Monthly Archives: November 2009

A few weeks ago I hosted a Swap Party, and it was so great! A Swap Party is where people come together and bring things they don’t want/need anymore, and trade with each other. You go home with some new stuff for free! Here is how I hosted it:

• Decide what you want to have as a theme. We swapped: clothes, shoes, accessories, books, movies, and housewares. You could be more specific and do toys or anything really.
• Pick a date
• Send an e-vite
• Set up lots of space to spread out things. I made my dining room a clothing area for clothes with number sizes, and hung various pieces of paper around the room so that people could lay out their items. I made the kitchen an area for clothes that were marked small, medium, large. The fireplace hosted shoes, and the bar hosted purses and accessories. The couch held books and movies, and a folding table hosted housewares.
• Set aside a place for things that ARE NOT up for swapping! (purses, shoes, jackets etc) I used a guest room and closed the door.
• Have some mirrors for trying things on.
• Have some folks bring snacks and drinks or set them up yourself. We ate some before we started and after we finished.
• Have everyone arrive at a set time, and start the swapping at a set time about 30 minutes later. This allows everyone time to set out their stuff and for late arrivals.
• You can decide how to do the actual swapping. I looked up several websites, many of which advocated a ticket system. Bring 10 items, get 10 tickets for 10 things to take home. Some even said you could draw names to decide the order of who got to pick first. This might be important if you think people are going to be competitive for things, or if you don’t know the people coming. But we are all friends and pretty polite at that, so I didn’t figure there would be much battle over stuff, so we didn’t do this.
• Everyone needs a bag to put their stuff in as they go, so you can tell when something is taken.

So when the actual swap started, here is what we did… We took one category at a time.

First the purses. We all stood around the purse selection and everyone took one.  Then when all were satisfied, everyone who saw one they wanted took a second. And so on until we were all done. I ended up with that lovely giraffe print one that I had been eying at stores for MONTHS unable to fork over the cash for one, and a zebra one too! Thanks Kasey!

Then we moved on to clothes. We just basically started wandering around, holding up stuff, and trying it on. I had a “fitting room” set up in my bedroom, but we just all ended up trying stuff on right there in the living room where the clothes were, it was easier that way. We would try stuff and others would offer their opinion. If something didn’t fit, we would put it back in the pile, or maybe give it to someone else that we thought it might fit.

After clothes, we moved on to jewelry/accessories, shoes, then books/movies, then housewares. (As you can see we didn’t have a lot of home decor, but I think everyone mostly had focused on clothes to bring.) Then everyone made a last wander around to see if there was anything else they wanted.At the end, we had another snack and watched some TV. Then we went around and showed all that we got and you had to claim it if you brought it, so we could see whose stuff we got. That was really fun because it was nice to see someone else using the stuff that you didn’t use anymore.

Now that I think about it, I think it just goes to show how sweet all these friends of mine are…there was so much encouraging going on! People would be unsure if what they tried on looked good, and lots of encouragement was given! People would ask what you should wear with a certain item, and fashion suggestions were given! People even ended up with whole outfits! I think it helped that we all have pretty similar tastes. I think we all like each other’s styles pretty well so it was easy to give each other suggestions about what went together or how something looked. I think we all like the same stores too, as there was a lot of stuff from GAP, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Old Navy, etc there.  It was really super fun! Sometimes you would have to persuade someone to take something, as they worried that someone else wanted it to. I think everyone ended up pretty satisfied with their haul. We all got at least one big shopping bag full if not more. And a good variety too. I got several pairs of jeans, some shirts, a couple of books, and a couple of purses. Look at my bag of stuff!

Needless to say, it was REALLY fun and we look forward to doing another one of these in a few months. Click here and here to read other accounts about our party. Here and here are some good links that gave me some ideas.  So if you didn’t get to come this time, maybe you can next time! And if you don’t live around here…well, host your own!

We make our students memorize fraction decimal conversions for benchmark fractions (the most important and widely used ones). They make flashcards and have to study at home.

Then we do a series of three timed tests. The tests have all the fractions listed and they have to fill in the decimal it equals…all in two minutes. They cannot work it out, they have to have it actually memorized. You don’t know how much it comes in handy for them in the next few years of math classes in school to just know that 1/3 = .3 repeating and 1/8 = .125 and so on, without having to work it out.

So my sweet hubby found this site called Quizlet that helps you study for things like this and I made a flashcard set for my class.

Here is what the upper level students are required to learn.

Click here to take the test and see if you know them.

Comment with  your score and what you think of this.

Does anyone use these fraction decimal conversions in their real life job? My students would probably love to know if someone actually did!

So my sweet friend Kasey  presented me with this award a long while back and I am just now getting around to sharing it with you…

Here’s the deal:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award. Thank you Kasey!!! You are awesome! Great job on NaBloPoMo!

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog. See above.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. See above.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know. You probably know these, but oh well.

• My favorite color is red (or pink)
• I hate snakes.
• I love shoes.
• I don’t like roller coasters.
• I have a bad habit of saying I don’t like to eat things that I have never really tried. I just don’t think I will like them.
• I once wrote a grant for my school and won it!
• I currently drive the only car I have ever had and it has 120,000+ miles on it and I love it!

5. Nominate some  Kreativ Bloggers.

• Kaela is a great blogger because she always has great stories and I love how she has guidelines for what to post on by weekday so she can think of stuff to write.
• Lindsey is a really good write and her posts are always so witty. I like her new theme of balance.
• My hubby is  a Kreativ blogger because he always shares such interesting links!
• Desi has a blog about her sweet kids and I love to see what their most recent stats are and the most fun thing Ava is saying now.
• Lydia is one of my longest running fellow bloggers and I always love to read what she writes.
• My sweet mom has some great pictures to share on her blog.

6. Post links to the  blogs you nominate. See above.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated. I’m on my way.

Thanks Kasey!!

Its back! Yayyyy!!!

So…I am currently teaching multiplying fractions and mixed numbers to my upper level sixth graders. We teach how to multiply fractions with a Hershey chocolate bar, and we teach how to multiply mixed numbers with a cookie recipe that we enlarge 2  1/2 times. They actually bring the ingredients and we mix it up and I bring them cookies the next day. (I do not deserve credit for thinking of this, the teachers at my school did this before I got there.) So here are some problems for you…

1.       3/4  x    5/6 =

Get the answer and also tell me if you remembered anything special you could do to make it easier.

2.     5     1/3     x         7      1/2   =

Get the answer and tell me how you did it.

They recently blogged about a song they wrote that meant a lot to us. Here is their blog: The Common Tone.

Have you been wondering where I have been? Well I haven’t felt much like blogging lately, but I am hopefully back now. You see, it has been a rough past couple of months because I have had two miscarriages. Both were really early, 5 weeks and 7 or so weeks. But after spending some great time with God this week, I feel like I am ready to blog about his faithfulness during this time.

Our God is a God of comfort. The verse that has been most assuring to me is Psalm 34:18.

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

That has been so true. God has been near to me in many ways, both through his word and people who have prayed for us and encouraged us as well. Over this past week, God has tied that verse to another verse for me.

Isaiah 61:1-3 says “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lords favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion-to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

Along with that goes a passage in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

I have a peace and a hope for our future and for his timing in the expansion of our family. The verses I could list here that have ministered to my heart are just so numerous. As I look up one that I meant to share, I see three more on that page that were also special to me. Isaiah 55:8-10. Isaiah 54: 3 and 7 and 13. Psalm 34:19. Psalm 37: 3-7. Psalm 73:26 and 28. Psalm 127. Psalm 138:8. Psalm 43:1-5. Lamentations 3:22. Mark 4:40. Romans 8:1. 2 Timothy 2:13. 1 Thessalonians 5:24. James 5:8. Luke 6:38. Genesis 50:20. Romans 8:18 Psalm 55:22.

I write this post not to bring attention to myself and for anyone to say “oh, you’re doing great with all this”, because it is not me at all, but I write this solely to glorify God, for he has sustained me and comforted me and will do the same for you. May God receive glory for his wonderful love and comfort and mercy and grace! He has been, remains, and will be victorious.