.

Remember that it’s 1996, and Facebook hasn’t been invented yet.

She doesn’t understand what she’s seeing…at first has no idea what the status updates are about; however, it doesn’t take her long to figure things out.

She gets a peek at who she’s married to and who she’s friends with (not to mention who she’s NOT friends with).

Out of curiosity, she looks up Josh’s name, and finds out he’s married and has children.

She and Josh temporarily mend their friendship as they wade through the waters uncertainty and fear while figuring out why their futures keep changing each day.

Through the process, they discover a lot about their present-day selves.

My Thoughts

First off the bat, I loved all of the references to pop culture from the 90’s.  Emma runs with a Discman strapped to her arm.  How funny, eh?  To access the internet, you had to use dial-up, tying up the phone line (boy do I remember that!!).  Emma has to go to the library to get a phone book with California phone numbers (as opposed to going to Whitepages.com).  The mere mention of Wayne’s World, which I never saw, made me giggle.  I also had to chuckle when I read that one of the boys had a beeper and had to find a pay phone to call his girlfriend when she beeped him.  Oh, and there was no LOL back then.  LOL!

Now to the less-superficial part of my review.

I had made the mistake of taking a peek at some of the reviews on GoodReads.com, a site where I keep track of my books.

Some of the people were in disbelief at how shallow Emma comes across and how the characters don’t have much depth.

I am a teacher…

Of high school students.

I’ve seen how ridiculously shallow kids can be.

Heck…I remember what it was like to be a teenager.

Teaching school has taken me back to the angst that accompanies these drama-filled years.

Here’s the thing, though.

Emma GROWS during the time she’s allowed to look into the future.

She discovers things about herself that some people never figure out during their lives.

Josh learns a few lessons along the way as well; however, he is much more grounded than Emma.

I flew through this book.  I couldn’t wait to read about what Emma was going to do next to try to change her future.

I made predictions along the way.

I kept thinking about how much my students would relate to this book with so much of their lives yet to live.

I think this book sends a good message about how the decisions we make today impact our futures.

I think the book also provides a strong warning to not obsess about the future but to enjoy the moment and trust your instincts.

As I closed the cover on this book last night, I couldn’t help but think about my own children as they face their own unwritten futures…unwritten but not unknown to the Lord.

My babies are going to ask some of the same hard questions of themselves, and they’re going to want to look into the future to try to make decisions easier.

Knowing wouldn’t help though as we’d only try to avoid doing those things that would shape our futures the most.

Overall, although I wouldn’t go to this book if I wanted to get down and dirty with the brain thinking thing, it was a pleasure to read, and it’s been fun to chew on some of the questions that the book makes you ask of yourself.

I think it would make a great addition to any young adult’s library.

Filed under: Books, Teaching | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Mastering the Hodgepodge

Posted on April 11, 2012 by auburnchick

After taking a week off to Spring-Break it, Joyce has returned with a new set of questions for the Hodgepodge!  Yay!  You know the drill.  Answer the questions on your own blog and link back up at Joyce’s.  Then, visit others!

1.  Have you ever played golf? Any interest in playing? Do you have a significant other who loves to play? Did you watch The Masters this past weekend?

I have played Putt Putt.  Does that count?  Let’s just say that most people beat me at Putt Putt because I did not inherit one itsy bitsy sports-related gene.  And no, I did not watch the Masters although I really don’t mind watching golf on TV.  I really did not watch my daytime television last weekend.

2.  Hats are back in fashion this spring…how do you feel about wearing a hat? (fyi-I’m not talking baseball caps) When was the last time you wore one?

Oh, I love wearing hats!!!  The only time I do, though, is when the weather is cold.  That’s when I pull out the hats I’ve knit over the years.

Brattleboro Hat

Koolhaas Hat

Mini Mochi Fair Isle Hat

3.  On a scale of 1-10 with 10 meaning proficient and 1 meaning “I’d starve“, how adept are you at using chopsticks?

I’d say a 10 if the question allows for using the chopsticks to shovel the food into my mouth.  Otherwise, I’m not coordinated enough to use chopsticks (although I do knit decently…go figure).

4.  Has technology taken over?

For the most part, I think it has.  It takes computers to run nearly everything, including the cars we drive!!

5.  In the course of a day how often do you look in a mirror?

Tough question!  I do frequent booger checks because I am a teacher and do not want to gross out my kids by having boogers hanging out of my nose.

True dat!

6.  Tulip or Daffodil?

I like the shape of tulips the best.

7.  I am proud of myself for __________________.

I am proud of myself for doing what it took to achieve one of my life-long dreams…teaching.  I went back to school, full-time, while working part-time, rearing two children and traveling across the state and country for soccer.  I didn’t give up even after over a dozen interviews and two years of subbing.  I’m proud of myself for never throwing in the table but having faith that the Lord would see through the plans He had for me.

8.  My Random Thought

A few weeks ago, I put out an SOS on KnittingHelp for baby blankets.  Two of my current students and a student who started out the first half of the year with me are expecting babies.  These girls are babies themselves.  Sigh.  I wanted a way to show them that someone cares about them.  Though I don’t really have time to make each of them a blanket, someone else did.  I received a package in the mail yesterday.  It contained these…

These came from one of KH’s Oddball Blanket coordinators.

Each blanket is themed…

Ahhh…Remar-cable…love the play on words.  Here’s the other side of the blanket (I didn’t want to take the ribbon off and mess up the pretty bow…

The next blanket is called Rainbow Connection…

The third blanket is called “Candy Cane.”

Ever since I started knitting in 2007, I’ve learned that yarnies, whether they are knitters or crocheters, are some of the most generous folks around!  I’m blessed to call myself a member of this community.

Filed under: Knitting, This-n-That | Tagged: , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Tickle My Funny Bone Tuesday

Posted on April 10, 2012 by auburnchick

Ok.

So today isn’t really called “Tickle My Funny Bone Tuesday,” but I wanted to share a few funnies, and because I like playing with words, I figured that this would be a catchy title.

Funny #1

Last Friday, one of my students asked, “Mrs. AuburnChick, are you OCD?”

To which I replied, “No, I’m not.  I just like things a certain way.”

heehee

Funnys #2-whatever (I don’t feel like counting)

I saw this knitting cartoon on Facebook…

I loved it so much, I went hunting for more and found just what I wanted here…

My search led to this…

And eventually this…

Filed under: Knitting, This-n-That | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Monday – A Matter of Perspective

Posted on April 9, 2012 by auburnchick

Oh Monday.

It’s the day of the week that gets a bashing, does it not?

You should try being a Florida reading teacher the last Monday before FCAT week.

Can you say heart attack-in-the-making?

After a couple of rough days last week, I decided to return to the formula that’s been working in my class…STATIONS!

I sprinkled in a solid ten-minute whole group instructional section and set my students loose each period.

It made a huge difference in most of my students’ behavior.

Did you catch the word “most”?

I teach teenagers.

Hence, each class had it’s episode of drama, and I spent some time between classes and after school calling parents and guardians.

I even called a parent during class and let Mama speak to her child.

When the day was finished, however, I found myself describing the day as “pretty good.”

Eh?

Earlier in the year, I would have been pulling out my hair and, perhaps, shedding a tear or two.

I’ve decided that it’s a matter of perspective.

Were my students engaged during class?

Yep.

Did I send a strong message by calling a mama or two?

Uh huh.

Did I collaborate with other teachers?

Yes.

From my perspective, this was a fruitful day, despite the curve balls that I encountered.

Either I’m getting a little more comfortable with my job, or I’m wiped out and too tired to waste as much energy worrying.

Hmmm…it could be a little bit of each.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

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