Not Me Monday

Monday's here!!! It's time for Not Me Monday, a fun, creative idea started by MckMama. Check out her blog for more Not Me stories.

This past week, in an attempt to offer a delightful, squishy, not-your-typical-everyday kind of experience for my preschool students, I did not endeavor to cook ten plus pounds of noodles (we were learning letter "n"). I was not super excited about this week, since I did it last year and it was a definite hit. Well, trying to save time so I could move on to bigger and better things, I did not put five pounds of spaghetti noodles in one pot, hoping it would all fit. One pound... no problem. Two pounds... piece o' cake. Three pounds... getting full. Four pounds... can I fit one more in here? Five pounds... ahhhh, I made it!

Little did I realize that my frequent stirring would be insufficient. I did not begin to smell an unpleasant aroma. Probably something on the burner I thought. WRONG! Draining the pasta did not reveal nearly a pound of the noodles scorched on the bottom of the pan, stuck together where the spoon did not reach during stirring. Hmmmm. I hope four pounds will be enough!

After cooking three other varieties of pasta, a new complication presented itself. How do I transport all this pasta to school tomorrow? My brilliant plan? I did not grab an 18 gallon tote and dump all the pasta inside, slight burnt stench and all.

At school the next day? My students were not thrilled with the opportunity to play with "food," as you can see here. Of course I did not join them!

Three classes, seventeen grubby pairs of hands, and one tired teacher later, I decided the noodles had served their purpose and could happily be thrown away. Since they were still wet, I did not opt to leave them uncovered to dry out overnight, thinking clean-up would be easier. What greeted me Friday morning was not a child's sand table filled with slightly-dried, somewhat slimy, completely rancid noodles. I was not glad I had skipped breakfast that morning, because I probably could not have kept it down! I did not find rubber gloves and after lining the same tote with a huge garbage bag, I did not dump all the noodles inside and put the lid on, only to dispose of them after class.

Class done. Kids gone. Clean up. Friend called. Go to movie. Out to dinner. Home to PJs.... I did not completely forget to get rid of the stinking, rotten mess what was in my classroom!

So there's a look at my week, and if you really think about it, I'm sure you could come up with something great to write about, so why not give it a try! It's fun and it's cheap therapy also.