Currently January

If you are a frequent reader, you know how much I love Farley's Currently party.  I wish I had my own classroom because I would so buy her Currently for the Classroom to use with my students.  If you haven't seen it, you need to check it out HERE.  I know today is still December, but I am posting early (yay! I am on the ball for once!).

 

I am not listening to Gamechanger by choice.  In my household, Saban is the devil.  BUT my husband got it for Christmas and wants to watch it for reasons I cannot fathom.  I am seriously LOVING, dare I say puffy heart loving, Christmas break.  While I have thought about school some, I have really taken time off.  I needed it.  I have spent the time reading, reading, and reading some more.  I am caught up on my Google Reader.  I have read books that I have been wanting to read all year.  It has be WONDERFUL!!!!

I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am probably not going to be able to have my own little one, so my husband and I are starting to look into process of adoption, which leads me to my OLW: balance.  I need to find a better balance between my school life and every day life.  Right now, work takes all of my time.  I have a very understanding husband, but I need to get my house in order if we are going to adopt.  I need to find a better balance, where family time takes precedence.  I LOVE my job, but I am getting burned out with spending twenty-fours a day working or worrying about work or thinking about work.  So, I am going to try to find a balance.

Make sure to go check out what everyone else is up to at Farley's place.

12 in '12

As the year is coming to a close and the holiday break starts on Saturday (just one more day of school!),  I am going to share some of my favorite things from 2012 and link up with Miss Kindergarten and A Teeny Tiny Teacher.

12. Favorite movie you watched:  Hunger Games, The Avengers, Battleship, Bourne Legacy, Pitch Perfect, The Hobbit

I just couldn't narrow it down to ONE.  The one movie that was a surprise was Pitch Perfect.  I am an action movie gal but I had fun watching Pitch Perfect and love the soundtrack, which I listen to all the time.  I chose The Hobbit even though I haven't been able to see it yet.  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was fantastic and I am sure the Hobbit will be just as great.

11. Favorite TV series:  Sons of Anarchy, Justified

I continue the action packed theme with Sons of Anarchy and Justified.  Neither show is for the faint of heart, especially Sons of Anarchy.  There were some episodes this season that I had to close my eyes.  The story line is fabulous though.  Justified is starting back up in January (the 8th to be exact) and I can't wait!

10. Favorite restaurant:  Buckley's

If you are ever in Memphis and want a fantabulous steak, you need to go to Buckley's.  There is always a wait but it is so worth it.  The BEST steak EVER!

9. Favorite new thing you tried:  Paint Party

During Thanksgiving break, my husband and I went to visit his sister and we all went to our first ever Paint Party.  It was fun!  An instructor walks you through creating the painting of the night.  Each night there is a different painting.  The night we went, we were supposed to make Christmas flower paintings (poinsettias).  Well, you can tell they are flowers but you wouldn't know they were supposed to poinsettias without me telling you.  I want to go back and do it again.

 

This one is mine.

 

This one is my husband's painting.

 

8. Favorite gift you got:  Pandora necklace with rings on pillow bead and Adipose stress toy

My husband and I have already exchanged Christmas gifts because our anniversary is this month also, so we combined the two.  I love Pandora beads and have a couple of bracelets.  My husband knows how much I love them, so he gave me a necklace to add beads to and a new bead.  The new bead is a pillow with a two wedding rings on it.  I love it!  It was perfect.  And to feed my Doctor Who addiction, he got me a adipose stress toy (picture below) that proudly sits on my desk at school for when I need to a little stress relief.  He is almost too cute to squeeze though. (I know, nerd, I have come to terms with it).  

 

7. Favorite thing you pinned:  Narrowed it down to my top three most recent

I have a slight obsession with Doctor Who, so I devoted an entire Pinterest board to the show.  It took me a long time but I finally fell in love with the last companions' story (Amy and Rory Pond).  This is one of recent favorite pins.

If you can't tell from my first pin, I will tell you that I am a total geek (have another board devoted to geekdom) and love everything about this next pin.  I love Star Wars, LOTR, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter and this pin combined them all into one.

This last pin is school related and something my third graders and I just did this week.  We are studying the layers of the earth, so we created an edible version.  They LOVED it!

6. Favorite blog post:  Crafting Sentences

My favorite blog post that I have written this year was on writing a complete sentence.  Last school year I was working with a first grade class.  One of the things they were struggling with was turning their prewriting into complete sentences, so we used my crafting sentences graphic organizer to get them going.

5. Best accomplishment:  Making the decision to adopt

I haven't been able to talk about this because I haven't been ready for a long time, but I finally have come to terms with not being able to have children.  After two years and two miscarriages, my husband and I have decided that there are plenty of children in the world who need a loving home.  So we are in the beginning stages of looking into what we need to do to make that happen.

4 and 3. Favorite picture and Favorite memory:  Paint Party

From left to right:  sister-in-law, beautiful niece, husband, mother-in-law, me (this may be the first picture I have ever posted of myself on my blog...I hate taking pictures).

2. Goal for 2013:  

My goal matches my OLW: I want to balance my school life and my personal life.  Mu husband is very understanding, but I want to build a family and have time for that family.

1. One Little Word: BALANCE

My word last year was connect.  I tried to make the connections I had with family and friends stronger.  This year, I want to work on balancing work and the rest of my life.  There doesn't seem to much time for the rest of my life because of how busy and time consuming school life is.  If I want to adopt a child, I know that I am going to have to do better about the balance.  School cannot consume my life.

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

In Honor In Memory

Words cannot fully express my feelings about yesterday's tragedy in Connecticut.  I don't even know where to begin to try to process what happened.  All I can say right now is that I am mourning for the families of Newtown.

Tomorrow teacher bloggers are going to have a day of silence to honor the families that were forever changed yesterday.  Each participating teacher blogger will post the image below with the title "Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary" and nothing else.  Feel free to join and honor the memories of the lives that were ended too soon.  For more information, visit Farley's blog:  Oh Boy 4th Grade.

Thanks to Michelle from 3am Teacher for creating the image we are using in honor, in memory.

I snagged the following poem from Erica Bohrer's First Grade because it sums up a teacher's feelings about his or her students.

Currently and Pretzel Bark

My life has been hectic lately and I didn't even know it was December until I saw that Currently was up on Farley's blog.  CURRENTLY!  How can it be December already?  Where has the year gone?

RAK...In my job, I actually work at two different elementary schools.  Four days a week, I spend at one school (home-base school) and one day a week at the second (they are in two different towns but same district...small town life).  Once a week, the teachers from that school (there are only four of them...really small town life) come to our weekly meeting at my home-base school.  Who is with the students while their teachers are gone?  Each teacher has an aide that takes their place and makes sure the kids are still learning.  Without them, we could not have our weekly cluster meeting.  This is our second year to be doing this, and I haven't shown them any appreciation for taking over the teaching responsibilities.  I am going to make a small gift basket for each aide and give them this month.

WANTING...I went to my favorite bookstore in Memphis tonight for the first time in a looooong time.  I forgot how much I love the smell of new books because I have been buying my books through my kindle and iBooks apps.  There is something about opening a new book for the first time.  I smile each and every time.

LOVING...I am not gifted in any way in the art of using the kitchen :) Honestly, I can't cook or bake, so I need simple recipes in order to make anything.  I finally decided to try something from all the pins I have on my cooking Pinterest board:  salted caramel pretzel bark and it was GOOD!  I was completely surprised when it came out and my husband ate it.  That is always the test.  He is such a picky eater.

So, for my wonderful followers, I created a step-by-step picture guide for Toffee Pretzel Bark.  I changed the name because as soon as my husband tasted it he said, "this is good toffee."  Looking up the difference between toffee and caramel (cooking newbie here), the recipe is really having you create a toffee because there is no milk (or any other liquid involved).