First Five for Friday of 2015

Y'all.  Not only am I blogging two days in a row, but I am actually joining up with Five for Friday ON A FRIDAY!  This is a seminal moment in my life.  And potentially just really indicative of how exactly how much I don't want to vacuum or fold laundry.

                                                   
This week's Five for Friday will be mostly personal, since we haven't been in school since December 18th.  Hopefully, that's okay with you.  =)  You can check back next Friday for a more school connected Five for Friday.

{one}

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is laying wreaths at Arlington Cemetery.  There's always a Saturday in December where you can go lay wreaths on the graves of (almost) all of the soldiers at the cemetery, and then afterwards the hubs and I always go see the train display at the Botanic Gardens.  And every year we make some poor unsuspecting tourist take our picture in front of the tree at the Botanic Garden.  Most of the time it's a pretty nerdy picture, but I think this year it actually turned out pretty well.  Kudos to you, random stranger!  Thanks for making my favorite Christmas tradition a little awesomer.  

{two}

This is one of the best addressed envelopes I've ever seen.  It was our Christmas card from one of my friends from high school.  

{three}

While we were home for Christmas visiting family, we went out to lunch one day with this little love.  My sweet niece is basically the love of my life, and I love taking her out on her own.  Especially since she has a new little baby at home, so we went to Skyline for lunch and when she was eating her Oreos for dessert she said, "Look, Aunt Rachel!  I have a cookie mustache!"  That girl has personality for days.  Naturally, I had to photograph said event.  

{four}

Y'all.  Did you know that FRIENDS is on Netflix now?  It's basically one of my favorite shows ever; I own all 10 seasons on DVD and watch them compulsively whenever the hubs travels for work.  But today I was watching them on Netflix just because it's easier and when Mr. Spouse came home and asked what I was watching and I said FRIENDS he called me a dork for watching it on Netflix when I own all the seasons.  

{five}

Over break, I just finished reading The Together Teacher.  If you haven't read it, I recommned it.  It took me several months to read it; I probably could have read it faster if I have prioritized it more.  If you're not familiar with the book it's basically about ways to be an effective teacher without working your booty to death.  The goal of the book is balance, which is what I'm after this year.  But one of the habits the book recommends forming is creating a weekly worksheet that shows all the meetings, deadlines, and obligations you have each week and it even includes a spot to track upcoming commitments.  I made my first Weekly Worksheet today.  I'm pretty jazzed to use it.  I'll let you know if it's helpful/makes a difference.  This is my finished product for next week.  

I hope everyone enjoys their waning holiday breaks!  Happy New Year!

xoxo