Things You Can Never Do Too Many Times

You Can Never . . .

~ give too many hugs.

~ sneak too many kisses.

~ smile too much (even when you don’t feel like it, it’s one of the best ways to boost your mood!)

~ bake too many homemade goodies for people you care about.

~ spend too much time with your kids.

~ tell your spouse or significant other too many times how much you love him or her.

~ tell your parents too many times how much you appreciate them.

~ tell your siblings too many times how happy you are to be related.

~ dance too many dances (whether it’s at your cousin’s wedding, at your co-worker’s bachelorette party, in your new salsa dance class, or in your basement).

~ sing too many songs (even if it is only in the shower!).

~ read too many books.

~ watch too many movies.

~ laugh too much.

~ clap too much.

~ celebrate too many holidays.

~ go for too many walks on beautiful days.

What else?? . . .

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What Have You Learned?

There’s a song that’s out right now by Michael Franti and Spearhead, Say Hey (I Love You), that makes me move in my seat whenever I hear it.  I enjoy happy songs that make you want to give a shout out to all those you love.  There is a line in the song that is inspiring me to write this list:  “Seems like everywhere I go, the more I see the less I know.”

We’re learning every day whether it’s a lesson in the classroom or a hard-to-swallow life lesson.  There are so many uncertain things in life and circumstances surrounding us constantly change that I thought I’d take inventory of those things of which I’m certain:

What I’ve Learned in Life So Far

~ Timing is everything.  Think about it – this applies to all aspects of life.  It all comes down to this.

~ You can never have too many friends.  Moreover, having friends of different interests, age groups, and circles keeps you well-rounded.

~ You can never love your family too much.  I also happen to believe you can never say I love you too much but I think this has may have caused me trouble in the past.

~ It’s only spoiling your children when you give something you don’t want to give them but do anyway.

~ A key to satisfaction is to find a career that doesn’t feel like work.  It is then that you can be certain you are in the right field.  I am!  Teaching has NEVER felt like work to me.  I can confidentally say this because I worked in the business sector prior to teaching – it absolutely felt like work then.

~ This sounds cliche but action truly does speak louder than words (written or spoken).  This brings to mind a quotation I read today, If a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.  This inspired me to think of a great idea for a friend!!

~ Age is a relative number.

~ Exercise is as good for the soul as it is for the body.

~ This world would be a bleak, sad place without music.

~ You should try at least one new recipe every week.  If you don’t cook, you should eat at least one new dish every week. Variety is a spice in the kitchen.

~ Sometimes you need to make cookie dough just to eat the dough.

~ It’s okay to change your mind.

~ You can never read too many books or see too many movies.  This keeps you cultured, educated and empathetic.

~ Smile, even when you don’t feel like it.  The act itself will make you happier.

~ Writing things down is a magical trick.  Things are much more likely to happen when we write them down.  Goals, daily to-do lists, messages, lists like this . . . write ‘em down, write ‘em down.

~ Dancing or running in the rain is very liberating.

~ Never speak ill about someone and you’ll never have to whisper. 

~ Cleaning out/paring down closets transfers to ’cleaning out’ your life.  The important things you lost are found and the unimportant things are discarded. 

I’ll come back to this list from time to time as I think of and learn more certainties!

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What Are You Afraid Of?

It’s been over a month since my last list.  This one serves as a short mental break for me before starting the workweek.  On this Sunday evening, here it is. . . .

After reading what I reveal, it’s your turn. What would YOU do if you weren’t afraid?!?

All the Activities I’d Do if I Weren’t So Afraid

~ I’d blog about some of my deepest, most personal thoughts!!!
~ I’d sit down and write a novel.
~ I’d dance whenever and wherever I felt the urge!!!
~ I’d sing on stage.
~ I’d learn how to scuba dive.
~ I’d call in sick when I’m sick.
~ I’d eat dessert twice every single day!!
~ I’d travel leisurely alone once in a while.
~ I’d post more personal pictures.
~ I’d call more people from my past just to tell them thank you for touching my life.
~ I’d be more open toward some special people in my present life.
~ I’d relax, relax, relax.

Hmmm . . . when I see these items on the screen, they seem more concrete and not so difficult to accomplish (well, maybe not eating dessert twice a day . . . I’d be Growing Grading Girl then!)  Perhaps I will change this list to “Activities I Will Accomplish.”  Yes, why not?! My first step . . . I’m buying a new camera this week!

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Before Summer Ends . . .

Ahh, the beginning of August.  I look forward to it because it’s my birthday month!  Yet it’s this time of year when I start to get that slightly panicky feeling that I won’t accomplish everything I’d like to before another school year begins.  This is the first year in my ten years of teaching that I haven’t stepped foot into my school’s building since the last day of school.  In the past, I’ve taken on at least some summer curriculum projects.   While I feel refreshed and ready to create new challenges for my students, I also feel a little anxious.  We all get this way – whether we’re veteran teachers of 20 years or nontenured teachers of two years, those little first day butterflies keep us sharp.  Teachers are lucky – we get two new years.  I truly feel just as renewed come the first day of school as I do on January 1st.

As the first full week of August begins, I’m typing out the main activities I’d like to (scratch that – WILL) accomplish within the next three and a half weeks:

Things I Vow to Do Before Summer Ends

1.  Go for a midnight swim just because I can.

2.  Write as many intriguing blogs as my fingers will fing.

3.  Partake in long So You Think You Can Dance and Project Runway marathons with the most intriguing person I know, my daughter.

4. Attempt rock climbing for the very first time.

5. Read at least three more summer reading books . . . including New Moon, Outliers, Animals in Translation.

6. Plan new challenging and motivating activities for all of my classes:  this year includes speech, expository composition, reading.

7. Delve into as many new recipes in the kitchen as I can including that double chocolate cake recipe I’ve been eying for months.

8. Convert my father’s 40 year-old slides on to the computer.

9. Discover more great features about my new Mac.

10.Just be.

Whatever your occupation, what do you want to do before summer ends???

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First Lines offer First Impressions

The first lines of books are profound.  Either they provide a foreshadow of the events to ensue, a poignant statement to digest, a comedic crack to grab attention, or a startling statistic or fact to open with.  Go ahead . . . open to the first pages of some of the books you own and you’ll see.  Even the non-fiction reads seem to offer a fun first line.  Here are just a few examples. . . do you have some?

A Few First Lines in Literature

~ “It was a pleasure to burn.“  Fahrenheit 451

~ “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” Catcher in the Rye

~ “The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship.” Stiff

~ “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.“  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

~ “I felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can’t make your body move fast enough.” New Moon

~ “It’s hard to be left behind.” The Time Traveler’s Wife (I can hardly wait until the movie adaptation comes out!!!)

~ “A man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself.” Catch Me if You Can

You get the idea . . . I could go on and on.  Each line is so characteristic of each book’s particular theme.  Each line grabs our attention.  Each line makes us think.

In the book I am currently reading, Jodi Picoult’s Handle with Care, not only is the first line compelling  but the first paragraph carries through the plot’s theme in a poetic way.  Here is GG’s mix of Picoult’s words:

Things break all the time.

Glass and dishes and fingernails.

You can break a record, a contract, a dollar.

You can even break the ice.

There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks.

Day breaks, waves break, voices break.

Silence and fever breaks.

Chains can be broken.

Relationships break.

Promises break.

Hearts break.

Things break all the time.

Yes, things do break but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing at all.  When something breaks, we pick up the pieces and create something new! Period.  Looking back at what I typed, I see an ice cream sundae formed by the layout of the words.  Clever that it turned out that way.  That’s what I see.

Stay tuned for a future post in which GG reviews Handle with Care.

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Listing Through Life 3

On this beautiful Sunday morning, I’m in the mood to create one of my infamous TLC lists.

Why It’s Great to be a Human

 (no special order)

1.  better developed brains to work with (although do we always do a better job of using them more efficiently?!?)

2.  more capacity to share our love (we really need to take more advantage of this!)

3.  more advanced language

4. written language

5. ability to create tools that extend our senses and advance our skills . . . we can improve the way we fly with planes, the way we see with telescopes, the way we communicate with phones . . . this point is endless 

6. poseable thumbs

7. our invention of clothes, shoes, handbags, makeup (need I say more)

8. all of the institutions we’ve created . . . education, marriage, family, careers, etc. . .

9. art and music

It’s great to be human on this beautiful planet! 

Do any of you have any to add to this list????

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Smells that Make me Scream

They say that the sense of smell holds the strongest memory of all five senses. It is first sense that is activated when we’re born. It is deeply connected to our emotions and, according to Marie Wright in the Mar/Apr issue of Psychology Today, people who lose their sense of smell can even lose their will to live. This strong sense took me back tonight as I was in one of my “throw away” moods. I came across an old bottle of perfume spray and took a whiff,  instantly taken back to an occasion I attended wearing that scent. Weird! It’s no wonder that car salesmen pop popcorn to elevate shoppers’ moods (hmmm . . . I’m not sure I completely understand that one). Growing up, my brother teasingly nicknamed me “the sniffer” due to my old tendency to enjoy the scent of my dinner nearly as much as  the taste.   This naturally spawns an idea for my latest list.  Go ahead, scribe this list yourself; GG guarantees you’ll be tickled.

All the smells that make me scream:

1.  That very kind old Mrs. Harry who used to work in my grade school library and who wore way too much perfume ~ my nose still aches
2. Cigar smoke in an enclosed dorm room ~ I had one particularly crazy neighbor
3. Wet dog ~ not good; the more hair, the worse!
4. Skunk!!!
5. School bus exhaust fumes ~ cancer!!
6. The book room at school that houses books from three decades ago and God knows how many dead mice in the walls
7. Brand spankin’ new books ~ flip open the pages and get a whiff
8. A just-out-of-the-dryer fluffy bath towel ~ hmmmmmm
9. Banana bread in the oven ~ nothing screams home more loudly!
10. Sprinkles cupcake shop with just baked red velvet cupcakes out of the oven ~ take me there now!!!!!

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What I’m Thinking Before I Fall Asleep . . .

I’m a perpetual listmaker. “Write it down, write it down” ~ there’s something magical about writing. Tasks have a much better chance of completion, obstacles become less frustrating, and goals are easier to attain. I make grocery lists, resolution lists, wish lists, holiday shopping lists, workout lists, work to-do lists, home improvement lists . . . the lists go on.

I recently assigned my students “25 Random Things about Me” ala the viral Facebook letter. Surprisingly, even though the majority have Facebook, only two of the 25 students already completed this task. My chance to grace them with a lesson in self-awareness!

The responses ranged from the grammatically goofy:
“I get seasonal allergies which are so bad . . . .I’m also allergic to cats and apples . . . but only when I bite into them.”

to the unbelievable:
“I drink more water than any human reasonably should – over 2 gallons a day.”

to the silly:
“I seem to see the number 14 more than 20 times every day.”

to the touching:
“I think people are naturally good.”

to the interesting . . . out of the 25 students, six talked about wearing or not wearing socks to bed:
such as . . .
“I HAVE to wear socks to bed and if I don’t I can’t sleep. Also they cannot be white because I have never worn white socks EVER.”
or the opposite . . .
“I cannot wear socks to bed; they drive me nuts.”

After class, quite a few students came up to tell me the assignment was fun and fulfilling – music to my ears as I list through life. So before I end another list-ful day, here’s one more ~

What usually goes through my mind before I fall asleep

1. How quiet the world gets at night
2. Wish that I could get by with just a few hours of sleep
3. What animals are scurrying in the field behind my home
4. What my daughter wishes for
5. Where my daughter will be in 5 years
6. Where I will be in 5 years
7. Hope that my friends and family in crisis will soon find peace
8. Music is going through my head
9. What if everything changed tomorrow
10. What I want to see more of in my life and intention to make it real!!!

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