Monday, January 8, 2024

Well, as you are reading this, I am off to work – early because I have to pay the piper and get caught up as I am writing this, I am a little scared to see what my desk and classroom looks like in the aftermath of me taking 3 personal days before the break. I’m working for the first time since December 19th! What do I even do for a job? I have forgotten? Ha! I did take care of my future self back on December 19th and I have the students presenting Google Slides for the first couple of days back. Pats self on back. 

I am happy to link up with Sarah and Holly for Hello Monday and Tanya for Prime Purchases. I am also happy for the blogging world to get back to normal! I’ve missed my blogging friends. Are you like that, too? 

I got back to posting last week but my three UK Christmas posts dominated. Thank you for your comments! And, if you missed it, here they are:

UK Christmas Trip Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Just click on the red font to go back to posts or to see things I have linked. 

Let’s go back to NYE even though it feels really long ago. I just never had a place to talk about it last week. We arrived back at home on 10 p.m. on December 29th and I was raring to go on Saturday morning and did an in person grocery shop. I was actually really excited to see all the American foods! Ha! I went to bed really early that night- 7:42! Sunday was NYE and we had reservations with our friends at the Cuban place called Bodeguita de Mima. 

We had plantain nachos to start and my friend loves the passionfruit mojito so we ordered a pitcher. It’s really just a bit too sweet for me, but I’m a team player. 

Then, my friend and I split a fish meal with rice and sweet plantains and it was so good. 

Photo as we were leaving - I was home by 9 and stayed up until 11 – I haven’t made it til midnight for quite some time – ha! I thought I had no jet leg, but I have been so tired. Erica thinks I’m just coming down from the whole semester of school and it’s not just jet leg. She’s probably right. 

On NY day, we saw a movie as a family of four! We saw Poor Things – super weird. It had lots of sex scenes and I really don’t recommend. Anyone else see it? Tom loves a movie and loves his buttered popcorn but does not love a surprise photo from his blogger wife!

For good luck, I made long noodles for longevity and…

fried rice for something good with rice and something good with cabbage. I can’t remember why you are supposed to eat these things!

We also had oranges for something else good and maybe one other thing. It can’t hurt! 

And, now for the rest of the week that I had at home.. 

Tom went back to work January 2nd. Mason moved into his dorm room January 3rd, but came back home Friday to hang with us. 

The next day I helped Mason go get his expired license renewed very early in the morning. We happened to see Jeff’s Donuts on the way home and our car happened to pull in. OMG. I had not had a donut in a really long time, and these are worth it! 

I went to a local boutique’s warehouse sale in a furniture store – random. I didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to look. The winter stuff is on major sale everywhere you look but I really don’t NEED anything, you know?

Mason and I made the French meal again that we had wanted to make on Christmas Day (the Airbnb wasn’t conducive to cooking this) boursin bacon wrapped chicken, broccoli, au gratin potatoes, and bread with roasted garlic and goat cheese. 

I had a dentist appointment one day – try to do one in the summer and one during winter break. 

I met Erica for breakfast at BBB to get updated on what both of us had been doing over break: 

I made Chex Mix! Why is this so good? 

I made peanut butter blossoms! So good! 

I started this – so cute! 

And, I returned library books and also got these off the shelf because they looked like they had potential: 

I had Erica and Elizabeth over for happy hour with totchos – tater tot nachos! 

I made bagel thins breakfast sandwiches for back to school: 

Mason and I made challah French toast: 

Mason got a haircut and I took an unsanctioned photo from behind. I love the change and I think he will get used to it!

I’m trying to start drinking more seltzer waters again:

It was mild enough to read outside for a bit!

I had a double fire – Mama Solo Stove and baby solo stove in unison!

I had a good week and weekend – it was so nice to have a whole week at home after our trip. 

Now, let’s talk about Amazon! Pretty much all of my recent purchases were travel items!

I ordered the bag for my carry on personal item and I used it as a school bag leading up to the trip. I am torn between backpack or crossbody for my personal item for travel. I kind of missed having a backpack at times. 

I ordered the portable charger and it is a must have for travel or being out and about for the day. 

I ordered the adapter and the set of compression packing cubes. 

I feel like the repellant worked – I sprayed both pairs of shoes even though the boots were water resistant and my carryon and my suitcase. 

And, I just love this deodorant. It is great for travel as a solid and I seriously consider it my fragrance, too. And, before we left, I washed all of my clothes with a capful of Diva combined with my regular liquid detergent and my stuff stayed smelling nice but not too strong the whole trip. Worth it! 

What was the highlight of your weekend? What have you been ordering from Amazon lately? 

Amy

26 thoughts on “Hello Monday and NYE and Prime Purchases”

  1. Wow Amy, great, so many fun things happening in your life!
    So, back to school!? I thank my principal for letting us have Monday off – I’m in my sofa in pyjamas right now! 😀 Staff meetings tomorrow, and students on Wednesday. It will be fun!
    I spent NY in the US one year and we had some kind of special bean soup? Something for luck? We don’t have anything like that over here!
    Weekend was fine, I’m really happy for my very nice winter break!

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    1. Thank you! Your schedule is perfect. Ease back in, right? No such luck for us, but a lot of that is based on changes they had to make due to our bussing fiasco at the start of the year.
      I bet it had black eyed peas in it. They are not good!

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      1. Yes, that’s it, black eyed peas! No, it wasn’t that good, but I felt lucky 😀 – I think that was the purpose of eating them?
        I hope you are having a great first day in school with your students! Slide shows, right? Are they having presentations?

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      2. Yes, that is! It was ok but tiring. Yes, they had to create a slide show using certain verb tenses we had learned. AP had to write a children’s book digitally using all 19 verb tenses about a certain theme that they picked.

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      3. 19 verb tenses!? I’ll meet my students tomorrow, I have a problem with a group that is VERY concerned about talking in front of the class – any ideas?

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      4. If you count all the progressives, yes – we have 19 in Spanish!
        I really work hard to create a classroom climate for them feeling comfortable speaking and we just do it all the time so it feels natural. So, you can give them points for a certain amount of times they speak, you can let them sit or stand however they feel comfortable, you can tell them you are learning a spoken language and it’s part of it, etc. Your kids are younger than mine which might be part of the problem?

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      5. Great ideas, thanks. Yes, these kids have just started middle school with new teachers and new routines, so that can be part of the problem. Or maybe I’m just really scary! 😀

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      6. Yes, they will come out of their shells. Lots of modeling for them how to speak in a language class and they need a buy in why it’s important so you can talk about your Florida summers and how you are able to really enjoy it because you speak the language so well.

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  2. Hope your first few days back go well! It sounds like you had a wonderful break. I’m impressed you hardly had any jet lag, time changes throw me off so much even when it’s just an hour!

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  3. What a great recap and I LOVE Mason’s haircut! Having so much time off after the holidays was so nice. I hope we keep this schedule next year too because it just felt so nice to have days to just ‘be’!
    Logging back into work today won’t be my favorite but duty calls!
    Have the best day Amy!
    xo,
    Kellyann

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    1. Thank you! He feels weird after having long hair for so long, but I keep telling him even his skin has already improved. He also thinks the England weather wasn’t good for his skin. He wants to work on a skincare routine for this year – so sweet.
      It really was so nice. I think it will help me with the January doldrums, but it has hurt me with starting to get back on track, if that makes sense. I am all ready and packed with my healthy foods today, though!
      Same! I hope you also have a great day. You will bless all that you encounter. I just left you a really long comment, too!

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  4. It’s a really good idea to use a fragrant deodorant. I have never thought of that! I have an aversion to most perfumes and don’t wear anything. The problem is finding a scent that I would like- I can’t smell too many in a row or I start getting a really bad headache. Isn’t that crazy? I wish I weren’t like this! It worked perfectly that you had a week at home before going back to work. I hope your week gets off to a great start today!

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    1. It’s a very subtle fragrance. I went to the dentist last week and the perfume the hygienist wore about made me sick and gave me a headache. The Manchester airport was doing perfume samples in their mall-like store and I thought why would I do that to someone on a plane? People need to be aware of fragrances bothering people in close quarters. So, I totally get you and I am the same. A body wash is enough fragrance for me, to be honest.

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  5. I was wondering about y’all over break I’m so glad Mason is settled back in to the dorms and way to go with the Google slides! I hope the week back goes well! You look so pretty on New Year’s. That’s funny Mr. Nine and I took a day and just went into some furniture stores browsing the other day.

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    1. Aww, thank you! He is and I love my sparkle pants so it made the outfit easy. When else can you wear them? Ha! I don’t really like furniture shopping bc Tom is so picky and he takes forever. I would rather look at clothes, but even then, I am a fast shopper and get bored easily!

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  6. The highlight of my weekend was celebrating my youngest daughter’s 21st birthday a little early. She had to go back to school because she has a job that starts soon. I saw a rolling clothes rack I liked on Amazon for my Poshmark sales and a friend bought it for me for Christmas. Once again, your blog posts make me hungry 🤣 I need french toast and totchos!

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  7. I’m glad you got to have some relaxing time at home after your big trip. I saw the trailer for Poor Things and it definitely looked strange. There’s nothing like the awkward feeling of watching s** scenes in a movie with your kids sitting next to you! Thanks for linking up with Prime Purchases today!

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  9. Such a fun recap. I’m glad you had the week to recover from your trip. Good planning 😉 you and your friends are so festive on NYE! Mason’s hair looks great, but I’m sure it’s such a change! I hope your week goes smoothly.

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  10. My youngest had long hair for years which made it easy to pick him out for his high school graduation. Then, he cut it off and has had a myriad of haircuts over the years. Now, he’s growing it out again which is kinda funny considering he’s leaving his 30s behind! Mason’s hair looks like it has some wave to it? I love long hair on guys, and I blame it on the 70s!

    We did absolutely nothing on NYE or day. My oldest granddaughter came over to make “holiday” sugar cookies because she used all different kinds of cookie cutters. And, I have to make peanut butter blossoms for Christmas…those are my Christmas cookies even though my husband thinks it’s the sugar cookies.

    I went to church Saturday night and felt such peace. It’s the first time since the pandemic. I like Saturday night services because they just seem so much more impactful. I’m just weird that way.

    I hope you aren’t too tired this week. I remember that first week from Christmas break was brutal…and starting on a Monday would be the second worst. The first worst? Having to have Christmas parties because school was cancelled the day before break began. That happened to me twice!

    Have a fantastic week, Amy!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    1. Ha – I like longer hair, too. Tom’s hair was long when we met. So fun with your granddaughter. I used to bake with my nieces that are in town a lot.
      That’s so nice about church. You must be catholic?
      I will be, but it’s ok. I need to plan my days well and take off a few half days strategically this semester. You too!

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