It started out at 50 degrees and ended up in the 80′s.  Thunderstorms are predicted tonight with rain tomorrow as a cold front colides with our warm air. 

The buds on the dogwood tree started opening today.

Next week is MAP testing, so teachers are trying to keep students in class to cram in as much last minute “teaching to the test” information as possible these last few days.  Which means I saw significantly fewer students in my office today. Tomorrow I have a LPN student in my office. He/she may not see a lot of action.

After work I took my coupons and matched them up with Kroger specials…and got a few other items I needed to  make chicken/spinach pita pockets for supper tonight.  It was nice to not have to turn on the stove to cook.  I used the left-over chicken from the weekend.  It was good.  After months of eating soups, eating salads sounds like fun.  I had a coupon for pasta, so I got some rotini to use in future pasta salads.  Not extreme couponing or hoarders, but planning ahead for some warm weather meals.

Not sure about todays “funny”…it’s also tragic.  One student told me his mom might have to go to court, but so far she’s “refused” to touch the papers (I assume she’s being “served”), so he doesn’t know when a court date might happen.  Instead of wondering why so many kids are strange, we should probably marvel at how normal they are.

It’s very damp/misty out and in the 40′s.  Which turned into fog while I was driving home this afternoon. I may have jumped the gun a bit, packing away the flannel sheets and comforter bedspread.  The thin cotton sheets and thin summer bedspread just didn’t keep me warm enough last night.  I got up and found a quilt to add to the bedding…then I was warm enough to go back to sleep.  Tonight I decided to just turn the heat back on.  And keep the quilt on the bed.  Tomorrow we are supposed to have warm weather, then another cold front and rain/storms.  Back and forth with cold and warm systems bumping into each other all week.  April showers I suppose. 

Saddened by the sick violence at the Boston Marathon. More security everywhere.  Scary.

But middle school kids continue to amuse and reassure me.  One boy came in after getting bumped into by another student that he described as a “10 Ton Rhinoceros”.  An ice pack for his shoulder cured it.  In the mornings I take a cooler to the ice machine in the cafeteria and fill it up.  I make 6 or so ice packs to put in the “freezer” part of my mini-fridge (for medicines).  I use the pre-made ice packs (2 scoops of ice in a plastic bag) when I am swamped with students.  Otherwise I make an special ice pack for the student, which seem to work much better than the pre-made ones I pull out of the freezer.   But you do what you have to do.

On Friday, lucky dog Dennis gets to babysit Jax.  The regular sitter needs a day off.  Hopefully this summer Mimi (aka ME) will get a chance to do some babysitting.  

Yesterday was “interesting”.  Went to Sunday school and a person who sees me on a regular basis commented on how she liked my new haircut.  I have been wearing my hair this way for several years.  It’s been over a week since I got my hair cut (just a trim actually).  I smiled and said “Thank you”.  

I got most of my engraving done and finished laundry and ironed all the clothes that had accumulated over the past couple of weeks. Most of them were spring/summer cotton shirts & pants.  The gap in my closet from packing away winter clothes is now filled with summer clothes. 

Last night we played Mexican Train at the Edwards’ house.  I won 6 rounds in a row.  It was freaky.  there is some skill in how you play the dominoes in your hand, but there is also the “luck” in the dominoes you draw.  Since I rarely win a round, and have never won an entire game, this was significant.  We also had some delicious brownies baked by Jay.  I’d say they were the charm that led to my winning, except everyone ate them.

The cable and internet were out at our house last night.  No idea what was up with that.  I started reading my new book Frost Burned.  It’s good.  I stayed up later than I planned, because I didn’t want to put it down.

I showed up at the Kiwanis Pancake breakfast 9-ish.  I planned to be a bit earlier but I had a few things I needed to do and saw some people to chat & catch up with along the way.  The breakfast was delicious as usual.  There was a pretty good crowd there, but the line for food was short.  service with a smile.  and good music to enjoy pancakes, sausage and company with.  They even came up with a use for those left-over pancakes they froze “a while back”…which are now dried out and hard.Toss the pancake in the box.  

It’s been a sunny day and warmed up to 63.  I spent a little time pulling weeds.  The garden is too wet to do any real work, but I pulled weeds along the edges.  Pulled more weeds from the herb bed.  It’s looking pretty good.  There are a few bare spots that I’ll need to fill soon. Then I can mulch it good and maybe not have to worry about weeds.  

It took a while hours, but I got a big batch of photos uploaded and sent off to Snapfish to be printed.  I was able to take advantage of their 500 prints for $45–including shipping.  That’s how far behind I let myself get.  I need to spend more hours going thru and burning CD’s of photos and then remove them from the computer.  That way maybe I can keep  future photos organized, printed & CD’s burned in a timely manner.  At one time, I had a good system figured out.

I got my rotisserie chicken cooking away.  Definitely mashed potatoes and gravy.  Salad.  It will be a good meal.  Tomorrow morning I might try to duplicate Awful Annie’s Breakfast Mess.  Tonight I plan to enjoy a quiet evening at home.  

But fortunately no damage done.  It didn’t hit the fence or the van parked in the street by the curb.  It was a crab apple tree that wasn’t in the best of health, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time mourning it.  Actually I didn’t even notice it was down until I got home from work Thursday.  I park the VW out front and am not particularly “alert” when I leave for work in the morning.

I’m ready for spring to return.  It was 42 Thursday morning and I am not sure it warmed up at all during the day.  It was very gray and dreary.  It was 36 this morning but it got up to 50 this afternoon, with some sunshine.

Tomorrow is the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast at the St. James Middle School.  I know where I’m eating tomorrow morning.  

After a week of not cooking, due to assorted meetings and Dennis being out of town, I fixed a nice supper tonight.  Salad, garlic bread and spaghetti.  I stopped by Kroger on the way home tonight.  Between their weekly specials, manager specials and my “valued customer” card, I saved 32% on my purchases.  I stuck to my list, based on what I’ll be cooking over the next week.  I still have to go to Country Mart to get the “Smart Chicken” brand of whole chicken to rotisserie tomorrow.  Kroger doesn’t carry that brand…and it’s the only one I buy.  No anitbiotics, growth hormones, natural diet, yada yada yada.  It’s a close to organic as I can easily find around here.  Having lived in NW Arkansas where Tysons huge chicken houses pollute the landscape, and having seen the crates of chickens piled so high that bottom chickens are often smothered by poop before they arrive at the slaughter house…it’s a brand I choose NOT to buy.  I recently saw a turkey hauling truck (not Tyson) and each layer of cages had solid tray-like barriers on the bottom…which should offer some protection for the bottom layer of birds.  Big scale farming is sad farming.

OK, off my soap box for a while.  Laundry started.  Wearing pajamas.  Ready for “Vegas” to come on at 8 PM. Maybe an episode or two of “Dark Shadows” on Netflix.  It’s Friday night…got to live it up!

I think thunderstorms have some sort of “radar” like tornadoes hitting trailer parks…except downpours occur just as students are getting off bus to go into school building or at the end of the day, as they are boarding the busses.  There was some scary impressive lightening as I was driving home. At the moment it is just raining, with some distant rumbles of thunder.  Temperature has dropped from 72 to 58 and is supposed to dip down to 40.  Lucas is nervous and pacing.  He doesn’t like storms.  Dennis talked to his sister near Souix Falls SD.  She’s got freezing rain right and a foot of snow in the forecast.  She has a candle lit and can heat the kitchen with the gas cook stove and has her cell phone on the charger.  I think the question is not IF she’ll lose power, but when. 

Had a dentist appointment after school.  No new cavities or problems, but one of my older fillings needs to be replaced.  It is one of the earlier “softer” composite fillings and it is worn away to the point it is about to fail.  I’ve noticed it feeling “dented” and food collecting there.  I don’t enjoy going to the dentist but I do appreciate the fact I still have all my teeth.

It was a good day at work.  Just the “normal” stuff with a little added work due to summer school forms.  To help out the Saint who volunteered to work summer school, each school nurse is supposed to look at all the students from her building that plan to attend summer school, and make any medical notes that would be helpful. I’m happy to do it.  

I wore my cat print dress to work today.  It was fun.  I’ll be wearing long pants and a sweater tomorrow.  No snow or blizzards this far south, but cooler temperatures and storms/rain tomorrow.  Tomorrow is also a new moon. Not sure how that will effect (or not) the storms. Between April 6-15 the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts thunderstorms…that’s a no brainer. 

It’s nice to have a quiet day (or two) but it doesn’t lend itself to an interesting blog.

Yesterday we went to Springfield to hang with Jax (and his parents).  He was napping when we arrived. It made me smile to see he was covered up with the blanket I knitted for him.

Dennis and I picked up Jimmy John’s on the way to Matt & Sara’s house.  We ate while Jax napped.  We chatted while Jax napped.  He took a long nap and then woke up in a happy mood.  He ate and we all headed to the park.  It was a perfect day to slide.  It was also a good day to fly a kite. Jax is good at figuring things out…like the kite is in this plastic bag.  And it is important to keep a close eye on the kite so it doesn’t crash.  There had been a kite festival the day before, and several trees had kites stuck up in the highest branches.  Fortunately Jax did not crash his kite or let a kite eating tree get hold of it.

It started clouding up about time for us to go home.  We had some thunderstorms pass through during the night.  There was only .1″ of rain in the gage this morning.  More scattered showers are predicted throughout the week.

Only 6 more Mondays until summer.  

It’s been mostly sunny but quite windy today.  75 degrees.  Lucas and I walked to the bank this morning.  The flapping & snapping of the flags in front of the high school spooked him a little, but it was a pleasant walk over-all.  Not a lot of traffic.

I’m taking a leap small step of faith the spring really has arrived, and packing away some of my winter clothes. I also got a few more spring/summer things out.  

I let the herb bed on the west side of the house get out of control last year.  The sage was big enough (plus I cut it back some this winter)that it didn’t get overwhelmed.  I found the flat chives near it easily.  It took some careful dead plant & “weed” removal to find the regular chives.  I’m hoping for some parsley, dill, and basil volunteers this year.   The tarragon looks good.  Found the marjoram but no sign of the oregano–so I may need to buy a replacement plant.  I might also look for some thyme to add to the bed this summer.  Unfortunately Rosemary is not winter hardy in this part of the world.  

Time to browse the internet (and by internet I mean Pinterest) and see what kinds of new ideas for flowers and herbs I can find.

It felt like Spring today.  Dennis managed to “mud” in the broccoli and onions.  Rain is in the forecast but I hope to get some “cleaning” done in the flower and herb beds.  The rhubarb is up.In a week I’m sure there will be stalks big enough to make a pie or two.

This has been a long and busy week.  I’m afraid the last 6 weeks of school will be more of the same.  Allergies and playground injuries.  Also sports–bruises and sore muscles; and bike wrecks at home.  And of course there was the student who wanted an ice pack for her head…to help her concentrate.  She came back a few hours later for a second ice pack, so I guess it worked.

It’s taken almost a week, but I finally feel like I’ve caught up with things.  Maybe not so much caught up as no further behind than usual. I have a chicken pot pie baking in the oven.  Today was the first day this week I was home in time to watch Jeopardy. 

Even though rain is in the forecast for most of the upcoming week, the temperatures are staying above freezing.  At some point I plan to start packing away my winter clothes.