Dreaming and Teaching Sometimes Mix

And sometimes they do not.

Point and case.... there I go again. I just learned that what you are supposed to say is Case and Point. I guess that nulls the impressive example I was just about to give.

So...impressive example: I would LOVE to own several varieties of this shelf paper. Until I can afford beauty at $25 a roll, however, this stays on the "in my perfect classroom...." list. Also on that list is a room with spacious dimensions, laptops for every student, shelves with organizer compartments, cute sewing projects I keep seeing on pinterest that I have no idea how to make time to make, every math game you can think of.... you know. That dreamy classroom.

So, until that day, I content myself with googling and goggling at pictures like this:

I would put the distressed vines on.... I love the look of those fall leaves. Wouldn't that be cool on.... 

Not to mention what's on page three of the Chic Shelf Paper List. 

Sweet. And by that I mean sticky. 

It is shelf paper, after all.

Yes, I went THERE

Something monumental happened this past week. I fulfilled a life dream. Checked off a most important entry on my bucket list, if you will. I went to dessert club.

My cousin Kari has this blog. For the past few years, I have looked and awed and sometimes even drooled every few days as I check the next entry she has up. Sometimes I feel like a Pavlov canine... but to see is to salivate. Kari is legend in my family, and she even has a fan base from my college friends. When my BF Carrie met Kari, she told me she felt like she was meeting a celebrity. Justly so. 

Said cousin has a most inspiring tradition of having a monthly dessert club. This month, I got to be a guest, and it is a night neither I, nor my taste buds, nor even my stomach will forget. Oh, so many delights. Such good company. 

I have a fantastic cousin... even though Melinda and I came way too early (I need to be more careful when I put things in my calendar), she let us stay and chat. Her girls showed us around the house and told some scar stories. I got to see a steam mop in action for the first time in my life. Then the desserts started to plate in. (Pour just doesn't work there).

As for the desserts, you will have to look at her blog to see when the post comes up. She's amazingly creative in her baking, so there are always a several recipes that make their way onto the site between the monthly dessert club post. 

I had three favorites, but you only get two votes. The Lemon Pie was a hands down vote for me (inspired by the book A Walk in the Woods). The Blackberry Mudslide parfait (inspired by the book Where'd You Go, Bernadette?) with from scratch Irish Cream pudding was so deep in flavor and still light enough that it was all too easy to eat every last demi-spoon-ful. Had I another vote, or if I could have voted a tie, it would be between the parfait and the "Eat Me" cake, inspired by Alice in Wonderland. As it was, I chose "Eat Me;" it was breathtaking and smooth and flavorful. I have never had a cake with a texture like that. Mmmmmm.

Melinda and I were invited to come, and she was kind enough to make it optional for us to bring a dessert. Goose had the great idea of actually testing our recipe before showing up with it. Good thing, too. We made a cake. I think we are going to post it on "Nailed It," the Pinterest-inspired failure blog. Everything sounded good; white cake, chocolate mousse, fresh strawberries and ganache, and cream cheese icing. In the back of my mind I was thinking that we might have needed that shortening-icing for making roses-- "A Rose for Emily," the eerie short story by Faulkner, was the inspiration. That and this:

The flavors together should have been better than they were. It should have been awesome, in fact...but it was just bland. The icing, soft because of its creamy cheese, melted off the cake so we added way too much merengue powder to stiffen it. Bleh. Between that and "no-taste red food coloring," We tried a piece, ate about a forkful, then decided we couldn't look at it any more. Before we left the kitchen that night, Melinda wrote a note to any roommates who might want it.

So, cake-less but story-filled, we went to dessert club. I happen to know that I will never be the same again. 

Thanks, Kari.

A How Dee Do

The unwelcome visitor, stress, has been by lately and is affecting my sleep among other things. Lucky for me, since I woke up this morning, the song going round my head was this one:



Go to 2:58 and start watching from there to 4:11. I especially am keen on the jig in the background.

I face neither love triangles nor death by the lord high executioner in the near future, but this song obviously made an impression on me, since it's been dancing its own jig around my head all day. I hope that you enjoy!

And it begs the question: how is it that we have not seen this 1966 Mikado?

Not Cryin'

Hope you enjoy, as I did, this Flight of the Conchords delight.



Lasagna for one. I am still laughing tears down my face.

Christmas Wonders

Christmas is such an interesting time of year. My family always does a nice job of focusing of the true symbols and purpose of the season, in action and in word-- and especially in song-- as we worship the Savior Jesus Christ. This Christmas the whole family was home-- and I mean the WHOLE family-- for an overlapping interval of 20 hours before someone had to visit another branch of the family, and that was so fantastic. It was my favorite part of this entire season. 

Anticipating and experiencing Christmas in a more secular way is an interesting phenomena to me. When you are a kid, it is the most magical time EVER, and it is hard to be disappointed except for the fact that you didn't ever get the Barbie Jeep (but you secretly knew that there was no way Santa could fit that down the fireplace anyway, so asking for it was just throwing a random wish out there). Then you get to that awkward stage where you still want to play with toys but are too cool for them; the tweens. This is where no matter the gifts, you still feel unsettled and feel awkward about having had expectations for Christmas. You aren't even sure what you wanted in the first place, so it's even harder to feel satisfaction about getting things. I feel like I was spared too much agony during this stage because getting new clothes was always a huge novelty, and so new clothes at Christmas= instant good gift. And new socks too. Hopefully that helped Santa out a bit. 

So, sorry to be giving a dissertation in didactic snippets-- I really am getting somewhere. As a kid, Christmas is magical, and you love what you get. As a tween, you are kind of disappointed with the whole thing, but are glad you got some things. As a teenager, everything is just confusing, but for me at least, this is where I started to really feel a lot of excitement about getting other people gifts. I just feel a bit sorry that my recipients were getting my part-time job budget shopping results ;0). 

I venture that it is now, in my young adult life, that Christmas is most magical to me. I love it. I LOVE IT. I suppose I still have expectations (I would like to get new shampoo in my stocking like we do every year, and again, new clothes = instant good gift), but I could get shampoo and a new sweater and feel pretty excellent about that. Throw in a chapstick and bam. Santa's set.  For the rest of the wrapping paper-strewn morning, I really enjoy seeing what other people get, and I love giving them a gift. Now, much like my teenage self, this year they are the recipients of a teacher's salary budget, but I hope they can at least use what I enjoyed choosing and giving, small though it was. 

All of those things said, I now have to show a most excellent treat that was next to my stocking. Imagine my surprise! Already put to use in the basement room where I sleep at home, is: fanfare--

THE VELVETEEN SNUGGIE

Then, coming in the mail, was this. I had put this on my Christmas list as the proverbial Barbie Jeep. By Ivan Aivazovsky, Between the Waves is a painting that has really struck me and I have been looking at it time and time over these last few months thinking that I would like to get a print of it. It came in the mail yesterday, and it is the first print of a painting I own that looks like it could have just been painted. The quality of the print is excellent. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

We saw this movie as a family, and I really loved the depth of the character's performances. It's a very personal musical version. Way to go, Russell Crowe.

I think the plan is to see this tonight. I cannae hardly wait.

My favorite gift to watch being opened this year was this one, to Melinda. Katy Cummings, the artist, painted this as part of her project to fund a year's tuition and send a girl to school (she met her goal, by the way! See the previous blog post). Giving this to Melinda has sentimental sister value, but I love it especially because this painting is so vibrant. You can see some of that through the picture online, but up close the fluidity of the colors and the deep gold makes this painting a rich portrait and a champion of a symbol for education and equality. Way to go, goose! and thanks to Katy for her incredible art. 

Do Something Different This Christmas

This is a goat.

This is an even more amazing goat.

My sister-in-law Katy is the creator of a project that will work with Heifer International to raise enough money to send a girl to school. You can read about her idea and inspiration here. 

This is your opportunity to think a little differently and give to a great cause. Can't think of what to give that one person who never needs anything because they always buy it for themselves anyway? Or are they so generous that they never put anything on their Christmas list, and so you have no clue what to get them? Try this on for size; a vibrant watercolor by artist Katy C. that is contributing to the betterment of an entire family and community. 

We all know that means a better world.

 Peace on Earth starts small. You can actually do something about it this time.

Visit her blog if you are interested in participating. Sooner rather than later, especially if you will require this to be mailed.

Me-eh-eh-eh-eh-rry Christmas.

 (Couldn't help it, with that goat picture and all...)

Hobart Shakespeareans

Sorry about the subtitles...but whomever put together the copy did a nice job getting some best-of scenes in the documentary ;)

About a year ago, Aaron and Katy told me about this documentary. Now that I have a Netflix account, I finally put it on my cue. This afternoon I watched it for the first time.

Inspirational teacher movies can do one of many things. They can make you feel inspired. They can make you feel guilty for not being as good as that teacher. They can make you feel like you need to go teach in an inner city school so you can finally make a difference because that's where the kids will really show the night and day change. They can make you feel like even if you end up being the teacher at the end of the movie who has lost their hair, who looks 15 years older than they really are, or who is out of a job because of budget cuts (thank you, Mr. Holland's Opus), then at the end there will be students who come back as adults and thank you to swelling background music, and you will feel like you really made that difference. That's what teachers are really out to do, right? Make a difference.

Let me tell you one of the things that I liked about this documentary. It features a man who is obviously looking for the good in life and in the kids around him, but he is very realistic about his expectations. That might seem ironic since it features a man who is teaching fifth graders how to read and understand Hamlet and Huckleberry Finn. But in the documentary, they keep showing sweeping shots of glowing performances and interviews, and happy glimpses where kids meet celebrities and go on national tours... but then they include dialogue where the teacher says that no teacher is going to reach every single kid in the classroom; there are some really terrible days that at times do outweigh the good ones; there are some obvious sacrifices that come with the successes of the students in his class. This admission is important. "Teacher Movies" hint at it, and sometimes even have whole scenes dedicated to it. Granted, this documentary's main focus isn't the ups and downs of teaching; it's a class of kids learning Shakespeare. But I do give the credit to the POV makers for including much more information than a focus on one teacher triumphing over a hurdle in society. I appreciate how they treat the topic of teaching in general. I think it is good for me to see, and for others too. I find new ideas, I find validation in things I am doing, and I get another opinion on how to approach something. Watching this movie felt like being back in college and having one of those moments in class where I knew that this would be something I used and would hold on to.

I like "Teacher Movies." I do. I own many of them. I watch them for different reasons. If I want to feel like being a novice is okay, I watch "Freedom Writers." For just all-around wow-spiration, I watch "Stand and Deliver." For entertainment, I watch "Take the Lead." For philosophical, political, and intellectual food-for-thought, I watch "The Emperor's Club" and "Dead Poet's Society." Now, for classroom ideas, teaching direction, and insight, "Hobart's Shakespearean's" will be added to the list. I really loved it, and even cried.

There's still one that will always be my favorite, though. Still one of my favorite movies overall: "The Miracle Worker." I watch that when I need to feel like a teacher. Or when I just need to connect to something deep inside of me. It's one of those movies that always makes me a little more of myself after watching it.