July Show and Tell Tuesday

WOWZA! It's already the third Tuesday in July? Where is the time going? In just one month I will be starting inservices for the upcoming school year...sigh!

I am a crazy cat woman! Miss Daisy has been my fur baby for 17 years, a gift from one of my sixers. She loves to have her picture taken as evidenced by the numerous photos of her spread around our home. Poor Lulubelle, who joined our family two years ago, doesn't stay still long enough to frame a shot normally. This fur mama was feeling rather guilty so I gathered the few photos I did have of Lulie, took a few more, and printed them off. I headed off to the Dollar Tree and grabbed three frames.  Below you see the finished product. Yes, yes, Daisy is in some of the photos as well.

I never do anything small, and I never do anything the usual way... or so it seems!

Sitting and watching a new Netflix favorite, "Wentworth" (the Australian equivalent of Orange is the New Black) one sunny, humid evening this past week when CRASH, the entire house shook as if an earthquake had struck! A huge branch (the size of a typical tree) fell on my roof. It is difficult to judge size and proportion from this photo. No wind, no rain, nothing to make it fall, just CRASH! Luckily no one was hurt. The insurance company was great, sending someone out to secure the area and remove the branch. I am just waiting for repairs to be completed and am in discussion with my city about removing the entire tree to prevent anymore sunny day surprises.

Have you seen these cool pencils? Called SPROUTS they contain a seed, a real seed! When the pencil is but a stub, plant it... and VOILA! You have basil or tomatoes or parsley or some other wonder plant! I saw them advertised by Amazon via Facebook, one of those ads in the sidebar. My immediate thought: Awesome Science FUN!!! Of course I clicked on the link to discover a pack of eight pencils cost a tad over eleven dollars. Uh, NO, no matter how cool, just NO! I would need to purchase four packs to supply my class. I decided to give ebAY a try, and boy am I glad that I did! A little over two bucks a pack, my total purchase was a tad over eleven dollars including the shipping. Hmmm, comparison shopping at its best.... LOVE! Love also that these came from Hong Kong because now I can include a little bit of world culture in my classroom with the wonderful foreign language packaging. And a third LOVE... they came pre-sharpened!

I live along the southern shore of Lake Erie in the far north eastern corner of Ohio.  The natural habitat of my area is phenomenal. Simple, beautiful parks are everywhere, one about a mile from my home. The natives, I included, take this treasure for granted, hardly ever venturing to the north coast shore. I decided to make every effort to visit there more frequently this summer.

It just makes me (and obviously my dear friend seen in the photo) smile! Between the ducks, the geese, the swans, and the peacock, not to mention the beautiful surroundings, how could you not enjoy?

Something else that you might enjoy is reading more July Show and Tell posts over at Forever in 5th Grade. It is a great way to keep up with what is happening in the teaching bloggy world and get to know some awesome bloggers!

Since it is Tuesday, you might also like to hop over to Teachers Pay Teachers for #2forTuesday. Use #2forTuesday in the search box to discover loads of wonderful teaching products marked 50% off just for today, Tuesday. Now is a great time to grab some deals for the upcoming school year.