Angie: June 2009 Archives

This should have been what we listened to friday for Gracie's 5th grade "Completion Ceremony".

Instead we sat through three rousing versions of Miley Cyrus and the "The Climb". Yes, three (3) times in a row. One hour and forty-five minutes later I was on the edge of my seat willing it all to end. *

I am very glad the school principle had the forethought to call the ceremony a '5th grade completion ceremony' and not a graduation. I am one of those aweful parents that truly tires of all the 'ceremonies' and 'graduations' that seem to accompany so many days in our children's elementary life. That makes me a horrible monster in many parents eyes. This is fine with me it keeps the pesky parents away.

I am so very glad to be finished with 5th grade, elementary school and a certain teacher that I can barely contain my joy. With the inclusion of the song (repeatedly) 5th grade has seriously scarred me. The year itself has been a real struggle for Gracie.

One particular teacher has been a nightmare to cope with. Just her personality garners her very little respect. Her approach to the students adds even more disrespect and her approach toward me left me watching to rip her unevenly cut long around the face, men's cut in the back, blonde hair right out of her scalp.

Also, not once, not twice but multiple times she has 'lost' or 'misplaced' Gracie's work and then given a failing grade. Once, after Gracie completed make-up work, this same teacher tossed it in the trash, gave her a second packet of 'make-up work' and then flunked her anyway. Believe me the meeting with the principle wasn't pleasant but I made my point. This was one conference even Steve refused to miss and he drove his commute from DC on the speaker phone. The other teachers are in a position not to be able to say anything but I was given much head nobs and indications they understood fully and we were not the only ones it happened to.

Did I say I was happy to be finished with 5th grade (and a certain teacher) for a few years?

I am hoping that by the time Steven enters elementary school that this young teacher will have moved on and is procreating her pig pen style teaching habits in some far away place where we will have forgetten about her.

Now that elementary school is a thing of the past we are looking forward to middle school and even though the academic load will be increased and there will be other hurtles to follow I am hoping this is one year Gracie will have teachers who compliment her personality instead of thrashing against her like the waves on the rocky shore. I say this because we had another suck-ass teacher last year also. Steve nor I could find ways to be kind to her without something making us want to poke her with a set of tramontina steak knives.

This teacher was one who accused Gracie of stealing a set of stickers which came from Steve's aunt in a birthday box over Christmas break. The teach confiscated the stickers and made a HUGE production out of trying to teach me a lesson about my child and when we arrived at the school the next day and sat down in the principle's office with Gracie's birthday box the teacher could barely contain the red rage that flooded her neck. She was ready to pounce on us and call us liars that the items in the box could only be purchased from XYZ magazine by a teacher etc etc etc. Umm, yeah, Steve's aunt is a teacher. In fact she has a master's degree in education (one paper short of a PhD) and teaches mentally impaired children. She always sends the kids a box of things she thinks they will enjoy having - marker, stickers, odd little pocket games, puzzles and other goodies with an educational and fun theme.

Can you see here how happy we are to be moving on?

Now, about middle school. When did Jr. High get replaced with middle school? Jr. High was exciting words. I mean it's like high school only it's junior high school. Meaning you get lockers and change classes and wing your way to different places on campass all day long instead of doing the duck walk single file to one class.

Come on school official people who make up the names. Give them a break and bring back Jr. High School.

Speaking of which, Gracie got off the bus friday with tear stained cheeks and red eyes. After a while she was ready to talk. She told me how sad it was to be leaving so much behind and how even the toughest boys were teary eyed as well.

The school Gracie is leaving is a school caught in the middle of a zoning area. All the kids that live south of the main interesection here will be attending one middle school toward town and all the kids that live north of the intersection will attend another middle school. So for some students this is indeed the last time they will see one another in the halls of academia.

Which leads us to the watery statement my daughter choked out behind the tears friday afternoon -

"it is like we are graduating high school and going off to college. We won't ever see each other in school again. We are lost apart forever."

I am going to show her this when she actually makes it to high school graduation and is going off to college.

I think I am rambling here with no end in site. So, umm, I am going to end it now with one last thought.

On a school morning the traffic is beginning to start rolling, he sounds from the highway drift up to the hows and we can hear the dull distance whine of tires as school buses get to rolling, the US Mail truck comes to pick up at the PO and parents are off to work. This morning everything is absolutely quiet. Like a sunday morning. The sun is rising, the birds are singing, it is a strange sound for a week day morning.

I like it.

*Sorry, I cannot post a you tube of it on my blog. It makes me twitch and itch to even think about it.

Late yesterday afternoon heavy thunderstorms rolled in complete with crashing thunder and sharp lightening strikes.The blowing rain caused us to close down many of the windows and of course the cooling breeze was stiffled. Instead of sitting around sweating while the electricity flashed off and on I decided to take the kids to the movie. I have been wanting to see Pixar's newest and so we did.

I won't give any spoilers. You can see the trailer here.

This is a beautiful movie. It is heart warming and nostalgic. I admit to laughing as well as shedding a tear or two.

I am in love with Carl and Ellie and their story. I know you will be also.

Don't wait for the DVD. Don't wait for an excuse to take your kids to go see it. Don't have kids? Go see it anyway.

When it is released on DVD I will be buying a copy for myself to enjoy and not on a pretense for my kids.

Go see it. You'll be glad you did.

All photos where taken from internet screenshots and are the property of Disney and Pixar.

I don't know about you but the price of potions and notions to keep your body fresh, nice smelling and glowing disgusts me to no end. I walk through Bath and Body Works, Victorias Secret, mall departments stores, Target and even Walmart and find the prices on many products to be startling.Buy Me for a New You! Buy Me to make yourself feel prettier than you ever will be! Throw your cash at our big corporation and we will reward you with chemicals "known to the state of California to be carcinogenic". (Have you seen those lables?????)

Let's be disgusted together and vow not to make those corporations and the CEO and Board of Directors richer than they already are. I am very serious. I never buy a product without asking myself if my purchase is actually going to make someone else richer while it makes us poorer.*

I pinkie swear I will not throw away my money on something I can make in ten minutes or less from things I have in my kitchen. BTW, if you can eat it there is a 99% chance there is a way to use it to care for your body and skin in the bath.

Go to your kitchen and take stock of what you have in your pantry. See that canister of sugar? How about some brown sugar? Oilive oil? Honey? That's all you need to make a sugar scrub for the shower.

You can even get a little fancy and purchase a food grade or cosmetic grade fragrance oil or essential oil to jazz it up and have your own signature scent. There are hundreds of companies online that sell fragrance oils for soap makers for use in scrubs, lotions, body sprays, etc. You can get excellent quailty duplicate scents for most any fragrance in well know hygeine products. I give most of my business to Wholesale Supply Plus. I have yet to order a product they don't stand behind. Most everything I have ordered by way of frgrance or essential oils has been fabulous to my senses.

When I mixed up my batch of sugar scrub I used coconut lime verbena fragrance oil. It is a delicious scent for summer time and is rather sensual to my nose. I would even hedge to use the word erotic. Mmmm Hmmm. Smells that good.

How are we going to make this erotic shower scrub that makes us want to melt? Also might make your husband/boyfriend/significant other/ random guy at the office come sniffing around, too. Easy.

Recipe for Sugar Body Scrub
1 medium sized clean jar to store your sugar scrub in.
1 mixing bowl for the actual mixing of your concoction (you can mix it in the jar if it is large enough)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey

Mix it all together very well. If you use fragrance oils or essential oils put those in the olive oil first and mix them well then add to the sugar and honey. Store it in your sealed jar in the refrigerator until needed.  Take out a little at a time when you shower if you use a larger glass jar. Accidents can happen and we want no glass shards in the shower. Be safe!

You could also spend a little time on a saturday afternoon and make several small jars of scrub in different scents so that you have a choice of scrubs. Just remember to lable the jars in the fridge so no one tops their toast thinking it is a new marmalade or jam.

If you don't want to wait and have to order scents you can check Michael's in the melt and pour aisle for essential oils. Make sure they are manufactured for skin products! Again - be safe! No pimples or rashes or burns from oils not made to be used in bath products.

Also, if you don't care for a scent the brown sugar and honey is yummy on its own.

That's it. You're done. Hit the shower.

$12 - $45 jar of sugar scrub for low price of $2 or less.

How easy was that? Go make some and let me know how it goes. I also want to know if you step out on the edge and use fragrance oils. 

I do not buy CD's, DVD's for this very reason. I don't let my kids buy them either. 12 songs that cost $14- $20 and they only really want to hear one song. They can find it online for .88 cents or less. It may add pennies some artists pocket but it won't subtract dollars from mine.

From time to time I get emails or comments from very nice ladies (Hi, Ladies!) who often tell me they live vicariously through my life on my blog. Be it gardening, milk goats, baking, sewing, spinning, etc or all of the above so many of you out there express similar desires to do some of the same things I do but feel you can't because of your current living arrangements.I am here today to tell you to stop that and to encourage you to participate with me. Make it happen for yourself wherever you are. You can do it on a small scale and have wonderful results right now.

Right now! Don't wait.

You don't have to spend alot of money. In your apartment or townhouse you can grow herbs and other fresh food! Even in a HOA subdivision you can have it all. There is always a work around.

Let's start with growing herbs. In a pot. On your balcony or your stoop or your front steps or out back in your tiny postage stamp townhouse yard.

You can scavange around for a planter or a pot. You can be creative and use other decorative items for your planting container. You can spend a little money and invest in something that makes a statement about your decorative tastes. Whatever it takes get a pot or some sort of planter. A nice sized one 16 inch diameter or larger if you have a place for it will hold lots of herbs. If not think about a window box that you could set along a step, or on a sunny spot on your balcony. I know some apartment complexs don't allow things to hang or be on the railing but very pretty plants and hanging baskets are most commonly allowed. If you can't set a pot try hanging a basket.

I have two of these terra cotta clay pots on my front porch.For the past couple of years they have held pineapple tops that I rooted. Only the pineapple tops died last fall due to my forgetting to drag them in when we had our first frost. Ooops! So the pots have been sitting empty for a while.

For a pot this size I needed some fresh potting soil and some herbs. I chose basil, curley parsley, tri-color sage, chocolate peppermint and golden thyme. I chose these because I like them but also the variety of color pleased me. You could also plant seeds in your pot(s) and though it will take longer for them to grow and produce it is a huge money saver and you can reseed as needed.

These small herb cups where $1.29 each at my local plant center. I could have started them from seed but I wanted instant gratification so I bought the already well established little plants. Into the pot. Lots of fresh soil packed in around them. A good watering and time in the sun. Voile! An instant herb garden.

If you are starting from scratch you will need some rocks in the bottom of your pot for drainage. If you are using a pot that isn't meant to be a pot to plant directly into you will also need to punch some holes in the bottom to let the water drain out as needed.

You can also plant in a cheap plastic pot and later when you have found a decorative pot you can simply sit your plastic pot into your more decorative planter. 

With a little TLC, weekly feeding and water (daily watering when the temps are scorching) and there will be plenty of fresh herbs for most any dish for supper.

These pots are heavy when filled with rocks for drainage, potting soil, plants and water. I put them on casters for ease of movement. Here where we are the summer temps will climb to one hundred and above by the time late August rolls around. The sun is a scorcher and no amount of water will keep the tender leaves from burning. With the pots on wheels I can move them in out of the sun as needed. The morning sun is most desired and by the time the midday sun comes around I can move them back a bit where they don't take the full brunt of the sizzling rays.

I labled this photo so you can see which plants are which. I chose 3 taller plants for the middle of my pot (basil, sage, parsley) and low growing, creeping type plants for the outer ring (thyme and chocolate mint). You can see how the thyme and mint are growing down the sides of the pots now. It took barely a week for these pots to take off and the newly planted look to disappear.

I want to encourage you to make yourself smile. If you can't do a big pot maybe you could do a grouping of a few small pots each with one type of herb. One small pot on each step with lovely foliage is an attractive look. You can do it. So get busy. That's an order. When you finish come back and tell me about it. I would like to see what you are doing.