Farley is on top of the New Year, she's already posted January's currently! Here's what I'm doing........

My husband has been sick for two days! I would rather be sick then have him be sick, he is a grouch!! Needless to say I am ringing in the new year alone (well just me and my computer) while my kiddos are off at a party for the youth of our church and the hubby is snoring away! I am glad he is resting though here's hoping he feels much better tomorrow!
 
Can you tell returning to school is on my mind?? I've enjoyed my break so much and perhaps have spent a little too much time snuggled under the blankets doing nothing!! Now it is quickly coming to a close and I haven't gotten much done! The agenda for the rest of the week - clean, organize, and lesson plan!!

My OLW is an extension of last years goal. Last year I choose "Let go" and I feel like it made a difference  to remember throughout the year and challenge myself through some difficult times to just let the little things go! This year I want to take the next step and lead the life God intends for me rather than just do what I want to do! I want to take those little things to him and find his direction for me each day. I showed off the new journal my brother got me for Christmas (he didn't even know my word!) and I said I was working on a printable, and here it is........

   

 

 

I loved the Blue/White but decided to make a couple more in my favorite colors, I love them all so much I'm not sure which one I'll use myself!! If you want them just click on any of them to get the pdf!

Hope your all having a wonderful start to your New Year!!
I look forward to sharing more with you soon!

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I am linking up with Jen over at  The Teacher's Cauldron to share my New Year's resolutions!

My personal resolution is to spend more meaningful time with my family and not spread myself so thin that I am doing lots of things ok and start doing a few things really well! I always want to help but I find myself stressed and frazzled when it's time to settle down with my family I'm to tuckered out to really enjoy them. With my children turning 16 and 15 this summer I know there won't be many more years when we are all together the way we still are now!!

My blogging resolution is to let got of statistics and stop trying to make sure I accommodate every opinion I read and just enjoy blogging about what is going on in my classroom. I sometimes stress over lower page views one month or times when I am down a follower. I still haven't posted anything for sale on TPT because I want people to come visit my blog and I sometimes think no one will If I'm not posting fabulous freebies all the time! I love blogging and the friendships it has brought about for me, I just want to keep it enjoyable and not stress so much about what others might think!!

My one little word for this year is PRAYER and I wanted to share this gift my brother gave me for Christmas

It's a journal and I love it!! I'm working on a printable to match it that I can post in my home to keep me on track!! I am looking forward to the New Year and a new start!! I wish you all the best in 2013!!! Can't wait to see all the good it brings to all of you!

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I am back again with another linky party taking a look back on 2012! This one is hosted by Christina Bainbridge at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge, she is asking us to share the best things that happened on our blogs this year!

My best (most viewed) blog post in 2012 was........

where I shared my teacher binder printables!!! It had 44886 page views, 36736 pins on pinterest, and 59 comments! I still love my binders, and love that so many people have enjoyed these freebies as well. There are several colors to choose from if you still need or want one check out my freebies posts to find one that works for you!

My favorite posts were the Monday Made it Posts throughout the summer because I love crafting and sharing what I made for my classroom you can check out a few of my favorites here.....

 

  

Some of the Brightest moments on my blog this year include...

    * Reaching 1000 followers back in September
      (I had 160 followers at  the end of 2011 - I now have 1104!!) 

    * Creating a Facebook page,
       and gaining over 400 Facebook fans!

    * Hosting my first linky party this Thanksgiving that
       a few of you actually linked up too!

    * Announcing my New Job! 

    * And blogging for Blog Hoppin' (a collaborative blog)! 

Some of my bloggy friend have made the year brighter for me, last school year was pretty rough and sometimes your comments helped me make it through a tough week! I am so thankful for all of my blog friends and here are a special few.....

Heather has been so wonderful to leave kind comments and let me know when she used one of my ideas! I am so glad that I've gotten to know her a little bit through my blog and hers!


Alyssa from Just a Primary Girl has also been so kind with her comments and asked me to guess post (way back in August) which I still haven't gotten around to! Sorry Alyssa I promise I'll follow through if you still want me!!

 

And.....Misty and Erica who are behind The Honey Bunch Blog Design. They gave my blog a beautiful new look that is totally me!! I still love seeing it!! They were so wonderful to work with and found just the right elements to personalize it perfectly!! I recommend their services to anyone looking for a blog update!

That is the best of  blogging for me in 2012!! I'm looking forward to 2013!!! I hope you all keep reading and I look forward to reading your blogs too!!

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Now that I am finally relaxing and break has actually begun I'm ready to take a look back at 2012! I'm linking up with Hadar and Kristin for the 12 in '12 Linky Party!!

Here are my favorites.....

12. Favorite movie you watched: 

  

Great Movie, If you haven't seen it you defiantly should!

11. Favorite TV series:

  

My whole family watches this on Thursday night, my teenagers are addicted to it and were not at all happy when it did not come on on Thanksgiving. It's the only TV we "must" watch, and it's nice to have something all of us enjoy watching together. It isn't your family sitcom but it's still something teenagers can watch.

10. Favorite restaurant:

 

There was not a Chipotle near us in Michigan so it was all new to us when we moved to Indiana, I think my husband would eat there every night if he could! I do think they have some amazing food, but I don't know if I could eat burritos every single night like he can!!

9. Favorite new thing you tried:
 

Moving to a new state and starting a new job! I Love them both!! I always wanted to go back and teach in the school I went to as a girl, give back to the community that I came from and I feel blessed to have been able to do that but I feel equally as blessed to have found a place where my family is so happy and a job that I love going to everyday. It's not where I grew up but it's a great place to be!!!

8. Favorite gift you got:

This scarf!!  I love scarves, and the fact that my friend took the time to hand make me one means a lot to me! I got a couple new scarves for Christmas that I can't wait to wear too but this one is extra special!

7. Favorite thing you pinned:

Source: thyhandhathprovided.com via Amy on Pinterest

I have made this several times now! It is super easy, delicious, and gets so many compliments at all the carry in's I've brought it to! My husband requested it as his birthday dessert this year :) And of course it's food, I love pinning new recipes I've made some pretty good stuff this year that I would have never tried before pinterest!!

6. Favorite blog post:
 

The Pencil Dispenser post (click on the picture to read more). This was part of  Tara's Monday Made it Series from this past summer! I had so much fun making things for my classroom and sharing it through the weekly linky parities!! This one drew a lot of interest!!

5. Best accomplishment: (as far as blogging goes)

Being choose ans Carson-Dellosa's first featured blog of the week!! 

4. Favorite picture:

My kids on a walk - there's a beautiful walking path down from our house that runs along a river. We had some great walks this fall, this day in particular we had so much fun just being together - it's a rare occasion they will cooperate for a picture like this!!!

3. Favorite memory:

I have a lot of good memories from 2012 but this has to be one of my favorites...

Meeting up with all my Michigan bloggy buddies! It's been almost a year ladies we really need to do it again!!

2. Goal for 2013:

Get my house organized and really settle into it! We moved this summer and I still don't have that "home" feeling, there are still some things in boxes and we have been up in the air about weather or not we would stay in this house (we were renting for 6 months before purchasing) or try to buy something else now that we are in the area and have a better feel for where we want to be. I hate being up in the air. I would like to get settled and rid my house of any and all boxes of stuff!! I'm a purger, my husband is a keeper, he has boxes and boxes of stuff that he will probably never use again! Drives me crazy!! Especially when it comes to moving! There's already enough we have to take I don't want to take anything extra!! Maybe just Maybe 2013 is the year I convince him to let go!!!

1. One Little Word:

PRAYER - God is in control of my life, last year my "word" was Let Go, and I think it totally made a difference for me to keep that in remembrance all year long! I let go of a lot of things and let God work - things turned out much better than when I was trying to make them all happen the way I wanted them to! This year I am focusing on finding his will and following him prayer is the key! I've already got it typed up and posted so I don't forget that each day needs to start with his direction!

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I was so excited to open my Holly Bloggy Christmas gift I could hardly wait! I love these little exchanges it's so nice to get something from a fellow blogger that they've put so much time and effort into! I really appreciate all the love that Kelly from Busy in Kindergarten put into my gift this year!! Here's what she sent me.........

 I love all of it!! The candy is already gone and I can't wait to take that beautiful frame to my classroom and show it off! The apple hand soap is perfect my daughter tried to steal it for her bathroom but I am faster then she is!! Thank you so much Kelly for taking the time to put together such a nice gift for me!!

Here's what I sent to my partner Kristen at Ms. Hutten's Buttons......

I hope your enjoying my favorite things Kristen!

Special Thanks to Caitlin at Ms. Preppy and Sarah at Kindergarten Korner for hosting Holly Bloggy Christmas again this year! It's been a lot of fun, Hope your all having a Wonderful Christmas!

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I mentioned last year that I loved this book.........

 

It has inspired me to write a poem about my own family and I wanted the kids to have that inspiration to. I want them to think about Christmas and what it really means, what they know deeper inside and not just surface stuff! So I created a template for them to brainstorm their idea and a fill in the blank poem form. We wrote them out onto Christmas stationary and glued them to scrap paper backgrounds, added ribbons to the top and they turned out beautifully! Perfect in the hall under our hand-print tree!

I wanted to give my co-workers something nice for Christmas, I love them all and feel so blessed to be working with them so I started scouring pinterest and found this idea.............

Source: thecreativityexchange.com via Amy on Pinterest

I LOVE the way this looks and thought it would be perfect. I went in search of these plates and bowls but the bowls Target had this year had trees, penguins, and Santa on them so when you turn them upside down the picture was upside down to and it just didn't work. I bought the appetizer plates so they were smaller and finally found some little snack bowls at Dollar General and here's what I came up with........

The cookies on them are Oreo Cookie Balls, click on the words to get the recipe, I love them and they are so easy to make! Everyone I gave them to Loved them too!!!

I wrapped them up with some cellophane and tied a little bow and here's what they looked like when I gave them away.......

 

Since the bowls were so hard to find and I only ended up with the two colors (green and blue) I also used some candle sticks from the Dollar Tree as a base, added a bow and they turned out beautiful too! I didn't get a picture to share of those!

Here's what I came up with for my secret Santa......

 It's a glass box, I just added lights and garland inside (silver and blue), then added a wooden "S" (got at Hobby Lobby, painted black and make polka dots with a white paint pen) to the outside with some E-6000 glue! Then tied on a beautiful bow to make it look like a gift!!

I loved it and so did she!! 

And now we are officially on break so I'm headed for the couch, right after I put on the PJs and grab a mug of hot cocoa! Later the hubby and I are going out to celebrate our birthdays and the kids are going ice skating with friends.We didn't end up with the snow they were saying we would but I'm hoping maybe we will get some tonight!!

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 Today was Grinch day in our classroom, here's how we celebrated......

 I woke up early to get the classroom green - I hung green streamer from the ceiling and added green snowflakes to create a green snowstorm!

 Of course we had green cookies and punch!

We read "How the Grinch stole Christmas" and recorded words that described the Grinch at the beginning of the book on green circle post it, then added words that described the Grinch at the end of the story on pink heart sticky notes!

Then each student filled out this page on their own.......

 

this is from Sheree at Peterson's Pad! (Thanks Sheree for the wonderful freebies they made our day so easy to plan and a lot of fun!)

We played this super fun "Punch -a-Bunch" game

 (This idea was totally inspired by The Techy Teacher - You can see her Punch a Bunch game HERE!) To make this game I got 20 short plastic drink cups and used my industrial strength double stick tape to attach them to a piece of poster board. Inside the cups I put questions about the Grinch story, and a few little treats. I cut squares of tissue paper and placed them over the opening of the cup securing them with a rubber band. After reading the story students took turns punching out a whole and they either got to answer the question or keep the prize! I have small groups so we were all able to have a turn until everyone got a prize.

During math we played this Grinch game

  

(another freebie from Sheree at Peterson's Pad), all you have to do is add flash cards! We used multiplication cards, the kids had a ton of fun and it made the game adaptable to our grade level!! Thanks again Sheree for these great freebies!

And I gave them all Grinch pills to wrap up the day! I had this little poem printed on rack cards from Vista Print and it made this project so easy, I just put a few M&Ms in a snack baggie and folded the card over it, stapled it at the top and it was good to go!

We are finally going to get some SNOW! I love Snow and want a white Christmas so bad!! I am sooooo ready for break, but I don't want to have a snow day tomorrow! I know crazy right, it's just that there's so  much I would love to get done and tomorrow's really fun stuff anyway!! We have a snow storm headed our way and it looks like the worst of the wind and blowing snow might hit right around the time we are heading to school tomorrow! I could go either way but this is one time I'm hoping for it not to get to bad!

Happy almost Friday!

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