I am married with 2 kids. One is 19 and he lives with his dad in TN. The other one is a girl and she is 8. I work as a library aide at an elementary school. My hobbies include making soap and candles, reading, surfing the internet. Oh and I love cats.
Only 3 more days and school will be out for me for the summer. I think that I am so fortunate to work in a profession where I am off on the weekends, holidays, and summer. But now I am going to have to find things for my daughter to do so she will not get so bored. Lately she has been playing on the computer a lot but I really don't want her to be on it all day. I remember when I was a kid that the only time I was in the house was for lunch, supper and bedtime. The rest of my time was spent outside playing in my backyard or with the neighbor kids. You know I probably sound like my parents. Well you know back in the day we used to......... blah.....blah......blah. Times certainly have changed. I just wonder how it will be for my daughter's kids?
Well anyway, I'll probably go to our public library this week and sign her up for their summer reading program. She loves to read and that will keep her entertained for awhile at least. And then she'll be going to a water park next weekend with the Girl Scouts. And in July she's going to Girl Scout camp for a few days. So her summer will be pretty busy.
Today is a day that for many Americans marks the beginning of summer. And I think that for many people, the day's meaning has gotten lost in all of the barbeques, picnics, sale ads and all of the commercialism. But today the real meaning of Memorial Day came to light through our children. I had to work today ( which was a bummer) but to celebrate, our staff grilled out hot dogs. Then afterward, we had a little celebration for our students. We only had a handful of students today (about 39) because we are doing our OFYP (optional flexible year program). To help you understand what OFYP means, I'll tell you a little about it. Most of our students who pass all of their state mandated tests, have good attendance, good grades, and good behavior get to go to school for 170 school days while the ones who don't have to go 180. It's just a little incentive to do well in school. Well anyway to get back to today's celebration, we played a little video about the history of Memorial Day and a video of soldiers fighting for our country with a very sad song playing in the background. After the last video played, a kindergarten student said, "Well that was very sad.". I tell you I was almost in tears. Then we all sang God Bless America and we said the pledge of allegiance to the American flag and to the Texas flag. We then handed out popsicles to the students and they all went outside to play. Overall, it was a really great Memorial Day. And I hope that it was a day that our students will never forget.
Tonight I cooked a pot of beans in the crockpot. It's really one of the easiest and cheapest meals to make. All you need is a pound of dry pinto beans, four slices of thick sliced bacon, and a teaspoon of Fiesta brand's pinto bean seasoning. First I wash the beans real good to make sure that there are no rocks or dirt in them. Then I pour the whole pound of beans into the crockpot. I cover the beans well with about a couple of inches of water. Then I cut up four slices of the thick sliced bacon and put them in the beans. I cook the beans on low for about six to eight hours. Then just about an hour before they are done, I season the beans with the pinto bean seasoning. To me, it's the pinto bean seasoning that makes all the difference in how the beans taste. It really gives them a great flavor. You know if you have a pot of beans and a slice of cornbread, that's all you need for a hearty meal. And country girls can survive!
I got my idea for starting a blog when I read Fannie Flagg's book Standing in the Rainbow. I enjoyed that book so much. It was one of those books that you just don't want to put down. Sometimes I'd just love to go back to the days when life was much simpler. But now that we have all of the gadgets with all of the bells and whistles, could we ever think about doing without them? I don't think that I could. Or maybe I could downsize a bit. That's what we are thinking about doing as soon as some of our contracts on our gadgets run out. We've got over 200 channels on our satellite TV and there are probably just a few shows that we really watch. So yes, I think that if we had to we could do without. After all, what's really important is not all of the things that we have but that we have each other.
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