April Currently

Yay!  Oh Boy 4th Grade's monthly Currently is up.  

This is perfect, because I so need a distraction from lesson planning and thinking about going back to work tomorrow.  :(

So I just spent the last 2 weeks on my BEST spring break ever.  I seriously, seriously do not want to go  back to school tomorrow.  I've got 35 teaching days left of this year.  This year has been SUPER hard for me.  I guess it was the moving, leaving mid-year, getting a new job mid-year, trying to figure out the new school, etc., etc.  It's just been really tough.  I'm trying to remain positive and just try to get through the end.

I don't know where or what I will be teaching next year, but I feel hopeful that better things are to come.  I took this spring break to spend time with my family, enjoy this beautiful island, and work on finding balance.  That's something I really need to try harder on in my everyday life.  

While I go forward with the rest of this school year, I'm going to try and focus on the positive things around me.  When all else fails, I'll try to focus on this!  What other better place to spend my time and recharge?  We sure were lucky to spend our Easter on this amazing beach.

Five for Friday - March 29

Normally, I'm so excited link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday.  I'm not as excited today, because it means my amazing spring break is almost over.  Boo!

This has seriously been my most enjoyable spring break ever.  I have sooooo many pictures, but I'll try to limit them to the most important things we did.  I guess I'll have to save the other pictures for another post.

Our first stop was Waimea Falls.  It's such a gorgeous place!  There are so many really cool plants.  They have Hawaiian huts that you can explore and see how people used to live many years ago.  You can swim to the waterfall at the end (or if you're lucky a very fit lifeguard will give you a ride on his surfboard). 

We've been meaning to visit the USS Arizona Memorial since we arrived on island.  I'm so glad we took the time to visit the memorial.  If you visit Hawaii, I highly recommend going here.  You do need to get there very early though or make reservations through their website.  They only give so many tickets each day.  We were fortunate that a Park Ranger had 6 extra tickets and gave them to us for a tour right after we arrived.  Otherwise, we would have waited about 3 hours before we were able to go on the tour.

Before you take a ferry to see the memorial, you watch a 9-minute movie that does a great job explaining the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the damage that was done so quickly.  Can you imagine a whole battleship sinking in less than 10 minutes?

The USS Arizona is still leaking oil, despite it being over 70 years since it sunk.  Not only can you see the oil floating on the water, the smell was incredibly strong.

I was also surprised to learn that many of survivors of the USS Alabama have chosen to have their cremated remains placed back inside the USS Alabama with their fallen comrades.  What a tragic day on December 7, 1941, and those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country should be remembered.

We also did some hiking at one of the kids' favorite spots.  They love hiking up to the pillboxes in Lanikai.

We explored some new beaches at Bellows Air Force Base, which is right near where we live.  It's gorgeous there!  We're already planning a trip back for this weekend.

And finally, it's time for some spring cleaning!  Not only does my house need to be cleaned (you won't believe how much sand accumulates in here), my TpT wishlist needs to be cleaned out!  I'm having a sale on my entire store for Saturday and Sunday.  You can get 20% off the entire store.

I'll definitely be cleaning out my wish list, because there are some other great bloggers joining in on this sale!

What's for Dinner?

I don't know about you guys but my kids start asking me what's for dinner before we've even left the house for school!  I try really hard to plan meals and know ahead of time what we're having for dinner. 

I'm always looking on Pinterest (you can follow my recipe board here) and blogs for easy meals that most of my family will eat and love.  I've fallen in love with Six Sisters' Stuff.  I love their blog posts, meal plans, and recipes.  They recently started a 4x4 Family Dinner Challenge for March.  Even though March is almost over, I really like this challenge and you can start anytime.

Basically the challenge is to eat dinner together as a family 4 nights a week for 4 weeks.  My family does eat dinner together at the table almost every night.  Occasionally, we'll eat pizza in front of the TV.    I'm super glad we have this ritual in my house, because there was some interesting research brought up in the blog post about the challenge.

Family dinners are more important than play, story time, and other family events in the development of vocabulary of younger children (Harvard Reserach, 1996).

Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to get mainly A's and B's in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University).

One tradition, we've started at dinner is that everyone goes around and shares one good thing and one not so good thing about their day.  Usually the kids like sharing a whole list of good things about their day.  One lesson we've learned the hard way is to make the rule that you can only share ONE not so good thing.  Or dinner turns into a big whine fest.  It's really good hearing what the kids have to say about their day, and it's taught them to listen to others while taking turns.

My real dilemma is getting dinner on the table.  Since I'm commuting with my new job, I've really had to rely on my crock pot.  I wanted to share with you guys some of my favorite crock pot recipes.  Seriously, these recipes are all easy and taste good.  My family approves of them all.  Click on the pictures to see the recipes.

Kailua Pig is a local favorite here in Hawaii.  I make the same recipe only I don't cook it for 16 hours and I just use regular sea salt.  I  just cook it all day on low while I'm at work.  We use the pig for bbq pork sandwiches, Kailua pig tacos, or quesadillas.  Yummy!

Whole Chicken - We love a roasted chicken in the crock pot.  I usually serve it with brown rice and a veggie.  If there leftovers, I use the meat for quesadillas.

These pork carnitas on corn tortillas are awesome!

This is a new one I just discovered, but we've already had it twice.  The first time we ate it with potatoes.  The 2nd time we used the meat to make french dip sandwiches.  So good!

Do you have any easy recipes to share?  I love trying new ones!