Weekly Wrap-up for April 3, 2011.

I am writing this super early in the morning since I will be heading off to my second job at the park in a couple hours (forgive any big typos and the like). I am finally feeling refreshed and like myself again, which is a great feeling. For a few weeks I have been near a breaking point.

I started up again at the park a couple weeks ago, which meant I went 22 days without a day off between working at the park and teaching. But now I am on Spring Break from the school and it came at the perfect time. This will be a great week off before more insanity begins.

I got some good news on Friday that paperwork went through to allow me to be a building substitute at the school until the end of the school year. This is...great news and a great opportunity for me. Once the teacher I am subbing for comes back on the 25th of April, I will still be in the building, moving from classroom to classroom as needed. What a great way for me to get more experience! I am excited about it.

In addition, since I already started back up at the park, I will be continuing with both jobs. Thankfully, with being a building sub vs. being a long-term sub, I won't be responsible for grading or lesson planning, so my time outside of school won't have any of the stress it currently does. I will be working most nights and both days on the weekends. It is a lot...but I can't back out on the park job. Had I known all this earlier, I might have delayed my start date until mid-May. It is too late to do anything about it now, so I will be plowing through.

So, with two jobs and all the craziness that entails, you might be asking yourself about the state of the blog. I know I have been more than a little absent the last month. I'm okay with that, as I have spent a lot of time focusing on my students. They were more important (no offense guys-you know I love you).

But, I am confident moving forward that I can return to posting at a more normal rate. One of the lingering bits of stress about the blog are the backlog of books that have posts waiting in various draft forms. Because of how I view blogging (I see my writing here as a journal and record of my thoughts AS I read, rather than thoughts solely when I finish), I fell behind. And I am have been playing catch-up for nearly a year. Even now, I have a book that I read in early February that is waiting for its posts to be put up.

I have decided that I need to BE caught up. I am condensing my thoughts on that title (Siddhartha) into one big post that will go up Monday. After that title, I am going to do the same for War and Peace since my fourth post for MY read-along never made it up (I am a terrible host, aren't I?). I also have posts on The Crucible and Jane Eyre. You see? I am behind. I am going to make it a goal this coming week to get myself caught up so I don't feel so darn guilty.

I am also focusing a lot on reading for pleasure this week. Reading has become something that I "put off." I come home from school after dealing with 160 students each day and switch on the T.V. That needs to come to an end. So, in addition to doing some major spring cleaning around here, I am focusing on reading this week. I have a pile of books I want to dive into-books for readalongs, books for my own personal list, books for fun, and books to dive into during the readalong on Saturday.

I just want to remember reading as something I love.

Yes, there will hopefully be lots of reading this week. I need it.

And after only reading two titles in March (The Three Musketeers and The Crucible), I need to have some great titles under my belt in April.

I am off to a good start. I finally caved in to all the pressure and read Jane Eyre. And I am so glad I did. I am taking Wide Sargasso Sea with me to work today and making it my daily reading goal. No sleep tonight until I finish it.

Other books on the nightstand for this week include:

• Atlas Shrugged for that darn read-along of mine
• Things Fall Apart
• I Know why the Caged Bird Sings
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• The Color Purple
• Silas Marner for the Victorian Challenge
  
• Daisy Miller
• Wise Blood for my TBR Challenge
  
• As You Like It for the Shakespeare Challenge
  
• Richard III for the Shakespeare Challenge
  
• Mary Barton for the Victorian Challenge
• Far from the Madding Crowd for the Victorian Challenge
• and a few YA titles that have been sitting on the shelf.

I know I won't get through all of that, and my mood will most certainly change in the middle of the week, but I like having options.

I am glad to be back. And I am coming back with a vengeance.

What are your reading plans this week? Are you participating in the read-a-thon on Saturday?