"Real" Retirement and a Summery Summary

Today is the day that all the district teachers start back to work.  And I'm not there!  Although I officially retired as of June 30, it didn't feel any different since I'm accustomed to the 8 weeks of a more leisurely pace.  So I'm considering today, the first day of retirement!  I got up at 5:30 am to head to a water aerobics class with my husband.  We've been going to a 7 am class, 3 days a week.  While I don't like getting up early, I AM awake after 23 years of an early start.  Plus he usually leaves for work about 5:30, so it is hard to sleep.  And I get back home about 8:15, and then have the whole day to do whatever.

It's been a busy summer.  We've had a few final touches put on the house --- things like shelving, extra towel racks, finishing the painting of the interior garage walls.  We've also been sprucing up the old house in an attempt to get it sold as soon as possible.  It took me a couple of weeks to find homes for the stuff I brought home for school too.

We also went to Great Britain for 10 days the first part of August.  We've gone before, but this time we took some friends with us who had never been to Europe.  Although we traveled pretty much the same route we took the first time we went, we went in the opposite direction and got to explore some new sights.  We also had tickets to the Military Tattoo in Edinborough which was amazing.  Some of the new sights we visited were Kensington Gardens, Hampton Court, Stonehenge, and Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott.    We also went to Bath, the Lake District (best gingerbread ever in Grasmere), Gretna Green, York, Cambridge, and London of course.

Kensington Palace:

Hampton Court pictures:

The day we went to Stonehenge was perfect --- blustery with threatening clouds which set a great ambience.

We did go to Bath again. Another place where there's plenty to see!

  Another highlight was a narrowboat cruise in Wales.

Another new stop for us was Chester, one of the oldest standing walled medieval cities.

Its cathedral has terrifically intricate wood carvings in the choir stall, and gorgeous tiled floors.  I took a ton of wood carving pics, but it was too dark for most of them to come out well.  

Edinborough was packed with people for the tattoo and for the Fringe Festival.  They close off a portion of the Royal Mile, the main road in Old Town that goes from Holyrood Castle to the Castle where the Tattoo is held nightly for 3 weeks.  At times it was hard to walk with all the people.  And of course, it's all uphill!

The tattoo is an amazing spectacle.  It lasts about 2 hours.  There are bands, mostly military,  from all over the UK and the world, as well as dancers, other musicians, and singers.  The word tattoo derives from the Dutch, and originally was a musical signal from an army barracks that the barkeepers in town could hear.  It signaled that the bars had to close and all the military men had to return to their barracks.   Aside from the bagpipes and drums, we also were gifted with performances from the US Air Force Drill Team, the US Citadel band, a military band from China, dancers from India, fiddlers from the Shetland Islands, and some incredible Chinese dancers.

And from Abbottsford, home of Sir Walter Scott:

A few shots from York Minster, in York.  This was a repeat visit, but there's so much to see here.

Stamford

And a few shots around London:

These are only a fraction of the pictures I took!  

So my"Summer Vacation" was grand.  Now for an enjoyable retirement!!  (So far on day 1, I did my water aerobics class, went grocery shopping,  had lunch, and  am now headed out for my annual  physical.  Then to a local farm to pick up my CSA share.  Phew!)

Review: The Darkness & the Deep

The Darkness & the Deep by Aline Templeton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Marjorie Fleming has her hands full when the town's lifeboat crew is lost when they're lured to Fuil's Inlet instead of the town harbor. In addition, a new DC has joined her team, and his belief that he knows more than his new colleagues makes it difficult for her. She and her family are just beginning to get back to normal after hoof and mouth disease devastated their family farm as well as those of their neighbors. An on-going drug investigation may be connected with the lifeboat tragedy, or it a revenge killing based on infidelity? This was another gripping story!

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Review: Blue Lightning

Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ann Cleeves has created a truly believable protagonist in the person of Jimmy Perez. When he returns to Fair Isle, his birthplace, to introduce his fiancee to his parents, their visit is marred by the murder of a scientist from the island's birding center. Aside from a tightly plotted narrative, Cleeves' depiction of the island's environment and culture is as much a part of the story as the events themselves. This is the 4th installment in the Shetland Island series, and it's a gripping tale. After reading the 1st four novels, I also want to visit the islands!

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Review: Maine

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alice dreams of going to art school and becoming an artist, but in her Boston Irish Catholic family, her wages are needed to help pay the mortgage once she finishes high school. She eventually marries, after a tragedy occurs which she feels responsible for. At the end of World War II, her husband wins some prime waterfront property in Oguniquit, Maine in a card game, and thus a family summer home is established. Alice is now quite elderly, living on her own in Boston during the winter, and then spending the warmer months in Maine. Her family has grown and they take turns spending time at the family cottage. The book focuses on one summer when Alice, her daughter-in-law Ann Marie, her daughter Kathleen, and her granddaughter Maggie all wind up at the summer home. From flashbacks and the main character perspectives, the reader is drawn into the family history, both happy and unhappy, and over the course of a few weeks, long-held resentments and family secrets are aired.

I enjoyed the characters, and the details about places I'm familiar with. It's clear the author has spent some time in Oqunquit,and in the Boston area.

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Review: Cold In The Earth

Cold In The Earth by Aline Templeton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel introduces DI Marjorie Fleming. Daughter of a now-retired police legend, Fleming struggles to balance her work life with her life as a wife and mother. She also keeps hoping, in vain, for her father's approval. When the body of a missing woman is unearthed during the excavation of a burial pit for slaughtered cattle, Marjorie has to determine whether she was the victim of homicide or accident, and why the body was secretly buried. The land on which the body is found belongs to the Masons, breeders of rare cattle. The Masons are legendary for their beyond the pale tempers and perhaps even madness which makes Fleming's investigation even harder. The novel is set in a corner of Scotland, during the outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. One of Fleming's jobs is to enforce the quarantine and herd-slaughter rules, which pits her against her neighbors as well as her own family's livelihood.

I enjoyed this novel although the depiction of the Masons seemed a bit over-the-top. One the other hand, Fleming's portrayal of a professional, extremely competent detective struggling to balance the demands of all her responsibilities was spot on. I will be reading more.

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New Furniture

As mentioned in my last post, we bought some new furniture this week.  It was delivered yesterday, exactly when they said they'd come.  I love my local furniture store - Plotkins, in Keene, NH.  It's a family-owned store, and while they can't really compete with the big box store furniture stores (Jordan's, Bernie & Phil's etc.), their prices are reasonable, and they are willing to negotiate!  They carry a number of excellent furniture lines too, and many are American-made.  Friendly sales staff who understand that furniture is a major investment don't mind helping you and answering all your questions, even if you're not ready to buy add to the pleasure of shopping there.   Although I always shop around, I always end up here.

So here's what we ended up purchasing:

It's a twin sleeper sofa, and it fits perfectly into a small niche in our home office.  Our down-sized home has only 2 bedrooms, so we're limited in offering overnight hospitality unless you're willing to sleep on the floor!  At least now we can have Younger Son and his wife, plus Elder Son stay with us at the same time!  

The other purchase was for my husband.  When we purchased our sectional, we also found a coordinating recliner to go with it.  For the past year, all I've heard is my husband's complaints about it.  So, despite my attempt to maintain a more contemporary look to my living area, I caved, and we purchased this:

He's happy.  The other recliner, which we can still use, has a sleeker look, it's much less bulky, and it's leather. It's quite comfortable, but he missed his plush, overstuffed, cushy chair.  So this accompanied the sleeper sofa.  

We scheduled the delivery for yesterday around mid-day.  The store called at 11 am, and told me the delivery truck would arrive between 12 and 1.  At 12:45 they pulled into the yard, unloaded, and by 1 pm they were on their way back.  Perfect!  

My husband is like a kid at Christmas, and loves his chair, so I guess I can live with Red.

Good So Far

While I didn't meet my goal of spending the equivalent of 2.5 hrs organizing last week, I did come close.  And I am satisfied with what I accomplished.  One of the main areas that I wanted to tackle is our home office.  I managed to empty out all the boxes/baskets of miscellany and I did a lot of filing.  I made space for the new twin sleeper sofa we purchased too.  Now we will be able to offer mattresses to three guests if the need arises, like it did 2 weeks ago!  The sofa will arrive on Thursday which gives me a couple days to find a new home for the remaining bin of photos that need sorting!  Now if I can get my husband to sort through the small pile of papers that he needs to tackle.  

In between the organization effort, I did some knitting and a lot of reading.  I even made it to church for a change!  I'm also totally engrossed in PBS Sunday night shows:  Season 3 of "Last Tango in Halifax", "Poldark", and "The Crimson Field."  Three completely different shows and time periods.  Modern rural England, late 18th century England, and a field hospital in Belgium during World War I.  I've also been watching "A Place to Call Home" Home" on Acorn TV via my Roku.  This one is set in 1950's Australia.   Watching TV is my primary knitting time.  

I am working on a sweater, Mindy, made out of Cascade Yarns Pure Alpaca Paints. The yarn has been discontinued, which is a shame, because it's so soft and cozy. I've completed the sleeves and the back, and I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the first front.  If I am diligent, I might actually finish it before fall!  I really want to knit a cowl I fell in love with when I went to Webs with my BF.  But I am a monogamous knitter;  it's hard for me to be knitting more than one project at a time.  

Small Town Living

After a couple of days of mugginess and rain, it was refreshing to enjoy a lovely summer evening outside. After dinner, my husband and I headed down to our little New England common for the weekly farmers' market and free community concert.  After browsing the wares, we purchased a pint of fresh blueberries, and I allowed a couple of little girls to persuade me to buy a small container of new potatoes.  One of our local farms has established a "Girls' Garden Club."  The girls, who appeared to be 2nd-3rd graders, were eagerly entreating potential customers to buy their flowers, herbs, and potatoes.  "We dug them up and picked them today!" one sales person enthused.  So I bought this container of new potatoes from them.

We then settled ourselves in our lawn chairs and spent the next hour or so enjoying the sounds of the Raymond Street Klezmer Band.  They played a variety of traditional klezmer music interspersed with some liturgical songs and some modern compositions.  It was a lovely way to spend a July evening.

A photo taken by my friend John Stone.  My husband and I are sitting just to the right of the tree on the left:

Establishing Routine

So far, the attempt to establish a daily routine has been unfruitful.  It IS summer, after all.  Why should this summer be different from past summers?  I think I feel the need to create a routine, because it is also the start of my life as a retired teacher.  I won't be heading back to the classroom in 8 weeks.  I also know me.  I need a routine to accomplish things.  Otherwise the whole day gets away and I've done nothing productive. I value those aimless days -- occasionally.  I don't want them to become the norm.

A few goals I have for this first part of retirement:

• We have mountains of things in the basement that were moved here in a willy-nilly fashion.  I believe that 90% of the items are things wanted and still valued.  But the packing was done in a "where's an empty box/get it moved now" fashion so things aren't labeled, nor are they well-organized.   So obviously I want to get things unpacked and organized and put in a logical place.  But I know 2 things.  First, there's no way I will go downstairs and spend an entire 2-3 days going through things.  Second, I need to set small, specific goals.  So my first goal is to spend 30 minutes at least 5 days a week, unpacking, sorting, and organizing.

• I have a huge 40 gallon plastic tub of photos as well as several miscellaneous small boxes of them.  I want to sort and organize those photos.  This will be 2nd goal, once the basement stuff is dealt with.  I will spend 1/2 hour sorting those.  To that end, I'll be purchasing some photo boxes the next time I'm in Keene.

• My 3rd goal is to develop a housekeeping routine --- one major chore per weekday, and a daily goal of making sure the table top and the island counter are clutter free every morning.

So, this first Monday in July found me scrubbing the 2 bathrooms and I sorted/organized 2 boxes of papers.  I even got some laundry done.

Family!

Since Friday, it's been a wonderful time of family reunions.  Matt was  here as were Tim and Von, for a couple of days in addition to all the cousins and siblings who made it here for a day.

The icing on the cake has been the serendipitous discovery and reconnection with my cousins in Brazil!  My father's brother Luis emigrated from Cuba to Brazil in the 1950's.  I met one cousin briefly in the mid 70's, and after my father died in 2002, I had email contact with Luis until his death a couple of years later.  And since then, we've lost contact.   This is where Facebook comes in.  A cousin in Miami made a FB friend request to me which I accepted.  She was in FB contact with our aunt in Brazil, and the rest is history.  I have "met" my aunt, reconnected with the cousin I met briefly, and have become friends with him and his daughter.  I've also "met" my other cousin, and two of his sons.  So now I have a whole network of family that I've never known.  We are sharing family photos and stories.  There is a language barrier; most of them speak Portuguese, which I do not.   However, several of them are fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, which are similar enough that we can make ourselves understood.  My Spanish is barely adequate, but at least one cousin is fluent in English too. So between our shared language capabilities, the wonder of Google translate, and my word root knowledge, we are making ourselves understood.

It's also what would have been my father's 91st birthday today, so all of us are digging into our files to find pictures of him.  My sisters have some old photos (from his childhood in Cuba) that I've never seen before, so that's been fun.  And my Brazilian family are sharing their pictures and it's easy to see that we are all from a common gene pool!

So, despite all the issues with privacy on FB, right now I'm loving it!

The Surprise of My Life!

"Do you guys want to go out Friday night to celebrate the end of school?" asked my best friend.

"Of course, it's tradition," was my reply.


So our friends picked us up and we headed to dinner.  This is what awaited me:

I had had absolutely no idea that my husband, family, and friends had been planning this for months.  I was totally overwhelmed by the love and affection from everyone.  It was one of the few times in my life where  I felt that my work was truly noticed, and I am humbled by the outpouring of love.

Three of my four siblings and parts of their families were able to be there, as were cousins, nieces and so many of my school family.  I was especially touched that my principal came!  We had a lovely evening, and the festivities have continued all weekend.  All of my family live out of state, some only an hour away, but several traveled many hours to come.  We had a houseful yesterday, and my two sons and my daughter-in-law are here all weekend.

And do you know what's really cool?  I have a terrific, exciting, emotional, and exhausting weekend and I DON'T HAVE TO GO WORK TOMORROW!

A New Chapter!

I am officially retired!  Twenty-three years in the classroom.  I made the decision to retire in January, but didn't share my decision with anyone except my husband for a while.  I wanted to live with it, to be sure about it.  When I realized I was sure, I announced it, and started the process of clearing out materials I would no longer need.  Once I made the decision, I felt like two tons had been lifted off me.  While I have loved my job, teaching has changed so much that it was no longer fun.  I explained to my principal that I no longer felt like a teacher.  I felt like a data collector and test proctor.  All year long, we tested, collected data, tested again, etc.  We had fall MAPS, practice Smarter Balance tests, Smarter Balance, and spring MAPS.  I lost 17 days of instruction to testing, and spent too many other instructional days teaching kids how to take a test.  That's not teaching.  But unfortunately our politicians have made decisions against the best interests of learning.    For the past few years, I've had less and less time to do the projects and units that made learning fun AND productive.  I had to use a prescribed reading curriculum that bored my kids, abandon my reading workshop, and schedule constraints cut deeply into the hands on projects I did in social studies.    Once I made the decision to retire, I cut loose and went back to using novels to teach reading.  And guess what?  All but 3 of my students exceeded their reading goals set by the testing gods, many by 10-15 points.  Don't tell me that a prescribed curriculum solves all problems.


Enough soapbox!  For my first day of retirement, I woke up at just a little bit later than the usual 4:45 am.  I slept in till 5:30.   It's now only 8:15, but I'm showered, dressed, and I've eaten a leisurely breakfast.  I've played my obligatory FB games, checked my email, and read my daily blog posts.  I've done a load of laundry and best of all!  I've thoroughly scrubbed our bathroom which has only been getting a lick and promise the past few weeks.  Although the scent of Clorox is still wafting through the bath and bedroom, I'm happy.  As long as I am feeling energetic, I will tackle a few other small projects that are begging to be done --- putting away the rest of the winter clothes that are neatly folded, but piled in the bedroom corner waiting for me to go down to the basement to get the sterilite bin they go into is the loudest project.  Other than that, I hope to sit out on my deck, knitting and listening to an audio book for an hour or so.

One goal of my retirement is to go back to posting more regularly.  We'll see!

Highlights

So it's finally spring around here.  It was a long, cold winter that really didn't start until just after Christmas.  After a long, long fall winter hit with a vengeance in January.  We had about 8 weeks of unrelenting cold and heavy snow which made us think we'd never see grass again.

But spring finally sprung, and the snow is gone at least in my yard.  Some more shaded areas still have snow, and not all the plow piles have evaporated around town.  We've had about 2 weeks of lovely spring weather ---- temps in the high 50s° and mid 60s°, sun, and blue skies. 

And we've set up our wildlife camera again.  The snow was too deep to get out to the preferred tree.  We've had a number of visitors in the past 2 weeks:

The spring birds are back too ---- the phoebes have arrived, and I think they're building a nest under my bedroom deck.  The goldfinch have lost their drab brown coloring, and have burst into their vibrant sunny yellow feathers.   The red winged blackbirds have arrived and I've even seen the barred owl.

On other fronts:  I'm counting the days until June 19th which is the last day of school for kids.  Teachers have 4 more days to make up due to all the snow days we had, but I'll say good bye to my last class then.  I am retiring!  After a couple of years of making noises about retiring, I decided in early January that this was definitely the year.  There are a number of reasons why I decided to go this year which I'm not going into just now.  But I can't wait.  It's been a tough year too.

We just finished 5 days of testing with the new Smarter Balance assessments.  For our 6th graders it meant 2 hours of testing every day.  And for us teachers it meant, a week of disruption in schedules and little actual teaching each day. And of course, months of test practice and preparation which interfered with teaching too.  'Nuff said.

This week is my last vacation before the permanent vacation. We have no plans this week except to meet with an insurance broker to figure out health insurance options for retirement. I'm also planning to knit, read, and oh yes, maybe do some spring cleaning.   Of course, it's supposed to rain for the next 3 days.  Hard to wash windows (aw, isn't that just too bad) and see the dust when there's no sun.  Oh well, more excuse to read and knit!

Neckwarmer

Just in time for the first day of spring!  A cowl made of merino, camel, silk, and cashmere.

I finished a project that I'm very happy with.  It's called Stratum by Kate Gilbert,  from Winter 2014 Twist Collective.  I used Paulie from Shalimar Yarns in Juniper Berry.   I love the softness and drape of the yarn.  Although it was an easy knit, it had an unusual construction and it took me a while to figure out how to "sew the two flat sides together."

The End is in Sight???

It's been a long, hard winter . . . and after a week of spring teasing, and lots of snowmelt, we have a wintry mix back today.  If you looked out the window, you'd still see about  a foot or so of snow on the level, and plow piles of 4-5 ft lining the roads and driveways.  But over the past week we've lost more than half of what was there. Our little town received just under 100 inches of snow so far this winter, which is just over twice our usual average.  Some communities got even more, especially those along the seacoast.  And it's been cold.  We didn't go above 30° for most of Jan and Feb. and were usually below 20°F.

To combat the winter blues, my husband and I went here:

And did this:

and this:

and we saw this every day for a week:

We went to Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, for our February break and soaked in every minute of sun, sand, and temperatures in the low 80's° we could.  We left New Hampshire in the middle of a snowstorm that left us with 8 inches of new snow, and returned to temps in the 30°s. 

But at least the first day of spring is this week, and April isn't far behind!

Ya Gotta Love the Snow

Fourth snow storm in three weeks has left us with about 3.5 feet on the level, with drifts and plow piles exceeding 6 feet.  And we've been lucky -- in all 4 storms we've gotten the lesser amounts of snow.  Further east of us, you can double the amount of on the level snow.  The saving grace is that all of this white wonder has been the light and fluffy kind, like powdered sugar.  Of course with this last storm, we've also had the blessing of super strong winds which has caused no end of problems on the road ways.  Plus we also have subzero windchills.  This morning at 6 am, our porch thermometer read -7°F and the windchill was at -28°F.

These pictures are from the storm just before the lastest one -- so all the piles are just that much higher!

A Finished (and Successful!) Knitting Project

My knitting mojo has been off this year.  I spent a lot of time on a fancy cowl with beads and luxury yarn, only to connect it with an extra twist so it doesn't lie correctly.  I have to unpick some fussy, fuzzy yarn and reknit about a third of the cowl.  It's hibernating until I feel enthusiastic about it.

I knit a gorgeous sweater -to gauge! -- and the armholes/sleeves are too wide and baggy.  It won't be hard fix, but I was so bummed, I stuffed it into its project bag and I've refused to look at it.

But, at last, I am happy with a project.  I pulled out a favorite sock pattern, and made myself another pair of socks out of some lovely hand-dyed yarn.  And they are perfect!
I

It's the Waving Lace pattern by Evelyn Clark, found in Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave Knits.    The yarn is Valley Yarns Charlemont Kettle Dye from Webs.  The yarn is 60% merino, 20% silk, and 20% "other."

Meanwhile, it's been snowing.  And snowing.  We got about 14 inches on Jan 27-28, another 10+ inches on Feb. 3, and we're due today and tomorrow for another 18-20 inches.  We've had 3 snow days and 2 delays in that last 2 weeks.  I will regret those lovely snow days come June.

Super Bowl Desserts

If it's time for the Super Bowl, it's also time for a party with friends.  A small group us (4 couples) get together 4-5 times a year for a party.  One couple hosts the event, and provides the main meal, and the rest of us bring the sides and desserts.  We hosted the New Year's gathering and feasted on great apps, roast pork, and a killer chocolate cherry cake.  This time it's the Super Bowl.  My assignment is desserts.  I'm making two!

The first dessert is a very old-fashioned one, that dates from the Depression.  My mom used to make this all the time when we were growing up. She said the recipe came from a friend of her mother's in CT and it was a great, inexpensive way to offer a treat to a crowd when money was tight.  I loved it as a kid, and still do!

Mom's Lemon Bisque

1 (3 oz) package lemon gelatin
1 1/4 cup boiling water
juice of 2 lemons
grated zest of 2 lemons
1/3 c sugar or honey
1/8 tsp salt
1 box vanilla wafers
1 can chilled evaporated milk


Chill a can of evaporated milk overnight.  (This is crucial!  It won't whip if you don't chill it.  I sometimes chill the bowl and beater too, in summer)

Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water, and add the lemon juice, zest, sugar or honey, and salt.  Chill in refrigerator about 1 1/2 hrs or until partially congealed.

Crush the box of vanilla wafers into crumbs.  Reserve about 1/4 cup of crumbs and press the rest of the crumbs into the bottom of greased 9x12 pan.  Set aside.

When the gelatin is ready, whip the evaporated milk to stiff peaks. Use the whisk attachment of your mixer if you have one.  Continuing to whip at high speed,  pour the gelatin into the milk and beat for another minute.  Pour the mixture into the pan.  Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs over the top.  Chill for at least 6 hours.

This can be made ahead of time.  It serves about 12.

The 2nd recipe I'm making is a new-to-me chocolate loaf cake.  My husband's operations manager loves to bake, and he made this last week.  I demanded the recipe!    It's one of his family recipes --

AUNT MURIEL'S FAMOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 1/4 tsp vinegar

scant 3/4 cup milk

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup shortening

3 eggs

6 Tbs cocoa

3 cups flour

1 tbsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Generously grease & flour 3 loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Put 2 ¼ TSP Vinegar into liquid measuring cup and add MILK to ¾ Cup (Makes ¾ cup sour milk). Let stand at least 5 minutes.

In large bowl, cream together with electric mixer 3 cups sugar, 2/3 cup shortening, and 3 eggs.

Add in 6 HEAPING Tbsp Cocoa. Beat well.

In small bowl, mix 3 cups flour, 1 tbsp baking soda, and pinch salt.

Add 1 Tbsp vanilla to the sour milk.

Add alternately into the large bowl the flour mixture and the sour milk until all added and mixed.

Boil 1 ½ cups water.   Add to batter and mix (it will be thin, that is OK).

Pour into the 3 greased/floured pans, and bake 45-50 minutes.

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

3 cups confectioner's sugar

1 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk or half & half

With electric mixer, mix 3 cups confectioner sugar with 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter.

Add 1 tsp vanilla & 1 tbsp whipping cream, ½ & ½ or milk if need be.    Beat 3 minutes till smooth

Add more confectioner sugar or liquid, depending on what you need for best consistency!

FROST & ENJOY!   I usually cut frosting recipe in ½ and only frost 2 of the 3, some folks like it unfrosted!!! 

Signs of the Times

I haven't posted much at all this year.  Not because I have nothing to say but more because I have a lot to say, but haven't felt that this was the place to say it.   I've been wrestling with a couple of decisions.  I believe that I have made one, but  I'm not ready to advertise it yet.  I'm still working on the other.


Life has been busy, but I've been making a real effort to let go of the unessentials.  I head for school every morning about 6:30 am.  I decided early in the school year that I would not work beyond 4 pm, and in fact, most days I have been able to leave a bit earlier.  That decision, plus the fact that I live 10 minutes closer to school have given my a much nice block of de-stressing time.  

 I've also --finally--- after 20+ years of teaching, figured out a few ways to cut down on the amount of grading.  I am not grading EVERYTHING the kids do, I'm doing more "process" grades, and I'm using some on-line assessment tools.  One awesome tool I've been using this year for the first time is Google docs.  Our students were finally given gmail accounts so they can set up a Google drive account.  They are doing much of their writing on line, which makes it so easy for me to help them with revision and editing.  We've done 2 writing projects on-line so far.  Now that we've figured out how teacher/student can share docs, I am going to try some peer-sharing.  Could be interesting! It does help that I have the smallest class I've ever had.  My partner and I share 28 students.  That's the number of students I had in ONE class my first 3 years of teaching!  


A wonderful gift this year is that our school calendar gives us TWO FULL WEEKS of break.  Our last day of school was Friday.  We don't go back until Jan. 5th.  I have never had this amount of time at Christmas.  Usually we go until the 23rd, and I spend the 24th covered in flour as I try to get my baking done.  I feel like I'm in good shape.  I have the Cranberry Almond Biscotti made, a fruit cake made (I started that process 3 weeks ago), and the dough made for shortbread which I plan to bake today.  I will also make some ginger crinkles today.  That leaves the poundcake to make on Wed. My shopping is done, and all but 3 presents are wrapped.  I have to head to the dollar store sometime today or tomorrow to finish off 2 stockings.  I've never been this far ahead.

I

I am enjoying our new house too.  It's much easier to keep ourselves organized, and I am actually staying ahead of the clutter (mostly).  It's wonderful having a room dedicated as an office too.  I can have piles of paper and on-going bookkeeping projects around, and not all over the kitchen table.  And if I need to, all I need to is close the door.

 It's also been fun figuring out how to decorate the house.  I no longer have a mantel  or a big buffet for displays, so I've had to get a bit creative with where I put a few things.  And I haven't located a couple of decorations (like my angel collection and my husband's antique Santa light) yet.





I hope that pretty soon I can start "talking" about my decisions.  Until then, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and that 2015 is full of happiness.

Latest Knitting!

I've been working most of the year on mystery projects.  I joined Laura Nelkins "M Club" this year, and received yarns and patterns for 4 projects.  The catch was that I had no idea what I was knitting until we were done (or almost done!).  I have completed 2 of the 4 projects successfully.  I knit a 3rd project but apparently twisted it when I joined it, so it's in the "need to fix" pile of projects.  I have one more to go, but I think I'm going to take a break, and start a sweater instead.

Here are the 2 projects that I've finished:

The first was Magpie

This was a lot of fun to knit, and it can be worn as a scarf, a shawlette, or even a shrug if you fold it in half and add snaps to the narrow ends for sleeves.  I love working with beads and the construction of this project was fascinating!

The second successful project is blocking as I type.  It's Magnify - a lovely shawl knit from a yarn called MerGoat Lace, a blend of merino wool and cashmere.

Lots of beads on this one.  I learned to use a beading needle with this project which makes placing beads a lot simpler.

I've also knit Magnify, a lovely pale green cowl, but that's the project I have to fix.  I still need to do Magmatic which is a gorgeous scarf.  I will be learning how to steek (a knitting skill where you actually CUT your knitting!)  and making a twisted fringe.

I reluctantly decided that I couldn't join the 2015 M Club. Finances are tight, and I have about 10 other projects in my knitting queue to finish first.  And I started to get a little stressed because I don't have a lot of knitting time, and despite the fact that there only self-imposed deadlines, I didn't like not being finished with one project before the next one started!

So that's what's been on my needles all year!

The "Perks" of Teaching??

Don't get me wrong.  I'm a teacher, and I do really enjoy my job.  Most of the time.  This year it's been more difficult to get up into an enthusiastic state of mind.  We have an insane schedule which is working against kids, teachers, and learning.  Add on top of that some new responsibilities added to an already too-full plate, and morale isn't very high.

And then there are the myriad small frustrations that are just part and parcel of a teacher's life.  These are a few that I experienced just this week.

• A dysfunctional copy machine.  I tried to run off 30 double-sided copies of an assignment.  It should have taken all of 5 minutes, if that.  Instead it took 30 minutes.  Of course that was morning I purposely came in half an hour early so I could get some project-grading done.  Needless to say I spent that half hour photocopying instead of grading.
• A website crucial to my reading class was down for unscheduled maintenance.  Had there been prior notice?  Of course not.  On to Plan B.  
•  I needed to reschedule the lab visit for the reading class who couldn't get to the website,  and can't get time in the computer lab until the end of next week.  That totally bollixes my unit.
• A piece of technology I was asked to purchase out of my very limited supply budget can't be installed because another piece of technology hasn't been updated.  I could have used the $99 to purchase other items I wanted for the kids.
• Students who are totally unprepared for class ---- no pencils, no paper, no homework.  It's not that they can't bring these things, it's that they "forget."  (I've checked to be sure it's not financial!)  And because our supply budgets are so limited, I don't have a surplus of paper and pencils to give away.  In our school, paper and pencils are part of the school supplies we ask parents to buy for their kids.
• Meetings that take up all my planning time.  This past week, I didn't have one free planning period available to actually plan.  Thus I tried to compensate by arriving at school between 6:15-6:30 am, and leaving between 4:15-4:45.  My "contracted" hours are 7:15-2:45.  Not that any teacher worth his or her salt works just contracted hours! There's no way you can be competent if you don't work beyond them.

I'm not trying to be a kvetch.  I'm just trying to share a bit of what actually goes on besides trying to guide student learning and manage their (sometimes ridiculous!) behavior.  I know EVERY job has its particular frustrations. And I certainly wouldn't put up with them unless I genuinely liked my job.

Small Things Make Me Happy

Maybe it's my age (60!!).  But small things are just tickling my fancy nowadays.

Here's one of them:

I installed the iron/ironing board hangar all by myself!  I even used wall anchors.  And it only took me 15 minutes!  (Yes, I have an "antique" ironing board. It's longer than the ones you find in stores today, and it's wider too.  Plus it's heavy.  I've had it 37 years, and it was old when I got it.  I think it belonged to my mother-in-law's sister.  The rubber cushion on the foot was missing when I inherited it.)  At least now it won't fall over when I brush past it!

Here's another very similar thing that makes me happy.  And I also installed the broom rack myself.  This took me an hour and half though!

Now I'm thinking of tackling some robe hooks for the bathroom!