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| Busted!! |
Soooo…let me start by saying, prior to my son starting school, I gave myself a mind pep talk that I would never be the type to say, “not my child” before knowing the situation. Go figure last week I had to eat my words a couple of times..oh well we live and learn!
Four out of the five days last week my son either came home with a straight or frowny face on his daily progress report with a description such as, “someone hit him and he started to cry, please speak with him about crying” (ummm last time I checked that’s what children do), ” he hit another student” (okay, we don’t play that), “he was frustrated about not getting something to work, put it down and moved to another area” (huh?). By day four I’m livid and totally over these reports. The class has had 3 different teachers in the past month and you want me to talk to my child about crying, when no one has been in the class long enough to know all of the children’s names ( I’m heated as I’m typing as if you can’t tell).
Day four, teacher aide suggests I come in to speak with her regarding his behavior. What’s really going on? Last year he probably got a total of 4 yellow lights for the entire year and here I am looking at four issues in one week…I’m all ears. Friday, as I pull through the car pool line I am greeted by yet another new teacher. We exchange pleasantries, and I ask about his behavior. She replies, ” He is one of our star students” (that’s my boy!), I respond really? I was just about to park and come in to speak with you regarding his behavior from last week. Based on his progress reports Mrs.(name ommitted to protect the tattle tale) suggested I do so. Teacher responds, oh no, there is no need for that. Well he did hit a student last last week but she was bothering him for quite some time before he retaliated (so let me get this straight, you see what’s going on but you don’t diffuse the situation). Then it happened I locked eyes with the teacher aide, they say eyes are the window to the soul and I’ll leave it at that..okay, one more word..piercing!
Why aren’t these people on the same page? My child got reprimanded for behaviors that his real teacher (at least for this week) didn’t seem to think was a big deal. I am prayerful that I am able to edit my thoughts before I open my mouth at the meet and greet this evening when I ask about the protocol utilized in discerning who gets a happy face and who doesn’t and why they can’t get and keep a teacher in his classroom. Stability is important for students, so maybe the problem is them and not the children.
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| Look at that sweet face…He couldn’t, or could he?!!! |
Am I overreacting? When your child receives a bad report, do you listen to their side of the story, or do you automatically take the teacher’s word?
Tuesday night after a few mishaps and whateva’s, I managed to pull off baked honey barbecue wings, vanilla rice and a homemade banana pudding *patting myself on the back*!!
As the saying goes, things do get a little better with practice. I hardly call three days of completing recipes a whole lot of practice but I see an improvement from day 1. I managed to read and follow all of the instructions except when I put a 1/2 cup of flour in the banana pudding when the recipe called for a 1/3 cup..again READING IS FUNDAMENTAL. Luckily I realized this before I emptied in the egg yolks that took me 5 minutes to separate from the whites. I dumped out the flour and sugar mixture and started over again. With some helpful advice from one of my besties I managed to whip up the egg whites into meringue and get the pudding in the oven. It wasn’t the prettiest thing but it sure tasted yummy!!
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| I’m trying to get the basics down…we’ll work on the presentation later!!! |
I would like to think Mommy is smiling down from heaven at the thought of me cooking!!
Although I haven’t felt like cooking, I have stayed true to my post from last week and I have tried out two new recipes so far this week. Sunday night we enjoyed lemon garlic shrimp fettucine, and last night I followed a recipe for salmon cakes that I paired with grits and eggs. Yes, these are fairly simple dishes to whip up, but with my failure to properly follow cooking directions I figured I should probably start off easy if I wanted to stay the course of this challenge. As simple as these dishes are please believe I found a way to screw them up in some way or another.
Sunday: The prep time listed was 10 minutes, it took me 30. The major lesson I learned…READING IS FUNDAMENTAL. I added too much cornstarch (confused tsp with tbs) and the sauce was way too thick so I had to start over. Second time around I realized that I bought the big carton of chicken stock when it only asked for a can. Well how am I supposed to know how much 14.5 oz is…genius, I’ll measure it with the baby’s bottle..gotta be quick on your feet! So I dodge that mishap and the dish actually comes out okay, just a little bland I give it a B-.
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| Dr. Brown’s Measuring Cup |
Monday: I actually managed to complete this one in record time. I have prepared salmon cakes before, so I had an idea of how to do it, however this recipe called for chopped bell pepper, onion and potato. Outside of the time it took to do the chopping the execution went well. I had to add a little water to the grits, I either cooked them too fast or didn’t have enough water in them, but I fixed that, and dinner turned out an A+. The Mr. gave props on this one.
Tomorrow, I am going to attempt a banana pudding from scratch,..separated egg whites,etc.. I’ll be sure to take photos, this one should be good!!
Do you have a recipe mishap you care to share!!