Friday, August 12, 2022
Oh, Friday – you mean more now! Ha! I am happy today to be back and to be linking up with the ladies here for Friday Favorites!

How was your week?
Monday and Tuesday were teacher only days and we had some meetings, but we really had more time than I had anticipated to work in our rooms and to do lesson planning, copying, and things like that.
On Monday, our alumni association treated us to a taco bar. This is really easy to eat when you are trying to be healthier. I added some chips and queso on the side, but it wasn’t too bad.

Our alumni association director made churro Chex Mix for our dessert. It was delish!

I made pesto roasted vegetables Monday night.

I served it with the already cooked Costco chicken schwarma. I will not buy that again. It was just ok.

Thank you so much for the blog post ideas! A few of you said more teacher life things. Here is our beautiful auditorium with my very large faculty. I think we have 120 teachers. Yes, masks were mandatory for us that day. Some chose not to wear them.


Tom’s company lets the employees buy used technology and Tom brought me home an $80 Dell laptop. Now I can leave my school laptop at school and use this at home and I’m loving it. I’ve never had my own personal laptop – just a desktop.

I bought a cute little mint green mouse because old people can’t use track pads very well or is that just me?

Also, our library got a facelift this summer and it looks so good!

Here is my classroom ready to go for day one:




The stuff I do for them. They like to have tissues, hand sanitizer, band aids, lotion, and I added hard candy with the mask mandate. It’s the little things…

Tuesday we were on our own for lunch so Erica and I went to McAllister’s deli.

I got a baked potato and half a sandwich. It was a treat!

Wednesday morning I got up and look who was in my spot!

Year 29 photo! How is this possible? I guess mathematically it’s possible because I started at age 22 and I will turn 51 this fall. Ay caramba! That’s what we say in Spanish, you know?

I wore one pair of shoes and brought two more. The espadrilles were actually really comfortable but they only made it until 4th period. Flat sandals subbed in for the next 3 periods and then sneakers finally got to get some action for rainy bus duty. I have last period planning for the first time EVER and I got selected to help. It started pouring as the kids were looking for their busses!
Jen and I made a pact to both wear our Target Universal Thread dresses in mauve and she is also rocking the woven headband! She looks great!

We had a first day social in the library and another teacher was rocking it in the green color!

My first class of the day is my senior class and I did stations where they had to go around the room and do different things. This was my “photo booth”:

Moving around to the stations:

Beeping masks! People are saying we are one of the only metropolitan? areas in the country with a mask mandate. Maybe that isn’t true. I am really saddened to not see any faces. I had perfect attendance both days, by the way, except for one cat in The Bahamas.
So I guess what I am saying is that no one is sick. I’m not trying to be flippant about it, but the mental health is a higher priority now, in my humble opinion.

So, I have a weird expression, but this was a photo to send to Elizabeth, who quit teaching this summer. She is moving on to other things. It’s happening all over the country and it’s gonna be a problem.

I timed my makeup and hair routine without rushing and I was actually probably slower. This is my time:

Scary but final results:

Why did I do this? I just wanted to see if it was still about the same. I got rusty this summer!
I made a Kroger order yesterday morning and picked it up right after school.

I have said this before, but I really like having this chore done during the week where it’s not taking up valuable weekend time. If I do need something later, I can easily run in and it’s no big deal. For the big shop, I love a Wednesday or Thursday. I might try doing a Whole Foods/Prime delivery this weekend. I’ve been wanting to try it out and there are a couple of things I can only get there.
A major favorite is that we have been able to have dinner as a family of four! Shakespeare in the Park in the evenings is over, but there is still some daytime work. It’s been so nice. My college kids have a little over one week left at home.
Well…that’s about it!
I hope you had many favorites this week. If you or your kids started school, I am sending positive vibes your way. Give yourself grace and give them grace with this new routine! Go back to my Automatic August post if you missed it and maybe one little thing will help!
Amy