School starts tomorrow

Our Bible department was told that the kids wished Bible class was less like history class...so I made it my goal to learn and do something new. 

I have been reading a lot about interactive student notebooks (isn) and decided to try it this year. Today I spent a couple hours with lesson plans and creating an interactive notebook of my own for unit one.

Honestly, I am not finding anything out there on the internet in terms of isns for Bible class. If you know of any sites that are Bible specific interactive notebooks would you post in the comments? I will make more posts as we begin using our notebooks. Just an fyi I am using Bob Jones sixth grade Bible curriculum and supplementing with the notebook.

Thick Delicious Whipped Frosting

This delicious and easy frosting takes just a few minutes to make.

Whipped frosting

1  16oz container Cool Whip defrosted
2   3.4 oz instant pudding packages of your favorite flavor. (I used pistachio)
1   cup milk

In a large mixing bowl whisk together pudding powder with the cup of milk.  Add entire tub of Cool Whip and whisk until entirely incorporated.  Place in your refrigerator to set. Pipe or spread onto cooled cake or cupcakes!  Enjoy! Keep cake refrigerated after being frosted.

What's your favorite pudding flavor for this frosting?

Yummy Pickled Red Onions

We love taco night...we love bbq night...let's just be real..we love food. So one of our favorite little add-ons to dinner has been our pickled red onions.

Just slice one red onion super thin..I use my mandolin. Season liberally with salt. Cover with red wine vinegar and wait. (A couple hours or overnight)  I have also added a clove of garlic finely diced and it is yummy!

So cute. Perfect little snowflakes falling from the sky this morning. Just like icy confetti...dotting the sky and sidewalk on my walk to school. I had to stop and snap a couple pictures of flakes that fell on a bench before class started.

Spring break

Today is our second day of spring break. More cleaning is in store for us today. And maybe some park will contain some of our exuberance of having a whole wonderful week off.
I can't believe my last post was way back in September was it? School...me teaching and the kids attending has been a much more difficult transition than I ever thought it would be. So here we are, almost in the middle of fourth quarter, and I am posting again! About two weeks ago I bought my first smart phone...a galaxy s3 if you must know..and slowly came to the conclusion that I can blog from it.
So here I sit. Enjoying Easter eggs for breakfast and scheming of ways to make the most out of this long awaited break.  See you again really soon.

yay

sometimes it's the lilttle things that make the biggest difference.

like getting to wear my ring again for the first time to school...after not being able to get it over my knuckle for about 6 months.

yay for baby steps.

Iconic, Ironic, or just plain awesome

I'm using this binder at school. I love how it slides the ring over, instead of opening downward.

I've got all my classes in this binder, separated by period. I put all my grading in for the weekend, or evening.

And...As I stand here teaching my sixth graders, it makes me smile to think that the Trapper Keeper I used in 6th grade gets a new life in this 6th grade classroom.

Praying more effectively

Well hello Blog friends!

I have been so absolutely tired by the end of the day I don't feel like talking physically or even virtually. I got to sleep in a couple hours today and I feel like a million bucks!

This week I had the opportunity to teach the A.C.T.S. method of praying to my 6th graders. Haven't heard of it? I hadn't either, for most my life, until I attended a Bible study a couple years ago where the leader introduced me to it.
A- Adoration
This is where you start out by praising and adoring God for who He is. A time of telling Him that you love Him for the many characteristics He is.

I teach six different periods of Bible, and throughout the day, we read some verses which included characteristics and aspects of God. Then we would list as many as we could think up. By the end of the day, my chalkboard looked like this

I had the kids use index cards, and write a day of the week on each card, then add 3-4 characteristics of God on each card. That way they could use a different card every day. 

C- Confession

This is the portion of your prayer where you confess your sins that keep you from having a closeness with your Father. 

T- Thanksgiving

A time to thank Him for all His blessings in your life.

S-Supplication

This portion, at the very end, is where you make known your requests to God.

I've been modeling this prayer for my classes each day, and I hope that at least a few of them find this more effective than what they had been doing.

Here is an example of how this prayer would look in real life:

"Dear Heavenly Father, You are my Everlasting God. Isaiah 40:28 says, "The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." I love You and Praise You with my whole heart.

Lord, I'm sorry for the way I treated my sister, I yelled at her when she wanted to play with me. I am so sorry.

Thank You for this beautiful day. Thank You for my family and that they love me. Thank You for all You do for me.

I pray now for my grandma who is sick. Can You please be with her? Would You comfort her and if it be Your will heal her? Give her peace and help her to know that You are near.

In Jesus name, Amen."

Hope this helps any of you out there struggling to pray effectively.

So, that's what I've been up to. I hope to get back into crocheting again before Christmastime, I would like to create some new patterns. :)

A request

School started two weeks ago.

Not just a new adjustment for my babies. (One just started in Kindergarten, and the other in an all day PreK class) But I am back to teaching again after 5 1/2 years off.

I'm not gonna lie, it has been EXTREMELY difficult. Hard to keep the house in order, hard to keep going when I get home, hard to wake up in the morning. (Thank you Jesus for my wonderful helpmate, Mr Toddlerwhisperer)

What's made it super difficult is that my littlest, the one I thought would have the easiest time adjusting is falling apart. Every morning the first week, she begged me to keep her home, screaming all the way to her class that she hated school and didn't want me to leave. It's been awful. The second week was a little better. She says she doesn't want to go to school, throws a HUMONGOUS fit when we get there, but moments after I leave, she's fine. She's participating, has friends, and dare I say, has fun.

I have to deal with all that prior to walking an eighth of a mile up to my classroom moments before the bell rings to start my day. It is wearing. I'm sweaty, stressed and questioning my decision to put her in PreK. I need your prayers.

Here's how you can pray specifically:
*pray my Little has a great attitude before school
*pray Mr T and I have wisdom as to how to prepare her for the day


Thanks so much.
***A tiny update: Today we had NO TEARS at all!! YAY!!
This post is part of a linkup with Gracelaced Mondays

Flagstaff Find

While on a whirlwind road trip through Flagstaff, I asked Mr T if we could stop at the GW I saw on the side of the road. I said, "You never know what people in these little communities are donating, and who's looking."

I made my case. He agreed.

I found a few pieces of pyrex...a large primary mixing bowl that was in fair condition...I left it there...
A Town and Country divided dish....I left it there....
and, my first piece of England Pyrex.

It's called Blue Iris...seems like there are a lot of them floating around right now

Look how cute the handles are...scooped in like so..

It was marked at $6.99, but I thought that was fair for a piece that somehow, some way made it's way across the big blue pond! :)