Back to Reality

I was drinking my hot apple cider this morning, and I realized that I need to start thinking about meal prepping again.  Over break, I didn't have to prep for the week as much as I normally do.  It was nice to make dinner when we were hungry and not have to worry about anything.

Sometimes I feel like I could get used to staying home, or even working part time.  But then I start to think about the kiddos and how much I would miss that too.  How can I have the best of both worlds?

Today, my focus was on breakfast for the week.  I have tried many different things for breakfast, but I keep coming back to the same things.  My husband says I am boring in that respect.  He doesn't understand how I can eat the same thing every day.

Before I started meal prepping, I would eat a bowl of cereal or an english muffin.  Nothing wrong with that, but by the time I ate lunch, I was starving and I would eat something not so good for me.  There were too many hours between breakfast and lunch, without time for a snack.

I have since started making sure that I have a protein in my breakfast.  Sometimes I put in more than one.  I found that when I have protein, I am not starving by the time I have lunch.  So I start by boiling eggs.  I like hard-boiled eggs.  I tried several recipes with eggs in muffin tins with veggies.  They were good for the first few days, and then I got tired of them.  For me, I think I like that the egg is cold.  I seem to be a more cold breakfast type of person.

With that being said, this is what I go to all the time.  Cold fruit, cold, veggie, cold egg.  I also count my calories.  Sometimes when I plan my meals, I find that I am not eating enough calories at breakfast.  So some days, I add these awesome cheese Whisps.  I found these a while back and they come in different cheese flavors.  I love the parmesan flavor. 

They are basically cheese that is air whipped.  If you love chips and stuff that crunches as much as I do, this is a fun treat and the calories are not bad for how filling you feel.  Other times, I just throw in a cheese stick or yogurt.  The good news, my breakfast is done for this week.  Every week, I try to think of new things to make for breakfast, but I always refer back to the same type of things.  

What do you eat for breakfast that gets you going and keeps you full until lunch?

Morning Work

Apparently I am losing my mind.  I have been using this fabulous morning work all year, and I thought I had shared it with you, but apparently, I never uploaded it.  I apologize!  I guess this is what happens on winter break, when you have time.

Anyway,  this year, we were limited (even more) on our paper usage, so I scrapped the one page a day worksheet for morning work and made my own.  My morning work is now one page back-to-back each WEEK.  Yes, I said for the week!

Grab the Morning Work {HERE}

Here is a sneak peak of it.  There is work for Monday through Thursday.  On Friday, I have a "Quick Check" that my kiddos work on.  This is the part I grade.  It let's me know that they understood the skills throughout the week.  During the week, we go over the work, so that students can ask questions or I can put the skill in during interventions.

My kids actually look forward to doing this because it is not overwhelming and they can actually complete it in the time they have.  They feel successful with this.  And since I don't require them to turn it in until Friday, they can pull it out and work on it if they finish their work early.

Head over to my TPT store and download the preview.  It includes 3 FREE weeks.  Test it out and let me know how it works in your classroom!

Updating and Reorganizing

Those of you who pop in on a regular basis, have probably noticed I have been revamping the blog and my TPT store.  I started this blog several years ago, and it was time for an update.  I am still going to keep it simple and clean, but I am working on adding images to every post for you.  I have also added a button for you to share and if you hover over my images, you can pin them!  Yes, pin them to your own board and have a quick reference to them later.

I am excited to get back into my classroom and share more pictures of what I am doing to educate my students!  

Get Organized Series

I am starting a "Get Organized" Series at my TPT store.  The first item in the series are some calendars.  I like to keep my work calendar separate from my personal calendar, so these calendars are only Monday through Friday.

Grab these calendars {HERE}.

These calendars are in black and white.  You can print them on colored paper, but I chose to color them in.  They say coloring is good for you, right?  Each month, as I am filling in my calendar, I treat myself to a few minutes of coloring the top.

How are you keeping organized this year?

My Caffeine-Free Journey

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had gone caffeine-free.  I started this in August of 2017.  I was never a huge caffeine drinker in the first place, so that made this a lot easier.  I was one of those people who enjoyed a cup of coffee or tea in the morning (which, technically, I think it was more than a cup) and a Diet Coke in the afternoon.  I also liked to order pop (Chicago girl here) whenever we were out at a restaurant.

I decided to stop drinking caffeine "cold-turkey."  I was fine the first day or so and then I would start to crave it.  I replaced my morning drink with caffeine-free tea.  I already had my Keurig, so I was going to continue to use it.  I had not found the K-Cup I wanted yet, so I was just brewing hot water and putting the tea bag it.  It worked just fine.

Then I found these!  If you are into hot apple cider, you have to try these!  I know this is technically not tea, it made me feel all warm inside.  My biggest issue with this transition has been the craving of the Diet Coke in the afternoon.  I need, or thought I needed that afternoon pick me up.  Some people drink coffee all day.  I could live off of Diet Coke.  But, I decided I was going to change and I stuck with it.  Rarely, I will have a caffeine-Free Diet Coke, but again, that is very rare!

It is kind of funny, because as I write this post, I have a headache.  I don't think it is related to not having caffeine, but it seems a little ironic.

People ask me why I started this journey when the school year started, but without getting into too much detail, it seemed like a good time as any.  If I was busy working, I wouldn't be thinking about it.  That actually made it a lot easier.

How much caffeine do you drink each day?  Do you have a favorite K-Cup?

When Do You Go Back?

I go back to work on January 8th.  So I have one more week of "free time."  This makes me really excited.  The hubby is back to work and it is just a week for me!

I went to the mall today.  It was crazy.  You would think that they were giving away free stuff.  That's how busy it was.  I never go to the mall, especially this time of year, but I saw all the sales, and I couldn't help myself.  Not that I bought anything exciting, but I love to people watch.

Do you ever stop and people watch?  I had not seen the mall this crazy in years!  I love to go into Dillard's.  They have really good sales.  Today, their sales were so crazy, that they had police and security guards there in the handbag and shoe departments.  If you wanted to shop those sections, you had to stand in line.  They literally had it blocked off and were limiting the number of people in at a time.

I get it.  People go crazy over great deals.  So, out of curiosity, I stood in line to see what the big deal was.  Once I got in, the shelves were picked over and the styles I like, were not included in the sales.  I couldn't even get help, it was so busy.  I was not upset though.  I really shouldn't be buying a new handbag right now anyway!  But, I did enjoy looking at them.

I did go to the clothing section too and found two shirts on clearance.  I spent a whooping $12.00 for two shirts!  Didn't I say that Dillard's has good sales!?  I would never buy something there at full price, but when they have sales, they are steals!  You do have to be patient and sometimes you have to sift through, but you get a good deal and good quality.

Where do you love to shop and what is your weakness to shop for?

Holiday Baking

I know my last post was about eating healthy, but I did do some holiday baking this season and I wanted to share.

I was going to be good and stick with the healthy eating.  Besides, having everything prepped, made it super easy to stick to it and I got to sleep a few minutes earlier.  I found that I was either getting up earlier to get my meals ready, or I was grabbing something I really shouldn't have been eating in the first place.

I digress...Onto my holiday baking.  Those of you that know me, know that I love to bake.  If I was not in education, I would probably own my own bakery.

This year I was not in the mood for a really sweet cookie.  I didn't even make gingerbread cookies this year.  But then we had a cookie exchange at work and the baker in me had to join in.

So I played around with some shortbread cookies.  Which, by the way, are really good with coffee or tea because they are not too sweet.  I ended up making shortbread cookies that I shaped into little snowmen and then dipped them in chocolate.

But once I started baking, I was in the mood.  So then I made Russian Tea Cakes, which most people refer to a Mexican Wedding Cookies.

Both recipes were super easy.  I put them in clear party bags.  Then I drew the faces and buttons on to make them look like little snowmen.  They were a big hit and again, they were super easy.

I also got some great recipes in exchange.  But  I have to share my favorite one.  Remember how I didn't make gingerbread cookies this year?  Well one of the cookies that was exchanged was like a lighter, chewier version of a gingerbread cookie.  It was fabulous and it will be my new go to for years to come.  You can find the recipe here.  This is not my recipe and I do not take credit for it in any way.  One thing that I will add is that you can make these decretive by dipping them in white chocolate and adding any decorations you like.  Let me know what kind of baking you did this holiday season!