Short Reads Sundays Part 2

I started a themed blog entry called Short Reads Sundays here to share some of the interesting websites and articles that I find when I am wasting my life on the Internet.

Source  via Kate on Pinterest

As stated in the previous post, a lot of my day-to-day reading is Internet-based since I don't find as much free time as I'd like to immerse myself in a novel (although, somehow I do have time to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar 900 times a day... hmmm... interesting).  Doing this themed post not only allows me to share the interesting things I find, but it also allows me to "save" those articles I find especially interesting for future reference while also allowing me to clean up my out-of-control Bookmarks menu and browser tabs (it is BAD, people).  So, here are some more Short Reads for your Sunday enjoyment!

*10 Honest Letters from Busy Parents to Their Kids:  As a working mother, this really hit home with me, especially the first letter.

*When Did Women Start Shaving Their Pits:  I enjoy the random and informative articles of Mental Floss.  For the past four or five years, I have been posting an "Interesting Fact of the Day" in my classroom, and I got many of the facts I have in my arsenal from Mental Floss.  I also follow them on Twitter where they post a wide variety of interesting things (although I rarely tweet myself, I do enjoy reading the tweets of others like a total creeper).  This is a very short informative article about the history of when and why women began shaving armpits, legs, etc.  As much as I'd like to say that shaving stinks and we should all rebel and go back to the old days, truth be told, after a few days of not shaving my legs, it would irritate me so much, I'd have to give in.

*Why Do People REALLY Tweet? The Psychology Behind Tweeting:  Speaking of Twitter, here is an interesting read on a couple of theories about people's true motivations for posting about their lives, 140 characters at a time.  The person writing the article uses Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as the basis for her theories.

*Six Children's Book Characters Inspired by Real People:  More Mental Floss... Even as an adult, I am a big fan of children's books.  They have some of the best life lessons and thought-provoking themes.  As a book nerd, I knew about several of these inspirations already, but it is still a fascinating read nonetheless.  When you write, it only makes sense that the real world will occasionally inspire or bleed into that world of fiction.

*Twelve Literary Pilgrimages:  Again, as a book nerd, I truly appreciate this article.  In fact, my husband and I have looked at various "Book Tours" that you can take in New England where you can stop and see writer's homes (there are a LOT of famous American writers who grew up and/or lived in New England).

This might seem like a much smaller blog post than I typically write; however, since I'm assuming that anyone reading this might actually check out a few (if not all) of these links, an extra long blog with tons and tons of links would just be overwhelming.  I'm thinking that for these posts I will try to post around 5 links.  Feel free to share with me your thoughts regarding this.  Is 5 a good number?  Is it too low?  Too high?  Leave me some suggestions in the comments.  Read anything good lately?  Leave that, too!

Source  via Kate on Pinterest
The struggle is real...

Short Reads Sundays

Between working full-time and being a mother and homeowner, I don't often get to sit down and fully immerse myself in a novel these days (I am currently working my way through Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn at a painfully slow pace).  However, I do read daily.

Source:  levo.com via Kate on Pinterest

Most of my reading, aside from the children's stories and fairy tales I read to my son in the few moments he'll sit still or before he takes a nap, consists of blogs and web articles.  These types of writings are great because I can quickly scan through them while watching my son when he's playing independently, or if I have to get up to swap out the laundry from the washer to the dryer or change a diaper, I can just stop where I am and resume it hours later with very little frustration, confusion, or a compulsive need to re-read.

I feel like a novel is something I need to be able to sit down and enjoy for at least a good half-hour to an hour minimum and read in nice-sized chunks; otherwise, it's hard to keep the plot flowing.  I find myself constantly going back to the beginning of a chapter and re-reading it if I didn't get to finish it in the previous sitting just to get that smooth flow and really get the full effect of the novel.  This leads to me taking an even longer amount of time to finish any adult-sized piece of literature.  For this reason, my "Want To Read" list keeps getting longer and longer.  I'm getting better at finding/making time to read, though (when Liam is napping and I'm waiting for that load of dishes to finish; when I make my students read at school and I want to set a good example and keep them from bugging me; on those nights where I'm just not sleepy enough to go to bed).

In the meantime, though, I thought I'd share some of the articles I've read lately that I thought were worthy of a few minutes of my life.  I got this idea from my blogging mentor Kristin.  She does a post called Linkworthy.  Her blog is one of my regular "short reads."

Check out Kristin's Blog Here!  :)

* Are We Raising a Generation of Helpless Kids?:  Yes, and it starts in the home.  My kids will not be raised to be helpless, and they will experience failure, but most of all, they will experience love.  I love my son (and any future children) too much to not properly prepare them for the world.  Life is tough enough as it is.

* Sermons For Kids:  My church does a weekly message/sermon for kids in the middle of the church service called Children's Message.  It lasts about 5 minutes maximum, and I frequently help out with it.  While the teacher in me will sometimes create a cute Children's Message from scratch, complete with props, there are weeks that I just don't have it in me to make one more cute lesson, so that's where this website comes in handy.  Each week they have a sermon and an alternate sermon in case the first one doesn't meet your needs.  They also have messages for special holidays and events, such as the first day of school, the Fourth of July, and all of the major Christian holidays.

* To the Mom Who Aborted Her Baby with Down Syndrome:  Everyone seems to have an opinion about what constitutes a life worth living, but should it really be up to us to decide whether or not someone gets that chance at life in the first place?  Life is hard, but even a hard life has the possibility of being a good one.

* 16 Years Ago, A Doctor Published a Study.  It was Completely Made Up, and It Made Us All Sicker:  If your children are able to be vaccinated and you do not vaccinate them, then, you had better not come near my child.

* Why Half of the Nation's New Teachers Can't Leave the Profession Fast Enough:  Word.

* Pay It Forward:  Pre-pay for a $1 slice of pizza:  I love this idea!  When giving money to a person who begs on the street, one often finds herself thinking these thoughts:  are they really homeless (you hear about all of those scams on the news) and will they really use the money to make their lives better, or will they use it to buy drugs/alcohol?  Is it sad that we live in a world where we have thoughts like this?  Well, this is a great way to help those in need because you know exactly where your money is going!

* Working Mothers:  I have a lot of respect for people who can admit they were wrong or made a mistake because criticizing others is easy; criticizing yourself is hard.  Anyone who is trying to make the life of the working mother easier is alright in my books!

I hope you found these reads as enjoyable, informative, interesting, and/or inspiring as I did!  :)