Blog – Page 15

Let’s talk about…

August 13, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) Leave a Comment

1. I make cute kids. I may not be cute, but my kids sure as heck are! See the photographic evidence above.

2. I met my husband (pictured above, with our boys) through a mutual online friend online — in 2004! Before online dating was cool! In true “I’m totally ashamed of how we met” fashion, I hid his existence from my parents for months. But my Mom? She totally knew. Hmph, mothers.

3. I’m a wee bit obsessed with the Wizard of Oz (in case you couldn’t tell). I’m not even sure why, because I didn’t see the move in its entirety until I was adult — I was too afraid of the flying monkeys when I was a kid.

4. I have a touch of OCD (see above “hole-punch guide”) when it comes to organization and decor. My teammates will tell you that I’m not one to farm out my copying, printing, or laminating because everything has to be just so. Like rounded corners, for instance. I have to have them.

5. My youngest son and I were the same number of weeks premature (just about four) and he is totally my (skinner, because I was a fat-fat-fatty) doppleganger.

6. Bacon. That says it all.

7. I have trouble being on time, even when I leave early. For instance, it’s 1am. “Meet the Teacher” was Monday. It is now Tuesday. Oops!

8. I love laminating. The act of doing it. The act of cutting it. And all the pretty laminated things. Including borders (because I’m just that crazy).

9. I’m pretty sure I could teach second grade forever, as in I have no desire to check out the “greener pastures” in other grades. I love the standards for second grade, and the age is such a good fit for me. I’m pretty sure this means I’ve just sealed my fate of moving at some point, but we’ll see…

10. I refuse to hit “mark all as read” on BlogLovin’. REFUSE. I will read those 500 backlogged posts someday, right? Right? Again, this should be marked under “OCD tendencies.”

I’m not so sure that these were exactly “fun” things about me, but it’s 1am and this is what I got!

Now head on over and link up for Teacher Week at Blog Hoppin’!

How to Make Your Ink Work for You

August 11, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 3 Comments

Raise your hand if you spend a small fortune on printer ink? You can’t see me, but you’ve got to know both of my hands are raised. High.

As a teacher I’ve spent more of my own money than I choose to count on printing things for school. While I’m one of the lucky ones that does have access to a color laser printer at my school, there are limits of its use (as well as being courteous to my colleagues!) and time sensitivity for me needing to print things.

Many of you may already be aware of Staples Ink Rewards and, like me, have been using it for quite some time to purchase necessities (including ink!) with your rewards check.

You simply collect your used ink cartridges and turn in up to 10 cartridges per month using your Staples Rewards card. Next month you receive $2 per cartridge you turn in — up to $20 — in the form of a rewards check, which can then be spent on ink or other items you need at Staples. (Fine print: You do have to have spent $30 on ink in the past 6 months to earn your rewards, but you’ll see why this isn’t a problem in a minute.)

How many of you are still purchasing name brand ink? I was too, up until a few weeks ago when I decided to price my cartridges on Amazon. While I was searching for my cartridges using Amazon’s handy tool (I have a Canon MG5320, in case you’re wondering), I found several generic ink combo packs that had great reviews and were *drumroll, please* less than the cost of ONE black ink cartridge.

Can I get an amen? AMEN. For under $7, I was able to purchase ALL of the ink cartridges for my printer. That’s right. Three color cartridges, photo black, and regular black. For $7!

If that’s not amazing enough, let’s remember that I also recycle my cartridges. Time for a little math, so bear with me.

5 replacement cartridges = $7 spent (Free shipping with a $25 purchase, or free if you have Amazon Prime like I do.)

5 recycled cartridges = $10 in Staples Rewards

That’s $3 I get paid after the cost of my ink, in Staples Rewards, to buy ink and use my printer just like I always do.

Now I’m not saying Amazon will have generic ink for every printer out there — they don’t, especially older models. But it is worth a look (and reading the reviews, to choose the right vendor!) to see if you can be earning money for things you’ll already buy for your classroom at Staples while also printing all of those colorful centers and decorations with your (no longer) expensive ink!

I hope that this helps you stretch your dollar (and buy some much needed classroom supplies) a little more! I know this definitely helped me to save some money and not feel so guilty about printing lots of things for my classroom!

Five for Friday

August 9, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

I do love a good linky party, so I’m very happy to be linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for my first Five for Friday!

1. I’m still very much in vacation withdrawal… though the trip up was long (10 hours, y’all — it usually only takes 6!), I so enjoyed my time with our NY family. It was awesome to be able to be there to celebrate our incredible nephew’s graduation and bon voyage to college, and to be able to introduce him to his godson Henry. I miss everyone so much already!

2. The pile of lamination grows. And grows. Will I ever be finished cutting it? Le sigh.

3. I’m starting to get incredibly nervous about leaving this little guy each day. I’m nursing this time around, which has created a whole host of concerns and conundrums I never had with my first, William. I’m working around the logistics of being a nursing working Mom, pumping, etc. But most of all — I’m trying to figure out how I’ll not be a weepy mess the first week of leaving him! I stayed home with William until he was 11 months old, so this is a new one for me.

4. Yesterday was the first time our new second grade team met to plan — and boy was it awesome! I’m so happy to be joined by two fabulous ladies this year, and know that we’ll create an incredible year for our kiddos. To celebrate our new team, I made each of them (and myself) a back-to-school planning binder, complete with dividers and note pages for everything I could think of.

5. And speaking of that Back-to-School Planning Binder… how would you like to have one? I decided to start creating exclusive Facebook fan freebies, and finally figured out how to set it all up. To celebrate, I’m posting this 100 page freebie for you to enjoy! Just come on over to my Facebook page, select the “Fan Freebies!” tab, and like my page.