Harry Potter Series is Finito!

Whew...It has been 15 months in the making, but we did it! The Weis family has completed all 7 Harry Potter books. Megan and Lucy have heard every word of the books, re read every paragraph on their own, re-listened to every book on CD in the car and re enacted pretty much every scene through their creative play and money making ideas.

It had become an Obsession with a major capital "O" with my daughters. Nothing got them to brush teeth and hop into bed faster then promising to read. Harry Potter was the first thing mentioned when they got up and the protests of "just one more chapter" were on their lips before bed.

I have to apologize to every grandparent that patiently sat through book synopsis, playdates that endured my daughter's one track magic minds and especially to Max. I don't know many 3 year olds that could name the majority of the characters and rattle off a dozen spells.

We should have been learning the names of construction equipment, Thomas the Train characters, or types of tools. (I promise, Max, your mommy will learn the different between a backhoe and a skid loader next now that Horcruxes and Patronuses out of my mind).

Whats next? I do admit I feel remorse and sadness about letting this go. It was something that united our family; a common goal. I do wait expectantly for what will capture their attention next, but I would say this Hogwarts Express has not finished with us yet. There are Harry Potter Halloween costumes to figure out and a Wizarding World to visit!

How to Get More Energy!

Ever wonder why at times throughout the day you feel like you could accomplish anything, but at others you can barely find the motivation to find your shoes? I am a morning person tried and true and often times I have crossed many items off the ol "to do" list before my kids are even up at 8.

Afternoons are definitely a bit more unstructured and it can be difficult to keep focus. I am trying to do better with that and have been following my motto of "tackle the bear" (meaning do what you don't really want to do first). I love how Gretchen Rubin, author of Happiness Project, refers to this as "putting herself in jail." Once she is done with that nagging task, she is free to move on to more pleasant matters.

Turns out there is a whole science behind this! Understanding they rhythms of your body clock can help in maximizing your days.

Harry Potter Obsession X 3

Its not just Lucy and Megan. Lately, I have had 3 year old Max running around with his magic wand proclaiming, "Expelliarmus" and "EXPECTO PATRONUM."

I love that they have a fascination with something and this has lasted well over a year. We started reading the books as a family at bedtime last summer. Let me tell you, nothing cures the, "but its not dark yet" summer syndrome like Dave or I beginning to read. We have completed 5/7 books and watch the corresponding movie together after finishing each book.

This fascination has carried over into all their play, listening to the books on CD in the car and re-reading the books on their own in their freetime. Now they are planning a trip to the new Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and have it completely thought out from what they are going to do and try. They are even trying to raise money for their own broomsticks, robes and wands.

By the way, in case you are wondering, Expecto Patronum means awaiting protection and Expelliarmus is the disarming spell. Not sure if Max knows that, but we are all constantly being told expelliarmus here...

10 Tips for Being Happier

"Act how you want to feel" or at least "Fake it till you feel it."

Those quotes has stood out in my mind since reading, The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. It makes perfect sense. Its easy to remember and its definitely doable. There is no need to over analyze, second guess, or dwell upon things.

This book started off without hype and fanfare, but word of mouth is powerful and it has now been a New York Times bestseller for months and is featured all over the place. The author, Gretchen, follows me on twitter so I feel like we can be on a first name basis with one another, also has a blog. You can read more of her tips for being happier here.

Mother Daughter Book Club: A Success!

I love to read. I love my kids. We both love being around other wonderful moms and kids. Last year, I had the idea of starting a mother/daughter book club. I did minimal research on it, but mostly just envisioned moms and daughters gathering once a month, reading and discussing some of the beloved classics.

To make the club personable, each mother/daughter duo selected a book for their month, hosted it at their house and was responsible for discussion/games/activities and the all-important snack!

Man, did these moms and daughters ever know how to plan a good time! There was lots of sharing, learning and laughter. I loved watching the girls spanning 6-11 years of age interact and have so much fun!

Here is a list of the books we read for the 2009/2010 school year.

Mother Daughter Book Club

Title	Author
1st Year - 2009-2010
Ramona Quimby, Age 8	Beverly Cleary
Clementine	Sara Pennypacker
My Father’s Dragon	Ruth Stiles Gannett
The World According to Humphrey	Betty Birney
Pippi Longstocking	Astrid Lindgren
Marley and Me	John Grogan
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy	Jeanne Birdsall
Little Women	Louisa May Alcott

Please contact me if you want any additional games/activities/crafts or ideas to go along with these books. There were some amazing things done! We will be starting our 2010-2011 year in September. List of books to come!

Twitter Books

Today is my hubby's birthday (Happy Birthday, Dave!) and I am super excited about my gift for him. We always have time to talk each day, but in our busy day to day lives it can be easy to forget the passing/fleeting moments and thoughts that often make an impression on us.

That is why we both love twitter. We follow one another on it and I love reading about what he is doing and thinking throughout the day. Then at night, we can focus on the more important matters like our kids and...whats for dinner.

Dave has such funny and thoughtful sides to him and it really shows through in his writing. I love reading his observations on the kids, work and life in general.

Enter the perfect gift: Tweetbookz! It allows you to make a copy of favorite tweets and put them into a hard or softcover book. Dave would never keep a journal, but this is such a fun keepsake of things that he has done, seen and thought of over the year. Did I mention how inexpensive it is? $19.89 for this book here.

Gave it to him last night at our family birthday dinner at Red Robin.
Loved it! He's taking it to the office today to show to everyone.

Summer + Reading Programs = Free Books!

Ahh...summer memories of being a young girl and filling out my summer reading book log. Once a week I would ride my bike to the Jefferson Public Library instead of hitting the swimming pool. I remember digging through the various prize bins based on how many minutes I had read that week and claiming my precious reward. Reading was something I always did anyway, but in the summer it was different. Earning prizes for already doing what I loved? Icing on the cake!

Thank goodness with all the techy/video game stuff around, summer reading programs are still around and in full force. We always do the local library, but the big box retailers have also gotten into the mix.

Half Price Books has the simplest reading form of all (just record minutes read) and you can do it every week. Kids turn in their book log and can pick out any book ($3 value) in the store for their prize. My girls love this and have been building up their American Girl book collection.

Barnes and Noble: Fill out their reading log (available at their stores) and kids can pick out any new book of their choice. Word is that kids can do this at any location (thanks, Lisa!)

Borders Bookstore is now offering a similar one to Barnes and Noble.

Hey, who doesn't love free books?!

click here for more summer free fun and our big Summer To-Do list!

Walgreens: 5x7 Photo Book for $1.99 shipped-- October 2, 2009!

You have 30 days from now to make your book, just log in so you can get the deal by midnight tonight.

click this link and follow the instructions, you can get a Photo Book for $1.99 shipped.

Christmas gift for someone?!

Mother/Daughter Book Club: Starting in the Fall!

I can picture it all in my mind now. Sitting in the living room in a cozy circle, the girls drinking hot cocoa while the moms sip on tea or coffee, nodding along intellectually while discussing the great literary classics of our past. ;-)

As you can tell I am so excited about starting this Mother Daughter Book Club and for several reasons:

1. My absolute favorite thing to do with my children is to read with them.
The books I choose at night to read aloud are often the ones I enjoyed as a kid; the old forgotten classics. These books will be a perfect springboard for discussions.

2. I am always looking for different ways and ideas to spend time with my kids. With school around the corner and Megan and Lucy being gone all day this will be something that will help connect us at night and give us something to look forward to. This will probably be better quality time spent then running them to ballet, gymnastics or soccer; which admit it, doesn't really count as time spent together anyway.

3. Book classics can easily be overlooked in our busy day and age. Reading from quality literature will not only help our children be more well rounded, smarter, but it will be fun for us moms to revisit those quality books.

Each month a mother/daughter will pick the book and host at their house. We will discuss the book, draw connections between the book and real life. Lessons will be learned, points emphasized and we will all be brighter because of it.

Of course, treats will be served and I am thinking it would be fun to connect the food with the snacks. Chocolate fondue spread for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, anyone?

The club will be open to anyone ages five and up and am excited to think about the different perspectives the kids will have and how much they are all going to learn from one another.


Each month will highlight a different book.

Possible Book Ideas:

Charlotte’s Web
James and the Giant Peach
The Secret Garden
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Little House on the Prairie
Ramona, The Pest
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Wind in the Willows
Heidi
Pippi Longstocking
How to Eat Fried Worms
Stuart Little
Sarah Plain and Tall

These books are merely a springboard and we would be open to any book that is chosen. Each Mother/Daughter can choose the book together when it is their turn to host for the month. Possibly meeting Sundays from 3-4:30. Please let me know if you are interested or have any other ideas! This is going to be fun!

Flat Stanley craze enters Weis House

Have you heard of Flat Stanley? I admit, I never read the book until this week, but know a lot of teachers that do a really fun activity with the book. Its the story of a boy that gets flattened by a falling bulletin board. (Silly, I know, but stay with me). The fun twist is that Stanley can visit all sorts of places because he is able to be mailed around in an envelope (it's a lot cheaper then a plane or train ticket).

I read the book to the girls in about an hour (I needed a break from our current heavy series of Harry Potter). Megan and Lucy then made flat replicas out of paper of themselves. Next they each chose someone out of town to mail themselves to along with a little journal. Megan picked neighbors that moved to North Carolina and Lucy picked friends that live in Nevada (Iowa). The Flat Lucy and Flat Megan are to have all sorts of adventures in their new place that is journaled and then mailed back to us. This could be kept going on and on with an opportunity to learn about new places.

What to do in the meantime while we wait for our Stanley's to return? Back to Harry Potter...

Summer Reading Programs that Rock!

Ahh...summer memories of being a young girl, filling out my book log and weekly riding my bike to the Jefferson Public Library instead of hitting the swimming pool. I remember digging through the various prize bins based on how many minutes I had read this week and claiming my precious reward. Reading was something I always did anyway, but in the summer it was different. Earning prizes for already doing what I loved? Icing on the cake!

Summer reading programs are still around and in full force. We always do the West Des Moines library (Cub baseball tickets, Happy Joe's pizzas, Chick filet meals) and Clive Library (zoo passes, fun pool party @ the end), but this summer we found a few others that are worth checking out.

Half Price Books has the simplest reading form of all (just record minutes read) and you can do it every week. Kids turn in their book log and can pick out any book ($3 value) in the store for their prize. My girls love this and have been building up their American Girl book collection.

Barnes and Noble: Fill out their reading log (available at their stores) and kids can pick out any new book of their choice. Word is that kids can do this at any location (thanks, Lisa!)

Something New to Exercise

For several years, FSB Associates (a book marketing business headquartered in NYC) has been gracious to send me books to review and place on my Sara Says book review site. I love reading the variety of books and tossing in my own two cents worth on these books.

Someday I would love to be in some of these new and experienced author’s shoes and have published books out there for others to read and review. I try to keep that in mind with these books and know that someday time will allow me to start working on this goal.

To see the latest Sara Says review look below or to sread how Sara Says got started seven (7!) years ago click here,

Strength training. Interval training. Brain training! Studies have shown that aging causes your brain to deteriorate. This is not a news flash to any of us, but what I learned is that math calculations and reading aloud are the two most beneficial things you can do to keep your brain healthy and alert. I could read aloud all day to anyone who would listen, but as anyone who knows me, would not be surprised that I would rather do laundry (which I detest) or shell beans over sitting down and completing math problems every day.

Here is the solution! Train Your Brain: 60 Days to a Better Brain by Dr. Kawashima. This book is actually fun and is filled with daily mental exercises, self-tests and a personal logbook to track progress. I have actually been keeping this book in the car while I am waiting to pick up my daughters from school. They could even be completed during commercial breaks of American Idol or The Bachelor! Of course, I still enjoy the language and word memorization tests more than the math, but we got to sharpen all areas of our brain, eh?

Free ebooks

Download music, movies, books...soon you won't have to leave your keyboard for any shopping or entertainment.

Here is a site where you can download hundreds of books for free. The site seems a little cumbersome to just browse, but if know what you are looking for then this could be your ticket to more happy reading!

Free Cookbook Publishing Kit

Just think of the possibilities with this?! Are always asked for your recipes because you are such a good baker or cook? (I know several of you are!) Or wouldn't this be a wonderful way to store all of grandma's, mom's or even your favorite family recipes in your own personable cook book. Good bye post it notes with hastily written recipes that are soon to be lost!

This could be a really fun gift idea too! It comes with software and a publishing guide. Check it out here before its gone!

Free Audiobook Download: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

My husband bought this book years ago and I've read it, but it is definitely one of those books you can pick up and read again and still get something new out of it. I am thinking this will be perfect for the car...

Download your free audiobook copy of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from Audible.com.

a silent sara...

I haven't had too much to say the past few days. I think I am still processing, prioritizing and trying to figure it all out. As I have said, I have set two big goals for 2009 and am fearful that I may be failing at both.

My first goal of reading the Bible this year with our church should be easy. I like to read, I want to do this and I think its important. Well...as you know I like to be efficient so Week 1 I sat down and read all of the readings in one sitting. It was one of those nights that I couldn't sleep so I got up and just read. It went by fast and I was feeling pretty proud of myself and being able to cross that "job" off the ol' to-do list. The thing is...I think I am missing the point. This is supposed to be a daily activity? Daily??! As our beloved Pastor says, "if you are too busy to read the Bible every day then you are just too busy."

ok

On to Goal #2:
Train and complete a triathlon. I really thought this would be easier. I already work out 6 days a week, do a variety of classes and working out is something I enjoy and puts my day into focus. The thing is...I have always been an "in and out in an hour" type of person. I started my tri class last Sunday and got the workout schedule for the week.

Now its all about costume changes. Meaning: swim for 45 minutes and bike for 45 minutes one day. The next day run, but don't just run. Do intervals, increase the the incline, go for speed; but not too fast...

Did I mention the Hy-vee Triathlon is at the end of June. The end?? The end! There must be a reason that training has to begin so early and I am wondering if it is because it may be a bit more difficult then I originally thought...

Any notes of encouragement?

Free Copy of Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan Book

I have read several of Suze Orman's financial books and am excited to try this one. Her new book Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe and Sound can be downloaded through Thursday, January 15th thanks to Oprah. Click here to download.

.

FREE Copy of What to Expect when You’re Expecting

This book has been around for awhile (and with good reason). It is one of the most popular pregnancy books. If you are expecting or know someone who is, check out this link on how to get your free copy.

Dave Ramsey is My New Hero!

I've read his books and am in the loop with his online subscription. He really knows what he is talking about. Check out Dave Ramsey's Top Ten Shopping Mistakes here. Just in time for the holiday shopping spree. While you are at, just take a peek at his site. I promise you will be enlightened!

This just in...Thanksgiving Sale at daveramsey.com. Everything on his online store is $10. All books, CD's, DVD's...

Scholastic Books Warehouse Sale: 50%-80% Off

This annual Scholastic Book Sale is one of the best kept secrets in Des Moines! I get excited just thinking about it: A huge warehouse stocked ceiling to floor with children's books (hardback and paperback), computer software, cookbooks, calendars, chapter books, notebooks, pencils, posters...basically everything you see in the Scholastic Book Order form that your children bring home from school. But everything is at least half off!

I have been going to this for at least eight years and first heard about it through being a teacher. I still remember the wonderment of my first time and getting ready to stock my kindergarten classroom with books. It was exhilarating! Here's the scoop and you don't have to be a teacher to get in! Holiday shopping anyone?!

Scholastic Book Fairs 4241 NW Urbandale Drive Urbandale, IA 50322 (515) 278-8558	Thu., 12/04/2008 - Sat., 12/13/2008 Weekdays ~ 10am - 8pm Saturdays ~ 8am - 4pm Closed Sunday