Reading with Intention 2011

I counted up my books for this year and was a little disappointed in myself. Last year I read 40 books. I was really hoping to beat that this year. Unless I manage to finish one of the two books I am reading in the next four days (highly unlikely given the papers I have to grade and the house I have to clean) I will have read the same amount. I comfort myself with the knowledge that a number of the books I read were LONG not to mention I bought a house and had a baby. ANYWAY... My top 5 books of the year were... (drumroll please)

In no particular order:
Lonesome Dove- Larry McMurtry
Rebecca- Daphne du Maurier
The Fountainhead- Ayn Rand
The Good Earth- Pearl S. Buck
Our Hearts were Young and Gay- Skinner and Kimbrough

Okay I will just make it my top 10-
Winnie the Pooh- A.A. Milne
David Copperfield- Dickens
The Elegance of the Hedgehog- Muriel Barbery
Rilla of Ingleside- L.M. Montgomery
The Horse Boy- Issakson


Oh and Farenheit 451. (Can you believe I was an English major and I've never read this before?!)

It was a very good year as far as reading goes and I am excited about what adventures I will go on next year. I think I am going to FINALLY commit to reading Harry Potter...

Just another day...

All is good and peaceful in The Saemenes Household... in my dreams. That is if I had been allowed enough time to dream in between my four year old waking me up to tell me her elf (on the shelf) was "boring her," my two year old waking up needing her pacifier and my baby needing to eat. In reality, my bathroom doesn't have a wall or a shower head and more than once today I have had three screaming girls crammed on my lap. At another time I had my lunch burning on the stove, a screaming baby in bed and a turd rolling out of another kid's pants.

I haven't showered since Tuesday and it is Friday. My bathroom looks like you need a hard hat, my house looks like a war-zone and my kitchen looks like a deranged frenchman with a clever was chasing a runaway crustacean through it. I am tired and stinky and it will take all my self- control not to break open that half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream in my freezer and put myself in a sugar induced state of comadic (yes, I did just make that word up) bliss.