Spring Into Saturday: DeLeon Springs & Pancakes

Looking for something to do this weekend? Drive north on l-4 from Orlando and head  thru Deland to Deleon Springs. It isn't the prettiest spring to swim in, but isn't too deep for toddlers. Our secret is to arrive and have pancakes at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill on-site for a late lunch/early dinner. This way you miss the crowd at breakfast and lunch. The pancake house stays open until 5. If you are waiting, you can enjoy a dip in the spring, visit the museum, or head out on the pontoon boat to tour the St. John's River. You also don't  want to miss a hike in the Cypress Swamp. There's a decent playground for the little ones too.  It's an ideal way to inexpensively enjoy historical aspects of Florida without paying exorbitant fees for the concrete jungle.

The pancakes are all you can eat and you cook them in the griddle on the center of the table. This meal and trip is best reserved from October to May since the historic restaurant has no AC. There is, however, a 72 degree spring to jump in to cool off . Also for pancake-haters like me, they have a small breakfast and lunch menu to choose from. 

Friday's Food for Thought: Ice Cream

One way to survive blogging each day is to have a routine about what you will post each day of the week.  My Friday focus is food for thought in which I will share some of my favorite recipes.  

I have new rule about food appliances sharing my space with my family. In fact, my favorite new tool is my Kitchen AID spiralizer attachment, but I will write about zoodles later this month.(Disclaimer: I don't get kickbacks for any of the products that I talk about on this blog!) I came up with this rule because we live in a condo and our square footage is at a premium.  I love to cook, but the new deal is this: if I have a kitchen tool or appliance that takes too much space, I have to use it at least once a month or twelve times a year. 

The first item up for possible disposal was the ice cream maker that we received as a wedding gift sixteen years ago. This meant I had to make ice cream\sorbet at least once a month last year or 12 times last year.  Really not an awful problem, since my daughter eats ice cream each day. It's part of her prescription for life. I''m more of a chip monster, but these recipes were worth the work and once you mix the ingredients the machine does the rest.  Here are my top 3 faves!

1.  Meyer Lemon Sorbet:  Sour citrus flavors are among my favorite and lemon stands head and shoulders above the rest.  I have a box of Girl Scout lemon shortbread cookies taunting me from the freezer right now.  What was most delicious about this sorbet was the freshness.  A work colleague bought me a bag of Meyer lemons from his parents'  tree.  It was light and tart and enjoyed by everyone in my house. (a twist on this was a strawberry lemon sorbet).  

2. Strawberry Gelato:  In Florida, you can start picking strawberries in December until the end of March\middle of April.  I tend to go a little crazy picking strawberries, often picking 20 pounds.  I love strawberries and my daughter does too.  This recipe is richer than sorbet. The key difference between it and the sorbet recipe is heavy whipping cream.  It has a decadent mouth-feel.   For each of these recipes, all of the fruit was picked either by a friend or myself. Perhaps that goes back to the quality of the ingredients that made a difference.  

3.  Peppermint Ice Cream:  I love mint, peppermint, the kind that flavors candy canes. Some people love mint and some do not.  I can't stand wintergreen and the only way to keep my mom from eating ice cream is making sure it is mint. Although Publix makes a candy cane ice cream and Haagan-Daz makes a peppermint bark ice cream which both come out at Christmas, this recipe is worth the try.  It is actually from Cooking Light and you would never know the difference.  This was the first ice cream that I ever made.  The key to this recipe is that you have to stock some candy canes away, but I guess crushed peppermint candies would do in a pinch.

I've made other flavors too such as blueberry, vanilla, mint chocolate chip and watermelon sorbet. Not every recipes was a success, especially the watermelon sorbet.  Too much sugar!  My cooking failures are good lessons for me. Now I now to taste the base before I freeze it. Next up on my sorbet\ice cream flavor to-dos are key lime, grapefruit, cranberry and coffee. Any special requests?

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream or recipe to make ice cream or sorbet?

Writing Side-By-Side

My daughter had writing homework tonight. It was the kind of homework I like.  Something she can do without the help of her parents or teacher and it doesn't take forever.  We could talk for days about the pros and cons for homework and examine the research.  But instead I wrote beside her.  She had to complete a writing frame poem about changes, a then and now poem that you may have assigned to kids yourself. She is in sixth grade; she turned 12 last week.  She didn't give me permission to share her poem, but  here is mine:









CHANGES


That was me then; this is me now.
Last year I was 44;
now I am 45.
I used to enjoy being on the go, go, go;
now I like down days.
I used to believe that I wasn't a big car driver and loved my Honda Fit;
now I love my mom-mobile CRV with heated seats.
I used to be confused by how to use Microsoft ACCESS;
now I am still confused, but have more of an urgency to learn it.
Last year I focused fitness goal of competing in CG Games;
now I honing my laser-like focus vision on my A1C goal.
Last year I hoped that chips would be carb-free;
now I still hold that same desire.
This year I continue to find joy in each day.
That was me then; this is me now.

When you are stuck with what to write about this month, just search for inspiration.  You never know where you will find it.  Like tonight after searching writing prompts, I finally found it in my daughter's homework.

Eye-Spy: Love & The Fountain of Youth

Wednesdays are long for me. They are the shortest instructional day for kids, but my longest working day. I like to do a variation of Wordless Wednesdays which is my Eye-Spy post. I share images from my weekly treks into nature. Florida spring brings bountiful flocks of birds, blooming flowers, and forays to any of the 500 springs in Florida.  

We went to Silver Glen Springs on Saturday for my daughter's birthday.  We had the spring mostly to ourselves.  Come here on a summer day and the entire spring will be filled to the brim with people. A spring day brings a quiet pool filled with our laughter and splashes, our own private pool. This day we just missed a momma manatee and her babe. The weather, however, was beautiful. The water, 72 degrees, and the air, 68, which meant is was a perfect day to swim and then picnic on the lawn in the Silver Glen basin.  A short trek into the woods takes you see the boils which are baby springs.

Silver Glen Springs, Altoona, Florida

A second trip early this February was at the Wildlife Drive at the Canaveral National Seashore. I am a dilettante as a birder since my best friend is a serious birder.  Therefore I can recognize some birds in the wild.  We have flocks and flocks spending time here right now.  I was lucky enough to capture these two Roseate Spoonbills together at the at the National Seashore. I tend to think anthropomorphically about these two as lovebirds. They still were fun to watch as they foraged for lunch.

Keep your eyes peeled this week for your moments of wild!

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Thirty-One Days!

Some people do the 21 day cleanse. Some people do a 30 day food challenge. I opt for a 31 day Slice of Life Story Challenge in March.  It's my fifth year participating in the annual SOLSC.  If you are reading this now, it isn't too late to join.  I started this adventure five years ago after my friend Lee Ann Spillane asked me to join her. I decided to do it because I created a blog in 2011 and only posted once. Two hundred fourteen posts later, I still find the writing valuable and work at my night job to help future teachers learn about the power of digital writing via blogging.  I have also survived doing a blogging challenge with my high school students.  It is a powerful way to learn more about yourself, your students, and develop writing fluency.  Here are my top five rules about surviving the month.


1.  If you are stuck, just make a listicle or any of those forms that you use with students such as a haiku, an A-to-Z list, a sonnet or a diamonte.  In fact, if you are writing with students, those drafts become perfect to use on you blog.  You can even do routine writing.  For example, I do the Sunday Seven, which is my way of reflecting on the week and what I have gratitude for.

2. Take photos, they become good content. Some digital communities hosts a Wordless Wednesday. I like to add an images to my posts that I gather from my week.

3. You will learn more than you ever thought you might about yourself.  I have learned that comments matter to me.  I didn't realize that until I participated in the SOLSC.  I have also learned that the later you post, the less comments you will get. I have also learned that it takes longer than the ten minutes that I typically allocate. It can take between 30-60 minutes for me.

4.  You can post every day even if you get it done, by 11:59.  On days that I struggle, I read other peoples' post first and comment and then write.  They inspire me.

5. It doesn't have to be perfect. Troy Hicks talks about blogs as a space for kids to draft and get feedback. If you spend time trying to write the perfect post, you won't get one down.  The key is to get it done.

Happy 31 days of writing!

Writing Fire

I loved Katherine Sokoloski's post last week posing the question, "Should teachers be writers?" I more frequently hear the refrain that teachers need to be readers, but we don't often talk about teachers as writers.  We most always write with our students, but when do we write for ourselves.  It can be challenging. I know.

In 2015, I was the least prolific on my blog aside from the first year I created the blog when I wrote a single post and was done. I wasn't connected. I didn't know I needed to be connected.  This past year, I haven't had the energy to write.  A series of events blindsided me and it took my strength of mind to persist.  I opted out of writing, but I did engage in the self-care of working out.  It really isn't the lesser of two evils for me.  But I am back into writing sooner than I thought.  I always knew I would be back in, especially by March.  I couldn't, I wouldn't miss the month-long Slice of Life Writing Challenge. It was what pushed me into blogging routinely in the first place and taught me the most about writing in a community. It was a series of post last week, however, that helped me recover sooner.

A second post last week reminded me that the SOLSC was five weeks away.  I had diagnosed myself with what I at first termed "leader fatigue," but after researching it, find it best described as social good fatigue.  What stands out most for me is number 3 about the power of community--by being "connected to coaches, and mentors, and colleagues who care for them and can help them stay healthy. And it's helpful to have a few role models who inspire you by how they stay passionate and committed over the long haul"(Miller, 2014).  I am lucky to have both in face-to-face community and my virtual community.  It helps me sustain and rekindle my fire.

When my former student Ashley Carson, now a teacher, created her blog  last week and posted each day, my writing fire was rekindled.  When three other teacher-friends, Alicia Duarte, Autumm Harrar, and Laura Kies, committed to joining the SOLSC in March, I was re-energized.  When I just listened to all the teachers from the Two Writing Teachers Voxer group I recently joined, discuss their writing work all week with post-it notes, my writing fire was stoked.  I realized that I can manage to write a post-it a day. Just like I can manage working out for an hour a day. I consider it a small win for my writing, perhaps because as I know a blog post always takes longer than I think, but  a post-it can take on any size.  

Starting the Day Right!

How do you start your day?  Mine always starts with a smile and a good morning.  We can never let go of the power of a simple good morning whether you have had your coffee or not. I admit, I am a person who wakes up and hits the floor running, and I can been annoyingly cheerful in the morning.  I am never, however, too busy or too tired to not smile and say good morning although sometimes I just don't feel it!  It sets the tone for the day.   It sets the tone in your classroom.

At my first teaching job it was the expectation that the teacher greet the students at the door.  It was a habit cultivated during my first year when my supervising administrator, Susan Storch, came and prompted me to the door between classes.  I was busy as all high school teachers are during class changes, getting ready to transition for the next set of students.  For students who don't want to come to school or excited to learn, it communicates to them that someone is glad they are there. For me it was a simple way to gauge their readiness to learn and chat informally with them.

My English students decided that our morning routine would include the natural light of morning versus electricity since we had a gorgeous bay of windows without a view, but windows nonetheless. They based their decision after reading our article of the week (Gallagher) Making Light of Sleep. They applied their discovery about blue light versus natural sunlight and decided that they could make one small change to make them more wakeful in class.

My last addition to getting the morning started right is having a personal playlist.  It is one that I play on the way to work, but I also created one with titles that my students earned.  We kept it clean and PG-13, but it added a little movement to our mornings.  It also allowed me to gather more insight about my students' interest and exposed students to a wide variety of genres.

Anyone of these three steps were simple additions to my hectic morning routines. How do you like to start your day or your early mornings with students?

Morning sky over the Caribbean Sea