Peaceful Reader

Black Friday

I missed writing a post yesterday even though I challenged myself to do it every day in November but…yesterday was Thanksgiving and I was busy with family events all day. We are at my mother’s home in the woods and she not only does not have wireless but her one computer is in the basement away from all social flurry. If I had escaped to the basement to blog it would have meant abandoning the family.
I did
1. Help my mother cook.
2. Play with my children and 2 cute nephews.
3. Drink wine.
4. Take a lovely walk with sibling, husband, sister-in-law, various children and bouncy dog.
5. Eat pumpkin pie smothered in homemade whip cream.
6. Read and knit a little.
7. Dishes.
8. Smile a lot!!

What I did not do today…shop!
Today I
1. Took an early morning walk.
2. Watched an excessive amount of Wii played by children and men.
3. Cooked some more.
4. Did more dishes.
5. Counted my blessings.
6. Drank a little more wine.
7. Really relaxed.
8. Did some Wii bowling with Everyone before brother took the wii game away!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all and happy no shopping day!!
p.s. as an older sister I adore watching my youngest brother parent-it brings great joy to my life to see what an incredibly good and relaxed parent he is to his two active sons. Does anybody else experience this joy with their siblings?
Be Peaceful~
Michelle

Half way

I’m halfway through Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts and I am very anxious to finish it. If you haven’t read any Picoult you should because she puts in so much research and each of her books are about such far-reaching topics!! This one involves a father who kidnaps his child to keep the her away from an alcoholic mother. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and great characters including a love triangle and a unique Native woman who dispenses interesting advise.

I’m on the fifth chapter of The evolution of Calpurnia Tate and love it also! It makes me feel smarter and very scientific!
We are off for our own three days in the woods…

Everyone safe travels…

be peaceful-

michelle

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Is it wrong to want to share the same book twice for TT? Here is my teaser:

“The stairs were notoriously loud, so I pleated up my white cotton nightgown and slid down the banister as I’d done my whole life. It was fast and quiet transportation, but I’d misjudged in the dark and braked late and hit the square newel post hard enough to earn myself a nice blue bruise on my behind, a two-weeker at least.” p. 81 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

New Library

Here is one quick photo of the reading teepee in the library at our new school. I haven’t been to the new building yet but our lead teacher was kind enough to snap the photo on his tour so I could see it. The man in inside is a construction worker. I begin packing all library materials next week officially. I thought I should share a picture so as I continue to talk about this exciting new space you can see why I’m excited. The architect kept calling it a teepee but I don’t know if that is accurate or sensitive. I need a catchy name for it. Any ideas??

Ari Hest

Reading Challenge

My first!

Join me-really how hard can it be!!
Check out the rules and sign up over at J. Kaye’s Book Blog.

3 Choices

I am caught between 3 exciting book choices.

1. The evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
2. Envy, the third Luxe by Anna Godbersen
3. Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

Tough choices, I know!! I have two long distance friends getting ready to read Calpurnia Tate with me-then we hold an online book conference. We have yet to really make the book conference work, it a right tool problem but we are still working on it. We’ve read 13 reasons why and Liar together thus far.

Janssen at Everyday Reading got me hooked, absolutely hooked on the Luxe series and the third one has been waiting on my actual tbr pile since Halloween weekend. This one has been taunting me but I’ve had other had-to-reads until now.

The Jodi Picoult choice while not as thrilling perhaps-only because it is older- has been languishing on my hurry and read pile because it belongs to someone else. A few years ago my friend Jess and I had a thing about reading all the JP books and this is one of a few I missed. I did start it the other night and just like other Picoult stories it has me intrigued.
I think these three will easily carry me through Thanksgiving. I’ll be required to do my share of the cooking but the down time will be relading time at the log cabin in the woods.

Read what SLJ has to say about Calpurnia Tate.
I found an excellent interview w/ author Jacqueline Kelly at HipWriterMama

Thursday Thoughts

Okay, maybe nobody else is counting but I promised to blog every day through November and I’m trying so hard to stick to it. I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society the other night; two days after my church book club met to discuss it…I loved the book and our meeting! I did have trouble with the letter-style of the book at first but then the characters grabbed me. I would like to live in Guernsey-seemed so comforting in its pastoral environment.

I’m exhausted with lots on my plate and here is why:

my mini-list:

1. Tonight I made 50 chocolate-covered pretzel sticks; festooned with Christmas theme sprinkles for our church bazaar, which takes place on Saturday. Mine do not look like the photo but they do look pretty great-photo to follow soon.

2. I am organizing a team of volunteers to move our library from old to our new building right after Thanksgiving. Lots of volunteers and not enough boxes so far.

3. Tuesday night we had our school literacy night-it was great and Maribeth Boelts was lovely!
4. Tomorrow my principal “observes” me for teaching licensure renewal.
5. My mother is calling me more than twice a day to make arrangements for upcoming holiday break, from which I need a break from already!! Love you Mom!

6. And last but really most important my teenager is sick with an unknown non-H1N1 virus-we think he has water poisoning from drinking stale water out of a bottle left too long in his basement gaming room. Uhh, and this has caused him to miss two days of school and probably tomorrow. This occurred one day after he had top shelf braces applied. Really, how fun can this be for him??

7. I love this kind of post from others because it gives me a glimpse into someone else’s life yet when I do it I feel like I’m whining.

And you out there-how is your week??

Be Peaceful-

Michelle

Boycott Blues

This wonderful picture book features a hound dog with a guitar for a narrator and tells the story of the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. The text flows like a blues song and brings this important historical time to life because kids can’t help but be pulled in. Focusing on this part of Rosa Park’s story inspires us to really see how brave she was as well as all the people who carried on this life-changing boycott. As a peaceful teacher it offers me the opportunity to speak of non-violent protests on a grand scale.
The illustrations are very surreal, match the text so well and make you stop and really look. I love Brian Pinkney’s artwork-Max found two sticks is one of my favorite picture books.

I read Boycott Blues today to fifth grade students as part of our ongoing history quest; most of them were mesmerized. The few that weren’t just can’t seem to help themselves. They understood the story enough to ask good questions before, during and after we read the book. It’s very beneficial to have books just like this in order to understand important moments in history better without being dry and wordy.

Boycott Blues; How Rosa Parks inspired a nation (2008)

by Andrea Davis Pinkney;

illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

5/5 peaceful stars

Click here for The Reading Tub’s review.

Teaser Tuesday-Calpurnia Tate

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along!
Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

“Um. Do you…” I had made a hope-to-die promise I wouldn’t tell. And while I myself did not know of anyone who had died after breaking one, it wasn’t worth the risk.”

p. 138 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly