January 2016

It's a new year! The other day I had a student say, "I can't believe it is 2016!" I had to chuckle inside because she has no idea what that means in her whopping ten years on this planet. She had to have heard her parents utter this phrase at some point. Every adult mutters this phrase at some point during the beginning of the new year. I know this, because I too mutter it every year. It is then usually followed by, "I remember Y2K like it was yesterday!" Are these signs that I am turning into an old lady?

Anyway, it has been since August that I blogged. Here's what I am up to at the moment:

Crocheting:

Recently, I was tagged on Facebook by a few friends in this picture. It is a thermometer blanket. You crochet a row a day and the color is based on the temperate for the day. I broke my pledge to not buy anymore yarn until I used what I had and bought the first few colors. I am not doing the colors in the picture, mostly because I didn't want to.

Here is what eight days looks like. I have not used the coldest color yet, so I guess that is a plus for the people who have to do recess duty! I am excited to see the end product. I like the idea of not having to really plan anything other than the colors. Mother Nature decides the color pattern and I just go with it!

Reading:

Don't act all surprised that this is what I have been up to. I am still working on The Fiery Cross from the Outlander series. I started it in September but put it on the back burner a lot the last four months. I was able to get a lot read over the two week break and got a good chunk of the book finished. My goal is to have it all read by the end of January.

This year, I plan to read 50 books for my Goodreads reading challenge. My goal was 45 last year and I read 50. Should be a pretty attainable goal.

Teaching:
Second semester is off and running! The words "state testing" are being spoken more and more as we move forward. As a school we are hitting writing pretty hard. This excites me, but terrifies me at the same time. Once again this year, my goal is to write more. In order to teach writing well, I have to be able to write well. Cassie got me this great journal with writing prompts to help both of us write more. So far so good! I also hope to blog better this up coming year and not care if I don't get any feedback. I am writing for me, not for comments.

Here's to the new year with lots of adventures; Reading, writing, crocheting and teaching adventures.
What are you up to these days?

Celebrate This Week

We made it through the first "week" of school! 19 students stood outside my classroom door bright and early on Thursday morning to start our year of adventures.

I don't know about my students, but this was me Thursday night when I got home. I went to bed willingly at 8:00 and slept the whole night through.

Today, I celebrate making it through, but I also celebrate the memory of a dear friend.

Ten years ago when I finished my first ever first day of school, I stopped by my mentor teacher's house on my way home and out walked her husband with a Popsicle. It was the best gift I never knew that I wanted.

After a whole day of talking, your throat gets dry, hot and tired. A Popsicle is a sweet, cold oasis.

At the end of the day, I went around and celebrated each teacher who was awesome and made it through the first day of school with a sweet, cold oasis. It was an incredible way to celebrate the first day of school and the memory of an amazing man.

What did you celebrate this past week?
Check out other celebrations at Ruth Ayres blog!

So This Happened Today

Living in a small town sometimes has its down falls, and shopping can be one of them. Since I was going to the big city today, I decided to do a little shopping before the baby shower that I was going to.

I was kind of dreading the shopping trip since I needed to purchase some new boobie jails. Not a fun item to shop for, yet an evil necessity.
Thankfully, it wasn't as painful as I had thought it was going to be. Since I was only going to get the one item, I didn't grab a shopping cart and was just walking around the store with a handful of bras, not really thinking too much about it.

Until I saw some parents of a future student. Face palm.
I went down a different isle to avoid them, but what I should have done was walk to the other side of the store until I was sure they were gone.

Walked right into them! I couldn't not stop and chat, and introduce myself to dad. Dad had to be along on this shopping trip? I wouldn't have cared if I had ran into mom with a fist full of over sized over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders, but nooooo, dad had to be there.

At least it will be a story to laugh about later and one that hopefully dad will forget!

Nine Years of Students

Best part about my day.

During my time student teaching, I observed a teacher who had a picture of every class that he had taught on the wall. I couldn't wait to do the same thing. Now there are nine pictures and seven classes on the wall. Two groups are on the wall twice! I love looking at these pictures and love to watch the kids that come back to visit look back at when they were "that small."

I felt proud when I put the last picture up. 

I was reminded of  why I was teaching.

What I'm Reading Wednesday

Goodreads description

Brad and Robey are....AWESOME! Just reading one page of the book is inspiring. Not only is it inspiring, but also makes me giggle. If you haven't seen any of Kid President's videos, go watch every one you can on You tube!

Goodreads description

I am anxious to share this book with  my students! I may even read it to the whole class. For some reason I like the whole Jack and the Bean Stalk thing. I enjoy the simple humor that shows up often and the story is keeping me entertained.

Jordan inspired this post. Check out her super cute blog.

Top Ten Authors I've Read The Most Books From

It has been a long time since I have participated in Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish, but saw this one and got excited! I found my own list surprising but enjoyed reliving some of the moments with these books. There are reasons these authors made the list. Somehow each one has touched my heart in some way, provided an escape or just plain entertained me. A few of the authors will get a few more reads, and some sadly their writing days are over.

Here's who has won me over the most as a reader:

Janet Evanovich - 34 books
It helps that the Stephanie Plum series has 22 books alone! I have also enjoyed the little romance novels that she has written. She makes me laugh!

James Patterson - 24 books
Patterson was the first author that I though of when I sat down to make my list. I thought for sure that he would nab the number one position. It helps that he puts out a book a week! The Alex Cross series has 21 books in it and then he has a few other series that I haven't read. I have read some of the stand alone books.

Jeanette Oke - 16
I forgot about Oke until I was going through my list of books. One of my first adult books read was by Oke (I can't remember which one) and I think she is the reason I fell in love with historical fiction. A few summers ago I devoured the Love Comes Softly Series and wondered why it took me so long to do so. I even had my dad pick up one of the books from my library back home because I was going to be there and needed it! Might be time to pick up another one by her. (Oh Donnigan made the Man Meat list also)

Lynn and Gilbert Morris - 11
This is the Chenney Duvall Series that I feel in love with in high school and am rereading this summer. I even added Shiloh to my Fictional Man Meat list.

Nicholas Sparks - 10
For some reason I was surprised that I have read ten of Sparks' books. I knew that I read a lot, but there were other authors that I thought would have him beat. I haven't read one in awhile and just opted to go to the movies instead.  Another man meat list!

Lucy Maude Montgomery - 8
Anne of Green Gables Series. I feel like that is all I need to say about that. #1 Man Meat - Gilbert

Sharon Creech - 7
As an adult, Sharon Creech was my first favorite children's book author. I read Walk Two Moons first and fell in love. I have several others by her that I want to read.

Kate DiCamillo - 6
My second favorite children's author. I also enjoy reading her Facebook blurbs. I wait anxiously for her next book to be released.

Dom Testa, John Grisham and Rick Riordan - 5
Testa and Riordan each have series that I have read and enjoyed. My first John Grisham book was A Time to Kill and I could not put it down! I am sure that my boss at the swimming pool was not pleased to walk in the office and see me with my nose in this book! 

What author(s) have you read the most of?

Rise and Shine

Does anyone really wake up like this?

I have seven days left to practice waking up early.

I have seven days to fight off the nap ninja in hopes that I will be tired and go to bed early.

Could possibly be the hardest part about going back to school, right behind not being able to go to the bathroom whenever I want/need to.

This is more the feeling. I don't have a meat tenderizer though.