The kids celebrated 100 days of school this week, which means I marked 100 days as a recess duty guard. Yes, I spend an hour-and-a-half every school day monitoring the playground. My job description, according to Aiden:
"You get paid to make kids cry."
Not really what I'm shooting for, but if that's the job description, I am succeeding with flying colors.
The irony is that many of those same kids end up being my recess buddies. I like to think it's cause they know I only discipline them because I care about them. More likely it's cause they want to point out all the other kids who are being naughty.
While the job doesn't exactly fulfill all my hopes and dreams, it has its perks. For example:
- I get to see my own kids and give them hugs every day. Their friends say they wish their moms were duty guards.
- I work with a couple of the best women ever
- I have little friends who seek me out daily
- I don't have a vitamin D deficiency
- I get some extra exercise
- I have a whistle and a bag full of band-aids
- I'm honorary "grandma penguin" - why I have to be the grandma, I just don't know - and get to lead penguin conga lines
- I get invited to things like ballroom and story-telling competitions
- I get to wear a florescent orange vest...well, maybe that's not a perk
- I am serenaded with "Frozen" songs
- I can tie wet shoelaces when my fingers are icicles
- Kids tell me stories, share their successes, trust that I will help them, wave to me, give me hugs
- I see little friends around town and hear them whisper, "That's the duty guard."
That's me...
I told Morgan she was going to have a new cousin, to which she said, "That's so sad!"
Huh? I didn't get this response, so I asked her to explain.
"Because," she said. "Babies are so cute that it makes you want to cry."
Aha! Even though most of the time I can't see it, here's evidence she must be my daughter.
Okay, so I am a goodreads member and enjoy their periodic emails updating me on books my friends have read. It helps me add even more books to my mental wish-to-read list. I just can't make myself update my profile. I don't have the patience for it and it's like #723 on my list of things to do. But I've got to stick with precedent and record exactly how nerdy I am. Here's what I read in 2013 (I had a hard time keeping up on it this year, so hopefully it's all correct, not that it really matters).
- Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter
- Allegiant by Veronica Roth
- Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
- William Henry is a Fine Name by Cathy Gohlke
- Insurgent by Veronica Roth
- Divergent by Veronica Roth
- Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
- Forest Born by Shannon Hale
- True (...Sort Of) by Katherine Hannigan
- Molokai by Alan Brennert
- Beyonders: Chasing the Prophecy by Brandon Mull
- Ida B by Katherine Hannigan
- River Secrets by Shannon Hale
- Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
- The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
- Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
- The Year of Goodbyes by Debbie Levy
- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Blood Red Road by Moira Young
- Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
- The Gates of Zion by Bodie Thoene
- Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax
- Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell
- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
- Austenland by Shannon Hale
- Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
- The Candy Shop War: Arcade Catastrophe by Brandon Mull
- The Curious Incident of a Dog In the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
I may have to call this the year of Shannon Hale. She certainly seems to dominate the list. Overall, though, I feel like I covered the genres fairly well. Heavy on the YA fiction, yes, but I'm really okay with that. And never fear, I've already gotten a start on my 2014 list. Good books make me happy.
