My Teaching Look

Everyday I take pictures of my class and post them on a private blog for the parents to see what we do each day. I love this! It keeps the parents totally current on what we are learning, clarifies some of the students' "stories" about what happened in school, and gives the parents fodder for a conversation about "what did you do in school today?".

However, sometimes my sweet, dear, lovely teaching assistant takes the pictures. So sometimes I end up in the pictures. And when I see these, I always post them, but I wonder "how do kids look at me all day?" and "do I always look like that?"

it's no secret, I do NOT get dressed up for PreK4. In fact, I wear the same clothes over and over- clothes I don't really care if they get messy, clothes that I will probably burn when the year is over so I can fully get rid of the germs.

But my FACES... they crack me up!!

So- here is a small sampling of my "teaching face."
Fire Drill
Helping with some craft

Demonstrating a craft

This one was posed... getting ready to help with a wet pants accident

Reading and teaching sign language. (Pioneer Woman always talks about her "alien hands." Um... look at mine!)

Science experiment

=
Science experiment

Demonstrating how to jump rope with a hula hoop (yes, it's in my job description. not.)

Holding up a letter and showing off my massive nostrils

Here she really went for the "close up of the nostrils" angle. As if I wasn't already subconsious enough about their size. Love it. And again, alien hands, with chipped off nail polish. very professional indeed.

So that is my teaching face.

I will be paying for my assistant to go to photography classes so that this doesn't happen any more.

And that was just the humor I needed today!! I am laughing to myself as I write this! Yay God! thanks for leading me in this direction!

A Valentine's Party

I really don't get into Valentine's day... that my be hard to believe based on my decorations this year... but those are due to the 4 days stuck at home during the DFW ice storm.

I lead a 6th grade girls Bible study and normally we have a Christmas party... but this year they were busy with basketball season... so we postponed it until Valentine's Day.

So the Saturday before Valentine's, I set up the house real cute and girly, I asked Mr. Sawyer to go play golf, and I had a nice party!

Including myself, I was supposed to have 11 for lunch, so I added a folding card table to the end of the dining room table.
I used the silver chargers and these cute reversible napkins from Hobby Lobby. Later I added forks and knives, but forgot to take a picture. I was planning on using white paper plates, but once I had everything set I decided those looked real tacky- so I used our real everyday plates.

I added a few jars of candy- lollipops and chocolates... I was amazed by how much of this they consumed!!

Ahh... here's the table with the silverware set.

On to the food...

I made some brownies (sugar free, don't tell anyone)... but I cooked them too thin. So I added a layer of chocolate icing.

Then I had an idea to cut hearts out of paper, lay the paper on top of the brownie and dust powdered sugar on top!

I felt like a professional!! I mean, I don't think I'll be winning Cupcake Wars anytime soon, but the girls were impressed!

I LOVED getting out all of my pink bowls and girly dishes! ha!

Pringles never looked so good in a pink and green polka dot dish!! Love my big pink "latte" bowls!! and do you see the cute flower bowl for the salsa and ranch dressing?? No, the girls did not eat a ton of the carrots and celery, but some. And when I told them the clementine's were freshly picked from Mr. Sawyer's aunt's backyard- they dug in!!

Close up of the cute veggie tray.

The Main Dish... French Bread Pizzas!

I bought french bread loaves at the grocery, sliced them in half and cut into shorter pieces. I set up 2 stations.... 2 pizza sauces, 2 dishes of (turkey) pepperoni, 2 dishes of sliced tomatoes, 2 bowls of bread, 1 bowl of cheese in the middle. Later I put out 2 baking sheets. The girls took turns making their pizza. Then we sat at the table while they baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. (this is when the massive amounts of candy were consumed)

The drink station... water and crystal light peach tea, yum.

Dessert!! The bowls are there because I had some cookies and cream ice cream to put on top of the brownies!

A few other small "vignettes" from around the house...

The mantle did not get very decorated... just a couple of the red candles and some berries from my yard! I had intentions of making a "happy valentine's day" scrapbook banner, but I didn't.

I felt so cool using berries from my yard!!

OH and my gifts for the girls...

every year I give the girls prayer journals. This year I put this verse on the inside because we have been studying the different names of God all year.

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10

Then I tied them up with some raffia... done and done. (Michael's dollar bin on sale on Thanksgiving day for 30% off )

Put them in a basket and let the girls choose! I was SHOCKED that giraffe print went first, I thought surely zebra would be the favorite (it's my favorite).

And that was my big Valentine's party!! Loved it!! The girls were so fun! At Christmas we normally do a "secret santa" gift exchange, so we went ahead and did that now too. Some girls picked the gift they brought because they liked it so much. The ONLY gift that was stolen was a Justin Bieber Ken doll- hilarious!! (they said, if I saw the movie, I'd understand.)

The Trouble with Stress

So I did weight watchers last summer and successfully lost 10 pounds in 3 months.

Then I started teaching PreK, and successfully gained back 5 pounds.

Then I started weight watchers again and have successfully taken off those 5 pounds and kept it off for 3 weeks now. All while teaching PreK.

The problem is... we have had LOTS of snow days in the last few weeks and that makes the kids extra crazy... off of routine... unsure of how to act... which makes me stressed.

And normally this is fine... but Monday was Valentine's Day... so there is an abundance of chocolate and candy in my classroom.

The last 2 days I have coped with my stress by eating chocolate... and NOT in moderation... which results in me feeling annoyed with myself... and a hurting tummy (due to not being used to this amount of indulgence anymore).

So here I sit... a hurting tummy... thinking those M&M's were not worth it.... KNOWING that prayer and time with the Lord would have been MORE effective and way less painful.

Praying for more self-control tomorrow... more patience... and a better instinct to turn to the Lord... oh and I think I'm going to throw away that candy too!

Snow Day Fun

We had yet ANOTHER snow day... this time Ty had to go out of town, so I was actually able to do some crafting! yay!!

In the afternoon the roads were totally fine. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got some supplies...

First up... a wreath!! I found the cute heart thing (half off of course), but thought it wouldn't show up enough on our red door. SO I found the plain wreath. Brought it home... got out my high school cheerleading ribbons (I always knew those red ribbons would come in handy) and hot glued them to the wreath. Then I used bread twisty ties to hook the heart thing to the wreath. I found some more red ribbons and made a big bow at the top (to hide the twisty ties). Cute huh?
I didn't do anything to this- but I found it and liked it and bought it. Won't Ty be so happy to come home and find red hearts all over the house??

the Piece de resistance! I actually made this necklace!! I even made the fabric flowers!! Just a lot of fabric, a lot of cutting, and a lot of hot glue!!

Here I am displaying the cute necklace!

I wore it to school today on a red shirt... It matches so well it looks like it's part of the shirt. I got a lot of compliments!! So exciting!! first thing I've ever made that turned out cute!!
All of the fabric I bought were remnants = cheap. So I bought gray, black, navy, yellow, and red. I want to make another one... gray flowers with a gray ribbon to tie it up- more casual. And I think on my next one I want to make the flowers a little smaller and in more of a U shape.

I first saw the necklace on this post... and I read the tutorial on this post.

Happy Crafting!

Clearly I had too much time on my hands

After being iced and snowed in for FOUR days straight... I decided it was time to set my dining room table for Valentine's Day. Of course, I asked Ty first if he minded Pink and Red gracing our table... it is in the dead center of our home and can be seen from practically every room... so I wanted to be sure he didn't mind. And since he had been sitting with me for FOUR days straight and I was clearly driving him crazy... he would have agreed to anything!!!

So here is my table.... (actually this was the first version... I re-did it about 2 hours later :))
Here is the 2nd version... Main difference... instead of the doilies and hearts being scattered, I clustered them in the center of each pink napkin. Felt more "put together" to me.

closer up... So I used my red Christmas table cloth. Then I opened these lovely pink linen hemstiched napkins from Williams-Sonoma... NEVER BEEN USED! So, since time was my friend, I got out my iron and ironed them.

I then got out my new Cricut machine (Christmas gift from my mother-in-law)... and cut out lots of hearts and L O V E. First I tried taping the L O V E to the crystal candleholders. Ty lovingly let me know that was not my best idea. So I got out my paper doilies and glued them to that. Much better!

I also cut this cute I heart you.... also on a paper doily :)

another shot of the LOVE... who knows. I'd been home for a long time. You can also see all of the hearts... 3 different types of scrapbook paper. and all of my great-grandma's hand made doilies

The center napkin...

The far end...

Oh and the napkins... ha! Ty was seriously looking at me like I'd lost my mind! I set up my lap top, I googled "napkin folds," I set up an iron and a towel (so as not to ruin the wood). First I tried a heart fold, cute but not great.

Then I found this "rose fold." LOVE IT!! Yes I folded and IRONED each crease in this fold!!
They had a mini bowl in the middle of the napkin. My bowls and small plates were all too large in diameter and smashed down the "rose." So I opted for this cute flower napkin ring.

I asked Ty if it looked "too cheesy." He looked at me and said, "Really?" So I kept it just like that!

I still have my silver chargers from Michaels and white plates from Marshalls (these seem to never leave this table.)

Overall... I like it. It's fun and festive! A little "chaotic"... I like something more "simple" and peaceful for long term. But this is only for a week.

OH- and on my last tabletop post, I had someone ask "Where do you eat dinner with your cute table settings?" Um... at the coffee table, in front of the TV. Unless we have company, then I simply move the plates off the table, use our normal "everyday dishes" and replace it when the meal is over. Takes less than 5 minutes and I think it's totally worth it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Just Because

Just because I'm on my 4th day of being stuck inside of my house...

Just because I'm running out of things to think and do...

Just because I am tired of sitting for days on end...

Just because I'm not sure what else to share (but I'd like to feel crafty)...

here is my handy-dandy homemade play-dough recipe.
I made 2 batches at the very beginning of the school year... they lasted the whole semester! Although they have greatly reduced in size, as much of the play-dough gets left in the carpet each day. Or it gets left in the cookie cutters and hardens over night.

So on my first snow day... I made 2 batches more to finish out the year.
I like homemade playdough because:

1. There is only 1 color (natural) so they don't fight over it and they can't mix the colors and frustrate me.
2. It doesn't smell as yucky as regular play-dough
3. It is more pliable and better for the little 4 year old hands.
4. I feel cool when I say "I made my own play-dough."

Without further adieu (how do you spell that word? and, better yet, why do we say it??)

Play-Dough
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 teaspoons cream of tartar (this is found in the spice aisle- it took me a LONG time to figure that out)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups water
(technically you could add some food coloring to make different colors, but not necessary)

Mix in in a pot on medium high heat. Stir (I like to stir with a wish to break up all of the flour).
It should ball up within a few minutes. (It is amazing to watch it happen)
Then just let it cool on the countertop!

Easy -Peasy.
Happy Snow Day.