Rules and Washi Tape

Okay my friends...I am FANATICALLY in love with some of the things I've been working on...and I just had to forget about take a quick break from cleaning my house to share with you!  First off, I am just finishing up making new rule posters for my classroom.  I saw these chalkboard signs http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Just-Frame-It-758093 by Michelle Oakes and thought they were SUPER cute...only I wanted a few different sayings...so I made my own!  I only have three frames finished, as those were the only matching ones I could find around the house...I sanded them, and painted them.  The fourth one will be an orange frame:

(Picture this in an ORANGE frame!)

I have a spot all ready on my classroom wall for them.  I might add a top frame that says "Our Rules" and give it a black frame...but I'm not sure!

Secondly...have I mentioned my ADDICTION to washi tape?  OMG...I can't stop buying it...I just can't.  I have been slowly wrapping my entire world in washi tape...which brings me to my next project.  Ever since last summer I have been desperate for a Stack-On Teacher's Toolkit that are all over Pinterest.  Well...I finally got one!  Here it is!

Ta-Da!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the little owls in this font...which I really want to find...only can't right now...poo...I'll have to add it in later...

See my fun washi-tapes!

I have SO many different school projects going right now...I have been in and out of my classroom the past few days.  I will be heading in tonight with the family to work and have "Family Movie Night."  Yes, that is how much my family adores being in my classroom.  We actually plan nights just to go hang out there.  Sometimes we pick up a little Chinese food or pizza, and eat in the room.  We will put a kid's movie on the projector and watch it while Neil and I do various projects around the room!  My children literally were raised at school.  Even when Payton was a tiny baby, I'd zoom over to daycare (which was two blocks away) as soon as the kids got on the bus, and bring her back to school so I could nurse her!  We have spent countless hours there off the clock...and now, all three of them are students there, as well!  

Wow...I have wasted enough time...I MUST clean my house!

Hay, Heat, and a Whole-Lot of NOTHING...

I know, I know...naughty me has been negligent for DAYS on blogging...I'm aware...I'm sorry.  I do have an excuse...it's a little something called...FARMING.  Now, as some of you know, I live on a farm.  Does this make me a farmer?  Not really.  My husband is.  I am a teacher!  HOWEVER...during haying season life gets a little...hectic?  Everything shifts into a faster gear--schedules are thrown off...my days are a blur of throwing together quick bites of food for my family between baling and unloading...gallons of lemonade are prepared and served to those involved.  I unload--that's about it.  But life just "feels" different for us...and I LOVE it when it is happening...and LOVE it when it's over!  Either way, I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to raise my children on a farm--because trust me, there is NO better place for them to be.  I am constantly in awe of how lucky I am.  Here's a few pics of my week:

Claire up on the round bales...

Did I also mentioned we were in the pool...A LOT!

Carter heading off to help his daddy unload...

In between all that, I have been working on school stuff.  Yesterday I did upload a few different designs of a Back to School poem.  Just like my End-of -the-Year poems, these will be cut out, laminated, and placed on the fronts of a bag--this time my Open House bags which will be sitting on their desks.  Here's an example of  one...it's purposefully a bit blurry--obviously the purchased ones will be clear!  :)

There are different styles, and I will continue to add more as Back to School time approaches!  And that about sums things up...OOOoo...also...I've been working on a new clip art set...Cute Critters:

More to come there!  Enjoy your day...mine looks a little hazy, so we'll see what we can get done!

Simpletons and Solar Lights Revisited...

So, some of you Frenzy die-hards may remember a little over a year ago when I blogged about the joy of my new solar lights in an entry called, "Simpletons and Solar Lights"...well, my friends, I can assure you, I have in no way, shape, or form matured into a more worldly person over the past year.  Once again, today, I was planting some impatients along our front walk, and I decided to add in a few solar lights (as we stockpiled them on the last Menard's rebate sale).

 See here?

Well, at dusk, Rachel and I happened to be outside when the solar lights started "popping" on...Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously, why is that so exciting?  I swear I was not TRYING to be hokey...but every time one of them popped on I couldn't stop myself--I was jumping up and down and clapping.  I think I have a condition. One's level of excitement really should not supersede that of small children...it just shouldn't.  The good thing is, when faced with those less-than-enthused-products-of-our-society youth, I can whip them into a frenzy in no time FLAT.  Why?  Because...I.  Am.  Awesome.  'Nuff Said.

We are Family...

Sister Sledge aside...Do you ever look at your children and think that the insane amount of love you have for them is probably not healthy?  I think that often.  I had one of those mornings where my house got very...quiet.  Eeriely quiet...suspiciously quiet.  I started poking about from room to room...calling out their names.  No takers.  I went to the door and looked out.  There was Claire, heading across the lawn...green jammie pants getting soaked with dew, carrying a Little Tykes chair with her.  On a mission.  The destination:  The old chicken coop.  Pretty soon the other two  poked their heads out--apparently they had decided this morning that the old chicken coop was an excellent "clubhouse" for them...until Payton spotted a ball of fuzz she decided MUST be a mouse bed...and back in they came.  I LOVE that my children are buds.  That was the entire reason I suffered  went through three back-to-back pregnancies...because I wanted them to have playmates...instant and unwavering friends.  Granted, I know this can also cause a share of squabbles and chaos, but I wouldn't want it any other way.  Something as simple as watching that little girl head determinedly across the lawn, to the expectant faces of her brother and sister completely validates my life path...I AM a mother...(rawr)...

Just Another Manic Monday

Do you ever have those days that end up being a total bust?  Like, at the end of it you realize that the world has not improved at all because of your contribution, and you probably should have just stayed in bed?  Well, welcome to my world.  I have officially been on summer vacation for six days now...yet I have barely had a moment to catch my breath...so I declared today lazy day.  It sounded great, right?  Laying around...watching bad Netflix miniseries...working on TPT stuff...in theory...FABULOUS.  In reality?  Hopelessly boring...guilt-inducing inactivity.  My husband, Neil, called me before eight-thirty this morning with a mile-long list of his daily accomplishments thus far...and myself?  I was still in jammies, on the couch, laptop glued to my thighs...and to make me feel worse, he mentions that he pulled the trailer of mulch into the back yard, in case I felt like doing a ridiculously too big little landscaping project..um...no thanks?

Then, I insisted I was just trying to finish up a big TPT project that I was working on...and I did try.  Only...my computer decided it hated me today, and in my final steps before adding it to my store, as I converted it to a PDF...it kept messing up my formatting...and I don't know how to fix it.  I've researched it, and found no answers...and tried a few guesses of my own...and finally called it quits for the day.  If anyone knows how to fix this problem--where some of my images get scootched (yes, technical term) down on the page...PLEASE let me know.  I will be eternally grateful and love you forever!

And on one random side-note before I officially call it a day...a little dog has decided to adopt us...I know usually with pets the HUMANS are supposed to do the adopting...however, not in this case.  This little dog started "visiting" us about a week or so ago.  Every afternoon she would wander into our yard and hang out for at least a few hours.  She is tiny, and doesn't pay much attention to us, humans.  Upon discussions with the neighbors, we have come to realize that she is a little stray who appeared at their house.  They've let her stay and all...however...her visits to us have slowly been increasing in length up to today...where she has stayed the entire day...including now--nighttime.  For the first time today when I came out of the house she came prancing up to me like we were buds.  I think she has test driven both the neighbor's and our farm, and we have won.  Lucky us?  Not sure.  For a girl who always declared herself to be a cat person, how on earth, did I end up with three dogs?  I'll just chalk that up to the mystery of Monday...

The Frenzy Meets Little House on the Prairie...

So as some of you may know, the most exhausting awesome thing about being the third grade teacher at my school is I inherited the tradition of a day at the Little School House.  The Little School House is part of our local Rural Arts Museum, and is a historic (yet very functional) country one-room school house.  And every year, at the end of the year...when we are all drained of our educational purpose...I muster up the energy to take my students back in time over a hundred years ago...

The students are required to dress historically...including my schoolmarm self!

(How cute are they--seriously?)

And we take our mile-hike to the schoolhouse...rain or shine...this year brought a little rain on the way there. Once we arrive the students leave their lunch pails on front steps and play until I ring the bell.  Once inside they "make their manners" and our day begins!  We try to be authentic as possible...reading lessons from McGuffey Readers, Arithmetic work using slates and slate pencils, 

a Spelling Bee and recititations that they prepared ahead of time, 

old-fashioned games at recess...three of our favorites are Kick the Can, Hide the Handkerchief, and Red Rover...

we also make button toys and cup-and-ball toys...

Regardless of how much work it is, and how exhausted we all are when it is finished, the day is definitely worth it.  There is just something magical about it.  Being on our own, no distractions--no other students, or colleagues, or computers (or electricity), just us...left to appreciate each other with whole-hearted attention is so refreshing.  It's an experience that is hard to explain until you've lived through it.  There is no coincidence that at least half of our 8th graders this year listed "The Little School House" as their most cherished elementary school memory.  It gives the students a taste of everything our modern world has robbed them of...it allows them to simply be...kids...nothing more...and nothing less...

Simpletons and Solar Lights

Okay, so...let me just say that we are dorks...and by we, I mean ME.  Well, let me just toss in Neil and the kids into that "we" as well.   There.  I said it.  WE are dorks.  We know it, we own it.  Take tonight, for example...as you all know, Neil and I rebuilt the front deck.  Of course that meant new landscaping had to figure into the mix...and as part of that, we bought some new solar lights for around the deck.  This in and of itself should not be a big deal...we have had solar lights before (until Neil kicked them apart one too many times and hauled them to the dump in typical throw-everything away Neil-style).  However, did that stop us from experiencing the rushy-excitement of watching the new lights "click" on for the first time?  Of course not.  There we are, Neil, Payton, Carter, Claire, and I...gathered out in the driveway at dusk, screeching with giddy delight each time a new light popped on.  It was like the redneck version of a pyrotechnic display.  Even as it was happening, I openly acknowledged to Neil, that we, undoubtedly, were a strange family...but than another light would click on and the kids would be cheering and clapping and running to see it, and I'm not going to lie...pure joy, my friends!

You see, this is why Neil and I are the perfect homebodies...we are so easily entertained by the elements around us that we have no need to stray far from home.  I was just explaining to one of my friends at work today why I would never want to be a "weekend camper groupie" (as she is).  And she said, "Yes, but if you are at home what do you actually do?"  Well, Jody, there it is...now you know.

"It's that can't eat, can't sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of love."

     Valentine’s Day.  Sigh.  Normally I give this holiday barely a thought…for some reason this year I was totally into it.  Usually, Valentine’s Day is Neil’s holiday.  He always surprises us with bags of candy and flowers and little notes of appreciation...I like to think of him as my "hokie romantic".  But this year I decided I wanted in on the action.  So I planned out a family movie night (which are HUGE in our house).  I designed my own scratch off lottery tickets, with a matching game on them…the prize: a family movie night—I know, exciting stuff here!  I then brought out the movie gift bucket…complete with:

new straw cups for the kids (our essential Shopko ice water movie night cups...)

The Smurfs (Cuz who doesn't love little blue people?),

Popcorn, and Movie Theater Candy all stored inside this fabulous M&M popcorn bucket!

   The kids were screaming like they had truly won the lottery.  Either way, I was feeling pretty darn impressed with myself.  Thinking I had really blown Neil out of the water.  Shazam!  Right?
   So I go into my bedroom to start getting ready for school...and that's when the little notes start appearing...remember my "hokie romantic"?  Yeah.  Him.  In the center of my bathroom mirror is a crudely cut cardboard heart with the simple:  I <3 U taped to the very center of it...Okay.  One.  Tiny.  Display of Affection.  I move on.  Shortly after that I reach for my purse...and there it is:   Hello Kitty winking at me, asking me to "Be Mine?"...yes, she is stuck onto my purse with...zebra print duck tape.  Just another little token of my husband's affection.  I give him that look that says, "Really, Neil, Hello Kitty?"  And he chuckles and gives me that sheepish look that says, "Sorry, hokie romantic here!" that warms my heart.  What's next?
     I'm leaving for work, I open up my van door and find another envelope lying on the front seat, this one has a Hello Kitty "Best Friends" stuck to the envelope, with, I honestly think guerrilla glue from the junk drawer...inside is a handwritten note, of such sweet and heartfelt sentiment, that I will have perma-grin going on the rest of the day.
     Of course, that was not the end of it...because this is NEIL we are talking about...and Valentine's Day is HIS thing, remember.  I am in the middle of our Reading story with my third graders, when Miss Hemmy walks in with a delivery...a box...and sitting in the box is a stuffed bear, holding a "Be Mine" pillow (which my children will be fighting me for when we get home) and a vase of flowers with three different colored roses--one for each of our three children...and another card scratched out in his barely legible script making me feel like the most loved person on the planet.  Because THAT is Neil's speciality....making me feel loved.  Plain and simple.

Totally Random Happening...

     So I hit a balloon on the drive home from work today. No joke. A bright yellow latex balloon. I was simply driving down the highway and out of nowhere, it appeared in front of me. Of course I had no choice but to hit it, and it bounced off my windshield with great ceremony and back into the air. My children shrieked with joy, and I giggled like a mad woman–it was so ridiculous...and random. Where had it come from? No matter–I took it as a screaming reminder not to take life too seriously...and to take notice...because if another balloon might suddenly appear, I surely wouldn’t want to miss it!