Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Joy

Before the Easter Service today. The beautiful spring dresses look nice, but there is still snow on the ground. Posing for pictures was a bit painful for the girls since they were freezing!




 Big Sister coloring eggs



 Middle Sister coloring eggs


Little Sister coloring eggs



 Baskets filled with gifts from the Easter Bunny

In addition to church this morning, we spent our day at my mom's house where we had lunch.  There was a ton of food and even though it is time for supper, I am still stuffed.  This was our first holiday without my dad, who is now at a nursing home. 

Chris Tomlin's song is one of my favorite Easter hymns.  I'm a bit sad that we didn't get to sing it today at church, but love listening to this version.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Hoop Genius

We're in the middle of March Madness, watching quite a bit of basketball at our house recently - something that doesn't happen very often since I'm married to a former college wrestler and current wrestling coach.  However, it's impossible even for him not to get caught up in basketball fever.

A new book showed up at school this week. Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy is a great simple picture book telling the story of James Naismith, the man who invented the game of basketball.  
Naismith was merely trying to come up with a game to keep his students occupied in their indoor gym class. They tried football, lacrosse, and soccer, but all of these game were too physical for the gym.  So, Naismith got a bit creative and came up with a game that involved throwing a soccer ball into a small basket.  That was the beginning of basketball, one of our most popular sports today.  

An author's note at book's end includes information about Naismith not already shared in this book, which covers only his idea to create a sport for his students to play indoors.

The text in this book is simple enough that Little Sister who is in kindergarten enjoyed this story and learning about basketball. This also appealed to my older elementary students who were introduced for the first time to the idea that a sport could be created by a person who was able to come up with the concept and rules.  

James Naismith is a person I learned about in my college PE class, a name that has stuck with me as the inventor of a sport I love to watch.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Easter

Some years my girls seem a bit oblivious to Easter and the Easter Bunny, the holiday sneaking up on us a bit.  This year it seems that they are a bit more tuned in to the upcoming holiday - maybe in part due to the fact that Easter should signify spring, since our weather sure doesn't.

Driving home from church on Sunday Little Sister was talking about the EB visiting in just a week.  I was thankful that she did talk about the fact that Easter really isn't about the Easter Bunny, but is about Jesus dying on the cross.  Sadly, it seems the reason for the holiday is forgotten by most. 

I'm not saying I don't appreciate a good egg hunt or think it's fun to fill my girls' baskets, but the holiday is pretty silly - notice the picture below of Little Sister posing with a human size bunny at the egg hunt she attended.




I struggle finding a good Easter book to read to kids at school, where really, Easter is all about bunnies and colored eggs since a religious story wouldn't be appropriate there.  


This year Harper Collins sent me Marley and the Great Easter Egg Hunt by John Grogan -a perfect read aloud for my students. Marley is up to his usual antics, this time trying to get in on an egg hunt.  The finder of the biggest Easter egg will be egg hunt winner, something Marley wants. However, it seems that whenever he gets close to picking up an egg, a boy or girl quickly snatches it up.  Marley takes matters in his own hands, looking at the market, a bakery, and a party supply store for this special egg.  It's no surprise that Marley looks like an Easter egg himself by the end of the hunt.  I predict that my students will love hearing this story, and this new addition to my Marley collection of picture books will be checked out as often as all the others.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Movement of Stars

When I requested Amy Brill's The Movement of Stars from Amazon Vine, I didn't think for a moment about March being Women's History Month. And there is a lot to this novel that doesn't really have to deal with women's rights, but that is certainly one part of this story.

Hannah is a twenty-four year old Quaker living on the island of Nantucket in 1845.  While she loves watching stars and studying astronomy, she is a female in a time when marriage and children are what is expected of her, not science and a career. 

When Isaac Martin, a black sailor arrives on her island and asks Hannah to teach him about the stars, Hannah is the subject of gossip from her community - the Quakers being a group that will excommunicate its members for questionable behavior. It doesn't help that Hannah finds herself attracted to Isaac. And while Hannah must battle the fact that she is a female interested in a field mostly restricted to men, Isaac is a black man restricted in what he does and who he can be friend with because of the color of his skin.

Hannah's dream is to discover a comet of her own, and she faces many challenges on that front. The first is the fact that her father is moving off the island and unless Hannah marries she won't have enough money to remain there while she searches the night sky for a comet.  

The setting of this novel provides an interesting look at Nantucket in 1845 when it was inhabited by Quakers and not a vacation destination.  Brill learned about a female astronomer prior to writing The Movement of Stars, which is where she found the inspiration for this novel. 

Although Hannah is a work of fiction, many women like Hannah helped create the opportunities girls and women have today by refusing to accept the conventions of their time.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday


Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's pick:  Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
Due out: June 25, 2013

Product Information taken from Amazon:
Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of American Wife and Prep, returns with a mesmerizing novel of family and identity, loyalty and deception, and the delicate line between truth and belief.


From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar “senses”—innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them.

Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that a devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. More troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister, and truths about herself she’s long tried to deny.

Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  
This week's topic:  Top Ten Books You Recommend to Others to Read

Without even pausing a minute, I knew instantly the top 3 books I tell others to read:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

 These three have topped my list for several years now, so that telling others about them has become fairly automatic.  In some ways I feel I discovered these novels for other people because I read them long before they became book club favorites and bestsellers.

The other seven that I have been telling others about - a few are new additions- are:

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson


The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis


These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner


Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen



Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Monday, March 25, 2013

Easter Must Haves

 Easter Must Haves
  
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#1  Pastel Deviled Eggs- I think these are beautiful despite the fact that I'd rather eat a scrambled egg than a deviled egg.  That egg whites just squirm around in my mouth and gross me out a little bit. Still, even I can be in love with how beautiful these are as long as I don't have to actually put them in my mouth.

#2 - Felt covered Easter Tree from Target.  Just $10, this is one of two Easter decorations I own.  It looks so springy and colorful sitting on my bookshelf.  My girls all exclaimed over it when they saw it.

#3 - Smash Books by K and Company are the new "in" thing - at least according to the Hobby Lobby and Target workers I talked to. Honestly, I wish I were about ten years old again so I could wake up on Easter morning and find this in my basket.  Sort of like a scrapbook that already has decorated pages in it along with some extras - tags, captions, etc.  

#4 - Birds Nests made with Chow Mein noodles.  This recipe might be a bit different than the one I grew up making with my mom, but these remind me of Easter when I see them.  Don't kid yourself. The jellybeans are only there for the looks. I know I picked them off every time and threw them away so I could eat the nest.

#5 Easter dresses are hard for me to justify buying simply because it is never very warm in Iowa for Easter. This year might be a record cold Easter holiday, but try convincing my daughters of that when we were shopping. I finally bought Little Sister this dress at Old Navy.  The idea is that she can wear her white denim jacket over the top to add a little warmth.  Big Sister and Middle Sister have similar dresses also with a denim jacket over the top.  


I must say that I'm pretty pleased with myself and my first attempt at using Picasa to make a photo collage. I still have a bit of messing around I need to do to get better at it and I wish I were faster, but this might be the new blogging trick I'll be practicing for a while.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday Salon

Last Sunday at this time spring break was just beginning and we were recovering from our trip to the Mall of America. Today I am forced back to reality and thinking about going to work tomorrow.  I had a relaxing break, but I am ready to be in a routine again.

I had high hopes of organizing my home and doing some spring cleaning, but on Monday Little Sister got sick at school and ended up home with the stomach flu for 2 and a half days.  Not what she or I wanted, really. So, I decided to enjoy lying around with her and get some leisure reading done.  

This weekend is hopefully the last weekend that my husband will be consumed by wrestling until the fall.  He left Thursday afternoon and returned last night at 2 AM.  Today he is too tired to accomplish much - although he has enjoyed some NCAA basketball on television.  Our new treadmill has been sitting in our garage for a few weeks just waiting to be assembled.  This is a big project so I am trying to be patient as I wait, but my 12 mile run this morning on our treadmill with a broken running board (think of running while trying to avoid a small trench) was not ideal.  That's the farthest I have ever run on a treadmill and while my legs are a bit tired, I feel just sort of drained- more than I thought I would.

Although the cleaning plans were initially derailed, I did manage to come up with 4 large garbage bags full of things I am getting rid of.  Today I went through our CD collection - so 1990s, I know - and weeded them out. The idea is we can get rid of our stereo system and buy an iPod docking station and speakers and join everyone else in 2013.  

Although the calendar might tell us it is spring, we awoke this morning to snow.  I am so over winter.  Right now Big Sister is whipping up a batch of these oatmeal chip cookies which I might have to taste test. Middle Sister and Little Sister are busy playing dress up - a game I am not very fond of since it seems to consist of them taking tons of clothes off their hangers and trying them on. They NEVER re-hang everything they get out.  I plan on ignoring this for a bit and returning to the couch to read Erica Bauermeister's new book, The Lost Art of Mixing.




Saturday, March 23, 2013

The End of the Point

Elizabeth Graver's novel The End of the Point chronicles three generations of one family as well as the place they vacationed for their summers.
In 1942 as World War II rages, Bea arrives for summer at Ashaunt Point in Massachusetts to take care of the Porter daughters Helen and Dossie.  The war might have changed the appearance of the island for the summer as Bea notices the paved roads, yet the summer traditions continue unchanged. This is the summer marked by Bea's falling in love, yet unable to move away from the family she has also grown to love.
As Bea narrates the first portion of this novel, the intricacies of the Porter family are revealed and as the  novel progresses we see the daughters grow up and Bea grow old. Helen marries and has children, always returning to Ashaunt. Her oldest son, Charlie who narrates a portion of The End of the Point, is often in trouble finding it impossible to live up to his mother's dreams for him.  
Despite all the changes in the family - births, deaths, marriages - Ashaunt Point, its beauty described by Graver, remains as the family's anchor.  The Porters are a family I have thought of after the last pages were turned, and find hard to get out of my mind, just as their nanny Bea found it impossible to forget them herself.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Women's History Selections

Already it is nearing the end of March and I haven't even mentioned March being Women's History Month.  Last week I received SIX boxes of books at school that I am still going through.  I brought a stack home to read over spring break this week, two of which are great books about women who helped pave the way for those of us alive now.

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman is the colorfully depicted story of Elizabeth Blackwell, who as a girl looked forward to any challenge that came her way. Although medicine had not been a lifelong dream, when Elizabeth talked to her sick friend, Mary, who confided in her that she would rather have been examined by a female doctor, Elizabeth began considering a career in medicine. Soon that thought turned into Elizabeth's dream - one she wouldn't give up despite being rejected by  28 different colleges.  
My girls were a bit surprised that women were not always allowed to be doctors. They take for granted the idea that women and men are equals. This story captured my kindergarten daughter's attention as well as my third grade and fifth grade daughters'.  The text and story were fast moving, yet gave enough information to tell Blackwell's story, also including two pages at book's end containing more information and a photo of Blackwell.

Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Maker's Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Melissa Sweet is another great book for Women's History.  Clara Lemlich is not a famous American, but the story of immigrant garment workers and the poor treatment they endured by their bosses is one that all Americans should know about.  Clara went to work in one of these factories where she spent many hours hunched over a sewing machine.  When Clara finds a group of men who are interested in striking she agrees that she, too, can strike as can other females.  Clara was just as tough as any man, experiencing beatings, arrests, and broken ribs.  And yet she didn't back down. The women, led by Clara and her encouragement continue to strike until their demands for higher salaries and better working conditions are met.
Melissa Sweet's illustrations which I have fallen in love with in all the books I have seen that she has illustrated - are colorful and brought Clara's story to life.
Although Clara is not well known, her message- that you can do anything you put your mind to- is one for all girls (and boys, too). 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Autobiography of Us

Although I was born in the 70s and mostly call myself a child of the 80s, I am a bit partial to the 1960s, despite never having even been alive in that decade.  There are so many great books I have read set in this time period that have managed to capture this era perfectly, along with television shows like American Dreams and The Wonder Years. My mom looks back on this decade with somewhat less fondness having actually lived through it and experienced a life of skirt wearing as a rule along with different expectation for women than men.
Aria Beth Sloss' new book, The Autobiography of Us is set in the 1960s chronicling the friendship of reckless Alex and Rebecca.  These two girls had dreams beyond what their mothers expected of them and in the 1960s it would seem that they would be able to move beyond the role of wife and mother - a role their own mothers filled.  Eventually, their friendship is forever fractured with an act of betrayal.
Alex and Rebecca's friendship was interesting to me as the two seemed so different and also so at odds with each other many times. Their dynamic didn't match any I have with my friends, and there were a few times I was certain their friendship wouldn't survive because of something they said to each other only to be proved wrong. The two continue to find their way back to each other throughout their lives. The dreams they had to reach further than their mothers aren't as easy to reach as they at first thought.  
The Autobiography of Us is a story of friendship in a time when girls and women were just beginning to realize their own potential, and has captured what I imagine the 1960s were like perfectly.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday


Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's pick:  The Silver Star: A Novel by Jeanette Walls
Due out: June 11, 2013

Product Information taken from Amazon:
From one of the bestselling memoirists of all time, a stunning and heartbreaking novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world—a triumph of imagination and storytelling.


It is 1970. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman “who flees every place she’s ever lived at the first sign of trouble,” takes off to “find herself.” She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that’s been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the fall, it’s Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

The author of The Glass Castle, hyper-alert to abuse of adult power, has written a gorgeous, riveting, heartbreaking novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love the world despite its flaws and injustices.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

With or Without You

A few years ago now I had an idea that I should read only memoirs for the month of March, playing off the whole March Madness idea.  My posts would all be Memoirs, for March's Memoir Madness.   Well, nice idea, but I have never been able to organize myself into having enough memoirs read or posts ready to carry this off.  

However, I have noticed lately that there are several memoirs I have read recently and not posted on even though I have enjoyed them all.

Domenica Ruta's memoir has gotten a lot of  press and when I realized I had been sent an ARC of it, I was  more than a little excited.
Ruta's life is worth documenting.  Things were not easy for her as she grew up with a drug addicted mother, Kathi.  In ways her story reminded me a bit of Jeannette Walls' Glass Castle, yet Kathi is much rougher than Walls' parents, as Kathi veered between simply using drugs and dealing them.
Miraculously, Ruta survived her tumultuous childhood, and fell in love with reading despite her mother's inability to foster this love - not a single book in her home.   Kathi did foster a love of drugs in Nicki, helping her become an addict herself to drugs and alcohol. Despite all of Kathi's downfalls, she did believe in education, sending Nicki to a boarding school, which helped her get admitted to Oberlin College.
Although the memoir is sad, as Ruta must somehow overcome the many obstacles in her path,  it is also hopeful as we know from the outset that Ruta has escaped her upbringing and flourished despite everything she endured. The writing in With or Without You is beautiful as well. This is easily a memoir that book clubs will choose to discuss and one I could re-read simply to be able to enjoy the writing.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Sunday Salon


Here's what I've been up to over spring break so far:  (My spring break is the week after my girls'.  They've had a fun week of time with grandma, visiting the Youth Pavilion, a movie and day at home with dad- and dentist visit, a day with their cousins and aunt, and an afternoon with their former pre-school teacher who entertained them).  Yesterday as an end to their spring break and the beginning of mine, we took a trip to the Mall of America with my friend Crystal and her two girls.

Highlights include:

Our first ever brunch at The American Girl Store

Hats at Chapels

Some fun and scary rides for Middle Sister

Getting to visit the One Direction World Store on its opening day

Supper at Rainforest Cafe.










The rest of my week might not be nearly as fun - I am planning on some serious spring cleaning and hopefully some reading.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

What Happens Next

Months ago Peaceful Reader sent me several ARCs she has received so that I could also share in her book goodies.  I was supposed to read them and pass them on and while my intentions are always good, it is just now that I have actually taken time to read and enjoy the first in this stack of books.

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton is a debut novel that Peaceful Reader attached a sticky note to so that when I received it and read "So Good" I knew that despite the fact that the two of us have differing tastes in books, this would be a winner.

Sid Murphy and her friends are on a high school ski trip.  As a girl with a more voluptuous figure than most her age and curly red hair, Sid has always stuck out from the crowd and always feels not quite as cute or pretty as her friends.  So, when Dax Windsor, an older guy she meets on the trip invites her to a party Sid goes despite her friends' protests.

She awakens the morning after meeting up with Dax at his place unable to recall what happened - yet she knows it wasn't good. Her reputation at school is shot, and the events of that night have forever changed Sid. 

After dropping out of her college prep course, Sid begins a work study job in the AV department and meets Corey, a boy that she wouldn't have been interested in for a variety of reasons. Yet as the two get to know each other Sid realizes there is more to Corey than she realized. And just maybe he can help her find herself again.

High school girls should use Sid's story as a cautionary tale - there is plenty to think about as Sid struggles to regain her life.  I'm a sucker for a good teen romance and despite the fact that Corey didn't initially seem like my kind of guy, I fell in love a bit with him, too.
As the sticky note attached to this book indicated, this book was "so good."


Friday, March 15, 2013

House Girl

For a while I shied away from Holocaust books only to have a love of them come out of nowhere these past few years.  Now if you would ask me if I want to read a Civil War book, I would probably decline the offer.  However, there are always exceptions to this, and House Girl by Tara Conklin is a fabulous reason to make an exception.

House Girl takes place in two different time periods.  In the present day Carolina "Lina" Sparrow works at making partner at her law firm, devoting her time to a reparations case for the ancestors of slaves.

Josephine Bell was a housegirl back in the 1840s and 1850s at a southern plantation. Her mistress died in 1852 and there is no information about Josephine after that date.  However, there is a controversy whether the artwork attributed to her mistress was actually done by Josephine.

As the daughter of famous artist Oliver Sparrow, Lina is drawn into Josephine's story and begins to look for Josephine's descendants to use as plaintiffs in the legal case she is working on.

Both Lina and Josephine tell their stories in alternating chapters and more of the mystery is fleshed out by letters from the undertaker's daughter.  Conkin's House Girl has a bit of suspense as well as history woven together which made for a very late night reading session by me.  The ending may have been a bit too neat and tidy, but the love I have for this book overshadows that. I have already recommended it to a few friends and will continue to tell others this is one worth spending their time on.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Splash of Red

Melissa Sweet's work was unknown to me until a little over a year ago when I first read Balloons Over Broadway and fell in love with it. 
A Splash of Red is written by Jen Bryant and illustrated Melissa Sweet - a win/win situation. The story of unknown-to-me artist, Horace Pippin is fascinating.  Pippin enjoyed drawing, but was forced to leave school and earn money for his family.  After returning from war with an injured arm, Horace never thought he would draw again.  His art now hangs in galleries around the country, a testament to Pippin's desire to create again.
As Pippin worked to rehabilitate his arm, he worked hard to make new pictures.
I will never get tired of looking at Sweet's colorful artwork.

This is a great addition to my biography collection at school and kids will enjoy reading about this artist as well as looking at the illustrations.