I read this article from Huffington Post, which I love and it really, really made me laugh, which made me feel good at this time of high stress. I thought I was the only one who looked at how well their suits fit and lo and behold, Nora does too…and she says it way funnier than I could!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/life-in-the-shallow-end_b_132850.htmld
Category: Uncategorized
Anne Lamott
This is a great article. Please read and she is right-we need to talk everyday about Barack Obama and the good things he stands for in his run for the biggest job America has to offer.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/16/anne_lamott/
Junie B.
I have read two Junie B. books with Japhy and have been really enjoying them with her. I mentioned this to my dear friend, Verda today and she reminded me that I have been negative about this series in the past. Well, now I take it all back. The last time I read a Junie B. was when Tristan was younger and they seemed to be a baby-ish chapter book and I didn’t think the language in it worked. Of course, Tristan now 13 came out speaking in full adult-like sentences and never sounded like Junie B….now I have a 6-year-old, Japhy who is quite similar to Junie b. so to all those I have not recommended-I have changed my mind and love Junie B. now. That does not make me a flip flopper…just someone who can intelligently change my mind!! So cheers to Barbara Parks!
book shopper
The very best part about my job is picking out books. Oh, I love to work with children I really, really do but still the best part is “shopping” for books for them. I get to thumb through Booklist, Booklinks, and LMC copies circling my special choices. I get to look through Titlewave, Bound to stay bound, or Baker and Taylor to choose my selections. My Mom would laugh because I always liked circling things in catalogs when I was little-I guess I never grew out of it!
I have so many books in my back room waiting for me yet I still am busy circling, choosing, picking the right ones for students and teachers. Now I have a new source to add to my searching: blogs! There are tons of blogs out there from addicted readers like myself giving me more and more and more suggestions for great books to add to my collection. It is mind-boggling and yet thrilling!! There is not enough time in my day to read all the reviews and magazine articles I want to read and now blogging sites. Real teachers work all the time…
Obama, Obama, Obama
Now that school is in full swing I have less and less time to read even though my job requires me to read and be current. Plus I am spending all my other “extra” time working for DMC/the Obama campaign making phone calls, drumming up support for this once-in-a-lifetime intelligent candidate!!! It confuses me when I get such angry people on the phone. If someone called me to talk about John McCain I would simple tell them how much I like my candidate. The people I call seem angry about their candidate. They don’t want to discuss him or their own views they just are mad, which is too bad because a good debate could follow but instead they close themselves off to any new light coming in. I want to say to them (these angry people on the other end of my phone) “don’t be so angry-I didn’t call and yell at you” Common decent human feelings seem to escape the opposite party at this time I guess. Still the work continues and we will all rest after November 4, we hope with all of our hearts.
red flag Olympics
I am over the Olympics already and really, they have barely begun. I realize this is a slightly un-American viewpoint-but that’s part of the problem to me. I am mad because it is China, saluting China and all their human rights errors. I am mad because it gives G.W. Bush a platform to be all “he, he, he, I am the president of the greatest nation in the world and if those Chinese would just get religion all would be better for them!! and shame on Russia for all that naughty violence…!! more he, he, he’s” I even think Bob Costas couldn’t believe rambling Mr. Bush. And my third complaint against the Olympics is that it really isn’t an even playing field. Some countries can afford to pay their Olympic athletes, some cannot, some practice under extreme condition like the swimmer who has been training without an Olympic size pool. I just don’t think the smaller countries come out ahead. Well, and the fourth thing is what a lot of money for pomp and look-at-me fireworks…the money spent on the opening ceremony alone could have brought good feng shui and food to many Chinese workers.
These is my words…
I must be on some kind of history kick this summer. After reading Hattie Big Sky my mother-in-law (another book lover) recommended These is my words by Nancy E. Turner. It is done in a journal format and really explored what it must have been like for a woman in the Arizona/New Mexico Territories when Tucson was just becoming a town. I loved the book but hated all the anti-Apache sentiment that goes with this time period. Like trying to read Little House on the Prairie to your children and all the horrible “red-faced Indian” conversations that take place between Laura and her family. In These is my words though I really loved how the main character, Sarah Prine grows as a character. After many run-ins early in her territory history with angry Natives (and we know they are angry for good reason!!!) she grows to trust a particular Indian that has helped her husband. Even when she is the recipient of prejudice because of this friendship she sticks by it and welcomes the man into her home and misses his help when he is gone.
mmmm good books
Just finished an amazing YA (Young Adult) book by Kirby Larson recommended by my friend, Tina. Hattie Big Sky made me cry, real sobs at how the book ends because I was so involved, I loved her character. I especially loved how it mirrored our societal problems of today. WW II is in full swing and prejudices are running high against Germans living in the United States at that time. Anything German is considered anti-American…hmmm…seems so current with our lovely US after 9/11. Funny how history continues to repeat itself over and over when we don’t learn to be more accepting of the world. Bless the whole world and especially Barack Obama and his family in their continued efforts to raise the bar on dignity and grace.
Iowa -2008Children's choice
I just finished the lovely book, Singing Hands by Delia Ray, an Iowa author. This book opens up the world of Gussie as she struggles with two deaf parents and the difficulties of growing up as a preacher’s daughter as well in the 1950’s. The book catches Gussie at her most vulnerable as she tries to find her path out of living always on the straight and narrow. She hums during her father’s service, she spends money meant to go to the church and she hungers after a friendship that brings her nothing but misery. Of course, she finds her way out with the help of her parents and the two ladies who room with the family. You will have to read the book to see the delightful manner in which she begins to figure out who she really is…
sweet daughter
What do you say to your child when they just want to eat dinner naked!!!
I mean it is a great expression of freedom and I love that my five-year-old loves
to be naked but suddenly I might have a thirteen-year-old boy wanting to do the same and
I think dinner might turn into anarchy even for our family!!
So I pose the question again, What do you do when your 5 year-old wants to eat dinner
naked??? Because my answer caused a huge flood of tears, luckily she recovered in about 15 minutes.
Peaceful Reader 