It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.
This week I am celebrating SUMMER
- The weather has been fantastic in Wisconsin. So many nice, sunny days with warmth but not too much humidity.
- Time with family and friends: I have had the chance to spend time going to the park and enjoying the outdoors with both my mother and my husband. We also are enjoying the beer garden in our local park with friends
- Euro 2016: Since my hubby is from Spain, we get really into watching the tournaments in the years that they happen. (It is especially cool that we are home for the summer and can watch the majority of the games) This year, Spain is playing well which is always a good thing…after they were ridiculously bad in the last world cup, they needed to come in strong this time.
- My summer school classroom is set up and I have the curriculum. I have a small class list of 15 kiddos and I know 10 of them because I am teaching at my school for the summer. It will be a fun summer job!
- Our CSA box has been arriving every other week. I am loving eating the farm fresh vegetables and fruit. What better way to celebrate summer than to eat amazing food that is good for you too?
- I am coming out of my shell and sharing more with people about essential oils and how they have helped me reach my health goals. It is empowering to share and to see how they are helping my friends too. Being an introvert, it is daunting to take on the idea of building a business around sharing oils, but I am slowly but surely getting there.
- More time for reading all kinds of books is amazing! I have been enjoying reading some personal development books as well as fiction books that have been on my shelves for a while. I love lazy summer days.
What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!
Comics Squad: Recess is a fun little book that I know my students will love. It is a collection of short stories from a number of authors of graphic novels for kids. I will absolutely recommend this one to my students also.
Finding Your Element by Ken Robinson is a companion to his book The Element. I enjoyed reading the book and there were some good exercises throughout. I did not find the book to be immensely helpful to me, but I realized at the beginning of reading that I really didn’t need to do the exercises because I am already in my element daily. This could be a good book for people who really have no clue what they would like to be doing or for people who are unhappy in their current job and want to find something else that will help them be happier daily.
I received a copy of And I Darken by Kiersten White from NetGalley. This book, which comes out later this month, is a sweeping novel with political intrigue, a love story, and a tough (brutal) female character. It took me a little while to get into this book, mostly because I have a hard time as a reader when I don’t like the characters. However, once I was hooked, this book was one I didn’t want to put down. I can’t wait to see how the saga continues. I recommend this one for grades 8 and up.
InGenius: A Crash Course in Creativity by Tina Seelig was a quick read. There are some good ideas about how to encourage creativity and she introduces a tool called the innovation engine that helps one to think about the conditions that are necessary for creativity to thrive. Overall, I enjoyed reading the anecdotes and learning about people who are creative and the environments that foster that creativity, but I was not completely blown away by this book.
The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner will be coming out in September 2016. I was lucky enough to get a copy on NetGalley. This book is amazing. For those of us who are old enough that we remember clearly and exactly what we were doing on the morning of 9/11, it is a chilling reminder of the sentiments during those times. For young people who did not experience it first hand, this book does a great job of giving them the vicarious experience so that they might understand it better. The writing in the book is amazing. I love the decision that the author made to have alternating viewpoints and to have one of those narrators be narrating her story in verse. I will write a more in-depth review closer to release, but this is definitely a must-read for this fall.
I am a big fan of murder mysteries. In The Woods by Tana French was intriguing and kept me guessing about what was happening. The solution to the mystery was a little bit predictable I think, but I am interested in looking for the other books about the Dublin Murder Squad. I would recommend this one for adults.
Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library is a cute book that I got from NetGalley. It is one I will definitely look for when it comes out in August. I love how the author really highlights all the great things you can do in a public library.
The Night Children by Sarah Tsiang is a beautifully illustrated book. I felt that the premise of the book was kind of creepy and I think some kids might be scared to think that when they are asleep there are some other creatures going about doing things, but maybe I am just super sensitive.
You know how sometimes the right book seems to fall in your lap? I have had this book for a long time, but something compelled me to find it on my Kindle and read it this week. The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine by Dr. Terry Wahls outlines a diet and lifestyle plan that supports cellular health. This is one of those books that I picked up to peruse and ended up unable to put it down. The nutritional steps that she suggests taking are really aligned with what I have begun to understand to be very healthy goals. This is one of those times in which everything that I am learning seems to be converging into one set of things that I need to do to be healthier.