>Like you have spare time in your life — right. Uh-huh.

>Take a break anyway. That’s what I’m doing. I have too much on my to-do list, but I decided I’d earned a short mental health break and I’ll hit the blogs to relax my mind. Deep breath now —

Like prizes? Try these.
Win a lovely beaded bracelet.
Go to Scribbit for her weekly Saturday Giveaway.
Check out Mir’s latest contest with a gift card for Outback Steakhouse.

Take a survey for BlogHer. I did!

Sally forth and read the latest episode of Saffron Sally, a woman with spice. Er, I mean a well-seasoned woman. She gets updated regularly, too, in true serial style.

Check in on Mir’s latest advice and buy something. You know you want to.

Speaking of shopping, this is La Petite’s new favorite clothing store.

Read a book, join a discussion group at MotherTalk.

All this and coffee, too? Life must not be as bad as I thought.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>To be truthful…

>

The Liar’s Diary by Patry Francis is a compelling and unpredictable story. Jeanne Cross, perfect doctor’s wife and high school secretary, finds herself carpooling with a rather atypical teacher who strikes a chord with her and becomes a close friend. In the process, however, Jeanne ends up witness to events that shock the traditional school gossip channels. The faculty lounge grapevine doesn’t usually dabble in life and death headlines — until free spirited Ali Mather joins the staff. Soon rumors pale in relationship to real life, and Jeanne faces unwelcome truths and unearths skeletons she wishes had remained buried. Her loyalty and her honesty collide with brutal results.
From the opening chapter to the riveting climax, this novel just doesn’t quit. The pacing isn’t a walk or a jog, but a speedy drive on a tight mountainous pass: fast, twisty, and totally on edge.
Don’t read it alone, don’t read it in the dark, but absolutely do read it. The Liar’s Diary is fascinating and enthralling. Patry Francis ties her readers in knots and doesn’t let them loose until the very, very final page.

Note: I received a copy of The Liar’s Diary, no monetary compensation, in order to write this review for MotherTalk.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>View from the dining room window of a snowbound Midwesterner

>

8:00 AM
Noon

3:30 PM


6:00 PM


I stayed inside, made coffee, read the newspaper, did my homework, read a book, and stuck the camera out the door now and then. Amigo and Buttercup stayed mellow with me. Husband? He was stranded out of town.
The snowplows started coming around at 7:30, and it was still snowing.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>To read, perhaps to think

>Charles Schultz created a cute Peanuts cartoon many, many years ago that showed Charlie Brown home from school, tucked in with a cuddly blanket, saying “Happiness is being too sick to go to school, but not too sick to watch TV.”
From my perspective, contentment and calm come from being too sick to teach, but not too sick to read. As miserable as I’ve felt in the past week, the plus side is that I’ve been able to stretch out on the couch with a refreshing beverage by my side, vaporizer on the floor, cozy blankets all around me, and a good book in my lap.
I started with a re-read of the SuperMom books by Melanie Lynne Hauser. I like rereading. I get to refresh my experience with details I might not have noticed the first time, enjoy the hints and foreshadowing, and revel in the writer’s craft. I still laugh at my favorite parts, and I still want a few of those adorable scrubbing bubbles for pets.
I found a complete change of pace with All the Numbers by Judy Merrill Larsen. Maybe it was good that I read this slowly while under the weather. It’s not a book to rush through, to race to the finish. Instead, it’s a book to grasp, consider, examine. Moms face issues in ways non-parents might not understand, no matter how close they are to the families. This story isn’t about motherhood as much as it is about coping, recovering, grieving; facing truths that are not always comfortable. It’s intense and thoughtful, a rich and worthwhile read. But have a tissue box by your side — and don’t way I didn’t warn you.
I was about to start Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes, something I picked up at the B&N book fair last weekend, but then Patry Francis’ The Liar’s Diary came in the mail so I piled into it instead. I’m only a few chapters in, but the part that’s struck me already is the importance of female friends. Guys may minimize this as “chick talk” or the “housewives eating bonbons” bit, but these friendships make our lives so much richer. A good quality novel, whether for women or by women, will have relationships (good or bad!) between women.
For example —
SuperMom: Carrie. Birdie needed her, and when they were on the outs, it hurt both of them.
All the Numbers: Anna. And more, but mostly Anna. With Ellen being on her own, no husband, even though her parents were emotionally supportive, her friends were her foundation, her rock.
The Liar’s Diary: Granted, I’ve just begun reading this book, only getting a taste of the characters and their relationships. but the friendship between Ali and Jeanne is ripe for growth. Both need a female confidante, both are different enough to be drawn to each other, and both are emotionally needy in their own ways. How that evolves, I have yet to find out.

If I get sick again (no-no-don’t-even think-about-it), I’d better make sure my lesson plans are up to date, and my home bookshelf is full. Better yet, there’s a blizzard on the way into town…the candidates will be stranded here, and (darn) so will I.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Random thoughts while feeling under the weather

>Drinks that feel good on my throat:
Cranberry – grapefruit juice. Mmm. So smooth on my raw throat!
Coffee: a dark chocolate-peppermint blend from Harry and David, half and half with regular Folgers.
Peppermint tea from Celestial Seasonings. I ordered a free sample last year and it worked; I’m hooked. This is delicious without being too sweet. It feels wonderful, and has no caffeine to keep me awake.
Water. Cold, refreshing water.
Food that feels good on my throat:
A fresh orange and a bowl of oatmeal. I’m way beyond the need for preventive vitamin C, but it tastes good.
A Nutrigrain bar. Smooth, nothing sharp, slides down my throat without making me cough any more.
Hard boiled (organic) eggs. Husband buys them from a coworker, and they’re delicious. They really do have a richer flavor than store-bought eggs.

Things to do while awake, not napping:
Reread a good book or two. Confessions of Super Mom and SuperMom Saves the World were on my list this week. They made me smile while I was feeling down.
Start a new book: All the Numbers is sitting by my side. Look Me in the Eye is upstairs on my bedside table, too.
Check in on old favorite blogs and new blogs. My trusty old laptop on top of my blankets, pillows propping me up to avoid the coughing fits that happen when I’m horizontal, make the couch a great place to settle.
Watch the Weather Channel. I don’t watch much TV, but I enjoy seeing classic episodes of Storm Stories and watching the updated weather in all parts of the country. It amazes me that our own little state can rate a story on this national and even international station. Madison, WI, has had record snow this year. People who live there seem to be almost matter-of-fact about it. “Well, if we have to shovel and snowblow, we might as well get the satisfaction of scoring one for the record books.” That’s the good Midwestern outlook on life!
Work on simple schoolwork. This is a necessity so I don’t go back feeling totally overwhelmed. I’m feeling fortunate for the way I structure my reading classes and my social studies, due to the major variety of needs in the class. It takes more thought and more work to get a unit up and running, but once it’s up and running, the students almost handle it themselves. It made sub plans easy, too. “Group 1 to station 3, group 3 to station 5” etc. And the kids will know what to do! That’s a relief for me and for the students. Fewer changes, less stress for all of us.
I’ll be well rested (I hope) by next week. I have a training day on Friday, and I’ll reserve judgment on whether I”m well enough for that. It looks valuable.
Watch Ellen. I don’t do this often enough. Ellen Degeneres always makes me smile. She is so creative and spontaneous; she should have been a teacher!

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Dadditude

>I’m off to a bookstore later today for a fundraising book fair sponsored by our PTA. I have a gift card and I’ll make myself stop when I’ve used it up. For me, buying books is like eating chocolate; it’s really hard to stop. That’s one reason I enjoy doing book reviews. I need no pay for these; the complimentary book is enough. I can find a new home for the book later, since most of my friends and colleagues enjoy reading as much as I do. However, I do try to stick to books that I can review honestly, stories with which I have some connection.

Dadditude, by Philip Lerman, turned out to be one of those.

Dadditude’s subtitle is “How a real man became a real Dad”. Philip Lerman was a man’s man in a man’s world, doing a macho job in a tough and manly field; he was an executive producer on the television show America’s Most Wanted. Let’s put this in perspective: he talked to police officers, local, state, and national, and heard and dealt with stories of increasing violence on a daily basis. He managed teams of reporters and directed well-known television host John Walsh.
Then Lerman became a dad.
When he and his wife, Rachel, decided to have a child, they were in their late forties. Time was running out on their biological clocks. They were willing and eager and sped through medical fertility processes at a speed that would make a pregnant mom nauseous. Oh, wait, that doesn’t take much. But I digress. Typical of “older” parents, Lerman thought that since he’d handled cops and reporters and managed a television empire, he could certainly deal with something as simple and tiny as a child.
I hear you chuckling. Snickering. All of you parents who learned the hard way about the sleepless nights, the terrible twos, and the indescribable worries that come with motherhood and fatherhood, you know of which I speak. And at this point you can predict that Lerman’s Dadditude contains a lot of familiar moments and funny anecdotes that will make you laugh out loud and say, “Oh, been there, done that. So true it is!” And you will. I certainly did.
Phil Lerman’s chapter titles hin at the wealth within. “The Vagina Dialogues” — who else but families dealing with infertility can discuss reproductive organs so calmly and carelessly toss about language that’ll make most of us blush? Well, maybe the middle school sex ed teacher can. Trust me on that one.
“To Dream, Perchance to Sleep.” Anyone who’s raised a child can nod in understanding. Unique to Lerman’s perspective is his age: a 40-something dad has a harder time dealing with little or no sleep than one in his twenties. As he floats seamlessly from serious anecdotes to lines that bring laughter in snorts, readers realize that this dad’s not kidding when he describes “…the delirium caused by the sleep deprivation.”
I hear your question: How can a 40-something mom of a teen and a college student feel any kinship with a couple that became parents at, well, the age I am now?
Trust me: you’ll never forget. I think I’m still making up for sleep that I missed when my kids were babies. It doesn’t take much imagination to think about how grateful I am that I’m not lifting a two-year-old to a diaper table with my middle-aged back and aching knees. It was much easier twenty years younger. But even as I admire (and question the sanity of) parents who start their families later in life, I remember well the hassles of potty training. The growth charts. The guilt and the worry of leaving a child in preschool and day care, even though I was a preschool/child care teacher myself.
So Lerman’s transition from the macho world of television (where my husband makes his living these days) to the confines of the stay-at-home father is anything but smooth. We readers should be grateful for that, because a smooth transition wouldn’t have given Lerman such wonderful stories to tell.
Yes, I recommend Dadditude for a fun and fascinating read. Buy it for Father’s Day or read it now; you’ll enjoy it.

Mr. Lerman provided me with a free copy of this book in order to review it. I will be passing it on to other dads I know will enjoy it — that is, after Husband reads it himself!

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>I’ll take care of me, in one way or another

>Standard advice on grocery shopping tells us not to go to the store hungry.
I would add to that the following: don’t go to the store when you’re hungry for pleasure reading material.

A few days ago I went to the local discount store pharmacy for a prescription refill. While the pharmacists were filling it, I wandered the store and picked up a few things we needed. Shampoo, conditioner, bandaids, and the rest of my short list took only a few minutes of the allotted quarter hour. That’s when the danger began.

The snack and junk food department (okay, they call it “groceries”) was right next to Health and Beauty Aids. I dropped a Hershey’s bar with almonds (on sale!) into my basket, followed by a small bag of Hershey’s Kissables in Special Dark (also on special, of course). I did not buy coffee, and they didn’t have the kind of tea I was craving, so I left the area.
For the book section.
Pleasure reading for me can include anything from Time magazine to paperback romantic novels. I usually buy my books used, but sometimes I just have to have something new. Call it guilt (writers have to make a living!), impulse (oh, this looks good!), or just laziness (The second hand bookstore means yet another trip out of the house) and you’d be right on all counts.
I bought three books. Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter, Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, and Jennifer Weiner’s The Guy not Taken.
I really don’t have much time for pleasure reading right now. I’m finishing progress reports, planning a new geography unit for Social Studies, and pulling myself out of the near-depressive deep blue funk that comes with a major Green Bay Packer loss. Who has time to curl up and read?
When I start thinking along those lines, it means I really need to take a mental health break. It’s time to set up the heating pad in the rocking chair, brew a pot of my favorite coffee, gather a small dish full of chocolate and a good book and settle down for a long winter’s, well, rest.
This ought to hold me for a while.

This post was written for Jordan’s latest Group Writing Project. You can acess the entry page at MamaBlogga or read her regular blog, including an updated list of entries.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Ah, the magical fifteenth.

>I read Nina’s post at Mid-Century Moms and thought how sadly common it has become for teens and young adults not to read. My teen reads for pleasure, but my college student doesn’t read unless it’s online. This struck a chord with me because I informally joined Melanie of The Refrigerator Door in her quest to spread the book-buying habit. Those interested in being a part of this project have a simple job: buy, then read, then review. Reviews and new titles are usually posted on the 15th of every month.

October’s calendar was spilling over with commitments, so it’s amazing that I even had time to pick a book off a store shelf and plop it on the checkout counter. Somehow, I managed to pick up three. I finished one and started the others.

I bought Nicholas Evans’ The Divide because I enjoyed his other works so, so much. This book was shorter than the others, but every bit as dramatic and intense. It was haunting. Powerful. It’ll stay on my shelf for future rereads.
I also bought Amerithrax: the story of the Anthrax killer. It’s a heavy read at times because of the scientific detail, but that’s also what makes it fascinating. I haven’t finished it. I might have to wait until a break or even next summer to really devote some time and thought to it.
I’ve started Seabiscuit, too. I saw the movie, and when I see a movie based on a book, I usually like the books better. So far, so good. It sits on the table next to my rocking chair, and I’ve been reading at a relaxed pace when I can.

I’ll find time to visit another bookstore soon. Amigo wants a Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift CD, and I think they’ll have that in another dept. He and I can make it a team visit. I’ll post my new reading material titles as soon as I buy them. Oh, and family? Books always work for my birthday…hint…hint….

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>The Post Holiday Letdown

>

My school is one of the few that still allows kids to dress for Halloween. We call it Storybook Character Day, and we encourage students and staff to dress up. I have a Bah, Humbug! attitude toward Halloween costumes and lost learning time, but they talked me into it. I dressed as (did anyone guess this?) Minerva McGonagall from the Harry Potter series. With a simple black cape ($12 from Lillian Vernon), my hair in a bun, my reading glasses on my nose, and a name sticker that proclaimed, “Hello, my name is Minerva” I greeted the incoming students at the morning bell.

Down the hall are three very creative teachers. They dressed as a unit in black from head to toe, with….

Oh, a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, three. I present to you:

Three Blind Mice.

Extra Costume Credit goes to my darling son, Amigo, who loaned them an old cane so that they could make theirs look authentic.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares

>Three for me, three for you

>Melanie, a blogger and honest-to-goodness wonderful author, is stirring up interest in her Buy Three a Month mission. Her goal is to encourage readers to buy three books each month, then go to her blog and tell her about it. She wants folks to tell her which books they bought, and a month later she’ll ask for short summaries and reviews of those books. This is for fun, folks, not for obligation. Buy paperback or hardcover, from the sale table or farther back in the store, but pick up three books for your very own.
Today is the fifteenth of October, so she posted her three for October along with short reviews of the three she bought in September. You can read about them here.
October is one of the craziest months in my teaching life, so I don’t know if I’ll get to the bookstore, much less have time to read three new books. I did, however, buy Nicholas Evan’s The Divide. I’ve enjoyed his other books enough to read and reread them, so I’m hoping this one will keep me company by the fireplace on the long weekend after parent-teacher conferences.
So, Melanie, I may get out to buy two more, but if not, I promise to reread two I already own. I’ll make it up in November. Or December. Or … next summer? But no matter what, I’ll keep reading.

Share and Enjoy !

Shares