Five for Friday

1.  I've got another headache.  It's come and gone since yesterday.

2.  My BFF came in yesterday to cheer me up.  I was so glad to see her!

3.  We ate Mexican food twice in one day.  I gained 2 pounds.  lol

4.  Jay and I are going on a date.

5.  It's Friday!

Getting Caught Up

It's amazing what being behind does to my brain.

With my Book Fair the week before Spring Break and STAAR (Texas' standardize test) testing this week I haven't been able to get much office work done in my library.  I have stacks of boxes on my office floor and stacks of books on my desk.

I'm in charge of typing up the questions for our Battle of the Bluebonnets.  Which is fine... not a problem.  Except.  Except that I saved all the questions the other librarians emailed me in folders in my email... and the school district changed email servers over Spring Break.  I do not have access to those folders.  A mild heart attack later I had to have all the librarian and paraprofessionals resend me their questions.  Luckily everyone had them saved!

I have two wonderful 3rd grade helpers but this mess is getting the best of all 3 of us.

Until today!  Today we are doing make up testing.  There are only 3 students/teachers involved so they put them in various places in the library and have me as monitor.  So in between monitoring I have been able to finish typing up the Battle questions.  I filled out my paperwork for 2 boxes of books I'm purchasing from MidAmerica Books.  And I'm about to tackle the stacks of books on my desk.

My brain feels like it has decompressed!  I hate being behind. I'm not a procrastinator.  It makes my brain crazy.  I'm not fully caught up yet and won't be for awhile but I at least feel like my head is above water now!

 

Wordless Wednesday-Notes

I love that my two 3rd grade helpers leave me "to do" notes!

Testing

We STAAR Tested all day today (Texas' standardized test). 

It's mind numbing. 

It's boring. 

It's long. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I finished Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  It's the second book in the Lux series.  This is a fun urban fantasy about aliens.  Daemon the alien is out to prove what he feels for Katy is real.  It's not just the connection they now share after he healed her.  And here enters the new kid.  Who Daemon hates and Katy kind of likes.  But he seems to have some secrets that might cause some big problems for Daemon and Katy who are trying to hid the fact that they are now connected after being healed.

I started Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly.  Reagan and I saw the movie when it was out.  I put a hold on the eBook back then and I just got it this weekend.  I'm still reading the prologue.

What are you reading that I should add to my to read list?

Fan

I'm hot. All. The. Time.  It started when I was 38. It's gotten better over the last year but I still run hotter than normal people. 

So to help keep me cool during worship I bought this little fan at Target. It's been a life saver!

It's not necessarily loud but with worship being a super quiet setting it does seem kind of loud. You know, white noise. 

Our 5th grade friend who sits in front of us asked our friend he sits with if I was "using one of those massagers." Ha! No sweet boy, I'm just hot! That's my fan. 

Five For Friday-Random

1.  This completes the first week back at school after Spring Break.  It was a long week.  .

2.  Jay's MaMa (pronouced maw maw) turns 90 this week.  90 years old.  That's a lot of years.  The family is having a birthday party for her... that she doesn't want.  Ha!

3.  I signed up to host one week of a blog challenge for #FutureReadyLibrarians.  It's the first time I've done something like this and I'm exciting to do it.  I'm burning my box and putting myself out there.  I also signed up for the #ShelfChallenge to help me weed my fiction section.

4.  I bought an iPhone from... well, I don't know what to call her.  Ha!  When this teacher left the middle school to become a professor at the college I took her job as the Deaf Ed teacher.  I mentored her interns and student teachers.  She's not a colleague but that might be the best word for her.  I also worked with her husband.  Anyway!  I bought her husband's "old" iPhone.  I dropped mine in the toilet New Years Eve.  It works... but looses service and the GPS doesn't always work.  So this is a fun upgrade with out the expensive price tag.

5.  My feet hurt when I stand.  My hip hurts when I sit.  The struggle is real y'all.

Back to School

I found this!  I must of never posted it.  I thought it was funny.  And even though it's old I thought I'd post it now anyway.

*********************************************************************************

By the time Thanksgiving break got here I was about ready to loose my mind.  The week long break from school was much needed to say the least!

So on Monday as I drove to school feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the 3 weeks before Christmas break I gave myself a pep talk.

"Stay calm!"

"Don't let the students actions dictate my actions!"

"I AM the adult!"

"I love children!"

7 minutes into letting students in the school building... I gave a student lunch detention.

Sigh

5 seconds after a kindergarten teacher walked up to her breakfast table she had to give out consequences to a 5 year old for calling another 5 year old a very ugly name.

#Done

But I recovered!  I thought "I cannot be #Done with this day at 7:37 in the morning.  I still have to make it to 3:45."  So I adjusted my attitude.  And planned to make the rest of the day a good day.

And it was.

It turned out to be a pretty good day.

I'm still counting down to Christmas break though (not in front of the students, just in my head)! Ha!

Wordless Wednesday-Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday was my dad's birthday.
Happy Birthday Dad!

Revisiting my OLW

My One Little Word this year is 'choose'.  There are so many things in life that you have to choose. This year I wanted to consciously choose.  I wanted think about my options before picking or reacting.

This has probably been the best word I've chosen so far.  It works in so many aspects of life.

As I have made choices it's helped me to write down them down.  So I created a page in my bullet journal to help me keep track of all the choices I've made.  I don't typically write down the little things.  I try to focus on the ones that make me stop and think.

 

Thank You Notes

Thank you notes are quickly becoming a lost art.  I wish they weren't.  There's something special about receiving a thank you note.  Seeing the words in writing seems to make it more special than just hearing the words.

The Friday before Spring Break the professor who brought her two classes of future teachers to my library to learn about Hour of Code (read about it here) stopped by with some exciting news (read about it here) and some thank you notes.

Like a busy full time working mom and teacher-librarian trying to get out of dodge and start Spring Break... I left the thank you notes at school over the break.  Which annoyed me at first.

But yesterday when I read them I was kind of happy I forgot them. They were a nice way to start the week back at school after a week off.  I'm not an overly emotional person but some of them made me tear up.  I took a picture of a few of my favorites.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading

I had more time to read over Spring Break and it was wonderful!

I started a new young adult series called Lux by Jennifer L. Armentrout.  I finished the first book in the series Obsidian.  It's an urban fantasy about an aliening falling for a human.  The only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable were the make out scenes.  They were a bit too hot and heavy for me being that their teenagers. Yes, yes... I understand that's what teenagers do.  Ha!  I still don't want to read about it.

Daemon the hot alien (who looks human except for his beautiful green eyes) does NOT like his new neighbor, Katy.  She's become friends with his twin sister, Dee.  And brings possible danger to his family.  But love sparks and he can't resister Katy though he tries hard too.

I started the second book Onyx.  I'm about 1/2 through it too.  Besides the steamy make out scenes I'm really liking this book too.  Just some fun things for me, Katy is a book blogger, so I bonded with her over that!  And she wants to go to the ALA conference.  The American Library Association conference!  As a librarian it was pretty cool to read about those things in the books.

Right now I'm at the part that Katy thinks she's seen someone who is thought to be dead.

What are you reading that I need to add to my to read list?

Wordless Wednesday-Melvin

We went to my BFF's house.  

Reagan hadn't been there since they moved.  

She also wanted to visit their zoo (I'm joking!... kind of).  

Here's Reagan with Melvin the hamster.

Spring Break

1.  Spring Break was MUCH needed this year.  I needed time away from my school.  I needed time to get my soul right with the Lord and get back to work with a better attitude.

2.  We got to see my parents and Granny.  We always have fun together!

3.  We got to see my in-laws and nephew.  We even got to baby-sit my nephew.  We ate custard at Andy's, my favorite!

4.  We shopped till we dropped.

5.  We rested for a couple of days too.  I needed those days.

6. We went bowling with another couple. 

7. I meal planned, set all my school alarms, and set out my clothes for the week. 

8. I think I'm ready to finish out the year. I think.... 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I use to make fun of people who vacation multiple times at Disney World.  I mean, I like Disney World but I've been there done that.  Once as a tween and once with my own family.  And I had a blast!  But that was enough for me.  Now if someone paid for my trip I'd totally go back!

But now... I feel bad for making fun of these people.

Cuz...

We are going to Universal Orlando for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter for the third time!

Go ahead... make fun of me, I deserve it! Ha!  No, seriously I do!

We went the first week it opened in July 2010.  It was all kinds of PACKED.  We went for half a day and we really only went for me.  Reagan was 5 years old and wasn't into Harry Potter yet.  Jay likes HP but doesn't love it the way I do.

Then Reagan fell in love with HP later that year.  And we HAD to go back for her.  I promised her we'd go back when Diagon Alley was complete.

So in November 2015 we drove back.  This time Diagon Alley was open.  Oh the fun we had!

My dad more than likes HP but less than loves HP.  He's mentioned to my mom multiple times that he'd like to visit The Wizarding World.  So she started saving money, talked to me about it to see if we wanted to go (Ummm, duh!  Yes!) and then surprised my dad with the vacation.  He owns his own business so she let him pick the best time for him to leave his business.  Luckily the dates worked for us and we are going too!  This will be our first family vacation together.

It's offical!  I called in January and paid the deposit and we are all set for our third trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

I'm planning to have these shirts made for us to wear.  We've all picked which one we want to wear. And a teacher I work with is going to make them for us.

So... did you make fun of me?  It's ok if you did! Ha!

Reading Life

I read the Nerdy Book Club blog A Reading Life... Interrupted by Dr. Teri Lesesne (one of my Library Science professors... just FYI).

Take a minute to read it.

This post struck a cord with me.  1. Cancer.  Ugh.  Just ugh.  My grandma and aunt fought and won the battle with breast cancer.  I recently lost a friend and co-worker to cancer.  Dr. Lesesne describes how cancer changed her life.  It changed it in ways I, not ever having had cancer, "understood", like loosing your hair.

But she also talked about how cancer interrupted her reading life.  This was not something I would of put with to cancer.  She writes about how it changed her opinions on what reading is.  Now "ANY reading is good reading."

All this made me think about a couple of things in my life.

During the school year my daughter doesn't read much for pleasure.  And I hate that.  But I also get it. Her brain is tired.  She's read for school all day long.  Whether a textbook or a novel study that they're doing in class or 1 of the 4 summary books she has to read and write about.  Knowing that... I still hate that school, the place that should be encouraging reading is what keeps her from reading for pleasure.  Luckily she does LOVE audiobooks and listens to one every night as she's drifting off to sleep. (That makes it sound like I don't think audiobooks are reading. I do believe 100% that audiobooks are reading!)

I had to convince her that that still counted as reading though.  I finally had to pull the "I'm a librarian with a master's degree telling you that audiobooks count as reading!" card.  I might of thrown my hands in the air... and had an attitude about it... it was not my finest moment.  But really?  Why do people (adults especially) think audiobooks aren't reading?

But when summer approaches she's asking to go to the public library where we check out books and audiobooks and she reads like like the book dragon I know she is.

For me, when I was in college for both my bachelor's and masters degree I didn't read for pleasure. My brain hurt.  And I was tired of looking at books, textbooks mostly but still, I was tired of looking at them.  So I didn't read much of those 6 1/2 years.

Last school year something happened.  Every book I picked up I hated.  I can't tell you how many books I started but put down.  Or how many I forced myself to read to remind myself that I could finish a book.  Or how many of those books I forced myself to finish, listened to other people rave about and wonder why I had to force myself to read it and still didn't like it.

It made me question myself.  Question my reading life.  Even question my profession.  Was I even fit to be a librarian?

I came out of my reading funk and felt so much more like myself again.

This also makes me wonder about my students.  Part of my job as a librarian is to help foster a love of reading.  I do fun reading programs, I do Book Fairs, I do book award challenges to get students interested in books.  But how many are like my daughter and don't read much during the school year because of... school?  How many of them are struggling readers but will end up being book worms?  How many of them have other things happening in their live that prevent them from reading?

After reading Dr. Lesesne's post I hope I can remember her words.  Our reading lives do get interrupted through out our lives.  Any reading is good reading!  And as Dr. Lesesne quoted Donalyn Miller "We need to hold on knowing that we have a firm foundation, and that the reading life will, ultimately, resume."

Laughter Truly Is The Best Medicine

The week and a half before Spring Break at school was rough.  Really, really rough.  The faculty and staff found out our principal is going to another school in the district.  I'm not going to air my school district's dirty laundry out here on the world wide web but let's just say some of us are NOT HAPPY about this AT ALL and others are happy.

Spring Break could not have come a minute too soon.  A break was desperately needed!

I needed to get away from work.  Away from the faculty and staff that I love and away from even the students.  I'm mad.  So mad.  

And I needed a break from it all.

My BFF and I got together Friday night after I drove to Houston after work.  We went to dinner and vented about life, laughed about life, and caught up on life.  Then walked around Target with our Starbucks coffee.

I laughed at her because she complained her hot coffee was too hot... I mean, it's suppose to be hot!   We tried on clothes and laughed at the absurdity of how some of them fit.  

Then I found a shirt on a mannequin that I wanted.  We looked EVERYWHERE for that shirt and could find it no where.  I mentioned in passing that we should just take the shirt off the mannequin.  Next thing I know I'm holding her coffee and she's undressing the mannequin.  I could not stop laughing.  I pulled out my phone and recorded the craziness on Snapchat.  She struggled getting the shirt off.  It really is kind of hard when the arms don't bend.  Since we were knee deep in this I suggest taking the arms off.  Did you know that mannequin arms are magnetic?  I didn't... but I do now.  She popped the arms off, pulled the shirt off, handed it to me and popped the arms back on.

All the stress I arrived with, all the angry I had leaving school Friday vanished in the moment she started undressing mannequin for me.

Every time I wear the shirt I will think of her, our laughter and fun we had then!  

How Do You Know That You Have a Good Idea?

I do eventually get to my question "How do you know that you have a good idea?"  Bear with me though!

A couple of weeks back I hosted two classes of future teachers from our local college in my library to demo my (Half) Hour of Code. You can read the details here if you're interested.

Since this demo the professor came back to my library to talk with me about some exciting things.

Very.
Exciting.
Things!

She told me that she used to do a 45 minute lesson on code with her college students.  At the end of class she gave them a survey.  She got responses like "This was fun but I don't think I'll use it in my classroom." or "I don't see how this applies to the classroom."  After our demo the surveys were so much more positive!  It's one thing to learn about a subject and learn the theory but it's a whole other ball game to see it in action.

She goes on to tell me that normally colleges go out to the community and teach what they've researched and learned.  But this time it was the community teaching the college.  And not only was it the community it was my students doing the teaching.  She tells me she's going to do a write up about our time together.  She's going to use my personal blog post about it and also the article I wrote for my school's website to write her paper.  She said this way I didn't have to do any of the writing, she'd do it all and include my name as a coauthor.  I assured her I did not mind doing my part of the writing but I was also happy for her to take what she needed from my blog post and my article.

How cool is that?!?  My name will be in a professional journal!

But y'all!

This is NOT the best part.

It gets better!

She goes on to explain that there is an international conference in Ireland in September.  She's putting together a proposal to submit to present at the conference.  And she WANTS ME TO GO WITH HER!  She's knows of grants that she'll help me write to get my trip there paid for.  PAID FOR! Honestly this is the only way I'll be able to go.  If this falls through she'll Skype me in during the session.  Which is still pretty cool!  She'll find out in April if the the proposal is accepted or not.  If it is then the grant writing begins!

So I said all that to say this:  I had NO IDEA that pulling my students in to help me teach code to the college students was innovative.  I had no idea that the professor would want to write about it for a professional journal or do a proposal to present at a conference much less an international conference.

Which leads me to my question:  How do you know you have a good idea?  How do you know you are being innovative?  How do you know that you are burning boxes, as my former principal use to tell me to do?

I asked my husband this question.  He's a preacher and comes up with sermons, Bible class topic for church, VBS and studies in people's homes and writes articles for the bulletin.  He has to be creative and come up with ideas to present Bible material.  How does he know he has a good idea?  He said he'd have to think about my question. Haha!

Can you answer that question??? How do you know you have a good idea?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I stepped back into a little sleepy, cloudy town I love and reread Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  Are you judging me?  lol  On the reading challenge I'm doing for 2017 it said to reread a book you love. This is a book I love.  It's nice to visit the people and vampires of Forks, WA again.  It feels a bit like home.

Yeap, that's me in Forks 5ish years ago.  I drug my family there for 2 days/1 night.  I had blast.  Jay and Reagan tolerated it.  Ha!

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. The only reason I didn't finish this book last night is because my iPad died. I totally could of plugged it in and kept reading but it was late and I knew I had to drive Reagan and I back to Nac the next day so I really needed to sleep. #adulting

This won best romance on Goodreads for 2016. When I started it I thought it was going to be another cheesy romance. But it wasn't. I mean there was a little cheese but you weren't dippin' a chip in it or anything.

We are taken between Lily at 15 and Lily at 24. She's nothing like her mom yet she ends up in a relationship just like her mom and dad's. There's a bit of a love triangle (I love a good triangle!). I'm not finished yet. I know how I want the book to end but I'm not sure how it will end. 

Day 2 of Spring Break-Granny

Few weeks back my Granny fell and broke a bone in her neck. There's nothing to do but let it heal. She's doing much better now but I haven't seen her since it happened and since Reagan and I are in Houston I thought we'd go to church with her this morning. 

She looked great and was moving around like nothing ever happened! She was happy and feisty just like she always is. Ha!

On a side note I had my iPad at church (using my Bible app). After worship the man sitting behind me asked if I was from Nacogdoches. I explained that I'm from Houston but living in Nacogdoches right now. He told me that he saw my iPad with the Nacogdoches sticker on it and asked it I knew Jason an IT guy in my district. I do! It's such a small world!

Anyway, we ate Mexican food and noticed that Granny was looking tired. She said with the time change and having to get up earlier than normal because of worship she had only gotten 4 hours of sleep. 

We did go back to her house for dessert for a little bit but didn't stay long since she was fading fast. It was good to lay my eyes on her. Of course my parents keep me informed and I had been emailing her but it's always nice to see for yourself. 

Picking Their Own Books For Book Club

My Book Fair is winding down this week.  I LOVE to see the Book Fair come but boy do I LOVE to see it go!  It's a long busy week but I love seeing the students excited about buying books.

I have one book club in each grade 2nd-5th.  Normally I use my Scholastic Dollars to purchase sets of 6 books to read with each book club and I pick the books.

This year I thought I'd let the students suggest the books I should purchase.  I've read blogs about other librarians getting the students involved in what books are purchased for circulation and thought I'd apply the same principal with my book clubs.

It did not go well.

And it was my fault.

I didn't explain well enough.  I didn't give examples.  My only instruction was "find something that you'd like to read for book club."

That was too broad.

Way too broad.

I got all kinds of suggestions like books about rocks.  Rocks people.  Or The Star Wars Handbook Guide.  Ha! Bless their little hearts.

So I've learned my lesson.  I will give better instructions next time.  We'll discuss what kinds of books are better for book club.  There's nothing wrong with a book about rocks!  Just a little hard to have a group discussion on... rocks. The Star Wars Handbook Guide is super fun... but again not a book that's easily discussed.

Next time I'll show them examples.  In my defense though, we have been doing book club since October.  I thought they had a good idea of the kinds of books we had been reading.  But I guess not.  Or maybe they just got excited and started writing down everything that looked fun to them.  Who knows?

Now I did have some good suggestions.  I've pulled a couple of books to buy with my Scholastic Dollars based on their lists.

Lesson learned!

Wordless Wednesday-Forks, WA

Since I'm rereading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I thought I'd post a 

throw back picture of our trip to Forks, WA.

First Saturday of Spring Break

It's the first Saturday of Spring Break and in true fashion I've hit the road.  Reagan and I are in Houston having fun.  Jay stayed back so he can preach Sunday.

We are getting our hair done and shopping for Easter dresses.  We're staying with my parents.  Getting spoiled.

I'm seeing my BFF.  Getting in some girl time.

Let's the fun begin!

Spring Break

We have early release today for Spring Break.

1.  IT'S SPRING BREAK PEOPLE!

2.  I'm sooooooo ready for Spring Break.

3.  Noon cannot get here soon enought.

4.  I'm not saying any of this to my students because for some students a week at home without the safety of school is a very long week.

5.  I need this week to rejuvenate my soul!

Were You Jealous?

I am not a jealous person.  From time to time I might think "I wish I had ________ too."  But I don't dwell on it or fixate on it or struggle with jealousy.  I never really have.  I'm happy with what I have.

Which leads me to this Slice...

My husband was the best man in a wedding a few months back.  The matron of honor was the bride's sister.  At the reception one of our college students from church asks me:

College Student:  Were you jealous when Jay walked down the aisle with that other girl?

Me (without thinking who I was talking too... I do that a lot.  I run my hand down my side): No!  I know what I got going on here.

College Student (turns 50 shares of red... then I remember who I'm talking too): Oh... that's, um, that's good.

Another college student sitting at the table knows me better and handles me better dies laughing.

College student's girlfriends: Well, that's a good attitude to have!

Me (thinking "oh you stupid 20 year old.  Cute!  But so dumb.):  Life is to short for jealousy and insecurities.

And this is also when I remember I'm 40 years old.  I also remember the promise I made to myself to not make 20 year olds feel dumb because I hated when people older than me made me feel dumb at 20. I mean I was an adult at 20 for crying out loud!  But now, at 40, I realize I was so dumb at 20.  So very cute!  But so dumb.

I'm sure at 60 I'll think "I was so dumb at 40!"  Ha!  Such is life I guess.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

For Pleasure:

I branched out this time with Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.  My husband read it and told me about it. Then I was listening to "The Librarian Is In" podcast and one of the casters, Frank, talked about it too. Since two people had mentioned this book I thought I had to read it.

It's not my normal read.  I don't normally read memoirs but what attracted me to this book was that some one poor came out of poverty.  Over 90% of my students are on free and reduced lunch.  Many of them come from a line of poverty.  I was interested to read about poverty from some one who grew up in poverty.

This book did not disappoint.  Though my students are definitely not hillbillies their culture and/or class makes them very similar.  Their codes "never insult family", "hit them before they hit you", etc are similar.  Vance had a revolving door of male figures in his life, so do a lot of my students.

This book touched close to home for me and I'm thankful I read it!

For School:

My Junior Library Guild subscription came in this week and I'm reading my way through the box.

Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus is a peppy rhyming book.  It does have counting in it but counting isn't the focus.  I think anyone would like this book but I think boys would be drawn to it for it's focus on construction.

Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez is a creepy graphic novel.  Sandy goes to Catholic school where the nuns are mean.  They don't appreciate her drawings and think they're a waste of time.  A new girl appears and becomes fast friends with Sandy, except that the new girl is a little... weird.

Look Up! by Jung Jin-Ho Y'all!  I love this book!  The drawings are drawn from the perspective of someone looking down at people.  At first I though a person was a spaceship until my eye adjusted and I realized I was looking a hair, a roundish body and two feet.  In the end the people on the ground lay down and look up at the person looking down at them.  So cute!

One Proud Penny by Randy Siegel is a nonfiction book about the life of a penny.  It starts in Philadelphia and goes everywhere including a washing machine and under a stamp machine.

Trudy's Big Swim: How Gertrude Ederle Swam the English Channel and Took the World by Storm by Sue Macy is a biography about how Trudy swam the English channel and broke the world record. It's major girl power!

Every Light in the House Is On

I grew up in a house where, when you left a room you turned the lights off. There was no sense in using electricity and paying for it if you weren't in the room to use it.

My husband grew up in a house with LOTS of lamps.  Lamps everywhere. Even today my in-laws has18 lamps... my mother-in-law and I counted. Ha!

When my younger cousin and I stayed at my in-laws house 20 years ago the weekend of my bridal shower my cousin came to bed later than I did.  She woke me up and said "I started turning off all the lamps but there are just so many of them that I stopped."  I groggily told her the lamps all stayed on. This was mind boggling even for my extended family!

So when Jay and I first married it drove me crazy that he left lights on all over the house.  This is really not something to get mad about but I didn't like it.  So to be cute I would start singing that country song "Every light in the House" by Trace Adkins.  I'd turn a lamp off or flip a light switch off and belt out "Every light in the house is on...."

Today I'm happy to say I've retrained Jay and there are no lights left on if he's not in the room.

Now my mother-in-law on the other hand... every lamp in her house is on!  She'll probably comment here about how pretty her lamps are... and she's right they are beautiful!

I love you, Mrs. Taylor!

Helpers

I have two students who have been wanting to help me in the library instead of going to recess.  So boy! I have put them to work!

I've gotten a lot a new books recently.  They all seemed to come at once.  So I showed them how to process them and put them to work.

One day this past week one of them said "I understand why she be so mad when we break her books. This is a lot of work!"  Bless her heart!  It IS a lot of work.

#truth #LibraryLife

PS My office NEVER looks like this.  It's driving me nuts!  But with so many books to process I'm just having to deal with it.

#NeatFreak

Choose

Every year I pick a One Little Word to focus on for the year.  Each word "speaks" to me at the moment.  This year I picked "choose."

1.  I'm having to make some hard choices right now.

2.  I've asked for advice from people I trust and have gotten 3 different answers.

3.  I still have time before I have to choose.

4.  Having so much time is almost worst.  Cuz I just keep thinking about it.

5.  I hate making big choices.  It's such a headache.

Bullet Journal-Quotes

I have a board on Pinterest for quotes and saying.  I love this board!  I love finding funny memes that make me laugh and pinning them.  Or finding quotes that "speak" to me.  But I hardly ever go back and look at the board.

So when I found a page for quotes in a bullet journal I HAD to make myself one.  Although I don't read it as much as I'd like I do pause while I'm flipping though my bullet journal and read a quote or two.

I have everything from fictional character quotes (Dumbledore has some serious wisdom!) to quotes I have heard from Ladies' Bible Class.  Each quote reminds me of something I feel I need to remember/focus on.

What's your favorite quote?

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday-Medieval Times

This is from Reagan's Medieval Times celebration at school.  

She search Pinterest for ideas on costumes because we aren't costume people.  

She found this example and used clothes from her closet and mine to put this outfit together.

I think she nailed it!