Five for Friday!!

It must be summer break b/c I am blogging!

And not only am I blogging, but I am actually posting my Five for Friday (first one in foreverrrr) on a Friday!

This is serious, people!

1. You may remember, from one of my sporadic school-year posts, that I am expecting our very first bundle of joy this coming September!  With the exception of a pretty difficult first trimester, this pregnancy has been wonderful and I am so loving being pregnant!  I'm almost 30 weeks and still sleeping through the night and only peeing 792 times a day, so I call that a win!

We've had a lot of fun documenting my growing bump...

Week 28 seems to have brought on "pregnancy face", or maybe it was just the humidity.  The caption for week 28's chalkboard says, "Wedding rings are barely on."  And well, they're almost never on, but I blame the summer heat more than pregnancy weight gain...at least that's what I hope it is!

2.  In related baby news, we've decided to take the plunge and try to cloth diaper our little one!  (No naysaying comments, please!).  

We are choosing to cloth diaper for a few reasons, the first being the financial aspect. I will be taking some unpaid time off of work, so pinching pennies where we can will be extremely helpful.

The second being environmental impact.  I don't know if it's this little one growing inside of me, but I have definitely become more environmentally conscious lately.  Not that I drove a hummer, drank only from plastic water bottles, and ran my air 24/7 before, but I have definitely stepped it up a bit.  We're not turning to vegetable oil to fuel our cars or giving up cable television anytime soon, but I like being able to do my part for this planet this way.

We'll see how it goes. If it's an epic fail I've read that newborn cloth diapers have excellent resale value.  And if it goes as well as we hope, well, my baby will have one cute little bum for the next few years of his/her life!

3. In non-baby news, I'm finally getting back on the TpT bandwagon.  It's been awhile!  Mostly due to my laptop crashing and needing the Geek Squad to get all my stuff off of it!  We had been backing up my computer on a pretty regular basis, but somehow missed some important documents (read: clip art) and we needed the help of the professionals! It was hard to create products knowing the perfect background was on my other computer, so gave it for awhile!

Here's what I'm working on at the moment:

I am thisclose to finishing my Non-Fiction Passages. I hope to have them posted by the end of the month.  These passages will complete my Reading Passages Bundle, so if the bundle is something you're interested in, grab the bundle now! The price goes up once I add these, so if you purchase before, you get the Non-Fiction Edition for FREE!

I'm also adding the finishing touches to this Noun Unit I started waaaay back in 2013.  Seriously!  It took so long mostly due to the aforementioned computer crash, but also because I used it along the way with my class.  So this Noun Pack is a real tried and true product!

 It has posters and printables for all different types of nouns:

But the best part of the pack is that it comes with tons of "noun cards" that your students can use many different ways. It makes the unit truly interactive, engaging, and fun!

Keep your eyes peeled for this one!

4. In semi-TpT related news, my favorite Owls are hosting a fun and useful linky called "Show Us How You Use It".  We're taking common household items and showing you how we use them in our classrooms, then giving you a chance to link-up with your own ingenious uses for things like popsicle sticks and aluminum cans.

Earlier this week, I showed one of the ways I use clothespins in my classroom: Clothespin Math!  It's so easy and such a great way to address different skills in your classroom!

Click the link down below to read all about Clothespin Math and grab a freebie to kick it off in your classroom!

And now for nothing related to anything else in this post, but equally as important:

5. We made these chicken fingers for dinner the other night and fell in love, so I thought I'd share.  Dave is a true miracle worker in that he can actually get oven-baked chicken fingers to come out really, really crispy.  So in our house, he is definitely in charge of all future oven-baked chicken finger recipes.

{Source}

PS: Yes, we did sprinkle green onion over the top!

PPS: I think you should totally follow me on Pinterest...especially if you like food, because I love food!!  Click here to follow me!

Oh, click the picture below to grab your clothespin math freebie!!

Thanks for stopping by and remembering I actually had a blog!  Hope you're all enjoying your summer! Go link up with DoodleBugs and share your five things from this week!

End of the Year Timeline Banner

Happy Monday!

Are you ready for the BIG SALE starting on TpT tomorrow?  I get all nervous and excited at the same time. Do I have everything I need in my cart?  Wasn't there something else I wanted? Oh no! The clock says I only have 56 hours left!

It's a bit ridiculous.  I just really like to be stocked for the end of the year.  Up here where I live, we still have 6 weeks left...30 days...too many hours and minutes!

One thing I am looking forward to is my End of the Year Banner {plus printables!}. I know it's going to be one of those activities my students LOVE, but I feel comfortable with because I'm still hitting the standards at the same time!

This product is designed to be used at least two ways.

There are larger bunting flags that can be used to make a classroom timeline.  I plan on pairing my students up and assigning them each a month. Then we'll display it on our hallway bulletin board.

There are flags with lines, if you want to have your students write in more detail about the timeline event.

There are also smaller bunting flags that your students can use to create their own timeline to take home.  What a wonderful keepsake from their school-year!

There are also R/LA and Math Summer Themed printables which will come in super handy those last few days of school!

This banner is great for grades K-6, but the printables are best suited for grades 1-3.

Here's a look at the WHOLE unit:

Grab your own Timeline Banner by clicking the picture below:

Or....You can win this unit on my FB page, but hurry, the giveaway ends at 9pm EST!

And don't forget about the Teacher Appreciation Sale tomorrow! Happy Shopping!! Go stock those carts!!

Button courtesy of Amy Lemons

Halle

Where I've Been (plus a giveaway!!)

Boy, oh boy, has it been quite a while since I logged into blogger and published a post!  Some of you have been so kind to think of me and email me to make sure everything is alright...

...and yes, everything is alright! Everything is more than alright!

You may have already caught  a glimpse of my news on Instagram, but I am so excited to announce that my husband and I are expecting our first bundle of joy in September!

It was a long road getting to this point. We struggled with infertility for close to a year before we were finally blessed with the wonderful news that I was indeed pregnant!  Our journey to "expectant-hood" was an exhausting and overwhelming one, and I found myself putting blogging and creating on the back burner more and more as the months wore on.

Then we got pregnant, and well, I was so darn excited and wrapped up in it that, again, blogging and TpT just weren't a priority.  I was still writing down ideas for resources, and I still managed to get a Facebook post or two together, and amazingly I even created a resource, but most of my free time was (and still is) going towards pregnancy blogs, books, and nursery ideas.

Even more of my time has gone towards doctor's appointments. Because of a medical diagnosis I've had since I was very young, I am considered high-risk.  Well, according to my doctor, "on the low end of high-risk."  I feel fortunate to get extra monitoring, but I've never been to the doctor's so much in my entire life!

I'm writing this post because I finally feel like I am at a point in my pregnancy (20 weeks and counting!!) where I am ready to put more attention towards blogging (I've missed sharing and DISCOVERING great ideas and resources) and creating. I don't think I'll ever have the drive I had at the beginning and that's okay with me!

On our "baby moon" last week :)

In honor of my exciting news and my return to the blogosphere, I am giving away a copy of my Mother's Day craft "My Heart Blooms for Mom".  My students loved creating their little flower pots last year and I am excited to do the craft with them this year!  And I'm so looking forward to receiving a few (TpT inspired, I'm sure) Mother's Day crafts of my own a few years down the road!

Check it out here

Winning is easy, all you have to do is comment below with your email.  I'll announce a winner this evening on my Facebook page!

Thank you again to all of you who checked in on me!  It felt nice being missed ;)

~Halle