THIS BLOG HAS MOVED!

Thank you so much for sticking it out with me and visiting me at this location. At this time, I have decided to completely rebrand my website, blog, TpT and Etsy stores under one name!

As I transition into a new grade level, I didn't feel right blogging under the name Keep Calm and Teach 5th Grade anymore. 

You can now find me at www.lifebeyondthegradebook.com. This new destination will be far more inclusive of my interests outside of teaching along with my adventures in the classroom. Plus, it's  not grade specific so there's a lot of freedom for more movement in the future!

XO

TPT BANNER

Things Are Changing

My blog has been totally dead this year! I get it...

Let me tell you what's been going on.

I took the year off from teaching to deal with some medical issues that hit me really hard last year. Last year, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto's disease. They both hit me like a ton of bricks in early October and I spent the first half of the year just fighting for a diagnosis so that I could get medication and some relief.

It was HARD. I was teaching through all of it, running our robotics team, organizing our school's battle of the books program and selling LuLaRoe. I couldn't keep up with everything. 

I did end up getting medicated but it took months to even stabilize my medication. I ended up shutting down my LuLaRoe business and taking a leave of absence for the year.

I didn't want to talk about it on my blog becuase it was so challenging for me to process and admit. And, since I have been out of the classroom, I haven't had much to post on here. I don't have any fun, creative lessons happening. I haven't made any new TpT resources. I've been really absent from everything.

However, I have started to rebrand this blog because I am moving to a new grade level next year. I'll be teaching third grade. This will be the first time that I have taught something other than fifth and I am so nervous for the grade level change but so excited to try something new as well. 

So...I have been gone but you are not forgotten. I can't wait to be back at work and back in the blogging game!

Hello Fresh Review #1

My friend sent me a great Hello Fresh discount code that I could not resist so I put in an order for a weekly box from Hello Fresh. I figured, at the very least, that I would get some creative new meal ideas for the week and take a little work off of the weekly grocery shopping and meal prep.

I loved Hello Fresh right away because it has a variety of options, including gluten-free and vegetarian. I am not vegetarian but I am gluten free due to my autoimmune disease and I know that it can be hard to find these types of plans with options for vegetarian and gluten-free homes.

I chose 4 of their gluten-free options for the week. I want to share my first meal experience today. I cooked the Pork Al Mojo that was a mix of sweet and zesty beans and rice. I LOVED it. It tasted SO healthy and was quick and easy to cook, completing it in about 30 minutes. That's what I need!

                   

Each box comes with a recipe card that has a picture of the meal on the front and the list of ingredients along the bottom.



On the back, you can see the list of instructions. They're all really easy. 

Here's my ingredients all prepped and ready for my pan! How simple is this?!

http://bit.ly/GetHelloFresh

In progress and the final product. Overall, I was happy with this gluten-free option. You definitely feel like you're eating healthy but it takes so much of the work off of your plate that it makes eating healthy quick, easy and breaks you out of any food prep rut you're in.

Want to get $40 off of Hello Fresh for a week (I'll get $20 too when you sign up). Head on over here to get started!

TheHungryJpeg.com - Inspiration Central

In case you haven't seen some of my recent posts, I've been really digging in and cranking out some fun graphic design projects. I've found a lot of creative enjoyment with this hobby. It takes a lot less concentration and thought than designing curriculum but still gives me a sense of satisfaction when I complete a project and enjoyment in the creative process.

Sometimes, I can't quite seem to put my finger on what I want to create but I know that I can't wait to put a new design out there. When this happens, I love visiting thehungryjpeg.com for inspiration. I found the most gorgeous bundle on their site today. Here's the bundle cover image from their site.

Click the image to be taken to the bundle on thehungryjpeg.com 

After flipping through the images, I had so many ideas for shirts, cards, home decor, etc. that could be created off of this theme. I love everything beachy and everything boho so this was a match made in heaven for my design work.

What I love even more is that the bundles on this site are very affordable. You can get loads of graphics and fonts for under $20 a pop. That means that I can quickly recoup my expenses when I put out new designs. The bundle above is only $18!

Most of my designs are created using fonts and graphics from this site. I recently created a baby shower invitation and had so many files in my Google Drive to pull out exactly what I needed to create the perfect invite for the mom-to-be. Check out the invitation below.

I picked up the fonts used on this invitation at The Hungry JPEG as well. They have an awesome selection of individual fonts and font bundles. I love picking out new script fonts. Although, I really should consider picking out a lot more sans serif fonts to balance out these scrawling beauties. 

Some other items that I've designed using their bundles are up in my Etsy store. Here's a shirt that I created using a variety of products. 

To design this shirt, I used the Islander font available on their site and combined it with an apple graphic that came in a huge graphics bundle. I then layered the apple with a watercolor design from another bundle to create the watercolor apple on the shirt. I loved playing with fonts and colors to create the perfect shirt to represent teachers everywhere. 

Overall, designing has been a really fun process and I wanted to share my creative inspiration source with you guys so that you can find everything you need to start getting creative as well!

XOXO-

UPDATED! 23 Boards to Choose From!!

I'm excited to announce that my homework choice boards have received an update! I'm one step closer to completing the set and prepping the editable version! There are now 23 boards which means that I only need to create 13 more to finish out the school year. 

Check it out now before the final version goes live and the price goes up!

xo

Festive Winter Holiday Cookies

                   

What you need:

Ready-made cake or cake mix packet. 

Icing sugar or frosting

White chocolate

Ready-made Christmas themed Icing toppers. 

(Here is a link to Gingerbread Men toppers)

Christmas themed sprinkles

Directions

1.To create the cake balls, you will need to prepare some cake mix. You can either use a ready-made cake mix or find use a recipe to create cake from scratch. 

                        

2. Place the cooked cake into a bowl and mash it into breadcrumb size pieces. 

                        

3. Next, add 4 tablespoons of frosting or add icing sugar until the cake balls are able to stick together. 

                     

4. Roll out some balls of cake and place onto a plate. 

5. Melt the white chocolate and dip each cake ball into the chocolate ensuring full coverage.

                 

                    

6. Place the chocolate covered cake balls on a plate and decorate with sprinkles and or icing toppers. 

7. Be sure to place the toppers on the balls before the chocolate begins to set. 

                      

8. Once you have made all the cake balls, place them into a fridge to speed up the setting process. 

9. Enjoy.