Author: egallagher713

Revisit Disney through the eyes of these authors and see the good, the bad, and the creepy.

Source: Strange Magic: Four Stories About Disney’s Dark Side

Source: If You Want to Be Productive, You Have to Rest

Excitement is beginning as we plan for a special Halloween this year. It will fall on a Saturday which allows us to plan parties and spooky desserts. It’s only September but not too early to think about all the fun Adult costumes out there.

Just tonight, I was thinking about my favorite Frankensteinlike characters. One of my favorite couples would have to be Lily and Herman Munster. I am contemplating how to make the bolts for his neck, perhaps cork screws glued to a skin -colored cloth headband. It’s more exciting to make a costume out of everyday items, rather than taking the easy way out and ordering online. Let’s go back to years ago when imagination was a key element in putting together your own original costume.

Fall is here in a few days. Let the decorating begin. Let the ideas for that original costume take shape. I can’t wait to see all your ideas. 

Most of us look forward to our buffet breakfast after first arriving on vacation.  You anticipate all your favorite, scrumptious breakfast foods that you don’t have time to cook while at home.  Then, you go to a country that is completely different and you browse through the buffet at least twice before choosing your meal.  After all, you want to make good choices to start your day of adventure.

You come across what looks like an overcooked mini-muffin and think it must be some sort of a bran muffin.  Well, that certainly seems safe enough to put on your plate.  The little boy next to you loads his plate up with them.  But then, he also puts a mound of baked beans next to his runny scrambled eggs.  Ugh! This can’t be so.  So I return to my seat with eggs, some kind of boiled tomatoes and these tiny dark muffins.

In Ireland, you ask someone who is a native before indulging in any new food.  My husband shrieked, ‘so you are going to try the blood pudding?’  I honestly don’t know what he is referring to until he points out that this little muffin is in fact what the Irish refer to as “blood pudding”.  Oh no, not me.  For those of you who are unclear as to what this blood pudding is, I hope you are reading this way after breakfast.  Blood pudding is a blood sausage made from pork blood and a high proportion of oatmeal.  Hence that’s how it looks like a muffin.

So for 10 days I ate Irish soda bread and lots of eggs.  I knew that my American stomach could never digest blood pudding and baked beans for breakfast.  Now I am prepared to visit Ireland again, one of the most beautiful, diverse places on Earth.  I will just not look forward to breakfast.

One of the challenges of being a teacher is starting over every September. Teachers have two New Years every year — two opportunities to make positive changes in your life.  I find it invigorating to be given the challenge to start again. To be able to work on your goals and make a difference in the lives of children is a reason to get up every morning!!