Fun Friday

When I taught 1st and 2nd grades, I started a thing called "Fun Friday" in my classroomn.

"Fun Friday" basically started out as being the end of the school week, Friday afternoons, where I'd let the kids do something out of the ordinary - something more fun. Some weeks it'd be an art project. Some weeks it'd be games or centers. Some weeks it might even be a movie or a guest speaker or a special snack.

Here's the thing about Fun Friday - yeah, the kids LOVED IT!!!! It was the answer to all of the week's behavior and academic problems. Observe:

Me: "Wow, J. If you stick that pencil up your nose one more time, there will be no Fun Friday for you this week. You'll be in Mr. L.'s office writing a report about Pakistan."

(J stopped fishing with the pencil.)

Me: "Hmm, some of us haven't taken an AR test in 3 weeks. I guess those people will be reading about Pakistan this week instead of participating in Fun Friday."

(All-time high for AR tests that week)

See? Fun Friday was the answer to all of my questions. After a while, though, when more federal regulations were tacked onto teaching, more and more was required, and we could no longer use M&M's as a reward, Fun Fridays became a little more subdued - sometimes they even consisted of only 15 minutes of "Heads Down, Thumbs Up" before the 1st bus round was called. Nevertheless, we're talking about 6 and 7-year-olds, who didn't know that Fun Friday USED to involve M&M's, so that 15 minutes was usually enough to do the trick.

So, what was it about Fun Friday that made it so successful? It was a reward, of course! Something different, a little mysterious even, to look forward to. In light of that, I've decided to start Fun Fridays here, on my blog.

Each Friday, starting today, I'm going to try and bring an idea or two to you guys about something fun I'm either going to do over the weekend or something fun I've discovered that could be done. Isn't that a great idea? A little mystery to keep you coming back for more. I. AM. GENIUS, am I not?

So, this weekend is Labor Day weekend. It's a time for us to remember the labor force of our great country and celebrate capitalism.

No, I'm not even going there, except to say, I hope people still remember what capitalism is...uh, yeah...

This weekend my "fun" includes having my amazingly precious and brilliant granddaughter staying with me!! Yay!!! She is 3 and we are the best of buddies, I tell you, the best!! I can't wait to have her. Some of my plans include shopping for a new Veggie Tales movie (she knows all the words to the Veggie Tales song, people, every word!), going to Chick-Fil-A, and doing some cooking together. She loves to cook with me. I think we're going to make a cookie cake, that's one of her favorites. I think I'm also going to buy her a new kiddie apron. Hers is getting small and she insists that we both wear our apron while cooking. Yeah, it's going to be a great weekend.

Then, after church on Sunday, we're going to go back to Warren (see All in the Family.) We're going to be celebrating Father's birthday and just hanging out. Son is bringing friends, hopefully not 9, and we're going to grill (if Hubby can talk Grandpa into purchasing a real grill.)

In light of the grilling, I've decided to share my favorite steak rub recipe with you. This is a recipe I've stolen from one of Hubby's partners - it's to DIE for, people. Try it.

My take is this: have a great weekend, celebrate capitalism, be thankful for you and/or your husband's jobs, be thankful to be an American, and enjoy your family and friends - never take them for granted. See you on Monday!


Gary's Steak Rub

Begin with your favorite cut of steak - mine is the ribeye, but, you know, it's STEAK - they're all good. I also apply the following rub to each side of the meat 3-4 hours before grilling, to allow it to really sink in.

1. Dust each steak with a meat tenderizer - I use Adolph's, not sure if it's local, but wherever you live, I'm sure they have meat tenderizer

2. Apply a good covering of Tex-Joy steak seasoning (if you don't have Tex-Joy in your neck of the woods...you just need to move! You can sub any kind of steak seasoning until your house sells)

3. Apply a good covering of garlic powder

4. Dust with a little bit of white pepper

5. Dust with a little bit of red pepper

6. Dust with black pepper

7. End with a very thick layer of salt. The salt will seal the rest of the spices into the steak. Trust me, it's good!

8. Rub the spices into the steaks and get ready for your mouth to water. Plus, due to the tenderizer, your steaks should be very tender. So good!!