Junior Silver Cornets and Pinterest Snack Making

So many of you may have known that along with my running and teaching and waitressing, I also dabble in trombone playing and have been banding it up with the Franklin Silver Cornet Band since the summer of 2001.  When my sister-in-law, who pioneered the Junior Silver Cornet summer program eight years ago, decided it was time to vacate the spot of coordinator I jumped into the slot eagerly excited to keep it rolling again this summer.  It was a new set of organizational challenges I had not yet managed, but with much support and my keeping at it, we wrapped up our two week program successfully last evening with a concert in the park (yay for the rain hitting the road at the right time so we could do the whole program).  You read about many of our rehearsal stories/see our pics/videos over at the Junior Silver Cornets Blog. 

One of my goals that I set for myself was to be true to my commitment to eating mostly healthy foods.  I didn't explain this to parents or our students because I am not sure how exciting it would be to them (I'm not sure how many of may faithful family members who read this care about my commitment to healthy snacking either but you know it's a part of who I am or at least try to be).  I originally intended to have two days of marginally healthy snacks followed by one day of a fun, more dessert like snack (repeating that pattern again the second week).  I scoured the Pinterest for easy to make healthy kids snacks.  I needed it to be easy enough that I wasn't up all day and night between rehearsals making extravagant snacks for nearly 50 kids, but not so easy that I could have just opened a bag of veggie chips and be done.  This was a learning opportunity and I wanted to make the most of it.  Here is what we came up with for this week and how they were received by the various snackers:

  Day One:  My decorating scheme/idea was rainbow colors.  All the groups were assigned a ROY G BIV color (with pink included because I had more groups than rainbow colors).  My husband patiently helped me fold and fluff tissue paper flowers (because a year without tissue paper flowers would be unfulfilled).  For the first day's snack I was set on these rainbow fruit kebobs.  And I went with the fruits in this Pinterest picture.  Some I had seen with mandarin oranges.  We couldn't find a reasonably priced whole pineapple so I settled for the jarred in juice pineapple.  The kids were reserved the whole first day about everything (eating, playing, talking) so I wasn't surprised when they were hesitant to the snacks.  However, they were kept refrigerated for the second day and by then the kids had warmed up to the fruit idea and much of my fruit was used up.  This snack also proved great when considering gluten and peanut allergies which I had to take into consideration.  Having left over grapes throughout the program (I bought too many) gave the kids some options during their snack time as well.  Ease of assembly grade: B- (the fruit needed cleaned and cut the previous evening and then during the first part of rehearsal I had two snack assistants helping me skewer the fruit in a kebob assembly line).

Day two: Veggie Pizza.  Okay this I have seen many places and always love to eat and thought "hey, this business is just baked crescent rolls with cool stuff spread on top, easy-peasy!"  Wow, was I mistaken on that assumption!  When you show up to parties and this is there, if you like it, find the person who made it and thank them; they worked hard on it!  First, I had to master rolling out crescent rolls which were giving me fits and being sticky. While that business was baking I made the ranch topping (a hint for making it more healthy without taking away the taste, replace the mayonnaise with greek yogurt-same amount called for in the recipe-yay protein not fat) in the mixer then chopping the veggies.  I am generally opposed to buying already chopped/processed foods because I have all of the tools/ability to do it myself.  I fiddled with my mandolin slicer and spent a bunch of time on broccoli (tastes so good-why is it such a pain in the ass to chop up!).  Probably the most trying part was spreading the ranchy topping on the cooled crust.  I hate spreading stuff that won't and having to curse and fight until I'm like, "that's it, that big blob of goo can just stay there!"  I managed to push through this process (I have run a marathon, why am I fussing over spreading cream cheese!) and finished topping it.  Its reception was mixed; there was plenty of fruit left from yesterday that I saw about half the kids snacking on fruit and the other on veggie pizza.  With day three's snack being funfetti cookies the veggie pizza had no second chance at snacking glory.  It was not going to keep over the weekend so leftovers were taken to work where it received good reviews.  Ease of assembly: D

Day three: Funfetti cookies.  These were not a new venture; I have made these a few times.  They are so popular at this point that Pilsbury has created a funfetti cookie mix.  DON'T BE FOOLED-you can make the cookie with the cake mix and not spend the extra monies they want you to spend on a cookie mix.  It takes one box of mix, 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup of oil to make a batch (2 dozen or so depending on the size).  It is super easy.  Making several batches took longer and I put the funfetti icing/sprinkles on them when they were cooled, but they are not challenging and very delish.  If you are looking for an easy cookie that will be well received at parties or picnics, this is the winner.  I took several trays of cookies to rehearsal and returned with less than a dozen leftovers.  Ease of assembly: A- (it's summer; baking things brought down the grade a tad)

Day four: Corn dog muffins.  I saw the picture and thought this would be fairly kid friendly and easy.  Although hot dogs are far from healthy, these were a small piece of hot dog in a corn muffin.  Reviews for these were mixed.  There were many leftovers, however, I made many (the box of mix will say it makes 6 muffins but it really makes more like 10-nearly doubling the amount I had planned on making).  They were munched on during day five and six (easy to reheat, although the corn muffin dries out with each reheat).  There were about a dozen after the last day of rehearsal which we just pitched because they were drier than sand.  Cost-wise these were the most affordable snack.  Boxes of mix were 2 for $1 and hot dogs are always a bargain because they are made of stuff people shouldn't eat (but kids love them and who can deny them a small piece of deliciousness).  Ease of assembly: B+ (again baking in the summer equals blerg).

Day five: Peanut butter and jelly "sushi".  These may have been my favorite to actually eat and seriously, why isn't the tortilla wrap pbj more of a thing?  It is genius!  These were made at the church during rehearsal on day four and then cut and plated on day five.  We didn't do all of the classy PBJ combos listed on the pinterest link but there are some fun possibilities to try if you are adventurous and enjoy artisinal PB and J.  Assembly-wise, not super difficult but messy, especially when cutting and they should be served with plates/napkins because the jelly gets crazy!  Kids enjoyed these, especially the strawberry version (because strawberry jelly is always better than grape-clearly).  Ease of assembly: C+ (but the taste A+)

Day six:  Banana PB Vanilla Wafer sandwiches.  These were my favorite to make but not eat (I loathe bananas).  Look at how adorable they are!  They look like the world's cutest sweetest hamburger.  Since this was the third day of the week I at first wanted to go with more of a dessert-y snack, but when I found this, it was too cute to pass up trying and when the plates were clear after that snack break, I knew I clearly had made the correct choice in going with these.  They took some work and I was thankful to have two snack assembly helpers working with me to get these together.  They will take more sprinkles than you think they will.  And your fingers will get messy with banana goo and PB, but you will love making these adorable snack masterpieces.  Ease of assembly: B- (but again, all of them disappeared, so a snack worth the work).

There it is, two weeks of kid-snacking glory. So worth the work and experimentation.      

Time for a haircut

So it is getting to be that time again; time for some kind of haircut.  With the short hair thing going for almost two years now, it is hard to change up something that has been working pretty well for my face shape.

I remember taking the original Emma Watson pic to the salon

and saying "yes, that short."  I have never been super attached to my hair and I have always felt comfortable experimenting with it whether it be color or cut or even perming it within an inch of its life (how jealous I was for a while that my sister got the gorgeous curls).  I think this is the longest I have let it be just one style (minus time growing it out for a wedding).  I have really dug the easy maintenance of the pixie cut over the past couple of years.  I literally can count on one hand the times my hair has been blown dry since August 2011 (and those were the times I went to get it cut and they felt the need-I do not use my hair dryer at home).  I buy bottles of shampoo/conditioner maybe once every other month.  My hair is business ready with just a shower, a finger fluff, and a comb (I find I like doing my make up so much more than doing my hair and now have much more time to do so).  It is a breeze for running and sporty ventures; no need to find a ponytail holder to fight with that leaves my hair lumpy and sad later, no shoving strands up into a swim cap only to have bits and pieces fall out as I go anyways.  With a haircut like this I do get to the extra fluffy phase and get the itch to run to the nearest place with scissors and say, "get it back to normal!."  But I also go through this wavering thought that I might want to grow it back out to a short bob or something and that getting it cut short only prolongs that process.  This is where I am now.  It comes really quickly; those professionals aren't kidding when they say six to eight weeks max for trims and upkeep.  I try to push it but while the front looks fine, it is the sides and back that get thick and bushy beyond reason.  So I am caught, I need to go and do something, but I am torn with what to do.  Do I stay with the same cut routine or do I venture out into new hair style territory?  I have been searching for pixies with longer bangs.  This may be a reasonable compromise for now.  It has longer soft bangs in the front but is still easily cared for and styled as my super short pixie.

 

Here is one picture of what I may go with.  I found this on Pinterest (of course) but I love how long and over the forehead the bangs are but how the back is super cropped and the ears are cut out.

Something like this might be fun too, it also has really short sides and long, over the eyes bangs.  The thing with bangs is they always take extra attention and can have their crazy days too.  I did blunt bangs for a while which was fine if I was willing to wash, style, and not touch them less they become greasy hot messes by lunch.  It is a conundrum, one which I am done trying to put up pictures as I write because Blogger and it's nonsensical picture jumping is being an super d-bag (seriously, stop cutting and pasting stuff where I don't want it to go!).

 

 

24 hour Break

Yes, I let a week go by-blerg-I know.  It has been a crazy busy week with Junior Silver Cs happening (you can check out our business and happenings at our blog, Junior Band Blog).  This has been a learning experience for me.  Things are going swimmingly well and I hope next week we have a fun, musical time and that the weather controls itself so we can play at Bandstand Park.  In the absence of band stuff this weekend, there is work and date night with my husband. 

I am fretting today over the school in the fall business; it may seem silly because it is still only June and there is lots of time for school districts to see that I am worthy of a full time gig, but in my mind July is shot with the Big Trip.  I would love for schools to expedite this process so I can go to Hawaii knowing where I will be at the end of August.

This site has been floating around a few days and it is worth taking a look (Why I Need Feminism);  there are some old hat ideas (not that they are less worthy, but they are snippets we have heard before) and some really interesting thoughts and bits of information for me to chew on.  I was really caught by the guy who said he needed feminism because he's sexist and he knows it; how honest.  We all have baggage and things we need to work on and hopefully there are people out there who will be examples for us and help us despite of our social shortcomings.

23 Songs for 23 Months of Marriage

Happy 23rd month anniversary to my most wonderful husband!  I am overwhelmed by how great the past 23 months have been and look forward to each and every day that we have ahead of us.   Here are some of my/our favorite romantical songs we cannot get enough of.  

1.The Only Exception-Paramore

 2. Marry You-Bruno Mars

3.Not With Haste-Mumford and Sons

4. Brighter Than The Sun-Colbie Caillat

5. Faithful-Go West

6. Feeling Good-Michael Buble

7. Lucky- Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat 

8. Your Love is My Drug-Ke$ha

9. La Vie En Rose-Louis Armstrong (From Wall-e)

10. Something Salty, Something Sweet-River City Extension

11. I Do-Colbie Caillat

12. I See The Light-Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi (From Tangled)

13. The Nearness of You-Norah Jones

14. The Way You Look Tonight-Adam Levine

15. I Won't Say (I'm in Love)-From Hercules

16. Somewhere Only We Know-Keane

17. I Will Wait-Mumford and Sons

18. Hello, Hello-Elton John and Lady Gaga

19. Make You Feel My Love-Adele

20. For Once in My Live-Michael Buble

21. Call Me Maybe-Carley Rae Jepsen

22. Kiss is On My List-The Bird and the Bee

23. Can't Help Falling In Love-Ingrid Michaelson

 **All of the videos are courtesy of youtube**

  

What was in our CSA this week

So for our first CSA pick up (yesterday) we got a smattering of stuff that I will have to do some research on to figure out how to use.  The lettuce mix and spinach are straight forward, and the ground beef is Peter's to have fun with. 

Our CSA share this week:

• Lettuce mix
• Spinach bunch
• Swiss Chard bunch
• Scallions
• Rhubarb 
• Sage
• Cilantro
• Strawberries
• Eggs
• 1lb. Ground Beef

Summer 2013 Goal: Learn How/New things to cook (With the First Amanda Baking Story)

I have always enjoyed being in the kitchen and making foodie things although I have not always created edible wonders of culinary awesomeness.  When I was in sixth grade we were doing Christmas at my grandparents for what seemed like weeks because Pappy was having open heart surgery.  The day of the surgery, my brother (in fifth grade at the time) and I were left at the house.  I thought it would be swell if we made cookies for when the rest of the crew got home.  We had made Christmas cookies (a whole other crazy story) with my cuckoo class at Central, and so I was practically a master, of course.  Sometimes I have been under the misconception that I have a photographic memory (not the case at all!) when really I am quite forgetful.  I was positive that we used wax paper to line the cookie sheets for baking.  I also had no concept of how much of what to mix in to my cookie dough; seriously, I was just going, "little bit of this and a little bit of that."  Grandma Rose can bake like this; Amanda Rose CANNOT!  I have learned that recipe cards and the internet are my friend.

Being 1995 however, with no internet to save me from the error of my ways, I enlisted the help of my brother to create what looked like zombie cookies in the end (for real, I think if you ate them
they would turn you into the undead-they were terrifying).  Everything melted and became some kind of hardening goo like concoction; it was a hella-mess.  I was quite aware that these couldn't be eaten by the more senior members of my family; I also decided they couldn't be seen for fear of mockery (the Richardson clan has been known to retain crazy joke stories like this for generations).  I didn't want them to go into the garbage because, duh, people would see them and be like, "hey, what is the toxic sludge that is leaking radioactivity into the kitchen?"  So I did what any sensible older sister with inedible food product would do-get the younger brother to eat them.  My 28 year old self is looking at my twelve year old self going, "yes, you did that to poor Tom, you awful, ridiculous sister!" Well, he made it through about two bites before abandoning that plan and helping me to bag them up and hide them under things in the trash

Well, despite our super stealth hiding skills, our cooking debacle was still found out by the senior family members.  A couple things I learned from the experience: 1) Tom is a picky eater but a team player, thank goodness for having such a great brother (who else would eat zombie cookies to save their sister from family shame).  He did tell my family later that I tried to make him eat the cookies, but in all fairness, I deserved that (it still makes me laugh so much).  1a)  Of the people who will eat pretty much anything in the whole world, I now know I went with the wrong sibling; yes, Sarah, if I had to do it all over again knowing what I know now, I would probably try to get you to eat the cookies and not Tom. 2) if you line cookie sheets with wax paper, you may cause a house fire-this was the most alarming detail for my parents/grandparents which in hindsight, yes makes total sense.  That business will catch fire if heated up too much and thank the Lord I did not add one more stressor on what was already a rough week for my family.  3) Recipes (and the internet-what did we do in the 90s without it and/or cell phones) are my friend; I am not an artist in the kitchen and I do not understand the chemistry of ingredients to do the "little bit of this/that" method of cooking.  I am more mathematician and formulaic; I need the plan, the list and the steps in front of me to make foodie awesomeness work. 

I have improved in my domestic abilities, and this summer I am trying to push myself even further in my understanding of kitchen creations.  We have subscribed to a farm share with a co-op of growers in the local area.  Every week we receive a small share of vegetables as well as some eggs, ground beef, and chicken.  My hope is to learn some new tricks and develop some new tastes for home.  I am a creature of habit; I could eat spaghetti with creamy sauce and broccoli all the time.  This summer I want to be pushed outside of my usual eating box and try some new things (not meat, Mom, sorry).  Plus, supporting local farmers who create fresh, not antibiotic loaded, genetically-modified products is always a good endeavor.           

Ipod Quote of the Day

"People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously.  This is how character is built."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Goals of Summer 2013 (part one)

The very first bunny square

So one of my goals was to blog more often this summer than I have managed to commit myself to in the recent past.  I want to work on having something to say on events/happenings, big or small, in my own life or out in the rest of the Earthal-sphere.  I want to develop on crafting my own writing style; I felt good about blogging/writing in college but quickly got out of the habit here in the real world.

 I know it takes discipline which is probably the overarching goal of the summer, discipline.  Not just wanting to do all things, but carefully discerning the most valuable projects to invest my time/effort.  I am chronically a bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew kind of person.  I will take on many goals and usually near the end I feel as though I am half-assing my way through them.  Take the baby quilt from last summer (status-near completion).  The first steps of going through the quilt (getting/cutting fabric, creating pattern, stitching squares, pinning quilt together) went really quickly; if I had kept at it, it could have been done for Mom to take with her to Hawaii for Sebastian and Sarah (not that they will need this winter quilt on the tropical island of Oahu!).  I am just now finished stitching the squares to the quilt, getting the backing on, and last night I got the silky border pinned to the edging.  I think I have maybe a weeks worth of work left if I hammered down and had nothing else to do. 

Starting to come together

From October (?) More like a quilt

However, having nothing else to do is not the case; next week I am running the show with Junior Silver Cornets.  It will go fine.  I have shirts for the kids squared away and we have enough kids for a pretty decent sized, well balanced band.  I need to get a food list together and recruit some helpers to be kid watchers, mentor players, and game referees.  The program will take some of my time and energy, but I am committed to it being a fun/positive and enjoyable experience for the kids and a great learning experience for me.

Side work for slower afternoons

Since I am still employed up on the hill serving the masses that crave Italian cuisine, I have decided to make another goal of maintaining a positive attitude about my place of employment throughout the summer.  It is a restaurant, and if I have learned anything after six (yes, six) years with this restaurant, it is that I am really in charge of whether I have a good shift or not.  It is my attitude that determines how I perceive what happens and how receptive I am to the people/events around me.  I always make it a point to be professional and pleasant with my customers; this is basic server survival 101-be nice to the people paying you.  It's not just about the money, though; I want my customers to have a wonderful dining experience and anything I can do to make that happen, I will.  Trust me, I have faced managerial and chef wrath trying to guarantee a great meal for my customers.  Nine times out of ten my customers are wonderful, funny, and appreciative of my service.  I have a few horrible customer stories.  But I have also had some great people come into my life that I would not know if it weren't for this job.  The picture with the brown box is from 2011 Christmas time.  A group of ladies came in to do a secret Santa exchange.  They were sweet and humorous and remembered my name (I don't have/wear a name tag and I am notorious for forgetting names two seconds after hearing them so I consider name remembering a great skill).  They chilled watching the snow for a while and I refilled their coffee a bunch (as a coffee drinker, I will bring the pot around every few minutes because I know having an empty cup causes great irks within me); they heard about my aspirational teaching goals and they told me some of their histories.  When they left they left the brown box on the tip tray.  It was a neon orange wrist watch that has a colorful flashing feature that goes seizure crazy with a button push.  I was near tears; seriously, how sweet!  I have sometimes felt like a nobody to my customers (comes with the territory, along with the paranoia that your customers think you have no brains-don't prove them wrong out of spite-just have confidence that you are the wonderful person you know yourself to be); but these ladies took time to care about me.  It isn't about the gift or getting a tip-it's about caring for the people that come into your life, no matter how long they are there.  A final note on this long side story: these women came in again for their Christmas gift exchange in 2012 and although I was not there to serve them, I came in during their sit and chat time and they had asked about me, so I stopped over to say hi and wish them a Merry Christmas (seriously, those gals are the bees-knees!).  My goal this summer is to enjoy my working time in the front as well as the back of the house.  I know it gets tense; I know we all get sour or have things going on that color our day in a foul way.  I want to work on the ability to keep my demeanor professional and positive.  I am going to be there a chunk of time this summer, I should get to enjoy it!

I didn't get through all of my goals for the summer.  Actually there are many more, but this post is long enough for the moment.  It will be part one.  I know; I can keep you all on the edge of your seat!    

First day of summer!

Yay! (Or something to that effect) for the end of another school year.  Yesterday marked the end of my sixth year of teaching.  It felt more cohesive and settled than prior years, but again I walked away from the building wondering if I would be back again in the fall.  This is the plight of a substitute.  The ultimate goal is to be placed full time.  This year was closer than years prior-half time with quite a bit of sub work in the mornings.  It was the perfect set up to help me reach my goal of both establishing myself professionally at Cranberry, but it also let me have the morning time/flexibility to train for the marathon in May.  

 

Academically, I feel I came away from the year having gained a ton of knowledge about myself as a teacher, how to work with my strengths and build up my capabilities, and information about how education (specifically the area of reading/writing) is changing.  I truly think guided reading, with the focus on small group intense collaboration of four or five students with a teacher, is a positive shift in the practice of reading instruction.  I want to write more on this after I have done some decompressing from the school year. 

Not to get my hopes up too high, but I was given verbal assurance that when the grant I am paid with is passed in the state budget, I will receive word that my position will be kept for 2013/2014.  With that I can breathe just a tad easier.  Seriously, this is so much more than the end of the previous years of teaching where I scour school district websites everyday hoping to have more than just day to day subbing work come September.  I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed in the hopes for my career to only move forward from this point.  My coworker (same position as mine) and I did not have classrooms to clean up or major paperwork/progress reports to file for the end of the year, but we did mark our desks, in the hopes that we will be back come the fall! 

In the meantime, summer!  I look forward to being on here, hopefully more often.  I have the time to work on disciplining myself into getting some things, writing included, more habitual than they have been.  I am a planner, so that is probably next on my summer to do list (seriously, I plan to plan).  For today, Peter and I got through our first unstructured weekday okay.  Barbara is home so we had a late morning brunch.  I ran (really poorly for some odd reason-mentally just trying to be race ready for tomorrow's half marathon) and then walked Big who was told by the vet that he could afford to shed a bit of weight.  I am not completely without work; tonight I will be making sure our regular customers get their fried fish while trying to get them to order more appetizers and a sangria (seriously, people, your meal is $10-splurge on some potato skins!). Hooray for summer!