The Postmistress - Discussion 2

Hey all! Discussion two is over chapters 6-15.  Thanks for playing!

Iris seems so rigid and stuck in her roles.  I almost want to peg her as having Aspergers.  She's something else. I physically cringed when she gave him her 'certificate.'

I also felt that Will was extremely hard on himself and extremely selfish for leaving his very new wife.

"There was dark in that tone and smiles in the dark, Emma realized." pg. 228 (I liked this line!)

"There is no God. There is only us Fraulein." pg. 306

1. Do you think Iris has a personality issue?
2. Do you agree with Will that 'the only thing that makes sense is to go'?
3. Anyone else crack up over doctors smoking?
4. Do you agree with Frankie's way of thinking or Will's?
5. Would you travel into a country at war?
6. How did you feel about the last part of this section? When Frankie was yelling and Thomas was hiding?

Come back next week for discussion 3! Thanks for participating!

Art Every Day Month 2nd Check In

I've been busy since Sunday! I was busy checking out Pinterest for suggestions and decided to skip over Thanksgiving for decoration ideas and move on to Christmas.  Plus, there is more time between now and then!! ;)

Sunday, I created this masterpiece.  Pumpkin Blondies!!! Yummmmm!

Monday, I started the letters for my banner that I shall attempt to make.  I used note cards, a black marker and letter cut outs that I had.

Tuesday, I made more letters! Not really impressed the letter I.  I may have to re do this.  especially since all the other letters are capitals.

Today, I made this lovely creation at the Art Center.  I used a pipe cleaner, leaves and macaroni pieces.  It looked cooler at school, some of the leaves fell off as I transported it home!

For the rest of the week, I plan on working on the banner some more and who knows what. Always, looking for something somewhat easy haha.

What have you created this week?

Don't forget to check out Leah's blog and the other talented artists creations!

A day in the life of Becky...

Happy Tuesday! Today, we get to sneak a peak into Becky's life.  Hope you enjoy!

When Emily told me she was starting this series I was more than happy to participate! Maybe it’s the stalker curiosity in me, but I always like to see how people spend their days.

I chose a Sunday to document, and figured it would be productive, but leisurely. My husband Ben had gotten sick a few days before, so I spent the majority of the weekend taking care of him, but this Sunday I’d set aside for getting things done. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Slept until 9:30 AM - This was quite a luxury because I’m normally up much earlier than this, even on weekends. I made tea and had breakfast while thumbing through the cookbook I’d won in a giveaway, getting excited to try new recipes.

10-11:30 AM - Munched on apple chips, wrote blog posts, and planned out others. (The best way I blog is through organization).

11:30 - Realized I had an appointment for a haircut in half an hour and needed to get moving. Tried unsuccessfully to wake my husband, so prepped tea and soup (as much as I could) so he wouldn’t have to do too much when he got up.

11:45 - Washed my face, threw on some clothes and received a phone call from my brother and two-year old niece right before walking out the door. I hated not being able to talk to her, but grinned when I heard her yell “bye bye Beck!” at the top of her lungs. (The volume at which she says everything these days). Made it to the salon with two minutes to spare. Score.

12-2 PM - Haircut, picked up a couple things at Target, talked to Ben, made a run to Starbucks to get a certain kind of drink for his throat (I’m a total pushover when he’s sick), talked to a friend on the phone, came home and admired how good hair looks the day you get it cut.

2-3:15 PM - Prepped a new crockpot recipe, made pumpkin bread, made soup and tea for Ben, ate lunch.

3:15-4 PM - Had a video chat with the lovely Kyla, took pumpkin bread out of the oven, and admired Kyla’s new red hair. (Not necessarily in that order).

4-5 PM - Did a couple of things for work, talked with my niece (for as long as a two-year old can talk anyway), and folded laundry.

5-6:15 PM - Made more tea for Ben, talked to a friend on the phone, worked on more blog posts.

6:15-8 PM - Followed my father-in-law to his mechanic because he was dropping off his car overnight. Got stuck in traffic on local roads (ah, Northern Virginia), but enjoyed the time it gave me to catch up with him in the car. Made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up crackers for Ben.

8 PM - Home. Switched laundry and collapsed in a chair, complaining to my husband that I was exhausted, but felt like I hadn’t done anything that day. (He pointed out that thanks to this post I had a whole list of things I’d done!)

8:20 PM - Ate dinner and read. (We normally don’t eat dinner this late, but I’d gotten it into the crock pot pretty late, and it needed to cook for six hours).

Brushed my teeth, washed my face, and was asleep by 9:30 PM - again, I’m normally not in bed this early, but because of the pace I’d kept that day I was wiped.

Looking at this all written down, I realize I did a lot that day, but I guess I was frustrated because I didn’t feel like I had anything tangible to show for it. And trust me, this is NOT how I spend most Sundays. (Those usually involve sweats and some instant Netflix).

Do you ever have days where you did a lot but didn’t necessarily think you accomplished anything? Thanks for having me!

Thanks Becky! Hearing about that Sunday, just about wiped me out! I am much more the sweatpants and football watching type of gal on a Sunday.  Next week, we will sneak a peak into Miranda's life!

Art Every Day

My friend Leah over at Creative Every Day hosts a challenge each November to create art every day.  I decided I wanted to play along and have a few things to share with you from the beginning of November.

Since I am so not creative and artistic, bare with me.  And I decided that since I am also trying to workout more, not eat McDonald's, work and raise an almost 6 month old, planning ideas and purchasing things also counts.  So does picture taking.  Yeah, I bend the rules.  But, it's the thought that counts, right? Plus, everyone else participating blows me out of the water anywhoo.

I made this at work on Nov. 1st.  We collected leaves, pine cones and what not from outside and this is what I created at the Art Center that day. :P



On Nov. 2nd, I took this scarecrow out of our Art Center and started coloring with a cute little student of mine.  And it was a very craaazy day, so as you can see, I did not finish it.

Nov. 3rd, was SUPER duper uber crazy at work and I meant to just finish coloring the scarecrow, but didn't have time and when I got home that night, no time to color.  So, I decided my putting together this cute outfit on the little sweetheart was my 'creativity' of the day.  Baby legs, jean jumper, onesie and a handmade (not by me) hair bow.

Friday, I was a googling machine, had high hopes of creating some sort of Thanksgiving decoration.  Yeah, our house has no craft items apparently.  So I thought, hey I will make a book for Isla, (totally stealing that idea from Leah).  But I kind of wanted to start it with a board book like she did and not just construction paper.  So I decided not to start anything.  But my idea of the day is making a book for Isla.

Saturday, I went out to Target and picked up craft sticks.  That's all I got.  Lame, I know.

Who knows, what today has in store.

Head on over to Leah's blog to see people who are much more talented and have much better ideas than me!

What have you created lately?

October At A Glance

Once again.. trying something new this month.. Going to do this one in pictures..

What was your favorite moments of October?

The Postmistress - Discussion 1

This month's book is The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, and I must confess that I had to do a power reading session Thursday night to be caught up.  When I started it last weekend, it did not hook me and I was dreading it.  Then I picked it back up Thursday and the first chunk was hard and then when I got to the part where Emma went to watch the soldiers firing at night, it sped up and I was interested again.  I think this is going to be a book of good and bad spurts for me.

I really like that this has a WW2 time period.  It's a time that I am very interested in so I like that about the book so far.  I also think it is interesting to get a perspective from Frankie, a woman, in London, during 1940.

I think the introduction of the characters was nicely done in a slow drawn out way and it was also slightly irritating at the same time, but I could immediately tell which characters I was going to like the best, based on my reactions to their sections.  Harry's part? Bored. Frankie's? Loved. Iris? Intriguesd.  The Fitches? Interested.

1. What did you think of Iris's visit to the doctor to obtain her certificate?
2. What was your impression of Iris after the first chapter?
3. How would you have dealt with sending your children to the country or ACROSS the Atlantic during a war?
4.  What are your thoughts over the first 5 chapters?
5. Ask your own question, and answer another person's answer.

Check back next Friday to chat over chapters 6-15!

Nantucket Nights

I have been meaning to check out a book (any book, but I think Barefoot got me interested) by Elin Hilderbrand since 2009, but have kept pushing it off because I'm afraid I won't like it and I really want to like her books. She sort of made me think of Kristin Hannah, who I adore, but I was so afraid that I would roll my eyes and not like a book of hers I put it off until this August when I finally checked out a few of her books.  Nantucket Nights, is the first book of hers that I've read and I have mixed feelings.

Kayla, Val and Antoniette meet once a year for Night Swimmers, a weird ritual they have perfected over the years, where they meet, drink champagne, tell secrets and swim nude.  Every year it's awesome, no problems, til this year when Antoniette goes missing, Kayla's relationship with Val is ruined along with her reputation.

There were some pretty unbelievable plot lines and the book ended with a few too many loose ends and with an outcome of a decision Kayla makes that I didn't support. I mean the writing in the book is good, it's a quick read and it's not tooo chick lit-y that I was rolling my eyes, I mean it's real and not 'oooh woe is me' and all but Kayla kind of sucks and so do her friends. You start out kind of thinking Kayla's husband is an ass and you come to realize he may be the best person in the book. The characters are horrid people and do terrible things to each other.

I'm really not sure I can say I like it or not. I really want to like it and I will try to read another of her books because I still really want to like her, but consider me still undecided.
Have you read any books by Hilderbrand?

A day in the life of Amber...

Hey everyone! This week Amber is letting us take a little peak in her life! She is a graduate student from Iowa who works two jobs while doing school full-time.  Enjoy!

Hi! I’m Amber from A Little Pink in the Cornfields and I’m really excited to share with all of Emily’s readers what a day in my life is like! Each day is different for me, no two days are EVER the same and I love that. Recently I left the corporate world and began graduate work full time. Besides the classes I am enrolled in, I substitute teach three days a week in grades 6-12 and am a residential counselor at a local non-profit for adults with intellectual disabilities two days a week. I’m not usually with the same clients each week, or in the same classrooms, so life is never dull!

Here is what a typical day is like for me. On this particular day I was substitute teaching in a middle school art class, and I had a methods course in PE that evening.

 6am: Get up and get ready for the day. It usually takes me an hour to shower/get ready, make lunch, take Zeke for a quick morning walk and pack my bag for the day.

7am: Leave for the school that I am working at. Today I am subbing in an art class in a school that is pretty urban (as urban as Des Moines gets, I suppose). I know the day is going to go either really well, or really bad. There really isn’t an in between at this school.

7:30am: Arrive at the school, check in at the main office and pick up the sub folder with the schedule and lesson plans.

7:45am: School day begins. I have four 46 minute classes until lunch. My first period goes okay. They are 7^th graders and still pretty sweet. Today all classes are working on drawing hieroglyphs. They’re not very excited about this project. Even when I told them it was like cracking a code. That didn’t work at all. Fail.

 8:31am: Dismiss class

 8:34am: Begin period two. More seventh graders and they do the same thing as first period. During this period I scolded two boys for using the “r” word. They decided to use the word “spaz” instead. I, again, scold them.

The students I sub for figure out pretty quick I do not tolerate language like that. The boys continued to figure out other words to use that would get under my skin (my mistake) so I just decided to ignore the words and focus on getting them to work. Another boy sitting at their group got upset and started crying

(I have never had girls cry in my classes, just boys. Isn’t that odd?).

My heart was really heavy over this, because I knew he didn’t want to talk and I wasn’t going to force him. He sat with his head down the entire period. I’m still wondering what was making him cry. I know he wasn’t receiving special ed services, so perhaps he has a family member that does? It broke my heart. Kids are so cruel.

9:20: dismiss class

 9:23: Begin period three.  Now I have two periods of eight graders. I am not a fan of eighth graders. They do the same thing as periods 1 and 2.  I had to raise my voice more than I should have. I also had to turn off the lights to get their attention, which is absolutely ridiculous to me for a group this age. Anytime I have to do this I remind them that that is an elementary school tactic of getting attention. Seriously annoyed at this point.

 10:09: Dismiss class

 10:12: Begin fourth period. This time I took a much calmer approach. In the three minutes I had to regroup I took a few deep breaths, cleared my face of all emotion (seriously, kids see fear and I’m pretty sure they SMELL it too. I’m sure of it) and prepare myself mentally for more eighth graders. Everything went fine at first and I was feeling much, much better. There was also an associate in the room because we had several special ed students. She had a scheduled break, so after checking with me to make sure I would be okay without her (which threw me off guard, I’ve never had an associate ask me that before). I said I would be fine and to not worry about me!

I was wrong.

About ten minutes after she left there was a physical fight. At first I thought they were playing because the boy that got hit first was SMILING. It might have been play fighting at first, but within 2.6 seconds it turned into real fighting and I’m pulling them off each and yelling at one kid to stop choking the other! I seriously blanked and did not know the procedure of what to do or how to get admin in the room. I yelled for someone to run to the office (just around the corner) and about 7 kids ran out (of course). Admin got in there almost immediately and took the situation from there.  The fight grew out of lots of teasing from one boy. This boy was a little jerk. He really, really was. That is all I have to say about that. (Forrest Gump style, ha!)

10:58: Dismiss class. Now I have planning period, which is followed by lunch, which is followed by another planning period. Which, gives me about two hours to do what I want. I’m so grateful for this time, because I honestly thought about crying. My eyes did start to well up just out of shock, sadness, confusion, anxiety over the situation. I quickly composed myself though, it would be stupid to cry now. Plus, this will NOT be the only time this happens. I’m not naïve. I grew up in schools just like this one. I’m not new to fights like this. Still sucks though.

 10:58-12:56: During this time I ate lunch, chatted on Twitter, texted, replied to a few emails, worked on a lesson plan, read a few blog posts and played some Hanging with Friends and Words with Friends. It was relaxing and just what I needed.

 12:56: Begin seventh period. They do the same assignment. Everything goes okay. No major incidents.

1:42: Dismiss class

1:45: Begin eighth period – last class of the day, thank goodness. I could’ve really used some headache medicine at this point.

 2:30: School’s out! Hallelujah!

 2:35: Head home

 3pm: Get home, change into gym clothes, pack a quick snack (a cup of cottage cheese) and head to campus to study for a couple hours before my evening class

 3:30-5pm: Work on a few assignments that are due this week.

 5:30pm: Meet at the campus gym for my PE Methods class. Today we’re doing the fitness test for the second time this semester. The fitness test includes a timed mile run, 1 minute of push ups, and 1 minute of crunches. At the beginning of the semester my mile was 13:07. Today my mile was 12:07! Yay for shaving off a minute!

 6:30pm: Class is technically supposed to go until 7:20, but she let us go early for doing so well on our fitness test. I was super glad because I was going to have to leave early anyway for a conference call for my online class. All elementary ed students have to take methods courses in all subject. PE included… it’s kind of a silly class, but it will be an easy 3 credit A.

 7pm-8pm: Conference call for my Assessment for Reading Instruction. I thought this was really weird, but it ended up being very helpful! This week we’re administering informal reading inventories, and I had a lot of little questions that I needed to clarify. The conference call idea was really smart, because about thirty of us had the same questions!

 8pm: I can finally sit down and eat dinner! I make macaroni and cheese and sit down to watch The Biggest Loser with my sister (so wrong while eating mac and cheese… buuuuut, I made it with Laughing Cow cheese. It couldn’t be that bad….) ;)

 9:30pm: Nightly routine. Crawl into bed to read for awhile, before going to sleep.

 10:30pm: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

 Today was actually very typical, minus the fight! On days I sub, I have class at night. The other two days I have class right in the middle of the day (annoying) and those are the days I work at the non-profit. Despite running around all the time, I get a lot of time at each place to work on studying. Subbing and counseling gives me plenty of time to keep up on reading for school and book clubs.

Thank you for reading about my day and thank you Emily for having me! J

Thanks Amber!! ;) Next week we will hear from Becky! Can't wait!

Spring Break 2012: Move it and Lose It Check In

Yeah, I just made that up.  I AM going on vacation for Spring Break in 2012 and I am working out so I don't scare the old men in Speedo's on the beach.

Week 1 Stats
86 ounces of water each day at least every single day

My exercise goal for the week was to get 1.5 miles or 30 minutes in whichever came first.  I started each day with a 5 minute warm up and ended with around a 3 minute cool down give or take 2 minutes.  My goal was also 2 days.. so my 3 exceeded my goal! ;) I do not have a treadmill at home and have to go use the treadmill at my parents' house.

Monday
27 minutes run/walk on the treadmill it was about 1.7 miles
I ran for 10 straight minutes! And then I mixed it up run/walk to get through the end.  I used the incline at various points while run/walking but no higher than 2.

Tuesday
27 minutes run/walk on the treadmill 1.7 miles
I ran for 7 straight minutes today and finished with a mix of run/walks and used the incline but no higher than 3.

Wednesday
27 minutes run/walk on the treadmill 1.7 miles
My legs were super tired today and I only ran for 6 straight minutes and did run/walk to get through the rest and used the incline but no more than 3.5.

Thursday
We went on a little over a mile walking field trip with the kids so I am counting it as my workout haha.

Friday
Rest

I call this a successful first week. Next week I am aiming for 2 days of running as well and hoping for the bonus of 3.  I may also try a 30 minute shred at some point.  Eeek.

COME ON SPRING BREAK!

What are your current exercise goals?

The Scent of Rain and Lightning - Discussion 4

Happy Friday! Welcome back to the final discussion over The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard! I've really enjoyed this book and I'm glad someone suggested it, or it wouldn't have made it to the top of my TBR pile for awhile!

I felt like the book ended with a lot of action, which I like, and only hurried itself through the part where Meryl is identified as the killer.  I found the part where Belle identified his bow tie thingie and then immediately opened the box to be quick without her at least revealing some doubts that she'd always had of him or something.  It just seemed to quick and clean.  But I had guessed that Testament Rocks would eventually give Jody a clue.  Funny, how she was always drawn there and that was where Laurie did die.  Kinda freaky.


1. Did the identity of the killer surprise you?


2. Do you think Laurie deserved the ending she got?


3. Do the Linders ever abuse the power they have in the community?


4. What was your overall impression of Chase's character? Did he evolve?


5. How does the story reveal the challenges of forgiveness?

6. Was Meryl essentially a good man, despite his affair with Laurie and his role in Hugh-Jays's death? Can a person hide his or her true character from his or her family so successfully for so many years?Do you think Belle always wondered, which was why she was so quick to open that box? And seriously, WHY THE HELL DID MERYL KEEP IT AROUND???


7. Do you think Laurie would have matured or would she have stayed the same?

Thanks for participating!!! Come back next month! ;)  If you'd like to guest post next month just let me know!