Dancing Queen ;)

Well - it happened, y'all.  Griffin Joy got to go to her very first middle school dance as an actual middle schooler ;) Since before this girl could walk she's been with me as I've gotten things set up, danced with her brothers in the empty gym as the DJ does sound tests and has been the first one in the photo booth when the vendor wants to make sure everything is working - so this was kind of a monumental event ;)

Friday FAVORITES

  Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

Happy Friday, friends! Well - it's 12:45 a.m. and I'm just sitting down to write this post if that tells you anything about how my week has been ;) It was our MS spirit week which means dress days, daily House games and a big party to end the week.  I AM WIPED!

But... look how cute my two middle schoolers looked on HoliDAZE...

Costco Faves PART FIVE

I haven't shared Costco Faves since May and I figured it was about time to update y'all with some additional favorite finds.  

First up - this spinach ravioli!  I honestly think it could be the best ravioli I've ever had.  hahaha. I made a homemade alfredo sauce and had it with them and they were HEAVENLY!

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

This was a recipe that I saw floating around on facebook and I screenshotted the ingredients and then just kind of pieced it together on my own because I definitely forgot to screenshot the directions. hahaha. Thankfully it was SUPER easy and all of my kids scarfed it down.  Next time I'll probably double it because they all love to take leftovers and I definitely think we'll be adding it into our rotation as the weather cools down. 

Teacher Tuesday: Attendance Questions

 

After 19 years my teacher achilles heel is ALWAYS attendance.  I'm going to blame it on having to take it SIX TIMES A DAY but I'm just the worst.  I'm bad at recording it, bad at remembering it, just BAD at it.  Which isn't ideal since it's kind of a big deal when I'm grading, sorting out makeup work, etc. 

A teacher friend taught one of his classes in my classroom last year and he used attendance questions and I loved it so much I decided to implement it in my room this year.  Instead of just taking roll at the beginning of class and having kids say "here" I ask a random question and then their response is their "here".  It's great because the kids don't let me forget! ;) hahaha

They look forward to the questions and it doubles as a fun little ice breaker as well.  

Halloween Doodle Town

  Hey, friends!!!  Lots happening over here - big spirit week for MS, a dance, daily lunch games, etc.  Plus some grading to wrap up tonight ;) That said, my regularly scheduled post isn't happening tonight so I'm resharing one of my most popular posts ever... Halloween Doodle Towns!

Print them for your kiddos to color, staple them into a book format and have your kids write a story and use them as the illustration, print a set for yourself to color while you watch TV, make a stack of them for the littles to color post-trick-or-treating while you sort through their candy, etc.  

Friday Favorites

  Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

Happy Friday, friends! Short and sweet again this week because I had a last-minute invite to a super fun charity farm-to-table dinner last night and couldn't pass that up so it's WAY later than I anticipated and YOUR GIRL IS TIRED! :) hahaha

First up on my list of FAVES is my tiny little cheerleader out there doing her thing.  She is LOVING cheer and getting to see her enjoy herself so much is my absolute FAVORITE.

Makeup Faves

I am by no stretch of the imagination anything close to a makeup girly.  I keep things as light and minimal as possible and the older I get the pickier I get about the way things look AND the ingredients in the products.  

Chicken Spaghetti

 I shared this recipe years ago - but with the arrival of cooler weather here in Texas a couple of weeks ago it was worth an updated reshare because it's just so dang good.  It's a super simple crowd pleaser that's always on my family's short list of favorites.

Here's What You'll Need...

- Rotisserie Chicken

- Chicken Broth

- BIG can of cream of mushroom soup

- shredded cheddar

- chopped onions

- 1 lb spaghetti noodles

- seasoning salt and pepper

Reading Recap

A Court of Thorns and Roses

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he's not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

My friend Jeni has been on my butt for MONTHS about reading this and so this summer I caved and Y'ALL.  I LOVED IT!!! I'm normally not huge on fantasy (I didn't love Fourth Wing like everyone else) and when she said it had fairies I assumed she meant FAIRY not FAERIE which is a whooooole other thing.  I was immediately drawn into the characters, setting, fantasy land of it all and I couldn't put it down.  I know it has a reputation for being spicy but I didn't find it to be anything outrageous.  I've started the second book but my real life job has limited my reading time so I'm having a hard time getting through it since I am pretty much only reading at night which is a recipe for 3 pages and then falling asleep but I really did love the first one so I'm going to keep on keeping on.  All that to say - if you've been hesitant because you heard it was super spicy or because you're really not into fantasy books give it a shot because it will probably surprise you.

SunDAY in the Life

 When I do Day In The Life posts they always seem to land on days where I have a LOT going on so I thought it might be fun to show you a way more low key Sunday - that ended up being even more low key than I anticipated ;)

I woke up around 7:30 and quickly decided that I could throw some dry shampoo in my hair and call it "good enough" for the day.  I spent some time grading papers, going through my calendar for the week and reading a bit and then finally got up and moving around 8:45.  We leave for church at 9:00.   Not smart, Andrea.  Not smart.  The time stamp on the pic below is 8:43...

Friday Favorites

  Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

Happy Friday, friends! Are the weeks flying by for anyone else? I feel like I JUST wrote a Friday Favorites post and here we are again!  First up - in case you missed it I shared my skin FAVES yesterday and I 10/10 recommend changing into your jammies and going ahead and slathering al that on at 4:30 pm ;)

Skin Favorites

 It's been a minute since I shared what products I'm loving and so I thought it would be fun to go through the items in my bathroom counter and talk through what and why I'm using.

Back on Thursday

Well... we've hit that time of the year where everyone is dropping like flies.  Colds? Allergies? The fact that it's 55 degrees in the morning and 95 degrees in the afternoon? WHO EVEN KNOWS!

All that said, I'm down for the count tonight so I can rally tomorrow morning. 

Hopefully I'll be back on Thursday! 

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

One thing about me - if the temperatures drop below 70 degrees I'm going to be baking something pumpkin or apple spice.  This weekend I made a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and they were EVERYTHING.  So flavorful, perfect amount of pumpkin and EASY!!

Weekend Happies

 HAPPY Monday, friends! Keeping the HAPPY Weekend vibes going today with a few things that made me smile this weekend. 

Frank in a cone ;) enough said. 

Friday FAVORITES

  Erika and I are so excited that lots of y'all are linking up with us every week.  Make sure that you're grabbing our graphic, linking back to us and sharing your own Friday Favorites post ;)

Happy Friday, friends! Last Friday was the first pep rally of the year and I think it's safe to say that cheer is officially G's FAVORITE...

Easy weeknight dinner ideas

 Today I'm sharing some of my family's favorite weeknight dinners that are QUICK, easy and yummy.  These are meals that I like to pull out on super busy nights where we have practices, church, games, etc. and there's minimal time.

Day in the Life

 The week before last I took a bunch of pictures on a Monday and am just now getting around to sharing the details for a day in the life!  

I was up at 6:30 and was tasked with getting this whole situation under control...

Teacher Tuesday - Binders and handouts and homework, oh my!

  

I first blogged about this new "binder system" I had put in place in my classroom back in September of 2019.  I'm happy to report that it's STILL going strong and still one of the best things I ever did for my sanity ;)  Today I'm resharing the post since it's the beginning of the year and lots of us area looking for organizational tips and best practices. 

Happy Labor Day

 HAPPY Labor Day, friends! Hoping you're enjoying a day off work and/or getting ready to start "Delulu Fall"... where those of us who don't actually get Fall decide it's time to pretend that it is ;). 

I'm not busting out any pumpkins decorations YET but  MAY have to make some pumpkin muffins today if it gets below 90 degrees.  Fingers crossed!

HAPPY Monday and see you tomorrow!