Nanny Diary- New Job

Hey everyone! It has been some time since I last posted. I am hoping to post more though. Today I want to talk about a new job I have.

At the end of last year I started working for a company that works with developmental disabilities. Through this company I began to work with a family that has a few little boys. Since beginning to work for this family I have learned a lot! I have learned to be more patient with the children and also how to have thicker skin.

Moving forward things will get crazy. I am planning on working with this family more. Then in the Fall I have enrolled in online classes through NAU. With all that being said I am hoping to start posting on here weekly. Moving forward I can’t wait to share more with you guys!

-A

Textbook Study Tips

Hi everyone! Recently I have been studying like crazy and it has been hard to post all the time.  With all that studying came the inspiration for this post. Today I am going to share how I use my textbooks to study. Keep in mind that I do buy all of my books oppose to renting them. If you are renting your textbooks some of these tips may not work for you!

The first thing I use when reading my textbook are highlighters. While reading I use different color highlighters to mark vocabulary terms, definitions, examples of the vocabulary or key words, and any other information I think is important. This makes it easy to spot any important information.  The colors I use are; pink for the section titles, blue for vocabulary/key words, orange for examples of vocabulary/key words, and yellow for any other important information.

The next thing that I use is bookmarks. I like to place a bookmark in every chapter that I read. I do this until I have a test. This helps with studying because I can see what chapters will be on the test. Placing bookmarks in each chapter also help so that I can get to each chapter faster and not have to flip through all of the different pages. I highly recommend using bookmarks because it will make your life so much easier! To see what bookmarks I am currently using take a look at my last post where I talk about my favorite bookmarks.

The last thing that I use is post it notes. I use the post it notes to write thoughts and questions down and stick them on the different pages. Sometimes I will just use a pen and write in the margins but post it notes are also great to use!

These are just a few of the ways that I study. I want to know what you do to study. Let me know in the comments below!

-A

Nanny Diary- Spina Bifida Awareness Month

Hi everyone! October is spina bifida awareness month. In honor of this I thought it would be great time to write about my experience with it.

The first time I was introduced to spina bifida happened a little over a year ago. It was at that time I became a nanny to a baby who has spina bifida. I continued to watch her for the year and still watch her from time to time. It was during that year that I learned a lot about spina bifida and everything it entails. I learned about the different equipment used and all the therapies that are needed.

During my time working with baby I learned a lot and I gained a lot. Even to this day I still get excited each time she hits a major milestone. In fact, I wrote this post while this little girl was sleeping. She had spent the night crawling around and pulling herself into the bath with her sisters! Of course, all of this was done with a huge smile on her face.

Working with this child was so great and it really opened my eyes to spina bifida and other developmental disabilities. It really got me interested in developmental disabilities and I plan to continue my work as a nanny in the field of developmental disabilities!

-A

*Picture from the Spina Bifida Association website.

Fall Tag

Hey everyone! Fall is just getting started where I live so I thought it would be the perfect time to do the Fall Favorites tag. Read on to see what my fall favorites are!

What is your favorite fall candle?

I don’t have a specific candle that I like for fall. However, I really like Bath and Body Works candles so it would probably be one from there!

What is your favorite drink?

I love the black peach tea from Dutch Brothers!

What is your favorite fall clothing trend?

I love boots! I would wear them all year if the weather was right. My current favorites are from Target and are from the Mossimo Supply Co brand. They are black combat type boots and I can wear them with a dress or jeans!

What is your favorite movie to watch in the fall?

I like Hocus Pocus, but Young Frankenstein is also great!

What Fall television show are you looking forward to?

I watch a lot of TV shows, but I was really looking forward to Chicago Fire. Shows by Shonda Rhimes were on my watch list too!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

I only eat two things on Thanksgiving, and they are rolls and cheesy onions. So good!

What was your favorite Halloween costume?

I liked a lot of my Halloween costumes through the years, but I think the one that deserved more praise was when I was 8 or 9.  I dressed as Raggedy Ann and my dad dress up as Raggedy Andy.

Football, yay or nay?

Yay! I actually know a lot more about football than people think. My favorite NFL team is the Cardinals and my favorite college team is the Longhorns.

I hope you enjoyed this tag and I would love to see what your answers are to these questions! You can answer as many as you want in the comments below!

-A

Nanny Diary- Burned Out

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to share with you the chaotic and busy week I had, and  by the title I am sure you can tell it ended in me being burned out and not feeling to great.

This past week I took on extra hours at work so I was working full time. I also told another family I would do daycare drop off and pick up/bedtime routine. It was very exhausting and I was rushing between the daycare and my job. Even after getting home I did not get to relax like I had hoped. I would begin to do homework and post my blog post for that day. It was not until this morning I realized I was burned out and really needed a break!

Even though I had a crazy week it was also very eye opening and helped me to realize I could make some changes so that I do not get overwhelmed in the coming month when I have to balance a full time job and going to school full time. The biggest thing I realized I could do is do one assignment a day and not all of them on one day. This would not only help me have a less stressful week but I also would do better in school because I am giving my attention to one lesson instead of three. The second thing that I learned is that I am able to schedule my posts to post to my blog by itself. This will make it so that I am not rushing to type and format posts.

At the moment I am working on homework and rushing to type this post. However, I do look forward to trying these new ideas this week and hopefully will be able to relax a little bit! What do you do to ease your work load? Let me know in the comments below!

-A

The Greatest Showman

Hi everyone! This post is a few weeks latte but today I am going to write about The Greatest Showman themed activities “B” and I did. These activities were  created for early school age children, however there is an alternative to one activity if you have toddler aged children.

The first activity that “B” did was a spelling game. She picked up a card from a stack of cards and then would use the clothespin letters to spell out the words. Some of the words that were in the stack are: lion, hat, show, music, fire, and elephant. “B” loved this activity and got super excited every time she got a letter correct. For “D” in the place of this game I am working on a matching game for her.

The next activity was tracing toy animal shadows. “B” liked this activity, especially enjoyed coloring the pictures after. She did struggle with getting around the feet of the animals but all in all this was a fun activity. For this activity she traced a giraffe, tiger, and zebra.

The biggest hit was when we made the wishing lamp. For this we froze water in a soda can and then used a nail and hammer to poke holes in the can. When things got a little harder we used an electric screwdriver. To finish we put a flame less tea candle in the can. When doing this activity “B” loved using the hammer and electric screwdriver, under careful supervision of course! If you do this activity I would suggest using a vegetable can or soup can because it is a thicker metal and does not bend as much. The soda can was good, it just got super cold and bent when we would use the different tools.

The last activity was done a few weeks after. This activity worked on her writing skills. For this activity “B” wrote fan mail to Phillip (Zach Efron), PT Barnum (Hugh Jackman), and Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson). She loved writing and decorating the letters and really put a lot of thought into what to write into each letter. If you do this activity and your child wants a response you do have to include a self- addressed envelope in with the letter.

This was a fun topic to do these activities for, and it was great to see how excited she would get when she got each activity done! Have you seen The Greatest Showman? What was your favorite part of it? Let me know in the comments below!

-A

 

Nanny Diary: New Family

Hey everyone! This is going to be a super short post today. There have been quite a few changes for me. If you could not already tell by the title I am no longer watching Baby P and her sisters “B” and “D”. I started working with the old family I use to nanny for again! Today was my first day working with “J”, “M” and “A” again. It felt great being back and I had a lot of fun with them today. I will definitely miss seeing Baby P and her sisters though!
I look forward to sharing more nanny diaries with all of you and hope you will continue to follow me and this new family!
-A

Swallows Grace

Hey everyone! Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite Etsy shops! Swallows Grace is a shop that sells mugs, shirts, and canvas banners. However, a majority of the listings are mugs. These items sell for ten to forty-five dollars. Some of the designs that you can choose from are: “Resting mom face”, “Joanna Gaines is my Spirit Animal”, “I Will Wait. I Will Wait for you” and “Adoption rocks”.

I was originally drawn to this shop because the owners, Kenzi and Austin Reddick originally started this business to fund the adoption of their son. Kenzi and Austin are adopting their second child and the funds from the shop are going to bringing baby number two home.

I have purchased from Swallows Grace twice and each time has been a great experience. Shipping is fast and the product is exactly as described. Packaging is also great! The packaging is personalized with your name and each order comes with a thank you note that also explains the background of the shop. What I loved was that the boxes the mugs are shipped in are hand stamped with the shops name!

The first thing I bought was a t-shirt that says “Joanna Gaines is My Spirit Animal”. This shirt has since sold out.  However, they do have a mug with the same phrase on it. The second item I bought was a mug that has “I will wait. I will wait for you” on it. This is based on the Mumford and Sons song. This mug is super cute and it is definitely one of my favorites!

I highly recommend this shop. It is great service and cute products. Plus the profits from the shop go to such a great cause! Go check out Swallows Grace at:

https:www.etsy.com/shop/SwallowsGrace?ref=s2-header-shopname

-A

One on One Time

Hi everyone! This post is a couple weeks late, but I had the chance to spend time with B, D, and Baby P individually this past week. It was such a fun experience and I wanted to talk a little about that.

I started out the day with D. We started our outing with a trip to the library. While there we got books, played with puzzles, and played with toys they had there. After the library D and I went to Paradise Valley Burger Company for lunch. D loves cheeseburgers and she devoured it in minutes! We had such a great experience while eating lunch. The guys at Paradise Valley Burger Company drew a smiley face on her burger in ketchup, which she loved! According to her “she felt happy after eating her burger.” It really was such a fun trip!

When we got home it was Baby P’s turn for some one-on-one time. She is a baby so it was not as big as D’s time. Baby P and I sat on the couch and read the new library books D and I got. She loved looking at all the colors, and loved looking at the unicorn book. However, by the time we got to the dog book she was totally over it, and ready for a nap!

B was the last one to have her time alone with me. She was not feeling well that day so we stayed in. B and I used our time to put together a Valentine’s Day craft. It took quite a bit of time to put the craft together, but it was a lot of fun!

Being able to spend time with each of the girls individually was such a great experience. It was a lot of fun for me and I hope for the girls too! What are some of your favorite kid friendly activities? Let me know in the comments below!

-A

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Things I Never Thought I Would Say

Hi everyone! Today I am going to do a nanny diary on things I never expected to say. Watching kids definitely makes you say some interesting things, and I am going to share those with you!

• “Stop licking me, you are a human baby not a puppy baby.”
• “We are not going to baby bird your sister.” (This was said to B when she tried to spit chewed up food in Baby P’s mouth.)
• “Goats do eat grass, but you aren’t one so don’t eat that.”
• “Well nothing you are a human not a goat.” (Same conversation as the previous one)
• “Please do not sing the hello darkness song while I am using the bathroom.” (This is in reference to The Sound of Silence from Trolls.)
• “You can’t eat playdough.”
• “You can’t eat the fake snow.”
• “Don’t eat this glitter.”
• “I will give you a quarter if you pet that dog right now. “ (This has been said more than once)
• “Be careful or you’ll end up like Bobby Bramble.” (Reference from D’s favorite book)

These are just a few things that I can remember. Even though I have had to say a lot of weird things I love all these moments with the girls. I would not trade the craziness for anything! What is the weirdest thing you’ve said to your kids? Let me know in the comments below!

-A