The Sunday Salon–Rambles

Good morning fellow bloggers and blog readers.  It isn't technically morning anymore, but Sundays tend to have that morning all day kind of feel.  Also, I haven't been up for very long. :)  I started my morning off with a bath and a cup of coffee.  I started Silver Phoenix there, which I have been meaning to read for a few months now, or maybe since I got it for myself sometime around last Christmas.

 

I am totally overwhelmed by all the house cleaning I have to do and how every single year I procrastinate on getting the tree up.  I said I would do it on Dec. 1rst and it is 4 days later and it still isn't done.  Sure, 4 days doesn't seem like a lot but then it blooms into more and more, and I am putting the tree up on Christmas Eve again.

 

I am doing an very small Christmas this year. There is very little anyone in the house needs and I have been desperately trying to declutter for the last few months.  And decluttering is what I should be doing right now.

 

I was reminded to take part in The Sunday Salon after reading a great post by Vasilly earlier today.  And then I got to talking to her on Twitter and now two hours have passed and I only have  a small portion of my post done. Vasilly and I had a fascinating talk about reading and writing in the public school systems and what we currently observe and what we would like to see change.  This has been a passion of mine for many, many years and it was refreshing to find someone willing to let me blather on about the subject.  One of the things we talked about was writing poetry with young children and I was reminded of one of my favorite writing books of all time.  It is called Starting with Little Things and I highly recommend it. A few years ago I even wrote a little post about it.

 

I would recommend this book, along with Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine, to ANYONE interested in writing, but especially to parents, teachers, and kids.  I was overwhelmed with how much this little book improved my writing.

 

Vasilly and I also discussed some great books that kids can read to connect with poetry in a new way. Two of our favorites were Love that Dog by Sharon Creech and Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and I also loved Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.  I love books that are about connecting kids with their creative voice.  Do you have any books to recommend like that?

My reading life has slipped, once again, into something weak at best.  I seem to go in trends when I want to do more audio or more paper, but lately I have been wanting to read the majority of my books on ebook.  I have been pushing through The Hole in the Wall from NetGalley for way too long now.  My goal was to finish it over Thanksgiving break at the latest.  But that didn’t happen.  Thanksgiving was more stressful than I even imagined and I am still recovering from it.

 

Last night I started a few more ebooks but I am struggling to really connect with something. I did start The Silver Phoenix this morning and I have mixed feelings about it, though it does look promising.  In some ways I am looking forward to next year as a way to kind of renew my reading experiences. 

 

What are you looking forward to about 2011?