CELEBRATE

 

For the past ten weeks, I've been participating in Ruth Ayres' Celebration Saturdays. This was a quiet week, a week for celebrating the ordinary…

1. Time to bake- When I'm working, I don't bake much. This year, with the boys gone, that's been especially true. This week though, I actually baked twice. On Monday, I baked banana bread (then tried to convince Son #1 that you really won't get a disease from eating the overripe bananas, instead of throwing them out). On Tuesday, I baked six dozen chocolate crinkle cookies, which disappeared in about 24 hours.

2. An ending- For the past couple of months, I've been reading elementary and middle grade nonfiction for the CYBILS. There were 95 books on our list, and since the middle of October,  I have read 91. This week, the first round judges had to choose the seven books we would pass on to the second round panel of judges. We had lots of hard conversations, but we finally ended up with a list we are really proud of. This is, I think, my sixth year of judging and I always love the opportunity, both to read lots of great books and then to meet people from all over the country.

3. Time to read- With my CYBILS reading winding down, I've had time this week to do other reading, and have surprised myself by reading pretty much a book a day. I've read NAVIGATING EARLY, which I loved, MARCH (an autobiographical graphic novel by John Lewis, a Georgia congressman who was very involved in the Civil Rights movement), SHADOW CATCHER (a spy espionage novel that I picked up at the library, thinking that the cover might grab my boys' attention) and then another mystery  "junk read, DON'T GO, by Lisa Scottoline. Last night I started WINGER, which I picked up after recommendations from Twitter.

4. Time for yardwork- This fall, I got my front and side yard raked (20 bags of leaves!) , but then we had a string of cold, snowy weekends, and I didn't ever get the back yard done. Yesterday, the temperature in Colorado was a glorious 60 degrees and I raked 25 bags of leaves. I love the opportunity to be outside, yet also to be productive!

5. Time for a "hot date!"- Tonight I have a date with my two favorite "hotties"- my sons! Really, this probably means that we will go to the theater together, I will buy the tickets, and then we will somehow "lose" each other in the lobby, so that they can check out girls, but it's always nice to spend time with them. And one week from tonight, I'll be taking them to the airport, so I need to enjoy them while I can!

For a bunch more celebrations, head over to Ruth Ayres' Writes!