Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover

Category Archives: Family


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Reading for Pleasure

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How many of you read for pleasure? (“Me, me!” she shouts while waving her hand crazily in the air.)

A paper book? An e-reader story? A tale that lets you escape to a new land, new people, new problems? (Yes, please!)

Oh, the books we can read! Too many books, not enough time, right?

Consider this poem I wrote for a course:

This pleasure,

While reading,

Gives me a poetic mind.

Gobbled, devoured,

Digested words and tale.

Spit out to be

Read again.

Again.

And again.

Dissected, applied to life,

Reassembled with

New understanding.

Reading for pleasure;

A necessity as is

Air, water, food.

I pick up again

The feast of words

To consume the story

Each book tells.

 

Tell me, tell me please!

What book are you reading right now? What’s your favorite book? What chores have you neglected to read just. one. more. page? (…dishes, laundry, vacuuming, dusting)

I’d love to hear the tale of the words that let you escape.


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Refugees, Our Part

By Angie Quantrell

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Refugees.

I realize this is a hot, politically heavy topic. But I want to skip the controversy and go straight to a response.

Humans. Babies, toddlers, children, teens, adults. Moms, dads, children, grandpas, grammas, aunts, uncles, friends. In other words, people.

An article I wrote about making space for relationships (with refugees and other community members) is in the March issue of Missions Mosaic. You can also read the article online here.

(Search for the article title, “Make It Personal: Build Relationships with Refugees.”)

I’ve been researching the refugee crisis for various writing contracts. And while I am in no way an expert, even I can see that refugees need our help. We can’t all travel to refugee camps and help on site. But we can keep our eyes open and alert to seeing refugees (internationals) in our communities.

What to do then? Gently, kindly extend a hand of friendship. No bulls in a China shop approach. But with a humble heart, coming from a sincere desire to help – reach out. Offer assistance. Open the door. Smile. Let your children play together. Help at the grocery store or post office. Take time to explain something confusing. At the least, make eye contact and say hello. Every little effort is worth the awkwardness and uncertainty we might experience. Think of it as making new friends. There. That helps, doesn’t it?

We can do it. I can do it. Join me?

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Frankenbunny – Picture Book & KID KANDY

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Frankenbunny

Written by Jill Esbaum

Illustrated by Alice Brereton

(Sterling Children’s Books, 2017)

 

Sibling rivalry, picking on the youngest, evil plans, plans thwarted, scary premise – Jill Esbaum delivers them all in Frankenbunny. Wonderful characters, setting, and interactions. The illustrations perfectly add to and tell the story.

I won a copy of Frankenbunny from Jill Esbaum and Picture Book Builders. I couldn’t be more excited!

The power of suggestion. It really packs a punch, doesn’t it? When big brothers tell Spencer about Frankenbunny, he doesn’t believe them. At first. But after many conversations, Spencer becomes convinced that monsters are real.

Or are they?

You will have to read Frankenbunny to find out the truth of the matter.

KID KANDY

Make Your Own Frankenbunny

Supplies: paper scraps, scissors, glue sticks, markers, construction paper

1. On construction paper, draw the scariest Frankenbunny you can!

2. Add clothes, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, fingertips – everything – by cutting up paper scraps and gluing them on.

3. Finish up with markers.

Show off your Frankenbunny! I bet it scares everyone!

P.S. I’d love to see your Frankenbunny! Ask a parent to help you post a picture of your artwork in the comments. Wow! I can’t wait!

 


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Auto Repeat (I Wish)

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Three car seats. Three preschoolers. Three strong-minded individuals. Three precious grands. Three songs.

Over and over. In equal quantities, or else. Even the 1 year-old can tell when it’s time for HER song.

Auto repeat would make life much easier in the car as we commute to preschool, the store, the post office, the library. But no. The Nana Bus has only the old-fashioned CD player. One CD at a time.

Nana has become a master at switching.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, complete with unsynchronized clapping. (Pentatonix)

Bananaphone. With hand motions. (Raffi)

Baby Beluga, formerly known as Baby Beguda and Baby Deguba. (Raffi)

Switch on, clap on, sing on. Repeat.


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Grandmother Thorn – Picture Book & KID KANDY

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GRANDMOTHER THORN

By Katey Howes

Art by Rebecca Hahn

(Ripple Grove Press, 2017)

 

Grandmother Thorn gives new meaning to the words OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). She maintains her gardens with an iron will, daring anything to be out of place, grow where it’s not supposed to, or become mussed by irresponsible footprints.

Only one friend, Ojiisan, the man with a dragging foot and droopy shoulder, was allowed to make tracks in her perfectly groomed gravel paths. For they were best friends and enjoyed hot tea, conversation, and tasty sweets.

All was well until one day Ojiisan tasted gorgeous red berries and urged the salesperson to take some to Grandmother Thorn (but DO NOT walk on the path).

As you can imagine, he did not listen and disaster befell the merchant, the garden, and the welfare of Grandmother Thorn.

Or did it?

This beautiful picture book shares the story of letting go and allowing some things to be. And not all weeds are what they appear.

I love this book, both for the story and the tapestry-like illustrations.

KID KANDY:

Berry Hunt

1. Read GRANDMOTHER THORN. Memorize all the details you can of the weed and its fruit.

2. Does anyone in your family go grocery shopping or visit a farmer’s market? It’s time to go with that person. Go shopping.

3. Search the produce section. Can you find the fruit found in GRANDMOTHER THORN? Maybe your adult shopper will buy some!

4. Perhaps you live in an area where this type of fruit grows. Look around your neighborhood and see if you find the vines. If you time it right, you might even be able to pick some of those tasty fruits!


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The MABEL Gate: In Memory of a Furbaby

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Just before Christmas, our family was devastated to discover neighborhood dogs had destroyed our precious love-love (my nickname for her) Mabel. It was pretty awful. We still miss our little gray girl every day.

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No more “Which one is this?” from the grands (and everyone else). No more help working on my writing projects. No more kitty tracks on my printed papers. No more head butts and lap cuddles.

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Monet, her twin sister, was lost for quite a few weeks and is now just finally starting to come into her own as an ONLY cat. There are times she quite enjoys the attention. The rest of the time she’d rather be out mousing or birding. She was always the more independent wild thing.

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To combat future attacks, we put up a gate on our driveway to discourage any other dogs from wandering in to check out what trouble they could get into. As Papa and Hayden finished up the gate, they decided it should be named after Mabel, a tribute to her short, cuddly, furry life.

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Perfect! In honor of our Mabes, Mabel, love-love, gray girl, kitty baby. The MABEL gate. Ta-da!


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STORYSTORM 2018 Day 11: Sue Fliess Listens to Her Handyman . . . ?

Sue is perfectly correct. Ideas can come from any person, place, thing, situation, encounter… This creative process is certainly difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night to write down an idea or grasps any bit of paper to jot down the perfect character before the idea is lost. Great post!

Thanks, Sue! Thanks, Tara!

via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 11: Sue Fliess Listens to Her Handyman…?


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STORYSTORM 2018 Day 9: Miranda & Baptiste Paul Use Real Life as Inspiration (with a few caveats)

Miranda and Baptiste Paul share not only inspiration tips, but stories from their lives. Patience and looking back are key points to mining the perfect ideas for picture books. Thanks, Miranda and Baptiste! Great interview of each other!

via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 9: Miranda & Baptiste Paul Use Real Life as Inspiration (with a few caveats)


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5 Minutes

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What can I do in 5 minutes?

Undecorate the RV. Seriously!

Make lunch for my honey.

Make the bed (it DOES take that long…just try making a bed in an RV).

Wipe down condensation from the windows. In the RV, this is a thing.

Vaccuum the RV. Yep.

Brush my teeth. It does take a bit.

Write a thank you note.

Put on make-up.

Call my mom (though we often chat longer than 5).

Reserve books at the library.

Snuggle a kitty or a kid.

 

How about you? What can you do in 5 minutes?


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STORYSTORM 2018 Day 6: Jess Keating Notices the Amazing

Oh, I am amazed! Inspired. Ready to go. We just need to put on our “see the amazing” glasses and start writing down what really piques our interest, our passion. Ideas are  hanging there, right in front of our eyes, ripe and ready for plucking.

Thank you, Jess, for the invigorating post. Ready to go, yes I am. Thank you, Tara, for STORYSTORM!

via STORYSTORM 2018 Day 6: Jess Keating Notices the Amazing