Monday, January 31, 2011

Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

The secretary in the office at school keeps an eye out for recipes for me.  I have made this one twice now, it is so good.


Sweet potatoes are so much better than regular potato.  In the pan I started with onions, and leaks.  I added turnip, parsnip and carrots.


Then I added a can of adzuki beans.  Then the veggie broth, and some rosemary and thyme.

 I cooked this for about 10 minutes, then put it in a casserole dish with the mashed sweet potato on top. Then I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top of the potatoes.  It baked in the oven for another 30 minutes.


This is the end result.  It tastes delish!

Snack program project

I have a plan in mind for a Snack Money BLITZ for my school.   The plan for the snack blitz is a huge poster that will hopefully encourage our parents to come up with about $900 in donations to help pay for their kid's snacks.  I am very hopeful, as this is an inner city school, and many of our parents are unemployed.  I want to put some photos of the snacks on the poster as well as some quotes from the kids on their favourite snacks, and then some information on the cost per snack per child.  We have about 180 kids, and if everyone could donate $5 then we should reach the goal.

On my other blog SCRAPPED, I posted a few images that I cut out on my Cricut.  Along with these and some photos of the snacks, I think I should be able to catch the interest of the parents.

Here are a couples of photos of the snacks.



Sunday, January 30, 2011

Island School

Every other year our grade 5 and 6's get to go to the Island school for about a week.  This time they went the first week back after the holiday break.  I wanted to add pictures, but because they are children from my school, of course I can't.  I have added some that are blurry so that you can get an idea of what I saw.

I don't go with the kids, but they usually invite teachers over one evening for dinner and activities.  I wanted to go, and because the other teachers couldn't get there until later, we missed dinner this year.

We have to take the ferry to Wards Island and a van picks us up from the dock.  There are very few vehicles on the island, perhaps just the emergency vehicles, police, fire, ambulance, and a few parks vehicles, and then the van and school bus for the school.  Most people on the island have bicycles.

By the time we got there, the kids were on their way to activities.  They were participating in a 'Winter Olympics'.  I hung out mostly with Vanessa the grade 6 teacher and we caught up a little bit, during her event, the luge.  The kids had scooter boards and they had to be pushed from one end of the gym to the other.  They had a few other things to complete, including a cheer and collecting a bunch of bean bags.  There were other events too, but I missed out on what they were, I know hockey was one and I think there was an obstacle course too.

Here are some pictures of the kids doing a luge run!















I think this is an obstacle course.

Breakfast

A little breakfast I made for myself on January 15.  That is a plate from the new set I bought after Christmas for $20.

Gluten-free blueberry muffin, yogurt, clementine orange, cantaloupe and strawberries.  And of course a nice mug full of tea.

One man's garbage is anothers treasure

I found this in the basement of my building.  It was going out as garbage.  I called my son to see if he wanted it for his my apartment, but it was too tall.  I had my neighbour help me bring it up to my apartment, because is was too good to throw away.




This is how it looks now that I have filled it with scrapbook stuff.




I'm not usually a dumpster diver, but this one was worth it.  It's a Billy bookshelf from Ikea.

January Update

I was just looking at my January 1st blog, and I had to laugh.  All good intentions!  But I have had just about no success on any of the points.

I saw the surgeon last Wednesday 3 months post surgery, and he was not happy.  In fact he had a little rant about the physiotherapists not doing the best for me.  When he found out that I was not paying, but was having it through OHIP, (Ontario Health Insurance Plan), he said that if I was paying privately he was sure they would be doing a better job!  So I went back and told that to the physiotherapist, (who was not very happy, obviously) and then I was subject to a very painful session.  I guess that is how it will go from now on, but hopefully that will mean I will progress further than before.  The surgeon said he has patients just 6 weeks post surgery who are much further along than me.

As for my body image, it continues to get worse.  I renewed my gym subscription, with all good intentions, but due to the pain in my shoulder and a bout of the 'flu, I haven't had the energy or the lung capacity to go and work out.  Hopefully beginning in February I can change this.

Expanding my group of friends has actually gone backwards.  In the winter months I just feel like staying home and staying warm!  I haven't been to any events other than my own Board Games Night which is in my building!  I know that once spring shows up that this will change.

Same goes for my love life.  I had just commented to my friend Kat, who is a Relationship Coach, that I just have no desire to date in the winter.  I'm not sure if that is typical of singles in Canada, but again I never have a good body image during those months and I hate all the clothes I have to wear to stay warm!

My relationship with my family is about the same.  I got rid of my land line so now I won't be phoning them as much.  I did hook both my brother and sister up on Skype and we even had a conference call.  It was pretty cool.  Now if only they would log on to Skype on the weekends we can chat more often.  In the process of getting rid of my land line, I gave up that number.  My son is so sentimental that he didn't want to lose the number we have always had, so he took it on.  If anyone calls for me they will get him, and he'll pass on my new number.

I have scrapped maybe 3 times this month, so no change there either.  I just bought a cool new cartridge for my Cricut machine, and cut out some lovey retro looking kitchen stuff.  Go check it out at Scrapped. That is another blog I have.

As for flossing, I didn't have a dentist appointment this month, or ate anything that got caught in my teeth, so I figure that I flossed a total of about 5 times this month.  I know, I KNOW, gross!  I never have been a big flosser, I have very healthy teeth, and so I just don't see the need!

So here comes February, lets see what I can accomplish this month.

Saturday, January 01, 2011

2010 Newsletter

My 2010 newsletter
Click this link

1/1/11

January 1st.

A time to renew and plan for success.

I'm not really sure what my plan is, but basically to have a better year than the last, to be a more positive influence on the lives I touch and to be and do the best that I can.

Some of the things that will improve are:
  • the movement of my arm and shoulder, which means continued physiotherapy and exercise
  • my body image, which means returning to the gym on a more regular basis
  • expanding my group of friends, beyond Work, Couchsurfing and Meetup
  • my love life, which means going on more dates
  • my relationship with my family
  • the frequency with which I scrapbook
  • flossing
I started blogging almost 6 years ago, and my first entry was, `101 Things to do in 1001 days`.  I just checked back on it and most of the items are done, only about 20 or so were never completed.  Some of the things took a lot longer than I expected, and others are just not as important to me any more.

I will also be more aware of what I have, how I use it and be appreciative of it.

How about you?