Punch List

It's been a while since I've done a Wednesday punch list, and there are plenty of things to mention.

1. Yesterday I actually had FUN teaching for the first time in a long time. Many of you know that I've been feeling burned out and struggle to make it fun for myself. I taught my eighth graders a U.S. History lesson about pre-American Revolution happenings and we drank tea, paid our taxes to the king with Skittles, started a rebellion, and still got work done.

2. I am officially hooked. I read The Hunger Games (almost the entire thing) while sitting in jury duty last week. I'm on to Catching Fire at this point. I'll have to figure out what to do about the third book since I don't have a classroom copy that I can steal to bring home. In other news, my school's PTA has ordered a classroom set for me so that we can use it as our next novel! I know my kids will love it, so I'm quite excited about this! And that is saying a lot since I'm usually the first to bash these types of trilogies.

3. Speaking of books. One thing I promised myself this year was that I made time for myself to read. So far, I've been able to stick to that. I'm proud to say, so far in this new year, I've spent more time with a book in my hand than time in front of the tv. I'm not going to lie, Andrew and I were becoming Storage Wars addicts. Now we've been using the free on demand feature and catching up on our shows on Friday nights. Perfect too because it cuts out a large portion of the ads, saving us even more time from being in front of the tv!

4. Andrew's parents gave us a home brew kit for Christmas. We're both love really good beer and had been wanting to try home brewing for a while. We're really looking forward to giving a go. It could definitely have potential for a pretty awesome hobby. Andrew already has plans for me to design beer labels for our brews.

5. You may have seen me tweet about this already, but I'm incredibly excited about the reception for one of my latest Valentine's cards. In one short week, the card has had 11 sales, over 100 favorites, and over 700 views. I would be lying if I weren't to say I am overwhelmed by the response. I know a lot of Etsy shops have this sort of thing happen on a daily basis and it may not seem like a big deal to those people, but for me it's a sign that I can do this! Or that I can accomplish all of my goals!

6. The Steelers lost in the playoffs on Sunday night. I was bummed, but it's just sports so I got over it pretty quickly. Is it bad, though, that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself in those 3 extra hours each Sunday? :)

7. Remember my post about boots earlier this fall? Well, I'm pretty sure Andrew's mom is pretty awesome because being the sneaky person she is, she bought me the Free People socks featured in the post for me as a Christmas gift. And if that wasn't sneaky enough, she also stalked my Etsy favorites and bought my fave t-shirt from Blonde Peacock. She's one incredibly thoughtful and sneaky Christmas shopper!

8. After the holidays, we are now loaded up with a year's supply of chocolate. Good chocolate too. I'd estimate we have nearly 100 Lindor truffles, several delicious chocolate bars, plus a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember at the moment. One piece of chocolate per night after dinner for dessert. That's how we made it through the stash last year.

9. Every night at about 9:30, Lilah and Finn wrestle. They wrestle and play for a good half hour. We call it Wrestlemania Time. Never before have I seen a cat and dog get along so well and it makes me smile each time.

10. In the coming weeks, I'm hoping to introduce a super fun social experiment Andrew and I brainstormed in our car ride home from Cleveland. I don't want to say a whole lot about it just yet, but it has to do with mail and will involve some of my cards. I'll be sure to fill you all in. Stay tuned in the event you'd like to participate! :)