Limeades for Learning

Yes, folks, Sonic is once again running their Limeades for Learning promotion!

All you need to do is go to the Limeades for Learning site, and vote for your favorite project. I (of course) trust that you will vote for mine!

When you get to the site, do a keyword search for "Chester Co, Tn" and my two projects will pop up.
or go here: Save me!
or here: Sit, Stand or Lounge
You can vote once a day for each email address you have.

Sonic works in conjunction with DonorsChoose.org to help public school teachers obtain supplies and equipment for their classrooms. I have had a lot of luck in getting my projects funded through a variety of programs run by DonorsChoose and their partners. I am endlessly amazed that the generosity of individuals as well as larger corporate sponsors.

Earlier this summer, Bing ran a special Teacher's Appreciation program. During that program, you could make a comment about how a teacher inspired your or affected your life. Bing then sent you a gift card to use at DonorsChoose! FREE! My project Sit, Stand or Lounge was partially funded through that promotion.

Now with Sonic's Limeades for Learning, I am working on receiving enough votes to get both Sit, Stand or Lounge AND Save Me! funded.

SO, I am asking for everyone's help! Go to Limeades for Learning, vote for my project.
Vote every day! If you have more than one email address, vote with each one!

As of right now, Tuesday, the top project has 243 votes. Sit, Stand or Lounge has 15.

Together, we can make this happen.

Thanks

Where does the time go?

Every once in a while, time runs away on me. I do not know where it goes, but I know that I am not getting everything done that needs getting done!

Since the start of the school year, I have been desperately trying to catch up with myself. I have made lists, I have canceled my netflix subscription, I have stopped getting on facebook as much.
Nothing worked.

I spent the past week working harder than ever to get caught up and organized.

I think I am just about there.

This weekend I managed to redo the borders on my Pieces of the Past quilt that were originally too wavy for my long arm quilter, Chris, to quilt nicely.

I finished the 12 large tote bags that were originally intended as gifts for the staff at the assisted living residence mom was at. I do not know what I will do with them now, but they needed to be finished.


I matched threads to felt to create the felt food that I plan to use as part of my Mustang's display at car shows. I also made a donut and a hamburger patty before I ran out of stuffing material.










I did some piecing on the quilt that I purchased the pattern and fabric for at my quiltaway weekend in June.

I also cleaned off the large cutting table in my studio by accomplishing all of the above.

I finally photographed and posted a number of finished items for my Etsy Store.

I needed to review and revise the social studies notes for my class. I finished chapters 1 through 5 today. I also finished my grading and lesson plans.

Last weekend, Vince asked me what gift I had gotten him for our 13th wedding anniversary. We do not normally exchange gifts, but I told him that on Sunday we were going to Lowes after church to purchase new floor tile for the main bathroom. We did,along with the grout, caulking and paint to finish the job. Last weekend, we tore up the old tiles, removed grout and caulking and cleaned. Vince started the floor last weekend and only has a small portion to finish. Yesterday, I finished repairing small holes in the walls and painted the walls in the bathroom. Tonight, I need to clean out the linen closet and remove the small piece of carpeting from the floor so Vince can finish the floor at the end of this week when he finishes his work shift.

Once again, I have a garage full of stuff for the inevitable yard sale. It seems that I gather up items no one else wants, sometimes items I do not want, and since I do not want to consign them to the landfill, they are hanging out in my garage until I find them new homes.
While I continually post items on Craigslist and Freecycle, I still have more stuff to get through. Vince and I are exploring the possibility of setting up a table at a flea market south of here in Crump. We plan to explore it next weekend.

So, that is were we are...some items finished, some moved along, some just a bit more organized.

One Week Down!

Well folks, we have made it through the first week of school. Yes, school here in Tennessee started on August 3rd with a short but sweet half day that permitted the teachers and students to get use to each other.

I have an absolutely fantastic group of 23 students in my home room class and another absolutely fantastic group of 23 students in my team class. Since I teach primarily Math and History, I get to experience two groups of 6th graders every year.

For the most part, they are well behaved, smart and funny. I have enjoyed each day of the past 6 days of school.

We have encountered the typical issues for the beginning of 6th grade: not remembering which books to bring to class, not remembering pencils or binders or paper, not doing homework, doing homework but not remembering to bring it to school, not listening to directions or reading the directions and doing the quiz wrong (which requires them to re-do the assignment), not using pencil in math, using their index cards (Which are intended to become flash cards for studying vocabulary words) to write their vocabulary words and definitions five times each, not knowing how to multiply or divide, not knowing how to add and subtract large numbers, etc.

At the same time we have encountered these issues: fun and laughter, jokes, stories from summer vacation, cartoon drawings, entertaining journal assignments, smiles in the morning, "have a great afternoon, Mrs. Carrabba" as they leave the room at the end of the day, hugs.

I love teaching. I am so thankful that I found my way into this profession. I never thought that this was part of my destiny, but here I am.

New Old Cookie Press

Yay! I found this lovely at the Christian Mission Thrift Store in Enterprise Alabama!
I am not certain if it works yet, but I could not resist the EXCELLENT price.
It was marked $2.50 which is wonderful, but when I checked out,
I found out that it was HALF PRICE!
This means I paid a total of $1.25 for this treasure.

Terracycling up for a New School Year!

Yesterday, we had our Back to School Store at our church. The women's group organizes this entire event, which helps provide back to school supplies for about 100 students in our local community.
My favorite part is meeting all of the students and sometimes seeing students that I have had in the past! I had a chance to talk with more than 6 of my prior students, some parents and some possible future students! It was a wonderful day and the kids left with backpacks full of school supplies and stomachs full of home made cookies!

The night before, when we were setting up, I noticed that volunteers were putting cookies in small snack sized Zip-Loc bags.










Of course, my "trash-radar" went up and since I could not avoid the baggies, I could gather them and send them to Terracycle. So, I prepared a box with a sign asking for the empty baggies to be put in the box.
While I still had to raid the trashcans, there were many baggies put in the box! (mind you I had to take baggies out of the 'plastics' recycling can and cardboard boxes out of the 'plastics' recycling can!)

While I was helping to clean up and gather these baggies, Judy asked me about everything that I collected. She said that she really did not like to throw items in the trash as she understands that there is no "away" when an item is thrown away! So she wanted to know if anything that she had saved was something I collected. So, she will be bringing me her trash on Monday! I also sent her a link to my original blog post on what I collect with the brigades! Through the Terracycle Facebook page, I often find out about changes to the brigades or clarifications as to what is acceptable. The only recent change is that Terracycle now takes the Straws from the Drink Pouches. This is the comment from the Terracycle FB page:

"This is because we also now turn the drink pouches you send to us into pavers, bricks, fence posts and more. Through this melting type process (please excuse my lack of technical knowledge on the subject, but do see... See more the video in our video tab called 'From Flavia Fresh Packs to Pavers' to learn more) we are also able to use roughly 4x more drink pouches then before, which is really great for everyone. For example, a large juice pouch tote bag uses 26 juice pouches, but one paver stone uses at least 100! Happy TerraCycling."

Remember, the idea is to reduce the packaging that we put in the landfills. There are many ways to accomplish this.

First--really consider the items you purchase: do you really need it? how is it packaged? can the packaging be reused, composted, or recycled?

Second--look at what you are considering putting in that trash can: Can it be used by someone else (yard sales, thrift stores, freecycle, craigslist!!) Can it be composted or recycled? can it be remade into some other useful item?

There are many people out there who are successful at living life to the fullest while reducing their impact on the environment. It takes time and patience with your self. Our habits did not develop overnight, so it will take more than one day, one week, one month or even one year to change.

Take that first step.

Make one change this week.

Hmmm.....Summertime "To Do" list??

I was meandering through my old posts and came across my Summertime "To Do" list, and thought it would be interesting to see what I actually finished!

Here is the original list with updates in GREEN

1. Finish the following quilts:
Jennifer's baby quilt (finished)
Peacock (top finished and delivered to long arm quilter)
Spinning Card Deck (this has been given thought and is being remade into a different design)
Skyward Nines (background and border fabric purchased)
Log Cabin (from the beautiful hand-dyed fabrics I bought as a kit at the 2009 Paducah Quilt Show!) (nothing done with this project!)
2. Finish the fabric rug I started 4 years ago using the Locker Hook method! (no progress here!)
3. Finish baby bibs for Etsy store. (finished as of today!)
4. Photograph items for Etsy store. NOPE
5. List items in Etsy store. NOPE
6. Yard Sale in June! Rescheduled for August 7
7. Clean out school filing cabinets (done!)
8. Decide on and organize Math Stations for RTI (Response to Intervention) method that will be used in school next year. (this one is a biggie!!) DONE! This started with an inventory of what I already had. I found that I had a number of perfect activities and all I needed to do was organize them. I created instruction sheets for each activity, listing supplies needed and making sure the activity parts were organized. I had to create little drawstring bags for some activities. I still have TONS of items that need to be cut out from cardstock and organized into folders, but I have help planned and a date arranged for next week.
9. Organize school cabinets DONE
10. Re-hang signs in classroom. (done!)
11. Repair entryway rug in classroom. DONE
12. Put 2009-2010 scrapbook together. I purchased the scrapbook and extra pages just two weeks ago.


Additionally I completed these activities:
Dyed and sewed new curtains for the window and the shelves in my classroom.
Spray painted the bookshelf in my classroom
I finished the Readers are Leaders quilt and the Prairie Schooler Quilt.
I added a hanging sleeve to the Hot Air Balloon quilt
Vince hung all three of these quilts in my classroom
Vince made and hung new pegs for the students' backpack and coats.
I finished the binding for the Snow Crazy Quilt.

So, overall, I made progress and had a busy summer! I am glad it is not over yet.

Donors Choose and Sonic: Partners Again!

Last August, Sonic partnered up with DonorsChoose.org in the Limeades for Learning promotion.
I was fortunate enough to have two projects funded through that promotion!

Starting August 30th, drinks at Sonic will have voting codes on them. It is very easy to then go to the Limeades for Learning site and vote for your favorite Public School Teacher's project!

I have created two links on my blog to aid you in finding my projects when you vote for your favorite!

All I am asking is that if you patronize Sonic, know anyone who patronizes Sonic, knows someone who works at Sonic, or want to go to Sonic because you want to support public school teachers, please pass the word along and help out a teacher!