Carrots, Pizza, and Rain, oh my. Sunday Salon.

Frozen carrots. Part of the 3800 pounds we bagged up yesterday.

Weather: Rain. Rain. Rain. Expected forecast for more rain. Our backyard looks like it has a pond in it. It doesn't.

Poetry Out Loud Regional final: was yesterday morning. Sophie, the candidate from GKHS, did great but did not advance to the state final. After the POL contest I had to race across town to another GKHS related event, this one with NHS.

Carrots: Yesterday the GKHS National Honor Society students met me at the Emergency Food Network and we bagged up 3800 pound of frozen carrots. The EFN provides a service linking farmers and food distributors with food banks, and soup kitchens. We actually finished the task of bagging up the huge amount of carrots early and the coordinator told us next time he will bring out even more pounds of food than this time.

Pizza: after I arrived home from my day of gallivanting around Tacoma from event to event I got a call from a friend at church wondering where me and my Honor Society students were. We were scheduled to set up the church for Freezing Nights, a homeless sheltering event, and to fix dinner for the clients. Somehow when the schedule got changed I didn't get it in my calendar. I had us scheduled for the 21st. After a moment of complete panic I realized there was nothing to do but to do it myself. There wasn't enough time to activate the students, even if I had their numbers. So I called Little Caesar's Pizza and ordered 20 boxes of pizza, stopped by the store for milk, salad, and pop. Thankfully others at the church had my back and no one seemed too upset with me. If I had bothered to open my e-mail all week from the coordinator I would have seen HONOR SOCIETY typed all over the place. Oh well, it is done. Sigh.

"Dear Teen Me": I am currently reading a book called Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves. Most of the authors of these letters do not give their teen self advise on what to change but just words of encouragement about how everything will turn out OK. But as I read the letters I keep thinking about things I'd like to tell my teen self to stop or start doing. So, I decided to add a feature to the Sunday Salon called "Dear Teen Me" where I will give myself a bit of advise to make things better for the me of today.

Dear Teen Me: Remember how you keep cheating in Mr. Luarca's typing class by sneaking a look at your fingers while you type? Stop it! Don't peek anymore! Keep on practicing the skill of typing without looking at your fingers.  You will not believe how much typing you will be doing in the future and you will be grateful everyday that you mastered the skill of typing without looking at your fingers. Help me out. Stop looking at your fingers even though you are just learning to type. The skill is more important than the grade.

Gas prices: A picture speaks a thousand words. Take a look at the price per gallon that I paid for gas this week:

Prayers for:

• a friend whose mother is dying from a stroke.
• my daughter who is looking for a job in her field.

The library has gone to the dogs: after ten years at this high school I have finally amassed all the dog books and put them on display. I was shocked how many I have. (The photo is of the display case outside the library. It is only displaying a fraction of the dog books. The rest are in the library ready for check out.) I stopped by the local Goodwill store and picked up a few stuffed dogs to add to the case. Three favorites: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein; Winterdance by Gary Paulsen; Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

Book finished this week:

• Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire---I listened to this marvelous story on audiobooks. I loved every minute of it.

Currently reading:

• Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves edited by Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally. See above for my comments on this book.
• Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw. Haven't made any progress on this book this week.

Music of the week: I love the Piano Guys and this video seems to go along with The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein that I read for the first time this week.

My blog post of the week: What modern novel is likely to become a classic? (Check out the link for my answer.)

Question of the week: If you could really give your teen self some advise what would you want your younger self to know?