Darling Eliana

This message is for all of my fellow BlogStalking friends out there (you know who you are!!):

You have got to check out this ADORABLE chica. I came across her blog from her mother's educational blog, and it is the greatest things I've seen all morning! This darling little girl, Eliana, has started her very own cooking show (with the help of her mother, of course). She calls it "Eliana Cooks", and she posts video blogs to share some of her favorite recipes with the world!
Alyssa! You should try out a video blog (at least once)!

ok. here's the link: http://www.elianacooks.com/

check it out, and enjoy! It's definitely a homemade video blog, but I feel like it could be the begining of something awesome! Let me know what you think!

Love, Denise

Navo's "Pennies for Leukemia"

Navo is having a competition between homeroom classes to raise money for Leukemia research. I love that we are getting our students involved in things like this (not just things that benefit themselves). I know that a lot of us really love hearing about great opportunities to give to/help others, so I thought I would share this one with you.

Please let me know if you would like to donate to the cause (and at the same time help my homeroom win the contest! They're actually some of my good kids... haha). Anything would help - not us, but the cause. Pennies to dollars to checks, if you really feel the calling! :)

If you would like to donate, you can text me and let me know if I can meet you somewhere or get it from you at church or something. The last day to collect the money for this will be next Friday. Just let me know.

Thanks, all!

p.s. just incase you're not really familiar with Leukemia, here's some info:

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow and is characterized by an abnormal proliferation (production by multiplication) of blood cells, usually white blood cells.

p.p.s. how adorable are these sweet babies?! I just love them.

Leftover Chinese Food Just Isn't The Same Without Chopsticks.

The lesson I am teaching today is about tone vs. mood. I love it. The students are responding well, and that makes my life MUCH easier! :)

I thought I'd share something with you that I found when looking for a good "hook" for the lesson... Enjoy!

Unique Marry Poppins Trailer

Memoirs of a First Year Middle School Reading Teacher

Today, all of the 8th grade teachers are gone to the PDC (the Profesional Development Center) downtown for a training day. That is, all of the 8th grade teachers except the 3 reading teachers. This means one thing: chaos. Substitutes are great, but the kids think (know) that they can get away with murder with some subs... this will be an eventful day, to say the least.

SO... instead of dwelling on the fact that today might just be a repeat of the end of yesterday (NOT a good rerun), I thought I would share some things about a GOOD day this week...
On Tuesday of this week, I was able to go and observe two other reading teachers in Denton ISD. One was an 8th grade teacher from McMath Middle School, and the other was from Harpool Middle School. Both were really great to experience. I very much respect the classroom management they have.
The second classroom was almost dreamlike for me. I have shared in a previous post that Nancy Atwell's aproach (along with many of others) is my desire for my classroom. The focus being the act of reading. There are mini-lessons taught at the beginning of the class, but they don't last more than about 15 minutes. The rest of the classtime is spent with the students reading THEIR choice of book. They are given this time so that they can actually get into the "reading zone", that place when you lose yourself in the book that you are reading.
I already implement a little bit of this approach, when I can, in my classroom, and yesterday my heart was so full when my 2nd period class (with many students who have been sent to the office before for falling asleep multiple times as we read in class) literally BEGGED me for more time in their own books before I made them take a few notes on genres. :) It was truly a time of joy for me, as a reading teacher, to see their passion for their books. One girl was so engaged in her book, that she kept gasping, and looking up at me as if to say, "WHAT?! I CANNOT believe that just happened!!!!".
I have had a handful of students who I NEVER would have guessed, come up to me and say, "Mrs. Power! I finished this book that you let me borrow yesterday! I read the whole thing last night, and it was really good!" One of the students that told me that just 10 minutes ago was the one who told me that he didn't get to read the chapters I had assigned to him to read over the weekend, because he was too busy working on his dirt bike. "I can't very well read while I'm lying under a dirt bike, Miss!" I guess he found something worth taking a break for? :) I love that.
The classroom that I plan to model my class after showed me that I can actually make it happen! She had her desks in groups of four around the perimeter of the classroom, and she had 2 large rugs in the center of the room. On one rug, she had a low-sitting beach chair, which all of the students recognized as the teacher's spot, and on the other, she had a HUGE pile of oversized pillows, beanbags, and chair cushions. The pillows were just old couch throw pillows and cushions that she had roughly sewn covers for in brightly covered thrift fabric. I LOVED it. I cannot wait to transform my own room. The only problem is that I need to find the means of getting rugs and more pillows and fabric and beanbags, etc. I have had a little success at garage sales, but rugs and beanbags get expensive, so all I really have so far are two cushions, two little foot rugs, and a runner-type rug that really just stays back behind my desk... I'm in the market for a lot more.
Since my biggest need is in the book area, I have been spending the money that I can on them instead of the decor-type things...but... eh, I have such high expectations for my classroom, and it's just frustrating for it not to be there yet. I know we all feel that way with things sometimes, and I'm still learning how to be patient, and live NOW instead of waiting for the future. What a waste to just always look forward to that future instead of enjoying the time the Lord has given me right now...
well, that's all for now, friends. If you do run across anyone who wants to get rid of rugs, lamps, beanbags, cushions, fabric, bookshelves, books, etc. please let me know? I'll gladly take them off of their hands. :)

Love,
your local first year middle school reading teacher.

p.s. sorry, that is probably completely scatterbrained writing. I hope you will forgive me :)

Churros y Chocolate

As I was browsing a lovely new blog called Cannelle et Vanille (well, new for me!), I noticed a recipe for Churros and Chocolate. This imediately transported my mind to Madrid:

Set the scene: Caitlin, Katie, and myself strolling through the streets of El Rastro (a GIANT street sale they hold every sunday morning in Madrid, Spain) until we are dead tired and SO HUNGRY. We decide to check another "Thing we must do while we're in spain" off of our list. We must try the traditional Churros y Chocolate. Super rich, thick, thick, thick hot chocolate to dip your donut-ish pastry in.

Lesson Learned: Don't fill an empty stomach with Churros and Chocolate. They are super rich and thick and sweeeeeeet and filling - especially on an empty stomach... ;)

Anyhow, I felt the need to share the recipe with all of you in case you have the need for a Spanish experience anytime soon (or not so soon!). This is the recipe straight off of the aforementioned website. ENJOY!

***********

The traditional hot chocolate served in Spain doesn't contain eggs. It is a thick chocolate cream usually thickened with a bit of cornstarch or made with a special kind of chocolate that contains thickeners. This recipe is a bit like a creme anglaise flavored with dark chocolate, coffee, orange, fresh ginger, cinnamon and vanilla bean. It can be served warm or even cold, but I really like the churros dipped in a warm custard.

Churros125 ml water

125ml whole milk

110 grams butter

pinch salt

large pinch sugar

150 grams flour

3 eggs

Canola oil for frying

Cinnamon sugar for coating

Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring this to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a smooth ball.Transfer this mass to the bowl of an electric mixer (or can do it by hand) and start mixing with a paddle attachment. When most of the steam has evaporated, add the eggs one at a time. Mix until it comes together to a smooth thick mass.Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip (#5). In a wide pan that has tall sides, pour about 3" deep of canola oil. Heat it to 350F. When it reaches the temperature, pipe the batter into the oil and cut with scissors. Fry them until golden brown. Remove the churros from the oil and roll them in cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

Spiced Chocolate Bisque

500 ml heavy cream

200 ml whole milk

100 grams sugar

1 vanilla bean, split

1 star anise

1 stick of cinnamon

Zest of 1 orange

3 slices of fresh ginger

5 grams cocoa powder

3 grams instant coffee powder

6 egg yolks

135 grams dark chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon, orange zest and fresh ginger. Bring it to a boil. Turn the heat off and let it steep for about 10 minutes. Return the mixture to a boil and add the cocoa powder and instant coffee powder. Whisk well.Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and temper the milk mixture into them while whisking. Return this mixture to the sauce pan and cook for a couple of minutes while constantly stirring until lightly thickens.Place the finely chopped chocolate in a large bowl. Place a fine sieve over the bowl and pour the custard over the chocolate. Mix until all the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth cream.Can be served warm, room temperature or cold. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It will thicken when it cools.

Self Deception Revealed

As I sat, attempting to clear some of the space at my desk this morning, I came across a poem I wrote a while back. I thought I'd share it with you:


"Self Deception Revealed"

My dreams to betray
the ugly heart within.
Thoughts that I allow not
to the prominence of concious mind.
Awaking to reality
where from my dreams stem.
To recognize this truth
is to realize my blood of Eve.

Repentance Requires Action.

So I move.




love, denise.

Memories

I want to post a real post after last night (my sister's birthday/moving away dinner/visit), but for now, I don't have enough time for all that I'd like to say, so instead, I will just leave you with some old favorite photos that I just ran across on an old Myspace page. Remember that place?! ;) enjoy!Kelley Irwin and I (oh, and don't forget Sneaky Brent Bell!!) at the annual Gooch Family 4th of July celebration about 3 or 4 years ago i think!

Roomie Jen Holm and I (oh, and Slick Aaron in the back, of course!) about 3 years ago?

Lynnie and I (sister!) at Jennifer's 21st birthday party (GIRLS' NIGHT!!) in Dallas. When was that, Jen...3-4 years ago?

My hubby and I (back in our dating days... about 2-3 years ago) at Reiku Sushi at Mockingbird Station (LOVE THAT DRAGON ROLL!!!). YUM!! why can't I get my bangs (fringe) to do that anymore?! :)

Kelley Irwin and I at a Village Church gathering of some sort... I can't even remember what it was for... I think it was about 4 years ago?? Gotta love the Supersugar Red Icing Lipstick!!

Jen and I. Clearly hard at work managing Davanti Salon & Spa about 3-4 yrs. ago.

Lynnie and I at a random outing to The Cheesecake Factory

Me, Kelley, Jen
Yes. We are awesome. And Yes, this may be the most frightening picture I've ever taken. :)
Roomies 2007-2008

Rebecca Smith, Me, Jen Holm
Roomies (3 out of the 5 of us!) 2005-2006 (PEARL GIRLS!)
though, I think this picture was taken in 2007... this was Jordan Gooch's 21st birthday celebration night at the Ghost Bar in Dallas.

Anyhow, I hope you've enjoyed this trip back down Memory Lane. It was fun to see these photos pop up again, and I just had to share them with you :)

One Simple (yet not so minimalist-friendly) Love

There are things that we all love in this world. One of my loves is Book. Well, books. plural. The bigger the plural, the better. I adore bookstores. I covet the expansive collections in libraries. I could spend hours upon days upon years just browsing and sniffing and touching (followed by a good douse of Purel, of course) all of the books that are in used/half-price/thrift stores.
For the past few months, I have been compiling my Summer Reading List. Now that I have summers again, I plan to spend the majority of that time in the sun while devouring delightful book after page-turning adventure-keeper. Don't worry, it's mostly in preparation for work... so, technically, it IS work... and many of these books will be middle-school level-early high school level reads, but it just so happens that I am really excited to have an excuse to read all of the classic pieces of literature that I was never forced to (or took the opportunity to) as I progressed through school. I'm also extremely excited about re-living the adventures that I remember (or have forgotten) that I was so intrigued by when I was in middle school. For example, starting tomorrow, my students will be beginning units on Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Both great novels, and I've got some really fun (I hope/think?!) projects planned for my kiddos for the six weeks.




ANYhow...so, this Summer Reading List. My goal for the summer was originally to read 100 books. However, once I ran the numbers, I figured I'll have about 10 weeks of no school from the end of this semester to the beginning of staff development for the next semester, so if I stuck with the 100 books in a summer goal, I'd have to be able to crank out about 1.5 books a day to accomplish it... Not realistic. Not with a whole new school year of lesson plans to tweak/write/find, a new home (hopefully!) to finish putting together, a garden to tend to (I plan to spend many joyous hours there!!), and a kitchen to continually dirty just to re-clean (all for the sake of delicious edibles that will TOTALLY be worth it). :)

So I adjust... I am trying to decide whether I want to stick with the 100 books goal, and just start now, or if I want to lower the goal number... I'm open to suggestions.

So, I leave you with a book that Aaron and I found as we browsed the books section of a local shop in Cape Coral, Florida just before Christmas. It caught our attention for being awesome, and we stood in the aisle and read it, in its entirety, together because it continued to be awesome. It's called Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea. I plan to own this book when we start having little ones. Count on it. If you have little ones, you need to be heading to the store to get your copy. :) P.S. You can click the picture of the book to see a YouTube video of the author reading the book :) i love it. :)

Happy Book Hunting!

love, denise

A Finals Week Disaster

So, as many of you already know, I am a middle school reading teacher. I love it. It is the most challenging job I have ever had, and had no idea the extent of hard work required of a teacher before I was thrown into the classroom (just one of the things that I missed out on by doing alternate certification instead of student teaching).

Well, today is the third day of final exams for our little darlings here. It is an early release day (my first ever as a teacher! woo!). It is also Staff Potluck day, AND I was able to leave the house early enough to spend a little of my well-hoarded "frivolus spending allowance" at St. Arbucks this morning on the way into school for a surprisingly delicious cup of steaming hot, toffee flavored joe. So, all in all, this was shaping up to be a FANTASTIC day!

Enter my mistake:

I had my arms more than full as I loaded them down with all the goodies to take in for the potluck later this afternoon, and did not have a hand to spare for my delicious coffee, so instead of unloading my arms again to put the cup back in the cupholder until i could come out and get it in about 5 minutes, I opted to simply leave it on the roof of the car. "No one will mess with my coffee! I'll be right back!" I told myself, foolishly.

On my way back out (less than 5 minutes later) to the car (AKA: temporary coffee haven), I mention what I'm doing to one of my fellow teachers. He tells me that another teacher grabbed it off my roof and was asking around to see who's it was. "OH! awesome! I'll just go get it from him, " I think as I head for the stairwell. When I get to his room, I am happy and perky, and excited to have my coffee back (that I had only had about 4 sips of so far). I walk in and say, "I'm hear to claim my long lost coffee!"

He had thrown it away.

Ultimate waste of $3.00. Ultimate fail.

Moral of This Sad Tale:

Don't throw away someone's coffee if you do want to be nice by picking it up off of their car for them! If it's hot, they probably still want it!

Happy Thursday! ;)

As I put the finishing touches on my first Semester Exam that I will be giving tomorrow to my lucky 2nd period class, and I finish reading the new Christmas cards we received in the mail today, I think I will further my multi-tasking abilities to add a third thing to my plate: I'll update with some lovely pictures :) ALWAYS FUN!

I'm totally stealing this first picture from my friend Alyssa's blog and the others from our dear friends the Irwins because we didn't bring our camera to the wassail fest this year! BUMMER!

Kelley, Me, and Alyssa (Can you tell how happy we were to be at Wassail Fest!?)

It wouldn't really be us without some odd picture like that one, right?!

Okay, that's a little better!

Wassail fest is one of the things we look forward to every year! Last year, we were unable to attend, however, because Aaron had a last minute work trip to the lovely Lufkin, TX... but this year we made it a point to be there!
One of the things i LOVE about Denton is that we have small-town celebrations. I was talking with someone the other day about how it's almost a Stars Hollow feel (for all you Gilmore Girls fans - you know who you are!!), and I LOVE that. I LOVE that we have an anual Lighting of the Christmas Tree on the square coupled with a Wassail fest which means that the streets around the square are shut down and blocked off for pedestrians to run hog-wild as we go from shop to shop to shop around the square to taste and vote for the best wassail in town! For those of you who do not know what wassail is... the best and easiest way to describe it is to say that it's like apple cider...but different. Google it :)

aaaaand, of course, another goofy picture... :)

Next, we have Denton Family Christmas. We were able to share a meal with some of our closest friends recently. Christmas is a great excuse to get everyone together. With so many newlyweds and busybodies among us, it's just plain hard to do... EVER, but we were glad to have a group together on this particular evening to celebrate friendship, love, and the grace of our King who allows and created it all. We drew names to participate in a gift exchange, too, so I'll share some of the fun with you now:

Potluck and "bring your favorite beverage to share" is the best way to do any party! :)

There were DEFINITELY many laughs this night. I keep many of the laughter pictures at bay simply because laughter is not necessarily the most attractive facial position that most of us want to be captured and remembered (at least, not when things are REALLY funny...).

Mr. and Mrs. Jeff and Jen Holm share a sweet moment after the gift exchange :)

Nels is VERY excited about his new lighter!! can't you tell??
(we missed his wife at the party! She was out of town, many states away, at the time)

Jeremy already knows he's getting an iPhone, so his gift was iTunes Gift Card and an iPhone case!

Ryan got two DVD's of his favorite director's movies. Very great movies... however, for the life of me I cannot think of the director's name. I will have a head (at least one) shaken in my direction for admitting this, and Ryan? I'm okay with it. Just get it over with.

Alyssa's gift was definitely one of the most creative and most personalized! Great Job, Jen! Her logo for Pink Antler Cakes (her delicious bakery business) was printed on personalized recipe cards and now she has an official Pink Antler Cakes Recipe Book!!

she was so excited about it!!!

Kelley's a bit more prepared for next semesters many late night class days with her new Crock Pot recipe box (i think that face means she likes it? haha)!

and, anyone who knows Kel, knows that she LOVES her rubber gloves! Now she's got some stylish rubbers (um, gloves, that is...)!

Aaron was lucky enough that his video game playing partner drew his name, so he got a... GAMESTOP gift card! woo! now... what to get?! the world is your oyster!!!

Jeff got some great fishing gear! I'm sure they will be put to use at the very first opportunity! :)

Jen got some great earings and a great houndstooth scarf! Perfect gift!

Alyssa has been roped into helping me decorate and redecorate too many times to know that I need nothing more than great art to hang on our walls!!!

So, what's the solution?! Well, she painted me a canvas, of course!! Such a creative woman! It's perfect. We both love the colors she used, and I can't wait to find the perfect place for it in our home that we buy in the spring (Lord willing!!).

Another thing that I cannot go without mentioning is the delicious homemade Hot Chocolate with ...wait for it... HOMEMADE marshmallows courtesy of our very own Alyssa of Pink Antler Cakes. Her recipe is actually her most recent post, I believe! BUT... just in case she has been able to sneak another post in since this post, here is a direct link do that delicious bit of blog.

Okay, it is officially WAY past my bedtime, and I'm sure you're a little more than tired of my novel of a post, so I need to wrap this up.

The last thing that I will share is how one of my very favorite things about this time of year is opening the mailbox to find letters and PICTURES of our friends and family in the form of Christmas cards/postcards. We got three more today, and it was all I could do to keep from letting out a giggle of glee as I sat, alone in my car, in the garage opening christmas cards because I couldn't even wait long enough to get to the kitchen table. :)

We'll get ours out...eventually :/ haha

Video from Matt

I'm providing a link to view the video Matt made on Thursday before going into surgery on Friday to have a 2"x1" brain tumor removed. I know many people are asking for updates, and I think this is probably the best way for you to get them! :)
Warning: It's only about 5 min long, but you may want a tissue handy...

http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/blog/hvpastor/

Yum!

If i owned this:






I would make THIS recipe and THIS recipe.
If you didn't catch it, this was merely an excuse to both advertise Alyssa's site and to share some delicious recipes :)


love, denise.