First Soup of the Season!

I love soup, but I am one of those people who enjoys soup most when it is cold, chilly, or rainy (or when I'm not feeling well!), so sometimes that means waiting a little while after fall has actually started to make soup for the first time because fall weather in the south is not always as cool as I would like it to be.  However, this year fall was a little more cooperative ;)  Yesterday was a nice chilly first day of fall and today was rainy and chilly which made for a great day to try this year's first new soup!  I decided to go with an easy, comfort food type soup.  Most of my soups this year will most likely be crock pot, because there just isn't enough time in the day! Now for tonight's soup...

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Here is the link to the recipe

http://www.thegunnysack.com/2014/09/slow-cooker-chicken-pot-pie-soup-recipe.html

Changes I made...

Instead of cutting up "real" potatoes I used the southern style or diced hash browns.

I added onions (probably about a cup of frozen ones).

I did use canned cream of chicken soup instead of making the homemade version.  I had to use more than one cup of water, because I used the family size can instead of buying two small cans.

I added spices...1/2 tsp each of pepper, parsley, garlic powder, thyme, and mustard.  I didn't add salt because canned soup can be salty, but I did put some seasoning salt on it after tasting it and thinking it needed just a little something else.  You can play with the spices and see what flavor you like.

I didn't need to thicken mine at all.

We enjoyed our soup with Grands biscuits and some apple cider.  I think this soup was a good start to this year's soup season! :)

Birthday Freebies!

I celebrated my birthday a week ago and one thing I love is getting free stuff from restaurants and other businesses.  Thought I would share my freebie knowledge with you, so that you can get some gifts too!!

Here is a link to a big list of freebies http://urbantastebuds.com/restaurants-that-offer-free-birthday-food/

For most of the freebies you join a rewards program or mailing list with your email address.  Some of the businesses ask for more information than others, so you can choose how much info to share. The emails will start rolling in at the beginning of your birthday month and some will arrive on your actual birthday.  The only problem with some of the freebies is that they are only good for a week and sometimes you just don't have time to fit everything in!

Here are some of the ones that I have received and the "fine print"...

Jo-Ann and Michaels - 20% off good through the end of the month

Krispy Kreme - Free doughnut and small coffee or fountain drink - only good for a week - unfortunately I didn't get a chance to use this one this year

Buffalo Wild Wings - Free Snack Size Wings (boneless or traditional).  I got the email on the 2nd and it expires on the 16th, so I guess it's good for 2 weeks.  When you join the club, you also get an email for a free side or sharable.  I only have until tomorrow to use these!

Ruby Tuesday - Free burger (up to $9 value).  This one is also good for 2 weeks.  I'm hoping to use this one sometime this week!

Red Lobster - $5 off 2 adult entrees.  Good for about a month.  Not a great deal.

Sonic - Free medium tots with purchase.  This makes me sad, because I used to be able to get a free medium slush without making a purchase.  The coupon is good for a month.

Starbucks - Free drink if you have a registered card.  I think you have the whole month to use the drink.  I got mine yesterday!!

Dunkin' Donuts - Free medium drink.  I have until the end of October to use this one!

Baskin' Robbins - Free 2.5 oz scoop or 3oz soft serve swirl.  It only lasted for a week and I never got the chance to use it.

Brrrberry - Free yogurt treat (up to $5).  Good for a week.  I used this coupon tonight!  Yum!

Red Robin - Free burger if you have a registered rewards card.  You have all month to use it.

Moe's - Free burrito with a drink purchase.  (When you join the club you also get a coupon for a free cup of queso which is awesome because they have amazing queso!)

Rack Room Shoes - $10 off - they don't send a coupon, so I am not sure of the fine print.  You have the whole month to use it.

Applebee's - Free dessert with purchase

Wendy's - $1 off combo meal

Einstein Brothers - Free breakfast sandwich with drink purchase

Firehouse Subs - Free sub if you show your ID on your birthday

Denny's - Free grand slam if you show your ID on your birthday

Panera - Free bakery item if you have a registered rewards card.  You have the whole month to use it.  Looking forward to my cinnamon crunch scone!

Stub Hub - Fan code that gives you free electronic delivery on one ticket order

Sheetz - Coupon for free birthday cake M&Ms

DQ - Buy one, get one free blizzards

Chili's - Free dessert with entree purchase

Coldstone - Buy one, get one free ice cream

IHOP - Free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity Pancakes or you can order something else that is the same price or less or you can even order something more expensive and pay the difference - great deal! (You get this deal for joining the club too!)

Mellow Mushroom - $5 off.  Have all month to use it.  For my "anniversary gift", I get a free small pizza with any other pizza order.

Arby's - Free 12 oz shake with sandwich purchase (value sandwiches do not count)

Enjoy your freebies and let me know if you find any other great deals!

Relaxation Corner and More...

Here are some cool things that I made for my relaxation corner and the links where I got ideas and instructions from.

This bottle is simple, but so cool.  The rice falling through the toothpicks sounds similar to a rain stick.  I love the calming sound.  There are many bottle ideas on this site that I hope to try someday.

http://familylicious.com/how-to-make-science-discovery-bottles/

These glitter bottles are so cool!  There are many different "recipes" for them, but I liked this one the best.  I'm not sure that I followed it exactly, but I think I stuck to it for the most part.  Mine don't look exactly like hers, but I'm happy with how they turned out.

http://mycrazyblessedlife.com/2011/10/03/relax-bottletime-out-timer/

I love these sensory bags!  Some students won't like the texture, but others will love them.  The bags are filled with hair gel (I bought cheap stuff at the Dollar Tree) and other items including beads, confetti, and glitter.  I double bagged mine just in case!  The site has instructions for these, the balloons (below), and other things.

http://www.entirelyelementary.blogspot.com/p/inspired-by-others.html

I filled my balloons with salt, rice, and two different kinds of beans ( I can't think of which kinds at the moment :/), so that they are different textures.  I wish they were a little bigger, but they still turned out pretty well.

I bought some other things at the Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart (pinwheels, play doh, rubik's cubes, slinkies, and squishy toys) to include in my corner.  I got the shelf at Wal-Mart and love how it all came together.  (I have some games on the bottom shelf now.)

I didn't explain in my last post what all is housed here in this area.  The baskets contain coloring books, puzzles, and folders of other activity sheets.  I love art, so I have a variety of art supplies to use with my students.  I got the cute chairs at a store called 5below for $5 each!!  I also love books, so I had to order new books to start my "counselor books" collection.  Some of them are pictured below.  I ordered them all from Amazon.

I found a student referral form online (I can't find the link to it right now).  I wanted one that was easy enough for the students to fill out themselves, because I didn't want to give the teachers another thing that they needed to do.  If a student wants to see me, they ask for a form to fill out and then have the teacher sign it so I know that they have permission to be in my office.  I like color coding, so I copied them on 3 different colors of paper.  I gave the teachers some to keep in their classrooms, but I also have some in baskets outside of my office.  If I am not in my office or unavailable then the students leave the notes in the box, so that I know to meet with them when I am free.  The notes are helpful for me when keeping track of who I have seen and for what reasons.

There were a variety of ideas out there for ways to introduce yourself to the students, but none of them seemed quite right for me.  As I mentioned, I enjoy art, so I created this poster using pictures to depict different things about my life.  In each classroom, I held up the poster for the students to look at and then asked them to tell me things that they thought they knew about me just from looking at the pictures.  They seemed to really enjoy it and some of them even created their own pictures about themselves to share with me.

Happy Counseling!

Setting Up Office

On August 18th, I started my first counseling job as a school counselor for 3rd-5th graders.  I really had no idea where to start, so I searched Pinterest for ideas and jumped in.  I started by decorating my office, because I was pretty sure I could handle that! ;)  This post is mainly going to be pictures of the things I created and how I put it all together in my office.

Started with this sign for my door.

Thought this sign definitely needed to be in my office!

Made some Harry Potter quote posters to brighten up my walls!

Found a printable chevron pattern online.  Traced it onto the poster board.  Painted it with solid colored paint and then matching glitter paint.  Got them laminated so they would last longer.

Created this canvas when some of my friends and I were having a craft night.  I taped off sections with masking tape and then painted each section.  Thought it would look cool in my office, so I wrote positive words and phrases on the white parts with Sharpie.

This painting was inspired by Wine and Design.  They do this painting, but the signs have names of local cities on them.  I loved the idea of the sign, so I made it fit into my office by using "counseling words".

Here are some pictures of what my office looks like.

Next post coming soon...relaxation corner!