Mushrooms and Beets

I was looking at my new "Everyday Food" magazine and came across their featured vegetable of the month. It happens to be beets. I asked my husband if he liked beets. To my surprise, he did said yes. I have never eaten a beet nor have I cooked a beet. My Mom never cooked a beet for us. Did she not like them or did my Grandmother not like them? This conversation made me think of all the foods out there that I have not tried because my Mom or Dad did not like them. My Dad does not like mushrooms so we never really ate them. I don't like mushrooms so my children don't eat them. Does this make me a bad parent? I don't think so but I am looking for a good beet recipe.....anyone got one?

Summer's Scar

Well, it is a sure sign that summer is over at the Faas house. The pool is down and the crop circle is making its 2010 debut. We have a blowup pool. It is a pretty good size and meets our "cooling off" needs pretty well in the summer. At some point the kids are going to be to big to have fun in it but for now it is a staple in our yard in the summertime. It is a little sad that it is down and I wonder every fall if the pool will survive the winter in our garage. I also wonder how my kids will remember the pool. Hopefully they will remember it as it looks in the below pictures. A small,blue, cool fun-time oasis where you couldn't dive but splashing was always encouraged!

Poet of the Month

So in my classroom we have started a "Poet of the Month" in order to get kids excited about poetry and hear and love the rhyme and the music of poetry. I have several poems by Mary Ann Hoberman taped on the wall by my door and we have been reading one when we line up and leave the room. As we were leaving the room today (a little late, I might add), one of my little ones said that we absolutely could not leave until we read one of our poems, and maybe we could just read the short one. Love those little first grade sponges!

Braden

Well...here is the first of my "Little Things" posts that is about one of my new little buddies! We were talking at calendar time about what season it is right now. I felt that I was being a good teacher by telling the children that even though it felt like autumn, the calendar is what tells us when it is actually autumn. This morning as those sweet little faces arrived at school, Braden handed me a beautiful, red and orange leaf. In all of his 5 year-old wisdom, he said to me, "Mrs. Faas, I think the trees tell us when it is autumn!". You are so right Braden!

The night before....

I have a love/hate relationship with the first day of school. I used to get so excited as a child and now, as a teacher, I get the opportunity to feel that excited every September. I hope that I never lose that! I also hate the first day of school. Nerves overtake me every year. Many doubts run through my mind. My most prevalent concern is....."Will I oversleep?" No worries, of course, because I will be up at 4am. "How many times will I have to teach the signal for having to use the bathroom?" "Did I plan enough?" It always works out and it will again this year.

I better go and get to bed.....4am will come early!

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

--Mohandas Gandhi

Shrinky-dinks

Natlalie and I did some shrinky-dinks recently and they are still just as totally cool as I remember! The good thing about the shrinky-dinks of today is the smell....there is NONE! My husband will say that it is because the ones today aren't toxic! Where is the fun in that? I also don't remember the old ones shrinking so quickly. Natalie was watching (as you can see) and it only took about 3 minutes for them to be done. I am totally going to get some more into my "winter craft stash!

Random Act of Coupon-ing

Something interesting happened to me while I was out shopping with the kids today. We went to Old Navy to look around and once inside the door, we were asked if we wanted to do a "touchdown dance" and get a coupon for the store. Of course we said yes. We got a nice coupon for $5 off a $50 purchase.

Knowing that we would not be spending that much there today, I gave the coupon to a young family that was clearly already over $50. The young mother was shocked and asked me several times if I was sure that I wanted to give up such a good coupon. Once I convinced her that I was not going to be using the coupon she said, "Thank you! Something wonderful will happen for you today!"

While we were in the car on the way home, this was the conversation that I had with my daughter:

"That lady seemed very happy to get the coupon, Mom!" - Natalie

"She did! How much did it cost us to be nice to her?" - me

"Nothing! It was free! We could do that again!" - Natalie

Guess that lady was right........something wonderful did happen to me today.......