Carol's Notebook – Page 345

Lists

April 14, 2015 by Carol6 Comments

I like lists. I have To Be Read lists - for both books I own and books I wish I owned. I have a bucket list and am working on a couple of local to-do lists. I make grocery lists, even if Every once in a while I partipcipate in Top Ten Tuesdays - because I like lists. Today's topic is Top Ten Inspiring Quotes from Books (anything that inspires you, challenges you, makes you think, encourages you, etc.). When I'm reading/listening to a book, often a passage will catch my attention, but I'm usually lousy about actually writing them down. I should fix that. Today I'm sharing some quotes I like by authors I've read, but not necessarily quotes that I marked at the time I read them, if that makes sense. And they're not necessarily inspirational, just ones I like. 1. “Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on...

Readers’ Workouts – 4/14/15

April 14, 2015 by Carol4 Comments

So, here are my steps for the week. I missed my goal one day, but totally overshot it a couple of days, so I feel pretty good about it overall. And here's my current workout plan. I just finished week 11. Looking at the calendar, I'm going to do week 12, then skip 13. Tuesday - 1 mile walk with the dog. 5 mile run on the treadmill. 20 minutes on the arm machines at the gym. Wednesday - Workout from Self using a 10-lb plate and did reps instead of time to make it 30 mins Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical. I had to go to the gym while Amber was at paint, because I needed to be home in the evening to help her with a history paper. Saturday - 4.9 mile hike at Raccoon Creek State Park. 1 mile walk with the dog. Sunday - 9 mile run at the local park Monday - 1 mile walk with the dog I have a 5K on the...

Kites

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 by Carol4 Comments

I love kites, even if we don't get out and fly them often, and kites and Spring go hand in hand. So, today we have kite pictures, non of them taken by me, unfortunately. Photo from http://wollmanlab.ucsd.edu/Fun.html Photo from http://bryansphotographs.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunderland-kite-festival.html Photo from http://www.pyramidmotel.com This is my K post for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. ...

James Clavell’s Shogun Card Game

April 11, 2015April 13, 2015 by Carol4 Comments

Friday nights are usually game nights at our house. This Friday, there were 5 of us and I said we needed to play a J game, since I didn't have a J post yet for April. Apparently that's easier said than done. Nobody wanted to play Jenga and we don't own Jumanji. But we do have a copy of James Clavell's Shogun Card Game from 1983. Yeah, maybe it's stretching it a bit for J, but it's one we've enjoyed a lot over the years. It's a standard for us, even though none of us have seen the movie it's based on. I did read the book, but that was way back when. In this card game, 3-7 players in the basic game and 3-8 players in the advanced game try to score points by collecting cards like traditional card games. The artwork features characters from the movie "Shogun", and the game can be played in a simple (beginner) or an advanced...

Internet Research

April 10, 2015 by Carol7 Comments

I was helping Amber pull together a two-page research paper last night on the British view of America's Declaration of Independence. It's an interesting topic and one I hadn't really considered much, but that's not my point today. I remember doing research papers 20/25 years ago. You had to go to the library, find the journal, book, encyclopedia article, make a photocopy or write down the information you wanted. You had to read the books or articles and pick out what mattered to your topic. I'll grant you, she's only a freshman, so her papers will probably/hopefully become more in-depth as time goes on, but what she, and I imagine most of the kids in her class, did was type a few key words into Google and see what comes up. We have so much information at our fingertips, but I think we're not necessarily teaching actual research skills to our kids. Her teachers do insist on "legitimate" sites, but even...

Hansel and Grethel

April 9, 2015 by Carol3 Comments

I've written about Hansel and Grethel before, but it was five years ago and it's the perfect fairy tale for the letter H. I'm sure there are several versions of the story, but this Hansel and Grethel is from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. I knew the basics, but had forgotten some of the details. There is a poor woodcutter who lives with his wife and two children from a former marriage. The family has next to nothing to eat and the wife's solution is to leave the kids deep in the woods, alone, and then there will be two less mouths to feed. The father doesn't want to do it, doesn't want his children killed by wild animals, but eventually agrees. Can you imagine? The father agrees to leave his kids to die! Well, the first time, they manage to find their way home thanks to pebbles Hansel left on the path for them to follow back, but...