Random Ramblings

So I haven't blogged since Tuesday. It was hard getting back into the swing of school after a week and a few days off. But I'm back today for my non teaching related post. I'm back to share some ramblings of my past week. I had started this post last night before Chris and I went out for date night. By the time we got home, I just wanted to get in bed and read. So I'm going to finish this post today and share my visual plans tomorrow. Anyway, I'll start off with what I'm reading. I finally started the book Gone Girl.

Oh my goodness, I'm hooked. It's so suspenseful. I've almost stayed up way too late the past two nights reading it. I really wanted to finish it the other night but I was only like 45% through.(I read a lot on my kindle and that's how I  can tell how far I'm in the book.) I'd say I'll finish it tonight. I'll read just about anything but I love mysteries. They are my favorites. I just recently finished this series of books by a local author. Tuesday at our local library he's doing a book signing and I wanted to have his books read by then. I'm on the board of our library and plant to be in attendance. They were pretty good. I found them amazon and if you like mysteries these are good.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading next. I have some new stuff on my kindle so next week I'll update you on what I'm reading. I'd love to hear what you're reading so leave me a title or two in the comments.
I'm still working on my healthy eating habits. I have been 6 days without diet coke and it's hard. I miss my diet coke and I'm getting the worse caffeine headaches. I was only having one at lunch so I was a little surprised that my head would hurt so bad. But it's getting better. I think if I can make it 10 days I'll be on my way to giving them up. I weighed this week and I've lost almost 6 and half pounds. I know it isn't that much and it has taken me a while but I feel good about it. I'm not doing anything crazy (well the no diet coke is a little crazy) but just trying to get some better habits in general. We had a couple of good dinner this week. The first was Greek night.

I had found a Greek chicken crockpot recipe and the chicken had great flavor. I put lemon juice, red wine vinegar, water, garlic, onion and oregano in with the chicken and cooked it on low for 6 hours. I put it on a bed of spinach with grape tomatoes, cucumbers and sprinkled with feta. I also made a home made tzatziki sauce. It was delish. I thought it looked really pretty on the plate.

This meal is one of my old single standbys with chicken added. I got the recipe originally from Giada on the food network. It's a roasted vegetable pasta primavera. You chop up bell peppers, zucchini, squash and carrots. Coat with olive oil and then add spices. I use Italian seasonings, paprika and garlic powder. Cook on 450 for about 20 minutes. I cooked whole wheat penne. Tossed the vegetables and penne with Parmesan cheese. This was always satisfying for me but my hubby likes meat. So I sauteed 2 chicken breasts with the land o lakes saute express butter. It was a good dinner and pretty healthy. So those are my food suggestions for the week. This week on the menu is Skinnytaste's chicken and white bean enchiladas, fish tacos, salad with chicken and pinto beans and cornbread. What's on your menu for the week?
I have a couple more pictures to share of my adventures the past week.

 Chris and I are still working on our spare bedroom. It has been my junk room and then our junk room. We found a cute desk at a local store in our arts and crafts community a month ago so we've been working on itslowly. Part of the problem is all my craft materials. So last weekend Chris bought me a shelf to try to get the yarn under control. I think it looks like I'm opening up a yarn store. But it looks a lot better.

 Monday since I had a doctor's appointment and had to leave at a half day. Chris and I met for lunch at this great cafe. We got to eat outside since the weather was so nice. They have a really pretty patio area. If you find yourself in Pigeon Forge, TN you should check the Pottery House Cafe out. There food is so good.

Last picture is from our field trip on Thursday. I'm blessed to live next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We have a very special relationship with the park and every year each grade level goes on 3 field trips to the park. It's called Parks as a Classroom. They have it in other national parks but our program was one of the first ones around. This was the end of the our habitat hike on Thursday. We got to see some really neat things. The rangers led it and it was great trip. I'm a weirdo and love field trips. They make me happy rather than stress me out.
So those are my random ramblings for the week. I need to get lesson plans written, visual plans up, and a couple of things made for plants next week. So be sure to come back tomorrow to see my visual plans and snag a few freebies. I love comments so I'd love to hear about what you are reading or eating.

Ms. Kerri's Randomness

I've decided to start doing a new weekly post. I can't say what day it's going to be on but hopefully I will post it once a week. I have been wanting to post about a variety of things that aren't teaching related. Like I want to give book recommendations or recipes that I've tried lately or an outfit I wore that I really liked. I also have started on a new journey of trying to get healthy. I have a lot of randomness in my head. I had thought about starting a new blog but let's be honest. I don't always do the best job of keeping up with this one. So once a week, I'll indulge myself into some non school and non teacher related posting. If you are all about the teaching and not about the personal, that's ok. Just don't read my blog that day. Reading blogs has made me realize how nosy I am and I love reading the personal too. Hopefully a few of you are like that too and enjoy the personal. I even made a button for it. (Well I guess you can call it a button. It's a graphic. The background is from Erin Bradley Designs and the font from Hello Literacy)

I'm going to start with my healthy eating journey I'm on. I want to be a mom sooner rather than later, but Chris and I haven't been married even a year yet. Anyway, I want to have healthy eating habits in place when we have kids. So I've been working on changing some of my habits. I also could stand to lose a few pounds. I think I really started to put it on with my knee putting me out of commission with exercising. So I'm trying to eat healthier and exercise more.
I saw this pin on pinterest today and it sums up for me what I'm trying to do.

http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467400340409

To help me make some changes, I've been using the fitness pal app. Have you checked this app out? You answer some questions about your weight and lifestyle and you can keep track of your calories you eat and keep track of your exercise. I've been working on this for about a month or so and I've lost 5 pounds. It isn't a ton but I'm happy so far. I haven't been sticking to a really strict diet. I've just been working on trying to cut out sugary sweets and trying to eat more fruits and veggies. I've also been trying to exercise 4-5 times a week. I'm missing running so badly right now. I haven't been able to run since the end of the summer because of my knee. There is a pretty good chance that I won't be able to run again. Now that it's so sunny and warm, I've really wanted to get out and run. I've been walking and that's good if I have someone to walk with. I'm getting back into swimming. I swam in high school and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. It's hard and it's a great workout. I've also been wearing out the website www.skinnytaste.com She has great recipes that are healthy and they are even already loaded into My Fitness Pal. Here are a couple I've tried lately that you should give a shot.

Click here to find the recipe. I borrowed this picture from the website. This is a meatless recipe. I would love to go meatless once a week but I'm not sure the hubby is up for it.

Click here to find the recipe. I borrowed this picture from her site too. I'll be sure to take a few pictures of food this week. The biggest difference between this and regular lasagna is instead of noodles you use zuchinni. I love zuchinni so I love this recipe and so did my hubby.
I also tried a quinoa recipe. I've been wanting to try quinoa and it was good.  This is a picture of dinner Thursday night. It was very good and healthy. 

So that's my healthy journey I'm on. I think sometimes Chris thinks I'm a nut job with all my label reading I'm doing. I'm trying to be more aware of what I'm putting in my body. I would love any encouragement and or tips you have to share. I have a pinboard on pinterest all about healthy living. If you aren't following me on pinterest, you should. There's a place on the side of my blog, to start following me.

I love to read. I have the most basic kindle you can get and I'm not even sure that you can buy the one I have anymore. But I love it and I only use it for reading. Our school librarian and I talk books a lot. She turned me on to a couple of websites that send you the kindle deals. I've gotten some great books from these emails. The main one I use is called bookbub. The site is www.bookbub.com. You should head over there and sign up to start receiving some free and reduced prices on books. Here are a couple of books I've gotten this way. 

 I really like getting books through this site because it gives me exposure to books I might not have picked up otherwise. The only one of these I knew anything about what the James Patterson. The first two are just fun mysteries with a little chick lit thrown in. Honolulu was a great book with a lot of historical information about Hawaii.  So my recommendation is to check out this website right now.
I have no cute outfits to show because I was on spring break this past week and didn't really get dressed much past my yoga pants and a t-shirt. But next week I'll take a few pictures. I got some new pants and tops I can't wait to wear.
I would love to hear from you on whether you thought this post was completelely worthless or not. I'd love to know what you're reading and if you check out Book Bub let me know what you get. I'll leave you with this pin I found. (http://pinterest.com/pin/167055467399645832)