Wow! Where did August go? Oh yes, school started, with all the busyness that brings. My daughter is doing a little better sleeping than last week and school life is in a little bit more of a routine, which makes me much happier!
I know this is an idea that you discovered in 1992, but I need to do this. I have two keys that look almost exactly the same. It drives me CRAZY as I always try to use the wrong one. I need to do this.
Obviously, it's still early but we've started thinking about Halloween. My daughter loves butterflies and princesses and this outfit combines the two loves. I'm not a huge fan of the hat but think it's pretty cute otherwise. Mom, are you up for making this?
I love mixing up how students respond to questions. It makes life more interesting for me and for them. I really like this idea of having some standard ways to respond that students learn. I may change some of the ways a bit as we use some Kagan techniques but I like this a lot!
This entryway is so different than mine but I would like to add some of the touches to my entry. I like the wreath on the back of the front door, the little decorative pieces in the hall intersection, and the design of the angled wall. Sets my thinking wheels in motion. . .
I don't know why but I'm suddenly obsessed with the idea of Candied Nuts. Although I think they are yummy, I'm not one of those people obsessed with them when I smell them at fairs or malls. However, I have this idea that they will be so simple and great to make. Weird. I may make them and see how they turn out.
School has started, things are hectic, and I've not been posting. But you can still hang out here at my blog. Here are five posts that are relevant to my life this week.
I posted about my daughter moving to a toddler bed. I was so excited by how well the transition was going. I made the routine charts (see above) and she was following them so well-- especially the Night Night!
Well, then school started and she started going to daycare 5 days a week. You would think she would be tired and sleep better but she just gets loopy and refuses to go to sleep-- we do the night chart and then she stays up for an hour or two MORE! This makes the morning really difficult. Any negativity in this post is probably a result of lack of sleep. Any ideas to help?
I posted Monday about some gifts that I have given lately. I mentioned that I share an office with a ridiculous number of people. Wow! That's changed my work life. I'm sure it will get better once we have a routine but I feel like I have no space to just be.
I have 5 goals that I'm working on this month. I have FOUR days until September. I hope I make at least one goal!
I have been busy getting to know the students in 4th grade. I think I was more than optimistic when I wrote this post this summer. It's been a lot of testing and very little getting to know the kids. I do know the names of all the 4th grade students.
Although this post was about other issues, I think I need to constantly remind myself of the above verse. I may feel like I can't carry on but I can. I will forge on, looking forward to our city in heaven, which is yet to come.
Am I too sensitive? Do I dwell too much on the negative? Maybe everyone does this?
Sometimes a coworker, friend or family member will make a comment. Sometimes I think nothing about it at the time. They may even be kidding. Rationally, I know that I shouldn't take it personally. But emotionally, at that gut level, I feel like I'm to blame. The comment comes to me again at night, in the shower, at odd times when I'm doing something random. It hits me like a ton of bricks along with a whisper, "you are less than others."
I think some of it has to do with perfectionism. Maybe I can blame it on our society? We want a Pinterest-perfect life that we can brag about on Facebook-- even when it's crumbling around our feet. I rarely watch TV (unless it's something like Daniel Tiger or Netflix Friends). The last show I remember watching on TV was So You Think You Can Dance? It was auditions or something and this dancer was talking about how he was creating a new style of dance, blending classical dance with some kind of street style. I thought he would be great but he really bombed it. He was so embarrassed afterwards and literally ran down the snowy city streets in shorts and a t-shirt. Think of it. He put himself out there and then was rejected. After he ran away, the judges kinda giggled and laughed at him. My heart just broke for him. How is this our entertainment-- and how can it be so acceptable to show this that no one has an uproar the next day?
I can talk the talk about giving others grace and forgiveness. I encourage others to treat themselves as kindly as they treat others. Here's my dirty little secret: In the still of the night, in the quiet of home time, I do the opposite.
From here on, I am striving to turn these cringes over to God. I am just a human. An imperfect person in an imperfect body. I sin, both intentionally and by mistake. God knows it. There are challenges in this world, people who intentionally make mean comments or try to tear others down. I will remember, "Earth is not meant to be our home. Heaven is where we belong".
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14 (NIV)
Was that title long enough for you? I officially go back to work TODAY. Uggg. (Actually, I do like my job but who wants to give up the freedom of summer?) Anyway, I did a couple of things this week to wrap up summer.
This is similar to our type but isn't our bed. Source
My daughter moved into a big girl bed! While she hadn't actually climbed out of her crib, she had lifted her leg like she was thinking about it. She also started to dread her bed. She wanted to sleep with Mommy. So after a night of her complaining about me moving around too much in bed, we converted her bed to a toddler bed. I'm glad that we bought a convertible bed.
With this monumental change, I wanted to set up our routines. I looked at a bunch of routine charts on Pinterest but they weren't EXACTLY our routine. So I made my own charts.
Cute, simple and hopefully effective. She can already "read" them so I call that a success.
While I was at it, I printed this chart to make a simple cleaning routine for me.
I started watching what I ate with SparkPeople. I've lost 2 (probably not real) pounds. Basically, I've been eating bunches of fruits and veggies.
Finally, I tried to soak up every bit of time with my daughter. We went to Chuck E. Cheese, listened at storytime, saw some animals, played doctor, and read lots of books. We learned a new dance!
My mom likes garage sales, thrift stores, and auctions. She likes to go antiquing. While I think she usually buys because she likes the item, she also thinks it is neat to look it up on eBay to see how much it would sell for.
I was telling her that just because an item is listed for a certain amount that it may not go for that. You can use the options to see what at what prices similar options actually sell. I don't know that my distracted explanation made sense so here is how you can do this. (Plus, it guarantees I have 1 visitor to this post.)
Step 1: Log in just like normal.
Step 2: Search for your item.
Step 3: On the sidebar, click the option under "Show only" that says "Sold Listings".
Step 4: Look through the listings to see the actual selling price of the item.
See Mom, Easy Peasy!
*Random lesson I just learned: did you know the correct capitalization of eBay is just like that? Even if you are starting a sentence with the word, the e should be lower case and the B should be capitalized. iPhone should also start with a lower case letter, even if it is the first word of a sentence.
So this week had some definite downsides. I try not to dwell on the negative so I'm going to play a little game called "Unfortunately, Fortunately". I first heard of this game as a character education game for class meetings. One kid says "Unfortunately, ___________" with a really bad but realistic scenario. Someone else has to think of a statement that goes, "Fortunately, ________" with a positive spin on the situation.
For example, the first kid might say "Unfortunately, I left my homework on the kitchen table.". The second kid might respond, "Fortunately, you did the homework and did really well on the test!"
There is even a kid's book to go with this idea (although it flips it but having the fortunately part first). This is an affliate link. So, if you are wanting to do some Amazon shopping, click on it and then I will get a percentage of your purchase.
Just so you can see how great the book is, here it is on Youtube (I am not the one reading it).
I am going to use this format for my "Five for Friday" linky party with Doodle Bugs Teaching.
Unfortunately, my husband had a digestive infection. He was put on antibiotics which upset his stomach.
Fortunately, it is able to be cured by antibiotics.
Here she is, isn't she sweet?
Unfortunately, my 14 year old kitty has a degenerative kidney disease.
Fortunately, with a change in diet, she should have several great years.
Unfortunately, my daughter spent time away from us so I could take care of the husband and he could get better.
Fortunately, my parents were able to take care of her. Fortunately, I was able to write up LOOOONG posts about my ILA conference. You can read them here and here and here and here. Yes, that's 4 posts. Yes, they are long. If you would prefer, you can see them all here.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to help as much as I planned at VBS.
Fortunately, there were other volunteers to take over. I had finished prepping the craft supplies.
Unfortunately, I have all this guilt. Guilt that my husband is sick and I didn't believe him at first. Guilt that my daughter isn't home with me right now. Guilt that my kitty is sick and I didn't take her to the doctor a month ago. Guilt that I bowed out of my volunteer duties at church. The list goes on and on.
Fortunately, all the guilt stems from people/ things I care about. I am lucky to have so much in life!
Both Little Girl and I took trips last week. I went to the International Literacy Association conference in St. Louis to learn more about literacy. She went to Grandma's to make peacock hand prints and feed cows. We both had awesome times. While I missed her like crazy, I was also glad to have a couple of days to socialize like pre-kid days.
This was my first experience being at a large, international conference. One of the things that surprised me the most was all the free goodies. Scholastic had a large breakfast where we got a red bag with 5 books. The authors of these books spoke about their favorite teacher.
See Jewell Parker Rose? I now want everything that she has written. She is that gifted with words. I also want to give her a hug and tell her everything is gonna be okay. I was in TEARS listening to her story. She is absolutely amazing.
Some of the speakers at the conference were okay, some were ugg, and some were amazing. I was most blown away by Shiza Shahid. I had not even heard of her before this conference. Again, she has lived through so many things but has turned tragedy into opportunity again and again.
Maybe you have heard of Malala Yousafzai? The girl shot by the Taliban on the bus for speaking up about girl's education? Shiza is the one that runs her Malala fund. She also has a passion for education and women's lives that just pushes others into action.
One thing she said really stuck with me. I don't know the exact words but it was basically to choose one passion and make a difference with that one area. Don't spend $20 on this charity and 1 hour for this one. Really pick one and be the superhero for that cause.
I also got to hear some educational gurus-- Stephanie Harvey in particular was FANTASTIC. That makes me super happy as I've been her fan for years. I'm planning a whole bunch of posts sharing some of the ideas that I learned. So if you are a teacher, start following or come back this week! If you aren't a teacher, don't worry. I will add some non-educational posts too.
What would you like to hear about? My trip? What I learned? The speakers? Should I share it all in a week or spread it out to one post a week?
Totally unrelated to ILA is my random cell phone troubles. At the beginning of June, I switched carriers to Cricket Wireless. I heard they were bought by AT&T and so had AT&T coverage for super cheap. My husband and I pay $70 a month with taxes and fees. For that cost, we get unlimited talk, unlimited texts, 2.5MB of fast data, and unlimited slow data. We have been pleased with the service.
The catch is the phone. You have to buy your phone outright or put it on a crazy payment plan. (Although you can also bring any AT&T phone over to Cricket since they are on the same network.) At first I went with the ZTE Overture II since it was free after rebate. I didn't have any real problems with it, though I thought the camera could be a lot better. Then, one day, no one could hear me on the phone. I restarted the phone and it went back to working.
This week though, the power button broke. You don't really know how essential a power button is until it's not working. I downloaded an app that switched the control of the screen to the volume button. I was still afraid the battery would die though. While there is a manufacturer warranty, I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. So now I have a Galaxy Grand Prime. Hopefully it lasts more than 2 months!
