888 Challenge Progress Report

I tend to put so much pressure on myself that any time I don't make the mark dead in the center of the target, I feel like a failure. One of my dear friends and mentors taught me a saying: "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly." Think about it a minute. Now while I do believe that we should try our best to do things worth doing well, does it stand to reason that if we are unsure if we can do it well we shouldn't even attempt it? Well, I did attempt this reading challenge this year, and I didn't read all the books on my list. So what? I still read. I even kept plodding along through some of the books knowing I had set the goal.

On the flip side, I hate that I often set goals and fail to hit them. Obviously it's a little late in the year for me to try to read a couple dozen books. So instead I'm rethinking my challenge for next year. I'm thinking 9 and 9 in '09. Nine non-fiction and nine fiction books. I would LOVE to say I'm going to read 70 or more books for a 999 challenge, but I don't think I will. But 18? I think maybe I could do that. I don't know. Any suggestions?

I just love the idea of challenging myself to read for me!

Homeschooling the Challenging Child

Hooray!!! I've finished another book on my list. (Still have a lot of reading to do this summer.)

Homeschooling the Challenging Child, by Christine Field is an extremely helpful book for anyone who wonders if their homeschooled child might be facing some kind of behavioral or learning disabilities. Although the struggles my youngest two children face are mild, it was helpful to read this book, and the book itself gave me lots of ideas to try with him. It is a book full of encouragement when you begin to wonder if homeschooling a "special needs" child is worth it--when you wonder if they would be better off in school with a "professional." It is also full of helpful resource links, a walk-through on the process of having a special needs child evaluated, as well as many other thoughts and advice that Ms. Field learned through experience.

Although this book covers technical material, it is very readable.

My 888 Challenge

OK. I added Shelfari to my blog tonight, and in doing so reviewed my reading list for this year. Not doing so well. Sooo . . .

• Less TV. I gotta turn that thing off.
• Keep my list in front of me. Concentrate my reading on the books I've listed, even if it means changing the list a little as I go.
• Carry it with me. Remember I have it.

Today is Monday. By the end of the week I want to have made progress on one I want to read aloud, and I want to have finished ONE of my books. (I'm close to finishing a couple of them.)

Next year I'm doing my 9-9-9 Diet List.

One More Book Down

I'd better get to work or plan on reading like crazy this summer!

I did finish one more of the books on my list with AJ. We read The Velveteen Rabbit. I knew he'd really like this story. He has a stuffed rabbit that his grandad gave him. It has seen a lot of action over the years, and I occasionally have referenced it "becoming real." After we finished the book, which AJ really loved, he immediately found his rabbit and carried it around for days.

Anyway, I can knock another one off my list. Now to get to work on some of the longer books!

Book Review-The Tiger Rising

The Tiger Rising has much of the same flavor as Bridge Over Terebithia. Both focus on children wrestling in contrasting ways with the limitations of their power over their circumstances, and with the decisions of the adults in their lives. Both are stories of redemption. And both stories are expertly crafted to keep the reader's interest, and to explore deeper concepts without compromising a good story.

Ever since the death of his mother, loner Rob Horton is a boy with a lot bottled up inside him. The concurrent discovery of a caged tiger and the aquisition of a new friend begin his journey into the pain of loss and bittersweet memories. His new friend, Sistine Bailey also carries a lot of emotional weight after the divorce of her parents, resulting in separation from her dad. Instead of bottling it up, Sistine is angry at everything, fighting the world. As the two wrestle with the choice of freeing the tiger, they also wrestle with the decisions of freeing their emotions so they can reconcile them. Both of these decisions will lead either to healing or to sealing their emotions inside forever.

I love books with great symbolism--I love to peel back the layers and look for more than the obvious story--and although The Tiger Rising is a quick read, it is rich in depth. True to her other novels, Kate DiCamillo writes vividly, a real treat for me since I live in the region she describes so well. The only objections some might have is the occurence of two uses of the Lord's name in vain. Other than that, there is no mention of faith in this book positively or negatively. I have an idea of writing a literature study to go with this book for children. This novel is appropriate for older elementary students through junior high. It is a great book to use to teach kids about the appropriate dealing with emotions.

Such Tender Memories . . .

OK, book number two read. AJ and I read How Fletcher Was Hatched together today. It's just a simple, old-fashioned story about a dog who feels neglected by his mistress. His friends, an otter and a beaver decide to help him compete with the cute little chicks stealing his attention by building an egg around him. It's nothing flashy, no aspirations of political correctness, just a sweet kids story that I must have read a million times when I was a kid. (Every illustration was etched on my memory as if I had read the book yesterday--it was fun walking through familiar territory!)

So we read the book . . . and I said with a sigh, "I loved this book when I was a kid!"

AJ responded: "Sure mom. Whatever. I'll be outside."

Ah, what treasured memories. (Can you feel the cynicism?) At least I can count another book on my 888 List.

One Down, Fifty-nine to Go!

Today I finished The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo. I'll post a review on it later and link it to my 888 list. It was a great book, and an easy read--a great starting place for my challenge. I'm also planning on reading one to AJ today, so by the end of the day, hopefully I'll be down two!!!

I'll probably do great until I start hitting books I haven't started yet. Therein the challenge really lies!

My 888 List

OK. I've stayed up way too late to do this, but I have my list. Note that it is subject to change on a whim, as I find NEW books to add to it.

8 Books I’d Like to Finish

1. A Chance to Die (Elliot)
2. Smart Organizing DONE!
3. A House for My Name
4. Peacemaking for Families
5. Homeschooling the Challenging Child DONE!
6. Age of Opportunity
7. Women in the Material World
8. The Tiger Rising (DiCamillo) DONE!
   

8 Books by Some of My Favorite Authors

1. Number the Stars (Lowry)
2. The Silent Boy (Lowry)
3. Redeeming Love (Rivers)
4. The Shofar Blew (Rivers)
5. Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman (Ortland)
6. Surprised by Joy (Lewis)
7. Calico Captive (Speare)
8. The Tiger Rising (DiCamillo) DONE!

8 Christian Classics (or Destined to Be Classics)

1. Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life (Whitall Smith)
2. The Practice of Godliness (Bridges)
3. The Everlasting (Chesterton)
4. Orthodoxy (Chesterton)
5. Let the Nations Be Glad (Piper)
6. Till We Have Faces (Lewis)
7. Experiencing God (Blackaby)
8. Absolute Surrender (Murray)

8 Fiction Books

1. The Shofar Blew
2. Fahrenheit 451
   
3. Island of the Blue Dolphin
4. Calico Captive
5. Across Five Aprils
6. The Hedge of Thorns
7. Carry On, Captain Bowditch! DONE!
8. Sarah, Plain and Tall
   

8 Books to Make Me a Better Teacher

1. I Wanna Take Me a Picture
2. Future Men (Wilson)
3. Teach Them Dilligently: How to Use Scriptures in Child Training
4. Minds of Boys
5. Piecing Together the Highschool Puzzle (Mastrioncola) DONE!
6. Shaping the Man Inside Teenage Boys (Beausay)
7. You Can Teach Your Child Successfully (Beechick)
8. When the Brain Can’t Hear DONE!

8 Books to Read with My Boys

1. Duncan’s War (Bond)
2. Tuck Everlasting DONE!
3. Boy (Dahl) DONE!
4. The Three Musketeers
5. The Giant Killer
6. Who Put the Skunk in the Trunk?: Learning to Laugh When Life Stinks
7. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever DONE!
8. Boyhood and Beyond

8 Books I Loved That I Want to Read to My Youngest Son

1. How Fletcher Was Hatched DONE!
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. Prince Caspian
4. Voyage of the Dawn Treader
5. Blueberries for Sal DONE!
6. Little House in the Big Woods
7. The Velveteen Rabbit DONE!
8. Amelia Bedelia DONE!

8 Working on Me (a little)

1. The Heart of Anger
2. The Universe Next Door
3. The Power of Words
4. Desperate Households
5. How to Win Over Depression
6. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
7. Idols of the Heart, Learning to Long for God Alone
8. Smart Organizing DONE!

Taking the 888 Challenge

OK, I feel totally overwhelmed in accepting this challenge . . . sort of like I'm dooming myself to failure already . . . .

. . . but I already know I need to read more and watch movies/play computer less . . .

. . . and I would really feel a sense of accomplishing something if I did this . . .

. . . and so I'm just going to do it.

To see what I'm getting myslef into, go to the challenge.

I am going to probably overlap some, and I am going to restrict myself to books I check out or pull off my shelves, instead of rushing to Amazon to buy more books! I haven't got my catagories or lists yet, so check back on this post and I'll add it later.

Now I'm off to scour my shelves for books I want to read!

If You Give a Mom a Camera . . .

If you give a mom a camera, she'll want to take pictures of her babies.
If she takes pictures, she'll want to share them.
When she shares them, she will want to tell about them.
So she'll start a blog, post pictures and write about them.
While she's on the blog, she'll decide to check out other blogs.
On another blog site, she will notice a Flickr badge.
When she clicks on the Flickr badge, she'll discover thatshe can have a Flickr account!
After she opens her Flickr account she will add pictures to her account.
While she's adding pictures, she will play around with all the really cool features Flickr has.
When she's exploring Flickr, she'll run across a "Do More with Your Pictures" link.
When she clicks on that link, she'll see something called Blurb.
As she checks out Blurb, she will discover that she can print her blogs into one very nice, bound book.
She will want to download the Booksmart software, just to play with!
Once she plays with it, she will want to make a book.
When she finishes her first blog book, she will want to make another.
As she works on her blog book, she'll realize how many events and occurances are missing from her stories.
She will want to write more stories.
If she writes more stories, she will want to add more pictures.
In order to take more pictures, she will have to find her camera.

News flash: Lisa finds new obsession--making blog books. News at Eleven.

Copyright 2007
Lisa A. Baker

If You're Askin' What That Noise Is . . .

. . . scroll down to the bottom!!! I've figured out how to link to video feed. Only, I can't figure out how to get it into the middle of my blog yet. But LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND!!! (OK, Eva. Never mind. You won't watch it anyway. . . . But I LOVE you!!!)

God Covers All My Ducks

I've known for a while that all my ducks weren't in a row. Financially, I'm a goofball. No, really, I am. One of the things I've known for a while that I should do is make a list of everything in my wallet . . . you know, just in case it went missing. Didn't do it, but I should have.

Today the two younger boys and I went to the library in Gainesville. We do this monthly, so it's not an unusual thing. Before we left, we stopped at Sonic for a quick bite to eat (I do love that place!), so of course I had to use the . . . ehh hem . . . ladies room while we were there. I went back to the business of roaming around one of my favorite places in the world, picking out more books than we will ever read (but gosh! I could roll in them and be happy!). Unexpectedly, I was called to the circulation desk. I wondered what it was about--had they discovered fifteen books I forgot to bring back? Quick, where are the kids? So I went to grab my purse . . . only to find . . . no purse.

And yes, that was it. When I got to the desk, someone had turned in my purse, which I had left sitting on the shelf behind me in the restroom stall. Quickly I unzipped it to find that my wallet and a small change purse had been stolen. So the boys and I sat around the library for a couple hours waiting for a police officer so I could report my wallet missing. Meanwhile, my overactive brain was trying to recall what billions of cards I was carrying in those two wallets.

Now, for how God covered my ducks, even though I had not:

• I only carry one credit card and one debit card. They are on the same account, so I had them cancelled in about ten minutes.
• My bank was able to quickly lock my account with a password.
• Most of my money had been left in my car, so they only got about ten bucks.
• My car was running literally on fumes, but because I had left my money in the car, I had money to get gas.
• Whoever stole my wallet left behind my checkbook and car keys.
• My kids were safe.
• No weapons were involved.
• Everyone from the people at the circulation desk to the policeman that responded was very nice.
• I never broke down in tears.
• I only really have to replace my driver's license and wallet. The other cards will be easy to replace . . . if I remember all of them.
• I didn't lose either of my library cards . . . well, I did lose my Clay County one, but I never use it anyway! My Jax and Alachau ones are safe and sound, and we were still able to check out all our books today!

As my best friend Eva told me, I had my cell phone, keys and library cards! How bad could it be?

So Many Libraries, So Little Time

Yes, we have joined yet another library. You know you have a bit of a problem with books when you have three different cards from three different library systems in your wallet, and there's books on all of them. (Ok, I'm not quite that bad; I only have books on two of them.) Actually the rationale goes like this: I have a card at the library system in the nearby college town. In this library there are no limits, no late fees, you get the books for a month and can renew them twice, and the library we go to is HUGE!!! The new card is from the next county, which is a large county with lots of branches and has a very efficient system for transferring books and placing holds. Plus the library we went to had a tremendous amout of books on tape and video recordings to pick from, AND they have downloads available online for check-out. Also the nearest libraray isn't over an hour away, a definite perk. Since we started our monthly trek to college town to visit the library there, the boys have become ravenous readers, and can barely keep up with what we check out.

So there you have it. We could literally borrow hundreds of books at a time. It's almost as good as getting new books to own!