Life Happens and a giveaway!

Well, I had intended to try to blog about some school related things this past weekend. But, as my title suggests, other things took the front seat.

I live in the area in California where the huge fire called The Erskine Fire is happening right now. The last few days have been a blur. My house is fine and I never was in grave danger (only a few scares). I feel incredibly blessed, but also extremely sad for all the people who lost their homes- 250+ at last count. My son-in-law's mom's house burned down. My sub, who covered all the weeks for me while was on the jury trial 2 months ago, her house burned done (second time she's lost her home to a fire here). So many sad, sad stories.

What has been wonderful is the outpouring of support and care from my community and beyond. People have brought truckloads and truckloads (and truckloads) of water, clothing, food, baby care items, hay for animals, pet supplies, etc. I am amazed and blessed at the goodness of people. Volunteers coming out to help. The Red Cross is set up at my school. A lot of community members are going through the process of becoming a Red Cross volunteer (myself included) so we can help out there.

Nothing like going through an experience like this to remind you of what is important!

Book Study

Now, on to other things. Have any of you read the book The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo? Can I just say- AWESOME book! I am part of a group of bloggers that will be blogging about this book each week until we go all the way through it.

You can read about the first goal here: