Tag Archives: NaBloPoMo2015

What we read about when we read about Butterscotch Sundae (or: let’s visit Google Analytics)

NaBloPoMo November 2015The most visited posts on the site from November 12, 2014, through today are as follows:

1. How to throw a “Star Wars” birthday party and turn a bunch of kids into Jedi knights. This is also the top Butterscotch Sundae post of all time. Clearly I need to write more “Star Wars” crafting posts.

2. The complete, mostly unadulterated story of my troubles with the Mirena IUD. This one is also from 2012. Every now and then someone emails me to say “me too.” So while I wouldn’t want to experience it again, I’m glad I wrote about it.

3. The fulfillment of a dream I didn’t even know I had. Oh, you know, just that time in April when I shook hands with the President of the United States.

4. Tactile tactics and other activities for the reluctant speller. We’re still using a number of these spelling activities, and I’m still adding to the list whenever I see a promising technique.

5. What second grade and fifth grade look like at our house. This was my homeschool curriculum post for this year. It’s always interesting to go back to those and see what we ended up dropping. This time, we ended up dropping the outsourced science and art classes, but everything else has stuck.

6. From here to there, from there to here. Rockford’s job takes him to exotic locales every now and then. On this particular trip, we did a photo project to compare our days.

7. Here, there and everywhere, a continuation of the previous post.

8. How far will $64 go at Harris Teeter?, in which I spent $64 for a week’s worth of groceries.

9. Four fun places in Atlanta to visit with your kids. That was a great trip. I’d love to visit the Georgia Aquarium again one day.

10. Maybe FDR was right about that unreasoning, unjustified terror. I’m still wary of sinkholes, but the airplane fear has abated a little.

Not surprisingly, the top search queries since last November are mostly about stormtrooper balloons and “Star Wars” birthday parties. Other inquiries of note include “broccoli vs. ice cream sundae,” “how much does p90x cost?” and “fabulous dinosaur.” I’m not sure what this means, other than that I do not have a clearly defined niche. But I think we already knew that.

I’ve always wanted to be in a book club

NaBloPoMo November 2015A few months ago, Poppy and I discussed the idea of starting a mother-daughter book club with some of her friends. We pulled a small group together, and we’re having our first meeting tomorrow evening. We’re still working out exactly how the group will work — that’s what we’re meeting about tomorrow — but we have decided on the first book. We’re going to read “Serafina and the Black Cloak” by Robert Beatty. It’s set at the Biltmore Estate, which is a nearby tourist attraction. I always thought it would be a great setting for a mystery novel, and I’m a bit jealous that Mr. Beatty got around to writing one before I did. (Here’s the “Serafina” discussion guide from the author’s web site.)

Here’s a partial list of the books I’ve come up with so far, along with links to discussion guides and lesson plans:

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Multnoma County Public Library
Shmoop.com
WebEnglishTeacher.com
Scholastic

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Jacqueline Kelly
MacMillan
Multnoma
Nicole Politti

The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Study guide from the author.
Readers’ guide from Cheryl Passavanti and Marshall George of Albert Leonard Middle School.

My Life with Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall
BookRags.com study guide.
A study guide with an unknown origin.

My goal for the book club is to read titles that might prompt some deeper discussion with the girls on social topics, etc. My plan — which might not end up being what we do at all, seeing as our organizational meeting isn’t happening until tomorrow — is for the moms to come up with a few titles for the girls to choose between every few months so we don’t end up reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” every time. Not that there’s anything wrong with those books, but Poppy’s already read them all 578 times, and I was hoping this would encourage her to expand her literary horizons somewhat.

Are you in a book club? How is it run?

Minutiae: A pictorial journey through a Tuesday in November

Today I had the timer on my phone set to go off at regular intervals to remind me to take a picture, because it’s #OneDayHH day on Instagram. OneDay is the brainchild of former blogger Laura Tremaine, and it calls for participants to chronicle small, everyday moments throughout one full day. I did it last year. Poppy said she really enjoyed the post, and I love taking pictures. So I did it again this year, too.

Here’s what our day looked like:

9am – Keep Your Germs to Yourself

10am – Homeschooling in Progress

11am – A New Distraction

12pm – Long Overdue

1pm – Not Nutritionally Sound

2pm – The Car Was Not in Motion

3pm – Kickin’ It

3:30pm – A Lovely Surprise

4pm – Cat Pants are the Best Pants

5:30pm – Go Away, Cold

6:30pm – Not Lemon Chicken

7:30pm – Games and a Cat

9:45pm – I Used Way Too Much Honey

NaBloPoMo November 2015