Currently and Time Travel…Err…Tuesday

Where has the summer gone? I broke down yesterday and checked the calendar for the back to school date. I have another week before teachers report back. So much to do, so little time!

It is a new month, so I’m linking up with Farley for Currently.



Listening: The Irishman and I are working our way through The Good Wife on Amazon Prime. We are in the middle of season 3. I felt bad about working through the episode, but my husband was snoring away so we will watch it again tomorrow!

Loving: We have had a lot of great family time lately. The Irishman is back at work this week after our two week family stay-cation, but the kids and I are still having fun.

After a summer of looking, we bought a new-to-us car last week. Our old car was a 1999 Ford Escort. It still had a tape deck. I was a little sad to see it go, but I got over it quickly. We are now minivan people and loving it! The color is “beach sand” so my daughter calls it “The Golden One.”

Thinking: Today was my little guy’s second birthday! He is growing up WAY too fast!

Wanting: I am having nightmares about starting school and not having all my furniture/technology/supplies. Seriously. It is keeping me up at night. Things have been ordered, but it may take a while.

Needing: I’m trying to balance time with the family and a couple of days in school (see above). I was hoping to take the kids back to the zoo and children’s museum this week, but my little guy was under the weather. Hopefully next week we can fit it all in!

Back to School: I’m the queen of folders with brads. I haven’t made my stock up purchases yet this year. I’ve also become a fan of printable labels. Nothing is better than a new dress to start the year!

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Earlier this week I read Jessica’s post with her fifth grade picture. All my pictures are back at my mom’s house in Texas. Then I remembered this little gem I had under my bed.



I’m the one on the left. I’m sure my siblings will love me for sharing this picture. It is a picture of an old framed picture that was hanging in my late grandmother’s house.

I have taught third grade for a decade, but next year I will be teaching in a K-5 STEAM lab.  For the Time Travel Tuesday linky you are supposed to link up with a picture from the grade you teach. This picture was taken in the summer just after third grade. It seems appropriate! This was the outfit I wore on the first day of school. I LOVED it. It was all-in-one. I'd picked out pink earrings to go with it. I thought I was hot stuff!

Grade:  Fourth grade
Year: 1989
School: Landolt Elementary School
Teacher: Mrs. Woodruff
Favorites: Full House, funky earrings, ballet class, Little Caesars Pizza, sleep overs, slouchy socks in multiple colors
Memories:  We had just moved to Houston and discovering all the wonderful things to love about the city. When this picture was taken we were still waiting for our house to be built. I remember thinking how cool it was that it was about to be a new decade. I lost my voice in fourth grade and my teacher made me hot drinks and gave me hard candy to help. She also had us memorize several poems. I can still recite Daffodils by William Wordsworth.

Fun times!

Family First

Last week a five-year-old little boy lost his battle with cancer. His mom and I were sorority sisters, though she was older and I did not know her well.

Sunday afternoon my own little one was napping and the Irishman took our three-year-old mermaid to the pool. I had the house to myself and I checked Facebook before taking a nap. Several of my friends had "liked" a video made to honor the little boy who died. I had tears streaming down my face as I watched it.

One of the other interns at the school I did my student teaching at lost a daughter to cancer a few years ago. It is heartbreaking. I cannot even imagine the pain.

I looked at the photos of first steps, Halloweens, Christmases, and memories that will be cherished forever. I thought of my own two little ones and thought of how lost I would be without them.

Some friends of mine are collecting money to help this family. They are trying to respect the privacy of the family, but I number of us have contributed.  I am going to donate all money made in my TpT store between now and Thursday to this cause.

Be sure to hug your loved ones extra tight tonight. Life is precious!

Sundaes on Sunday

I was planning a giveaway for my one year blog birthday. Tuesday was the big day, but it was also my wedding anniversary. Last year I was working summer school on the big day and decided to try my hand at blogging. It has been a great journey. I’m looking forward to the future!

I decided Monday night to wait for the weekend for the celebration. I was still teaching last year, but this year I’m on vacation and I wanted to spend time with my family instead.

I’d created an ice cream themed QR code game to use as a flash freebie. Then I discovered that today is actually National Ice Cream Day. It seemed a natural fit!



I am loving this clip art from JC Sweetpea Designs. I made a big purchase during the teacher appreciation sale, and I have lots to work with now! I’m also a big fan of QR codes for self checking games/task cards.

In honor of my blog birthday and National Ice Cream Day, I’m offering these two products as flash freebies today only.

I plan on creating more of these later this summer. Subtraction, two digit addition/subtraction, harder multiplication, and eventually two step equations should eventually round out the set. These two files will be free today only, so please be sure to get them while you can! I only ask that you leave me some feedback love if you join the ice cream party.

Enjoy!

Family Fun

I was sure that this summer I was going to have time to blog. I had it all planned. I was going to create products and post regularly. I worked for the first month of my summer. Since then I’ve spent time with my family.

All my daughter wanted to do on her vacation was go bowling and to go to the library. We did both in the first two days. The Irishman wanted to spend lots of time at the beach and the pool. Our oldest has just started swimming without her floaties, so she is all about the pool. One of these days we will convince her we should go to the beach instead!

Today’s fun was a local children’s museum. They relocated in the last year or so. We went for the first time today and loved it.



They had a Maurice Sendak exhibit. There were Wild Things, Chicken Soup with Rice, and In the Kitchen.



The kids had a blast!

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Confession – I started this post last night but fell asleep. We went to the museum yesterday. Today we did the beach and made homemade ice cream. Our two little pint-sized “ice cream maker helpers” did a great job of adding ice as it churned. The end result was super yummy!



Speaking of ice cream, you will want to stop by my blog on Sunday. I’m celebrating my blog birthday and National Ice Cream Day with a flash freebie you won’t want to miss!



It should be fun! Hope to see you then!

Frogs or Owls?

I finally got everything moved out of my old room and into the new. I even unpacked a couple of boxes!

This year my room theme was polka dots. I found my inspiration in some scrapbook paper. While that took place last summer, it took me until April to blog about it. (Click here to read)

I usually do a Flat Stanley-type project with my class. Finn and Fran are two inflatable frogs that have been all over the world. My first year teaching the local news station did a story about the frogs' travels. (I have a few ideas for how to take it online with help from my blog friends next year after I get my new room set up. More about that later!)

Over the years, students have given me lots of frog decorations. I don't mind frogs, but the collection just sort of happened.

Our school mascot just recently changed. After years of being the Hawks we are now the Owls. I've been looking for rugs for my new room.

These are my top two right now:

 I think the second one would be best for not showing stains/dirt, but I do like the owls as well. I'm going to keep my polka dots. I'm keeping my polka dot cabinet, so the color and the dots are coming to my new room. I can make either frogs or owls work.

So, now I am trying to decide if I want to stick with frogs or make the switch to the school mascot owls.

What do you think?

Moving

You know the part of a move when you have stuff every where and you just want to be finished with it all? I'm there.

My husband had the day off today, so he came in to help me. I was whining a bit. "I just want to be done with this. I want to be out of this room."

Then I looked over and saw this:

The Irishman found some leftover shaving cream and decided I needed a laugh. It worked.

I am almost out of my old classroom. I’ve started throwing things in boxes to go through once I’m set up in my new room. I know that can be dangerous, but that’s where I’m at.

I just thought of a drawer I forgot to pack. Sigh.

I hope to finish it out in a couple of hours on Monday. I need to check for forgotten things and clean a little. The person moving into my room is ready to start.

Camp is over. I have three days of training next week and then I can relax. I’m ready to start my summer!

Winner, Winner!

Anyway, thank you to everyone who entered the Bloglovin’ giveaway. I’ve loved getting e-mails all week with new followers!

Congratulations to Kristi and Kim! I’ve sent you an e-mail with the information you need.

Speaking of Bloglovin’ – has anyone found a way to e-mail a blog post from bloglovin’? That was my favorite feature from Google Reader.

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I was really frustrated last week. I have so much that I want to do, but I am still just keeping my head above water. Then I thought about it. I am working half days at camp. I am used to working afternoons in the summer. What I forgot is that I am working in my classroom each morning. I am really working 9:00-5:30 each day. No wonder I am tired!

Camp is over this week. I *might* have volunteered to go to a three day Common Core workshop next week. Some people never learn! I hope to be out of my old classroom by Friday. I will feel much better once that is off my plate.

I hope to have time to blog more once my summer really begins.