Reading Challenge 2015

A friend of mine sent me this challenge and I think I'm going to go for it!! I know it's already May (almost June) but I'm going to count a few of the books I already read, and I have a TON of books on my summer reading list.  I'm so excited!!

Here is the check list.  You can also go to the original pin, or the original website for a more printable version. Since I am posting at school, I can't attach the original site just yet.  Our firewall doesn't like PopSugar posts.

Who's with me?!  I already have A Classic Romance: Jane Eyre, A Book Set Somewhere I've Always Wanted To Visit: All The Light We Cannot See, A book with a love triangle: Twilight Saga, A book set in high school: Before I Fall, A book by an author I've never read: The Book Thief.  I've read more, but I can't remember if I read them before or after January.

Coming Soon: Wuthering Heights, Darth Plagueis, Not That Kind of Girl, Delirium, and Sand Man.

Don't forget!!! Free AudioBooks all summer at http://www.audiobooksync.com/!!!!!

A Difficult Day

"It's the left over humans.
The survivors.
...I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise.  They have punctured hearts.  They have beaten lungs."

-The Book Thief

Today I found out my grandmother was diagnosed with a rapidly growing tumor in her brain.  She has maybe 3 options of treatment.  

1) Don't treat it.  Survival time: 3-5 weeks. 

2) Chemo. Survival: questionable.  A few months?  A couple of years?  Depending how her body handles it.  This will not be a great quality of life and it will not result in surviving.  Just delaying. 

3) Surgery.  They won't know if this is an actual option yet.  She will find out Thursday if they can go in at all.

For those of you just tuning in here, my dad died this past September from a neurological thing.  Meanwhile, my great aunt was just diagnosed with breast cancer.  She is supposed to have surgery to remove a lump in hopes of getting it all out in early June.  My granddad also is not doing very well.  He's had heart problems for a while, but since my dad passed, he has been doing worse.  My whole family is falling apart, it seems.  

School is winding down, which means the kids are acting like wild animals, my car is in the shop and the worst part about getting it back will be paying for it, we are trying to pack and move, I'm trying to schedule a 20 hour driving course and some technology PD over my summer athletics schedule, and my brother's wedding is the week after graduation, his birthday is tomorrow.  I don't know what to get him for either of these events, nor where the money to buy those things will come from.  

I could just use a break. 

TGIF!!!

 Good Friday Morning to you!
On this Friday, after the longest testing week ever, I just wanted to share some things that make me smile.  Like this soft, fuzzy, kitty belly.  I've never met a cat with softer fur than little Nuka.

 The most beautiful porch that isn't on pinterest. This is a real porch.  I know the real people that own this porch.  It's like a little fairy tale in the middle of a city.  I adore this porch, and its owners.

Riding bikes on the Trinity with my Brother and FIANCÉ

I can't always grow things.  In fact, most things I try to grow have a tendency to peter out and die within a week.  I've had a little more success the more I try to garden.  I just love flowers.  Their delicate, silky petals, the beautiful colors... I just love them.  This particular little beauty, who is still alive after a month (victory!) reminds me of Fantasia. Either The Seasons or the Nutcracker, I can't remember which song. I just imagine them dancing and swirling together in the wind.

Angry

I think I'd really like to write about something... new.  I was going to write about a slice of my day, but it's been a tough day.  Doesn't really fall into my positive plan.  I was going to write about some things that make me happy and something to help me cheer up, but then I felt like it was just so selfish.. and selfishness has been one of my major peeves lately.  So I decided I would start something new.  Maybe write some fiction... or some non-fiction cleverly disguised as fiction... but it turns out that's quite difficult. 

How do people just WRITE?! 

How are these stories made?  How do people come up with these entire worlds and universes, mythologies and lore, languages, families?  I'm sure it takes much more than a day, more than a quick write to get this type of thing done.  But man, how do you even start?!   

So instead, I made a to-do list, got overwhelmed, then frustrated, then deleted it and felt better. 

So here I am.  Stuck again.  And so my dear readers and fellow writers, I give you: a rant, turned belief system. 

People like to talk a big game.  They like to say they believe in something, but when it comes down to it, there's nothing to support it.  Here is something I believe in: Academics.  Academics above all.  You should always seek to better yourself and knowledge is more important than a high school game. I am a coach, and I believe student athletes should be more worried about their school work than their sport.  If you don't pass, you don't play anyway.  

I believe if you have a student who can't pass public high school, especially regular classes (mine in particular), they don't need to be spending so much time practicing their sport.  Perhaps, since a lot of that is muscle memory anyway, they should spend a little more time with their nose in a book, a moment in tutorials... maybe they should ASK SOME QUESTIONS!! There's an idea.  If I have an athlete that hasn't been able to hold up their end of the bargain, guess what: they don't play.  You are held accountable for your actions.  Now, if a teacher is simply being spiteful or unreasonable, sure.  I'll have a chat with that teacher and we will figure something out.  As teachers you know, though, that's rarely the case.  

I believe you hold kids accountable for their work. Someone has to. 

I believe in rewarding kids who work their hearts out.  And I don't believe in gifting kids grades just to push them through the system.  And I definitely don't believe in asking other teachers to bend their system, their beliefs, so that I can win a GAME.  Maybe I'm not a good coach.  I just don't think that's the way you teach a kid character, integrity, hard-work, tenacity, and accountability. 

We are teachers first.  We are educators.  Care takers.  We have kids that can't write a sentence in English.  We have kids that can't read... worse, well, equally bad... we have kids that WON'T read!! Oh, I could go on forever. I am so sorry.  I just don't understand.