I love books.  I probably spend quite a few times more money on books each year than the average person.  Since most of the books I buy are for use in my classroom, it is important to keep track of which books I buy with my own money, and which books I buy with school funds.  School systems get real picky about keeping track of their expenditures.   Thus, every time I buy a book with my own money, I either put one of my personal address labels on the inside cover, or I write my name with a (P) beside it to show that it’s my personal book.  Trust me, the labels are the easiest way to go.  When I see my label inside a book, I know it is one I bought myself.

There’s another area in which I use address labels a lot, too.  Unfortunately, I’ve done a LOT of moving the past 10 years.  I didn’t plan on moving so often, but it happened anyway.   Since I really enjoy having personalized items, I especially like having custom address labels because they save so much time when I get ready to pay my bills or to write thank you notes - and they’re wonderful for using with Christmas cards.  I can spend my time and energy on writing a personal message inside inside cards and letters rather than spending time writing my return address each time.  They are just about the least expensive time-saver there is!

I’m an elementary school reading specialist, and so I’m always reading.  I also love quotes.  Thus I’ve done Thursday Thirteens on various topics related to reading and quotes.  There are Thursday Thirteens on quotes about Mothers, quotes from American History,  poems to read with children,  quotes to write in the sand,  my favorite read-aloud books for children,  my favorite quotes about reading, and thirteen books for Read Across American week.  Here is a second set of quotes about reading that I love:

(1)  “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life.”   ~W. Somerset Maugham~

(2) “The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.”  ~Christopher Morley~

(3) “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” ~Emilie Buchwald~

(4) “A house without books is like a room without windows.”  ~Horace Mann~

(5) “To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”  ~Cicero~

(6) “Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”  ~Richard McKenna~

(7)  “To read is to empower;

To empower is to write;

To write is to influence;

To influence is to change;

To change is to live.”

~Jane Evershed~

(8) “The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go! ”

~Dr. Seuss~

(9)  “There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.”  ~Mary Ellen Chase~

(10)  “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”  ~Chinese proverb~

(11) ”Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ~Sir Richard Steele~

(12)  “Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.”  ~Jim Bishop~

(13)  “A book is a like a garden carried in the pocket.”  ~Chinese proverb”

Here’s another favorite quote about reading.  This one is from Dr. Seuss.

“The more that you read,

The more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

The more places you’ll go!”

~Dr. Seuss~

This is one of my favorite quotes in rhyme.  Don’t you just love it?

“Oh please, oh please, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,

And in it’s place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”

~Roald Dahl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory~

It’s time to start shopping for Christmas gifts for the grandgirls.  I was thinking about what they like and use the most, and I immediately thought of the personalized duffle bags I bought each of them when they were babies.  Sunshine is 4-years old and Sweet Stuff is 6-years old, and they are still using those personalized duffle bags frequently. 

I’ve always liked personalized gifts.  In the past I’ve bought personalized pencils, name pads, memo cubes, t-shirts and other items for gifts.  My sister gave me a personalized garment bag a few years ago, and I still use it whenever I travel. 

So now I’m looking for Personalized Gifts for Children.  Identity Direct has hundreds of personalized items for children.  There are personalized bean bags, toiletry bags, artist kits, lunch bags, pencils, memo cubes, children’s picture books, Disney character items . . . and so much more.  They even have personalized rain coats. 

“No matter how busy you think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

~Atwood H. Townsend~

I apparently like this quote more than I thought because when I was looking over my reading newsletters for this year, I realized that I used this same quote in two issues - and there are only four issues so far this school year.  Yikes!  How did I let that slip past me? 

“Reading makes immigrants of us all.  It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”

~Hazel Rochman~

We’re all immigrants in more ways than one.

I’m not feeling well today, and so I took the day off work.  Maybe it’s the time of year or maybe it’s because I was looking out the window and seeing all the autumn colors in the leaves, but I wanted some chili.  It took less than fifteen minutes to get it put together.  Now it’s simmering on the stove - just waiting for me to enjoy it at lunch.  So here is how I made it:

Home-made Chili

1 lb. ground beef

2 medium onion, diced

bell peppers (green, red, yellow), diced - about 1 cup altogether

3 stalks celery - including leaves, diced

2 tablespoons olive oil (needed only if the ground beef is very lean)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce (or 1 small can tomato paste)

2 cans navy beans (or whatever kind of beans you like in chili.  I just prefer the mildness of the navy beans)

chili powder (to taste - probably a couple tablespoons)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot.  Add the ground beef, onions, peppers and celery.  Saute until the ground beef is browned and the veggies are tender.  Add the diced tomatoes (juice and all), tomato sauce/paste, the navy beans, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Add enough water to cover everything - make it a good consistency for chili.  Stir well and simmer for a couple hours.  It’ll be ready after about thirty minutes, but it tastes much better if the flavors simmer together for a long time.  And it’ll be even better the second day.

Serve with crackers or corn bread.  RT likes to sprinkle diced onions, a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese on top before serving.

Later note:  The chili smelled so good simmering on the stove that I didn’t wait for lunch.  I went ahead and had a bowl of it around ten o’clock this morning.  It is absolutely wonderful!  It’s exactly what I needed today.  The navy beans (instead of kidney beans) make it easy on the digestive system.  What a great recipe - even if I do say so myself! 

“In a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.  It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”

~S. I. Hayakawa~

When my children were growing up, they’d tease me because they knew that if they asked me a question while I was immersed in reading a book, I would be on autopilot in my answers:  You want to go play in traffic?  Sure - go right ahead.  You want to dye  your hair green and paint your nails black?  Uh-hmm - whatever.  Well, it wasn’t that bad, but you get the idea. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it.  I loved reading, and I loved getting lost in stories.

And that’s why I love that quote.  That’s why I’m a reading specialist.  I want to help children learn the absolute enjoyment that reading can give them.  Reading DOES enable us to know worlds outside our own.  It’s almost magical.

To read is to empower;

To empower is to write;

To write is to influence;

To influence is to change;

To change is to live.

~Jane Evershed~