Book Club Friday

 

It has been awhile since I linked up with Heather and participated in Book Club Friday! No better time either, because I just finished a book for my book club last weekend and I ADORED it.

In just a little over 24 hours, I devoured The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. This book was such a charming, sweet novel and it is one that I am definitely sad is over.

The main character, AJ Fikry is a bookstore owner and recent widow. He lives on the fictional Alice Island off the east coast (I believe) and lives and breathes Island Books. He is the worst kind of book snob though ... so much so, that his snobbishness really turned me off at first. However, his quirks become lovable and it did not take long for me to wish I had an AJ in my own community and a bookstore just like Island Books.

Some of my favorite parts of this book were the book references. Everything from The Book Thief to Mark Twain to my absolute favorite book, American Wife was mentioned and I just loved that! It's always a thrill to read a book about books that mentions books you have already read, no? Maybe it's just me ...

If you're looking for something quick and easy to read, but still with a good level of substance, do not pass up this charming novel. I promise you will not regret it!

Wedding Wednesday

I have the best friends in the world that created the sweetest scrapbook for me documenting our wedding day!

This lovely tradition of scrapbooking started in my group of friends over 10 years ago for birthdays. We were all in undergrad and probably poor, so we began putting together scrapbooks for birthday presents! We do not do it for every birthday, but we do tend to put them together for special occasions. Such as weddings (totally just typed weedings).

Take a look at what they came up with for me! I love it!

Sorry for the glare!

This was my first "Wedding Wednesday" post. I'm not sure if I will post more, but we'll see!

Do you like to scrapbook? I'm not a huge fan of it, but I do really enjoyed the finished product!

Mailbox Monday

Earlier in the month I made a goal for myself to purchase less than 5 books during the month of November, and the books I do purchase, they must be used.

I'm doing great with the used portion of my goal, but the only 5 books portion? Not so much.

Between Friday and Sunday I visited Half Price Books twice due to their big 40-50% off coupons that were out. Here's what I purchased ...

First, let me tell you a story...

Friday night Tracey Garvis Graves was going to be at Beaverdale Books for a signing (she's from Ankeny) and I was really excited to meet her! I loved On the Island and it's sequel (a novella) called Unchartered. I didn't love Covet, but it wasn't terrible by any means!

So, I planned to go and get my book signed. Then, I realized that I didn't read OTI as a physical book. I owned the ebook. Can't really get an ebook signed!! So, I hopped over to Half Price Books in hope that they would have a cheap copy instead of dropping $14 on a book at Beaverdale Books that I had already read.

$4.50 later, I'm happy with a physical copy of OTI and headed to the signing with my mom in tow. We get up to Tracey's table and she opens my book to sign it and .... dun, dun, dun ... it's already signed.

Talk about embarrassing. I quickly made a joke about needing a copy of her book because my copy is an electronic copy and could she just sign my iPad instead? I don't think she was too amused. :(

I have been to a lot of signings, and that is only one that I wanted to crawl under the table and just die. Most embarrassing moment in A LONG TIME. 

As you can see, now my book is signed TWICE. Oops. 

Great book ... definitely worth checking out if you want a quick, easy beach read.

They were giving away these amazing cookies!

Yum. I would like another one Right. Now.

What about the second trip to HPB, you ask? Just hold your horses. I'll get there.

Friday I got a notice from the library that Shopaholic to the Stars was available for me to pick up. When I  got to the library, I had two more holds also waiting for me. Will I get to these before they're due? Probably not. However, I am sure I'll read the Shopaholic book. I can't remember the last book in that series that I actually liked, but I can't help it. I love me some Becky Bloomwood and just keep hoping ...

Maybe I can squeeze in The Vacationers over Thanksgiving break. I have heard it's good!

 My second trip to HPB was to find a copy of The Indian in the Cupboard for our next read aloud in my classroom. We are getting close to wrapping up Wonder by RJ Palacio (sob!) and the kids have LOVED it so much. I know I need something amazing to follow it up. They are loving the realistic fiction, but I know I need to mix up some genres, so a fantasy book it is!

The Indian in the Cupboard was huge when I was a kid, but I'm not going to tell the kids that ... I'll let them think it's new. As soon as they catch wind that it is an "old" book, it's like all appeal is GONE. Poof. Just like that.

Makes me crazy.

I also picked up a copy of The Devil's Arithmetic (never read it) and Tatiana  De Rosnay's newest (used my 50% off coupon on that one). I adored Sarah's Key, so I am hopeful that her newest is just as good.

This weekend I also read an entire book (which I will be talking about on Friday). What an amazing, bookish weekend! Perfect for the weekend where we got our first significant snow.

What books have you picked up recently?

Day in the life ...

Who doesn't love a good "Day in the Life" post?! Thank you, Kelly for the post idea today. :)

Teachers are crazy. Crazy busy. Everyone has their own kind of busy, but considering teaching has not been my only profession, I'd like to think I know. I have something else to compare this to, and I can safely say, I have never been so crazy busy like this before. I may get some backlash for this, but, it is much worse for elementary teachers. Much, much worse. At least secondary teachers get a padded planning time. When I subbed in secondary there were some days that teachers had 2 hours of planning. TWO. HOURS. That is unheard of in elementary. I am ecstatic for Fridays when my kids have Art and I get a full uninterrupted hour, instead of my normal hour broken up into two 30 minute specials where I have to go get the kids and take them to their next special (therefore, interrupting whatever train of thought, or project I have going on at the time).

Anyway. I'll stop. Everyone chooses their own field, and I love what I do. LOVE. I am exactly where I belong.

This is a really busy time of year for our building. We have Iowa Assessments and report cards to write and parent/teacher conferences to conduct. Life is busy. Here is how my Monday went, and typically most Mondays.

4:50 am - alarm goes off and I finally roll out of bed at 5am. Make coffee, brush my teeth, throw on work out clothes, grab my gym bag (with  my workout clothes in them) and head to Body Pump. My friend Alana and I go to BP every Monday morning. Monday because we just need to get it done.

5:30-6:30 - Body Pump

6:30 - get ready for work at the gym. I do not shower at the gym, I haven't gone that far yet. To be honest, I'm a little afraid of it. I shower the night before and then take a hobo shower in the locker room. I mean, it's BP, it's not like I'm dripping sweat (don't judge me).

7:00 am - leave the gym for work. Stop somewhere for breakfast. Lately it has been for McDonald's oatmeal. If I was more organized, I would have it already made at home because I don't think it's that hard. Maybe someday. For now, I'll spend the $2.11 once a week to eat breakfast out.

7:20-7:30ish - get to work and lug in all the stuff I brought home with me over the weekend. This particularly weekend it was my overstuffed work bag and a box full of math journals that I graded. It took two trips.

7:30 - 8:55 - Get some word work packets ready for my co-teacher, work on a report card (I have a conference later), get supplies ready for a math lesson on the metric system. Make an anchor chart about converting units in the metric system. Preview a Scholastic Study Jam video (and love it), then get it ready to throw into my lesson for the day. Check email, pass back graded papers, review report cards again. Look over my lessons for the week and make sure I have everything ready to go.

8:55 - first bell rings. Kids begin streaming in. The whirlwind begins.

9:05 -second and final bell rings. Kids should be in their seats. We say the pledge. Kids get started on their math assignment. I turn in attendance, check in homework, send lunch count.

9:15 - 10:15 - teach math. The lesson on the metric system goes very well. Kids are still confused about the decimal jumping when we go from meters, to decimeters to centimeters to millimeters. Good thing we're working on it again tomorrow.

10:15 - Kids have Spanish. Spanish teachers uses my classroom, which  means I have to find somewhere else to work. I choose the back of the classroom, where I am working on prep for our first Mystery Powders lab experiment. Kids are so excited when they see I am getting powders ready for experiments. I give them the Look which tells them to be respectful to their Espanol maestra. They listen (they rock).

10:45 - Kids have PE. I walk them to PE and give them a reward for walking through the hall without talking, which is a tally. Tallies are good. Tallies earn the kids classroom parties.

11:15 - Kids come back from PE and work on more math until lunch time at 11:40.

11:40 - We leave for lunch. I get them through the lunch line.

11:45 - I have lunch (school lunch because I forgot the lunch I packed in the refrigerator at home. Luckily school lunch was chicken patty on a bun. It wasn't bad). I eat in the teacher's lounge to make a short appearance.

12pm - Head back to my room. Freshen up. Brush teeth. Head to the special ed room to coordinate a meeting with the two special ed teachers.


12:20 - kids come back from recess. We spend a few minutes reading and chilling out from recess. I take attendance.

12:30 - Usually we have writing at this time, but this week we have Iowa Assessments (formerly ITBS for all you locals) so we are doing test prep. We do two practice tests.

1-3pm - Usually this is my literacy block, but due to Iowa Assessments, we are testing. I get my kids started on their first of three tests today. Today they are tested on Vocabulary, Computation and Reading. While they are testing, I am recording what time they finish and also grading math journals. Every few minutes I get up to walk around and make sure that everyone is bubbling their answers in the correct space (they are).

3pm - Finally. We have our Mystery Powders lab. I put the fear of God in them and remind all kids that if they taste or snort the powders up their nose (one of the questions asks them to smell the powders) they will not participate in any more labs and will instead watch all labs. Luckily, this class is so good, they look at me in horror at the thought of something going up their nose.

3:30 - We clean up our lab materials, set aside all substances to use tomorrow for a similar lab experiment. We fill out our planners and work on our homework. Most students get their homework done (math homework, measuring to the nearest 1/2 centimeter and converting it to meters).

3:55 - Dismissal.

4:00 - I get a few things ready for my 4:30 conference, tidy up the classroom. Wash my hands (I always feel grimy at this time of day). Check the office for anything in my mailbox. Get my take home bag ready because I have to jet out of school right after my conference for a grad class.

4:30 - Parent conference.

4:45- Leave school and head to my school's district offices to a professional development class that earns me graduate credit (which moves me up on the pay scale. Woo hoo!)

5pm-7pm - Sit through a class about Microsoft Office 2013. It was actually pretty interesting! If I wasn't so tired, I think I would have paid more attention.

7:30pm - get home and Bill has cooked dinner (isn't he the best?).

8:00pm - begin typing this post (after reading Kelly's and therefore getting inspired!)

9:00pm - predicting I will be in bed reading.

That's it for me! Besides the standardized tests this week, that is pretty much my day. Go, go, go. All day. No time to really breathe because kids are always in front of you and you always have to be on. Between Iowa Assessments and Parent/Teacher conferences, November is insane and I am definitely not a fan. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving break. It has definitely been earned.

What is the busiest time of year for you at your job?

November goals

Wow, November. Already? Time is flying, which, every time I say those three words I just feel old! Before I know it, I know Christmas is going to be here and gone.

I have some pretty big goals for the rest of the year, so I thought it might be a good idea to set some goals for myself. Here goes.

1. Finish writing all of my thank yous for the wedding. I ended up having to order over 160 thank yous (wowza) and I have been slowly writing thank you notes every night. Breaking a project like this into chunks not only works for me, but also results in more personable thank you notes. I ordered photos that have a message from both of us on them, and I know technically I could get away with just sending that without personalization on it. However, I just don't want to do that. I am actually enjoying hand writing notes to everyone. 
2. Participate in MOVEmber and move every day in November. Even if it is just a walk. The past two weeks have been very hit or miss for me in the working out department and I would like to get a solid routine going again. 
3. Get at least half of my professional portfolio done. In Iowa, you have to complete a professional portfolio that proves you have met all the teaching standards. There are several standards, with many sub-standards below that. Each one requires artifacts, which amount to over 40 artifacts. Luckily, I am the first to create an electronic portfolio (I get to be a guinea pig!) and I think that will make the process much smoother. It is not due until spring, but I want it DONE. 
4. Plan a party. Bill and I have been wanting to have a party all year now to show friends and family our new home. We would like to have a couple more home projects done though. Right now we're tossing around different ideas for when ... this time of year is always so HARD to plan stuff. 
5. Spending FREEZE. NO shopping for unnecessary items. Especially clothes. I would say books too, but I bought two books yesterday, so I would have already failed that goal. I am going to limit myself to 5 books this month and they must be used books. Anything else I buy must be gifts for others. No gifts for myself.
6. Going along with my spending freeze, I am making a goal for myself to repurpose some items in my closet. Example: yesterday I paired a floral summer dress with black leggings, cardigan and scarf with boots and it was adorable (IMO). It also felt very "new" to me. I am hoping to do that several times this month and then show off all my "new" outfits in a blog post. Hopefully this doesn't turn into too much of a train wreck. 
7. Finish 4 books. Right now I am reading Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult and am only half interested. I don't think it's the book. I think it's me. My attention span is ridiculous these days and my head is just too full of mumbo jumbo to focus. 
8. Blog 8 times. That is twice per week. I. Can. Do. This. 
9. Put myself on a Facebook diet. Well, all social media diet, to be honest. Facebook is the biggest robber of my time though. My new phone tells me the amount of time I spend on all my apps and it is SICK how much time is spent staring at my FB feed. Sick, I tell you. It's time for an intervention. I am not taking a full break though, because that is just not realistic. To start off, I am allowed to check Facebook 3 times per day. Just three. No more. Once I hit three, I am thinking I might delete the app from my phone. I cannot be trusted.

Well, that's a lot ... but, I think it's all totally do-able What are your November goals? 

Workout Wednesday

Happy hump day! This week is flying for me and I feel like I am on roller skates, so that means what better of a time to sit down and take some me time?!

I have twenty minutes until I have to pick my kids up from music and of course I have a million things I could be doing (none are obviously TOO urgent). Teaching is the type of job where the work is never really done. Which, has been hard for me to handle because I love completing everything on a to do list. Now, to remedy that, I just don't put EVERYTHING I would like to get done on my lists...

Anyway, moving on, before I get too off topic.

Workout Wednesday. I am totally ripping off Lisa's idea for a post today (sorry, Lisa!) and blogging my workouts from the previous week. When I blogged my workouts before the wedding I definitely felt like I had more accountability since others are going to read about it. So, here I go again!

Monday - Zumba
Tuesday - Zumba
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - Zumba
Friday - Zumba happy hour
Saturday - Zumba
Sunday - Zumba

Our group that was at the Friday night happy hour class. Such a fun mix of people!

Umm.. ya think I have a Zumba problem?! I have also been twice so far this week. This morning I made it to a Body Pump class, so I am trying to mix it up. However, why not keep doing what I love? I burn between 550-700 calories in a 60-75 minute class and the time flies for me.

 My burn from the Friday night happy hour class. These special events are my favorite!

Also, I should mention, I have never been a dancer. Ever.

There is definitely no need to have dance skills in your past to enjoy Zumba. Of course you need some coordination, but it really is not that difficult! I urge anyone that is even remotely interested in Zumba to check it out for a few classes. I say a few classes, because the first class is of course going to be the most frustrating. Nobody can come in and immediately know an instructor's choreography. It takes a little time.

If you could only choose one exercise activity for the rest of your life (not including day to day activities) what would you choose? I think my answer is obvious ... ;) 

Note: I started this post at 10:55 and it is now 11:10. I spent 15 minutes on this and I refuse to feel guilty. Teachers do so much work on their own time. Also, I miss blogging. I need to figure out a way to squeeze it back into my daily routine. Also! I have not proofed my writing. Do not judge my typos ...

The *final* Sunday Social :(

Good morning! How has your weekend been? Mine has been great! I am currently sitting on Lisa's couch, we are both blogging, the patio door is open and the sun is shining! 

Today I'm participating in the last ever Sunday Social. I am curious to find out what it will be replaced with, but am sad to see it go. 

I am also blogging from the iPad for the first time. I am not enjoying it much so if you are a avid iPad user and blogger - please send me your tips!!!

How did you come up with your blog name? My blog name is a throw back to my hometown - Des Moines (pronounced duh-moyn), the capital of Iowa. Dsm is actually a decent sized city with about 600,000 calling it home when you combine all the suburbs but I think it's hilarious (however sometimes annoying) when others think it is all cornfields and overalls. Although, my blog name does not help that misconception!! :)

What is your favorite thing about blogging? For sure the people! I am so thankful that I have met so many wonderful people via blogging. I miss the way blogging used to be though. Kerri did a great job writing about the other day here. 

What is one thing you have discovered because of blogging and now cant live without? I am pretty sure I discovered Goodreads from blogging and I adore that site! Oh, and Erin Condren planners!

Facebook or Twitter? and why? Lately, Facebook. However, it is disgusting how much time I spend on the FB and I think I need it cut back. 

If one celeb read your blog who would you want it to be? Definitely an author... Maybe Jodi Picoult or JK Rowling. 

What is something you want people to know about your blog? I don't really live on a farm. You must like books because I talk about them a lot. I blog sporadically. My blog is in a mid life crisis and isn't sure what it wants to be. But, that's okay. :)

What do you blog on? Desktop, laptop or iPad? What have you discovered because I'd blogging?