September Fave Five #3

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Friday's are the day we participate in the FRIDAY FAVE FIVE meme hosted by Susanne.......it's a way of looking back over our week and finding those little things or special moments that are blessings from God...things that were "favorites" in a hectic week. This was my first full week back to school...for those of you who are new here, I teach as a Special Education Assistant Teacher in an Inclusion Kindergarten.  What a joy to come back from a great summer vacation and meet a brand new class of eager learners.

Here are are my FFF:

• These Morning Glories!  We came back from the beach house and I was so busy prepping for the first day of school, I didn't get out to my deck until last Friday. And saw that over the long weekend, my morning glories I had planted 2 years ago were coming up!  Last year they didn't do well.  What a pleasant surprise to see them cover and climbing up and over our deck trellis.....how pretty for sitting on the deck in the late afternoon with a book and steaming cup of coffee after a long morning at work!

Purple Morning Glory
September 2010

Our deck trellis
filled with Morning Glories
Sept 2010

• Fresh White Corn-on-the-Cob from Fresh Market.......yummy.....I served this for dinner on Wednesday with grilled steak, red potato salad from their deli, sliced fresh local tomatoes, and steamed broccoli.  It was delish.....we are holding on to as much summer as we can get....nites are getting chillier and days are getting shorter....so we buy as much fresh, local produce as we can, while we can!

 

• Spinach-Artichoke Dip from Fresh Market! When I bought the corn mentioned above, I also bought a small tub of this dip.  It was delicious served with the French Rolls I also bought from Fresh Market Bakery........it made for a great lunch, too, this week with Flatbread Whole Grain Crackers, Apple Slices, and Sharp Cheddar Cheese.....yummy!!

• Dinner with friends from church on Sunday.  We had some new friends (the O-- family) to our home after church.  I made a huge dish of Creamy Onion Lasagna (recipe here), a large tossed salad, garlic bread, and a raw veggie platter.  My friend Jeanie brought the most delicious "homemade from scratch" cake I have ever tasted! I am not really a cake eater but I just couldn't resist one slice....yummy!!  The children all played Mario Cart, Twister, etc.  Their 2 daughters and my 11 yr old daughter get along great...Courtney was the oldest so she helped "entertain" the younger ones before heading off to do homework. Their oldest, a teen son, played a rousing game of Settlers of Catan with the rest of us. The game was still going strong after 2 hours so we cut it short around 6:30 pm as we all had school or work the next day.  What a great way to spend a cloudy Sunday and what a fun way to start the work week! 

• The new group of Kindergartners at S-----Elementary school!  The team of people I work with (a Master teacher plus 2 other Assistants) all welcomed a totally new group last week.  We have 15 students.  9 are boys, 6 are girls.  Out of the 9 boys, 4 have "special needs" (Downs, Speech/Language delayed, and 2 with Autism).  What a delight this class is!  The "typical" kindergärtner are all pretty much right at grade level.  This is a HUGE improvement over last year's class.  And the "special" guys are higher functioning, developmentally, than any of our special needs children from the last 2 years.  This is a huge answer to prayer.  Mr K is excited about teaching again and I am most excited that the boy I am mainly working with, although very demanding due to having hyperactivity with autism, is showing some solid cognitive skills.  So....we are in good shape so far this year......I love my job and I am hoping things continue to go well in our classroom!

That's it for me!

I have a busy weekend coming up......will be blogging again soon.....next week begins the small group I am leading/teaching.  I am most excited about that but with that approaching, I will need to take a step away from the blogging for a bit.  So...my next post will be the book review on Deeper and then I'll be taking a little break.

If you want to link up with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share your own Friday Fave Fives, just click on her name above.

And....feel free to leave me a comment stating at least one favorite thing from your week!  If you are reading this and are new to Gold in the Clouds, let me know!  

Have a blessed start to the weekend, everyone!!