Herb Skillet Pastitsio

 I enjoying finding and trying new recipes from my Better Homes & Garden magazine.  Looking through a new issue is one of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday before going food shopping.  This recipe for Herb Skillet Pastitsio comes from the January 2021 edition.  I'm always looking for a new way to jazz up hamburger, so I thought I'd try this one.

Anyone who knows me from my childhood knows that I am a picky eater.  While my tastes have broaden slightly as an adult, I'm still cautious when trying a new recipe.  So, the ingredients in this recipe seemed pretty safe: hamburger, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, oregano, ziti pasta, and Laredo sauce.  The only ingredient I questioned was the cinnamon.  In my mind, cinnamon is a great dessert spice, but doesn't belong in a savory dish.  I am intrigued that the recipe uses both a red tomato sauce and a white Alfredo sauce at the same time.  But I'm trying new things this year, so here we go.

The process of making this recipe was pretty easy.  It was a little more work than making Hamburger Helper, but over all not too bad.  I think it took me 45 minutes to complete (the recipe states 40 minutes.).  I liked putting the whole skillet into the oven under the broiler was a pretty ingenious way to brown the Alfredo sauce.  (It also tricked my husband and kids into thinking it was just melted mozzarella cheese.)

I didn't have fresh oregano, but other than that, my picture looks pretty similar to what was in the magazine.

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So, how did it turn out?

Fine.  Like I wrote earlier, this recipe reminded me a lot of Hamburger Helper.  The cinnamon made you think "this is different" with each bite.  I wonder if using ground lamb would make a difference and worked better with the cinnamon.  The recipe suggests lamb as an alternative protein.  (I've only had lamb as a child with mint jelly sauce.)  I really liked the combined tastes from both red and white sauces.

How did the family like it?

Nate didn't like it at all.  While he ate it, I did get a "don't ever make that again" look from him.  Message received.  He doesn't like either excessive cinnamon or Alfredo sauce.  Oops.

Two of four kids liked it, but the other two were on the verge of throwing a tantrum.  

Overall, this recipe receives 2 stars from the Calls and will be purged from my recipe file.  The unique flavors that I didn't mind, weren't worth the dirty looks from half my family.

Social Distancing Week 2

Church, this second week at home, was more normal, if that's a thing anymore.  Nate was able to administer the Sacrament to us, and that brought peace to my heart. We also had a little more structure in our meeting and I think the kids responded well to that.  Our Sunday School lesson was on Jacob 5.  After summarizing the Allegory of the Olive Tree, Nate took out family outside to see his two peach trees.  One was ready to burst into blooms, the other had no blossom buds.  We could see how the one tree was not doing well and wouldn't produce any fruit.  Then Nate took us over to his apple trees where he had recently grafted in some different types of apples.  Seeing the process really helped me understand the allegory and all the work that is necessary to bring forth good fruit.  It won't happen by itself.  So, what am I doing to help the work of the Lord?  What more can I do?

Week 2 of teaching online found me at my computer from 6:30 am to 8 or 9 pm.  My students were turning in a ton of work (yay!), but being at the computer all day made me feel like I was being horrible mom.  The kids ran around wild and watched hours of TV.    We had a schedule that I printed off each day, but this was survival mode and so the schedule was mostly ignored.  Hopefully, once the oldest start new content next week, some form of normalcy will appear.

To help engage our students in our daily video chats, our team of teachers hosted our own video Spirit Week.  Each day the teachers of Team Fox, and some of the students, dressed up for a daily Zoom meetings.  This silliness made smiles happen as we connected digitally if we couldn't connect in person.

	Crazy Hat day with my Graduation Cap.  Hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that I defended my paper on the Math of Solar Eclipses.	For Character Day, I was a MathNet detective from the 80s PBS show Square One TV.
Crazy Sock means I wore my Math Socks.  Could have gone crazier with all the Fox socks that I have.	Bring your Pet to School day means that Mittens got to see my students. This was probably my favorite day of the week because I had over 20 students in the online meeting introducing their peers to their pets.	Aloha!  We ended up not hosting a video meeting this day, but sharing pictures of our Hawaiian get-up helped us all get through the dreary isolation.

I had hoped to have many more books read, and the house deep-cleaned, and my quilt finished, and my children perfectly dressed, and the laundry done, and... and... and...  But I feel like the one thing that I have had to accept (again) is that good enough really is good enough.  And what is good enough during social distancing is much less than before.  We might not have a bulk supply of toilet paper, but we have enough for our needs.  We might not be able to pick up more than 2 loaves of bread at the store, but we have a wheat grinder and I have a husband he enjoys experimenting with baking bread.  We might not be engaging in home-schooling, but we are home, and safe, and the kids are learning to cope with this strange situation we find ourselves in.  It's far from perfect, it's far from ideal.  But it's good enough.  And that is good enough.

Social Distancing Week 1

2020 will go down in history as a defining point for this generation.  And not due to some grand event like a putting a man on the moon or a tragic event like 9/11.  Rather this historic event is due to a microscopic pathogen known as the corona virus or Covid-19.  While the virus started off in China in January, it has traveled across the world, affecting millions, and even killing others with previous health complications.

In Utah, we started to see effects of the virus as school events began to be postponed or even canceled.  Dances, science fairs, sports, and other activities moved to online venues, when possible. 
Libraries and other public building closed also due to the virus.  Stores limited their hours of operation, and provided special hours for the elderly.  Toilet paper, cleaning wipes, tissues, hand sanitizer, flour, sugar, canned beans, rice, and other staples vanished from the shelves in a matter of minutes.  A rush at the grocery store meant that I spent a hour in line that wrapped around the inside of the story to get 2 gallons of milk and a pack of diapers.  Thank heavens for food storage! I think that the epidemic finally felt real to me personally when we moved from having Church as a congregation to hosting our own Sacrament Meetings in our home.  While very spiritual (and much shorter) than the 2-hour block, I miss the interaction with my friends and neighbors.

The state of Utah issued a "soft closure" for all school starting on Friday, March 13th due to the corona virus called Covid-19.  (unlucky day?)  This meant that all schools were closed for students, while teachers would work either from home or at a mostly empty building.  Our district decided, since we were so close to the end of the term, to make the 2 weeks review only and allow students the opportunity to fix any/all low scores in their grade.  As teachers, we quickly put together a review packet for those who needed it, and changed all the deadlines for our online assignments.  While this was helpful for students, it caused a lot of extra work for teachers as we now had to accept missing/late work from January.  Yikes!  But we got through it.  Teachers also learned how to host video meetings through Google Meets and Zoom, and all the joys and surprised that come through that.  I am very grateful that I have worked so hard the last 5 years to understand the finer details of Canvas, which is our district's online learning platform.  Because of that understanding, my students have had a much easier time transitioning to completing online reviewing.  In two weeks, we'll see how the online learning of new material goes.

Wednesday, March 18th was supposed to the first day that students got online to start their review material.  And while that happened, at 7:09 am, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit the Wasatch Front.  It felt and sounded like a large snow-plow was driving down the street.  But the house continued to shake for over 30 seconds scaring my kids and myself.  Once everyone was calmed down, we checked in with Nate at work, family throughout the state, and neighbors.  Everyone was okay, just shaken up (pun intended.)  There were several aftershocks recorded throughout the day and coming weeks, but we only felt the 4.2-magnitude one around 1 pm--nap time.  Because of this, my two youngest have struggled with nap time and bed time ever since.  But we'll get through it.
 
For online learning for my children, they have also spent time at home with Nana and Mom going over old assignments and exploring their many digital apps (most of which I have ignore to this point in the year...no longer.)  I have also issued my two oldest a daily Lego challenge.  They were excited about it first, but now it seems like just a chore.  I'll have to see what I can with that.

Before we got too serious with our social distancing, we helped my parents with their kitchen remodel.  In these pictures, we are helping to take the old hard-wood floor boards to the dump.  Nate decided to move his truck closer so he could just chuck the boards over the fence into the back of his truck.  After seeing this happen, my mom said, "Be careful!  Don't hit your window!"  And then CRASH!  Right through the back window went the next boards.  Oh well!  

I think one of the things that is so difficult about social distancing is that EVERYTHING is closed.  (As it should be.)  I miss the library.  I miss being able to go food shopping at 9 pm after the kids are in bed.  I miss window shopping at an actual store instead of online shopping for everything.   I'm going to miss getting my hair done in a couple of weeks.  I miss seeing my friends and being able to go out to lunch (inside a restaurant) and getting pedicures.   I miss seeing my extended family in person and giving them hugs.  I miss 2nd Sunday and 3rd Sunday family dinners.

I know that social distancing is necessary to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, but it's hard to be home ALL THE TIME.

Being Kind to Myself. It's Harder Than I Think It Should Be

 After the Fall General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I felt like one of the messages for me was to be kinder to myself.  I know that what I think I should do and what I actually can do are not always the same...so why do I make myself feel guilty when the two don't match?

My "craft room" after I cleaned up.  Yikes!

For example, knowing that I was behind on my Quilt Along, I came home ON TIME rather than 2 hours late from school and decided to sit down and work on the wall hanging section of the quilt.  I knew that I should be able to complete the whole thing in 2 hours before I needed to pick up the kiddos from daycare. But then reality hit.  I needed to move the laundry from my craft room (notice I
didn't say fold), find my sewing machine in the storage room, and then locate my scissors, and don't forget to look for the pins that were for some reason up on a book shelf in the living room.  Then I needed to vacuum up that spider, and search for my seam ripper.  And once I got everything together, it was time to pick up the kids.  I just couldn't do what I wanted.  It's wasn't can versus should, it was can't versus should--and it left me feeling awful.

I wish I had a magical story to tell here and how a fairy godmother came and made everything alright and I finished the quilt wall hanging on time, and cooked a gourmet dinner, and had a spotless house, and folded that laundry, and created the perfect lesson plan for the next day.  But that's a lie.

I know that I have a hard time balancing all of the good and better things in my life, and that it's difficult to choose what's best.  Some days I can do it all, some days I feel like I should do it all, and some days I fall apart and cry because none of it happened at all. 

The point of this ramble is that I accomplished something.  And that may not be much to you, but it makes me happy.  It makes me proud.  And I did it just for me.

So, this is me celebrating what I can do.







I can make flying geese using a no waste method.










I can create perfect half-square triangles.










I can learn a new quilt block called the "switch and flip".









I can find time to finish the wall hanging section of my quilt.

I can acknowledge that my family comes first, and my job come shortly after that--but I am important!

I can understand that while I may not be able to grade tests coherently after 10 pm, I apparently have no problem quilting after 10 pm.

I can apologize because I am NOT a social person while quilting.  (Sorry, Nate.)

I can enjoy hot cocoa and quilting at the same time.

I can finish what I started out to do without feeling guilty about the time it took.

I can do hard things.

Today is about ME.

I had a panic attack last night.  I won't bore you with the details, but the panic attack (and my husband) forced me to take today off of school.  And while there is SO much that I could be doing (grad school projects, grad school homework, grading tests, creating tests, creating lesson plans, writing new quizzes, reading educational books for book club, reading fun books, reading books for grad school, reading that book my husband wants to discuss, reading social media, laundry, cleaning my house, laundry, dishes, did I mention--laundry, answering emails, scrapbooking, quilting, watching the new episode of Poldark, watching old episodes of Friends, finishing watching Pride & Prejudice, drywalling, laundry, painting, vacuuming, and--oh yeah--laundry)...

Today is about ME.

So, unlike Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Eat, Pray, Love who had a year to figure things out--I have 24 hours to myself (or really 10 hours until everyone gets home and I have to be mom again) .  I decide that this day isn't going to work if I try to jam pack EVERYTHING into that I want.  I have ten hours and they are precious, so everything I do needs to be deliberate.  Here we go.

6-7 AM  Woke up and went back to sleep.  Yay!  Rushed the kids out of the house and to day care.   Oldest child still says her neck hurts, but I need her to go to school today.   My shoulders and back hurt (from stress?), not doing much for myself yet.  But didn't scream at kids as we got into the car.  That's a plus.

7-8 AM  Got home from dropping kids off and decided it was time to eat.  But today needs to be deliberately about taking care of Jen, so why not try cooking something new.  I like cooking.  And I'm not too worried about messing up something if it's just for me.  I tried Eggs Benedict for the first time a couple of years ago (thanks to Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride), and I liked it well enough.  But I've never poached an egg before.  So, I look up recipe in a couple of cookbooks and decide to go with America Test Kitchen's recipe.  Try poaching 3 eggs--it's all we had.  Big mess.  Didn't taste very good.  Maybe it's the hollandaise sauce and English muffin that I liked better from Eggs Benedict.  Oh it could just be the cook.  She needs more practice!  Oh well, the toast and raspberry jam are good.

8-9 AM  Substitute calls.  Same one from my last two maternity leaves.  He can handle my classes so I'm not too worried.  Time to blog and keep MYSELF accountable to ME about MY day.  Don't even know if I'll publish this for the world to see.  Decide that social media is not where I want to spend my time today.  But some laundry will definitely need to be done...no clean pants.  Hmmm...clean laundry doesn't do much good if it isn't put away.  I find 5 baskets of so-called clean laundry and fold them while the washing machine starts its work on my jeans.  I'M not multi-tasking.  The washing machine is just being accommodating by working at the same time.  I probably should have taken mom up on her offer to help with laundry more while our basement was under construction last week.

9-10 AM  Five baskets is A LOT of laundry to fold.  And I'm ashamed to admit that some of it was from our vacation to Rexburg.  That was TWO months ago.  No wonder I've been feeling like I have no clothes to wear.  Sure, I could offer over a dozen excuses as to why it didn't get done.  But excuses won't fix it the problem.  Folding it today did.  And figuring out how to balance my life--and ask for and accept help--will.  It's funny how my ipod seems to detect my mood and play exactly what I need to hear.  "Something That I Want" from Tangled, "Happy" from Despicable Me 2, "When We Were Kings" from The Count of Monte Cristo musical, to name a few.  Being alone with my thoughts and the laundry made me realize that I don't really have a clean spot to my name.  I remember that in college, as long as I had a spot to center myself (my bedroom if my roommates were social, or the front room if they weren't) I was fine.  But I don't have that spot right now in my own home.  Sure, I've got by messy bedroom, or the messy kitchen, or the messy family room, or the messy living room (get the picture) when Nate and the kids are asleep.  But what if I don't want to wait until 8 pm to have a quiet moment.  I think it's time to go design my craft room (a.k.a. MY space.)

10-11 AM  Got distracted by a healthy snack (apple and caramel) and Game Theory.  I have a project due 25 days for grad school.  The purpose: introduce my classmates to game theory.  So, I picked up a couple of books from the library on Wednesday and they have been sitting waiting for me to read them.  Snack time seems like a good time (and a way to avoid the all-to-easy-to-get-to social media).  This book is titled Gladiators, Pirates and Games of Trust by Haim Shapira. (Yes, I picked it just for the title.)  First two chapters were fun to read.  Did another load of laundry (Hurray for clean jeans!)  And took measurements of the current craft room.

11 AM - 12 PM  It's fun to design and measure (and use 7th grade math for scale factoring).  What's hard is keeping this room about ME.  Sure it would be easy to store all the holiday decorations in there and all the food storage and, and, and...  That defeats the purpose.  Right now, I am designing this room for me; not my children, or my husband, or our stuff.  That's not to say that it won't end up holding some of these other items in the future.  But that's not what I'm doing right now.

12-1 PM  Lunch time: PB & J and more designing.  Would be easier if it wasn't on my scrapbook software, but Microsoft "Paint" won't do what I want and I haven't loaded Photoshop onto my laptop.  Oh well.

1-2 PM  I caved.  I checked social media--but only for 15 minutes.  And took a much needed nap.

2-3 PM  Shower, finally.  And then the last two loads of laundry (from our room).  These have been sitting there for weeks.  Why?  A pen exploded and I hadn't the heart to throw the stuff away.  I also didn't have the time to do anything about it.  Until today.  A little Spray & Wash and the deep cleaning setting on my washing machine and the darks have come out pen-free.  Now for the real challenge--the lighter colored stuff.  Fingers crossed.

3-4 PM  The last hour was spent centering myself by reading my scriptures, looking through home improvement pictures, and playing the piano. 

Today's experiment and recovery time is over and I'm okay with that.  I've enjoyed being by myself and doing only want I want.  But I'm not just ME anymore.  I'm also WIFE, and MOM, and DAUGHTER, and NEIGHBOR, and FRIEND, and TEACHER, and STUDENT.  And that's the way it should be.  Each role I play makes my life better, happier, more enriching.  I just need to remember that all of these roles balance on ME.  If I don't take care of myself, then I can't perform my other roles without resentment or exhaustion.  Now, if I can just hold on to that idea.

Middle of the Night

Reposted from my school blog:  http://thecallhall.weebly.com/1/post/2013/12/middle-of-the-night.html

 

Whenever my children are sick at home in the middle of the night, it's usually me who wakes up to tend the child and clean up the mess.  I sometimes think that my husband could sleep through a nuclear explosion.  (Okay, maybe that's exaggerating just a little bit.)  Well, last night, I learned that my husband can be awoken in the event of an emergency.

So, it's around midnight, and everyone in my house is deep asleep.  All of a sudden, there's a loud "Thump, Thump, Thump, *Pop*".  My husband sits up and shouts in an authoritative tone "Who's there?" while I mumble "What?  Shhhh...It's okay."  He goes in search of the noise wondering about the possibly an intruder, while I stumble into the children's rooms to calm them down.

Turns out the noise was caused by a couple of helium balloons getting caught in our ceiling fan.  But it's nice to know that in the event of an emergency, I can count on my husband to be alert and take care of us.

Educational Differences

Can something be learned if it's already been experienced but just not written down?  I hope so, because that is part of what I've learned this week.

I finished up a two-day professional development yesterday on interdisciplinary teaming.  Day 1 was incredible.  Our team worked hard to develop it's name, logo, common themes, etc.  Each activity edified, each story intrigued, and everyone seemed to leave excited for the future.  Then there was day two.  We were barraged with personal stories that left one wondering what the point was, we felt coerced into completing tasks that offered no deeper application, and we were held captive with nothing to do for two hours in order to receive our payment for the previous six hours.  I love how the facilitator  of Day 1 presented her information.  I respect the facilitator of Day 2, but it just wasn't her best teaching moment.  I guess, the whole point of this story is that "actions speak louder than words".  In order for me to NOT fall into the same trap as Day 2 facilitator I need to be aware of the ratio of actions/words that I require of my students.  I do NOT want my students coming home and telling their parents that they were held captive by their teacher...unless it's because I'm teaching something that is truly captivating. 

So, I might have bitten off something bigger than I can chew.  I decided to start this year with "standards based grading".  What is that you ask?  Or isn't that what you complained about so much last year?   (Okay, maybe I didn't complain on this blog...but if you'd been around when I finished reading some books for school, or happen to be my friend on Good Reads, you'd know that I haven't been a fan.)  Well, standards based grading is grading students entirely on the standards that you teach.  Sounds simplify enough, I know...but it isn't.  This means that a grade can NOT be lowered because of absences or tardies.   Late work and extra credit aren't allowed either.    I read 2 books last spring on Standards Based Grading and hated everything about it.

So, why do it this year?  Well, my principal gave me a new book for summer reading and the approach is completely different.  Instead of "everything you've ever done for grading is WRONG" like in one of the spring time books, this book is "tweak a few things and you're there."  So, I tweaked.  This year instead of having categories for tests, homework, participation, etc for my grades, the categories will be Number Sense, Proportional Relationships, Executive Functioning Skills, etc.  I will still give the same homework and tests as before, I'll just group them differently.  I don't know if it's truly Standard Based Grading, but that's what I'm doing.  So, here goes.  Wish me luck!  (I'm sure there will be more posts in the future on how it works/doesn't work.)

First Sunday

Well, my first Sunday as Primary President was mostly a success.  A couple of glitches occurred with timing issues, and I lost the kids' attention the last 5 minutes of Sharing Time.  But overall, we made it!

 * ~ * ~ * ~ *

What I learned last week was that it really stresses me out when someone pushes my boundaries.  You'd think that would be an obvious piece of knowledge, but it was news to me.  So, here's what happened.  I got a phone call on Monday and was informed of several things that this individual was expecting me to do.  That shouldn't have caused too much stress but the children were running around and crying for dinner which was on the stove cooking and Nate had just arrived home.  I did NOT have time then for a 20 minute phone call.  So, rather than ask if we could have the conversation later, I just stood there and took it all.  Then I hung up the phone and cried.  I felt alone and useless and overwhelmed and harassed.  Needless to say, I wasn't very polite to my family.

Things improved after dinner when we went to the Draper Temple for family night.  I apologized to everyone, and we discussed the blessings of the temple.  Later, Nate and I dissected what had set me off.  I don't mind doing things for others, or completing what I'm supposed to do.  What I DON'T like is for someone to assume that I'll do whatever they ask--without asking.  That's the Boundary that was crossed.

So, how am I going to prevent that from happening again?  I don't know.  But I do know how to recognize it after it happens.  I think I just need to be aware of it to begin with, and move on from there.

Mid-Century Architecture

This week I learned that my entire township is banned from setting off fireworks.  I also learned that no one follows that ordinance.

I also learned that my house is a classic example of mid-century architecture.  (I wonder what would happen to the property value if I typed that into Zillow.). That little tid-bit came from our new neighbors (who I met for the first time yesterday).  Derek and Micah originally come from San Diego.  They've bought the house two down from us.  His thesis was on mid-century architecture, so he was very pleased to find it here in Utah at an affordable price.  (And here I was thinking that the builders of our house were just crazy with their design.)

I suspect that my learning level is about to GREATLY increase.  I'm getting a new calling in church today (more in what it is after it happens).  Scared?  Yes.  Excited?  Yes.  Humbled?  Greatly.

Video by Request

So, um, what I learned last week was to double-check that my post actually got published and not just saved as a draft.  Oops.  So, below is what I tried to post from my i-pad.

~ * ~

Ally requested more videos of my kids, so here you go.  This is from today.  The temperature was over 100, so we didn't stay outside for too long.

And here's the rest of the adventure.  After I stopped Carter from playing with the next door neighbor's sprinklers.  (It's so exciting!)

This one's from Friday when Mom and I took the kids down to the Mountain Man Rendezvous at Energy Solutions Arena.  They had FREE pony rides!  Couldn't beat the price!  (But the heat was awful!)

 Here's another video from earlier in the summer.

 Enjoy!  (Oh, and another thing that I learned...or was at least reminded of...is that Blogger only allows you post videos that are less than 100 MB.  So, if you want the others, you'll need to come see them on my computer.)

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So, because I'm at the computer and I know that I'll forget by Friday--here are some other things that I have learned this past weekend.

1.  The piping on couches and other upholstery is actually called "welting".
2.  Costco has a really easy-to-use photobook maker.  I can even use my Creative Memories software to make the pages and then use those pages in the book.  Here's hoping that their turnaround time is accurate.   (I used the software to make a sign-in book for my brother-in-law's wedding on the 1st of August.  5-8 business days is just fine.  Any longer than that will get me in trouble.)

Practice Makes Humble

I finished reading Jon Acuff's book Start yesterday and felt inspired.  I've wanted to do a blog for school for the last couple of years, but couldn't really think of a topic to blog about.  I even created a blog last Spring when I updated my school website--but I still didn't know what to write about.  I mean, if I complained about a student online--I might just get in a little bit of trouble.  I found a couple of 180 teacher blogs, meaning that they blog every day of the school year.  Yikes!  I have a hard enough time trying to update this blog monthly.

So, after finishing Start, the idea came to me.  I'm always telling my students that learning is a life-long process and that I'm continually learning new things--math related and not.  Now I have the opportunity to prove it.  I want to write WEEKLY about what new things I learned that week.  I believe that the flexibility of the subject and time frame will make it possible...and hopefully, some what interesting.

Since there are still 5 weeks until school starts, I should practice now to make sure that it's really something that I want to commit 36 weeks of my life to.

~ * ~

This week I learned about home remodeling.  I've watched Nate fix drywall, mud, sand, and make basic repairs for the last couple of years since we bought our house.  But this week, it was my turn.  In the process of finally painting Kaylie's room (see video below), we found blue paint at Home Depot for $7.  Jackpot!  Which means it was time to also paint Carter's room.  Nate decided that it was time for me to learn the finer arts of home construction.  So, Tuesday I learned how to mud the correct way and Wednesday I learned about how much work sanding correctly really is.

Three days and a couple of tears later, the real thing that I learned is that I'm still stuck in a "Fixed Mindset" (See Carol Dewak's book Mindset).  When learning something new, I want to be able to just do what I'm asked and move on to the end results.  I often don't care about the why and how of it.  Which means I get REALLY touchy when I'm told that I'm doing it wrong--like with sanding.  Once I calmed down, dried my tears, and apologized to my husband, I realized that my pride was getting in the way of being in the "Growth Mindset".  After that realization, I was able to see the need to ask clarifying questions and actually learn how and why to do something the correct way.  The work continued and Carter now has a newly painted room  (see 2nd video below).

It's hard to admit that the teacher in me is having the same troubles that I complain about with my students.  I'm afraid to ask questions because of what someone else might think of me!  Good grief!  If I don't ask questions, how am I ever going to learn it correctly.

~ * ~

Kaylie's new room

Carter's new room

FYI.  My new school blog can be found at http://thecallhall.weebly.com/blog.html.  I won't start posting there until school starts.