did you know that we were all born to run?

This book will tell you all the reasons why too - even if you don't believe it. I'm convinced anyway.

I was never good at book reports.

Which may surprise my students. Shhh, don't tell them.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I finished this book and it was ridiculously good.

And if you run you should read it because you'll want to memorize every word. Interestingly enough, I think non-runners would appreciate it too since McDougall approaches it initially as a non-runner and explores why many people HATE running.

It's just so great. Even when the author rambles a little off on tangents that you find yourself being entirely interested in. But maybe that's just me. I also love Into the Wild, which is another book criticized for it's tangents. I think a well placed tangent adds perspective and delicious side dishes to the giant thanksgiving turkey plot.

Also this book makes me want to eat and run like the Tarahumara. And write with an easy style like Christopher McDougall. He writes like a journalistic storyteller. I like it. I need to use my words more.

Ok, book report done and I didn't even tell you about any of the characters or rising action and leave you with a reading rainbow cliff hanger! Dang.

Books I've been meaning to read...

I keep track of all good book recommendations like the ones
My honestly on to pals,

Star,

Carrie,

Many nerdy English friends and fellow teachers,

and Melissa,

tell me about. So I put all these on my "book list" on the Hawaii public library homepage!

Do you see a theme in my blog posts lately... besides frequency... get it done!

Why talk about it when you could do it. Which one should I read first? Any other recommendations?

reading reading reading

We have been all about reading lately. I already mentioned that I am in the second book of Nephi in the BOM and LOVING it!

We are also deep into the Book of Mormon Stories with Ambrose and you should have seen his face last night when we read about Ammon cutting off all those arms..... awesome.

Today it is raining and pouring so Ambrose and I finished Flat Stanley- the little chapter book version.

Now he can't wait for our usual Thursday library excursion to see if they have: Stanley, Flat Again!

Also, a neighbor dropped off this:

and a friend recommended this for our little monthly book club:

And both were fun, short reads and not something I would read everyday so I liked the variety. Young Adult Literature is awesome because you get to feel all super smart that you can swallow a book whole in a matter of hours. Plus the plots and imagery are usually a good time.

And, of course, I have been reading for my classes I teach. Our first essay was Barbara Kingsolver's Somebody's Baby and I had so much to say about it that I had to make a mental note before starting each class to give everyone a chance to talk!

Check it out here. I know you'll have a lot to say about it too if you are a mother, or a father, if you have ever been on an airplane with a crying child, if you are a member of a community with children, if you were ever once a child yourself.... so basically everyone. Great essay Barb.

Today I'm having them discuss our next essay by Harriet Jacobs called The Women about how favorite female slaves were treated by their masters. Very interesting and heartbreaking.

If you are of the geeky English persuasion this will be nothing new to you, but isn't Eats, Shoots & Leaves hilarious!?!


I've been hacking away at that one over the last month or so. I'll just pick it up for a good, hard laugh. This fact alone leads me to believe that I am, in fact, a gigantic nerd. I'm OK with that.

Read any good books lately?

feel free to join us

over at the good old book club this month

It's my turn to choose and I think I want to locate my inner sleuth.

Melissa gets a shout out for obvious reasons.

And Seth Aaron. For less obvious reasons, but still, it works.

Jackie Kontoes, I feel you should be involved somehow. So there's your shout out.

It's gonna be fun!!

coming to you live from my office

I thought I would get my tests finished before class, but I can't so instead I am making a to-do list. Maybe I'll join you at the tattoo parlor ash.... I really love to do lists.

side note: Thomas once made me a little notebook of blank to-do check-off lists for a "just because" present. He got all creative with it. It was awesome. It had several pages and was used very quickly.

other side note: Sometimes I write things I have already done on a checklist just so I can check it off.

Side notes done, now for the to-do for this week:

last side note I promise: nothing on this list has already been done so I can't check anything off just yet, sadly. Not even the grading. Boo hoo.

finish pesky tests

take sick baby Asher to the doctor

get Ambrose a TB shot for this little weekly preschool group we might do

catch up on grading

clean our "apartment" aka- our bedroom and our kid bedroom... they are both severely neglected because I keep thinking "Oh I'll just deep clean it when it's time to move up to the new place"... but it's never time to move up to the new place. Face the facts Max.

Go for a run or two

Get 12 inches cut off my hair!!!!

Start making our pelmets (see sidebar tutorial for more info)

Maybe finally mail out the Sewing Society cards- I have like 200.... million

Finish the binding on our bedspread quilt

Get more sleep (HA!)

Do a couple good deeds

Write a few love notes

Read to my children every chance we get

Go outside every chance we get

Not let my son watch a show more than once a day (we don't even have a TV right now, but the computer is my crutch)

Start a top secret project

Feel content if I get even four of these things accomplished

Stretch
And here's an old picture of the band trying to look like tough guys just for kicks!


Ok, better get to class soon. Adios Amigos!

here's my class

on the very last day:

aren't they cute?

i honestly love every single person in that picture.

oh, and of course we had to do a "crazy one":

i already miss them, but horray for christmas vacation! this is the best job ever.

in the spirit of procrastination

thomas said, "so you're not doing those i am thankful posts anymore?"

and i said, "oh i am. i am thankful."

and i am.

you'll see.

but tonight i am home alone (in-laws in kona, husband at band meeting) and i am procrastinating. 20 tests and 20 papers are in my teaching bag and are in the back of my mind. i'll finish the tests tonight at least.

we headed out to the library yesterday and found our next chapter book: and this exact copy too. the tiny illustrations pop up to say hello about every other page and are so random and scrawny and intriguing. it's enough to keep him interested and still begging for another chapter each night so i am excited.

it's fun to have kids. you can relive all this imaginative magic and enjoy seeing their first time with it all at the same time.

next we are reading this one:
it's an abridged version (just like the copy of peter pan we just finished) and is this exact copy- great illustrations: and i'm kinda looking froward to reading it since i am sure it is going to be so strange.

well, i have about forty sewing projects i am in the process of and i think they are all going to roll together in a big ball of houndstooth, stripe, bold, print, solid, and patchwork and swallow me whole.

what a way to go.

who do you think will win project runway? i think they're all pretty good, but none of them have me so inspired i want to study their lives and strive to copy or anything. does anyone else feel like the designers are just not as great as they used to be? or maybe i just dont know what is stylish. that's more likely. each week thomas and i go, REALLY? about what the judges rave over. i guess we've reached the point where we are no longer "in". i can live with that. :)

ok, ok. procrastination over. grading. grading. grading. bleh. :)

my great awakening! haha! :)

i didn't even think i needed this or maybe i just didn't want to admit it...because, well, we are happy. things aren't always perfect, but we try our best and we each fill certain roles in our relationship and things are rolling along as they should, BUT then my good friend matti (who is very wise) suggested that we read this book for our november choice in a book club i am a part of.

my reaction: a big fat eye roll.

dr. laura??? yuck. i tried listening to her program a couple of years ago and was amused at first, but then it was too much to stomach and until recently i thought it was because i hated her and her approach to helping people.

and then yesterday after finishing her book i realized, nope. i can't stand the people who call in time and time again determined to be unhappy in their lives.

we all have things that we love to hold on to even though deep down we KNOW they hold us back from our truest potential and from all the happiness that is ours if we will take it.

some people love to gossip even though they know it just leaves them feeling critical and unhappy about others when they are done. (that's me sometimes.)

some people love to binge on tons of junk food in one sitting even though they know they will have to run for 40 miles to work it off, feel sick, and be a big old fatty and look bad in their clothes. (oops, that's also me sometimes.)

some people love to blame everyone else for everything bad in their lives even though they know deep down that we all have it hard in different ways and if they tweaked their attitude a bit they would be a lot happier. (uh oh, me again. crap.)

and others love to feel mistreated when they are in their pajamas at noon, with kids screaming around them because their mothers aren't paying attention to them, in a messy house, feeling punished and oppressed because their husbands are so "free" and get to be at work all day with adults feeling important even though they know their men have it hard at work a lot of the time and there is nothing more rewarding or important than working hard and raising your own child (that's every stay at home mom i know at one time at least in their lives if we are going to be honest.)

you get the idea. i could go on and on. there are so many of these things that make us feel good at the time, a pity party for one or a destructive behavior that we feel entitled to that ultimately keep us from REALLY being happy.

i didn't even think about it that much until i read this book by dr. laura and i would have never picked it up on my own matti so i am singing your praises to the high heavens because just the title alone would send me straight for the nearest barf bag.

and WHY?????

don't i love my wonderful, sweet, hardworking husband more than anyone or anything in this whole wide world????

because i was married so young i think i feel self-conscious about looking too traditional or like i have a 50's housewife mentality. i don't want anyone thinking that i am in any way oppressed because i married young and had children after graduating instead of chasing a career.

and what the hell for? honestly.

it may seem like i am ranting at this point, but i am having a great awakening so bare with me here.

the things that matter most are my husband, my children, and our home.

any idiot can agree that those things matter 100 times more than anything material and that goes for paying off debt or buying a house (because what on earth is the point of buying a house if you can't stay home to raise the children you created in it?).

therefore, i choose to embrace that. more than i ever have before because careers are hollow and you don't take them with you into the next life.

sometimes this book was hard for me to read, but i swallowed it and got through the parts that irritated me (and asked myself why it irritated me which may have been the hardest part of all) and then i used the things i learned and we are already so much happier for it. already.

and i finished the book yesterday. pretty fast results. haha :)

just read it. or continue on and hope for the best. ha! but, do yourself and your family a favor and read it.

i love you and want you to be happy too.

did i say thank you yet matti? thanks. :)

today i am thankful for matti for suggesting this book to me and for a huge dose of clarity!

we've spent the better part of the last nine days indoors

first asher had a weird virus for a week, then i had it for two days, and now ambrose is green booger city. but we will be better tomorrow i hope!

i don't know how people stay inside all day. we're going a little crazy.

but really it has been nice to have a reason to simplify life by hanging around home more lately. we've been reading a lot. including some library books that i was so happy to find because they are books from my childhood:

and i decided to start a little experiement and see if a wild two year old would sit through a chapter book. i was going to start with james and the giant peach since i have read that that is the first chapter book you should introduce to children, but instead i found the original peter pan by j.m. barrie in a great edition with hand-drawn black and white pictures on just about every other page.

i didnt think he would sit through it, but he totally does! we talk about the pictures briefly and then i read. if he ever seems to get restless then we talk about the pictures some more or i say, "are you done?" and he always begs for more. i love hearing him say, "one more tractor!" (meaning "chapter" haha) it has been a lot of fun.

i read at least one chapter before bed, but usually two or three now that he has gotten used to sitting and listening and is enjoying it so much. he's even talked me into reading a chapter at nap time. needless to say, we are almost done and i'm having as much fun as he is.

i love barrie's style of writing. thomas read to ambrose one night when i was at sewing class and commented that the book is enjoyable on many levels. i had to make ambrose sit through the chapter i missed that night again just so i wouldnt be left out.

in other words, we are loving it.

the publisher is dalmatian press for anyone interested. small children like ambrose obviously wont absorb everything and understand it all, but can follow along through the pictures and pick up on the story as they listen and start to put things together. i have been amazed. oh yeah, and the best part? i found this at borders on sale for about $2 i believe. i am going back soon to see if they have any others since we are almost done with this one.

anyway, i love reading but it was time to get outside today before we lost our minds so we headed out! and made it partway down the street. and then my little peter pan got distracted. by a split open coconut. and ol chubby feet over there was intrigued too.
so we people and coconut watched for a bit and headed home. try not to be jealous. ;)

thomas, you've really out-done yourself this time...

honestly, you shouldn't have.... oh, and you had no idea you did until i told you that you lovingly bought me these three books for our five year anniversary coming up:



what?! it was like a "buy-all-three-now-and-save" type deal and i have been eyeing all of them for a long time and so i thought..... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!!

that thomas, what a guy :)

side note: he rolled his eyes a little but i told him he will be so pleased when he has a handmade home and he said, "oooooooookaaaaaaay" in a really supportive, my-wife-is-nuts kind of way. we work well together.

hmmmmmm, along those same lines, i wonder if i will be buying him this:
for our anniversary.... (insert nervous laughter here)

branching and venturing out

we have been going to the same two libraries for a while now so we decided to go back to kahuku since we hadnt been there in a while.....

and i forgot

that kahuku library is more

about the large, life-sized

stuffed animals and less about

reading a bunch of books! :)

oh well, we had a really good time. we're gonna go back more frequently for sure.

book worm experts: The Read-Aloud Handbook and PBS Kids!

if you are a parent, teacher, will be a parent someday, or anyone who works with kids in anyway you should definitely read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. a couple of friends recommended it to me and although it takes an attention span to get through all the statistics in the beginning, that research is astounding and sometimes shocking. this book gives great advice as to how to get your children to be life-long readers, how to get them interested, how to get started, what to read and all the reasons why your time and attention are the greatest things you can ever give your child. it inspires me in so many ways and i havent even finished reading it yet. i cant buy my son expensive lessons, i cant afford to send him to fancy private schools, and i cant wrap my mind around how to make sure i teach him everything he needs to know- but this book makes me feel like i can give him the world and ensure a happy and smart future just by giving him my time and reading to him and making it fun. i feel like i can do that.

i got a copy of this book at the byuh library- most libraries should have it, but i'm considering buying it as a reference for our family in the years to come (you can get it here for a great price) since it has a very valuable reading list for children at every stage that takes up like half the book.

anyway, one of the book lists that Trelease praises is the PBS kids Reading Rainbow list and so here it is for anyone who is interested!

book worm melissa

ah, where to start? maybe it's because absence makes the heart grow fonder or maybe it's just because there are some awesome people in this world that you were meant to be friends with and she's one of those people for me, or maybe it's because she is really good at keeping in touch and even better at being an interested, loyal, creative, and fun friend- but i love melissa peterson. you've heard me blab on about her before- we met on a literary tour traveling around europe, and despite the ocean and many miles that separate our two homes we manage to hang out like once a year because she always makes it so, and we have too much in common to properly list in one blog post. i went through her blog to find pictures to illustrate my point and there were too many great ones to pick just one or two- for example:



see what i mean?
anyway, her name is melissa. she is the wife of nate the great.

they are perfectly suited for one another and are always being creative and making cool things:
she works hard and inspires many with her creativity and something i always have admired about her is her ability to laugh things off. i know she probably gets down like the rest of us- but i love her artistic, whimsical, intelligent, and happy approach to life.

and here she is folks with her lists:

I have two lists!

"3 of my favorite books are for boys"
or
"Bildungsromans are Fun"

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Catcher in the Rye by JD Sallinger


"Unexpected Genius"
or
"I didn't think I'd love it, but I love it"

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (novel)
Still Life with Oyster and Lemon by Mark Doty (memoir)
Leaping by Brian Doyle (essays)
Emma by Jane Austen (novel)
40 Stories by Donald Barthleme (short stories)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (memoir)
The Letters of Marjorie Hinkley (memoir)

book worm experts: the modern library

i love seeing what top publishing companies, top universities, and top literature experts recommend in way of a "must-read" list- here's the modern library's top 100 best novels lists : one by the board and one created by the readers. it's overwhelming, but lovely and sometimes a little obscure for little old me.

something to work towards.... just like working for them someday.... a nerd can dream :)

browse their site if you have bookish tendencies and a minute to spare. it just might make even the least interested non-reader interested in picking up a book or two... but you dont have to take my word for it (oh LeVar Burton... you and your reading rainbow...)

book worm liko

have you met my friend liko miller? she is the wife of doug and mother to faith and malik (beautiful beautiful children), a licensed massage therapist, a dedicated sibling and daughter who loves her family (she's the beach babe on the far left and those are all her lovely sisters i believe) and a really kind, generous, supportive friend who is always there to lend an ear and make you feel good. i am so glad i have gotten to know her and look forward to more of our adventures!

and now we will turn the time over to her :) for her book worm lists:

alrighty, so -- where do i start? being an english major doesn't necessarily mean that i just LOVE to read. when i was in college, the part i enjoyed most was the writing aspect of it. i'd kind of go to sparknotes and pinkmonkey as last resorts when i couldn't keep up with all the reading. but my passion for books was somehow rekindled in these past few years. my list isn't comprised of the most literary-awarded works, just some reading material i enjoyed or would like to read in the future.

some of my favorite books:
-anything by leo lionni
-the giving tree
-the giver
-the island of the blue dolphins
-the outsiders
-jane eyre
-to kill a mockingbird
-one flew over the cuckoo's nest
-the diary of anne frank
-dragonwings
-catch-22
-hatchet
-lord of the flies
-pride and prejudice
-the adventures of huck finn
-a portrait of the artist as a young man (kidding -- read it and TOTALLY hated it, along with 'heart of darkness', sorry people if you disagree)

i know, so original, right? and they're mostly young adult. but they're good.

books i'd like to read:
-the grapes of wrath (i know, i can't believe i haven't read it yet, either)
-my antonia
-gone with the wind (never even saw the movie)
-finnegan's wake (totally kidding)
-paradise lost (shoot me instead)
-harry potter (i know - i read the first one, though)
-lord of the rings (not because of the movies, but because my sister jessyca read them waaaay before all the movies were made and said they were all very well-written)
-anna karenina
-the kite runner
-the count of monte cristo
-the scriptures (daily)
-the call of the wild
and any others you great people recommend.