Life

I'm sitting here thinking is it fast when I can jog at a steady pace and get a mile in about 10 and a half minutes? All of us try to do something to keep ourselves in shape at one point or another in our lives. For me, after having my second baby I had a little more trouble getting back to my old self. I began using an app to build my stamina up for running a 5k. I worked really hard and it took a lot of effort, but once I got there almost four years ago I never looked back.

I just want to say that never giving up no matter where you are in your life is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves! We can all be going through what we believe is the most horrific thing that's ever happened in our lives, but all bad things must come to an end. They usually, almost always do. We think we aren't going to make it and then we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Life is very short. We need to be certain that we live, we laugh, we kiss slowly, we love, and soak up every moment, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Living our best life and giving our best is what we should seek. I don't know about you, but when I get to Heaven I wanna know that I left a beautiful trail behind. You see, in life we gotta take our memories and wrap ourselves up with those memories. Almost like a blanket because that's all we've got in this life and those memories are what make us us.

Words of Wisdom

I’m laying here with my baby boy thinking to myself what a wonderful world. If everyone could be as innocent as an eight year old child we would all have it made. There might actually be world peace.

I don't have much words of interest tonight or maybe I do. I don't know. All I know is today we got another flood day. Although, it's great to have these extra days, we have had a lot of loss in our community over these floods and it's such a sad time. This weather system is the weirdest.

So I did bump into an old friend this evening and she gave me a good little piece of advice. She told me we didn't need to worry about what other people think or say. If they're not in my bubble then they don't know me, the real me. Basically, those people do not matter. She couldn't have been any more right. Do you ever have those friends that come and go in your life? This is one of those and now she's back. There are times in our lives when we go through tremendous changes and you actually do figure out who your friends are in the end. The friends that will stand by your side, check on you and not pass those rumors around. Those are the friends that are needed most.

I am guilty of this, but sometimes we isolate ourselves when something happens in our lives that we either find humiliating or devastating. We don't know how to handle situations and sometimes we run and hide. Trust me people, that's not what you should be doing if you are going through some hard times.

Hold your head high, look up and trudge on through. Remember, some of us are in one of three places in our lives. We're either going into a storm, right in the middle of one, or coming out of one. Most importantly, don't forget to live your life to its fullest and never ever give up. Never ever stop believing in yourself.

Which Webhost should you Choose?

I've came across two different web hosting services in my life as a TpT seller and I've gotta say I'm not for sure which is better. I'll be honest, I use Bluehost to host my sign shop and it was a real struggle at first because I carried that sucker through Wordpress. I had two different logins and Wordpress would sometimes think I was logging in under something else. Let's just say it got messy.

I have been doing a lot of research on this Siteground Web hosting service and I'm really liking what I'm seeing. Yes, Bluehost is going to offer it for a dollar cheaper on occasion, but it won't matter in the end. Normally, you pay for the full year upfront with Bluehost. The Siteground is looking pretty spectacular and their website is easy to navigate. I will say Bluehost is super popular and has never let me down.

I just want to say that both of these hosting sites are going to give you what you need and they both offer Wordpress theme hosting which is awesome if you're a teacher looking to turn your blog into more.

Click here if you're interested in learning more about Bluehost

OR

Click here if you're interested in learning more about Siteground

My favorite duck boots

How many of you teachers out there are getting a few days off for snow or in my case flood waters? It's the oddest thing. It poured in our small area for several days and nights and has flooded several locations out. Then the next day it came a snow storm and whited out the entire town. I am in awe of this weather.

So, listen up people, here I am lounging around on a Sunday. I just got in and propped my feet up. I realized that these Sperry duck boots are amazing and I wanted to talk about it. I'm pretty sure most people own a pair of these, but I cannot say enough about these boots. They are really cute paired with the perfect cozy socks and they're comfy. My little boy has a pair to match and he doesn't mind one bit to match his momma! The only thing I will say about these adorable boots is that they aren't the warmest things when it gets below freezing. I have worn them in the snow a few times with my kiddos and my toes were nearly frost bit. Otherwise, I love them!

Getting Started on Teachers Pay Teachers

If you're like me and you want to make a few extra bucks, you know something about the field of education or you're a teacher, then becoming a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers just might be your next move. I will say that embarking on this adventure is no easy task, but it is possible to make extra money with this if you've got enough nerve.

I have been a seller on this platform for eight years and I have almost hit $50,000 in earnings. Overtime, that doesn't seem like a lot, but yay for this teacher-prenuer because I have been able to do so much with the extra money! I never dreamt in a thousand years I'd actually make this kind of money selling my teacher resources, but I have. I'm not going to lie. There are months where I will make a killing and there are months where I make just enough to buy some groceries, which is more then enough! This was money that I didn't have before to spend on my children, trips, or groceries and I thank the good Lord for it.

I'm not going to preach to you and tell you to get off your lazy booty and get out there, but if you want to make some extra cash here's how I did it.

Step 1:  Sign up to sell with a Premium Seller account!!! I'm sure you've got the standard membership at this point if you know anything about TpT. I had this same membership and I only used it to download resources for my own classroom. I took the plunge and switched my account to a seller account in 2012. Signing up for a Teachers Pay Teachers account is super easy!

Step 2: Open a PayPal account if you don't have one already. Listen, people! It's the new age and having one of these babies is going to help you out tremendously. Also, if you want to get paid through the platform, you're going to need one of these. You will need your bank account information handy. If it makes you feel better, open up an extra checking account just for this. PayPal will then make two small deposits into your account to verify you are the owner. You will then check your statement and enter the amount of the two deposits on PayPay so they know it's you. Easy as pie.

Step 3: Do some research and figure out what areas interest you the most. What grades do you teach? What subject areas are your favorite? Or do you have an idea for classroom decor? Next, you need to figure out what program you want to use for creating your resources. I use Power Point for a lot of my resources. I'll be uploading a tutorial on that very soon! You can also use Adobe Illustrator and I also use Photoshop to help out with making my cover pages spectacular. Sorry, I'm getting carried away and probably freaking you all out just a tad.

Step 4: Let's tone it down a little. You need to invest in a little commercial font and clipart in order to get started and make your cover pages look amazing. If you're a little scared of the cover page developing idea, don't be because I've created a one of a kind resource for you guys. Click here to go check it out. I'm considering making it free just to help my fellow entrepreneurs out, but this bad boy hasn't been posted long. I'm anxious to see what happens. Inside, I've got fifteen cover pages to make your life easy. All you have to do is change the titles and you're done!

Step 5: Make your first product and you are going to want to actually try it out in your classroom. Take some real life pictures and see what happens. Maybe it's a worksheet or something else. The sky is the limit here. Maybe it's a behavior management system. It's your thing!

Step 6: You only need two products to start, One free and One paid. Take your time and make these two the best products ever! Your first item on TpT has to be free, it's a sample for prospecting buyers to see what kind of work you create.

Step 7: Take a deep breath and don't go out buying all kinds of clipart and expensive programs at first. This isn't for everyone so keep that in mind, but don't give up! Selling on this platform can be so rewarding!

Snow Day

These are the days! The days when you get to stick around at home with your kids. Well, if you’re a teacher you do. Sometimes they make me wanna pull my hair out when I’m wide awake on a day off from work at 6 am, but isn’t it worth it? Don’t worry people, we will have to make these days up. That’s for sure! Due to the excessive amount of rain we have missed school for two days and today it randomly came a snow! That’s southeastern weather for you.

So I’ve worked on updating my blog and I absolutely love it! I am very happy with how it turned out and I really hope it’ll attract some more readers. I enjoy writing and would love nothing more then to attract a crowd. You all keep me hopping and I love it! Feel free to let me know what you think!