Seriously? Well, Apparently.

Tonight on the news, I heard a snippet about a high school in Rhode Island that will be firing ALL of its teachers. I think I got whiplash trying to turn around to catch the rest of the segment.

Apparently, this poverty stricken school in Rhode Island is sucking. Their graduation rate is hoovering around 50%, 90% of their students are living below the poverty level, and 25% of the students are ESL (English as a second language). In my experience, as limited as it may be, the last two of these things can pretty much guarantee a struggling school.

Now, here is the question: WHY are they firing all the teachers?

Well, in reading through a few articles, it sounds like it might be two-fold. CBS Link ABC Link

CBS makes it sound like the teachers are being let go simply because their school is underperforming. The ABC article goes a bit more in depth, and it turns out that the teachers want to get paid for the extra 25 minutes a day they would be working (among other new responsibilities). The teacher's union said no way and so the teachers will be fired.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't work for free. Work is work. If I was an hourly employee, that 25 minutes would be worth money. Why should that 25 minutes not be worth money to a salaried teacher? After all, that extra 25 minutes a day works out to be an extra 2 weeks worth of work over the course of a 190 day school calendar.

I also don't feel like teacher performance should be so strictly tied to student achievement. Sure, the lazy teacher who sleeps in class and, literally, doesn't even try to teach (shout out to my 11th grade Chem teacher, Mr. Miller!) is not going to have students who are knocking people's socks off. But I firmly believe there are plenty of fabulous teachers out there who have students who could give a shit about education. Those students are not going to do what needs to be done. I also believe there are plenty of fabulous teachers out there who have students who just can't do the whole school thing. And that's fine. I'm a firm believer that a lot of today's school curriculum is not necessary. The world needs gas station attendants probably more than it needs CEOs.

Regardless, I think the firing of all the school's teachers is excessive at best and downright idiotic at worst.

Maybe its good that I got out of education.

Jack Gets Life

So we're at the park today and Jack somehow managed to snag my phone. He's always liked to fiddle around with it, trying to push the buttons and whatnot (he called 911 once and how he did it I'll never know; you have to hit a digital button that says "dial" and then the numbers are all digital as well, but I digress...), but today he did something different. He held it up to his ear and said, "Eeh."

He says "eeh" about everything pretty much. If I had to label his words, I'd say he could discriminately say "mama," "daddy," and "nurse" (which sounds like "na-na" while he frantically does the sign for nurse). "Eeh" is just his general noise. But I was just flabbergasted to see him put the phone to his ear. Like a real person! And he figured it out all on his own, just by watching us! Smart boy.

I can remember feeling this way about Spencer as well, how amazing it was to watch them go from baby to toddler right before my very eyes. For my boys, the pattern has seemed to be walking, then talking, and by the time they are doing both of those things they are like their own little person.

I mean, technically they've always been people, but to me toddlers just have so much more personality. They get mad about things other than food and diaper changes and happy about figuring out how the world works. If I had to pick, the toddler phase is by far my very most favorite. Like little sponges, they are. It is super fun.

You'd Never Know How Wild They Are...

when you see a sweet pic like this (taken pre-illness).


(And, uh, pardon all the laundry on the couch. We were in the middle of folding...)

Expecting the Unexpected

Blurry, but definitely a clear "+".



I had always wanted 3 kids, for as long as I can remember. After Jake and I got married, it just seemed to make sense. He was one of 3 (all boys) and so was I (all girls). But whereas I enjoyed having two sisters, Jake always said he felt crowded. He would've stopped after Spencer if I hadn't pushed, I think.

Then Jack came along. Jack is one of the needier babies I've ever experienced. He still wakes several times at night to nurse and maintains "cranky" as his general disposition. I had decided I was done. Jake had pushed for a vasectomy and I asked him not to, but I had the sudden realization that I felt done. If all babies were like Spencer (minus the complications), I'd have a hundred. Babies like Jack are why families quit having babies.

So I was going to consent to Jake having a vasectomy and, in the meantime, start my prescription of birth control pills. I read through the packet since I was taking a pill I'd never taken before (the mini-pill, which is safe for breastfeeding) and discovered when I needed to start them and that, if taken during the first trimester of pregnancy they could cause birth defects. The instructions encouraged taking a pregnancy test before commencing with the pills.

I grabbed a cheap-o pregnancy test not wanting to waste money on something that was going to be negative and trashed shortly thereafter. I mean, Jack was still nursing so much at night that my period hadn't returned. And I learned through research that 80% of first cycles are anovulatory, so the odds were stacked in my favor.

Welcome to the 20%, Mrs. Walters.

I took the test and, so sure I was that it would be negative, I jumped in the shower and went on with stuff I needed to do before I glanced at it. And then stared at it. And then threw up.

I am not excited. An 18 month age gap between needy baby and new baby sounds like the least amount of fun a person could ever have. I haven't yet forgotten how much it sucks to have a little baby. It sucks a lot. Sure they're cute and they smell good (sometimes), but they also bring you to a level of sleep deprived that I can guarantee you've never experienced, not even during finals week in college. There were mornings that I'd have to call Jake to drive Spencer to preschool b/c I literally could not get up.

So anyway, September. And by then I'll be fine and excited, I'm sure. But for now I feel a whole lot of emotions ranging from angry (at myself) to dread and back again.

Adventures in Baking: Brioche

I actually did this baking a few weeks ago, but got busy and forgot to post about it. And man, oh, man, does this dough need its own post!

If I had to describe brioche, I really only need one word: butter. When you whip up a batch of this, it makes 4 loaves. I used 3 sticks of butter in this batter. And you could tell! It practically oozed out of the baked loaf with every bite. Yummy!

Jake showing his need for attention (and the dough, just mixed):

At 2 hours:
Ready to go in the oven:
All done:I started with a basic loaf as I thought that'd be a great way to see if I did a good job. My book says that it makes a good breakfast bread with jam and I can totally see how that would be true.

I also made brioche with chocolate ganache. For that, you roll the dough into a rectangle and spread a chocolate mixture all over it, finishing by rolling it up and putting it into the loaf pan. It was a big hit with me and Spence, but not so much with Jake. It called for the chocolate ganache
to be made with a bittersweet chocolate and Jake said he would've preferred semi-sweet at least. One of the ladies I work with agreed with him, so next time I think I'll try it with a semi-sweet chocolate instead.

This was really an awesome bread and I can absolutely see it becoming a staple in our house.