Post It Notes and Sheets

Sometimes it truly is the small things in life that can make us happy.

Inconsequential little things that just help to brighten our days.

For me, two of those things are Post It Notes and funky sheets.

Let me explain.

I have told you before about my obsession with To Do lists. For me, a To Do list just looks so much more appealing on brightly colored (and lined) Post It notes. The plain pale yellow is just not for me.

I have quite a collection...

 

  

The smaller lined ones are what I use for daily To Do lists, but sometimes if I have a whopper of a day, I will use the larger (longer) lined ones for my daily list. The lines are totally necessary.

I also used the larger ones for making notes when I did my weekly lesson planning back when I was a real teacher. The big lined sticky notes were treasured among my teaching team. Mostly because they are so expensive, which made them exotic and extra special! I actually looked on amazon.de this morning to see if they carry sticky notes (because I heart my next day delivery Amazon Prime privileges) and a package of small lined stickies was 14 Euros! Even though surely the presence of lines makes them more pricey, I will reiterate, the lines are totally necessary.

I understand that 14 Euros for paper that serves the same purpose as scrap paper is a bit ludicrous, but I still secretly want to order them because I am about to run out of that size. 

I am also a huge fan of the Post It flags because they come in handy when I am reading and I want to mark a certain page that contains information I want to include in a paper or something like that.

If someone gave me an assortment of Post It notes for my birthday, I would consider that to be one of my top ten all time favorite gifts. 

Yes, the obsession runs deep.

Is it a teacher thing? One of my favorite teacher bloggers Mrs. Mimi shares my love for Post It notes. 

Anyone else??

The other little thing that has my heart palpitating with excitement is the fact that when I move back to Portland next year, I get to pick out whatever kind of sheets strike my fancy. 

Don't get me wrong. I love my husband and living apart from him is going to suck.

Especially at night time when I am sleeping alone.

Especially since I will most likely be sleeping in a twin size bed. 

In a dorm room.

But, when you are part of a couple, sometimes you need to sacrifice your own personal tastes in order to meet in the middle when it comes to decorating and bedroom accessories so that the overall look is not super girly. The bed needs to be "man appropriate" which for us means solid, neutral colors. I absolutely love our bed, but if I was given the choice of any sheets in the world, I wouldn't pick the ones we have.

I love bright colors.

Animal prints!

Polka dots.

Stripes.

Polkda dots AND stripes!

If my sheets coordinated with my Post Its, I would be a happy girl.

The upside to living alone next year is that I can "decorate" my little room in any way that I want. 

My bed is going to be fantastic.  A haven of comfortable bliss designed by me and me only!

 

  

  

  

  

Ok so maybe you are thinking that my bed just might look like it belongs to an 8 year old instead of a very professional doctoral student, but....

I don't care.

I am excited about polka dots.

Can you imagine hubs sleeping in these sheets? Neither can I!

But I sure can imagine myself snuggling in after a long day's work being a real teacher. 

So for some reason, today I am celebrating Post It notes and super fun, girl power sheets. 

What small things make you smile?

What color/design are your sheets?

What were the craziest/coolest sheets you had as a child?

Recipe

One of my goals this month is to try out two new recipes. I used to get Health magazine and often receive emails from Health with links to workout tips, recipes, etc. The other day I received an email with a link to 8 Hearty Beef Stews. Sounded pretty enticing, so I checked it out.

Here is the link so you can check it out too and get the recipe I made if you are interested!

The soup I made was called Wagon Wheel Beef Soup

Picture from the article

My Version

 

Looks a bit different because  I didn't use wagon wheels in my wagon wheel soup... 

The soup pictured also looks a bit "heartier" than mine, but I was really happy with how mine came out even though it didn't look the same.

I  used the whole wheat bow ties I had already purchased.

Can you see the steam coming off of it?

I was photographing some hot stuff!

Although I though the recipe sounded great, it didn't include any vegetables, so I added some corn and zucchini. I know corn is not the most nutritious vegetable, but the hubs loves it. 

I think I would have preferred this to be thicker and more like a stew, but I am sure that could be fixed by adding less broth to it. Or more sauce. I still have a hard time converting my recipes to the metric system, so sometimes the amounts I put in might be off by a bit.

The recipe does not specify how many servings it makes, but with 6 ounces of pasta, I figured it would only be a couple. The amount of soup I got is definitely more than a couple of servings worth. If you make this, invite some friends over to share it with. I think I know what we will be having for dinner tomorrow night too! The great thing about soups/stews is that the leftovers are always just as good!

****

I am super excited for our German lesson tonight...not really....

but I am hoping to get in a quick pilates session before hubs gets home from work.

Moment in the sun

Today one of my third graders told me that she liked my outfit. Ah, compliments from the kiddos! Here is a pic of the admired by an eight-year-old ensemble:

I am getting my hair done on Saturday and I think I want to grow it longer.

The past several times I have gotten it cut short and I am not sure I want to do that again. 

 

post 1st German haircut

Long or short? Thoughts?

***

Today in Algebra class, the teacher was having the students graph functions one at a time. The students are seated in a U formation and he was going around the room letting each student have a turn to solve/graph an equation up at the board. He said that as he continued, the functions were going to continue getting harder. My friend was going to be the very last one to go, so I asked the teacher if he could provide us with his function ahead of time, so he could work it out and be ready. I sense that my buddy was a little anxious about going up to the board to write his answer, so I didn't want him to feel pressured to get his answer quickly. The teacher gave me two functions and I asked my friend to pick which one he wanted to graph. He chose and worked it out with my help. 

When everyone else had gone and my friend was the only student left, the teacher switched gears and introduced something new. Whoa there! I whispered to my friend, asking him if he wanted a turn or if he didn't care that he got skipped. He wanted a turn, dammit! So I nicely addressed the teacher and asked him if my friend could have his turn. I will admit, I had an inner wtf moment! Why is it that every other kid in the class got a turn to go up to the board and solve their own problem, yet this student didn't? I specifically asked him for the problem ahead of time so that my friend would have enough time to work it out and we could go over how to do it and he could ask me questions. I didn't want him to feel on the spot in front of the other kids, but I still wanted to give him the chance to take a turn just like everybody else. I am curious what the teacher was thinking...Did he think that the student couldn't do it? Did he think that since he did it "with me" that the answer shouldn't count? Did he think my friend was too shy to go up to the board? Well, let me tell you friends....this kiddo was proud of what he did and wanted to have a turn just like everyone else. Did he need a little help to get the answer. Yup. Did most of the other kids in class also need help in solving their equations? yesiree Bob.

Some students learn more slowly than others, some need help, and some are entirely independent and barely even need a teacher in the room, but every student deserves their moment in the spotlight. 

Every student.

Even if this particular kiddo gets his own personal teacher during the lessons to help him through, he is still part of the group. He still wants to feel like he is a member of the class and considering he was doing remarkably well with this lesson, I felt especially perturbed that he was almost robbed of his chance to show that off.

What do you do to include students with special needs?

Bachelor Finale Review

My friends and I just watched the finale of the Bachelor. I have to say I am disappointed. I was very convinced that Jake was not going to choose either of the girls because of the clips that were shown of Vienna crying during her final moment with him as well as clips of Tenley crying. The clips of Jake crying also led me to believe that he left without a woman. I can't judge because it is not my relationship, but I just don't get it. He chose the fun girl over the real girl. He chose the one he was sexually attracted to and hot for over the one who he gushed over saying she had all of these amazing qualities. He said nicer things (with the exception of telling her that something was missing) to the girl he dumped than he did to the girl he proposed to!

I honestly don't know if Tenley was ready for another marriage, yet I feel like they were able to sustain better conversations and talked about real life more than Jake and Vienna. I do think that Jake acted more like "himself" (as if I truly know him) around Vienna than he did around Tenley, which is probably one of the reasons he hesitated to choose her, but I can't help but feel like they just looked better as a pair. Poor girl. I am sure she will have a tough time over this and I was really rooting for the OR girl!

so cute together!

My theory (oh yes, I have lots) is that Jake did not date a lot in high school (because he was really intimidated by girls and was kind of shy/dorky) so he does not have enough experience to distinguish between love and lust. I think he lusts after Vienna, but I would not be surprised if their relationship fizzled before the end of 2010. Do we even give them that long? Hopefully they do stay together. I hope it works, but I will admit...I am skeptical. Best of luck kids...

 

meh...

I also have to say that I cannot believe that Molly and Jason  actually got married and I cannot believe that her dress cost $35,000! I don't care if the show pays for it...that is a disgusting waste of money and with people in Chile and Haiti suffering, I can't believe anyone could spend that much on a dress to to be worn one time. It is definitely beautiful, but $35,000!? Really?

Ah...reality tv. What would we do without it!?

Of course we will tune in to see the next season of The Bachelorette with Ali, but I just hope it airs before I leave Germany because it was so much fun tuning in every week with my friends.

Did you watch the finale?

What did you think about the decision?

For those of you who didn't watch, do you think that  love should be like a fairy tale or is that just a fantasy that doesn't come true?

Funday Monday

My day started out with 20 minutes of buns 'n thighs pilates followed by this:

 

I am lovin' oats for breakfast these days and made this combo of oats, 1/2 banana, soymilk, & crumbled Oatie this morning for breakfast. I found out about Oaties here and got the recipe here. While eating this lovely mess of yumminess, I downed two glasses of water and as a result had to pee in between every single class I went to this morning! I try to drink a lot of water, but when you are the "real" teacher and you can't be late or leave during class...it is SO hard to drink a lot because you can never pee when you need to! I was glad for once not to be the "real" teacher.

Some of my fifth graders made intriguing comments today that got me thinking. Do you ever formulate blog posts as you go about your day? When I heard these two comments in class, I had this little aha blog post! moment and tucked it away to write about later.

My fifth graders were doing their weekly reading response where they respond to a book of their choice that they are reading independently.  A few of the kids in class are reading books that have been made into movies. A few students started talking about whether they prefer to read the books or see the movies. One of the kiddos that I work with said, "I just like to see the movie instead, it's easier." and another kiddo said, "I like to read the book first or else it gets spoiled by the movie."

 

I completely agree with the second kiddo. I always prefer to read the book first and then see the movie, although sometimes I am okay to read the book and skip the movie entirely (like with My Sister's Keeper). I heard that the movie was entirely different in the end than the book was and I was not at all down with Cameron Diaz playing the mom when I totally pictured her as a Joan Cusack kind of woman. I like to make my own images and create the characters as I see them, not just as they are depicted by the actors and actresses who portray them. I read The Secret Life of Bees after the movie came out and even though I didn't see the movie until after I read the book, I could not get the images of Queen Latifah and Alicia Keys out of my head! When Where the Wild Things Are came out, I was really upset that a very short picture book would be made into a feature film because there is no way to stretch the story to at least 90 minutes of film without sacrificing the integrity original content. My husband said that the book's author was totally up for it and was involved in the project, so I gave up hating on it, yet I still never saw it.

 

To me, a book is a means to use your mind and creativity and create your own personal interpretations of different characters and worlds, so seeing the images someone else has created takes away that opportunity for me to do it myself. For kids/people who don't like to read, like my friend from school who said watching the movies is just easier, I can see why he feels that way--doing all that imagining is a lot of hard work! For someone who struggles to get the basic plot because of difficulties paying attention, decoding, and therefore comprehending, the whole visualization piece is at a whole other level. I certainly hope that he does not continue to try to make his way through school as a  Claire & Leonard watcher instead of a  Shakespeare reader.

Sometimes books and movies compliment each other well like Harry Potter, but I still prefer to read first and then watch. Books and movies can be a great resource for comparing and contrasting because often there are many differences and changes to the original story that should be noted.

 

Where do you weigh in?

Do you prefer the books or the movies or both?

Do you feel seeing the movie first spoils the book?

Any books gone Hollywood that you  really loved (or really hated?!)

Fab Sunday

Today has been a fantastic day so far. I slept in, then went to the gym and had a great run on the treadmill. I decided to take it slower today so I could run for a longer amount of time. I started at about 10.5 km/hour and eventually worked by way up to 14 km/hour for a short sprint. When I reached a distance 5 km, I had been running for about 27 minutes which is a pace I am happy with. I remember running a 5K race in Portland and finishing at over 30 minutes, so I have knocked some time off of that. It is easier to keep a good pace on the treadmill, so that helps cut the time a bit. I was on the treadmill for about 45 minutes which included a walking break for 5 minutes.

While I was doing some crunches after my run, I got a text from my friend Jill asking if I wanted to take a walk with her to Starbucks. (Yes, we just got a Starbucks in our town in Germany!). I quickly walked home from the gym, showered up, and got ready. My husband came home from playing tennis and he wanted to come too, so the three of us walked into town for some nice Starbucks drinks and snacks. We took our stuff to go and continued walking around downtown. It is warm out today and it was really nice to be outside. Since we got home the wind has really picked up though! Tonight we are going over to my friend Christy's house to watch U.S. play Canada in Olympic hockey. In our group of 4 we have two Americans and two Canadians, so it will be fun to have a little rivalry going on during the game!

I have not done any school work today, but I am enjoying that fact! I worked on my post test for the class where I work with a partner yesterday, so all of the assignments I am responsible for are completed and posted online. We still have a 12 page case study report to turn in for the final project, but my partner is in charge of writing most of that since she was the teacher who actually worked with the student. Instead of reading for class, I decided to give the book Three Cups of Tea another try. I started it last year or maybe even the year before and never finished. I found that I would go through spurts of really loving it and then not wanting anything to do with it. This time, I am trying harder to really appreciate the writing and pay more attention to the details about Korphe and Pakistan where Greg Mortenson built schools. I have heard both sides when it comes to this book--some people LOVE and ogle over it and others say they couldn't get through it. I want to at least give it one more shot.

I am really trying to figure out something good and healthy to make for dinner tonight. We have recently discovered an obsession with quinoa, so I have been using it a lot lately with different things mixed in. Last night we had chili over quinoa and vegetables, but I am stuck and can't think of what to make tonight! Better get on that soon because hubs need something to eat before he heads off to soccer. Tennis and soccer and walking all in the same day! Busy boy! I am looking forward to cozying up on the couch and reading while he is gone.

I realized that I rarely ever include pictures in my posts, so here is a silly shot just for fun!

 

  

and a picture of one of the cookies that I baked on Friday.

Oatmeal with cranberries, white chocolate, & hazelnuts.

So good!