Announcing... Hey June

I am so excited I can barely contain my excitement!

And by that I mean I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open.  

I mean, excitement, exhaustion it's all pretty much the same, right?

In my case it is.  The cause of my excitement and the cause of my exhaustion are one and the same.  Today Greg and I officially opened our online jewelry shop, Hey June 

 Here's the story.  After I had June, I wanted an adorable little ruby to commemorate the month of July in which my body was cut in half and a baby was pulled out of me.  It was the greatest month of my life!  And the weirdest!  And I needed to celebrate!

But alas, I couldn't find that perfect little ruby anywhere.  I checked birthstones but blech! Have you guys seen what has happened to birth stones lately?  Let's just say Walmart has really had its way with birthstones the last decade.  Ain't no one making a birthstone necklace these days that looks pretty and dainty and feminine.

So I decided fine fine fine.  I'll do it.  I'll make these necklaces for the world.  My best friend since college has had a successful jewelry shop for years so she set me straight- told me where to find some much needed supplies and gave me all the advice one needs when one decides to start making necklaces with rubies in them.  IT'S A WEIRD WORLD.

And that's how we arrived here.  With these necklaces in my home.  Made by me with some help from Greg.  And when I say some help from Greg I mean he untangled twelve necklaces for about six hours tonight with the patience of a kind and tender nun.  Thanks Greg!  And word to the wise:  DO NOT TANGLE NECKLACES.

I love celebrating my birthday and all, but I kind of started thinking that we should be celebrating so much more in life than just the month we were born.  August is the month that Greg first kissed me.  May is the month I got my first teaching job.  March is the month I got married.  In September I started this blog.  October is the month that Maverick joined our family.  November is the month my dad passed away, and then four years later on the exact same day, it was the day I found out I was pregnant with my first baby.  I really ought to be celebrating or remembering all of these significant times in my life, not just my birth month.

Hey June's goal is to take a special period of time in your life and hang it around your neck for you to hold close to your heart.  It's not just a necklace, it's a story.

When I'm feeling all romantical I wear August's stone (peridot) 

to remember the month that Greg first planted his salty lips on mine.

But I didn't want to make no cheap jewelry.  I can't help it, I like my jewelry the way I like my women- beautiful and feminine, yes, but also strong and durable.  I have been blessed in my life to know the most amazingly beautiful and strong women, and these necklaces are a tribute to those women.  All our pieces are made to last- they are made with 14 karat gold filled chain, 14 karat gold filled wiring, 14 karat gold filled clasps and real swarovski crystals.  Gold filled jewelry means that your necklace will not turn color on you or turn your skin colors.  IT WILL STAY GOLD.  Because what's the point of spending money on a necklace if you can't wear it anymore after a few weeks?  A main goal of these necklaces is that they are simple enough, pretty enough, versatile enough, strong enough and durable enough to be an every day, staple piece of jewelry.

Greg and I do the wiring on our necklaces ourselves which means that each piece is unique and has its own personality and character.  June does the wiring on some of the necklaces too and those ones are real unique.  Chalk full of personality. (I kid. I kid.)

Go check out the shop.  It would be an honor to help you remember significant times in your life with our jewelry.  AND because it's opening week and because you are my faithful, awesome blog readers I am giving you all 20% off necklaces for the first week.  Just enter BLOG20 at check out.  AND if you order $50+ worth of jewelry you get free shipping.  Use code FREESHIP.  And that shipping deal, dearies, is good forever!

Oh, and follow us on instagram (@heyjuneshop) for all the behind the scenes action, giveaways, discounts, and the first scoop on new items coming out. There may or may not be a giveaway coming up soon.  Just saying.

It is definitely way too late for me to still be working on this post, and I am for sure middle-of-the-night-emotional but I just want to thank all of you guys for reading, commenting, supporting and being a part of my life through this blog.  It feels very vulnerable to embark on a pursuit like this.  I feel so grateful to even have the opportunity to start a little business...  It is breathtakingly terrifying, and I never in a million years would have attempted it if I didn't have such awesome online friends through this blog.  Your support means the world to my little growing family, and thanks for giving me the confidence and love to do something like this.

September stone- the month I started this blog.  

Thank you thank you thank you.

A post about clothes I wear at home because this is interesting stuff that must be shared with the world

Dear blogging world.

Do you know what I stopped worrying about lately?  My clothes I wear at home.  Every home day I used to sit and stare at my closet and try to figure out what in the world I was going to wear.  Has to be comfortable, but still cute and not sloppy.  But I need to be able to take Maverick for a walk in it, go to the grocery store in it, meet my mom for lunch.  Well, I learned from my friend Sarah that the whole trick is to keep casual clothes simple.  I kind of feel like this was a whole epiphany for me- when I am at home, doing laundry, running errands, etc I don't need to over think what I'm wearing.  (Which is different from not getting dressed.  I always get dressed on my days at home as this helps me feel more productive and gives me a boost of confidence and self love.  Some people love staying in their pjs all day, but it always sends me into weird spirals of depression and self loathing.  We've all got our problems people!)  

So I developed kind of a casual days at home uniform, so to speak.  Basically I just copied Sarah.  My at home uniform is:

- loose v-neck tee

- comfy jeans

- flip flops, tennies, or booties

- simple but pretty every day jewelry 

 

This system is amazing. No more thought or energy wasted on clothes I wear while chilling around my house. Every day at home I wake up and throw on a v neck and a pair of jeans and the whole "getting ready and being pretty" routine is over.  Well except for hair and makeup and listen, if anyone out there has got a way to make this process simpler, I am ALL EARS because the thought that I have to put mascara on every day for the rest of my life is just the pits.

Those jeans are from a clothes drive at my church and are my current favorite pair.  They fit like a freaking glove.  Now, someone tell me how this happens: I search every store in the world for a great pair of jeans.  I am willing to pay $100+ for that perfect, every day pair that fits me just right.  But they are not found.  Month after month I search for those, and still they allude me.  Then, in a completely non related pursuit, I last minute decide to go to a clothing drive for my church and what do you know?  The perfect pair of jeans is sitting right there, waiting patiently for me in a pile of maternity dresses.  WHAT IS THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN?

And that's the story of the heroic and brave journey of my jeans.

My tshirt is the Boyfriend Tee from Old Navy.  This shirt pretty much changed my life.  It's $5-7 and comes in every color.  Guess what?  I discovered this year, too, that I don't like a lot of the colors that I buy clothes in.  Turns out my whole life I have felt this weird responsibility to buy clothes in every color.  Why was that?  As if I had to honor this loyalty to the color spectrum.  I don't have a green shirt!  I must buy green!  When it's time to buy a cardigan I love the gray one best, but I already have so much gray so... purple it is!  It took until this year at the ripe old age of 29 that I allowed myself to stop buying clothes in every color.  Turns out for most of my clothes I like the basic colors- white, gray, black, navy.  Say what?  It can't possibly be that simple can it?  Wearing these basic colors allows me to have more fun with color in my accessories- I love a bold red lip or bright turquoise flats or a pretty mint necklace.  I can wear these pretty colored accessories whenever I want with my plain shirts and pants, and I still get that pop of color without it being so overpowering.  (FYI: I bought this shirt in navy, black, two grays, and three whites.  It's that great.)

The best thing about the boyfriend tee from Old Navy though, is not the basic colors it comes in, but that it is NOT TIGHT.  NOT FORM FITTING.  DOESN'T SHOW EVERY FOLD OF MY POST BABY BODY.   I realized this year that I don't like my clothes very tight.  At least not my shirts.  I don't mind a great tight fitting jean but when it comes to shirts, sheesh, get that thing off my body!  I can't breathe and I'm sweating out my arm pits like a banshee now loosen this tee up.  I'm talking to you Forever 21.

As far as jewelry goes, I am lately digging simple colored stones.  I can't tell you any more information about the necklace below until tomorrow but get ready for something freaking awesome!

Peace out!  May your Monday be productive and hppy.

What We Did in Class This Week + What I Wore

It's time for the return of what we did in class this week!  This is always one of my favorite posts to write.  Last year I felt a bit off my jam when it came to teaching, getting dressed, writing on my blog.... everything really.  We were adjusting to a lot of newness as a family and then there was the nursing wardrobe which really cramped my style.  I felt like I could never dress cute because everything had to be low, buttoned, loose, layered.  Yea for being done nursing!  (But boo for the return of my flat chest.  You can't have your cake and eat it too, you know.)

WHAT I WORE:

Those are the eyes of a woman who just taught four straight 85 minute classes full of teenagers.  

I wonder if I did the ultimate kamikaze move by giving up my prep period?

Also, hats off to elementary teachers who never get prep periods.

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Outfit details:  

Cardigan: Gap//  Blouse: Thrifted//  Shoes: Gap// Skirt: JC Penny (I got that skirt six years ago when I first started teaching) Watch: Jord

WHAT WE DID

JUNIORS  

This year I am teaching two classes of regular junior English and two classes of AP Literature.  I really love teaching a class twice- you don't have time to get sick of teaching it yet, but teaching it only once feels like SO MUCH WORK to prepare all the materials for just one class.  I used to think three was the perfect amount to teach something, but last year I taught three junior classes and got pretty bored by the third go around, so maybe twice is my sweet spot?

My juniors are one day away from finishing The Crucible.  My school district likes us to teach junior English (American Literature) in chronological order which means that we start with Puritan type stuff- The Crucible, Scarlet Letter.  I struggle with this because those texts are extremely difficult for regular kids, and I don't like to start out with the hard hard stuff.  Kids are still shuffling in and out of class and they don't quite trust you yet.  If I had my way I would teach The Crucible in January- it would give us time to do some scaffolding and reading of other texts to prepare them for Crucible.  Also they would trust me.  It's so much easier to teach second semester- kids buy in to your system, they no longer believe that you're just trying to screw them over, they understand your systems and procedures.  I feel like if I save the difficult texts for when they 1) trust me and 2) are used to the structure of the class, I have a lot more success.

BUT as teaching Crucible in January definitely doesn't work for chronological teaching of American Lit, I bite the bullet and start teaching it the second week of school.  This year I have seriously debated just scrapping Crucible altogether.  It is such a hard text with so many characters.  It requires a very good understanding of the time period, and if kids miss a day of reading they are pretty much screwed.  There are so many nuances in the text that kids can easily miss if I don't point them out.  We read the whole thing together in class and I feel like I am stopping them every two lines, "Did you see that?"  "What does that mean?"  "What is he referring to when he says that?"  "Why is she upset?"  It is exhausting for me and the students, and I still don't know if they are really understanding.  It takes us close to an entire class period to read 20 pages together and I feel like I've sucked the fun out of their souls.

If I stopped teaching Crucible then I would need some other work of literature to sub in for the Puritan era.  Scarlet Letter is an obvious choice, but is an even tougher read than The Crucible and I'm afraid it would just totally kill off my students if I started in on Scarlet Letter right back from summer break.  Their minds aren't in reading shape yet, you know?  My other option would be to scrap a longer work of literature altogether and just read short stories and essays about the time period.  I dread doing this because here's my confession, I am not a good teacher when I don't have a book or play that we are working on.  A book just gives so much structure to the class and makes it so easy to teach all of the standards- reading, writing, speaking, listening- all of it is so much easier when we are studying a piece of literature.  Thinking about going several weeks without teaching a book terrifies me simply because I don't know how.  I don't know how I would fill all that time or how I would find enough to talk about.

LASTLY an issue that I've had with Crucible this year that I've never ever had before is I've had kids complaining about the separation of church and state issue.  There's a part where the reverend asks John Proctor to name the 10 commandments to see how "worthy" he is.  I always have students try to list off how many they know to see if they'd pass Salem's "standards of righteousness".  Usually kids really like this and think it's fun.  This year they complained- one student said it made her really uncomfortable and one muttered under her breath while we were doing it that "this isn't Sunday School."  I tried to explain to them that we can study religions and religious beliefs without it being Sunday School- I was not implying that they should be living the ten commandments, merely asking them if they had a basic knowledge of Christian beliefs and knew any of the ten commandments.  I mean, yes, I get it, separation of church and state but how in the world do you teach early American Literature without mentioning God?  They are Puritans!  Everything they did, said, and thought revolved around their beliefs in God, so yah, we kinda gotta talk about religion.  Especially in The Crucible... the reverends, the turning yourself over to Satan, the trying to please God, etc, etc, etc. You simply can't teach the book without teaching a basic "this is what Christians believe."  Sigh.

SO... long story short I am really struggling with teaching The Crucible this year.  I'd love to axe it completely, but don't know what would take its place for next year.  I see the reasoning behind my district wanting to teach American Literature chronologically- it makes the most sense and aligns with what junior history teachers are teaching.  It is the ideal way to teach.  BUT, I think for regular juniors it might not be so ideal.  Junior options at my school for English classes are: AP Language, Honors English, and Regular English.  I definitely think that an Honors language class should be taught chronologically.  These kids have had success with reading in the past, usually enjoy literature to some extent, and can probably jump in to Crucible or Scarlet Letter early on in the school year without it being too difficult.  But for regular juniors, many of whom have never enjoyed reading, not passed English classes in the past, and are generally suspicious of English teachers, I feel like they'd benefit from establishing a relationship with the teacher and getting some other more manageable texts under their belts before attempting Purtian literature.  I just don't think we're doing them any favors starting with Crucible.  I also have a handful of students in each class who are not native English speakers and struggle with basic comprehension- I fear we're killing them off very quickly with old John Proctor over here.

If I had my choice I'd start regular junior English off with Of Mice and Men.  It's a short book (barely over 100 pages) which always wins students' affection immediately.  There are interesting characters, manageable text and dialogue, and themes that are really easy to understand and talk about.  It yields great discussion and kids always have a strong opinion about this book.  Some hate it, but they love that they hate it, you know?  I feel like this is a perfect book to help students trust literature and their literature teachers.

Um... I was going to tell you what my AP Lit classes have been working on too, but by now my blog writing time is far spent.  I'll give you a glimpse into our AP classroom next week.  Also, I am going  to start doing these What We Did in Class posts every two weeks instead of every month so that it is a more manageable post to write.  Ok?  Ok.  Now go have a great weekend!  And if you think about it, tell me a solution to my Puritan/Crucible/Scarlet Letter problem!  Grazi!

Around the Web:
+ Can't think of a more worthwhile cause of the whole internet than this one.  So proud to be a (little) part of this.  Not all agree with me that it's still a major problem in our country, but I definitely think it is and it's something I'm proud to fight for.
+ My blogging bestie, Taylor, had me laughing out loud this week when making fun on Instagram and the way we all buy in to it.  She's a genius.  A hilarious little genius.
+ Brooke breaks down why your facebook posts aren't reaching very many people in this post.  Want to know how to increase your reach?  She's got you covered.  (After reading this I am kind of shocked.  I need to change basically everything about the way I promote my blog on facebook.)
+ Started crying when I was reading this article about marriage.  I agree with so much of it and disagree with so much of it.
+ Would you ever make something like this for dinner?  I'm desperate for easy dinner suggestions around here.

Conquer Your Boredom with Crunch + Netflix Binge Shows

One of the things that I love about Greg is he is totally a kid at heart.  He loves camp outs and forts, staying up late and sleeping in, and he'll tear through a bag of candy faster than a twelve year old the day after Halloween.  His favorite chocolate bar is this one, and I swear to you I cannot keep them stocked.  Even just preparing for this post I had a bag of these bad boys in the pantry and Greg would come home from work every day, open the pantry, and ask me if he could eat them yet.  "No!  I have to take the pictures still!"  I'd say.  He was thrilled when we finally got around to taking our pictures so that he could dig in.  I think I ate about two bars before he and June devoured the rest of the bag.  Jerks.

This was the first time we have ever given June a Nestlé® Crunch®.  One of my favorite things about being a parent is watching June discover life's little pleasures.  Nestlé® Crunch® is definitely a little pleasure for us.  Or maybe a big pleasure.  All chocolate just kind of rules our world around here.

As you can see, June is very good at getting food in her mouth all over her face.  The yummier the treat, the bigger the mess, amiright?

While June is obviously a big fan of Nestlé® Crunch®, Greg and I might rival her when it comes to our love for this perfect little candy bar.  Just the right amount of crunchiness and chocolate.  Sometimes our nights around here can get a tad bit dull- we both work ourselves like crazy during the day and then at night all we have energy for is to come home and stare at the wall.  That's why Nestlé® Crunch® is the perfect snack to help us cure our boredom... it gives us that extra bit of crunch we need at night.  Our favorite thing to do on our weeknights is put June to bed, grab our Nestlé® Crunch® and other snacks and cuddle on the couch while binging on Netflix.  Real original, I know, but it's the perfect little cure to our boredom, helps us relax, and gets us mentally prepared to face hundreds of 17 year olds the next day.

Our favorite shows in Netflix/ Hulu:
Community- Just starting season 3... where has this series been all my life?  I love Abed something fierce and Chevy Chase as Pierce is just too freaking good.  My only complaint is that sometimes I wish there were a bit more of a plot that carried through several episodes.
Parks and Rec- Plowed through these last year.  So good.  Chris definitely wins for favorite character, Greg loves him some Ron Swanson any night of the week.
The Office- rewatched the first three or four seasons last year.  Greg says it isn't good after season 4 and won't watch any more than that.  While I think they definitely decrease in awesomeness, I still love them.  I never watched any of the episodes after Michael left.  Do I need to?
Arrested Development- we've watched these all once and LOVED them.  I think it's time to watch them again- the cleverness of the writing is out of this world.
Breaking Bad- best television show made ever?  Jesse Pinkman is my television hero but I don't think I could ever watch the series again.  So heavy!
The Mindy Project- we loved it when it first started, it went through a bit of a rough spot, and now, on the brink of season 3 we are loving it again.  Mindy + Danny as a couple are absolutely hilarious and they remind us SO MUCH of Greg and me. (One of the few tv relationships that I thought the show got better once they finally hooked up)  I guess it gives us hope that if a fictional couple on tv can be very different and have a great relationship, so can we.  I mean, don't all of life's hopes come from fictional characters on tv?!?

Shows we kind of like on Netflix/ Hulu:
New Girl- LOVED the first season, but I liked it less and less as it progressed. We haven't watched any of the newer episodes  I don't like it when shows or writers just rely on endless sex jokes for the laughs... gets kind of old.
Call the Midwife- full disclosure, we have only watched one episode so far, but I LOVED it!  I may have to watch this one on my own, though, as Greg mostly just talked in a British accent about how we needed to deliver babies for the next two days after we watched this.
Downton Abby- we watched the first two or three seasons of this (up until a very very prominent character got killed off) and then just kind of forgot to start watching it again when the next season started up.  I'm hoping to binge on this over the winter... it always feels like a great winter watch to me.
How I Met Your Mother- Such complicated feelings on this show!  We watched all 9 seasons and I hated the way it ended so freaking much that it kind of ruined the entire show for me.  The last season was probably the worst thing I have ever seen a television series do to itself.  But Marshall + Lily are hilarious- one of my favorite tv couples ever.  I hate Robin though.  I could never attach myself properly to the show because Robin just bugged me way too much.
The Following- We LOVED the first season, the second season just got to me too much, and we tuned out after that.  Do we need to give season 3 a shot?

Also I feel like I need to confess that when I am by myself I pretty much exclusively watch old episodes of 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom because I am seriously weird.

Alrighty, grab your Nestlé® Crunch® and conquer your boredom with some seriously good Netflix shows.  Tell me, which ones are we missing out on?  Oh, and because Nestlé® Crunch® is awesome they are giving one of you guys $20 worth of chocolate.  HOLLER!  All you have to do is like their facebook page here and then comment on this blog that you did so.  Winner will be announced Friday at 3:00 pm MST. Easiest giveaway ever.

Down and Dirty

What in the world makes a little girl this dirty?

THIS of course!

Stick around, full post and details coming tomorrow!

A Day in the Life of June: 14 Month Update

Hi guys!  It's me, June.  My mom talks a lot about me but I figured it's time to let you know what the real deal is in my world.   It's not cool to always let adults talk for babies, you know.

I'm 14 months old now which means I'm pretty much the smartest baby alive at this point. I do things my way and not the way that others (ahem, mom) want me to.  I know a lot of other kids my age are walking, but my philosophy is why walk when you can crawl?  Last weekend my mom and dad took me camping and it was a blast crawling all over rocks, dirt, and even in the shallow lake water while dad tried to fish.  I got all my clothes filthy dirty within twenty minutes.  #winning!  Walking seems like it's pretty overrated because then your parents expect you to walk places and stop carrying you as much.  With crawling you get the best of both worlds- you can move whenever or wherever you want but as soon as you get sick of it you can let out a sad little cry and someone will rush to pick you up because you can't walk yet.  Trust me, I've got this whole thing figured out.

Here's the thing with mom.  She's kind of an idiot.  She tries to buy me these cutesy little toys to keep me entertained and I just look at her like, "Mom?  Really?  You think this is fun for me?"  I don't want blocks and I don't want dolls.  You know what I like to play with?  Tampons.  And Qtips.  Anything in the cupboards basically.  A box of cascade is one of my favorites too.   I can spill that little white detergent all over the floor in four seconds flat.  And then there's pots and pans.  Those things make a ton of noise and I love to leave them all over the kitchen.

 Pads.  These bad boys are one of my favorite toys ever.

No idea why mom buys them, but I'm glad she does!

OH!  I almost forgot- Maverick's food and water dish!  That is my favorite toy in the whole darn tooting house.  I like to take his pieces of dog food and one by one drop them in the water dish.  It's very interesting to me to watch that dog food get bigger and bigger.  Then when I feel like I've dropped enough in the bowl I like to pick the bowl of soggy dog food + water and just empty it all over the kitchen floor and all over myself.  This is truly a blast and I love the way my clothes smell like dog food after this.  The best water activity you could ever imagine- way better than the splash pad or the swimming pool.

One of my other favorite things to do is follow mom around the house while she is attempting to clean up.  What a fool, thinking she can clean this house while I live here.  I follow slowly in her wake- she straightens up the bookshelf and I promptly go to throw all the books from the shelf.  She loads the dishwasher while I sit on the floor and sneakily unload it.  She straightens up the bathroom, hops in the shower, and then I empty all the contents of the bathroom cupboards.  Mom gets out of a shower to an even bigger mess than when she got in.  Hahahaha!  She's doomed!

Ah crap, caught in the act unloading the dishwasher while mom tries to load it.

Lately I've decided that it's really lame to let your mom or dad feed you.  I know that when they feed me a lot more of the food actually gets in my mouth, but I would be totally embarrassed if the other babies knew that my parents still had to spoon feed me.  So I insist on doing it myself.  If mom or dad tries to feed me I shake my head and yell and refuse to eat.  If they just put the food in front of me, though, I'm really pleasant about it and just eat my food.  This is awesome because it also helps contribute to my plan to leave a mess wherever I go.

I have another favorite trick, and that is that I love to release my stinkers while in the bathtub.  It just feels right, you know?  I know I could do it in a diaper when it's a little easier on mom, but the thing is, it just feels better in the tub.  Then mom has to clean out my stinkers, disinfect the tub, disinfect my toys and then give me another bath!  It's awesome!  TWO BATHS!  I do feel bad when mom has to do it, though- I try to use this trick mostly when dad is giving me a bath because dad used to pull this trick on his mom, too.  I figure it's payback for dad.

My busy schedule of uncleaning the house and bathtub shenanigans often leaves me totally exhausted.  Very few people understand how hard it is to be this busy.  That's why I take my sleep very seriously.  The other day mom put me down at 5:00 for a short nap because I was acting real grumpy.  Well,  I didn't feel much like getting up so I slept right through dinner and didn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning.  Fifteen straight hours of sleep!  If that's not talent, I don't know what is.  Again, my dad used to pull this crap when he was a teenager and in college, so I guess I've learned from the best.  (Mom can also sleep in until noon on weekends.  Really, we're just a talented bunch of sleepers.)

Also, did I tell you my mom stopped nursing me?  That was rude.  I'm still kind of mad at her for that.  She can be real inconsiderate sometimes.

Welp, that's it from Baby June.  Maybe next time I'll tell you all about what I do when I go to Kinderbeets (daycare) with the other kids.  That place is a blast.  And I'll let you know if I ever decide to start walking but for right now, who needs it?  Also I've heard there's this thing called Christmas coming up where my mom puts decorations very low to the ground while hanging on branches... can't tell you how excited I am to destroy those suckers!  Peace out!

Dinner got ya stressed? I got your back.

A friend asked on facebook the other day for "house maintaining" suggestions now that she would be going back to work part time.  I didn't think I had much to say to her but as I started commenting, the advice came flying off my finger tips hard and fast.  Turns out I have lots of little tricks I've picked up in the past year of being mom + working part time + blogging on the side to help the house run smoother.  I plan to write a full post on my ideas later in the week, but I'll start with the most important for me and that is that on the days I work I follow Dwight Schrute's KISS strategy when it comes to dinner.  KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.  I do enjoy cooking quite a bit, and I have a few fancy recipes up my sleeve that I love to make when I have time and energy, but when I am crawling in the door at 4:30 absolutely dead exhausted and Greg follows me an hour later even more exhausted, we keep dinner prrrrrrrrrretty basic.

One of my favorite easy dinners for work days is Betty Crocker's "Suddenly Salad."  The bones of the meal are already there, and then I just add whatever I have in my fridge to spruce it up.  Adding meat to it turns it from a side dish to an entire meal.  This time around I didn't add any meat, but next time I am going to try adding grilled chicken and make a whole meal out of it.  We're making added efforts around here to eat lots of fruits and veggies, so I tried to add a lot of vegetables too, and the salad was very filling.  Here's the Suddenly Salad we had for dinner on Thursday, my most recent work day.

(Also, if my recipe doesn't float your boat, check here for tons more easy easy recipes to use with Suddenly Salad.)

Ingredients:
1 Suddenly Grain Salad Southwest Grains (Coupon here)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs water
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 roma tomato, sliced into quarters
feta cheese

Instructions:
1.  Prepare grains according to package directions. (Boil 17 minutes)
2.  While grains are cooking, use a small bowl to mix box seasonings with 1 tbs oil and 1 tbs water.  
3.  When grains are done cooking, run grains under cold water and stir in dressing.  Put salad on serving platter.
4.  Add your fixins!  Put your sliced tomatoes on top, (mine are from my garden that I grew by myself and they are so so yummy!  I'm just a little bit proud!) and sliced avocados around the edges.
5.  Sprinkle feta cheese on top
6.  There you have it- a filling, scrumptious dinner with fresh vegetables ready for the whole family in LITERALLY SEVENTEEN MINUTES.  Bon appetit!

(PSA:   Next time I make this I am using less of the seasonings in the box and a little more water and oil.  The salad had more than enough seasoning and I would have liked it to be not quite so dry.  Next time I'll probably add about 1/2 the seasonings and a dash more of oil and water and that should make it just about perfect...)

Other simple, easy, and yummy Suddenly Salad recipes:
Mediterranean Salad
Southwest Salad

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Grate. Ful.

 It's Friday morning at 10:30 and I am feeling good.  I'm done with school for the week (two day work weeks rock my world) and today I get to stay at home and clean, do laundry, work on my blog, work on a new project I've got coming up (so excited for this!  I'm hoping to announce within the next week or so) and play with my baby.  This Friday is good.  (But it's not Good Friday.  Classic mistake.)

I feel like I have really hit a balance lately with work and home.  This is significant because I have never once in my entire life felt this way, and by next week I will probably not feel this way any longer so I must celebrate while I can!  I am working every other day at the school and on the other days I get to stay home and be with my girl, manage the house, and work on other goals like blog, small business, etc.  Sometimes I get to meet my mom for lunch or go with a friend to a park.  

I am so grateful for these days at home.  And I'm so grateful for my days at school.  I miss my baby when I'm teaching, but I like that I miss her, and I like that it makes me enjoy the time I have with her that much more.  On the reverse side, my days away from the school give me the space from work that I need to miss my students and miss teaching.  On my days at home I'm excited because I get to teach the next day, and on my days at school I'm excited because I get to stay home the next day.  I don't know that a better situation exists for me and I am feeling grateful grateful grateful.

My students are so sweet this year.  I don't know where they came from.  Angels from the mountains.  It seems like every year my students get a little sweeter.  I'm pretty dang lucky to get to teach them.

I am also grateful for this blog- this space on the internet and those of you who come to read here.  This blog has been an emotional outlet for me from the beginning, and I feel like I understand the world better because I am allowed to come here and write about it.  Lately I feel very grateful for the paid sponsorships that I have been given.  Sometimes I hear other bloggers complain about sponsorships and what a drag it is to do them, but I genuinely enjoy my sponsored campaigns and feel honored and grateful to be selected for them.  (The campaigns I am working on now are this one- probably the most important campaign I've ever worked on, this one- my greatest weakness, and this one- my goal to get our family eating healthy.)

Sometimes I have people say "Wow!  Isn't it so crazy that you make money from your blog?  Can you believe that you get paid to do that?"  My answer is yes, I can believe it.  I have worked really hard to get to where I am at.  I have put in thousands of hours into this blog and into my writing.  For every paid post I have written, I have written dozens of unpaid posts.  My first three years of teaching I would wake up at 5:45, commute 45 minutes to school, teach an entire day, commute 45 minutes home, and then get to work on this little blog- writing, promoting, hosting giveaway after giveaway.  Emails upon emails and guest posts upon guest posts.  Then there was Instagram and Twitter and for awhile I felt like I was doing work work work with absolutely no reward.  I ate lived and breathed this blog.  In the summers I went to the library every day for four hours and spent that entire time visiting others' blogs and commenting on them.  Then I'd set in on writing my post, answering emails, etc.  I received not a penny of compensation.  Here I am now, four years later and I have to work significantly less to maintain this blog and I am paid significantly more.  It is an absolute gift and I am so grateful to be in the place I am now. 

But no, I'm not too surprised.  I have worked much harder to get this "job" than I worked to get any other job I've ever had.

This mentality is not my own.  It is adopted from Amy Poehler.  If you haven't read Yes, Please she has a chapter where she explains how people often show surprise at her success, "Can you believe you do comedy for a living?  Can you believe where you are?  CAN YOU BELIEVE YOU'RE FAMOUS?"  She says yes she believes it- she endured years of small comedy clubs, meager wages, doing anything to get a gig.  She worked hard, she devoted her life to it, everything she had went into that career.  It was hard and it sucked and she hit the ground every day to make her dream a reality. So yes, she can believe it.

I've reread those paragraphs about six times because I don't want it to come off arrogant or snooty or entitled.  Just know that good things come to those who work for it.  And of course, it always helps if you have amazing readers, supportive family, (and a gas station nearby that provides a never ending supply of diet coke!) like I do.

 

I am so grateful for this blogging community... sending out my love and good juju to all of you for the weekend.  XOXOXO.

Bon's Book Club: All the Light We Cannot See

HOW IT WORKS

Every month we read a book.  On the selected day, we talk about it.  Join in for whatever books you can.  I know you are all busy, and you might not be able to read all the books. (Or be interested in reading all the books!)  Read what you want and comment on what you want.  Some readers write their own review on their blog and then link up to it, others just write their thoughts in the comments- it's up to you!  If you write your own post and link up, please slap the image above on your post! Grazi!

AUGUST BOOK:  

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE 

ANTHONY DOERR

Picture Source.

I finished this book two hours ago and I usually find it's best for me to sit on a heavy read like this for at least a day before I go spatting off my opinion on it.  But I don't have a day!  So I'll give you my opinion and then tomorrow I'll come on here and delete everything and give you my new opinion!

Things I liked about this book:

+ Gorgeous descriptions.  This is some of the best recently written prose I have ever read.  You can tell that Doerr really poured over his sentences, and the result is just a beautifully crafted book.  There were so many times where I had to stop and reread the descriptions because they were just so beautiful.  There were several parts I highlighted that I want to go over with my AP class because sheesh, that guy knows how to work a sentence.

One of my favorite descriptions:

We all come into existence as a single cell, smaller than a speck of dust.  Must smaller.  Divide.  Multiply.  Add and subtract.  Matter changes hands, atoms flow in and out, molecules pivot, proteins stitch together, mitochondria send out their oxidative dictates; we begin as a microscopic electrical swarm.  The lungs the brain the heart.  Forty weeks later, six trillion cells get crushed in the vise of our mother's birth canal and we howl.  Then the world starts in on us (478).

+ Very brave likeable main characters.  It is very easy to love the two main characters- Werner and Marie-Laure.  Both are orphans and just small children throughout much of the book.  They are brave and fight against the odds and they're both small skinny little things and you can't help but root for them.

+ Everyone's a misfit.  It's not only Marie-Laure and Werner, all the characters in this book are somehow disadvantaged in life- orphans, disabled, old, too small, insane etc.  I loved that.  A bunch of misfits and the small part they played in the war. (At one point Doerr calls a group of characters "The least robust rescue ever assembled.")

+ Short Chapters.  Chapters were 2-3 pages each which I LOVED.  I'm totally a short chapter girl.  The point of view changed with each chapter, and at times that was really hard for me.  I hate it when something interesting is happening to one character and then it cuts off and I have to read about another character for awhile.  Drives me nuts.  I feel like I totally lose momentum.

+Side plot with the jewel.  I really enjoyed the stuff about the gem just because I feel like that made it different from every other WWII book ever written- a little something to make it stick out of the group.

Things I did not like about this book:

+ Slow Plot.  The plot just did not get moving!  250 pages into it and I was still just trucking along, hoping and praying it would pick up.  It kind of picks up the last 150 pages or so, but really it's just a slow book.  It is definitely a detail and description oriented book, not heavily plot driven.  The descriptions are absolutely stunning but at times I felt like I was reading poetry, not a story.  I just needed the story telling pace to pick up a little bit for me.  Also, like I mentioned earlier, the jumping around of characters was tough for me.  I felt like this wasn't really a story, more like a stack of photographs.  Each chapter is a picture, describing what you see in the picture and then you have to piece together all the pictures to figure out the story.  It was just a bit arduous for me.  I never felt like the reading got easy and enjoyable; I never really hit my reading flow with this book.

+  Side plot with the jewel. While I did like this side story, I didn't feel like it was really answered at the end what happened to the jewel.  Was it really the cause for all the unhappiness in Marie-Laure's life?  I felt like Doerr was trying to answer something with it and maybe I just didn't get it because I was trying to read 280 pages of this book in one day...  I just felt like that played such a huge huge part throughout the whole story, and then it was just kind of dropped at the end with no clear explanation.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.  STOP READING THIS REVIEW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET.

+ Not enough time with Werner and Marie-Laure together.  This book frustrated me because I knew the two paths would cross but it didn't happen and it didn't happen and it didn't happen.  Finally at the very end of the book they meet.  And then after all that ground work, all that back story of both of these characters, they literally spent SIX PAGES TOGETHER.  Come on Doerr, you're killing me!  I felt like I did a lot of work in reading up to that point and was not aptly rewarded.

+ Too sad.  I was really frustrated that this book never got happy.  I thought I was going to read 500 pages of the lives of very sad and miserable people to be rewarded by them overcoming their hardships, difficulties and finding happiness.  Now, I know all books don't have to have a happy ending but I felt like Doerr was setting that up.  It was clear Werner and Marie-Laure were going to meet and I thought they were going to be each other's saviors and get through the war together.  But no, Werner saved her from the closet and that was it.  And then, Doerr has the nerve to go and kill off Werner!  Just like that.  After everything he went through, everything he survived, let's just have him walk off in the middle of the night into a land mine!  I was seriously so mad at that point I wanted to throw my book.  I felt like I invested all my time into Werner and his life and his backstory for nothing.  I can't remember the last time a character's death made me that upset.  I think the way he died really bothered me.  Come on, Doerr, have some respect for your protagonist!  You spent 40 pages saving his life after he was practically buried alive, now don't just go kill him in one sentence at the end of a chapter!  

Also I hated that the aunt died and Marie-Laure's grandpa died and EVERYBODY died.  It was just too sad.  You can kill some characters but you can't kill them all, that's just rude. Only Shakespeare can do that.

SO... overall I would give the book three out of five stars.  Gorgeous gorgeous prose but the ending and random killing off of Werner and slow plot really made it hard for me to love this one.

What'd you all think?  Can't wait to hear your thoughts!  I will be responding to all comments today.  If you wrote a post on the book make sure to leave it in the comments!

UPCOMING BON'S BOOK CLUB SCHEDULE:

October 8 ... Happier at Home or The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

November 12... And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Join in!

Women and Education: Why it Matters

Throughout my six years as a high school teacher, I have met some girls who totally kick butt.  They inspire me, motivate me, and teach me.  Many of my relationships with these girls have extended past the classroom and I celebrate with them when they get into their dream college, mourn with them when they lose a friend too soon, roll my eyes when I see them kissing their boyfriends in the hallway.  They are smart and hard working and I am so grateful to know them.  These are girls who stay up until 3 am working on a writing project, girls who do soccer and a part time job while maintaining a 4.0 grade average, girls who compete against their boyfriend for valedictorian.  I am proud of  these girls and when they tell me that they want to be doctors, engineers, or computer programmers my heart swells.  Of course they can be those things.   (Of course my heart swells even bigger when they tell me they want to be teachers.  The world will always need fantastic women educators.)

I'm passionate about educating women.  I didn't know this about myself until I became a teacher.  It suddenly became clear to me that some doors don't open as easily for women as they do for men.  And that seemed pretty messed up.  Some doors don't open at all for women in developing countries.

One of my favorite reads regarding women's education is I am Malala.  If you haven't read it, you need to pronto.  Here's Malala on the cover on Time magazine (She is a teenage girl from Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban while defending her right to receive an education.)

And here's what Malala says about education:

"Education is our basic right... God wants us to have knowledge.  He wants us to know why the sky is blue and about oceans and stars.  I know it's a big struggle- around the world there are fifty-seven million children who are not in primary school, thiry-two million of the girls.  Sadly, my own country, Pakistan, is one of the worst places: 5.1 million children don't even go to primary school even though in our Constitution it says every child has that right.  We have almost fifty million illiterate adults, two thirds of whom are women, like my own mother." 


DID YOU KNOW...

- Keeping girls out of school sentences them to a life of poverty and poor health

- Women earn 10-20% more for every year of school completed

- Children of educated mothers are 2x as likely to go to school

- Children born to literate moms are 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.

- This year 31 million primary school aged girls are out of school worldwide.

- 1/3 of girls in developing countries are married before the age of 18

- 2.7 million Syrian children have been forced to leave school because of the war there.

I know for me I often feel overwhelmed by things like this- I feel so helpless but I ache for these girls.  That's why I was thrilled to hear about CARE.org.   CARE helps millions of girls get an education every year by removing the barriers: no money for school uniforms, girls needing to stay home to help their family earn an income, girls marrying and having children leaving no time for education.  CARE works with parents, community leaders and governments to empower girls and their families to help themselves through education.  Click here to look through CARE’s Gifts of Lasting Change catalog... these back-to-school gifts for friends support girls’ education across the globe.  You can also read about the stories of many girls in developing countries here.  We are so fortunate to have the education that we do here, and through CARE we can easily help a bright, ambitious girl in the developing world reach her potential.

Be Inspired

I saw this Instagram post the other day and I had to stop and look at it for a moment.  I didn't realize until that moment that jealousy had been creeping in.

You see, the blogging/ small business world is on fire lately. (Or at least my section of it is.)  So many people that I respect and admire are really really making a go of this- providing for their family with their blog, getting paid to write, pursuing their passions.  On Thursday night I caught up on my blog reading and was blown away by how successful so many of my peers are.  I read about thriving businesses and about bloggers who have doubled and tripled the size of their blogs (and their earning potential!) in a manner of months.  Wow!

I think it is probably natural to see the success of others and want a slice of it for yourself.  For me at least, it can be tough to watch women be extremely successful in something that I am trying to do... especially when not long ago I felt like I was in the same place as these women, and now they have just blown me out of the water.  The goal for me is to be uplifted by others' successes and not brought down by them.  I mean, my friends worked their tails off, they've done things the right way, and now they are seeing the reward for their work.  They deserve it.  They really do.  I have to remember that cheering for others' success doesn't mean there is less out there for me.  There's enough.  Enough for me, enough for you, enough for anyone who is willing to work for it.

So I'm spending the weekend recharging and relaxing, and am excited to hit the ground running on Monday.  Big things are around the corner!  I've got a feeling 2016 is going to blow my socks off.

And if you want to cheer on some amazing women who constantly inspire me, here are several:

Taylor (sold over 9,500 t-shirts in a year and just began her first start up, nebrowse)
Helene (quadrupled her instagram account since February (+8000 followers)  and  made over $3000 blogging in August)
Elisabeth (one of the best at sponsored posts I've ever seen and a self taught photographer.  I knew her when!)
Amy (the jewelry master- my roommate and best friend from college who was able to quit her teaching job and now makes more at home making beautiful gold jewelry)
Kalista and Akasha (sisters who launched their beautiful baby girl shoe collection, hand made in the Phillipines. A portion of their profits goes to charities and projects that assist Filipinos in need. I knew these girls in high school and they continue to be my good friends... there are not sweeter or more sincere people in the world.)
Alexa  (photographer of everything gorgeous and amazing graphic designer.  Everything she touches turns to beauty instantly.)

! (Part 2)

A year and a half ago I wrote a post entitled !  That's it!  Just an exclamation mark!

In the post I celebrated all the good things  in my life.  Life is always going to have rough times but there are so many good times, and I think maybe sometimes it's easy for us to focus on what is hard right now instead of what is good right now.  So I want to focus on what is good!  Get ready for a lot of exclamation marks!

Tonight I tried out a peach chicken balsamic salad that I got from this site.  It was delicious!  And I felt like a chef extraordinare!

 We have lived in our town home for over a year now!  That's longer than we've ever lived anywhere since we've been married!  We love this little place and are so grateful to be here!

I didn't have to work today, but I popped into the school as Greg was starting up his first musical rehearsal!  They're doing Urinetown this year and the kids are so excited!  The script is hilarious and fun, and I know the play's going to be a screaming success!

This weekend we are going camping with my little sister and her husband!  I love camping!  But I don't do nearly enough of it, because I don't have a lot of confidence in my camping skills.  That's why we get expert campers to go with us!  Thanks Mary and Trent!

Last time we went camping with Mary and Trent.  June was seven weeks old!

Monday is Labor Day which means no school!  Hurray!  Sunday nights when there is no work on Monday are my favorite things in the world!

For over a year I have had this kind of crazy idea/ project I have wanted to do!  But I haven't done it because of fear!  But this week I decided to hell with fear and I'm going to jump in with both feet!  Wish me luck!

June is at the cutest age!  She is so curious!  I like to watch her and am filled with amazement at how grown up and smart she is!  Sometimes I am completely overcome that she is my very own little baby!  I'll take twelve more please!

Scentsy just launched all their new fall and winter smells and my samples are on the way in the mail.  I am obsessed with smell, especially fall/winter smells!  I can't wait! I will test them all out and tell you which ones are best!

My mom is probably the smartest and most understanding and also strongest woman I know!  One day I want to have her strength and goodness and wisdom!  But for now I will just borrow it from her!  (Also, she never panics which is nice!  When I am panicked I really like to be around someone who doesn't panic!)

I am really loving teaching this year!  I feel like I'm back in my groove!  My AP students are so freaking smart- they blow my mind every day!  They are constantly teaching me and I am humbled to get to teach the class!  And my junior classes are full of life and energy and make me laugh all day long!  I am grateful to be their teacher!
One of June's favorite trick is to play with the Bumbo!  She thinks she owns that thing!  She pushes it around, climbs in it, turns it over, has her way with it!  I don't know why that is so stinking cute to me!

I went grocery shopping today!  That means I don't have to go again for a week!  And there is cookie dough in the fridge!  Win win!

My hair is at an awesome stage!  Which naturally means I am thinking about cutting it!  Greg says he thinks I'd be super sexy with a blunt bang!  And I say Greg you're crazy!  But maybe I'll try it?!

I'm really excited for the scary movie coming out The Visit.  I love a good scary movie!
A couple weeks ago my church had a clothing exchange and I got a whole box full of 12 month clothing for June absolutely free!  And they're cute clothes!  And hardly even used!  The only thing better than new baby clothes is free new baby clothes!

It's September!  Next is October!  This is my favorite time of year!

The weather is starting to cool at night!  I like to take Maverick for a walk around 8 pm and it is just perfect! We only get absolutely perfect nights for a month so I am going to enjoy them!

Greg and I have been watching Bachelor in Paradise!  That show is freaking nuts!  And Greg does the funniest Joe impression that I am going to record and put on the blog next week!  It's too good!

June's hair is finally starting to really grow in!  It is red and curls at the nape of her neck which is the most adorable thing on this planet!

Sometimes I stress about stupid things like that my Instagram following isn't big enough, but then I realize that I am happy and healthy and grateful and that life is going pretty dang good and stop worrying about stupid things like Instagram followers because seriously how unimportant is that?!

I live with my husband and my baby and I am so grateful for my little family!  They are everything to me!  Life is all about the people in it!

Now it's your turn!  Tell me all of your !!!!  Let's all celebrate the good stuff together!