Every Night

when I working on my stinky homework for my two classes that are sucking up my time (but will be worth it - my final two classes!  Done by August 7th!), he always takes a break from the dishes/the yard/the final brushing of teeth to poke his head up the staircase and ask:  "Anything you need, Hon?"  I love that man.

On Summer Vacation

If your summer vacation starts in less than a week, like mine...congratulations!  But if you are a little anxious about all those unstructured hours, never fear.  Garrison Keillor has some very nice advice:

A vacation of 73 days sounds more like unemployment to me, but of course it will all pass swiftly and sweetly, Katherine, and what you want to avoid is that feeling of guilt at the end, that you were a slug and frittered away the time and didn't accomplish anything. So make a list of five reasonable goals for the 73 days, including a book you think you really ought to read (The Book of Job, Moby Dick, Obadiah, The Robe, a book about the Gobi desert, the biography of Oprah, whatever you like), a physical exercise goal (a daily walk of 30 minutes), a home-improvement goal (paint a room, clean the garage), a spiritual goal (a half-hour of pure silence every day), and a goal of pure pleasure (make a feast for people you love). That's enough for anybody. The summer will pass pleasantly, so long as you don't step in front of a bus, and when you're done, you'll feel good about yourself. Which, of course, you already do, but this plan will stave off self-mortification. Happy days.


Now these are the kinds of challenges I like.

Sigh

And double sigh.  And sigh again.

Seasonal SAHM Summer Reading

EC asked what was on my reading list this this summer.  Summer reading...Ah!  Summer is the time when I catch up with my students.  I read a mix of oldies and newbies and hope that a few of my newbies are ones that my students will have read when I return to school.  Usually they return to school more read than myself.  This summer my oldies will include "The Westing Game", "Toys Go Out", "Ralph S. Mouse", "Gregor the Overlander", "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth", book one of the "Warriors" series,  and "Viking It and Liking It."  Newbies on tap include "Adam Canfield of the Slash", "The Name of This Book is Secret", "Every Soul a Star", "Operation Yes", "Crash", "Lincoln and His Boys", "Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little".  To be continued...

But for adults, EC, et al., "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is brutal but riveting.  "The Girl Who Played with Fire" was just as easy to read, but lacked some of the suspense and detail of the first.  "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" is currently winging its way to my doorstep along with "The Elegance of Hedgehogs" which comes highly recommended to me.  "The Help" is also a book that I hear deserves all the hype it has received, so that may be on my list as well.

I really enjoy reading non-fiction too.  Currently on top of my non-fiction to-be-read pile is "Eating Animals".  What non-fiction books are on the top of your pile, er, list this summer?