Monday, April 30, 2012

Smell the Roses 4.30.12

Time to stop and Smell the Roses!
Lovely Little Things 
This week's task was to make a mix CD. 
Well I kinda did that. Let me explain. 
My husband is who i chose to make a CD for, but we don't listen to cds much anymore. We listen to our iPods nonstop! So i made a playlist that he can listen to in the car! I thought i'd share a run down of the songs I included! (He was pretty excited to hear what i had chosen for him! But i guess what i really want him to feel is loved! I think i accomplished that!) 

  1. Rascal Flatts - Changed 
  2. Lady Antebellum - Love I've Found in You
  3. Craig Campbell - Fish
  4. Montgomery Gentry - Gone
  5. U2 - All I Want is You
  6. Dierks Bentley - Every Mile a Memory
  7. Tom Petty - Honey Bee (are you sensing a theme?)
  8. Blake Shelton - Honey Bee (how about now?)
  9. Lady Antebellum - Run to You (this song was our first dance)
  10. Flo Rida - Sugar
  11. Eric Church - Carolina

That's my playlist for the hubs! What a fun task! 
Next Week I get to do something out of my comfort zone! Oh boy! 
Photobucket

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Things I Teach (not standards based!)


Good morning! Karla over @ Life in Special Education is having a linky party that I thought would be a fun way to describe my classroom. I will always claim that no one will truly understand what happens in my own classroom unless they are there day in and day out. Here's a brief window into some of the skills I teach on a daily basis! These are things that the standards just done cover, but that the little love bugs need! Enjoy! Oh and it's ok to giggle, as some stuff seems flat out silly!

  • How to walk in line without touching each other
  • That we don't sleep in class even if you're tired
  • How to use tissues
  • When hand sanitizer is necessary
  • How to swing on the swings
  • That it is not OK to put your hands down your pants
  • That it's OK to fart, but please do it away from others
  • How to put on deodorant without making a mess
  • How to organize your belongings under your desk
  • How to open different food packages
  • How to try to read a passage/directions before asking for help
  • How to ignore others who are being disrespectful
  • How to accept responsibility for our actions
  • What we can do to make up for our mistakes
  • That apologies need to be heartfelt
  • That eye contact is important (especially when apologizing)
  • How to speak up instead of mumble
  • How to ask a question
  • Why we walk at school
  • That our boogers belong in our noses and not in our mouth
  • How to share
  • That it TRULY is not ok to hit your peer not matter what they said
  • That it is probably a good idea to stay in class rather than run away!
  • That taking a minute or two to cool out is IMPORTANT
  • Coping skills and when to use them
  • How to take deep breaths to calm down
  • How to take turns
  • How to use a slide properly
  • That people will stare when you act up
  • That name calling is just not nice


So that is some of the stuff I teach... I am totally sure I am missing something or another, but that is it!

If you care to link up, this is open to all teachers! Please just follow the link above! 

Have a great Sunday! 

Photobucket

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Photo a Day in May

Hey there! 

Its been a great weekend so far! I hope your weekend has been going well and that you have good weather to enjoy! (It was great getting outside today at the Orange County Great Park! Post to come soon!) 

I've decided that i am gonna give the Photo A Day in May a try! I wont be blogging about it every day, but thought i would share a post or two about it a couple times a month! So here's what i hope to photograph each day for the month of May! Spring is here, so i hope to get some neat shots! 


Anyone wanna join in the fun? It would be cool to see what your world looks like! Let me know if you are doing this with me! 


Photobucket

Friday, April 27, 2012

High Five 4.27.12

Here's my High Five:

|one|
I am officially ready to pick out a mug for the Mug Swap! Can't wait to send a mug to Jennifer over @ Sunnier Side of Sass! Head on over to Suzels Says if you want to join in the fun! (The fun will end on April 30th! Sign up... or prepare to be MUG-LESS!) 




|two|
My husband has his truck on hold for someone who wants to buy it next week!! Woo hoo! (Hubs is a little sad to give up his truck, but it is so cool cause we are workin towards that house we dream of!
(This is not his truck, but one that looks like his, well slightly!)


|three|
Tomorrow, my mom, hubby, and possibly a friend or two will be going to the Orange County Great Park Artisan Food & Arts Festival. I am way excited about this event! Click the link to find out more! 



|four|
I made a new Blog Planner! I used ideas from Jessica @ Lovely Little Things and made it my own! I will be posting about my new blog planner soon! Stay tuned! Here's what her's looks like (you can also click the link to go right to her post about her planner)

|five|
Encouragement from fellow bloggers! Its nice to see a few new followers, extra comments and extra page views per day! Thanks to all those who have been reading and following this little blog! Please don't be shy if you are quietly looming in the background, hit "Follow" and let me know you are out there! Don't be shy!


Head on over to From My Grey Desk to link up! 
From My Grey Desk

Welp, that is all for now! Hope you all have a great weekend! 


Photobucket

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Fill it with TEA!


OK so, I am participating in a Coffee Mug Swap.... But I really want to rename it at coffee and TEA mug swap! To me there is nothing like a nice, pleasantly warm, just sweet enough, mug of tea! I get frustrated with the size of tea cups... Because they are often toooooooooo darn small! I need a hefty mug of tea with a little stevia and a touch of honey mixed in!

Are you interested in this mug swap? Well basically I will be sending a fellow blogger a mug.... So they can have a nice big mug of coffee... Or TEA! This is a great opportunity to meet other bloggers, but also a great way to get MAIL!!! I love receiving actual mail that isn't junk or bills! Don't you?
If you would like to join in the fun, do it quick as the swap closes at the close of April! Go visit Suzel Says for more info! Or just click the cute little blog button below! 




I cant wait to "meet" who i will be exchanging mugs with! 


**** UPDATE: To see the mug i received from the lovely Jenn at Sunnier Side of Sass please go HERE



Photobucket

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Oh How Pinteresting! Future Child Edition

Are you ready?
Its time for my first link up with Michelle @ The Vintage Apple for 
One reason I love pinterest is truly the idea of saving ideas that does not clutter my home. I love that any time i have a thought in my mind, i can use it as a search engine for my next project, recipe, and even save ideas for when i have a child! So, the theme for this weeks "Oh so Pinteresting" is all about the future, as in future child! (The DISTANT future!) 
**Note: I am not pregnant! I just have a lot of people on Pinterest that post great links about kids! 


So here are my 10 pins from the week related to that! 

|one|
19 things we should say to our children CONSISTENTLY! 
|two|
How to Teach a Toddler to Swim
|three|

|four|
Good to know! 

|five|
Love the idea of a little love bug laying on books! 
|six|

|seven|
Love this quote from a great children's book!


|eight|
25 Things I Want My Daughter to Know
|nine|
Life Story Binder
|ten|


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


What have you been pinning? See what others have pinned and head on over to this great link up

Photobucket

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Totally Kissable!


Ohmiggoodness! With all the changes and figuring stuff out i forgot to share that my BIRCH BOX came! Oh me, oh my!

So I thought I would start a weekly post on one item that I got in this lovely little brown box that comes each month!

This week I am sharing about some really ahhhhhmazing lip care! It's great stuff! The lip balm is called 
Pangea Organics Lip Balm with Egyptian Fennel with Grapefruit and Sweet Orange

It has all these interesting scents/flavors/ingredients that I may not have chosen for myself, but of course I had to give it a try because it did come in my lovely little Birch box. So I was a bit leery at first, but I truly should not have been! I love the stuff! I find myself now leaving this out on the bathroom counter so I will not forget to wear it! I have even decided not to take it with me as i am afraid to lose it! It has left my lips feeling soft and smooth and I love the scent! I usually am not a fan of grapefruit, but this has definitely left me with a sweet surprise! Literally!
 
There were also other items from the same brand tucked away in that cute little brown box and I will be sharing about those  in future posts! I'm guessing that these little samples will be just as great as this lip balm! Oh and did I mention that the lip balm that came was full sized?!?! Holy cow!

Hope you all have a great Tuesday night/Wednesday! Say tuned tomorrow for all my Pinterest finds from the week! 


Photobucket

Monday, April 23, 2012

Simply Put: Serve!


Yep! It's time for my first link up with Lovely Little Things to stop and 

Lovely Little Things 

With all the change going on around here, it was a bit of short notice to meet a need. So, I am thinking that something I did a week ago to meet a need would count! Because my "meet a need" happened a week ago, I have no pictures! But I can most definitely share my experience! It's funny too, with all this talk of meeting a need; it even came up in church this week! I will share some of my reflections on that too!

So, a family within our church is in mourning and when that happens in our church we have a ministry that people can ask for help with meals. There are women, like myself, who have volunteered to cook periodically for others in need within our own community! You get the picture, I think!

The volunteer ministry uses this site to help us all sign up when there is a need! This can be used for a variety of volunteer events! 

Last week, I knew I it was definitely my turn! I usually cannot help out just due to a lack of time, but with spring break in full force, I excitedly signed up! So, Friday I had the meal cooked, stopped by the store to grab a quick dessert and then headed over to the family’s home!

I don't want to focus so much on the meeting the need as much as how important it is to give! There are so many people out there in need and we drive by them, talk to them and are even friends with people who are in need. There are needs we don't even see, but the truly important thing is that we serve those needs for people, even if it means just spending time with them. I am sure many people who linked up felt a certain amount of joy from their giving! Its amazing how it can be such a touching moment to help someone.  

So this last weekend church was about serving! Our pastor (you can find out more about him here) gave some tips on how to serve and I thought I would share them with you:
  1. Serve out of faith (John 8:31-32)
  2. Serve out of compassion (Matt. 14:14)
  3. Serve with your whole life  (2Cor. 9:11) 
  4. Serve in a systematic way  (1 Cor. 16:2)
  5. Serve freely (2Cor. 9:7)
  6. Serve outside your comfort zone
  7. Serve people who don't deserve it (Luke 6:35)


Hope you enjoyed my stop to Smell the Roses
Photobucket

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Love & WAR!

For the record, Blogger and an iPad do not mix! This is the second time i am writing this post! 

So, here we go! Today I am gonna review a study guide that we finished in the Life Group that my husband and i co-lead for young married couples. We read Love and War by John and Stasi Edredge. 
Let me begin with what I did not like!


The bad:
Let me begin by saying that this study guide was maybe meant for couples that had been married longer. Our group is made up of couples that have been married less than 5 years. Just out of easiness, I will be using bullets for this portion of my review.

  • Many of the questions were worded oddly and had to be reworded in order to be applicable to a younger crowd. The wording was even awkward, i think, for an older crowd. 
  • I feel that the themes presented were not as clear cut as they should have been. The titles did not really give a quick give away on what the theme of the chapter would be. 
  • The topics were not always relevant to younger couples. This was frustrating at times for my husband and I as well as our co-leaders. We had to grasp at what to talk about!
  • The study was not as Biblically based as I would have liked. Rather it was based on the authors' perspective of a Christian marriage. I would have liked more Biblical relevance overall. 
  • The DVD - it was often corny! There were two segments to each session. The first segment was always the authors talking and repeating whatever had been read in the study guide. Certain key points were highlighted and reviewed. The authors were also in a number of scenarios - in a canoe, in the dining room, in the bedroom, etc. The second segment was like listening in on a small group of couples. I felt this is where they could have made it more applicable to younger couples by having a younger couple be a part of the group. But alas, they did not. 

So while there was so much to say on the bad side, there is still a little bit to say on the good side of things! Have i mentioned that i did not like this study much? Maybe I am being overly critical, but i think a book that is geared towards married couples should span a larger group of people. 


The Good:
One thing i liked was that i did learn a couple things:

  1. I learned that so often when our spouse does something that we perceive as uncaring, we can come to quick conclusions that are not usually positive. For example my husband may do something that is careless, but in my head i might think "if he really cared about me he wouldn't do that." These negative thoughts are called "agreements" by the authors. I think having an awareness of these "agreements" is truly half the battle. It has changed some of the ways i think about how i treat my husband and how i perceive how he is treating me. 
  2. I feel that this book has helped me as a leader of a Life Group. It really challenged me and my husband to come up with relevant topics for younger couples. We had to think outside the box a bit and this challenged us to even pull together and work as a team. Though thsi was not always easy, i think it helped both of us to be better leaders. We also learned about one another quite a bit. 

 I think that covers most of it! Though i feel that this study guide was not the greatest for our group, it may be better for other groups! If you are a part of a married couples group and wish to do a study on marriage I recommend that you wait a while to do this one. However, whatever study you do in a married couples group I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing a couple activities in conjunction with your study! The first activity would be to make a Newlywed Game! this was a ton of fun and it truly brought us together! It was a blast! The other activity that left us all feeling blessed was to have a panel of couples that we could ask questions of at our church. I think that we had something like 90 years of marital experience between all our panelists and boy was it WONDERFUL! I left having learned many things! 

While i do not recommend this study guide, I do recommend John Eldredge's other books. Wild at Heart and Captivating (written by both John and Stasi Eldredge) are both great books that deal with gender roles in relationships and in the church. These are both books that i enjoyed and learned from! 

Are any of you a part of a small group, life group, prayer group or otherwise? What have you studied? What would you recommend? 

Photobucket

Saturday, April 21, 2012

New Structure and additions!

So, I have decided to revamp my daily structure on this blog! So far i have decided to link up weekly with a few linky parties and at the same time I am setting a goal to create teacher freebies at least quarterly. 

I have already made a few changes! Have you noticed? 
I added a page with my favorite Linky Parties - Just click on the link above! 
And I also added a page with all the recipes I have posted! There is really so much stuff buzzin' around this little site! 


What is to come? 
Mondays - I will begin linking up with Lovely Little Things for Smell the Roses. This is taking the place of what used to be my What's Bringing Me Joy Wednesday. The best part is the Smell the Roses link up will encourage me to be the one to bring on the joy! I love this idea and cannot wait to get started! 


Lovely Little Things


Tuesdays & Thursdays - This will be where I fill in the blank with whatever I choose! Maybe a recipe, teacher tip, favorite website, Birchbox review, newest book to read/love, there really are so many possibilities! 


Wednesdays - This will fulfill my love of Pinterest and share some of my favorite pins with you! I will be linking up with The Vintage Apple for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday





Fridays - This will continue to be My High Five Friday link up with From My Grey Desk! 




Saturdays & Sundays - Sometimes i will be linking up with Six Sisters to Strut MY Stuff on Saturdays! Other times this will be reviews, craft projects, or other random posts! 




I cant wait to fill in the blanks and see how this new structure goes! 
Photobucket

Friday, April 20, 2012

High Five 4/20

Here's my weekly link up with From My Grey Desk

High Five for Friday!!! 

|one|
The LIFE Group we co-lead had finished a study using the study guide entitled "Love and War" by John & Stasi Edredge

|two|
The weather is sure to be nice this weekend!! 

|three|
I am looking forward to May 10th! Why, you ask? Well, that is when This American Life will be having a live event! 
(If you are unfamiliar with This American Life, please head over to their site and check out the podcast!) 


|four|
This little blog is changing! I have been doing some planning and will be changing up some of the structure of this site and will be adding some new stuff! Check out the new additions HERE and HERE

|five|
I feel that this week was much more sane in my classroom than it has been in a long time! Wahoo for improvements all around! 


Photobucket

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Copy Cat!

Hey all! 

This week's menu contains a copy-cat salad from a local brewery (that I love!) called Tustin Brewing Co. They not only have some yummy items on the menu but they have a Santa Few Chicken Salad that i cannot seem to avoid when i am there! My kickboxing friends call it the "Simone Salad" because they know i order it A LOT! 

So i have duplicated the salad by taking a picture of the menu and then getting all the ingredients with small tweeks to make it easier! 

Santa Fe Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
1-2 Hearts of Romaine 
1 chicken breast, cubed
1 can of corn, drained
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 red onion diced
1-2 small tomatoes, diced
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Tortilla strips (or crumbled up chips)
Cilantro Dressing 

Begin by washing the lettuce and cutting it into bite sized pieces. Then add the toppings. Toss well making sure to coat the leaves with the dressing. Serves 3-5 depending on how much lettuce you use. 

A Few Cook's Notes:
- I used spinach for this salad! 
- To package this for lunches during the week put lettuce in a container and then make separate baggies with the other ingredients. One bag should include wet ingredients such as chicken, corn, beans, and red onion. The second bag should include the shredded cheese and the tortilla chips. Then a separate container would be needed for the dressing. 
- The menu at TBC states that they use a cilantro lime dressing. I found a yummy cilantro dressing at Trader Joe's and it is even low fat! You can find other recipes for homemade cilantro lime dressings here or here or here. (If i decided i wanted to make my own, I would definitely chose the last one! It seems the healthiest!) 
- I went with low fat mozzarella. This should cut a little of the fat! 
-The tomatoes I chose were the mine-grape tomatoes that I can just throw into the baggies. This was a geat time and mess saver! 
- This salad makes a great meal or even a side dish! 

I hope you give the salad a try! Mangia! 

Photobucket

Monday, April 16, 2012

A Few Items Off the List!

So excited! Here's a little update on my "Pinterest to do list"

It always seems we pin and pin and pin and pin.... well u get the picture! The thing is i love to pin, but truly i love trying new things!

So Out of the 5 items i have on my Pinterest To Do list, I have accomplished trying a couple since last i wrote!

The first was the nutella cookie recipe. The original pin was really just a broken link, but then i Google searched and found a couple recipes! You can find the one i tried here. And here is what my cute little cookies looked like!
They were yummy little treats and they were so moist!! 

The other thing I have completed was the trash can for my car! 
Here's what the process looked like! 
(Its amazing what a little Mod Podge can do!)

 So, after searching for the original sized container, i decided 2 things:
1. I did not need such a huge container
2. I could use a container that had been used to hold baby wipes for easy opening and closing!
 So, here's the container before! 

And now as it is being covered! 


And here is the finished product! I love how it turned out! I hope it will work great in the car too! 
I then added a piece to cover the lid! I think it looks pretty darn great and it has already been put to use in the car! 


Photobucket