Writer's Workshop

10 reasons why you're glad it's Fall.

We don't have fall here. Our seasons are hot, hotter and wet! So instead of my 10 reasons why I'm glad it's fall, I'm putting together my 10 reasons why I miss Fall.


1. The pretty colours. I miss seeing the leaves change colours. It's stunning.

2) Fall means Thanksgiving. And again, I miss turkey time with the family.

3) The cooler weather. It's getting onto summer here, which means unbelievably hot, then when we get home at Christmas, it's cold. I want that nice, cool weather.

4) Fall means it's getting on Halloween. And what's not to love about Halloween. While people will throw a Halloween party, I miss seeing children come trick-or-treating.

5) The smell. Yes, the smell. I seem to remember a nice, crisp smell of autumn. 

6) TV. The new season of all my favourite shows begin. I get to read on Facebook when something exciting happens, but I have to wait till it either comes here, or until it comes out on DVD. No more excitement over sweeps!

7) Back to school shopping. I love an excuse to shop, and even though we all went back to school here, there isn't really the back-to-school excitement.

8) Apple picking. I use to go apple picking with mates in high school. Then we'd have a slumber party with apple pancakes!

9) Playing in the fallen leaves. It's not just for kids you know.

10) Once all the wonderful festivities are done with, you know that winter is on it's way and so is the snow, and Christmas. Snow.... another thing we miss here. But that's another story.....

 

Baking with Ethan - Dessert!

I love dessert! But then who doesn't?

Each Sunday, for the past few weeks, Ethan and Scott have been barbecuing. They make a wonderful dinner. So this week, I thought Ethan and I could make some dessert.

We started with some digestive cookies and sugar in a ziplock bag.

Ethan pulled out the rolling pin, and beat it silly!

We put the crumbs in a bowl, and added some melted butter.

Next, we pressed the crumbs into the bottom of a tin.... a muffin tin!

We baked them for about 1/2 hour and then let them cool.

While Ethan was helping his dad with the bbq, I whipped together 1 cup whipping cream, 3 Tbsp cream cheese, 1/3 cup icing sugar and some vanilla. I topped off each cup with a dollop of the cream.

After dinner, we grabbed some berries, and piled them on top of the cream.

Ethan loved them so much, he's decided we need to make them for Grandpa over Christmas. 

Happiness Project

I had a rough week.

And nothing makes the week seem better than seeing my angel, fast asleep, with a pillow on his head!

What makes you happy? Hope on over to Leigh's and see what makes others happy too.

PINT

This is my first time at Post It Not Tuesday, and the only reason I'm doing it, is my Grade 5 students are complaining about my taste in music.

Baking with Ethan - Vegetable Melange

Ethan's developed this new picky vegetable habit. He is unsure of trying new, or any, vegetables, and when he does, they are not allowed to touch each other! Seriously! So this week, I thought if he assisted with the preparations of the vegetables, he'd eat them.

I thought I would chop the vegetables, then Ethan could assist making the melange. But Ethan insisted on chopping. So we gave him one of his plastic knives, and a chopping he went. (Gotta love the look on his face.)

We had green peppers, sweet corn, and red onion. Ethan seasoned it with salt and pepper, before adding mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Loving the whole muffin tin experience, we filled some muffin tins with the corn mixture.

We baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

If Ethan makes it, he will eat it!

Muffin Tin Meal

Normally I'm not a Monday person, but Muffin Tin Monday brings some excitement to it. We went for a Muffin Tin Dinner this week.

We've got pasta, cheese slice, broccoli, biscuit and milk.

The Morning Routine

We, pretty much, have our morning routine down pack. Ethan tends to wake up, on his own around 5:45. That gives us 45 minutes to have breakfast, brush our teeth, get the uniform on, and set out for school. But sometimes, Ethan wakes up between 4 and 5, and comes to our bed to sleep. On these days, he doesn't wake up at 5:45. I'll head into the bedroom to get ready, and turn the light on, thinking this would get him stirring. By 6am, if he's still asleep, we try to coax him to wake. It doesn't work, and if he does wake up, he's in a foul mood.

Last week, the Grade 1s had their assembly. They presented a dance to the Wave the Flag song. Suddenly this became Ethan's theme song.

If Ethan is still asleep at 6am, we play the song, and suddenly he wakes up. Dancing!

What a great way to start the day!

You Capture - Flowers

This week, You Capture asked us to look at flowers. I couldn't quite decide which one to use, so I decided with them all!   :)

Flowers growing from nowhere at Malaika Village.

Ethan hiding amongst some at home.

Writer's Workshop

10 Reasons why you love your job.

I have to say I have the best job. I really do! Don't believe me? Well here are  reasons why I do!

1. I'm a teacher! I get to work with wonderful children everyday. I get to see their minds work and the thrill on their faces when they've learnt something new.

2. My school/work day ends by 2pm, which means I get the afternoon free to either scrapbook, have coffee with mates, or try to convince Ethan to give up a playdate and spend time with me.

3. My Grade 3s are just finishing up a cool unit on Dolphins and Endangered Sea Animals. It's been a wonderful unit of inquiry.

4. I'm a teacher. I get the summer off!!!!!

5. I have a great team. The teachers in Grade 3 are all wonderful and helpful. We share ideas and help each other out. I dare say, it's the best team at IST.

6. I've met some wonderful people. The teachers here are great, and as worried as I was about the IST cliques, I have some great mates.

7. Ethan attends IST as well. We get to go to school together every day. Next year, I hope to see him at break times too.

8. Mid-term is coming up in 2 weeks. That means one week vacation!

9. I work with a bunch of caring individuals. We encourage community service through our students, and ourselves.

10. Three weeks vacation over Christmas.

Happiness Project

This weekend, a few of us from school went to visit Malaika Kids a wonderful village orphanage to donate some books. The children there were adorable. They all brought us some joy with their smiles, and their love for the books we brought was endless.

This moment of happiness has been brought to you buy Leigh vs Laundry. What brought you happiness this week?

Muffin Tin Meal

It's Monday! That means time to share our muffin tin meal. This week's theme was shapes. We decided to go all round. Circles that is!

We've got Cheerios, cheese, peanut butter sandwich and apple slices.

Say What?

I'm curious. Where's Kim? Why has she not had a Say What? moment? Have I suddenly gotten the child that makes me say things I never thought I would?

Ethan's reading some books right now. He's so cute the way he's trying to read now. And since he's busy reading, I head off to the kitchen, to pretend I can be of some use to Scott who's making dinner.

I come back into the room, to find Ethan has placed his book down, and has his toes in his mouth! "Ethan!!!! Stop sucking on your toes!!!!!" 

Seriously!!!! Did I just tell my child to stop sucking on his toes? And best yet, , he tells me he does it because he likes it! Eeww!!!

Malaika Kids

A part of the curriculum at IST, is to encourage students to take part in community service. It seemed only fair, that if we ask the children to give back to the community, we, as teachers do the same. As our library and grades order new books, the old ones are left homeless. So today, a few teachers went to visit Malaika Kids to donate boxes of books.

Malaika Kids is an orphanage. At the moment, their little village has about 30 children. They've put a lot of thought into the design of the place. The rooms are set up to allow cross ventilation, and therefore eliminates the need for fans or ACs. Each mini-house holds a "mother" who sleeps in the common room. On each side is the dorm. One side for the girls, and the other for the boys. Each dorm sleeps 5 children. There is also a self contained play area for the younger children.

Their drainage system is green. Rain collects in the gutters, and then is directed into a water tank. This can then be used to help water their shamba, garden, where they have tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers and other vegetables growing.

It was a lovely visit there. The children were thrilled to see us. They sang us a welcome song, and came over to chat. There was one darling little girl, Amina, who is 3 years old. She's very small for a 3 year old. Upon looking at the Malaika Kids website, I learnt Amina and I are kindred spirits. We share the same birthday!

The boys dorm.

The shamba

Amina

You Capture - Photographer's Choice

This week, for You Capture,  we got to choose to feature anything we wanted. Of course, I chose my favourite topic, Ethan! I also went over to Picnik and played around.

And giving it a 1960s look....

The Happiness Project

My mate, Betti, is expecting twins next month. She looks gorgeous. We were enjoying a lovely breakfast, when her daughter brought over a couple of little dolls. Betti seems to think the babies are the same size as the dolls, but we corrected her. She wanted to get an idea of how the babies currently look and are placed. 

This moment of beauty and happiness has been brought to you by LeighvsLaundry.

Muffin Tin Meal

This week's theme was the movies. I had ideas floating around in my mind. However, I didn't have any cool Toy Story or Cars muffin tins, and didn't think Scott would approve of a sudden Golda's order.

We've had a wonderful 4-day weekend here. Scott seemed to have missed that memo as he had to work most days. We also forgot to pay the cable bill. hehehe. Ethan and I decided to have a movie afternoon. We popped in a DVD, and relaxed. Of course, no movie would be complete without a snack. And in this case, a muffin tin snack!

We have some apple juice, popcorn, teddy bear cookies, strawberries, star-shaped cinnamon raisin bread with cream cheese, and grapes.

You Capture - Signs

This week's assignment was "signs". Got to love this one! Only in Tanzania do you need a sign to warn you about the crows. Not like it's obvious they're around, everywhere!