Weekly Menu
Oh, how I love the start of school. I’m such an undeniable nerd that I revel in the smallest of ritualistic pre-school activities. I meticulously fill my pencil case with new mechanical pencils and my favorite black pens. I open and close my new, perfectly organized 3-ring binder, imagining all the possiblities of filling the blank pages with brilliant insights. I print out my course roster and pore over the names of my students, creating these 22 people I get to teach for the semester in my head, delighting in who they might be. I type up extraordinarily detailed daily schedules for myself which I never, ever follow, but keep on my desktop. I make lots and lots of lists. I fret and worry and have nightmares (the kind where I always show up to my class inappropriately dressed and completely unprepared). Once the madness begins, for weeks, I thrive on the excited frenzy I’ve created for myself in the weeks leading up to the first day.
And I love every moment, even though complaining about school starting is usually part of the routine.
In all of this activity, I have little time for cooking (or blogging, for that matter, but I do have it on one of those detailed schedules!) But we have to eat, I’m entirely too picky for fast food, and we don’t have the budget to eat out, so I cook anyway. Our summer meals tended to be leisurely and sometimes labor-intensive, simply because they could be. What will follow in the coming months will be how we fit food into an already-packed schedule. Cooking becomes part of my planning obsession during school days, and part of my ritual. It won’t always be beautiful or gourmet, but I’ll do my best to make it healthy and delicious. The menu above represents the last week before the official start of school, but really the first week of my crazy frame of mind as I prepared. I don’t have links for you because I haven’t made any of those things before, but I promise to post about them soon.
Or at least, I have it written on my schedule.
Happy school days everyone!
August 29th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I’ll remember to slow down in the school zones again!
Happy school days.
And good cooking in all ways and times possible.
August 29th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I’m a teacher too! This is our second week back. Blah.
August 31st, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Oh, I’m with you! How I love the season of “school-beginning”. I remember the excitement I would feel when looking at all the new school supplies. I especially enjoyed the start of each year of university because I knew that my schedule was my own and I’d chosen it. Ah, the memories!
I’m looking forward to this week’s menu!
August 31st, 2006 at 7:27 pm
I know we are related and all but geez Jen…..opening and closing of the binder? filling the pencil case? What about school clothes? JK Give me supper ideas!! I’m great once someone suggest something..I’m still the one standing in front of the fridge waiting for something to jump out. We appreciate you! And BTW Happy BlogBirthday!