Vacation and Musing

Time to roll another year. Yes, tomorrow is my birthday and we are spending it up north for a change. My family accidentally happened upon a tradition of which we are quite fond. Four years ago we rented a cottage in the UP the week after school got out. I initially thought it was crazy due to trying to pack up my classroom and then pack five people for a week away from home. We have, however, continued this tradition for each consecutive year because 1) it forces me to finish my classroom the day I get out of school and not drag it into the following week; 2) it is a GREAT stress reliever to have a small place that is easy to clean, tons of magazines to read, walks each day and oodles of family time! 3) this year, especially, we get to celebrate Father's Day and my birthday up here. It is warm and peaceful and, if I get my birthday wish, I'll be able to listen to the song of the loons in the morning. We'll see.

So, yesterday so many of the lives I've lived converged. I took my family to Fisherman's Island State Park which I haven't visited in about 18 years or so. The last time I did I was with another person and I was (gulp) tent camping! Lake Michigan is my favorite lake of all of them surrounding the state of Michigan, so that was another plus to this park- miles of Lk. Michigan beach. We saw enormous lake trout vying for food as soon as we stepped foot on the sand. The kids climbed small dunes and we looked for petoskey stones for about an hour- found tons! Baby twin and I walked all the way out to Fisherman's Island which isn't even an island anymore due to the recession of the lake levels. Now, you just walk out there! She didn't understand the the beach we were traversing used to be under water. When we found shallow, sandy bottom (where we sat was rocky and full of algae), she dove in and swam around like a little fish. It made me so happy to see her enjoy my favorite lake so much. I wish I hadn't found out once we were up here that my camera battery is so dead it won't charge anymore!

This place makes me happy to be a mom- so many things to do with the kids! I am glad the cottage we rent here is for sale way above it's property value so maybe no one will ever buy it. My hubby still yearns to hook the elusive walleye or trout, but his effort is admirable. Life is good (as my t-shirt says).

Vacation is Here!

Well, a bit early due to the snow, but we have a vacation commencement. Though my husband's been away and I didn't get a chance to bring in the yummy treats I made for my colleagues, I'm sure they will still be appreciated in January.

As the year winds down and our country is devastated by financial issues (I can't tell you how many people I know who are out of jobs), I want to try and focus on what I am grateful for:

1. My husband and children
2. The Benedictine Monks of St. Benedict Monastery in Oxford, MI
3. My teaching job
4. The first African-American president
5. Books- especially ARCs that are coming in for review (thank you publishers and those who have been so generous with helping me so far)
6. snow days :)
7. Renewed contact with my very dear friend in Venezuela (thank you Facebook)
8. The opportunity to run a support group for my church for women dealing with infertility.
8. Freedom of speech and the ability to vote as I please in my own country.
9. A white christmas
10. Early mornings to write and muse about life.



I am in the process of finishing Carolyn Meyer's book The True Adventures of Charley Darwin and will post a review within a few days. Additionally, I just finished the audio version of The Calder Game by Blue Balliett and have to say that I LOVE the way she incorporates art and math and youthful intelligence into the mysteries that she writes. When I read Chasing Vermeer in it's hardback publication (years ago) I don't think I appreciated the intelligent way that Balliett wove her story. I know I enjoyed it, but found it a bit quirky for me. Either my tastes have changed or she has grown on me as an author, but my 8 year-old is transfixed by the narrative as well. Even the twins are talking about Calder since we all listen to audiobooks in the car whenever we are driving. (Much better than "Hillary Duck" or depressing financial/war news) Perhaps the audio version suits me better as a listener? I did get The Wright 3 from the school library so my 8 year-old and I can read it together over the break.

Vacation Randomness

I thought I would get more reading done while on vacation, but I'm busy playing with the kiddies and making sure they don't drown (esp. when the public beach tells you they can't use FLOATIES!) ugh. Anyway, I AM engrossed in PAPER TOWNS by John Green. Not due out until Oct, but it seems like everyone in kidlitosphere has an ARC. Thanks to my friend, Jen, who will be doing YA podcasts for READ,WRITE, THINK (www.readwritethink.com) and is getting LOTS of these coveted morsels. I am gladly taking them off of her hands when she's done. So, I think this is an exceptional novel. John Green is just so dang smart! And, I love the way he weaves literature, meaning, coming of age, and friendship into every novel he has. I especially love the way he depicts road trips for teens! Quentin, after a night of "mystery" with his long-time love, Margo Roth Spiegelman, decides to go find her when she doesn't show up for the next 6 days and is considered a runaway. The excerpt I found most satisfying was his metaphor of mini-van as moving home. He delineated the different spaces of the car to different rooms in a house as he and his friends Radar, Ben, and Lacey were using them. The passenger seat was the "family room" and the driver's seat was the "living room" because you couldn't get too comfy there and it had to stay neater. The console was dubbed the "kitchen" and the bench seats were "bedrooms." The journey to find the "real" Margo through Walt Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS was a phenomenal reference to literature and it's relation to life. This was exceptional for 18 year-old Quentin. The ending is satisfying to the reader and the journey is filled with humor (much, laugh out loud), searching, longing and that creative literary edge we all seemed to have in early adulthood- before marriage and children. The searching for meaning of Margo as a person through Whitman's poem had me captivated (because I'm a bookish English teacher). Happy Reading! Read to your kids! No kids? Read to a neighbor or relative.