Book Review: Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes/Bout of Books Day 5

Bout of Books Day 5 requires a day 4 update---I finished a book!  Here is my first book review of the year.

Title: Year of Yes

Author: Shonda Rhimes

Genre: Memoir/Self-Help

Rating: 5 out of 5

Why Did I Read? Honestly, it was a bit of an impulse. I love Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Private Practice, and How to Get Away With Murder---all four TV shows she has done. As a result---I buy book because I'm curious what she has to say.

Summary: Shonda was the type of person who was shy, introspective, and addicted to her work.  She never said "yes" to anything that challenged her--which was almost everything.  She decides to start saying yes to everything.  What results is a complete change and renewal of the person that she wants/is/needs to be.  She goes through her year explaining her experiences, what she felt, did, and what she learned.

What Did I Love:

 How inspiring it was! I felt rejuvenated every time I listened to this book.  I did do the audio which Shonda reads herself--I loved that she did because she reads so beautifully. I could feel her passion, and honestly I felt like we were just having our little class every time I turned it on.  This is also a book that I want to read again and again.  I want to buy it in print now so I can mark it up and annotate it.  I very rarely say that! This is a book that I'm really wondering if I listen to when I have depression come up or I am feeling like I can't do life anymore.  This is one of those books that I feel like you could learn something new from each time you read or be reminded again of something that you knew you knew but needed someone to tell you again.  

What Did I Hate:  Honestly nothing....I love this book!

Thank you audible for this great quote wall paper
--now to figure out how to download it to my phone

Stress--How do you deal with it?

So I was searching through Pinterest for inspiration today and I saw this quote:

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2013/11/response_using_self-compassion_to_recover_from_a_bad_day.html

This quote caught my attention, because I have been thinking a bit lately about the stress that comes with my job.  How much it wears me out--and I wonder if it is because I don't handle my stress right. Which gets me thinking that if I handled stress better, would my overall life be better? The obvious answer to that one of course is yes---but then it circles back to the only way I can think of to control my stress better is quitting my job.  Currently that is not something that I am contemplating (though my more faithful readers know that I do contemplate this at my low points). So I clicked on this quote.

It came from an article on Education Week that is the third part of a series answering the question of how do you deal with a bad day as teachers. After reading the responses from various teachers, I realize that they are talking about the days in which the lesson doesn't go well, or the kids are driving you crazy, or you have those moments that just make you want to walk out.  And yes I still have those--but these articles didn't give me completely what I was thinking it was.  My job is stressful--as the quote says---it is the nature of the beast.  And it confirms what I have been thinking all along--it is not just this particular job.  So how do we deal with it? We can't just stop being teachers.

Some people offered the standard answers of taking care of yourself and leaving work at work--including in your mind.  And I agree with those, but others talked about things to do to prevent the bad days and when in the middle of them.  What about when you just get so tired of getting up in the morning? So in response to this response article....I thought I would offer what I try to do to deal with my stress.

1. As much as leaving at 3:00 when you get off is good for you...sometimes it is helpful to just stay a little longer so that you actually can leave work at work.  Even though some days I get home at 5...I go home without having to worry about anything.
2. Be willing to say no to things...having too many things on the plate along with teaching is hard.  Don't feel guilty just because you can't do it all.
3. I have noticed that if I don't take time for myself every night the next day is harder.  Even if it is a couple minutes of TV watching, book reading, Facebook, etc.--I recharge so much better.
4. In line with 2 and 3--make the important things a priority.  For me--church is a huge priority.  It helps me to deal with the stress of work--and it is a priority in my life.
5. Put your life in perspective.  Now this might sound really like a strange way to do so....but sometimes I say to myself, "Well at least I am not having to go through this like so and so is." I have a teacher friend right now who is teaching a full course load, directing the school musical that opens this week, and getting ready for basketball season that starts as soon as the play is over. And to top it all off her mom is currently fighting cancer.  Seriously....I have it easy compared to that.  It makes my stress not seem so over-whelming.  When none of you have horrible things happening in your lives (which is preferable don't get me wrong)--TV is a great replacement for--see my life isn't as horrible as it could be--especially medical dramas like Greys.

How do you relieve your stress?

It is Okay to Read

So I found this article a while back about being a bookworm. It had such a good title: Being a bookworm boosts your brainpower into old age.   The fact that we read a lot now will prevent senile stuff before it really gets started. This study asked people to read and do other mentally stimulating activities, take memory tests throughout their old age, and then donate their brains to science after they die.  This study then looked at their brains to see what affect these activities might have had.  A quote from the article states:

They found that the people who reported doing reading, writing and other mentally stimulating activities throughout their lives also did better on the memory tests. But what’s interesting is that some of the people who regularly read books, or did other brain-stretching activities, did not show outward symptoms of Alzheimer's, even if their brains showed physical signs of the disease. (Some of them did show symptoms of dementia, but the rate of cognitive decline was slower in people who did more of these mentally stimulating activities.)

That's just cool to me....we can gain the brain symptoms of Alzheimer's but because of the exercise we do to our brain we don't have to show those symptoms.  So go find a good book! And all of my students who resist SSR....suck it up and just deal with it.  I'm helping you out :)

And this makes me think too that Meredith's mom would have never gotten Alzheimer's because she was so dang smart
Thanks to www.buddytv.com

Why Knit?

So as I have mentioned previously I enjoy Grey's Anatomy.  I have watched every episode--and many of them more than twice.  These more than twice episodes often become the soundtrack while I grade.  Yesterday, I watched "The Name of the Game" from Season 2 (Episode 22).  In this episode, we meet the celibate Meredith who is knitting to avoid men.  Almost toward the end of the episode, Meredith reflects on her hard day to Derek.  He asks her,  "Are you ok?" She responds, "I have my knitting."

Skip to 5:50...and you can stop it at 6:25

 I really responded to this quote because this is how I feel sometimes about my knitting. The world seems to make a little bit more sense when I do my knitting.  I have really found that I go better the coming week if I have spent a few hours on the weekend knitting.  So what do I knit?  I mostly do blankets, baby blankets, specifically.  I have recently finished the knitting part of a new purse...but I need to sew it together--which makes me a bit nervous.  I have also done scarves--but I have been so focused on blankets recently I haven't done a scarf in awhile.

So why knit? Because it is sometimes all you have left.  What do you do when the world doesn't make sense?

A Favorite TV Show: Grey's Anatomy

So...I titled this with an "A" because I don't have just one favorite TV show.  While I was in high school, books were my best friend a lot on the weekends because I could just escape my life. Then when I was in college, I didn't have time to read never mind the brain to think of reading ANOTHER book....never mind that I should be reading something for class and not for fun.  An hourish long TV show was a great escape, with the story and the fact that it was only an hour long.

I got hooked on Grey's in college...my roommates and I spent the first part of second year in college catching up on the first and second season before the third season started.  It was the perfect escape from a long day...even though it gets a bit risque--I was attracted to the writing, the characters...and the fact that someone's life was worse than mine.

To this day, I still watch the show--despite all of the changes.  I was mad when they killed off George, and Izzie left, and Burke left.  I watched the merger with a whole new group of interns, and I have watched as we have people shot and deal with plane crashes.  The storyline and plot and even some of the writing started to suffer...and I figured that any day I would hear that they finally decided to end it or it got cancelled.  But this season they seem to have gathered a second breath...this week's episode was the best I have seen in SO long! So kudos to Grey's for finally bringing back the mojo :) I won't tell you about it not spoil it...but I highly recommend it!

A still from this week's episode thanks to
http://www.tvequals.com/2013/02/22/greys-anatomy-season-9-review-this-is-why-we-fight/ 

Inspired by a Quote...to Write this

So there are many days in this 365 project that I struggle with what to write about each day....as I am sure those of you that keep up can tell.  Some of posts are better than others. Inspiration (as my blog title shows) can be a hard thing to come by...but today I am inspired by a quote.

I collect quotes...from lots of people.  That is one of the things that I love about Pinterest! And I get quotes e-mailed to me by Goodreads..so I am usually not at a loss for quotes.  Today's quote was the quote of the day on Goodreads a few weeks ago.

Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof. --Alice Walker (author of The Color Purple)

This one spoke to me today because it is kind of a testament to my life right now.  As I'm sure many teachers can relate to...work can be hard and difficult sometimes and it is nice to have days like Presidents' Day off.  Other professions can relate to this too...like nurses--I have learned a lot about how hard that profession is from my sister.  (See her blog on the sidebar)  But we have to figure out how to deal sometimes with the daily grind.  And as Alice Walker encourages us to do---dance it out!! I don't dance as often as I should but I do bang on the steering wheel, tap my toes, and sing my heart out in the car on my way home.  Today's favorite song is:

Plus that video has some great dancing ideas...And all of this reminds me of the another dance it out idea from Grey's Anatomy!  (Couldn't do this post without it..and the French is actually kind of funny to see)

So...hard day?? DANCE IT OUT! Cuz Alice Walker told you too :)