5 Good Things I Did for Myself This Week

I am at the end of the second week in this school year, so I always feel like I've run a marathon by the end of September, but as I get older, I'm learning my limits and how to better take care of myself.

Here are 5 Good Things I Did for Myself This Week:
1) Took 2 naps last weekend. I was terribly exhausted and very sick with a sinus/allergy issue. Instead of checking off all the millions of things on my to do lists, I took a nap on Saturday and Sunday. My body needed it and thanked me all week. :)
2) I read a LOT. I spent every evening reading and reading some more. I left most of my schoolwork at school and read through 5 middle grade novels. I will be taking a trip to the library tomorrow to get through my books on hold.
3) I turned off the TV. That's right. I didn't watch TV in the evenings at all. I was so proud of myself. I love to read, but at the beginning of the year, most of the time, I'm too tired to do any reading. I usually drift off to sleep. But I didn't watch any TV, so little mindless vegging did NOT take place this week.
4) I wrote! Yes, I actually did some writing this week, which I am glad to be back in the swing of things. I have lots of ideas overflowing in my writer's notebook, but now I just need to get my B.I.C. (butt in chair) to put all of those ideas into meaningful context.
5) I have been working on Poetry Friday for my kids at school. Okay this is for someone else--my fourth graders--by I must confess, I think I enjoy this as much as they do. I love Poetry Friday on the blogs, so I'm doing it in my classroom. I am reading poetry every Friday and kids are making their own poetry anthology. Every Friday they either write their own poem or illustrate someone else's. One of the special ed. teachers asked if she could come in for Poetry Friday--of course, bring anyone, I said. :)

Poetry Friday--Haiku from Thailand

My family and I spent the summer in Thailand visiting my parents and reminiscing about my time spent there as a child. One thing I never noticed as a child was how beautiful the plants are there. I guess until I started to plant my own garden, plants weren't all that important to me. I am in the middle of writing poetry based on experiences there, but right now we'll start with some haiku inspired by the beautiful flora there.

lone lotus tiptoes

out of the water, to the sky

a splash of pink

--by Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is at HipWriterMama

Remembering September 11th

September 11, 2001 affected me in such a way that I can't go by this day without thinking about how I felt on that day. It was just like it happened yesterday. My husband was working just outside the Capitol building on that day and I remember the fear that beseiged me when I didn't hear from him for hours. I was teaching 3rd grade at the time. We were told NOT to turn on the TVs for fear of terrifying the little ones. While I heard from my husband that afternoon after he was able to get to a land line, my heart broke for so many who wouldn't be so lucky. Everything changed on that day. I remember how my students the next day had so many questions.

This year, as every year, I decided to read 3 books around September 11th.

Yesterday, September 10th, I read The Man who Walked Between the Towers by Mordecai Gerstein. I love this book for the fact that I love unique things in history that I may not have ever heard of before. What's unique about this book is that it was published after September 11th, 2001, so the significance of Phillipe Petit walking on a tightrope between the towers is even more moving, since the Twin Towers are no longer there. Gerstein addresses that in the book too.

Today I read one of my favorite books, Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman. This book tells about an old fireboat that was left for scrap when a group decided to restore it to it's old glory. It's heyday was in 1931, but it was put into use on September 11, 2001 to help fight the fires. It is a story of heroes and the good people that helped out that day.

One of the things that really hit me this year was the fact that I have students who were 2 or 3 on September 11, 2001. Wow! They don't have any concept of how horrifying that day was. In fact I even had questions today like: Did the people MEAN to fly the plane into the towers? Did a lot of people die? I was stunned. These children were so small and protected from this event that they don't have the memory that the rest of us do.

Tomorrow I will read September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right Written and illustrated by H. Byron Masterson Elementary first graders. This book was part of Scholastic Kids are Authors award winner in 2002. While as adults,we knew that on September 12th the world had changed forever and it would probably NEVER be "all right" again, this is an honest story told by 6 year olds. They talk about the acts of patriotism shown around the world and how their routine had returned to some what normal, giving them a sense of safety. The sad thing is, I know many children who lost a parent didn't have that sense of safety.

Bedtime Books for the Bedtime-Resistant Toddler

My toddler LOVES to be read to before she goes to bed, but lately we read many books, and she STILL doesn't want to go to bed. My husband and I have been very bad parents. Reading book after book after book makes you want to scream sometimes (especially when it's the same books over and over again). On a recent trip to the library, I chose a whole stack of books, two of which specifically were about bedtime. Well, they were both a hoot. They had my daughter and I both laughing a whole lot about how the characters in the books didn't want to go to bed.

Bedtime book #1:

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!
words and pictures by Mo Willems

Hyperion, 2006

What I loved about this book:

It's so simplistic. Let's face it, the pigeon books by Willems should take the prize for brevity and humor.

There is a human, male character at the beginning of the book that talks to the reader from the very beginning. He instructs the reader "don't let the pigeon stay up late." So the reader, in my case, the toddler actually gets to listen to the pigeon give all of his excuses of why he doesn't want to go to bed. And there are pages where the pigeon acts like the reader is talking to him and telling him he has to go to bed.

What a fun bedtime book! It make my toddler laugh at the pigeon who is doing the very same thing that the pigeon is doing!!

Bedtime book #2

Once Upon a Time, the End (asleep in 60 Seconds)

by Geoffrey Kloske and Barry Blitt

Atheneum, 2005

This is another great bedtime story. It starts out with an introduction of sorts. A child wants story after story after story. The child doesn't want to go to bed. Finally, the father starts making the stories shorter and shorter and shorter, just to get through them. This is a collection of familiar stories, mostly fairy tales and familiar rhymes. The essence of the story is retained, but the stories are VERY brief. They are so brief, they are humorous.

What I loved:

I loved the fact that this proved I'm not the only parent who rushes through stories some nights just to get through them so my daughter will go to bed. I LOVE storytime and I LOVE to read wonderful picture books, but sometimes after I've read the same wonderful story for the 40th time that week, I want to get through it.

Stories that are abbreviated and make MOST hilarious include: Chicken Little, The TWO little pigs (HA! Even the number of characters is shortened), Princess Pea, The Little Red Hen, and many more.

At the end of some of the stories there is even a interjection or two to the listener--go to bed!! My favorite one is at the end of "Princess Pea." "Is there a pea under your bed? Then what's your excuse? Go to bed." It made my reluctant toddler laugh about going to bed. This book couldn't be more fun!

This was a library book we checked out, but we will be buying our own copy of this book. It's too funny not to have on hand when I really need to use it.

This book is also a 2007-2008 Virginia Readers' Choice selection for the primary age group.

What I've Been Reading--July

One of the great things about leaving the country is that you also sort of leave all of your stress behind. Meaning--I thought little about work. I was so far removed from it all that I could really de-stress. I read LOTS of books, many that have been on my "to read" list for years. A few new ones too. Here's what I read in July:



Picture Books

Sadako by Eleanor Coerr (Anyone ever seen this movie? I'd like to hear about it)

** We have missed being near a library. I read a bunch of Little Golden Books to my daughter that my parent had in their collection, but other than that, we have been picture book deprived. I'm heading to the library today to get some more books for her.



Middle Grade

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford (my review here)

Night of the Twisters by Ivy Rickman

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (I actually read this book first, then read the picture book. Much of the text is the same. I expected the picture book to be a very abbreviated version. It was abbreviated, but not so much that the reader loses the feel of the story. And of course, the picture book has Ed Young's beautiful paintings as illustrations.)



Young Adult

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (I didn't think I would like a vampire book, but I loved this one. I just bought book number 2 and 3 in this series. Can't wait to read them. Thanks to Madeline at Buried in the Slush Pile for the recommendation.)

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (I'm becoming a Jodi Picoult addict, I just ordered more of her books from the library. I WILL make my way through all of them. She's going to be my new favorite adult/YA author. I still love Patricia Cornwell--the only other adult author I read religiously. Oh and by the way, My Sister's Keeper is going to be a movie!)

The Counterfeit Son by Elaine Marie Alphin

Open Your Eyes: Extraordinary Experiences in Faraway Places edited by Jill Davis (a collection of stories by YA authors)

Kampung Boy by Lat (my review here)

The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1 by Rick Riordan

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (Okay, I'm ashamed that I hadn't ever read this book. I read it this summer so I would be ready when the movie comes out. Better late than never, right?)

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket (weird, didn't love it)



Poetry

Boris by Cynthia Ryant

Something about America by Maria Testa

Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow illustrated by Monica Vaschula

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States edited by Lori M. Carlson

A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye

Canto Familiar by Gary Soto

What is Goodbye? by Nikki Grimes (my review here)

Worlds Apart: Traveling with Fernie and Me by Gary Soto

Words Under the Words by Naomi Shihab Nye

Reaching for the Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (my review here)



Nonfiction

Escape: The Story of the Great Houdini by Sid Fleischman (If you are looking for an entertaining biography, this is a great one. Boys will love this book about this interesting magician.)

Reflections: Ralph Fletcher, Author at Work by Ralph Fletcher (my review here)



Adult

Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin' by Paula Deen and Sherry Suib Cohen

World of Words around the Web

While I was gone I had reviews appear on other blogs.

The Edge of the Forest Summer edition featured three of my reviews.

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford is reviewed here.
Reaching for the Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer is reviewed here.
Reflections: Ralph Fletcher, Author at Work by Ralph Fletcher is reviewed here.

I highly recommended all three books!

Mentor Texts, Read Alouds and More included my review of Henry's Freedom Box during the Picture Book Carnival.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I have just come back from a month-long vacation in Thailand. Boy, reality has hit me hard coming home. I actually have to do laundry, cook, and work again. That stinks. I have had an enjoyable time reading books, touring around, and enjoying the company of my parents. So, I will be posting more regularly again. School is getting ready to gear up again and I have to move rooms again, so hopefully I'll get to post some. I have 2, 222 feeds on bloglines I haven't read. So, I doubt I'll get to touch even 1/3 of those. Sorry if I missed your wonderful post. I'll let you know what's being going on while I've been gone.