Yep, Homemade Turtles!

Less than 2 days before we get to start another year--what are you doing to celebrate? Christmas was rather low key this year as New Year's Eve will be. I'll be spending it with my mother and aunt and plans are to rent a sci-fi pic (a favourite genre of my rather cerebral aunt ;) Food will be healthy excepting the turtle candies that I just finished making. They are so much better than store bought! There is nothing like the taste of homemade caramel and the time used to make them is worth it. Best part is that I give most of them away as gifts or, if you're in my neck of the woods, stop by for a New Year's greeting and some candy!

A few days ago, Dead Poets Society was on t.v. Robin Williams as the English teacher was so wonderful. Thoreau's Walden is mentioned and I came across this quotation in a review:

"I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." Walden, Henry David Thoreau

This will be my mantra for the upcoming year. I need to stop being afraid of the possibility of failure and just embrace the experience and "advance confidently". What's yours?

Wishing you a happy and fulfilling start to 2011!

Another Year Already Over?!?!

When I look at the calendar it amazes me that we're already deep into the Christmas season. We've had our first snowstorm of the season and I was rather annoyed with myself--"I can't use my brand new snow blower!!!!" Apparently, one needs to drain the gas and oil, d'uh!, after the final use. How this slipped my mind I'll never know but there it is. So, I spent an invigorating hour with the icy winds blowing at my face while the rest of me was working up a sweat :)

I've been thinking about where I was at the start of 2010 and where I am now. I've accomplished quite a few of things that I wanted to including (insert drum roll here)cleaning up my basement!!! I managed to give away quite a lot of household goods, threw out a lot of old cans--apparently they don't have as long a shelf-life as I'd thought ;) and recycled several boxes of old magazines. I also made space for a corner of my basement and have turned it into a workout zone complete with television and stereo to keep me moving to the beat!

I'm trying to read a book a week. That's slowed down a bit because of the holidays but I'll hope to pick that up again. My biggest goal for 2011 is landing that teaching job! I must admit to having doubted myself and my teaching ability due to the poor job environment. I've now opened myself up to moving from my lifelong home and am excited for what may happen. In my cleanup, I came across an old box of work from grade school. In it was a large sheet of chart paper that my 3rd grade teacher had written on with my "bio". The final sentence proclaimed that when I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher, and indeed I do. I'm excited about taking another online course too which will give me my qualifications for teaching history.

All in all, the year is shaping up as a good one but I am sure 2011 will be even better!

I Read a Book!

Okay, I admit--the title to this post might be odd if you know me. As a new teacher and someone who majored in English you'd think that reading a book wouldn't be such a big deal! Well, it is to me because reading is something I haven't done of late, at least for pleasure.

So, I went to my library branch online and put a hold on "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". I had seen the ads for the movie and they touted it as the movie of the smash best selling book. I had 14 days in which to read it (because it's in such high demand). The first few chapters were rather boring. If you know nothing about this book, it was written by a Swedish author. I often wonder how much is lost in the translation. So, lots of Swedish names and places I'd never heard of.

In brief, it's about a financial journalist who gets in trouble for writing an article about some big financial guy (sorry for the rather lame use of language!). He has to spend some time in jail for this but before he does, he is approached by the lawyer of another bigwig of Swedish industry. This person wants our lead character to find out what happened to his niece over 30 years before. The action finally starts to kick in once he begins his research. Intrigue, family drama, a serial killer--it's all here but at the end of the day there's nothing really new. If anything, this is an interesting book because it takes place in Sweden. It does have a different feel to it when comparing it to an American thriller of this sort. I want to watch the movie and see how it compares.

Anybody read anything lately that they would recommend? Fiction or non, I'm a fan of both! Now, off to choose my latest read :)

Have a beautiful weekend!

One Year!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a little over a year since I posted here! I've been posting mostly to my other blog. Now that I'm finished school, I'm going to try to do what I set out to do and just write here for the sake of writing.

Thanks to those of you who left comments!

I've spent most of my time reading children's books over the past year and must say that there are some awesome ones out there. If only I had the money to buy some! But, that's what libraries are for and I have been using mine to the max.

Some of my favourites are The Librarian of Basra, Something Beatiful, Winston the Book Wolf, and a beautiful edition of Henny Penny. I was teaching a grade one/two split for the past month and the kids absolutely adore reading. Can't tell you how much that excites me! Reading was always a pleasure for me and as a teacher that is something I want to instil in the kids who cross my path. It shouldn't be work--it should be fun!

The book club I joined this past winter has been moving along without me :(
I've been much too busy but now I have the time. They are reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'm still waiting for a copy from the library.

Anyone out there reading something good? Pass it along and let's share!

Long Time, No Post

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here. I've been busy on my other blog and actually haven't done any reading since the weather got nice!

I'm going to aim for my 2-3 chapters a night, leaving the day free for errands. I did manage to go see Iron Man and really enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr. was great in the role and I'm looking forward to seeing a movies about The Avengers (if you go see it, stick around for the end of the credits where there is a little teaser about what's coming next).

One book down...

Well, I made a conscientious effort to read at LEAST one chapter a day and I finished the Anne Perry book, Death of a Stranger. I've started on In the Name of God because it's short. I'm also going to attempt one of my already started nonfiction books tonight.

I don't want it to seem as though I'm reading JUST to get it out of the way. I enjoy it. It just seems a bit harder now to stay with more than one chapter!

Death of a Stranger was decent as far as the William Monk series goes. Perry has a style of writing that can be a bit irritating at times (she can be repetitive and tends to state the overstate the obvious) but she always describes Victorian London very well. This wasn't so much of a whodunit as it was a whydunit and Monk gets his memory back.

Happy reading to all!

Library Friday

I went to the library to look for The Book Thief . It was out so I have to wait for a loan to come in from another branch. I did, however, manage to take out 3 other books, all of them fiction. Forget about one book a month, I'd like to get back to one per week. So, my new resolution is one nonfiction per month and TRY for one fiction per week.

First up is Death of a Stranger by Anne Perry. It's part of a mystery series featuring the character of Inspector Monk. The series takes place in Victorian London and I truly enjoyed it. For whatever reason, I hadn't read any for some time. Which is probably a good thing because I've got several to catch up with and don't have to wait for the "next one".

The second is A Dead Man in Trieste. It is the first book of a mystery series also. It intrigued me because of the setting (I'm a history nut!) and I hope that it will be as good as the title makes me think it will.

The third book is In the Name of God. The main character is a young Syrian girl and the story is aimed at her struggle with Fundamentalist Islam. Of course, very topical but written by a Westerner who lived in the Middle East for many years. I am hoping that this too will be interesting.

Happy reading to everyone out there in Blogger land. I've also added Calvin and Hobbes to my blog. Along with The Farside and Herman it is one of the all-time brilliant comic strips (in my humble opinion of course).