Teachers, anyway. Today is an INSET day. We used to call them B(aker) Days, I remember, in the early days, or, as one staffroom wit described them, 'bidets'.
Today is, I think, a revisiting of three teaching tools: visual literacy, mantle of the expert and philosophy for children. It should all be very helpful, but the most important thing will be to get into the classroom and make it ready. It's been hard to get into school during the Christmas holiday. Leading up to Christmas I was too busy and between Christmas and New Year I was feeling a bit yuck. OK, so that's an excuse, yuck never stopped anyone sorting out their classroom, lets be honest. The inclination wasn't there either!
However, playtime is now over, the serious journey of earning the daily crust is now about to roll again. Off we go!
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Monday, 3 January 2011
Monday: evening
. . . and that's it. Holiday over, back to the grindstone again. I really could do with a few more days (couldn't everyone?) now that I'm no longer aching and feeling a bit yuck. Never mind, not long till the weekend!
It's been quite a creative day today. I decided I needed to do something about all the shelled nuts I have left over and asked in Virtual Slimming. Someone posted some links, one of which was for a 'mixed nut roast' which I decided to try. It was jolly nice too. Here's the link. I guess this counts as my first N R C offering. It got a bit changed - garlic, vegetarian 'Worcester' sauce and paprika were added and I was pleased with the results. The only problem was that it fell apart a bit when I sliced it - a little beaten egg would probably solve that one.
I also hunted for a pattern for an egg cosy as my efforts kept coming out too big and found a nice one here which I easily turned into a Santa hat with a pom pom on top and a white band around the bottom. It gave me a rather early idea for Christmas presents for next year's class - I did say 'early' after all. I might post a photo at some point if I get round to taking one.
How would we manage without Google, eh?
It's been quite a creative day today. I decided I needed to do something about all the shelled nuts I have left over and asked in Virtual Slimming. Someone posted some links, one of which was for a 'mixed nut roast' which I decided to try. It was jolly nice too. Here's the link. I guess this counts as my first N R C offering. It got a bit changed - garlic, vegetarian 'Worcester' sauce and paprika were added and I was pleased with the results. The only problem was that it fell apart a bit when I sliced it - a little beaten egg would probably solve that one.
I also hunted for a pattern for an egg cosy as my efforts kept coming out too big and found a nice one here which I easily turned into a Santa hat with a pom pom on top and a white band around the bottom. It gave me a rather early idea for Christmas presents for next year's class - I did say 'early' after all. I might post a photo at some point if I get round to taking one.
How would we manage without Google, eh?
Monday: New Year bank holiday
. . . to add to all the other holidays we've had over the last few weeks! If it wasn't for today, I'd be at school by now; as it is, it's been delayed until tomorrow. What with snow days, Christmas specials and the Christmas break, it seems an awful long time ago since we were actually getting stuck into things at school and I feel a bit out of the loop. It won't take long, it's just an odd sort of feeling at the moment.
I did manage to get loads and loads of washing and ironing done over the weekend. There's still some ironing remaining. I'm trying very hard not to use the tumble dryer too much so most of my clothes get hung up to dry and that can take some time. Most of the sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases got sorted though and they took up a huge proportion of the whole task. Today I will do the rest which will keep me in clothes for enough time to give me a breather!
I thought I had dealt with all the leftovers but, in a corner of the fridge this morning, I found an opened packet of chestnuts, the vacuum packed ones. I suppose I could have looked for the first recipe in my N R C but I couldn't be bothered. Instead I zizzed them up with some quark, salt and smoked paprika and it made a rather nice spread, sweet in a savoury sort of way, which I have divided into six little portions for lunches, to be spread on crackers or crispbreads. In the freezer they go!
I had a bit of fun yesterday trying to crochet egg cosies. That might sound silly but when I have boiled egg, I usually have two. While I'm eating the first one, the second one starts to get cold. I knitted a little cosy a while ago, but fancied a choice (yes, I know, daft really). This led on to experimenting with crocheting a little flower to go on as a decoration and I ended up looking on Google for some patterns, of which there are many! Now, I'm no crochet expert but these little flowers are quite easy so I'm going to keep investigating and when I get my cosy completed (if I ever do), I'll take a photo! Bet you can't wait!
For the rest of the day I have school work to do, bits and bobs to finish off and a last day to enjoy. I hope it's a good one - for us all.
I did manage to get loads and loads of washing and ironing done over the weekend. There's still some ironing remaining. I'm trying very hard not to use the tumble dryer too much so most of my clothes get hung up to dry and that can take some time. Most of the sheets, duvet covers and pillowcases got sorted though and they took up a huge proportion of the whole task. Today I will do the rest which will keep me in clothes for enough time to give me a breather!
I thought I had dealt with all the leftovers but, in a corner of the fridge this morning, I found an opened packet of chestnuts, the vacuum packed ones. I suppose I could have looked for the first recipe in my N R C but I couldn't be bothered. Instead I zizzed them up with some quark, salt and smoked paprika and it made a rather nice spread, sweet in a savoury sort of way, which I have divided into six little portions for lunches, to be spread on crackers or crispbreads. In the freezer they go!
I had a bit of fun yesterday trying to crochet egg cosies. That might sound silly but when I have boiled egg, I usually have two. While I'm eating the first one, the second one starts to get cold. I knitted a little cosy a while ago, but fancied a choice (yes, I know, daft really). This led on to experimenting with crocheting a little flower to go on as a decoration and I ended up looking on Google for some patterns, of which there are many! Now, I'm no crochet expert but these little flowers are quite easy so I'm going to keep investigating and when I get my cosy completed (if I ever do), I'll take a photo! Bet you can't wait!
For the rest of the day I have school work to do, bits and bobs to finish off and a last day to enjoy. I hope it's a good one - for us all.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Sunday morning
The last day of freedom. Tomorrow I must look over my planning, sort out my resources, etc, etc, etc. And then on Tuesday, the staff are all in for INSET with the children back on Wednesday.
So how am I celebrating today. Well, actually, I'm not really. After yesterday's mammoth washing spree there's a huge pile - several piles, in fact - of ironing which I really do want to get done this morning, so that's one or two DVDs on while I do so. The house itself isn't in a bad state, so that's OK. The kitchen needs a little bit of sorting but half an hour should see that straight. This afternoon, DD and DG are coming round for tea, hopefully.
Just an ordinary day, in fact, the holiday feeling is past and life is moving on and a jolly good thing too. Holidays and breaks are lovely, but they should be the punctuation marks, not the words and phrases. Half term is seven weeks away, that's all.
Better go and set up the ironing board. Start early, finish early!
So how am I celebrating today. Well, actually, I'm not really. After yesterday's mammoth washing spree there's a huge pile - several piles, in fact - of ironing which I really do want to get done this morning, so that's one or two DVDs on while I do so. The house itself isn't in a bad state, so that's OK. The kitchen needs a little bit of sorting but half an hour should see that straight. This afternoon, DD and DG are coming round for tea, hopefully.
Just an ordinary day, in fact, the holiday feeling is past and life is moving on and a jolly good thing too. Holidays and breaks are lovely, but they should be the punctuation marks, not the words and phrases. Half term is seven weeks away, that's all.
Better go and set up the ironing board. Start early, finish early!
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Saturday: banana ice cream and other stuff
It's so nice to feel more energetic again. I've had a good sort out of the fridge and it's now looking much more healthy and wholesome.
Some left over hummus has been put in little pots and frozen for lunches
Some cheese has been grated and put into little pots too - just 20gs worth which is plenty.
I sliced up the remains of the Christmas cake, wrapped it carefully in easy-leave and that's also in the freezer.
Then, just a short time ago, after a discussion in OUSA Food and Drink about using up soft bananas, I made some banana yogurt ice cream and that's also now in the freezer in little pots. It's scrummy and this is what I did.
I mashed up four over-ripe bananas and added to it some leftover double cream (about 60mls) and some low fat natural yogurt (Greek 'style', so quite thick). I added a splash of good vanilla essence and some maple syrup to taste. I then zizzed it round until it was more or less smooth with just a hint of texture. I churned it in the ice cream maker for about 35 mins until it was frozen (but still soft), then spooned it into little pots to go in the freezer.
You know, my old freezer would never have coped with all this influx of stuff!
Some left over hummus has been put in little pots and frozen for lunches
Some cheese has been grated and put into little pots too - just 20gs worth which is plenty.
I sliced up the remains of the Christmas cake, wrapped it carefully in easy-leave and that's also in the freezer.
Then, just a short time ago, after a discussion in OUSA Food and Drink about using up soft bananas, I made some banana yogurt ice cream and that's also now in the freezer in little pots. It's scrummy and this is what I did.
I mashed up four over-ripe bananas and added to it some leftover double cream (about 60mls) and some low fat natural yogurt (Greek 'style', so quite thick). I added a splash of good vanilla essence and some maple syrup to taste. I then zizzed it round until it was more or less smooth with just a hint of texture. I churned it in the ice cream maker for about 35 mins until it was frozen (but still soft), then spooned it into little pots to go in the freezer.
You know, my old freezer would never have coped with all this influx of stuff!
Saturday: F M C
Around this time last year, inspired by Maggie's Nigel Slater challenge, I started my F M C - Food Magazine Challenge. The idea was that once a week I would try a new recipe found in a food magazine, e.g., Delicious, Olive, BBC Good Food, etc.
It was going great guns until I decided that I needed to get the old eating habits in hand and started using BodyChef, followed by my own version of the same. After that, the FMC died a sudden death, sadly but inevitably.
I was having a little think about what else I could do, similar but helpful. It may sounds daft, but I think that once a week is too much, given that I prefer to make larger amounts and freeze single portions. It saves time in the longer term and makes better use of electricity, etc, but by its very nature, cuts down on the amount of cooking I need to do from week to week.
There does seem to be a great awareness of the need to eat healthily in food mags and in other resources right now, certainly there are a lot of what I would call 'more healthy' recipes around. By that, I suppose I mean recipes that I feel OK about cooking and eating/freezing, that are not too expensive, that don't use unusual and hard-to-get ingredients, that fit into my lifestyle and timescales.
So, here's my foody challenge. At least once a month I will try a new recipe. It can be from anywhere - internet, book, magazine - but it must be one I've not made before. And I want it to be 'healthy' - not too much fat content, for a start - and reasonably economical. This doesn't seem too restrictive and works with what I want to achieve in other areas of my life.
So here's to the NRC - New Recipe Challenge - in 2011. The goulash doesn't count - that was last year!
It was going great guns until I decided that I needed to get the old eating habits in hand and started using BodyChef, followed by my own version of the same. After that, the FMC died a sudden death, sadly but inevitably.
I was having a little think about what else I could do, similar but helpful. It may sounds daft, but I think that once a week is too much, given that I prefer to make larger amounts and freeze single portions. It saves time in the longer term and makes better use of electricity, etc, but by its very nature, cuts down on the amount of cooking I need to do from week to week.
There does seem to be a great awareness of the need to eat healthily in food mags and in other resources right now, certainly there are a lot of what I would call 'more healthy' recipes around. By that, I suppose I mean recipes that I feel OK about cooking and eating/freezing, that are not too expensive, that don't use unusual and hard-to-get ingredients, that fit into my lifestyle and timescales.
So, here's my foody challenge. At least once a month I will try a new recipe. It can be from anywhere - internet, book, magazine - but it must be one I've not made before. And I want it to be 'healthy' - not too much fat content, for a start - and reasonably economical. This doesn't seem too restrictive and works with what I want to achieve in other areas of my life.
So here's to the NRC - New Recipe Challenge - in 2011. The goulash doesn't count - that was last year!
Saturday: New Year morning - a time for reflection
In my other blog, the Food Diary of a Teacher, I said:
May we all have a 2011 that suits us and helps us to grow in kindness, compassion and character.
. . . and I would like to wish this to all my lovely readers, old and new. Thanks for staying with my blog this year and I hope I don't bore you too much this coming year!
New Year is a funny time, isn't it? It's just another day, the next day in a personal string that starts with birth and finishes with death. All that has happened really is that another day has slipped from one side or our life-string to the other. Done. Finished. Over, never to be lived again (Doctor Who to the contrary notwithstanding!).
And yet, because we humans are what we are, we need points in our life when we can just pause and reflect, analyse and segment, look back and look forward, decide what we would like to change and take steps to make it happen. After all, our future is grounded in our past.
New Year's Resolutions.
From a very small child, like most of us, I am sure, I liked to set for myself almost impossible targets - no sweets, saving my pocket money instead of spending it all the first day, being nice to *** (better not say the name in case there's a very, very remote chance that she reads this blog) - targets that fell by the wayside the day I got my pocket money or met up with ***.
As I got older it was things like getting my homework done the night it was set (hollow and hysterical laughter), keeping my bedroom tidy . . . and cutting down on sweets.
As an adult, they ranged from keeping up with the housework to keeping up to date with my planning, losing some weight . . . etc.
See the pattern? I do. And have all these resolutions made a difference? No, not really. I still struggle with food management, I still have a messy house, I still leave some things until the last possible moment. That's me all over and all the 'resolutions' in the world won't change the basic me.
So no list of Resolutions this year.
I guess you could say that my resolution is to not have Resolutions! I know what works and what leads to blips and stumbles - mostly, anyway. I have strategies. I have learnt that I am what I am and I like me (most of the time, anyway). I try to make 'good' choices. I try to be kind and compassionate and to guard my character against onslaughts. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't. That's life. When I succeed it's great and when I fail, maybe I learn something from it. I still feel myself sinking into misery and 'depression' at times and I'd like to handle those times a bit better, a bit more positively. I'd like a tidier house but recognise that while it's down to me it ain't going to happen all the time. I'd like to be fitter and healthier with the resulting weight loss and I'm hoping I might get closer to that this year, but I now accept that it's always going to be a struggle and an up and down road for me, as it is for just about everyone. It has to be worked at, it won't just 'happen', there will be battles, some of which I will win, some I will lose. But I know that one can lose a battle but still finally win the war!
May we all win our wars, whatever happens in our individual battles!
May we all have a 2011 that suits us and helps us to grow in kindness, compassion and character.
. . . and I would like to wish this to all my lovely readers, old and new. Thanks for staying with my blog this year and I hope I don't bore you too much this coming year!
New Year is a funny time, isn't it? It's just another day, the next day in a personal string that starts with birth and finishes with death. All that has happened really is that another day has slipped from one side or our life-string to the other. Done. Finished. Over, never to be lived again (Doctor Who to the contrary notwithstanding!).
And yet, because we humans are what we are, we need points in our life when we can just pause and reflect, analyse and segment, look back and look forward, decide what we would like to change and take steps to make it happen. After all, our future is grounded in our past.
New Year's Resolutions.
From a very small child, like most of us, I am sure, I liked to set for myself almost impossible targets - no sweets, saving my pocket money instead of spending it all the first day, being nice to *** (better not say the name in case there's a very, very remote chance that she reads this blog) - targets that fell by the wayside the day I got my pocket money or met up with ***.
As I got older it was things like getting my homework done the night it was set (hollow and hysterical laughter), keeping my bedroom tidy . . . and cutting down on sweets.
As an adult, they ranged from keeping up with the housework to keeping up to date with my planning, losing some weight . . . etc.
See the pattern? I do. And have all these resolutions made a difference? No, not really. I still struggle with food management, I still have a messy house, I still leave some things until the last possible moment. That's me all over and all the 'resolutions' in the world won't change the basic me.
So no list of Resolutions this year.
I guess you could say that my resolution is to not have Resolutions! I know what works and what leads to blips and stumbles - mostly, anyway. I have strategies. I have learnt that I am what I am and I like me (most of the time, anyway). I try to make 'good' choices. I try to be kind and compassionate and to guard my character against onslaughts. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't. That's life. When I succeed it's great and when I fail, maybe I learn something from it. I still feel myself sinking into misery and 'depression' at times and I'd like to handle those times a bit better, a bit more positively. I'd like a tidier house but recognise that while it's down to me it ain't going to happen all the time. I'd like to be fitter and healthier with the resulting weight loss and I'm hoping I might get closer to that this year, but I now accept that it's always going to be a struggle and an up and down road for me, as it is for just about everyone. It has to be worked at, it won't just 'happen', there will be battles, some of which I will win, some I will lose. But I know that one can lose a battle but still finally win the war!
May we all win our wars, whatever happens in our individual battles!
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