3 Favorites, 1 Unfavorite, and Memes

1. This sweatshirt. I want it. I cleaned out my bookmarks as a stress relief tactic over the last week and this was in there. Has anyone tried it? I've never tried Zella leggings, but this looks comfortable and polished at the same time. 

2. This hair tie. Somewhat shamefully, I bought it off of an affiliate link in a gift guide. But this is a struggle I've been having for awhile and I didn't think, I just bought. Basically, it's microfiber and helps to dry your hair while it keeps it on top of your head. Regular hair ties pull and give me a headache on wet hair because my hair is so heavy. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. 

3. This week is over. It was a behemoth. Today, we still have one thing to go to check out (I'm looking at back-up daycares) and then we have Trunk-or-Treat (as far as Wells is concerned, TODAY is Halloween and this is our thing we're doing for it). But I had two nights of P/T Conferences. I had a doctor's appointment. I have continued to knock out Christmas shopping here and there. Wells had his little preschool conference. My dad and brother came into town. The house is incredibly dirty. Also, it's raining. I also have 3-4 weeks of grading to catch up on this weekend. (At least no one has thrown up today...yet.)

But, I think my conferences went very well and a student even brought me a donut yesterday. I do have a very caring and sweet group and, sure, they kind of come that way, but I feel like I'm doing something right with them and I just don't know what it is. Hopefully it continues. 

4. This planner was a gigantic flop for me. I don't make great use of it. I guess I'm glad I tried it because now I know. The issue is that everything we do is online and on Google. So if I write down all my plans ahead of time, it's doing double the work. Nothankyou. It's easier just to open up blank plan templates that I'm required to use and plop in details when I'm thinking of it. I do use the grading checklists at the back but there's not enough of them so I will 100% run out of space in a few months, long before school is over. 

I still like EC planners for many reasons but the teacher planner is not for me. 

5. Memes.

I don't even have close to ADHD but I do have a fear of forgetting to do things. So I use this notepad instead of a planner and it's so much better. It just stays on the kitchen table. 

I feel like I've shared this before. If I have, it's worth posting again. For real: how many of you have gone to one? Is is just something I see on my IG feed?

At this year's new teacher training, a facilitator did a metaphorical demonstration with a can of Coke. She asked if anyone wanted it, "did anyone actually drink anything other than Coke Zero these days ha ha ha". Gag. The thought that people put so many artificial ingredients in their body knowingly (this is coming from someone who eats frozen pizza or dino nuggets once a week, too, guys) is horrifying. People who drink diet soda have lost the thread. This is something I've been thinking about since August. 

Linking up for Friday Favorites!

Weekend photos +

 You have to believe me when I say I meant to write a post on Wednesday...or Thursday...or Friday. 

The week was...rough. And then it culminated with a sick Wells on Thursday night which made Friday a bit of a nightmare. 

pre-sickness at the pumpkin patch on Thursday

On Saturday, I don't even know. I was still busy doing all of the laundry from Thursday night. Plus, I decided to swap out our summer bedding for winter bedding and we have guests coming this week, so I needed to get guest bedding put together (it is still not completely put together). Literally, it took me all weekend to do the laundry and now there's a full basket of dirty clothes from the weekend. 

i know, scout

On Saturday night, we finally watched Dave Chappelle's The Closer on Netflix. ...is that what people are mad about? It's comedy. It's also intelligent comedy (maybe that's why people are mad...they don't care enough to try to understand it.) I've liked him since 2004ish (back when Comedy Central was cool) and I remember when he went off the grid. That gives him more credibility than most out there. Whatever. He's genuinely funny. This wasn't nearly as good as Sticks and Stones (SO GOOD) but still worth a watch. 

We made it out to a playground on Sunday because it had rained all day on Saturday. 

I finally caved and bought him some play-doh. 

He'd been playing with these two sad little knock-off Halloween dollar-spot containers for weeks. I needed them for school and he snagged them instead. This kept him busy for hours. 

Then...just because...we spent a significant amount of time in the crawlspace last night because of tornado warnings. It was "incredible!" and "amazing!" according to Wells. At least everyone went willingly this time. Jett and Scout would not back in Wyoming. And I was 35 weeks pregnant the last time I had to get into a crawlspace like this. I will never understand: we had a beautifully large and safe basement in both Pittsburgh and Kansas. Never had to use them once. Wyoming and Missouri? Crawlspaces. 

Books I didn't finish.

Survive the Night by Riley Sager 

Such a huge disappointment. I can always count on a Riley Sager book. This was slow. And tedious. And predictable. And I'll never know if my predictions are right because I couldn't stand to keep going. Charlie was an exhausting main character, as well. 

Linking to the one-star reviews. 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

I think this was a library book on Kindle? Or a 99 cent Daily Deal. Either way, I didn't get far. Maybe 8%. It was just not pulling me in, and was way too big of a commitment to keep going. I never like the classics. Who has read it? 

How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Julie King

I bought this when Wells was going through a slight rebellious phase last December-ish. I don't remember the specifics. I just remember thinking that I needed more tools in my tool belt. 

No. It was just a bunch of stories about moms and dads who struggled with veryspecificissues and how they solved them. I don't even remember the issues exactly; but it was quite specific. I needed broad tips. So it was a waste and I gave it away. Listening/reading other peoples' horror stories didn't do what I needed a book to do for me. 

(Examples of broad-brush advice would include things like Taking Cara Babies' sleep advice and Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki. Those are actual methods that really worked for me.)

Fault Lines by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. 

I didn't finish this because I didn't want to. I really like Voddie Baucham. This was more a case of I was having a really bad week and felt sick and awful and couldn't go back to it after that. Meh. Still would be a great read or a great gift. I just figured I'd admit that I didn't finish it. This has been the case with most audiobooks in 2021; they just exhaust me in a way that I never would've imagined back in my audiobook heyday (2015-2016ish). 

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

Maybe we can all agree that she was a one-hit-wonder with The Girl on the Train? ...the movie ruined the book obviously, but it was such a good book!

This was terrible. I had to force myself to listen. I got about 4 hours into the audio, then I returned it to Audible and then I paused my subscription for 6 months because I was so over audiobooks at that point. That's what this book made me do. 

I'm just going to link to the one-star reviews. 

This is a good summing up: 

What books have you not finished lately???

Friday things. (kinda favorites)

1. I knocked out a bunch of Christmas shopping in the last week.  I always leave it until Thanksgiving and I feel like that's not a strategy that has served me well. Plus, rural Missouri isn't the best location to get out to the stores on the weekends. It's a 45 minute drive to go shopping. The only thing I need to get for Wells at this point is bedding for his new bed (that Scott has decided he's going to build) and I think we'll get him a bike of some sort. (If anyone is wondering, Wells is really into dinosaurs and Paw Patrol right now.)

^okay well I suppose my foresight there IS a favorite

 2. I desperately need to get off of the school district Facebook pages. The other day, I read dozens of comments of parents arguing over the rule about "only regular water" in water bottles in the classroom. The reasoning is quite simple (and many pointed it out): if something that's not water spills, it's a giant mess to clean up. We have at least one water bottle leak per day and these are older kids in my class. 50% of this is in backpacks and a kid bringing home a sticky backpack sounds like a nightmare. This shouldn't even be a discussion. They get juice/milk for breakfast, and then milk or whatever they want to bring to drink for lunch. *I* rarely drink anything other than water at school. 

Anyway, the parents online argued about this for actual days. Parents are SO mean. Threatening that "you can't tell my kid _____" is not a way to go through life. And if you want your kid drinking actual Kool-Aid all day long from a water bottle, well, I question that decision. 

OH, and I have cases of bottled water sitting on my counter for anyone who forgets a bottle. A parent donated them and I add to the stack when I remember. No one goes thirsty in my classroom, I promise, though I can't promise every teacher holds such common sense (these aren't my parents who are complaining. it's a big district. just mind-blowing altogether, though. and i can't believe i spend time on this.)

3. I had a seamless visit to the eye doctor yesterday. If you recall, in 2017, I ended up crying at the eye doctor. I avoided it for about 2 1/2 years after that. Finding an eye doctor to renew my contacts prescription in Pittsburgh, then, was a nightmare because almost no one there took our military insurance. This time, I called the local place, made an appointment for the next afternoon, and was in and out in less than 20 minutes.

4. This house feels like we're falling behind and the amount of work Scott has had to do in the last couple of weeks would blow your mind. It's been...an ordeal. However, his friend came over for the long weekend and helped with all of the things. 

adding a support beam so the ceiling doesn't collapse, for example, was just one of the elements to Scott's Columbus Day weekend break

Including: taking out the dangerous and unusable playset and the "decorative" well that that covered up a pipe sticking out of the ground. I'd rather look at the pipe. 

^This is DEFINITELY a favorite. 

5. While the weeks have been rainy and gross, the weekends have been warm. I like to think that, years later still, I can somehow make Scout prefer me by taking him places to let him swim. 

In case you missed it this week: book fails and screenshots. 

Linking up!

God bless the screenshot

I live by bookmarks and screenshots. If I want to remember something, that's how I do it. I still use Pinterest too. IS there another way to keep track of things online? Screenshots are the way. 

Here's what I've been saving this week...

Okay, someone posted this and I'm confused: I have no idea how they got this translation of Luke 14. If you even look at the NLT (generally the most "user-friendly"), it says "For those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted". And it's the story about Jesus telling people not to take the head seat when invited to a wedding feast; humble yourself and don't assume you're going to be the most important guest. It'll be embarrassing if you're asked to move. But if you take the lowest seat, the host may ask you to move to the head seat.

What am I missing here? 

I am getting ads for this bag. What do you think?

And, oh my gosh, if you do this, I am humiliated FOR you. Stop it. The first time I saw a moderate influencer I follow post a try-on picture with a fanny pack around her chest I thought it was a joke. 

Left, right, and center: we can all find common ground on the topic of sanity. 

I don't know why I find this so amusing: 

I've had to commit to stopping with the constantly dwelling on politics and how we ended up where we are right now. It's not productive. But burying your head in the sand isn't productive either, so middle ground is hard. This guy is one of my favorite follows. Everything he posts is just blatant common sense and I'm genuinely concerned that we aren't willing to just follow facts at this point:

(though, I admit, Columbus Day off of work would've made the week better...since the military had a 4-day weekend, a lot of kids didn't come to school anyway)

A giant book fail. Again.

I wanted to say that I hopped back on the reading wagon and read multiple books in September. 

I did not. 

I started The Neighbor's Secret, from Book of the Month. It's not bad at all. I just never felt like sitting down to read. I would read before bed and made some steady-ish progress but then just stopped, so it's still sitting there on my nightstand. 

I started A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins but it was so terrible that I quit 4 hours into the audio. I think it was 16 hours total? I can't remember. I returned it to Audible. I have a feeling I would've had even worse luck with the physical copy. #1 Has anyone actually finished this book? #2 Has anyone who finished it actually enjoyed it? I don't judge about it; I'm just wondering if it gets better. 

I got the audio for Liane Moriarty's new book Apples Never Fall, which I was very excited about. I truly felt that Nine Perfect Strangers was a bit of a dud (so much so that I haven't even attempted the show on Hulu...). 

Unfortunately, Apples Never Fall hasn't been doing it for me either. I don't know that I like that main character...she's very flighty and wishy-washy. I'm not even that far into it. Maybe 4 hours (I sense a pattern) and I struggle pressing play. 

Also, I am wholly unsettled by the police state that Australia has turned into...I can't wrap my head around it, so reading a book that takes place there almost seems silly to me. 

It's quite possible that world events have just turned me off to reading. I never "read to escape" as it is. I've always watched TV to escape. But the TV options lately are awful too. Is there anything you're enjoying? 

I have watched LuLaRich and I've watched most of Clickbait. And Scott watches a lot of random things, usually movies or sci-fi in the Netflix Top 10 that I have no interest in seeing. 

We tried On the Verge and it was so depressing. Is that really how miserable a lot of people are? Sadly, I don't think it was supposed to come off that way. It was *supposed to be* funny. No wonder people cling to their Covid regulations...sorry, guys...if that's the only thing that gives order and meaning. It would be really easy to be knocked off your feet and blind-sided by a a virus if you were living the life of those miserable women. 

I digress.

I did order a new Book of the Month and I grabbed Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney because so many raved about it last month. 

Honestly, at the rate I'm going, these'll last til Christmas. Maybe I'll read them before 2022. 

Linking up for SUYB, mostly just to get your recommendations! (bc i have very little contribute this month :)

Phone Photos Lately.

The best thing ever was the day Instagram and Facebook were down, right? It seems so simple: just don't use the platforms. But when you want to know things, I feel forced to use them. Wells' school posts pictures on Facebook. Instagram is where all the great memes come from. It was quite funny though, to see people I've hardly ever seen on Twitter randomly post things because they had nowhere else to go but, apparently, had things to say:

But back to a simpler time, when we just posted phone photos on blogs. The good old days. 

It's true, however, that the only real reason I keep Facebook right now is because how else would I know that Wells got to have brownies for someone's birthday? 3 year olds don't exactly come home and tell you about their day in any detail. He can recite, on repeat, that Tommy Triangle has 3 corners and 3 sides with the accompanying hand motions...but I heard not a word of the bounce house last week until I saw the video on Facebook. 

One of the better fried rice recipes I've tried. 

I hate that I love this stuff. I've gotten it at Starbucks multiple times now. 

Did some walking the other day and these shoes aren't great for it but it was too nice to drive around. I can't decide what's worse: nice weather and being stuck in school, or hell-ish heat over the summer and being stuck in the house. 

Wells does like to cut paper. 

These were on sale so I grabbed them. Super good. I still add creamer. 

Scout climbed up onto the [not his first] roof the other day. Via the ladder. 

Those pumpkins are dead. I just didn't want to leave them to rot in the garden. 

Chicken marsala

Waiting for grocery pick-up. 

Sheet pan nachos. I think I'm Mexican-fooded out. This was just easy and people wanted to eat. 

And some funny screenshots:

Michelle has the best memes. 

If those don't make you cry-laugh, I can't do anything for you.