Stuffed with Thankful Thoughts

I have conferences coming up this week, so I have nothing "educational" to share with ya.  I'm looking forward to family time this coming week/weekend!  I'm linking up with lovely Lyndsey to share a few of my Thankful thoughts! 

1.  I'm thankful for my little family.  The hubs for putting up with me :)

{This was just yesterday-on a whim!  <3 living close by to so many cool things for kids!}

 I'm thankful for this lil guy.  He has taught me so much in his 6 almost 7 years---but now that he is the age of the kids I teach-it really HAS changed me in the classroom.

I am just as thankful for this mini shadow too!  He is so full of love and such a great snuggle-buddy.  MOST days he makes everything better---of course, that is, when he's NOT doing his "terrible twos" bits...  ;)

2.  I'm am every so thankful to have a great job.  Stressful as it can be, I enjoy bringing the love of learning to the classroom, and this year I'm learning right along with my firsties on many different things from facts about bats, spiders and owls (something I've never gone so "deep" into, to some of those common core standards that I've never taught before, really).  Not only that, I'm thankful for a job where I can get more time to spend with my own children and know about all the cool things to do with them!

 {Watching big brother play soccer}

{Crayola Factory!}

3.  I'm thankful for traditions.  I love traditions and started many with my children.  We eat dinner once a week with my parents (I'm an only child and live about 10 minutes away from them).  Every year we pick pumpkins at this fabulous pumpkin patch/corn maze.  Black Friday we pick and cut our tree down and decorate it to Christmas music.  Every December we take my 6 year old to NYC----this year we're taking both kids and surprising them with an over night stay!  Can't wait to see Macy's Santa again! =) {Just to name a few for this time of year!}

4.  I'm thankful for my friends!  This is one of my besties from WAY back.  Sometimes we act like the same person.  {Our parents even mix us up sometimes!}  We twirled baton and danced together for many years in elementary through college.  We would oftentimes show up wearing the same things!  <3 her and glad to have her and her family in my life still, even when we can't get together as often as I'd like.  =)

{By the way---we are at an NKOTBSB concert!  We were avid N'SNYCers back in the day too}  ;)

5.  I'm also thankful for a former employee of my district for giving me a chance to work with curriculum.  I was given the chance to write curriculum for a nonexistent writing curriculum in our district.  I was also trained to be a trainer for the Step Up To Writing program and had to actually present and train our teachers (with a few others)-which was WAY out of my comfort zone.  Through that experience, brought a new sense of confidence and a love for the "behind the scenes" so to speak.  I was then also asked to help rewrite our math curriculum to match the CCSS's (twice already, thanks to our state changing a few things and dragging their feet to let the state know what it was).  While I would NEVER want to be in an administration position, these experiences had lead the spark to where I am today---and leads into my next number!

6.  My blog and TPT store----words cannot express how thankful I am for this whole experience.  I started last January and the experience has just been amazing.  Not only have I connected with friends from around the globe, but I have also become a more aware teacher.  I feel like I have never been this "good" before (for lack of a better word there!  ha!  Can you tell I'm fried--with conferences coming up this week, before turkey day?!!?)  The blog and TPT stuff have most definitely given me more to do when I can't sleep----or does it just add to more reasons why I can't sleep at night???

Anyway, I do thank you for stopping by and reading what I have to say.