Wednesday links. 12/21

First, I posted my 2022 book recap yesterday and, on Monday I shared some last-minute gift ideas. 

Today was supposed to be a 9 month update on baby Sutton but well...I haven't even taken her official pictures yet. 

So here's some links worth sharing.

So I ordered two pairs of jeans from Target at like 11pm one night last week. Barely remembered doing it in the morning. This is why babies who wake up a lot + phone next to my bed is dangerous. But I got these mid-rise skinny jeans and these high-rise ones, assuming one might be okay. I ordered the same size in both. The mid-rise felt better but the high-rise ones didn't *not* fit. But I returned the high-rise because I didn't really need a pair that didn't fit perfectly. The mid-rise are pretty much close to perfect and I can't believe they were only $24. Anyway, I "returned" the high-rise but they must be so dispensable to Tar-jay that they gave me my money back and told me to keep the jeans anyway. 

This fruit salad was so good last winter that I'm going to make it this weekend. 

My parents got me this shirt for Christmas. Apparently it runs very big but it's wrapped up and I haven't tried it yet. I'm just excited for a shirt that's not cropped. I'm so tired of everything being cropped. It's not a good look for 99.9% of the population.

I'm going to make these peppermint brownies maybe tomorrow. 

This is the most forgiving sugar cookie recipe you can find. It's EASY and simple and they really do taste good and hold up to a lot of frosting. I baked them yesterday and I'm decorating today. 

If I can find a very small bottle of vodka and a very small bottle of schnapps, I'm going to try these peppermint mules. I hate vodka after the Cranberry and Vodka Incident of 2008, so I don't want it around the house.

I made this pizza on October 28th, which was the day we pretended was Halloween because that was trunk-or-treat for us and we didn't do anything on actual Halloween. So Wells calls it "that pizza you made on Halloween". It's on the menu again this week. 

Links I've Bookmarked.

I'm taking off from the blog for a few days. Here's some links I've found myself coming back to more than once though. Thoughts?

Be back next week!

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I've thought about microneedling...have you tried it?

Gretchen Rubin posted this the other day: what it's like to work at the Apple store. 

I want these shoes but can't quite justify it. They're just Keds. You don't have to click and I promise I won't make any money if you do.

I'm not a fan of flexible seating in the classroom but could never really explain why. This blogger/teacher has lots of good reasons. 

Has anyone used Diigo? I think it's like Evernote. Ideally, I'd like to be much more organized in my online life (hahaha) but I didn't last long with Evernote.

And the best link ever: All the Bachelor in Paradise spoilers from Reality Steve. You should read them.


Do you bookmark so many links that you can never find what you're looking for? Just me?

Stuff and Things 2/2

+I never wear my glasses. Like, ever. But I had an annoying contact irritation of some sort yesterday so I took them out and put these on as soon as I got home. I also thought Hey, blog material. Let me write a blurb about this super fun fact. So anyway. Glasses.
I felt like I was in a fog as I attempted to cook dinner.

+I had to blow out the exposure on these pictures in order to make the lace stripes visible on that sweater. Also, I do own shoes other than these brown boots...I really, really do. But effort is hard.

+It's Groundhog Day.

+I made this swordfish over the weekend. I recommend the recipe if you have (literally) no idea what you're doing. Scott came home with a bunch of seafood. I was sick on this particular day and drugged up on Mucinex. He's all Why don't you make this? and he had somewhere to be, so it gave me like 30 minutes to get it from frozen to ready-to-eat. It turned out really well. I googled "swordfish recipes" and it was one of the first links.
There's no science to my methods.
Also, I hadn't cooked anything all week, so I felt I owed him at least this. (If I'd messed it up though, it would not have been my fault.)

+I  made this salsa honey verde chicken in the crockpot too. It wasn't life-changing but it smelled amazing and tasted good. There's a lot of chicken/salsa recipes out there. They're all tasty.

+I want to make some lo mein and this looks like what I'll be trying soon.

+Last night, I made General Tso's chicken with a seasoning mix. So it's not all Pinterest and roses.

Links to Share...

Here's a few things I've bookmarked lately...

These candy corn decorations. I was invited to a craft party where they'll be making these but can't go because it's during the week. I looked up the craft and I want to try it but I also don't trust myself with the circular saw (OBVIOUSLY). Nor do I know how to use it (OBVIOUSLY). I sent the link to Scott.


I feel like I've shared this article about how children have no skills when it comes to waiting, monotonous tasks, or relationships. I can't remember. I used to not be so cynical because I've worked with MANY wonderful children and families. But every year it gets worse, and it's very depressing.


I don't normally post this kind of stuff but I wanted to jump for joy when I read #1 on this list of ways to live the non-diet life. Try eating like it's the weekend on Monday. Starting every Monday with a diet has to make Monday that much harder, right?

Things kids don't understand. Every year, it gets a bit more difficult to explain things to kids. It's not particularly hard to relate to them, but the references don't get the message across like it used to. When you look at that list of terms and sayings, no wonder they have no point of reference. They will never know the pain of listening to the clicks on a rotary dial phone.

I hate icebreakers so, so much. You would think that once you're established in a position or with a group of people, icebreakers would stop. But no. We do an icebreaker, on average, twice a month.
I never, ever make kids do icebreakers because I know what it's like to loathe them.

This list of teacher luxuries are all true. Sadly.

And edited to add a picture because picture-less posts are also sad.

These trees are right next to each other, so I'm not sure what this is about.

Links and things

The secret to the perfect no-bake cookies.  Here's my recipe too. It's worth a read if you're trying to figure out if/why it hasn't worked.

Getting rid of things that have served their purpose. A real passion of mine.

Principles healthy women practice. Consistency and habits is my takeaway here.

5-Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce. I'm thinking over a mixture of zoodles and noodles?

In case you can't tell, I love audiobooks. This is the single best way I've ever discovered to do two things at once. Other people like them too!

On Treat Yo Self. This is often the excuse people give for why they need this or that. I, for instance, just bought a rather expensive tote bag and the insane turkey-trail train of thought that got me to click "Complete Purchase" was really a stretch. However, this is my new school year present to myself. For me, it's about the experience, promise, and usefulness of the new bag. It's not just feeling like I want to spend money on something just because.

Speaking of...this blogger wrote about school supply lists in the best way. I swear that I, as a teacher, am not trying to break your wallet if you're a parent. I don't even make the list! I have nothing to do with it actually. And I spend about $500 a year on supplies and books. Maybe more. It's really too depressing to keep track of, so I don't.

JP Sears on the Olympics. I'm not really watching. They're on in the background (because what do I pay for if I can't leave the TV on all day?), but I prefer the winter games.

Speaking of links...have you tried the Rodan and Fields Solution Tool?
I've been contacting A LOT of people lately and just asking What would you change about your skin? If you had a choice (and you do!) what would you want to improve upon?
The Solution Tool will help with that! It takes about 7 seconds. 37 seconds if you read over the results kinda carefully.

I know we can be hesistant to order from a direct sales organization, but think of this:

RF was actually only sold at high-end department stores 10 years ago. The doctors who created it decided they weren't reaching enough people that way, so they pulled a completely successful product line from the shelves and put it into the hands of consultants.

We're not all Blair Waldorf and don't all shop at Bendel's, right? Right. 

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What's your favorite link this week?

5 Friday Links.

+This tells why you could/should use the Reverse Dual Active Brightening Complex. It repairs past damage and brightens and lightens your skin. If you want to take one simple step toward repairing your skin, this is it!

+This tells you why you should do Pilates for just 10 minutes a day and expect results.

+This is a gorgeous planbook. It's $75 at its base price though, so I have to wonder if that gold is made out of actual gold foil or something.

+I get that this sounds a little preachy at times, but outer order does contribute to inner calm for just about everyone, right? Here's a few very easy things I try to do every day. 

+Motivational posters made out of Chad quotes. 

Was anyone else sorely disappointed in the fact that there was no Bachelorette this week? 

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I would say HAPPY FRIDAY, but all the days kinda run together right now. And I'm publishing this in real time, at 12:10am MST, because I got home late from playing BINGO with a bunch of other elementary teachers at the local bingo place.

We did not win a thing. 

As one friend said, we simply paid for the experience. 

Link-worthy

Some of these tumblr posts about history are funny.

And to prove the point of how I generally think and operate, these are the magnets in front of my desk at work. I did a whole document-based lesson on "Join or Die" last fall. It was a hit.

And it's that time of year when people start posting teacher-related links on Facebook. Here's a few that I've found.

7 reasons you might not want to teach anymore. Even if you don't teach or don't want to teach or don't like to click on articles that bloggers post, please click and read #6. It is everything. 

#TeacherAppreciationWeek. 

Why '80s Babies Are Different Than Other Millienials.

Sometimes I get sick of reading articles about the millenial generation. I was born in 1986. Decidedly not part of Gen X and I didn't grow up with technology either, so I can't be a millenial, right?

I work with 23-25 year olds. There is a big difference between those born in the mid-80s and true millenials (not good or bad, just in the way we approach things).

Like the article said, I used pay phones regularly. But I was also in junior high when I played around with Napster, and had a whopping 20 songs on my family's desktop computer. 

Maybe this born-in-the-late-80s group has such trouble finding themselves because we were smashed between Gen X, The Oregon Trail Generation, AND the millenials.

I propose a whole new generation for those born between 1984-1989. We had a completely different experience than those who came before us and after us.  

Name suggestions?

Happy Almost-Friday!

(is it sad that I consider Wednesday night "almost Friday"??)

Linkworthy

I probably could've written this post last night but somehow laying down with a book sounded better.  It was Monday night.  Motivation on Monday nights is an all-time low.  I cooked dinner and that was the extent of it.

However, this morning, I have a 2 hour delay.  Instead of sleeping in, I decided it's worth my time to just sit on the couch and watch Sunday's Downton Abbey.

In a perfect world, I'd have a kitchen renovation post put together for today because the kitchen is 99% done.  However, I haven't quite gotten around to all that.  Here's a preview…

Anyway…

My bookmark tab is filling up again.  Here's some articles I've come across lately that I've really enjoyed.

Differentiation doesn't work.  Word.  It just doesn't.  If you don't know what it is, it's putting 25-30 kids of varying ability levels into one teacher's care and telling the teacher to split them into homogenous groups and teach each group the same skill at a different level.  It is the number one method of educating in America today and I assure all you non-teachers that it doesn't work and this is why the U.S. has failing test scores compared to the rest of the world.

A vaccine study that scared us all into believing the worst of our doctors.  Working with the children of the general population, I think they all need to be vaccinated (a bold statement, I know). I read another article about how a pediatrician doesn't want anti-vac parents in his office (or their children as patients) because he knows they don't trust him as a doctor if they don't believe him when he says their child needs vaccines.  A nurse friend posted it on Facebook but now I can't find it.

And at the other end of the spectrum…Deep Thoughts on Leggings.

Oh, gym regulars.  I've been on every side of this.  I've been a regular and I've been a new person, but I've been a new person 5 times now and my status as such has never worn off (after 7 months) here. I think you have to show you are absolutely serious about your gym commitment in order to get "them" to accept you.  I probably never would've found acceptance at my beloved Alaska gym had I not vowed to show up everyday (because I had nothing else to do). I've also seen floods of people enter every January 2nd and I've witnessed the exodus each February 2nd.  As someone who is a natural introvert, being shunned because you're new at something, anywhere, is a terrible feeling.

Are we raising a generation of helpless kids?  Yes, yes we are.

Why half the nation's teachers are leaving the profession.  100% agreement. It is so much cheaper to keep employees you have rather than go through the process of recruitment/hiring.

Stop saying "military wife" is the toughest job in the military.  This infuriates me.  The army requires NOTHING of me.  Any volunteering or event-participation I've ever done is because of Scott and my loyalty to him.  It's looks bad when your wife never shows up, you know?  But other than that, the army is not my job.  The military will teach you patience for sure, but I don't have to live in a tent, eat MREs, or leave my family/home for months at a time. This "toughest job" thing is probably believed by the same people who carry ACU patterned purses…(that was mean…I apologize).

While we're talking about the military..OPSEC.  Operational Security.  Keeping things to yourself instead of posting them online for all to see.  Did you know that if you tweet/Facebook your spouse's coming home date, the whole mission can be delayed for days?  They won't come home on time because you couldn't stop telling people everything.  This, obviously, irritates me.
Now (also obviously) I tell people online and off that we're a military family, but I try not to give out specifics.  In fact, I actually scrubbed my Facebook page (which is private anyway) of any military photos and all employment information.  Identifying information can be dangerous…or maybe I'm just crazy.  A crazy person, concerned about OPSEC…with a blog.  I remember being cautioned by more experienced army wives once upon a time and now I feel like I'm mature enough to know exactly what they were talking about.

Have you read anything interesting online lately?