Whoo hoo!!
The regular academic year for my special needs preK students has come to an end as of 1 pm today. Which means that I am on vacation all next week! It's hard to believe we've been doing remote teaching since March 17th. Wow. How I miss the children and how weird to have the end of June without our end of the year picnic. But there's blessings too in this past week and I'm here to share FIVE of them....the ones that are FAVES. I do this with other bloggers and we all link up over at Susanne's site who has been hosting this for several years.
- INSTANT STREAMING SERIES: I began this Netflix series last week and I am hooked. It is so much like real politics......or at least it sure seems like it! I'm not super thrilled with some of the language in spots or some of the lewdness, but the character development is exceptional and the story twists are superb. I don't typically go for political shows (although I LOVED West Wing when it used to be on television). And also, my oldest daughter now gets Hulu for free as she pays for Spotify to have music at work, and she and I started the series The Handmaid's Tale (we LOVED the book) last Friday night as we had no plans to go out anywhere. Sadly, the show is full of swearing (which isn't in the book) and it's set more in our time future vs the future that the book was written in.....). It's good.....I'm hoping it's as good as the book but something tells me I will prefer the books. (I've read both The Handmaid's Tale and the sequel, The Testaments which I highly recommend. I'm thankful for things like Netflix and Hulu that offer a variety of movies and series.
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| photo courtesy of Amaz*n site |
- FATHER'S DAY ZOOM PARTY: On Father's Day, my husband's side of the family had a Zoom meeting so all of his siblings and him could say Happy Father's Day to his dad....2 of the grandchildren were in on it as well (our niece in Scotland and our oldest daughter....youngest daughter had to work and I'm not sure where our other 4 nieces and nephews were). Anyways, before Grampa T got onto Zoom, we all played 2 rounds each of 2 of the games from Jack Box Party pack. If you haven't discovered this yet, you have got to try it! You do need a smartphone to play and at least one laptop with everyone logged into Zoom. What a blast we had. It was nice to see my husband relaxing with his siblings and just having a great time. And I actually won the Quip Lash game! I rarely beat my husband in any kind of game so that was cool. I'm thankful for these family online get togethers.
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| totally plant-based dinner |
- EASY SUMMER DINNER: Monday evening was SO hot and humid. In fact, we had our central air on in the house from last Friday morning until Wednesday as our area was experiencing a heat wave with very dry conditions. I was going to grill but it was just too hot! So I made a fresh veggie bowl instead: cooked big bowl of jasmine rice for the base. Added black beans, slightly warmed in the microwave, raw carrot strips, cut raw pea pods, raw sweet yellow and red pepper, chopped tomato, toasted tofu and a splash of Asian Ginger dressing. For the side, the rest of the family had fresh strawberries (I'm allergic) and I had chopped nectarines. I served blueberry lemonade for drinks or iced water with fresh lemon slices. I'm thankful this dish was a hit because I totally made it up!
- SUMMER SURVIVAL KIT! Our site coordinator at work (each of the 4 sites has a coordinator who acts as our direct boss, under the executive director who works in Albany at the Admin Office) gave birth to her 2nd child on Monday morning. On Wednesday afternoon she walked into work to hand deliver these little "thank you" Summer Survival Kits to each one of us. We were so surprised!! Jessica is a wonderful boss and now we all know the reason she was taking notes and asking each of us at our last Site Meeting what our favorite cocktails are! The kit contains a package of gum (which I gave to my youngest), a Burt's Bee lip balm, Hershey kisses, and a tonic water plus a small bottle of our fave drink. Mine is a tiny bottle of gin. It was such fun and I'm thankful for a great work environment. We all decided we will enjoy our drinks tonight at home and send photos to each other. (no, we're not allowed to have alcohol at the preschool sites. hahah.....but she made an exception to deliver the gifts).
- COOLER TEMPS! Wednesday morning a cool front came through after the night's rain which we badly needed and it broke the high heat and humidity we've been having. It felt wonderful to finally turn off the central AC and open windows back up, letting the fresh air flow through the house. I also was able to eat breakfast and dinner on the deck and enjoy some reading time outside in the evening. I'm thankful for nice summer weather!
That wraps up my week of blessings!! and now my vacation officially begins at 2 pm, until the morning of July 6th!
HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE AND HAPPY SUMMER!
11 comments:
Enjoy your time off!
Sounds like you had a nice fun time with the family. How thoughtful of your boss to make sure your gifts were appropriate. We're still in the middle of a very hot spell but set to change over the weekend. Will be thankful to see the temps drop even if it does mean we get rain first. Enjoy your break even though it's not that long.
That game you played on Father's Day sounds super fun. I would like to do something like that. What a kind an thoughtful gift from your director - and she brought them do you only a couple of days after giving birth. Wow! So glad yours temps have cooled off. We are going to get into the 90s this weekend, then have a wet Monday and drop into the 60s and 70s for a few days - at least that is the forecast. Hope you have a great weekend and a good week off!
The summer survival kit is so cute!! I love the cooler weather but I do like summer regardless...we tend to eat healthier when the warmer temps are here! I haven't watched much Netflix lately.
Happy vacation! I'm thankful for streaming services, too, especially now that most of the regular shows we watch are done with their seasons and there's not much good on TV.
My son has Jackbox games through his Steam account, and we often play them together as a family (my favorite is Drawful, but Timothy loves Earwax). Now that we're all familiar with Zoom, we've talked about doing that online with my son in RI but just haven't figured out how to set it all up yet. But we're looking forward to giving it a try.
The Father's Day Zoom party sounds fun!
It's so nice to have a cool front this time of year. That doesn't happen very much in the Southern States during the summer, but it's much appreciated when it does.
I loved the West Wing! I could watch the whole series again. The jack box game sounds kind of neat. We missed our family zoom session on Father's Day, as Dan was working. Our cool front this week comes with severe thunderstorms. Typical for the month of June, but it does cut into our patio time;)
Your summery vegetable dishs looks so yummy, and the desserts sound mouth watering, too! Enjoyed my visit!
Our cool front just came in last night. I woke up and turned off the air conditioning this morning. I think it’s going to be quite cool for the next week or so. How sweet to get a little gift bag from work. I think it’s just the little things that let you know you’re appreciated that make so much of a difference. Have a great week.
Good afternoon Faith, I am so sorry you had a hard time commenting on my page! And more than that, I am horrified it said I was a dangerous site. I’ve never heard of that before, but of course, since I’ve addressed your comment, it did post on my page.
SCHOTZY.
During this self isolation we were very thankful for streaming services, too. Though we've tapered way off watching as compared to when everything shut down. I love when something I "made up" turns out delicious. We've played Jack Box games when we're together with family but never on Zoom. Enjoy your holidays and anniversary this week. Praying you have wonderful weather.
Hurray for a week off!
I had to laugh about your never beating your hubby at games. I would literally mark the day on the calendar when I beat mine at Scrabble.
Usually, we prefer books to movies, too.
Enjoy your week and I hope it is still cool and breezy.
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