ohhhhhhhhhh the holidays are coming! i'm so looking forward to gift giving, christmas trees, giant feasts, and family galore.
for an inspirational start to the season, read about this family's tradition. i LOVE that the idea focuses on quality time, generosity, creativity, and does not promote materialism.
gabrielle (design mom) doesn't share about it in this particular article, but i'm pretty sure hers is the family that gives one clothing item, one toy, and one book to each child at christmas. i plan on stealing that idea some day.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
on avoiding procrastionation 1: cooking style
i'm currently putting off lesson planning in order to write a post about planning ahead when cooking. kinda ironic, eh?
this year i think i'm much more proficient at meal planning than i was last year. i start my shopping list/weekly meal list on thursday night when the store fliers come. by monday, when i go shopping, i have a complete plan & list. i'm trying to figure out how to decrease the amount i spend each week, but that's another post in itself. this post is about planning my meals ahead of time. here are a few examples from my kitchen lately:
1. last saturday we had our third annual oktoberfest. i signed up to bring chili, corn muffins, and caramel corn. since i had plans in the early afternoon, i did all my cooking when i woke up. i got all the chili ingredients ready in the crock pot & put it in the fridge for joel to turn on later. the corn muffins went in a bag to stay fresh & the caramel corn got wrapped up tightly. (all the food i made was demolished quickly, so i'd say that effort was a grand success!)
2. tonight's another good example of prepping/cooking ahead. friday nights are a bit more rushed so i planned what to make on friday (recipe via "the good neighbor cookbook") and started part of it while cooking tonight's dinner. speaking of that... joel comes home late from grad school so i try to have dinner ready by 7:45pm. tonight is also lesson-planning night so i started my chicken broccoli casserole (recipe via my mom) as soon as i got home. while the chicken/broccoli cooked, i started my plans. then i took a break to mix up the other ingredients and get it ready to put in the oven, which i'll do about 30 minutes before joel's due home.
(accidentally ripped my recipe!)
*on a related note, for the recipe i made for friday, i tried this garlic peeling trick for the first time. worked like a dream!
**on another related note, all this prep-ahead causes my sink to look like this. my darling husband's been doing the dishes basically all week, but i'm going to clean these bad boys up tonight before he comes home from class.
this year i think i'm much more proficient at meal planning than i was last year. i start my shopping list/weekly meal list on thursday night when the store fliers come. by monday, when i go shopping, i have a complete plan & list. i'm trying to figure out how to decrease the amount i spend each week, but that's another post in itself. this post is about planning my meals ahead of time. here are a few examples from my kitchen lately:
1. last saturday we had our third annual oktoberfest. i signed up to bring chili, corn muffins, and caramel corn. since i had plans in the early afternoon, i did all my cooking when i woke up. i got all the chili ingredients ready in the crock pot & put it in the fridge for joel to turn on later. the corn muffins went in a bag to stay fresh & the caramel corn got wrapped up tightly. (all the food i made was demolished quickly, so i'd say that effort was a grand success!)
Monday, October 31, 2011
overheard in my classroom 2
"if you're gonna be my girlfriend, you gotta start acting like it. you gotta be nice to me"
HA!
HA!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Good Neighbor Cookbook
my brother-in-law gave me an amazon giftcard for my birthday (what a brilliant idea!) so the first thing i bought was a book i've been eying for a while.
it's organized into categories based on appropriate-ness of recipes: bringing home baby, church potlucks/PTA meetings, new neighbors, summer BBQs/block parties, condolences, "get well soon", etc.
i already ear-marked a couple pages to use in the future (whenever any of my friends has a new baby and/or if new neighbors move in nearby!). i also added the ingredients for one recipe to my week's shopping list because i want to make it next saturday. just for us. yum!
it's organized into categories based on appropriate-ness of recipes: bringing home baby, church potlucks/PTA meetings, new neighbors, summer BBQs/block parties, condolences, "get well soon", etc.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
halloween idea!
halloween is monday and this weekend we already have lots of fun (& school work!) planned. but next year i might try this idea for carving pumpkins... using cookie cutters! (i found the link via design mom)
what fun!
Friday, October 28, 2011
overheard in my classroom 1
"a little boy was nekkid playing on the floor in the bathroom"
(sadly, i couldn't stop my laughter after this comment & it encouraged the kids to keep saying it over and over. oops. but come ON! nekkid on the floor?! who was that kid?!)
"ooooooooooh, your mom's pretty" (said to one of my girls)
"mrs. alberts, i love you"
"you draaaaaawin!! that's so draaaaaawin!"
and the best part of my day today:
"you're amazing. i've only been here an hour and i'm exhausted!"
[well, thanks, mom of a new student!]
(sadly, i couldn't stop my laughter after this comment & it encouraged the kids to keep saying it over and over. oops. but come ON! nekkid on the floor?! who was that kid?!)
"ooooooooooh, your mom's pretty" (said to one of my girls)
"mrs. alberts, i love you"
"you draaaaaawin!! that's so draaaaaawin!"
and the best part of my day today:
"you're amazing. i've only been here an hour and i'm exhausted!"
[well, thanks, mom of a new student!]
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