Celebrating Milestones with CAS Cards

Many of you are celebrating the end to a school year. Congrats to you for another wonderful year of making a difference in the lives of children.

I'm not there yet.I have five weeks left. 24 more days. So when my time comes, I'll toot my horn. In the meantime, I would like to share with you three simple cards I made for Grannie's birthday, my brother's birthday, and a graduation card for the son of a family friend.

Enjoy~

After I made the Grad Card, I felt the urge to add dashed lines.

I'm sure you'll agree that the dashed lines just do a little extra for the card.

A Special Thanks to those who have and continue to serve in our military.

The Fountain of Youth in a Box! Is Birchbox For Me?....and a 200 Followers Celebration

I can relate to Sarah in the popular book Sarah, Plain and Tall when it comes to appearance. I'm a simple girl. Never been big on the latest make-up or skin products or even the cutest hairstyles.  As a matter of fact, I didn't wear make-up until my Jr. Prom in High School, took a break until Senior Prom, then abandoned it all together until I got a teaching job. One would probably call me lazy, but I just fully relied on what the good Lord gave me. Just plain and simple. And the fact that I didn't want to spend more than 15 minutes getting dressed in the morning made the "natural look" all the more popular with me.

Now that I'm 40, the body, skin, hair, and everything starts doing an age dance. A dance that makes me a little anxious and very nervous. I've been told my entire adulthood life thus far, that I don't look my age. Not older by the way:-)   I would love  to keep it that way, so I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it up without some outside assistance.  

Daily I hear and read about Birchbox and the excitement that it brings each month with the  MYSTERY products that the recipient receives. So I convinced myself to try it for a few months. It couldn't hurt and I may bring this aging process to a halt.  Or at least S-L-O-W it down and look even more radiant in the process. Each month I will receive a few samples of beauty products in a cute cardboard box (that I will turn into greeting card holders) to try.  If I like the product, I can order a larger size on line.  If not, then nothing really is lost because I can pass them on to my gal pals.  

My first Birchbox arrived last week.  With some excitement and giddiness, I opened the package.  Neatly packed inside was ....

I'm actually very excited to add more items to my hot pink pencil container that I call a make-up box.  Currently, it only houses a bottle of Oil of Olay, Covergirl Foundation, lip gloss, and blush that my parents bought for me about 6 years ago.  So the extra company will be accepted I'm sure with open "lids."




For you Educators in the bunch, "click" on over to Jenn at Hello Mrs. Sykes and enter her giveaway.  A lot of great gals have decided to team up with her and  celebrate reaching 200 followers. So don't miss out~

Cuttlebug Thank You's

Like many educators last week, I received a wealth of Teacher Appreciation gifts from my wonderful students. They love me, I love them.  We're one big happy family most days~

After the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week, I used up my stash of "Thank You" notes that I keep on hand in my desk drawer. So for Mother's Day, I bought myself a Cuttlebug and a few embossing folders and created some "Thank You" cards for my kids to thank them for all the goodies.

Enjoy~



A Great Teacher Is...

It's the end of the day of a very busy week.  It's 3:35 p.m.  Students are packing up, carefully placing their beautiful laminated paper Irises, hand drawn portraits of mom, and super cute coasters with their pic decoupaged on the front in their book bags when Junie M. comes to me in hysterics.  

"Teacher, Roger said my mom looks like chicken poop. And he said I was stups."

Well, I'm caught completely off guard.  I'm not even in the right frame of mind. For the last 15 minutes the room was busy turning in unfinished work for the week, Daily 5 reflection sheets, packing items for Mother's Day, taking out trash, turning in dull pencils, completing behavior contracts for a handful of kids, and a kajillion other things.  All the things that need to be finished before we can start the weekend.  I literally felt like I was going in a hundred different directions.  So I could only ask, "Wha-a-a-t?"

Again, Junie M. repeats what Roger has said.  While attempting to get Roger's side of the story, I catch the glimpse of one of my students from the previous school year who no longer attends our school.  What was she doing here?  Had she re-enrolled? Yay, if that were the case.  Again, I'm caught off guard. Immediately I abandon the dramatic fiasco (My TA took over.) to greet Katie Bright Eyes with a big hug. She gives me a purple pastel sheet and says "Happy Teacher Appreciation Day."   "Oh, for me?" I ask.  A smile comes over her face. I begin reading the note.

Tears  are forming in my eyes. My hands begin to shake. Oh my goodness.  OMG~

Katie Bright Eyes had asked her dad to drive her across town to hand deliver this special note.  A note for me.  Her "old" teacher. I was speechless.With quivering lips and blurry eyes, I thanked her for making my week, my weekend, my year.

During this week of Teacher Appreciation, I have received an abundance of gifts, handwritten notes, flowers, hugs, and even high fives. All greatly appreciated.  However this note from Katie Bright Eyes, reminded me of why I do what I do and why I continue to stay year after year.

To teach, is to truly touch a life forever.  Thank you Katie Bright Eyes~ It was truly an honor to be your teacher.

The Gift of Mommyhood

I love being a mom.  Now, I'll be the first to say that thus far  it hasn't been a  walk in the park.  It is the most challenging role I've ever been in.  There have been ups, and many down, down, downs. There have been mountains and valleys. But through it all, I wouldn't trade the role of being a mom for anything.  Being a mom has taught me about life, love, patience, happiness, sadness, sacrifice, laughter, and total commitment.  It has brought many tears, laughs, nights of cuddles, and zillions of "I love yous."

I never planned to be a mom.  It wasn't in my 5 year or 10 year plan. My career is very demanding. Long hours at school. Being escorted out of the school by the custodian night after night. Busy weekends creating plans, grading papers, and all that comes with being an educator in the classroom.  When would I have time to care for another being?  But God had other plans.  Sometimes the best things in life aren't planned.

My son came into my life on the first day of fall over14 years ago.  Nothing about his entrance to this world to me was easy.  After 22 long hours of hard back labor with no anesthesia, along with the help of a set of blue forceps, a suction cup contraption,  three nurses, and the doctor on call whom to this day had to be Conway Twitty, my baby boy was born.  A beautiful, perfect 7 lb 13 oz miracle.

At that moment, everything in my life changed. I had another life in which I was responsible for.  Someone else to feed. Someone else to nurture. Someone who needed love, and to be cared for.  My saving grace. Little did I know that many times this new little life would be my sanity, by detour to some of life's challenges, and the rays in my sunshine.

Sid's first steps, first tooth, first bike without training wheels, first haircut, first t-ball game, first day of kindergarten, first day of middle school, and his first day of high school (in 3 months)- we've been there together. We've struggled together through a diagnosis of ADHD, learning disabilities, divorce, hypoglycemia, and  the relocation from the only place we've ever known to a place we hardly knew to start a new life.   It's been just he and I through thick and thin.

There are  days when I say, "Yes, I truly know why some animals eat their young."  And there are days that I hug him and don't want to let him go. Because he's my little boy. I cherish the hand drawn mommy from kindergarten, the hand print t-shirt from first grade, the Roses are Red poem from second grade, and all the handmade cards from the remainder of his elementary years.

Sid and I are beginning a new chapter in our lives. However, one thing will always remain.  I will always be his mommy and he will always be my Snuggle bunny.

  

You're Appreciated (and Monster Math Freebie)

This past Wednesday was Administrative Professional's Day.  Oops! You forgot too.  As usual, I had to be reminded of this special day. I'm not a slacker, but I truly struggle with managing everything that goes on from day to day- events, meetings, unofficial secular holidays and so forth.  Yes, I have a handy dandy planner that has all my son's baseball games, practices, family birthdays, SST and IEP meetings, parent conferences, Spring Festival, the Van Halen concert and so forth. Even with the planner, I just get wrapped up with life. 

Life Happens~  

At times, it overwhelms me~

I'm the one who always has good intentions. I want to do it, I need to do it, but then....well...the occasion has come and gone. I struggle with just running down to the local Walmart to pick up something quick and easy.  It's a personal thing for me, but sometimes not always I just feel like it has minimal thought. It's last minute.  I want the recipient to know that I really, rEaLlY, REALLY, thought about them.  So I really need to work on getting with the program and plan ahead.( A lot of "really's")

We received a friendly email from our principal on Thursday maybe Friday to remind the staff to thank our five WONDERFUL, AWESOME Secretaries and Office Staff. They are truly out of this world.  How they manage all that they do is truly amazing to me.  Maybe I should ask them for a quick tutorial on how to keep it all together because they truly have it together.

So today, I headed into my craft room to "Create."  About an hour or so later, I emerged  with the following handmade cards for Mrs. B, Mrs. M, Mrs. W, Ms. M, and Ms. B. I still have time to redeem myself...(I hope!)

AND a simple, yet cutesy notepad for each of them

 

 

 

Front and Back 

Don't forget this freebie:

Monster Math

Mother's Day, A Freebie, And Shabby Chic

I'm always a day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes. I know holidays are coming, however by the time I get around to planning and completing a related activity with my students, it's too late. So I file it away until next year.  Sadly, for some activities, next year hasn't come yet.   Trying to find a "just right" place within my lesson plans as well as meet the weekly expectations on the district's pacing guide make it difficult many times to integrate seasonal fun ideas.  (Insert sad face here.)

Friday was an Early Release day for year round schools in our county.  The kids had no specials for the day, like music, art, media, P.E. or technology, so I crossed my fingers hoping I would not see my AP walk in with her laptop to do her final observation of the year. I closed my door and pulled out the construction paper. My kids lit up with excitement. "A Craft project," they yelled.  I led the class in creating a TLC Iris Art Project. (See this link for another TLC project we have done.)  You can't have Mother's Day without flowers, so I thought I could easily fit this into the math curriculum of congruent shapes and figures and combining shapes as well as create a unique flower for our moms.  Well all I can say is ~ they are unique.  Here's a few samples of the finished product.

Our mommies are just going to love them~

As educators, we celebrate the small things.  Many times, if it wasn't for the small things, there would be no big things.  So with that in mind-

 Woo-Hoo! I have reached 25 followers. That deserves a FREEBIE.  

So for ONE WEEK~ 7 DAYS~ Monster Mania will be a FREEBIE.  However, after this time the games  will be $1.00 in my TpT store.  Either way, it's a great deal. This is such a fun math game of creating equations with three numbers.  For younger students, like second graders, I would encourage a calculator but definitely not necessary.  Click below for the download.

Monster Math

A shout out to Casey for walking me through the steps to creating a layered preview screen and for listening to me vent after the Staff Development on Friday. She had interim reports to complete, but she listened to me ramble for at least 20 minutes.  Thanks~

On a simple note, I wanted to share two pics of one of my favorite "shops" in an Antique Marketplace.  In this Marketplace, one can rent a space to sell various items.    I've debated on whether or not to rent a space in this cute Marketplace to sell my wares. However, that decision is still up in the air.  I'll keep you posted, but enjoy  "The Shabby Chic" spot.