Thursday, November 30, 2017

End of 2017 is Fast Approaching.

Good morning. 

Here we are, the last day of November. Where has the time gone? Tomorrow is the first of December. The Christmas rush is starting. I love getting everything done early, the decorating, the shopping (just about done). Then I can sit back and truly enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas. We do our family Christmas early, this year the 16th of December. That way each individual family has Christmas weekend for their own. Works out well for everyone. We usually spend part of Christmas weekend with some very good friends.

Thanksgiving was great this year. It was the first Thanksgiving for our first great grandchild, Lucy. It was the first time some of the family got to meet her.  Needless to say, she is beautiful. She got a lot of loving that day. Very exciting time in our family. The last baby born in our family was 16 ½ years ago. Little miss Lucy’s aunt, Sadie. We were only missing two family members this year, Monica and her husband Travis. Travis is a youth pastor and Christmas it very busy for them at their church. So they spend Thanksgiving with his family every year. We are a growing family. There was 27 of us this year. Fun times.

Not sure if I will post again before Christmas. I have opened a store on Etsy-Smalltowngiggles. I am busy making instant download printable greeting cards. So between my teachers pay teachers shop and my Etsy shop, I spend some of my free time creating. I love it. And we still walk most morning and enjoy our 10 a.m. (more like 10:30) Dr. Pepper. No deck sitting or sunroom sitting this time of year but in front of the fireplace. Works for me.

Don’t forget to take time to enjoy the holiday. Family time and friends are more important than all the hustle and bustle.

Take care,

Rose

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Summer Recap

September is almost here. The unofficial end of summer it is said. But what a beautiful summer it has been. Lots of family parties. We had two high school graduations and one college graduation. A couple of showers, one a bridal shower and the other a baby shower. Both for two granddaughters. The 60 birthday party of a son-in law. The July wedding of Kayla and Casey. The whole family was able to come and celebrate that special day, all thirty one of us together at one time is always a very fun time. We also had a first for our family, the ordination or our grandson as Youth Pastor of his church.  We ended the summer with a wonderful pool party hosted by our four daughters for our 55 wedding anniversary, again with everyone able to come.



Decorating the Bride and Groom's car with sticky notes.

    Thought of the day for today readings is to keep a gratitude journal. It suggested writing down a few things, big or simple, each morning that we are thankful for. I decided that this would be something I will try to do everyday, hopefully giving me a better outlook on what is important in our lives. One of the first entries for me was easy. I am so thankful for my wonderful family. For the years God has given hubby and I. For our health to enjoy these blessings.

And remember “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad. “Psalm 118:24

Rose


Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Back To School Sale



Hello everyone. It is August already and almost the start of a new school year. Where did summer go? Hope you all had a fun, relaxing summer with family and friends and are refreshed and ready for the new school.

To help you get off to a great start with your students, I am having a back to school sale.
Everything in my store, even bundles, will be 10 % off August 1 and August 2. Plus another 5% if you use TPT code BTS2017.

I appreciate your business, Thank you. But most of all thank for all you do for our students.

Rose Hascall

Smalltowngiggles,


https://www.teacherspayteachers.com

Sunday, July 23, 2017

One busy fun summer.


I'm back. It seems like months since I wrote anything on this blog. Wait, it has been months.  And very busy ones. We have put right around 3000 miles on my car since the first of April and we haven't left the state of Iowa. Four months of traveling to many family events. Four fun months of celebrating with family. We started with Easter and finished up with our Granddaughter Kayla and Casey’s wedding last Saturday. It started with Family Easter on Holy Saturday. Then we had two grandson's high school graduations and one grandson's college graduate. There were parties for those occasions followed by a bridal shower and a son-in-law’s big 60 birthday party. We still have three important events yet this summer. Our granddaughter Monica's husband Travis is be ordained next Sunday in his church, a baby shower for our first great granddaughter the following weekend. Her parents are our granddaughter Tonia and her husband Jeremy. And a big event that started all of this family fun, our 55th wedding anniversary. Our daughters are hosting a pool party at the home of our first born. Should be a fun weekend celebrating before school starts for another year.

Jerry and I feel truly blessed that we have been able to travel to all of this family fun. And firmly believe in giving Thanks daily and especially on the Lord’s Day. This is probably why this article caught my eye today. You can read the article by clicking on the link below the picture.



How Skipping Church Affects our Children.


Stay cool. Hope to resume writing more regularly.
Rose

P.S. I have been managing to keep my TPT store going through all of the festivities.
Check it out here.

Smalltowngiggles

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Discipline problems and a way to handle them.

This article “HAND-OVER-HAND TECHNIQUE” came across my FB feed this morning. Brought back memories of all my daycare years. This is the start of my fourth year of “retirement”. Some days I miss having little ones around with all their fun antics and chatter but this article reminded me of some not so fun moments. I didn’t have a lot of discipline problems. I think that was mainly that most of my kids came to be around the age of two months. They learned what they could do and not do by the example of the other kids. By the time they were at the age to “act up” the other kids would help correct them. Also by that point they learned that my house had a lot of corners. I found that was the best way to get their attention. But there were times when I did have to use other methods. The article talks about those methods. Many times I had to do the hand over hand to “help” a child pick up toys.  Or “walk” or “wash their hands”.

Sometimes their pillow and blanket was the answer.  


This article by Kathryn Sneed is right on. She does a nice job of explaining the HAND-OVER-HAND TECHNIQUE. I think it is a good way to try and handle discipline problems with all kids.

You can read the whole article by Kathryn Sneed by clicking on the link under the picture.

Take care and have a good day.
Rose


                                            Hand over Hand Technique

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday

In Poland and Polish communities in the United States, such as in the Midwest, Mardi Gas is called “Fat Tuesday”. In some areas it is also called Paczki Day," referring to the dense puffy jelly-filled doughnuts. As I look back on my childhood in a definite Polish environment,(both parents, aunts and uncle came from Poland) I can see why they called it Fat Tuesday. All the family would get together and have a “feast”. There wasn’t a lot of polish dishes I really liked (mother use to say I was more Italian than Polish in my food tastes) but I did love the pastries. My favorites were the Paczki and the kolache/kolace. About four blocks from our house was a mom and pa bakery. When my dad felt ‘rich” or had a craving for sweets ( got my pastry sweet tooth from him and my salt cravings from my mom) he would walk to the bakery and buy pastries for the weekend. I would love to have some those pastries now. They were the best. But I settle for the occasional glazed doughnut or a jelly filled one. I have made Kolaches before but they never tasted like the ones from that bakery of my childhood.  I have a recipe for paczki I found on the internet. Maybe for our family Easter gathering I will make them. But then again there is always Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.
Here is the recipe if you are interested.




Take care, Rose 

Friday, January 27, 2017

Love it? or hate it?

How is the new Year going for you? so far so good here in Iowa. Luckily we have dodged a few snowstorms. We have had about 5 inches of snow so far. Three just the other day. I know there is a lot of winter left but I sure hope our lucks holds out. I use to love snow days when my kids were in school because it meant having them home. That went from loving to hating/loving snow days. Hated them because it meant a house full of daycare kids and extra work but loved them because it made for a better pay day. Now I plain just hate the cold and snow. I guess that goes age. At least I have the choice of going out or staying in most days. Today is one of those sunny days that is so deceiving. Looks great but the temp is 30 with a wind chill of 20. Better than it has been but still cold in my book.

How do you feel about winter? Love it? Hate it? Just remember being here is a good thing and spring isn't too far away.

Finding breakfast is difficult
 after a snowfall.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

For once they were right. Dang.

What a night. We have had freezing drizzle and now freezing rain since early evening. So far so good. We haven't lost power. If that doesn't happen we will have it made. We went grocery shopping last week so we  have plenty of bread, milk etc. The forecasters have been talking about this ice storm all week. We were hoping that all their hype proved wrong. But this time it didn't. We have spent the day watching basketball and football. We have no plans on going out till Wednesday when the temps are suppose to be in the upper thirties. Or better. I am hoping for the better so that all this ice melts fast.

Any way, i can't just sit and watch T.V. So I was looking through my photos, selecting some to use in my card making. I decided maybe all of us in the Midwest could use a few warm weather pictures to remind us that "this to will past".






Stay warm, stay in if the ice is where you live. Most of all stay safe.
Rose