Music, Miles, Looks, Books of November

Another month has passed and I peaked at my goals yesterday to see if I had met them… and I met, not a single one. Haha, oops! Let's just pretend that didn't happen :) 

 

Music

It's all about Christmas music in my world right now. The country music Christmas station on Pandora is on repeat right now. Here are some of my favorites: 

Christmas in Dixie- Alabama + Kenny Chensey

I'll be Home for Christmas- Rascal Flatts

Away in a Manger- Brad Paisley

Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart- LeAnn Rimes

Thank God For Kids- Kenny Chesney (I'm not sure why this qualifies as a Christmas song but its on Kenny's Christmas cd so it goes here… absolutely love this song, use it in my end of the year kindergarten slideshow every year).

 

Miles

I ran this month, probably twice a week. I have no record of how many miles. That's about all :) 

 

Looks

About a month ago, I saw Caroline wearing a dress that I just had to have. I love it...

Here I am wearing my own:

 

And borrowing Caroline's:

 

Obsessed. If I could own it in 12 colors I would. But alas I could not because it was on major sale and there were only 2 colors left when I got there. Oh well, won't complain about a major sale. 

Get ready to see an irrational amount of sparkles/sequins in my December outfits. 

 

Books

It was not the best book month for me, so please send some recommendations my way. I'm still confident I will hit my 50 book challenge because I fully plan to spend my end of December vacation reading 5 books if that is what it takes, which it might if I don't start reading again right now haha. In my defense, I am taking a class right now so a lot of my reading has gone to that. I don't know how Iowa Amber reads so many books while in school, I can't do it. 

This is a story about a mother who has her second baby and learns right when she is born that her daughter has Down Syndrome. I personally thought it was a honest and very feel-good story. Probably my favorite read of this month. 

The history of this book is fascinating because it's about the people in Germany who were against Hitler (obviously they weren't in Germany for long!) It was something I hadn't read much about, so I loved that part of it. But the fiction part was a little flat for me… could be just me though. 

Obviously, I read this for work. I have a student this year who's parents have been using this approach for him and it's been working well so I'm trying to apply some of it at school. It's actually a really interesting approach and validates a lot of what Eric and I say we personally think works best with kids (hint: it's not just being mean and telling them what to do all day haha). It's a bit hard to change the mindset of "I am the adult and you are the kid so you will do what I say" (which by the way, is not a mindset I am against!), but it does make a lot of sense. I'd recommend this book for teachers and parents, even if your child isn't particularly "explosive." 

 

Goals for December 

I've set goals every month this year (I think?) so I'd love to finish on a high note! 

1. Take 1 photo every day and post to Facebook. I'd love to do a 365 day photo challenge, but I'm scared. I don't post pictures of my students and I don't have kids or a dog, so that kind of gets rid of all the default photos haha. I'm going to try to do it for the month of December and see how it goes. It's been one day and I put a photo up last night, so day 1 = done. 

2. Read 5 books. I have to be on my reading game this month to meet my 50 books in 2012 challenge. Second recommendations my way, please!

3. Stick to my own treats. This is a time of year of treats. Most important, Gharadelli Peppermint Bark is back. Heaven. Anyway, point is- there are enough treats around, I don't need to steal Eric's and therefore eat double the treats. I started this a week ago and so far I'm doing well, heres to hoping I can keep it up for the month. 

4. Enjoy the season. Ask Eric, I tend to wish away the Christmas season, not because I don't love it… I love it. But my kids at work are EXHAUSTING at this time of year and I get into "just get me to vacation" mode. But, this year I am not going to do that. I got all my Christmas shopping done already and all I really have to do is some wrapping and putting together… plus read 5 books and finish the class I'm taking. But I can do that. I know I can. So, I'm going to enjoy.