There is NOTHING like rainy weather sleep! We need the rain (it has rained all day today – which makes me anxious after Hurricane Milton) and it will make me sleep like a baby most definitely! All of my classes watched AMERICA: THE STORY OF US – Revolution today in class. They have their American Revolution test tomorrow and I thought this episode would give them a good review; HOWEVER, as I questioned them during the series, I was – once again – stunned when they couldn’t answer questions from the texts we read.
I love, love, love what I do, but – 11 and 12-year-olds scare me. Is it that they just don’t care, they cannot remember information or worse? All I know is college better be on the radar for many of them because they won’t survive!
Once I got home, I ate some tuna pasta that I made yesterday – always so much better cold – snuggled with the puppies and continued watching Vera (I’m re-watching all the way from the beginning). And so, it’s time to go crawl in the bed and listen to the pitter patter of raindrops on the roof …
Everyone have a great evening and an even better tomorrow,
I have always loved mysteries that you think you’ve figured out, but BAM – you weren’t even close! My favourite books growing up were The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and of course the cartoon featuring The Mystery Machine with Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Fred and Daphne! I eventually discovered Ann Cleeves in late high school and absolutely fell in love with her various characters but none more so than DCI Vera Stanhope!
Vera travels all over Northumberland solving crimes that always seem to have another side to them. Smart and clever, she’s always thinking about every possibility – which tends to lead her to figuring things out before anyone else who works for her. She’s a bit gruff, disheveled and somewhere deep within, she does have a heart that only a few get to see.
I was ecstatic when it became a series! Brenda Blethyn was the absolute right choice for Vera! This, in my opinion, is the character that she will forever be remembered for in her career! Currently, all 14 seasons are available on Britbox and also on Prime Video. You have to subscribe to Britbox — it’s worth it because there are a lot of great British shows streaming there as well!
This is what my TELLY + FLIX page will feature now! I have a ‘ton’ of other series that I love that I’m going to start posting there and I was a bit lazy today since I had the day off — helped my parents and did some laundry to be ready for middle school life tomorrow! Now, I’m off to cook dinner and here’s to a great week – go watch Vera! One and I bet your hooked!
Photographs from VERA series are copyrighted by iTV and are used for editorial purposes only.
Here we go … again. The switch from elementary to middle school was a HUGE adjustment (still figuring things out), but I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! Year 6 is nothing more than an extension of 5th grade. Seriously! I am teaching US History and I am loving it! We just finished the American Revolution and they’ll test this coming week.
One of the biggest changes is the level of my stress and anxiety. I never truly realised just how much pressure I was under teaching in elementary. The pressure in middle school is there, but not in the insane, intensive way it was in elementary. I definitely miss people at my old school, but not what is put on the shoulders of teachers at that level. I really love my co-workers at my new school, they embraced me really quickly and we laugh at lunch so hard! I am grateful for this change in my life!
My goal now is to keep up with my journaling here — to just keep my head clear + focused on all the good that I’m experiencing now. At some point, I’ll scribble about my experience with Hurricane Milton … definitely not good!
I will also be updating + adding more to the different pages on the site. I’ve really gotten into cooking lately as well – so, be on the look out for those adventures plus recipes I find! I’ve discovered so many great series on the multiple streaming services I use and I cannot wait to share all of those as well!
Tomorrow is a day to reflect on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fact that we still have a lot of work to do. In addition, it’s a US Flag at Half-Mast across my social media accounts day to honour President Jimmy Carter and give zero attention the Felon.
Okay. So, what I didn’t mention the last night – my Toshiba HDD — suddenly stopped working last week. I had that moment of complete and utter panic. I turned to people that I knew would know something, anything – please for all that is good in this world, galaxy, universe, parallel universe – multiverse? (hey, it was worth a shot at the time – if you’re a Riddick fan, IYKYK). So …
“I believe in that you can rescue me, I’m saying, I’m saying: I believe you can rescue me … I’m talking, I’m talking – I believe in the power, I believe you can rescue me …”
– The data on my Toshiba HDD a/k/a Madonna, Rescue Me
Thankfully, a co-worker’s husband was able to recover the data on my HDD — no, it wasn’t backed up to the cloud. And no, I didn’t have a full copy of all of the data (1.8TB) … but, but, but, big BUT — I learned a lot. A lot. So much. I learned that external HDDs are incredibly — yeah, no. And external SSDs are yeah (apparently, I am so involved in my world that I never got the memo!).
So, here I am four days later still sifting through all 1.8TB of data – some folders and files were still in tact; HOWEVER, the Mt. Everest amount of said data was now just numbered and placed in extension folders. The worst folder of all – .PPTX. I can’t even talk about it. No. Just no.
Am I still grateful? YES. 10000000000% YES! How have I learned my lesson? I am now – the last two days – uploading all of the rescued data to my OneDrive. It is NO easy task. I have to click on all numbered files in all those folders to discover what it actually is — rename and save it to new folders. The .pptx folder – :::cough, cough::: has 10,931 PowerPoints. Yes, I use PPT for LOTS of things other than just presentations. So, yeah – all that data continues to be rescued and a lot of still waits to be rescued …
Oddly, my anxiety hasn’t really been insane during this ordeal. I think it might because when I had that initial moment of chaotic dread, I quietly decided that maybe, it was just: GONE. Now, as a redeemed hoarder of data, I’m making sure that it’s tucked somewhere safe just in case … Afterall, we’re talking about data that stretches back to 2010.
And that’s the story of back up, back up, back up, back up – BLOODY back up your data – all the time. Hope everyone’s off to a great start for this week – we’ll be at weekend before we know it!
It has been super duper crazy! Even though I have the summer “off”, I still work with the Before/After/Summer program for my district as the STEAM Education coordinator! And I went to my new school a couple of days to do SUMMER BRIDGE (a way for incoming 6th graders to get to know the school + meet some of their teachers) and to work on my room!
So, it’s not like I’ve deliberately not been posting – I’ve thought about it! My anxiety has been running in the background the last couple of weeks with it being really bad last week for a couple of days. I know some of my triggers, but not all of them. I do know that toxic people + places have been a part of that and now that I’m aware, I am making sure I have little-to-no contact with them.
So, our teachers go back – in my district – this coming Friday. It’s a big bag of emotions for me as I know one person really well because we worked a few years ago and now she’s a principal! I am excited, but I have to now work on building new relationships – which can be tricky with my anxiety. So, I’m hoping for the best because I’d rather not have to deal with that right off the bat!
So, here’s to hoping that you all have a great week this week! My goal is to get back to a regular schedule of scribbling down my thoughts and ideas!
This past week seemed like it was never going to end – EVER. It doesn’t help that I’m one of those perfectionist people either! Although STEAM camps are over for the summer, I do multiple things for our Before/After/Summer school program. Our big competition for the summer was our Second Annual HOST + myOn Summer Book Battle sponsored by myOn (Renaissance Learning)!
We had 18 elementary summer sites with 23 teams and three middle school sites with three teams! Although it shouldn’t be stressful – it was for me because I just want everything to be as close to perfect as possible and everything to go off without any issues. Our tech genius, Justin, was with me both days for both battles!
The elementary battle was insanely awesome and the middle battle – well, there were a handful of students who just couldn’t – for a few minutes – behave (we later learned there was a substitute instructor for the site), After all was said and done – the battles were awesome and we get to celebrate two sites in the next week or so!
After moving in March 2023, I finally started unpacking some of my Funko Pops and I’ve started to cover my bedroom wall – as you can see! I collect different things, but these are, by far, the largest (in size) of those collections! And you can see some of my Tigger beanies as well! Some of these were only available at the Disney Store in London – so, my mates there kept me updated on what was there and would send the ones I wanted! The doubles I have will go to my new classroom representing Walt Disney (himself), Doctor Who (The Tenth Doctor) and Bond, James Bond. One of my besties, she’s my sister from another mister, will come help me unpack and get my classroom set up this Wednesday and Thursday. I’d like to just have that done before I have to go back on 2 August. And then just 10 days later, students return!
So, my niece and I finally set out to do the Ice Cube Tray Sushi! With sushi grade smoked salmon, cukes, avocados, cream cheese, seaweed snack (Sea Salt and Teriyaki) and sushi rice, we set out to create our first ever! You can see other pictures under FAVOURITES > FOODIE ADVENTURES. It was – in our opinion – a success – a bit messy, but it was – after all – our first time! It was YUMMY! A bit heavy on the cream cheese because we couldn’t figure out how to cut it thinner – is that even possible? I mean I love cream cheese, but not as much as we had in each piece! Little Rhett (16 months) tried his first veggie roll — he loved it all except for the seaweed because he couldn’t chew it up. We’re going to up our game next time by adding blood red tuna to the mix!
Even though there were bright moments this week, my anxiety tried – desperately – to seize control most days. For me, I know that my anxiety is trying to leave the background when I’m weepy and cry in the morning. I’m not ashamed of crying, but this crying just happens – there is absolutely no control and those big crocodile tears stream down my face. Alexa & Bull try so hard to comfort me, but they – at times – tend to make it worse because I don’t want anyone or anything touching me when I’m going through those moments. So, if I’m at home during the day – they just snuggle together next to my desk and get up to both occasionally to check on me. It doesn’t help that most mornings I’m nauseous. Anxiety is so different for those who have it at the level like I do. So, it’s a learning curve constantly trying to figure out what does and does not work. So, if you’re experiencing anxiety a/k/a panic attacks for the first time – just know that it’s different for every single person and how your anxiety presents itself will be different and similar to others.
My brain is so busy right now and I’m not able to really put those ramblings into words! This upcoming week is a big week …the second annual HOST + myOn Summer Book Battle is on Tuesday for our elementary sites and Wednesday for our middle school sites. I’ve finished the questions, but tomorrow – it’s time to build the Kahoot! So, for today, I’m just going to share some of my favourite quotes and pictures that mean a lot to me …
Hope everyone has a great Sunday and what’s left of your weekend! More scribbles soon!
My So-Called Life. 