Spotlight Saturday 10-3-15

I'm so sorry about last week, friends! I was laid low by a stomach bug and didn't get out of bed much, so was in no shape to put together Spotlight Saturday! I apologize to my regular followers who look forward to each week's installment, and I promise to do better in the future.

I have GOT to get back into the routine of blogging, my poor blog has definitely suffered since school started up again! Hopefully now that I've been back for a few weeks I'll be able to get back into the swing of things!

Without further delay, here is this week's installment of Spotlight Saturday!

In case you're just now stumbling across this little link up, let me break it down for you.

This link up is designed to act as a sort of Teacher's Show and Tell/Show and Share. This is where you can post your favorite activities, products, ideas, lessons, tips, tricks, techniques, and anything else that could make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both! You can share pictures as well as a description of the idea, and even suggestions of how to use it in the classroom or how you yourself have used it!

This week I am veering slightly away from teacher tips and tricks to talk about a little piece of technology that is slowly changing my life, and can be a benefit to your life too!!

As many of you already know, I was severely injured in a car accident in January. I spent close to 8 months on the recliner, unable to stand up and bear my own weight. Towards the end of July, I was finally able to being putting weight on my injured leg. However, during those 8 months of immobility, I put on quite a lot of extra weight!

In order to try and motivate myself to be moving as much as possible, I invested in a Fitbit. I had heard so many wonderful things from friends and coworkers that already had one. 

My injury is still bothering me and I cannot do nearly as much as I would like to. The extent of my walking comes from what I do around the classroom and school, and even that is limited since I am still in so much pain. I use a roll-about scooter to go up and down the hallways, since that much walking is still much too painful for me.

However, I am able to walk again!! I cannot tell you how exciting that is! In order to encourage my progress, I began to research the Fitbit. There are several different styles, including the Fitbit Zip, Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex, Fitbit Charge, Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. There is literally a style of Fitbit for everyone!! You can learn more about each style by visiting the official Fitbit site <click here>.

I had no idea which would be best for me, so I did some research on their website and read some comparisons. I wanted something that would track my sleep as well as my movement, and also something that would help track my heart rate. I poked around on the Fitbit site and found a really awesome page, 'Find Your Fit'. This page laid it all out for me, allowing me to compare each device side by side.

After a bit of reading, I decided that the Fitbit Charge HR would be the best fit for me. It would track my sleep, my activity, as well as my heart rate. I opted not to go with the Surge, because that seemed to be a better fit for a serious fitness guru, and I'm just not there yet.

I am very pleased with my choice, and ordered mine through Amazon. I put it on as soon as it came and proudly hobbled up the stairs and down the hall just to get my very first reading.

I know it's not much, but for the first time being mobile in 8 months I was very proud of myself! I have worn my Fitbit faithfully every day since getting it, and have used it to encourage myself to walk as much as possible. While I have not yet come close to the recommended 10,000 steps a day, I have earned two badges! One of the badges I earned is the March of the Penguins, which means I have walked the same amount of miles as the Emperor Penguins do during their migration. How cool is that!?!?

There are lots of different color choices, even more since I purchased mine.

I may have purchased the tangerine one, had it been available when I ordered mine.

I can't tell you enough how much I love my Fitbit, and how instrumental it has been towards my recovery. Not only am I able to track my steps each day, I can also record the amount of water I drink as well as my sleep patterns. Apparently I am a very restless sleeper, and only average about an hour and a half of solid sleep each night before I grow restless. Could be why I'm so tired all of the time!

I am not getting any kind of royalties or reimbursements for this post, I just wanted to share something awesome with you. This little gadget can really help up your workout game, and keep you on track with your goals. There is an AWSOME app you can get for your Smart Phone that syncs up with your Fitbit and records all of the important information. You can even link up with your friends and have weekly contests to see who walks the most steps or is active the longest! I have yet to win, since I can barely walk, but it is awesome to have the support of friends through this journey!

Do you have a Fitbit? I would LOVE to be your friend, and you get the added bonus of adding a friend you are guaranteed to walk more than!! :-) I would love to link up with you, just leave me a note in the comments of your username or email and I'll friend you!!

I would LOVE to hear if you have a Fitbit and how you use it! Leave me some feedback love!! :-)

I welcome each of you to link up for Spotlight Saturday and share some of your favorites! Please feel free to use the Spotlight Saturday graphic from above or below, and if you're posting about someone who has a Facebook page make sure to give them a shout out and let them know you Spotlighted them!

Please read the rules and link up with us!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Spotlight Saturday 9-19-15

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you have all been having an amazing year so far! My year is going well, I'm just so very tired every day after school! My ankle aches and I sit down on the couch when I get home and end up falling right asleep!!

I apologize for the late start to Spotlight Saturday today! I can't wait to see what you link up with!

It's been a while since I've Spotlighted anything of my own creation, so I decided to be a bit selfish today and share a few things from my store! 

These are some activities my team mates and I will be using this week. We are going to be focusing on shapes in math, so my Basic Shape Roll, Trace, and Color FREEBIE is PERFECT!

This is an activity we'll do as a small group, and then it will get added to a Math with Someone station. It's a pretty simple activity. Print out the shape cubes, one for each kiddo in your group. Assemble them by folding on the dotted lines and taping them shut.

Students roll the cube and find that shape on their recording sheet. Starting at the smiley face, they trace the shape they have rolled. To keep it fun, I let my Dragons use a crayon that matches the color of the shape they rolled.

You could have students work on this on their own, or in pairs. In pairs, you only need one sheet and one cube. Students choose a color of crayon (Student A chooses blue and B chooses red) and when they roll a shape they trace it in their color crayon. Once all the shapes are traced, count up how many each student traced and compare.

During our ELA and Social Studies times, we'll be learning about the jobs of an author and illustrator. Students will focus on the definition of each job as well as the tools each job needs.

There is a set of color and black and white sorting activities. Students can use the color set at a pocket chart center, and the black and white version as an assessment piece.

Have students sort the circle cards without giving them parameters, just telling them to sort the cards how they think makes sense. Ask them why they sorted their pieces the way they did, and compare how different students sorted them.

Then, give them the category labels and ask them to resort the pieces. After the second sort, have students justify why they put each piece in the category. Many tools pictured can be considered to be tools used by both an author and an illustrator, and as long as students can reasonably justify their sorting, the pieces should be accepted.

Another assessment activity has students drawing and labeling three different tools used by each job. Students then choose one of the tools they drew and write about how an author/illustrator would use it or what they would use it for.

Another assessment you could use would be a cut and paste sorting activity where students are given a few sheets of tool images that they must sort into whether or not they would be used by an author or an illustrator. There are two sorting sheets, one where students have an option to have a 'Both' category. 

I think that these activities are really going to help my team and I decide if students truly understand the concepts we are teaching them!

Click on the images below to head to my TPT store and get a copy for yourself!

I would LOVE for you to link up for Spotlight Saturday too! This is a Teacher's Show and Tell where we can share any resources, products, tips, tricks, ideas, activities, and anything else that can help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both! Please feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday images in your post, and if you Spotlight someone with a Facebook page make sure to give them a shout out and let them know!

Please read up on the rules and then link up below! I can't wait to read what you share!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Spotlight Saturday 9-12-15

It's the weekend!!! I now many of you have been in school for several weeks while others have just started. Today marked Day 12 for me, and we have YET to have a 5-day week!!

Since it's Saturday that means it's time to link up for Spotlight Saturday!

My Spotlight today is short and sweet, but definitely from the heart!!

My district has this incredibly wonderful amazing department called Print and Distribution. In this land of awesomeness, there is a team of 3-4 men and women who spend their days fulfilling the printing requests of people in our county.

Anyone who works in our district, from custodian to teacher to administration, can make a request from Print and Distribution.

The amazing folks who work here are so incredible I just had to share their awesomeness with you all!!

Here's how it works. I fill out a request form, which instructs P&D with what I want. I attach my document and email it to them with the request form. Now the magic happens!

P&D will print WHATEVER I want, HOWEVER many copies I want! They will print it on whatever type and color of paper I want, literally any shade you can think of. My go-to has always been thick white cardstock.

They will print my documents IN COLOR on the cardstock, however many copies I request.

Hold on, it gets even better!! Not only will they print my resources in color, but they will then LAMINATE every. single. page. No joke, it could be 300 pages (and yes, that has happened before!) and they will print each page on cardstock, in color, and then laminate each and every one. After each page is laminated, they slice them apart and trim up the edges. Finally, they send me my documents through our school mail system.

How INCREDIBLE is that??!! They will even create giant posters and bound books. We can send them things to be laminated, too. If I have a stack of resources I mounted on construction paper, I can send them the whole stack to be laminated. They'll laminate and trim up every page then send them back to me.

I'm sorry I have no pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it that these folks are so incredibly wonderful. They have saved my life at the beginning of each year, helping me to get my classroom ready by printing and laminating everything I need. I am so incredibly grateful for this department in my district.

Do you have anything like our Print and Distribution? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

You can link up and have a Teacher's Show and Tell by showcasing your favorite products, ideas, resources, tips, tricks, activities, and anything else that will help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

Please feel free to use whichever Spotlight Saturday images you would like in your post. Also, if the person/company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page you should give them a shout-out and let them know about your post! Follow the rules and then link up. I can't wait to read about all the awesome resources you are showcasing!!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

Spotlight Saturday: Early Childhood Education Tribe

Happy Saturday!! I hope you have all had an amazing back to school experience this year, and if you're headed back to school this week I wish you nothing but the best!

Saturday means it's time for Spotlight Saturday!

This weekly link up is a Teacher's Show and Tell where we can showcase our favorite tips, tricks, ideas, products, resources, and activities that can help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

I have such a great time reading each post of bloggers who link up, I look forward to learning about something new each week!!

Have you been around social media lately? If so I'm sure you've heard about the #findyourtribe movement that was basically started by Schroeder's Shenannigans in Second and Lucky Little Learners, where teachers are encouraged to connect with other teachers and educators in their grade or subject area.

I am a proud member of several different tribes, including the Kinder Tribe, TPT Maryland, and Kindergarten Teachers Who Blog. You can find us on Facebook! Today I am showcasing a new tribe that I'm pretty proud of!

This tribe is a meeting place for all educators who are in the magical world of Early Childhood. It is a group where we can meet up and share ideas, where we can use our knowledge of early childhood to help build each other up. It is an amazing supportive group where thoughts and activities are shared, and we can post questions about things happening in our classroom.

Such great pieces of advice are shared through the group, like this little gem! I forgot how much I loved this quote until it popped up on the Tribe's page!

I would like to welcome all Early Childhood Educators to come over and join our tribe! No one understand what we go through better than we do, so what better place to meet up and share ideas and vent when we have to! Just click on the image below to head over to our Early Childhood Tribe Facebook page and request to join!

Want to share something awesome with us? Then you need to link up and share your Teacher's Show and Tell with us! I can't wait to read all about it! Feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday graphics when advertising your post! If the person/company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page, give them a shout out on their page to let them know you have Spotlighted them!

Rules:

1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.

2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.

2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.

3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.

4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!

5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!

6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!

7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

#teacherweek15 Sanity Savers

Today is Day 8 with my Dragons, and they now have a four day weekend. We have a professional day tomorrow, but then it's a three day weekend! I'm so excited for the break, i can't wait to sleep in!!

This week I have been linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their incredibly fun Teacher Week 2015 linky party! Each day we have a different topic to blog about, and it has been a great way to get me back into blogging after the craziness of the beginning of the year!!

Today's topic is Sanity Savers! What a wonderful topic!! It's going to be so much fun reading different tips and tricks from other educators and bloggers! I foresee lots of note-taking in my future as I read through the tips of others!

Here's a few things I do that have helped me to remain sane.

Pack your lunch the night before. It sounds silly, but you will be saving time in the morning. Those extra few minutes in the morning can really come in handy throughout the year! Packing your lunch the night before means you can just grab it and go the following morning. Easy peasy!!  

#sanitysaver

Get to know the people you work with. Our school does some really awesome things to bring us all together, and teachers have chosen to hang out with each other away from school. Many of the teachers in my school participate in a Book Club, where there is much drinking of wine, eating of snacks, and sharing of stories. The book doesn't always get discussed.

Making friends with your coworkers gives you friends to talk to who know exactly what you go through every day. Sometimes only another teacher can understand our lives inside the classroom!!

#sanitysaver

These are a few things that have helped me stay sane throughout the year. What are some tips you have for holding on to one's sanity??

#2getherWeAreBetter September: Classroom Reveal

It's the second of September already?? That one snuck up on me!! I know that some of my teacher friends to the North of me won't have kiddos until next Tuesday, and that those to the South and West of me have had kiddos for several weeks now. Me, I just finished up Day 7 with my Dragons!

Since it is officially September 2nd, that means I get to link up with Schroeder's Shennanigans In Second and Lucky Little Learners for their incredibly awesome #2getherwearebetter link up!!

This occurs on the second of every month and we get to blog about a different topic each time. This month it is all about Classroom Reveals!!

It just so happens that today's topic for the #teacherweek15 link up is also Classroom Reveal!! I wonder if that was planned?? Anyway, it makes it easy to have two posts in one!!

I have been incredibly fortunate to have some seriously wonderful ladies help me this year in setting up the classroom!! With my injury, I would not have been able to do it without them! I am so very lucky to work at a school where everyone is more like family than mere co-workers!!

Here are a few peeks into The Dragon's Den, my much-loved kindergarten classroom!

This is my Number Line. It's pretty high up on the wall so it's hard to get a decent angle so the entire line can be included, but the numbers range from 0-20. Each border is a different rainbow pattern or design, with bright primary colors. Each dragon is holding a numeral done in a rainbow scribble pattern. The letters that make up each number word perfectly match the design of the numerals. Each number is represented by a set of jewels or gems inside a ten-frame, because we all know Dragons love collecting sparkly gems!

Here's a shot of my Alphabet Line. It's pretty high up, so again it's tricky to get a good shot of it. 

Of course, the glare from the lights doesn't help! Each letter is represented on handwriting lines with the uppercase and lowercase versions, and the vowels are in red ink. Each letter has a dragon holding a picture representation of a high-frequency word that begins with each letter. The 'Dd' dragon is holding a doughnut while the 'Yy' has a yak. Also, each vowel has two pictures, one for the short and long vowel sounds. In addition, the letters 'Cc' and 'Gg' have a hard and soft sound picture.

This is my classroom door. Each of my Dragons has their name on a crayon, which is being held by a flying dragon. 

We've had some super-ugly-hot-and-humid weather these past few days, most days reaching well above 90. As if that isn't bad enough, the humidity is ridonkulous!! All of my dragon tags are flying right off the door!! No joke, it's like as soon as I put them back up they are falling off again!!

Due to my injury and not being able to do anything for myself, my room is still very much a work in progress!!

Here is a view of my room from our classroom door.

The table closest to the windows is where I host my small groups. The other tables are mainly used during breakfast time and rotations. Otherwise we're sitting on the floor in front of the SMART Board. In the back left corner you can sort of see our back door, which leads right out onto our playground. On the counter are the student mailboxes, where they put their Take Home Folders each morning. In the back right corner is my desk, which is a bit messy. I don't spend a whole lot of time sitting at my desk, so it's more of a dropping zone for things throughout the day!

This is the front of my classroom, where our SMART Board is. The Board was mounted right over the chalkboard, but as you can tell they didn't center it very well when they installed it! On each side of the Board are two large bulletin boards. The one closest to my desk is where I tack up important information that pertains to me. The other board will be our ELA board, that I will add to as the year progresses and we being working with our phonics skills.
Above the Board is a long, thin bulletin board that I use to display different letter sound posters, which will be added to as we learn them. The wall above the bulletin boards is where my Number Line is located. Underneath the Board are our Daily 5 Book Bins.

The back of the room has the same set-up as the front. I use the chalkboard as my Word Wall. The bulletin board on the right will be our schedule and calendar board, and the board on the left will be our Math board. You can also see several of my centers in this picture. Starting at the far left is the Pocket Chart, then Dramatic Play, next is ELA/Math stations cart, and on the far right is my Blocks area.

The far right corner of my room holds a few more centers. You can see the Sensory table against the wall. Right now there are scraps of different types of paper inside, along with several pairs of scissors. Students have been practicing their cutting skills by slicing up the scrap paper. This is a great beginning of the year Sensory activity, as I can see at a glance who still needs to practice holding their scissors correctly.
There is a connecting door to another kindergarten classroom, then a door to the kitchenette we share. We made play-dough in that kitchen last week!!
The easel represents my Art center, which right now has white paper and markers for students to create their own drawings.
We have our own bathroom, which can be seen next to the sink. It's so great to have a bathroom right in the classroom, and only the Early Childhood rooms have this feature.

Finally, you can see our locker area. Each student has their own locker (there are 30 lockers but luckily I only have 19 students!) and they are responsible for putting their backpacks, lunch boxes, and jackets inside their locker each morning. I use the counters and cabinets above the lockers as storage areas.


That's the basic tour of my classroom this year! As I update the boards and add more things to the wall, I'll take more pictures and post them on my blog. I hope you enjoyed your peek into The Dragon's Den! Want to check out lots of other classroom set ups? Swing on over and see who else has linked up!

You can also hop over to Blog Hoppin' to see even MORE classroom set-ups and revealings!!

Teacher Week 2015: Make Ahead Meals

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!! I am on day 6 of kindergarten, and each day gets a little bit better! My Dragons are trying so very hard to follow all the rules and routines of the school and classroom, and I'm so proud of them!! Check back on Friday for when I share 5 fun facts from these past two weeks with my Dragons!

Today I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their #teacherweek15. Each day this week we have a different topic to blog about, which is really helping me to remember to blog!!

Today's topic is all about Make Ahead Meals!

So this one might be the hardest for me to write about this week. See, I'm not a huge fan of cooking. I would much rather go out and sit down and have someone else cook and clean up after dinner. Most nights I do end up going out to eat, and since it's just me the bill is never high. Plus, every once in a while I can enjoy a 'grown-up drink' with dinner!

Also, since the accident it has been impossible for me to cook. For the first 8 months I wasn't able to move at all, so others had to bring food to me. Now that I'm able to stand up, I am still not able to stand up long enough at the stove i order to cook a meal.

So what does that mean when it comes to getting my lunches together? If I have leftovers from eating out, those are the easiest quick lunches to bring to school. When I don't have any leftovers, I'm all about putting together a lunch quickly so I don't have to be on my feet for too long, since it's still painful to be standing for long periods.

I also make sure to pack my lunch each evening after I get home from work, since this saves me precious minutes in the morning. Plus, I'll have more time to rest afterwards if I get it together in the evening.

It's not very exciting, but here's my go-to lunch!

I'm really digging these cracker chips from Ritz. They come in several different flavors, and they are baked and toasted and not fried. They are salty and crunchy enough to remind you of a chip, but in a healthier variety.

My favorite cracker topping. Not the healthiest choice, and sometimes I do pepper ham, but it's quick and easy and yummy!

One or two of these and that's the entire basis of my daily lunch. I will often treat myself to something sweet, like fruit snacks (yes, I'm a sucker for those!) or a small pack of mini-Oreos. I've always been known to add some baked Cheetos!! Even though they're baked, they taste SO GOOD!!

My lunch isn't very exciting and I can't really help you with any awesome Crock-Pot or freezer-prep meals, but there are some really awesome posts who can help you with those things! Make sure to swing back over to Blog Hoppin to see who else linked up!