Get the Funk out!

Hey friends. Just wanted to drop a shorty short note and let you know that I haven’t forgotten about you! I forgot my phone number, my address and my kid’s birthday, but not about you! Ha ha! just kidding, mostly.

We are just winding up our school year and it’s crazy how it seems to go faster the closer we get to the end. I don’t get it, it never seemed to work that way when I was a kid!

I’m also dealing with some feelings of nostalgia. A funk, really. My son, my oldest, my most precious first-born is finishing elementary school today. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone. They have been wonderful years and they’re coming to an end. Next year he’s in middle school. And on top of that, we’re putting him in a private middle school, which is um, less than appealing to him. The public school in our district is a very good school, my problem with it is the fact that 14 elementary schools come together in one building for a class of approximately 1100 kids, PER GRADE. In one building. Yeah, can you say ginormous? We don’t want him to fall thru the cracks or feel like he’s not worthy or good enough. The school we’re putting him in has 35 kids in the 5th grade right now, in two classes. It goes thru 8th grade and then feeds to one of three private high schools. It has been a very difficult decision to come to and it’s a serious commitment for the next 7 years and beyond. I think the part of it that’s the hardest for me, besides the end of elementary school, is seeing him unhappy. He so does not want to go. One of his classmates will be going to this school, and he knows a few other kids there (it’s connected to our church in the way that Catholic schools are part of a parish I guess) so it won’t be a sea of unfamiliar faces. I think the reality’s setting in and it’s a major change. Even though I’ve told him it will be a major change either way. Agh, it’s tough being a parent sometimes.

And of course, in the midst of all of these mixed emotions, some numbnuts computer genius managed to get his stupid malware virus on my laptop, so it’s at the IT guy’s right now getting a thorough cleaning. Grr. If those ppl would use their brains for good, think about what a world we’d live in!

So, please forgive me for not posting any new recipes for a bit. I’ll be back next week with some delicious offerings. Think about roasted Vidalia onions, tomatillo salsa verde, and Tuscan chicken to name a few. Come back next week and see what’s new!

I can’t believe I survived!

Yes, it’s true. I’m really kind of surprised I made it out unscathed and I didn’t even have to use a cattle prod/taser/chair and whip or anything like that! Where was I? I was surrounded by the gnashing teeth, flying fists and bouncy feet of a classroom of 2nd graders! My daughter’s teacher had an appointment and asked if I could sit in for her for a couple of hours. Sure. How hard can it be, right?

Um, ok, stop right there. My mother was a teacher for eons it seems and I always heard the stories of underappreciation. Not to mention we’re in the state that is next to last as far as teacher pay goes. Which doesn’t lend itself to a lot of people wanting to stay here and teach. So, the ones who are here, are the ones who really want to be here, it’s not for the money that’s for sure.

And yes, it’s tough. Especially right now in the times of cutbacks on school funding and increasing class sizes. You try dealing with 25 to 27 eight year olds. They’re too smart for their own good and not much gets past them. Not to mention, they’re trying to pull one over on me because they think I don’t know any better! For some crazy reason, they think I was born on a Monday, and it was yesterday! No, seriously, they were good, for the most part. 

The moral of my story today, if you have children in school, thank their teachers. Give them little gifts for Christmas or their birthdays. Show them your thanks. They really do have the most important job on the planet. Without them, we’d still be living in caves, carrying clubs around. Or if you are the one in school, take care of your teacher, they are preparing you for the rest of your life, even if you can’t fathom why you have to take that speech class, or how algebra is going to figure in the rest of your life as a lawyer or physical therapist.

I’m still here!

Hey all! I hope everyone is doing well. I just wanted to drop a quickie and say I’m still among the living! There have been no life altering events, just the normal craziness of a life with two busy children and a husband that is constantly on the go. Oh and loads of volunteering at school. Remind me the next time someone asks ‘Do you have time to…….?’ I should probably say no!

 I have several recipes I”m going to share next week when I get a chance to take a breath. And guess what Debs! I took pictures of most of them! Yay me!

In the meantime, you guys have a great weekend!

Do you ever have that ‘Charlie Brown’ feeling?

I know you know what I mean. You’ve seen Charlie Brown, right? What I”m talking about is the part where he’s going to kick the ball and Lucy promises she won’t move it this time. So poor Charlie takes Lucy at her word, gives it his best running start, kicks with all his might and BAM! He’s suddenly on his back looking at the sky and doesn’t know how he got there.

That’s kind of how I feel right now, frustrated, deflated, aggravated. We were having issues with our children’s school bus picking up the kids too early and dropping them at school before the doors would open, so they are all standing there unsupervised and unattended until the school opens. Call me crazy, but I don’t care to have my precious child standing around like that every morning. And for some stupid reason, they’ve started having a late start date on Fridays, which left them outside for 10 minutes, not just 5. I don’t particularly care for either of those scenarios. Dont’ get me wrong, we live in a very safe part of town, and school is in a nice neighborhood, but bad things happen everywhere. And I do know who my children’s parents are and it’s not just a matter of someone else doing something bad, but my children could have an accident and get injured.

Knowing this, I sent a note to the director of transportation and our school’s principal and requested they review the pick up time and simply adjust it by 5 or 10 minutes. An easy fix. Here’s where I get the Charlie Brown feeling. No one of consequence, no one in the transportation department responded to me. Well, I take that back. The asst director responded after my third email to say they were working on it. But that was the last I heard from him. when I finally got the info on the change, it came as a forward from our principal. I’m sorry, but I don’t appreciate being ignored. It would’ve been really easy to just drop a note and say, ‘yes, we are looking at it’  or ‘here’s what we’re doing’. Instead I got silence and that just pisses me off. It’s unprofessional and rude in my poor little mind. My friend called about it and she was given a totally different story.

I can totally relate to Charlie.  AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!

I’ll get over it, I’m just unhappy at how it was handled. How I was handled. blech.

Brown nosing?

Ok, I have  a question for my friends/readers who have school-age children. Do you take a gift for your child’s teacher on the first day of school? Be honest! I have always taken a little goodie for them to start the year, just to show that we appreciate them. I love to bake, it’s usually grandma’s recipe banana bread. Then during the year, I’ll make them other things, like pumpkin bread around Thanksgiving, or cookies at Christmas, normally in a cute and reusable container-a gift in a gift.

Or, if you are, or were a teacher, when children bring you little gifts like that, did you feel like they were trying to get on your good side, or did you just appreciate the gesture?

My mom taught school for 30+ years and it’s a really important and difficult job. Many times, they don’t hear the positive reinforcement, they hear from the parents when they’re upset about homework, or behavior/discipline issues. They take work home with them on a regular basis, they spend their own money on supplies and extras, and in our state, they work for a lot less than what they could make in neighboring states because they love what they do. To me, making them some yummy goodies is the least I can do to show them that we really do appreciate the job that they are doing.

The reason for this post was a comment that was made to a friend of mine. She told me that on the ‘meet the teacher’ night, she and her daughter took some brownies to the teacher. Her daughter is the same age as mine, 7, and she loves to bake with her mom and it was her idea to make these treats. Another mom saw my friend with the gift bag and said to her face, ‘Brown noser.’ Really? I was floored. My thought is you can think anything you want, but you don’t have to say everything that pops into your tiny little pea brain. Was she upset that someone else thought of it and she didn’t? Or did she really think my friend was sucking up? I don’t know, I just think that was incredibly rude to say, especially when there are young children near by.

So my question for you is do you do anything like this for your child/children’s teacher? Or do you think it’s ‘sucking up’? And if you do feel like it’s someone trying to make ‘brownie points’ with the teacher, why do you feel that way? I’m just trying to learn what would move someone to say something like that, and I understand I may never know. Oh well, I will continue doing what I do, because I know they enjoy it and they deserve to be spoiled, even just a little bit. The job they do is incredibly important. If you are a teacher reading this, know that we love and appreciate you and the job you do!

Time flies

Wow is all I can say. Today my children went back to school. On one hand, I’m sad to see summer go. We had a good summer, lots of fun and new friends for all of us.  And today marks the first day of my son’s last year in elementary school. Still can’t get my head around that part. My boy, my precious first child is nearly 10 and will be starting middle school next year! Love my kids.

I would like to wish all kids a wonderful school year with lots of new friends and experiences and learning new things. And to the parents out there, I wish you a good year as well. We want good teachers who will take care of our most precious gifts, guide them and help them move on to the next stage of their educations careers.