What I've been up to...

I have been a little MIA lately, so I thought I'd fill you in on what I've been up to while I have been neglecting the poor blog.

I went home for a day to visit the fam and somehow ended up making supper and baking cookies!

I also did a little Iphone surgery with my "little" brother. It was a very loving event :)

I have also been cutting out things that I had laminated like crazy! 86 feet so far! And that my friends is a whole lot of cutting!!

Lots of things for my tutoring kids this summer and lots of fun things for Niki's kidlets too! I also scored a lot of awesome stuff on our huge sale at work the other day. wa-hoo for mega sales!

Also while I was home I snagged a stash of teacher stuff to use for my tutoring kids. I seriously bring a whole new meaning to the term pack rat! I have got to learn how to get rid of things!!

I have also been doing a lot of reading of teacher books. I have my reading endorsement but haven't really had a good chance to use it, so I did a little studying after meeting my tutoring girls and figuring out what we needed to work on. Yeah, I took notes, don't judge.

I have also been hard at work on Etsy orders and working on an update to our planner at the same time.   I'm feeling more busy now than I did during the school year!!

I have also been running like crazy! Niki wants to do a warrior dash and a 15k so this girl has got some serious training to do! Even got a new tank and I loooove it!!!

What have you been up to?? What things are you working on?

High five for Friday

Hello all! Here we are to share our Friday Five and link up with the lovely Lauren.

1. I made these pretties for a customer this week! I love the cheery spring colors!

2. Shannon is doing some tutoring this summer so of course a fun tutoring bag is required! It's a 31 bag and it is jam packed full of  teachery things!

3. We all went to lunch at Culver's to celebrate Carter's bravery at the dentist! He wanted lunch with Aunt Shan as his treat (heart flutters).

4. This face. I can hardly stand it. Also, it's totally fine to drink your ice cream when you are just three :)

5. I sent a care package of sort to our friend Amanda in Massachusetts. She is training for a half marathon, that silly lady. (remember, she is the one who guest posted about her fitness plan, here)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Summer Days

Last summer I was out of commission. I was doing chemo until the middle of July and then I was in recovery mode until school started. The summer before is just a blur. I don't remember making the most of any of the summer with my kids. I vow to change that this year.

There are tons of inspiration on Pintrest (which is obviously the first place I check). I went with something like this, but changed it to meet our needs.

{source}

I decided to do a weekly "schedule" for us to loosely follow. This way my kids know what to expect for the next week. And I know how to plan for the week. Obviously this won't work every day of every week, but its nice to have an idea of what types of things we want to do every week. This is what our weekly schedule looks like:

Monday: Make something (crafty, food, whatever)
Tuesday: Library Time & check out books, read somewhere new
Wednesday: Wacky Water Wednesday: Go to the pool, water balloon fight, take a shower :)
Thursday: Kid's Cook
Friday: Field Trip (I try to schedule my appointments for Friday, so their field trip is sometimes to the babysitter) (don't judge, they love her)

But Wait! That is not a beautifully printed, laminated, framed and gold leafed schedule.
Nope.
It is just a work in progress. We can't commit to anything until the week before and sometimes that day. Today we went to Library Time and the pool because tomorrow may not be a good pool day.

If I'm feeling fancy, I will make a beautiful, pinable printable, but for now, its all in my head. :)

Here is my obligatory photo. :) Clockwise: I put a lock on my phone so now all Carter can do is take pictures without me unlocking it, Jayce - isn't he cute?, the kids and Aunt Shan building GeoTrax, and Carter again.
Can anyone pull those teeth for him? Gesh!

Check back next week to see what I am doing to beat the "I'm bored's"...

What are you doing to keep your kids busy this summer? Any tips for making the most of my summer at home with my kids?

Finishing My Corner cubbies

I'm back to finish up my new cubbies in the corner that I used to replace my desk. After putting it together and popping it into place I started filling it up. Actually first I started sorting out all the stuff that needed to find a new home in each of the cubbies.

I grabbed these cubes at Target in the dollar spot. They were $3 each, which was awesome compared to the $6-12 price tag on all the others!

This little tray made the move from the desk to the new area. I love how it displays all of the cheery colored office supplies.

And here it is all filled up!  I like this soooo much better than that silly glass corner desk. It looks like it actually belongs there and isn't just a desk stuck randomly in the corner of the dining area!

Here's a closer peek at each space, left to right.

I also snagged these clear file boxes at Target for less than $3 each.

High Five for Friday

Hello! We have had a crazy busy week, as always. Here is our High Five!

1. Niki completed TEACCH training this week to help her when working with students with Autism. It was a long 3 days, with tons of information and lots of good ideas to use in the classroom next year.

2. We are doing a giveaway with LindyLou! Go to her blog to find out more information and to be inspired!

3. The boys had their first t-ball game Sunday. Carter was a rockstar. Jayce, not so much. But he is only 3 1/2. I sometimes have too high of expectations for my children. :)

4. Niki and Shannon have both been applying for teaching jobs and to go back to school over the last couple weeks. It is very exciting and nerve-wracking! #backtoschool

5. Faith has been a rock star at softball. She plays coach-pitch and is really learning the game!

Check out Lauren's blog and see what everyone else was doing over the last week!

Operation Get It Together continues...

Move That Desk!! (clearly that was yelled Ty Pennington style) Next up in my mission to declutter my life, both mentally and physically is the desk area. It's this little disaster in the corner of my kitchen. Awhile ago we basically switched the desk and the dart board. And by we, I mean me. Yep moved that full sized dart board all by myself. But then it left the desk looking all weird in the corner.

So I decided the desk had to go. I don't think I have sat at it more than 5 times to actually use it as a desk. So there was no great loss as far as desk surfaces go. The obvious lack of storage was probably what lead to its demise. 

Which leads us to step 1.

Wait three days for boyfriend to move the desk to the garage. We live in an apartment so its not like just moving it out the door, it has to go quite a ways.

While you are waiting for said boyfriend to move the afore mentioned desk. Go to target and buy a cute little cube-y deal. Bonus points if you score it on sale like I did! Mine is made by Closet Maid, but I don't think the brand really matters for these friends.

Step 3. After the waiting period has passed and desk has been successfully removed, you put that baby together!! More bonus points if you can do it hillbilly style without a hammer! More points for most creative non-hammer tool used.

Then we wait, because here at our little blog we are realists and we don't have time to spend 4 hours creating a wonderful new corner area like we would like to. So this is a multi-day, multi-step process. But I am giddy about it already and I haven't even started filling it up yet!! I'm also glad to finally be doing a "real, hands on" project for Operation: Get It Together!

Beginning of the month planning {summer style}

My school year (sounds like I'm a middle schooler) schedule is quite a bit different than my (glorious) summer schedule. There will be no waking up at times that begin with a 5 uhthankyouverymuch. And hopefully I will not have to work in multiple towns in the same day. Though, I cannot guarantee that won't happen.

So here is a peek at my last week weeks.  The last week of school was a little crazy especially since we were all hanging out at the hospital from Friday afternoon until Tuesday around noon.

The first week out of school is still pretty swamped. Babysitting Niki's kidlets Monday through Thursday plus working a couple days and a work meeting....then off to Des Moines for the weekend for a wedding.

But then finally gaze at this glorious empty week!! (angles sing) I mean really, that baby is empty!! Wa-hoo!!

So here's June's calendar, the one that we share at home. Not much room for details on this one, just events for both of us are listed.

My menu calendar stated back in May and I am trying really hard to stick to it! I think it will be easier being home everyday to make "real meals" ya know, the kind you eat with a fork and not out of a paper bag. That's my goal anyway.

And my weekly cleaning checklist...I'm trying hard to stick to it this summer!

And that's all....woo-hoo!