She works hard for her money

I started a new (and still temporary) job this week!!! I totally love it. I'm an "educational assistant" (AKA aide) in the multiple disabilities room at Jarrettown Elementary, same place as I student taught. Right now I'm subbing, but the head teacher really wants me, since we already had a good relationship during my student teaching. One of her students was in my class, and my coop was her go-to for supplies, suggestions, and assistance. It's super fun, and super exhausting. But I have, and probably always will have, a special thing for those "challenging" students. They're my favorite.


Anyway, my camera battery is dead and we're out of AA batteries. I've started browsing around for a better camera, but that's probably a good ways off yet. I'm interested in a nice one, and those cost money.


Which is in short supply.


(Not really, just when it comes to things like expensive cameras.)


(Food is not an issue, as evidenced by this.)

Quesadillas. Yum.

Sad little burnt cookie on the end.

 Yay for baking!

Halfway cookies. My absolute favorite.  Cookie on the bottom, chocolate in the middle, brown sugar meringue on the top.

Challah bread. (I don't usually bother to put the appropriate amount of phlegm into my pronunciation of "challah," which leaves me saying "holla," as in "holla yo!")

The remnants of Christmas morning brunch. I didn't get a before pic, we were hungry.


At any rate, you'll have to make do with fewer pictures until I get my bum off the couch to get some AA batteries.


I keep wanting to type "double A" and then realizing that AA is perfectly adequate.


In other news, it's 65 degrees in Philly today. Which, of course, means spring cleaning. Because 65 degrees = spring. Right?


Not really.


This mostly amounted to me cleaning out the fridge and freezer, which is always sad because I end up throwing away more food than I would wish, and then washing all the newly freed tupperware, before I ran out of steam. Really I need about five days of this weather and this mood to really accomplish everything I want to.


Which doesn't ever happen, so I go back to making messes in the kitchen, playing with Lily, and of course, blogging!

Happy New Year!

Wow, that Christmas season just flew by.


For some reason, even though I've been spending so much time sitting around doing nothing, I haven't blogged. I guess I just don't have much to say when I'm not doing anything!


Make sense, right?


Of course right.


Anyway, Christmas was fun. We were just the right amount of busy, and Dan had enough days off that we were really able to relax and enjoy.


(As much as I love him, when he's randomly home it tends to throw off my schedule. It's not that I'm not glad to have him around! Because I am. It's just weird.)


We got to see some friends.


Hannah, I'm lookin' at you.


And spend some quality time with other friends.


Painting, for instance.


Finally, on Sunday night, everyone was home. So what did we do? I made dinner for everyone, of course!

"Of course you did," you say. Really, though, there was something incredibly soothing about being back in my kitchen, using my tools, my stove, and my ingredients, to make a simple, comforting meal for my friends who had been traveling.


(Did I mention we were housesitting over the holiday too? Yep, we were.)


Something magical about having all the time in the world, not rushing for a million guests, not trying anything new or fancy, just hunting through my kitchen for basic supplies, things I always have on hand.

Watching the layers of paper-thin skin peel away from the onions and garlic became a quiet meditation.

Slathering butter in between slices of bread and toasting them in the oven was peaceful.

(Don't worry, mom--I steamed some green beans to go with dinner too. I always eat my vegetables.)

And of course, a little something sweet.

Cheesy Ritz Chicken
Recipe by the magnificent and magnanimous Kelly Nelson Alberts


5 Chicken breasts
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
1 stick butter
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
approx. 1 1/2 cups cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions and garlic in the melted butter. Place chicken breasts in a glass dish. Drizzle the garlic, onions and butter over the chicken. Sprinkle crackers, then cheese over chicken. Bake at 375 for ~45 minutes.

Three More Days!

Ok, I know that Christmas is not technically for five more days.


So sue me.


But MY Christmas begins in three days and I am super excited.


December 23rd is the Lessons and Carols service at Tenth Presbyterian Church, and then a huge, family-style meal at Buca di Beppo's restaurant.


December 24th is (duh) Christmas Eve, and we do the big extended family meal and gift exchange.


And then I'm hosting Christmas morning!! I'm so excited. Due to all the change-ups in family living situations this year I decided it was the perfect opportunity to both help out and inject a little of my own Kline Christmas traditions into the festivities.


Basically our Christmas morns are the same (sleep in, do presents in pajamas, late lazy breakfast) but the menu is quite different. I'm not going to do anything radical, still good coffee and an egg casserole, simple and delicious. BUT, instead of MomMom's coffee cake (which is delicious in its own right) I'm making these.


It will be epic.

A Late Night Post

Because my husband is out. Again. I texted him to ask when he'd be home, but then I left my cell phone in the kitchen.


This is the epitome of laziness.

Yes, that's Lily. She's an excellent pillow. 

I'm sick again still. I feel like I've been sick for ages. That flu shot did me no favors, especially since I've never had a flu. One cold after another, and now a lovely barking cough. Can't wait to showcase this at our party this weekend!!


Did I mention we're having a party this weekend?

We are.


We just love parties.


This is our third annual Christmas party, so hopefully it's safe to say it's a tradition. For me, it's a good chance to get lots of friends in one place and enjoy more delicious food than we could ever need.


Plus, the best way to get the apartment deep-cleaned, organized and fully scrubbed is to threaten me with lots of company.

Finally!!

A truly productive day. There's just something about waking up when the alarm goes off, getting a shower, and leaving the house right away to put me in that "I'm going to accomplish things today" mindset.


I visited Jarrettown today, which was really fun. The best part of leaving for a week is that, upon returning, you are a rock star. The kiddos pounce, hug, cheer...you can do no wrong!!


It's awesome.


I also went to Elcy's Cafe today, which is one of my favorite places to just sit and chill. I got lunch and a coffee, and I worked on some job applications. Woot! I shall find a job.


Then I came home and kept right on truckin'...until tragedy struck.


Our first casualty of Christmas 2011.


Cue the sad music.

Dun dun dunnnnn. And the culprit?

She seems wholly unapologetic. Stupid tail.


Anyway, I didn't let that stop me. I strung up the lights and garland outside:

And I had an inspiration this year. For the last two years I've wrapped the lights and garland around the metal rail (only a plumber would find it convenient to use a huge mental pole as a handrail), but when it gets snowy and icy the lights and garland make holding the rail rather treacherous. And our stairs are fairly treacherous as it is.

So this year I wrapped the decorations around the wooden part, below the actual handrail. Still pretty and festive, but much safer. I'll take some pictures after dark when it's all lit up, it's a very cozy effect.


Lastly (so far) I attacked the attic.


I know this sounds dramatic.


But our attic will be the death of me.


If the stairs don't kill me first.


I'm a neatnik, an organizer, and a pretty minimalistic person. I love a plethora of food and books; other than that, I only need one or two pairs of jeans, enough sweaters to not wear the same one twice in one week, and I was perfectly fine sharing a car (which we did, until just recently). Our attic does not conform to any of these standards.


The reason for this is pretty simple. When my parents moved, I took everything that I thought I might want to keep; thus, all of my sentimental, don't-really-use-it-but-can't-bear-to-get-rid-of-it crap is in the attic. Then, when Dan and I got married his parents indiscriminately packed up his room and dropped it off at our apartment.


So our attic is a dump.


I'm slowly and surely purging it, every few months I throw away a couple more boxes of stuff. Over the summer I donated about six trash bags of clothes we hadn't worn since high school, and the next to-be-donated collection is my old books. I'll keep Laura Ingalls Wilder, but the rest are going to the local library.


So today, I got rid of this:

It doesn't look like much, but let me tell you, it made quite a difference.


And no, you won't be seeing photos of the attic anytime soon.


Nice try.

Christmas!

I simply cannot share this with enough people. It is sososo important.

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/11/29/the-christmas-conundrum

Caution: God At Work

I've been working on several things lately.


Especially now that I have time to think beyond what-does-this-child-want-please-don't-shout-we're-inside-raise-your-hand-don't-call-out-wash-your-hands-they-are-filthy-did-you-remember-to-flush-the-toilet-quiet-in-the-hallways and the other billion and a half things that are constantly running through my head and out my mouth when teaching kindergarten.


Aww, I miss those little buggers. Good thing I'm visiting soon!


One work-in-progress lately has been my deepening understanding of grace.


Yep. A serious post. You can always leave now and come back later when it's more muffins and Lily and whatnot, if that's what you really want.


But do you?!




Grace has always been my mom's thing (yeah, again, go ahead and laugh). I struggled more with the faithfulness part of my faith, where I really clung to God as my only strength and purpose and focus and all those good things. However, recently I've come to realize that I had it all wrong for a long time.


Are you surprised?


See, I'm not really that good at being faithful. I'm weak, I'm fickle, I get distracted eas--ooh, shiny!


You get the point.


So when the focus of my beliefs is on how I can be faithful to God, rather than really understanding how He is faithful to me, things turn pretty sour pretty quickly. I get discouraged, I get angry (mostly at myself) I get frustrated with what I think is God failing me, when in reality I've got the whole thing backwards from the beginning.


Christianity is not about what we, as humans, can do for God. It never has been, it never will be. See: the Pharisees. Rather, Christianity is about what God has done for us, by grace, through Jesus Christ and the redeeming power of the cross.


The whole point of grace is that I. DO NOT. DESERVE IT. 


It's not anything that I can do, it's not my faithfulness, it's not my choice to believe, it's not my goodness as a human that makes me worthwhile to God. And believe me, after spending one year with 2-year-olds and one semester with kindergarteners, it's really easy to believe that humans have no innate goodness whatsoever.


When I really step back and look at grace as God intended it to be, I find something so awesome (in the traditional sense--awe-inspiring, not like "awesome shoes dude"), so humbling, so overwhelming that I have no choice but to just sit back and let it overtake me. God loves me for no reason at all. He just does. He justified me to Himself, is redeeming me from myself, and will sanctify me to His purpose, all just because He can.


Let me say that again. JUST BECAUSE HE CAN.


When I accept this grace as it was meant to be (and I use the term "accept" loosely--who can resist such an overpowering gift of love?!) I find that I am nothing. And rather than being a deprecating realization, it is so peaceful, so right, that I no longer care about my worth. I'm not worrying about my self-worth, I'm not worrying about my rights, I'm not even worrying about working on myself to become the person I'm supposed to be, all because I'm covered by grace. I can bask in this grace, rest in God's faithfulness to me, and allow this grace the penetrate every area of my life.


In that way alone can I truly come to be faithful to God (as a response, rather than by my own initiative) and become who God intends me to be. It's a long way off, but each baby step reassures me that I'll get there eventually.


I know I'm not really saying anything original here. It's all been said, it's all been done, there's nothing new under the sun....but seriously. It's still pretty cool. And if-and-when it clicks for you, I promise. It will feel pretty new and cool to you.