OK folks, this is it! The day I’ve been waiting 3 weeks for! … LW12 is off to school (coughing still from the walking pneumonia, but they tell me that can last 3-4 weeks!), LM10 and LW6 are up and moving in the right direction. LM4 is still asleep, but showed no signs of illness when we put him to bed last night. You know what this means?! I may have 2 1/2 hours to myself with no kids home sick today!
That means I can do all my fun grown-up things by myself: the grocery store. CVS (have to re-stock the cough suppresent!). The Post Office (mailing a book giveaway). The library (the one truly bright spot!). Hmm, maybe I’ll go all out and stop at the service station to have the oil changed in my car. I guess my mornings aren’t that exciting after all 
Well, on with the show!
Monday 11/17 - stop by at J. Kaye’s Book Blog today for the first day of a 5-blogger Noontime Book Chat. We’ll be discussing Bonnie Glover’s Going Down South; I gave this book a very favorable review when I read it last month.
Tuesday 11/18 - It’s “Shadow a Student Day” at my daughter’s middle school; I get to go and see what it’s like to be a 7th-grader these days. Parents go from class-to-class with their kids and observe a typical day … yes, including lunch in the cafeteria.
The elementary school is having their fall book fair. Instead of having Scholastic, or another vendor come into the school, they’ve partnered with our local bookstore; a portion of the proceeds from the day go back to the school. The kids have early release, then there are activities throughout the afternoon – guest readers (teachers and staff), and visits from authors (Barbara McClintock with Adele and Simon and Addie Swarz with The Beacon Street Girls). We’ll even have Louisa May Alcott read from Little Women and talk about how writing this autobiographical story effected her and her family. Louisa May Alcott is portrayed by Jan Turnquist, the Director of The Orchard House (where the Alcott family lived in Concord, now a museum)
Wednesday 11/19 - We visited a unique bookstore over the weekend, which I’ll tell you about in this week’s Spotlight on Bookstores post.
Thursday 11/20 – It’s my turn to host the noontime chat of Going Down South; pop over and see where
we are.
Library story time this afternoon! Last week’s theme was dinosaurs, which was a bit hit. We also picked up some stickers and bookmarks from the PBS series Martha Speaks … unknown to me, LM4 put two big stickers – one of Martha the dog, and one of a conversation bubble – on the back of my pants! I’ll have to watch my back if I notice any library patrons snickering this week.
Tonight is Book Club Girl’s interview with Diana Spechler, author of Who By Fire. If you have a 
question/comment for Diana but can’t call in or do the online chat during the 7pm conference call, leave a comment on the reminder post by Wednesday night, and Book Club Girl will ask your question for you. The interviews are saved as podcasts, so you can listen to it later. I’ve had to do this the past few months, as we’re usually finishing up dinner and throwing helping the younger kids into their showers. Diana recently wrote a Spotlight post for She is Too Fond of Books, have you seen it?
Saturday 11/22 – Not at all book related, unless I have time to glance at a book during down time … my older kids have their first swim meets of the season today.
Here’s wishing you a great week — what’s on your calendar?
I can’t wait to read how “Shadow a Student Day” went. When my son was in high school, his school tried this and didn’t get much response. I think most of the kids begged their parents not to come. I was a volunteer (checking parents in) and one of my son’s friends saw me walking into the office and he was appalled. I told him not to worry that I would be in office all day.
I’m hoping to have a slow week. Course that means nothing above the daily basketball practices, choir practice, church book club, basketball game and dental appts! Slow is relative, ya know!
I ended up staying home today because of the traffic caused by the fires but have to run my kid to the doctor for a check-up later.
Here is my Week Ahead post:
http://bookchatterandotherstuff.blogspot.com/2008/11/week-ahead-november-17-23-2008.html
Kathy – my daughter is calling it “stalk-a-student-day”. It should be interesting!
Michele – slow is relative! If I wrote down everything I do in a “typical slow” day, I’d be astounded.
Ti – Thanks for planning your Week Ahead. I left you a note thanking you for the inspiration to return to yoga
I love that your elementary school partnered up with the local bookstore for their book fair, how cool is that?
I hope you got some time to yourself today. You truly have alot going on this week, and I’m anxious to hear about it: the book fair, “shadow a student day.”
I was also glad to see you joining us over at Book Blogs – Welcome!!
Wow! You’ve got lot’s of stuff going on. I’m just trying to get some of these books read before they’re due back lol.
Ali – they’ve been doing this for years I think (it’s only our 2nd year in the district). We have a very “home town” feel in town.
Shelly – I survived my day as a 7th grader! I’ll post about it later tonight …
Ladytink – I’ve paid overdue fines when I haven’t been able to renew a book (if there’s a hold on it, or if I’ve already renewed it once). Good luck with your reading.
Okay, so it’s Saturday and I’m just reading this. I hope your kids have fun at the swim meet today. I wish there was a swim team where we live. My older daughter did it when we lived in a larger city and it was so fun to watch.