SLICE OF LIFE

I woke up this morning knowing that it was Tuesday.
And knowing that I needed/wanted to slice today.
And knowing, given that it's New Year's Eve, that most people
would probably be writing things that were deep and profound.
I thought about not slicing today.
I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions.
I'm not feeling very deep and profound.

I read some more blogs
and thought about compiling
an end of year photo essay
but I don't have a smart phone
or a working camera
and I almost never take pictures
so a photo essay is kind of out of the realm of possibility

I read some more blogs
and thought about writing a reflection about my reading life
But I'm not good about keeping track of what I have read
And the idea of  choosing my favorite books
just seems too big for right now.
I read a lot of books I loved this year.

I spent two hours looking for my phone
which somehow, last night,
went completely and totally AWOL
in the space of about five minutes.
and has yet to turn up. 
While I looked
I thought about my slice.
And I thought about making a resolution
about not losing things.
But that seemed a little trite.
And I knew I would probably break it by tomorrow.

I went to lunch with a dear friend
we talked for three hours
about teaching
and parenting adult kids
and healing the hearts
of our foster kids.
And I thought about blogging about that.
 But aside from writing about
how blessed I am to have such great friends
I'm not sure what I would write.

I came home and read a few more blogs.
Lots of people, it seems, are writing about their one little word.
At first I wasn't sure I have one.
And I'm embarrassed to admit
that last year, I said
that I wasn't sure about my word
and I was just going to wait.
And I waited.
365 days.

But today, as I read other people's blogs
and as I thought about the last year
I really did choose my word.
My word for 2014 is OPEN.

I just want to be open. 
I want to be open to new ideas and experiences.
I want to be open to new friends.
I want to be open to new possibilities.
I want to be open to what God is doing in my boys' lives.
Most of all, I want to be open
to hear the voice of the Father.
Lord, teach me what it means to be open this year.

IT'S MONDAY- WHAT ARE YOU READING

I didn't start out thinking I was going to participate in Donalyn Miller's #bookaday, and I haven't quite made it, but I have read a lot over break. Yesterday, I read WINGER, the story of 14-year-old Ryan Dean West, a rugby player (a winger is rugby position, in case you are wondering about the book's title) at a very exclusive boarding school. The theft of a cell phone has landed him in "Opportunity Hall" for the semester. He is a typical eleventh grader- madly in love with his best friend Annie, but also mildly interested in Megan, who happens to date his roommate.  Ryan Dean becomes friends with Joey, a star rugby player, who also happens to be gay. A review I read described WINGER as alternatively "hilarious and heartbreaking" and that pretty much describes it. There were times when I was laughing out loud, and other times when I was sobbing. An added feature- there is a  lot of text, but it also has cartoons and charts woven throughout, which gives it a graphic novel feel. I may have to buy this one- I know the eighth grade guys at my school would love it!

 I have been wanting to read this book for more than six months. I loved it, it was one of my favorite reads of 2013. I'd put it in a "growing readers' hearts" basket, along with RULES, WONDER, and OUT OF MY MIND.  You can read my review here. 

One of my reading goals for 2014 is to expand my reading horizons by reading ten graphic novels, (I really don't enjoy them all that much), so I decided to start early. MARCH, is a memoir by John Lewis, a congressman from Georgia who has been very active in the Civil Rights movement. MARCH, which is the first of three books, captures his life as a child, then his role in the lunch counter sit-ins. It will be a great book to share with upper intermediate, and middle and high schoolers during the month of January. 

Lisa Scottoline is one of my favorite adult junk reads. She writes mysteries that are fast paced and just good to keep around for when you want to read something, but are too tired to concentrate super hard. DON'T GO is the story of Dr. Mike Scanlon, a podiatrist in the reserves, who ends up in Afghanistan. While he is there, his wife is killed in a freak accident, and he returns home to a baby, then discovers a very unwelcome surprise.

Finally, I read SHADOW CATCHER. My boys are not readers, which breaks my heart.  I'm always trying to find books that might pick up simply because the cover looks interesting. Found this at the library and brought it home the first day of vacation. I read it in one day (think of it as John Grisham does fighter pilots) but neither of the boys has picked it up so far.

I'm at the point of vacation where I am starting to think I really need to drag out some student writing and do some responding, or at least clean house, but this week's reading might include: SALT, BEHOLDING BEE, FLORA AND ULYSSES, FALLOUT, or THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP.  I have all of those from the library and would like to get through at least two or three more before break is over.

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!

NAVIGATING EARLY

Have spent the past couple of months reading mostly nonfiction, but my responsibilities as a first round CYBILS judge will finish in the next couple of days, and I'm slowly working my way back to the world of fiction. On Saturday, our first day of Christmas vacation, I went to the library. I was able to snag NAVIGATING EARLY, which I have been wanting to read for quite a while. I loved Vanderpol's first book, MOON OVER MANIFEST, and couldn't wait to to dive into this one.

NAVIGATING EARLY is the story of Jack Baker, born and raised in Kansas. When his mother dies unexpectedly, Jack's Navy officer father transplants him to a boarding school in Maine, where Jack meets Early Auden. Early is a little eccentric- he lives in a janitor's closet close to the gym, attends class when he wants to, sees the number pi as one long string of colors and stories, collects articles about black bear sightings, sorts and resorts a bottle of jelly beans when he's upset, and listens to certain music on certain days (Billie Holiday is for rainy days). The story is set in 1945, and true to that time period, Vanderpol doesn't use the word autistic, but that's definitely a word that comes to mind as I come to know Early.

Jack and Early somehow become friends. Through a series of miscommunication, they are left at the school over a week's vacation, and Early convinces Jack to set out looking for black bears along the Appalachian Trail. Along the way, they encounter any number of unusual characters, who have previously shown up in Early's "Pi" stories, which are inserted periodically throughout the book. At this point, I could not help but think of Maniac Magee…

I loved NAVIGATING EARLY. I loved Jack and Early's journey. I loved their friendship, and Jack's compassion, and his ability to understand Early. I definitely think it's one that could help kids talk about and understand differences, and grow their hearts a little. I loved Jack and Early's attempts to deal with the grief and losses in their own lives, think this would also speak powerfully to a lot of kids. And like MOON OVER MANIFEST, I think Vanderpol is an incredible writer, it's one of those books you finish, and want to go right back and read again, just to see how she put it together.

NAVIGATING EARLY was one of the highlights of my reading year! Thank you, Clare Vanderpol!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May the true meaning of Christmas dwell richly in your heart today!

SLICE OF LIFE

Almost every Tuesday, I participate in the "Slice of Life" community at Two Writing Teachers. Head over there for some great writing!
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My second son is very linear and sequential. He likes his life to work just so.

His mother (me)  is his polar opposite. Totally random.

Which drives Son #2 absolutely crazy.

I try hard to reform. I really do.

But I just keep finding myself in ummm, I guess I would say, ummm,  situations that dictate otherwise.

A year or so ago, I sliced about the great plumber confusion.

And last Sunday, I found myself in a similar situation.

Sue, a friend from work, was flying out to Oregon early Sunday morning with her boyfriend and I had offered to take them to the airport. I actually live about halfway between their house and DIA, and originally, the plan had been that I would backtrack to their house, about twenty minutes west, and then jump on the highway, and head to the airport, which is about twenty minutes east of my house.

On Saturday evening, however, we had a little ice storm and the roads got pretty slick. Sue texted me and said that she and Alex would shorten my journey by driving to my house, and then I could take them from there. I wasn't especially excited about driving for 45 minutes on black ice, so I was thrilled not to have to drive any farther than necessary.

Sue said that she and Alex would arrive at my house at about 5:30 Sunday morning. Given the ice, I thought it might take awhile to clean off the car, so I went out about 5:20 to start scraping. The ice, however, didn't prove as thick as I had presumed, and so it took me less than ten minutes to clean off the car.

I debated going back in the house, but it was really cold, and I thought it might be nice if the car was warm when Sue and Alex arrived. It's against the law to leave a car running in Denver (and another teacher at work, new to Denver, had his car stolen the week before Thanksgiving when he did that) so I decided to sit in the car and read for the few minutes until they arrived.

I had probably been sitting there about five minutes when a black SUV pulled up right in front of me. I don't live on a busy street, in fact, aside from the newspaper delivery guy, this was actually the only car I had seen. I knew Sue drives a little dark blue sedan, but I thought that the SUV probably belonged to Alex, and I jumped out of the car and stood by the rear of the SUV, all ready to help them move their bags from their car to mine.

But they didn't get out.

I stood outside my car for two or three minutes, then started to get a little nervous.

What was going on? Why weren't they taking so long?

Finally, I got back into my car and noticed that the license plates on the SUV were from Illinois. That struck me as a little odd, especially given that I knew Alex was from Oregon, and that Sue had met him when she attended college there.  I didn't remember Sue had ever saying anything about being in Illinois, but maybe Alex had spent some time there.

I waited.

After about five minutes, the driver's side door on the SUV finally opened.

It wasn't Sue or her boyfriend.

 Instead, it was a man who did look vaguely familiar. After running through the list of possibilities, I realized that he was the brother-in-law of Caroline, my neighbor to the north. His family are in the process of moving to Colorado, and his wife, Caroline's sister, has been here all fall with their two little boys. He's come out once or twice a month and we have exchanged greetings, but have never really been introduced.

I thought he might wonder why I was sitting in my car, waiting to greet him at 5:30 on a cold and icy Sunday morning. Maybe I should try to explain myself, at least a little. I opened the door and got out.

"I'm going to the airport." I announced cheerily.

He smiled tentatively. "I just drove in from Chicago," he said.

I'm waiting for my friends," I explained. "They're coming to meet me here."

He reached into his car to grab a little dog, who immediately started to bark at me.

 "That's nice," he said, sounding like someone who had been up all night driving on icy roads.

"How were the roads?" I asked.

"They're fine, he said. "I drove through an ice storm in Illinois, but they're ok here.

"Oh, good," I said, "because I'm going to the airport."

"Have a nice trip," he said.

"No, I'll be here," I declared, "my friends are leaving and I'm waiting for them, so I can take them to the airport."

"Merry Christmas!" he said, as he grabbed his bag and headed toward his house, trying to get away from this crazy early morning conversation.

Two days later, I'm still thinking about the odds of a car pulling up in front of my house, at 5:30 on a Sunday morning, and me being there to greet it. 

I try, Kadeem, I really try.

But these kind of situations just keep finding me. 

IT'S MONDAY, WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Jen Vincent hosts "It's Monday, What Are You Reading?" every week. I don't always participate (partly because I feel embarrassed about how little I get read every week, compared to the people who post there), but this week I have read such a weird combination of books that this seems like a good way to share it.

For starters, I am a judge for the CYBILS Elementary and Middle Grade nonfiction committee. Since the end of October, I have read over 90 nonfiction picture books and short chapter books. We are getting close to the end of the process, and by the end of next week, we will have chosen our 5-7 books, written blurbs, and sent them on to the second round judges. I hate this part- I can always get down to ten or twelve favorites, but getting to seven that the entire committee can agree on, that's a different story! Suffice to say, I have spent a whole lot of time this week rereading our top contenders. I can't say which ones those are, but look for an announcement very soon.

WILD is an adult book, and one I have been wanting to read for a long time. The author, Cheryl Strayed, embarked on a backpacking trip on the Pacific Coast Trail from California to Oregon, in summer, 1995. She was 25 years old and had never been backpacking in her life, but Cheryl's life had been on a downward spiral, and she was desperate for a change. She had lost her 45-year-old mother to cancer, watched her family disintegrate, divorced her husband, and was struggling with heroin. I loved reading people's life stories and was delighted when I found this in one of those little neighborhood library boxes when I was walking the dog a couple of weeks ago.  If you want to watch a trailer, with lots of pictures of Cheryl's hike, go here. The trailer is at the bottom of the first page.

Right now, I'm about 50 pages into NAVIGATING EARLY. I loved Vanderpool's first book, MOON OVER MANIFESTO and picked up NAVIGATING EARLY at the library on Saturday. I'm doing my version of #bookaday, which is actually read a book every two or three days. Hoping to get at least five, maybe even ten books read over the break, but we will have to see.