I feel like I’ve been sucked up into a tornado or something. The past few weeks have been CRAZY. Last week was my first official week back to work. It was also my first week of the fall semester for grad school. My week consisted of work, homework, sleep, repeat. It’s going to be tough finding a balance this year and it’s something I’m really going to have to work at. I’m determined to keep up with my blog — that’s a priority for me. It’s going to be a struggle to keep up with my social media addiction (I didn’t even sign on to Twitter until half an hour ago!!) and I’m pretty sure something’s going to give. My only plan at this point is to take my vitamins, so I’ll let y’all know how that works out 🙂

I was pretty much a magician (with a lot of AWESOME help) and got textbooks passed out in two days. There are still some textbook issues to be resolved, but you know how that goes. Today was my first day to see classes and all went well. My plan is to post my lesson descriptions on Thursdays, so we’ll see how that works out. I figure I’m going to have to set some type of schedule for blogging.

I have three books for my YA self-challenge that I haven’t posted about yet. My descriptions shall be brief. Here goes:

Right before I went back to work, I wanted to read some high-controversy books. “The Golden Compass” by Philip Pullman was the first one I read. I took this book on our trip to North Carolina. My sister-in-law saw me reading it and said that her mother-in-law sent her an email a while back saying to boycott this book and it’s movie because it was anti-Christian. My opinion after reading it? It’s a FANTASY book. So many people flip out over the Sci-Fi and fantasy genres. I personally love them. And I’m a Christian. I just don’t feel like everything I read ties in directly and overwhelmingly to my personal faith. But to each their own. I thought it was a good book, but I’m not rushing out to devour the next in the series or anything.

So for a different type of controversy, I re-read Judy Blume’s “Forever.” Judy Blume is my hero. She does an unbelievable job of portraying teen love and sex in a novel that can clear up misconceptions and stress the realities of sex without being preachy. This book is timeless, and teen girls will forever pass this book around in secret, because it’s that great. And yes, I did use the word “forever” on purpose.

“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins was my gift to myself for surviving the first week of school. I inhaled this book this weekend. I know I’ve said it several times before, but the Hunger Games series is unbelievable and you must read it. The writing and the world she creates is Harry Potter-level good. Blows that vamp stuff out of the water. But that’s just my humble opinion. Read it for yourself and let me know what you think.