Tag: weekends

Reasons for happiness

{NPR-Source}

On Monday we will start back to school with everyone masked up again and I couldn’t be happier! I really dislike wearing a mask; it makes it hard to hear students and hard for me to read books aloud to students. You miss the emotions, the smiles, the glee. You can see joy in their eyes but I miss my students faces; all 650+ of them! On the other hand it will keep us safe from the virus (and other germs) which is important because we have young students who don’t have the opportunity to get vaccinated. We have kindergarten students missing school because of positive Covid tests or due to exposure. I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want our students to get sick or miss school either. I know there will be complaints but bear with us. This too shall pass-eventually!


I recently had a chat with another teacher during a staff breakfast and she relayed that she was going to be away from school for over a week for surgery. She leaned in and asked me if I’d read any good books lately? Why of course I have! I love the start of a good book conversation and she took my two book recommendations with a smile on her face. I’m sure her foot surgery won’t be fun but I do know she’ll be set up with good reading material. What did I recommend? Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly And Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women. 

Over the weekend I’ve had a chance to really relax with nothing major on my agenda. I had a good talk with my mother-in-law. My husband and I strolled through our local Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, I read Six of Crows in my bright orange hammock for over an hour while listening to the chickens cluck around me. I watched a little Netflix after the sun went down. I did an hour’s worth of yoga. Today I’m about to embark on a long walk with my dogs. I feel like some weekends we go non-stop but this kind of weekend really helps me settle. What’s on your agenda?

Peaceful Reading…

February; Weekend Cooking

We went out of town this weekend to attend a Bluegrass Festival in Des Moines.  I do love to travel and going anywhere requires finding a few good restaurants to try.  On this trip our main foodie experience was Gusto’s Pizza near downtown.  This place does not have just your average pizzas plus they do gluten-free crusts for any of their pizzas.  I didn’t snap any photos because I was too busy eating.  With names like Buffalo Springfield, Vincent Van Goat, Francesco, and the Fromage A’Trois it was very hard to make a choice. With all the menu choices we somehow missed the special of the day which was a spicy Thai pizza.

{Gusto’s Pizza-just NOT the pizza we ordered}

After much deliberation we voted to get the Francesca which featured an Alfredo sauce, mozzarella, Roma tomato, artichokes, cremini mushrooms, and spinach.  It was divine.  We ate almost the whole thing.  There is one lonely piece waiting for me in the refrigerator for lunch or dinner.  Groovy Girl got to design her own small pizza; shrimp, fresh basil, Roma tomatoes, and extra mozzarella.  She was in pizza heaven and she had a wonderful cream soda to make her smile.  

My friend and I both tried 2 different salads from the menu as well.  Mine was the Fromage Bleu featuring apples, spiced walnuts, mixed greens, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette.  I wished for more bleu cheese crumbled on top-after all the name features bleu!  My friend ordered the quinoa continental and it was by far the winner!  A small amount of quinoa mixed with mixed greens, goat cheese, roasted butternut squash, dried cranberries, and balsamic vinaigrette.  I am going to re-create this salad at home!  All in all it was an amazing trip to Des Moines.  Oh, and the Bluegrass Festival; it was fantastic as well.  

We made it safely back yesterday afternoon just in time for Groovy Girl’s school fundraiser.  Last night at about my bedtime I realized I needed to make something for our church potluck.  I whipped this vegan curry dish (from allrecipes.com) in about 40 minutes and it was a huge hit.  The bowl was scraped clean. Surprising as it was pretty spicy. No leftovers.  I’ll have to make more.  It’s been a good food weekend for me!

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly foodie meme.  Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Peaceful Reading…

Weekend Update

     What a glorious day we had yesterday!  The weather was beautiful.  My daughter decided to rake in order to have a pile of leaves to jump into, over and over again.  My dad used to rake up piles for me to jump into so I got up out of our hammock, where I had been reading Slaughterhouse 5-my book club book for tonight, and helped her rake.  Feel the joy…

Then she had to change clothes to match the leaves…

When the sun started to disappear we headed inside and we made Shrimp Pad Thai from her Around the World Cookbook.  It was yummy and everyone loved having it for dinner!

Oh, and here she is on Saturday after we put together her “Ladybug Girl” Halloween costume!
Reading-wise I’m almost finished with Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.  I can’t wait to get back to Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.  I need to post about The Sorceress by Michael Scott. 
I’m almost finished with the hat I’m knitting for my husband-I just learned how to knit with circular needles and I love it!  Oh, and we went to a fantastic concert on Saturday (just by chance when friends called and offered us free tixs) featuring Pieta  Brown (daughter of Greg Brown) and
Brandi Carlisle-it was part of our local symphony’s pop night!  It was pretty rockin’!
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend as well! 
Peaceful Reading…

My Weekend!

I’ve had an eventful weekend again…

1. My new Dell Inspiron Laptop arrived and I am now writing my first post on it!
2.  Our washer/dryer purchase from last weekend fell through (back to dislike Home Depot-blech, blech)
3.  We ended up going to my first, but more expensive choice, Smitty’s, the local and apparently far superior choice.
4.  Here’s why:  they were upfront about delays from Maytag (backorder problems) and offered to get us a “loaner” washer while we wait for the washer to be delivered .  Yes, that is worth repeating…on Monday morning they will deliver, install a washer  (and take away old Kitchen-Aid washer) so we have one to use for the month it will take for the Maytag to be designed, made and then delivered!  There is a bit of a price difference, but hey, it is peace-of-mind that by Monday evening I will be able to do the piles and piles of laundry around my house (two weeks worth).
5. Peaceful Girl had ice skating lessons and 4-H meeting today-fun but no time to read for me.
6. I met with a local Yoga instructor to research yoga in our school idea -our wellness committee put me in charge of figuring out!
7. As I walked around rink, during skating lesson, I thought of Isometrics from reading Bill Bryson’s Thunderbolt Kid-he discusses his dad’s love of the 50’s exercise program-it made me laugh quietly to myself.
8. The book makes me laugh and think but I’m so ready to be finished with it.
9.  Instead of reading it tonight I am heading downtown for a friend’s birthday celebration.  Jazz, friends, cold beer-should be fun!
10. I love my new laptop and it is hard to leave it…my 14-year-old will play with it while I’m gone.  I’m not giving him the password though:)

Happy Reading!!

Peaceful Reading…

Weekend Update

Early this morning I had a sorority meeting at my local B & N/Starbucks-for those of you paying any attention~I’m really not the sorority type!  This is Alpha Upsilon Alpha, part of the International Reading Association, so it all makes perfect sense.  One of my teaching mentors  at my local alma mater recommended me for induction into the “society”-luckily I did not have to gulp goldfish or wear an odd robe and we mostly talk about reading, teaching and books.

 Today we met for “Books and Brunch” and it was a blast!  There was lots of quick and exciting conversations on a variety of topics.  I was able to share a variety of books (Luxe was the first on my stack to share) and we did discuss (one of my other favorite topics) blogging!!   There were only 7 of us there and truly, the meeting took way longer than I expected (10-1) but it was really enjoyable.  This is my first year in the organization and we are trying to grow in ideas and membership.  I will admit I was sad we spent so much time talking leaving me  no  browsing time-at all!!

One of the seven at the meeting was  published author and a writing instructor at Wartburg, Barbara Harken and it was great to share ideas with her.  I bought a copy of her book, had it signed and will make time soon to read it.  Click here for her website.

Okay, the rest of the day I watched football and socialized with adult libations but the morning did start off very intellectually-stimulating!!
I should have been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato….for Monday’s book club!!! Yikes!

And how was your Saturday spent??

Peaceful Reading…