Dreary to Bright

Some days you just want a big glass of iced tea and your jammies. Today is that day for me. Winter has been too hormonal for me lately. Beautiful and sunny, then cold and dreary. This week has started warm and wet and now it's cold and wet. I don't think wet's the best word here. It's dang soggy.

Today I got up and started running late. I don't why.  I couldn't decide what to wear with the temperatures warm in the morning and supposed to drop during the day. I didn't plan on anything for lunch, so I had to traipse out into the rain to get some fast food. My car windows were so fogged up I couldn't see. Let's just say it was a messy day. I did get some iced tea, though.

After work, I came home to huge puddles in the yard and 37 degrees out with rain. It was nasty. I had to get the trash out because I never remember on Wednesday mornings. So my cute dress shoes got soaked. Let's face it, I was soaked!

On my way back to the car to get my stuff, I saw something that made me smile. In my trunk was a box and in the box was a bouquet of flowers. Yes, right about the time you think spring is never going to get here, you get some pretty flowers to brighten up your day. As it turned out, I got these from my principal. I didn't realize why, she just said, "Happy end of the day." But I wasn't going to pass up flowers! After I got inside, changed my clothes and put those pretties in a nice vase with water I checked my email and found out how I became a recipient of flowers for no reason.

It seems that my principal has a very thoughtful brother. He brought her about 20 bouquets of flowers today. She decided to share with as many of the staff as she could. So I guess she was going down the halls distributing flowers. I'm so glad she stopped at my room. And that's pretty cool of her brother to bring them to her.

My brother is similar. Although he lives two states away and can't just bring something over. But he's done some neat things for my team. One year he bought the science department some neat shirts. They said, "I'm a science teacher... just like a normal teacher, but much cooler." The next year he got us some School House Rock shirts. "Knowledge is Power". Those gifts made us feel really special, similar to getting a bouquet of flowers for no particular reason.

A day that could have stayed blah and dreary got brightened up. Here's hoping your day is bright and cheerful. If you can do something to make someone smile, do it.

Have you got a story about brightening someone's day? Share it in the comments. I'd love to read it.

With Liberty and Justice and Safety for All

You know it's a nice day in February when you come home from work and fix a tall glass of iced tea. And that's what I did today. It was 76 degrees outside when I got home. I got those windows open and enjoyed some refreshing air along with my tea.

I thought a lot about safety yesterday when I got home and read about another school shooting. This one in Florida. I didn't realize it at the time, but a co-worker had been to that school when she attended a neighboring district and she knew someone that currently attends the school.  Something that struck me was that all these school shooters provided some kind of warning signs. And we noticed them after the tragedy had struck. And that's the worst time to acknowledge warning signs.

So I'm going to suggest we talk to our students, our children and let them know when people do, say and post things that make them uncomfortable or creeped out they should tell someone. It's not an easy conversation to have with a child you want to protect. But that's exactly how you can empower them to protect themselves and others. They need to find someone they trust to believe them and get the information to someone with authority to monitor the situation and take action if needed.

Our students/children need to know they don't have to open a door for anyone at home or school. Schools have a proper door for visitors and they can ring to get in. Those authorized to use different doors should have their own keys. I know it's considered polite to open a door for someone, but I'd rather have a kid turn me down at the door than let in a lunatic bent on creating chaos.

We as school personnel need to wake up to the fact that it could happen to us. We need to think about the implications of that kind of situation. It could be us! And then we need to prepare. I know teachers just want to teach. That's why we come to school everyday. But we also need to be practical.

Hopefully the teachers at your child's school have been through an active shooter training. I know we have. So in the interest of providing a public service, I'd like to share some tips I've learned through this training. (A big thanks goes out to my friend, Cindi who took the time to put many of these tips down yesterday. I was too wrapped up in myself to do that.)

1. Keep your doors locked. This goes for outside doors and classroom doors. An unlocked door is an invitation to come right in.

2. When you hear something that may be gunfire if at all possible, get out of the building and RUN. And don't just stand around outside the building. Run away and have a meeting place for the students. The more they scatter, the less chance of being a victim.

If running isn't feasible, hide away from doors and windows. Take the time to teach kids that running from this kind of danger is self preservation. If someone set off a firecracker in the building and my class ran out, I wouldn't mind explaining to my principal why we left. Now when I say hide, I don't mean cower in a corner. I mean blockade the doors with desks or whatever heavy items you can, grab something hard and be prepared to throw it if the intruder tries to access your room. Don't go quiet into that good night. Fight like heck! I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of 30 flying objects from a bunch kids.

3. If you are hiding, silence is golden. How many times have you had someone give themselves away in Hide and Seek because they couldn't be quiet? This is the same situation only we are playing for keeps. Turn off lights and make no noise. The intruder may just walk on by without noticing you. And if you are hiding, stay put until the police show up. I'm sure it's tempting to peek out the door or window, but you may alert someone to your presence.

4. And for everyone's safety do what the police/SWAT team tell you to do. If they ask you to lie on the floor, do it.

Prevention is the key point here. If someone notices something odd going on or a person has a hit list going, please tell your principal, counselor, teacher or parent. Don't let it get to the point where someone does something stupid and people get hurt. Then make sure you know to run or hide; in that order. We  may not be able to prevent all these attacks, but if we can save more lives I feel like it's a win for the good guys. Safety to all!

Fraidy Cat

Sometimes a nice cup of tea and a phone call can make all the difference. And sometimes it takes more. So here's my fraidy cat story. First of all, I'm a very level headed person, most of the time. I pride myself on my use of logic and intuition to understand most situations. That being said, there was one time I lost my cool.

It was Sunday night and I was alone. I'd suffered through freezing rain with a touch of snow and cold weather. I got the call that school was cancelled for Monday. I decided to stay up a little later and kept watching Midsomer Murders. It was a good one about bullies who killed a boy and then he came back and started killing them 20 years later. It was creepy! And they killed him by drowning him. It was atrocious as far as I was concerned. So let's just say I really got involved in it. I even yelled at Barnaby to watch out before he was tied up and gagged with duct tape.

This episode was over about 10:30 and I turned off the television. I started checking email and playing online. Then I heard a bang from the ceiling. I thought, "What the heck?" I noticed the heater was running; so that wasn't broken. So I shrugged it off... until a couple minutes later it banged again in another part of the ceiling. Now this is strange. So I closed up my laptop and stood up waiting to see if it would happen again. And it did. Now I'm really concerned.

Situations started going through my mind. Could there be an animal in the attic? Did something break up there? Oh my gosh, my neighbor had told me a story about a drugged up guy on someone's roof in town. Did I have someone on the roof?

I opened my front door. Because of the icy roads, there was no traffic out there. And I was too scared to go out on the porch. So I listened from the doorway. It banged inside, but I didn't hear it from the outside. Now I was really freaked out. I shoved my slipper socked feet into some snow boots, snatched a coat from the closet, found my flashlight and headed out back. My patio was a slippery mess, so as soon as I could, I gingerly stepped onto the grass. I was in no mood to try out my Nancy Kerrigan moves. I got out as far as I dared into the dark night and directed my flashlight toward the roof. Back and forth I waved the visible waves of light, but I couldn't find a thing on the roof except my satellite dish.

So I went back inside and heard the banging some more. It was about 10:40 and I hoped my mom was still up because I picked up the phone and called her. I told her about the scary show and the noises in the ceiling. She suggested I might not want to watch scary shows in the dark. Thanks Mom! But what about my banging roof? I'll admit she calmed me down. I would have heard more noises if it was a person. So what if there's an animal up there. It's not coming down to get me.

Once I got off the phone I still heard the bangs. I went back to my computer and started a search about it. This article made me feel a little better. What really helped was when my oldest and best friend posted the following.

I saw this and realized I wasn't the only one dealing with these noises. It must have been happening all over the place. What a relief! I heard the bangs a few more times, but it didn't bother me. I don't know if my friend knew how much her post meant to be, but hopefully she knows now. Sometimes you just need to know there's someone else going through the same situation to make you feel like you can handle it. I love you, Mom for doing what you do best, trying to make me feel better. But there's nothing like knowing someone else has your same problem to fix you right up. It doesn't always work, but in this case it did. Best of all, I slept like a baby that night; without a care in the world.

My Big Bang Secret

This isn't easy to admit, but until this past summer I'd never watched a full episode of The Big Bang Theory. And I can tell you why. I saw the name of the show and several commercials then thought that can't be funny. You see, in my first few years of teaching middle school science I taught about the origin of the universe. This had to include the Big Bang Theory. It was anything but funny. I made sure to emphasize what a scientific theory actually means, but that didn't necessarily sink into all students' brains.

During the summer of 2017 I actually watched a few episode of The Big Bang Theory on the TBS network. And it was about physicists who were quirky and funny. And I was hooked after a few episodes. I wondered how this show started and how these characters met. So I started purchasing the DVDs online.

I was so excited when I got the first season. I watched as Sheldon and Leonard met Penny in the first episode. They were so geeky. Leonard could hardly talk when he asked (not really) her to have lunch with them. And it may have been stereotyped. Okay it was definitely stereotyped, but it was endearing and it was sweet. But most of all, it was funny.

I watched as Leonard bent over backwards to impress Penny and get up the nerve to ask her out. I watched Sheldon's lack of social skills, even though I didn't really fully understand him. Raj wouldn't or couldn't speak in the presence of females and that was odd and humorous at the same time.

Over the course of the summer, I finally understand what so many Big Bangers already knew. This show is funny and the characters have definitely evolved over the series. So here's my take on these interesting characters.

When I first encountered Sheldon I thought he was bossy, judgmental and had some serious obsessive issues. He really didn't have to act like was Howard beneath them because he was an engineer. At the beginning of the series, Sheldon wasn't very likable in my opinion. And then something happened. He started opening up to Penny. And by the time the Intimacy Acceleration episode came along, I was crying when Sheldon told Penny how he felt in social situations.

Leonard seemed the most normal of this whole group. That is if physicists can't hold a normal conversation with a non scientific female. And it was interesting to see how he let Leslie Winkle take charge of their relationship. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Leonard is somewhat wimpy in his relationships. This can be with Sheldon, Penny, Leslie or even his mother.

I just have to admit right off the bat, that I was never really fond of Howard. I did feel for him when Sheldon was mean to him, but that's the extend of my compassion. Howard tried his best to be a womanizer. He thought his magic was romantic. He was an extreme mamma's boy and later transferred that over to his wife. He's best friends with Raj, but at the same time treated him poorly. In the current season when Raj told him he wasn't gonna take it anymore, I cheered for him.

Raj went from not being able to talk around women to being able to talk to them if he was drinking. That made for some funny scenes. Eventually when he was upset, he ended up talking to Penny without libation. Now he's had some relationships. He got a big head when he was dating two women at once, but overall, Raj is just a nice astrophysicist guy and I like his current wavy hair.

Penny started out as a midwestern girl trying to get her break in acting. But she ended up with a job at the Cheesecake Factory. Living across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon she develops a close friendship with the guys. I liked The Dead Hooker Juxtapositon episode when Penny realized another girl was using the guys to do chores for her. I think in that episode Penny realized how much she really cared for the guys. It was fun to watch Penny and Leonard's on and off again relationship until they finally tied the knot. Penny went from actress/waitress to actress to pharmacist salesperson. Sometimes we have to do what we have to do to earn a living and she learned that the hard way.

Bernadette was introduced as a waitress co worker of Penny's. She was working on her doctorate degree. Penny set her up with Howard. They dated and then she broke it off. Howard came to her work and sang a song for her and she seemed to like it. I thought it was creepy. Eventually, they married. Howard's mother died. That was one time, I did have some sympathy for Howard. Then they had their baby, Halley. Now Bernadette is expecting their second child. Bernadette is small and feisty. I think she has to be to deal with Howard. She brought in the second major female role into the series and she doesn't have the sympathy for the other characters like Penny does.

Amy was computer chosen match for Sheldon when Howard and Raj set up a dating profile for him. Once they met, they clicked. Sheldon called her a friend for a quite a while before he made a relationship agreement with her. Amy has the patience of a saint in my book. She's neurobiologist that Sheldon finds that to be a lesser science than physics. One of my favorite episodes involves her pretending to be sick after she healed just to get more attention from Sheldon. At the end when he has her bend over his lap and spanks her I about died laughing. Amy is very insecure in her relationship with Penny and Bernadette. She never had female friends and doesn't always know the dynamics. She immediately decided that Penny was her best friend and had that weird portrait of them painted. I like that Amy has developed into Sheldon's social director. As the seasons go by she gets those social dynamics much better than Sheldon. She really complements him in that manner.

In my perfect Big Bang Theory, they would bring in a good looking and smart geologist who comes up with some new discovery to really shake up Sheldon's idea that geology is the least of the sciences. I'm so glad I took the time to watch all the episodes in this series. Now why didn't one of my science peeps turn me on to this show sooner?

What's the Name?

It's a cool, icy day out today. Which makes it perfect for some hot tea. I hope you've enjoyed some today. For a few days I've been thinking about people's names. So here's my thoughts.

What are names today? I feel so darn OLD. I have a a name like a real person. Most of my friends have people names. We are normal. What the heck are people doing calling their offspring any old noun that they want? It used to be that people just wanted to be different in how they spelled normal people names. Lukas or Lucas, Theresa or Teresa. No big deal. Today I see names that are just not names. Celebrities are not the best to use because, well they live in a different world, but I'll start there. Some of their chosen offspring names are: Apple, Audio, Bronx, Cricket, Denim, Dream, Future, Java, Maple, North, Pilot and Story. What heck? Did they open up a dictionary and point at a random word and say that's our kid's name?

But this isn't just celebrities. This trend is heading mainstream. I kid you not! I know people who have given their offspring names like Tweed. I guess this shouldn't be surprising since one of the top unusual names for 2018 according to NameBerry is Taffeta. I'm really surprised grammar check didn't correct me capitalizing that word.

Tweed

I don't believe parents have thought through some of these very odd names. Maybe they want to be trendy. But have they considered how these names could affect their offspring? According to a New Zealand study those people with unusual or hard to pronounce names are deemed more risky or untrustworthy than people with more familiar names. Other research suggests that people who have more familiar names are considered likeable more often than those with unfamiliar names. A person's name may also affect their career. It suggests that those with more common names have an easier time getting promoted. There's obviously a good reason why some actors change their name to perform.

When I was young, I liked having a name that not many other people had. It wasn't an unusual name, just not common. That suited me fine. But I've got to admit that some parents might not be putting the same thought into the naming of their child as they used to do. Or maybe they are so desperate for attention they thought naming their kid something strange would give them what they need.

I don't see this trend changing and I'm not having any more children, but I do have to pronounce their names daily. So please think about the teachers as you search for some random, trendy name for your child. We don't like trying to learn new names and new spellings of names. Thank you!

Let me know what you think about odd or unusual names. Do I need to lighten up? Comment below.

Sip to Your Health

I made up a pot of Country Peach today and celebrated a snow day. That means a bonus 3 day weekend. We will make it up, but right now it's a free day. So I drank tea and exercised and that's about it. It's time for some mental exercise.

I wanted to explore benefits of drinking tea. Thank goodness for Google; now I don't have to dig through books to get information. The down side- sifting through all that information. So I decided to stick with hard core sites. WebMD gets down to the nitty gritty along with Harvard Medical School.

Real tea would be made from that specific plant that's native to China. This would be our green tea, black tea and white tea. Although I don't go out and buy white tea myself, you can bet it's still the real thing. These teas contain a special antioxidant known as "flavonoids". These are considered phytonutrients which basically means plant chemicals. The ones in these teas can help prevent cancer, heart disease and clogged arteries according to WebMD. The caffeine in tea is lower than coffee, which can help those people prone to high blood pressure and susceptible to jitters. At the same time caffeine helps with mental alertness.

These real teas also contain polyphenols that may increase insulin activity according to researchers. According to a Dutch study from 2009 "drinking 3 cups of tea (or coffee) could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 40%". 1  You also need to know if you add milk you've diminished the insulin benefits from the tea.

Herbal teas are a different class of tea because they aren't derived from the tea plant itself. As I looked over my peach tea box the ingredients had nothing to do with tea. So even though I enjoy the flavor of herbal tea, the health benefits are based on exactly what's in your herbal tea. The best bet is to check the box and search the ingredients.

Speaking of ingredients, you're better off avoiding the sugary bottle teas you can easily find at convenience stores. Adding sugar just negates the health benefits. And if you live down south (US), don't even bother trying to find unsweet tea in bottles. If you do find it, don't drink it. I know from experience that it's probably way out of date. And instant tea is just gross in my opinion. That's because I don't add sugar. You also may want to check the ingredients of instant tea; you may find MSG hidden in there. Not good!

So feel good, my friends for brewing up some of your own tea and sipping away. In fact I'm ready for some more tea.

What Game?

I made 2 perfect loaves of bread last night. Now this is the 3rd time I've made bread in the past few months and the first time both loaves have come out of the pans looking like, well, real bread. My secret?  Two metal loaf pans. The first 2 times I used one metal pan and one glass pan.

I baked this batch for the Super Bowl game tonight. In all honesty I really don't care about the game. It just seemed the thing to do. In fact, I'm not really a big football fan. At the same time, I'm not one of those girls who can't understand the game, either.

From the time I was eight years old and on my family would watch football games on the weekends. Now this was back in the days when there was one television in a house with three stations and the parents controlled what channel it was on. I may have been a channel changer (the remote for you youngsters), but I followed orders on which way to rotate that knob.

In more recent times, I had the NFL channel. It was during a show on this station that I realized that I don't believe using the wildcard is completely fair for the playoffs. And I had no idea that it had been going on even when I was turning channels for my parents. My son liked to have the NFL channel on at weird times. Personally, I got tired of hearing "Michael Vick, Michael Vick, Michael Vick". And why oh why does this channel keep going after the Super Bowl? To talk about trades for next season. Get me out of this Twilight Zone! So a few months ago I removed the NFL channel and many other channels from my satellite subscription. And I didn't miss it.

Combine the lack of access to football talk with mainstream talk about kneeling during the national anthem and I ended up not wanting to watch football at all. I get what they were trying to do by kneeling and I personally feel that football players and people in general should not get publicity for being disrespectful. But that's what happened. The more they did this kneeling, the more people talked about it. And it soured me on watching any NFL football game. A friend told me they quit showing the national anthem and that didn't make me feel any better about the games.

Don't get me wrong; I still have a favorite team. (They aren't doing so well this season.) But I haven't watched a game all year. And yet here I am gearing up for the Super Bowl. In the interest of being completely honest, I didn't make my bread for the Super Bowl. I made it to go with my pot roast.
So who knows what time the Justin Timberlake concert starts tonight? :D

Crochet and Tea

Time for a little mix berry tea in a pretty pot and cup with saucer. They don't completely match, but that's okay. They were my Grandma's and that's good enough for me. Sometimes I feel like our lives get too busy to stop and do something simple like drinking tea out of bone china or  even making tea in a teapot. Other activities some may call "old fashion" may also be falling away. We take selfies, share gifs, watch Netflix, but do we take the time do real crafts?

Last year I made well over a dozen crocheted snowflakes to give away with my Christmas cards. They were pretty and could hang on Christmas trees, if desired. It took some time to make, but I enjoy crocheting and it made me feel good to make a snowflake for my friends.

This week a friend crocheted something for me. It's so nice to see first hand that I'm not the only person out there crocheting. Over the years I've crocheted scarves, small blankets, and yes way back I used to make doilies. And I find it a relaxing hobby most of the time. When you make a mistake, you can easily rip the stitches out and start over. When you get into a rhythm time just seems to fly. One problem I've noticed though, when you want to combine tea and crochet is that you can get so wrapped up in crochet that your hot tea gets cold. Actually that happens when I'm typing, too.

Here's the cute cup a friend made for me. It can be a little coaster for a tea mug or be placed on top of your cup to keep the tea warm while I'm typing or crocheting. What a clever crochet project!

Crocheting may be an old craft, but it serves purposes today also. It keeps your mind active. Reading those patterns can be challenging.  You do have to learn those abbreviations and stitches. But it's not too hard. Crocheting also keeps your hands and fingers nimble. So you're doing finger exercises as you work. I'd hate to see crocheting fall by the side for more technology oriented endeavors. So I might have to find a new crochet project. Any ideas?

Do any of you crochet? What do you make?