Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure is the end of five day work weeks for the year. Next week, I teach three days with no classes Friday. The week after, we have a three day week with a fourth being graduation. The week after that, I have a three day week for exams. And the week after that, I have to show up for two and a half days and then not again for three months I love .my job sometimes :o) Now to get a summer job...

Rocket Days!

We have now come to the part of the year that I love the most. It is rocket time here at my school. My physics classes will be building rockets, predicting the height of a flight given an engine and a payload, and comparing their actual maximum height (using an altimeter) to their predictions. We might even be able to watch a movie in class, October Sky. That movie was the first date I ever went on - yes, I'm a geek. We're not allowed to show it at one go, but we might break it up over two or three days. Over the next two weeks, if the weather is good, I'll post pictures or maybe even video of the launchings (sans students, of course).

Everything else is winding down, and I'm getting kind of nervous. I have less than a month left to find a summer job. I've applied at two places (Sylvan Learning Center and my local library) and have not heard anything from either. I'm very much hoping to get the library job. I could walk to work, and it would be a well paying temporary position in the children's section.

We are, of course, still waiting to hear on *B*'s chances at the job at my school. When I talked with him about the questions they asked and the answers he gave, they all seemed right on target. I'm still praying very hard that he does indeed get the position.

I haven't had much sleep in the last few days. I keep going to bed around 12-1 am and getting up at 6 am. Talk about burning the candles at both ends. I have really been going nuts researching my family. In some respects, I've found a huge wealth of knowledge out there on the web. In others, I've got nothing. I really need to just put it down for a week or two and start up again later. Interesting factoid - one of my family members married a woman who died giving birth to their first child, a son. He then married her daughter (his stepdaughter) who had a few children then also died in childbirth. Then he died at sea, leaving everyone orphaned.

I have neglected my garden just a tad because of all of the rain or activity going on lately. I really need to keep on top of it. The lettuce looks like it's ready to harvest here shortly. I believe that the frostbitten lettuce that I pulled out at the beginning of the year is starting to grow again, so we can transplant that right back on in.

Birding is going well. I've discovered another species eating the suet on our back deck. While this is not my picture, we have a few grey catbirds roaming around the yard.

Picture from Memories of Chapel Hill

All in all, it's proving to be a crazy, but happy time right now. I am hopeful all will continue to go well.

Diagnosis: Grading Overload

I have this awful habit. I let work pile up, ungraded. Last year, it was because I was making all of my worksheets, powerpoints, and labs from scratch. This year, it's sheer procrastination. It's kind of a binge and purge if you would.

At the beginning of a quarter, I slack off on collecting a lot of work. I figure we've got a whole quarter to do work for grades. The things I do collect, I put to the side because I can grade it a little bit later. No matter how easy it would be in reality to grade, I psych myself out. Multiply this by 5 classes, and it piles up fast.

Then it really is a daunting task. I usually measure in inches, as in "I have 5 inches of work to grade!" When it was SAT season, I had 5 hours in which I had nothing but grading every other Saturday that I could do. Without that, it has gotten out of hand.

So today, I buckled down and graded for just over 5 hours. This means through period 1 (they were taking a test), period 2, period 3 (again, test), and the beginning of period 4. I'm pooped! Done! I have a lovely pile of tests left to grade, but that is it. I will not collect anything for the rest of the year save the final study guide and a packet about rockets.

Family Project

My mom's side of the family has always been interested in our family history. The story goes that my great-great grandfather was actually the grandson of Sitting Bull. When his mother, Snow-on-Me, died, his father gave him up to a neighbor, whose name we carried on. Now, whether this is true or not, I don't know. But it's an interesting story.

After writing the post The Most Perfect Wedding Presents, I took Mrs. Mordacai's advice and checked out familysearch.org. It is brilliant. I'm SO glad she told me. I found more ancestors on the side that actually followed their history, and it led me to question my father's side of the family.

Things I've Learned:
-My grandmother's family all came from the same place I live (within 10-20 miles), back to the early 1700s. Maybe this is why I feel so connected there.
-I'm definitely German six ways from Sunday.
-My father's side of the family has interesting crossovers, feuds, and scandals.

• A woman on my grandfather's side married a man, and when he died two years later, married his older brother
• My great-grandfather's second wife destroyed or sold all of my great-grandmother's possessions when my great-grandfather died so that my grandfather and his siblings couldn't get them
• My great-great-grandfather was having an affair downstairs with his soon-to-be second wife while his first wife was upstairs dying of the flu a few days after giving birth

-Many German records were burned in the mid 19th century.
-The German cemetery in which my great-great-grandfather is buried changed its name in WWII to avoid attacks.
-There is a picture of a 19th century Chinese man in the photo section of the family bible (which I didn't know existed at all) with no name - am I related to him??
-I lived down the street from the cemetery in which my family members are buried all my life and didn't know it.

Every day I find more ancestors, dates, and places. I've actually become a wee bit obsessed. I stayed up until midnight last trying desperately to find out about my great-great grandfather (the closest relation for whom I have no information). I have a phobia of cemeteries, so my mom agreed to go into the cemetery in which he is supposedly buried to try to find him. I don't really feel I can rest until I know something about him.

How important is family history to you? Who is your family historian?

Mother's Day

A happy mother's day to all the mothers, soon-to-be mothers, yet-to-be mothers, surrogate mothers, and substitute mothers.

As for my own mother, we went out yesterday in celebration of mother's day. There is a little festival I go to every year the day before mother's day. They have good music and tons of flowers and crafts. My mom and *B* and I went together this year. We picked up all sorts of interesting things. I bought a geranium plant from the boy scouts and a painted gourd bird nest for the chickadees in my yard. I also bought some mandarin coconut homemade soap. I can't wait until I learn to make soap myself. Geraniums remind me of my grandmother, and I decided it would be nice to have them around. My mom bought an ostrich fern and cake-in-a-jar. I will learn how to make this. And, of course, I'll post it for all to see :o) It was a chocolate-irish cream cake in a mason jar - fully cooked. Oh was it delicious. We ate it with our fingers in the middle of the street. We also had fresh homemade funnel cake, pressed lemonade, and I had a crab cake.

Today, my mom and I are going to see my grandparents. I'm taking my genealogy software to fill in some of the gaps I've been missing on my grandfather's and grandmother's father's side of the tree. I'll post more on the genealogy project a little bit later.

Happy Mother's Day!

Simple Pleasure Thursday and Tiniest Huge Problem

My simple pleasure is my backyard. We've got gorgeous birds, tons of plants, and now two, yes, TWO producing asparagus beds. Once started, they can propagate for up to 25 years. I was able to take my book outside, enjoy the weather, listen to the birds, and watch the world go by. It is sooo peaceful.

As peaceful as my evening was, my night has been very stressful. We now have a full blown ant problem. Our neighbor mentioned that the homes had a problem the other day, but I wasn't too concerned. I now see what he meant.

I decided that, in honor of tomorrow being Friday, I'd make cupcakes for my department. I got the cupcakes made, and was letting them cool to ice them. A few minutes later, I go in, and they are SWARMING with ants. I'm not talking about 5, 10, or even 15, but maybe 50 ants on 9 cupcakes. They were IN the cupcakes. So, out they went. I feel like they're crawling all over me even though they seem to be confined to the basement and kitchen.

I've read online that people swear by everything from poison to cornmeal, borax to chalk, even honey and cinnamon. What do you do when you have ants?

Feeding Our Neighbors

At my school is a religion teacher who is, as one would imagine, very serious about his Catholic faith, as is his wife. She's now pregnant with their third child, with a 6 year old and a 1 year old in the house. She has been diagnosed with a disorder that when she is pregnant, she vomits almost constantly, can't eat, and becomes dehydrated very quickly. Her illness means that she cannot take care of herself, much less the children or the house.

Their church set up a website to coordinate driving her to the doctors and making dinners for the family. It's actually a really nifty setup. Anyhoo, I decided to make Layered Mexican Chicken Casserole for them. It's really tasty. The recipe is below, adapted from a Weight Watchers.

1 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray
2 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
30 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cup(s) fat-free sour cream
2 cup(s) shredded reduced-fat Mexican-style cheese, divided
8 oz chopped green chilies, two 4-oz cans
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 large corn tortilla(s), cut into 2-inch strips

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a lasagna pan with cooking spray.
Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces and saute in a large pan until cooked through.

When cool, transfer chicken to a large bowl and add beans, sour cream, 1 cup of shredded cheese, chilies, cumin, and pepper; mix well and set aside.

Arrange half of tortillas in bottom of prepared lasagna pan, overlapping pieces to cover surface.

Top tortillas with half of chicken mixture, layer with remaining tortillas and then top with remaining chicken mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake until filling is bubbly and cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces. Serve with salsa on the side.