Useful Things to Start the Week

Hello, all! I hope you had wonderful weekends! Mine involved doing a bit of spring cleaning through my closet--get excited Salvation Army!--, doing some errands and visited my dad to spend some Daddy-Daughter time with him since my mom was out of town (trying to be a good daughter!)

Today I'm linking up with Meg over at Life of Meg for Mingle Monday:


So, what better way to start off the week than with some useful stuff? First off is a recipe:

Today I thought I would, once again, spotlight one of my favorite recipes to make. And yes, it's in a crock pot. This one tops the list because it's delish and quite possibly one of the easiest things to make. Ever. (When explaining how easy it was to my boyfriend, I explained that I'm pretty sure even a monkey with brain damage could follow the steps). I made CrockPot Salsa Chicken yesterday (another recipe from the awe-inspiring crockpot lady over at A Year of Slow Cooking). All you do is dump chicken (frozen or not), salsa, frozen corn and a can of black beans into the crock pot and set it. I like to shred the chicken once it's cooked, sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and make Spanish Rice on the side. You can eat it over chips, alone, or make it into a burrito! No matter how you eat it, it's full of flavor and absolutely deeeeeeeeeeeee-lish!

My second usefulness to offer up comes from Real Simple's website (love this magazine--if you don't subscribe I highly recommend it). I found a way of making icky erasers not so icky. Take a nail file (emory board) and rub it against the icky part of the eraser, whether it's hard and dried out or covered in black lead smears, and it makes it use-able again. I know as a teacher who has kids constantly poking holes in, coloring on, and finding multitudes of other ways of destroying using my supplies, this one will come in handy! (website and picture source) Go and check the site out for other useful ideas!


That's all I've got for you guys today! :)

My little loveable pup, Cooper, and I want to wish you all a happy Monday!!! (I'm still learning with the new SLR camera, but I think this one's pretty cute...then again, I'm a little biased :)

Wednesday Randoms

Today I'm feeling particularly tired. I think it's a combination of waking up when it's still dark outside mixed with waking up earlier than usual today since I had to get to work early for a parent meeting. Therefore my
brain has been a little more scattered than usual. So here are some of the randoms that have been going on (two of them are stories, and one is useful):

1) One of the students I work with came to school yesterday and apparently had arrived an hour earlier than normal. When discussing this with her teacher, she said she thought Daylight Savings Time was only for one day, convinced her mother that she needed to be at school an hour earlier, and therefore arrived an hour before school opened. Of note, this student was over the age of 11.

2)I was teaching two 6th grade boys about idioms yesterday. And, in my stupidity, I said "Okay, who can tell me what an idiot is?" They both proceeded to laugh hysterically, as did I. It took us a little bit to compose ourselves. I may or may not have chuckled about it a little later, too.

3) You know those blotting sheets for your skin to make the oily stuff go away? Well, I have come up with another solution. Working in a school, there's an endless supply of those ugly brown paper towels in the bathrooms. These also work extremely well as blotting papers. Try it. And they're free!!

Hope your Wednesdays are full of fun stories and laughs!