Top Ten Tuesday: Reading Material

For this Tuesday's Top Ten: 10 things I love to read:


10. US Weekly: Yes, I have a subscription. Yes, it's my guilty pleasure. Yes, I'm terribly nosy.

9. Outside Magazine: Aaron has a subscription to it but, from time to time, I like to read the articles in it.

8. msn.com news: I love everything on this, from financial to gossip to health. Although the new aptly named "Bing" search engine makes me mad. Copycats.

7. Dog Fancy: Yes, I have a subscription. No explanation necessary, I'm sure.

6. Mother Earth News: It's a magazine my mother introduced me to. Now I'm hooked...

5. Reader's Digest: I've had a subscription to this magazine for the past 10 years. I love it and I love the humor section.

4. Facebook: I could spend an entire day combing through the home page. I love to read people's status updates (well, some status updates, some are just much too much.)

3. The Union Leader: I love this newspaper and those who know me know why.

2. Blogs of my family/friends, and a few strangers: I now only read the ones in my sidebar, but they are my favorites.

1. Yankee Magazine: I love, love, love this magazine. I read it cover to cover every month and look so forward to it. It has great recipes, great decorating ideas, and it is everything New England; the only place I'd ever want to call home.

School's Out...

Aaron on his first ever day of teaching, September 2007

Friday was Aaron's last "official" day of school, which means today is Aaron's first "official" day of summer vacation. I use the quotation marks because, while he is on "vacation," there are things he needs to complete over the summer for the next school year. Many people don't seem to understand that while teachers get "13 weeks" of summer vacation they still have to use the time to revise IEP's, edit their curriculum, add new material, and catch up on the most recent information to stay ahead of the learning curve. Hopefully, somewhere in all that, he'll enjoy a summer vacation!!!!! (and complete the "wife's" honey-do-list.)

Next year is going to be a big year for us. We'll get married (it's coming up-- about 3+ months!!!) Aaron is starting graduate school in the fall, he'll be tenured at the end of next year, and I am due to receive both my licenses by November!! Very exciting stuff.

So, this summer, we'll need to enjoy ourselves. We have some loose plans which include:

• Go to camp
• Go to Pennsylvania (I want to go to Amish Country)
• Plan the rest of our wedding/honeymoon(s)
• Finish up some miscellaneous house projects
• We are, again, spending the weekend in the Berkshires (Tanglewood) and this year we're seeing Yo-Yo Ma, Sheryl Crow and James Taylor!!! Who-hooo!
• Do some serious hiking and kayaking
• Spend a lot of time with friends
• Rest and Relax
• Read for pleasure (!!!!)
• Help to plan my Dad's 50th!!!
• And several, SEVERAL other things I don't have time to list here!

It's oddly strange, in the two years Aaron has been teaching I haven't felt like summer was "official" until he had his last day of school. It's funny, actually. The whole month of June my anticipation was building as if I was going to get some type of reward for him finishing up the year (well, if you saw "the list" you would see I am actually getting a reward.)

Now, if we could just conjure up some sunshine!

Photographic Friday: Where in the world is Rocko Santa Fe?

My mother brought my birthday gifts in these boxes that were wrapped. It's sort of like a reusable gift bag, but a box that she made (and even better, recycled.) I decided to keep them in our eave (storage area) so I too could reuse them. Rocko let himself in one day and loves it in there.

Fun Fact Thursday

I run groups with adolescent substance abusers. Running groups is my very favorite part of my job.

Something I've found so very helpful with this population of kiddos is structure. Every day we have the same schedule: at check-in (the beginning part of group where we come together and get ready for the day) we do a quote of the day which a group member must volunteer to read and interpret to their peers, we talk briefly about our weekend or day, our clean time, and our rose (best part of the day) and thorn (worst part of the day).

The only thing that is not rote is the opening part of group. Opening happens right before we begin "check-in." The purpose of opening is to get the kiddos to relax, center themselves (many come rushing from a job, or school, or a long commute) and to become cohesive for the day. On Tuesday (every Tuesday) opening is excerpts from Barbara Ann Kipfer's 14,000 Things to be Happy About. We read several things to be happy about and then move on. The kiddos love it!

On Wednesday, opening is usually a short story, or poem by Shel Silverstein, Mr. Rogers or something from Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Thursday happens to be the kiddo's favorite opening. Fun Fact Thursday! My co-facilitators and myself scour the Internet to find interesting little quotes/factiods to read to the kids. Our first words after "Grab a snack, get a drink and sit down" are usually "Are you ready for Fun Fact Thursday?!?" We deal with a rough population, but this small thing we do for them gets them so excited. They LOVE fun facts.

I'm going to start doing this on my blog. If the kids like it so much (and I do too, that 's why I instituted it) then maybe my readers will also. Who knows? Like all other topic days on my blog (Wednesday, Oui? Top Ten Tuesday, Say What (formerly Quote of the Day) and Photographic Friday) I will do Fun Fact Thursday if I don't have any other blog-worthy material.

So for the first official Fun Fact Thursday:

1. Hitler's private train was called "Amerika."
2. On average, in any given hour, there are 61,000 people airborne over the United States.
3. Diseases spread by fleas have killed more people than all the wars ever fought, combined.
4. The apparatus used for measuring feet at a shoe store is called a Brannock Device.

There you have it. Fun Fact Thursday :)

¡Feliz Cumpleaños!

Don't think of organ donation as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It's really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive. ~Author Unknown

Ashley,

You have changed my life in ways too profound to articulate. May the next year bring happiness, hope, love, and health.

Happy Birthday and MANY more