Hobbies and social distancing

      It's been a while since I've just checked in so I thought I'd pop in to say hi. How are all of you doing with social distancing and all of the Covid-19 issues?    We're doing alright. My husband is still working since where he works is considered a restaurant. Chocolate is essential, no? (I'm very grateful to be the recipient of his candy treats.) The boys have multiple opinions about being home. Since mid-March they've been doing school online.
      Tim is fairly disappointed. 8th grade is a big year. Their Washington DC trip was canceled. I doubt there will be an 8th grade graduation. He is super upset about missing his last concert in middle school. With that being said, he understands that realistically, this is only 8th grade and it would be more painful if he were a high school senior. He is happy in our new house and we are enjoying being home together.  He misses his friends.
     David is actually loving being home. Ironically, he's really struggling with his art lessons through school. The lessons are great, he would just prefer someone bossed him around and gave him directions on what to do rather than asking him to think for himself. (I love educators that ask kids to think! Yeah!) So, I've been doing a lot of those lessons with him. He LOVES being out of school. He's self-motivated with his work and has found freedom in riding his bike around the neighborhood. He is growing into a new little person. I'm seeing sides of his personality that I haven't seen before- I don't know if it's because I'm home with him more or if he's just developing more confidence (and a little pre-teen snark, but it's manageable.) He does not miss school at all, which makes me a little sad, but I'm appreciative to see that my kids are happy at home.
      I am surprised that I can actually handle free time. I kind of hate teaching online. I thrive on relationships with the students and on checking in with how they're doing on their work in class. This is very impersonal and live music making online just doesn't work. I'm working really hard to make it accessible (and not awful) for everybody, but some kids have just checked out with all of the online learning. (In all classes, not just mine.) I deeply miss interacting with all of my students in person. With that being said, I'm getting a lot of kids sending me e-mails just to check in to say hi or to catch up. I'm going to start having a Monday lunch with all my chorus kids since quite a few have told me they're starting to struggle with loneliness. I have been feeling sick over the past few days- full of aches, not sleeping and massive headaches. I've started to realize it's from being on screens all day. Trying to combat that.
       In terms of my time when I'm not working, I'm loving the extra family time. I'm reading and writing a ton. I read 9 books in April. April was National Letter Writing Month and I wrote 80 letters! I love being able to catch up with people in this way. It's a total blessing to me to be able to connect with people across the world in this way. Oh, speaking of that- have you seen the View From My Window group on Facebook? Super cool. Go check it out. This time at home has given me a lot more time to do some things I actually enjoy doing, so I don't feel completely trapped like some others I know. I'm struggling a little bit with empathy. I am worried about my students, my friends (or families of students) who work in health care, people who are alone, etc. I am very grateful for our new home and really see how truly blessed we are right now to be healthy and secure. So many things can be taken away so quickly. If you haven't talked to me recently, let me know how you're doing.
       

April reading

These are the books I've read in April:

"Nothing to Lose" by Lee Child- Another Jack Reacher novel. I liked this one. It was kind of tame compared to some of the other Reacher novels I've read, but I think I needed that this month.

"A Map of Days" by Ransom Riggs- This is the 4th book of the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. It wasn't my favorite of the series. Maybe it's just been too long since I've read the other books, but it kept feeling like Jacob was too old or mature. I liked seeing his friends in his time period and how they adjusted to the current times. :)

 "One Deadly Night" by John Glatt- This is a true crime novel passed to me by my former upstairs neighbor. I don't read true crime usually, so I thought I would give it a try to see if I liked it. I don't. Ha ha. It's kind of told in a "This is the way things seem" or "From so and so's perspective..." but I don't think there's any way around that when you're writing about something like a crime. The book itself probably wasn't bad, just not my cup of tea. This book completed my Keyword Reading challenge for April with the word "Night."

"Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult-  I have only read two Picoult books but I have heard the endings can sometimes make you mad. This one did (for me). Basically, this is a story about an Amish woman who has been accused of murdering her baby. An attorney agrees to help out a relative by taking this case since the girl is a distant relative and the attorney is concerned she might not be able to handle the "English" court system.   As a condition of her client's bail, the attorney agrees to live on the Amish farm to guarantee that the girl will not flee.
     This book was interesting to me. I liked learning more about the Amish traditions, viewpoints and culture (though I'm not sure if they are all 100% accurate since I don't have much experience.) The story included history, romance, faith, friendship, ethics. In general, it was a good read.

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Nora Zeale Hurston- This was the last book of my Book Hive Book Club.   This was yet another book that I probably wouldn't have chosen on my own. It is considered a classic, and that surprised me since I had never heard of it before. I enjoyed this book, written by a black, female author in 1937. It also features a black, female protagonist, which I imagine might have been rare in the 1930s. This speech in this book is written in dialect, which some members of our group struggled with. One woman said that she listened to the audiobook and it was super helpful to her. I would recommend the book, but I know that some of my friends would consider this a tough read.

 

"The Good Neighbor" by Maxwell King       I did not know a lot about Fred Rogers, other than the fact that I watched his show as a  young child. As an educator, a child who grew up watching, a musician and a mom, I found this book very interesting. He and I actually have quite a bit in common. It seems like Fred Rogers was "the real deal." It's not often you find celebrities whose public persona are the same as their personal lives. 

 

"Braver Than You Think" by Maggie Downs-   Where do you dream of visiting if you could?  After her mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis (and downward spiral due to the disease), Maggie decides to take a year traveling to all of those places she and her mother had talked about visiting, but never got the opportunity to visit. In the COVID-19 era we're living in, this book brought me places I hadn't really thought of visiting before. It definitely satiated some of my current wanderlust. This book was good. There were some chapters that I just felt were a little "this giant thing happened, now this is happening, then I did this amazing thing," but I think that that might be hard to avoid after traveling to so many new places in the span of a year. I don't know if I would be brave enough to take the trip she took, though some of the places she visited sounded fascinating. 

 

"The Good Wife" by Clint Richmond- Ironically, after complaining about the last true crime story, guess what popped up in my "to read" pile? The good news is that this wasn't as bad as the last one. I still wouldn't say I enjoyed this book, but I thought it was well written and way more impartial than the last true crime novel I wrote about. 

 

"Crossings" by Alex Landragin- I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. This book is pretty cool. It's written as 3 short stories that can be read one after the other or in an alternate order (kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure but with 1 choice of where to go) that jumps between all of the short stories. I'm going to admit that, at the moment, I've only read it in the traditional beginning -> end order, being the rule follower that I am. Each of the short stories has other stories within it. It can be a little hard to follow if you're not paying attention, but I really enjoyed it. I am NOT a re-reader at all, but I do plan to go back and re-read this in the alternate order because I can see how the stories would be interpreted very differently that way. Cool book.

Goodreads Reading Challenge:29/60

Keyword Reading Challenge: 4/12

March Reading

**** I began this post at the beginning of the month, when I had no idea we'd be dealing with social distancing due to the coronavirus. As you might be able to tell, I spent quite a bit of time reading this month.

These are my March reads:

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. I am reading this for my regular bookclub, but this fits my Keyword Reading Challenge for the word "House" too. Some of the women at book club are really raving about this book and really love it. I liked it but I don't love it. Maybe sometimes I am a little less forgiving than others? I'll be curious to hear more from the women at book club about why they all loved it.

  

Einstein's Beach House by Jacob M Appel- I don't often read short stories. This has been sitting on my shelf for a few years and I'm glad I finally picked it up. You know stories that are so odd that you feel, "Yeah, totally unrealistic," but then you meet a weird character and think to yourself "I know that person...." Well, this book was like that for me. The stories were weirdly amusing. My favorite one was about a depressed hedgehog. Maybe I'll try to read more short stories.

 

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier. I got this advanced reader copy from Netgalley.  Thank you!  This book was about an affluent couple whose 4 year old son goes missing while the mother is answering the father's text while Christmas shopping. Despite the best effort of mall security, police, FBI and a private investigator, there have never really been any true hints about what happened after the boy left the mall. Eighteen months have passed and life has changed- the wife has joined a support group of people with missing children while her life seems to be getting away from her a bit. The husband keeps working in hopes that he can move on.Without giving away a bunch of spoilers, the wife gets a call from the PI asking her to meet. At the meeting she learns that her husband has been having an affair with a younger woman.Chaos ensues.
         To be really honest, I wasn't sure I'd like this book- 1)I'm a teacher and a mom of boys- so, missing kids is not usually an entertaining subject for me. 2) I don't read romance so I'm not used to steamy scenes... there were a few in here. 3) I felt the beginning was predictable and at the start, I wasn't really liking the characters. One night, I went to bed early but work up a little before 11. I thought I'd read a chapter and go back to bed. Well, I ended up reading for a few hours until I finished the book. Then I e-mailed the author to tell her how surprised I was to have liked it. (She responded and seems super cool.)

    

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling.  This is another "shelf-dweller" that I'm glad I picked up. (Y'all- I might have only one "to read" bookshelf by the summer instead of a bookshelf with a giant pile next to it.) This is a play that opened in London in July of 2016. I'm delighted that I had no idea about the story. This is a play about what happens years after the Harry Potter series had ended. Harry, Ron and Hermione have grown up and have jobs and families of their own. One of the main themes of the play is growing up with a legacy that you did not ask for- growing up the son of the famous Harry Potter. Of course, anyone who has read the series will know that Harry also had a legacy he did not ask for, as "The Boy Who Lived." I let both of my sons read this before I did and it was fun to discuss the book with them. I also enjoyed this one a lot. 

 

What It Means To Be a Teacher  by Jenn Larson.   This was another Netgalley Advanced Reader Copy. Thanks!  This book made me laugh. Sometimes books that are written "to celebrate" a classroom are obviously written by people who have not been in a classroom for many, many years. This book made me feel like others totally get what I do. I'm writing this post on 3/30- about 2 weeks into our social distancing from school. There are a lot of little moments in my day that I really miss- a check in with kids in the hallway who "accidentally" pass me at the same time every day, the weird responses I get to questions on a test, the cute doodle I find in the corner of an assignment... it's these kinds of things that I miss. This book has mentions of those types of things along with with everyday teaching issues. I related to this book a lot.

The Life We Bury- Allen Eskens- I read this for my Book Hive book club. Joe Talbert is a student who is assigned to interview a stranger to write a biography for a class at university. He goes to a nursing home to see if he can find someone to connect with and a nurse points him in the direction of Carl Iverson, who is a Vietnam vet but also a convicted murdered who is only out of jail because of his life-threatening medical problems. While he is trying to learn about Carl, he is also forced to deal with his dysfunctional mother whose drinking and selfishness put him in a caretaker position to his younger brother who is autistic.
       I liked this book. The characters are relatable and many of the backstories make you look at their situation and wonder what you would do in a similar position. I might check out the other books in this series.

The Garden of Lost Memories- by Ruby Hummingbird- I received this from NetGalley as an ARC. This was a delightful surprise to me. Elsie is an older woman who is set in her ways and in her routine until she meets a new neighbor who has left her abusive husband and is trying to support her 10 year old son, Billy. Billy doesn't quite understand why he is living in a new place or why he is stuck being babysat by Elsie, but he starts to feel more comfortable when Elsie teaches him how to work in her garden and he discovers a box that has been hidden for years. I thought this would be a little too light for me at first, but I liked how the characters developed throughout the story and the relationship between Elsie and Billy. It was a nice feel good story to read, even though not all of parts of the story are happy.

 Only Daughter- Anna Snoekstra-    It's 2014 and a young woman is caught shoplifting in a supermarket. Being a person who is somewhat used to manipulating others to get what she wants, she tries all of her normal routines until she realizes that she may not get out of this situation. So, she decides to try a new approach, to claim to be a child named Rebecca Winters, who went missing 11 years before. Rebecca's (called Bec) parents are called and the girl is welcomed back home into the family. She originally expected to leave the family, but as she settles into her new life, she discovers that she might actually be able to pull this off and might not decide to leave since things aren't so bad. Then things start unraveling and she feels like she has to figure out what is really going on. This book alternates between the girl in 2014 and Bec from 2003. It kept my interest and there were a few plot twists I didn't see coming.

Secret Prey- John Sandford- I started this one but did get very far. It was on my "to read" shelf but I'm not enjoying books that I'm feeling are overtly sexual, violent or gross just for the sake of trying to be entertaining to someone.

A Family of Strangers by Emilie Richards- This is another book for my Book Hive club. One thing I love about this club is that every person picks a book that they'd like and everybody else reads it. I have read lots of books that I wouldn't normally have read.  This book seemed like it might be a little light for me. It's about a woman named Ryan, who is called by her (considerably) older sister who has gotten in some sort of trouble and needs Ryan to help out by taking care of her nieces. Ryan, who is a crime podcaster, is extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation, but drops everything to try to help. When Ryan arrives at Wendy's house and begins spending more time with her nieces, she starts to realize that things don't seem to be as they seem.
       I liked this book too. I especially enjoyed the relationships between Ryan and her ex-boyfriend Teo as well as Ryan's relationship with her nieces. There were a few characters I spent a lot of time being annoyed by, but I think the author may have done some of that on purpose.

 

Personal by Lee Child-       I enjoy the Jack Reacher books. In this particular book, Jack is asked to track down (really, to bait) a sniper named John Kott, who is believed to have tried to shoot the French president. Kott and Reacher have history, as Reacher is the person who got Kott convicted and put into prison. Reacher is teamed up with a woman named Casey Nice and challenged to find Kott before the G8 summit, where they are worried he might strike again.

American Blonde by Jennifer Niven- I have no idea where I got this book. I think it's been on my "to read" shelf for a long time. I also had no idea that this is the 4th book in a series. With that being said, it was fine as a stand alone book. It's a piece of historical fiction (regular fiction with historical pieces?) that takes place during the Golden Age of MGM pictures. Velva Jean Hart is a girl who is "discovered" after she is caught on a newsreel during her return to America after the war. She is invited to Hollywood to audition for the pictures and is given a contract and a new identity. She leaves most of her old life behind to experience what it's like to be a star while she still tries to hold onto her personal identity. This is another book I'm glad I gave a chance to. I'm not sure if I will go back to read the other three Velva Jean books, but I'm glad I read this one. 

Goodreads Reading Challenge:19/60

Keyword Reading Challenge: 3/12

February Reading Update

      These are the books that I read in the month of February:

 

Persuader by Lee Child. I really enjoy the Jack Reacher novels, though I've found recently I might be enjoying thrillers a little less. I like how action packed these novels are and I suppose I like the fact that there is always vengeance for the good guy. In this particular novel, Reacher is hired (off the record, of course) to help take down a gun dealer who happens to be associated with a man who killed someone Reacher once worked with. I finished the book in a few days. I also just read an article about the author, Lee Child, and how he feels like he is "ageing out" of writing these Jack Reacher novels. He's passing the baton to his younger brother, Andrew. The 25th Jack Reacher novel will come out in October 2020.

 

     The Girl Who Disappeared Twice- by Andrea Kane- another thriller type. This book was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it. It was not graphic or terribly violent. I had not read any Andrea Kane before, and I will give her another shot if I see more of her books. I would've liked to see a few more things addressed towards the end of the book, but it was alright.This completes my February Keyword Reading Challenge with the word "Girl."

 

The Blind Spot-  by Adam Barrow- Rarely do I stop reading a book. In this book, a boy is kidnapped from a planetarium when his dad accidentally falls asleep during a show. You learn about a chapter later that the boy is taken with plans to traffick him to other men. I didn't think anything edifying could possibly come out of this book, so I just stopped. Moving on...

 

The Imperfects- by Amy Meyerson. I seriously needed to walk away from the thrillers for a bit. This book is about a family who is estranged from one another coming together after the grandmother of the family passes away and leaves a piece of jewelry, which ends up being the Florentine Diamond, to one of the grandkids. It examines the lives of all the characters individually while addressing the family dynamics. I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters were interesting and their family issues were definitely relatable. There were also bits of historical information woven into this story and I enjoyed that just as much.

The Breaker Boys-   My dad lent this book to me. He apparently knows the author, or someone related to the author. It's about young boys who used to work separating coal from other debris after it had been brought out of the shaft. These boys were usually very young (8-12?) and the job itself had some very dangerous aspects. This story is about a family who relocates to a mining town after the father gets into a dispute with his dad and decides to abandon the family trade. After a short period of time, the father of the family dies and the women of the family are left to fend for themselves. One of the daughters decides to dress as a boy and become a breaker boy.
I expected the story to be a bit more linear and maybe focus on the boys more, but it was interesting. I learned a few things and the characters drew me in. Even though I might've preferred more of the story of the breaker boys, their side stories added a lot to the book. I will say that there were a few mistakes in the book that were distracting to me. Example, there is a character who is referred to as Mr. Yager and Mr. Yeager. I don't know if my dad has an edited proof, but it bugged me that that got through the publisher because it happened a lot. Other than that, I found it enjoyable

Goodreads Challenge- 10/60

Keyword Reading Challenge- 2/12

Feb week 1

Well, I did a great job at blogging for 2 days in a row. Lol. Here's what's going on:

Teaching:

      My district is in the middle of contract negotiations and it's not going well for either side. Many days when I'm teaching, there's a subtle feeling that nags at me about the fact that there are many people that do not value what I do as an educator or as a person. Although I try not to let other people's opinions influence me much, this is one that is hard to ignore.
      Last week was one of those "in the trenches" weeks. First, 1 ton of kids at my school have the flu. At least 6 of my kids have been out for over a week, and not ones who usually miss school. There is a constant flow of "out sick," "returning from being out" and "not feeling good today." Trying to meet every child we're they're at while trying to actually accomplish something with everybody who has been in class can be a challenge to say the least.  I had an observation that was important to me Monday. (Not important in terms of making a difference in my job if I did badly, just wanting to do a good job.) Unfortunately, I did the observation with a new group of kids and it ended up being a terribly "off" day. Then, there were the normal middle school behaviors that we see every day. To say that last week kicked my butt would be an understatement. Thank goodness for those few kids in each class who just make a school nicer to be in.

Reading:

Still plugging away. I've been keeping a log of my February books, which I'll share at the end of the month. Have you read any particularly good books this month?

Writing:

I'm a letter writing machine this month. I think I've sent out 26 so far this month. Still going too. I've been getting a lot of great mail through Lettermo too!

Looking ahead:

Next week is February school vacation. We're going away for a few days and I cannot wait. Lots of reading, writing and family time. If you're not from MA, don't go to Cape Cod in the winter. It's dead. My parents bought a time share there and that's where we are going. We're pretty low maintenance, so we just enjoy hanging out with each other with a nice change of scenery.

        

2/2/20

     Just a short post tonight because I was foolish and spent hours watching the Superbowl. I sent 2 letters today- 1 to a person who requested to be friends on Lettermo and the other to a penpal who has been waiting for my mail since August. Here is her envelope:

 

    I also wanted to tell some of my penpals about the Facebook group Snailmailersrus.  It's a great site if you are interested in swapping. I haven't really met many people there yet but I have swapped things like homemade envelopes, stickers and other penpalling goodies. Today I took part in a "Gimme gimme," where you write 5 things that you would like and someone sends you something. You have to sign up to send something to another member. I am sending someone some tea and a memo pad. A woman in Russia is sending me some Russian snacks, which I'm sure I've never had before.

       Tomorrow is a busy day. I'm being observed by a professor whom I am helping with a research project. I'm feeling a bit nervous about it but I'm sure I'll be fine when I do it. 

February 2020

     Want to know what my favorite thing about February is? Well, I have a lot- believe it or not. Quite a few years ago, I discovered The Month of Letters, affectionately known as Lettermo. Basically, the premise of the challenge is that you write a personal piece of mail for every day in February and respond to each piece of Lettermo mail you get. I'm a little behind with my writing due to the move in October, but I plan to get caught up quick. Of course, I also have other notes I'd like to send too.  I've prepped by making a whole bunch of envelopes and buying a ton of stamps.  I may blog about the mail every day in February since I might actually get a lot of it and some of my friends have asked what makes penpalling so appealing to me.

 Ironically, the only mail I got today was a tag where someone was supposed to send me a bag of candy but they put the wrong swap in the envelope and I got their mail intended for someone else. I've had a bit of a rough day so secretly I was hoping for Finnish chocolate. :( No such luck.  Hopefully she will resend what I was expecting from the swap I signed up for.

      I'm mailing a bunch of things today. There is a letter to a Lettermo participant that I've never written to before, a letter to a student to thank them for always working hard for me, 9 cards to students who auditioned for a music festival today and 1 card to a former student who just performed incredibly in the Dormagen Junior Men's Sabre World Cup.
     If I can get my act together, maybe I can put the stats for my current mail challenge up tomorrow. I have not done well with writing every day, but I have probably sent out more pieces of mail than there have been days in January. We'll see, I just need to track everything down.