Various updates

 Once again, work has hit me like a ton of bricks. Not a bad ton of bricks, I suppose. Just very busy! I'm back into full swing at my regular job and also teaching two classes as an adjunct. Keeps me busy for sure. So here's what's been up since my last post before the semester started:

Work: Like I said - busy! Several trips to Pittsburgh to meet with my online students. And my regular classes are going well. I have some great groups of students and am very thankful for that. I've also been doing a really interesting professional development program about teaching language that is useful for employment and I'm learning so much!

Running: I just finished my last long run (10 miles) before the Pittsburgh half on May 1. I haven't been training as well / as much as I would've ideally liked, but I'll take it. I'm super thankful to have had L. and/or T. with me for most of my longer runs and am really looking forward to running with L. at the race AND seeing some of my favorite out of town running friends :)

Travel: J and I went to Charleston, SC for a long weekend back in March with some of his friends from college. It was super nice and I loved taking a trip that didn't involve a wedding, conference, or other obligation. It was just for fun. The weather wasn't as warm as I was hoping for, but it was beautiful and a great trip. 

Thirty-One: It's been a good year so far! I did a very nice vendor event in March and then had a great open house / girls evening in early April. I'm loving the new catalog and the spring gift guide. (If you haven't seen them yet and want to - just let me know!) 

Around the house: First - I haven't done nearly as much crafting as I'd like :( Still working on that same sweater I started a year ago. And I think I've forgotten how to use my sewing machine :P But I'll get back at it... hopefully after my online classes end and I have a little extra time each week.  But I have been reading a lot, which makes me happy. I got a yogurt maker and have been happily making homemade yogurt, because I take odd pleasure in making things that normal people buy from the store. On a related note - J and I started the seeds for our vegetable garden this weekend and I'm looking forward to that. I also became a member at the local botanical gardens and am hoping to visit a lot this summer. We went to the recent cactus and succulent show and I added a new Mother-of-Thousands kalanchoe to my collection. I'm ridiculously excited about this. And then we got a zebra aloe from L. :) Making progress in my crazy plant lady life goals.  

Other miscellaneous notes: 

-J's hockey team won the city championships! I'm so proud of them :)  

-We've been to some really great concerts / shows lately. We love live music and I'm thankful that we get to enjoy it so often.

-Now that I'm not working more than 1 evening a week, I've been able to get back into my small group meetings at church and I'm really happy about it.

-I finally feel like I might be heading in the right direction with some of my health issues, though it's honestly pretty overwhelming and takes up more of my energy that I'd like. I at least have a new doctor that I feel a little more confident in...  so we'll see how this goes!

-Conway is still adorable and we love him ;)  We can't have a blog post and not mention him! 

So - the short version: Life is pretty good. I'd love to be a little less busy, but I have really nothing to complain about :) I'm sure there's something I've forgotten to mention here, but if I tried to recap it all, then I'd never finish this post or ever post again... So consider this your brief(~ish) update on my life! 

Apparently it's spring break..

You wouldn't know it from all the snow outside or the fact that our high today is about 15*, but I'm (slightly unexpectedly - long story! Ask me privately if you really want to know) officially on spring break! And feeling very anxious to catch up on my to do list, which includes updating this blog!

But first, I just hit my 1000th blog view! So thank you to whoever that was :)

Things are going well here, just a combination of being very busy and having terrible weather which makes me want to hibernate. We just set the record for the coldest February in Cleveland since the 1870s! Average temperature for the month was 14.3*. No wonder I didn't want to leave the house.

Teaching has been up and down. I have some fabulous new students and in general my classes are going well. Everyone is loving my experiment with the self-directed activities. I love that everyone gets to work at their own level and pace for at least a little bit every week and I also love that I really get to spend some one-on-one time with my students. It's so rare when I'm teaching the whole class that I get to sit down and really talk to / help anyone individually for more than a minute or so, but I get to do that during the self-directed activity time and it's awesome. The biggest problem so far this semester has been the weather - K-12 schools have been closed a lot, which means parents haven't been able to come to day classes, and the weather in general just makes it difficult for my students who walk or take public transportation. But hopefully the end is in sight. After tomorrow, the entire 10 day forecast is above freezing!

My other "fun" teaching adventure was driving to monthly meeting with my online students in a snowstorm a few weeks ago. My normally 2.5 hour drive was closer to 4 hours! I was so thankful when I got there and the majority of my students had actually made it to class. Whew :)

Things are also going well in Thirty-One land. I did my second vendor event and feel like a pro now! I have a pet expo coming up at the end of the month (I have ideas, but suggestions for what you'd display are welcome!) and am going to be a vendor at wing cookoff in June and two holiday shows in November/December. I also have a few feelers out for some other events, but I think I'm off to a good start. I have a drinks and desserts open house at my place tomorrow and I'm very much looking forward to having the excuse to hang out with some friends :D

And, even more importantly, I had a very successful fundraiser last month! We raised enough money to buy 127 kits of nail files and tubes of chapstick for Hanna House at University Hospitals. I talked to the director of the activities center this week and will be dropping them off during my spring break next week :) Thanks again to everyone who participated!

We've also been having a ton of fun things going on these past few weeks. J and I went to go see our favorite band, Gaelic Storm. For those new to our story - our first date was to a Gaelic Storm concert and almost exactly two years ago we got engaged at their concert :) This year, we brought a framed and matted copy of the picture taken with the band on the night of our engagement and got the entire band to sign the mat. I can't wait to hang it up!

Gaelic Storm, dancing on the bar at House of Blues

Speaking of autographs, we went to a minor league hockey game last week and J was incredibly surprised to see two-time Stanley Cup winner Ruslan Fedotenko playing for the visiting team. Fedotenko was on J's favorite NHL team when they won the Stanley cup! J and his buddy managed to get autographs :)

And, finally, last weekend we went to our friend's annual Arnold Schwarzenegger movie marathon :) We had a good time hanging out with some awesome people, eating and drinking way too much, watching movies, and generally being lazy.  Since I'm not always good at being lazy, I also made some good progress on the sweater I'm knitting. It's finally starting to look a little bit like a sweater! Since it's my first one, I don't have any delusions that it will be perfect, but I'm really hoping it's at least wearable. I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. Maybe I'll have it done before next winter ;) My crafting progress is so slow during the school year! I'm hoping to make progress on my Etsy shop stock next week during my spring break, though I have quite a few personal sewing projects I also was hoping to work on. Why do I have a feeling that one week isn't going to be enough for all this? ;)

Stay warm, friends! Spring is just around the corner :)

Christmas in pictures

I love the holidays and all of the traditions associated with it. I had lovely Christmases with J's family and with my own parents. It would take far too long to describe them all, so I'll share some photo highlights instead. :)

Berry Manilow Yams

A very belated happy Thanksgiving to you all!  We had a lovely, pretty low key holiday. Complete with a little bit of snow :) We spent most of the weekend relaxing, going to J's hockey tournament (his team won the whole thing!), watching football, and knitting. Well, maybe it was just me who did the knitting.  J's uncle and aunt were in from out of town and it was lovely to see them again. 

Thankful for these guys!

I love having such a cuddly dog :)

I look a little silly in this picture, but life is good! (And that's my sky scarf I'm working on in the picture..  Just one more month to go!)

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving, after seeing family of course, is the food. So many special dishes that I eat only once or twice a year. The past two years I've celebrated with J's family, but I've brought to the Thanksgiving table one of my favorite dishes that my mom has made for a long time: Berry Mallow Yam Bake (aka Berry Manilow Yams). I'd like to share the recipe with you here!

Berry Mallow Yam Bake

Serves 6. (But easily doubled or even tripled)

Note: While the ratio of everything in the crumb mixture should remain the same, the proportions of the other ingredients can be easily adjusted to taste. (So feel free to go crazy with those marshmallows. You know you want to.)

Ingredients

Gathering the ingredients

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup old fashioned or quick oats (uncooked)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup butter

2 x 17 oz cans of yams or sweet potatoes (If you use fresh, cut and bake them until they're soft before putting everything together)

~2 cups fresh cranberries (I usually use a little less)

1½ cups miniature marshmallows

Ready to go in the oven

1. Combine the first 4 dry ingredients and cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse, pea-sized crumbs.
2. Toss 1 cup of crumb mixture with yams (if using canned, make sure they're well-drained) and cranberries. Place in 1½ quart casserole dish (I personally recommend a shallow dish so you can put more marshmallows on top. But that might just be me). Top with remaining crumbs. Bake at 350˚ for 35 minutes.
3. Sprinkle casserole with 1½ cups miniature marshmallows. Broil until lightly browned. 

Feel free to snuggle (and take selfies) with your dog while the yams are baking.

Ready to eat! Enjoy!

Now that it's December, classes are winding down. This week and next I'm wrapping up our current units and doing some progress testing for my students.We've had some very interesting discussions in my level 0 class about chores. I think the most interesting part was that the only male student in my class was the only one who seems to think that men should help with chores at all! Definitely some cultural differences at work here :)

I drew a scene and my students had to ask the appropriate question (What are they doing vs. what is he/she doing?) AND say the answer :)

Today in my evening class we talked about different ways to describe people. I was pretty proud of my drawings of different hair styles ;)

I also had everyone draw a friend or family member and use the new vocabulary to describe that person. Guess who made an appearance in my drawing!

I can't believe there's only one week of classes left after this. It's been a crazy, but amazing, first semester in this new job and I'm looking forward to classes starting up again in January. (Not until the 26th! Too long of a break!)  But, before then, I'm really looking forward to a couple of potluck holiday parties in my classes. Some of my students are amazing cooks ;)