Crazy Bread Lady

First I was the Pickle Lady.

Now I'm the Bread Lady. I've made 3 loaves in the past 3 days. I think it's this fall weather that makes me want to smell cinnamon & pumpkin pie spice in the kitchen ALL the time.

On Friday I made a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, minus the raisins. I didn't realized I didn't have any until it was too late. Threw that in the bread machine on Friday night, set the delayed start timer, and woke up to delicious, warm, cinnamon-y bread.

Saturday I took the day off bread making because I was crazy busy. Football game. Driving my brother around to get a few last minute things for the homecoming dance. Small group. It was a long and tiresome day. Not what I needed after a crazy week again last week with the kiddos at school.

Today after church I threw a batch of pumpkin bread into the bread machine. I'd never made it in the bread machine before and I was interested to see how it would turn out. Once that got going, I set to making a handmade batch of pumpkin bread.

Well, here are the results:

Bread machine pumpkin bread = bread that tastes a bit like pumpkin, slightly sweet. Would probably be good topped with apple butter or regular butter and cinnamon sugar.

Handmade pumpkin bread = sweet and cake-like full of spice. Maybe top it with some butter. Maybe. It's that good by itself.

The difference lies in the ingredients. Take a look at the sugar and fat content in these puppies:

Bread machine: 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp butter

Handmade: 3 cups sugar, 1 cup oil

Ummm yeah. That's why the handmade one is so much better. :) But don't worry. The handmade recipe yielded MUCH MUCH MORE! I got 1 loaf plus 24 muffins out of it. The bread machine recipe yielded one loaf.

All that being said. We're carb loading until it's gone. I'm sending some (most) of the muffins with Zach to work. The rest I will thoroughly enjoy.

Happy Fall!

Love,

Sarah

P.S. I'll update with some photos at a later time.

Farewell

Goodbye to our Beta fish, Rico. He died this week. I don't think the move went so well for him... anyway... We had him about a year and a half which is pretty good for me considering every fish I've owned as an adult dies within a few weeks.

I'll be taking his tank in to school for my classroom fish. Right now it's just a little glass bowl that gets dirty water super fast and it's annoying to change every week. The tank with a filter will be much nicer. The kids named him Rainbow. Except some of them forget and call him Goldie. Which makes no sense because he's a Beta, not a goldfish...

Yes, I do have a classroom pet my first year teaching. People have told me it's brave to attempt a classroom pet because if it dies then you have to explain death to the kids. Well, newsflash: a lot of kids already know what death and dying is. Most kids have experience with a family pet dying or sometimes even a family member. What most kids don't have is the knowledge that for people there is life after death. That there are eternal consequences for how we live our lives which results in Heaven or Hell. What most kids don't know is that Jesus Christ loves them so much and wants a personal relationship with them so they spend eternity with him. Death for Christians is joyous thing. We will be WITH CHRIST! Death will always be sad, but there is hope and joy in knowing the deceased person is a the Father's side, in no more pain, worshiping God all their days, and that we will see them again.

I'm off to my brother Justin's homecoming soccer game. Go get 'em #2!

Love,

Sarah

A little bit of life

Hmmm. Where shall I start? We've moved and just got internet installed in our house today. :) We're connected once again! I actually kind of liked NOT having internet access for a bit. It gave me time for other things like organizing a messy new house and reading a book for fun. Anywhoooooo.

School is still crazy. As in, I’m going crazy. That’s all I have to say about that. My voice is still gone and the strain has moved into a sore throat. This should be interesting since I’m singing at church this Sunday and next…

My class

My fingernail is on the brink of ripping off. It’s hanging on by a thread and I keep snagging it on things. I can’t find any band-aids in our house since we moved, so I’ll just keep snagging it until it falls off or I find a band-aid. Oh well.

Oh yeah. Did I mention we moved!? I’m loving the new house! I never realized how much I missed having a carpeted house until I moving in here. It’s so much more cozy. On Saturday, both sets of parents plus some Thorne siblings (my brothers) came and helped us move our things. Thankfully we only moved about 8 miles so we didn’t really pack anything in boxes... We literally threw everything into vehicles and hoped it didn’t break on the ridiculousy bumpy, pot-hole ridden road! Now the unpacking and putting away process begins. Ugh. The master bedroom is mostly set up as well as the living room and kitchen. The decorating will come but for now, it’s livable. I'll try to post a few pictures of the house. It just takes awhile for them to upload....

Zach has already been installing and fixing things around here. He installed new wall sconces in the kitchen, a new ceiling fan in the living room, track lighting in the master closet, and soon a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom. Eventually we’re going to put drop down lights over the island in the kitchen to replace the huge florescent light. Other than a few lighting changes, not much needs to be done. The house was built only 4ish years ago.

What else is fairly new? Hmmm. We had goose for dinner last week. I had run out of ideas and time one morning so I asked Zach to throw a few goose breasts into the crock pot with potatoes and carrots and it was great! It tasted just like roast beef. I wish I had taken a picture but we were so hungry that it didn’t last very long. We tried making goose once before on the grill, but it was awful ---so tough and gamey. The crock pot did wonders to tenderize it. As long as we have guns and geese, at least we won’t starve. J

In other small town news, we went out to my parents’ property and “shot skeet” (a.ka. shot clay pigeons) with Rachel & Jared and some of their friends. First of all, a clay pigeon is not even shaped like a pigeon. Why they gave it that name, I have no idea. It’s a thin clay disk, kind of like a tiny Frisbee and it’s painted bright orange. You put the clay pigeon into a thrower that releases the clay into the air when you pull a cord. Anyways, I’m getting off track.

Several interesting things happened out there. 1. My parents’ dog caught and killed a rabbit. We took it away from her and put it in the truck bed only to stare in horror as a giant grub/parasite/worm thing burrowed its way out of the rabbit’s body. It was sick. Like, make you gag sick. When it finally wiggled its fat, grubby body out of the rabbit, Zach squished it. Yuck. I don’t want to think about it anymore. 2. I kicked butt at a shooting game called “Annie Oakley.” Five people line up behind the clay pigeon thrower. The first person in line says, “Pull” (that’s the signal to release the clay pigeon) The first person in line gets first shot at the clay. If the 1^st person misses, the 2^nd gets a shot, then 3^rd, etc. If you are shooter #1 and hit the clay, you go to the end of the line and the next person gets first shot. If you miss and the person after you hits it, you’re out. Or, if you hit the clay and then the person after you hits a piece of the one you hit before it hits the ground, you’re out. It’s kind of like the game Lightning in basketball. This is what we do for fun in the sticks

I won. J It was great. Plus it’s a great stress reliever to pull the trigger and watch the clay smash into tiny bits. You really should try it if you ever get the chance.

It's homecoming week at CCA. Justin has a soccer game Friday night at 7pm and Travis has a football game on Saturday at 1pm. Here's a picture from Travis' last home game and Justin's.

To conclude this long and random and boring post, I’ll leave you with a laugh courtesy of the students in my class.

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Me: (talking about past, present, and future) What do you want to do in the future when you are grown up? Some people go to college, some people get jobs, some people go into the military, and some people decide to get married and have a family.

Student: *under his breath* Forget the getting married part…

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Me: D, what do you want to be or do in the future?

D: Ummm. I don’t know. Can you come back to me?

Me: Uh, no. You’re the only person who hasn't answered yet.

D: Okay. Ummmmmmm. Ummmmmmm. I KNOW! In the future, I’ll get a real sword and become a THUNDERCAT! *raises hands into the air emphatically

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Me: J, in the future, what do you want to do or be?

J: A zombie killer! *does an machine gun shooting motion with his hands

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Me: What do you want to do or be in the future?

Student 1: Nothing.

Me: Nothing?

Student 1: Nothing.

Me: You want to sit on the couch and do nothing?

Student 1: And watch TV.

Student 2: So you want to be lazy?!

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Hope you got a laugh out of these guys. It’s hard to keep a straight face when one of these comments come out. :)

Love,

Sarah

Cake Balls & Other Things

Oh man! These things are SOOOOOO good! And they yield more than a plain 'ol cake cut into slices. I forgot to count, but I think I got about 36 cake balls from one batch.

You'll never want to make a regular cake again....

I don't.

Cake Balls

(Warning: This recipe is easy, but part of it needs to be in the freezer OVERNIGHT, so allow yourself enough time! I always hate it when I start a recipe then realize it takes more than one day....)

Ingredients:
1 box of cake mix (I used Funfetti but you can use any flavor you like)
1 can of frosting (I used vanilla)
1 package of candy making chocolate
sprinkles

Directions:

1. Bake the cake according to the package directions. It doesn't even matter what kind of pan you bake it in because after the next step, you won't even know.

2. Allow cake to cool, then crumble into a large bowl.

3. Add entire can of frosting to crumbled cake. Mix until cake is moist.

4. Use a spoon (or your hands) to form small balls.


5. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer overnight.

6. Melt the candy chocolate (according to the package directions) in a small but deep dish - either a glass pyrex measuring cup or even a coffee mug works too.

7. Dunk the cake ball into the melted chocolate and place back on the cookie sheet. This is the trickiest part of the whole process. I dropped the balls in and used a spoon to roll it around in the chocolate then fish it out.

8. Top with sprinkles (or anything else for that matter) immediately or else the chocolate hardens and nothing sticks. :)

9. Once the chocolate hardens, the cake balls are ready to eat! You could put them back in the freezer if you wish to keep them firm. Just take them out shortly before serving.

The combinations for these are pretty much endless... peanut butter cake and chocolate frosting, carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, red velvet cake and whipped frosting....

MMMMM! I'm going to go eat another one right now! Maybe not. Maybe later.

Hope you're all having a great weekend! We just got back from cleaning out our new house! We didn't buy a house, just renting again, but it's a great little house! It's cute. And blue. And it's a farm. We did lots of vacuuming (the whole house is carpet) and took all the nails and screws out of the walls (they liked to hang things up!). The carpet is getting cleaned professionally sometime next week then we can start moving boxes and furniture over after that. We won't need to do any painting, only spackling? spacking? a few holes leftover from all the nails and a touch up of paint over that and we'll be good to go.

Official move in date is October 1st. I'm excited because the kitchen is HUGE and it's closer to town so that means a shorter drive in the morning for me. (5:45AM wake up time has not been good to me this week....)

Here's one teaser photo. I'll post more some other time.

Okay, two. I can't resist showing you the kitchen! I'm done.

Dad's football team got smoked again last night. Final score: Ashley 47, CCA 14. It's hard to see them lose so much... The game was a blowout but ALMOST my whole family was home!

Amy, Travis, Rachel, Justin

We were just missing Katie. Plus it was Amy's 19th birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday, AMY LEIGH!

Love,

Sarah

First Day of School / Things I Forgot About Being a Teacher

Today was the first day of school. The first day goes great if your only plan is to not have a plan... and just go with it. Seriously. There's so much stuff to cover (rules, expectations, procedures, consequences, lining up the the hall, how to ask for help, how to sit up straight in a chair, how to walk down the hall QUIETLY and how to keep your hands off your neighbor ---- the list has only begun!) before I even start "teaching" anything academic. Good thing we have 4 days to get it all down so the rest of the year goes smoothly.

There's 22 little guys & gals in my class and they all showed up today! They've got a TON of energy & they're super inquisitive so it's going to be a fun year.

Plus I also remembered a few things about being a teacher that I had forgotten last year as a parapro.

1. You can't go to the bathroom when you gotta go. Yep. This is the first thing on my list because I experienced it several times today! Recess and specials time are my friend because I get a long enough break to make a bathroom stop.

2. Kids like to tell stories --even if it's not remotely relevant to what we are talking about at the moment.

3. Six year olds DO NOT sit still. I forgot how much those buggers wiggle! Give me a few weeks and I'll get used to all the movement again. :)

4. Seating charts are my friend. It makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE in each child's learning when each child is seated in a place that is best suited to their personality traits and behaviors.

5. Tough love. This one is probably the hardest but most rewarding because it's all about holding kids accountable for their words & actions. There's consequences for everything, positive ones and negative ones. They don't always like it when they make a poor choice and I crack down with the negative consequence, but that's how discipline works. Making a rule and following through on the consequences when it is broken. No amount of whining, complaining, or crocodile tears are going to stop me from following through on the consequence. The kids benefit from the consistency and the realization that they can't manipulate me into giving in to their protests. :) And that's life: you make a bad choice, you reap a bad consequence; you make a good choice, you reap a good consequence. Hopefully I'll be doling out more positive consequences as the students learn to make good choice in their actions.

Welp. That's enough. I'm tired. My feet hurt. And I guess that leads me to #6 on my list:

6. Teachers NEVER sit down. At least lower elementary teachers anyways. We stand ALL DAY. That being said, reminder to self: wear more comfortable shoes tomorrow. :)

Love,
Mrs. Cook, 1st Grade Teacher

Peaches

We canned peaches! And lots of them! Zach's dad bought us a bushel from the farmer's market on Wednesday and they have been sitting in our house ever since, just waiting to be canned! Actually they've been spread out on the floor in the living room making the house smell so good I wanted to eat them all!

Zach was the mastermind behind all this and he did a great job! When I got home from the Ferris football game last night, he had all the jars washed, knives sharpened, and all the pots & pans ready to go. It made the whole process today go much easier! Here's a quick rundown of the process:

1. Wash peaches and cut out any bad parts.

2. Drop into boiling water until the skin cracks (30-60 seconds).

3. Peel off the skin. Cut into wedges.

4. Fill jars with slices.

5. Pour hot syrup into jars. Put on the lids and bands and place in 7 jars in canner. Boil in canner for 30 minutes.

6. Remove from canner and place on a flat surface to cool. Listen for that popping sound that lets you know they sealed!

My mom also came out to help so half the 21 jars are going to her. :) Can't wait to eat these guys in the middle of February! Tonight, it will be peach cobbler with the few remaining peaches we didn't can. YUM!

Love,
Sarah

Classroom Photos & Football Craziness

This is what my room looked like for Back to School Night on Wednesday. The only difference now is that there is not a giant round table in front of the calendar wall. I don't plan on making any changes for when school starts.

The photos go around the room from left to right. Hopefully that makes sense!

Enjoy! And see how many farm themed things you can pick out!

completed bulletin board in the hallway outside my room

my desk area - I won't be sitting there much!

carpet area with a writing station on the left (the table with a checkered cloth),

author of the month easel, and teaching easel

close up of the poster I put on the easel for Open House Night (for Paul & Britt in NZ!)

Looking at the back wall/corner - the door with the half curtain goes directly into the Kinder room next door

(If you look closely, you can see our superintendent outside cooking hotdogs!)

calendar wall with birthdays & everything!

other half of the North wall -student tables, student work bulletin board, character corner

close up of the "Character Corner" - This is where we will talk about the character trait & habit of mind for each month.

That cupboard holds the books that have a story/moral that exemplifies the trait of the month.

East Wall "Front" of the clasroom -

Daily objectives chart, word wall up high, daily schedule by the door,

and the terribly frail, feeble, old, and worn out whiteboard.

I tried to spruce it up with a certain string of lights around it! :)

In other news, I drove a carload of people (mom, Justin, Mike, & Mike's friend, Johnny) up to Brethren for my brother Travis' high school football game. During football season, we all have a job: My dad's the head coach, Travis is the QB, mom & I take stats, Justin helps with stats & takes pictures, Mike & Johnny are the water boys. We were on the road for 10 minutes when we realized we left the stat book sitting on the counter at my parents house.... so we whipped around and went back for it. Then I had to drive like a maniac to get to the field before game time. We pulled in to the parking lot as they were lined up singing the National Anthem. Oh boy.

We jumped out of the car and ran, literally ran, towards the entrance. Oh yes, and I forgot to say that we were the ones bringing the mini-tapes for the tape recorder so we had to bring that too so the team camera man could film the game. As we ran, mom took the packaging off the tape, we sprinted up the stairs to the press box and burst through door just before the teams took the field! The film guy took the tape, put it in the recorder, we flipped open the stat book & sat down next to the press box coach with the headset just in time!

It was crazy and all done in a giant whirlwind of a last minute rush --- so goes the Thorne family way of life. :)

I love my mom!

missed pitch... unfortunately, this happened a lot

Friday Night Lights, Fence & Crescent Moon

-All football game photos by Justin Thorne

Love,

Sarah

P.S. We lost. 46-8.