Tomato Mozzarella Panini

I would say this is a far cry from my healthy veggie pasta I made last week, but it sure is delicious! For those who know me well, or have gone out to many meals with me, you probably know that if something has tomato, basil, mozzarella, or sundried tomato listed in the ingredients I will pretty much always order it. There is something about those ingredients that I just cannot stay away from! I'm not sure why I hadn't attempted this before because it is SO easy, but tonight I made myself a panini with tomato, basil, mozzarella, and a sundried tomato pesto. Of course I loved this, I order something very similar often at restaurants. As inexpensive and simple as this was, I think I will be making it far more often haha YUM!

Let me just share with you the amusing story about how I came to have this panini pan. About 2 years ago I was hanging out with Darren, John, and Bridget in Austin and Darren mentioned to us that there was this "amazing deal" going on at Linens n Things (or maybe Bed Bath and Beyond, same difference haha) and they had these cooking sets on sale for only $9.99. Each set was for a different purpose and had 20 pieces in the box including cooking utensils like spatulas, tongs, etc and some type of pot or pan. There were something like 10 different sets for purposes such as cookies, cupcakes, paninis, pizzas etc.

So the four of us truck out to the store so Darren can check out this "amazing deal". In his defense, it was a good deal, and Bridget and I each bought a set (this would be where this panini pan came from, that I hadn't used in 2 years haha). Well, Darren being Darren, decided that since it was a good deal, he had to buy them all. Seriously, hundreds of dollars on these random cooking sets! We tried so hard to talk him out of them because seriously, the boy has never even used a microwave lol! He kept saying that in a year he would be moving out and wouldn't have all of John's cookware anymore and he needed those things. I'm not sure what he needed them for, since he doesn't cook and I'm quite certain I witnessed him trying to cook fajita meat in a pot one time haha. He especially seemed to think that he needed the tongs! It was so ridiculous, and as hard as we tried, we couldn't talk him out of it.

Days later, he retuned them all. If that wasn't an "I told you so" moment, I don't know what is. Oh Darren and his good deals. Just can't pass up a good deal. haha!

cute things kids say

Kids can say the cutest things sometimes! Today I was walking the bus riders out to their bus while talking to a little girl I had in my class last year. She told me she had kind of a rough day and I asked her why.

"because, I had the hicumups all day long!"

hic-u-mups. too darn cute!

Second Grade Writing

I have literally been living under a mountain of papers that need to be graded or checked. It is unbelievable how quickly I get behind in grading! I am incredibly bad about checking any papers the day the kids do them, and the result is a very large mound of papers by the weekend. If I don't get them all done over the weekend, that just adds to the pile for the next week, and so on and so forth.

Today I decided I needed to tackle some of this paper mountain. My living room floor had basically become inaccessible, so it was time. I was grading some of my kids' writing and I came across this paper. This student speaks English as a second language. Just tell me this is not the cutest writing ever (spelling corrected to increase the readability for non teachers):

"My dad is a China people and me too. We just have a little money because we are new to this world. We speak Chinese. Some people are english and some people are chinese peoples."

Too cute!

Something else I really love about kids is when they get words wrong, but don't know it. Today one of my kids called me over and we had this conversation:

student: how to you spell "jippy"

me: I don't think jippy is a word, can you use it in a sentence?

student: you know, they got here in a "jippy"

me: oh, you mean jiffy? They got here in a jiffy.

student: no, not jiffy. jippy. really fast; in a jippy!

They continued to argue with me back and forth for a few minutes. They were convinced that the word was "jippy". Oh I love kids!

Coconut Cupcakes

It's Sunday, and you know what that means ...

CUPCAKE TIME!

I know I'll have sort of a limited audience with these, because it's one of those flavors you either love or you hate, but these coconut cupcakes are delicious and SO moist! The batter itself was delicious (trust me, I could have just had that with a spoon and been a happy camper), and the frosting is the same light meringue type frosting I made for the snickerdoodle cupcakes, but it has some coconut extract added in. And of course, as you can see, they are sprinkled with shredded coconut. YUM! If you like coconut, you HAVE to try these! I promise, you won't be disappointed!

It has come to my attention that some of you may want the recipes to some of these cupcakes, so I'll start posting them. If you wanted the recipe for one I already made, just leave a comment and I can get that recipe to you as well.

Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg whites

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Reduce speed to low. Mix remaining wet ingredients in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 16 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks.

Frosting Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup water

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

6 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

Frosting Directions:

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with the water and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Continue boiling, without stirring, until syrup reaches 230 degrees.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running add remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, beating to combine.

As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. With mixer on medium-low speed, pour syrup down side of bowl in a slow, steady stream. Raise speed to medium-high; whisk until mixture is completely cool and stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes. Add coconut extract, mixing to combine.

Answered Prayers

I believe that God answers prayers. Sometimes prayers aren't always answered in the way that we want them to be, but that doesn't mean that they go unnoticed. It took me a long time, but I finally figured out that the point is not to pray for the things you want, it's praying for God to help you along the path He has set out for you. It's praying for HIS purposes, not yours. Since I really began praying this way, with a heart for God, rather than selfishly, I have noticed a lot more answered prayers. And rather than be upset about prayers are I feel are unanswered, or answered in a way that I don't care for, I feel a sense of peace (that I guarantee is not from me) and am starting to be able to see the greater good in the way those prayers are answered. Be it big things or small things I trust that God is listening to me. When I pray for something that aligns with His purpose for my life, it is always answered.

Last weekend I met up with an old friend on Saturday night and stayed out too late. When I got home I had trouble falling asleep because even though it was so late, I was still wound up from being out. I knew I had church in the morning at 8am. I knew that if I set my alarm to get up to go to church I was going to get 5 hours of sleep tops (and that was assuming I fell asleep immediately when I laid down, which never happens). I decided I couldn't do it. I knew that alarm was going to go off, I was going to be mad at it, and I would just reset it to make sure I was up in time for 11am Sunday School. So I didn't set my alarm for 7, I set it for 10 instead. It wasn't that I didn't want to go to church, I just knew there was no way I was going to make it. Before I went to sleep though, I prayed. I prayed that if He wanted me there, that He would wake me up. I told Him I really did want to go, I just didn't think I could do it on my own. I asked Him to wake me.

The next morning, as I was dreaming, I distinctly heard a voice calling me to wake up. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was 7:00 on the dot. The exact time I needed to set my alarm for in order to get up for early church. And guess what? I didn't feel tired; I wasn't dragging; I felt extremely well rested and energized. 4 1/2 hours of sleep and I was ready to face the day as though I had 8 or more hours. And when I got to church, I found that the messages in both the service and my ABF group were EXACTLY what I had been needing to hear given the way things had been going in my life.

It may be a small thing, but there is not a doubt in my mind that God answered that prayer for me. I didn't wake up on my own, randomly early in the morning, to then go to church to hear a message that was specifically tailored for me. That was all Him.

God answers prayers. That may be a small thing, but knowing that he listens my small prayers gives me faith that he listens to the big ones as well.

veggie "pasta"

I've started a number of different posts this past week, yet none of them have been finished or posted yet. I blame it on a lack of time, and the fact that when I do have ANY time at all that I'm not doing school stuff all I want to do is nap. Hopefully I'll get a few of those finished in the next few days and you will have some things to read.

In the meantime I thought I would share with you what I made for dinner tonight. If you like vegetables, this was fresh, yummy, filling, and extremely healthy. It's a whole recipe made out of only vegetables, AND you don't even use any oil or butter to cook it! Seriously, how can you go wrong here?!? So here is my veggie "pasta":

You could have used any pasta you wanted for this and just made the veggie sauce to go on top, but to make it healthier you can substitute thin zucchini strips for the pasta (which is obviously what I did).

I didn't really follow a recipe exactly, I just went with a basic idea I found and made up my own quantities. All you have to do is put some chopped onion in a sauce pan with a few tablespoons of water, and cook until it starts to brown. Then add chopped eggplant and cook for about 8 minutes until the eggplant is almost cooked. Add some chopped up yellow squash, red bell pepper, and garlic, and cook about 2-3 more minutes. Add some canned fire roasted tomatoes, a little pepper, and some fresh basil. Cover and let simmer on low for about 10 minutes so the flavors can blend together. While that is simmering, julienne cut some zucchini. Place the zucchini on a plate, add some sauce on top, and eat! yum! :)

"love" letters from students

Thursday after school I was flipping through the kids' homework from the night before to check over it, when I came across this:

It's from a kid that I'm pretty sure DOES in fact like me, so it was more funny than anything. I totally showed it off to another lady on my team, and called Missy to tell her about it after school.

Well, yesterday I decided that I would call this child up to my desk and ask them to read it to me. I was wondering if they would read it as is, get uncomfortable, or just read it straight out. So I call the kid up to my desk and ask them to read this note to which they reply very enthusiastically, "Dear Ms. McCormack, I don't like you!!!". I sort of paused for a moment to see if it would sink in to this child what they had just said to me, but no, it def did not. I honestly had to control the laughter, I was quite amused. I asked why they would write something mean like that on their homework to which they replied, "because I just hate it when you give me homework. I don't like homework!" haha. Just as I suspected, this kid clearly likes me, I get hugs and stories all the time; they just don't like homework! hahaha

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I woke up this morning to a massive list of things to do for school. It was 8:30, and I told myself I needed to get at least half of it done by lunchtime. So, instead of getting right on the computer and playing around, I started grading papers. 11 sets of papers to be exact. *note to self, do NOT put off grading papers!* After I got all my papers graded I took a break from school work to shower, and once I was showered and dressed I started on lesson plans. Surprisingly enough, the lesson plans did not take nearly as much time as last week! I was expecting that to take up half my day alone, but I totally busted them out in about an hour. yay! :) Probably helped that I had actually done a little thinking about my upcoming week before I left school on Friday.

Since I had already accomplished so much, when Darren called and asked me to meet him for lunch I was able to say yes with a clear conscience. (I would have gone anyway mind you, but now I didn't have to feel bad about it or get really stressed out.) I had a great time catching up with D at lunch, and then headed home to do some more school work. I got all of my Words Their Way pretests graded and grouped my kids according to ability. The only thing I had left to do was choose words for the week, and do some planning on how I am going to incorporate this program into my daily 5 schedule. I decided that meant I could do something fun. So, in typical end of the week fashion, I baked some cupcakes!

Today's treat: Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!

I was actually surprised by how much I liked these in the end. They are very light, so they are quite different than the cupcakes I have made before, but I think that's what I like about them. You can eat one and not feel like you just had a major sugar overload. The cake part tastes just like a snickerdoodle cookie. Sort of a mix of vanilla and cinnamon. The frosting is similar to meringue, but a little different (descriptive, I know). And then they are sprinkled with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

I didn't have the piping tip I wanted to pipe the frosting on these, and the bake shop is closed for the holiday, so I just had to make do with what I had. It turned out okay, but next time I make these I'll make sure to have the piping tip I want. (honestly, only about half of them came out looking like I wanted, the rest look a little strange haha) I'll take the pretty ones to school tomorrow and keep the not so pretty ones for me to eat.

Oh, and I've decided on which "crazy lady" I am going to be when I am old. The crazy cupcake lady! hehe. I don't like animals so I can't be something like the crazy cat lady, but I do like cupcakes so I can be the crazy cupcake lady. :-P

Now I'm off to finish up the last of my school work for the day, and then I'm going to lay around and watch tv until I go to bed. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me :)

Second Grade Funnies

Two funny things that happened in second grade today:

1. A student came up to me during a time when the kids know it is perfectly acceptable to go to the restroom if they need it (there are lots of times they know that they should not even ask because the answer is no every time). So, this little boy comes up to me and tells me he needs to go to the restroom. I was about to say that's fine, but he apparently thought he needed to justify why he was asking as if I was going to tell him no. "Do you see these pants I am wearing? (lifts up his leg above the table and points to his khaki shorts) I have to go to the bathroom because you will be able to see the pee on these!" I laughed and told him to go. What I'm wondering is would him needing to go to the restroom have been different if he had on different pants that you would not be able to "see the pee"?!? hahaha

2. The other day I posted about a little girl who kept touching my toenail while I was teaching the kids on the carpet. Apparently my toes are extremely exciting, because today while I was reading our chapter from My Father's Dragon, I looked down and she had leaned over and was smelling my toes. um, gross! My feet don't stink or anything, but still! Why on earth would you want to smell somebody's toes?!? Too freaking funny!

Changes

I've been a little vague about my school situation this week because, well, this is a public blog and I am a public school teacher. For all I know parents of children at my school could have stumbled across this so I have to watch what I say and when I say it. Up until all the changes were made official, it wasn't my place to say anything.

Now that all is said and done it is safe to let you in on the happenings at school this week. Due to extremely low enrollment (across the board) our school had to lose 2 teachers. When this happens the teachers are chosen to leave completely based on the last one hired rule. The last one hired is a 5th grade teacher, so she has to move to a new school. However, the low numbers are not in 5th grade, but in 4th, so one of our 4th grade teachers has to move to 5th grade to take her place. That means that ALL of 4th grade has to be shuffled around into 4 classes instead of 5, and that class of 5th graders gets a new teacher. The second to last one hired is a second grade teacher. She is moving to a new school next week, and we had to divide up the kids from her class among the remaining 5 teachers. Due to this move, yesterday afternoon I received 3 new kids to my classroom. Lucky for me, I got three really awesome kids (one of which I even taught last year)! Still, going from 18 kids (oh my gosh SO nice) to 21 kids (yikes that's a lot) in one afternoon is a little rough.

As I said the other day, I am really counting my blessings right now. As far as "last one hired" goes, I was third to last. I would be the next one to have to leave. Now, stick with me for a second here, this will all come together ... Over the summer our reading specialist moved and one of our classroom teachers took over her job. The classroom job was never filled because of the low enrollment. This means that if that classroom teacher had not taken that reading specialist job, if that job had been filled with someone from outside of the building instead, I too would be moving to a new school this week. I feel like I dodged a major bullet. I must admit, it is slightly scary that we have such low enrollment that we lost 3 teaching positions this year. Apparently that has never happened in the history of the school before. And now, even though this is my third year teaching at the same school, I am back to being the last one hired! Seriously?!? Very uncommon to teach somewhere that in 3 years no one would leave and you would still be so far down on the totem pole. So, as for next year and being the last one hired, who knows. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

There were no small number of events leading up to this exact place. If any number of things had happened differently, I would have a new job at a new school starting next Tuesday. Everything had to happen just so in order for me to keep my job at my school this year. And I won't go into details, but timing was a very important factor. Timing of students registering, timing of the classroom teacher taking the reading specialist job, timing of when exactly I was given the okay to move to second grade ... if the timing had been off even one time the outcome would have been completely different.

So as I said, I am counting my blessings. The plans for my life are out of my hands, but I am giving thanks to Him for orchestrating the little things to prepare the path ahead of me.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths - Proverbs 3:6

The chosen few

Today I got an email from our school secretary that this second grader (who is not in my class) had brought a cake in to the office, had requested that certain teachers receive a piece, and I was one of the select chosen few. When I went to the office to get a piece of this cake, I found paper plates next to the cake which he had labeled with certain teachers names whom he wanted to share his cake with. How freaking cute is that?!? He baked (or had his parents bake) a cake, he thought about who he wanted to give it to (there were about 7 people), and he labeled the plates to bring to school to make sure only those people got some. LOVE that kid! :)

Lots of school news to share, but it will have to wait for tomorrow. I am SO looking forward to having a 3 day weekend! It is definitely well deserved haha

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

After this week is over and all the changes have been made, I will blog about what has been going on at my school this week. If you have talked to me, you already know, but if you are one of those people who gathers all information about my life through my blog, you will just have to wait.

Because of what is going on at school this week, we are having a "we're going to miss you party" after school tomorrow, and I volunteered to make the cookies. I had this oatmeal chocolate chip m&m cookie recipe I had been wanting to try, and when a certain person mentioned they love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I knew this would be the perfect occasion to bake them.

The recipe is really simple, which is why I thought they would be so good to make. However, this turned into a baking disaster. In retrospect, I should have used my brain and I probably could have avoided this. I'm definitely no pro baker though, so I pretty much always stick with the recipe. So, I mixed up all the dry ingredients and then started to add the wet ones. The recipe said to add "half a cup of butter, melted" so I did just that. As soon as I put the melted butter in I thought "this can't be right!" because it made the batter way to goopy, plus, it was melting all the chocolate chips. I figured I would try it anyway. This was the result:

They aren't burned like they look; they are so dark because of the chocolate melting as I mentioned before. They couldn't even come off the cookie sheet without breaking into like 5 pieces though. (they actually tasted okay ... not amazing, but okay, despite how they look).

Obviously, these were NOT going to cut it for tomorrow. And I obviously had to have something to bring, so I whipped up another batch really quickly. This time, I defrosted the butter until it could be mixed by spoon, but was NOT melted. This worked MUCH better! haha Here is the result:

These are delicious! Exactly what I was hoping for! Seriously, how much better do they look?!? haha!

And then, just to do something nice for someone, I made a gift to go along with them:

For when they need something to brighten up their day :)

Could you pass the test?

As a teacher, this had me laughing so hard!

Emails from Crazy People

Sadly, I have to admit that the part about the teacher thinking the parent can't follow directions is SO right on! The part about the glue stick rings especially true. I get so annoyed when kids come in with the wrong size glue stick! It makes a difference!!! I can't even tell you how many times I have said, "why in the world would they send this in? Can't they read what we asked for? what were they thinking?!?" love it! haha

My favorite is the hand sanitizer. They are supposed to bring in a bottle of hand sanitizer as one of their supplies. Every year I have had at least one bring in one of those tiny individual purse size bottles of hand sanitizer. Not exactly going to work lol! OH, and 2 years ago one of the items on the list was baby wipes. One child brought in facial wipes. Now what in the world are we going to use facial wipes for in kindergarten?!?

Second Grade Funny

Random second grade amusement for the day:

Today I was reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to my class and discussing "just right" books. When I looked up I saw this scene in front of me: a little boy, sitting with his legs crossed, bent over, biting his sock, and using his teeth to lift his leg up off the ground.

Seriously?!?

I couldn't even control the laughter!

Some people never learn

Today one of my students didn't close up their water bottle (again!!) and knocked over their water onto their desk, thus spilling it all over their work (again!!!), for something like the 5th time in a week. I wasn't really upset about it, it was easy to clean up, but my first reaction was still to say, "how many times have I told you .... when are you going to learn?!?".

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I swear, sometimes God must be ripping out His hair screaming at me, "how many times have I told you ... when are you going to learn?!?" I am JUST like that child that has been told something over and over, refuses to listen, doesn't believe that I know what I'm talking about, and doesn't do what I have asked. Apparently it's a lesson that I need to have beat into me over and over before I will get it. Apparently I have to fall on my face and fail a million times before I will understand; just like this poor kid in my class that can't remember to put the lid on their water bottle.

How many times have I told you:

...I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you - Joshua 1:5

When are you going to learn:

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

In other words, "How many times have I told you that it will be okay and I will be here to help you through it? When are you going to learn that I know what I am doing?"

I am counting my blessings this week. Things are far from perfect, and far from what I wanted, but as it turns out (which should hardly be shocking, but of course still is), what I thought was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, has become the exact thing that has kept me from something that would have been far worse (vague, I know, but this is a public blog and I'm a teacher so we deal). Patty pointed out to me that God must have been looking out for me, and she was right. While moving to second grade wasn't the best thing in the world (and honestly, still isn't the greatest), it turns out that being moved before school started was really a blessing in disguise.

Now, if I could only learn to listen in the first place ....

... chances are about as good as my 7 year old remembering to put the lid on her water bottle tomorrow. haha