Office Supplies and a Little Music

Office supplies and music aren't normally lumped together are they?  Oh well, it's my blog and I can write if I want to, write if I want to, write if I want to, you would…..

Okay, I'm stopping.

Back to office supplies and music.  Those are two of my favorite things in the world.  One of the saddest parts of teaching is that you can't listen to "your music" during the day.  I sometimes envy people who can listen to whatever they want at work.  But then summer comes and I can listen to music all day long!  Happy Dance!!!

Oh but first - office supplies.

I worked the first week of summer "deconstructing" the math TEKS for first grade.

I'm just that fun y'all.

Honestly, it was one of those things where the math coordinator asked me to help and I really don't like saying no to people in those types of positions because I want them to keep asking me to do things in case one day it's really super fun.  Well, as much fun as working on any type of curriculum can be I guess.

Anywho - several other teachers from all of the grade levels met and we worked all week on the standards.  It was some of the toughest work I've ever done with curriculum, but in the end I was pretty proud of what we accomplished.

The best part of the week was I met my new favorite markers.  I have a love for office supplies, and man, the markers we used just made my heart happy.

I am such a teacher nerd.  So much so that I actually texted my best friends about said markers.  Yep.

Cody was at youth camp with our church and K had been at dance camp and staying with my parents during this week so that I wouldn't have to drive her over there super early in the morning before going to work each day.  So I wasn't really feeling the summer loving just yet.  All my other teacher friends were posting pictures of their lunches out, their time at the pool, or their vacations.  Props to those teachers who can plan a vacation right after school is out.  You go with your awesome self!

I checked the mail the afternoon before my last session and found this from my precious, precious friend Nicole.

You know you have found some of your people when they bring office supplies to your mailbox.  That is true friendship in my book folks.  

My next discovery isn't exactly an office supply, but more of a crafty type utensil.  :)

I know chalk markers have been around for a while now, but I hadn't bought any until last week.  I finally bought some thanks to some Amazon gift cards from students.  (I'm getting better at not keeping my gift cards for so long!  That is such a bad habit I have!)

I read a bunch of reviews on the various types and finally decided on these.  

I love the colors so much and the pen size is just right for the type of things I need.  I used them to decorate two chalkboards for a baby shower we had at our house for Leigh Anne and Matt.  Then I did this one to celebrate Summer.

As you can see, even though it says all it takes is wiping it off with water, I can still see some of the last writing I did after several attempts at washing it off.  The funny thing is the colored chalk came right off, but the white didn't.  It could just be my chalkboard, but it still frustrated me.  Not enough to not use my chalkboard though.  :)

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Now to music.  I just had a few thoughts about it when I was driving home from dropping K off at dance practice this morning.

1.  Spotify is about the best app ever invented.  Add songs from your favorite artists (unless you like Taylor Swift because she won't share her music there), create custom playlists for your moods, people in your family, events, etc. and you can even play a radio station based on the songs in your playlists.  I love you Spotify.  Thank you for being born.

2.  Dave Matthews Band music will always make me smile.  It will always remind me of junior high and high school.  Thank you Lance Ray for being the cute 9th grader who I liked when I was in 8th grade, therefore I decided I needed to share common interests with you.  I went out and bought Dave Matthews Band cds after you told me how much you liked the band.  Our few month "dating" relationship might not have worked out, but Dave and I are still very happy together.  

3.  I could never be a radio dj with today's music.  Sure, some of it is fine, but they would want me to play all the new stuff and I would probably be fired.  That, or my ears would die.  When somebody called in and requested a horrible song I would probably tell them they should not consider it good music and suggest alternatives.  Again, I'm pretty sure my chances of being fired would be high.  I realize that people are going to like what they like.  Hey, some people may hate Dave Matthews Band.  I am sad for those people.  But I just wouldn't be able to do that job every single day and watch our culture spiral downward.  

So there you have it.  My random thoughts on office/craft supplies and music.  I realize they have no real value or merit to basically anything, but that means I'm not busy with teacher stuff and I'm truly starting to enjoy my summer, so I kind of love it!