One more day…got to keep reminding myself that. The kids are hyper as can be and my energy is dwindling. Today was a crazy day. The school had the bake sale, and so the kids were going crazy for that. I ended up giving them a class to buy their treats and to eat them. Then we ended up making skeletons as their French teacher didn’t show (some office thing), which I had been planning to do with them anyhow. I was surprised how hard the cutting was for some of them. I work with kids that haven’t always had the most opportunities we shall say, and some of them had a tough time with it. But they were excited about them. I’ll post a picture later to show you. If you’re interested in making one yourself, check out: http://crafts.kaboose.com/paper-skeleton.html. I love this site!

For science, we are continuing gravity. I had them watch Bill Nye and then today, we tackled the balancing birdie (after a good talk about gravity). I had them all standing up and yelling gravity. They loved it. So the balancing birdie went over big time. I was shocked by how crazy it was for them. They couldn’t believe that this birdie balances on your finger only by its beak. It was cool. The link for that too is: http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/balancing-bird/.

I wanted to post a couple of other pictures to of the work we’ve done. We did mandalas where I had the students focusing on peace within them. The kids had a blast making them and I think they turned out fabulous! There is also a bulletin board done on sun safety that turned out pretty cool.

So once again, it’s late at night and I can’t sleep…a line from Adam Lambert’s song “Time for Miracles”, but boy is it true. I don’t want to go to bed. Doesn’t mean I don’t want sleep, but going to bed requires that I relax and let my body go and stop everything. But the thing is that when you stop everything and stay still, it makes you think. I think the problem is that I don’t want to think right now. I’ve had a lot on my mind, and I’m doing everything I can to delay thinking about it all. I would rather stay up late until I am so exhausted that I just collapse into bed and sleep in, but hey, I have a job and can’t do that. Worse yet, I have 20 kids relying on me to be my best. Not an easy task I can tell you.

In other news, I’ve gotten some really nice complements lately. I was told the other day, that I bring a lot of class to my school with my style of dress. Is that not an awesome complement? I love fashion, and this year I’ve really cut back on what I buy, and I mean I’ve cut way back. So hearing that when at times I haven’t felt completely beautiful lifted my spirits. It’s like I can look sexy in last year’s trends! I was also complemented on my daily plan and the strategies I have listed. I feel spoiled-I’m not used to complements. Seriously. I never grew up with them. I actually had a very poor self esteem until I hit university. And even then, my true self esteem in how I presented myself to the world didn’t really change until I was maybe 22. It’s grown more as each year has passed. I may be a curvy woman, but curvy women are sexy too (which I’ll remind myself I was recently told by someone how sexy I was). I got great boobs…lol…

And in other news, I am heading to the Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, which is in 9 days! I am so excited-I haven’t had a girl’s night out in a while, and can’t wait. My friend Becky and I are heading out on the 6th, going to the awards, getting a hotel, and then heading to Manitoahbe (possibly Canada’s largest pow wow). I am super psyched. I think I’m even going to get my hair done (which I haven’t had it styled since I was 17 for my grad). And the truth is that my emotions have been through the wringer the past while, so I say bring on the excitement. Let me get excited and gush and post the pics all over facebook. And maybe, just maybe I’ll get to meet Crystal Schwanda or something…. :)

Witches' Fingers and Eyeballs

So a couple of my Halloween recipes are already being requested, so I figured I’d just add them to the blog. Now I don’t have the pictures of them yet-I don’t plan on making them until Wednesday or Thursday evening, so I’ll add pictures then. One of the recipes, the witches fingers (a Kraft recipe), I’ve made before. The other one is brand new to me.

Witches’ Fingers
12 Fingers

Absolutely easy with amazing results. I had most of my Home Ec kids make these last year and they loved them!

1 cup smooth Kraft peanut butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
Sliced almonds
Red gel (in decorating section of baking)
Green gel

Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix together peanut butter, sugar, and egg.

Shape small amounts of dough into fingers by rolling between the hands. Make indentations for knuckles with edge of spoon.

Place slice of almond at tip of finger for fingernail. Press down to secure. Bake for 12 minutes or until set. When still soft, re-form into finger shape with edge of spoon. This is very important!!

Let cool. Use red gel to make blood around nail or green gel to make puss around the nail.

Eyeballs
36 Eyeballs

This recipe was taken from A Ghostly Good Time, a special publication by Woman’s Day.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
2 to 2 ½ cups icing sugar
1 bag white chocolate chips
2 tbsp solid vegetable shortening
36 brown M and M’s

Stir peanut butter and butter in a medium bowl until smooth. Gradually add the icing sugar until thick and smooth and well combined. The mixture should be thick and easy to roll into balls.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Shape mixture into 36-1 inch balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheet and refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm.

Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate with the vegetable shortening over a double boiler until smooth. Carefully drop chilled peanut butter balls into the chocolate to coat, and scoop them out with a fork, letting excess drip off through the tines (be careful not to stick the balls). Return balls to wax paper-lined baking sheet; refrigerate until set.

Squeeze frostings into separate pastry bags. Snip a very small corner from each bag. Pipe red frosting lines from center out for veins. Pipe a dot of green frosting on top. Place the M and M’s in the center and pipe a small white line on one side (underneath to secure). Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Hip Hip Halloween!

So I’ve been thinking about Halloween for the past little while-my classroom is decorated and I have pumpkins sitting out on my front step. I’ve bought my candy and started putting them in treat bags. I even bought a couple of special treats for a student of mine that lives just down the treat.

So the honest truth? I love Halloween, I really do. I didn’t use to say that.

I quit trick or treating in Grade 5. Sad huh? It gets sadder. We had moved so much in my childhood, and I think I was on my fourth or fifth school in less than 2 years. I really didn’t have any friends, and I had no one to go trick or treating with. I felt like a loser going around. I think I only hit one block.

When I was in Junior High, I started to get heavily into the church. Now I’m not trying to say church is a bad thing, but for years I let people make their minds up for me regarding Halloween. They felt it was evil and encouraged Satan; blah blah blah. Is this my feeling today? Nope…heck no.

It’s taken me a while to get really comfortable and really honestly wanting to celebrate Halloween. The community I live in is small, and I love seeing the children all dressed up. I’d like to go bigger in terms of decorating, but takes money, and money isn’t something that I have a lot of.

But the truth is that Halloween has come to mean to me about building community and reaching out to the kids in your neighborhood and build connections. I’m sorry if Halloween offends anybody out there, but for the rest of us, let us enjoy it.

Going Girlie

I’m having one of those days where I’m feeling really girlie, and boy is it bugging me. Bugging me because I’m like I want to color my hair (but then I’m like, no my hair color is fine), I want a new top (and I’m like I just got a few new tops a couple weeks ago), I want to cut my hair (but I’m actually growing it out), and I want to get all dressed up, when there’s nothing to get dressed up for.

I’m not a good girlie girl. I actually suck at it. Yes I love my nails painted, but I feel guilty when I treat myself to a pedicure or anything not necessary. I love dressing up, but I usually need motivation to go all out. And lately with my hair, I’ve been too lazy to get up even on time to do it properly. Yup…classic laziness.

On one hand, I do need to take care of myself, treat myself, and remind myself that I am a sexy woman. I haven’t felt sexy at all lately, just dowdy. This is pretty lame, but I plan on dressing up for my teacher’s conference, because I need to remind myself what it feels like to feel hot. I’m going to pull out the hooker boots and everything. I have no duty and no kids to chase after, so by golly, I need to look good for me.

So the past couple of nights, it hurts to swallow and I've found myself drooling. Real attractive huh? I am so tired of being sick. Today, I slept until 3:30 p.m. I needed it.

In other news, I'm doing okay. Confused by everything, but okay. To some degree, I understand, but beyond that, I don't.

:(

So it's funny that just when you think that maybe life is turning around and finally being kind to you, the rug is pulled out from underneath your feet. I spent quite a bit of time crying last night over a relationship ending, or whatever it was to be called, ending. I'm struggling. Life is just throwing a lot at me right now,and I'm not exactly sure how to hande it all. I feel sad and weak, and honestly, quite alone.

29

So, not only was it my birthday a few days ago, but also thanksgiving today.

I don't often think of what I'm thankful for, so here it is...29 things I'm thankful for:

29. Itunes...I love creating my own CDs that I can use for whatever mood I'm in or what trip I need to go on...
28. Diet coke...I may be addicted, but oh it does the soul good...
27. Midtown Market...I love a place that carries gifts that fit my soul so well...
26. A good book to caress your soul
25. Hot showers
24. Children and their honesety
23. My stereo in my kitchen...it's now hung (thanks to Ovide), and now I get to dance and bop along to music as I cook
22. A working vehicle...every day extra that my vehicle runs, I'm happy :)
21. My big t.v-sounds awful, but I love it...
20. Art that I have in my home (stuff I've done and others have done)-it brings me peace and reminds me of what's important
19. Sweetgrass...calms me like no other
18. My bed and pillows...I seriously sleep so amazing...
17. Finding balance-it's a struggle, but I think I may finally be on the right track!
16. So You Think You Can Dance-I may not be able to dance but I can dream!
15. comfort food like homemade soup on a cold day
14. comedy...I love being reminded that I need to laugh!
13. PVR...oh how I love you!
12. My journal...it helps to relax and destress
11. E.A's in the school environment
10. Helping others
9. Smiles from strangers...makes you feel warm and fuzzy
8. Getting moments to bake bread or simple things that really take care of me.
7. The days that I have good health
6. Facebook...silly, but I'm addicted!
5. My job...I am lucky that I get to do what I love. How many people can say that?
4. The road that I've been put on in the last couple of years...I've learned more about myself and who I am.
3. The chance of a new relationship ?!? :)
2. My two amazing pugs...you've been with me through thick and thin...
and
1. Family and friends-without you guys, I am nothing