Home maker points!

Seth and I deserve some home maker points this week. First, we had most of Seth's cooking appliances get donated to another location. As we started making hamburgers Tuesday night, we soon realized that we no longer had any bowls to mix the seasonings into! Thankfully, we were near the end of our Red Vines bulk licorice container, and we massaged the spices into the beef. It worked well!

I made Rice Krispie Treats for the first time in my life, too. It was on an impulse: Rice Krispies were on sale, and I wanted to do something with them! They turned out well--especially for my first time. Although, I guess it's kind of hard to mess up a recipe so simple!

Tonight Seth put the rest of the beef in some macaroni and cheese. Mmmmm...combined with some kettle BBQ chips, we had a delicious meal. While going out to eat is certainly a treat, it doesn't compare with the full circle feeling of fulfillment that I sometimes feel with eating at home. Maybe it's the whole caveman instincts of stabbing the prey, dragging it home, skinning it, cooking it, eating it, and throwing away the bones idea. Who knows.

Seth and I have been starting our mornings with some prayer and Scripture at 7AM. It's right before I leave for school, but it's a sacrifice for him. He usually doesn't have a cut and dry schedule, which allows for plenty of flexibility. Instead of sleeping in, he wakes up early with me. It's been neat to connect in that way with each other and with God in the morning. *insert Tim Allen grunt here*

Thomas Jefferson University is about to sell Philadelphia's most famous painting, The Gross Clinic for $68 million. The painting was originally purchased by alumni for the school for $200! There's quite a bit of discontent from faculty, alumni, and students about the decision, which the University is justifying by saying that the painting will receive much more exposure in a national museum. A Jefferson memorial plaque will always be in display next to the painting. The city has 45 days to match the offer. Many see the painting as a symbol of Philadelphia, which says a lot for a city that values art so much.

Things at school have been going well recently. Today was one of those times when I felt a little lazy. You see, there are six class periods in a day, and I only taught for 4 of them. The other two I had off for planning or tech support. When I think of myself as simply the technology teacher, I feel lazy for not teaching as much as many of my fellow teachers. But when I think of myself as a technology teacher/network administrator/tech support for both schools' staff and faculty, I can justify my lessened teaching! It is crazy how quickly time goes by, however. My success for the day was connecting my newly formatted computers to a color inkjet and a b/w laser printer and sharing them on the school's new network. Woo hoo!!

Free stuff update: Sarah had a meeting for those interested in family medicine tonight, and they had a TON of extra Chinese food! After stuffing gladware to the gills and filling up the freezer, we decided to go door-to-door in her apartment building of Jefferson students to get rid of the rest of it. We were mostly successful in distributing food, and we made several friends along the way. It was cool how this was on the heels of our church meeting last night about building community in our communities, and how God provided a way to reach out to all the people on the 3rd floor of Barringer! One girl was a 4th year who offered to let Sarah borrow her board study books or answer any questions she has about the upcoming years. Another girl seemed a little lonely and was very grateful to meet more people. She said she's always up for hanging out! It was interested to observe the reactions of people to free food. Everyone was asking why, and almost half of the people we saw declined our offer. Guess some people still believe there's no such thing as a free lunch.

A beautiful day to skip school

Talk about timing! I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for late this morning, and my principal said I didn't have to come back to school (since I don't have any classes Wed PM for prep/tech support time). The weather here was GORGEOUS--70s and bright sunshine. I celebrated with a bike ride to the city, sat outside for a while, Sarah and I went for a run, then we joined our friend Melanie to ride to church for a meeting on community (more to come on that hopefully tomorrow). It felt so good to be outside and hang out. Thanks for that, God.

Is it just me, or is our country in trouble when it costs more to park for a doctor's appointment than for the appointment itself ($10 copay for the visit with my insurance and $12 for parking with my doctor's validation stamp!). Wow.

Balance

Does one ever discover balance in one's life? I'm beginning to believe that balance is analogous to humility--just when you think you've got it, you don't.

In other news, I made Rice Krispies Treats tonight. Kind of a spur of the moment thing...I saw Rice Krispies on sale and decided to make them! For those of you outside the Philadelphia area, you'll have to trust me that they taste dandy.

After hearing multiple people at church and school talk about Heroes, I decided to check out the show tonight. I enjoyed it! I'd say it's a good adventure show that reminded me of Early Edition somewhat (may that show rest in peace!). I can't justify watching it by myself every week, but if it was more of a community building experience, I would certainly enjoy it.

A useful gift idea

For those of you shopping for one of those "hard to buy for" shoppers, I recommend the Swiss Army Card Lite. I keep it in my wallet next to my credit cards. It's been a recent lifesaver! The pen has come in handy for writing last minute notes, scribbling down contact information, or paying credit card bills, and the screwdriver function is perfect for taking apart computers. My parents bought this gift for me last year, and I'd recommend it for anyone else!

(I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not getting and commissions for swiss army card sales...I simply have appreciated my card immensely in recent days)

Microbiology songs

A few posts back I talked about the musical microbiology lunchtime lecture I attended at Jefferson with Sarah. Since I know you all have been on the edge of your seat to have the words, I finally have them online. Enjoy!

Encouragement

Regardless of how this week started, I must say it ended well. I have felt so encouraged the last two days--and for entirely different reasons.

Yesterday was encouraging because I felt like I was truly equipping my students, and they were excited about learning. Most of the ways I've seen other, more experienced teachers teach in my schools have been to be very direct and show the kids exactly what is expected of them. I've been mimicking that style so far. Well, I decided to try something different as we began a new personal profile project to teach advanced editing in Microsoft Word (middle school). I gave the students a sample I created about me, showed them my requirements and a rubric, and told them they were in middle school, so I wasn't going to hold their hand through this assignment--they had to THINK on their own. The results were beyond my wildest dreams! It was great!! The kids were engaged and focused on the task for the entire time period. I felt very encouraged.

I also had a few 7th graders actually THANK me for teaching them some keyboard shortcuts. Just out of the blue! They said "thank you for teaching us these! They work great!" It knocked my socks off.

Then I played a slideshow I made out of the apple orchard pictures for the primary grades, and they were quite pleased as well. Maybe it's the people pleaser in me, but I enjoyed serving all those students in those ways in one day!

Today we didn't have students, as we had a faculty meeting all day (financial planning, study skills, report card info, scheduling stuff, etc.). After we finished at 3, I tackled the donated computers to format them and get them setup for our resource room. Well, I left school at about 10:15! The time went by quickly, and I never even touched the pizza or PB&J I had in the room with me. AND! I got all the computers up and running with the phone support of Peter Van Wylen and some swapping floppy drives. It wasn't exhausting, even though it was a 13 hour day. (actually, I brought one machine home and have been working on it for the last hour) Sometimes, the motivation just kicks in! Thanks, Jesus.

Tomorrow I'm going to go watch the Michigan/Indiana game with Eric Summers. Go blue!!!

Never a dull moment

So...our school's bad week got worse today. On the bus ride to gym, our 5th graders were hit by a trolley. Not hard, but still hit. They were all brought to the children's hospital as precautionary. Everyone is okay, thank God, but it has our faculty wondering how soon this week will end!