~October Currently~Pumpkin Personalities!~

Yes, it is October...actually, we are almost 1/2 way through October. Where did this month go? Anywhoo--I love love love fall. Something about the leaves and the air and all of the pumpkins, but I don't enjoy the lack of daylight or the yucky weather we have been having this past week. We started our 2nd week back from Fall Break today and it has been nothing but wet and dreary. I believe we have had 1 day where we were able to go out for recess. Boo!

I wanted to do currently a couple of times this month, but I never sat down to get to it! Alas!

Listening: I'm sure you have heard this song, but if not:

This song makes me happy! "Even if the sky is falling down, I know that we'll be safe and sound!"

LOOOOOOVING: I broke up with my personal trainer. I had to cut the cord (it's waaaayyyy too expensive.) Last week, I joined the local gym--$27 a month. I can handle that. It's been a struggle to get my butt in the gym and kick my own tail...Today, I got dressed for the gym at school and subconsciously drove RIGHT PAST the road that the gym is on. I was really mad at myself for staying too late at school and not feeling the gym...and then passing it on by. Well, I decided I would punish myself with a run around the neighborhood and made it through a 45 minute run! Success today...

Thinking: I have been wanting to tell you about my amazing Fall Break vacations. I took two Carolina beach  trips, one to Charleston, SC and one to Nags Head, NC. I had the best company in the world (sweet bf <3) and we had perfect everything--weather, food, moods, sight-seeing, relaxation, no-work-just-enjoying-life. I got to visit Fort Sumter for the first time (pre-govt shutdown) and enjoyed a few art museums. Best of all, 1st vacation together, 4 days alone, no fights. :)

Wanting: shower (stinky from run), dinner (see "hangry" below :), shopping (new season throwing me off), weekend (self-explanatory :)

Needing: This weekend, I decided that the only things I needed in life were 1) food (I eat every 2.5 hours, and if I don't, I start to get a little "hangry."), 2) affection (I love love right now:) 3) sleep. I was feeling a little philosophical, but I think this list prioritizes life pretty well (throw in a little money, and life is good). In addition, more hours in the day would be great. I would love to have MORE time to "fill my potential" AND just be a lazy bum sometimes that floats around enjoying life!

 Trick or Treat: This would be a great treat for your students. Recently, I put together my "Pumpkin Personalities" Character Traits product for TPT. I've done a fun "Pumpkin Personalities" unit in my classroom since my first year. Here's the basic process you go through:

Unfortunately, I can't find any great pictures of our pumpkins, but I was able to find a few that give you an idea of what the project is like.

 

Happy October everyone! 

I wish you all tons of food, affection, and sleep :) 

 

September Currently~Remember Me?

Yes, remember me? It's tamaralynn @ lifeloveliteracy.blogspot.com finally checking in to my good ol' blog. It has been a busy quarter, but I won't lie and say I didn't have time to blog...I just chose to spend my free time elsewhere! I have had a million bloggy ideas and now I am on my FALL BREAK!!! CHEER, CHEER, CHEER! Never have I wanted to be on my break so bad as I have for this one. To tell the truth, I think I have the best class in the world right now, but I have SOOOOO wanted extra planning time, blogging time, and creating time that I get when I am on break. Not to mention, I hate to hear the alarm clock go off, and for a few weeks, I can sleep a little later.

What better way to get checked back in to my blog than with a "CURRENTLY" from Farley?

Listening: SILENCE (is GOLDEN? :) Every teacher knows that silence is amazing! It's late and I really haven't watched TV or listened to much of anything today. It's been quite nice!

Loving: ~~~FALLLLLLLLLLL break~~~Nough Said! I'm going on a mini-vacation to Charleston in a few weekends, but hey, the next few weeks are mostly full of vacationing! Cooking, sipping my coffee, blogging, movies, cuddling with my Gracie cat, running, and enjoying slow dinners with good company. :) It's like Saturday every day for the next few weeks!

Thinking: It's WAYYYYYYYY past bedtime and I think I have already messed up my sleep pattern, but I spent the day being pretty lazy! (I give myself a PASS on this "technically" first day of my break!)

Wanting: I have a lot of products on my mind, like my Morning Meeting theme set, some new "Around the USA" math task cards, and other random ideas. I was able to get my Words Their Way Word Searches for Letter Name Alphabetic Spellers finished and uploaded today (so I wasn't SOOO lazy, was I?)

Needing:  Did I mention I teach in North Carolina? I feel like the entire public is tired of hearing teachers complain about pay, but I feel like I am stuck under a glass ceiling that will never move! It has been a tough month with an air conditioner breaking and a trip to the ER (which will cost a few hundred with my fantabulous insurance). I'm tired of struggling, I love teaching, but I need a RAISE!


How I'm Going to LOVE Myself: My personal training membership ran out a few weeks ago and I decided not to re-new. Now I am on my own. I need to run, run, run, and make sure I don't gain. I will be joining a cheaper gym near my school when we return from break, so that will help.
Ummm, did someone say PSL? You know, pumpkin~spice~lattes? How about some PB? pumpkin~beer? I will say that in the past few weeks, I have had two PSL and lots of PB. I LOOOOVE fall, especially the temperature drop, the blue jeans, and the boots!

Yes, I want to blog more, so here's hoping that I can check in at least once a week when 2nd quarter begins.

Head on over to Farley's blog to link up for your own currently or find out how {nearly} every other blogger in the universe is doing! 

~Currently: July~

Listening: I have a Luke Bryan addiction. I am going through my country phase again and who better to do it with than Luke Bryan? It's a toss up between "Shake it for Me," "Crash My Party," and "I Don't Want this Night to End." Sexy smile!

Loving: Okay, hate to brag, but I have lost 6 or so more pounds this summer.(I started a transformation journey last August and lost 22 of my "being a teacher, cupcakes, wedding-retirement-baby celebrations, doughnuts, and everyday is a party" weight. I know it is all going to come back to me when I am back to a regular schedule. Summer-late-sleeping, a lack of desire for cooking (and broccoli), I have just ate less this summer. I know it! I've survived on salads, eggs for breakfast, Zone bars, water, a little soda, cheesecake, McNuggets (heck yes!) and I still worked out 2-4 days a week. Maybe I can maintain this when school starts back, but I'm pretty sure my caloric intake will increase and add the weight back on. Oh well, loving it for now, especially since I have guiltlessly ate cheesecake! :)

(Taking Farley's advice and sharing a pic :)
Thinking: Yes, school starts back JULY 15. Teacher Workdays started back this week. And, Monday we met as a staff until 12, Tuesday until 1, so what did I get done those days? Nada! :(
Wanting: Did you read above? Wanting MORE summer. One more week would be sufficient. However, I did turn my teacher brain off for a few weeks, went for a short sabbatical to the beach, and have had some extra special fun (read my "currently needing" :) So, last week, I got my mind frame right and worked on a few back to school things. Still, the stress of the first two weeks-----insanity!
Needing: This one obviously involves a man-boy. I am the most impatient in dating...I want to know, is this going to go somewhere or shall I move on....I hate playing the waiting game. I try really hard to enjoy the ride, but I would love answers to those questions that I hate to wait around on!
Tips, Tricks, or Hints: Don't spam on PINTEREST. I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings and I bet I do a little spamming from time to time because I'm not sure who all is following the collaborative boards that I am on, but when I get a WALL of the same pin, I don't even look at it. I just scroll for more stuff. For me, pinterest works when something catches my eye. I scroll slowly and repin what I like, so a wall of stuff totally interrupts my pinterest enjoyment. Pin to boards that are VERY different if you can, and sit back and wait for others to pass your pin on for you. If you must pin more, log in later when you see more people have pinned things and pin it again.

Speaking of pinterest, are you following me? :) http://pinterest.com/tammy919/boards/ 
Head over to see what you would like to follow!I especially recommend my morning meeting board and my Get Ready: Back to School Board.

Head on over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade for more currently's and to link up your own if you are a bloggy friend! :)

May Currently

Listening: Hall of Fame is going to be one of our 5th Grade Recognition performance songs. I used it this morning in Morning Meeting to start introducing the kids to it. (What am I talking about? They already know the words because they are sooooooooooo hip!)

 

Loving: I just upgraded my 2 year old HTC. And, wowzer! I love love love my new one. Best of all, it only cost a dollar with a $50 gift card promotion and $120 from the buy back program at Best Buy. I used the giftcards to prepay for my phone insurance. (Didn't I kind-of just pay for the phone? But man, I sure did love that insurance when I busted my phone last year!)

Thinking: Finally F~R~I~D~A~Y!!~~!! Okay, I am NOT typically one to countdown to the weekend. (Have you realized that just makes the week, month, year fly by faster?...which correlates to me getting older and older...)So, I tend to not pray or wish for the weekend or for tomorrow or for summer or for next month. I like to take things one day at a time and try to enjoy what it is. HOWEVER, this week has been a tough one for me and I have just been hoping for the weekend. (Maybe it is this cold front that is plaguing NC and making everyday overcast and indoor recess-worthy...I guess my "needing" should really say "Some dag-own SUNSHINE, please please please please!")

Wanting: To go along with my dagone tough week and need for sunshine, I stopped by Chick-Fil-A today. This is not part of my normal eating habits and to tell the truth ~I am not one of those crazy Chick-Fil-A people. But, I hit up some waffle fries and a chicken sandwhich with cheese. Why do I want to take it back? Those handy dandy nutrition facts on the menu now let me know that the combo would hit me at about 1000 calories. AWESOME, especially since I had already polished off the carrot cake in my fridge. (So, seriously need some sunshine to help me get out and run this off tomorrow!)

Needing: To rest and work on some TpT/classroom products! (Wow, that sounds like an oxymoron--needing to rest and work). I should just stick with asking for SUNSHINE!

Summer Bucket List: I have been stalking the Governor's Ball in NYC that is in about a month. The tickets are crazy-costly, but some of my favorite bands--Lumineers, Avett Brothers, Kings of Leon, Feist, Of Monsters and Men, Erykah Badu, and some other noteworthy musicians like GUNS-N-ROSES! and Kanye West--will be there. Just waiting for a few things to fall into place before I secure those tickets. Crossing my fingers for this bucket list fun.

PS--One more day for my 300 Followers Appreciation Sale! Hope you can check it out!

Peek at My Week: Show me the Plans!!!

Hi Everyone!

Spring break, now over. I nearly laid in the bed all day (well, until 11:30). Then did some blog-stalking-pretending-I-was-planning-procrastinating. I watched an episode of undercover boss and cried when the boss gave a kid a full-ride to college so that he wouldn't have to work and go to school at night. Wow! If only everyone felt as grateful as this kid to be getting his education paid for. As happy as he was, I cried because I knew he was getting an opportunity for higher education that he wouldn't have otherwise. {Did you know I'm a softy?} I finally talked myself into a run-jog, walk-around-and-look-at-the-birds around 5. Now I sit here needing a shower, needing to pack my lunch, needing to pick out tomorrow's outfit, and needing to finalize my plans for the week so that I can link up with Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten blog for her AWESOME Peek at My Week linky.

Don't get me wrong, I am excited about our upcoming quarter, but I always get a little paper-bag hyperventilating when it feels like we are starting so many new things at once. I know I will be fine by Tuesday, and seriously, I am planned-and-ready for tomorrow, so calm down!

If you take a close look at my plan...you.will.find.some.holes. Seriously, I am a 3-day planner. I want to see how things go and then re-organize. I have some ideas in my mind (usually) but I wait to make final decisions on what comes next based on what my kiddies do. So, don't-judge, please :)

If you click on the images above, it will take you to a google doc where you can click on the hyperlinked plans. (Can't figure out why the google doc does not allow you to click on hyperlinks, but if you download, you can get them that way).

I made these plans in word and converted them to a PDF. Then, I watched Deedee's video about how she makes her visual lessons and she does it in powerpoint. You know I love to make stuff in powerpoint over word but I thought word would be easier for these lesson plans...I might be converting over to powerpoint next week! If you haven't hopped over to see Deedee, you definitely want to check out her blog and the other bloggers that are giving a "Peek" at their week.

Currently April

I am linking up with Farley's Currently for April (for the first time :) Hopefully I can get into the currently tradition. It seems that EVERYONE LOVES it!

Listening
"Keep your head up, my LOOOOOOuUUUhhVe"...LOVE LOVE the Lumineers, 'nough said!

 

Loving

My mini-vaca to Charlotte. I took my 11 year old cousin to Carowinds. I haven't been since middle school and had a blast getting jostled around all day. I also LOVED spending time with her even though she's starting to turn into a teenager! 

(oh, first pic of me on my blog...Dat's cool! :) 

Thinking

.....it's getting late, but I need to get over to escuella to make some copies for Monday. But I reaaaaallly want to go to Tanger and pretend my break isn't almost over! If only I could wing it without my copies (or get to school early on Monday morning), but hey, that's JUST-NOT-ME. Not the winging it part, that's totally me sometimes:) but the early Monday morning part. That would just be lyin'! 

Wanting

more break...see above :) 

Needing

is a coral blazer (the newest fad) a need? Aqua/turquoise would work too, but I just bought a flowered turquoise necklace that would look awesome with a coral blazer with cuffed arm. Hence, Tanger shopping time, please! 

Advice

My advice for TPT-ers would be go ahead and switch to powerpoint. I LOVE LOVE making my creations in powerpoint now. The main reason is because of the EASE of making thumbnail pictures for preview images. (With the click of a button, you can have the thumbnails ready to upload, stack for a collage image, and right there to easily post about on your blog). Basically, you go to FILE, SAVE AS, OTHER FORMATS, then change the file type to JPEG or another image type, then say SAVE ALL SLIDES in this document. Powerpoint makes a file on your computer named after the ppt file. It's so AH-MAZING that this week I took my Theme Bulletin Board Labels product that was perfectly fine and remade it in powerpoint so that I could get better image files of it. Of course, I added some pizzazz to it since I was already doing the work.

BEFORE: 

AFTER:  

Thanks for stopping by!