Currently Summer's Ending

Its August, which means summer is winding down and that means school is just around the corner!  I know some of you have already gone back, I can't imagine going back any earlier than we do.  I plan on being as lazy as possible until August 19!

Onto the Currently!!!!

Listening: I am seriously obsessed with Discovery ID!  I might need an intervention for B2S time.  I love all the lying, cheating and affairs.  I know, I'm crazy!  Tonight involved a marathon of Deadly Affairs!

Loving: Our Carolina Blogger Meetup was this weekend.  It was such a fun time!  Look for a blog post all about the fun.

Thinking: Time is running out and I NEED to get my room unpacked and put together!  I am beginning to panic!

Wanting: I so want a massage before I get back to the grind, but it doesn't look like its going to happen.  We shall see!

Needing: If I would stop being such a procrastinator I would solve my Thinking and Needing problems!  Room is not done, stress is starting!  I have got to get my booty in gear!

B2s Must Haves: Sharpie Chart Markers: these are my #1 go to chart markers.  I love sharpies and these don't bleed through.

Really Good Stuff book bins: these are a must for optimal organization of your classroom library!

This leads me to the final must have: Organized Classroom Library: if you want students to successful read for long periods of time, they have to be able to find and choose appropriate books.

There ya go!  Head over to Farley's and link your Currently up!

Currently and Opinions Needed

I haven't been able to link up with Farley in the past few months, life has been cra-cra, so I'm glad that I am able to link up this month, and EARLY at that!!

Listening: So my first baby is my adorable little dog, Polly.  She is a Shih Tzu and a black and white ball of cuteness!  She is obviously in a deep sleep dreaming about doggy treats, because she is snoring...LOUD!  It is cute, but at times, I can't hear the TV for her snoring!  

Loving: I am still pinching myself to make sure I am actually going to teach in my old elementary school this fall!  I got my 'official' email saying it was real!  The planning has already begun!  I'm doing an Owl and Chevron theme, check back for more on that!

Thinking: My aunt and uncle live at Myrtle Beach and I can't wait to get down there for the 4th!  The girls also love being down there and this year they are older, so it will should be easier.  Who doesn't love having the largest sandbox in the world to play in???  Toes in the sand, listening to the crashing waves, ocean breeze on my face!  life.will.be.good.

Wanting: The heart of my classroom has always been my library.  I love doing Reading Workshop and that can't happen without an organized library.  I went to my Lakeshore store yesterday and bought some bins, now I am working on labels and can't wait to get busy organizing!!!  

Needing: Since my thinking is all about the beach, I need to pack and clean before I can leave.  Need I say more than, UGH!!!!

Tips, Tricks and Hints: My advice is be true to yourself.  With all the successes teachers are having on TPT, its easy to want to copy top sellers style.  Instead invent your own identity!  Create products that you are passionate about, rather then worrying if they will sell a ton.  

Head over and link up with Farley!  

Lastly, I need your help!  I said before that I was working on my classroom library labels.  I am loving all these chalkboard fonts and options, but you know what happens when there are too many options???  I can't decide which one looks best!!!  I have put my top 3 choices in both color and B&W. 

 

 I would love to have your opinion about which looks best!

Currently on Spring Break!!!!

I am loving this Spring Break week!  We just got back from the beach and I am linking up with Farley for her world famous Currently!

The hubs got a free Redbox code and we rented Lincoln.  I love all things history and in particular, this time period (dork, I know!) I am loving being on Spring Break!!!!  No wake up time, except when the girls get up, getting things done around the house on days other than Saturday, and watching the Young and the Restless, what could be better????  Come on Summer Break!!  

I am thinking about the new products I want to make.  I have so many ideas in my head, its time to put those ideas into action!  I am going to start working on a natural resources lapbook and a plants unit pack.  Any other suggestions?

My want is a big one!  I have been married since 2004 and the hubs and I have NEVER had a new couch!  That is what I want!  I want to get one that is mine first and I get to pick out the color.  Don't get me wrong, we have appreciated the kindness of others, giving us furniture, but now I want my own!  Oh did I mention I also want a new house?!?!?!  That's a whole different post!

I am needing to get up and clean my house!  We came back from the beach and the house was left like a tornado had been through it.  It is quiet difficult to clean with the twins around, and not to mention HGTV and DIY were calling my name!  Oh well, there is always tomorrow to try again!

My advice is pretty straightforward, be yourself.  On your blog and in your products.  It is very tempting to "sell out" and try to model yourself into what others who are successful are, but it is far better to be yourself. It is awful hard keeping up an act as someone else, then to just be real!  

That's it!  Head over to Farley's and get your own!

Welcome 2013!

There is nothing better than ringing in the new year with my hubby and girls.  We had a great night eating taco ring, playing tea party (they got a kitchen from Santa) and watching Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve.  Extra plus-no crowds to fight and no drunk idiots!

I'm kicking off 2013 right by joining up with Farley's Currently.

 

 Listening
I put my girls down for a nap and usually there is some chatter, but they took it to a whole new level!  I heard nothing but giggling for at least an hour!  Needless to say, no nap for them.

Loving
There is nothing I would rather do then spend time with my family.  We have been with our extended family over Christmas and have enjoyed many meals, playing games and of course gifts.  Being with them brings back all the memories I have of being a child at Christmas.  I want those same type memories for my girls!

Thinking
We started our school year with an Interim Principal and got a big announcement the day before break that we were getting a "real" principal!!!!!  It has been a difficult time for the whole staff, but now I find myself thinking a lot about what is going to change come Wednesday when we return!  Stay tuned for updates!

Wanting
Two words: NEW HOUSE!  We bought our house back in 2006 as a starter home.  It was brand new and I was in love with it as soon as I saw it.  I had no problem with the size when we first moved in, but 6 years and a set of twins later and we have outgrown it!  The girls' have a playroom (which is necessary for my sanity) but their toys still find their way all over the house.  I know now isn't the time for a move, but a girl can dream right???  To torture myself  I have been spending all my spare time watching HGTV and all their home shows.

Needing
The hubs and I completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University back in the fall as part of a small group at our church.  It was the single best thing that we could have done in 2012.  We learned that I am the nerd tight wad and Kyle is the free spirit spends at will. In my defense, I feel that I am a good mix of the two!  We start each month by setting up a budget and telling our money where to go, instead of saying 'where did it go?' which happened often to us!  Christmas has been much more pleasurable knowing we didn't overspend!!

OLW
Positive-I am the world's worst at being a Negative Nelly.  The hubs is always telling me I need to be more positive and look for the positive in situations.  I am really going to try to be more positive.  This OLW  can really be carried over to all areas of  my life.

Here's to a great 2013!  Head over and link up with Farley :)

Taco Tragedy!

It is Monday night and for me that is ALWAYS my Taco night.  Well tonight I have to skip it!!!!  I have not missed a taco night in months!  One of my twins, Raegan, has to have a procedure done at Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem and we have to be there at 6:45am, so we are going to spend the night tonight.  I am soooo sad that I can't see my taco buddies and eat my delicious tacos, and Taco Bell is good, but just not the same!  

I am linking up with Farley once again for her infamous Currently!  

So she has the favorite things on there this month.  I have the twins, duh!  Wouldn't have such a catchy blog title without them!  The Hunger Games DVD I have watched it a dozen times by now!  And my cricut.  I know many of you are onto the Cameo, but I am still lovin' my Cricut!  

Make sure you head over and link up.  

I have also FINALLY finished my Harry Potter lapbook!  I used it in my classroom last year, but didn't have it 'polished' for sale.  It is now up in my store.  

Click the picture to see the unit.

My kiddos loved this unit last year!  

I Can Statements, Currently and A Suprise!

Woop Woop it is Monday and that means Taco Night!!!  I know many of you must be thinking, "doesn't she get tired of tacos??" The answer is NO!!!!

I didn't think I was ever going to finish my 2nd grade Common Core Math statements!  I would sit down to try and work on them and I would get busy checking facebook, email, playing games online, watching TV, texting  doing other things.  I am happy to say they are FINALLY FINISHED!

You can pick these up for free at either my TpT or TN 

I am also linking up with Farley for her infamous Currently.  I always look forward to her Currently and am loving her new rule of 3 spreading the love to other bloggers.  I have met so many new bloggy friends through her linky.  

 So my B2S must haves are pretty self explanatory.  I LOVE Sharpie Poster Markers for making anchor charts.  Thanks to my teammate, Erica, I will never use another marker when making a poster!  My 2nd must have is Guiding Reader's and Writer's by Fountas and Pinnell.  It is my go to book each summer to refresh my reading and writing workshop.

My last must have is Stikki Clips.  I used to get so frustrated when I used tape and things would be laying all around my classroom the next day.  Enter Stikki Clips and I never had to deal with things falling off my wall again!  

I have had several bloggers email me and ask about how I implemented Reading Workshop in my classroom.  I decided to have a series on my blog devoted to the ins and outs of Reading Workshop.  I will have a linky with each post where bloggers can link back to their own ideas about the topic.  I thought this would be a great way to share ideas as we get ready to start back to school!

Look for my first session in this series, setting up your classroom library, this week!

Its HAWT and Currently

That's right you didn't read it wrong, its HAWT (hot for those of you not suffering in the heat)  These triple digit heat days are doing me and the twins in!  We got a break today, only 98, gee thanks!  I know I shouldn't be complaining because there are worse things happening around the world, but I feel like I am going to melt into a giant puddle and I can't help but think about the movie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Any of you remember this????  Please know that me and the twins are all keeping our clothes on, just staying in the house!

Anywho, I LOVE Farley's Currently and her new rule of 3 is a keeper!  I love the idea of showing the love to other bloggers and meeting new bloggy friends to stalk follow!

So I am pumped for my new role as an Instructional Facilitator, but dang its now JULY I have got to get my learn on!!!  (insert anxious face here!)

My go to read aloud every year is Stone Fox.  It is an amazing story of Little Willie who lives with his grandfather and his dog Searchlight.  Grandfather hasn't paid his taxes and Willie enters a dogsled race to try and win $500 to save the farm.  It is a short read, it should be on your list :D

My professional book that I re-read EVERY summer is Guiding Readers and Writers by Fountas and Pinnell.  When I first decided to move into the Reading Workshop framework over 5 years ago, I found this laying around my school and took it home over the summer.  It changed my whole reading program in my classroom.  I find that with each new summer I find something else I can change or tweak.  

I'm off to complete the rule of 3!  Hope everyone is staying cool :)

May Currently and a Surprise Visitor

I am once again linking up with Farley, from Oh Boy Fourth Grade to participate in her awesome Currently.  Don't you just love her!!!!  She has the best ways to keep spicing up the Currently each month.  I love the beauty pageant theme this month.

As promised a special guest has stopped by my blog to pay everyone a visit.  I am so lucky that Scott Free from America's next great game show, Great Expectations, stopped by!

Does he look familiar to you???? Oh yea, its ME!!!!! I attend Forest Pointe Church and have the awesome pleasure of volunteering in Kidzpointe with the elementary kids.  This week called for the host (me) to dress up as a cheesy game show host.  Did I pull it off????  Scott Free is expected to make appearances each Sunday, so be on the look out for more pics to come.  

Hope ya'll are ready for Monday, because ready or not its coming FAST!  I for one need another weekend day.  

Currently, Taco Night and Little House on the Prairie

So Farley has her February Currently up and of course I had to participate!  I LOVE these and can't wait to see them each month.  Make sure you head over and link up :)

I dislike Mondays very much, but I at least have Taco Night to look forward too!  Amber from Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher has been joining me for the past few weeks, and we have a ball.  I vote that the next bloggy get together be at Taco Night!  Let me tell you what happened to my tonight at taco night.  I was carrying the diaper bag and my purse while helping Raegan walk.  I bumped a pitcher of tea and it fell off into the lap of another customer sitting in a booth!  I was mortified!!!!  I apologized about 100 times, but still felt awful.  But the tacos were delicious!

Today we began learning about how people and places have changed over time.  We are studying the 19th Century first.  Check out these pics of my kiddos making butter, writing with a quill pen and ink, and pretending to be civil war soldiers.

Churning away to make butter.

What the butter looked like after 45 min.

My quill pen and ink writing, pretty good, don't ya think? 

Dressed as a Confederate Soldier

Militia Drill

This paired with Taco Night, made this Monday awesome!  My kiddos loved seeing all the different things that the 19th century had to offer.  Can't wait to play with the toy trunk tomorrow!!  I will post pics later :)