*Snapshot Saturday*

Happy Saturday! It is still pretty chilly here and seems to be sticking around for awhile. I feel that if it is going to be this cold, it at least needs to snow. No one asked me though ;0)

Anyway, my *snapshot saturday* is a picture from earlier this week. A few weeks ago I had made a bet with a student on the outcome of the Bronco game and gained myself some tasty cookies. It became a class discussion and I am sure I said some flippant comment about students bringing me cookies. Well they don't take me serious when I try to teach them how to do two-by-two digit multiplication, but they take me serious when I am far from serious.

My sweet little student comes up to me a few days later and asks me if I like raisins. I tell her sort of and her face falls. (Wrong answer!) She then tells me that she got me oatmeal raisin cookies! I quickly told her that I do in fact like oatmeal raisin cookies and her face lite up! This sweet little package is what she handed me!

THEN, I talked to mom last night and get the back story of the cookies. The family was at the store and each child was told that they could have a dollar to get something that they would like. The younger brother quickly picked out his choice and she thought for a second and said, "I don't want anything, just the cookies for Ms.Wilson." Be still my fluttering heart!

The best part about receiving this little gift was the fact that I was having a slight pity party on the side of low self esteem and she changed my day around. Something so simple as a package of cookies with a beautiful green bow tied around it.

What are you going to do today to change someone's day around?

Forbidden Fruit

One of my favorite childhood memories is…ok more than one, would be the time that I spent in the mountains with my family. There are so many stories that I am not sure that I can just pick one, or even remember all the details.

This is what we hoped the mountains would look like!

The moment that the snow was no longer on Lamborn and Landsend, we could head for the hills. Whenever I asked dad when we could go he always told me to look at the mountains, when the snow was gone, then we could go. Then every weekend from that point until the last second we would go to the hills, leaving Friday night after work and coming home Sunday evening.


We were lucky enough to leave our slide-in-camper on private property and this is where we grew up camping until sadly that property was sold.

I learned how to start a fire, was dishes while camping, how to squat behind a bush, that coyotes were more scared of you than you are of them, that rocks can look like bears, not to climb on gates, that it is easier for guys to pee on a fire than it is for girls, what stinging needle is, rotten-meat-dog-farts are the worst, the difference between an elk and a cow, and how amazing it is to just sit and be while in the mountains.

Not THE red gate, but a relative.

Probably the most favorite memory that we get a laugh out of the most is the time that my sister and I climbed on the gate when we were told not to do so. The owner of the property had just replaced and painted the gate that went across the road that lead to his personal cabin. We were told not to climb on it, and I am convinced that if Dad hadn't said anything, we wouldn't have even thought about such a thing. Can you say forbidden fruit? We were like moths to a flame and went for a "walk." This walk ended up down at the gate, which we promptly climbed on. Little did we know and forget that my dad has been paid to stalk and hunt prey. He too went on a little walk of his own through the trees and watched us do the exact thing he had told us not to do.

Once we got our fill of being a rebel, we headed back to camp. Dad was sitting in a chair just chillin. We thought we were in the clear. Wrong again. We were totally busted. That was the last time that my dad spanked me.

Molly or I never climbed on a gate again.

This has been a Finish The Sentence Friday post. The sentence is “One of my favorite childhood memories is…” brought to you by Finding Ninee.

Top Ten Tuesday

Lists make my *heart flutter* and Top Ten Tuesday is just the thing for me! I found The Broke and the Bookish while I was looking around at other's blogs that are participating in the TBR Challenge 2013. It is book related and strangely enough, I can't really participate this week. The topic this week is "Top Ten 2014 Release I'm Dying To Read." I thought about this long and hard, but I think that I am just in the dark because I don't know any books that will be coming out in the year 2014! I only know of "old" books that I want to read.
So I thought that I would still do a top ten list of my own for this week.

Top Ten Things I Am Looking Forward to in December

• Winter/Christmas flavored lattes
• Time with friends and family
• Secret Santa at school
• Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas
• Celebrating the birth of our Savior
• Christmas break
• Reading cuddled in a blanket over Christmas break
• Ugly Sweater Party
• Morgan County Chorales Christmas Concert
• Getting Christmas cards in the mail

What are you looking forward to in December?

*Snapshot Saturday*

*Happy Sigh* It is the end of Thanksgiving break and we start back to school tomorrow. It has been a good break and I got in some much needed R & R.

This weekend I did some "moving" at my house and also helped a friend move. My friend, Sarah Joy, and her husband recently moved in with her mom, so I helped them on Saturday and then a little bit today.

Since they were moving, they found that they had an extra bed. Well I needed a new bed and was slightly stressing about the bill that comes along with a new bed. Put these two together, and this girl gets a new bed!

New bed for *snapshot saturday*

 

I had to do a little rearranging to make room for the new bed and now my house is a little turned upside down. This is also a good time to sort through things and get rid of a few things. Still lots to do which makes me a little sad that we are going back to school, but gives me something to do during Christmas break if need be. Plus I have BIG plans for a crafty headboard!

I hope you all had a relaxing time with friends and family this holiday weekend. Now let the countdown to Christmas begin!

Ruby Holler

"You are now entering Ruby Holler, the one and only Ruby Holler! Your lives are never going to be the same—"

"Trouble twins" Dallas and Florida are orphans who have given up believing there is such a thing as a loving home. Tiller and Sairy are an eccentric older couple who live in the beautiful, mysterious Ruby Holler, but they’re restless for one more big adventure. When they invite the twins to join them on their journeys, they first must all stay together in the Holler, and the magic of the place takes over. Two pairs of lives grow closer and are changed forever. (source)

Sharon Creech has done it again! I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! I often had to check and make sure that I was reading a book that is at a fourth grade reading level and geared for children. There was so much in it that was just amazing!

When Dallas and Florida go to live with Tiller and Sairy, they have a hard time accepting that they aren't going to starve and be put into the dark, damp, cobweb infested basement for the many things that they do wrong, and believe me, they do plenty wrong. Chopping down the tree Tiller planted when their kids were born, chopping a whole in the barn roof to allow light in, breaking a window, breaking the porch rail, losing the bucket down the well, are just a few to mention. Every time they do something wrong, they get ready for the punishment, but it never comes in the form that they are expecting.

Instead of being thrown in the basement, Sairy, especially try to teach them with love. For example, when the window is broken, they are told that they will be taught how to fix it. Or when they chopped a whole in the roof for a window, the response was simply, "Why didn't we think about that." The twins just don't know how to handle this and just think that the two older people are just old and crazy!

Finally, Florida can't take it any longer and asks Tiller why he doesn't get mad when they goof up. It takes Tiller a few moments to answer, but his response is wonderful. He tells her in his own calm, Tiller way, "...Maybe I'm too old to get mad, or maybe what you consider goofs aren't what I consider goofs-- it's just stuff that happens."

So often my first response is to get angry and punish when a student does something wrong, when what simply needs to happen is a teaching moment. I have been thinking about this a lot lately with some changes that have happened in our building this year at school. I have really stopped to look and see if my current style of discipline is affective or not. I often forget that sometimes the students need to be taught and not punished.

I loved the characters and the bond that they had with each other and who they were as people. The transformation from the beginning to the end was heart warming.

I feel that I could go on and on about this book, but we don't have time for that, and it might take away from the book.

Not only will this book be promptly placed on my bookshelf, but will be read again and recommended to anyone who will listen!

Wait, What Is Today?

 

Well everyone else is talking about Thanksgiving, so I might as well too! I was trying to think of some creative, interesting way to tell everyone what I am thankful for, but I got nothing. So I guess I will just do a list of a few things (and by far not even close to mentioning all that I am thankful for, and not in any particular order.)

• My family, real and pretend
• My friends, near and far
• My teaching partner who makes my job a thousand times easier
• My job and students, if not I would be bored
• That a new mattress has been provided for me
• My health, even though we have been at odds for two months now, over all I can't complain
• That I can read and share my love of reading with others
• The ability to find the *heart flutters* in almost everything around me
• My education
• That I can listen to Pandora at work
• My faith and that God is always there for me

I am headed to a friend's house for lunch today and taking it easy. May your time with friends and family be blessed and full of joy!

Sweet Summer Fling 2014

The 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge is hosted by Bookish. The challenge will last from January 1, 2014-December 31, 2014. Any genre, length, or format of book counts. Books must be released in 2013 or earlier and off of your shelf at home.

My goal is to go for Sweet Summer Fling - 31-40 books, which will probably clear off a whole bookcase if I am lucky!

It is just silly that I have so many unread books on my shelves. They need to be read and what better way to do so with a challenge.

Thankfully the list is not set in stone and can be changed and rearranged. This is what I came up with (all without looking at my shelves since I am housesitting.)

31-40 TBR Book List

1.       Before I Die

2.       Anne of Ingleside #6

3.       Sidekicked

4.       And the Mountains Echoed

5.       Mary Mary #11

6.       Cross #12

7.       Double Cross #13

8.       Cross Country #14

9.       The Gift

10.   Body Surfing

11.   Night Road

12.   Winter Garden

13.   True Colors

14.   Rainbow Valley #7

15.   Rilla of Ingleside #8

16.   The Boy Next Door

17.   Plain Truth

18.   Every Boy’s Got One

19.   A Hopeless Romantic

20.   The Love of Her Life

21.   I Remember You

22.   The Green Mile

23.   Forrest Gump

24.   The Pact

25.   Gap Creek

26.   A Distant Melody

27.   Nothing Daunted

28.   Blue Skies Tomorrow

29.   Chasing Down the Dawn

30.   Before Green Gables

31.   A Memory Between Us

32.   Out of the Canyon

33.   Thanks for the Memories

34.   The Horse and His Boy

35.   The Last Battle

36.   The Silver Chair

37.   A Voice in the Wind

38.   An Echo in the Darkness

39.   As Sure as the Dawn

40. Christmas Book

I have not every done anything like this officially and not through a blog so it will be interesting to see how I do. I am already a little confused on what all I have to do to get set up, but I know how to use my resources and am getting it figured out!

Do you have a challenge for 2014 yet?