yes, “take me home: the yearbook edition” continues to speak to my soul…

“glorious ruin” by tchividjian – wonderful weekend – or near end of the week read – on the question of suffering in the world – relates well with “multiply” by chan in that both authors have so much more knowledge of the subject than the reader – and yet rather than go on and on for endless pages (which is typical in a book – particularly when the book addresses an “important” theme) both writers are humble enough to keep things brief – to make edits – and that makes the work all the better

“multiply” by chan – he came and spoke at my church recently – it’s less a book than a workbook – and less a workbook than a journal – but it’s also so much more than that – having read two of his previous works, i was surprised that “multiply” was a bit different – i read the book at the right time too because i saw an article with the author in my Christianity Today that i read this week – both books above are definitely accessible for middle school audiences

“angels and idols” by hamm and “survivor” by de-vinner – the hamm book was fascinating – he was a songwriter who had his life turned upside down – for the better – because of adoption – hamm is a writer, a creator, so there were a ton of tie-ins to the class – i think we’ll get to at least one this coming week in blogs

i have a running book waiting on me at the library – so i’m happy

maf

so there i am, two minutes to go in the SEC championship game, on the bama sideline, tension great, and an (unnamed) espn anchor asks me and others around me “hey, have you got some gum?”

yes, i safely think he was the only one more worried about his breath than the game at that moment:)

“tragedy paper” – wonderful, wonderful, wonderful book – highly recommended for high school BOB next year – for high school-ers this year – for midde school (at least mine) that can deal with the fact that characters are older than they are – really enjoyed the way the book played out – some of the tropes (motifs) – comes out in january – get in line early:)

“erasing hell” by chan – book about what the Bible says as to the existence of something that lots of people choose not to believe in any more – good point in the introduction that if you do believe in hell, that should definitely affect how you relate to every one – every day

“how good do you want to be?” by nick saban – i’m sure my reading this book made the difference in the game – i probably should’ve used that as a conversation starter with him – or with his wife – or with his daughter – but i just sort of kept the awkward silence when i was around all three rather than spoil the moment by being completely stupid (for those following at home, awkward silence is stupid too:) i hadn’t read the book since ’07 so i was surprised, a bit, on the reread – he’s just more personable when you read the book – and the work does inspire if you are a fan of his program – inspiration to work hard and motivate others by putting them in situations where they can be successful – mr scott and i talked a bit late in the week about how to do this at CMS

i think we have two weeks before finals – so last chances to get in some good posts – and congrats and welcome back to my nanowrimo folk – you’ve been missed

mafeld

so, yes, what’s that??? the sound of joy and laughter as you approach your return to school??? 🙂

hope it won’t be too bad – maybe even as good as…

“every good endeavor” by keller and leary – wonderful book – great material for the classroom on a proper perspective of work and how it relates to what we do – and as the book reminded me, reminded us:) we can’t sit around and do nothin’ all day – even the people that do this (nursing home) hate it

“tween crayons…” and something else – i forget – anyway, a book on how to teach middle school kids – i know, you’d think i would’ve tried to read a book like this before now – in my defense, it was a newer book so it took a while before i got it – best part??? the author pointed out that some middle school kids act like they still go home and play with toys – and some act like they go home and plan out their retirement funds – in other words, there’s a huge gap amongst the crowd of maturity – i think it will be fun for us to write about whether there’s more little kid or grown-up in us at this present time

i also read the preview material from the paper about the iron bowl – although, i only read the alabama things – life is too short to read about anyone else’s team – and so when dad asked who AU’s quarterback was – when the tigers started rotating – yes, at that moment – while i was well into my prepared speech about who the third-string defensive linement were that were playing, i had no clue that the frazier kid was still at auburn – oops:)

finally, i spent most of the holiday pondering the lyrics of the latest one direction album – my help as i brave very chilly mornings on a long run – i’ve decided that if i were to SCAMPER the lyrics, you could substitute all the words about women/girls and insert a sporting team – which in britain would be football and would be colllege football here – however, that substitution isn’t a perfect fit b/c you can always get over women/girls – there are plenty of them – but a sports team – you just can’t swap them in for a newer model or trade for a better team – no, you have to sit through the ups and downs with them – it’s such a heavy burden – perhaps my second favorite boy band ever will explore this theme more deeply in a third album:)

happy last week of novemember,
mafeld

so happy early greetings for Thanksgiving – another year – another Detroit Lions’ loss…

“Running the Race” probably my third biography on Eric Liddell – an Olympic runner in 1924 – a Christian who died for his faith as a missionary in a concentration camp in China during WWII – an amazing man – i learn, i get encouragement, from every biography about the guy that i read – his dedication to so many things that i’d like to show dedication to – his God, his faith, his family, his running – just a great book – even better man

“the zen of zim” – my grandfather loved an old guy that was the Cubs’ manager back when we used to watch them on wgn – so when i saw that zimmer had a book, i requested in from the library – i was disappointed b/c most of the book was about why he left the yankees in ’03 – good example of a book that probably is relatively popular at the time it goes to print – but it loses it’s importance about a month later b/c it’s now frozen in time and is only an argument for that one moment – and nine years after this book came out, it’s hopelessly dated – i mean, zimmer’s love for barry bonds was even naive in ’03…

“hotdogs and hamburgers” – a dad realizes he’s not being a good dad b/c his son is struggling and so the dad learns to help adults to read in hopes of helping his son learn – the chicago references are great – b/c that’s where they are – as for the teaching aspect, this author seems to be in the first-year teacher mode where everything he tried with his class worked and made them all brilliant learners – oh, he has so much to learn in the years to come – that is, if he doesn’t stop teaching and write a book – oh wait, he did… 🙂

enjoy the break – hope you get some good reading time in – or good time with the family

mafeld

so i’m thinking tomorrow’s faculty meeting needs to be cut short so i can go get in line for “breaking dawn: part II” – you know, because i just can’t wait to see the thing and all… 🙂

“ransom road” – book about redeeming the roads you’ve travelled in life – the first chapter was at the boston marathon – ah, memories – good ones for me:)

“run for your life” – maybe – it was by jim axelrod – cbs correspondent – just in time for the election, i read a book about a guy that found his sanity by ditching politics and running the NYC marathon – great book from the gifted angle b/c it looked at the whole issue of what you do when your parents appeared perfectly successful to the world – but really weren’t great to you personally – the issue of what you do when you can’t match their worldly success, but you’re a better human being

“believe” by eric legrand – got from the north shelby library – great YA nonfiction book about the rutgers’ lineman who was paralyzed two years ago – very sad book, but a great motivating book about seizing the day – the moment – and being thankful for those around you (he has an incredible mother that is his caregiver – and that can wear on a person – i know)

i also read – reread – a book on alabama prep football by ron ingram and rubin grant – two gentlemen i covered high school football with for a while – great book – much better than trying to rally the bama team during commercial timeouts (or tuning out the kid to my immediate left who was trying to put a hex on the aggies by dancing gangum style – yes, i’ve now gone from having my father as a seat buddy to some random fifth grader – sad…)

mafeld

so happy blog week to the three of you remaining:)

and to the rest, happy nanowrimo-ing:)

“lady bird johnson: an oral history” by gillette – LBJ’s wife did a serious of interviews at various points post-presidency – so this is pretty much her words about her life – and it was fascinating – she was born around the time of my grandfather so there was a lot she spoke of that made me think of him – of course, there’s a ton to appreciate from the historical view as well – but excellent life account of an important female when there weren’t that many

“who could that be at this hour?” by snickett – more word play, i think, than in the original “unfortunate events” – snickett goes back to when he was getting started and an initial mystery he worked on – i anticipate the start of a 40-book series in my wildest hopes:)

“clear and simple as the truth, 2nd edition” – apparently, there’s a classic writing style, apparently, english writers don’t use it (the french do) and apparently, it can’t be taught, but it’s not that hard – except when it involves deep thinking – which is done beforehand:) anyway, humor aside, the book was important to be if for nothing else than at the beginning – the author’s talked about how ridiculous it is to spend a lifetime on technique when great artists draw/paint from something else – so to think that you become “excellent” at writing from doing drills, well, that’s just crazy (or crasy:)

i saw a rainbow – both ends – this morning while running – does that mean something??? the ends of both were too far to run to for gold – but i hope your week is golden (not that lsu kind of gold – it tends to fade after a while:)

mafeld

dear readers,
so i ran an 8k yesterday (that’s 4.8 miles for ye non-europeans and non-runners:)

i caught an old guy near the end – then he burst ahead of me – and then he collasped at the finish – and they told us to keep moving (well, it was just the two of us – small race – i promise we weren’t the very last ones:) but people with a job LOVE to issue orders – so they said “keep moving”) – so i went on and ripped my number tag off to go find momma – and the old guy raised his head enough to say “i was ahead of him” – i mean, like it was important and like i needed to follow him home so that he felt ahead the rest of the day… grrr… old people…

other than that marring, and leaving my nook home, it was a wonderful day in the state yesterday – unless you were at auburn – but who goes there anyway…

“how children succeed” by paul tough – wonderful book – i culled plenty of notes to use in class – what i liked most was the chapter on middle school – because the author’s case study was a 30-year-old punk teacher in the bronx who criticizes her chess team constantly – blogs incessantly – worries that she gets it all wrong – and the team superachieves – apparently, telling kids how “wonderful” they are isn’t always the best thing – sometimes, research apparently shows that it’s good to slap them around (okay, metaphorically – sigh…)

i’m now on a superlong book about lady bird johnson – please look up who she is before telling me i shouldn’t read about people named after birds – i’m rather excited about the book for several reasons – probably the primary one just that i’m very weak on female biographies – there aren’t as many of them as men – particularly when much of your reading is football/soccer/running biographies:)

(i do stay away from teacher biographies – because lots of times, those are about women and how much they “love” the kids:)

hope your week is a good one – ye nanowrimo people, have fun

sincerely,

mafeld

so it was a great week – except for the fact that i read a book that basically told me my childhood was a lie:)

“mint condition” by jameison – wonderful, wonderful read about the baseball card industry – the author is about the same age as i, and like i, collected for years – only to wake up in his 20s and discover all of it is basically worthless – and so he sets out to find out why – and in short, a bazillion cards were run in the days when i collected – so a big, big supply vs. demand issue – of course, i say the book destroyed my childhood belief in the inerrancy of men that lead us – however, upon any great reflection (which always comes to me when i’m listening to music in the car and singing along on a long road trip – in this case – hewitt-trussville), i realize that there are bigger things i thankfully never discovered to be a lie – so believing that baseball cards were an investment, well, i’ll just chalk that loss up to good times with my father

“feel-bad education” by kuhn – fascinating book on all the things educators do wrong – like motivational posters:) oh, and standardized testing – grades – teaching to “one” right answer – lecturing – going on power trips – it was a great book just for a different take on education – most books laude educators – like we’re missionaries in service – so a book that takes us a few pegs down, i’m all for – b/c most days, i think i goofed up more than i did right

“running with the kenyans” by finn – i saved this book all year – bought it at Christmas last year – yes, i can wait that long – story of a brit who takes wife and kid on a journey to iten, kenya – in his quest to give his middle-aged 30-year-old body:) one last go-round – and what a round he had – good reminder that we self-impose many of our own limits

happy red ribbon week – happy parade week – i’ll be out all friday morning primping and getting my hair done – right???

mafeld

big week – read three books – not sure it’s even good for me to be driving right now in my current level of post-marathon recovery-ness:) but i did read – now let’s see if i remember anything…

“king’s cross” by keller – great book – keller looks at the life of JC in the book of Mark – i was particularly struck late in the book when he said that we live in the first generation that doesn’t believe in happy ever after endings – we want our movies, our books, to end “messy” – and our desire for “messy” interferes with our ability now to believe in good endings – endings that are too good to be true – i couldn’t agree more – but i’d never thought about it much – except that today’s youth has less hope than i think they should

“any given monday” by dr. james andrews – book about youth sports injuries – lots of problems in areas i had never thought about – like the softball warm up – dr andrews has been based in the b’ham area for generations, and the book’s proceeds are to prevent youth injuries – so i thought the whole thing was great – AND – best of all – he was a pole vaulter in high school – go track and field!!!

“fortune wookiee” – it has a longer title – but it’s the third in the origami yoda series – probably was least impressed with this one just b/c it was a total set up to the fourth book to come – didn’t really advance the series so much as just spin the wheels – but hey, read it in a day, tried to make a wookiee, and isn’t that what life is all about anyway??? 🙂

hope your return to blogging is as painless as can be this week

mafeld

so, i ran chicago – 3:02:50-something – a personal best – and just one hour later than you need to order pizza around here afterwards:)

(good thing i was in the mood for dairy queen and an oreo blizzard – highly nutritious:)

so anyway, all good all around – and i won’t bore you any more with it – except to say that you don’t have to blog this week – good luck on the final tomorrow (not written sarcastically – except in the case of shelby who needs all the help she can get:)

so there’s no reason to keep going except i like to write what i read for the week – if i can remember on runner brain

book one – i read an advanced copy of a book in the room – i got from ms blount – the guy that wrote it had written the oragami yoda series – the story had something to do with your best friend suddenly getting a fake mustache and threatening to take over the world – fortunately, the kid not only defeats his friend, but he also gains a superstar girlfriend – so smiles all around

i read the media guide to the chicago marathon – fascinating facts for you – 112 runners from alabama (never saw one in the race though until much later – and the poor girl was about dead) – 1,500 port-o-lets out on the course – 45,000 runners (i finished 1000-something) – 100 countries (i ran with a guy from columbia – and one from indiana xc – and mickey and minnie mouse from japan – by the way, it’s hard to think you’re doing well when minnie mouse is kicking your tail:)

i also read another book but i truthfully can’t remember it – at all – seems like it was a county library book – oh, wait – i’m not done with that one yet – i’ve got two that i’m working on – i haven’t progressed much lately b/c it would do no good to keep reading right now b/c reading recall level is like zero

but i did post a blog so i feel less lazy – oh, and i watched the talladega race today – which is a new experience after you’ve run it – so now i’m like a certain sixth grade student and just writing about what i watched so i should go… 🙂

j