Happy New Year..

I'm way over due post to the blog world!
If you ask my husband he can tell you that I've said over and over "this would be a great blog post", and then I never go home and actually write it.  Today I figured I would just write a mix of thoughts.

Scarves:
I have fallen in love with scarves!  I know some people really dislike them or are tired of seeing them, but it really makes it easy to dress up a simple sweater and top for work with a scarf.  I'm learning different ways to tie them as well. I found a great tutorial video 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf  I've been a trying out a couple of ways. Looking forward to trying out others when I go back to work.  I've also found ways to make a scarves, headbands, and more from old t-shirts. Going through my closet this weekend to see what I can find to use.

Gift  Ideas:
These are a little late now, but I've found a couple of ways to reuse extra left over wrapping paper or magazine pages to make bows for your gifts. They turn out great!  I even got a chance to teach my students how to make them out of the magazine page.  They loved it! Bow Made from Mag. Paper

Book Reading:
I just recently finished a book that I found thought provoking called Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim...   I came across this book from my mom.  It is on our United Methodist Women reading list.  I found it quite interesting about respecting others who have different beliefs than you and working together for the good of others.  Good read, and it makes me want to read other books that make me "think".

Weight Loss:
I have maintained my weight, but think that I have lost some muscle toning.  My goal is to get back on track after the holidays (we haven't had our family Christmas yet, waiting for my brother to come up in a week) Hard to exercise with work, but I need to make time!  No more excuses.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!  May you be blessed with new journeys and opportunities that come your way!

Bookworm...

(one of my all time favorites from elementary school)

Our librarian at our school does some really great things with our students! She is encouraging the students to read all the books from the following list before they finish elementary school. I think is a fabulous challenge for them. I have decided to take the same challenge. The list has more than 100 books on it, but I sure hope this school year, I can finish reading all the books on the list. I love to read! It is one of my favorite hobbies, but what is so great about this list is that it has challenged me to read books that I never thought of picking up to read because it didn't interest me by the title. There have been a couple of books from the list, that I had to force myself to get through the first few chapters. After I began reading it though, I began to appreciate the book and the writing, even if it wasn't a type of "genre" that I would read normally.

Here is the list posted by the National Education Association in 1999.

http://www.teachersfirst.com/100books.cfm

From this page I found a newer updated list from the NEA from teachers in 2007. I hope to read these books as well.

http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=8498

Maybe this will encourage you to enjoy picking up a children's book or young adult's book, and enjoy the world of reading once again!