It's Time for a Vacation!

Please excuse my absence.

I'll be away for a while.

Photo stolen from www.coastalfamilyliving.com
Soon, I'll have photos of my own.

Try not to be jealous or miss me too much.

See you soon,

Happy Father's Day!

This is one of my favorite photos of Daddy and me.  Me all dressed in pink with a bow in my hair and Daddy with his glasses and watch, things neither one of us went without.

Daddy holding me haphazardly in front of the camera, no doubt wanting the photographer to capture his precious little girl.  I love this photo because I think it was supposed to be of just me, and, instead, it's of the two of us.

The way his strong hands support my fluffy frame and his eyes look just a tiny bit fearful as he opens his mouth in a half smirk to speak combined with the way I sit content in his arms, this is what I love most about the picture--the honesty of it all.  The moment of fear and love and hope that wasn't supposed to be noticed but was.

I love the knowledge that he might not have known what he was doing raising a little girl into a lady, but he gave it his all, and he did his best. All things considered, I'd say he did a remarkable job, and still does--every day.

Thanks, Dad, for everything.

I love you,

Sunday Snippets

"I understood.  I was just smart enough to realize she meant white people.  And even though I still felt miserable, I knew that I was, most likely, ugly, it was the first time she ever talked to me like I was something besides my mother's white child.  All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe."
--The Help, Kathryn Stockett


~~~~~


"She rubs the cream in my hair with both hands.  I can practically feel the hope in her fingers.  A cream will not straighten my nose or take a foot off my height.  It won't add distinction to my almost translucent eyebrows, nor add weight to my bony frame.  And my teeth are already perfectly straight. So this is all she has left to fix, my hair."
--The Help, Kathryn Stockett


~~~~~


"I've met so many parents of kids who are on the low end of the autism spectrum, kids who are diametrically opposed to Jacob, with his Asperger's. They tell me I'm lucky to have a son who's so verbal, who is blisteringly intelligent, who can take apart the broken microwave and have it working again an hour later.  They think there is no greater hell than having a son who is locked in his own world, unaware that there's a wider one to explore.  But try having a son who is locked in his owl world and still wants to make a connection.  A son who tries to be like everyone else but truly doesn't know how."
--House Rules, Jodi Picoult


~~~~~


"'. . .don't they teach you how to spell these days?'
'No,' I answer. 'They teach us to use spell-check.'"
--House Rules, Jodi Picoult


~~~~~


"'But. . .' he's circling his hand again, wanting more. 'What kind of Christian?'
Oh. Kind?  Isn't being a Christian rather like being pregnant? You either wholly are or you really aren't--is there an in between? How did we become known as 'kinds' of Christian instead of being simply, humbly, loving Christians? What if following Christ was about a living faith not about wearing faith labels--about living Christ-behaviour, not living in Christian boxes?"
--Ann Voskamp, http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/06/what-in-the-world-should-christians-wear/


~~~~~

Happy Father's Day,   (Look for a Father's Day post soon!)

My Summer Reading List

I've been waiting for this summer.  It's turning out to be a lovely season of relaxation and reflection. 


My first free week of the summer I read during nearly every waking minute.  I inhaled words from pages, spending my mornings and afternoons reading and reading and reading until my eyes started to cross and I had to look up to take a breath.  It was lovely.  Now, though, normal life is in session, and although I'm reading less, it's still so much more than I get to during the school year.


I committed to reading 10 books this summer, not too much of a challenge but enough to make me focused.  Then I added another book, so now I've committed to reading 11.


Here it is, my Summer 2012 Reading List, in no particular order:

The Help: This was my first book of the summer, a true gem. Read what I said about it here.

House Rules: My second summer read wasn't quite as poignant as the first, but it wasn't really intended to be.  Here's what I thought about it.

Eat to Live: In Progress. . . 

Anthem                                        These three books are on 

The Alchemist                             supplemental reading list for   

Alas Babylon                              my students.  I inherited the                  

                                                      list, and since I haven't read   

                                                      most of the books, I figured it  

                                                      was time to get started.

To Kill a Mockingbird: I've read this book twice already--once in high school and another time three days before the school year started and I was to teach the novel.  I think I need a slower read through before I tackle it again this year.

The Hunger Games         

Catching Fire                                 I know.  I'm behind.

Mockingjay 

The Poisonwood Bible: This book was recommended to me by a college professor, so I bought it but haven't ever picked it up.  I'm starting it today!

Happy Reading!

Sunday Snippets

"And I know there are plenty of other "colored" things I could do besides telling my stories or going to Shirley Boon's meetings--the mass meetings in town, the marches in Birmingham, the voting rallies upstate.  But the truth is, I don't care that much about voting.  I don't care about eating at a counter with white people. What I care about is, if in ten years, a white lady will call my girls dirty and accuse them of stealing the silver."
--The Help, Kathryn Stockett


~~~~~


"All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries."
--The Help, Kathryn Stockett


~~~~~

--www.postsecret.com

~~~~~

What I Just Finished: House Rules

Jodi Picoult used to be my favorite author, but the more I read, the more she stays the same.  All of her books are about an ethical dilemma of some sort, requiring the reader to think and wrestle with her beliefs, and that I like.  I find her books to all have the same sort of rhythm which I feel is a bit redundant.  After reading a few of her novels, they've all started to seem familiar even though I don't know the plot.


All that said, I'm still going to read Picoult's novels.  She always sucks me into the story, and her books are quick and easy to read even though they leave me thinking for long after I've put them down.

House Rules is one of her newer novels.  It's about an eighteen year old boy named Jacob who has Asperger's.  The novel begins by highlighting Jacob's daily life and obsessions, as well as the struggles of his mom, Emma, and his younger brother, Theo.  Then, Jacob is accused of murdering his social skills tutor, Jess.   I won't tell you if he did it or not, you'll have to find out.   :)

I've been interested in Asperger's and autism for a long time. The only trouble I really had with Picoult's descriptions of Jacob and the way that Asperger's affected him is that she took almost all of the symptoms and shoved them on Jacob's character with incredible intensity.  In my, albeit limited, experience with studying Asperger's (for a semester in graduate school) and tutoring or knowing a few different people with Asperger's it seems that Picoult's character was a bit over exaggerated for where she placed him on the autism spectrum.

Also, there are references, quite a few, that suggest a link between Asperger's and autism to vaccinations.  While some parents wholeheartedly hold on to the belief that immunizations directly resulted in their child's placement on the autism spectrum, most scientists and doctors disagree.  I think Picoult brought up this issue in a way that was a bit irresponsible, as she never presented facts from the other side of the argument.

Other than that, I thought she did a wonderful job highlighting the struggles of parents and siblings of people on the autism spectrum, as well as the person who struggles with the autism himself.  By writing from the point of view of each character, she highlighted vantage points that other characters could not see, many times pointing to how society could be (and should be) more accepting of people with autism and their families.

All in all, it was a good read.

Happy reading,

Things I Love about Summer, Part 1

Fresh tomatoes,

taking walks,

smoothies for breakfast,

having lunch with my husband,

perfect skies,

picnics at the park,

lazy days at home,

and lush green landscape.

What I Just Finished: The Help

I know; I know. I'm behind. The Help has been on my reading list for ages.


I saw the movie in theaters; it was brilliant. I laughed and cried and all that jazz.  


The book, as usual, was better.  


Stockett is honest and genuine and poignantly describes with incredible accuracy the trouble with two races living in one south during the Civil Rights Movement. She outlines the cycle of black women raising white children and then becoming maids to those same children.  She highlights the love the white children have for their caretakers but, in many cases, gradually lose as they grow older and the world's lies masked as the truths of how things are and how things must be  creep into their growing hearts and minds.

I love this book because I teach a brief section on the Civil Rights Movement when we study To Kill a Mockingbird, and this will tie in so well.

I love this book because it's beautifully written.

I love this book because I've felt like Skeeter so many times.  A white girl who notices hypocrisies and isn't quite sure what to do with them.

I love this book because I know these people.  The white people who believe themselves to be entitled and the black people who are fighting to break the cycle of unfairness.

I love this book because at its heart and soul it's true.

I love this book because I want my children to understand the importance of colorblindness because, until we rise up and vehemently declare NO, there is always a danger of history repeating itself.

I love this book because I want the people I know to change.

I love this book because I want the world to change.

I hope you'll love it to,