Salty

My homemade toothpaste is salty. Once I got used to that it was smooth sailing. The mixture I created is still powdery not pasty, but I just dip my wet toothbrush into the jar and it works fine. I only made a small amount as a test case, but I can see no reason not to continue using it. My teeth feel clean, and that's the point, right?

By the way, I'm storing the toothpowder in a canning jar that came with my house. I've never done any canning, but I love the jars. The only other thing I've used them for is as a vase for my pansies to take to the office. It certainly brought some cheer to my workspace.

It's only 5 years old.

Student: Is this really you? [Like several others, this student has expressed repeated interest in my college ID which I wear around my neck*.]

Me: It is. [Why else would I be wearing it, you little fool?]

Student: Then you need to fix your hair and get some glasses**. [Score: student 1, teacher 0.]



* Not my idea. The school requires it.
** I was broke at the time the photo was taken and couldn't afford contacts.

Smart Shopping

Last weekend I carefully went nowhere on Saturday. Everywhere I thought of going would've cost me money. I was not so careful today. I made the normal trip to the farmer's market, but this evening I headed to JoAnn Fabric's. It might be almost 15 years since I've been in there. It was one of the first places I went after I got my driver's license. But I digress.

I went to JoAnn's to search for flannel in the remnants bin. I found a nice piece of bright red and picked up a bit of t-shirt-like cotton in black. I'd decided to sign up for Crunchy Chicken's Cloth Wipe Challenge and needed some material for the job. Following Crunchy's advice I used pinking shears to cut small squares of fabric. My new cloth wipes are in the laundry right now. I still need to work out the details of storage after usage. For those of you that are squirming in your seats as you read this, I'm only commiting to trying this for pee.

After JoAnn's I walked over to the new organic market where I found the peppermint oil I was hoping for so I can make Riana's homemade toothpaste. Now I just need to find a container to store the toothpaste in and I'll be ready to mix it up.

Then even though I was loathe to go there, I popped into Kmart to check for back-to-school clearance items. I like to use 3-ring binders to organize my unit plans for teaching, so I picked up 3 of those that were marked down.

So even though it was smart shopping, it was still spending money when I shouldn't be.

At least tomorrow is Friday.

• My mind is too full (and my body is too tired) to manage more than bullets.
• Student teaching is going as well as can be expected. It's not funny anymore. It's just annoying. These kids won't even complete a word search.
  
• I find it bothersome to also have class at the same time. It's too much.
• Sometimes I wish I'd decided to pursue my degree at another institution of higher learning.
• Last night was one of those nights. I don't think making an entire cohort of second year master's students feel like stupid, worthless idiots is the best route to take. Me thinks if every one of us fails to meet your expectations, you may be partly to blame.
  
• I finally got around to picking up after Ike. I filled three garbage cans with downed branches. The rest will have to wait.
• It may frost tonight.
  
• I may close the bedroom window for the first time since spring.
• It's amazing how many pairs of really uncomfortable shoes I own. I rotate them so a different part of my feet hurt each day. I'm beginning to think comfortable shoes do not exist outside of sneakers or flip flops.
• Don't worry, I still want to be a teacher. I just may have to consume a great deal of chocolate.
  

Pee-yew

My good-luck-first-day-of-school flowers had started to fade (OK, they were well past starting), so I took them out to the compost pile. Little did I know there were plastic gems in the bottom of the vase. Afterall, the vase is frosted. What's the point of plastic gems you can't see? Anyway, so there I am picking plastic gems out of my compost pile, which shall we say, doesn't smell like roses. The gems that fell directly into the poison ivy stayed there. Maybe I'll go back for them after the leaves come off or if I can find my gardening gloves. Hopefully the pile will be slightly less stinkiferous by then.

Stress Dreams

In times of stress I typically have two forms of what I refer to as "stress dreams." Chase dreams involve someone trying to catch me and hurt/kill me. I am running, driving, crawling, trying desperately to stay one step ahead. The other type is usually work-related and takes place in a particularly stressful environment. I used to have these dreams when I work retail during the holidays. It would just be person after person after person demanding my attention. I had dreams that felt similar at the office only it was piles o' crap that needed my attention. Never-ending piles. Well, last night I had my first of the second variety with regards to my current student teaching situation. The entire dream consisted of:

"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"
"Miss!"

Finding a Balance

I can see already that there are going to be entertaining tales I wish to share. Now I just need to figure out how I can do so in an appropriate manner. Until I find that balance I will have to refrain from talking about the student that was removed from class and sent home due to his state of highness. Or the other student that finally wore a shirt that covered her extensive cleavage.

I will, however, tell you about my moment of fear as I walked to my car after school. Between me and my car were two free-ranging, unattended pitt bulls. Now you all know that I am a dog person, but what you perhaps don't know is that as a toddler I was bitten on the face by a dalmatian. This has made me (understandably) wary of unknown, large dogs. Especially of the pitt bull/rottweiler variety. Fortunately for me, as I approached the dogs I observed several students in the area were unmolested by the dogs, so I forged ahead. Upon closer examination, they were both collared and the female was quite friendly. She came trotting right up to me, wagging her tail and requesting attention. I spoke to her in a kindly fashion but declined to pet her. She followed me temporarily until she realized her pal was less interested in my presence and she went to join him. I couldn't help but notice that he was still fully entact in the male arena, which makes it seem even more irresponsible of the owners to let them roam free. At least the cars near the school were driving slowly enough to notice the pitt bulls when they trotted out into the street. I just hope they stayed away from the busier, four-lane road around the corner and that they eventually returned home.

I also kind of hope they aren't hanging around again tomorrow afternoon.

Bath and Body

I had a few inches cut off my hair, so I've been trying to skip the conditioner in the shower. I actually don't have any right now, and I'd been hoping to not buy more. I don't care for my shampoo at all though. My hair feels icky even right after a washing. I've been using the spray-in conditioner I bought last winter to help with static, but my hair still feels icky. I doubt it's the lack of conditioner, but I can't bring myself to not use all of this wretched shampoo. Maybe putting conditioner over top it would help?

I've switched to bar soap in the shower and at both the kitchen sink and bathroom sink. I feel like I'm going through bars of soap at an alarming rate though. I think I'll inform my family that homemade soap would make a fine stocking stuffer. Lots of it.

I also ran out of my full-of-Aluminum antiperspirant of late. I'd been thinking of trying the crystal after student teaching was over, so for now I picked up some deodorant from the organic section of the grocery store. No Aluminum or Other Bad Things. Also no sweat-stoppage. Fortunately, I'm not a terribly sweaty or smelly person. I figure if I made it through the 92 degree heat and high humidity on Friday and the hour of walking to and from class on Wednesday without any stink, I'm good-to-go.

First Week

The first week was boring but educational. Now I know what to expect during the days before school starts- meetings, more meetings, and yet more meetings. After two days of that I was anxious for the students to arrive, but that just meant two more days of filling out index cards and going over the syllabus. So in a way, I still haven't seen a single typical day in this school. Somehow I doubt Monday will qualify either.

I lucked out and got placed with a host teacher that has a window in her classroom, a rarity in this school. She has fish and a tortoise but no plants. I will definitely have plants in my classroom, especially if I have a great big window.

I'm not sure how much blogging I will do about my student teaching. Nor do I know how much time I will have for blogging in general, so bear with me. I will still be reading your blogs when I can.

La Rentrée

Today is the last day of summer for me and for many teachers in my area. Teachers return to work tomorrow and students start school in the next couple days. Mine start on Thursday but many districts in the area start on Wednesday. My plan for the day is to review content and do some prep work. If I need a break, I will vacuum and do some laundry. Happy Labor Day and Happy Rentrée!