Mouth-Watering Monday!

I love my crockpot! I think it's a great tool for teachers (and other working moms) because it's a great way to prepare a meal while at work all day. That way, when you come home exhausted, the dinner is already prepared and you can just enjoy and relax!  I especially love recipes for my crockpot that just require me to dump everything in it, walk away and the food tastes like I've spent all day in the kitchen preparing it!

Today's mouth-watering recipe is exactly what I've described for you above! A friend of mine found this recipe for Chicken and Dumplings via Pinterest and told me about how awesome (and easy) it was. So, as soon as I got home I repinned it to my Pinterest board "Crockpot Creations" and made it a few days later. This Chicken and Dumplings recipe is one of our new family favorites! In fact, it's what my husband and I will be enjoying for dinner tonight! Yummy! I hope you enjoy it to!

This recipe actually came from http://www.bubblecrumb.com/! They have many other great recipes too! Go check out their website, you won't be disappointed!

Pinterest Linky Party!!!

Two posts in one day! Unheard of for this lady, but you know I HAD to post when I saw this Linky party/ Blog Hop!!

I love the idea! Check it out and link up!

And the Award Goes To...

Over the past several days I have been nominated for an award by my fellow bloggers. I feel so loved and honored by your nominations! The award is the Versatile Blogger Award!

 I would like to say thank you to Rachel over at Teaching with Z!, Mrs. Woodbury over at Wonderings of Mrs. Woodbury, and Margaret at Kinder Journey for The Versatile Blogger Award!

To accept this award I have to:

1. Thank the person(s) who nominated me. (check)
2. Include a link back to who nominated me. (check)
3. Include the award image in my blog post. (check)
4. Tell 7 random facts about myself (see below)
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award. (see below) 
6. When nominating, include a link to their page. (included below)
7. Let the nominees know by leaving a comment on their pages. (check)

Here are the 7 Random Facts about me:

First, I am not the best at keeping up with my blog once the school year starts and life gets crazy busy! My goal for this year is to actually keep it updated (even with Baby Kacz making her appearance in late November)!

Second, I love Starbucks coffee!! Especially their White Mocha! My favorite breakfast is a Starbuck's White Mocha accompanied by a Panera Bread Cinnamon Crunch bagel topped with Hazelnut cream cheese. Heaven!

Third, I have two cats named Frank and Riley, and one dog named Mia. All three spoiled rotten!

Frank

 Riley

Mia

Fourth, I love cookbooks! I can't seem to get enough and can always justify why I need a new one!

Fifth, I am a HUGE Real Housewives fan! In fact, I love to watch just about anything on Bravo!

Sixth, I love keeping family traditions alive and starting new ones!

And finally, the seventh random fact about me...
Fall is my favorite season, but Christmas is my favorite holiday! 

 Playing in the leaves with my hubby!

At home in the OH for Christmas with Bryan (brother), Heather (sister), Dad and Mom!

Now that's enough about me!

Here are the 15 Bloggers that I am nominating for this award:

Adventures in Teaching

Once Upon a First Grade Adventure

Buzz Three Times

Heather's First Grade Heart

Dandelions and Dragonflies

Fluttering Through First Grade

Teacher Talk

Berkery Bytes

Curious Firsties

 Mrs. M's Third Grade Gems

3rd & 4th Combination Classroom

Teaching to the Test

The Teacher Garden

Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera!

Two Busy Brunettes

Wonderful Website!

I just found this website via Pinterest and I was curious about it, so I went to check it out! I watched the little video and I got really excited! Here's the website...

Some of the great features include:

It's free!

It's a great way to differentiate instruction!

You can track students' performance!

It's  contains Math and Reading practice aligned to Common Core Standards! In fact, they are listed on the screen next to each activity!

It has a way for you to communicate with your students on screen!

It is designed for grades 1-3, so if you teach upper grades this probably won't work out for you. :( If you teach Kindergarten, you may find ways that you could possibly use it for your kiddos!

Let's just say, so far I'm impressed! I've already created my free account and will add my students' names once I get my class list on August 20th! (WAY too close!) I'm eager to use it in my classroom this year!

What are you waiting for? Go check it out, get signed up and let me know what you think!!  

 

Blog Hoppin' Around!

I am joining my very first Blog Hop with Fierce in Fourth and I'm so excited!

This Blog Hop is based on the book we all know and love First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.

 

When you join the blog hop all she asks is that you post three things your may be "jittery" about this school year! That's it! So here are my three things...

1.  I always get jittery about meeting my new Buckaroos at Open House. What the kids and parents probably don't realize is that I'm just as anxious and excited about the upcoming school year as they are! No matter how many years I've been teaching, I still have those butterflies!
2. I'm hosting a student teacher this year. This is not my first, she is actually my third, but I always want to make sure my student teachers are well taken care of, get great "on the job" training and feel like they have the confidence to plan lessons aligned to Common Core and State Standards and do all the things teachers do to be a successful teacher when they leave my classroom! Tips and tricks welcome.
3. I am going out on maternity leave after Thanksgiving and this is my first child so there are lots of new experiences coming my way! I am super excited about meeting my daughter, but have never been out of my classroom that long! My sub is awesome, so I really have nothing to worry about! However, I dread those maternity leave lesson plans!! Any tips?
   
   

I hope you enjoy the Blog Hop and decide to link up!

Here is the Blog Hop!

Mouth-Watering Monday! Trying something new...

I wanted to try something new, and this time it doesn't really pertain to teaching but one of my other passions... Food! I love to cook and bake and I thought it would be fun to bring you a recipe each week that I've tried and love! My hope is that maybe you will be inspired to try some of these recipes and that they may become some of your favorites also! Now for the hard part, choosing some recipes!

I am going to start this journey with two of my favorite dessert dips. They are both fabulous and kinda similar, yet each is tasty in it's own way! Let me just say that whenever I make these dips, my husband and I could eat the entire recipe in like two days (and that's pushing it)! If I make one recipe to take to a potluck, I actually have to make two and leave one for my sweet hubby! You will find yourself giving out these recipes a lot! I found both of these via Pinterest (Pinned on my Decadent Desserts board), but one is from Fake it Frugal and the other is from For the Love of Cooking. Both great blogs to check out!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dessert Dip

Toffee Crunch Dip with Apple Slices

I also added some mini chocolate chips to this dip because I look for any way to enjoy chocolate!!

With all the yummy fruit out right now, I hope you make and enjoy these treats as much as we do! I also thought with school starting at the end of August, the Toffee Crunch Dip might be great to pack in my lunch with some apple slices! My mouth is watering right now, I might just have to make one of these for tonight!!

Back from my "Stay"cation and linking up with...

This week I have been M.I.A. on my blog due to painting and planning for Baby Girl's nursery! It has been so much fun and now the painting is FINALLY finished! The crib and changing table/dresser combo should be here any day now! I get more and more excited as the days go by and I can hardly believe that we are 22 weeks (almost 23 weeks) into this 40 week adventure! I am also quickly learning that when I move at my normal, fast paced speed while 22 weeks pregnant, it catches up to me VERY quickly!

Me and Baby Girl at 20 weeks :)

But in true Holly fashion, I always have a million (yes, a bit of an exaggeration) things on my mind! I jump around from baby planning, to meal planning, to teaching ideas, to updating old documents to new Common Core and Imagine It programs... my mind NEVER takes a break! However, when I do take a moment to relax, I of course find myself on Pinterest. Shocker, I know! You know you wanna see all my great finds and follow me on Pinterest... So, click the red Pinterest button on the right side bar and start Pinning!!

On my latest Pinterest adventure I found a great Western themed Super Improvers bulletin board for the Whole Brain teaching concept, which I am very interested in!

(Cute, isn't it?!)

So, of course I clicked on the link to find out more about it, and I found this fabulous blog, which just happens to have the same classroom theme as me! (Their blog button is linked up, and to grab their button simply copy and paste the blue link below!)

<img src=”http://2busybrunettes.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tbb-buttona.jpg” alt=”2 busy brunettes” style=”border:none;” />

I am linking up with 2 Busy Brunettes to show off my Wild West classroom ideas from my post on July 20th! I hope you will check it out if you haven't done so already!

Other Linky Parties I've joined...