The last week of school for 2011!! One term down; two more to go!
The last week of school before a break is always hectic and chaotic with a lot of reviewing and not much planned. Those of you who know me, know that typically I do not handle lack of structure and chaos very well. And I knew that was what was going to happen this week due to the fact that I wanted to get assessments done in grade 3 and I needed to individually edit letters with grade 4. That meant a lot of time for "independent" work for the students. They don't handle that all that well, which in turn means that I get frustrated and angry. So I prayed about it. I prayed for God's peace to be with me and in the classroom. And guess what? He was so faithful! The girls were very well behaved and worked quite well at their centers! I got most of my assessments done and most of the pen pal letters edited! Chaos did not reign in my class; it was very peaceful! I will continue to keep this in prayer and hope that it continues in 2012!!
Thursday being the day before the break meant that not many girls showed up. They combined all the grades, so there were only 5 classes, and each teacher had to teach one period. I was scheduled to teach period 5 so I got a lot of work done in the morning. I went to get the girls and got them settled in the classroom with games when Alanoud tells me "go home." I had no idea what was going on so I had her go check and sure enough it was time to go home. So the girls cleaned up and left. I "babysat" for 5 minutes and then they left. I got to go home at 1:00; which was a wonderful thing because I had so much to do before leaving for Dubai for the week and then heading to Australia.
Baking Frustrations
Cindy is hosting a cookie exchange on Sunday and I was planning on making candy cane cookies (my favorite Christmas cookie) and fudge. I found a recipe for fudge on allrecipes.com but I didn't like how it turned out so I got my mom's recipe. I love my mom's fudge! The only issue was that it calls for marshmallow creme and they don't sell that here so I had to find a recipe to make it. It's really easy to make; just egg whites, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and corn syrup. OK I shouldn't say really easy because you have to beat it for 10 minutes until it gets "thick" and that's a lot of beating! I got the creme made and began to make the fudge. According to my mom's recipe you have to bring part of the ingredients to a quick boil so bubbles appear all over the top, all the while stirring constantly. More stirring!! Well, I stirred and stirred and stirred some more. I stirred for about 15-20 minutes and discovered that it was burning! Thing is, it hadn't boiled yet! I didn't think 15-20 minutes constitued "quick" so I gave up. Obviously I did something wrong. My mom has never had this problem. Arabic heat must not be high enough to boil, but high enough to burn?! OK so no fudge just candy cane cookies. No problem.
Well, it was a problem. I love candy cane cookies! I love them even more when I don't have to make them! They require sooooo much work. I made the first dozen and burned them. I made a second cookie sheet and burned those as well. The third cookie sheet turned out wonderfully, only I broke them trying to get them off the cookie sheet. By the fourth cookie sheetI thought I had figured out the changes I needed to make: grease the cookie sheet, turn down the heat, and only 7-8 minutes. I eventually got 21 cookies out of the whole night's process:( Not good and not nearly enough for a cookie exchange. I was going to have to make more the following night; which meant another trip to LuLu for candy canes and vanilla.
Night 2 turned out to be just as frustrating. Plus the dough was really sticky and I kept adding more flour but it kept sticking to the counter when I was making the candy canes. I burned 2 more sheets of cookies and broke more canes before I finally gave up. I still had dough left over, but I was so frustrated and, I must admit, near tears. I was going to cry over cookies! No way! I was NOT going to cry over cookies!! I called Cindy and told her that I was soooo frustrated and near tears and she said I could make them over there. Hopefully she'll be able to help. Really, I just need my mom to come and make them!!! They'll taste much better if she makes them:)
I can't figure out if it's the ingredients here, the oven/stove, or just my plain lack of baking skill. Whatever it is I have no cookies to take to Dubai with me.
I am getting ready to leave for Dubai for 5 days before I head to Australia for 13 days!! Although I am going to miss celebrating Christmas with my family I am looking forward to Christmas and New Years in Australia! It will be quite interesting to be one of the first people to celebrated 2012!
67 degrees at 6:30.
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