Friday, August 30, 2019

School Bells are ringing...

My seniors!
As August draws to a close I’m celebrating not only the beautiful summer I had but the new school year that is upon us. The happy small faces filled our clean hallways last week on Backpack Night and you could feel their excitement. Hugs were tossed about like confetti, hellos and high fives passed up and down. They were ready to be back in their routines. Students were happy to announce all the books they read and I had about five former students stop by to say hi and get a quick hug.

Now we’ve had a full week back and it’s been the same excitement level as that first night. Students were thrilled to be in the library, checking out books, and seeing some changes. I purchased a large colorful story carpet from Scholastic, I’ve created a puzzle corner, and added an iPod/iPad corner so students can listen to podcasts. Our TedTalk Wednesdays will begin again next week. Lots to look forward to in the year. There’s a lot of fun mixed with important messages. Our school theme is “Adventure Awaits!” And my library theme is manners. We’ve already had one very telling conversation about cell phone use and how hard it is to get a parents’ attention away from their phone. We’re going to delve into all this deeper as we go about our regular library business. 

Our 5th and 6th graders are soon to begin a collaborative graphic novel project between the library and the art room. We are super excited to start this first time project and the students have no idea yet! Our graphic novel section is popular and I’m thrilled to be able to introduce this project to them. 
What has you excited for the coming year?

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Democratic candidates

On Friday I was lucky enough to be able to go to Clear Lake's annual Democratic Wing Ding event which featured almost all of the 2020 hopefuls. We have a Mayor Pete staff member living with us and he encouraged me to go and I brought along two friends.

We spent two hours cheering for our candidate on the street in front of the famous Surf Ballroom.  While Elizabeth Warren's team was the largest and matching in a light sea breeze color t-shirt with some even sporting tutus to match other groups had fun vibes as well. Tulsi Gabbard had drumming and Hawaiian music from her stand, the #YangGang had their math signs, and the Mayor Pete group had an amazing high energy dance crew!  Delaney's group left us all with an unfortunate sadness as they kept driving their large bus up and down the street; waste of gas and energy! 

We have a lot of serious problems here starting with climate change, racial tension, and women's rights.

My favorites:

Mayor Pete - He just sounds so intelligent, self-assured, and knows we need to start over on many issues facing our country today.  We need different not the same old...
Plus he really, really enjoyed the heck out of our state fair! And Pete with Trevor Noah


Kristin Gillibrand - I appreciate that she's been a leader in getting things pushed forward in Washington. She's lead the fight for veterans, gun violence, women's rights, and human rights. I think she is feisty and interesting.


Steve Bullock - This guy reminds me of a Western Montana Kennedy! He was very real and positive about all the change he's been able to make in the RED state of Montana. He was enjoyable to listen to on stage.

Elizabeth Warren - I've liked her for years! She is intelligent, has a lot of history of getting things done, and would make a great president if elected as would everyone else on my list. I especially appreciate when she keeps it positive. I'm tired of people just reminding us how awful DT is; we already know that, really. We want you to tell us about what needs to be done differently in our country. Trevor Noah with Warren


Andrew Yang- he does make so much sense about money. Why are we spending so much money on Amazon and they pay no taxes?  Our downtown and mall stores are closing as we spend more money online and this affects our communities! It's kind of ridiculous. Andrew yang makes sense and I hope someone gives him a cabinet position. Andrew Yang on gun violence

I was not excited by Joe Biden who rambled, John Delaney -too full of himself, Joe Sestak, or Kamala Harris. I know I live in LaLa Land or a big let's get along bubble but I think these Democratic candidates need to get together, decide who is TRULY electable, pick a vice president from the group and then make everyone else (except for my list above) cabinet members/advisors. The good ones all have wonderful ideas and clear paths to getting things done.  Let's move forward by working together.

Who are your favorites? It's time to start looking at the candidates and find out more information. We love to caucus in Iowa but we need to be ready to pick the right candidate, the one who will excite the rest of you to get out and VOTE!

Thursday, August 8, 2019

How is it August already?



This summer is flying by...

Even when I was a young school girl I knew that as soon as August rolled around it wouldn't be long before school started again. I love summer.  I like to have equal time to relax and get things done in a very balanced summer way. This summer I've not had as much downtime as I would have liked. The one day I had time to lay in the hammock and read I broke the hammock trying to get Ruby the dog in with me! Luckily the crash was soft as the tree trunk timbered slowly down and didn't hit me.



I spent my birthday weekend with Groovy Girl, her BFF Katy and Katy's mom, Beth in St. Charles, IA for Hinterland Music Festival. We saw Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, The Wood Brothers, Jade Bird, Maggie Rogers, and St Paul and the Broken Bones just to literally name a few. I had so much fun listening to music under the sun and the moon.

(Hozier)
We camped and thankfully it didn't rain. Camping in the rain is just not fun yet the weekend was super sunny and we all about suffered from heat stroke. Sunday afternoon we took a little break and headed into Winterset for a little lunch and a lot of air conditioning. We found a wonderful Mexican restaurant open and then found the Winterset Cidery where we relaxed with a flight of delicious ciders and a game of cards with the girls. Once we soaked up enough cool air we headed back to the festival to hear the last 4 musical acts. Maggie and Brandi were the last two singers and they were both amazing performers. Brandi is a natural storyteller and I love how she openly shares about her family.

I've had two teacher-librarian meetings this week and have a bunch of projects to work on before school begins.  I'm going to have to cut out my summer naps from now on I guess. I still have a lot of books on my to-read stack (but really - who am I kidding-that stack grows more than it dwindles!)


Happy last weeks of summer..