The Week End and Free "Great Teacher" Printable

 

(salt and pepper shaker found here)

Busy busy week. The girls had two class field trips plus an evening Spring Musical, dance class and Madelyn's second violin recital last night!

Here we are at Memorial Day weekend  (are we half way through the year already!?) Even this weekend will be busy for us! Saturday errands and book club night with our new book, A Seat At The Table: A Novel of Forbidden Choices. A Sunday barbeque with Mike's family after a shopping trip for materials to reupholster my rocking chair. Then, Monday the girls will be home from school with dinner with my family for another outdoor feast!

Since I have not been blogging much, I'll bring you up to speed on other goings-on here.

Here is our remaining butterfly that has turned into a family pet of sorts. I ordered caterpillars from Insect Lore the week of March 14th. The five caterpillars turned into butterflies around early April. The weather was not warm enough for us to release the butterflies in April so when I believed the end of their life span was near, (one had already met its demise), we released them into our backyard on the twins' birthday, May 1st.

After our party, we noticed a butterfly in the grass in the front yard. It was this very butterfly! The wings of butterflies become quite tattered and tired after 3 weeks so we decided to let it live in our butterfly house for the remainder of its time.

And she still remains.

I figure this butterfly has now been alive since metamorphosis for three times its estimated life span, which is only about 3 weeks. Wow!

Here is our mock orange tree in the front garden. It bloomed beautifully this year but its petals are fading this week. I can hardly wait for next Spring to arrive.

(The book links below are affiliate links through Amazon.com. If you happen to order through a link, a small portion is given to us with no additional cost to the buyer. All opinions and reviews are my own.)

Here is a stack of books that I have been reading. Our last book club selection was, The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. Not wanting to contribute to more "stuff", I loaned this book from the local library. Lots of information and an interesting read but it left me feeling a bit too insignificant in the grand scheme of how and where change needs to happen.

Love in A Time of Homeschooling by Laura Brodie was a lovely memoir of a mother and her daughter's adventures with one stay-at-home year of school. Harper-Collins was kind enough to send me a reader's copy. I adored reading this book but I'm a definite sucker for memoirs.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann was a gift from my Mom who read it and was inspired to pass it along. It spins a tale of 10 ordinary lives that overlap and sometimes converge around a real-life event when Philippe Petit attempted and achieved his tightrope walk between the once standing, New York City Twin Towers.

Patchwork Style by Suzuko Koseki and Raising Happiness by Christine Carter were birthday gifts from my husband. The projects in Patchwork Style left me with hearts in my eyes and I am crossing my fingers in my hopes to complete more than one project. Raising Happiness has been on my wish list since subscribing to Raising Happiness/The Greater Good.

Also, not pictured, I borrowed Kelly Corrigan's, The Lift from our library as an audio 2-CD set. The audio CD was a mistake, I really wanted the hard copy but I decided to listen to it anyway.

I am about halfway through the first CD. I am trying to make it through without tears.. but it's difficult. So far so good though. It is definitely stokes a fire in me to write down the stories from my own childhood and of their childhood so they can know me as a person as well as a mother and be reminded in words of my incredibly fierce love for them.

In other news, the TWO winners of my felt CELEBRATE banner are on their way with a handmade envelope full of kindness cards and a personal note. I am so glad the SMS May giveaway was a success and I hope the winners find many ways to celebrate with this banner!

Speaking of celebrations, I have been hearing the buzz of "last day of school" around the internet and I am completely jealous! Oh, and so are the girls! 

Although too late for some, I made some "Thanks for being a great teacher" gift tags to accompany the "Great Friend" tags of last year. Your child can fill his name in on the bottom line for a personal touch! 

ENJOY!

Download these and 8 more brightly colored tags HERE!