Flu Season

Substitute teaching has really picked up this October with the help of all the illnesses that are being spread through the schools. Last month I only worked two days and this month I have already worked seven. Last week I received a call at 5:40 in the morning from one of the first grade teachers at YCES. I have subbed for her before and really like her class. When I was at school, two other teachers came up to me and asked if I would sub for them on Thursday and Friday (one of them was a second grade teacher!) So far, I have only been in first grade classrooms so I was really excited to break out of my box and try teaching second grade. When I arrived at school on Thursday, I found out that the first grade classroom that I was teaching in had 8 students absent (one of them with a confirmed case of swine flu!) The next day I was teaching second grade,which really wasn't that much different than first grade. I heard that the first grade class I was in the day before now had 11 kids gone, some who seemed fine when I was there. The second graders were very rowdy and I had a lot of management problems. Nothing seemed to work on them. My throat started getting sorer and sorer as the day went on. I was completely exhausted by the time I got home and so glad that it was the weekend.
Sunday morning I woke up to my phone vibrating. It was the first grade teacher whose class I taught in on Thursday. When she left school Friday she wasn't feeling well, but thought that she might just be tired from her pregnancy. She went to the doctor and was told that she had Swine Flu! She asked if I would sub for her on Monday and Tuesday. I figured that I was already in the contaminated classroom last week so whatever germs were in there I was already exposed to and I could use the money, so I said sure! However, I woke up on Monday with my throat painfully sore. It hurt to talk and swallow. I took Vitamin C, tea, and throat drops to school with me. The girl who had Swine Flu came to school, ate breakfast, threw up, and went home. There were 11 kids absent again which made teaching pretty easy because the class size was so small. When the students went to specials and at the end of the day I disinfected the classroom. When I got home I took a nap and went to bed early. Tuesday, I still had a sore throat. We had 8 kids gone and the ones that came were coughing and sneezing. All the teachers were convinced that I was going to get the flu too. No one came into my classroom or sat near me at lunch (besides the teacher who had the flu). I really like teaching multiple days in a row because I feel like I am the real classroom teacher and I get to know the students better. At the end of the day, the teacher called me and said she was still sick, so I taught Wednesday too only this time with no lesson plans! It was great! I went to my mentor teacher and I got some fillers as well as continued lessons from the day before. Most of the class was back, we were only missing 3. I felt like my management skills were improving the more I was in the classroom. Wednesdays are shortened days, so in order to get paid for a full day the Principal had me stay and score second grade writing samples. I loved it! Although I have never taught second grade and I have only scored writing samples once before, it was still really fun feeling part of the team. I can't wait till I have a full time teaching position. I only hope that the school I end up at has as wonderful teachers as YCES. Everyone was so convinced that I would get swine flu. Even Erik and I were pretty sure I would get sick considering my immune system isn't the strongest and I was sick on and off all last year, that he made me a patient with his family doctor so we wouldn't have to go to the ER. However, I never got it!!! We're not out of flu season yet but at least I survived the first round.

Fall Harvest

The week before last, I went up and picked grapes with my mom and Raeme. We had attempted to make grape juice by boiling the grapes and then putting them through a food mill. Our grape juice came out really pulpy but very sweet. My mom and dad picked more grapes over the weekend and perfected our grape juice technique. They got significantly less pulp in their juice. Once we made the juice we canned it.

Last week I went to my parents house to help with the fall harvest. My mom and I made apple sauce, more grape juice and canned tomatoes. We also tried making grape jelly. However, I used a packet of expired pectin so the jelly did not set up right. It is more of a grape syrup.

After helping my mom I got really inspired to try my own hand at canning and preserving. I have one tomato plant, one cherry tomato plant and four green pepper plants. My tomato plant was loaded with tomatoes and waited all summer for them to turn red, but the darn things insist on staying little green rocks. The other night I picked one and made fried green tomatoes. They are pretty tart, but edible. Erik, however, did not care for them. It has been getting pretty cold at night dropping down to the low forties, so I decided to harvest my garden.
I picked all of my tomatoes and peppers and then looked up recipes for green tomatoes. I found more than I was expecting. Three caught my fancy: pickled green tomatoes, green tomato salsa, and green tomato relish.

Fall Garden Harvest!

So many green!Tomatoes sorted by color

Peppers from my garden

Yesterday I went to the store and bought a canning water bath along with the ingredients to make pickled green tomatoes. Here is the recipe that I tried: http://www.andreasrecipes.com/2008/10/27/pickled-green-tomatoes/. It was really fun making the pickles. I hope they turn out good!

Some of the ingredients

Getting ready to add the brine

All of their lids sealed!

Then I made a fresh tomato soup out of the few red tomatoes that I had along with garlic, onion, eggplant from my mom's garden, and zucchini from Erik's aunt Heidi's garden. It turned out surprisingly good. I am looking forward to tackling my next two canning projects!

Soup made from my garden tomatoes!