2011 Book List

Unfortunately, my reading was down this year and I did not meet my page total goal for 2011.  I am planning on trying again to reach it in 2012, but am not going to make it one of my main resolutions next year.  If only I would be willing to count all of the pages of all of the books I read with kids each day at school and each day to Luke, then I'm sure that I would have blown my goal out of the water! 
My list of books isn't as exciting this year due to there being several "educational"ish type books listed below, but I can say that most of them did "make me think" and that is something that I absolutely love in a book so maybe it isn't so bad after all! :)

1. Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood

~great book & it was a great Christmas gift (2010) to receive-Thanks Emily!

2. Swine Not? A Novel Pig Tale by Jimmy Buffet

3. Hachiko Waits by Leslea Newman

~4th grade book club book-good story about one very loyal pet!

4. Kenny & the Dragon by Tony DeTerlizzi

5. Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of "Crazy Cooter" by Ben Jones

6. Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury

7.  Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

8.  Hide or Seek by Dr. James Dobson
~an old book about helping kids with self-esteem...did not enjoy it (or agree with several parts)

9.  Red and Me  My Coach, My Lifelong Friend by Bill Russell with Alan Steinberg

10. Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor by Allen Hunt

11. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

12. Rediscovering Catholicism by Matthew Kelly

13.  Homeland by John Jakes

14. Animal Farm by George Orwell

15.  Catholic Customs & Traditions by Greg Dues

16. Qualites of Highly Effective Teachers by James H. Stronge

17.  Begin with the Brain Orchestrating the Learner-Centered Classroom by Martha Kaufeldt

18.  The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey


19.  The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf 

Read This

"Mrs. S. what did I write?"

This was the question I heard from a kindergartener on one of the last days of school before Christmas break.  The students had been working on writing Christmas lists when I came into the room for reading time.  The teacher had me helping some of the students "read" their lists.  Here's a little pop quiz, see if you can guess which answers were mine and which answer was what the student actually wrote.

The paper said,...

"trngl kosoo"

Your choices are:

A. "triangle kazoo"

B. "tangled kozoo"

or

C. "Tinkerbell costume"

If you chose C, then you did a much better job than I did of trying to read what she wrote as you witnessed in answers A and B.  At least my messed up attempts at trying to decode her words DID help her to come up with the answer to her question at the beginning of this post! :)

Happy Birthday to You!

To my niece, Brielle...

WOW...5! Congrats, it's a big age to be! :)

We Love You!

Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you & yours the merriest of holidays today!!!

Love,
Anita

Happy Birthday to You!

To my sister-in-law, Jenny...

We hope that your special day is quite special!

Happy Birthday! :)

Let Christmas Break Begin!

Today was my first official day of Christmas break & it was great! I swear I was more giddy about it than the kids at school yesterday :)

After completing an errand first thing this morning & getting to spend some time out & about with my little man, we spent the rest of the day baking cookies!  Scott made it home a little bit earlier than normal from work & is now officially on break (oh wait, he would correct me here, "on call" ;)  until the 2nd!  Looking forward to lots of family time together and getting a few things done and having some fun too!

Tomorrow's agenda...candy making and our 2nd official family Christmas gathering of the season!  With a few other things sprinkled in throughout the day as well...let the fun begin! :)

Advent Happenings

Here is Luke's and my handiwork...

 Closer up...

Each day we check the "tree" and Luke pulls off the post-it number for the day.  We flip the "ornament" up to see what Christmas 'job' we will do that day.  He has been very excited about it and I can honestly say that each day I look forward to whatever the task is for the day too :)

I tried to stick more with the concept of "preparing and waiting" for Christmas (to be more Advent themed) so most of our tasks are things to get the house or ourselves ready.  A few traditions and fun activities are sprinkled in along the way, but mostly I tried to incorporate something "fun" into a job that would have needed to be done anyway.  This way he has fun and feels like he is helping us out too, which is something that he constantly wants to be doing...helping somebody. It has also made the holidays much less stressful for me...cleaning and decorating one room or thing at a time rather than the whole house on one day.  And with the help of a kid who LOVES to clean/dust...what more could a mom ask for!

On a side note, it has its educational aspects too...teaching patience as well as numbers! ;)

All in all, it has been a neat experience and I'm looking forward to possibly making it a new family tradition in the years to come!

Happy Birthday to You!

To my youngest sister, Beth!

We hope you have the happiest of birthdays!
Have a very special day!

Happy Birthday :)

December Challenges!

For Myself:  To do something "active" each day...even on holiday/"party" days!
(I still have a couple of hours to fit this one in today! ;)

For Luke and Me (I realize the lack of proper grammar here too.):  To continue with an activity each day from the "Advent" tree that we made together a week and a half ago.  He really seems to like it and has been so excited to complete whatever the task is each day.  Hopefully, I'll get a picture posted on here sometime soon...I thought it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. :)

For Scott and Me:  To stick with trying to create new routines to help us get the house organized and keep it that way.  This seems to be a constant struggle for us, but I'm hoping that tackling it as a team will bring success rather than me trying to do it on my own and "hand out orders" to everyone else!
[And I can admit it here that the house already looks 200% better (no lie...it was AWFUL) than it did around Halloween just from the 2-3 things we have already attempted doing!]

Updates coming at the end of the month :)