Still here!

Final essays and now exams have reduced my available time to almost nil, and while I want to post, it is not high on my priority list. 

This is going to be a random posting, as I have some pictures I have been wanting to post and things I want to share with Jennifer!! 

So get ready for picture overload! 

Adventures with Kirk

Kirk isn't very strong

But I am!! One finger lift! 

 -Jennifer!! When are you coming home??

This is as unfuzzy as I could get!

I don't have time to write any reviews right now but if anyone is looking for some fantastic books to read, I just finished some great ones!

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

The Violets of March - Sarah Jio

The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

And now back to studying!! 

What I Read in 2011

One of the blogs that I read did a posting about all of the books she read in 2011 and I loved the idea! So here I am, eventually getting around to posting my own book list. You can check out Holly's post here! {which I highly suggest you do because I find her extremely amusing and witty}


I challenged myself over at Goodreads  to read 50 books in 2011 and I was so close! 47 out of 50 isn't too bad considering how busy I was with school. I also started at the end of February so I don't consider this a failure, just not an success. This year I reduced the list to 40, hopefully I don't end up with 37 at the end of the year. 


Holly's list involved her review on the book but I am not that ambitious. Right now I will just make the list and eventually get around to reviewing them. Hopefully I will be smart enough to write a quick review for each book I read in 2012! 


February:

 

So as I was half way through putting these pictures on I realized two things. The first was that there is no way I am getting through 47 books tonight. So here is just February. The second thing I noticed was how juvenile these books appear to be! All well, there is nothing wrong with children's literature. I am proud to say I read children's literature. 


Look back for March books sometime soon! 


And as I preview this I realize I am in need of helping putting pictures on! Any suggestions on how to properly add pictures? 

New Books, 2012 edition

Once again the Scholastic Book Fair was the only reason to get up this week! I am been feeling quite sick with the start of a cold, my throat was awful yesterday. So it was wonderful to have the book fair to look forward to. 


This year I was not able to get to the book fair until 11:30 because of class. I was very surprised about how little was actually left! All of the teacher resources were picked over but there was plenty of picture books to buy! 


This morning Paige and I decided to go first thing to see if they restocked their shelves and they had!! I was so pleased! I bought a lot of wonderful teacher resources that I am so excited to use some day. 

{Please forgive me for the messy collection of pictures, it was incredibly hard to arrange them}

As a side note, I am feel much better today! I am not sure if it was the billion glasses of water I drank or the overall pleasantness of buying books. Either way, I am feeling better. Last night I also became extremely productive around 10:30 or so and I am hoping to keep this productiveness rolling today. Next week is a pretty dreadful looking week but then I can 'relax' until March. 

I feel that the concept of relaxing while being a university student is something that I was to focus on later. So my question to you* is about relaxing. What wonderful tips for relaxing and de-stressing have you heard about or swear by? 


*you - anyone who reads this blog and wants to comment! It can be completely anonymous if you prefer it that way.  

Over a rhetorical shirt reigns a floating proof

Love the title?! I do! I could not think of a good enough title so I went here: a random word generator. It took only two clicks before this beauty popped up!

I decided to plug this into Google Images and see what appears. The result was a random bunch of images, some of them involving t-shirts and some were just plain odd. My favourite images of the bunch were:

The random title is fitting for this random blog post. As it has been too long since I last posted I figured I should get into things again. 

I have been reading the most wonderful books recently: Far to Go by Alison Pick, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I plan on writing reviews for them all very shortly. Right now I am read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. 

 

I recently came across this list here: 365 Simple Pleasures to Brighten a Year which I read through and just adored. Check these simple pleasures out when you get a chance, I will be featuring one every blog. 

Today's Simple Pleasure is...

1. Songs that bring you back to great moments in your life.

It is amazing how much music is a part of my life. The radio is normally always on, or we have a CD going, or I am upstairs listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio. The main musical influence in my life is Elvis Presley. I have been a fan of Elvis for many years now and I could listen to his voice all day long. Whenever I hear an Elvis song I do think of my trip to Graceland that I took with my dad for my 16th birthday. It was such an amazing experience to be at Graceland and I cannot wait to go back! 

I decided that trying to complete the list of 50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine is going to take too long if I try and do it in order. So I am going to complete this list out of order. 

50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine

9. Leave an encouraging note in a library book

I rarely take out library books myself, so I put this note in one of the books that my mom borrowed. 

Sunshine successfully scattered!!

Today is....

a wonderful day.

a beautiful day.

a day to be thankful for.

a day to stop and smell the flowers.

a day to walk around with a huge smile on your face because you can.

I woke up this morning and decided that today was going to be a great day. Yes, I was so very tired when I woke up that I just wanted to go back to bed. And yes, the massive grocery shopping adventure ended up pushing my buttons. But these things did not stop me from enjoying this day.

One of the main reasons for keeping such a positive attitude, other than my birthday tomorrow of course, is this blog here: Alice's Bucket List. Alice is such an inspiration and if she can keep such a wonderful attitude despite her terminal cancer, then I certainly can.

But it all comes down to that; a choice. I can choose to have a great day today and not let anything dampen my mood. On the other hand, I could chose not to care and let every tiny thing bother me. Making the decision to have a wonderful day today was easy, keeping it a wonderful day meant some work, but it is worth it. Today is a grand day.

Because I missed this week's Monday Post due to being away, I figured I should finally post that book review for The Good Daughters. I posted it on my goodreads account and you can find the review here.

And finally..... SCATTERING SUNSHINE!!
That's right! I finally got the first item finished, it only took almost three months.

50 Ways to Scatter Sunshine
1. Send a hand-written thank you card to someone.

I received this box with cards for my birthday from my aunt and I completely adore it!

It was absolutely perfect for this scattering of sunshine. I am not going to say who the letter was to but the letter was mailed today and should be arriving sometime next week! I am going to pretend that I put off doing this first item of the list was because I did not have the right stationary to properly and effectively scatter sunshine. But now I do! 

Sunshine successfully scattered! 

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." 

— E.E. Cummings

50 ways to scatter sunshine

Now that school is over (YEAH!) I am devoting my time and energy to scattering sunshine. I came across this list of ways to 'scatter sunshine' through Stumble! (which is highly addicting and ever so entertaining). I figured this list was perfect for my blog and my plan is to go through each item and describe how I was able to scatter a little sunshine.

I am also planning on writing a monthly book/movie post that talks about the books and movies that I read or watched over the month. With all of the extra time I now have I think this should not be a problem.

So basically, you can expect more posts soon!!

I will end this posting with a wonderful quote about spring because I am so very happy that spring has finally sprung!!

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. 

 ~Doug Larson

NEW BOOKS!!

Today was the Scholastic Book Fair!! I got up extra early so I could be there right as it started and I am so happy with my purchases. Happy enough to share them!

The selection of books was fantastic and they were all half off! You can't beat that!!

A French homework books so I can work on my terrible French

Grade 4 workbook for a general resource. I also got Grade 3 and Grade 1. There is some really great stuff in these.

Great Teacher Projects has so many wonderful ideas!

And these books were just so cute and adorable that I couldn't put them down!

So needless to say, I am extremely happy and thrilled with my purchases!! Again, HALF-OFF!!! So happy!! This is just want I needed to get through the week!

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

— Frederick Douglass