Life's a Dance

I took a moment today to breathe a little. Life gets too fast and we just don’t slow down. I have littles to chase and dreams to turn into reality for them, and for me. What is your dream in life? I'm a teacher and I absolutely plan to teach until I am retirement age, but I also have other dreams in life.

I find so many times I have worried in my life about what other's think of me. Those days are behind me. Sometimes you realize all too quickly that you are stuck in a vortex, that the people that surround you are not who you need to be with. Some of you may laugh, some of you may just roll your eyes. I don't know. I will say this. Life’s too short to worry about stupid things so live it!!! 

In this shot I'm wearing an amazing find from TJ Max and some J. Crew shorts.

XOXO,

Casey

My Everyday Make-Up Routine

Read on to get the make-up look above. Okay...so I say my "everyday" make-up routine, but honestly I haven't worn a lot of makeup since they shut school's down due to COVID. So when I do wear make-up this is my routine. It's pretty straightforward and is pretty natural looking for the most part. 

In the image you can see that I have a Becca palette. OMG this thing is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! I will purchase another one when it runs out. No, it's not cheap, but Lawd it is so worth it. The blush and highlighting inside the palette are so very pigmented. They are absolutely amazing! 

I also use the Becca line which includes the full coverage foundation in the bigger bottle and I buy the under eye cream as well just because it's amazing and it doesn't crease into my wrinkles at all. We all know about those under eye creams that make our wrinkles look even worse. All of that goes on super smooth and I love it! I seriously should make a video on how I do this, but it'll take a lot. I'm not much on the live feeds thingy. I'll sure try!

I use the Mac blush, it's also amazing to outline my Becca blush. It's the best as well! I also use the highlighter palette from Macy's. It is so beautiful and gives the right amount of highlighting. It's very very easy to get to much of this so go easy. The first few times I used it and went to work, I had it all over me. Story of my life haha.

My mascara is simple. It's Mary Kay and I know the sweetest lady that sales it to me. It's awesome!!! I also love a sample I received from Lancome. It's pretty good stuff and neither mascara brands rub off on my face.

The last two things I use are NYX spray to set my makeup which I get off of Amazon. I also use LimeLight Macaroon lipstick that I purchase from a consultant. It stays on forever, but sometimes it'll dry my lips out so look out for that. I just rub it off and reapply if I get that feeling.

I hope my everyday routine will help you ladies out there!! It takes me about 12 minutes to do this. Yes, I timed myself. I'll likely make a video for show and tell one of these days!! 

XOXO,

Casey

How to Survive as a Homeschool Parent

Wow!! That’s all I can say at this point in my life. We have been tossed from our mundane daily lives that we used to complain about into social isolation. I will never ever say that I dread going to work ever again! I can’t express how much I miss my work family as well as my students.

For now, I am home with my kiddos. I am working hard to insure they don’t fall behind during this time. Mostly, we must all pray that during this time we all stay healthy and sane!

Becoming a homeschool momma has been epic for me. Yes, I am a teacher, but it’s always been in the classroom for the last eleven years. I’ve been gathering resources that I feel will be helpful in working with my babies from home.

My first bit of resource that I’ve ventured into is Adventure Academy. I’m not so sure that I’m in love with this yet, but I feel that it’s worth a shot with the free trial. I’ve also tried ABC mouse, but didn’t have much luck with it due to my iPads being older models. They struggled to upload the app.

Spelling City  is another one of those resources I am planning to try out. I used to use it when I was a regular education teacher. My kiddos could get on there and work through spelling actives with the lists that I chose.

Another thing I am working on is creating a classroom space for me and my kids. I am on the hunt for a couple of desks and even a desk for myself as I am working some from home as well as homeschooling. I absolutely love some different ones I’ve found on amazon so I’ll have to let you know what I come up with.

Being organized is a critical thing for me as well as for my kids. If I’m not organized then I feel like I never will get anything accomplished. So that’s where my desks will come into play and I’m currently getting their NTI packets in binders so I can keep up with where we stopped last.

I hope this bit of information will help all of you feel a little more sane in your upcoming days of social distancing. Take care and stay safe my friends.

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!