New Blogs

Here are the blogs I've added to the portfolio in the past few weeks!

Because I Need Another Reason To Have Baby Fever

I think I've mentioned before that 2 girls I work with are due within 2 weeks of each other.  For a faculty of just 14, that's a pretty big coincidence!

We did a joint baby shower for them yesterday...it was so much fun!  I planned it with another teacher.

The SUPER cute cupcake cake! We figured, this way, we didn't have to stand there and cut cake the whole time. :)

Kelly's cherry limeade punch...so good!  It tastes like the real drink!

The book on the table was the gift from our principal...You Are My I Love You.  Umm...if you are a parent, GET THIS BOOK!  She read it to us and made us all cry!

The guests of honor!




Their loot...they got SO many nice things!

Our faculty!



The guests of honor with the hostesses!


I am so happy for these girls. :)

Tips Tuesday - Organization Tips

I don't have a ton of tips for organization, just because I'm not very organized these days! :)  I do have a few tricks though...

-I used to have a notebook calendar where EVERYTHING that was going on in my life was written down.  In it, I had a sheet of notebook paper where everything I had to do was written.  I marked it out as it was done, and added as needed.  It really worked well, and I want to get back to doing it!  I was much more productive. :)

-Mail seems to swallow my house whole if we don't keep it in check.  Have a specific spot in your house (our's is a bin in our kitchen) where all mail goes...that way it isn't scattered everywhere!

-If you have a chore you do every week, do it on a specific day.  For example, I (usually) only work on blogs on Wednesdays and Saturdays (says the lady that just got finished working for 2 hours - this weekend put me behind).  Let everyone know when you work...that way, they won't expect it on a random day either!

-When you're done with a certain job, leave it alone.  If I have something to do for school, I do it there...I rarely take work home with me.  That way, I'm not tempted to work on school stuff 24/7.  From what I've found, you NEED time not to think about a job!  Same with blogs...that's why I only work at specified times.

Alright, to be honest, I need help with this one.  Let me know what you've got!  I'd also like to know about home organization tips...where do you store everything?

N'Awlins Wrap Up

This has been such a great weekend!

 

This is our room.  We had the ABSOLUTE best view of the city.

See?  That's the river in the background.

 

The first night.

I wrote yesterday about day 1 of the trip.  We went to see Reba and George Straight...awesome!  You can go here to read it.

Saturday, we ate pretty much all day.

I LOVE Cajun food.  I wasn't a big fan until I started dating Noah, who grew up on it.  He converted me pretty quickly!  This was probably the best Po Boy I've ever had.

 

Oh, and the raw oysters.  I know some people think they're gross, but I've literally been eating these since I was a baby.  SO good with a cracker and some cocktail sauce!

 

Last night, we went to the Eric Clapton concert.  He's one of our favorites - the first dance at our wedding was Wonderful Tonight, and probably my favorite song of all time is Layla.   It was AMAZING - seriously, if you're a fan, go see him live.  He is awesome!

 

 

N'Awlins Day 1

Quick update because im on my phone, but we are having the absolute best time!

We went to see George Strait and Reba last night. I have always wanted to see her sing Fancy live, so check that off my bucket list! And George did Folsom Prison Blues for his encore. It was an awesome concert!



We have walked around a good bit of today. We were going to eat at Cafe Du Monde this morning, but the line had to be an hour long. It's good, but not that good. :). So we went straight to lunch after we kind of browsed at the French Market.


That would be my lunch. I KNOW. Oh it was just divine. Nobody ever said this place was lacking good food!

Noah's parents and brother are coming in tonight, so we're just kind of resting right now. Tonight's Eric Clapton! SO excited!

Show Us Your Life - Daily Schedule of a Teacher

Kelly is doing schedules this week, and I thought it was pretty good timing....my schedule just changed pretty drastically!  I took over the extended day program at my school this week, so things are getting pretty crazy.  For example, here was my schedule yesterday!

6:15 Wake up, check email

6:30 Shower, get ready

7:15 Grab a quick breakfast, out the door

7:40 Arrive at school.  I usually sit down for a minute or two, then pick up my kids at 8:00.

8:00-8:30 Kids do morning work, I am usually checking folders, answering email, taking roll, or     receipting money.

8:30 - 9:15 Kids go to PE.  I get everything ready for the day, and plan/grade papers if I have time.  This is sometimes the only break I have before 2:30, so I have to use it pretty wisely!

9:15 Pick up the kids, take them by the restroom

9:30 - 10:30 Reading block (just on Wednesdays...usually it is until 11).  This is usually a mix of whole group lessons and small group time.  I am teaching pretty much the entire time!

10:30 - 11:10 - Spanish.  This is another break I have built in during the week...we usually get a 30-40 minute break besides PE every day (Thursday is my only day without a break).  We are really lucky - some schools only get a 30 minute PE break a day, and that's it!

11:10 - 11:35 Get ready for lunch, get kids to the lunchroom and help them get their plates fixed.  At some point, I scarf down a PB&J and cup of yogurt (every single day).  We have to sit with our kids, so I am usually managing at that point too. :)

11:35-11:45 Bathroom Break for kids

11:45 - 12:30 Do whatever's left from reading and writing.  While most kids are writing, I'm doing small group lessons.

12:30 - 1:30 Math...once again, mix of whole group and small group, and I'm teaching the vast majority of the time.

1:30 - 2:10 (ish) - Science.  We're doing plants this week, so I did read a book on plants and we planted our own veggie seeds!

2:10 - 2:25 Snack, Pack Up, and Leave

2:30 - 3:05 I happen to have late car rider duty this week, so I help kids into cars, manage the crowd while they're waiting, and call parents when they aren't there.

3:05 - 5:30 Extended Day.  There really isn't teaching involved....I'm mostly just watching the kids, making sure they have something to do, and helping with homework.

5:30-5:45 Clean up (my room and extended day room), head home.

6:15 - I FINALLY get a break. :)  Dinner, check my email, talk to Noah, watch TV.

7:30 - Get back to work...blogs this time.  I usually do three blogs during the week, plus any miscellaneous projects.  I work on Wednesday nights (which I think is about to change to Tuesday) and during the weekend.  I've actually got it pretty well planned out...if I start the blogs during the week, it takes me about 2 hours on Wednesday night and about 4 during the weekend.  I was just EXHAUSTED last night though, so only worked for about an hour...so I'll be working tonight too!

9:30 Bed time!

So, needless to say, my days are packed full. :)  It's all for a very good reason, I know that (and sometimes have to tell myself that over and over throughout the day...). :)

Taking The Good With The Bad

Good and bad things right now...

The Bad (I always like to get the bad out of the way first):

-I am officially working until 5:30 2-3 days a week now.  The two girls at our school that did extended day are pregnant, and due within 2 weeks of each other at the beginning of April.  So their last week was last week, and I'm working with another guy at our school now to take it over.  On TOP of teaching a class after school 1 day a week for 1 hour, and blog designs.  I'm crazy, I know.

-Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

-My computer charger is on its last leg.  It just died all of a sudden Sunday night.  So I have to sit a certain way while on my computer right now to get it to work.  I literally started crying twice tonight because it wouldn't work (told you I was tired).  My sweet husband is a saint for fixing it for me every time and not committing me to the insane asylum.


And the good...

-New job = extra money.  Cha-ching!

-I get a full night's sleep tonight.  Which isn't always a given.  Thank the Lord...I need it!

-We are going to New Orleans this weekend!  George Strait is playing Friday night, and Eric Clapton is playing Saturday...we're going to both.  PLUS I get cajun food and I get out of town for a couple of days.  I'm so excited!

-My second Swagbucks purchase came in today...

 

Poor Hardy.  He has had the same, plastic, basic, nothing dog bowl since he was a puppy.  It was looking ROUGH.  So I ordered him a new one!  He deserves it. :)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I spent my day making Oobleck 

 

making students a feast of frankfurter roasts, marshmallow toasts, and noodles (for poodles)  

  

(which, coincidentally, made a nice after school snack)

and working with The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and Pippi Longstocking

 

while pulling off Junie B. Jones very nicely, if I do say so myself.

What a fun day!

Tips Tuesday - Laundry Tips

Laundry is one thing I'm bad about keeping up with in my house.  It's such a big time commitment for me, mostly because if I start folding laundry, I won't quit until it's done.  As I type this, the laundry I did this weekend remains unfolded, in the basket, on my laundry room floor!

So, needless to say, I'm excited to read your tips this week.  I do have a few things that have worked for me though!

-I only do laundry on weekends.  Once you kind of get on a schedule where you do it at the same time every week, it works out...you'll have enough laundry to do at that point.  I've mentioned before that we're on a time of use plan with our power company that makes it cheaper to use energy at nights and on weekends.  So it's much cheaper to do laundry on weekends for us too!

-It's rare that I even have to worry about this, but I only wash full loads of laundry.  Even if it's time to wash reds, if I don't have a full load, I don't do it.  Saves time and money!

-I do (usually) 1 load of lights and 1 load of darks every week.  Every other week I do reds, and the other weeks I do towels/linens.  This has worked out really well for me!  I rarely have to skip something on this schedule, and it makes sure I have enough of each load when it's time to do it.

-I've heard before that it's cheaper to use the dryer back-to-back...that way, it doesn't have to warm up each time you use it.  So I do all of my laundry back-to-back.  It works out well that I do it on the weekends, because that's typically the only time I'm home for that long of a stretch!

-As far as supplies:  you can usually find extremely good deals on detergent/softener/dryer sheets if you just look.  For example, I got 2 32-load bottles of detergent for free this weekend at Walgreens, and 2 boxes of those new Purex 3-in-1 detergent sheets for $3.50!  Southernsavers.com and iheartpublix.com are two great resources for finding these good deals.  Remember - stockpile when you see these deals!  Laundry products have a long shelf life, so when you see a good deal, get as many as possible.

-If you can't find a good deal on laundry products, you can definitely make them yourself (it sounds crazy, but stay with me).  For detergent, the best recipe I've seen is at the Duggar's site.  Obviously they do a lot of laundry, so they need lots of detergent!  I've never made this recipe because I just don't do enough laundry to justify it, but I've heard from multiple places it's great and cheap!  For fabric softener, take a bottle of the cheapest hair conditioner you can find and put it in one of those big (empty) jugs for laundry detergent.  Fill it with water, and shake.  It works great...I've done this before!

Alright, let's see what you guys have this week!

I'm In Trouble...

 

(Excuse my dog.  He decided that, since these things were on the floor, they were his.)

So I have said for the longest time that I wasn't getting into the whole drug store cash back thing.  Just too confusing, plus you have to shop every week or two to make it work.  

But then I found this site.  They do a fantastic job of breaking it down, telling you the rules, even making scenarios that will help you get the most for your money.  So I figured why not?

I went to Walgreen's last night to try it out.  I got everything in the picture above for 22.13 pretax, plus I got $6 in Register Rewards to use towards my next visit, for $55.29 worth of products!  Considering the paper products alone would have been $21 without discounts, not too bad!  Of course, I priced them against my normal prices (we usually get these kinds of things at Sam's), and it was much cheaper to do it this way.

But now, I think I might have created a monster.  I have to shop at least every other week to make this work.  We'll see how it turns out!

*Don't forget...Tips Tuesday - Laundry Tips will be up either tonight or early tomorrow morning!  I can't wait to see your great ideas!*

Florentine Ring Recipe

This is something I've been making for quite awhile now...it's SO good!  It's sort of like a sandwich, but can definitely be used as a dinner too.  I changed up the recipe today when I made it, and it turned out great, so I thought I'd share it with y'all!

You'll need:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 chicken breasts), diced small

1 pack bacon

1/3 cup mayo

1/3 cup light ranch dressing

1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

2 8oz. tubes of crescent rolls

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:

1.  Chop the bacon into small (1" or less) pieces, and brown over medium-high heat.  When crispy, reduce heat to medium and add chicken.  Cook chicken through.

2.  Meanwhile, mix mayo, ranch, spinach, red pepper, black pepper, and garlic powder together in a small mixing bowl.  Drain some of the grease off of bacon/chicken mixture, and mix into mayo mixture.

3.  Open both tubes of crescent rolls, and make a sun-like shape out of pieces on a pizza pan.  It should look something like this...

 

I usually have 1 or 2 pieces left over...I just tear those up and fill in gaps.

4.  Take mixture and pour in a circle around the sun.

 

5.  Fold triangles in so they cover the top of the  mixture.  I should sort of look like a doughnut now.

 

6.  Brush the top of the ring with butter, and sprinkle with the lemon juice.  Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until top is brown.

 

7.  Cut into pieces (I usually make 6 servings out of one ring), and serve warm/crispy.  Enjoy!!

Things That Currently Make Me Happy

• Noah is home from a week-long trip to Montgomery.  He came bearing Jim's Barbecue.  Which leads me to my next point...

• I made BBQ Nachos for dinner last night.  Hallelujah.

 

• I bought a coupon from a fundraiser for a free dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  I cashed that puppy in yesterday afternoon, and got 12 little glazed miracles.

 

• I just downed a couple of those miracles for breakfast.

•  It is Saturday morning.  I just LOVE Saturday mornings.  Just seems like there's so much potential for the weekend!

• I got to hang with my two favorite guys and watch Olympics last night.

 

• It might snow again Tuesday!

• I have two weeks until Spring Break. :)

Just a few things that make my heart full right now!

Clean House

I spent my entire Thursday night cleaning.  My house needed it DESPERATELY!  Noah has been out of town all week for business and is coming back tomorrow, so I figured there was no better time than now!

This is how long it's been since I had my house this clean - I had to take pictures of it.

 

  

  

...and the pièce de résistance...

 

...and empty laundry basket.

There's no better feeling than going to bed with a clean house!

Can I get an amen??