Long Time, No See

Sorry for the long spaces between posts. The limited amount of time in my day, coupled with the frustration of dial-up internets, just is not condusive to lots of blogging. Luckily, I am on my Winter Break for the next two weeks. With any amount of luck (or perhaps effort would work better?) I will get some of my thoughts down in cyberspace.

I have 2 big stories for you, but those will have their own posts. This is just the little stuff...

* I have made good progress at defeating the Holiday Blues. We got a little Christmas tree (really little - about 18 inches tall) and decorated it. We put lights up around the window and started wrapping gifts. I handed out presents to my well-deserving friends at school. It's hard to feel Grinchy when you are making people smile! Mikey and I also made some important decisions about how we are going to celebrate. Perhaps I will elaborate further another time. For now, I just want to say that I am in a much happier place and I am glad of it.

* You know those peanut butter cookies that have the chocolate kisses smooched into the middle? They are SO yummy. And they are SO easy to make. But 8 minutes really is long enough for the baking.

* Mikey has been spending all his time breeding fish. No, not real ones. He has a new computer game in which you breed fish, trying to find each different combination possible - including some magical fish. He has charts and anything. He laughed at me when I charted my progress in Geneforge!

* Just about all of our gifts this year are homemade. I am enjoying that quite a lot, although I am worried about the reactions of certain people. Those people are just looking for a reason to be insulted though, so I am not going to worry too much.

* One of the other 5th grade teachers has her kids working on a poetry unit. One of the assignments was to write about their 4th grade teacher. She has 6 of my students from last year, so on Thursday last week I was presented with a very touching poem about myself from the perspective of said students. I am going to frame it and put it in my classroom.

* Despite the absolute terrors my students have been since the Christmas bug bit them all on the butt, we managed to have a very pleasant last day on Friday. We played games and opened presents (teachers get THE BEST loot!) and generally enjoyed being together. It gives me hope for the second half of the year! :)