What's Up Wednesday: End of July

These days keep flying by!

I feel like I just wrote What's Up Wednesday for June and now it's already the end of the July! 

At the end of each month Mel, Shay and Sheaffer share 

What's Up Wednesday!!!
We answer a series of questions and one extra one special to that month.
This month we're answering...

What's your favorite thing about summer?

What we're eating this week:

This week I'm enjoying some family time away from home. 

My aunt and I are always cooking/baking away in the kitchen. 

I'm not sure what we'll be making, but I know it will be yummy!

In addition, we will head out on the town for some yummy southern food. 

Since I don't have any images of what exactly it'll be, I'll share what Alex and I have been eating throughout the month. 

Hamloaf, zucchini and twice baked potatoes

Homemade stromboli

Zucchini Cupcakes

What I'm reminiscing about:

I'm really missing our trips to Myrtle Beach.
As a kid we didn't go every year, but it was a HUGE treat to go to the beach.

I would save up any money I had earned and take it to buy souvenirs like large seashells.
I looked forward to this trip for months and would save my money all year to be able to have some to buy some "nice" things from the souvenir shops.

I love staying oceanfront, so we can see the ocean even if we're not down on it.

 Love the sunrises and sunsets

Mom and I would enjoy early morning and late evening walks

We even got to experience some shark sightings!

So much fun!

What I'm loving:

I'm enjoying the heck out of late nights and late mornings.
I'm talking staying up after 9 pm and getting up after 4 am.
School is going to be here soon, and I just can't take these days for granted!

What we've been up to:

This should be titled what Alex has been up to. 

Alex made us corn hole boards last summer, and we just got around to making them pretty. 

Here they are almost finished...

I've been doing a lot of reading, swimming, cleaning, cooking and working out/running.

 

What I'm dreading:

I don't know that I'm dreading much other than getting used to my 4 am alarm!

What I'm working on:

Lesson plans!
I have SO many tabs open on both my laptop and our regular computer.
So many things to get ready for the new year!

I'm currently looking for a bulletin board idea that revolves around themed read alouds.
I'm using the theme of Overcoming Hardship/Adversity, but I'm looking for a neat way to display all of our literature circles and class read aloud titles on one bulletin board throughout the whole year.
There's research behind doing read alouds and reading books in the classroom that all have one main theme.
One idea for teachers to do in the classroom was to make a bulletin board with that theme.
Usually I have at least a starting idea, but I'm totally drawing a blank here. 

What I'm excited about:

Enjoying the end of summer and getting back into a routine!
As much as I love summer; I love a routine!
My 4 am alarm won't be loved for the first couple of weeks but by mid September I will be back in the groove!

What I'm watching/reading:

Come back next Monday for my June and July Book Review.

I could bore you by telling you about the three books about the teenage brain that I just read, but I'll forgo that and give you a sneak peak about the books I've been reading over the summer.

Here's the first order of books I received from the library.

What I'm listening to:

In the morning I hear a lot of these. 
I love listening to Doves; they're a great way to wake up.


I'm also loving Kelsea Ballerini's new single Legends.

What I'm wearing:

About any day of the week you can catch me in something like this...

Another day at the pool!

What I'm doing this weekend:

Well I'm currently visiting relatives, so we will enjoy our last days before we head home!

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Routine!

What else is new:

In a couple weeks I'm going to a multi-day conference for my new little side business!
I'm so excited yet so nervous!
Plus it's the last 3 days before school starts.
I'd love to spend those days by the pool, but when an opportunity knocks you have to take advantage!

What's your favorite thing about summer?:

Any teacher would shout "NO SCHOOL!"
While I love having tons of freedom and not going to work, I really really love the pool!

Show and Tell: Best Apps

Hey ladies!

It's Show and Tell Tuesday!

Andrea from Momfessionals has a linkup two Tuesday's a month. 

Today's topic is your most helpful/best apps on your phone. 

If you're interested in linking up later on or want to see what the topics were so far this year, check out the graphic below. 

So, I will definitely admit that I'm not the best with apps. 

I'm always behind on the trends, and I tend to use my phone for very limited purposes. 

I'm sure there's a ton more things I could do with, but I just don't. 

So, here are the few apps I use regularly. 

At the end you definitely need to tell me your favorite app or what you think I would benefit from using. 

Bible

Each morning I use the regular Bible app to look up scriptures that go with that day's devotion. 

It's super easy to scroll through the books of the Bible and find the right chapter and verse.

Weather Channel

I love to be up-to-date on the weather. 

I'm constantly looking at the Weather Channel app, but I'm not sure it's that accurate anymore. 

I feel that it calls for large amounts of snow or rain and then we never end up getting it. 

What weather apps do you guys use?

Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog allows you to take a picture of your receipts and answer a few questions before submitting it. 

Receipt Hog then gives you so many spins to spin a slot machine to win prizes, coins or more spins. 

I haven't won big, but I know someone who won $100 using this app.

Notes

I'm a fanatic about the Notes app. 

I use it to keep track of our grocery list, ideas for school, Friday Favorites, dinner menus, monthly goals, books to read, to-do lists, etc. 

My list could go on and on. 

Apple Music

I recently started using Apple Music, and I love that you can download songs to your phone and don't have to use your data to play them. 

In addition, I really like Apple Radio. 

I think you can have as many stations as you want, and you can SKIP songs as MUCH as you want!

Apple Music beats Pandora in my book!

Tiny Calendar

I used to use the Tiny Calendar on my iPad, and then when I got an iPhone I continued to use it. 

It has my school calendar and regular life calendar on it; however, I don't use it that much anymore.

So those are the few apps that I use regularly, but I know there are so many more.
Tell me what apps I should be using.
I'm a teacher, runner, baker lover and wife.
What apps would someone like that use?

Blog Ideas

I've been blogging in this little blog world for about 9 months now. 

I've learned A LOT and still have A LOT to learn. 

I've been thinking lately about blog posts. 

When I first started blogging I was posting 5 days a week. 

It was HARD!

Each night I would sit at the computer, a lot of times until later than I planned on being awake and type away. 

I missed a lot of life by always being on the computer. 

Come the new year or around that time I realized that it wasn't worth it to give up regular life to be on here. 

So, I started blogging 3 days a week. 

Over the summer there have been times when I've kept with the 3 days and times when I've done 5. 

Honestly, right now I have nothing but time, so I make posts at my convenience, but I'm planning for the fall. 

I need ideas from YOU on how to make my blog better and what kinds of posts people enjoy reading. 

I know I'm new to blogging, and I don't expect lots of comments because I live an ordinary life; however, I'm interested in figuring out what I can do to make my little space online better. 

What ideas do you have?

Are there certain topics I should blog about?

How many days, which days should I blog?

How do you navigate blog life and real life?

I'm interested in hearing what you have to tell me today, so head to the comments section below! 

Friday Favorites: Sevin, Accessory Concierge, Yeti

Hey ladies!

Happy Friday!

The days all blur together for me now, but it's another Friday Favorites!

As always, I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea. 

We're sharing our favorites from the week.

Grab their graphic and linkup with your favorites from the week, too.

Sevin

We've been having an earwig problem. 

Last fall we got some trees cut down and trimmed back to allow more sun around the house. 

At that time I'd noticed a few earwigs around damp things like the garden hose. 

This summer has been WAY worse. 

The earwigs have destroyed some of my plants. 

I finally caught on and realized that the tearing look of my petunias was from them. 

I would pick up pots on our front porch and have earwigs running out of them. 

They had even killed numerous plants within one hanging basket. I kept wondering why the plants were slowly dying. One at a time I would pull out a plant after it would die off.

Out back we had two beautiful hanging baskets sitting in pots and they were nearly destroyed. 

Now I've been sprinkling Sevin dust in the bottom of the baskets/containers that we set the hanging baskets in. 

This has worked wonders!

The earwigs are dying in the dust before they get to the plants. 

via

There's also Sevin spray I've been spraying on the plants themselves. 

We've tried to hand more plants than set on the ground. 

Do you guys have any earwig remedies?

They really are starting to freak me out. 

Accessory Concierge

My cute purchases from Accessory Concierge's 4th of July sale!

409 Stone and Steel

I've been struggling with keeping our granite counter tops non-streaky. 

I saw Shay had suggest this product, but I couldn't find it anywhere- Target, Walmart, etc.

We were just strolling down an aisle at Lowe's when I spotted it. 

I had to have it, and it works so well!

No more streaks!

Spray whatever area you want to clean and wipe up with a dry paper towel!

Yeti Rambler

Alex got boots for work the other day. 

He called to tell me that he found a pair and that he saw the Yeti bottle that I mentioned liking previously.

He asked me some more questions about it, and I really had no idea what the answers were, so I really paid no attention to it and went about my day.

That evening when I came home from the auction I went to this was waiting for me.

Alex is terrible at surprises, and I in no way expected for him to buy it for me. 

We aren't typically Yeti people because they're a bit pricey and you can actually buy nearly the same thing in an off brand and it works just as well. 

One of my students did their choice project on this last year and tested a bunch of cups/thermoses. 

It was so neat to hear his results. 

Yeti isn't always the winner!

I'm excited to take this to school. 

We don't have air conditioning, so August and September are brutal. 

I like to fill up my cup when I drink  all of the water that I put in in the morning, but I can't bare the time running down to the lounge- 4 doors down to grab a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. 

To save time I will just go without drinking anything. 

Now, I can have this in my room ready to fill my cup up!

Posts From the Week

On Monday I shared a little Get to Know Me post with 3 Things. 

You can find out more about me in that post by clicking here. 

On Tuesday I linked up with Ashley and Erika to talk Freezer Meals. 

If you have ideas or want some ideas, click here. 

Yesterday I shared what I did during my 8th week of summer. 

I have a fun and busy weekend ahead; enjoy yours too!