My Week in Moments

The Joys of Domesticity

This week I tried out three new recipes, and all two of them ended up tasting delicious!  (Two out of three, not bad!)  I tend to be a wreck in the kitchen, but I'm learning... and slowly but surely I'm improving.  On Sunday night I tried out this easy chicken curry recipe... only I didn't have all the ingredients.  Instead of red curry powder, I could only find regular curry powder.  And instead of garam masala, I just ended up dumping MORE curry powder.  Turns out garam masala is a spice mixture with about a zillion different spices in it.  Whoops.  The curry ended up being pretty bland, but I forced myself to choke it down for lunch three days in a row.

For our Thursday night Bible Study I made parmesan crusted tilapia, and it was such a hit even my vegetarian roommate Joelle ate it!

Then today, I mastered the slow-cooker pork roast.  MMMM.  It's delicious.  Understandably, Joelle only enjoyed the potatoes, onions, and carrots on that one. :)

The only problem with my cooking is I tend to make enough to feed a family of 6 every time.  Then I'm stuck with leftovers for days.  I'm trying to remember to freeze things, but I'm not always great about it.  Someday I will have another person to cook for and it won't be so bad. :)

Classroom Treasures

Another third grade teacher and I have recently begun leveling our classes for math, and I am loving it.  Granted, I got the easy job: I get to teach the "high" (read: grade level) class.  In any case, on Thursday I was at my wits' end with these kiddos as they were not following directions, and I ended up dismissing them back to their regular room before everything was clean.  My students returned and were left with the task of putting our classroom back together and a very grouchy teacher.

Sweet Nancy* called me out on my mean disposition, and I apologized to the class, since it really was not their fault.  She smirked at me confidently, and we continued on with our next activity.  Afterward, I said something along the lines of, "Great job, guys!  I'm really proud of you!" and I glance over and see Nancy respond with "Yesss!  I knew we could do it!"  She wanted so badly for her teacher to smile again.  It was really tender and reminded me of just how sensitive these young hearts are.  I am a blessed woman indeed.

 

*Name has been changed 

Grading Day

Friday was grading day.  No students.  No meetings.  Nothing.  It was wonderful! I was able to input my grades by 10:20 in the morning and had the rest of the day to organize my file cabinet, a task I would have done otherwise, but this time I was paid to do it!  Yippee!