Update

Due to my dunk tanking experience on Friday, I came down with a nasty cold this weekend. I stayed home from school yesterday, which felt great until I went back to school this morning and found my classroom in complete disarray. My sub was this crazy old man who had a story about everything. Apparently the greatest thing my kids learned was that the planet Venus is just like hell. However interesting this fact may be, it is probably not appropriate to tell a classroom full of LDS fourth graders. Let's just hope I don't get any phone calls...

While I was home enjoying my perfectly peaceful day, I got to read for a while and it reminded me that I wanted to blog about my last book. Last summer Bryan read a book called The Alchemist. The initial draw of the book was that it was written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian. But, Bry ended up loving the message of the book so he's been pushing me to read it for a while. I finally got to it a couple weeks ago. The story (which unfortunately does not take place in Brazil) is about a shepherd boy following his "personal legend." He goes on a quest for treasure and meets many fascinating people along the way. The book is full of little jewels of wisdom. Here are some of my favorites:

"The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."


"It is we who nourish the soul of the world, and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because, when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."

I loved this book mostly because it really made me think about how I'm living my life, and how I could make my life better. Definitely a winner.