I'm Planning a Pinterest Party

My next door teaching friend and I have the same Pinterest addiction.  She teaches third grade and I teach kindergarten.  We agreed that once school was over we were going to have to get together and work on our summer projects.  Mainly, all the cool things we found on Pinterest but didn't have time to make for our classrooms during the school year.  For some reason people think that all teachers do is sit around eating bon-bons all summer long while sitting at the pool.  Totally not true.  Why if you tried to eat your bon-bons at the pool you'd just have a melty chocolate-y mess.  No, the teachers I know and work with use the summer to plan, read and create things for the upcoming school year.  I just finished my 10th year of teaching and I still use my summer to make myself a better teacher and have a better year in the upcoming year than in the year that has just past. 

To get started on our planning for next year my friend and I are getting together on Monday for a great, big ol' Pinterest craft party.  We've invited a few other of our teaching friends to join us.  I'm providing lunch and my friend is bring dessert (you got it, a new recipe).  So here is my dilemma a few days out.  Do I pick my favorite things I want to make and work on a bunch of unrelated topics.  Do I focus on one subject area for my crafting and creating?  What I really should do is work on my organizational abilities but what fun is that?  So I need to buckle down and figure out what I want to work on instead of just pinning and pinning and pinning more great ideas.

Dustan's Birthday Surprise

Today was Dustan's birthday and I had several different ideas I found on Pinterest that I incorporated into his birthday celebration.  As I have time I will post those ideas as well.  His main gift was a bistro table for the patio so we would no long have to try balancing our plates and drinks in our laps when we eat outside.  We've found we really like eating out on the patio but we are not very graceful when we are not sitting at a table.  So needless to say our eating in lawn chairs out of our laps was less than successful most evenings. 

For Dustan's secondary gift I wanted to make him a date night jar I'd seen on Pinterest.  (So this may be a gift that benefits us both.)  The idea was when you were in a date night rut you could draw a date out and then proceed with it.  The dates were color coded into three categories: costly and needed to plan for dates, stay at home dates and not as costly and needed little planning. 

To get started I went to the trusty Hobby Lobby, which I lovingly call The Lob.  At The Lob I picked up a cute jar, stickers and cardstock. When I got home I carefully cut some cute heart paper into the shape of lid and placed it inside the lid for decoration. 

I then took and put a bling-y sticker on the top of the lid to top it off.  I'd thought about getting a "R" and putting it inside the bling sticker on top but didn't remember to get one.  I also put stickers on the outside of the jar for extra decoration.  I'm a kindergarten teacher, I like stickers.  The sparkl-ier the better.

I then cut three pieces of cardstock into 1-inch strips.  I used white, pink and red.  After cutting the cardstock I chose which color I wanted to represent each kind of date night. 

On the red cardstock I wrote dates that would require some planning and were more costly.

On the pink cardstock I wrote the dates that would require little planning and on the less costly end of date night. 

 

On the white cardstock I wrote out dates that were stay at home dates.

Once I'd finished writing all the different ideas down that I could think of for the various types of dates I then folded each one up and placed it in the jar.  After I finished and put the lid on the jar I then realized I needed to put the date code somewhere.  I flipped the jar over and wrote on the bottom of the jar:   Red: Costly & Planning  White: Stay at Home     Pink: Less Costly & Little Planning

Here is my finished date jar.  Dustan really liked reading through all the different date nights I had put in the jar.  If you have an upcoming wedding don't be surprised if you find one of these in addition to your gift registry present. 



        



The Question

As a teacher I get asked one question over and over as summer approaches: So what are you going to do this summer?  Usually I have a long list of things I'm doing.  Last summer it was planning my August wedding.  The summer before was numerous bike trips.  The summer before that it was changing schools and putting a new roof on my house-yes me, I did it. 

So when people have asked what I'm doing this summer I've said, "Nothing." A look of alarm spreads across their face.  They seem alarmed like that is not OK.  I originally felt a little guilt.  I thought maybe I should have some big summer experience to mark this summer.  Then I thought back over the past summers.  I hated going back to school exhausted because summer flew by with a packed schedule.  But this summer I vowed was going to be different.  It was going to be quiet.  This summer would have been my 10th BAK (Biking Across Kansas). Nope, not going.  A big garden? Nope, that's Dustan's domain.  A home improvement project?  I did that while Dustan was in Europe this spring, no thanks.  Mike and I at the Home Depot paint counter are on a first name basis.  I hope he forgets me and my follies of bathroom redecorating.

I've decided that I'm not doing anything this summer is a grand plan.  I like the quiet.  I like not having to go out on a bike ride unless I really want to because I'm not training for anything.  I like the simple evenings on the back patio eating supper with Dustan.  I like watching our summer fish.  I like the peaceful slumber of the dogs on the floor during the middle of the day. I like pinning things onto Pinterest.  I'm over 1400 pins.  I'm a little bit of a Pinslut.  (It's my own term.)  Then it came to me.  My only real desire this summer is to do some of the things I've found on Pinterest that I really don't have time to do during the school year.  I should document my summer of crafting, baking, cooking, school supplying through a blog.  Then it won't look like I'm doing nothing this summer. 

So here I am writing my first post.  I've already done several things off of Pinterest.  I'll need to go back and feature them.  But moving forward, I'm Not Doing Anything This Summer.  Sorta.