Tuesday, July 17, 2018

You may think it’s too early to talk about back to school, but my sister goes back at the end of July and I know many midwest and southern schools start back at the beginning of August.  We start August 15 in my district.  

I have a love/hate relationship with back to school time!  The first time I see school supplies out in stores my heart just sinks because it is end of June or early July and I’m not nearly done “summering”.  When I look at it in earnest toward the end of July I’m about ready to think about school again!  

The love:  Oh, the thought of new school supplies!  I love new pens, pencils, markers, notebooks!  I not only buy for my sons who are in high school, but I stock up on the cheap, cheap filler paper, notebooks, etc.  for me at home and in my classroom as a high school teacher.  If you don’t buy it during back to school time, you will pay at least 10 times more for the items sometimes – especially notebooks.

The hate:  My beloved summer is over or almost over when it’s time to get ready for back to school.  I love the freedom that comes with summer and how many full time working adults get an entire summer off?  None!  It is a true gift to get to recharge my batteries and remember who I am and not who “Mrs._____” is at school.  

Here are the things I do or recommend that you do:

*I have been teaching high school for 24 years and have put my twin boys through 11 years of public schooling – these are my credentials!  Ha!

The School Building:

Hopefully you have already found out about your school’s open house, registration, or meet the teacher day or night.  Please try not to miss this and try not to schedule vacation for this time.  This really helps kids (and you) feel so much more comfortable with their new school year.  Now, I realize this gets tricky if you have multiple kids in multiple schools, but please make this a priority even if you have to divide and conquer with your spouse, an aunt, a grandparent, etc.

Summer Reading or Summer Homework:

Hopefully you have obtained any summer reading lists.  If not, do that now.  These are usually on a school website.  I actually think it’s better to read closer to school starting so the student doesn’t forget the information.

Questions:

Remember that your school administrators, counselors, and possibly other school personnel start getting ready in mid July.  There should be someone answering phones if you have any questions.  We’d rather you call and ask than to be unprepared.  

School Supplies:

When you obtain your school supply list, let your kid(s) see it and help you make a list of stores.  They could even research the stores with the best prices.  This time of the summer you are looking for ways to entertain them, right?  Have them tell you what kind of budget they will need.  You could also ask them to earn some of the money by doing special chores.  Hey – I think kids need to know that back to school time in the U.S. has become big business.  What is a need and what is a want?  What still works from last year?  I’m embarrassed to admit that I thought that my boys needed a new pair of scissors every year until about 3rd grade when I realized that we could just use the ones from last year!  Duh!

I know some moms that also creat(ed) an at home homework station.  If they could only use yellow pencils at school, the mom would get the fun pencils for home.  Genius!  

Please don’t call your kids’ teachers bad names because of the supply list.  Do you know how much each teacher spends out of their own pocket each year?  If a teacher asks for items, it’s because he/she wants to do the best job they can do with the optimum supplies. If you truly can’t afford the items, please tell the teacher and volunteer some time to help instead.  Most teachers will totally understand and support you.  If you complain and your kid hears, this sets a really bad tone for the year.

Ask a beloved grandparent, aunt, or uncle to do the shopping if you can’t.  Many people love to do this and would love to be asked.  I helped my friend’s kids last year and had a blast!  Each kid got their own list, their own cart, and had money from the parents and we knocked that list out.  Someone like me thinks that is fun!

Back to school shopping can be stressful.  Go as early in the morning as you can and on a weekday if possible.  If you are fighting crowds or if everything is picked over, you will truly be miserable.

I prefer to do my back to school shopping at Target.  Sometimes I will need a couple of items from Office Depot, as well.  Don’t forget that you can do your back to school shopping on Amazon with Prime, Walmart online, or another online shopping service.  If your school offers a package of back to school supplies, by all means, buy it!  Your time is worth money, too.  I think this is genius!

High school age:  The students don’t know what they need until day one of school oftentimes.  Usually the teachers give them a few days to get those “3 inch binders”, “green notebook for lab work” type of things.  I have my boys pick up several generic things to start with and I tell them we will get the specifics later.  

School Attendance:

Please do not miss the first day, week, two weeks of school.  Do you know how often this happens?  It happens a lot more than you would think for reasons that aren’t illness.  We set our next school calendar over a year in advance.  The kids that start off missing really never get caught up for that grading period or semester sometimes.  

Clothing for School:

Before shopping for anything new – whether you wear uniforms or not, take an inventory of last year’s stuff.  Remember there are only 5 days in each week and in our district we have many weeks that are less than 5 days now!  So, you really could get by with 5 outfits.  Check the school’s dress code and come up with some outfit ideas that parents and kids agree upon. Give your kid a budget and have them research clothing store sales.  

My boys won’t wear shorts to school.  They only want to wear jeans or athletic pants.  When our AC is cranked in August and September it is really too cold for shorts in the building.  Ask these type of questions.  Do they need PE clothes?  Is it easier to wear PE appropriate clothing every day?  If kids at my school take chemistry, they must wear closed toed shoes.  Look at schedules and ask these questions.  High school kids get really picky about clothes and some are self conscious.  I have some students who are most comfortable in a school logo sweatshirt.  Maybe you should save your school budget for the school bookstore’s clothing items?

If your state has tax exempt shopping days, make sure you take advantage!  

Back to School Expenses:  

Start saving now.  I’m posting this in mid-July because many schools go back earlier than ever. But, if you still have a month or so, you should plan for expenses.  I will give you an example of my twin junior boys’ costs at a public school.  If you are in a private school or have more than two kids like me, my heart goes out to you because it will be even more, I’m sure.

3 AP classes for one and 4 AP classes for the other at $90 each class = $630

General supply fees and locker fees = $150 for both

New tennis shoes for both (we purchased these already) = $150

New jeans and shirts for both = $200

Notebooks, pens, etc. = $60

Summer reading books = $30

New scientific calculators =$200

This is just an estimate but it totals $1420 for just two kids!  My husband complains every year because he thinks our tax dollars should cover everything, but that’s just not how it works in our district.  

What have I forgotten?  What tips do you have?  Are you ready?

Amy 

Monday, July 16, 2018

Don’t forget Amazon Prime Day starts at 3pm ET today! I am more excited about this than the Nordstrom sale, but I don’t know why.  I don’t really need anything right now, but I guess I’m excited to see the deals.  I’m not organized or motivated enough to shop for Christmas presents yet, but I admire those who are!  

I’m going to start my weekend recap with Wednesday, actually!  I talked about what we did at the beginning of the week in my Friday Favorites here.  We took the boat out on a weekday and had the river to ourselves.  We swam a bit and enjoyed the weather.  Pia (German cousin) discovered Arizona Arnold Palmer half tea and half lemonade and loved it.  

We did a little tubing, too.

Wednesday night we all went out to dinner for a special treat for Pia which was my SIL’s and BIL’s idea.  My boys are on the left, Pia is in the middle, and my nieces are on the right.  If you are local, we really enjoyed The Levee (next to The River House) and we took this picture on the balcony after dinner.  I think they make a nice little group of teenagers!

Thursday night was our goodbye party for Pia.  She wasn’t leaving until Saturday but had a ticket to Forecastle music festival from 2-11 the next day so we had to do it on Thursday.  She planned and cooked the menu.  

She made meatballs, potatoes with onion, bread with chive butter, green beans, deviled eggs, and hot dogs and a German marble cake.  We enjoyed it immensely!

Here she is with the Goodbye cookie cake I surprised her with!

Friday morning (and Wednesday and Thursday mornings) she started her day with my hub paddleboarding on the river.  She was hooked and wanted to do it every morning!

Friday afternoon after we dropped her off for the music festival, hub and I got a chance to try out our friends’ new boat.  Then we went home and had some family time with our boys and ate ALL the leftovers from the German feast and the Mexican feast I made for Pia’s lunch before the festival!

Saturday morning we had to say goodbye, but it was a great two weeks!

I wore my new consignment Tieks to the airport to test the comfort level.  I would say they are, in fact, pretty comfortable.  I did hear a tip to put a semi circle of moleskin in the toe box to protect them from wearing out and to not show the big toe so much.  For the original price of these bad boys I say Tieks needs to include that in the design!

Saturday night we went out to dinner on the same friends’ new boat with a group of 9 people.  We parked in Jeffersonville, IN which is directly across from downtown Louisville and enjoyed our food at O’Shea’s Pub.  After we parked, we walked about 3 blocks.  It was pretty hot from 5-7, but on the walk back to the boat and on the boat ride back to the marina, the weather couldn’t have felt better.  

Sunday was a slow morning but I did go to Whole Foods to check out the Amazon deals – I wasn’t impressed.  The prices are just so high.  I followed that up with my regular Trader Joe’s run.  

I finished this book below. If anyone else has read it, I’d like to hear your thoughts. I didn’t like the main character much and it was a bit painful to read about her modern dating life using Match.com. I did see it through until the end but I’m not sure I recommend it. Sorry!

We tried to see this movie but it was sold out. Bummer!

I had coupons for Bath and Body and really only needed some wallflowers. I love Mahogany Teakwood and ended up with room spray and a candle and the two wallflowers, some $6 Beach body spray and some free hand cream. Their coupons make you spend more! Oops!

Sunday was kind of a blah and bummer day with intermittent rain. I didn’t accomplish much, the movie didn’t pan out, and I was kind of in a funk about the summer racing toward the end and not doing enough. Just keeping it real. I also probably looked at too many social media posts about what other people were doing. Comparison is the thief of joy or something like that, right?

Here’s hoping you have a great Monday!

Amy

Friday, July 13, 2018

Happy Friday!  

We have enjoyed hosting our German cousin Pia this week and sadly, she leaves tomorrow morning.  We hope that she has had a great stay!  I love that my husband loves and cherishes his German side of the family.  He took off from work this week to make sure she had a good time.  A little more back story – Pia’s father is almost exactly the same age as my husband.  Her father came and stayed with my hub one summer as a teen, too.  

Favorite #1)

Monday my friend invited us to her swim club.  Pia has gotten a nice Kentucky tan!

Favorite #2)  

Tuesday we took a break from the sun and did a bunch of little things around town including a visit to a real American high school – mine!  Here she is sitting in a desk in my classroom (it is a mess because of summer cleaning!).  We followed this with a visit to a beautiful old library, two cute little gift shops, and lunch at a hot chicken place – Royal’s Hot Chicken in Nulu if you are local.  Have you heard of Nashville hot chicken?  It has become very popular here, too.  

One of the many horses decorated around Louisville.  This one is on Frankfort Avenue.

My son wanted to split the kale salad with warm bacon dressing at Royal’s.  And, we shared some wedges and chicken.  Pia thought this was her favorite meal of her two weeks up until that point.  

We came home and Pia napped while my boys did some gaming.  Late afternoon my niece picked Pia up for her most important purchase of her stay – real cowboy boots!  She really wanted these and my niece knew of a good place.  

Favorite #3)

I did a little patio reading and I’m liking this book well enough to continue which is a first for me in a long while!  

Favorite #4)  

Blogger Kristin from Stuff, Things, Etc. blog was selling this beautiful Madewell tote and I claimed it first!  This beauty is making me think of fall clothes!  

Favorite #5)  

I love surprises!  My MIL is the great aunt of Pia and we wanted to have a goodbye party for Pia so I invited she and my FIL.  My MIL’s birthday is Sunday so it’s also a birthday party for her, but she doesn’t know.  So, they each think it’s for the other!  Bahahaha (evil sounds). We are cooking some traditional German foods and making a German marble birthday cake.  I also wanted a cake for Pia so I had the fine folks in the Kroger bakery write “bye” in German on this 4th of July cake – o.k., it was reduced down to $3.99, too, but it will still be good until tomorrow and I thought it looked very “American”!  

What are your favorites this week?  Leave me one in the comments if you aren’t a blogger!  Favorite product, item, book, show, movie, etc.?

What are your plans for this weekend?  I haven’t thought much beyond taking Pia to the airport Saturday morning, but I do have an 18th anniversary to celebrate!  

Thanks for reading!

Amy 

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Sometimes my Thursday Thoughts are deep like here where I talked about my thoughts on being a teacher.  

Sometimes they are shallow like here where I talk about how to fray your jeans.  

It’s all about balance, right?

In honor of my 18th wedding anniversary this weekend, I will share 18 things about our wedding and marriage.  

1. I was 28 and he was 33.    

2.  One of my favorite things about our wedding was the cute trolley that we rode from the church to the reception.  

3.  I think this is my favorite photo from our wedding day.

4.  This is our “courtship” scrapbook I made when we got engaged – it’s full of cards, notes, receipts, movie and concert tickets that meant something to us.  The photo on the front is our engagement photo.  Look at the hair on my man!  He’s been compared to Michael Bolton by some of my friends.  I thought he looked like Matthew McConaughey!

5. Even though I loved my wedding day and I’m so grateful to my parents for giving us a beautiful day,  I was more excited about the marriage than the wedding. 

6.  It was mid July and things could have gone horribly wrong in the temperature department, but we were blessed with an 80 degree day!

7.  We dated for about 3 years before we got married.  One of those years was long distance and I think writing letters (yes, we wrote letters!) was an important thing for us.  

8.  We are both the first born children in our families.

9.  The first year of marriage was pretty hard.  We didn’t live together first and we were both already set in our ways.  There was a learning curve.

10.  I have had the same job at the same place since we were married.  I just finished 18 years at my school!

11.  He, however, is on maybe his fifth job since we married.  We have been through two times of unemployment for him.  Each one was under 2 months, but it made us stronger.  

12. We are almost always in agreement on moral and political topics. I feel a closer bond when we agree on current hot button issues.

13. Since we are both first born we both often want to be in control. This causes power struggles sometimes but more often than not I think it shows we understand that we each feel a responsibility for our younger siblings.

14.  No one has ever made me laugh harder.  

15.  He was a rock for me when we had preemie twins.  Our twins were in the hospital for almost 6 weeks.

16.  We travel well together and have taken a lot of trips together!  We have been to Germany twice, Aruba for our honeymoon, Florida many times, Michigan many times, Chicago, D.C., Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Virginia just to name some.  

17.  He is such a thoughtful gift giver.   

18.  Everyone says this, but seeing him as a father made me fall in love more!

I could go on, but it’s only our 18th so I will stop there!  Hope you enjoyed this!

Amy 

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Hello everyone!  Hope you’re having a great week!  So, for any new readers, I’m a teacher home for the summer so this week I have simple shorts and tops outfits to show you.  I only have flat lays because…

We have our 17 year old German cousin staying with us in our guest room.  My husband has two smallish closets in our master bedroom and I have the two smallish closets in the guest room which is where you see my full length mirror photos.  Essentially our guest room is like my walk in closet.  Gotta look at the bright side, right?  I can lay things out on the bed and it is really nice to have – right across from my bedroom.  Before she arrived, I picked out outfits to put in the master bedroom so I wouldn’t have to bother her.  

This first outfit consists of my Target Universal Thread drawstring chambray shorts and a floral flouncy sleeve knit top that I found on the clearance rack at Versona for $8.99.  The Birks are consignment from maybe 5 years ago.  The earrings are from a local boutique called Revelry.  They come in many colors and I fell in love with the tassels. 

Next we have old Old Navy (haha) white linen shorts and a gingham blouse from Loft last year.  I recently paid $5 to have an armpit hole repaired.  The leather or faux leather feather earrings are from a local boutique Apricot Lane that I think is a chain.  The Birks are this year’s Mother’s Day gift.  

Next we have the same linen shorts from Old Navy from years ago but in black with a floral blouse from TJ Maxx last year.  The black tassel earrings are from Amazon last winter and one of the bracelets was $1 at a consignment shop and the other is probably 10 years old so I don’t remember.  

Finally, we have a floral pair of shorts from Old Navy and a simple Lucky brand consignment top.  I have my consignment Tory Burch sandals ($70 about 5 years ago?) and my Nickel and Suede earrings in cognac and my cognac studded bracelet.  Nickel and Suede are really the best quality and thickest leather earrings I own.  But, I have found others that are much less expensive that I think are fine for me.  I’m excited to support All Things New Creations on Etsy – Melanie Shankle’s sister from The Big Mama Blog.  

O.k., so what do you think for cute and easy to throw on?

I really think it’s that time of summer where you are starting to get tired of every clothing item in your closet!

Here’s what I will be doing:

-Trying to wear everything I have for summer or donating it

-Seeing what will work for school appropriate outfits 

-Looking for athleisure stuff on sale – that can be used for exercise but also looks o.k. to wear out

-Starting to inventory and make lists of fall needs for me but mostly my boys.  I think I’m o.k.  

-Finally, trying to avoid the Nordstrom sale hype.  I tend to feed off of other’s excitement!  

Here’s what’s coming in the mail for me!

-I purchased a gently used Madewell transport tote for $30 plus shipping from a blogger for fall.  I have been wanting this for a long time and think it will be so cute.  It is cognac leather with a black stripe down the middle.  

-2 monogram decal stickers to put on my Yetis – I have a water Yeti and a coffee Yeti for school that I just love.  I thought the stickers would make them prettier.  

I will show you these in Friday Favorites I bet!

Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment!

Amy

Thursday, July 5, 2018

I have now been out of school for the summer for one calendar month!  Tuesday, June 5 was my first day off.  In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s already been a month and in other ways it feels like a long time.  

I posted my original list here, but no need to click as I will recap them for you. I have added a few new things that I forgot. Did you make a summer bucket list?  How many items have you checked off?

Here we go:

-Go to lake with my sister’s family – Yes, we did a short ride last Saturday but plan to do another one this Saturday. She lives 2 hours away and I don’t get to see her as much as I would like!

Have different people on our boat – Yes, we have had 2 couples, one family, and our niece and cousin out so far.  We have done one time with just our family of 4 and several day dates for hub and I.  

One of our couple friends below!

-Learn to make a new recipe – Yes, gruyere and asparagus tart on puff pastry!

-Read 20 books – No, I’m still not finding books that suck me in and life is too short to read bad books!

-Go to the pool by myself once – No, but I did go to my co-worker’s apartment pool with her.  I did not join the pool this year so I would have to go to a public pool or use a friend’s name at the private pool that I like.

-Walk up to eat dinner at nearby restaurant – No – can I blame the heat?

-Do a boat brunch – No, we have done lunch and happy hour, though.

-Eat lunch poolside – Yes, kind of.  It started storming!

-Drink coffee on the patio – Yes, almost every day!

-Go for at least one bike ride – Yes, to garage sales!

-Go to outdoor concerts – Yes, 3 free outdoor concerts so far!

-Go to farmer’s markets – No, not yet.  I really need to research which one to try.  

-Have a few dates with hub – Yes, boat, a couple of dinners, and a couple of movies.  

-Celebrate hub’s birthday – Yes, we had a Mexican dinner at home and gave him gifts

-Celebrate father’s day – Yes, we went on the boat and did what he wanted.

-Shop locally – Yes!  I have frequented my favorite local boutiques and consignment stores.  

-Sit in a coffee shop – No, not yet. I need to decide which one to try.

-Call people I haven’t talked to in awhile – Yes!  My dear cousin K was one phone call and other friends to set up dates to do things, mainly. I meant real phone calls and not texts, by the way.

-Invite friends to walk in parks – No – can I blame the heat?

I forgot:  

-See lots of movies in the theater – Yes -so far Adrift, Ocean’s 8, Life of the Party, TAG

-Make myself stay up later and sleep in later – Yes – staying up until at least 10 and sleeping til 6:30 or 7 which is late for me

So, I would say I’m doing fairly well!  Let me know how you are doing or any ideas you have for me?

Amy