I Gave Them Books

I gave them books, the grandchildren, and they didn't seem to mind. My own little kids loved books, just like I did when I was a little girl. I have many cherished childhood memories that include picture books or poetry books, my sisters, one of my parents, and the living room couch. When I was very small it was Mom reading to me (The Runaway Pancake, Five Beds for Bitsy, ... ), and later it was Dad reading to us before bed (Disney's Uncle Remus, The Storybook of River Bend, .... ) It's fun to see the tradition passed down to my grandchildren


Before I ordered the books for Christmas, I asked my kids for ideas. I love how they often choose the books they loved when they were kids themselves. Bill Peet is one of Dave's favorite author/illustrators and each of his three children received a book by Bill Peet (The Ant and the Elephant, Cyrus the Sea Serpent, and Jennifer and Josephine). Little Jilly got Gyo Fujikawa's wonderful board book entitled Babies. It was my favorite when I was one and a half.

I don't remember my parents reading us chapter books, but I read dozens of them to my own children. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Caddie Woodlawn, The Not-Just-Anybody Family, Beverly Cleary's books, and many others. So much fun! We have an entire library! Maybe one day I'll have a passel of kids surrounding me once again for another trip through the wonderful world of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

Toy and Books

I've decided to begin in earnest the task of cleaning out, and I am starting with our bedroom closet, which has become an "attic" of sorts. It has become increasingly difficult to walk into the closet, and there is little to no space left where things can be stored. Our clothes are in there somewhere... I think... and even those need to be sorted.

It was my son's recent request for children's books that got me started on my recent quest to downsize my "stuff" collection. Some of his favorite childhood stories included Dr. Seuss, books by Bill Peet, and Uncle Remus. I gave it some serious thought and came to the conclusion that, although I love my Uncle Remus book, it brings nobody any enjoyment stowed away in a box on the shelf. I sent my boy a note offering him a huge box of Legos, and, along with a warning that some children actually morph into Brer Rabbit, offered him the treasured story book. Yes, Uncle Remus tends to be rare and collectible, but one of my own favorite childhood memories is snuggling up next to my dad and listening to him read Uncle Remus.

So, yesterday my daughter in law came over with her little ones for a short visit. We hugged small children, ate cookies, and sent them home with a big box of Legos and two story books; Uncle Remus and Richard Scarry's Mother Goose. I hope they make for many hours of fun and a lifetime of memories. I know they did for me.

B is for Books

B is for books (and I am late posting because our internet cable was dangling from the side of the house earlier this week).

One of my Christmas presents this year was a $50 gift card for Barnes and Noble. Although I no longer do much reading myself, I have a daughter who thoroughly enjoys reading classic literature. One of her favorite authors is Charles Dickens. She has read Great Expectations at least twice and maybe David Copperfield as well. On my first trip to the book store I was alone and in search of Les Miserables, and since there was a buy two get one free sale I chose two more classics for Hannah, Nicolas Nickleby by Dickens and Emma by Jane Austen  .

The following Saturday we had even more fun. She went with me and we perused both the classics and the wonderful 50% off sales. Big red circles on the spine of the books told us what was on clearance. We looked the clearance tables over carefully and made our selections. Two volumes of Sherlock Holmes, The Count of Monte Christo, Dicken's A Christmas Carol, and two not so classic books as well. It was like Christmas all over again! I think perhaps Hannah and I have enough reading material to last until next Christmas.


For more ABC Wednesday, click here.

"FABULOUS"

Today I was informed that "Charlotte's Web" (the book) is 60 years old. Although I was unaware and didn't know to join in the celebration, I do have a very special visitor just outside my back door this year, and being familiar with both Charlotte and Wilbur, I have been very gracious and accommodating in spite of my ignorance concerning this anniversary of theirs.

Just outside my back door is a motion sensitive light that lights up our porch each evening. The light, of course, attracts every manner of insect and this year it also attracted the attention of one very "bright" spider. By day this creepy arachnid finds safety by hiding in a hanging grapevine wreath. By night it finds its fill of insects attracted to the light just above the wreath. Being the soft-hearted type, I have allowed this "small" (and I say that loosely) creature to dwell with us for the season.

I have learned that well fed spiders actually grow, that they can play dead (I thought it was once), and that they are pretty good at the camouflage game.  Back in early September I thought this was a fairly large spider, now it is just plain fat and sassy, and still pretty cool. I think I'll keep it around a little bit longer, maybe it'll scare the goblins away come Halloween.

Just Wondered...

If Beverly Cleary is 96, how old does that make Ramona?

Wild Nuts

It was a wild wild wood.
Wild flowers grew all over the ground
and wild winds blew through the air.
Wild nuts fell from the wild nut trees
and wild grass tickled the fur child's nose,
tickled his nose and made him sneeze....
Kerchoo!

-from Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown


Outside my bedroom window, not quite directly across the street, grows a butternut tree. In the dark of the night, before we go to sleep, we hear the nuts drop into the street or onto the top a car parked beneath its branches. Klunk.

For ten years nuts have dropped from the lofty heights. (We also have black walnuts in our yard...) I have jumped at the sound of cars flattening the fruits and peered out the window to make sure it wasn't one of my cats. I have raked up piles of round, green skin covered black walnuts from my own yard, shoveled them into the wheelbarrow, and watched my neighbor do the same with his butternuts, but this is the first autumn I have stopped to actually smile at the sound of them landing with a thud. Maybe it is because there were so few nuts on the trees last fall that I enjoy their presence. Maybe it's because I have been counting blessings and find another gift in the thud of a nut falling to the ground. Then again, maybe I'm just a weirdo. :)

PS. Little Fur Family has been my favorite children's book for forever.

Time On My Hands

The gardener/laundress is tired. I am perfectly aware that no one is really interested in hearing about it, but perhaps this is why my comments on your blogs have been lacking or sporadic lately. It's not that I'm not visiting, it's just that along with my body, my brain is moving a bit slow. I'm finding myself feeling like a child with ADD, unable to complete a full thought without interruption either from someone/something else or my own seeming inability to concentrate.

I've started reading a few different books, "One Thousand Gifts" (for the second time), "Inconceivable" by Sean and Carolyn Savage, and "On Becoming Babywise"
(because I am making a concerted effort to understand a particular way of parenting), but have yet to finish any of them. I also have "Lazarus Awakening" by Joanna Weaver, borrowed from a friend and scarcely cracked open... It may be July before I have a chance to finish a book in less than three months time.

I have so much to do and so little time to get it all accomplished, or so it seems... I am looking expectantly forward to summer and hoping I will get those much needed moments to clean out my closets and rid my home of the extra clutter that has found it's way in the past few years. Gah! I'm getting tired just thinking about it!!!

A Second Chance

I am still reading, only this time I am wading through the book, pen in hand. I stop here and there to underline words that speak to my heart...

"Ultimately, in his essence, Satan is an ingrate. And he sinks his venom into the heart of Eden. Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity; the sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve are, simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave.

Isn't that the catalyst of all my sins?

Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other."

I find this coming back to my mind, invading my thoughts, again and again. I am dissatisfied more often than I care to admit, wanting more, wanting "something other." But I also I find myself searching for those gifts God gives, gifts that arrive in everyday packages, and I record them in my notebook...

#45 -Star studded skies
#71 -A familiar face in a sea of strangers
#129 -Tea and honey
#185 -The still of night
#213 -Morning coffee when my eyes won't stay open

It's been almost four weeks of recording gifts. I wonder how long it will be before seeing gifts in prickly packages becomes second nature?

The Holy Experience

Learning Life's Lessons

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thess 5:18

My books arrived with the mail this afternoon. Funny how I ordered several copies last week and then found myself face to face with "One Thousand Gifts" again this week through my sister in law. She is counting gifts on Facebook and must have started reading this book somewhere along the way. It took me a little bit to realize her posts had been encouraged by the book I had just ordered. My own curiosity had been sparked by something different, a blog I was introduced to several months back. A Holy Experience comes to me in my email though I must confess, in my own unwillingness to take the time each day, I have not been an avid follower and I have missed the blessing.

Encouraged by the touch of a Savior who loves me, who never gives up, One who hears the cries of even the most stubborn of His children, I am being made new. It is He who gently, unwraps the clenched fists (I read about them in another book last night...), and it is He who calls us to be thankful in all things. I believe my heart is now willing. Please forgive my bouts of tantrum and whining. Thank you for your prayers. The journey has really just begun...

Bargain Hunter

Hannah and I went out to Webster last week. It was just the two of us and Emma, so I asked Hannah where she wanted to go. She suggested Volunteers of America. After looking around and purchasing a nice hardcover "Curious George" book, we moved on to Goodwill and had a look around there. We were almost ready to go when I chanced to glance at the children's book shelf.

Lo and behold, a book caught my eye! Without so much as a second thought, I snatched it up. I almost wish I could have seen the expression on my own face. I'm sure it reflected both disbelief and determination. It is not often one finds a very favorite book on the self of a second hand shop, especially not one highly sought after, out of print, and typically quite expensive. I looked down at the sticker in the bottom corner of the book. Ninety-nine cents!

I realize this book is considered "politically incorrect" by some, but I don't quite know the reason. If culture is to be celebrated, then this book is certainly part of the party! We went through several copies when we were children and, I will admit, it did have to be put on the shelf when my brother turned into Brer Rabbit, but it was one of our favorites to have Dad read at bedtime...

"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'...

A few years ago I borrowed my sister's copy of Disney's Uncle Remus Stories and read them to my kids, and one day my sweet niece decided it was time to take their book home again. I set out to find my own copy and searched the pages of ebay for a good deal. It took a long time but I finally found a copy and won the auction at a price I could afford. I think I paid around $25 to $30. I checked ebay again today. Yup, they're still going for close to $100!

To the Library, Library, Library

School will soon be out for the summer. Since it has been my practice to read stories before the girls take an afternoon rest, we took a ride to the local library after lunch, actually two local libraries. (Priscilla would be proud.)

We have been enjoying stories by Cynthia Rylant. She writes about Little Whistle, a guinea pig who lives in a cage at the back of a toy store. When the shades go down at night, he wakes up and climbs out of his cage for an adventure. There are three Little Whistle books and I was hoping to find the third at the library in Ontario. Mission successful.

Though I know I can leave returned books at any participating library location, I decided to take the Williamson books back to the Williamson Library instead of leaving them in Ontario. The girls enjoy both libraries and were more than happy to visit two in one day. At Williamson a new book caught my eye. Something about the pictures...

We were almost home again when Emma's voice came from the back seat. "Where's Panda?" she inquired. Panda, it seems, had not been paying attention when we checked out our library books and headed for the door. The girls were too busy rushing for the handicap buttons at the exit to remember a small round bear. I turned the van around and headed back to town where I found Panda playing hide and go seek in the children's area. He didn't appear distressed in the least.

The Secret Cave

Last Monday was my birthday and a small package arrived in the mail from NY City. Inside I found a short note and a CD of a children's opera written by my friend Judy. (I already have a copy of her children's book.) She suggested I familiarize myself with the story before listening to the music, so I found a library book and read the story.

Set in France during WWII, "Twenty and Ten" is about a group of French children who are spending their days in the care of a nun up in the mountains. In the course of the story they are asked to help hide a group of ten Jewish children also. The secret cave comes in very handy. "Twenty and Ten" is a story of bravery and steadfastness in the face of danger and adversity. I very much enjoyed the story and was encouraged by its message. Now I need to finish listening to the music my friend sent. Who knows? Maybe someone will decide it would be a good show to do with some local children.

"Little Deaths"

Life requires countless "little deaths"- occasions when we are given the chance to say no to self and yes to God. -Elisabeth Elliot

Something worth thinking about as God continues to pry my fingers from about that which holds me. What is it He is asking me to die to?

Passion And Purity

My husband and kids helped a friend pack her things the other day. She has, for many years, been an avid book collector and is dramatically thinning her collection in preparation for moving to a smaller home. She was kind enough to give James a few of her treasured books when he headed home. Last night I decided to read this one, "Passion and Purity" by Elisabeth Elliot. I have long known the story of her husband, Jim Elliot and the other missionaries to the Auca tribe in South America, but I have never read any of Elisabeth's books.

I must confess that years ago I would turn the radio off when Elisabeth came on. Her "black and white" way of thinking and talking turned me off. She had many good things to say, and much of it I very likely needed to hear, but my heart was hard and I didn't care to listen. I'm sure I could have been spared much agony and aggravation had I just taken the time to measure the words of one much older and wiser than myself, but I was not that smart. Hopefully it is not too late to learn.

The Printing Press

Christmas has come and gone for another year. The big project for me began just four weeks ago when I found Dad's first journal in the attic at my parent's house. After reading it myself, I knew it needed to be copied and shared with my family.

Christmas is really about Christ and how the God of the Old Testament loved us so much that He clothed Himself in human flesh, was born in a stable, grew and sacrificed Himself on our behalf. Along our way through life, He is there. Sometimes He walks quietly alongside us and other times He makes Himself known in ways so obvious that it is impossible to deny He is there. Such was the case with Dad's journal.

I spent many evenings deciphering words on the pages, written sometimes in pencil so light I had to squint to see it. When the copying was complete I found I missed those evenings spent with my fifteen year old father. He loved the Irondequoit Bay, spent many days working on a farm, and woke up late for school more often than early. He shared hopes and dreams as well as frustrations and heartbreak. I came to know him in a new way.

I printed page after page of journal, folded and set them in order. There were last minute additions, like the ship he drew inside the front cover, and a few typos I missed (It says 2009 instead of 1947 in one entry). I left Dad's spelling errors in order to preserve the authenticity and here and there left my own italicized explanation of people and placed mentioned.

James stayed home on Wednesday to bind the pages together and make covers for eleven books. They turned out beautiful and we were able to give one to each of my children, both my sisters and my mom, and still have one for James and me.

I am grateful for a God who loves me so much that He gave us a Christmas present from Dad sixty-two years ago. He knew we would be blessed all these years later when we spent our first holiday without our precious earthly father.

Where Do You Live?

It was morning. I was in the kitchen visiting with James. The girls were in the living room playing. It was still early and they hadn't quite gotten everything out yet, but they were working on it. I can't recall what caused the conversation but it made me smile. "We're living in a pile of books!" they said. Yes, there they were, living in a pile of books. The books were set on end, balanced like walls; "Roxaboxen", "Curious George", "Ira Sleeps Over", "Bread and Jam for Francis", and even a very old copy of "The Saggy, Baggy Elephant". What fun to live in a pile of books!

#6 and #7- I am thankful for books and little girls.

Mr. McGregor's Change of Heart

"Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor." (from The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter)

Did I mention that my father and his garden remind me of Mr. McGregor and Peter Rabbit? It's just a little garden, tucked between the next door fence and the side of Dad's house. The side toward the road is enclosed by a four foot stockade fence. On the backyard side is a wire fence and a wooden gate. Scattered along the wire fence are moth pellets, to keep the rabbits out. Hmm... not working.

The other day Dad went out to look at his garden and whom should he meet but Peter Rabbit! He was nibbling on some beet greens. "Scram!" shouted Mr. McGreg... I mean Dad.

Peter took off running but evidentally had forgotten the way back to the gate. He ran straight for the fence, probably because there was no tool shed to hide in. He was quite certain he was home free until he discovered that although his front end fit through the wire fence rather easily, his back end was stuck fast. His fat little hopping legs and hips were entirely too wide.

Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by Dad. (Mr. McGregor's wife had put Peter's father into a pie, and I'm pretty sure Peter thought Dad had the same idea.) The poor little bunny was much too frightened to back out of the fence the way he had gone in (this part of the story reminds me a bit of Pooh Bear) and it was impossible for him to pass through going forward.

In Dad's younger days he had been a hunter. He's hunted down and eaten all kinds of critters; frogs, turtle, squirrels, rabbit... I wonder if it ever crossed his mind that he could have a free meal? Evidently he has become rather fond of the little creatures that visit and live in his yard, because rather than fetch himself a meal, he headed to the garage for a pair of wire cutters.

Peter screamed and hollered when Dad touched him, but took of like a shot as soon as his back legs were free. Peter never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to wherever it is he lives. I don't suppose he had bread and milk and blackberries for supper! Probably a dose of camomile tea instead.

After watching Peter run across the yard, Dad turned back to look at his garden and there sat Peter's cousin, Little Benjamin Bunny. "Scram!" shouted Dad, and Little Benjamin took off like a shot. Lucky for him he was smaller than Peter!

She Was Bookin'!

It's finally finished. Mom will be happy tomorrow and she will spend hours this next week pouring over the pages of her new book. I hope she likes it. Although it's not perfect (I found way too many typos), it's still a satisfying project. A year's worth of blogging bound into one book. If I spent more time making books I might be able to work out the mistakes I make in putting them together but the finished products always make me smile just the same. At this year's library sale I will be looking for old books to dismantle and make into new books. The covers are recyclable!
In the past I've made recipe books for my kids and sisters. I gathered old family recipes and all- time favorites and put them together into one great little collection called "The Over-Used Recipe Book". They made wonderful gifts. Last month Hannah and I bound small autograph sized books for her friend's birthday and I'm thinking about possibly putting together a little devotional book with all my "scripture ponderings". It will be a good way for me to remember how much the Lord has taught me over the past few years. He is good!

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday and also my dad's birthday. I made him an apricot upside down cake and we will be having the whole family here for dinner and I'm looking forward to it.

Have a blessed day!

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Story Books

It is a good day for baking cookies. We have lots of milk in the fridge and nothing tastes better for a snack than milk and cookies. In the past two weeks I have made double batches of both peanut butter and molasses cookies. Both batches disappeared very quickly and without much help from me. I indulged in just one peanut butter cookie and had not even a bite of my very favorite molasses. I have determined to change my eating habits, but I still love to bake and watch my friends and family enjoy the results.

It is also a good day for reading stories. Troy has already had me read Huge Harold. Bill Peet is one of our best loved authors. He has written so many wonderful children's books and the pictures he drew for them are classic. I think maybe after lunch we will read a few more stories, maybe the one about Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure. If only I could find some crocodile tears, like Hubert, I could make my hair grow faster too. Next week I will visit the library and find some more Bill Peet books, maybe Jennifer and Josephine or Smokey.

A Special Book

About ten years ago my friend Judy wrote a children's book. Her sister Nancy did the illustrations. Every time I read it I have to smile because this picture looks so much like I remember Judy. My copy of the book is signed by the illustrator but not the author. I bought it from Nancy on Amazon.com. Maybe someday I will have it autographed by my friend too.