High Five for Friday

Time has been flying!  I'm sure I keep saying that, but I can't believe that we're already looking at March!  This week was a great one.  Dawn and I are participating in the "High Five for Friday," inspired by theLauren Elizabeth blog. Here are my top moments from the past 7 days!

1. I had Monday and Tuesday off for President's weekend.  Thankfully, when it snowed on Monday night, I had off on Tuesday so we didn't lose another snow day!

2. My boyfriend and I went out for his birthday dinner with a bunch of friends on Saturday night.  It was so nice to get out and laugh and enjoy time with new friends.  It definitely helps when your significant other has an awesome group of friends. xo

3. I met my boyfriend's family for the first time tonight.  Talk about being blessed.  He has one incredible family.  (I should have known...he's pretty amazing.  The people who raised him should be amazing, too!)  I even met his two nephews who I ended up falling in love with.  They are two respectful boys. How could you turn down a game of hide and seek to a three year old who calls you Miss Amanda?

4. I ate lunch with six girls from my class today for a reward that they earned.  I forgot how nice it is to actually sit with the kids outside of instructional time and have a chat with them.  These girls were so much fun, and they even lucked out with having a homemade brownie after they were finished with lunch!

5. I found a bunch of frames at the Christmas Tree Shop this week to go along with my Origami Owl party set-up this weekend.  I'm hosting my first party on Saturday night at my place, and I'm so excited to begin this new adventure!

High Five for Friday: Hey Dad, You're Awesome!

Amanda and I particpate in the link party, High Five for Fridays, from Lauren Elizabeth's blog. Head on over to Lauren Elizabeth for more "High Five for Fridays." We're taking part in this fun reflection each week and hopefully you will too!


1. Having a week off from school for winter break and getting a lot accomplished around here. Even though I'm leaving a few items on my to-do list, I feel happy about what did get checked off...a lot of organization stuff, and old projects and new projects that were finally completed.

2. Finally getting back to a good book. I preach to my students about reading every day and I often feel guilty when I do this because I don't always keep up my own with reading. Practice what you preach, girl! This week, I made sure to get back to the books. I purchased James Patterson's First Love. It was so good. I highly recommend it. It shared similarities with The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Another amazing read.

3. Beautiful weather on Thursday. I was finally able to leave the house in a long sleeve shirt without a big winter coat on. It felt so good! The sun was shining and it was warm and gorgeous outside! It was the complete opposite to the awful weather we've experienced over the past few weeks. The snow and ice still covered the ground- a reminder that winter is still here, but I felt optimistic knowing that spring is right around the corner. I heard that this weekend is supposed to be beautiful, too.

4. Fun hairstyles... my first sock bun! I've been inspired by other bloggers to have fun with my hair. It's at a great length to try different styles. It's also naturally thick, curly, and wavy, which makes it easier to have these styles stay and not fall apart easily. The sock bun was a lot of fun - who knew socks could be so much fun when styling your hair!?

5. Receiving special cards in the mail. I finally checked my mail yesterday. I'm so bad at this. I live in an apartment community and our mailboxes are not attached to our building. My mom called the other day and asked if I received my dad's valentine card. My heart sank. I felt so bad. Of course I didn't receive it because I never check my mail. Epic fail. Just like Amanda, my dad always had a special valentine card and gift waiting for my sister and I each year. Of course, this year would be no different. He wrote such a sweet message inside. I know I'll always be his little girl. I love you, dad!

MUST HAVE APP: GrooveBook!!

Amanda and I are taking part in another link party tonight... THE Pin It Party Pinterest Linkup. We found this link party through the Creative Geekery blog and are excited to take part in this each Thursday. 

A huge chunk of my time this week has been spent organizing photos from this whole past year. I have photos on different cameras, phones, computers, and in emails that friends and family sent me. I know that you're probably in shock... Dawn, the photo extraordinaire, doesn't have her #$!@ together. Sigh.

I spoke with my sister today and she said that she's been trying to do the same. We were both explaining how time consuming it can be and decided that we need to start fresh with a new system for doing this. We also said how sad it is that most pictures never get printed anymore, and they're stored on computers, or other devices for too long. (Amanda mentioned this in one of her posts, too!)

My first solution to printing more photos and keeping up-to-date with organizing is: GrooveBook. GrooveBook is an app that prints up to 100 of your phone photos and creates a 4.5 x 6.5 photo book and mails it to you monthly. GENIUS IDEA!

So many of my honeymoon photos were taken on my iPhone. Who really digs out their digital camera anymore? In just a few clicks, I can have all of those photos printed and loaded into a little book for me. Each photo is perforated for easy removal... they're the perfect size for your refrigerator and for switching out your picture frames. You can choose up to 100 photos to include in the photo book. The other awesome feature? You can choose how many of each photo you want to include in the book. Do you like one photo the most and want to give it to your friends and family? Choose to have that one printed/included in the book more than once!

I would imagine that this is the best feature for new mom's... snapping away on your iPhone, catching the latest milestone on-the-go... and now you can upload them, print the book, and have it sent to you for just $2.99. No more fiddling with the computer, uploading them to another site for printing, GrooveBook answers all those prayers. If it sounds like I'm selling this app, I am! I think it's absolutely amazing!

GrooveBook is a subscription service- they bill you monthly ($2.99) for your photo book. That fee also includes shipping! See the photo below for what your monthly fee includes. Having money come out of your account each  month might sound annoying, but it seems like they'll easily cancel the service if it's not working for you. Check out the frequently asked questions here. I love that it's a quick reminder to upload the photos that you took that month and get them printed! Display them around the house, put them in a photo or memory box, give them to family/friends... get your photos out there!

I'm interested to hear if you use GrooveBook. How's it going for you? I can't wait to start using this app!

Building A Classroom Library

This post is a combination of a throwback Thursday and my best advice to grow a classroom library! The photos I've included in this post are from my very first classroom.  I began my classroom teaching career as a second grade teacher, and I was fortunate to have a beautiful classroom and an amazing group of students!  For this post, I am going to focus on how to build a classroom library.  

Look at how fresh and clean that carpet is!!!

When I started teaching, I attended the Scholastic Warehouse Fairs.  If you live close to one of their warehouses, you have to check it out.  They have tons of books on sale in their warehouse.  It's like going to one giant book fair!  You get a shopping cart, and walk through, tossing books into your cart.  Beware: You can, and will, spend hundreds of dollars on your first trip there!

I also used E-Bay to find books.  If you search "children's book lot" in the search area of the website, you'll find books sold in groupings for reasonable prices.  

Another way to find books is to scope out library book sales.  You can get boxes of books for super cheap. They're second hand, but who cares?  Your students will love them just the same as your brand new books.  Another suggestion is to let your class parents know that you're collecting books.  When they go through their libraries at home, they'll donate old books to you!

Finally, Scholastic Bonus Points from the Scholastic Reading Club.  This is the greatest idea for classroom teachers.  Whenever your students order from the Scholastic Reading Club each month, you earn points.  Let your points accumulate, and once you have a good amount, order new books for your classroom each month.  When the book box arrives in my classroom my students cheer.  There's only one problem: We're running out of room on our shelves!  

Today, Dawn and I are joining in on the Link Party: Creative Geekery Pin It Party

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Did you ever really listen to what the children around you are saying?  If you have been too busy to heat what they have to say, maybe you should slow down a little bit.  I don't have any children of my own, but I work with 25 third graders every day.  One thing I can tell you, if you need an honest answer, just ask a third grader.  They haven't quite learned what a "filter" is, and they don't usually learn until it's too late that maybe they should have used a better choice of words.

Regardless, their innocence is something that is lost as they gain more time on this Earth.  Children begin to learn what is socially acceptable, and life has a way of diminishing the innocence. I have been loving Soul Pancake's latest series: Little Kids, Big Questions.  Today I'm posting their video about beauty.  Kids will honestly tell you what they think is beautiful/attractive, and how someone is beautiful.  I find joy in watching these kids giggle and laugh as they discuss topics that matter to all of us.  I hope you enjoy their video tonight.  I hope it brings a smile to your face.

 

DIY Chair Restoration

Don't throw it away! Learn the secrets to making old stuff look new again!

From Estate Sale to Gorgeous...

I purchased an old desk chair at an estate sale this past weekend for ten dollars. I was on the search for something inexpensive that I could restore and re-purpose. A good 'ol DIY project was calling my name!

The chair was in great condition and really only needed a coat of paint to give it a snappy new look! I sanded it down as best as I could, washed it clean with a damp cloth, and began painting. I chose white paint to go along with the theme of my new desk area. I applied a few coats, which dried rather quickly.

   

I'm thinking about reupholstering the cushion and have found ideas on Pinterest, but I'm not entirely sure that I'll do it. I'm kind of liking the black and white look, for now.

I'm in the process of transforming my desk area and I'll be blogging about it soon!

Photo Book Lover

Photo Book from My Publisher

"Create photo books" has been at the top of my to-do list since school started in September... and I still haven't been able to cross it off the list. :( There are quite a few events that we've experienced over the past year that should be documented in a photo book and I'm dying to get started. School is out for winter break, which means more projects get accomplished, which means photo books are being ordered this week!

I've always used Shutterfly for my photo book projects and I'm ready to step outside of that comfort zone. There are so many amazing websites to create photo books with and it's really hard to choose one to help you create your masterpiece. I did a lot of researching, read a lot of reviews, and narrowed it down to these 5 websites to try out:

1. My Publisher

2. Artifact Uprising

3. Blurb

4. Mpix

5. Snapfish

I'm in the process of creating photo books on these sites. I'll be blogging about the process (use of templates and ease of use), print quality, speed of service (delivery), and other benefits (discounts). If you've used these websites for photo books before, I'd love to hear from you! If you have a favorite that isn't mentioned, I'd also love to hear from you! Check back for my updates soon! :-)