M.I.A.

Holy moly guys, it's been a year and a half since I have posted ANYTHING on my blog.  Can you believe that?  I'm not sure if that speaks more to my time management or to the hectic nature of my life.

Let me explain.

A lot has happened in this past year and a half.  We have moved, we celebrated anniversaries and life got even crazier.  A lot crazier.  As in, I can't believe I'm about to say it here.

Drum roll please!

My husband and I are no longer just a married couple.  We are now PARENTS (!!) to a beautiful baby boy!!  We are so proud of him and so incredibly in love with him.  But let me explain my hesitation in announcing it on my blog.

We have done everything possible to keep him off of social media.  We did not announce our pregnancy on Facebook, there were no belly pictures on Instagram and there still aren't any pictures of him (nor will his name be announced) anywhere.  (Ok, I lied.  My Facebook profile picture is of me holding him in the ErgoBaby, but his face is completely concealed so really, no pictures of him up yet).

We did this for several reasons.  The biggest reason was to preserve his privacy.  It goes without saying that social media is an incredibly easy way for predators to target children of any age.  I recently read an article about a man who actually virtually kidnapped this poor woman's daughter.  He stole her pictures from the mother's Facebook account, posted them to HIS Facebook and claimed this little girl as his own daughter.  Now, this may be seemingly harmless but it is creepy beyond belief either way.  (Here's an interesting article about it http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/09/the-new-virtual-kidnapping-craze.html)

Aside from protecting his privacy and ensuring that the number of blackmail bathtub pictures are limited to photo albums that will be dusty and placed aside when it matters, we wanted to keep this time in our lives special.  In other words, WE wanted privacy.  We wanted to experience our pregnancy and birth and first months together as a unit without social media intrusions.  We already have so many other distractions in our lives we didn't want one more thing to distract us from the miracle happening in our family.

You know how it goes, you post a picture and anxiously wait for people to "like" it or *squeal* comment on it (or is that just me?).  This time, I wanted to savor being pregnant, feeling his little kicks and hiccups.  Now I want to be the sole proprietor of that adorable little face, I want to hide his smiles from everyone because I am his mama, and those smiles are for only mama (maybe now I'm being selfish).  He is ours, and those people who are close to us and who we consider to be family know all about him and come visit him.  They get constant updates and especially my family oversees get to see him through WhatsApp and email.

Because knowing someone in person is much more valuable than knowing someone through a computer screen.

The Bundle Is Up!

After many trials and tribulations, the classroom management bundle is up!  And I am so excited about it!  I really hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do!

I know it's a lot of classroom management, but they all work in their own ways, they work well together, and you can use them all, some, or none at all!

Check it out in my TpT store!

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Behavior Pack - Coming Soon!

Still sick, not fun.  But at least I have some time to do some designing with products that I have had for YEARS on my computer, just never thought to make it cute and pretty and post them on TpT.

Well friends, all of that is changing.  Pretty much today.

I'm working on an entire Classroom Management bundle, but it might take me a little longer than usual.  Turns out, I've never actually put a bundle together, so this will be a bit of a learning curve for me.

Here's a sneak peak though...

This one has gone up on my TpT as an individual sale so far.  I love this document more than you could ever imagine.  I created it in the credential program with the help of a master teacher and professor and love using it, even with kinders!  It helps (and kind of forces) them to think about their actions, take responsibility for them and make a plan to change it.  

Beautiful.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

XOXO

Sick Days Suck...But the History Channel Rules!

As you've probably guessed, I have been home sick now for two days.  At first I figured it was just going to be a bad cold but no, a high fever soon ensued and I'm still stuck, sitting on the sofa, waiting for my fever to break.  Ugh.

The plus side is I got to watch a lot of History Channel.  I love history, probably more than any other subject in school, so I have been in heaven.  I watched a fascinating documentary (over 2 hours long!) on Ancient Egypt and their great engineers.

Did you know that the Egyptian pyramids contain enough stone to build a wall 5 feet thick and 10 feet tall from New York to Los Angeles?

Wow.

It has also given me time to really catch up on Sochi and what's going on there, and honestly, you probably shouldn't get me started on that.  Not only do the pictures reporters are sending back from their first nights in Sochi hauntingly resemble North Korea and their abysmal conditions, but their blatant human rights violations anger me to the core.  Whether you believe in gay rights or not does not give you the right to turn to violence in a pitiful and cowardly attempt to solve what, in the end, is a difference of lifestyles.  At the end of the day, it's none of your business and I stand proud against Putin and those criminals who have somehow not had to take responsibility for their complete and total, blatant violation of human rights.

Off my soapbox now.  Told you not to get me started.  :)

Anyways, back to classroom stuff.  I put up a new product on TpT!  I needed to leave a story map for my substitute to do with my kids today on The Enormous Turnip ( El enorme nabo) but I was already sick at home.  And there was NO way I was going back to school to find it.  So I did the easiest thing I could think of - design a new one and email it to my amazing coworker who then printed it out and made copies for my kiddos.

So here it is, and it's FREE!  (Just click the picture!)

Turnips and Dancing

I know, the title is a little....strange to say the least.

But let me explain.

I'll start with the turnip.  We are studying pushes and pulls in kindergarten and decided that a good story to share with the kiddos would be The Enormous Turnip.  It will be great.

Now the way we share them is through narrative inputs.  You can read about how you share narrative inputs by clicking here.

I guess I need to back track a little bit.  Today and tomorrow the kindergarten team at our school is out again for SEAL training.  Today, while sitting in my gym clothes in the training room (FINALLY gym clothes for work!) I remembered that I needed to scan the turnip pictures from the book and draw my background for it.  So I rushed home after training (that's a lie, I went to school first and then went home) and set to work on my drawing.  It took me two hours.

Because I was dancing.

A lot.

And it's really hard to draw when you're dancing.

Anyways, I did my drawing and tomorrow I need to have it laminated and then I need to finish scanning the turnip pictures.

Here are some pictures!

Here I was just getting started.  Set out my poster paper, the picture from the book I was going to emulate, my pencil and my music.

After drawing it, I traced it all out in black marker and erased the pencil markings.  My music is still blaring.

Then I colored.  With crayons.  Whoever said that you can't color and shade appropriately with crayons....was ABSOLUTELY right!

Voila!  All done!

I must say, I have had a TON of energy this week.  I started waking up at 5am and working out before school almost three weeks ago now and it really is amazing.  I was drop dead exhausted for the first week and a half, but this week it's not even fazing me.  I get up, work out, make myself a protein shake (that I end up drinking or the majority of the morning so it keeps me full and away from snacking on cruddy food) and then get ready for school.  And I get to school EARLY!!!!  

My smoothies always have Kefir, almond milk, raw oats, protein powder and at least 2 types of fruit (here banana and blueberries.

RAAAAAAA!!!!!!  

Ahem.  Over and out.