Book Goals for 2017

In the spirit of this post, I'd like to be more thoughtful as I plan my reading year. Here's what I have so far:

January (a book about immigration)

• In The Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

February (a book about Jewish people)

• The Two Family House: A Novel by Lynda Cohen Loigman

March (speculative fiction by a writer of color)

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

April (a book by a trans author)

• A Queer and Pleasant Danger by Kate Bornstein

May (a book translated to English)

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

June (a feminist book by a woman of color)

• Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy

July (a narrative around #BlackLivesMatter by a black author)

• They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

August (a book about Islam)

• Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

September (a book about Latinx people)

• Oye What I'm Gonna Tell You by Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés

October (American history from the perspective of a marginalized group)

• Homegoing: A Novel by Yaa Gyasi

November (policing and incarceration)

• Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World by Baz Dreisinger

December (a book set in the Middle East)

• Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson

I'm also planning on finishing as many of my school's "Bulldogs Read" books as I can. I read two over winter break, bringing my total to nine so far this school year. I love being able to talk to kids about books, and since many kids at my school read at least one Bulldogs Read book, it opens up conversations.

best books of 2015

January

Isn't it funny how intentions go by the wayside every time, and yet we still manage to be surprised when they do? I started this year full of optimism and goals. One of those goals was to read 52 books - a feat I managed in 2013 but not 2014. And if I didn't make it to 52 books, surely I would surpass 2014's book count of 32. And yet, here I am having read 31 books this year. In all fairness, this has been a very tough year for me full of excessive amounts of mostly work-related stress. But even amid all of that, I have some very fond book-related memories. Mainly reading books aloud in the car with Joe on our summer roadtrip. We read The Circle by Dave Eggers, The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer, and most of Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. Below is a list of some of my favorites from 2015.

Recipes & Cooking

• An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Alder
• Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen by Heidi Swanson
• Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home by Tammy Donroe Inman - This book was beautiful to look at and perfectly organized by main ingredient (apples, pears, etc).

Fiction

• The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence - This book was so sad! Told from a pony's point of view, this book chronicles the Scott expedition to the South Pole.
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• The Circle by Dave Eggers
• The Martian by Andy Weir

YA Fiction

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel by Megan Morrison

Non-Fiction

• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman - I intended to buy this beautiful book for my niece and nephew this Christmas, but ended up going with a couple other books as it wasn't available at my local book store. Next year, though...
• Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat - A funny/sad story about an ecologist turned environmentalist who lives for a time among the wolves of northern Canada.

a few things

:: I had the pleasure of reading this book by one of my former coworkers Megan Morrison! A fun adventure story that is a bit of a twist on classic fairy-tales. I bought two copies at her book signing: one for me and one for my school, since I work at a K-8. I think this book would appeal to 5th grade and up.

:: So far I've really enjoyed my weekly CSA box. The CSA season runs through October, so I have many more to come. This week, while looking at the contents, I think I see a plan: bruschetta! There are other things in the box that I'll need to plan for: carrots, potatoes, kale, and something completely new to me... fennel.

:: This year I've only made two small batches of jam. The first one was strawberry balsamic, and the second one was blackberry apricot. My blackberry apricot recipe is adjusted from here to be a small batch. I have a bunch of raspberries in the fridge that need to be processed today, but I haven't decided just what to do with them yet.

Blackberry Apricot Small Batch Jam with Cinnamon

• 4 cups fruit pureed (roughly 2 cups blackberries, 2 cups apricots)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 10 minutes in the boiling water

4. Those tomatoes have really taken off. They are now taller than the tomato cages and don't show any signs of slowing down. There are countless blossoms, and many baby tomatoes, growing on each plant. There are three plants, in three colors: red, orange, and yellow. I can't wait for ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden.

project 52: week 18

What is Project 52? It's a little like Project 365, but instead of the goal of posting a photo each day, I'll post a photo or two each week along with a short update. Really I just need a little push to post something every week. Since I like to keep this space positive, posting every week forces me to look back and find something shiny to talk about (ten points if you get that reference). Some weeks that's a piece of cake. Other weeks it's more of a challenge, and those weeks give this task true meaning.

One of these books is not like the other...

Books gathered from three libraries and a handful of teachers.

What's New?
I survived the first week back from winter break, and what a full week it was!

Monday started with the laptops not working. Tuesday was a fabulous science literacy workshop. Wednesday felt like Monday again, due to being out on Tuesday. Thursday morning included a meeting, along with a frantic rush to pull together a completely new lesson inspired by the Tuesday workshop. And Friday started with a morning meeting as well. On top of all of that, I attempted to grade all 150 notebooks this week. In reality I only got through 3 out of 5 classes, which isn't bad. I also rushed around to two public libraries, along with consulting our school librarian and a few teachers in the building to pull together a respectable book collection for our astronomy preview. It was a full week.

Currently Reading

• Lasher by Anne Rice
• On Bicycles by Amy Walker

On the Needles
I did indeed frog my pedestrian cowl and made the Purl Bee's bandana cowl instead. I think it's a better pattern for this particular yarn. I have some leftover yarn and I'm tempted to make another one, but this time I'd like to widen the base and do all the decreases at the top (I was worried it wouldn't fit over my head - I needn't have worried).

Looking Forward To

1. spending time with Joe

best books of 2014

This year I read 30 books. That's about 20 fewer than last year. And while that bothered me at first, when I look back at my year I'm really okay with it. Here's some of what I read:

Really, really long fiction (600 pages or more):

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin (~800 pages)

A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin (~800 pages)

A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin (~1200 pages)

A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin (~900 pages)

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (~1100 pages)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (~600 pages)

The Passion of Mary Magdalen by Elizabeth Cunningham (~600 pages)

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk (~600 pages)

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (~1200 pages)

Shorter fiction:
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Nonfiction:
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge

Cookbooks:

Whole-Grain Mornings by Megan Gordon

The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon

Children's books:

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters
Older than the Stars by Karen C. Fox
Flotsam by David Wiesner

Most of these books (all of the really long fiction, most of the shorter fiction, and some of the non-fiction) were read on my Kindle, which is why I didn't realize at first how long some of these books are. Some of them were re-reads (all the Game of Thrones books). Some of them were duds. But all in all I think it was a good year. I enjoyed immensely re-reading GoT, especially on the Kindle. Not only did I get to avoid lugging around such huge books, but it was very easy and efficient to highlight passages and add notations.

Reading Goals for 2015:

• 52 books - I can do it!
• finish the Divergent series
• read the Lord of the Rings trilogy (I can get past Tom Bombadil, I know I can!)

best books of 2013

photo credit: Georg Mayer via Flickr

This year I read 53 books. These were my favorites:

Fiction

• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• The Raven Boys & The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth (only the first book) by Carrie Ryan
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
• The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill

Children's

• A Symphony for the Sheep by Cynthia Millen
• Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

Non-Fiction

• The Urban Bestiary by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

And my overall favorites from this year:

• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
• Mink River by Brian Doyle

Trends I noticed in my book choices this year:

I read quite a bit of YA, but with my job as a middle school science teacher I think that's to be expected. I also read a lot on the bus once September hit, so YA books were a good choice. Of those YA books, though, I read quite a few tearjerkers: Speak, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Looking for Alaska, Tell the Wolves I'm Home and of course the whammy The Fault in Our Stars.

So what am I reading right now? I'm re-reading Game of Thrones. Something familiar and complex that won't end with me crying my eyes out. I think it's a good plan.

potstickers & teaching

What's New?
While I've been away from this space, I've been experimenting with making dumplings. I started with Smitten Kitchen's Spring Vegetable Potstickers and I've branched out to more traditional pork & cabbage stuffed wontons. I like how quickly they come together, and how quickly they cook. It's made weeknight meals so much easier.

The other news is that school is almost out! Next week is a 4-day week, with Thursday being the last day of school. I know I say this all the time, but I really don't know where April and May went. I swear March was just a few days ago. Part of that, I know, is that I've had a student-teacher the past couple months. The other part of that is how busy life gets in the Spring, especially when you're a teacher.

Currently Reading

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Why is Milk White? & 200 Other Curious Chemistry Questions by Alexa Coelho & Simon Field

On the Needles
I started a green Leaflet cardigan with my new birthday yarn (Thanks Marya & Alex!). Even though I try to do smaller projects, I just love knitting cardigans. I'm using Berroco Ultra Alpaca Tonal yarn, which is not single-ply (I'm swearing off single-ply yarn - it just doesn't show stitches as well). The Leaflet pattern is another by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, who is quickly becoming my favorite cardigan designer.

Looking Forward To

1. finishing up this school year
2. cleaning and organizing my classroom for next year

keep on keeping on

What's New?
This may sound a little silly, but hear me out. I had to go shopping this past weekend for 'work' pants. Pants shopping is usually a multiple-hour ordeal that often leaves me in tears without finding a single pair that fit. So you can imagine my level of excitement over the prospect of looking for new pants.

I wanted some basic, inexpensive Docker-type pants. I'm a science teacher, after all. I'm not about to buy expensive pants that will surely get some chemical or another spilled on them the first day I wear them. Murphy's Law, and all that.

So I went to JCPenny, since I already had some store credit from a return I'd done a million years ago (I hate shopping for clothes, so I pretty much only do it once a year). No Docker-type pants to be found. Bummer.

Then I went to Sears (my other two options were Macy's and Nordstroms), hoping they'd have Docker-type pants. When I walked in I remembered that they have a Lands End section. I went straight to that section, found their Docker-type pants and took them into the fitting room. I'd grabbed two sizes (remember, I only shop once a year, so who knows what size I wear), and tried them on. One of them fit perfectly! No giant waist, no tight thighs. They were also on sale. I couldn't believe my luck! I left the store with two pairs of those pants, happy as a clam, feeling like I won the cosmic pants-shopping lottery.

Currently Reading

• Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch - I read his book The Highest Tide earlier this year and loved it. This one also takes place in Western Washington, although it's a different subject-matter.
• Second Nature: a Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan

On the Needles
I've made an executive decision to shelve my purple striped sweater for now and start something new. My heart is just not in it right now. I imagine I'll pick it up again in the fall when the weather starts to turn cold again. For now I'll use up some of my scraps to make some hats or something else small while I dream up my next big project.

Looking Forward To

1. weekend lunch with two dear friends
2. Spring Break!

better late...

What's New?

I've decided to take on a student-teacher for the spring quarter. This will be my first time as a mentor teacher in my seven years of teaching, and I hope I do a good job. One thing that has kept me very busy this week, on top of my already busy schedule, has been cleaning and re-arranging. I've worked very hard to make my classroom a more inviting space for both my students and my student-teacher. I cleaned up a few "junk piles" and made room for another teacher desk. I swapped out an awkward table for a better model that now holds my document camera and laptop. I think my room looks pretty awesome now. I didn't take many before pictures, so you'll have to settle for these.

Before:

After: 

Currently Reading

• The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie McMillan

On the Needles
My striped Idlewood sweater is now getting sleeves! The body is off the needles, I've tried it on, and I'm working hard on the sleeves. I think I'll have enough yarn to do full-length sleeves, but we'll see.

Looking Forward To

1. the beginning of Spring
2. Joe's new job

What are you looking forward to?

week two

What's New?
I started seeds this week! I made seed pots out of newspaper for the first time, which was much easier than I had previously thought. I re-purposed an old under-bed storage bin and used strips of cardboard to keep the newspaper pots upright. My bin ended up holding 8 rows of 6, so I've got quite a few starts. Now I just need to keep the cats away until they are hardy enough to be transplanted outside. Oh, and clean out the raised beds (something I should have done last autumn, and I'm now kicking myself).

My nephew and I have become pen-pals. He's 5, lives across the country, and is a great reader and writer. He also loves checking the mail. So I've decided that in 2013 I'm sending him something in the mail once a month. In January I attempted to send him a box of books from an online retailer, but the box got lost in the mail. In February he got a Valentine. Now that it's March I'm sending him the Bob Books I tried to send him in January, and hopefully some St. Patrick's Day goodies, although I've been rather disappointed in the selection this year.

Currently Reading

• Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (local West Seattle author!)
• The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan

On the Needles
Still working on my purple and grey striped Idlewood sweater. I'm currently working on the bottom ribbed hem. When that's finished it's time for sleeves, although I'm a little worried I'll run out of purple for the sleeves. Maybe they will be solid grey? We'll see. I hope to be finished by next week.

Looking Forward To

1. bridesmaid dress shopping with friends
2. meeting a prospective student-teacher

What's new in your life?

fresh start

What’s New?

Well, it's been nearly 4 months since I've posted anything on here, and it's time to get back in the saddle (so to speak). I've realized recently that I'd rather post meaningful things here to help myself document my life than waste time checking social network sites (that shall remain un-named, although you can probably guess). I'd like to quit social networking, but I'm not quite ready. I think that if I'm able to keep up regular posts on here, that will help ease my transition. Who knows? But I'm ready to give it a shot.

I've learned that I need to set realistic, yet smallish, goals for myself, and I need to tell others about them if I hope to accomplish them. So, dear internet, here is my goal for this space: an update of some sort once per week. It doesn't even have to be the same day of the week (although I imagine that might help). It might include pictures (I'd like it to), but that's not a requirement. I used to only post if I had interesting/pretty pictures to share. I haven't been taking many pictures lately (rainy, grey Seattle winter + go to work in the dark and get home in the dark), and I've used that as an excuse to not post anything at all.

Currently Reading

• The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (a "thinky" book)
• Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (a YA novel)
• Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (local West Seattle author)

On the Needles

After finishing both my purple Shalom sweater and my grey Idlewood sweater I found myself with leftover yarn from both projects. Combined, it's enough for another sweater. I made both projects out of the same type of yarn (Cascade Soft Spun), in colors that are both considered "heathered" so I think they'll look nice together. I'm working on a striped Idlewood variation (smaller ribbed yoke, long sleeves) using roughly 4" stripes of each yarn.

Looking Forward To:

1. starting seeds
2. cooking for others

What are you working on right now?