Every year or almost every year since 2010, we have a tradition of going to see the sunflowers in a town near us.
They have a field that blooms for about 2 weeks. It is absolutely gorgeous so many people stop to take photos and even draw pictures of the sunflowers.
It’s gotten so popular that they have a parking area which they never had before a few years ago. I used to have to sort of parallel park in the grass near the field.
As I said, we go every year or almost every year. I have found photos from 2010, 2011, and then 2014-2019. I don’t remember if we went in 2012 or 2013.
This year, we took the Oldest’s girlfriend. She had never been to the field before so it was fun to watch her discover the absolute beauty of the field.
While walking through the rows of sunflowers, you have to be careful of the bees because they love to hang out there and the prickly plants that grow near the sunflowers. Other than that, it’s fun to get lost in the hundreds of sunflowers.
We also have a tradition of going to the local dairy that is just down the road after visiting the sunflowers. So we did that also on Monday. Oldest’s girlfriend hadn’t been to Young’s Dairy for a while so it was fun to treat her to ice cream made with milk from cows from the dairy and to watch her feed the goats.
Visiting the sunflowers is one memory that the boys are going to carry with them for the rest of their lives. Even though Youngest would have rather stayed at home and played on the computer.
I have 2 teenagers in my house. One who turns to his mom for advice and will continue to let me know that he loves me. The other has decided doing anything with mom is pure torture. He may or may not say that he loves you when you tell him that you love him. It’s frustrating.
I love how the Oldest has started to embrace being a teenager. He doesn’t hang out with many of his friends outside of school. However, I know he has a group of friends that he calls his Guys.
He also has a girlfriend which is new territory for him. They’ve been dating since April.
So what would my advice be to my 2 teenagers? Since they are both so different, I have different pieces of advice.
Oldest – Continue to hang out with your Guys. Make memories with them. Girls come and go but a great friend will stay with you.
Young love is new and exciting. Don’t change yourself for her. Treat her with respect. Remember your family and how we raised you. Let her know you care about her. Think with your mind not your hormones.
Communication is key. Always remember to communicate.
Youngest – Family is important. When we want to spend time with you, we want to create memories. We love you. Don’t forget that. Please take time to say I love you and not the word yes when we speak to you.
Yes, we want you to do chores. Please do them correctly the first time or we will harp on you until you do it right.
Grades are important. Please begin to turn in your assignments. Don’t be a class clown.
During my first few years of teaching, school didn’t begin until around Labor Day. In fact, when Youngest was born, I left the previous school year pregnant and came back to work with everyone else. (He was born less than 2 weeks after the end of the school year.)
Now August 1st means that summer is basically over for me. I know that school is going to begin within a week or so. Usually I’m at the school getting my room ready by August 1st. This year I decided to treat myself to not coming in until the first day I had to be back at work.
I can’t show one photo to describe my August
When I walked into my room on August 7th, I walked into tablehedge, not Stonehedge.
Tablehedge
One of my co-workers came to my rescue and got the tables down.
I quickly rearranged my furniture so that the room is functional.
This room is a resource room. Students come out of the rooms for pull out services. I need to only have a minimal amount of furniture. As the school year continues, I will be decorating more of the classroom.
Case in point, this bulletin board has the two basic rules expected in all classrooms. I asked the students to write down ideas on ways they can demonstrate those rules. I love this because students feel as though they have a role in creating the rules in my room.
Now that we are testing for baseline data, my room has been torn apart to be put back together after testing.
The current state of my room. Each student has been given a shelf in the cubbies in the back of my room. It’s going to help with organization.
One of those bulletin boards in the back of the room is going to be the cool down / calm down corner. I have some brown paper board paper that is going to be hung up on the bulletin board with some suggestions on how they can calm down. Our community has been through so much trauma in the last few months. A tornado and then the shooting in downtown Dayton have rocked the area since May.
So many have rallied around our community. However, even with the rallying around us, these are 9, 10, and 11-year-old children. Some of them do not know how to deal with the trauma so it’s imperative they have a place that will help them cool down.
The word wall is basic sight words. When they don’t know how to spell a word, a way for them to get some movement is to walk to the back the room to look at the word wall. I have clipboards so it is easy for them to write.
Now You Know What a Teacher’s August looks like
My room would never be Pinterest worthy. However it is functional. Students get what they need to help them become better fourth and fifth grade students.
When a student tells you, they can’t wait until you begin to teach them math because you made them think last year. You know the look of your room does not matter. What matters is how you make the students feel while they are in your room. Are they feeling welcome? Are they feeling like they are learning? Are they feeling as though they are loved?
How can it be? My boys are in 8th and 10th grade now. They both allowed me to take their photos in the morning. In the afternoon, it was touch and go with the Youngest.
Before I left the house, I got a few photos of the Youngest. I was lucky he was willing to go outside with me. This was taken at almost 7 am.
After yelling at the Oldest to get moving because car drop off was going to be busy because it was the first day of school, I was able to get a photo of him in front of our tree. I took a few other photos in the car during drop off.
A tradition is to take photos on the first day or close to the first day of school in front of our tree in our yard. I do a photo session. Some years, the photos are great. Other years, well they are quite interesting. This year was a combination.
For some reason, Youngest decided we needed to include Dobby, our 15-year-old dog, in the photos. As you can see, Dobby was not impressed.
Next one to get his photos was Oldest.
Then I asked the boys to take photos together. They decided to be silly about the whole experience.
Next the red nose and Davy Crockett hat came out and the silly photos were taken.
Finally I asked the Youngest to take photos without Dobby. This is what I got.
I guess the photo session was done at that point. There wasn’t going to be anymore cooperating with me.
This is the first week of school for 3 members of our family. I started school 2 weeks ago. This week, Hubby goes back to college. The Youngest begins 8th grade and the Oldest begins 10th grade.
Three evenings during the week, Hubby will be in his college classes about an half an hour away from here. He is going to be studying to be an Intervention Specialist like me. Hubby has to take 11 classes, student teach, and do observations.
So dinners are going to be a little different around here since he’ll probably be gone when I get home. Actually I know he’ll he be gone on Tuesdays when I get home. His class starts when I am scheduled to get off of work.
He delivers pizza and that is going to change. He used to just deliver on the weekdays. Since he’ll be in class 3 evenings during the week, he had to put his availability in for Saturdays and Sunday. I’m going to be on deck for any weekend plans for the boys. I could rely on him but not anymore.
Okay, let’s jump into the menu.
Menu for this week.
Monday – Hamburgers, French fries, and raw veggies
Lunch – chicken breast, roasted potatoes, green beans, mini salad, dark chocolate candy bar
I got my protein waffle mix from Aldi. I was going to make homemade waffles but I found the mix and decided to try it.
I found a suggestion of buying the salad mixes but not using the toppings or salad dressing. I use the toppings but make homemade salad dressing. It’s so much easier using the chopped salad mixes when trying to meal prep.
All of the sudden, the Wee One has gotten so much taller. I think he’s grown 3 to 4 inches in the last few months. He is almost as tall as me.
So I now call him him Youngest because it makes him upset when I call him the Wee One.
Anyway on Saturday, he kept saying “Mother, Where’s the Food?” Mind you it was 4 pm and not time for dinner. He found him some food to hold him over.
This is the theme of our household right now. Having 2 teenage boys – 14 and 16, they are constantly hungry. One or both of them are going through growth spurts all of the time. Argh!
I’ve been meal planning off and on throughout their childhood. Last year, it fell apart. We have been doing better with it. So when he comes up to me, I can reply this is what we are eating at such and such at ___ o’clock.
Of course, that does not mean their ALWAYS hungry bellies can wait until the scheduled time for dinner. They may still get food to eat. I just have to remind them they need to still eat dinner when I put it on the table. The Youngest is usually pretty good about still eating what I have cooked.
The boys do not like when Hubby makes pasta dishes because he doesn’t always drain the pasta. He’ll rather use a slotted spoon to get out the pasta. Needless to say, it becomes very mushy.
So whenever we do have any pasta dishes, I’m the only one who cooks or if he cooks the pasta, he needs to be reminded to drain the pasta. I know us bugging him drives him crazy.
Making the spaghetti in the pressure cooker eliminates the need to drain the pasta because all of it is made in one pot.
Youngest is not always the best eater. He doesn’t always eat a lot of food at meals. When he ate 2 servings of the spaghetti, I knew this recipe was a keeper.
Hubby doesn’t always want to eat leftovers even though I plan for them during the week. He actually volunteered to eat the leftovers the next day. This also told me that this recipe was a keeper.
1 (26 oz.) jar full of water plus about 2 to 3 Tbsp. more of water
1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced – optional
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil – optional
Directions
Set your electric pressure cooker to saute.
If you are going to add onions to your spaghetti, add the oil and then the onions. Cook the onions for 4 to 5 minutes or until translucent. Remove from the pot.
Add the ground beef to the pot. Cook until no longer pink. Make sure you break up the ground beef so the pieces are equal pieces. (About 5 minutes) Drain the fat from the ground beef.
Add the spaghetti sauce, water, Italian seasoning, and onions, if using them. Stir.
Add the spaghetti noddles. (Break them in half.) Make sure the noodles are covered with sauce and water. Add a little more water, if needed.
Set the pressure cooker to manual 8 minutes. Put the lid on the pressure cooker making sure the valve is set to seal.
When it’s done cooking, quick release the valve.
Stir the spaghetti.
Enjoy with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes:
You can use ground turkey instead of ground beef.
If you want to make it vegetarian, you can use the beefless beef from Trader Joe’s. Just start with step 4 unless you are adding the onions.
Before the boys were born, I went white water rafting twice. Both times, we camped out with the Scouts Venturing post.
Imagine a camping site located in a valley.
Then there was a torrential rainstorm.
So what do you think happened?
The water pooled into my tent.
Oh, I forgot to give you one piece of key information. One of our friends and my father-in-law had traveled with us down to West Virginia.
So the water was pooling in my tent. Hubby, our friend, and my father-in-law were no where to be found. Cell phones were not as popular as they are now plus there would be no service.
I was freaking out and getting wetter.
One of the other people camping out with us had a camping trailer with them. So they invited me in the trailer so I wouldn’t get sick.
Finally they show back up.
They had been driving around looking for a hotel/ motel for me. A hamvention type of event was going on in the area so there was limited hotel/ motel rooms available. Or should I say, they found only one room.
It was a honeymoon type of room. There was one bed and a whirlpool tub. All 4 of us were sharing this room.
Hubby and I shared the bed. My father-in-law got the couch in the room. Our friend got the floor. The whirlpool tub was not used. 😥
The few photos I have of this camping trip.
There was video made of the trip. They included this song by Green Day. Whenever I hear this song, I am reminded of this camping trip.
If you would like to skip the introduction and go onto the menu, please click here.
I go back to work on either the 7th or the 8th. Technically I’m supposed to be going back to work on the 8th. However, some of the administrators have decided we need to have an extra day so that we can team build. I don’t know if they are actually going to have the team building day on the 7th.
The boys are getting older so there wasn’t very many day trips. Let’s take that back – We’ve done day trip. I’ve done some road trips with each of them individually.
The Memorial Day tornadoes change the dynamics of my summer. Even though it didn’t directly affect me, it affected the area I teach in so that made me upset.
