SOLC 2015 Day 31: Habits

Things I have done for thirty-one days in a row, and whether or not they became a habit:

• Kept a gratitude journal (habit)
• Exercised (not)
• Brushed my teeth (habit)
• Meditated (not)
• Showered (habit)
• Stuck to a diet (not)
• Hugged my husband (habit)
• Took a multivitamin (habit)
• Been pregnant (not)
• Kept my fingernails polished (habit)
• Kept my toenails polished (not)
• Worked at paying jobs without a day/weekend off (not)
• Checked in on Facebook (habit, until this Lenten season)
• Checked email (habit)
• Slice of Life Challenge (does a yearly practice count as a habit after three years?)

I'm not sure if I'll keep up the daily writing practice, as there are other tasks tugging at my conscience--some of which are listed above, that I would like to become habits.  I will certainly try and blog more, even as I transition back into professionally related themes.

Looking back at my three years' worth of SOLC posts, I've realized that they are time capsules, snapshots not only of my life and thoughts at the time, but also of my relationship with others, my willingness to open up and share, my trust that I can do so without negative repercussions.  I can be vulnerable and silly and thoughtful and opinionated and awed.  

I'm looking forward to next year's Slice of Life Challenge.  I wonder what I'll uncover then.

SOLC 2015 Day 30: Shhhh, no talking in the library

My library is normally not quiet.

Most days
There is soft music playing
Laughing among the adults
Booktalking with the students
Teaching inference and empathy
How to turn a page, and turn a phrase
Read-alouds in the book nook
After we sing songs to get our wiggles out.

Today
There will be no music, no laughing
Books lie face-down, turned around
Reminding students to be quiet, focus
No teaching, just verbatim instructing
How to turn a page and mark a dot.

My library is normally not quiet.

SOLC 2015 Day 29: Creepy crawlies

They're back.

Six legs, eight legs, no legs.  Winging, crawling, slithering.

Once the temperatures stay above seventy degrees Fahrenheit for more than two days in a row, they start appearing.  Add some rain, and we know they're coming in droves.

The first one of the season was a blind snake in the bathroom.  They're very tiny--about as big around as a toothpick, and only five inches or so long.  Still, watching one squirm around your feet when otherwise indisposed is unsettling.  I let my husband handle that one.

Ant beds started reappearing.  Brown wasps have been buzzing around the backyard and my mailbox (?).  Those crane flies that look like giant mosquitoes, but don't bite, are hovering near our door.  We've already had a real mosquito bite or two, apiece.  Where's the hydrocortisone cream?

I scrambled in the door this past week to avoid the big brown grasshopper poised on the ledge, looking ready to jump into my work bag.  I danced with a small spider in the kitchen (I kinda like them--their webs trap mosquitoes) until it went under the cabinet.

Tonight, the most telling sign that summer is on the way are the june bugs batting up against my kitchen window.  Sometimes we find dozens outside at the front and back of the house, clamoring for the lights at night and most often dying in their attempt to reach them.  The clickety-clack of their beetle bodies against the glass annoy me to no end, along with the fluttering of a myriad of moths.

To be sure, it's hurry-in-and-close-that-door-behind-you season here in Central Texas.  I'm feeling itchy just writing about it, and looking forward to seeing the other winged and crawling creatures--purple martins and geckos--who come and help cull the creepy crawly population.

SOLC 2015 Day 28: Yep, I do that too

Let me start by saying that I really love my job.  I mean, REALLY love my job.  I get to talk books and stories and information literacy all day long--what could be better?

I also haven't had an experience (yet) in the library that has stressed me out to such levels that approximate my most anxious moments in the classroom (remember, I taught/ worked in special education settings before).

That being said, there is so much more to a library program than books, stories, and lessons.  It's the stuff that I have to do at my messy work desk that tends to stress me out a bit.

Like navigating the online district financial program.  Thank goodness we have fabulous librarians in our district who actually took their own valuable time to write a step-by-step handbook on the subject--and thanks to the computer design that allows me to have said handbook open in one window while I trudge through the financial trenches in another one.

The responsibility of a district purchasing card, and handling of money can stress me out a little.  I have bookfairs to decorate, refreshments to purchase for events, a conference and author visits to pay for, books to buy.  Those said bookfairs generate a lot of sales on my campus.  We collect funds for lost ID badges, lost and damaged books, birthday book donations.  Spending taxpayer's money wisely weighs heavily on my mind.

I am getting a bit less queasy each month that I submit my financial statement, and I'm good about keeping up with receipts and forms.  I have to admit that even in my second year on the job, I get giddy when I place big orders for books on the district's dime.  Even giddier when the boxes arrive and I get to share them with staff and students.

I once had a parent who asked what it took to be a librarian, and acted surprised when I told her that one has to have a master's degree.  I went on to explain that the library is more than checking books in and out and buying the latest bestsellers--it's a classroom, meeting place, safe space, and program all rolled into one.  I'm guessing that at the campus level, the library budget ranks in the top half amount-wise, when you add in the book funds, database subscriptions and revenue.

I know that as the years go by, I will become more confident in the program duties the job entails.  It makes me ever so thankful that I have a wonderful assistant and volunteers who take care of some of the more mundane details like book maintenance, checking in books and shelving, so that I can disappear occasionally into my office and take care of the paperwork.  I will still maintain, though, that my favorite part of being a librarian is out there with the students, among the stacks, in the Book Nook and learning areas, talking books and stories and growing as global and digital citizens. 

SOLC 2015 Day 27: Flour

I haven't indulged in one of my favorite activities in awhile, and I'm feeling a bit glum.

When I have the time, I really enjoy baking.  Something about focusing on a recipe, mixing dough and batter, dropping it or rolling it out or filling my fancy Bundt pans to make cookies and cakes to share makes me happy.  If left alone in the kitchen to bake, I can almost enter a zen state, moving through the triangle of counter-oven-cooling racks.

My mother was a baker, especially around the holidays.  She would bake all kinds of cookies, and they became hostess gifts, party goodies, and treats for unmarried soldiers in my father's unit to ease their homesickness.  I have friends who fondly remember certain cookies she made, will ask if I've baked any lately.

I picked up the habit after college.  My baking season lasted August through May, with an occasional firing up of the oven during the sweltering Texas summer months if an event called for it.  Cookies for my school colleagues and children's teachers, cakes for birthdays, special cut-outs to say thank you to the crossing guards at Thanksgiving.

And then there was Christmas time.  In a really organized year, I start making the chilled dough the weekend after Thanksgiving, and bake each week through New Year's.  My holiday season record is 1500 cookies.  They went to neighbors, friends, teachers, and shipped to faraway relatives.

Over the last few years, for various reasons, the number of batches have dwindled down to a paltry few.  I didn't even make cutout gingerboys or sugar cookies with royal icing this past year, and they have always, always been Christmas staples.  No heart cookies on Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day went by without the orange zest-with-mint-icing shamrocks.

At Easter, I will make an effort to bake my usual lemon pound cake in the rose-shaped Bundt pan (the yellow rose of Texas!) with homemade lemon curd.  Maybe I'll pull out the egg-shaped cookie cutter, whip up a batch of royal icing, and we'll have cookies instead of hard-boiled eggs, since my family doesn't eat many of the latter.

Maybe for a few moments, I'll find that zen state again in the golden triangle in our small galley kitchen.

SOLC 2015 Day 26: How far we've come

More thoughts from the school board meeting held on Tuesday evening...

The white-haired-but-not-elderly-seeming

man was called forward

dark of skin, bright of eye

recognized for being the first

in that skin, to cross that threshold

in our district, fifty years ago.

He spoke eloquently, gratefully

of how his transition was

so much easier, less negative

than similar stories of the day,

his speech received with a standing ovation

nods of agreement--we've come so far.

That audience gone, 

a blond-haired-lanky-and-nervous-seeming

teenage boy brushed the hair from his face

as he approached the podium

to speak on behalf of his group,

marginalized students

defined by five letters

fortunate to have a club to call their own.

In a voice first shaky and small, then

growing louder and more sure

he spoke of their need for acknowledgement

the practice of one day of silence

to bring attention to the 

micro- and blatant acts of aggression

that darken their spirits and dampen their light

(not to mention their grades, and sometimes, their lives).

One day each year, because for them,

we have not come far at all.

SOLC 2015 Day 25: The board meeting

"Whereas school libraries provide
                                             support
                                             strengthen
                                             teach and model
                                             foster
                                             value

Educational resources
Literacy and lifelong learning
Families, communities, the great equalizer
Emerging technologies
Research and scholarship
Diversity and intellectual freedom
                           
                                            Joining and celebrating."*

How strong we are, how much we do, those who work among the students and the stacks in library programs.  I am proud to be associated with such vibrant verbs and honorable values.  Sitting in a row filled with my fellow librarians, I could not help but smile and nod in agreement. 



*(Paraphrased from the Round Rock ISD School Board Resolution , agenda pg 22,  in support of National Library Week and School Library Month, March 24, 2015).