OCTOBER CURRENTLY

Ah October!

Time for scarves and boots, tricks and treats, pumpkin everything and a new Currently!

LISTENING - I start my morning off with The Today Show almost every day.   My husband and I made it to Rockefeller Plaza once a long time ago and caught a glimpse of Katie Couric. 

LOVING - I just discovered little man's tickle spot!  Now, I get to hear his adorable giggle more often now.

THINKING - We are in the process of trying to sell our house and buy a new one right now.  So, my to do list has oh, only about a million things on it!

WANTING - I am itching to bake and ice some sugar cookies right now!  Since having the baby and now with trying to sell the house and buy a new one, I just haven't had time.  Baking and decorating cookies is such a stress reliever for me.

NEEDING - I've got a notebook full of ideas for resources and products.  I just can't seem to find the motivation to get going with them.  I start working on an idea and get frustrated because I can't find a good way to design it.  Or, I see a product that is very similar to my idea and get discouraged.  I guess it's not that I need motivation.  Maybe encouragement would have been a better word.

BOO-TIFUL - I guess I'm a little homesick...I have to say Guam, my island home, is boo-tiful!  The weather is beautiful, the sky is the most gorgeous shade of blue, the beaches have warm sand and clear waters, the people are friendly and the food is delicious!  I hope one day you'll get to visit.

                     

Be sure to link up too so we can read about what you're Currently up to!

SEPTEMBER CURRENTLY

Happy September everyone!

A new month means it's Currently time again!

LISTENING - I am a huge Texans fan!  When I heard our hometown team was going to be featured on Hard Knocks, I was so excited!  It's nice to see another side of the coaches and players.  Plus, it's neat to see what goes into building the team.  Oh, and there's J. J. WATT...need I say more?

LOVING - So for last month's Currently, I was loving how my mom was in town to visit.  Well, now my dad is here!  He is really enjoying his time with his one and only grandson.

THINKING - I'm so excited for tomorrow to come!  I'll be meeting up with two of my closest teacher friends at our new favorite Mexican restaurant.  We all went different ways this school year.  They both moved to two different districts and I'm staying home.  We promised each other that we will get together as often as we can.

WANTING - I'm so excited Blue Bell is back!  My all time favorite flavor is Cookies and Cream.  Unfortunately, I think it's everyone else's favorite flavor too because I can't find it anywhere.  Oh well, maybe that's just a sign that I don't really need it.  Ha!

NEEDING - We'll be heading to San Diego this weekend for my little cousin's wedding.  I need to find an outfit for little man to wear.  Guess I should get on that stat!

3 GOALS - I haven't been able to get any exercise in since I had my little boy.  Actually, I haven't had time to do much of anything!  One of my goals is to get a little bit of exercise each day even if it's just taking him for a walk.  Another goal is to finally get my office clean and organized.  I've been working on it for-e-ver!  Finally, my goal is to make my own baby food.  Any advice on where to start?

That's it folks!

What are you all up to?

Be sure to link up too!

AUGUST CURRENTLY

Hi everyone!

It's time for another Currently link up with Farley!

LISTENING - I've never watched this show before.  Must be nice to have a 10,000 square foot house in the mountains of Utah.  Can you image the power bill and how much furniture you need to fill it up?  Yeah...I'm okay with my quaint little house.  

LOVING - It's always nice when mom visits!  She is really enjoying her time with the baby and I'm really enjoying the extra help - I can finally get some things done around the house!

THINKING - I can't stop thinking about the trip we are about to take!  We are going to spend a week in Ridgeway, Colorado.  I'm excited to finally be taking a vacation!  What I'm not so excited about is the 15 hour drive especially with a 5 month old.  Anyone have any tips?

WANTING - I think a trip to the mall is long overdue!  I shop on-line for the most part, but sometimes it's nice to actually stroll through the stores with a nice ice-cold mocha from Starbucks in one hand and an Auntie Annie's pretzel in the other.  Ha! :)

NEEDING - I've got three truckloads of teaching materials stacked in our guest room and office.  I really need to go through everything and decide what to keep, give away or throw away.  I didn't realize I accumulated all this stuff!

B2S RAK - I'll be taking a break from the classroom for a few years to stay home with the baby so my plan is to surprise my teaching friends with lunch!

I'd love to hear what you are currently up to!  

350 TPT FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!

 

I can't believe my TPT store now has 350+ followers! 

I feel so blessed and humbled by your support and wanted to THANK YOU by doing a giveaway.

Here's what you can win:

 Everybody loves gift cards!  

This would be perfect for the upcoming Love Back to School TPT Sitewide Sale.  

Use it to purchase those items that have been on your wish list!

A teacher can never have too many stickers!  

You will get 2 different sets of alphabet stickers, a set of correcting stickers 

and a set of glittery reward stickers which I found at the ever famous Target Dollar Spot.

I always had to have a set of these markers to make my anchor charts. 

The colors are so bright and they smell nice too! 

Paper Mate Flair Pens are a definite must for teachers!

Everything Krista from Creative Clips makes is awesome.

This set of her colorful jumbo weekly planners is also included!

All you have to do to win is complete the Rafflecopter below

(leave a comment telling me what they best part of being a teacher is).

A winner will be picked on Monday, August 3rd.

I will email the TPT gift card and mail off the other prizes that afternoon
(U.S. and Canada addresses).

THANK YOU again for your support!

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow Frenzy

I'm so glad I decided to take part in the TPT Seller Challenge.  Not only did it motivate me to take a better look at my store and improve my products, it allowed me to discover and make some connections with some awesome teacher bloggers and sellers.

I had the opportunity to work with the sweet and helpful Megan from MegaSuper ESL on the third challenge.  Stop by and check out her store.  Her monthly emergent readers are great for your ESL and early readers.  You can also follow her on Facebook.

Here are some other newly discovered teacher bloggers and sellers... 

Laura from Kinder Kraziness

Diana from My Day in K

Amanda from First Grade Garden

Princess from Teaching, Love, Cupcakes

Heather from Kickin' It With Class

Cherilyn from Mrs. Harrison's Hive

...and three of my favorites who I've been following for a while now.

Ha from Happy Days in First Grade

Hilda from M&M Bilingual

Carrie from Adventures in Kinder and Beyond

Stop by and check them out some time!

Who are some teacher bloggers and sellers you have connected with?

MAKE YOUR MASTERPIECE

Hi everyone!

It's TPT Seller Challenge Week Three - Make Your Masterpiece!

My students LOVE going to Word Work station and Work on Writing station.  

So for this challenge, I decided to create a product
that would be perfect to add to one or both of these stations.

Back to School Vocabulary - Write & Wipe Cards and Printables

Your students will enjoy these back to school themed write & wipe cards and printables.  Along with building their vocabulary, your students will practice their reading, writing and handwriting.  They also get to draw and color, which they all love to do!

There are 24 colorful write & wipe cards included in this pack.

The kids can practice writing the vocabulary words as many times as they want to (fine tip dry erase markers work best).  I always encourage my students to say the name of the letter as they write it and then say the word when they're done.  For example, b-u-s, bus!  I tell them that doing this helps their brain remember better! Oh, and don't forget to remind them to use finger space between each word. :)

A great way to keep them together is to punch a hole in each card and hang them on a binder ring.

I included a cover for the set of cards.

You will also find 24 printables in this pack.

There are several things the students will do on these printables.  First, the students can either color the word or rainbow write the word using three different crayon colors.

Color the vocabulary word

Rainbow write the word using three different crayon colors.

Then, the students can practice writing the word two times with a pencil
and two times with a marker.

Finally, the students will write a sentence using the word and draw a picture to match their sentence.

Just excuse my drawing, I'm not the best artist!

The finished product

More samples of the printables

If you think you'd like to add these Back to School Vocabulary write & wipe cards and printables to your Word Work and/or work on Writing station,  it will be 50% off for the rest of the week or you can enter below to win a free copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now it's your turn to show us your masterpiece! 

Click on the picture below to link up.

JULY CURRENTLY

Can you believe it's already July?

Listening - I LOVE watching cooking shows!  I especially love the competition shows - Cupcake Wars, Cake Wars, Donut Showdown, Top Chef, etc, etc.  I think Chopped is top on my list because these chefs have no idea what ingredients they will be working with.  It's amazing what they come up with!  Oh, and The Pioneer Woman...how can i forget her.  Ooh, ooh and Giada de Laurentiis!  I can go on and on.  Let's just say if I wasn't a teacher (well, stay at home mom now), I'd be a chef!

LOVING - I've always wanted one of these planners so I finally gave in and bought one (thanks to my TPT earnings)!  I've only had it a few days and I am loving it!!  Now that I'm a life planner owner, I am starting to discover that there are plenty of serious planner extraordinaires out there.  Just go to Instagram and search #erincondrenlifeplanner or #planneraddict and you'll see some pretty amazing planner layouts!

THINKING - One can never have too many flair pens!  Since I have a new planner, I NEED a new set, right?

WANTING - I really, really want to attend the TPT Conference in Vegas!  I just had my sweet little man this past February so it's just not in the cards this year.  My husband says I can go next year for sure!!

NEEDING - Not much to explain here!  I haven't had a mani and pedi in months!!  I'm hoping my hubby will agree to watch little man so I can run away for a little because I desperately need it!

ALL STAR - People think I'm shy and quiet when they first meet me, but if you really get to know me, I'm an overall happy person and I like to have fun!  I know it might be annoying to some people, but I love to smile and laugh and sing and dance and get silly and just have fun!  Oh and when my sister and I get together, it's on! 

Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing and there is so much to smile about! - Marilyn Monroe

Now it's your turn to link up with Farley!

BACK TO SCHOOL SENTENCE SCRAMBLES

I'm excited to tell you about one of my newest products...Back to School Sentence Scrambles!

 

This product includes 12 sets of colored sentence cards...

...and three different recording sheets.

The first recording sheet has six lines.  

You can have your students make the sentences and then choose six to record on this sheet. 

The second recording sheet has the clip art that match the sentences. 

The students will make the sentences and then write the sentence next to the matching clip art.

 

The third recording sheet has a cut and paste and writing prompt component.

It can be used with or without the sentence cards.

You can find this product here or you can enter to win a free copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DARE TO DREAM

It's week two of the TPT Seller Challenge!

This week's challenge...share our hopes and dreams we hope to obtain through TPT. 

FAMILY - After over ten years of trying, lots of heartbreak and many, many prayers, our dream of having a child came true!  It has always been in our plan for me to stay at home if we were ever blessed.  So, I am hanging up my teaching hat and putting on my mommy hat.  Now that I will be a WAHM on TPT, my hope and dream is to build my TPT store so that I can earn enough to at least have our family live comfortably.  It's going to be tough, but I will work hard at it!

MAKE CONNECTIONS - I'd love to make connections with other TPT sellers.  There are so many talented teacher-authors here on TPT I'd love to meet, get to know better and learn from.  Who knows, maybe some of these connections may turn into life long friendships!

TRAVEL - Now that we have a little one, we plan on traveling more and showing him the world!  I also hope to one day make my parents' dream of going on an Alaskan cruise come true.   I've never been on a cruise so we may just join them!

COOKIES - Besides making products for teachers, I love baking and decorating cookies.  Right now, I just make cookies for friends and family. I hope the knowledge I gain from selling here on TPT can help me with my dream of running my own cookie business!  

Now that you know all about my hopes and dreams...link up and tell us all about yours!

MAKEOVER MADNESS

I'm excited to participate in the TPT Seller Challenge hosted by 

Sparkling in Second, Teach Create Motivate, Third in Hollywood and Peppy Zesty Teacherista.

First challenge...MAKEOVER MADNESS!

This challenge is perfect because I had already been thinking about 

updating one of my very first products, It's Survey Time!

Not only did I update the cover, I updated the entire product!

The Yes/No survey cards went from this...

to this!

The Which Do You Prefer? survey cards went from this...

to this! 

I updated the recording sheets and printables too.

Here are the old recording sheets...

 

and here are the new ones!  

Here's what one of the old printables looked like...

and here's how it looks now.

This challenge couldn't have come at a better time!  I think my product looks a whole lot better now.  

If you purchased this product, be sure to download it again!  

Not only will you be getting a new and improved product, 

you'll be getting four more Yes/No cards and three more Which Do You Prefer? cards!  

If you'd like a copy, be sure to head over to my Facebook page and enter to win one.

Have a great day folks!  Thanks for reading my post!