Yes, last post was in August; time passes quickly here and I am often caught up in living life and not doing enough of writing about it. I want to be able to stop and reflect on things that have happened at a more regular schedule. So anyways, let's start by jumping forward a bit; I HAVE A JOB. Well, I've had jobs since I was able to babysit, but what I have now is a Job-job. My loving Grandma has been asking me for years if I have a job, the subtext of that being, "Do you have some full time career that you can use with that pricy college degree you will now be paying off until you are 85? Does it pay a decent salary, benefits, and can you abandon that extra part time you do now that you are more financially secure? When can you take some time off to come and see your Grandma (even deeper subtext there!)." Well, Grandma, I am happy to tell you pays me money, gives me benefits, but more importantly, I am doing something so worthwhile and exciting and something I really enjoy and that feeling of accomplishment and purpose is worth so much more the financial boost this job can provide. GR, I will probably not be leaving the restaurant any time soon; save for some crazy manager and employee antics, I have plenty of reasons to stay: I generally like taking care of customers and I do make some gas monies here which will be infinitely helpful when it gets closer to July.
More about my job is going to come later. The first few days have been focused on training for the guided reading program, some of which I was involved in using during my long term this fall. We transitioned into winter benchmark testing where we (we meaning Nate, the other hired reading teacher, and I) observe and learn about the process from retired Cranberry teachers (such wonderful women---they are sweet and cool and funny and kind---it has been a blast getting to know more about them) and then trying our hand at these mid-year assessments. The progress in some of the kids is astounding; one guy we started working with today and needs to continue "trying on" higher levels because he has gone up so much from the fall! Today I rearranged my desk so I could also use the shelf beside me, I don't have many desk knick-knacks, but I put my shoe-a-day calendar from my sister-in-law, and I can't say that I dislike my desk being right beside a bare Christmas tree and an internal view of the human body (our desks are in what is used sometimes as a science lab). On top of my official desk complete with body torso full-o-organs, I have an official mailbox and parking pass. I have felt like a drifter for so long that these little extras are like super sweet perks and job-swag!
I am not a gift needer and I always have a hard time expressing a want/need at gift giving times, much to the chagrin of my mother and my husband. However, somewhere around the time I was getting my hiring appointed by the school board, I had a conversation with the husband about imagining that we had back to back desks so we could both be doing work in our office. I received my first grown up desk for Christmas, and we commenced with turning our once single office that had two recliners into a double office (which still has two recliners). The transformation is so cool! One of my goals is to declutter my life bit by bit each day so all that remains is what I really want and need. Starting in the office and having a beautiful finished result is motivating and calming at the same time. We see what we can do with our concentrated efforts on a particular space and if we need a breather from working on the small areas of chaos, we can have that moment of reprieve in our sanctuary of an office. 
Along with the desk, I received a Komen KitchenAid mixer. Another of my goals for 2013 (not resolutions-they are just defeating) and beyond is to cook more meals and bake more often. I enjoy creating and I am a detail oriented plan follower so cooking/baking has always suited my personality. We have been doing some work on getting our kitchen more conducive for eating and cooking. We swapped the dining table and our chest freezer which will make it easier to eat at the table when it is not 0 degrees outside (no basement under that part of the house = very cold house section). We purchased and put together a tall skinny bookcase to tuck in one of the kitchen corners so I could get my recipe books off the counter, freeing up a tad more space. The bread box is still in existance and living on the counter, but its days are numbered and I am finding more inconspicuous places for things I don't use/need everyday. 
I took the KA for a whirl a couple of times this week with much success. First, did you know there were so many things you could do with Jiffy baking mix?! It is the shiznick when it comes to things you can do with it. The stuff seems to be mainly flour (white but beggars cannot be choosers-and perhaps they make whole wheat jiffy and I don't even know yet) plus baking soda and salt. I made both cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies with the mix. The cinnamon rolls were an homage to Grandma's own pie dough kind. They are famous for Richardsons; the Jiffy mix was a close replication of the GR rolls but they were not as flaky. Tonight, I shredded up a zucchini and made mini zucchini bread loaves; I was totally only going to have a small baker's taste but half a mini loaf later, wow! This recipe will be made again!
