Summertime

I've been a voracious reader since I was quite young. Living in a really small town, on a farm, with only 3 TV channels and no internet left me with some time on my hands. I read. All the time. But in the summer, I really read. I would sit in the hammock in the backyard and read for hours. It seemed to be the one place no one else in the family wanted to be. The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I read every book that John Steinbeck wrote, all of them. I don't even remember how I came to acquire them all, but I did and read them all ... chain-reading is what I would call it. Read everything the author wrote. I loved it.As the years passed in college there was less and less time for pleasure reading due to the three jobs and full-time classes. Then, I started teaching full-time... 13 years later I find myself back on the farm, back in the hammock and back to chain-reading. I've missed it. Endlessly reading with nowhere to go and nothing better to do.I wish that I was able to find the head space that allowed me to read like this during the school year, but I can't seem to locate it amongst the meetings, planning, events, conferences, etc. I hope to make it a goal next year to find the time to lose myself in a book now and again (that isn't related to education, history, reform, etc)... DURING the school year.I hope you are finding the time to enjoy our teaching 'downtime', I know I am.