I really and truly believe kids think this way. I’m not sure where the summer is going — mid July already??? — but I have a bit of work done and the house is somewhat clean, so I guess I’m making progress. I’ll be out of town the next few weeks so although I’ll still be making posts, expect them to be a bit shorter (than usual… that means next to nothing, I guess!).

So last week I said I’d have a page set up for a different novel I was working on. I lied. I’m still making good progress going through it, I just don’t have a synopsis set up the way I’d like to, and I’m not putting up a page until I do. For those of you who actually enjoy reading my stuff, though, I will post the first chapter as well (when I get the page up… ugh. A few more weeks?).

In other news, it’s beautiful and warm outside, so I’m going to go enjoy it. Cheers!

If you are a teacher, this will probably be a very familiar situation. My boyfriend isn’t a teacher, but most of my friends are. I always know we’re going on way too much about our jobs when his eyes start to glaze over. If you work in the same school or teach the same grade, it’s worse. MUCH worse.

In other news, I have a few obsessions to rant about today.

1. Gone!

I’ve discovered Gone and its sequel, Hunger, a series of YA novels about a town that suddenly finds itself removed from, well, everywhere and everything. Everyone under the age of 15 remains, so they have toddlers running around and all sorts of problems they’re not equipped to deal with, and as you can tell from the title of the second novel, the food eventually begins to run out. Really enjoying these books — well characterized, creepy villains, intriguing concept. Excellent summer reading.

2. Burn Notice

Burn Notice is by far my new favorite show. I started watching it because I wanted to see what Bruce Campbell was up to these days (yikes — beer belly much, anyone?). Anyway, I wound up totally hooked. I already burnt (no pun intended) through the first two seasons and I’m following the third online, since strangely enough we don’t get the USA network in Canada. HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this show. Lots of fun.

3. Writing

Yes, writing. I’ve realized that way back when I started this blog the intent was for it to be mostly about writing, and since then it’s become mostly about teaching — fitting enough, I suppose, given the comic and its topic. But I’ve been seriously revisiting one of my novels lately. In fact, I’ll probably put up a page for it later this week, so that me and the four people who reguarly read this blog can enjoy it.

My final obsession is my backyard, which used to be rocks and is now awesome. In fact, I’m going there now. I might take a rabbit, but maybe not. Last time I tried that they clawed me to shreds and then tried to eat the garden. So we’ll see.

Yup – ain’t that always the way it goes?

As much as it annoys me when people go on about how easy teachers have it, I’m not going to lie to you: A couple weeks of holidays, followed by  a couple more weeks of only going to work if I feel like it, sounds pretty darn good right about now. And yes, my imaginary world is out of sync with the real world. I’m not that efficient at planning ahead.

In fact, this feels entirely too much like work right now. So see ya — don’t worry, I’ll be over it by next week!

Ah, the little darlings. We went on a field trip on Friday to a park that is essentially a rattlesnake preserve, at which point one of my students informed several others that yes, of course Miss Swark said it would be fine to run around in the waist high grass. I was tempted to tell them to take their shoes off too and let nature run its course; instead, of course, I delivered a long lecture on snakes and grass and watched their eyes glaze over.

Friday was good, though — and proof positive, I think, that you don’t have to do some long, drawn out, expensive field trip to create memories. In previous years, the grade 3 class has apparently taken a trip to Calgary Zoo, which I’m sure was great fun — but with almost 50 students and a rapidly dwindling budget, it just wasn’t an option for us this year. So, much to the disappointment of some of our students and parents, we instead opted for a small gathering of parents and students at a local picnic site in the coulees.

Fortunately, I think even those parents (and kids!) who were intially skeptical really enjoyed the day. We had a brief opening liturgy and my class got to revisit its Christmas concert success by using gymnastic ribbons to do a little presentation, we made dream catchers, we created “memory plaques” and varnished them, we had hot dogs, and we played Predator and Prey, which I remember playing when I was a kid (although the game was somewhat impeded by the inability to leave the paths due to the aforementioned RATTLESNAKE PRESERVE. Some of you may be wondering why we would choose to bring nine year olds to such a place. The simple answer is that EVERYWHERE not heavily populated in this part of Southern Alberta is a potential rattlesnake nesting ground. Apparently they’re endangered and hurting them is illegal. You don’t have to worry about that — if I see one, I will be too busy running away to hurt it).

Anyway, the trip was fun, the kids have great memories, and I don’t think anyone missed an exhausting trip to Calgary (not to mention a three hour bus ride — each way). So take it from me if you’re dubious: you really CAN have fun in  your own back yard. Just watch out for snakes.

The comic is late again, but I was out of town again, so that’s that.

A group of us went to Calgary this weekend to see Evil Dead: The Musical. I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t all that excited — it’s my boyfriend who’s the Evil Dead fan (I like it well enough but not like some people). But to my surprise, the show was very funny, totally engaging, and an absolute blast. So hooray for trying new things, I guess. It’s late. I’m tired. Whatever. :p

A comic — and even on the correct day!

I just finished reading The Shack, which has apparently been transforming lives for years (I’d never heard of it). It was definitely an interesting and unique read. The book has provoked a lot of controversy following, as it does, a man whose life was transformed by pain through a weekend long encounter with the Holy Trinity: God the Father (a black woman who goes by the name of “Papa”), Jesus the son (a middle Eastern Jewish carpenter — go figure), and the Holy Spirit (Saruyu, half Asian woman, half wind).

Let’s be honest: this is not a particularly well written book. It shines at part, but it needed a few more edits, the writing gets clunky now and then, and a few parts are genuinely cringe worthy. By and large, though, it presents an extremely interesting and quite unique vision of the Holy Trinity. It’s getting a wide combination of praise and criticism (this latter both from atheists, who find it wish fulfillment, and from fundamentalists, who find it too new-agey). I can’t say it transformed my life the way it seems to have changed some other people’s, but I definitely found a lot of the concepts highly interesting, and I certainly recommend giving it a read to see for yourself!

Sorry to be late! I was out of town and got home later than expected, but here is this week’s comic just the same.

A new comic, hooray!

My boyfriend is really into LOL Cats and he bought me this awesome book with LOL cat captions. Anyway, it occured to me that there must be LOL bunnies out there, and sure enough, there are!!!

How many of us have heard this before?

I’ve been making a mental list of books I want to read this summer and I stumbled across this review for 100 Cupboards from my friends at Tomorrow’s Trust. Guess what just made the top of my list? It looks AWESOME.

Anyway, that started me thinking about some of the best books I’ve read this year — the “can’t put ‘em down” books. So if you’re hunting for summer reads, these are my recommendations:

1. The Hunger Games by Susan Collins. Definitely my favorite book this year, although the ending sucks — it just kind of jerks to a halt a la Pirates of the Carribbean Two in anticipation of the sequel — which comes out in September and I’ve already pre-ordered, btw).

2. Sadly, Twilight. I realize everyone except me had probably read it by now but I resist trends and jump on them late (didn’t get into Harry Potter until the fourth book was out). And Twilight, while it has its faults, really is as compelling as everyone says. Meyers’ characterization is spot-on, which is why it works. On the other hand, I would appreciate it if my eight year old students stopped coming to school wearing clothes that say I heart Vampires.

3. Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey. Or anything by Philip Yancey, really. If you haven’t read his books you absolutely should. They are well reasoned, interesting, and all too aware of the problems facing contemporary Christianity, both from outside and within. He makes no effort to defend the actions of Christians who clearly go against everything Christ stood for, focusing instead on what each person can do to find God.

4. H.I.V.E. — Higher Institute for Villainous Education: This one was just a lot of fun. Polar opposite of Phillip Yancey, of course, but I felt I should probably include something with a bit of a brain in my list :p

5. OK, so finally, I am just about to reread Jane Austen’s infamous Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve read at least once a year for a decade. If you have never read this famous book you are SERIOUSLY missing out. It’s funny, touching, and very, very smart. This is the summer to pick it up. And if you’re done with that, you might want to take a peek at something I just accidentally discovered on Amazon: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance — Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

Happy Reading!