JA’s Recommended Books from the Summer

As you probably already know, Jane Anne likes to read.  A lot.  I recently asked her what her favorite reads from this summer were, and here’s her list and some commentary.  Hope you enjoy!

Hero’s Guide to Saving your Kingdom

By: Christopher Healy

Who thought there was more than one prince Charming? Prince Fredric, Prince Gustav , Prince Liam, and Prince Duncan. All doing one thing, trying to rescue Ella (Cinderella) .

I really like this book a lot because it shows that things don’t always go as planed. This book is soooooooooooo funny.

Wonder

By: R.J Palacio

August a ten-year-old boy has facial deformity. At school things are rough for him a boy war starts because a nice boy is friends with him.

This is a sad but super good book.

 When You Reach Me

By: Rebecca Snead

Book, Box, Pocket, and Shoe.  That’s where the main character of the story finds the notes asking her to tell the story of her life.

This book is great mix of emotions containing facts of the life we might experience.

Hokey Pokey

By: Jerry Spinelli

Welcome to Hokey Pokey! A land where there are no rules or adults. Plus FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN! Everything is fun for Jack chasing girls, having wars and more until it seems like everything happens at once – he has to leave. This book is a funny perspective of growing up.

 Wednesdays in the Tower

By: Jessica Day George

Sequel to Tuesdays in the Castle young Celie finds a new tower with an egg in it. The egg turns out to be a griffin egg. When the egg hatches Celie decides to keep  the griffin a whole new adventure begins.

 Goose Girl

By: Shannon Hale

Crown Princess Isi is a wind-speaker she can talk to most birds, the wind, and other animals. Selia (Isi’s waiting maid) is a people-speaker which means she can gain control of others by speaking. Selie forces Isi to trade places with her and take a place of an animal-keeper. This story is classic Brothers Grimm retold by Shannon Hale.

The Underneath

By: Kathi applet

A sweet story about a cat with her two kittens, and a dog living together as a family. When danger strikes they have to separate and protect each other from alligators, Garface, and grandmother moccasin.

The reason I like this book is because it’s a sweet story of love told by the dog, the two kittens and a story of regret told by grandmother moccasin.  Its really sweet but is a little sad.

West Texas Fair Photos

We made our yearly trek to the fair again this weekend.  The trip was helped along by some indulgent grandparents who were happy to buy snacks and pony rides and tickets galore.

I probably wouldn’t mind skipping the fair, but my kids love it, which makes for a fun evening, nonetheless.  It’s also a great place to take pictures and play with the settings on my camera while sipping on a little jalapeño limeade.  A good night.

Goals for this year

There’s something about September that makes me want to set goals for the “new” year — it’s probably back-to-school schedules and visions (albeit heat-induced visions) of cooler, crisper days to come.

I’m not going to make 38 goals, but here are a few to get me going:

1.  Continue some of the practices I worked to cultivate last year (sabbath, unplugged time, yoga)

2.  Finalize Europe plans  (we’re going for 6 months, ya’ll!!!).

3.  Commit to another spending fast.

4.  Make pumpkin bread.  (That’s really a goal for next week, but I’m putting it here.)

5.  Ride my bike to school some — I’d like to shoot for at least once a week.

6.  Finish up some of the curriculum I want to teach the girls — art and geography.

7.  Create a literature curriculum to accompany our European travels.

8.  Make use of some of the weight equipment at the gym.  (I’ve added some arm weights to my workouts the past few weeks.)

That seems like a good start for now.  Does the new school year make you want to set goals?  What are some of yours?

Last 37 things update

Well, 37 has come and gone.  I met some of my goals, didn’t come close to others, and made good progress on a few.  My  37 list is below with things crossed off I completed and an * by the ones I made attempts at.  The others, oh well.

I love lists.  A lot.  So I really enjoyed setting goals and trying to keep them.  It was a fun challenge to motivate me to try some new things.

My favorite items were the bike ride in the Tetons (one of the highlights of my year) and, interestingly enough, the spending fast.

I’m working on a shorter, less ambitious list that I’ll share with you soon.

1.  Cook 52 new recipes from pinterest or my new cookbooks

2. Institute some kind of sabbath in our family*

3.  Go to Germany

4.  Start a new holiday (Thanksgiving or Christmas) tradition

5.  Read 24 books for pleasure

6.  Run a 9k 

7.  Catch up on scrapbooking and start a new system in 2013

8.  Read aloud to the girls nightly

9.  Attend yoga regularly (once a week?)

10.  Blog at least twice a week* – well, mostly! 

11.  Plant something that I can eat 

12.  Begin composting

13.  Explore the Kerrville area

14.  Bike in the Tetons

15.  Commit to more regular date nights with B*

16.  Write a journal article and submit it for publication

17.  Host a conference at ACU – 

18.  Be intentional about being unplugged when the girls are home *

19.  Experiment with natural laundry soap

20.  Attempt some kind of spending fast for a month

21.  Finish the Slow your Home boot camp 

22.  Pay off our Visa card

23.  Cull books from the girls’ bookshelves 

24.  Master the bouldering wall at ACU

25.  Take the girls to swim at ACU on the weekends

26.  Organize and cull my recipes

27.  Apply for a Cullen Grant

28.  Reconnect with at least one old friend

29.  Work on writing with Jane Anne and helping her feel more confident about it 

30.  Plan monthly excursions with the girls*

31.  Begin planning for another study abroad semester

32.  Develop a Rhetoric of Food course

33.  Light candles at dinner more often, especially as the days get shorter

34.  Take more family walks — at least once a week

35.  Find some good crock pot meals for Mondays when the girls are at dance 

36.  Continue our family’s focus on geography that we started this summer (We did art instead)

37.  Go on a “longish” hike in Yellowstone with the girls — maybe Mount Washburn (this was quite ambitious with Molls)

Chicago, Take 2

(Still catching up on some of August’s happenings)

I might have mentioned a time or two that Chicago is my favorite US city, so I was thrilled to get to go twice in one summer!  The first trip was all four of us on the train to hang out with our friends the Paunans.  We spent most of the time with them in Arlington Heights and went downtown one day to see the Art Institute and Millennium Park.

This trip, on the other hand, was just Stephanie and me, flying up to spend a few days in downtown.  Steph had never been to Chicago, and I loved to get to play tour guide.  The part of the trip I loved best was how laid back it was.  We didn’t feel the need to rush (or corral kids).  We sat and people watched when we got tired.  We ate long, leisurely meals.  We did yoga in the park.  We went on a bike tour.  We wandered.   I got to see Susie twice in one summer.  Perfect.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

 

A Wrench in My Plans

Or more literally, my tire.

Friday was quite a day.  It started with me taking our old, sweet dog, Dudley, to the vet to have surgery for some cancerous places.  I was feeling pretty emotional when I left the vet, having no idea what his prognosis would be.

When I got to school, the tire pressure light came on.  I opened the door and heard a hissing noise.  Not a good sign.  Yep.  A wrench had been driven over and wedged into the tire.  Found out later in the day that it was unpatchable (not surprising) and would require a whole set of tires (not exactly how I had planned to spend that money).  The new tires  would be in on Tuesday.  And we shouldn’t drive our (only) car between now and then.  Sigh.

I went to the campus locker room to shower after my workout only to find out there was no hot water.  Minor problem? Absolutely.  Did I feel like the day was conspiring against me? Yep.

It wasn’t even 11:00 and I was already in a foul mood.  I might have used a choice word or two in a voicemail to Bill.

But here’s the rub.  I went on a morning walk with a friend.  I went to lunch with another friend, and we teared up over what amazing students we get to teach.  My parents loaned us one of their cars until Tuesday.  I sat on the floor the library at the girls’ school and chatted with another friend who’d had an equally chaotic day and we laughed about being forced to slow by our kids taking AR tests.  Yet another family came over for dinner and we ate good food and drank glasses of sangria and talked and laughed until well past when we should have gotten the kids in bed.

And I was reminded how blessed I am.  How full my life is.  Of the marvelousness of it all.

(And Dudley is going to be fine — only one of the spots was cancer and they were able to remove it.)