My house smells like heaven. . .

Okay, I don't know what heaven smells like. True. Right now my house smells like "Curried Chicken Fricassee" from The Saucier's Apprentice and I'm pretty sure that's about as close to heaven as you can get on earth.

Better yet, it smells like Curried Chicken Fricassee and fresh baked bread. And brownies. And roasted broccoli.

Life is good. Life is very, very good. I am so grateful for my foodie friends and all of their lovely inspirations to learn to be a good cook, with good ingredients, and excellent outcomes.

(Perhaps this is penance for the Wendy's food?)

Spring Semester: DONE!

I know people aren't accustomed to talking about how students teach their teachers, but I'm going to share a few things I learned this semester:

• I believe in my pedagogy. Starting out an English class with "What's going on in the world" seems crazy, I know, but getting students to engage actively with the world - and each other - is an effective way to both increase comfort in interpersonal relationships and work on critical thinking skills that are impossible to teach and only possible to model.
• Modelling is an essential piece of what I do: "People who agree think X and people who disagree think Y" is an important thing to say and have students practice. And nobody learns to write well without reading well.
• One route to citizenship in the United States is military service. This is one of many, many tidbits my students taught me to make me a stronger Trivial Pursuit player.
• One can receive universal acknowledgement from students when discussing politics through South Park, Lady Gaga, or other pop culture references, though one runs the risk of having Beyonce's "Single Ladies" stuck in one's head for 4 months.
• For my students, a groundbreaking series such as The Simpsons is. . . mundane. . .
• Once every few years, the stars align and you get a classroom full of students you will miss. You will briefly consider failing all of them to keep them for yourself the following year, but will understand that doing so might actually alienate them from you. If any of my T/R afternoon students are reading: I mean you guys. I will miss you dearly.
• A class is a success if students: 1) Master the skills covered, 2) Enjoy doing so, and 3) Spend their last day, which the instructor intended to be a day to mess around and eat and chat, complimenting each others' writing styles, reflecting on the essays we've written, discussing pedagogy, AND eating and chatting.

Thanks for the semester, friends. While I am elated that it has come to a close, I will miss you all. Please keep in touch.

Snapshot from our household

Actors: Monkey (7 1/2 year old girl) and Budge (nearly 4 year old boy).
Witnesses: Mr and Mrs Something

Monkey: You said kill. You shouldn't say kill. You don't even know what that means.
Budge: I do. It means to make someone die.
Monkey: And what does DIE mean?
Budge: To be killed.
Monkey: Here we go. And what does KILL mean?
Budge: To make someone DIE. DUH!
Monkey: And to die?
Budge: TO BE KILLED!
Monkey: That's not a definition. That's just a circle.
Mrs. Something: Well, yes. It's called a circular argument.
Monkey: Circular arguments are STUPID.
Budge: I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS IT MEANS TO DIE (punches Monkey)
Mrs. Something: Can you come tell my class that? About the circular argument?
Monkey: MOoo-ooooom. I really think they should know that already. They're GROWN UPS.

So here's something you might not know. . .

Unless you've visited Facebook in the past, oh, two hours or so:

Tim and I are expecting again. This is our fourth pregnancy in 15 months, so we're hopeful this one will be the charm. It's taken EVERYTHING I HAVE to not tell the universe, but I managed, poorly, but still managed, to keep it under wraps.

We discovered we were expecting the morning after St. Patty's Day, in the brief moments between my wakeup and Tim's decision to go to the ER for an emergency appendectomy, so this child had strange beginnings. Still, all seems well, so far. We had an ultrasound at 6w1d where the doctor expected to see a sac and fetal pole, but was actually able to detect a heartbeat of about 100bpm. Just over a week later, we had another ultrasound and the baby showed growth and still had a heartbeat. This is the farthest we had gotten in all of the 2009-2010 pregnancies.

Today I am 9w5d. Our baby measured on-target at 9w3d, with a heartbeat, and movement, and it even looks (though not in this picture) like a REAL BABY with wiggly legs and arms and everything. While I am not yet confident this is our take-home baby, I am much more hopeful than I have been in a long time.

And here it is, Baby Grrr, as we like to call him or her:

Nice shot, huh? ;)

Hrrrm. This could be dangerous.

I told my students I wrote about them in my blog.

Then I gave them a clue to find me.

I figured what the heck, we're only about 10 days from the end of the semester. Plus I figured these guys are cool. Not like normal students. And in the end, I'm sure I'll admire their detective skills.

But in the meantime, I might have to hide some posts.