Saturday

Phew - made it.  It is now Saturday and I may have woken early but I can snooze during the day if I feel the need.  I tried to stay awake as long as possible last night and actually managed to stay awake and upright until 8:30 which is much more sensible.  Then it was up to bed and out like a light until about four this morning.

It doesn't look so cold out there this morning.  No frost as far as I can tell.

I have a fair old list of things to do.  After a little argument with a kamikaze pheasant before half term, there's a wee dent spoiling the pristine shininess of my new car.that needs to be sorted out so I am off to a local repair company this morning for a quote before deciding if it is an insurance jobby or not (I suspect not).  No, Diane, I didn't stop to pick up the body, poor little bird - as far as I know it's the first time I have killed a creature when driving and I was sad!
I have some shopping to do for Beth who has what seems to be a nasty dose of flu.  I have bread to make, not-really-flapjacks to bake, reports to write, writing to level . . .

I might also start a baby dress, if I have time.  A dear friend recently had a wee baby girl and another lovely friend gave me a copy of an old pattern she has for an old fashioned smocked baby dress.  I love smocking and made Beth many a smocked dress when she was very little.  The pattern I have been given looks very similar to the one I used then and I have some lovely small check pink gingham to use.  I haven't smocked for decades now and am so looking forward to getting back to it.

Not exactly the same but similar and so very pretty.
(borrowed from Google)

Yesterday was a good day, albeit punctuated by yawns.  Some sad news filtered through in the evening that Leonard Nimoy has died.  Anyone of my generation cannot fail to have registered the impact that Star Trek had in the 60s, the character of Spock in particular.  I was a Star Trek fan, watched all the episodes and recorded them too and thoroughly enjoyed the films.  It just wouldn't have been the same without Mr Spock.

I'm glad the week is over.  It's been a very tiring one.  Next week will be better, I am sure (I hope, anyway).  Before then there's the weekend.  Enjoy!

Friday after school

I made it.  I'm now  plucking up the energy to go home.

But first - a visit to Morrisons alcohol shelves.  It's Friday!

Friday

This is getting perfectly ridiculous.  Awake at half past two, wide awake, no possible chance of getting back to sleep.  By the time the children come in I will have been awake for over six hours.  Small wonder I am utterly worn out come the evenings.  But what to do about it?  I don't know.  Perhaps if I didn't have so much on my mind, maybe?   My eating has all gone to pot too and I am sure that's mostly down to tiredness.

Anyway, enough whinging, sorry for that.  It's much colder again this morning and there's a frost on the car.  Just when one thought it was getting milder and more spring-like too.  The forecast is OK though.  No rain, plenty of sun.  That's good considering it is outside games today!

Yesterday was OK, I guess.  The tangram maths was great with the extra thrill of using the laptops.  There was a meeting after school to discuss this, that and the other which went well.

Well, I'd better make breakfast, I suppose.  Given how I am feeling, it can be bacon sandwiches.  Comfort food extrordinaire!  And maybe REAL coffee!  With caffeine.  Aren't I the little rebel this morning!!!

Thursday

Welcome to another milder morning here.  No frost, no chill in the air.  Cold, yes, after all it is February still, but no need for extra covers, heating up or even slippers!

Yesterday was a fairly stressful and emotional day so by the time I left school after a (thankfully) shortened staff meeting I headed straight for the comfort food in Morrisons and ruined my healthy eating for the week!!!

Ah, well, one day is one day and today is another day, etc.

I was so worn out that I went to bed at seven intending to read and unwind but went to sleep with the light on.  Apart from a wake up with rather uncomfortable cramp in one foot, I slept jolly well, waking very early, of course.  I'm now paying for the binge with a slightly muggy head and churny tum, but nothing too bad, probably less than I deserve.

The trouble with letting go like that is that one then continues to feel hungry so I will have a battle on my hands today.  I'm sure it is an emotional hunger, not a 'real' one.

Actually, thinking about it, there were some good bits yesterday.  The maths was fun, as was the science, for example.  The children were, as always, delightful.  I'm very fond of my class.

So, on to today.  Another mathematical problem solving activity.  This time it is all about tangrams which is a bit different!  I must remember to grab the laptops when I get into school.

Well, I'd better look through the planning and get things ready - after all, I didn't really have the opportunity yesterday evening!

Have a great day!

Wednesday

So here we are, almost half way through the working week already.  It's certainly nowhere near freezing although the skies are clear and starry and I'm now quite looking forward to the time when I can come down without a dressing gown and feel comfortable and warm.

Yesterday was a long and busy day.  Not quite twelve hours of school but almost.  Quite hectic for much of the time, one way or another too.  One thing stands out particularly.

We are doing problem solving this week.  Primary teachers will know what I mean.  The kind of thing where they have to find all the possibles and show a systematic, methodical approach to working it out.  Yesterday it was monkeys and nuts.  Three monkeys, twenty five nuts, shared out so that each monkey had an odd number of nuts and no monkey had the same number of nuts!  Yeah, I know, but there you go!

Well, for a start they found it very hard to accept that those poor monkeys were not going to have the same number of nuts each.  It wasn't necessarily even going to be close.  That was just NOT FAIR!  Slowly we worked our way through, finding all the different ways.  So last night, after getting home with not enough unwinding time before I fell asleep, my dreams were haunted by those darn monkeys arguing over their nuts!

(don't laugh!)

And no, they're not old enough for the sort of joke that immediately came to my mind when I first read the problem - or not old enough to mention it during the lesson anyway.  Maybe I am just rude!

Today is playing cards and totals.  Please think of me!

As some of you who look at my other blog might have noticed, when cooking I am now using frozen mixed peppers rather than fresh ones.  At £1.00 for 500g I thought they were good value, better than fresh, but I'd never tested this.  So yesterday I bought a pack of 3 peppers for 99p which is pretty good value really.  When I got home I popped them straight on the scales and they weighed just a fraction over 500g.  That means once the core and stalk has been removed they will be significantly under that weight so I was right.  Frozen is the frugal way to go in cooking, fresh is for salads!

Today's meals are porridge, beans on toast for lunch and then a reheated Chinese takeaway for dinner.  I shall need a bit of a treat after staff meeting and this is one from the freezer, left over from a previous indulgence.  I have noticed that I'm getting short of soups so I will have to stock up again, soups being a mainstay of my school lunches.  Fortunately they are dead easy!

Wednesday is the interesting day of the week with Reading Revelry and violins (it is not library week this week) in the morning and the PPA in the afternoon.  I enjoy Wednesdays.

Tuesday

Good morning, everyone.  It felt cold again overnight but it isn't frosty and iPod says it is above freezing, so that's all to the good, isn't it?  I know there's been snow in places but not a hint of any flakage here.  We did have a few short, sharp rain showers yesterday but nothing too daunting.

Yesterday was back to school day and it was nice to see the children again, although by the evening I was desperately tired.  It doesn't take much to wear me out nowadays, I find.  Getting old, that's what!

Today there is a governor's meeting at six and as muggins here offered to represent the staff on the governing body for a short time, I have to go.  Sensibly, it starts at six, so I can stay and work and then go straight to the meeting.  When I did the same thing years ago the meetings used to start at seven or maybe it was even seven thirty, which meant going home and turning out again.  Painful!

The mornings and evenings are rapidly getting brighter now and Spring is sprunging for all it is worth in the garden.  Yesterday morning before school I popped out and took a few photos and here they are.

Pretty little snowdrop

Mini-daffs.  These are about 10 cms tall

A splash of colour.

The leeks are still alive . . .

. . . as are the two broccoli plants and the strawberry runners have rooted well.

Well, it is nearly five and I need to get going with the review of today's lessons.  See you tomorrow!

Monday

Well, yesterday was pretty parky all the way through the day, despite some lovely sunshine in the morning.  By mid afternoon the wind was up and the rain was pouring down.  Not at all nice and it stopped me from doing any more with the chest freezer in the shed because it was so flippin' cold out there.  Also the extra cover stayed on the bed overnight!

However, I made bread, I made sort-of-flapjacks (and have posted the recipe on t'other blog, here), I made roast dinner, I went to Aldi, I got the planning done and dusted and I even did a bit of gardening in the morning as there was a tangle of old stuff on the middle bed hiding the snowdrops, hyaconths and mini daffs.  Yes, there's colour again out there and very cheering it is too, even when the wind howls and the rain lashes.

Aldi was a bit of an eye opener.  I haven't been for a while - in fact, truth be told, I haven't been since I did Live Below the Line last year, I think.  That's mainly because Morrisons is pretty good price-wise nowadays and is very, very close.    I got there just before ten and there were a number of cars in the car park but not too many and there were some people waiting so I joined the short queue.  Five chilly minutes later when the shop opened there was a fairly long queue and when I came out before half past ten the car park was full and people were trawling round and round, waiting for spaces to become available.

Aldi has really taken off as a place to shop, it seems!  I can see why too.  They've enlarged it for a start and the aisles are much wider which is just as well given the way people crowded in and were rushing around.  The displays are better.  There's more choice than there used to be, I think, especially in the fruit and veg department.  I can see that I ought to go there more regularly for some things that were significantly cheaper that anywhere else, although Morrisons is better on some items.  The main disadvantage is that it is the other side of town.

Dinner was delicious.  I always like chicken and you get so much from a chicken.  A main meal, the pull off bits, boiling up the carcass . . . even the small ones (and this was fairly small) lasts for a fair old time.  By the time it's bulked out with stuffing, roasties and veg it makes a jolly good meal.  Thjis particular chicken provided me and Alex with a Sunday dinner, then I had chicken sandwiches for tea.  Today I am having chicken with tomatoes and coleslaw for lunch at school and the rest will go into the freezer in two portions covered with stock from the boil-up for later on in the week.  The little bits will make a nice pasta sauce, curry, risotto or whatever I fancy.  Seven good portions plus stock isn't bad from a small bird.

As the oven was going to be on anyway, that's where I roasted it, not in the halogen over as I usually do.  I did it upside down which makes the breast lovely and moist although the skin stays white and soft.  This isn't an issue as I always take off the skin anyway, which goes into the pressure cooker with the rest of the carcass for boiling up.

Well, finally, I've tried not to mention it, but, sadly, I have to.  Back to work today.  Ho hum . . .

I hope my readers have a good day anyway!