Night--Elie Wiesel

The time has come! Our discussion of Night will commence right....now.

On Monday I listed some questions to think about after reading (or while reading if you started the book this week). 

First of all, what did you think of the book? Was it what you were expecting? Why or why not? Were you surprised with anything? If you've read it before, what new things did you notice this time around?

Wiesel describes his faith before the Holocaust. How does his faith change throughout his experiences?

What meanings could "night" have throughout the book? (figurative and literal)

Who are the victims, the bystanders, and the perpetrators in Night? Can these roles overlap at all? If so, how do they?

Which scenes from Night stood out to you most vividly? And why?

Wiesel describes himself as a "corpse" at the end of the book. How did he die during his trials and did he ever start living again?

Finally, in what way can you connect with Elie? How does he as a person influence us as readers in 2015?

And I've thought long and hard about re-reading this book. You see, my Sophomore students read this book for class and I just have a standard study guide for it. There are about a bajillion questions for each section and they get tired of answering them and I get tired of correcting them. So I'm very glad that Aubrey hadn't read the book and therefore wanted to add it to our list for Second Chance.

That being said, I was impressed with Night the second fourth time around. I recall reading it in high school and a few times on my own during college. It was one of those books I could pick up and read in a few days. But this time around, I was looking at it in a different way. I was using my teacher eyes and my student eyes at different times. Overall, I was impressed again with the sadness Wiesel evokes in his readers. One line that sticks out in my mind is from the end when the head of their block tells Elie "[h]ere, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone." And the thing that struck me, is that it seems like life should be the opposite. Don't get me wrong. I comprehend the meaning that this man was intending, but as a human being, as a Christian--aren't we called to live life together? After Elie goes on to try to only think about himself, his guilt returns.

That guilt is one of the reasons Elie kept returning to his father.

Through the entire story, Elie's spirit kept resonating with me. What about his spirit? While I wrote the questions above, last week--I found that I was drawn more toward that spirit than anything else. Elie's spirit has been defeated. He is completely broken by the time he looks at his "corpse" in the mirror. It was his spirit that died during his trials in WWII.

While Wiesel tells a horrific account of his experiences in WWII's concentration camps, I do not know if I could handle reading it again. Ultimately, it's his determination that keeps him alive. Once his father died, he had nothing to live for but food. He was determined to eat. That, for me, was heartbreaking.

I'm not sure what the rest of you thought, but it was good for me to read again as a teacher (from my perspective and my students' perspective). It's the "night" that haunted Elie and the others throughout their entire ordeal.

What did you think? Did you follow along with my questions better than I did? If nothing else, I hope a few of my ramblings and thoughts encourage you to read it again or at least to sit down and chew it over again.

And with that, we'll see you in February with The Glass Menagerie, which I will be leading again! See you then!

Think about it...

As I was reading in my Teaching Secondary English book by Daniel Sheridan, I came across this section:
      "[E]njoyment, I think, is what we're after, at least at the secondary school level, where our students are going to grow up to be pediatricians and politicians, carpenters and car mechanics, bookkeepers and beekeepers, but only very rarely English majors who need [...] early lit[erary] crit[icism] training. What we want is to excite them about reading while they are in school, help them share our love of it, so that they will remain readers when they are adults [...]. And they will be readers to their children, too, so that the cycle of enjoyment of print will continue" (112).

Wow.

What can I say about that? Isn't that what every English teacher desires? I know I do. I want my students to love reading. Not reading for the sake of dissecting every little thing about the current novel they're into. I want them to love reading because it's fun and they can get lost in another world. I want the next generation to love reading. 

How do we get that mentality shift for everyone? How do we come to the realization that it's okay to simply read a novel to appreciate the world that it draws you into?

If you've got any solutions, please let me know. Until then, Daniel Sheridan and I have a standing date to figure it out.

Chicken Salad Recipe--Dinner tonight

We tend to have troubles at our house picking out meals for supper. Kyle is hungry all.of.the.time--his metabolism is better than mine...hello, love handles. So I've been searching for meals that are filling, but healthy too. Now...this one might not fall into the "filling" category for Kyle...but as long as we give him a can of soup, he should be good for the night until 7:30 tonight.

I made this for lunch with a friend over Christmas break and I faux followed someone's Pinterest recipe. But this is my variation.

Enjoy!

Chicken Salad Croissants

1/2 c lite mayo
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 c celery--sliced (we love celery at our house)
1/2 c grapes--halved
1/4 c dried cranberries (to taste)
*milk, whipping cream, heavy cream, half and half can be added if your salad needs some thinning

Seriously--that's all I did! We were so happy with these sandwiches. The next time I make them (on a weekend) I'm going to try my hand at making the croissants by myself! *instead of buying them from Target* Hah!

I'll post photos tonight when I'm finished. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Ooh...don't forget to try your own variations of this salad. Don't like cranberries? Try almonds. Don't like nuts, add some shredded cheese!

Ah! I'm so behind! Night questions--finally.

I know, I know, I know. I promised that I'd have discussion questions for Night for you by Saturday. I'm a failure.

This weekend was absolutely crazy. I know you don't want to know about how we were super motivated on Saturday morning and I went for a run, made breakfast, and then we cleaned the two upstairs rooms so that we could have a place for our house warming gift from my parents--a new queen sized bed. Which we thought came and we moved our current bed into the spare room. And then we set up our new frame (which came on Thursday in the mail) for the new mattress in our room. And then Kyle brought up the box with the mattress only to find this:

If you're wondering...yes. That IS 36lbs of dog food. That Kyle brought upstairs...only to have to haul it down again.

Then yesterday was madness with continuing grading and putting finishing touches on curriculum to start today with. Yikes.

All of that to say...I'm sorry. I should've gotten these questions to you sooner...especially since we are discussing THIS THURSDAY!

Enough stalling, Kelly. Right, right. Here you are!

Night Discussion Questions: January

First of all, what did you think of the book? Was it what you were expecting? Why or why not? Were you surprised with anything? If you've read it before, what new things did you notice this time around?

Wiesel describes his faith before the Holocaust. How does his faith change throughout his experiences?

What meanings could "night" have throughout the book? (figurative and literal)

Who are the victims, the bystanders, and the perpetrators in Night? Can these roles overlap at all? If so, how do they?

Which scenes from Night stood out to you most vividly? And why?

Wiesel describes himself as a "corpse" at the end of the book. How did he die during his trials and did he ever start living again?

Finally, in what way can you connect with Elie? How does he as a person influence us as readers in 2015?

*I encourage you to write your own blog post and to link up with us here on Thursday. Grab a button from my buttons page and slap that on the bottom of your post. Then send your readers over here to see next month's book.

If you don't have a blog, please still participate and add comments below! I'll include them in a revised version of my post later this weekend. 

A reminder...book club starts soon!

Just a reminder! We are talking about Night next Thursday right here!

And it's not too late--in case you've not read it, take a look at the synopsis below and come back tomorrow to ch-ch-check out the questions we'll be discussing next week.

"Night is a work by Elie Wiesel about his experience with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, at the height of the Holocaust and toward the end of the Second World War. In just over 100 pages of sparse and fragmented narrative, Wiesel writes about the death of God and his own increasing disgust with humanity, reflected in the inversion of the father–child relationship as his father declines to a helpless state and Wiesel becomes his resentful teenage caregiver."  --Goodreads

A tish of nostalgia

Well, we're out. We are officially moved out of our apartment.

We've lived there since last March. Before that we were in our little one bedroom apartment in the 55+ building.

Our first apartment was special. It was the first place we lived together. We celebrated our first married Christmas together. We learned how to live together.

But this second apartment was special to us too. It was where we remembered what it was like to have a roommate (or two) that you're not married to. This second apartment was where we started to naturally fall into our roles in our marriage. One of us naturally has a desire to cook more. One of us naturally has the urge to do dishes more.

This was the home where we spent too many hours watching tv during supper. It was the home where we could walk across our back yard to see our good friends. It was the home that would be our last apartment before we purchased a house.

It was also:
...the home where we had downstairs neighbors whose cigarette smoke wafted in our open patio during the summer.
...the home where our across the hall neighbor had a smelly, giant white dog whose fur would clog up the vacuum in the halls and eventually wind up in our hallway.
...the home where our garage leaked every time it rained or the snow melted.

But it was still our home. It was still a place we could entertain people and make memories. It was home for a short time and part of me is sad to say goodbye.

However...
...the rest of me is VERY HAPPY that we now have a house to call home and we won't have to rent (hopefully) ever again.

February 1--What will you be doing?

I don't know what you'll be doing...but I know what I'll be doing.

Source

Superbowl 2015, baby!

What we're all about.

I just realized that I don't have an "About Us" section on this here space. And though many of you probably know us personally, I thought it would be a good idea to fill everyone else in.
*Plus, then it's here for future reference as well and I'll update it as needed.

This is me. From almost 5 years ago. 

It's one of my favorite pictures.

This is Kyle. On his birthday.

He hates pictures.

We are both Midwest born and raised who met at college and became friends. Seriously. 

Two and a half years later, we decided to try this dating thing. 

13 months after our first date, we got engaged. 

Less than four months later we were married. 

And now, five and half years after we met, almost three years after our first date, and 18 months after our wedding--we are in a home with a dog and real grown-up jobs.

We love Jesus, family, friends, our home, and the challenges life throws our way.

*I'm fairly confident that I can speak for Kyle when I say these things. 

I love to read, crochet, quilt, bake, and cook, and be busy almost all day long. 

Kyle loves music, reading, projects, and alone time.

We get along real well. :)

We plan out our meals based on silly names like "Taco Tuesday" or "Weftover Wednesday". Every Friday is our homemade pizza and a movie (or T.V. show...depends on the week) night.

We drink coffee like it's going out of style.

There's a Husky tool cart in our dining room...as our kitchen cart. The entire top drawer is filled with loose leaf and bags of tea.

I love my iPhone. Kyle forgets he has a mobile phone.

Butter and cream are staples in our home. *Thank you, Kyle*

We have so many cookbooks that they get their own bookshelf.

This is just a short snippet into our lives. Get to know us. We'd love to get to know you.

On that note, if you want to know more about us or have questions, feel free to leave comments below or contact me through this here blog. 

So this is happening.

Here's what's going down. I've decided that I'm going to read more this year.

However, I may have bitten off more than I can chew for January. I'm currently reading these two books:

and

And in case you've forgotten...book club starts up this month! Wahoo!! We've already got a few people joining in. Please join us too!

That being said--our book this month is:

At this rate, I'm going to be more well-read than I've been in years! Here's the thing. I love to read--I always have. And I attribute that love of reading to my dad. Sure, my mom liked to read too--but it was my dad who I saw sitting in his chair in the living room reading as many Tom Clancy novels and Louis L'Amour books as he could get his hands on.

If you feel so inclined, take a look at my Goodreads profile. It'll show you what I'm reading currently, what I've already read, what I hope to read, and where I'm at in my yearly reading goal. *It's 24 books, by the way.*

Now off you go...read some Night.

Year Goals {By the Numbers}

I don't usually do resolutions for each new year. I've seen monthly goals and I've seen year long goals. I've been thinking about what my goal(s) should be for this year.

Do I want to lose weight?
Do I want to read (school books, self-help, my Bible, etc) more?
Do I want to foster better relationships?
Do I want to pay off lots of my loans?
Do I want to grow more as a teacher?

There are so many things that I want to achieve. But I've decided that I want to have just one goal.

Be the best that I can be.

That's my one goal for 2015. I want to be the best:

*wife, teacher, writer, friend, daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, person*

that I can be.

The hardest part about this goal is trying to find ways to achieve it. So what's happening this year, is I'm setting small goals to help me achieve my ultimate goal.

One day a week, I'm going to send a message to a friend or family member letting them know how much they mean to me.
Two days a week, I'm going to sit down and have some me time. No distractions. For 30 minutes.
Three days a week, I'm going to the gym. It can be for 20 min or 120 minutes (hah!).
Four days a week, I'm going to bring my own coffee to work. No more buying coffees regularly.
Five days a week, I'm going to cook homemade suppers (seven if we're really ambitious).
Five days a week, we're going to bed earlier for school.
Six days a week, I'm going to read out of an actual book before I go to bed.
Seven days a week, I'm going to show my husband how much I love him (I'm sure there'll be a series of posts of how that's going...)

I know there are more things I'm going to do...if I want to be a better writer and teacher, maybe I'll commit to reading 4 teaching books this year and writing in this space a few times a week. If I don't write here, I'll have to write somewhere else too.

Stay tuned. 

I'm sure I'll have more updating to do on this goal.