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Monday, October 21, 2013

My Truth Monday

I so need to post, want to post, but don't feel like I have anything valuable to post. And in other words, don't make the time to post. There I said it, feel a tad better, but not really.

I found a linky that I think I might be motivated to blog every Monday about. It's all about getting to know each other better. Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade is having a My Truth Monday series. It is 11 weeks of Monday Truths. The sad reality that at the end of the 11 weeks it will be New Year's completely struck me. My how time flies. So here goes......My Truth about fitness:


I would love to look fit rather than skinny. I am blessed that I was able to lose the weight I gained with my pregnancies, but now I have the awful baby pooch. It is typically very difficult for me to discuss this issue, because people look at me like I am crazy. I weigh 102, but am not happy with the fact that I am all bones and now on most any day look pregnant. I have to say that people talking about how skinny you are is just as bad as people who say things about big people (in my opinion). It's not like I starve myself like some people think. I eat more than my fair share on most days.

So since I have been truthful about my fitness feelings, I am going to attempt to make progress in doing something about it. I am intrigued by the new CrossFit programs that I see everywhere. No I don't want to be as fit as those who compete on the tv, but from what I have read, it is a great whole body workout. We have a new Crossfit Facility opened here locally, so I may look into starting there. Time will tell.

So want to link up and join the Truth Party! Click on the link below to find more Fitness truth stories and add your own.



~Heather

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Neglectful

Yes I totally feel that my little ole blog has been more than a little bit neglected. I mean come on it's only been three months since I last posted! 

Have I thought about it.........of course.

Have I meant to blog...........of course.

But what have I been up to.......well let's see. 

Finishing the school year......Check! 

I was so not happy to let my little one's leave me. They were the absolutely best class ever!

Taught summer school for upcoming kinders for a month.....Check! 

I LOVE teaching summer school! One I am not a stay at home mommy for a reason. I love my two little ones to death, but mommy doesn't like being at home for two solid months with them. Two I get quickly put back in the beginning of school mode....these kids can't write their name, can't sit and listen to a story, you name it. It makes coming back in August soooo much easier.

Took time off from anything school related......Check!

I took about two weeks off. Didn't really think about school. Yeah right totally not true...when can a teacher truly not think about school. But I didn't act on my thoughts;)

Went on a mini vacation with the family and the brother's family.......Check!

We traveled to Atlanta, GA for a three day weekend. Took the kiddos to Stone Mountain. LOVE that place. The laser light show is always my fav. I was totally bummed that they had gotten rid of the paddle boats. It was also a fav. Riding around the lake paddling your heart out. I was super sad it was gone. Took the kids to LEGOLAND. I honestly don't know who had more fun...the kids or the adults.

So now it's time to into back to school mode. I am ready for it. Once they get my floors waxed, I am off to my room to work. Hoping they finish soon, we start back August 1st and have students on the 6th. 

Well I promise it won't be three months before I decide to post again!

~Heather


Monday, April 8, 2013

Monday after Spring Break

So today was the first day back after Spring Break, and like usual the kids were super calm and very eager to get back into the swing of things! I am saddened to think that I only have  weeks left with this group of kiddos. This has been my best group in my eight years of teaching. I have good parents who actually help the kids, and most of the kids are eager to learn and will put forth effort to do it! I am blessed because this time last year, I was considering quitting due to the exact opposite classroom environment. But we all know you have your good and bad years, just depends on the kid mix and how everything works together. 

I have recently fully implemented Daily 5! I had done a study group in the county two years ago and followed along with the blogger study group over the summer and had worked bits and pieces into my schedule the past few months. We are now on our 3rd week of full implementation. I teach writing first thing in the morning, so we have our mini lesson, followed by 15 minutes of Work on Writing, then I allow a few students to share what they worked on. Then we go into our Reading Time. The students get the choice of Read to Self, Read to Someone, or Listen to reading. They are doing AWESOME with this. We have done Read to Self all year, but just made it to 15 minutes consistently, so I decided to combine them and give them choice! Following Reading Time, we do a Reading mini lesson, then go into Word Work. I have adapted a coworker's Daily 5 Contract to make it work for my room. I love it and the kids are finally getting the hang of it. They have 5 Have To's that they get to chose 1 each day. I allow two students per basket, and it is working so far. The kids have the contract attached to their clipboard that they keep in their book boxes, and they check off where they work each day. Once everyone has chose where they want to work, I can pull groups and work as long or as little as I need to with them. I am only meeting with one or two groups a day, but I feel my guided reading lessons are more beneficial, than trying to rush and meet everyone every day or every other day. My assistant is also pulling groups as needed to work on sight words, or reading during this time. 

I will post pics of Daily 5 later in the week! Maybe if I write this it will help me be more accountable. I struggle trying to remember to take pictures of my kids working in class. I am often too busy working with them, to think about it. We will see if I remember.

A goal this summer is to dig into Daily 5 Math. I love Daily 5 so much, I can't wait to see how it will be for math!

So I was very excited to find some new Tennessee Teacher Bloggers yesterday. I can't wait to see if their will be a TN Meetup this summer that will be close enough that I can attend! Had fun at the last one.

So very interesting thing happening tomorrow at school. The assistants are giving our students an evaluation on us! They have to answer 33 questions about the teacher. I am interested in seeing what they ask and will be curious as to how they answer. I mean they are 6, I am not worried about my kids, but I do feel for upper grades teachers as my kids are still little and love me, but big kids don't always like their teacher, so I think it will be interesting. 

Well since Spring Break is over, I am guessing everyone is on countdown mode. I had not officially counted down yet, but my wonderful coworker did and like I said earlier not wanting to see this group go, but ready for Summer. So here it is:

~34 days for me at work (3 days of inservice and 1 personal day already planned off with my coworker to have a girls day!)

~ 31 days for the kids

 ~Heather

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Benchmark Literacy

My district is up for a new reading series next year, after careful consideration, the committee chose to go with what they believe will be the best choice for our district over the next six years. 




I have taken the sample my grade level received to dig into. I am LOVING it! It was described to us at a meeting recently as everything we use to back up what we currently use. If you take Comprehension Toolkit for Reading, Words Their Way for word study, and Lucy Calkins Units of Study for writing, you get Benchmark Literacy! 

I am eager to learn more and hopefully, if the board approves, we should have training and receive some of our materials the week after school. So just curious is anyone else familiar with Benchmark Literacy? If so I would LOVE to hear about it. 

~Heather

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My 100th Post

Wow I can't believe that I have made 100 posts on my little ole blog. So what a great day to make this post. It's a SNOW DAY here in EAST TN. I was thankful my system called for a two hour delay, before deciding to close. Sadly the system that I live in was not so smart at decision making this morning. This is what I woke up to.


Yes that is a bus with 5-7 students already on it, stopped outside my house. I heard him and had to get up to see what was going on. Luckily I live on a dead end road, he was stopped over 5 minutes. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then seen on FB where the county was closed! Honestly buses already out picking up students and had to turn around and take them home. So he goes on down the road turns around and heads to take the students back. I am hopeful that all students and buses made it safely back home.

So enough of my crazy morning on to my blog post!

A goal for me is to start taking more pics of things I am doing in my classroom. So this post is going to be pics of a writing activity my students did last week with a sub while I was away at a behavior training two day class. Hence this being left for me to look at gave me a reason to take the pictures. Most of the time I check it and it goes home. So here goes!

We were learning about Dr. Seuss and this writing activity was if I crossed ____ with a ____, I would get a ____. I had no idea how they would do since they were with a sub who is new to subbing and NEVER been in kindergarten before. But they did GREAT!

Here are some of them:





cat and panda bear = catabear

And this is my favorite:

LOL! Too funny!

So do you ever mess with any of your coworkers? I have one who we have a history that I love to get. And a few weeks ago was just another addition to our story!

A quick look at our history:
2006: He was asst principal when I was pregnant with my daughter six years ago. I went into early labor and as he states almost had her on his desk!

2010: I am pregnant with my 2nd daughter and due within 2 weeks. He is now a teacher in  the building, but acting principal when the principal and asst principal are both out of the building. So on this day, he is acting principal. A coworker's daughter had just given birth days ago and brings in her daughter for us all to see. Of course that gives me a great idea. I go to the school nurse and devise a plan. I lay down on the table and cover up with a white sheet. The office calls to him and says he needs to get to the office because Mrs. Shelton is having labor pains. Of course him knowing my history of early birth, he comes running. Around the corner and the nurse has the newborn of the coworker in her arms saying..... your a little late. He is white as a ghost and takes a min to realize that we are messing with him. I thought it was the best prank EVER....he thinks it's the cruelest. 

Fast forward to the week of Valentine's Day. He is acting principal twice during the week. I try and try to think of something to get him with and NOTHING! Until I find out that we are getting two cows hearts to show our kinders. This happens to be the day after Valentine's Day and he is back in his classroom. After we discuss and touch the heart, I with help, place it in a container and find out when he is going to be out of his room. With multiple people helping me get this done. It happens. He returns to class to find this on his desk.


The wrapped cow's heart with note stating...This heart used to beat for you!

He goes next door, asking a coworker did you receive a gift, she says no, what are you talking about. He says come look. She thinks it's hilarious, because she knows all about it. He blames his other coworkers. I was kinda shocked. He knew I was after him all week and it wasn't till later I was a suspect. He questioned numerous people to see if they were involved and they passed his test even though they were in on it too! 

Needless to say the next week he randomly pops into my room to say Hello! Now I am on the lookout because I know payback is coming!

~Heather

Monday, February 11, 2013

Ball Posters!

I made this post last Monday, but my phone wouldn't email all my pictures, so I took the camera to school this week and got the ones I needed to complete the post.


So today makes snow day number 5! Really I am so tired of this. I haven't worked a full week since December, between our crazy East TN weather and being off with my sick girls, not a full week. 

I live in the county next to where I teach, today they had to go on a regular schedule and we didn't go at all. I  am telling you it doesn't make sense, but I know the county I teach in did get more snow than I did, so not complaining too much.

Anyways I have a little rule that I like to go by, IF I can safely get my two year old to daycare, then she is going! I can get soooo much more done with just the six year old. And my feeling is if I am paying for it, I can send her and not feel too bad about it. I keep her home when she is sick and on some snow days, but I need a break. So off to school she went this morning. I talked the six year old into picking where she wanted to eat, IF we could go to school and I could work a few hours this morning. It worked and she did great. 

So off to school I go on a snow day. LOVE these days, I can get soooo much more done, when I am alone at school. The majority of things I accomplished this morning was hanging up stuff that should have been up awhile, but just haven't. I am sure you have those days too!?!?!?


Up first was the rest of my ball posters that my wonderful art teacher drew for me, I took home and colored, and they just got laminated last week. The kids have been looking forward to getting the rest of them up. I have one student who is one his last list. It makes me sad, cause now I have to find him more words, but I think I am going to start him reading a chapter book and see where that goes. He is bilingual and most of the time refuses to talk to me, although he is extremely smart. 

Here is a closer view of the ball posters!

Baseball and Soccer ball


Basketball and Football


Volleyball, Golf, and Tennis


Bowling, Ping Pong, and Hockey


Beach Ball

So got those babies hung up and placed the student balls on. And boy are my kids going to be excited tomorrow morning when they see them! BTW the ball words are from Marsha over at A Differentiated Kindergarten! I LOVE this. My kids are reading so much better this year, because I am introducing them to sooooo many more words! Each set of balls have 20 words! And each ball on the poster represents that student passed the ball word test. I have students all over the place and I LOVE it!

Here is a picture of the ball list on rings that I hung up, so they could have easy access to them. They are constantly working on their words. It's so nice to see. And working together!


Next on my list was to finish putting up my number wall. I am so different from most people, I only put up numbers as we learn them in class. It makes it relevant to them, and after doing the number sheet I put it on the wall. I am awesome at the beginning when I put up the numbers but as we get to the teen numbers, not so much.

The last thing I did was finish putting up my words on my word wall. We have a Pathways to Common Core study group that myself and two other teachers are hosting at the end of the month, so other teachers from around the county will be there, and I of course want my room to look GREAT!!!! BTW this study groups is the hardest I have ever participated in. The book is great, but the words are big and so hard to understand. I think I would do better if I had a thesaurus with me as I read it! No joke, my kindergarten brain does not understand those big words. 

Oh and I have to share our read to self time during January! I am super proud of my kiddos. We started Read to Self on day 1 of kindergarten and this month even though it has been very chaotic, they are doing great! We read for 133 minutes! 

Anyways so there is a few pics from my room and I will leave you with a few pics of our snow!


Sydney and Bree playing in the snow!


Target's parking lot @ 7:00 on a Saturday night!

 And yes I know some of you get a ton more snow than this and don't get out and for that I am sorry! But it is a perk of living in East TN.

~Heather

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Currently

It's that time again! Time for Farley's Currently. I may not always blog as much as I would like to and share what I am doing in my classroom which I honestly hope to do MORE of this year, but I try to always link up with Farley. So here goes:


Of course I am listening to the Super Bowl, but watching the commercials. So far I have loved the 1st M &M one and been absolutely disgusted by the Go Daddy one! GROSS!!!! So just seen the Taco Bell elderly commercial. LOVED IT!

Since today was the TPT SUPER Sale, I cleaned my cart out. I spent extremely TOO much money last year on TPT things, that I use most of, but not all of. So I carefully went through my cart and removed or bought what I needed. I removed WAY more than I bought. Since I have purchased for more than a year. I have most if not all the themes that I use! One thing I WISH all sellers would do would be to put I CAN cards with the activities, it's so difficult to try to make your own because you don't own the clipart to make it easy!

This month has been hard on me due to the fact that on January 4th, my six year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Thankfully she is a trooper and is doing great with her pricks and shots and everything. We have had to learn how to count carbs and measure food. But we are all doing great with it!

We are hoping to plan a trip back to Tybee Island, Georgia this summer. I LOVED it when we went two years ago. My only problem is we want someone to go with us, so we can enjoy a bike ride across the island a few times. So if I can get that ironed out, I can schedule the trip!

I am needing a 5 day work week. I think I calculated my actual work days in January and came up with 10. That's it. Between being off with my daughter for the Diabetes and when she got sick with RSV a week later, and the CRAZY East Tennessee weather. We have been out one day for flooding, one day for ice, and tomorrow will be day 3 for snow! Not to mention one 2 hr delay, and two early dismissals. And we were out for Martin Luther King Day. I really feel like I haven't done anything with my kiddos. We haven't had a full week since December. 

My biggest pet peeve is people who ALWAYS have something to say. It doesn't matter if they are not in the beginning of the conversation, they always have to put in their two cents. It drives me CRAZY! 

So I am heading back to Farley's page to do my Rule of 3! 

~Heather

Friday, February 1, 2013

High/Low Linky

First of all don't you just love it when you have already gotten out of bed, showered and then you get the call or text that school is closed or delayed or something. Well yes that happened to me this morning! I tried to stay in bed because I was certain we were going to close. It snowed last night and here in East TN, that means no school if you teach in a county system. Waited....waited.....and nothing. So up I go and into the shower. Only to get out and hear the phone beep. I know without even looking what it is going to say. So instead of crawling back into bed, I am up and working on this. 



I found a wonderful new linky party to celebrate the end of the month. I love Farley's Currently which is always at the beginning and now we have a linky that reflects on how the past month went. Katie at Teacher to the Core has began this new one. You tell what your highs for the month were and what your lows for the month were. So here are mine!


~ Meeting a new parent of a 6 year old who was diagnosed last year with Type 1 diabetes. It's great to find someone who truly understands what you are going through.
~Hubby got a new job at work. Which means pay increase and six to seven days a week or 10-12 hours a day during busy season.



~ Daughter diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes
~CRAZY weather

My low this month was finding out my six year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It has flipped my world upside down and we quickly went from everything is normal, to having to count carbs, check blood sugars 4-5 times a day, and giving her 4 shots of insulin at meal times and bedtime. 

I was very, very fortunate that I was vaguely familiar with Type 1 Diabetes. Six years ago I had a student who was on the insulin pump. So I knew about watching what she ate, and a few of the symptoms of if she went high or low. Plus I was a gestational diabetic with my 2nd child, so I knew about checking blood sugars. 

But even knowing all of that, I still have a lot to learn. We are now 3 weeks in and she is doing fabulous. She checks her own sugars and is already learning how to look for carb numbers on packages to determine if she can or can't have it. I hate that my little girl has in a sense had to grow up so fast, but she has made everything that much better on mommy and daddy because she is doing so well. 

~ My 2nd low is the crazy weather we have been experiencing in East TN. Two weeks ago we dismissed at 12 for flooding on Tuesday, was closed on Wednesday for flooding, went to school on Thursday only to be dismissed early again but this time due to fast moving snow coming in, and then were out on Friday due to snow.
Last week, we were out for Martin Luther King day on Monday and on Friday was out due to ICE. It was nasty outside. Everything was coated in ICE. 
Now this week on Wednesday we were under Tornado Watch for most of the day, high wind advisory, and now today we are out again for SNOW! 

Add all that together with the days I missed school with my daughter(3) and I don't feel like I have been back to school since Christmas break!

So anyways there are my ramblings about my highs and lows for the month. Hoping next month I have better highs than lows! Go on over to Katie's Teacher to the Core page to read others and link up your own. She is also asking you do Farley's rule of 3. Look at two in front of you and one who posts after you. I am going to check others now!

~Heather

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Rain, Rain GO AWAY!

It has been a wild two weeks for me, 1st the daughter diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, we are getting used to our new daily routines and picking out foods she can eat, and checking everything and taking insulin and everything is all good. Then the 2 yr old gets RSV last Thursday, she gets to stay with the inlaws since she is running a fever and we don't want the 6 year old catching anything if at all possible. Fast forward to Monday and the 6 yr old is coming down with something. Her sugar is high indicating an infection of some kind. Leave school early to take her to dr, she now has RSV. So I take off yesterday to stay home with her. Kinda thankful though cause due to the extreme amounts of rain we have experienced the past few days and no end in sight, school dismissed at 10:30 yesterday, I hate early dismissal days, kids go crazy, some leave earlier, have to wait on buses from our other school to run before they get to us. It's a headache anyway you look until they are all gone, then you get to go home. So I was happy to be home while all that was going on yesterday. 

Today we are out again due to flooding over 40 roads in the county I live in are impassible and the rain is STILL coming down. The way it looks we could possibly be out tomorrow as well. 

Anyways so what I have been up to when I have been in class. I have been implementing more partnerships since coming back in January. The kids are loving it. I still have students who are confusing the difference between author and illustrator, so I had a thought to make an anchor chart to help them. 

I paired them up and had them work together to create a sentence that the one being the author could write and the other being the illustrator could illustrate. It turned out great.



Thursday, January 10, 2013

I am NOW a mommy to a Type 1 Diabetic 6 yr old!

So my life has been turned upside down since lunch last Friday. My daughter had been constantly drinking and would down a drink in no time, then started getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. We finally decided to get her a dr. appt to see what was going on. Well I decided to google extreme thirst is children....and the only thing that came up was juvenile diabetes. I was thinking I hope that's not what this is but we will see. 
So Friday morning I call and make her an appt for 3:00 that afternoon. Well one of our teachers is a gestational diabetic and I passed her in the hallway and asked if I could borrow her blood sugar checker to see what my daughter's was before she went to lunch. I knew it wouldn't be very accurate, but thought I will have a number before she eats and then they can do it again at the dr. office and compare it. Sadly we didn't make it that far. 
When I checked her at lunch, she was 516! I was a gestational diabetic with my 2nd child, and knew that was a high number, but it didn't dawn on me how high it was till I went and told the school nurse. The look on her face confirmed my fear. I lost it, right there in the middle of the school office! She finally got me settled down enough to call the dr. office back. I told them what was going and and was told get her to the ER now!!!! Of course that got me going all over again. My little girl has a chance of having a lifestyle change and there is nothing I can do about it. When I finally get settled down the 2nd time. I got my things and her things and off we go to the ER. 
I called her daddy on the way there and told him what all was going on. I had mentioned Type 1 diabetes to him the night before, so it wasn't out of the blue. He pulled in right before I did. Once we filled out the initial paperwork, they immediately called back to the ER and told them they had a 6 year old with blood sugar of 516. I knew right then that this is not good. We sat maybe two minutes and were called back. When the Dr. comes in and introduced himself and then started with "She has Type 1 Diabetes." My heart stopped, I couldn't believe my ears. But you didn't test for anything else? Is what I wanted to say...but nothing came out. He said they would start an IV and he would contact our family Dr. to see where she wanted to send us, since the nearest pediatric diabetic Dr. is an hour and a half away. 
Thankfully, my daughter was medically stable enough that we were discharged and told to drive to the Children's Hospital where the closest pediatric diabetic doctors were. That enabled us to go by home, get some clothes, and activities for her to play with cause we didn't know how long we would be there or anything. 
We finally arrived and went through the triage pretty quickly since the hospital we had already visited had sent paperwork and they were anticipating our arrival. She was placed back on IV for fluids and given her 1st insulin shot. She did great not a flinch, nothing. Which made it so much easier on mommy and daddy. We finally got a room upstairs around 9:00 that night. She received another two insulin shots that night followed by dropping too low at 2 a.m. due to the overlapping of the insulin. 
The next day we met with the diabetic educator and a nutritionist who explained some of everything we had to learn. I was so impressed with my baby girl. When it was time for a blood sugar check she would have her finger stuck out and already be pointing to where she wanted her insulin to go in. She tricked a few nurses who couldn't believe she was a newly diagnosed diabetic. That makes for one proud mommy and daddy. Plus it made it much easier on us. 
We had to have 2 days of teaching and they didn't teach on Sunday, so we finished on Monday and came home that night. 
We kept her at home on Tuesday, wanting to make sure we could handle checking her sugar and giving insulin before sending her to school. We had a good day. 
Wednesday was our first day back....all I can say is I am super happy that I work there because I don't know if I could have handled not knowing how she was doing. Thankfully for me she is three doors down the hall. She had a good morning, but dropped before lunch, so we had to check and give a quick snack. The rest of the day went well. Today was pretty much the same as yesterday. She dropped before lunch. I am talking to the Dr. tomorrow about adding a morning snack so she won't get so low before lunch.
This is my new life. She gets checked four to five times a day(right now we are still checking in the middle of the night) and she gets insulin shots four times a day. She is a trooper, she has struggled with it some since coming home, but I know there are going to be good days and bad days, and we will have every kind of emotion possible, but in the end I am extremely thankful that it is something that can be managed!



~Heather~

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

January Currently

I can't believe it's January already. The school year is half over. I am linking up for my favorite linky ever!!! It's Farley's Currently. So here you go.


I am listening to the Florida State Seminoles go into halftime with a slight lead of 14-3. Was hoping it would be bigger so I could go to bed. 

I had the best shopping spree ever a few days ago. I went to Maurices and racked up. I received an email saying clearance was 75% off, so I thought I would check it out since I had gotten a $25 gift card from my mom for Christmas. Well while I was going through the purse finding the gift card I also found a coupon for 15% off total purchase clearance included. I was very excited. So in I go knowing anything I found on clearance was 90% off! I tried on a ton of clothes, I finally decided on 5 dressy shirts, one blazer, a pair of black dressy capri's, a red skirt that I would typically not even think about getting but for less than $5, why not give it a try. So I go to checkout and what do I find in my purse......a $10 off coupon from where I have used my Maurice's Take Ten card. So 90% off and $10 off, and my $25 gift card, I only shelled out $1.75. I was an extremely happy girl!

I go back to school tomorrow, and am very excited to see my 19 kiddos. I love spending time off with my girls, but I am not a stay at home mommy for a reason. It drives me crazy, not having a schedule.

I do not make new year's resolution's due to the fact I have never been successful at them. I do attempt to make goals for myself and have a better chance doing them longer than resolutions. So this year I want to be more organized: at home, at school, my calendar, you name it. I want organization. We will see how well that comes.

I am needing SNOW. I know some of you have already had a ton, but my entire break was rainy, dreary, and cold, but not cold enough! Last year, I think we only used about 3 of our snow days at school. I would love to use around 10. No more though, as we have a couple days without kids towards the end of the year, and I don't want more than we have, since that resulted in Saturday School two years ago. So I need snow also so my girls can play in it. We didn't get to last year because of sickness. 

OLW: LISTEN I want to be a better listener to my girls, to my hubby (who swears I never listen to him, and is mostly right), to my kids at school so I can learn more about them, to my friends cause I don't have that many and I need to be a better friend, so I feel listening will get me there faster, to nature. I want to take more hikes and bike rides with the family this year and I want to hear my surroundings. I am lucky enough to live just outside the Great Smokey Mountains, and I want to teach my girls to listen to nature, because we never know how much longer we will have it. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed this month's Currently like I do every month, but it being January it puts certain topics into perspective. Thanks Farley!

Now it's your turn... What are you Currently up to?