yet another reason to love my journals endlessly

There was this book I read long ago. A book called Lost. And I had written the title down on a list of books I'd read at one point, but no author. And as I became obssessed with Goodreads and keeping track and tracking down all the books I've read and loved, I kept trying to find this particular book. But with no author and a simple common word as a title, I could not find it anywhere. It was sort of driving me crazy (as any unresolved question or quest usually does).

Until today. I was flipping through an old high school journal and glimpsing pieces of "oh how glad I was that this boy called" and "I can't wait to go to this dance" and so on and so on and then . . . I just happened to mention this book I was reading. Lost, by Gary Devon. Hallelujah to my teenage self for writing that down!! YIPPEE!!

So now I can buy it with my swagbucks giftcards and read it again! I can't wait to see if it's worth all the wondering I've done about it. Just. Can't. Wait.

:)

Book Addict: Final Total for 2009 and some favorites

Well, the final total number of books I read in 2009 is (drumroll, please) . . . .

93!

That's a lot of books, if I do say so myself.

Here are some of the useless statistics:

The month I read the most: June (with 13!)

The month I read the least: March (only 4)

For 7 months out of the year, I read between 4-7 books, and the other 5 I read between 9-13 books.

# of non-fiction books: 21

# books dealing with special needs issues: 6

# of "classics": 8

# of children and/or YA fiction: 33

YA fantasy series I read: Harry Potter, Fablehaven, Inkheart, The Anybodies, and Into the Wild. I think I'm doing pretty well in keeping up with the books my kids want to read. :) This year it looks like we'll all be moving through The Lightning Thief books.

Here are some of my overall favorites from last year:

1. Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

3. Healing ADD - Daniel Amen

4. The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life - Steve Leveen

5. Camilla - Madeleine L'Engle

6. all the Harry Potter books lumped together - JK Rowling

7. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski

8. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Emmuska Orczy

9. The Year My Son and I Were Born - Kathryn Soper

10. Into the Wild and Out of the Wild - Sarah Beth Durst

11. The Disapparation of James - Anne Ursu

12. Speak - Louise Halse Anderson

Obviously, I read more books that I enjoyed than just these, but I have to limit the list somehow, so these are the ones that stood out to me as I looked over the list.

I am hoping to get back into the routine of doing monthly book reviews of the books I've read. It's kind of hard to keep up on it, but it sure is fun. :)

Any thoughts on these books I picked? Any other thoughts on books for today? Any bets on whether or not I'll reach 100 books read this year? (hehehe)

Some of my sorta long term reading goals are to read all of Madeleine L'Engle's books, try to read at least one "classic" (or book from the '1001 books you must read before you die' list) a month, read at least one Shakespeare play a year, keep up on the bookclub books (that's a relatively easy one!), read all of the Jane Austen and Bronte sister books . . . and I think those are the only ones I've actually articulated in my little brain - to work on over my lifetime, you see. I'm in no rush.

Anyway - I've also been working a bit on that personal poetry compilation project of mine I mentioned awhile back here and here (which you will most likely never see - hehe). I've got 165 poems posted so far, and ohhh sooo far to go. It is sort of overwhelming - but still fun. I am sorely tempted to leave some out, but I promised myself I wouldn't - so even though it is almost painful, I am forging ahead completely uncensored. Making slow erratic progress in spurts and stops - but maybe sometime before I die it will be completed. That's my only hope anyway.

And that's my news in the reading/writing realm. :)

Thanks for supporting my addiction and happy reading . . . .

Good Day, Sunshine

The sun came out to play today.
She was a most welcome guest. I had forgotten how much we've missed her.

Made me so happy, I felt inspired to take a self-portrait to share with you.

Sort of.

In other news, here's a conversation I had with Elisabeth this morning after her neighbor-boy-friend left and she was smothering me with hugs and kisses:

me: do you kiss him too? (wanting to nip the playground-chasing-kissing in the bud)

her: no, I only kiss you guys!

me: that's good

her: does he not like kisses?

me: um, I don't know (let's not get into this)

her: maybe he has green spit!!

ummmm . . . . . . . . . .

Well . . . . as long as she doesn't get too curious to find out for sure, I guess we're safe for awhile. :)

(and yes, my only reaction was to laugh hysterically. I mean really, what could I say?!)

here we go again

It seems to be that time of year again.
No, not new year's resolutions.
No, no.
It is the time of year when I start agonizing and worrying and wondering and stressing out over where Samuel will be going to school next year.

For those that may not know, my 2 older kids go to a rather "academically challenging" charter school. Class sizes capped at 25 students. Some advantages in many ways. But no self-contained special needs classes. They can only offer specialized "support."


Samuel is at the public school right now in a small group Special Needs Kindergarten class (about 6 kids) because we felt like he couldn't handle being in a regular classroom yet. He kind of shuts down in larger groups. We tried having him go to the mainstream class for just 15 min. of morning circle time for a month or so, but his teacher recommended that he's not quite ready for it yet and would benefit more from participating in the small group circle time where he is gaining confidence and starting to participate more.

So. We have tossed around the idea of having him redo kindergarten in a regular classroom next year, having another year of maturity and speech therapy under his belt. And that could be either at the charter school or the public school. Or he may (????) be ready for a regular 1st grade class, again either at the charter school or public school. But the charter school does a lottery to fill their available spots for students - and this is in FEBRUARY. Which means we need to know by then whether or not we want him to have a spot. And we need to know which grade.


So I'd like to get Samuel's teacher's opinion of where she thinks he would be best placed for next year. But. They tell me they don't make formal placement decisions until around May. So they can only give an unofficial preliminary opinion, and rather reluctantly at that. So frustrating.

Because if she thinks he should be either in a regular kindergarten or 1st grade class, then I feel like he might as well be at the charter school with his siblings. If for some reason, he is going to be in a self-contained class or getting more involved help at the public school, then that would be the best place. grrrrrr. . . . . decisions, decisions.

I am not even sure what the possible options might be. Hopefully the teacher will at least be able to clarify that for me this week when we meet together.

I think there is:
1. an autism class (where he doesn't fit)
2. a learning disabled class (not exactly fit)
3. emotional/behavior issue class (not exactly fit)

It seems we are caught again in this quagmire of feeling like there isn't anywhere that is "best" - he doesn't really fit in any of the options. So we just have to weigh it out and pick the "least bad." Ugh. And I don't think homeschooling would be the best option either, because he really needs specialized help that I am not qualified to provide for him. And besides, I really need a break from his needs sometimes, honestly. He really needs to learn to be with other kids, too.

So anyway - that's on my mind. I am also still struggling somewhat to get my mind to come back to earth from all that crazy "flashbacking." I know it seems unbelievably silly. But the back of my mind is still spinning back in 1990 somewhere (give or take a few years). I'm feeling very distracted and fluffy-brained. So if any of you should feel like slapping my face and telling me "snap out of it," I just might appreciate it. I could really use my brain again, should anyone happen to find it hiding from me somewhere. Thanks a bunch . . .

Good Post of the Day

Love this post I read this morning (click on it)

Perhaps my New Year's Resolution should be to remember that there is no race.

There is no race.

And I can skip instead of run.

:)

(and perhaps even dance to some 80's tunes)

Flashback Party!!

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Pictures of the 1990's party!

Some of the more ambitious folks came dressed up, which was awesome. I think we may have spanned the 80's and 90's (and beyond) in our dress choices - but it was all terrific. And actually the party theme was more of a "Kristen's Teenage Years" flashback - so late 80's into early 90's was perfect.

(And, I suppose I should also clarify, just in case anyone was wondering: We are a 100% stone-cold sober group of fairly conservative mostly stay-at-home moms. So although we may think things got a little wild and crazy, they weren't really that crazy. Whether that clarification is a relief or a disappointment to you depends, I guess, on your own perspective. At any rate, there it is.) :)

(a couple people came later and missed this group shot, unfortunately)

We started off with a "Name that Tune" game, taken off my 80's and 90's ipod playlist. And my friend Julie M. won that hands down! She may have been the only person there that even halfway recognized some of the tunes that came up in my randomized list of songs. But it only proves that she and I had excellent taste. Of course. :)

We ate lots and lots of yummy food and then . . . the highlight of the evening . . . dancing in the unfinished basement! (I told you I was intent on acting the part of a teenager) Anybody recognize this set of fancy shmancy moves??

Oh yeah - that's the Electric Slide, all right. We didn't actually have that song - but these ladies were quite impressive, nonetheless. I can't disclose all the various dance moves that came out through the course of the night (circle of trust!) but we did see some sides of some of our neighbors that we truly never suspected!!! It was soooo much fun. I honestly haven't had such fun dancing around since I was probably a teenager. And, admittedly, although we were all sober, some of these girls were consuming a bit more caffeine than usual, I think.

And then a few of us stayed up even later and shared silly stories. I laughed so hard I think I probably had spittle drooling out of my mouth, couldn't even breathe.

My only regrets:

1. Why did I wear such a retarded outfit?! I am in desperate need of some new clothes. (see, I'm not that much more mature than a teenager after all) And why do I look like such a retard in all the pictures?!?

and 2. It's just too bad not everyone enjoyed my taste in music as much as I do - and we didn't get through even a fraction of my oh-so-awesome playlist (granted, the playlist was something like 5 hrs long. I got a little carried away. hahaha).

Anyway - for those who might like to take a virtual stroll down musical memory lane, here are some of the fantastic tunes we enjoyed as part of the party, either groups or title names (or were on my list but we didn't get to it):

OMD

New Order

Come On Eileen

Dancing by Myself

The Housemartins

Depeche Mode

I am Superman

Funkytown (!!!)

Erasure

Deee-Lite

One Thing Leads to Another

You Spin me Right Round

and many more

Most of this stuff I haven't really heard for many many years. But it was great fun to listen to it again!! In fact, I've been compiling this playlist over the last few months or so and just loving finding more and more of these musical memories. Zac laughs at me, frequently, over how excited I get over finding old songs I had forgotten about. But it is so fun to me. I had to share.

I also dug out this big box of old journals, trying to gear myself up thoroughly for the flashback experience. I've skimmed through a few of them and found some good times that made me smile, a few traumatic moments I had forgotten about, but mostly just so glad to have this very detailed record of my "formative years." I have a sort of latent goal to someday reread all of it in order. It's sort of masochistic to put myself through all that all over again and relive it through my journals - but in some ways I hope to be able to put it all in perspective at last. Let go of my particular glimpses that have stuck in my memories and be able to see "the bigger picture" in some ways. Anyway - someday I'm going to do that. And I do have some other thoughts about journals that I'll try to make sense of and blog about another time.

Anyway - I think this sums everything up fairly nicely.

Now that I have sufficiently celebrated my "old age" and had a great time living in the past for a bit, now I need to come back to reality and pay attention to my real life again. It was a super fun party. And I'm all caught up.

Moving forward . . . :)

I had a very nice birthday, thanks for asking

So, my actual birthday day was disappointing in that I suppose I haven't quite outgrown the silly expectation that my birthday should be any different from any other day. It isn't. It never is. I should be used to that by now. Elisabeth snitched my cake and ate the top 4th of it before I discovered her (along with a container of salsa and some cream cheese or something from out of the fridge. Do I not feed her? Why does she raid the fridge all day long?!?). There was much fighting and screaming. And messes. And homework. And all of the normal day-to-day-ness of raising kids.

But Zac brought me home flowers and a hazelnut chocolate bar, by my request, and I indulged in a not-so-healthy-but-very-tasty dinner and lemon cake and vanilla ice cream. Yum, yum, yum.

Abigail gave me this picture of a dolphin that she drew, knowing that dolphins are one of my favorites things on this earth. :) And she gave me a little booklet of poems she wrote for me, which was very sweet, entitled "The Best Mom Ever."
Now, how could I say I didn't have a good birthday after getting a gift like that?!

Here's one of the poems:

Some moms kick
some moms hate bunnies
some moms stick to honeybees' honey!
But I know a mom
that's great to me you see
Hip Hip Hooray!
She belongs to me!

Isn't that cute??

Zac and I got to go on a super-date last weekend to celebrate his birthday, my birthday, our anniversary, and any other special occasion we might have missed. We hardly ever get out on "real dates" so this was very exciting for us. My mom came down to babysit for us and we went to see Avatar, which was fun. We shopped at Kohl's with some free Kohl's cash we had. We ate dinner at the Olive Garden. And then we stopped by Target thinking I might get some new mixing bowls for my bday. Well, and we ended up buying me a bookcase instead. :) That's a little bit more fun than mixing bowls, I have to say. And now I have had the enjoyment of rearranging books and deciding what to put where and how to organize them and all of that. I love it. I got some new books for Christmas, you see, and have run out of room on our other shelves. So we justified the bookcase as a sort of "need." Sort of.

Anyway - then Fri. was the girl's night party-party. So stay tuned . . . !!