Wow. It's been a while, huh?

She lives!

I'm not sure what makes me come and go so often when it comes to blogging.  I do enjoy writing.

Actually, I'm fairly certain I know why last year was tough for me to keep it going.  Last year was just...hard.  It was hard for a number of reasons, most of which were outside of the realm of my control.    So, as lame as it sounds, I didn't consider blogging a priority, as I was busy trying to keep my head above water.

This year, I'm happy to say that things are vastly improved.  I'm teaching fourth grade now, and I feel like I've found a new and even more perfect niche.  Fourth graders are more independent, more self-sufficient, and honestly?  They work harder.  I'm feeling as though I'm better suited for this age group, and I hope to hang out here for as long as I can.

Also, I have a fanTASTic class this year.  Not that I didn't have a great class last year.  I just had a more...challenging group of students.  This year, I have a group of kids that I had the benefit of being familiar with before they entered my room.  I have none of the same kids from last year, which in some ways is bittersweet.  While I would have loved to have had some familiar faces in the room, starting over with a fresh batch of kids is a lot more liberating.  I hope that makes sense.  It is going on 10:30 on Sunday night.

Anyhow, I'm finding myself craving that writing outlet again, and so here I am.  I don't know if anybody has checked in here in the past...um...10 months...but, if you care to join me for the occasional musings about life and education and whatever else passes through my mind, here I am.

Welcome.  Sit for a spell.  I'll be back soon.  I promise.

-M

Season's Eatings!

My parents graciously gave me our ham bone left over after our Christmas feast, and I knew exactly what my plans were for that bad boy: the best ham and potato soup ever made.

Care to take the journey with me?  Okay, let's go!


Here's a shot of everything that went into my soup: the ham bone, a 5lb bag of red-skinned potatoes, 2 cups of heavy cream, a stick of butter, some bouillon cubes, and a can of corn.  Paula Dean would be proud, I know.

So I started by covering the ham bone in water and adding a few bouillon cubes, some garlic pepper, and a pinch of salt.  Then I let it boil until the meat was practically falling off of the bone.


Then it was time to pull the ham bone out and pull as much meat as possible off.  I chopped up the potatoes while the ham bone was boiling.  I chose red-skinned potatoes for two reasons: they're creamier and less gritty (at least from personal experience) than Russets, and as an added plus, I don't have to peel them! :)



So here's what I had after I had added in the potatoes and the ham I got off of the bone.  I let this boil for about 15-ish minutes, until the potatoes were fork tender.  Then the party got started.  I tempered my heavy cream using a little bit of hot stock, then added that mixture back into the soup along with the stick of butter. Paula Dean said so!  :D

The finished product:


And let me tell you, folks, it was DELICIOUS.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday meal leftovers in creative ways, too.  If you have a great recipe, share it!

For now, I'm off to slip into a creamy, carb-filled coma.  Cheers!



♥ Marlee

Christmas craziness...

Merry belated Christmas, everyone!

This Christmas holiday has flown by...I can hardly believe that in just four short days we'll be embarking on a whole new year.  My kiddos will be back in five days, and I'm ready to come at them with some unexpected strategies to curb our talking and lack of focus issues.  Just wait and see!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.  Mine was pretty quiet, but lovely nonetheless.  I got some super cute clothes, including a gorgeous deep teal pea coat, an incredibly awesome ginormous tote bag, some pillows (that I desperately needed), a quesadilla maker (holla!), and a myriad of sweets to last me for a good little while.  And that was mostly from my parents (the quesadilla maker was care of my stepbro and his lady).

But what I get every year at this time, even more precious than any gift I'm given, is the chance to hang out and be silly with family.  We laugh, we watch movies, we play games; we make memories.  And I'd take all of that over any present!

Anyway, with New Year's Eve quickly approaching, I have two big things to be thinking about--my dad's birthday, which coincides with our transition into 2012, and ringing in the new year with friends.

So, I'm off to crawl into bed at a reasonable time for the first night since Christmas Eve Eve, as I have to get my sleep cycle readjusted after the holidays

Enjoy the last few days of this year--I hope it's been a good one, and hey, if it hasn't, start making plans to change all that in 2012!

Until next time,
♥ Marlee

Why am I not sleeping?

I assure you, my friends, I shall be sleeping heartily soon.

I have to say, I'm starting to get a little bit excited for Christmas...my kiddos are obviously geeking out on Christmas break, which is still a whole week away.  We just have to make it through next Friday and then we can go and have our two weeks away from each other and enjoy the season and our families.

Can I just say that I'm still not certain what I'll be making for cookie swap?  My swap is on Saturday, and I've been wavering back and forth...I have a tried and true recipe for Oreo Truffles that is amazing, if not slightly labor-intensive. The upside is that no baking is involved, and it makes a pretty large quantity of truffles.  If I've piqued your interest, you can find my post about Oreo Truffles here.

The other option I have for Saturday is to try a new recipe, though there are some obvious risks in that.  I don't know!  My gut tells me I'll wind up doing my Oreo Truffles anyway.  We'll see, I suppose.  I'll try to remember to take pictures of the spread on Saturday so that I can share my party with you.

Tomorrow is Friday (hooray!) and in the afternoon, we're having a Christmas Around the World celebration.  My classroom got Italy, which I was pretty stoked on, and I feel like our display came out looking pretty awesome.  If I wasn't already up waaaaay past my bed time, I'd share those photos now, but since it is actually slightly after 11 and I do need to be functional in the morning, I'll stop here and promise to share those photos very soon!

I hope everyone is having a great week.  Mine has been pretty great, all things considered.  The kiddos are crazy this time of year, and I figure so long as we can come back each day and try again, we're successful.

I'll post again soon.  Night, friends.

Until next time,

♥ Marlee

Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So, Friday morning, I woke up with a fairly sore throat, and a decent amount of congestion.  Hoping it was only allergy related, I took an allergy pill and went on my way to a workshop that day.  As the day went on, my sore throat wasn't really going away, and I was just getting more and more congested.

At lunch, I got some head cold meds and tried that, along with some throat lozenges. My throat got better pretty quickly, but the congestion remained, and felt at some times as though it was getting worse.  I felt more and more awful as the day went on, but I stuck out my workshop and then went home and pretty much went straight to bed.

Now, roughly 54 hours (and about 5 different medications) later, my congestion is still here, though not as bad, and a new symptom is developing...a cough.

Coughing is one of the worst symptoms next to throwing up guys.

There's no control over it, and it can really start to hurt your chest like crazy.

So I bundled up and threw on my sweat pants and made another trip to the grocery store to get some cough syrup and some lotion-y tissues (my sad chapped nose was screaming for them), and now I'm back at home, without much of an appetite, bundled up on my couch and waiting for something to start feeling better.

All in all, not my favorite weekend.  Didn't get to do really anything yesterday, and then I decided to stay home today instead of going to Raleigh this weekend, so I missed out on getting to go to church and spending some time with my parents.

I'm hoping upon hope that I'll start to feel some relief soon, because if not, then I'll be busy working on sub plans and going in tomorrow morning to set everything up.  And I hate having to have a substitute in my room, especially on a Monday.

So, anyway, sorry to whine and moan for a bit, but I'm starting to get a little bit of cabin fever here, and I'm pretty sure the people at my grocery store are starting to call me "that homeless girl who's addicted to cold medications."

Let's change the subject, shall we?

I'm hosting my first real gathering of coworkers and friends this coming Saturday--my very first time hosting a Cookie Swap!  They are super fun and really great for holiday time, so I'm looking forward to it.  If you've never attended a Cookie Swap before, the premise is pretty easy to understand.  You bake a batch (or two or three) of your favorite kind of holiday treat (cookies, bars, whatever).  You make copies of the recipe to share with others, and then you come and enjoy everybody's treats and get to take home your favorite cookies and recipes!

I have a bit of cleaning to do, especially with my being sick this weekend kind of sucking up all of my energy, but I'm super excited to have some friends over.  Plus, everybody will get to meet Norma!  Yay!

Alright, going to curl back up in bed in hopes of shaking off this...whatever this is.

Have a great Sunday and I'll be back at you as I'm getting things ready for the swap on Saturday!

♥ "That homeless girl who's addicted to cold medications"

Reaffirmation.

Today has not been nearly as awesome as I would have hoped.

Ever have days like that? 

I don't really want to talk about it, but I did want to look for some visual pick-me-ups that I could share with you.  These were reaffirming for me, so I offer them to you in case maybe you've had a less-than-awesome day recently.

Dumbledore always knows best, guys.

This one made me chuckle a little. :)

Delicious ambiguity.  I pretty much adore that phrase.

Amen.

Well, that was actually pretty fun.  I hope you enjoyed these.  Tomorrow will be better.

Tomorrow will be better.

♥ Marlee

Firsts.

So, this weekend, I put up my first Christmas tree.

It's kind of a big deal, guys.

I mean, I've lived on my own for going on 4 years now, but this is the first time I'm ever able to put up and decorate my own tree. (Technically, it's my parents' old tree, but I've claimed her and named her Norma.)

Ready? Okay, friends, meet Norma:

Isn't she beautiful??

I worked hard to make her gorgeous, and I'm pretty proud of this first effort of mine. :) Just assembling the tree was an adventure in and of itself. But now, I'd like to draw your attention to a few of my favorite things on my tree. There are oh so many I could share with you, but here's a start, at least:

I'm not going to lie, my tree topper is one of the things I love the most about this tree.

It normally would cost $20, but I'm pretty sure I scored it for somewhere between $5-$10.

That's the beauty of shopping the after Christmas sales, my friends.

This ornament was given to me by my parents, and it hangs front and center on my tree.

In case you can't quite read it, it says: "Teachers make a difference."

Yeah, my parents are pretty great. I think I'll keep them.

This picture holds a couple of interesting ornaments. The wine glass in the top left corner

reads "Wine a little, you'll feel better!" and my parents picked it up for me when they went

on a vacation to a winery. The other ornament of note is the little white owl. I bought a set

of three of these babies during my after Christmas sale shopping. I couldn't resist! They're just

too dang cute! Also, with shannon*bear being one of my best friends, it just makes sense for

her to be represented on my Christmas tree, don't you think? Me, too!

This last one is special for a different reasons. That beautiful ornament you see in the center of

this photo was hand-painted by my grandfather, Robert Norris. I was allowed to pick any of

the ornaments he'd painted the last time I was up north visiting, and I was drawn to this one.

Pretty cool stuff, eh? Well, I thought I'd invite you into my humble abode to see how I'm getting decked out for Christmas. What's your favorite part of decorating at Christmas time? Share you thoughts!

Until next time,

♥ Marlee