Fabulous Weekend

This weekend has been fabulous. There was no school Friday because of parent teacher conferences all week long and I was SO HAPPY to get a day off. The first one since school started... Eight weeks of every day, five days a week with those crazy kiddos. In some ways it's nice that the fall doesn't get broken up by half days and holidays and snow days so that the students can get into some kind of routine - but it sure makes for a LONG first quarter for the teachers. This three day weekend feels like a mini-vacation and I've tried to enjoy every minute of it!

Friday morning I slept in until 9AM. Ahhhhh. A good 12 hours of sleep! I did some reading and light cleaning around the house then ran some errands in town. I finally changed my address at the Secretary of State, went to my parents house and saw their dog's cute cute puppies!

Cheagle puppies

They are beagle mixed with chihuahua which sounds weird but they're cute now. Apparently they are known as "Cheagles." Still considered a hybrid mutt dog but at least they have a name. I made it home in time to spend some time on Pinterest before our date. YAY! Zach and I went to Grand Rapids to see a movie and grab some dinner. Every man who calls himself a father, or one day wants to be one, needs to see the movie "Courageous."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9VT_NBIVfs

I knew from the watching the trailer online that I would probably cry throughout the whole movie and I was right. It's so moving. You dads out there are SO NEEDED in your children's lives!!! By the time the movie got done, it was 9:40PM so we didn't eat until about 10PM and leave GR until 10:45. That meant we got home at 11:45... good thing I had the option of sleeping in again!

Saturday I heard Zach get up then he kissed me goodbye to go work on the farm. I just went back to sleep - forgetting the battery died on my phone so there was no alarm to wake me up. I woke up to the gorgeous sunshine at 11AM. Wow. I haven't slept that late in ages! But again, another 12 hours of glorious sleep. For some reason, I feel best when I get 8 hours of sleep or more. Heaven help me when we have kids.... because that's gonna change.

Anyways, once I got up I started in on making Pumpkin Spice donuts that have been on my mind for a month now! I've been talking about them for so long I was glad to finally make them! My first batch turned out a bit undercooked and the cinnamon sugar coating was a little too heavy on the cinnamon (I started coughing I put so much cinnamon in there, oops!). The second batch turned out much better. Just baked them a bit longer and re-made the cinnamon sugar with less cinnamon.

Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Zach came home for lunch and got to eat a donut hot out of the oven. He gave them the thumbs up. After that, I decided to make Pumpkin Pie Squares. I mean, come on. I already had the can of pumpkin puree opened, I might as well do something with the rest of it!

I worked on school stuff this afternoon (grading tests, checking in homework, creating a new seating chart). You're probably thinking, "How hard can it be to give 6-year olds a new seat?" Well let me tell you: very hard. Especially when the number of kids who talk incessantly outweigh the number of kids who are respectful and talk when they should and don't when they shouldn't. It's hard. It's hard to fit 22 bodies into my small classroom so I'm limited in the configurations I can make. Not to mention I have trapezoid shaped tables. Yes, trapezoid. What happened to just plain 'ol rectangles? That'd be helpful but I'm not up to spending my money to buy new tables.

My sister Rachel came over in the late afternoon. I let her browse around on Pinterest while I kept going with school stuff. Then we made chili and cornbread for dinner before she headed out to go see her boyfriend, Jared and his brother, Jake. We had Pumpkin Pie Squares with cool whip for dessert. I love fall and I love pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Zach's back at the farm and I'm home alone. These are the days I wish we had a pet: a cat or a dog. Just something to keep me company. But that's not gonna happen while we live here. There's a no pets inside the house rule. That's the downside of renting, we don't get to make the rules. In the meantime, I'll just have to survive on cute puppy pictures my sister Katie texts me of her in-laws new puppy, Juno. And by searching Pinterest for cute pets. Ha ha.

Tomorrow is Sunday. Tomorrow we meet with a few elders for interviews to become members of our church. We went to the membership class and interviews are the second to last step before official approval by the rest of the congregation. The last step being that our names get published in the bulletin as seeking membership and other members have a chance to speak their piece. If all goes well, which it will, we'll be approved at the next congregational meeting this winter.

Well, I'm off to do... umm, well... I don't know what I'm going to do. Probably get my lesson plans ready for next week. Because I haven't looked at them since I walked out the door on Thursday night at 7:15PM.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving! Which we are hosting. All 30 something Thorne family members packed into our house. Combine it with delicious food and football and we're all set!

Just don't spill on the white carpet...

Love,

Sarah

Recent Dinners

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

It might not look glamorous, but it sure is delicious! The leftovers for this little number went pretty stinkin' quick!

My little brother Michael was over on Wednesday night last week for me to help him make a batch of cake balls to sell at his 6th grade market day. (They sold out by the way!) I knew the cake balls would take up most of our time, so I did most the prep work for the pot pie a few days earlier (dicing the vegetables and cooking & cubing the chicken). The only thing I had to do was mix the filling, make the crust, and bake. This recipe came from my trusty Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook.

Ingredients

1 recipe Pastry Topper

1 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cup carrots

1 1/2 cup diced potatoes

1/2 cup celery (optional)

2 tbsp butter

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp poultry seasoning (I just used extra chicken bouillon granules)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk

2 1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn

1 egg, beaten

Instructions for Pastry Topper

In medium bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 tsp salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/3 cup shortening until dough pieces are pea size. Sprinkle 1 tbsp cold water over part of the mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Sprinkle an additional 3-4 tablespoons cold water over remaining flour mixture, 1 tbsp at a time, tossing with a fork until all dough is moistened. Form into a ball. (It should be kinda crumbly; not stretchy like pizza dough.) On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 13x9 inch rectangle.

1. Prepare pastry topper; set aside.

2. In large saucepan, cook onion, celery, carrots, and potatoes over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in flour, poultry seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Add broth and milk all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, peas, and corn. Pour into a 2-qt baking dish.

3. Place pastry over chicken mixture in dish. Turn edges of pastry under; flute to edges of dish. Cut slits in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush pastry with some of the egg. If desired, place cutout pastry shapes on top of pastry. Brush again with egg.

4. Bake uncovered in a 400 F oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Homemade Macaroni & Cheese

A few weeks ago for small group, I made a HUGE pot of homemade mac & cheese. And I mean HUGE. As in, I used a small size canning pot because I made 8 cups of pasta (about 3lbs).

I'm not sure if I blogged this recipe or not, but it's fantastic. I got it from The Pioneer Woman's website and follow her steps almost exactly. Except I don't bake. It goes straight from the pan to the plate, with all is ooey gooey cheesiness.

Ingredients

4 cups dried macaroni

1 whole egg, beaten

1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 4tbsp) butter

1/4 cup flour

2 1/2 cups whole milk (I use 2%)

2 tsp dry mustard (I use regular mustard)

1 lb cheese, grated (I used cheddar, but you could do a mix of any of your favorite cheeses)

1/2 tsp salt, more to taste

1/2 tsp seasoned salt (whoops, I guess I don't use this either)

1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Cook macaroni until firm. Drain. In a small bowl, beat egg.

2. In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for five minutes, whisking constantly. Don't let it burn!

3. Pour in milk, add mustard, and whisk until smooth. Cook for five minutes until very thick. Reduce heat to low.

4. Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking eggs. (This is called "tempering" an egg.) Whisk together until smooth.

5. Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth.

6. Add in cheese and stir to melt.

7. Add in salt and pepper. Taste sauce and add more salt and seasoned salt as needed. Do not undersalt!

8. Pour in drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine

9. Serve immediately (very creamy) or pour into a buttered baking dish. Top with extra cheese and bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.

Both of these meals are perfect for cool, rainy fall days when all you want is warm comfort food.

Love,

Sarah

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

It's a blustery fall day in Michigan. Zach and I BOTH got to sleep in. He's off at the farm fixing a lawn mower. I'm at home wearing sweatpants, an MSU football hoodie and a cozy pair of socks just waiting for the MSU vs. UM game to start.

We had a great night last night with our friend, Eric and got to meet and spend some time with his girlfriend, Micah. We had dinner here at our house then went out to Pappy's Bar in Remus. It's about as redneck as the name sounds. Micah was a good sport about it, well, at least she went along and didn't complain. Ha ha! We think they're a pretty good match.

Here's the quote of the week from one of my students. I have to give you some background information though, or else it's not as funny out of context. Thursday is our library day and library time always starts off with Mrs. V reading a book to the students. She read them a book about a moose hunt or something or other and on each page, the main characters see more and more of this moose. On the last page, the kids in the story are surrounded by a ton of moose. One little boy who currently has ZERO front teeth and a lisp shouted out, "What the heck ith going on with all thothze mootheth?!" I laughed. It's too hard not to. I'll do the impression for you sometime. It was hilarious.

Here's the monkey bread recipe I've been talking about: http://sugarcrafter.net/2011/09/23/pumpkin-monkey-bread/ . Shout out to Sugar Crafter's website because all I did was follow the directions. Just a warning, it takes several hours to make this because the bread has to rise twice. My pictures aren't as cool as hers but here's what my steps looked like.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

For the dough:

3 1/4 cups flour, plus more for kneading

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (I probably put more than this...)

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I didn't have cloves or nutmeg)

For the coating:

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp cinnamon

3/4 stick butter, melted

For the glaze:

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp maple syrup (I used the fake stuff because we are out of the real stuff and it was not as good)

1. In large bowl whisk together flour salt and spices.

dry ingredients, whisked together

In another large bowl, mix together milk, water, pumpkin, melted butter, sugar, and yeast.

wet ingredients, mixed well

3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add in the wet ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, gently stir until the dough comes together.

mixing the two

4. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Spray a clean bowl with cooking spray and place the dough inside. Cover and let rise until doubled in size (about an hour).

kneaded dough, pre-rising

kneaded dough, post rising (probably should've let it rise longer)

5. While the dough is rising, now's a good time to clean up all the huge mess you just made before the next steps happen. Once the dough has risen, shape the ball into a large rectangle. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into roughly equal-sized pieces and roll each piece into a ball (I had about 3 dozen pieces, but you may have more or less).

cutting the dough into pieces

dough rolled into balls

6. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar, and melt the butter for the coating. Spray a bundt pan with cooking spray.

coating, rolled in butter first then cinnamon sugar

7. Dip each ball of dough into the melted butter and then the cinnamon-sugar mixture, layering them in the bundt pan as you go.

cinnamon sugar dough balls, pre-rise

8. Once you've used all the dough, cover and let rise another hour.

cinnamon sugar dough balls, post-rise

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a platter. Just before the bread is done, mix together the glaze.

10. Pour the glaze over the bread while it's still warm.

Then eat. As many as you want. While they're still warm. And share them with a friend or spouse. It's the best. And plus you waited over 2 hours to enjoy it.

Love,

Sarah

Fall

Well, a whole bunch of things happened this past week.

1. The leaves are turning colors and are in their prime. The weather has been gorgeously sunny and warm which makes it so much easier to enjoy them.

2. I picked a few pumpkins and squash from the garden at the farm. One little pumpkin went to my co-worker and friend for her son's first birthday! The others are on our front steps for decoration. Can't wait to pick some more and carve them! I also took a few pictures of my mother-in-laws squash. They are HUGE! I forget what they're called, but they're ginormous and look like a goose body with a long neck. Apparently you can use them for things similar to what you would do with pumpkins. I'll have to experiment. If I can find one small enough to fit in my oven that is...

3. The monarch chrysalis in my classroom finally "hatched" and the butterfly came out! It was hanging on a file cabinet drying out its wings when I arrived around 7:15 on Tuesday. I borrowed a big butterfly net/cage thing from one of the second grade teachers, added so sticks, and soaked a napkin in apple juice to feed the new butterfly. The kids loved stopping to look at it during the day. Around 2:45 we went out to the playground to set it free. This was the most nerve racking part because sometimes when you toss the butterfly in the air, it falls straight back to the ground... I warned the kids about this then told them to back away if it fell. So, I took a deep breath and tossed the little guy up into the air and away he flew! It was SO COOL! The kids chased it waving and yelling, "Goodbye, butterfly!" I wish I had my camera there that day. Seeing the whole transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly was a fabulous reminder of how cool and awesome God is. With every change that happened, I was amazed at the creativity of God and his power over creation.

4. I took my students out to the Reading Garden this week. The Reading Garden is a grassy area just outside my classroom with picnic tables, benches, and huge sunflowers. They took a stuffed animal outside to read to however I'm not sure how much reading got done. They were so distracted by dewey grass, hot sun, and bees buzzing around the flowers that they did more talking than reading. Oh well. I'm trying. Here's a few pictures:

5. Friday night was the Homecoming parade and football game for Big Rapids High School. A couple good high school friends met me at the parade. Zach met up with us for dinner at Pizzeria Vivo (a relatively new restaurant in town that was a house they converted into an italian restaurant). The pizza was delicious. Whitney & I split a pesto garden vegetable pizza while Eric & Zach split an all meat pizza. Then it was off to the football game. Which unfortunately was not much fun to watch since we got blown out of the water.... We played the "Bay City John Glenn Bobcats" and that's how the announcer said their name every time over the loudspeaker. The whole name. All words. City. School. And mascot. Instead of, "The fumble was recovered by the Bobcats," or "The ball is on the Bobcat 34 yard line, " he said, "The fumble was recovered by the Bay City John Glenn Bobcats!" and "The ball is on the Bay City John Glenn Bobcats 34 yard line!" It was one of the only humorous things about that game.

6. Zach and I took the Trinity Fellowship membership class Saturday. It was scheduled to be from 9AM-4PM and we thought, "No way it will actually go until 4. We'll probably get done around 2:30-3:00." Oh no. It went all the way to 4. Zach was starting to get antsy because he's got another field of soybeans left to harvest and the weather was beautiful yesterday. We finished the class and he zipped off to the field. I ran errands around town and stopped in my classroom real quick to bring some stuff home to work on. I didn't feel like working there after being in a meeting all day. On my drive home, I saw a bunch of little kids standing on the edge of the field watching Zach drive the combine. They live across the street from the field and saw him working yesterday and asked for a ride but he was done for the evening. He told them to come back the next day and they did! Zach said they rode 4 rounds with him and kept asking questions but something wasn't working right on the combine so Zach was trying to figure that out and answer all their questions (all 3 of them packed in there with him at once!). He did manage to find out that they attend Crossroads (where I teach) but when I asked him what their names were, he said he didn't know. He never asked. :) Oh, Farmerboy.

7. I made Pumpkin Monkey Bread yesterday and it was DELICIOUS! It took nearly 3 hours to make because I had to let the dough rise twice (an hour each time). The best part was when it was baking in the oven and the whole house smelled like pumpkin and cinnamon! It turned out well, besides that it fell apart a bit when I turned it out onto a tray... It was 9:00PM by the time it was done and I got to eat some but it was so worth it! Full post on this yummy fall treat to come.

Toilet Paper Note / Smashed Finger Re-cap

Some days, my students really make me smile. For example, the day they started singing Down By The Bay during snack time and kept making up ridiculous rhymes, such as:

Down by the bay

where the watermelons grow

back to my home

I dare not go

for if I do

my mother will say,

did you ever see a fly wearing a tie

****enormous peals of laughter from the other students*****

or this one:

Student 1: I want to make up one!

Me: It's easy. You just pick to rhyming words. Like, "goat" and "boat" and put it in the last line. Have you ever seen a goat, sittin' in a boat.

Student 2: Teacher, that's boring.

Me: Oh, really.

Student 2: Yes. You should say, "Have you ever seen a goat KISSING a boat?!"

***Whole class laughs uproariously***

I tried but apparently I'm not funny enough for them so they kept making up their own crazy rhymes the whole snack time through. At least they were singing together and not fighting/arguing.

Friday was another one of those days where a student made me smile. She walked in the door and handed me a huge envelope that looked like this:

Then she says in the sweetest voice, "I made it just for you! But I had to use a marker because I didn't have a pen or pencil..."

When I opened it, this is what I saw. And tried very hard not to laugh her choice of paper....

I can't believe I forgot about this until yesterday. Ahhhh, 1st grade.

In other news, my mom is running the Grand Rapids Half Marathon on October 16th! She's been training for several months now but when she went to register, she decided not to because of the cost. However, several friends and my dad pitched in and paid her race registration fees and she's on to run again! I'm so excited for her! She ran an unofficial 13-miler last winter with some friends from church but this time it's the big show! I'm hoping to head down to watch, take pictures, and cheer her on. I hope I'm this motivated when I'm 51 years old. :) Mostly I just don't believe my mom is 51. Anyway, Mom, I hope you don't mind that whoever reads this knows your age. You probably don't because no one believes it.

Moving on.

My fingernail finally fell off! It was still attached by a small corner, however when I went to the bathroom at small group, I snagged the nail on my jeans and it ripped off. I groaned and grimaced because it started bleeding again. Thankfully, the hostess had a band-aid. A Lightning McQueen band-aid. It was sweet. Now I have this ugly little nub of a fingernail. I think it looks like a middle school boy's fingernail who has a nervous habit of chewing them down to nothing. I painted my other nails in an attempt to pretty them up but all I did was accentuate the half-nub-nail. I'm taking of the nail polish tonight.

Here's a series of shots from the smashed nail saga:

1-2 weeks after initial door slamming

1-2 months after the door slamming - it's hanging on by the top left corner

as of today, about 3 months after

Glad to be done with all this fingernail nonsense. Now I just hope it grows back in a normal shape and color....

Alright. I'm off to cut some things I laminated. Habitat unit in science requires lots of animal and plant pictures.

Love,

Sarah

Sisters

All my sisters were home this past weekend! YAYYYYYYY!

Katie came up from Dixon, IL on Thursday and spent all day Friday in my classroom. What a HUGE help she was. I wish I could have her there all the time!

Friday night was another CCA home football game. They lost. But at least we all got to be there. This was Katie's first CCA football game, EVER. I don't know how that happened, but I've gone to enough to make up for a few for her.

Saturday morning, all of us girls and mom drove to GR for Katie's appointment at David's Bridal. I got to be the helper in the changing room -- I guess because I'm the oldest? Who knows. Rachel, Amy, and Mom kept looking through magazines while our assistant, Cherrie, kept bringing more dresses. Katie tried everything from lace to taffeta to satin and in all kinds of styles. She looked good in ALL of them so we weren't much help making a decision. :)

Finally, she had narrowed it down to two beautiful gowns that she liked for different reasons. "I just want to combine the two dresses!" she kept saying after she tried them both on again. Then Rachel and Amy pointed to a girl a few mirrors down wearing a dress similar to what Katie was describing. We asked Cherrie to bring us that dress and it was perfect! As soon as she put it on and walked out there, it was love at first sight! With the dress that is. Actually, she didn't like it instantly. The dress was ivory and she wanted a bright white but Cherrie talked her into keeping the ivory to "warm her skin tone." Ivory. Off white. white. Doesn't matter. She's going to be the only one in a gorgeous white dress on June 16th and no one will notice the difference. She did get it in ivory in the end and found a gorgeous flower in ivory for her hair. I think I can put that picture on here because you can't see any dress.... I'm dying to post pictures of the dress but she doesn't want Kyle to see it yet. I don't think.

Today I sang at church then came home for lunch and a quick nap before heading in to my classroom for awhile. Ugh. 5 hours. That seems to be my average weekend time spent on the weekend. I need to find a way to split that into small 1 hour chunks each day instead of a massive block of time on the weekend. Especially on a beautiful day like this when I could be watching football, reading out on the porch, or going for a run.

Tomorrow begins week 5 of school. Bring it on.

Love,

Sarah