My Very First Five for Friday!

Hello Five for Friday Friends!

I have linked up for the very first time with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday Linky Party. I'm so excited to take part of it and share my happenings this past week.

While spending time with family and friends in Michigan, we just had to take Coop to play mini-golf. Now in MI we call it putt-putt golf, but I have learned that the rest of the world calls it mini-golf. 

So I am trying to retain my +30 brain. So. Not. Easy.  

Sandy Dunes Adventure Golf in Port Austin, Michigan

After playing mini-golf (see I got it :-), Coop wanted to ride a pony. Well, lucky for him our dear friends have ponies and boys to play with. Boys (ages 3, 5, and 7) that Coop has since asked to play with many times :-(  It is fabulous watching your kids get along so well with your friends kids. Just sayin'.

He sooo wants to be a cowboy!

I did manage to find some time on our trip to work on products and start planning for the new school year. I am participating in the #TpTSellerChallenge hosted by Third in Hollywood, Sparkling in Second, Peppy Zesty Teacherista, and Teach Create Motivate.
I am planning on many revisions over the summer and I'm excited to kick off the first makeover with these ladies!

Beginning Stats: Lots of room for improvement!

One of the last fun things we did before hoping on the plane back home, was head to the circus. For a small town circus, it was pretty good. There were dancers, gymnasts, elephants, lions and tigers, oh my! (I could not resist that!) Oh and then Coop noticed the face painting and.....

He transformed into Spiderman!

Now we got home last night, and I figured out it took us 22.5 hours from my moms door to ours. That's counting 6 hours in the car, one traffic stand still, lots of road construction, 4 time zones, two planes, two flight delays, 1 layover, late luggage, a sleepy toddler, and picking up the overly excited lab from his doggy-sitter's house. So. I. am. exhausted. But I pick up the two weeks worth of mail and thumb through it before bed and you know what was in there.

Worst.Month.Ever.

Yep. That was it. The last straw. I quickly went to bed.

Summer Makeover Madness

Summer is off to a great start! I have been spending time with friends and family down in Michigan, pretty much doing whatever my toddler wants to do (circus, zoo, beach, aquarium, mini golf, and Chuck E. Cheese), and working on making over and completing my Wonders Extending Phonics activities! I joined up with the #TpTSellerChallenge and I am having a blast! I am amazed at how much I have learned about creating products, since my first product went live *almost* one year ago!

Here's the first of MANY summer makeovers! Follow the link below and remember it's on sale through Saturday!

Extending Phonics with Wonders for First: Unit 1 Week 1

This product was one of my very first ones and it needed a refresh! I changed the fonts and clipart mostly, but also added some design elements and revamped a few of the pages to make them easier to use for first graders. I am working on revising and completing the rest of the first grade phonics extension activities too! I have created my first growing bundle and I will have these weekly sets finished by the middle of August. Click the link to check out the growing bundle! 

Extending Phonics Growing Bundle

While on vacay, I gave myself a summer makeover too! I got a new haircut and hi-lites and a few new tops when I went shopping! 

Are you ready for one more makeover? My blog got a mini-makeover too! I thought it was time to add a direct link to Bloglovin' and Instagram!

I hope you are enjoying your summer or getting ready to if you are still in school. 

Until again, I wish you well!

My Home Office {Work in Progress}

There are some gorgeous home offices out there! Just look at the offices of Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in Second or Angie from Lucky Little Learners. I've linked up with these ladies for another month to showcase our home offices!

That being said, mine is NOT one of them. It is totally a work in progress, like most of our home. Now, I love my house! It has an open floor plan, laminate floors, and a newly remodeled bathroom that turned out gorgeous! The hubs did a fabulous job on it! 

I have several areas that I work from. First off, the back deck. We have had gorgeous weather so far this summer in Southeast Alaska and I spend as much time out there as I can.

I have also been known to work on the couch. From the couch is where I do most of my social media and marketing tasks. 

I also have a home office, or extra bedroom in our house. Now this is one of the few rooms that we have done nothing to since we moved in. Unfortunately, it's the home office in our house, where everything gets dumped; mails, bags, papers, papers, and more papers! Don't worry! I did a little straightening before the camera was allowed!

This is the view outside from my office. See that sidewalk? That was my landscaping accomplishment last year. As you can see, our yard is a word in progress too!

I have a big papasan chair in the corner. This is also another drop zone. Especially for me and my 31 bags. Those are currently hanging out on hooks in the office closet.

My little helper is usually in the office with me too!

I needed some extra storage space and I had extra cubbies at school that I was no longer using, sooooooo..... this little creation was born! Seriously, besides Mr. and Ms. Mac, this room has not gotten any financial refurbishing resources!

One day when I asked my little helper why he was in mommy's office, he said, "Cause it has all my colors in there!" 

Well, that's it! Thanks for checking out my home office. Be sure to check out the rest in the #2getherwearebetter link up!

Until again, I wish you well!

My First Currently!

I am super excited to participate with Farley for my very FIRST currently! I love the month of June; summertime, sunshine, flip-flops, father's day, and traveling! The best part though...we are out of school in May, so June is a school-free zone! {Unless you agree to teach summer school, in which case you start back on the 22nd}. We shall see if that was a good move on my part...

Listening to "Country Man" by Luke Bryan: Whenever I listen to some good country music, I think about home (rural Michigan). It makes me feel closer to friends and family!

Loving the light: In August, we will be transplants to Alaska for FIVE years! I can't believe that it's been that long! I still love the late night light. I'm still not quite use to the early morning (3:30ish) light though. Thank goodness for curtains and blinds!

Thinking about a fairy house cleaner.... I think that since kiddos get tooth fairies when they lose their teeth, we should have fairy house cleaners when we lose our minds..... Just Sayin'!

Wanting to reconnect: It has been several years since we've seen friends from home. It's been too long. I can't wait to see them! Maybe we can even recreate this pyramid. Our kids will probably be trying to help this time around!

Needing to pack: Well, the first step is getting the laundry caught up so I can pack. Yep, I'm still behind in that department. But wait, I got the suitcases upstairs. That counts, right?!

Summer lovin': We have had ridiculously warm weather in Southeast Alaska so far this summer. I have worn my flip flops more in the past month, than I have in the past year. I am totally loving that the rain doesn't come back until after we are on the plane! Score!

Well, that's my first currently! Thanks for reading!

Until again, I wish you well.

I'm Thankful for the Past Year

Last Thursday, was our last day of school for the 2014-2015 school year. It was really bittersweet for me this year, because I had such an outstanding class! There were kind to each other, showed grit, put forth effort, and were just plain nice to each other. It's sad to think that that group of students will never be all together to like that again and it worked so well. Sometimes, I think that if we have a class that just gels so well together, we should keep them together through high school!On top of a super school year, I am also coming up on my TpT anniversary! I can't believe it was almost a year ago, that I decided to give this adventure a try. I have enjoyed every part of it for sure! The blog (which is so cute, right?!), Instagram (@mrs.peyerksporcupinepals), FB, and my love for Pinterest has grown even more! I have had some great experiences during this first year on TpT.

First, I was chosen to be a part of the TpT blog in April. Here's the link if you want to read all about it! TpT Loves Books: A Celebration of School Library Month. The following month, I had a freebie featured in the newsletter! You can find that featured freebie here: Newsletter Freebie. I also had my post on regrouping in addition and subtraction showcased on Teach Junkie's Website a couple of weeks ago! The last year has been super, but the last two months...EPIC!

So then, yesterday, I open up my email and find out that I've been nominated for the Liebster Award by Diane @ Spreading Joy One Giggle at a Time. I was like, "What's that?" The blogging world is all still very new to me. I'm about five months in is all, so I did a little of looking and a little bit of reading and found out that it's an award to welcome new bloggers, who are in the process of building their followers, feel excited about entering the blogging world! I am really excited and honored that Diane @ Spreading Joy One Giggle at a Time, found my blog and nominated me. Thank you, Diane. 

As part of the nomination, Diane sent me a few questions to answer about myself, so that all of you can get to know me a bit better. Here we go! 

1. Why did you start blogging and how long have you been blogging? I started blogging as a way of sharing my ideas that I use in my first grade classroom. We all do things or have super strategies to share and I wanted to share mine! I started blogging in the spring of 2015.
2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog? Useful! I hope that the topics I blog about are found useful to someone {other than just me}.
3. How many hours a week do you dedicate to your blog/TPT/social media? I would say that I probably spend about 20 hours a week between the three. I plan on going back and revising some earlier files and adding more this summer.
4. Where does your blog inspiration come from? The inspiration from my blog comes from everyday classroom life. We might be working on something and it is turning out very cool and I think, I have to blog about this. It's great!
5. What category of blog posts do you like to read best? I like a lot of topics, but classroom organization is probably my most sought after blog posts!
6. What is your favorite aspect of blogging? I love that I can write everything down {I love writing} and I learn that I can do a lot of self-reflection when I blog. I think it has definitely made me more reflective on my practices this year.
7.  What idea from a blog would you like to try yourself? I have a Must Make and a Must Do board on Pinterest. Yep. There's a lot of things I want to try!
8. What do you like to do when you are not blogging or teaching? I am a wife and mommy to a toddler, so when I have down time, you can find me doing laundry and cleaning the house. I do enjoy yard work and reading if I can make it all work!
9. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Well, I've been to Europe and a good portion of the US. Five years ago, we packed up and moved from Michigan to Alaska and I have to say that I am pretty content here in the great north. Oh, Hawaii. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and as of right now it's in the plan for the summer of 2016.
10.  If you weren't a teacher, what career would you choose? I think I would have tried my hand at being an author. Someday, I will write a children's book....someday :-)
11. What is your favorite grade to teach? My teaching background is two years of pre-kindergarten and five years of first grade. I have to say that first grade has been my favorite of the two. I love seeing the growth; academic, social, emotional, and just figuring out how the world works. It's an Ah-mazing year!

I would like to nominate the following teacher-authors for the Liebster Award!

Kristin @ Teaching in a Nutshell
Jill @ First Grade Made
Brittany @ Tickled Pink in Primary
Ha @ Happy Days in First Grade
Kristy @ Primary Ideas Reading Room

I would love for these bloggers to answer the following questions! Thank you for reading!
1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What one word or phrase sums up the heart of your blog?
3. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
4. What is your favorite topic to blog about yourself?
5. What is your favorite topic to read about on other blogs?
6. What types of social media do you use and what's your favorite?
7. Have you ever been featured on another blog? If so, please link back to that blog post. We would love to read it!
8. What is one topic you plan to blog about over the summer?
9. Fill in the sentence. To me blogging is.....
10. What is a hurdle for you when it comes to blogging, marketing, and/or promoting your ideas and resources?
11.  If you weren't a teacher-author-blogger, what would you be?
  Here are the Liebster Award Rules:

• Link back to the blog that nominated you (me!)

• Answer the 11 questions posted by the nominator

• Nominate 5-11 blogs (with less than 200 followers) and link to them in your post

• Provide them with 11 Getting To Know You Q &A's (the same you were given, or some of your own)

• Contact the nominees and let them know they have been nominated

Thank you again to Diane at Spreading Joy one Giggle at a Time for nominating me! Until again, I wish you well!