Formal Evaluation

This is the first day of my winter break from school.  It is one o'clock in the afternoon and I haven't done anything other than walk the dog. (Have I mentioned that we have a pit bull named Oliver who lives with us now?)   Now I think I'll wrap the last few presents and do some last minute baking for the people in my parish.  I'm taking the boys to confession tonight.  I'm still not able to go.  Its been about three years since I've been able to go to confession or communion.

Oh, I almost forgot.  I had my formal evaluation at work yesterday.  My boss said they love me and not to worry about the person from the district who says i am a lousy teacher.  She said the whole school has been talking about the experiments and demonstrations I've been running in my classes.

Maple Pecan Pie

Well, just one more week to go until the semester is over.  I mean the semester at work, not National University.  I think, that was over a couple of weeks ago.  I just have zero desire to do anything for them anymore.  Kathleen says its just a hoop invented to make it difficult to become a teacher and that I shouldn't make a big deal out of it, but I do.  But work is going well.  The lactic acid and yeast experiments are doing what they are supposed to do,  and next week  I'll do lessons on emulsions and sub-zero water culminating in ice cream.  That ought to be fun.

Today was a very fun day.  I picked Basil, my youngest son up at his mom's house at 9 this morning and, after morning prayers, we cooked all day.  We made 20 pounds of Christmas sausage,  a gallon of beef/pork stock for soups (I freeze it in plastic bags), two green bean and onion pies for Kathleen to take to her sisters Christmas party tonight, a roast beef for Kathleen's kids to make into sandwiches for their lunches at school next week, and a maple pecan pie.  The nice thing about this last pie is that it is like the sausage and beef stock:  It can be frozen for future use.

When I took Basil home a few minutes ago we drove around his neighborhood and looked at Christmas lights on all the houses.

In other news, I am back on the wagon.  I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to stop drinking again but I have. 




Maple Pecan Pie Recipe

9-inch pastry pie crust
3 cups pecan halves
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour
3 large eggs. at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup grade-A dark amber maple syrup
1 tsp non-iodized salt


Bake the pie crust at 350F for 15 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and let cool.  You will be tempted to skip this step.  Do not skip this step.  If you do you will be sorry.
Put the pecans in the pie crust and set aside.
Melt the butter but let it cool a little before you do anything with it.
In a small mixing bowel whisk together the brown sugar, salt, flour, vanilla extract, and maple syrup.
Add the melted but somewhat cooled butter to the mixing bowl and whisk it together with the other ingredients.
Add the three eggs to the mixing bowl and whisk them together with the other ingredients.
Pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the pie crust.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes in the lower half of the oven.  When the pie has been in the oven 20 minutes tent it with aluminum foil so it doesn't get too brown on top.

Off the wagon

I went off the wagon today.  Actually, I have a big glass of whisky in hand as I write this.
It was miserable.  I was miserable.
I was told last week by my observer from National University that I am the "worst teacher on the planet".  I was told by my Consulting Teacher from the district that I am a horrible teacher.   (In both cases the main complaint is that I lecture too much, teach above grade level, and don't have my students doing anything.  By "doing" they mean anything other than reading, listening, and answering questions on tests.  They really hate tests.)
All morning and afternoon I was miserable.  I am supposed to write "reflections" on my lesson plans.  (I thought they were really good lessons:  water density experiments, oxidation experiments, bread mold [apparently the district doesn't want students exposed to mold], Linnaean taxonomy, making and exploding gunpowder, cellular respiration [seriously, how are you supposed to teach that without also talking about atomic theory?], etc).  But I did nothing all day today.  Now I am making fruitcakes.  And a bunch of the bourbon whiskey that was supposed to go into the fruitcakes wound up in me and, suddenly, I am happy again.  I had forgotten how good this feels.  Well, I suck.  If I hadn't invested $30,000 in this program at National University I would quit it today.
The only good thing about this day, a Saturday, is that this morning I delivered the Advent calendars to my sons and to Kathleen's kids. And I said morning prayers.  And I like Oliver the dog.