Monday, June 27, 2011

Book Love

Here is a collection of book quotes I amassed while taking my Motivating Students to Read graduate class for recertification this summer. I collected the quotes simply for my pleasure (though I did use a few strategically in an essay or two), but figured I should share them with you so you can enjoy them, too. I hope you do!


The Reader by Fragonard

Book love. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.
Anthony Trollope

I cannot live without books!
Thomas Jefferson

A book is a gift you can open again and again.
Garrison Keillor

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
B. F. Skinner


I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
Anna Quindlen

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Secure Daughters, Confident Sons

I was excited to receive a copy of Secure Daughters, Confident Sons by Glenn T. Stanton, and have spent the last month enjoying it thoroughly. The subtitle of the book is: How Parents Guide Their Children into Authentic Masculinity and Femininity. This apt subtitle gives you a clear picture of what the book is about: raising boys who are boys  and girls who are girls.


If you are a parent who has ever had concerns that today's society is headed for androgyny, then this book is definitely for you. If you have ever wondered how to temper the desire to teach compassion to your boys and to comfort them when they are hurt, without going too far and over-feminizing them, then this book is for you. If you have tried to figure out how to encourage your girls to be confident achievers who believe in themselves, while maintaining their femininity, then this book is for you. If you have thought that something in our world needs to change to get things back into God's order, yet you don't want your girls to be trampled on or your boys to become brash, chauvinistic bullies, then this book is for you.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Happy Birthday, Boo, Who is Two!


Boo was two on Memorial Day and it was a memorable day for all of us. We went to a local beach on the river, and had a blast. We spent a leisurely afternoon having a picnic and eating cake, blowing bubbles and building sand castles, splashing in the water and opening presents...and most of all appreciating our family and having fun.

 Tex and Bubba showed up bearing smiles...and gifts!

Boo hopes he is as cool as these two when he grows up. They are good examples for him.
We are proud of both of them.

 Cousin Brother Bear and Baby (not-so-much-a-baby-anymore...boo hoo) Boo had fun playing together.

My brother, still part kid himself, entertained the younger crowd by blowing bubbles for them to chase and pop.
What a good daddy (and uncle) he is.

 Someone was excited to get a My Little Leaptop from Nanny and Poppy. Maybe he will take apart his own laptop now, instead of mine (I am currently missing three keys on my keyboard, thanks to Boo's curiosity). Firefly is obviously interested, too. But she is being polite and waiting for Boo to look at his present first. Good girl!!

Other thoughtful gifts included: a soft handmade blanket from his aunt and uncle, a remote control car from Bubba, a latch & lock puzzle, two other Melissa and Doug chunky puzzles, a harmonica & a kazoo, and an adorable farm board book from Mommy and Daddy (and the siblings), and a few Baby Signing Time videos (we love Signing Time) from Great-Grandma. Yay! Thank you, everyone!

Daddy, Firefly, and Cowboy playing games.
My sister-in-law (Mama Bear) having a heart-to-heart with Brother Bear.
  
This puzzle isn't really a puzzle. It is a latch board with all kinds of latches and locks, from Melissa and Doug. My favorite natural health store went out of business (so sad), but that meant great bargains on stuff I'd normally not afford. Boo LOVES opening and closing all the doors and locks.

Isn't Little Bear adorable?

Daddy demonstrates the harmonica while Cowboy waits for a turn, and Boo, as well as those others you can't see behind me watch excitedly...I wanna try!! They all wanted to blow on the harmonica and kazoo the rest of the time. What was I thinking? All I can say is that it was on sale.

This is where Poppy snuck in that first sip of Coca-Cola. Naughty Poppy.
Baby Bear is wondering when it is his turn.


I think Tex is laughing at Angry Birds. Thank you so much, brother, for introducing him to that game.

Boo can't stop climbing everything in sight, even at the beach.

More bubble action. It never gets old.

The birthday boy wasn't so sure about the water at first.
The others, however, were not shy about it at all. Cowboy jumped right in and tried out his nifty water wings and cool tube. Gotta love the Dollar Tree!

Brother Bear is contemplating whether he'd rather dig in the sand or swim.
Ladybug does not wait one minute to dive in and refuses to get out until the last possible moment. She is part mermaid. I knew this already because she likes to take her bath last so she can stay in extra long until she has gone way past prune-y to positively mummified.

Mommy finally convinces Boo that the water isn't too scary by spending time sitting in the shallows with him playing (and examining numerous shells and rocks), then slowly working out into the water floating on a tube. Once Boo got out on the water, he did not want to quit. He liked spinning around slowly and riding on the waves gently.

Digging is fun, too, says Brother Bear.

Chatting and watching the little ones play keeps us all young,
with a smile on our lips and joy in our hearts.

Something about this sand is fascinating to Boo...isn't it amazing when everything is so new?
He's so insatiably curious. I think he will be an inventor, or a mechanic, or an engineer, or a researcher who will find a cure for cancer. The possiblities are endless.

Happy birthday, precious one...irresistible, fun-loving, mini-mayhem, octopus arms, tornado boy, kiss monster, sweetie pie Boo Bear. We love you!!

The little guys had a hard time leaving behind their sand castle to succumb to the incoming tide, but we reminded them that there is always more sand, and there are many more days of playing on the beach to come.

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again...

I hope you are having a blessed summer, filled with love and laughter.

Blessings,

Oh wait, we can't stop without a birthday cake picture. I hope you like it!

Boo's 2nd birthday. Cake. With blue icing. Everywhere. Yum!


And thank you to all who served, and continue to serve, including Hubby. We appreciate your sacrifice. Especially to those paid the ultimate price for our freedom. God bless you and your families.


GET.be.STAY.organized



I won't claim to plan to do every one of the useful and, uh, well, organized suggestions listed here, but having come across this link AGAIN (I forgot I "liked" their FB page a while back and happened upon it once more today), I am thinking there is a reason I saw it now, my real first day off since finishing my classes. I guess it is time to get hopping and start all that cleaning I just longed to do when I was in the throes of sprinting through six weeks of grad classes.

Why is it now that I have the available time open ahead, cleaning is just not quite as appealing as it looked then?
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