Project: B.S.E. -- Day 1

Well this is it, the most dreaded/anticipated day of the school year: the end. Alpine School District definitely goes out with a whimper--the last day of school is from 8-9:30. An hour and a half is nowhere near long enough to justify the morning routine of waking, dressing, feeding, driving, etc. But we did it, for old time's sake, and now we bid a fond adieu to 2nd, 5th, and 9th grades. It was a pretty good year.

This is what Day One of Project: Best.Summer.Ever looked like:

The kids acted like hooligans at my college campus.

The princess celebrated her fifth birthday.

Our neighborhood friends dropped by for some cake and presents.

And we thought it'd be a good idea to take Zack off his ADHD meds for the summer. We'll be seeing this weirdo face a lot. 

The cake was abso-freakin-lutely delicious.

And the boys' newest thing is to look off in the distance when they're getting their picture taken. 

Here's what Day One of Project: Best.Summer.Ever. sounded like:

Setting: Minivan, Krispy Kreme donuts, four children, loud music on the radio.

Noah: This song is overplayed.

Brad: You're overplayed.

Noah: Your mother is overplayed.

Me: Hey! Your face is overplayed.

Silence. I think I won that one. 

And now the Project: Best.Summer.Ever. reading list update. I've made some real headway in my quest to read all the books that I own whose pages have yet to see the light of day. Unfortunately, I forgot that in order to actually make progress, I need to STOP BUYING BOOKS.  For every book I've read this month, I've bought two more. And hey, this isn't supposed to come out like I'm complaining--in fact, this is a sign that my life is pretty freaking awesome. But still, the list isn't looking much shorter. I put an asterisk next to the latest acquisitions.

Fiction:

The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (borrowed from Luisa two years ago, maybe.)

Beyonders: Book Two - Brandon Mull

Crossed - Ally Condie

Where Nothing Was Long Ago - Virginia Sorenson

Night Soil - Levi Peterson

Big Trouble - Dave Barry

Before You Know Kindness - Chris Bohjalian - mediocre, should have been a short story, not a novel

Gilead - Marilynne Robinson

The BFG - Roald Dahl - halfway through, possibly the most painful children's book I've ever read to my kids.

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper

These is My Words - Nancy Turner

*Passion - Lauren Kate

*Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman - I have a feeling I've read this before...

Non-Fiction:

The Digital Diet - Daniel Sieberg

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

Pledged - Alexandra Robbins

The Tiger - John Vaillant

Twinkie, Deconstructed - Steve Ettlinger (This I've only borrowed for a year, maybe)

*Drop Dead Healthy - A.J. Jacobs - I love pretty much everything this man has written. This is no exception.

*In The Plex - Steven Levy

Travel:

Lost On Planet China - J. Maarten Troost

Turn Left At The Trojan Horse - Brad Herzog

The Ridiculous Race -Pretty good book, the authors go so many cool places, it makes me kinda jealous. Okay, really jealous.

Memoirs:

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman - super interesting topic, about Hmong refugees in California and their interactions with the medical system.

Same Kind of Different As Me - Ron Hall

The Color of Water - James McBride

If I Die In A Combat Zone - Tim O'Brien

52 Loaves - William Alexander

Denial - Jessica Stern

I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron

Science Fair Season - Judy Dutton

The Tender Bar - J.R. Moehringer

Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner - Loved this!!

*When Women Were Birds - Terry Tempest Williams - Loved this, too!

*Refuge - Terry Tempest Williams

*Goodbye, I Love You - Carol Lynn Pearson - Also fantastic. 

My favorite book of the summer (so far, and yes, I know it's only been one day) was Lauren Winner's "Girl Meets God." It's a memoir about an Orthodox Jewish woman who converts to Christianity. It was entertaining and thought-provoking and well-written but most of all, I spent the whole book thinking, "I wish I was her friend!" When she talks about her love of books and all of the books she buys and stacks in her New York apartment, I know we are, like, twins separated at birth. Mom, you didn't actually give my twin sister up for adoption to a Jewish/Episcopalian couple, did you?

Day One=success.

Project: B.S.E. The Reading List

Okay, so part of my Project: Best.Summer.Ever. is a personal goal to read all of the books on my bookshelf that I haven't read yet.  I'm a fast reader, so with no professor telling me what to read I should be able to plow through these in the next three months, no problem. Except that I'm also a fickle reader--I read the way I eat, based on what feels good at the moment. None of these books has compelled me to make time to read them yet, so reading these books might be the literary equivalent of eating my vegetables.

Because a blog is good for nothing if not oversharing, here's my Summer Reading List.

Fiction:
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (borrowed from Luisa two years ago, maybe.)
Beyonders: Book Two - Brandon Mull
Crossed - Ally Condie
Where Nothing Was Long Ago - Virginia Sorenson
Night Soil - Levi Peterson
Big Trouble - Dave Barry
Before You Know Kindness - Chris Bohjalian
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
The BFG - Roald Dahl
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper
These is My Words - Nancy Turner

Non-Fiction:
The Digital Diet - Daniel Sieberg
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Pledged - Alexandra Robbins
The Tiger - John Vaillant
Twinkie, Deconstructed - Steve Ettlinger (This I've only borrowed for a year, maybe)

Travel:
Lost On Planet China - J. Maarten Troost
Turn Left At The Trojan Horse - Brad Herzog
The Ridiculous Race -

Memoirs:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Anne Fadiman
Same Kind of Different As Me - Ron Hall
The Color of Water - James McBride
If I Die In A Combat Zone - Tim O'Brien
52 Loaves - William Alexander
Denial - Jessica Stern
I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron
Science Fair Season - Judy Dutton
The Tender Bar - J.R. Moehringer
Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner


Have you read any of these books? Any that you'd recommend starting with? (Or, conversely, any that are so bad I should donate them to Savers and buy a new one to replace it with?)

Project: Best.Summer.Ever

After a long internal debate (you're welcome for sparing you the agony), I've decided to take the summer off of school. I was awarded a fellowship through UVU to continue researching the Woman's Exponent, which will keep me busy and also mentally stimulated. But I get a little nervous thinking about that long expanse of summer days, completely structureless and full of children. Enter my brilliant new idea--Project: Best.Summer.Ever.

Project: Best.Summer.Ever. is my plan to stay sane and engaged during the next three and a half months. Phase One is planning. During the month of May, I'm going to scout out great ideas for things to do, places to go, goals to accomplish. Then from June through August it's Phase Two: Go Time. Finally Phase Three is the cool-down phase, where we ease back into school and regular life. (Okay, Phase Three is kind of a joke at this point, but you can't have a plan with just two phases. It's like only having two Stooges, there has to be three. I'll work on a better Phase Three later.)

The real genius of the plan is in the name. You've heard the phrase "fake it till you make it"? Well, this is "name it until you brainwash your kids." That's right--the goal here is not to overschedule the kids until they weep with submission every night, nor is it to actually create the best summer ever--it's to say, over and over again, that this is the best summer ever until they start believing it themselves!  We normally do some swim lessons in the summer; this year, they are going to be referred to as the Best.Swim Lessons.Ever. Because who doesn't want to do that?! We're going on the Best.Campout.Ever, eating the Best.Barbequed.Hamburgers.Ever, watching the Best.Minor.League.Baseball.Games.Ever. See?  All the stuff that we already do, just made more impressive, and therefore more fun, by the name. Can you hear my evil cackle from where you are? It's loud.

Two years ago, we had what I thought was a fairly miserable Christmas. The basement flooded and I was stressed out by that to the point where I didn't even make Christmas dinner and instead we went out to the only restaurant open in Orem, the Chinese buffet down the street. No one felt the same way I did, though--the kids got their presents, spent the day playing and basically thought it was great.  Then last year, what was just a standard Christmas got labeled by one of the kids as the "best Christmas ever." Ryan joked that we'd cancel next Christmas, since it couldn't get any better, and Zack believed him, at least for a minute. Other than the flooded basement, which is sure to get any homeowner down, the main difference between the two Christmases was labels. I labeled one Christmas a failure and the other a success. I look back on one in regret and the other in fondness. I don't want to do that with this summer.

Project: Best.Summer.Ever. is for me, mostly. If I give it a great label, then I'm going to try to live up to it, make it what it should be. It's the structure that I crave and that the kids secretly crave as well. And it's also a program of psychological warfare, which makes every summer better, don't you think?