Poets in the Family

 My daughter Emma and I started attending a live poem workshop at our library at the beginning of the year.  It meets on the first Monday of the month and the first thing we do is go around the table and share a poem we have already written if we would like to.  

Monday Afternoon was very hectic at my house.  Amy was out and about and everything was going wrong.  The workshop started half an hour earlier than I thought it did, dinner was a hot mess,and I was in a foul foul mood.  By the time we got on our way a gorgeous full moon was shining on the river that our library sits upon and it had a calming effect on my soul reminding me what the important things were and how I was chasing the unimportant.  

Emma and I got into the meeting right as the poetry sharing was beginning. I jotted this poem down and then recited it when it was my turn.

Inside Outside Upside Down

(With No Apologies to Sam And Jan Berenstain)

Inside

Running late

Mixed up meeting time

bad mood

burnt food

rush rush rush

Outside

Circle moon

Yellow glow

Silence between loved ones

That speaks comfort

Through the admiration of beauty

I'd like my inside to be more like the outside. 

After I read my poem Emma read hers.  She had written it previously but I  still took it as a warning that I need to be careful with my words, thoughts, and actions so I don't hurt the ones I love.

I encouraged Emma to start a poetry blog. She had a few other blogs when she was younger, but doesn't use them now.  Her poem and my poem are both at Poetry Friday this week.  It is being hosted this week by Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.

Love,

Dave

The first 40 days of Reading 2023

 One of my Januarying tasks was to get back into reading and listening to books.  Last year, I pretty much stopped reading altogether at the end of July. As I referred to here and here. August through December of 2022 was a crazy busy time of my life; as a result, some things got dropped and books certainly didn't get picked up.

Over Christmas Break I started reading again.  Today is the 40th day of the year and so far I have finished 8 books.

They are  Listed by Title, Author, How obtained, How Consumed

Dead Center                                  David Rosenfelt          Hoopla                Listened to from phone

Heaven                                           Randy Alcorn             Own                    Read (to self)

Dryer's English                               Benjamin Dryer         Local Library     Read (to self and others)

A Big Day for Baseball                  Mary Pope Osborn     Classroom         Read (to self)

Big Nate: Welcome To My World   Lincoln Pierce           Classroom         Read (to self)

Play Dead                                        David Rosenfelt          Hoopla             Listened to from phone

Billy Graham: America's Pastor      Geoff & Janet Benge  Hoopla             Listened to from phone

Unnatural Death                               Dorothy L. Sayers      Hoopla             Read from my Ipad. 

That's 8 books finished in 40 days.  There are 365 days this year which means to find out how many books I'm on pace to read in a year you would just multiply 8 times 9.125 which us of course 73 books.  

I guess since I've mentioned the last 8 books I've read I've also technically mentioned the last five as well  That being said, here are 10 books that I am currently working on or hoping to get too soon.

The Annotated Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Annotated and Edited by David M. Shapard.

The Last Sweet Mile - Allen Levi

Write Better - Andrew T. Le Peau

Gentle and Lowly - Dane Ortlund

Luke - The Gospel of Amazement - Michael Card

What To Do on Thursday - Jay E. Adams. 

75 Readings - An Anthology

Heroes of the Faith - Gene Fedele

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy L. Sayers

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer

If I were to complete all 10 of these books in the next 40 days Then I would be on pace to finish 81 books by year's end.  My wife is sure to annihilate any kind of total I should accumulate as she is a reading machine.  

For those familiar with my reading ways you may wonder why there are no C.S. Lewis books on the docket. This is by design.  I do plan to read all of the Chronicles of Narnia this year as I've done most every year since I was 16.  The difference this year is I decided to put them off a little bit and concentrate on other books at the beginning of the year. .  When I do get to them, I have decided to read them in alphabetical order rather than chronological or Narnian historical order as I have in the past.  This means I'll start with The Horse and His Boy and end with the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  

It's good to have started the year on a reading note.  Hopefully, I'll be back soon with news of 5 more books completed.

Love,

Dave

 

It's A Boy Sub!!!

 This is my 5th school year being a substitute teacher.  I started about 4 years ago near the beginning of the 2nd semester of the 2018-2019 school year.  In the school district I work in there, are 3 types of substitute teaching jobs.  Substitute Teacher, Long Term Sub, and Building Sub.  A substitute teacher is exactly what you think it is.  You come into a school and replace the teacher that is gone that day.  A long-term sub replaces a teacher when they are gone for 4 weeks or longer.  This is often due to maternity or paternity leave but these are not the only reasons.  A building sub is assigned to a particular school and is the first line of defense when teachers call in sick the day of school or perhaps leave during the course of school.  I spent my first 2 years as a regular sub, I have been working primarily as a long-term Sub since February of 2021 and last month started my new adventure as a building sub.

One advantage of being a long-term sub or a building sub over a regular sub is that the base pay is better.  An advantage to being a building sub over a long-term sub is that often times a long-term sub has additional duties like grading students and preparing lessons that a building sub does not have.  I really enjoy being a building sub because I get to know all of the kids in the school and my day to activities are extremely varied. The best part of my current position is that I work with my wife.  She is a School Psychologist in the district and I work at her school.  Most days we drive in together which is not only a great way to spend time together but also a great way to save money.

Most days I don't get my assignment for the day until I'm on my way to school.   Some days I'm subbing for multiple teachers due to meetings or trainings, others I'm in for just one teacher.  The latter occurred earlier this week.  I went into the classroom and was sitting at the teacher's desk reviewing the plans that had been laid out for me.  I heard a commotion brewing in the hallway.  On this day the teacher had come to school, realized she was too sick to teach, and left before the school day started.  She was not able to leave the building before being spotted by some of her students.  The commotion I heard brewing was the students discussing the prospect of who their sub would be.

The kids are supposed to sit by their cubbies until the teacher lets them in their room at a certain time.  Buoyed by their excitement at the prospect of a sub they kept popping up and looking through the glass window in the door to see who their sub was.  One by one I heard the delighted shrieks of "It's A Boy Sub!".  At that moment I knew what my next blog entry would be titled.

This is my 5th week at the school and most of the students know who I am by now.  So when the comments switched from it's a boy sub, to it's Mr. Roller, I met them at the door and let them in a few minutes early.  

While there are certainly more female teachers than male ones in my district, there are still quite a few men teachers.  What there aren't a lot of are male subs.  I've only encountered a few in the time I've been subbing. Even so, I didn't really expect that kind of reaction from my students that day.  I think that one of the reasons I like being an educator, especially a building sub,  is that most every day I experience the unexpected. 

Love, 

Dave

Januarying

 January 2023 is in the books, more proof that the calendar plays for keeps.  My wife thinks that this January would never end and was glad to see the back of it (Sorry, she had Downton Abbey on , and I couldn't help myself.). For me, January ended too quickly, I hadn't finished all my Januarying. 

I've always been  a little bit uncertain when it comes to  what I think about New Year's resolutions.  On one hand, I think that they are a colossal waste of time because we should always be trying to improve ourselves and we  don't need December 31st telling us what to do.  On the other hand, there are definitely things I like to try to accomplish every year and January 1st seems like a good time to start accomplishing those things.

Some of these goals (I do like goals better than resolutions) vary from year to year and many of them don't get accomplished.  I do spend quite a bit of time each January planning to accomplish them, which is why I call making a game plan for the goals, Januarying. 

One goal I have every year is to average 10,000 steps a day for the year.  2022 is the only year so far I have met that goal.  I had come close in 2021 averaging around 9,200 steps a day.  It really was a tale of two halves where I averaged just 7,000 steps from January to June and then averaged close to 11,500 to close out the year.  I made my goal for 2022 to be averaging at least 10,000 steps for the entire year (In 2005 White Sox parlance we call that going wire to wire). To that end I walked 26,122 steps on Jauary 1st.  We had a small party at out house on New Years Eve  and after our guests left, I walked our neighborhood for a little while.  Most of the steps came later that day when I got the job of patrolling the movie theatre where I work which means walking up and down 12 theatres every 20 or 30 minutes to make sure  the equipment and audience members are behaving appropriately.  

This year I decided to approach repeating my accomplishment differently. I made a calendar in my mind and decided in advance how many steps I wanted to get on the given month.  At the end of the year, If I make all my goals I will have again averaged  over 10,000 steps for the year.  In January, I set my goal for far lower than 10,000 but still beat the average I set for myself by more than 1,000 steps a day.  

Some of my other Januarying goals have to do with or are chronicled on my blog.  I will be posting more soon about my goals of watching 12 new movies (to me) and reviewing them here, and my reading goal for the year.  So. Ill just table such discussion for now, except to say that I have spent quite a bit of Januarying plotting out some of the books and films I want to consume this year and going about consuming them.  Each December and January I spend time redesigning my blog. I have especially enjoyed  linking some new blogs to mine in a space called Blog Try Outs. One such blog is called Laws of Gravity The caretaker of Laws of Gravity is a substitute teacher like myself.

At my advanced age of 58 years, 4 months, 1 week, 4 days and 12 hours (It's actually 11 hours, but I still have to edit this post.) , I am beginning to hear more and more about finishing well.  I feel like I might be a tad young for that, but Januarying has been instrumental in helping me start well.  

January Stats

 In January of 2023 I posted 8 times.  This was five posts more than I had in November and December 2022 combined.  I  really limped tot he finish line of 2022 blog wise. 2022 wasn't a wholly unsuccessful year in that regards.  I had 102 posts in 2022 just 15 less than I had in 2021.  The problem was that 86 of those posts were from January to June and only 21 were in the 2nd half of the year.  I consider that a missed opportunity.

The 8 posts this past January put me on  pace to have 96 by years end.  Hopefully this will not be a February flop but will be even more successful than how the year began.  

Thanks to my lovely editor/proofreader/wife who keeps me on track bloggingwise and in so many areas of my life.  

Love,

Dave