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Monday coffee time was a success. Steve didn't have to wake up right away because he was working from home, and really would just be sitting anxiously waiting all morning for his final interview. I showered and mildly cursed Steve's name when I discovered he'd removed the razor from the shower, but then just shrugged and framed it like less time in the shower/more time with Steve. Today was supposed to be the hottest day this week, in the 80's. We sipped our coffee (a day old, because we didn't drink much of the last pot we made and couldn't really justify throwing it out), chatted a bit and snuggled. All too soon it was time for me to go, the second-hardest part of my day after waking up.
When I got to school at 7:20 (a few minutes late, naturally), I learned that someone had thrown some dairy product in our garbage and it didn't get changed and baked in our room all weekend, so the room was absolutely saturated in that old-milk/mold smell. YUCK. It was terrible. Going against the general perfume-free rule, I sprayed the entire room like 3 times, which our kids were all grateful for. Just pure awfulness.
I went and did my Monday gym supervision and Todd was there today with his students, which was a nice change of pace from just the 6th graders and I like chatting with Todd far more than I do with Brian. The boys played some 4-on-4 and everyone was having a good time right up until the end, when Chaz escalated for no reason (as usual) and pushed Dyshawn, who is a year older than him. Dyshawn turned around as a warning to see who pushed him but didn't even look mad, though everyone else was on alert because that was a clear provocation. I think Dyshawn is the kind of kid who can judge who's worth his time, and Chaz, while scrappy, definitely isn't. Because this is such a frequent problem with Chaz, everyone ignored him and left, which was a relief.
1st block was WAY too hyped up for a Monday, and we started a new project*. It's usually the favorite of the year and Tealie and I made it up 4 years ago, called the Real Life Project. It uses percentages, proportions and a bunch of other random math and requires students to compare two jobs, find a house/apartment, car (or calculate for public transport), and groceries and figure out whether they can afford their expenses. Invariably the majority of kids look up impossible professions, such as a sports figure or actress, but having to choose 2 usually means the second option is reasonable - today some examples included Uber driver, cosmetologist, McDonald's employee and nurse. Tealie and I spent a good chunk of the hour just getting students settled, but eventually 95% of them got to work and started getting excited about it. Second block was uneventful, just working on equations still. It was especially quiet because Konmeng was gone from period 3 and Tre'Kari wasn't there for period 4. Dyshawn told me he had a dream that Doug (one of my colleagues) got into a verbal argument with another student and he said something like, "I didn't want to have to cuss but can you please just shut the fuck up" XDDDD I love how that was such a big deal to him, when more than half the stuff he says any time he opens his mouth is foul and inappropriate.
Steve was at his interview when I stopped by home, which sucked, but I sent him a bunch of encouraging texts. I got fresh coffee and watered my hanging plant before heading to Nokomis. I had a pretty chill day with the 4th and 5th graders as they all had independent work to do, and they came late so I called Steve when I knew he was done with the interview. He was told by the hiring manager that (AGAIN) it went well, so Steve spent the rest of the day hoping for the final call. The guy messaged him on Facebook in the evening to say that he and the director hadn't had a chance to touch base but that they would soon. I'm 99.9% sure Steve will get offered the position. It really sounds like he will.
My 1st and 2nd grader also went really today. We practiced "short i" words something fierce while I typed up my sub plans. The 1st grader has no cognitive issues, only social, so I just give her an extra dose of academics while I work with the 2nd grader, who definitely has some sort of visual processing disability, which I discovered when I was doing her initial testing and qualified her for Special Ed a couple months ago. She regularly confuses b, d, and p and she is smack dab in the average cognitive range, very socially adept, and tries so hard. I see her face when she knows her brain is jumbling up words, and she is very self-conscious that she can barely read. So I'm making her hit words HARD. Her mom is annoyed that we're working on "basics," but she goddamn NEEDS the basics. Not that she doesn't *know* these simple words, it's about training her brain to see the letters correctly.
My three young boys (K and 1st) were okay today, Kamron cried once as usual lately and for literally no reason - I told him he couldn't take all 6 of the koosh ball fidgits (Larmar only wanted one) - but I never take any of that crap and he stopped pretty quickly. It's so funny when one of them acts up because the other two always act EXTRA like, "I'M not being a baby, but SOMEONE else is" about it. Can't WAIT to not have to work with little kids anymore. Hate it. But Kamron still gave me two hugs when he left (he always gives me one, and then often gets some distance away and then comes back for another) and said "I'll see you TOMORROW" like a thousand times as he walked back to his classroom.
As soon as I booted them, I raced home to Steve. He had to do one more meeting so I layed on the floor by the window scrolling through Facebook until he was done, and then I went and tried to nap unsuccessfully for a half hour before we left to go PokeHunting at Mall of America (or MoA, as we know it). First we went to the local stops, got coffee, and headed to Level Up. Normally on Mondays we go game shopping with Tyler, sometimes Nick and rarely Quimby. Today was canceled, but Steve and I still decided to look at the better of the two stores. He did end up with a Wario game that just came in, and it was sold to Steve for only $6 even though he guessed to the clerk that it would sell for $10 (and he told me after we left that it's worth $12).
MoA was fun, we stopped at GameStop before heading to BurgerBurger (their impossible burger in a lettuce wrap is amazing and they have good friesand dipping sauces) because I hadn't eaten basically all day save for some fruit. After that we wandered the mall and did a 3-star raid and had silliness when our dumb in-game characters were all wonky because of bad service. Even though there were several others clearly playing as well, we never all lined up at any of the various raids, which unfortunately never exceeded 4-stars. We were really hoping to get a 5-star raid with people because Latios is going to stop being a raid boss soon. Alas.
We got some disappointing Macarons that we discarded after trying the flavors, Steve got a bubble tea, and we generally had a nice romantic time wandering the mall. It's such a more bearable place during the week... far less people.
After that we headed home, and after I watered the garden and let my feet rest for a few, it was meal prep time! I made our breakfasts for the week and two sets of lunches:
Chia Pudding is a staple breakfast. I often wake up hungry but Steve struggles to eat food that doesn't make him nauseous in the morning. Chia pudding works for both of us because it's easy, versatile, and doesn't cause Steve to feel ill. AND it can be made ahead of time, and is in fact encouraged to do so to allow the seeds to plump.
For Steve's lunches I made a Butternut Squash and Pasta with Cheez sauce. I'd say it's some of the best vegan cheesy sauce I've ever made, omg. Instead of making separate vegetables I just used the leftover squash as the main veggie, and it looks amazing. Whenever recipes call for a certain amount of nutritional yeast, I always add more because YUM. My sauce was insanely thick so I ended up actually using almost double the water, added slowly, and it was perfect.
For my lunches I made a Mexican-style couscous. Always a delicious and flavorful meal. I usually use a bit more broth than called for and I add turmeric to everything. I also just used the entire bell peppers instead of half.
I made all of these at the same time, and Steve helped with the dishes when I was in the final stages of cooking. It all took just over an hour, and I'm not even a particularly fast or efficient cook. With practice I've been able to reduce my time in the kitchen, but a lot of that has to do with choosing relatively simple recipes (aka a few main ingredients) with several spices and use of salt and pepper even when it doesn't call for it. It's amazing what a huge difference it makes (thanks Blue Apron for teaching me that!!).
Finally, I snapped a photo just because-
It's mirrored because I took it in the Snapchat camera but still :D
Off to snuggle cats and a boy!
*After MCA's (standardized testing) we spend the rest of the year on projects that are varying degrees of math-focused, and most years is a really fun, busy, creative and honestly kind of relaxing way to end the school year.
When I got to school at 7:20 (a few minutes late, naturally), I learned that someone had thrown some dairy product in our garbage and it didn't get changed and baked in our room all weekend, so the room was absolutely saturated in that old-milk/mold smell. YUCK. It was terrible. Going against the general perfume-free rule, I sprayed the entire room like 3 times, which our kids were all grateful for. Just pure awfulness.
I went and did my Monday gym supervision and Todd was there today with his students, which was a nice change of pace from just the 6th graders and I like chatting with Todd far more than I do with Brian. The boys played some 4-on-4 and everyone was having a good time right up until the end, when Chaz escalated for no reason (as usual) and pushed Dyshawn, who is a year older than him. Dyshawn turned around as a warning to see who pushed him but didn't even look mad, though everyone else was on alert because that was a clear provocation. I think Dyshawn is the kind of kid who can judge who's worth his time, and Chaz, while scrappy, definitely isn't. Because this is such a frequent problem with Chaz, everyone ignored him and left, which was a relief.
1st block was WAY too hyped up for a Monday, and we started a new project*. It's usually the favorite of the year and Tealie and I made it up 4 years ago, called the Real Life Project. It uses percentages, proportions and a bunch of other random math and requires students to compare two jobs, find a house/apartment, car (or calculate for public transport), and groceries and figure out whether they can afford their expenses. Invariably the majority of kids look up impossible professions, such as a sports figure or actress, but having to choose 2 usually means the second option is reasonable - today some examples included Uber driver, cosmetologist, McDonald's employee and nurse. Tealie and I spent a good chunk of the hour just getting students settled, but eventually 95% of them got to work and started getting excited about it. Second block was uneventful, just working on equations still. It was especially quiet because Konmeng was gone from period 3 and Tre'Kari wasn't there for period 4. Dyshawn told me he had a dream that Doug (one of my colleagues) got into a verbal argument with another student and he said something like, "I didn't want to have to cuss but can you please just shut the fuck up" XDDDD I love how that was such a big deal to him, when more than half the stuff he says any time he opens his mouth is foul and inappropriate.
Steve was at his interview when I stopped by home, which sucked, but I sent him a bunch of encouraging texts. I got fresh coffee and watered my hanging plant before heading to Nokomis. I had a pretty chill day with the 4th and 5th graders as they all had independent work to do, and they came late so I called Steve when I knew he was done with the interview. He was told by the hiring manager that (AGAIN) it went well, so Steve spent the rest of the day hoping for the final call. The guy messaged him on Facebook in the evening to say that he and the director hadn't had a chance to touch base but that they would soon. I'm 99.9% sure Steve will get offered the position. It really sounds like he will.
My 1st and 2nd grader also went really today. We practiced "short i" words something fierce while I typed up my sub plans. The 1st grader has no cognitive issues, only social, so I just give her an extra dose of academics while I work with the 2nd grader, who definitely has some sort of visual processing disability, which I discovered when I was doing her initial testing and qualified her for Special Ed a couple months ago. She regularly confuses b, d, and p and she is smack dab in the average cognitive range, very socially adept, and tries so hard. I see her face when she knows her brain is jumbling up words, and she is very self-conscious that she can barely read. So I'm making her hit words HARD. Her mom is annoyed that we're working on "basics," but she goddamn NEEDS the basics. Not that she doesn't *know* these simple words, it's about training her brain to see the letters correctly.
My three young boys (K and 1st) were okay today, Kamron cried once as usual lately and for literally no reason - I told him he couldn't take all 6 of the koosh ball fidgits (Larmar only wanted one) - but I never take any of that crap and he stopped pretty quickly. It's so funny when one of them acts up because the other two always act EXTRA like, "I'M not being a baby, but SOMEONE else is" about it. Can't WAIT to not have to work with little kids anymore. Hate it. But Kamron still gave me two hugs when he left (he always gives me one, and then often gets some distance away and then comes back for another) and said "I'll see you TOMORROW" like a thousand times as he walked back to his classroom.
As soon as I booted them, I raced home to Steve. He had to do one more meeting so I layed on the floor by the window scrolling through Facebook until he was done, and then I went and tried to nap unsuccessfully for a half hour before we left to go PokeHunting at Mall of America (or MoA, as we know it). First we went to the local stops, got coffee, and headed to Level Up. Normally on Mondays we go game shopping with Tyler, sometimes Nick and rarely Quimby. Today was canceled, but Steve and I still decided to look at the better of the two stores. He did end up with a Wario game that just came in, and it was sold to Steve for only $6 even though he guessed to the clerk that it would sell for $10 (and he told me after we left that it's worth $12).
MoA was fun, we stopped at GameStop before heading to BurgerBurger (their impossible burger in a lettuce wrap is amazing and they have good friesand dipping sauces) because I hadn't eaten basically all day save for some fruit. After that we wandered the mall and did a 3-star raid and had silliness when our dumb in-game characters were all wonky because of bad service. Even though there were several others clearly playing as well, we never all lined up at any of the various raids, which unfortunately never exceeded 4-stars. We were really hoping to get a 5-star raid with people because Latios is going to stop being a raid boss soon. Alas.
We got some disappointing Macarons that we discarded after trying the flavors, Steve got a bubble tea, and we generally had a nice romantic time wandering the mall. It's such a more bearable place during the week... far less people.
After that we headed home, and after I watered the garden and let my feet rest for a few, it was meal prep time! I made our breakfasts for the week and two sets of lunches:
Chia Pudding is a staple breakfast. I often wake up hungry but Steve struggles to eat food that doesn't make him nauseous in the morning. Chia pudding works for both of us because it's easy, versatile, and doesn't cause Steve to feel ill. AND it can be made ahead of time, and is in fact encouraged to do so to allow the seeds to plump.
For Steve's lunches I made a Butternut Squash and Pasta with Cheez sauce. I'd say it's some of the best vegan cheesy sauce I've ever made, omg. Instead of making separate vegetables I just used the leftover squash as the main veggie, and it looks amazing. Whenever recipes call for a certain amount of nutritional yeast, I always add more because YUM. My sauce was insanely thick so I ended up actually using almost double the water, added slowly, and it was perfect.
For my lunches I made a Mexican-style couscous. Always a delicious and flavorful meal. I usually use a bit more broth than called for and I add turmeric to everything. I also just used the entire bell peppers instead of half.
I made all of these at the same time, and Steve helped with the dishes when I was in the final stages of cooking. It all took just over an hour, and I'm not even a particularly fast or efficient cook. With practice I've been able to reduce my time in the kitchen, but a lot of that has to do with choosing relatively simple recipes (aka a few main ingredients) with several spices and use of salt and pepper even when it doesn't call for it. It's amazing what a huge difference it makes (thanks Blue Apron for teaching me that!!).
Finally, I snapped a photo just because-
It's mirrored because I took it in the Snapchat camera but still :D
Off to snuggle cats and a boy!
*After MCA's (standardized testing) we spend the rest of the year on projects that are varying degrees of math-focused, and most years is a really fun, busy, creative and honestly kind of relaxing way to end the school year.
