Favorites for back-to-school

It's that time of year again.  And for the record, that was an incredible summer.

Colorado (and North Carolina), I adore you.  I mean really.  Look at that scenery below.

I am refueled and ready to meet my new college students.  I have some fun keynotes to deliver over the next few weeks, too, plus I need to get my trip to Portland squared away.  In the meantime, these are my very favorite back-to-school activities and resources:

• Professor KP's textbook gems.  How awesome are those?
• I love easy tech tools. Recite this helps make quotes more engaging.
• My all time favorite tech tool, though, is still PicMonkey.  I used it to make the graphic above. (Tip:  If you follow PicMonkey on Instagram, you can see their cool effects in action)
• If you need new classroom props, I would purchase anything from the "other" Jennifer.  I still have a crush on her miniature metaphor kit.
• Speaking of props, have you bought Sue's Curiosity Cards?  She's been using them all over North America with her newest endeavor, 1Conversation.
• And, if you are like me and have cobwebs growing on your dreams, hire Sue!  She's doing a 100 conversations in 100 days challenge.  Which means, you literally pay her what you think the session is worth.  Contact her here (and remember, all the coaching is done by phone which makes it soooo easy to do).  You don't have to drive anywhere.

Off I go - Happy semester!

Jen

Life Updated: Summer Edition

Greetings and Happy Summer!  Can you tell what I've been up to this summer?

This summer has been fantastic.  Miss O and I started out the summer spending two weeks at the sleep-away camp I grew up attending in North Carolina.  It took Miss O about four days to warm up to camp life (living in a cabin, having counselors, making new friends, and doing a zillion cool activities), but now she is in love with camp!  It took me about four days to figure it out, as well, since I had a new role at camp.  I was a volunteer camp mom.  The last time I was at camp, I was in my 20s and carefree.  Camp, though, is camp.  It is awesome, life-changing, and filled with so much joy.  We both want to return next summer for a longer amount of time.

The rest of the summer, we've spent in Breckenridge, Colorado at our sweet little condo there.  You know how my family and I adore Breck.  It's been a great summer filled with lots of cool visitors, a trip to Denver, and new activities (like hiking a 14,000 ft. peak), pump tracking, and watercolor painting using Creative Bug's online classes (affiliate link).

What have you been up to this summer?  Are you getting ready for fall?

My best,

Jen

PS - I think Jedi enjoys Colorado more than anyone else in our family.  I mean, really.  Look at him here, here, and here.

PSS - This time-elapse video of us bouldering with friends is one of my favs.