The Adventure of a First Year Teacher : 2013

Horray and High Five For Friday!

12/13/2013

This past week has been stressful, long and glorious all in one. Today I'm linking up with the beautiful Lauren over at Lauren Elizabeth to share my top five of the week!

1. Finals Week/End of the semester:

PRAISE THE LORD! Another semester down and only three more to go until student teaching. It seems as if I've been in school forever (in reality I'm on the 5.5 year plan, dumb moving) but as each stressful semester comes to an end I'm reminded that I'm almost to my goal. This semester has been rewarding and fruitful. The Lord totally blessed me through a new job with less crazy hours meaning more sleep and a healthier body. He blessed me through one of the better academic semesters in my career and through that a new member of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society for education majors. And finally, the Lord blessed me abundantly with an amazing small group of women and three friends who have become my BFFS - since we're in college and all ;)

2. Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Viewing Party:

One of my sweet friends is a campus rep for PINK by Victoria's Secret which is AWESOME! In honor of the fashion show this week they held a viewing party for anyone on campus with some sweet prizes and giveaways. A group of us all went and since we were one of the first 25 to be there early we got a little card to get something at the end of the night which ended up being a full size of perfume! THEN it gets better. My friend Hayley and I were talking about how we never win anything in raffle drawings, ever. We had played different games and wore our PINK clothes to get tickets and place in the drawings. At each commercial break they had drawings for all the different prizes. One of the buckets I place my tickets in was for three pairs of so cute undies, I am an undies collector! You will never guess it but, low and behold my name was drawn! I kinda squealed a little! Then Hayley's was called right after! We were dying because we had just talked about never winning and then we both win back to back.

And can we just take a moment and take in how gorgeous the last set was - Snow Angels. OH MY

3. TWO WEEKS:

Thursday marked two weeks left until Jonny is here for Christmas/New Years! It has been over 7 months since we last saw each other in May. I'm beyond ready to see him!

Last December when Jonny was here. Our anniversary dinner celebrated a month later

4. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas:

This week started the #12daysofblogging link up that the sweet Amber [Mr. Thomas and Me ] and Erin [Hooley With A Z] are co-hosting. Basically, we're all blogging about the best time of the year - Christmas for the next 12 days until Christmas Day! Which by the way, if you're doing the quick math does not add up to 12 - we're taking weekends off.

Anywho, this link up has been a blast so far! It's been great to meet other bloggers and of course talk all about Christmas, which is my favorite time of year!

5. Loving My Job:

Like I mentioned earlier and the main inspiration behind this blog, is my new job and love for teaching. Last year I worked a similar job - before and after school care - but at a different school and through a different organization. Long story short, I left after some unprofessional things happened and my health and grades were declining because of the lack of sleep due to the crazy hours.

A co-worker over the summer told me about this parent ran co-op that she used to work for and said she saw that they were hiring for the same type of position. So I applied and a few weeks later I was starting my new job! At first I wasn't so sure about it since I mainly was working with pre-schoolers and that was NOT what I was looking for nor going to school for. But over the past 5 months I have grown to love the littler ones and love my job. Not only am I getting more sleep - yay for sleep - but I'm also able to work independently and have the freedom to run the program in a way that fits the schools' philosophy as well as my own, something I couldn't do previously.

And it also has led me to create my baby, this little blog, in hopes of being able to share our pre-school creations and inspire others and myself to continue in instilling the love of learning into all of the littles in the world.

PHEW! That was a novel.

If you made it to the end, snaps for you!

What has your week looked like?

12daysofblogging

Breath of Heaven

12/12/2013

12daysofblogging

DIY Gift Guide and #12daysofblogging

12/11/2013

HORRAY! Another day of Christmas blogging!

As being a very poor college student when I saw todays topic of DIY Christmas Gift, I got really excited and went straight to Pinterest for some inspiration. Now, disclaimer, I haven't actually done any of these DIY gifts myself because this week is finals week so, I've been lucky enough to get sleep, food and of course a blog post up : )

Anywho, I wanted to share with you some ideas I found that I'm going to start creating for all my friends and family - mom don't read any more! Now that the semester is over I have some time to breathe and be crafty!

These mugs are something I'd love to drink my Chai Latte's out of on the daily. I've made my own Sharpie mug before for Jonny when we moved but this is just something that would be perfect for a few girlfriends of mine. AND it's cheap! I found a plain white mug at TJ Maxx for $2 and having plenty of Sharpies already, it's an affordable and adorable gift.

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You can never go wrong with food in my opinion. These Pancake Mix in a Jar look SO GOOD and you could totally customize it to be cookies in a jar, etc. These are a perfect gift for the food lover in your life or drop it off on your neighbor's door step.

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Something that is near and dear to my heart are orphans, and more specifically Filipino orphans. If you're new around here let me fill you in, quickly.

At the beginning of this year our family did the Daniel fast with our church, you can read more about it here. At the end of the month we really felt the Lord calling us to adopt. As we continued to pray about how many, where, special needs, older or younger, the Lord continued to place in our lap that we needed to be adopting from the Philippines. As we began the long, tedious process of paper work and waiting (which we still are waiting) my heart for the Philippines began to grow. Jonny is half Filipino so I had already had a slight love for Filipino babies because well, my man is a hunk! :) Thats besides the point.

When I think of DIY gifts, I also think that it means so much more than just presents for loved ones but also giving back. So you may be thinking, thats great but I don't know where to start, nor I don't have hundreds of dollars to send to a third world country. Well, there may be something that you CAN do. The Children's Shelter of Cebu in the Philippines is a Christian orphanage that truly loves each of their sweet little ones. On their website they have a pages and pages of ways to help tangibly. For example, they need money for birthday presents for the orphans for only $20. $20 and you've given a child a gift that honestly means the world to them, because I was once a child and I LOVED birthday gifts.

So what am I trying to get at? Gifts don't necessarily have to be for someone you know, there is a world full, 147 million to be exact for precious little ones who long for a Christmas gift. I would encourage y'all to think and pray about ways to help those who have no voice and bless an orphan this year.

You can read more about the Children's Home of Cebu here ---> http://www.cscshelter.org/

Read and subscribe to their blog here ---> http://www.cscshelter.org/blog

If you'd like to donate towards the Children's Home ---> http://www.cscshelter.org/involved

12daysofblogging

Ornaments Galore and #12daysofblogging

12/10/2013

12daysofblogging

#12daysofblogging Christmas Tree and Home Decor

12/09/2013

Teach

The End of November and a Sneak Peak into December

12/03/2013

Teach

Classroom Dreams

12/02/2013

Thankful

11/27/2013

Thanksgiving is a little bitter sweet after moving 2,400 miles away from our home town, family and friends, this week two years ago. It's just not the same sitting down with only the four of us. But, as I think about the past two years here in Illinois, I'm overwhelmed by the goodness of our Lord Jesus and the blessings he has put on mine and my family's life. Many many blessings that make a joyful and thankful heart.

1. My little family of four is growing to be a family of six (hopefully seven if we can convince mom and dad : )
We are currently on the adventure of adopting from the Philippines! If you want, hop on over to my mom's blog - she's been blogging the process that started in January. You can find it here! The Lord has continued to reveal my heart and passion for the orphans, especially the sweet littles in the Philippines.

2. I'm thankful for my sweet man of God. Daily I'm reminded of the Lord's goodness and redeeming love through my relationship with Jonny, even though it's hard being long distance, God is still good and he is faithful to give the desires of our hearts of those who love him. We celebrated our four year anniversary earlier this month and are counting down the days when he is here for Christmas!

3. I have an amazing opportunity to work at a private, parent co-op school and go to college full time to become an educator. My heart for children continues to grow and as my ideals of teaching expands, I'm more excited to get into the classroom! With the move, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be studying in one of the top schools of education in the country - go Redbirds!

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations" | Psalm 100:1-5

Best of 2013

Weekly Round Up

Horray and High Five For Friday!

Breath of Heaven

DIY Gift Guide and #12daysofblogging

Ornaments Galore and #12daysofblogging

#12daysofblogging Christmas Tree and Home Decor

The End of November and a Sneak Peak into December

Classroom Dreams

Thankful

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