To Do Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  It's time to revisit last week's goals and see how I did!  Since it was spring break I had a lot of extra time to get things accomplished and be productive!

• Get some cleaning done around the house.  I did pretty well on this.  I still have a few projects to tackle, but I have a pretty clean home at the moment!  I also managed to do a little closet clean-out and sell some items for extra cash!
• Make lesson plans and sketch out units for the rest of the school year.  I could have done a little better on this one, but I did get plans done and get a few things ironed out for the remainder of the school year.  I have a 4 day weekend this coming weekend and will try to continue this on my days off.
• Get my workout on!  I made it to the gym 4 times last week!  Oh, it felt sooooo good to be back!  

Here are this week's goals!

• Keep up with regular workouts.  My after school tutoring gig is over for the year, so I'll be able to leave work about an hour earlier than I was when that was going on.  I'm hoping to get into the routine of just going to workout straight after school before I come home.  (I hate going during that time, but I think that will be easiest for me to stick with.)
• Cook at least 2 real meals this week.  That's aiming a little on the low side, but that's the goal for right now!
• Complete at least 4 blog posts.  I'm trying to get back into the habit on blogging on a regular basis.  I've settled on the fact that this blog is going to be about a little bit of everything, so I'm just going to write about whatever!  School, makeup, home decor, shopping...  Whatever!

What's on your to do list this week?  

Did you have a productive spring break (if you had one)?

To Do Tuesday: Spring Break Edition

Ahhh spring break...  I love being able to celebrate the end of state assessments with a week off of work.  We actually get Good Friday and the Monday following Easter off as well next week, so I'm doing very little work right now.  (Of course I am doing a little fill-in at my part-time job right now, but I still consider this a break.)

I've slacked on my To Do Tuesday posts over the past month or so, but I wanted to share what I have on my to do list for my days off!

• Get some spring cleaning done around the house.  I get my place immaculately cleaned and then end up trashing it again as soon as the work week starts.  I try to do a little clean up each night, but sometimes that doesn't happen.  I also want to get some hard core deep cleaning done as well.
• Make lesson plans and sketch out units for the rest of this school year.  Now that assessment season is over I can get back to real teaching!  I'm super excited for some of the units and novel studies that we do at the end of the year!
• Get my workout on!  I have majorly slacked on working out over the past month.  I was sick with the never-ending cold from hell for almost 4 weeks.  Ugh!  This body needs to get in shape for summer clothing because these arms and legs aren't ready to get shown off anytime soon!

What's on your to do list this week?  

If you're on spring break, are you trying to be productive, going on vacation, or taking time for relaxation?

Happy Tuesday!

Goodbye Spring Break...

Well, another spring break has come and gone...  It was actually a pretty nice week.  It was super rainy here for the majority of the week, but the last couple days have been beyond beautiful.  I was able to knock out a fair amount of things on my to-do list, so that's always a plus.  I cleaned out my basement closet, sold some clothes at the resale shop, *hopefully* found a place to move to in June, turned in an application for a part-time job for the summer, and even got a couple school related tasks out of the way as well!

The good news is according to my calculations, we only have 10 more Mondays left.  I'm actually not 100% sure of this, but if I have the correct last day of school down, that should be correct.  It really doesn't sound all that awful, but getting down to single digits will be even better.  

My student teacher is getting ready to take over for a few weeks, so I'm sure I'll be finding myself hanging out in the office working on things down there.  I'm trying to get as much as I can prepped for next year and out of the way now.  I'm looking at getting another job for the summer, so it would be nice if I didn't have to spend quite so much time working at school come August.  

Anyway, it's nearing 11 p.m. and I know that 6:30 a.m. is going to roll around wayyyyyy too fast.  Is it bad that I'm already looking forward to next Friday when we have a "non-contract day"  (conveniently on Good Friday)?  Yeah, I'm already anxious for my next day off!  

I hope you all have a wonderful week of working or spring breaking!  :)

Fashion Friday: The Teacher's Spring Wardrobe

The Teacher's Spring Wardrobe by conolley featuring knit tops

I love dressing for spring...  It's kind of the best of both worlds.  I can wear clothing in layers, but can still rock fun, bright colors.  I don't know about any of your classrooms, but I run into the issue of temperature control (or lack thereof...).  My classroom is either full-blast A/C or super humid.  Add in the fact that my windows and ceiling have had some leakage issues and let's just say I've been opting to go with the A/C and the cold.

My spring work wardrobe is all about layering.  I like to use a lot of my summer tanks and dresses and layer them with cardigans and jackets to make them appropriate for work.  I tend to wear my denim jacket A LOT this time of year because it goes with so many dresses and tanks and it's super comfy!

I created this Polyvore set inspired by items I currently own or items that I'd like to own.  I know some schools (and other workplaces) have dress codes that vary.  I'd say that for my school we fall somewhere in the middle as far as our attire.  In the spring, I prefer easy to throw on and comfortable clothes that still have a slightly dressy and professional look.

I hope everyone has a happy Friday!  Today's my last day of spring break before the weekend...  It's been rainy all week, but as a fellow teacher posted on Facebook the other day, I'd rather have a rainy spring break than a week of indoor recess!  

Spring Break Sunday (blah) & A Shopping Story

I must say, it was a wonderful feeling to turn off my weekday alarms and know that I have nothing I have to get up for at all this week.  I've been pretty lazy the past few days...  The only thing I've done is lay around, watch basketball, be on my laptop, and go shopping.

I went to Banana Republic three times within about 24 hours...  Good thing I live just a mile and a half away.

Here's the story.

I was over by there yesterday when I went to return a shirt to Ann Taylor (impulse buy with immediate buyer's remorse) and decided to pop into good 'ol BR to see what's new.  I hadn't been into BR in quite some time, so pretty much everything there was new to me.  I really love their stuff, but it can be quite pricey.  The good thing about BR is they can run some really good promos and have some amazing clearance sales.  

I've been wanting some new casual dresses for spring and summer and I spotted some nice knit t-shirt dresses (here's the striped version), so I gave them a try.  I ended up liking the solid black one (not online right now) and although I do have quite a large number of LBDs I decided this one was different enough to add to my collection. I also found some cute striped tops.  The problem was they were all full price, and they werent't running any promos.  Shopping fail.  I couldn't remember if I had any coupons at home and I knew I'd be back by when I went to church in the evening, so I had my favorite employee hold a couple items.  I found a (measly) 15% off coupon at home so I decided to just go on and get the dress and one of the shirts that evening.  As soon as I sat down to Facebook when I got home I saw a Facebook fan discount at BR for 50% off up to 5 items for today!  I called my BR store and asked if I could return my items and rebuy them with the 50% off and they agreed!  So, I went back today and added another striped top and a headband and still got $12 back from my original purchase.  Once again, making friends with the sales associates paid off!  They're great over there!

(I've really been trying to not just go shopping when I'm bored, but I let's face it...  I'm an emotional shopper.  Good mood, bad mood, whatever--  I like to shop as my escape. Without sounding like a sad sack I'll just say I'm kinda stressed about some stuff with other people that's out of my control.  I'm just trying to put it in God's hands and pray about everything.)

***And now, KU just won their game.  Ugh!  I strongly dislike them with a passion.  Now I'm in a really bad mood.***

Anyway, other than my shopping fail that turned into a success, I've had a fairly dull break so far.  I need to call up some of my in town friends and try to make some plans to get out and be social in some form.  I feel like getting out and doing something (something that isn't shopping by myself) is what I need right now.  As much as I enjoy some downtime and some time by myself, I'm a naturally social person and breaks like this really make me crave that time around other people.  Is anyone else like that?  

Well, I feel like this post is during into me whining, so I think I'll just stop.  I'm trying to come up with some new topics for the blog, so please post your suggestions for anything you'd like me to talk about!  I'm hoping to get some posts on putting together your classroom on a budget, planning for the next school year, and field trips sometime soon.  Hopefully I'll get around to one (or all) of those this week!

Fashion Friday: Spring Break Style

It's finally here...  SPRING BREAK!!!
(Okay, come 3:35 p.m. it is...)

I love the fact that even though I work long hours and bring plenty of work home with me, I still get all the perks of being a student!

This is actually the first spring break in several years that I'm not traveling.  Last year I went to New York and a few times I've made trips to Colorado for break.  I'm actually pretty excited to not be going anywhere this year.  I kinda wish I had something exciting to do, but I'm also really happy to just have some time at home for rest and relaxation.  I'm hoping to go on a big trip or two over the summer, so I decided to hold off and save my money for that.  (Besides, I'm going to try to figure out where the heck I'm going to live after June so that's my big task next week...)

Anyway, I love Polyvore and was a little bored, so I decided that it would be fun to put together a few sets of spring break outfits.

Packing Light & Bright  featuring a denim skirt

This first set is for packing light.  I'm pretty much the worst over-packer.  Ever.  Back in high school I'd go on youth group trips and would pretty much outfit all of the girls with my wardrobe.  Several of the more recent trips have forced me to travel a bit lighter and so I'm working on this skill.  It's all about pieces that mix and match and that are easy care.  Downy wrinkle releaser is one of my favorite travel companions.

Warm Weather Getaway featuring a stripe dress

I have to admit, I've never been anywhere that would be considered a warm weather getaway...  I've been to Orlando for a teaching conference, but didn't see anything that didn't cover the bus ride from the airport to the hotel to the conference center and back.  It was a pretty lame trip to a neat city.  Boo.  I've never been to the beach or the ocean.  (Shocking to some of you, I'm sure.  Kansas is about as non-ocean as it gets.) Anyway, I've been addicted to looking at items from J.Crew lately and picked these as my hot spot items.

March Madness featuring purple jewelry

This last pic is what will most likely resemble my attire for the next week or so...  I love my Wildcats and have an absolutely ridiculous number of K-State tees.  (Today I have on my St. Patrick's Day K-State tee!) It's cute, comfy, and perfect for watching basketball at home or at Old Chicago (yum yum)!

What's your spring break style?  
Are you heading off on vacation or keeping a low profile at home?