Words that are speaking to Me

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
~Joseph Chilton Pearce

Okay, I suppose it's somewhat ironic that I'm posting this right after my Wordless Wednesday. But I don't want to wait until tomorrow to post this because these words are speaking to me NOW.
I have always lived with a tremendous fear of being wrong and not measuring up to other people's standards, or my perception of their standards.

I really want to create. I want to write, to paint, to carve. My fear of failing or being wrong always holds me back, often from even trying. I'm determined to try. And to take pleasure in the act of creating.

Wordless Wednesday

photo by my husband, John. Cape Ann, MA

Slice of Life July 27, 2010

The anticipated sound of tires crunching on the driveway gravel.
The slam of the truck door.
The squeek of the kitchen door.
The smile of delight.
The warm embrace.
The end of the work day.

Summer Reading Update 7/25

MG/YA Books for School
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
The Last Safe House by Barbara Greenwood

MG/YA Books for fun
Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes
Queen Bee by Chynna Clugston (graphic novel)
Heart Beat by Sharon Creech
Crossing Stones by Helen Frost
Word Nerd by Susin Sielsen
Gunnerkrigg Court Vol. 1: Orientation by Thomas Siddell (Graphic/webcomic)
The Braid by Helen Frost
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements

Grown-Up Books for fun
The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

I didn't get as much reading in this week because I was working at school writing curriculum. But we have two more weeks before our Cape Cod vacation. I've nearly finished all the YA books I need to read for this school year and then I can focus on books that I want to read for fun. When we're on the Cape I'll probably only take one or two YA books and do mostly grown-up reading.

My To Read List for Cape Cod
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flag
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Cape Cod Magic by Richard Russo
Liar by Justine Larbalestier

As all of those books will be coming from the library and I don't want to check them out until the week before we leave, I obviously have no guarantee that I'll be able to get them. If any of them are unavailable, I have some back up titles (that I might bring regardless): Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Huston, The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx.

Come to think of it, we have so many wonderful titles on our bookshelf that I have yet to read and want very much to, finding reading material certainly won't be a problem. The problem will be deciding what to bring!

I often feel overwhelmed by how many great books there are. So many books and so little time. I want to read them all! I've been enjoying the novels in verse and I picked up Gunnerkrigg Court purely by chance and have fallen in love.

Summer Reading Update 7/14

MG/YA Books for School
A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi
Nothing But the Truth by Avi
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (re-read)
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Stephanie Willis Holt

MG/YA Books for Fun
The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Willlow by Julia Hoban
Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Word After Word After Word by Patricia MacLachlan
Borrowed Names: Poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie and Their Daughters by Jeannine Atkins
The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan and Peter Sis

Grown- Up Non Fiction for School
Images of America: Sorcery in Salem by John Hardy Wright

I think I'm keeping up pretty well with my average of a book a day, but in looking at this list I realize I've been very heavy on the MG/YA books. There are so many good ones out there! It doesn't feel as though my To-Read stack is dwindling that much and I keep coming across books I want to get from the library. Yesterday I compiled a list of MG/YA books that deal with prejudice that I want to check out for the possibility of using in literature circles next year. I also made a list of novels in verse. I love the idea of novels in verse and I've already read several in the past year or so.

Last week my husband began complaining about the truck making funny noises. It appeared to be random and the noises kept changing. Saturday we drove to Maine and back and never really noticed anything. Sunday afternoon when he returned from visiting a friend the noises had started again and gotten worse.

"It's the rear axle. Or the wheels. I just don't know, but something isn't right."

We bought this truck used this spring. It's a '99 Ford Ranger and for it's age it has very low mileage and is actually in pretty good shape. It had sat for about 2 years before we bought it, though. So we got four new tires and had the front brakes fixed.

Monday morning John took the truck to the repair shop that we've been visiting all too much this spring (the truck, my car). I don't know what mechanics spend their money on (doctors have boats, you know, those old stereotypes), but what ever it is, we have been very helpful to our mechanic the last two and a half months!

Apparently when they put the truck up on the lift and removed the rear tires, the brakes fell to the floor in pieces (springs, nuts, bolts, little metal pieces). On both wheels.

I'm just glad the front and the back didn't go at the same time.

Slice of Life July 6, 2010

It's about 100 degrees today and after lunch I packed up my school work and headed for the library to enjoy their air conditioning. I worked for several hours, making some progress on my planning and doing some research on American authors that led my planning in a totally different direction.

I returned home around 4:30 to find my husband home from work and we excitedly shared our days: he the antique tools he is hoping to buy this weekend and his experience at the blood drive, me the research I did and the job in Maine that I applied for. I noticed a individual pack of Oreo cookies on the counter. He gave me a sweet grin and said, "I got those for you."

It's the simple things.