perspicacious.org

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It's true, this blog is 10 years old today! I started it during my final year of undergrad, while student teaching. I was 22. (Yes, you can do the math!) The past 10 years have been a blast, and while there's obviously too much to share in one blog post, I thought I'd give you some highlights.

The past 10 years
places I've lived: 10
places I've lived without running water: 1
places I've shared with R: 6
years in Alaska: 7
nights of midnight sun: about 500
nights and days of darkness: see above
cats: 2
cat broken legs: 1
summers at camp: 4
miles moved: 4,000 +
cars: 3
homes owned: 1
solo backpacking and camping trips: 6
digital cameras: 5
years teaching: 8
students taught: at least 175
drastic haircuts and grow outs: 4
nieces and nephews: 6
trips to Mexico: 2
coldest temperature experienced: -50 F
warmest temperature experienced: +113 F
major league baseball games: 4
concerts: 8
Paul McCartney concerts: 1
years with R: 6

Can I do another 10? We'll see.

I've been going through my pics from my first teaching job, and it seems so long ago! I taught at a Catholic school in Albuquerque, New Mexico (where I'm from) from 2001 to 2003. I taught 5th grade and had so much fun. My teaching was much less refined then, and I know I have come a long way since then, but I think we did OK.

1. & 2. The kids in their costumes for the spring musical.
3. A field trip to an environmental center in the Sandia Mountains
4. I did the dunk tank for field day
5. I wrote my lessons out longhand and turned a carbon copy in to the principal
6. (center) Kids in the reading area
7. & 8. We made a colonial town
9. During our colonies study we did stations, one of which was to make a mob cap and scarf. It was popular with the boys…
10. & 11. I was Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus for Halloween
12. We had kindergarten buddies
13. I did sometimes make the kids clean their desks

I had a lot of freedom to teach the way I wanted to then, with no pull outs and no real required curricula. I did have to teach religion, though, which I did as minimally and infrequently as possible. I make a lot more now (salaries are good here!), and since I work at a title 1 school we get a fair amount of money for supplies. I have access to so much more technology now. But I don't have any more fun than I did then.

What was your first real job?

The summer has come to an end! We have been so lucky this summer to have a whole 2 and 1/2 months off. Neither R nor I worked at all this summer. She worked on the house and I did work for grad school and we traveled and read lots of books.

Tomorrow I go back to school, and the kiddos come the following week. All good things must end, I guess. What did you do this summer?

[Sunday morning coffee with homemade caramel]

cooking

• I made this Indian makhani chicken on Friday, and it was the best homemade Indian food I've had yet. The recipe is a tad complex, but doable, and the results are spectacular. Serve with rice, naan, and dahl.

• I love this everyday chocolate cake, made in a loaf pan.

• And while we're at it, wouldn't you like a ho ho or ding dong cake? Yes, me too.

• Super easy freezer margaritas. Ole!

things to make and do

• Make your own Land of Oz. This rocks. She also made all of the little people and animals, and it's worth reading this post for that description alone.

• Make homemade hand sanitizer. This is a nice classroom project.

• Two awesome projects for beginning writers and spellers– alpha rocks (I love these!!) and duplo block spellers. Both are easy and wonderfully clever.

• A popsicle stick and rubber band harmonica.

• This awesome website sets you up with someone to send postcards back and forth. Sounds fun!

Back to school on Wednesday, so I'll be hunting for more classroom ideas and less stuff for me!

A friend invited me to pick raspberries earlier this week at a farm. I've picked wild raspberries before, but never big fat ones growing in nice rows in a field! I think I'm converted. A hour and half and about $10 later I had four pounds of raspberries.

I ate a lot of them. Ever notice how much better they taste fresh off of the bush? I also froze a lot of them. I froze them on a baking sheet in batches, and then put the frozen raspberries into vacuum freezer bags. I have 4 quarts waiting in the freezer. It will be so nice to have them this winter.

And, as you can see, I baked a cobbler! I used the Cook's Illustrated blueberry cobbler recipe, and substituted a mix of raspberries (picked by me) and blackberries (from the store). It was pretty tasty! Cobblers are really easy. Definitely try one if you've got berries and an hour to spare.