The Kohlmans

Last week I wrote all about my awesome year. Perhaps I spoke too soon. Today I had no patience. Not enough sleep. It was a true Monday. They were all problem children. Maybe I was just a problem teacher. A kid almost cried - or maybe really did, behind his book (I have to confess that I'm a lot more strict this year, which is good). President Obama thinks he has the solution to our test scores. That gave some coworkers more reason to hate on him. But I won't go there. Not today, anyway. It was just one of those days - one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. But Monday's over now. I'm just grateful no one came in to observe or evaluate me today. Yuck. And tomorrow is library day. And I get to work at a middle school XC meet. And I can go to bed whenever I want. Which will probably be as soon as I post this. And my camera must still be at school, since I've turned the house upsidedown. I have a fun nerdy teacher idea to ...

I haven't really posted about school since the year started. Here you go. (I just realized that, for some reason, whenever I post about school I have unexplainable urges to title the post in Spanish. Huh.) I have been blessed this year with a lot of "those days." If you're a teacher, you know what I mean - days when things just seem to go right, when the kids behave, when the lessons "work," when all 65 of them get it. I love those days. Obviously. I've amazed myself a few times this year. I'm such a better teacher than I was a year ago. I'm not sure I ever understood what a difference a year makes until now. These kids, I wish you could meet them all. ( Disclaimer: okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad. But for sixth graders, they are pretty darn great - so far .) Of course, there's always a few who amaze me in a different way. But even they are special and good and challenging and important to the class dynamics and me . There a...

Guilty pleasures. More things I love. My baking mat. I can make sugar cookies. Easily. They're more fun and more delicious when they are easy.   My jewelry organizer. It's just so handy. It looks pretty, too. I wear my beads more often this year, when they aren't hiding in boxes. Flintstones vitamins. Yep. This is how I roll. My salad spinner. I didn't think I wanted one. Maybe I just like seeing the greenish water that I pour out of it after the salad goes for a spin.   The days that my Better Homes and Gardens comes.

Rarely do I feel this ready for Monday on a Sunday evening. Usually, I spend the hours between now and bedtime with a mental checklist of what I did not get done over the weekend (or moaning about how sick I felt - last weekend). I don't know if I just had lower expectations for the last two days, or if it's that tomorrow is inservice so I don't have to be prepared to teach, or if the weekend was just so wonderful in little ways. Whatever it is, I'll take it. This was actually last Thursday, but we went to look at the new gym at the high school. It is going to be amazing. I love the orange duct work (I really am such an Oriole now) and the four-sided scoreboard. The ceiling used to be foamy material that would sometimes float down into the stands during games. Ick. There is a better picture and an article update on the bond issue online, at the Augusta Gazette . Can't wait for basketball season! Saturday we went to watch Brad's cousin, Andrea, play volleyball i...

I don't actually have anything to write about today. I just feel like writing something. (I know I hinted at cookie pictures, but I'm feeling too lazy to take and upload any tonight. If you really need a baked goods fix, revisit this post or this post .) I've always wished, sometimes in the far reaches of my imagination, but still, always, that I could be a writer. Like, a real writer. Who publishes books or short stories or, at crazier times, at least poetry. But that's so hard. I mean, you have to write things that people want to read (people besides family and close friends). Not just read, though - pay money to read, because that is what buying books is all about. You have to weave together schemes and some sort of plot that doesn't fall apart or drift off course after the first two pages. The characters you create have to leap out of the book and into the lives of the readers. And the setting absolutely has to feel like a place anyone could visit. You have to...

grass. And there you were, all excited that I updated. But you'll forgive me; I've been horridly sick (yes, sick enough to admit I am sick, stay home from work, and go to the doctor. Wow). And this could quite possibly be the most exciting thing in my life right now. (Except the phone call from my sister this afternoon - I'll admit, it is kind of nice when they want my help. Except how darling my kiddos are so far this year. And except for the yummy cookies I baked today - would have posted about those, but they are not frosted yet.) But back to the point. If you recall, about a week or so ago, our backyard, freshly plowed and graded and seeded, looked like this: Once things dried out (and we calmed down about the lake in the corner), hope started to sprout: And as time went on, that hope grew... ...and continues to grow: "I'm gonna live where the green grass grows, watch my corn pop up in rows, every night be tucked in close to you..." Maybe tomorrow... a pos...

Check out Brad's new hobby here... podcasting.

III. Santa mugs These were the items in my box of gifts from Grandma that met with the most skepticism from my husband: They're so jolly. Brad must just be a grinch. But really, like I wrote in an earlier post, it's the memories, not the objects. Grandma and Grandpa have always (and always = to my memory, of course) had tons of mugs, collected from different celebrations and events and gifts. The Santa mugs were always ours. Ironically, I actually only remember drinking orange juice from it, never hot chocolate, even though I'm sure we did. The two Santa mugs are special because they're from Grandma's house, and there just doesn't need to be another reason.

This one is kind of boring, if you don't care about what our house looks like. The latest project... When my friend Kendra sent me the link to this vinyl wall art, I was so excited. (In case you haven't noticed, it's the quotation from the top of our blog. It also happened to be on our wedding invitations, programs, and thank yous. Don't feel bad if you don't remember; I may or may not have had to remind Brad.) When I found out that you can stick it onto painted canvas (although I discovered this pm that it's not nearly as easy as they say), I custom ordered. We needed something big to hang over the fireplace; I wanted an antique/stained glass window, but those are a bit pricey and tough to find - at least what I wanted. This works for me, as nerdy as it may be to have words as a focal point. I must be an English teacher or something. The canvas matches our other walls. I love the final product, so the words are there to stay, but I'm not sure about the res...

Just thinking of all the ways I could finish this little rhyme today. ...go away, come again another day! (And preferably in moderation at that point in time.) Just last week... The yard was cleared out, graded (I guess, though right now it doesn't appear it was properly done!), and seeded. And then today... If you look closely, you can see the pond that has formed in the southwest corner of our backyard, the spot where we plan to plant my beloved cottonless cottonwood and maybe someday put a dog house. This whole water feature thing just isn't working for me. And there's something fishy about this coupled with the facts presented above - I'm pretty sure that much dirt didn't wash out in the last 36 hours. ...makes a grumpy Mrs. K. Maybe it's more the way kids act when it's rainy all day that makes me just a touch cranky. Or maybe it's when the computers don't work during formative assessments, or when there aren't enough chairs in the computer l...

After being in Augusta for 2+ years I have found that people here take care of Megan and I. The Booster Club wants me to use them more for the girls basketball team. Business owners (usually parents of former/current students/players) give Megan and I a discount for just being us. I am not sure how I feel about this yet. I am very thankful for the community helping out a young couple, but I don't feel like I deserve any special treatment for being a teacher or coach. But, it is nice to be taken care of by so many generous people in a community that I wasn't sure about when I first moved here. The generosity of a few community members has changed my view of what Augusta is, and can be. Plus, my kids in my classroom just broke out into song on Friday ( we listen to a Beatles CD every Friday) and sang Yellow Submarine. It was one of my happiest moments in the classroom, I think it shows that my class will be a fun, and they get along. On Friday I got ticket offers for two differen...

Waste not, want not. We're on a mission: City Composting 101. Growing up, we composted just about everything that was biodegradable, but I never knew it would be so easy to do in town, without making the neighbors mad and all. This summer I started becoming frustrated with the amount of avoidable/food trash the two of us have (yes, we definitely do recycle), so I started looking at compost bins online. Mostly, they're super expensive. But not ours... I found directions here, and I've been wanting to try for a while. However, with the ( now former! ) state of our posterior exterior there was no place to put it. Since our backyard was dredged out, filled in, graded, and seeded this past week, it was finally time. So this afternoon, in about five minutes flat, we created our own little composting spot. Get a big plastic storage tub. Check. We bypassed the lime green and electric blue versions in favor of something a little more subtle. To my chagrin, there was no beige (accor...

Today I told my kids to have a great weekend - it was their "homework." After all, they don't have to come to school until Tuesday. One of them asked what happens if they don't. I told them that, if all else fails, at least they don't have to see or listen to me for three whole days. And a student (who has a very bipolar love-hate relationship with me; one minute he will be rolling his eyes because I quietly asked him to be on-task, the next minute he will come show me the picture of Sponge Bob he drew while he was supposed to be working... and I had just chewed him out about telling his study hall teacher he had no work when he in fact has four zeros in my class) blurted out, "I can't stand to not see you for two minutes." Umm.... Another student immediately exclaimed, "Mrs. Kohlman, I think he likes you." I responded by ignoring it all. But it's still weird. So weird.

Just a few things I love. Things, not people. Flowers Basketball Pretending I'm an amazing baker/cookie decorator My super comfy couches Working on sewing projects (and, again, pretending I'm really good at it) Black and white photographs... I just feel like, when they're black and white, they should be called photographs, not pictures. (I also like to pretend I'm a very artistic photographer.) Shopping with Becca My "job" It sounds like I mostly just like to play pretend. Yes, I'm 23, but some things just don't change...