Daniel's new favorite book, for now . . . and other readings around the house

"Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them."

~Arnold Lobel

Well, maybe not a long beard . . .

Daniel is in love.
He is in love with a book.
This makes me very happy.
We do not own this book, so we have to keep renewing it from the library.
What is this book?
It's called Where Have You Been? by Margaret Wise Brown.

It is a sing-songy, rhyming book, and the illustrations in this edition are darling!!
The book begins, "Little old cat, little old cat, where have you been?" "To see this and that," said the little old cat, "That's where I've been."
Owl goes on to ask various animals where they have been, and their answers are sweet and interesting.
Daniel can just about recite this book by heart.
He loves to hear it and to see the pictures, and we often read it two, three, six times before he is done with it.
I am enjoying a new book he received as a gift from MeMe called For God So Loved the World. The illustrations are bold and delightful, and each page highlights some of the gifts we enjoy because God so loved. It is beautifully multi-cultural and I highly recommend this book for young and old. It is good for us all to remember that Go so loved . . .

The boys and I are on to our third book in the Redwall series, Mattimeo, about an evil fox who steals the young of Redwall Abbey to enslave them. This is a read-aloud for us, and we usually read it during breakfast.

Isaac just finished reading The Red Badge of Courage, a classic by Stephen Crane (born in Newark, NJ, by the way. When I was growing up, we used to pass an apartment complex called Stephen Crane Village all the time. Imagine my surprise to find out later that he was a famous author!!) He wrote a book report on it.
I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for the next book-club meeting, which will be sometime in November. I am thoroughly enjoying this book, written as a series of letters between the most unlikely of friends, drawn together by the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II.

We will also be reading One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson, but I am waiting on inter-library loan for that one.
I am also reading Parenting is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us In Worry and Guilt by Leslie Leyland Fields. I will probably blog about this one when I am finished.

Another book next to my bed is A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which I am using to help me write a Christmas play.

Joe is currently enjoying Believing it All: Lessons I Learned from My Children, by Marc Parent, about a stay-at-home dad and his adventures with his sons. This is one of my favorite books, as well.

Well, these are the literary happenings here. I highly recommend all the books mentioned above.
And this is the perfect time of year to snuggle up with a warm drink, a fuzzy blanket, and a hot book!
Remember, reading is much more fun when shared with loved ones! Read with your child, your spouse, your friends!
Happy reading, everyone!

A rather backhanded compliment

Summer is flying by.
Even as I write, the sun is sinking rapidly into the western horizon, drawing yet another day to a close, and drawing us one day closer to the close of summer vacation.
Ah, well. Such is life.
There is definitely a part of me that is excited to get back to school, and can't wait for the first day and a new year.
The "sleeping in" part of me wants to punch her right in the face.
There hasn't been a lot of big stuff going on this summer.
Mostly, we are relaxing at home, swimming, reading and watching good family movies together.
We go to the library a lot.
Isaac and Joe went to Boy Scout camp a few weeks ago.
We've taken a few day trips.
We are planning another trip to Mankato in the near future, before school starts.
Other than that, though, we have been pretty free.
I like that. Being free.
There is something to be said for planning lots of activities and things to do. I've done it all before.
But this summer I have just played with my kids. And I like it.
We've been reading a lot too.
I love reading together.
We pick out the most interesting, intriguing looking books; take them home; huddle up on the couch and read, read, read.
I love it because Isaac, who is getting "too big" for lots of things, still sits and listens to the stories I read to the younger boys, and wants to see the pictures.
Daniel's new thing is to say "Of course!" when you ask him a question.
"Daniel, do you want to read books?"
"Of course!"
Last night, we were all snuggled in on the couch reading a book called "I Could Eat You Up," a sweet picture book about all the sweet things we call our children. I was making it personal, and making all the terms of endearment plural, looking at each of my children with a silly grin after each page . . . "My little sugar lumps, my sweet peaches . . . "
They were rolling their eyes, but they were grinning too.
When we got to the end, Josiah said, "Now, that book was not very convincing."
"It wasn't convincing?" I echoed in query.
"Why is that?"
"Because it was too short!!" he replied.
That is a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one!

In the bleak mid-winter

Well, in one of my last posts, I told of the possible untimely demise of my trusty laptop.
Yes, it seems that it will no longer be my constant companion, my guide, my link to Facebook!
It is a bummer, to say the least. And I was just getting geared up to blog, blog, blog again.
But on the bright side, I am getting a lot of reading done.
In the spirit of simultaneous reading (I am, I confess, a simultaneous reader, meaning, I read multiple books at a time -- no, no, not literally at one time, but at the same time. I mean, I am in the process of reading several books at once . . . Oh, never mind!) I am currently devouring several tasty books (Did I mention we are cable free, and thus, t.v. free these days as well? It is a veritable media-free zone where we live lately; well, except for the two Blue's Clues DVDs we play over and over in turn for Mr. Daniel).
One book I am reading is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (of Poisonwood Bible fame). It is not light reading, but rather a look into the author's personal decision to move her family to a farm in Eastern America and pursue an eating lifestyle that included only fresh, local foods. There are lots of personal stories, some gaunt looks into the food industry, some recipes and lots of inspiration for an aspiring "back-yard farmer."
I am also reading Sea Glass, by Anita Shreve. It is a quick read and doesn't take much thought, but I am enjoying it.

And, I have been managing to read my Bible regularly these past few weeks-- imagine that!!
I am enjoying a daily devotional called Secrets of the Faith Life, by Andrew Murray, and, in my spare moments, I am beginning a book called Standing on the Promises by Douglas Wilson, about Biblical child raising. This one takes the most time to digest and is the most convicting.
.
I am also teaching my children to be simultaneous readers, because why not pass on the mania?! The boys and I are in the middle of reading both Mossflower, by Brian Jacques and Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, aloud.

And so, it is in this bleak mid-winter, bereft of laptop and cable t.v., that I have found again the pleasures of reading. I wonder, why was I letting my life be sucked away by Top Chef and House Hunters and . . . well, God only knows what now. In the first few t.v.less days, I must admit, I was a little lost without the glowing light of the tube, but I have found the little light bulb over my head just fine, thank you, with a little help from a few of my closest old books, and some newcomers, too. I do not miss the t.v., and when Joe ponders if we should try satellite in a few months, I whine back, "ahhhh, do we have to?"
I do miss my connection to the outside world via the Internet. I was so looking forward to blogging on a more regular basis again, and it is a pain when I want to look up a recipe, a fact, a name, a disease, and remember I cannot because 1) my computer is dead, (may it rest in peace) and 2) we don't have the Internet at our house anyway, so what good would it be to me even if it were miraculously resurrected?
I can get Internet access at school, but I have been housebound for the past two weeks with pneumoniatic children. (They are recovering quite well, and barring relapses, will be back in action next week!!)
When I get back to school, I will be plugged in once again. I will try to blog from there (tehehe!).
And speaking of plugs, here's a little nod to my good friends Micah and Sarah (like that segway?), who were here and are gone again. It was so good to see you, my friends, though we did not see you enough, for my tastes.
It is cold, and grandpa has a warm fire blazing in the other room, where my children are gathered. I will leave this light behind me now, for one more beautiful and more warm.

A really good idea!

This is a great idea if you have a child reading a book for a report, or just reading a book, or even for your own reading.
Keep a sticky note pad and pen or pencil with your book.
After reading each chapter, summarize events and important information from the reading on a note and stick it to the last page of each chapter.
This will help your child (or you) remember what they read and to organize and arrange information, thoughts and ideas easily, quickly and effectively.
Thanks to Johnny, one of my 4th grade Latin students, for this tip. His mom has him do this when he is reading a book for a book report, and he said it really helps.