A New [Year's} Winter Freebie For You!

Are you back in school yet?  We are supposed to start tomorrow but we already have a 2 hour delay because

It's 7 degrees out there!!!  Wooo Mama!  It's too cold to even think about school in my opinion.  My hats off to all of you that live way up north or in Alaska or Canada.  

When it is this cold, it leads to thoughts about being frozen and then your brain makes the jump to Frozen, the movie and its theme song.  Or at least mine does.  Hopefully I'm not alone!!  Anyway, I found this and thought it would explain my feelings of the temperature outside!  Don't get me wrong--I love a good brisk temperature, but Hypothermia Land isn't somewhere I want to live!

Now that things are ALMOST back to normal and everyone is returning to school I have to pull my teacher hat back out and get busy. I was even given time off by my teammates today because they could tell I was just not feeling ready to jump back in to things.  They knocked out the technical stuff that needed to be done while I took some time for myself in my classroom to work through the piles that had mounted while I was out taking care of my mom.  And since today is Wednesday it means that it is time for a

So to make your day a little bit easier and a little bit brighter I thought I would upload this little baby to TpT.  At my school we are really pushing vocabulary, so I put this together for my 2nd graders.  But, it could be played with any grade level I think.  Go grab it!

My kids have loved my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Holiday versions, so I can't wait to get this out tomorrow and play.  Let me know how YOUR kids like it!

2015--Here we come!

Happy 2015!  I hope it has been a good one so far.  Things have been great hear with us!  I saw this linky floating around and I am excited to be a part of it.  I am also excited because I get to announce the winner of the laminator I was giving away during our Giveaway on the Owlways Be Inspired Blog!

The winner was:

I have contacted her and will be sending out her laminator on Monday!!  So exciting to give things away!!  I also let her in on a little known secret that saves me a lot of money!  Always purchase non-namebrand laminating sheets!  They work just as good as the Scott Brand but they are a lot cheaper!  I use the 3 mil sheets if it is something I want to protect but will send home with a student or trash.  I use 5 mil sheets for all center materials because it holds up better and it easier to wipe off when using dry erase markers.

My personal goal is to spend more time with my family.  And not just 'time' but QUALITY Time.  I have been guilty of working way to much over the past few years.  But, I also have to admit that I have felt like everything I tried to do was exhausting.  Even cooking seemed like a insurmountable task.  I know now, after having some medicine changes and all, that depression was the responsible party for all of this.  If you have been a reader of mine for long (even back to the days of Best Practices 4 Teaching and Charts 'n' Chit chat) you know that I am a very transparent blogger.  I was the lucky recipient of my mother's DNA and she and I both shared a Dystemia...or chronic low grade depression.  I am feeling a lot better these days and I am actually looking forward to living a high life!!

I plan to become more active...I will fight my fibromyalgia and not let it take over!!  I am also looking at getting my family away from processed foods.

Boy...this is a big can of worms!!  I have so many things I want to do.  Everyone knows me as a teacher.  Some know me as a blogger, and most never think of me as an entrepreneur. I want to learn more about marketing.  I also, evidently, need to learn from Jan Richardson and incorporate her methods into my guided reading.  It is funny to me that 6 years ago I was a trainer and helped other teachers in my system....then enters 2 kids....and I am behind on everything! 

I also hope to take some of my TpT files for yester-year and redo them to make them look nicer!  I also need to take more pictures of my kids at school using my lessons.

I would also like to expand and be able to share more about Zeal Wellness and how it has helped me with my fibromyalgia and Meniere's Disease.  I have a good friend that teachers at a different school and she uses it to help with her dizziness/inner ear problems also. 

I am a TpT addict.  While I am already have 62 lessons on how to teach S blends (sp, st, str, etc) if I see something cute, I will go ahead and buy it.  I am a huge addiction!!  I want to be more conscious of what I am buying because those little $3 lessons mount up!  I am at the point where I think it would be better for me to send each little $3 Paypal chunk to a credit card!!

Giveaway: 2015 Is Your Year!

 Have you ever been to 

Of course you have!  You probably just clicked on a button so that you could come here!  Did you hear that there is a 

When my friend, Alisha,  from The Bubbly Blonde asked all of us if we wanted to do something fun for the New Year, I was all in!  

If there is one thing that all of us at Owlways know how to do, it is to kick off a give away using 

New Years is all about how to have a good time and treat our readers!

So we pooled our ANDEW JACKSONS together <wish it could have been Benjamins!!> to giveaway a $100 Amazon Gift Card.  But then, we decided to make it even better and each of us agreed to give away something on our own blogs.  Alisha gave me this cool little graphic that she made.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, I am having a sale at my store on TpT!!  Go check it out!

  

May I recommend this little jewel!  My kids loved it! The screenshot wouldn't go any bigger without blurring, so you definitely need to click and see!

 Oh, and I am also linking up with Farley over at her blog!

Thanks for coming by!  Happy New Year!!

14 Favorites '14

What a year.  I am truly not sure where to start.  2014 was a hard year for my family.  The summer started with several visits to therapists and doctors for my daughter who suffers from RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder) and we seemed to spiral downward in September when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer after smoking for almost 60 years.  This ended with her death on November 28th.  We are in the middle of picking ourselves up  and dusting  ourselves off as we continue to love mom from afar.  My faith was strong before, but after listening to my mother tell me about the angel in the white robe that stood at the foot of her hospital bed, my family had sadness, but also happiness because she was able to walk through those pearly gates after being bound to a wheelchair for 12 years.

FAITH

Here's to you, mom!  This isn't my favorite picture of the 3 months that she spent at my house, but it will do.  She got frustrated because I was always taking a picture.  I guess I know in my heart that I had to make every moment count.  At one point after taking this picture--she had just finished her 2nd chemo treatment--she said, "I'm going to get all of these pictures that you keep taking."  I'm glad she didn't.  She was so proud of her little 'beret' that kept her head warm that my friend, Trisha, had picked up for her.  Mom's first words when she found out she had cancer to us was, "You know that whatever happens, I am going to be ok."  She spoke those same words to us just hours before she went to heaven.  I am so thankful that she is with her Saviour!  I love you mom.

On November 26th, we welcomed my new great-niece, Kinsleigh Grace into the world.  She arrived on what would have been her great-grandfather's 114th birthday!  My papaw would have been so proud!  My mom never got to meet Kinsleigh, but told me to let her know that she would be watching over her.

This is my hunka-hunka-burnin' love!  This year we celebrated our 14th anniversary on December 16th.  There are time when I know that I drive him nuts, but he really was my rock through 2014 when it felt like the walls were crumbling around me.  I have a 'habit' (just because it is funny) of saying that we were married "____ number of long hard years" and he takes offense to that a little.  But to me, it is the funniest thing.  It seems like every year gets longer and harder but in the end we still made it....TOGETHER.

My most emotional post is also my favorite post.  It tells my daughter's story from the beginning to where she is in life now.  I am proud to say that she is getting better and sounds better when we talk on the phone and facetime.  I really miss her though.  If you would like to help us in raising funds for her therapy, just go grab a huge file!

These little cuties are my favorite pin right now!

I wanted to make them during December as a craft, because they are so cute.  But with everything that happened in November and December I decided to wait and do them in January.  My plan is to get the 20 strands of lights I need at least 50% off!!!  I think ahead like that. LOL  Notice that if I had done this back in December I would have been light-less.  By the way, do you follow me on Pinterest?  You can find me ri'chere!!

I got 14 roses for 14 years of marriage.  This is the first time I've gotten flowers in a long, long time.  Notice that my 10 year old took the picture for me and while he made the background look pretty good he took a big ole picture of a green stalk of nothing!!!  Just my luck!

This was the year of learning how to use Amazon to make money.  I have a store called Teachables there that I sell everything from vitamin drinks to children's books.  The vitamins were a success and the books were ok.  I am looking for new ideas of items to put up on Amazon.  All of the funds that were made on Amazon were used to pay for my daughter's RAD therapy and her boarding school.  I never thought I'd be the type to send a child off to boarding school, but it because apparent this summer that this was the only way to give her the therapy she needs.  

In fact, several of my blogger friends got together and donated some files as a fundraiser so that Angel could stay as long as she needs to.  She has been there since August.    If you haven't checked out those files, check them out in my TpT store [HERE].  Also, you can check out the blog post I wrote about RAD, here on this blog.

Wow...this is a hard one....My favorite restaurant at this moment would probably have to be 

In fact, we were just there today.  I love their potato soup!

OK, I am a dweeb and I will freely admit it.  Although I love my Dancing With the Stars, I also love anything with conspiracy and intrigue...so I end up watching shows like Unearthed and anything with ghosts hauntings, etc.  I love a good ghost story.

This one I can't really even answer because I never sit still to watch movies.  I guess I'll go with the movie "Halloween Town" <I think that was the name of it> that I watched with my little guy.  It was pretty entertaining.

My favorite article of clothing would have to be a good light weight eternity scarf.  I've learned that they add a little pizzaz of color and help you look professional while covering a low neckline or even a stain on your shirt!  haha  I got one just like this off of Amazon.

I say this a bazillion times a day!!