Snow Days!

It's a great time to be a student AND teacher!   Last Saturday almost 9 inches of snow fell across our state and temps have been in the single digits!  Today was the first day since Saturday that the temp. has been above 26 degrees!  The kids (and teachers) have been out of school going on day 3 tomorrow.   Despite what people think, some teachers do work at home on these days though. It's a great time to catch up on what needs to be done at your leisure.  It's also a good time for recharging...yes, I know we just had Christmas vacation but was it really a vacation (you know the saying, "I need a vacation from the vacation."). So after one week back in the grove we are off for 3 days, working for 2 and then off again for a 3 day weekend.

Our snow days have been filled with football, food and fun!  Today was the first day it was really nice enough to get outside though.  Our son has been waiting for good packing snow to build his famous "perfect snowman", today was finally the day!

             

On Monday night we enjoyed "football food" and kinda watched the college game.  We really didn't have a preference about which team won; the ACC/SEC, Clemson or Alabama, but we do love a good excuse to fix yummy finger foods! I found a great recipe for homemade sriracha chicken tenders so we tried them out.  Mmmm...mmm good!!  For someone who is not a fan of hot (spicy) food, I loved them! Of course you have to make the delicious sour cream sauce to dip them in too.  Along with chicken tenders we had deer meat wrapped in bacon and shrimp on the grill. DELICIOUS! 

And secretly we're glad Clemson won the game!

I also spent time doing some work related things, grading papers and adding an item to TPT.  Click here to get your free copy of Counting on Neighbors (adding) and Goodbye Neighbors (subtracting) to use for math stations in your classroom.  It's a great fun way to reinforce the counting on  and counting back 1,2,3 strategies.

Alas, today is our last snow day and conditions don't look favorable for anymore snow anytime soon.  With a warm up today and temps in the 60's (only in VA can you go from 0 to 65 in the same week) we should be back to school tomorrow but today we'll enjoy!

2017 is underway!

The first day of 2017 has been quiet.  Turned out to be a relaxing way to spend the first day of the New Year and hope that it's an indication of things to come.  It will be a busy year with one of our boys graduating and starting college and another who will finish middle school and start HS in the fall. All anxious but exciting changes for everyone!

So this week it was back to work (school) and routines. something every evening...but I'm taking time tonight to relax and watch the impending weather forecast (when I should probably be grading some papers)  Why does it have to snow on the weekend!? Time to pull out the soup recipes, line up the movies and a good book or two and pile up the blankets. We'll keep our fingers for a good ole snow day (or two) this winter

One of my FAVORITE go to winter soups is Cheesy Vegetable Chowder from Lulu the Baker's site. I absolutely love it! Click on the link  above to visit her site and get this delicious recipe and many others!!

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Another soup (well, really it's a stew) that we LOVE is Chicken Stew from Christy Jordan's site, Southern Plate.

 It's a great recipe but I do make some changes... I never use the whole chicken, just chicken breasts that I boil and shred (she suggests this in her recipe and honestly it's just much easier).  I use the water from the boiled chicken and some low sodium chicken broth to get 7 cups of liquid.  I don't add quite that much sugar as my husband doesn't like it to taste sweet, I usually go with about a tablespoon if that much and I sometimes use a bag of mixed vegetables; corn, green beans, peas and lima beans just to get some more vegetables into it. The pictures from her blog really help with the process! The mashed potatoes and butter that you add make it great!! I hope you'll check it out!

                                                                       Chicken Stew

So there you have it, two great recipes (at least they are some of our favorites) for some 

cold winter days!

Enjoy!! And keep your fingers crossed for one or two (or more) good snow days!

2016 Comes to an End...

Personally I am glad to see 2016 come to an end.  It has been a year of changes and challenges and quite honestly I'm exhausted.  While I am thankful for each day, I feel I'm in a constant state of problem solving, putting out fires,cleanning up the mess and trying to forget. I find it hard to unwind and relax enough to enjoy what I have and those I love.  I want to do more of what I enjoy, I want to feel less pressured and distracted by the demands others and work obligations put on me.  So I look forward to closing 2016 and starting  2017 with a fresh outlook.

Good bye 2016!

ANOTHER shark cake...

Yes, again this year our son chose a shark cake...beginning to think we are running out of designs. This year I had lots of fancy ideas but he wanted to keep it simple. Lucky for me HE drew the template and all I had to do was trace and create it onto the cake.

Here is his original template prior to "creation". Glad I have such a great little artist!

More cakes...

I've made a couple of cakes this summer. Since July is our son's birthday making at least one is unavoidable, but last week I made another one for a bridal shower. I was nervous, but up for the challenge. It was fun and I think turned out well. I learned some things to do differently and some things I will not change. I also decided to make all the cakes from scratch.  Usually I just use a box mix and change the ingredients around some...you know the old trick...but this time I decided to take on the whole thing from scratch and to my delight relief (and the delight of those who were my taste testers) it turned out well! The cakes were moist and flavorful.  The icing was an excellent compliment to the cake and it was pretty.   Ahhhhh, success....  

Bridal shower cake...

The top tier is chocolate the bottom yellow. You can get the recipes for the chocolate here: 

http://foodess.com/2011/03/moist-chocolate-cake/ 

and the yellow cake here: http://barbbrinker.blogspot.com/2014/01/moist-yellow-cake.   

            

                They are real flowers. 

  

Shark Cake!

This is all still new to me...I am trying to become familiar with adding a post onto a page that already exists and I am just not sure how this works but by trial and error I will overcome this obstacle!


Our youngest son turned 10 in July. I can't believe this is possible, wasn't he just born?  We really do have to wonder how does that time seem to pass so quickly and other moments (usually unwanted ones) seem to stand still. Our son is fascinated obsessed with sharks (right now).  Everything is sharks, shark toys, shark shows and yes, we must have a shark cake... It wasn't easy and my shark ended up with a serious under bite, but it served the purpose...he LOVED it.  I made a few shark fin cupcakes too...

A Box of Sunshine!

I recently found out that someone very special to me was diagnosed with breast cancer.  My thoughts are with her constantly and since we do not live near each other texts, calls, emails and yes, Facebook keeps us in touch.  She had surgery and begins treatments soon.  She has always been someone that I look up to, always giving the right advice with a  straightforward approach while sprinkling in a touch of her mother's (who I also thought was wonderful) wisdom. She is strong and I know she will come through this and be even stronger.Since she weighs heavily on my mind each day and I can't be there to help, I decided to send her a "Box of Sunshine" in hopes of brightening her days. After seeing a similar box on Pinterest, box of sunshine, I decided to start collecting my "yellow" things to fill the box.  It didn't take long..

Pretty bright...sunshiny...just the look I was going for...

Here are some of the things I included in the box:

• coffee (it was in a yellow bag)
• nail files
• notepad & pen
• Lemonheads
• handsoap
• a shower scrubby
• bodywash
• M&Ms (peanut)
• Post-its
• A big Tervis mug with a bumblebee on it and a yellow lid
• juicy fruit gum
• a coffee mug (You can see it in the front of the box. It wasn't yellow but when I saw it on Pinterest I had to make one for her. I tried to put the link I saw on Pinterest but the site is gone.)
• Roasted pecans (Tied with a yellow ribbon.  I put those because my children were upset that her husband was not getting anything in the box.  Knowing he liked roasted pecans I made a batch to include.)

There are so many options for yellow things to fill the box.  She was very excited to get the box! She said the mug I made brought tears (kind of not the purpose of the "sunshine box", but I know they were happy tears). I know she will make it through this little setback and come out shining!!  

Here is the mug up close... 

 Write your message on the mug, then bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 250 degrees.  

Tip: Before baking your mug you can "erase" your message with some nail polish and a q-tip.  I would only hand wash the mug although some site say they are top rack dishwasher safe.