Happy Birthdays
Tomorrow is Meggie's birthday, so that is the 1st "Happy Birthday."
The second is to this blog, which I started on March 4, 2006, with a very brief post. I can't believe I actually kept up with this thing for a year. Now, I don't post anywhere near as much as I did in the summer, but I still keep it up regularly.
Let's start with school... I much better, yet busy week. The yearbook deadline is looming. We submitted 7 more pages, and have 25 (of 64) left to go. There are still tons of pictures to take, and about 10 of those pages are layouts for parent ads. I am looking forward to March 16, when this will all be done!
The best part about this week was how well all of my classes went. I actually applied what I had learned at David Newell's workshop (don't get mad, don't argue, just give them a choice: rules or consequences, discipline with a pencil, etc.) and got immediate results in every single class. It does require me to go against my natural reaction. I just have to learn not to take it personally when a student misbehaves. I think the kids just seem to respect this more. I also think it helps, because, as Meg will point out, it is funny when I get mad, and the kids are entertained by it, and by not getting mad, they don't get that satisfaction. Let's hope it continues to work.
This upcoming week is also a busy one. Students will be handing in their third marking period projects, which of course means I have to grade them. I think I am going to put the grading off a cycle due to the yearbook deadline. I also have the Teen Arts Festival this week. The groups I am taking are ready for a change, so I am not really concerned about that. So much to do. Only 31 days 15 hours 59 minutes and 6 seconds till Spring Break, though!
Saturday was not as planned, but was still a really cool day. We had originally planned to go to Ikea to "just look around and get ideas." Well, that turned into, "let's borrow mom and dad's van, just in case we find something we want to buy," which turned into "let's buy everything we need to rearrange the family room." We borrowed my parents van, and my mom came along with us. I really love Ikea. It is such a neat store. You just look at so many things (both at what they sell, and how they do things), and you just think... "now, that's a good idea!" I also have a special memory with the store, since last time I was there, it was the day before the day that Meggie went into labor, and Maddie was born. I very vividly remember that trip to Ikea in the sequence of events leading up to Maddie's birth.
Well, anyway, we were looking for two pieces of furniture. The first was something to replace the broken bookshelf that all of our music books are on. What I really wanted was something with bins that you could slide in and out, but didn't think I'd find anything like that, so I figured a horizontal filing cabinet would be a good idea. Well, it turns out, Ikea had exactly what I was picturing. It's basically a shelf with 8 cubes, open on both sides. We also bought 8 bins to store the music. The bins fit perfectly into the cubes, and are even designed to slide in and out. The other piece of furniture we were looking for was some kind of toy organization system for Maddie's toys. We found one, which also has very colorful bins that slide in and out.
After some Swedish meatballs for lunch, we came home, and I got to work on rearranging the family room. I got rid of the treadmill that we never use, because it randomly shuts off--a BAD thing for a treadmill to do (ha ha- I keep misspelling "treadmill" as "dreadmill," --seems appropriate, doesn't it?). I also threw away the broken bookshelf, the hutch part of the baker's rack (it was too tall for it's new location), and the silk tree my grandparents gave me when the moved (Meggie is cheering about this now, since she's wanted to trash it for a while). Then, I moved all of the furniture to it's new location, assembled the new furniture, and got things cleaned up and organized. The results are below:
The second is to this blog, which I started on March 4, 2006, with a very brief post. I can't believe I actually kept up with this thing for a year. Now, I don't post anywhere near as much as I did in the summer, but I still keep it up regularly.
Let's start with school... I much better, yet busy week. The yearbook deadline is looming. We submitted 7 more pages, and have 25 (of 64) left to go. There are still tons of pictures to take, and about 10 of those pages are layouts for parent ads. I am looking forward to March 16, when this will all be done!
The best part about this week was how well all of my classes went. I actually applied what I had learned at David Newell's workshop (don't get mad, don't argue, just give them a choice: rules or consequences, discipline with a pencil, etc.) and got immediate results in every single class. It does require me to go against my natural reaction. I just have to learn not to take it personally when a student misbehaves. I think the kids just seem to respect this more. I also think it helps, because, as Meg will point out, it is funny when I get mad, and the kids are entertained by it, and by not getting mad, they don't get that satisfaction. Let's hope it continues to work.
This upcoming week is also a busy one. Students will be handing in their third marking period projects, which of course means I have to grade them. I think I am going to put the grading off a cycle due to the yearbook deadline. I also have the Teen Arts Festival this week. The groups I am taking are ready for a change, so I am not really concerned about that. So much to do. Only 31 days 15 hours 59 minutes and 6 seconds till Spring Break, though!
Saturday was not as planned, but was still a really cool day. We had originally planned to go to Ikea to "just look around and get ideas." Well, that turned into, "let's borrow mom and dad's van, just in case we find something we want to buy," which turned into "let's buy everything we need to rearrange the family room." We borrowed my parents van, and my mom came along with us. I really love Ikea. It is such a neat store. You just look at so many things (both at what they sell, and how they do things), and you just think... "now, that's a good idea!" I also have a special memory with the store, since last time I was there, it was the day before the day that Meggie went into labor, and Maddie was born. I very vividly remember that trip to Ikea in the sequence of events leading up to Maddie's birth.
Well, anyway, we were looking for two pieces of furniture. The first was something to replace the broken bookshelf that all of our music books are on. What I really wanted was something with bins that you could slide in and out, but didn't think I'd find anything like that, so I figured a horizontal filing cabinet would be a good idea. Well, it turns out, Ikea had exactly what I was picturing. It's basically a shelf with 8 cubes, open on both sides. We also bought 8 bins to store the music. The bins fit perfectly into the cubes, and are even designed to slide in and out. The other piece of furniture we were looking for was some kind of toy organization system for Maddie's toys. We found one, which also has very colorful bins that slide in and out.
After some Swedish meatballs for lunch, we came home, and I got to work on rearranging the family room. I got rid of the treadmill that we never use, because it randomly shuts off--a BAD thing for a treadmill to do (ha ha- I keep misspelling "treadmill" as "dreadmill," --seems appropriate, doesn't it?). I also threw away the broken bookshelf, the hutch part of the baker's rack (it was too tall for it's new location), and the silk tree my grandparents gave me when the moved (Meggie is cheering about this now, since she's wanted to trash it for a while). Then, I moved all of the furniture to it's new location, assembled the new furniture, and got things cleaned up and organized. The results are below:
The music cabinet is in the lower-right corner of the picture, the toy chest behind.
This is a better view of the toy chest.
The basic idea for the family room was four different areas (quadrants, if you will). The room is rather large, so we made use of the furniture, and divided it up. There is the office area, the entertainment area, the music area (where I will be teaching lessons, you can see this area in the 2nd picture), and the play area (which can be seen from the first picture).
We still have more to do. We want to put a carpet in the play area. We still need to get the third wall unit from my parents. We also need to put some decorations in Maddie's play area.
We are very proud of our new family room; it is definitely now a pleasant place to hang.
This past Wednesday started Meggie's birthday celebrations, with our annual dinner out at one of her favorite restaurants, Don Pablo's. Everything was delicious as usual. I had all you can eat fajitas. Meggie just got the normal portion. We also got a free dip sampler, and 'sopapillas' (sp?) for dessert.
Earlier today Maddie and I had our first Daddy-Daughter outing to the Deptford Mall to go birthday shopping for Meggie. I can't get into too much detail, since Meggie will read this before she actually gets her presents.
Tonight at my parents we did the birthday dinner, cake, and present thing from my parents and Nick. Below you can see Maddie helping her Mommy celebrate:
The basic idea for the family room was four different areas (quadrants, if you will). The room is rather large, so we made use of the furniture, and divided it up. There is the office area, the entertainment area, the music area (where I will be teaching lessons, you can see this area in the 2nd picture), and the play area (which can be seen from the first picture).
We still have more to do. We want to put a carpet in the play area. We still need to get the third wall unit from my parents. We also need to put some decorations in Maddie's play area.
We are very proud of our new family room; it is definitely now a pleasant place to hang.
This past Wednesday started Meggie's birthday celebrations, with our annual dinner out at one of her favorite restaurants, Don Pablo's. Everything was delicious as usual. I had all you can eat fajitas. Meggie just got the normal portion. We also got a free dip sampler, and 'sopapillas' (sp?) for dessert.
Earlier today Maddie and I had our first Daddy-Daughter outing to the Deptford Mall to go birthday shopping for Meggie. I can't get into too much detail, since Meggie will read this before she actually gets her presents.
Tonight at my parents we did the birthday dinner, cake, and present thing from my parents and Nick. Below you can see Maddie helping her Mommy celebrate:
Happy Birthday Meggie!
Happy Birthday My Blog!
Happy Birthday My Blog!
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