My First Five for Friday!

I decided to link up for my first Five for Friday! 

Monday and Tuesday marked my first two days of summer and where was I?!? At school, of course! My school is a STEM school and this year on our half days, we had STEM days. Every grade has experiments that we completed with the students. The students had a blast! So Monday and Tuesday, my colleagues and I planned four days worth of STEM days for every grade. We got a lot done and I am pretty excited about the experiments my students will get to complete!

We were able to bless a family in our church by helping them move in on Tuesday night. It's been a long couple of weeks for them so to finally be in their own place was great. They had moved out of their townhouse a couple of weeks ago and stayed with us for a long weekend. They have done some house hopping until they got into their new house this week. 

I love to quilt! It's really relaxing and enjoyable. I primarily make baby blankets for my friends and family that have babies. I have probably made about 13 over the last 7 years. I made two this week because my cousins are coming to town with two babies we haven't met yet. Here are the quilts:

 I love Saved By the Bell! It was a great show that I grew up with. I have had seasons 1-4 since college but was missing season five. I found it recently at BJ's for 7.99! So when I was quilting this week, I was able to finish the whole season! It's an interesting one because half way through the season, Kelly and Jessie leave and Tori comes into the picture. I am not a huge fan of Tori but there are some good episodes like the obstacle course one. Such a great show!

My little man is 20 months old! I love this stage because he is learning and saying new things all the time. This week, when I went to pick him up from daycare, he was sitting in the four year old room playing with play dough. He was so focused on it and was enjoying every minute. I almost couldn't get him to come home with me! So when we got home, I took out our play dough. It was great to watch him interact with it!

TPT Seller Challenge #2: Dare to Dream

I am really excited for TPT Seller Challenge #2 put on from these wonderful bloggers! 

Dare to Dream is a great challenge and an easy one for me! Ask me to dream with money I wish I had or hope to have one day...no problem! My husband and I dream big every once in a while when we buy Powerball tickets. 

Here are my dreams:

#1 Pay Off Student Loans: This is a huge one! My husband and I have crazy amounts of student loans. His program was five years and mine was four years but I went to grad school as well. It would be amazing to not have the burden of paying off loans and be able to use that money for something else. We are truly thankful for the education that we got but it would be nice to not have to be paying off our education when our son goes to college!

#2 Attend the TPT Conference in Vegas: I would love for this dream to come true! I have been following bloggers for about 3-4 years now and I feel like they are all my friends. I read what is going on in their lives and classrooms and I share it with my friends and colleagues. At the same time, it's hard to watch from afar and I want to be in the action! I want to know all of these wonderful educators in real life and I want to learn from them. I want to be a part of their seminars and learn how to be a more successful blogger and teacher! 

#3 Bless My Students and Others: I have spent the last seven years teaching students in low income areas. It is hard to watch my students struggle with not having the materials, clothes, and food that they need. I tend to buy lots of supplies throughout the summer for my students but I can only afford so much. It would be great to be able to provide for my students so they can learn to the best of their ability. I would also like to bless my church. God is doing amazing things within our church and with the ministries we support. Our church's mission is "to make passionate, maturing followers of Christ from here to the nations" and they have a true heart for missions. There are many people who go on short term mission trips and it would be great to support them in their mission. 

#4 Travel With My Family: Most of my family and my husband's family don't live in Maryland. It's hard when my son doesn't get to see his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins very often because they are scattered around the country. It would be great to have the freedom to visit family when we want to. Also, I would love my son to know more about the great country we live in and be exposed to new experiences. 

I am sure that there are other things I could add to my dream list but these are the big ones. In order for these dreams to become a reality, I need to get going on my products! At least I can keep saying to myself "Dare to Dream" and I know what I am working toward!

TPT Seller Challenge #1: Makeover Madness

I am so excited to join the TPT Seller Challenge hosted by Peppy Zesty Teacherista, Sparkling in Second, Teach Create Motivate, and Third in Hollywood!

This year, I wanted to be serious about blogging and creating my own products. Well, it didn't turn out the way that I had hoped. Switching from first to fourth grade this year was definitely a challenge with getting to know the content. I have read many teacher blogs this year and I want to be apart of this community. This challenge comes at a perfect time where I am finished school and I can focus on creating products I can sell and use next year!

We started the challenge off with writing down our numbers. Here are my stats so far:

I have increased my Instagram by ten this week and have one follower on TPT. I know that it will take some time but it's a start.

The first challenge is to take a product from our store and make revisions to it. I chose to use the first product that I made called Monster Blends. I was teaching first grade at the time so this pack focuses on the final blends of words.

I changed the font that I used because I realized that the old font was hard for first graders to read. I also adjusted some of the graphics to make it look cleaner. I am glad I made changes because it was definitely for the better.

I am looking forward to the next challenge and how it will help me be a better blogger!