My Christmas/Birthday Wishlist {2015}

Once again I had so much fun making wish lists for the girls that I decided to make one for myself. Last year I put some pretty insane items on my wish list and God amazingly provided all of them. Through presents, Christmas money and a few really great sales and coupons, it was awesome. I don't expect to receive everything on this years list, but I also decided to scale it back quite a bit. 

So, without further explanation here is this years Christmas/Birthday wishlist:

1) A Lens hood. I've been meaning to pick one of these up for quite some time. 2) An essential oil diffuser. It is long past time to take the plunge. 3) Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven. In teal, it is just SO pretty. 4) A Lens Pen. This little tool is SO handy. 5) A wireless blue tooth adapter, so I can easily play music in the house from my phone. 6) A vest. It doesn't have to be this one, but I do really like it. 7) A speedlite flash, my indoor photography wish come true. 8) A new wallet. Mine is falling apart, literally.
And there you have it my 2015 Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to me list!

What's on your list? Did I miss anything good?

Teaching Together Blog Hop {December 2015}

Welcome To Teaching Together #3!


Before we get started I wanted to share a couple my favorite post from our November hop! It was so exciting to see last months link-up grow. There were lots of great posts to get ideas from, so picking two was really hard. 
Meghan shared some really fun, simple ways you can learn about shapes.

And Desiree shared about how she improvised preschool lessons about the letter F.

Great examples showing that life is full of teachable moments. Thanks for linking up with us ladies!
Now on to this month... In the spirit of being completely honest, I almost forgot about this link-up #cohostfail. Oh my goodness, admitting that is just a tad embarrassing. Instead of stressing out to pull something together, I thought I would take a different direction and do a round up.
Here we go!
Christmas is BY FAR my favorite time of the year and there are SO many projects that I want to do with the girls. Today I am sharing with you a few activities that we are looking forward to working on over the next few weeks. 
Jesus Tree Daily Advent Devotional
I have been looking and looking for a family advent devotional and I think this might just be the one. Christmas Countdown   The girls LOVE having a way to count down to Christmas.  

  Roll-A-Reindeer   We always enjoy a fun Christmas themed game night with the kids. This will definitely be on our list this year.

  Santa Letters   I love the focus of this letter. One thing they REALLY want, some other ideas and ways for them to think how they can give. Perfect!

Cinnamon Ornaments   The girls and I have never made these, it's finally going to happen!

Nativity Craft   This would make a great ornament or sun catcher.

Recycled Gingerbread Houses   I love the creativity and practicality of this project. It could also be adapted for each child.

So many great activities to do in the month of December.

This small collection just barely scratches the surface of what I would like to get done. 

Overly ambitious? You bet I am.

Now it's your turn!

Grab the button in my sidebar and link up what you've been teaching lately.

An InLinkz Link-up

What Christmas craft are you looking forward to?

Monthly Goals {December 2015}

December is here!

December is here and that means that by doing this post today, I somehow managed to set monthly goals for the entire 2015 calendar! Even if I kind of bombed on some of them at least I gave it a try and kept going. 

Setting goals has been a great way to keep me focused through the year and is something that I definitely plan continue in 2016. Sometimes I often feel like these posts are more for myself than anyone else and wonder if they are a good idea for the blog. But, the idea of motivating or encouraging someone else to work on setting and achieving their own goals, while I work on mine, keeps me going.

Blog-

*Continue blogging 4-5 days a week. *Plan some fun holiday posts *Reach 1,000 Instagram followers *Participate in a giveaway
Blog posts have been consistent and there is more Holiday fun going on in the world of blogging than I can handle. I participated in a holiday shopping cash giveaway and I am currently almost to 1100 Instagram followers!

Family-

*Family movie night

*Family game night

*Put leaves on our thankful tree each day

*Donut date

We played games, watched movies and our Thankful Tree was overflowing.

We missed out on the donut date but that is probably for the best with all the other tasty foods we have been eating lately. 

Fitness- *Workout 4-5 Days a week *Complete Level 6 of the new rules program *Miraculously do one chin-up *Share about my journey the past 6 months

Fitness goals completely bombed this month. I suffered a slight knee injury, got horribly sick then became so sore from one really intense workout that I couldn't do anything for days #FAIL. I also never posted about what's been going on in my head.

But next month I can try again!
Spiritual-  *Continue reading Women of the Word *Keep trying to connect at church *Bi-weekly meetings with Sarah.
*Begin to focus hearts young and old on being thankful and the reason we celebrate the holidays.
I went to another women's event and spent a lot of time talking about being thankful with the girls. I am hoping that will help us transition into Christmas nicely. Meetings with Sarah just didn't happen. That was mostly my fault since I was so sick and busy :(. 

Home School- *Stay on track with lesson plans *Go on a field trip *Have a blast on Thanksgiving break
Lesson plans are on track and Thanksgiving break was just what we needed to push us through the rest of the first semester. But with busy days and sickness the field trip failed again. 

Random- *Deck the halls *Begin Christmas Shopping *Get scripture and book advents ready *Make a Christmas Bucket List *Bake a coconut cream pie

The halls are decked, Christmas shopping is slow but steady and our advents are already going. I made and shared a fun bucket list printable and that coconut cream pie, boy was it good!

November may have been my biggest bomb so far but I'll put last month behind me and move forward.

Blog-

*Continue blogging 4-5 days a week. *Do something fun on the blog for my birthday. *Host a Holiday link-up.

Family-

*Complete our Christmas Bucket List.

*Christmas Get-a-way

If we do everything on our list it will provide PLENTY of Holiday fun.

Fitness- *Re-evaluate goals in this area. *Work out 3 days a week. *Create a new plan for 2016.
Spiritual-  *Keep trying to make connections at church. *Focus on celebrating advent personally and as a family.
Home School- *Stay on track with lesson plans. *Survive until December 17th. Our last formal day of school for 2015!
Random- *Invite someone over for lunch or dinner. *Spend more time with my kiddos. *Soak up my favorite season of the year.
So my goals this month may be lame and honestly when I first sat down to write this post, this wasn't the direction I planned to take. I think in order to go into 2016 with my "A game" I need to refocus my heart and think through things a bit more than I usually do and the best way I know to do that is to scale back. 
So this month I am going to hug my kids more and worry less about all the little things.
What goals do you have to close out the year?