The [not at all] Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Giveaway

Winner is comment #2, Barb! Good job, Barb. In the meantime, check out the Alexander family study guide. Complete with thematic principles!

I have two absolute favorite children's books. One of them is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day [affiliate link]. I love Alexander. I empathize with Alexander. Because who hasn't had a very bad day that just gets continuously worse? So bad that you think about moving away, far away? Except that eventually you realize that bad days happen everywhere--even in Australia.

When I heard that there was going to be an Alexander movie, I called my mom because I was so excited. So when I received an email about receiving a prize pack giveaway, I couldn't wait! I am definitely taking my kids to see this one.
And because it's not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for you, you can also enter to win your own prize pack.

The prize pack includes, as shown:
- Coffee mug
- Alligator stress toy
- Mini poster
- Green highlighter
- Reusable grocery bag

I am super excited about the poster! I love posters to hang in my classroom, especially when they're literature related (and yes, you can actually learn a great deal of figurative elements from children's literature).

To enter, all you need to do is let me know your favorite children's book. For those wondering? My other favorite book is I'll Fix Anthony[affiliate link]. As a younger child, I felt for Anthony's younger brother.

Giveaway ends Friday, October 3rd.
I received my own prize pack for hosting this giveaway, but all opinions are my own

What I Read Wednesday

I kind of forgot it was Wednesday today because my week is off, due to having an unexpected Monday off work. I remember about midway through the day. Better late than never, right?

One Plus One: A Novel
It's very hard to not judge an author by his/her previous books, although I try. However, when an author starts out with something as incredible as Me Before You, it's very hard to not feel like that set a precedent, you know? I am completely okay with chick lit. I love chick lit when I don't want to think. But because of Me Before You, I don't expect chick lit from Jojo Moyes. This book was absolutely chick lit. Was it enjoyable? Yes, I absolutely enjoyed it. I loved the characters and the storyline, but I couldn't separate myself from the author's previous book.

The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad)
On the other hand, this book absolutely lived up to my expectations of Tana French. In the Woods is a book that still chases the corners of my mind, occasionally. This book had a different subject matter but still contained the same sharply written criminal mystery as the author's previous books. Chris Harper is found dead on the ground of a girls' school. Some time later, a girl brings a post card to a detective. The caption says "I know who killed him." Unfortunately for the girl in question, everything points to her or her group of friends. But did they do it? Or was it another group? The author's teenage girl dialogue was sometimes annoying but also, if I'm honest, very spot on. I really enjoyed the mystery and this kept my attention very well.

Fives and Twenty-Fives
When a convoy halts in Iraq, it's a rule to stop and sweep the area, five meters in every direction. Once cleared, the sweep is extended to twenty-five meters. Anything within that zone can and will kill soldiers. Written by an Iraq veteran, this book was a brilliant read, switching between the voices of three men, all returned home from the same platoon. At first, I had difficulty with the character switches but once I caught on, it made sense. Books about Iraq or Afghanistan always tug at me because I feel like these men and women come home so damaged and we do so little for them. All that said, this book nailed it. The internal conflicts, the PTSD, the attempt to settle back to civilian life, the struggles continuing in other countries. It was beautiful and heartbreaking at once.

The Magician's Land: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy)
It's so hard to review the final book in a trilogy! If you like Harry Potter, fantasy, magic, but with a harder edge, read this. You'll enjoy them.

What are you reading?

What I Read Wednesday

The Midwife of Hope River: A Novel of an American Midwife
I don't usually read books like this, but I didn't have any books to read… and desperate times and all that. Patience Murphy is a midwife during the Depression area. Most of her patients cannot pay, or if they do, they pay in the form of a chicken or some firewood. Patience is also on the run from an incident that happened during a union strike. The author of this book was a midwife for many years and her insertion of birth facts got a little heavy-handed. Example: a woman refuses to leave the bathtub while birthing, Patience muses afterward that her patient seemed so calm and that of course it's good for the baby because they spend nine months in water. I get it. Water birth is safe and healthy for both mom and baby. If I wanted the specific details on why, I would probably read an actual birthing book. It's really, truly okay to allow your readers to make inferences.

The Magician King: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy)
The second book in the Magician trilogy, taking Quentin and others back to the magical world of Fillory. It's hard to review second books, but I enjoyed this--especially the end.

A Man Called Ove: A Novel
Everyone keeps talking about this book! Ove is a grumpy old man who doesn't hold back on telling people how he feels. I definitely respect and admire this position. But Ove, as we learn, has many reasons for his grumpiness, following a life of being dealt a bad hand. Why should Ove trust life? Then one morning, his new neighbors flatten his mailbox--forcing Ove to begrudgingly allow people into his life. I tried to separate myself from this book because it had a lot of feels. And then, I read the last few pages and burst into an ugly cry. So much for separating myself. This is good. You'll fall in love with Ove and his people (and his cat).

What are you reading?

On Working and Mom-ing

I've been a working mom since 2007. In those 7 years, I've just now finally gotten my ish together. And really, getting it together falls under the kind of category.

I feel like there are really no good resources out there for work outside of the home moms to lean on each other or to figure out how to make it all work. And seriously, I am not saying that working outside of the home is harder than staying home. I AM NOT and if you try to make it that in the comments, I will delete you and put a hex on you (maybe not the second part). I am, however, acknowledging that if you're in your house in the evening and it's messy and then you leave for eight hours, guess what? It's STILL messy when you get home--and that kind of sucks.

For two glorious years, I had a cleaning lady and I seriously skipped through my school years without a care in the world, but my cleaning lady no longer cleans and the thought of finding a new one is daunting.

Despite honestly having far more responsibilities this year than when the boys were babies, I desperately wanted to keep it together this year. When the boys were babies, my only goal was to get home and nurse them and kiss them and that was it. Now I have NJHS and department chair and curriculum builder on my plate. Plus, Luke goes to karate three days a week. It's not easy--or rather, I long for the days when I thought I had it hard.

So, it's tough. And I know that people say a happy house is a messy house and blah blah, but I'll be straight with you: I feel happier if my house is clean. Not spotless, mind you. I don't care about the baseboards most days, but I need to feel like I wouldn't be embarrassed if someone stopped by unannounced. THIS is my goal from this point forward. So I've been trying this year, really trying. When I get home, I'm tired. I have a job where people talk at me all day and I just truly want to shut myself up in a dark room with a drink and pretend that the world doesn't exist.

But wait.. if I do that, my house gets even messier?! Crap. So I made myself a chore list. Yes, for me. Every day, I clean a different room or area. One day, I might clean all the bedrooms. The next, the bathrooms. I try to do laundry every couple of days because really, is there anything worse than piles and piles of laundry staring at you? And I always put laundry away before I go to bed--and if it's not dry, I do it at 6 the next morning. I also vacuum the living room and Swiffer the kitchen every single day. Why? These are high traffic areas. If I hit them daily, they aren't as daunting. I'm thinking of investing in a steam mop, like the Shark. Suggestions?
My chore list covers all the days of the week, but it's broken down in a way that it doesn't seem like that much. Clean the bathrooms? Okay, I can handle that on a Tuesday because on Monday, I cleaned all the bedrooms. And I can certainly do it before I have to take Luke to karate or before I have to sit on the floor and play cars with Tommy.

In the past, my weekends were spent yelling and crying and cleaning. Guess how fun that was? JUST GUESS. Now, when I get to the weekends, I've cleaned all the major rooms. I only have to do the main level and do laundry. That's it. I have time for my kids, for my husband and for me. I can't do 20 chore Tuesday or any of the other internet memes that go around about cleaning because at noon on a Tuesday, I'm in my classroom. But what I CAN do is five chore Monday. Five chore Tuesday. Five chore… well, you get the point.

For our students with disabilities, we talk about chunking assignments. Do the first five questions on one day, do the next five another day. Basically what I've done is chunked chores and it works. Are there sacrifices? Sure. I get up at 4:15 in the morning to run so I'm not spending 45-50 minutes an afternoon running. And sometimes I really, really just want to sit on the couch and stare at the wall, but it's a lot easier to fight that urge if I think about how I only have to do three things that night. Oh, and lunches… I have to make lunches every night, but I've started making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Sunday. If you ziploc them, the bread actually stays soft, and then, I just have Luke and Tommy pick their side items and throw them in a lunch box. It works, you guys! Try it!

Is this one-size fits all for every working mom? No, probably not, but it's sure made my life a lot less crazed this year.
What do you do to make things easier around the house? (Working mom or not, I'd love to hear from you!)

What I Read Wednesday

I did not read much this week and that is sad. I also spilled half my lunch on a book (and on an insurance audit, oops), so that is also sad.

The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
I believe Lyndsay recommended this one. The author, Marina Keegan, died young. Five days after her graduation from Yale, she died in a car crash. This book chronicles her writing, both fiction and non-fiction. I am not a short story person, but this book grabbed me. Although in some of her stories I could see overlapping themes that might have otherwise become tiresome, she had a voice beyond her years. A voice that could have had the potential to become a brilliant writer, made even more prolific by her death. I think, of course, it's easy to marginalize this book and admit that other young women who die in a car crash who maybe didn't go to Yale or have an upper-middle class upbringing probably wouldn't have their writings posthumously, but in the end, it's still a book that struck a chord with me.

The Magicians: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy)
I love it when I find out about a book series after it's all been published, so I don't have to wait around for new books to be released. This is like Harry Potter (and a little bit of Narnia) with a kick. High school senior Quentin is bored. Bored with life, bored with his friends, bored with the world around him when he suddenly finds himself whisked away to a secret magic college. This book chronicles his four years in college and expands into the adventures of the magic world beyond. While this is a fantasy novel, it's also a book where the characters seem unbelievably human and at times, unbelievably frustrating. I loved it and can't wait to read the other two.

What are you reading?