Good-bye, bad-bye

A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education. ~~Smiley Blanton


How did it get to be the last day of school already?  Where did the school year go? 


Friday is the first full day of summer vacation for my children.  No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks.  Except that there will still be pencils and books.  My children will probably get more dirty looks from their mother this summer than they did over the school year from their teachers.

My kids are fairly good students, but even they suffer from summer brain drain.  I'm going to try to make more of an effort to prevent that this year.  We're going to play yahtzee, monopoly, or any number of other games where you end up doing math.  The girls will continue to read without much influence from me.  We'll travel and explore new things.  We'll do our best to not slide back from where we are now.

Summer brain drain can be easily overcome.  It does take a little bit of effort, but it isn't impossible to prevent.  Probably the easiest way to prevent it is to limit the screen time for your child.  TV, video games, computer time, movies, iPhones, iPads, the list goes on and on.  If it has a screen, it needs to be included in screen time.  This is the easiest and most difficult thing to do.  Chances are that when the screen is removed, the complaining will start.  "I'm bored.  There's nothing to do."  Which eventually leads to no screen time for a day or two.  At all.  Which is as much a punishment for me as it is an eye-opening experience for my children.  It usually only takes a few days of no screen time to make them remember that there is more to life than a screen.

Go outside and explore.  Yes, it can be very boring.  Especially when your child is completely engrossed in an ant hill and wants you to join in the fun of watching it.  For hours.  Give it a few minutes, and talk about the things you see.  If your child has questions, find the answers.  Even better would be to help them find the answers for themselves.  If you have questions, ask them.  What kind of bug is that?  What kind of flower is that?  Where is the Big Dipper?  Find the answers to these questions and your child may not be the only one who walks away from summer with a broader knowledge than they started with.

Let the summer learning begin!

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
~~Anonymous
 

Summer's Unofficial Start

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us.  I have heard repeated over and over by the weathermen that this marks the unofficial start of summer.  I'm tired of hearing that.  We live in northern Minnesota, if summer didn't start until the summer solstice on June 21st we'd miss a lot of summer days.  Summer may not technically end until September 22nd, but our northern Minnesota days and nights can get pretty chilly by then.  So, can we get the date of summer officially changed? 

 
What happens on the unofficial start of summer?  Here's a clue: grocery stores have hot dogs, buns, chips, marshmallows, and graham crackers on sale.  Home improvement stores have lawn furniture and gardening supplies on sale.  Sporting goods stores have tents and sleeping bags on sale.  You guessed it; it's outside time! 


Being that I live in northern Minnesota, I don't feel the need to get out to the campsite or lake this long weekend.  We don't live that far, so we can go any time.  Which is good, because this is the weekend that those in the metro area flock to the great outdoors.  I'll let them have this weekend and go camping when the rush has died down a bit.  I'm more of a fair weather camper anyway.  My parents went camping last weekend, and we went out and visited them for a day.  I was happy to get home that evening and sleep in my own bed instead of having to sleep under the rain clouds. 


I can wait until the official start of summer ends before I spend a weekend in the great outdoors.  After looking for pictures to go along with this posting, I don't think I can wait that long for a s'more.  It's currently pouring rain outside, so I'm not going to be able to make a fire and make an offical s'more this evening.  I suppose an unofficial one will have to do.  Just like the start of summer.


Now pass the marshmallows. 

The last chapter is not always the end of the story.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.  ~Thomas Helm

There are those of us who love a series.  Again, if you're new to this blog, I'm not talking about the World Series.  What was the first series you found yourself needing to complete?  Which did I read as a kid?  Little House on the Praire, Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables--more of the classics than the modern Sweet Valley High books of the time. 


The final book in the Sisters Grimm series came out on May first.  We were fortunate enough to get it the last week.  I'm waiting for my turn to read it, I think I'm next in line.  My oldest daughter read it and then asked if she could give it to her friend.  I said yes on the condition that we get it back, since that friend is also the daughter of my library director.  We will have the book for three weeks; and in that time, as many as four people will read it.  My middle child is also waiting for her turn.


There have been many kids turned into readers by the power of the series.  Read all of the 39 Clues books, and then you have to wait for the next once to be available for purchase or check-out.  So, you find something else to read while you wait.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid spawned a lot of readers.  Harry Potter was huge.  Before J.K. Rowling finished the series, there would be kids coming in to find something similar to help them pass the time until the next book came out.  


There are a lot of adult books written in a series.  The most talked about one right now is the Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James.  The Game of Thrones is another series people have been reading lately.  Twilight, anyone?  Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris?  How about Robert Ludlum's  Bourne series?    There are a lot of them if you start thinking about it.  If you are a serial series reader, how do you choose which group to start next?  Are you a strictly series reader?  Or do you shy away from one book that will lead into another or more?


I've read a variety of series in my time as a reader.  Among my favorites has been the Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire.  Wicked is the first--and I read it before it was a series (or a Tony-winning musical).  The final book in the series came out last winter and I hated for it to end.  I want to hear more about what happens to the Lion, the wicked witch's grand-daughter, and Dorothy.  But, that's not going to happen, at least with Gregory Maguire as the author.  I guess I'm going to have to go back to the original series by L. Frank Baum.  Maguire's books may be darker, but the same kind of surreal magic is there.  Many of the lands and people that didn't make it into the move, but made it into Gregory Maguire's books can be found in Baum's original series.  I just moved the Oz books from the old library into the new library a couple weeks ago.  I'm going to have to put reading them on my bucket list for the summer.   

One of the advantages of reading books is that you get to play with someone else's imaginary friends, at all hours of the night.  ~Dr. Sun Wolf

Everybody has something

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948

Do you remember where you were thirty years ago?  Specifically, the opening of fishing weekend, 1982.  I remember where I was.  I was in the hospital after being diagnosed with Type I diabetes.  I was nine. 

Growing up in northern Minnesota, the opening of fishing is a pretty big deal.  At least it was for my family.  Every year we went out to Little Winnie and staked out a spot among all the other die-hard fishermen.  The moms and children would head out earlier on Friday to stake their place before the city-folk arrived, and the dads would come when they got done with work.  It was a great time of year to be a kid.

My third grade teacher noticed that I had been drinking a lot of water, and making a lot of trips to the bathroom.  By the time my mother was getting packed up to head out to spend the weekend camping, I really wasn't feeling very good.  I recall that I was sent over to my grandparents house instead of out to the lake.  I don't think I cared that much, I was feeling pretty sick.  I'm not sure what was happening with the adults in my life.  There was a doctor appointment in there somewhere.  Glucose to drink.  Vomiting.  Subsequent admission into the hospital.  My brothers and sisters sleeping in a tent, and me learning about insulin injections and my life without sugar.  Kool-Aid and cake were gone from my list of acceptable goodies.  Candy was a thing that could no longer be ingested.  All kids love sugar.  I was no exception.  I could no longer have it without facing some dire consequences.  Life as I knew it was over.

I'm not sure how long I was in the hospital.  I know I came back on my brother's birthday.  Days or a week after being home, and it was time for his birthday party.  This was the first true realization of what this disease meant for me.  No birthday cake.  I was very upset.  It was a beautiful May day, and my dad took me for a walk.  He got me away from the people celebrating the birthday.  He got me away from the cake that I could no longer have.  We went for a walk.  He did his best to get me through the devastation that was mine.  The devastation of no cake.  He pointed out that I could still have asparagus.  Yummy, delicious asparagus that was growing right there in the garden.  I could still have that!!  I would think most nine-year-olds would not find this a pleasant substitution.  Let's see, chocolate cake or asparagus?  The asparagus did not win that round.  But the suggestion that it was a bright side to things was so preposterous that it did make me laugh.  Laughing helps.  Every little bit helps.

I made it through my teens without much thought given to my disease.  I took my shots, I ate a fairly balanced diet.  Periodic doctor appointments.  Camp Needlepoint.  Diet Coke.  Semi-annual visits with a team from the Juvenile Diabetes Association.  (Or something like that.)  I'd visit with a nurse, doctor, dietitian, mental health worker--and they'd get my blood and run some standard tests to see how I was doing.  Never perfect, but never horrible.

After I got married at 25 things took a turn for the worse.  I took many trips to the hospital via ambulance.  My blood sugars were out of whack.  Dropping well beyond what they should, and they were so low so often that I wasn't able to tell until it was too late.  I remember testing my blood to find the reading 17; and thinking, wow, that's pretty close to dead zero and I feel pretty normal.  After six months (or more) of talking about it with my health care providers, and that 12th trip to the ER; I went on the pump.  I haven't taken an ambulance ride since.

Everybody deals with something.  I get to deal with diabetes.  Thirty years, and I haven't taken the greatest care with it during all of that time.  But, I haven't suffered from any of the complications that I read about in Diabetes Forecast when I was in my tweens.  I had three children.  I didn't think that would be part of my life.  I've traveled.  I've had ups and downs with my disease, but as long as I don't ignore it I should be able to live a fairly decent life. 

Everybody deals with something.  You may not know that the person next to you is taking medication for high blood pressure, heart burn, depression, or something else.  Chances are pretty good that everyone is dealing with some kind of health issue.  If they aren't, they are close to someone who is.  If they are one of the few not affected by health issues, and don't know anyone who is; they're leading a fairly solitary life.

There is a lot more information available than there was 30 years ago.  It's so much easier to access that information.  Not all websites are reliable for medical issues, but there are many that are.  There are message boards for people dealing with various issues.  In many ways we don't have the same personal connections that we once had as a society before we all got online, but in other ways we can connect with people we wouldn't have before.  It's a trade off. 

Treatments of diseases have come a long way.  When I was nine, there wasn't much by way of sugar-free foods.  My choices of soda pretty much consisted of Diet Coke, Tab, Diet 7-Up, or Diet Pepsi.  Nutrasweet hadn't come on the market yet.  Stevia was still decades off.  The insulin pump was pretty new in 1982.  It has come a long way in thirty years.  It has made life a lot easier for me.  It allows me to be much more flexible with my life.  It took a while for me to decide to make the change, but I wouldn't go back.   


Everybody deals with something.  Whether it's a chronic or passing condition, everyone gets a turn at something.  Don't let yourself think that you are the only one.  Ask around, everybody has something. 

     

There's lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven't the time to enjoy it. ~Josh Billings      

In a timely manner

Always in motion is the future.

YODA, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Remember a few weeks back when I promised to get these postings done in a more timely manner?  If you don't, good.  If you do, maybe I should explain a littlek about myself and how this blog gets done.


I normally work 5 hours a week at the Marble Public Library.  I also fill in as needed and do the summer reading program for the Coleraine Public Library.  Sometimes I also fill in at City Hall in Coleraine.  Yep, I've got a few jobs.  I'm fortunate that I don't have to work full time to make ends meet, and even more fortunate that I get to work with a great group of people no matter where I go.  I get to interact with the public, and it's fun to get to see some of the same people at various jobs.


Working at a small library, you get to do a little bit of everything: shelve books, pull books, get new books ready for check-out, research; the list goes on and on.  One of the main focuses of my job is story hour and library reading programs.  I get to plan what we're going to do and what we're going to read.  I get to look at incentives for the programs, and figure out the way they're going to be run.  There's probably more work involved than the average person is aware of.  You stop in and your child gets a book log, and some kind of logo-ed treat to entice your child to read.  Yep, library workers know that it doesn't just get thrown together without any forethought. 


So there's how my job works.  Now, how does this blog get done?  While I'm at work I find a topic, write for half an hour and publish it.  Hahaha.  I wish.  If I've got a good idea and don't need to do any research, it can happen like that.  It doesn't often work that way.  Coming up with an idea to pontificate about is the beginning.  Many of my Facebook friends will attest to me asking them for topics they'd like to see covered when I can't come up with something on my own.  Yes; readers, I take advantage of the fact that you are intelligent people with good ideas of your own.  I draw on that when I'm stumped.  Sometimes I get ideas and start typing only to find after an hour that it's going no where.  Sometimes I get ideas that just don't come together.  I've got a few in my drafts folder now.  A few more weeks of not coming up with anything substantial and I'll have as many drafts as I do published postings.  I'll keep them there because sometimes I can go back and turn them into something read-able. 


Start writing, then it's on to the fun stuff.  Quotes!  I love quotes.  Little bits of wisdom in bite sized pieces.  I use three sites to find them: quoteland.com, quotegarden.com, and brainyquote.com.  Sometimes when I'm stumped, I just look for a quote to inspire me.  Then I move on to the pictures.  I use flickr.com.  Do I tell people I'm using their pictures in the blog.  No.  Not usually.  Is that wrong?  I'm not sure.  You can click on any of the pictures and it will take you over to flickr and you can tell on me.  I figure that I've got pictures on flickr that anyone else can use for anything, so what goes around comes around.  I've never taken credit for anyone else's picture, and the links are generally attatched to the photos.  There are pictures that don't come from flickr, but those generally have the link attatched.  I'm thinking the book people probably don't mind my posting a picture that may entice someone to read and perhaps purchase the title I'm talking about.  Sometimes I do use my own pictures.  A few times I've had to take pictures to go along with the blog. 


How often do I get all this done during my 5 hours of work?  It's pretty rare.  Usually I do it at home.  Mostly, I start at work and finish at home.  Do I get paid for it?  Hahaha, of course.  Everyone knows that public libraries are where the money is at.  If you want big bucks, go into public service.  No, I don't.  I'm a library lover and huge library advocate so I do it on my own time.  I enjoy it.  They say that if you can find your passion, that's where you'll find the big money.  To which I say, baaaaaa-logna.  Maybe it was just a passing fad, but I recall Oprah doing a show on it.  I've heard it said elsewhere before and since.  For some people it might be true, but I would guess not for everyone.  I suppose working at a job (or three) that you really enjoy is its own reward.  Or, this is often late because you get what you pay for.
 

Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and spark-spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror. It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving. 

~Martin Amis, Money

It's just a little cold.

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot. ~Dutch Proverb, sometimes attributed to William C. Hazlitt

I was fine a few days ago.  Then the sore throat started, and yesterday it settled into my chest.  Yep, a cold. It's already the end of April, and I thought we had squeaked through the season without suffering much in the way of illness.  I guess I thought that too soon.

I took a really long nap after I got home from work last night.  5pm-10pm, I woke up just in time to catch the news and then get ready for bed.  I feel much better today.  That time sleeping did cut into my reading time.  (Along with blogging time, cleaning time, watching TV time, messing around online time, and play time.) 

I had two book clubs this week and didn't finish either book in time to lend much to either discussion.  I suppose I should have started the books before I left for a short vacation in San Diego.  Somehow the month got away from me, and I didn't realize that the few days after I got back were book club days.

                                       

I listened to half of Blind Descent by Nevada Barr for book club on Tuesday night, and managed to read 95 of the 506 pages in Michael Koryta's So Cold The River for Wednesday night's book club. My cold has since cut into my finishing of those books.  Specifically, that nap yesterday.  You can't really hurry along an audio book, but you can speed through a regular one.  I'm really enjoying So Cold The River  and I'm sure I'll have it finished by the end of the weekend.  But first, I need to play a bit of catch-up around the house.  As long as I'm doing something I find tedious, I'm going to make the most of it and finish listening to Blind Descent.  It's amazing how much easier it is to clean up my house when I'm listening to a good book. 

If you aren't familiar with Nevada Barr, she writes a series of mysteries involving Anna Pigeon who works for the National Park Service.  They all pretty much take place in different National Parks, and entail varying sorts of mysteries.  Her descriptions of places are very readable, and the characters have personality.  Reading a Nevada Barr book can make you long to visit some of these National Parks and Blind Descent does exactly that.  It takes place in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, and it travels below ground through the much less explored area of Lechuguilla Cavern.  If you don't like tight spaces, you will feel the pain of Anna Pigeon as she descends underground.  It's a fun listen, if you haven't been able to get your hands on the book.

So Cold The River is a fun book.  A man who makes memorial videos is asked to create a movie based on one woman's father-in-law who is not long for this earth.  He goes back to the man's hometown, and finds that things may not be as they were presented to him.  A little mystery ala Stephen King.  Not scary, just creepily mysterious.  It's a book that if I could, I would just lay down with it and read the day away.  You want to know what's going to happen next, and that makes it hard to put down.  Even when your eyes are struggling to stay awake as mine were yesterday.

That book is giving me motivation to get my house cleaned up and thus finish listening to the other.  I want to know what happens next.  Besides the dishes.

Behind the scenes.

A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. ~Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

I was on an airplane yesterday sitting next to someone who does not value the work other people do to make our lives easier.  She was obviously someone of importance in her line of work, and it was evident that she thought the flight attendants were beneath her.  It bothered me.  There is no reason to be so haughty to someone who is simply doing their job.  If you're slow about turning off your computer when you've been asked to (because you're doing important work, I'm sure) then there is no reason to be snarky to the attendant who asks you if you are shutting it down.  

I wasn't always as publicly chatty as I am now.  I test out as being an introvert, or at least all the times I remember taking that personality test that's what I've been labeled.  But, it's always nice to be on the receiving end of someone with a positive expression and you don't need to be an extrovert in order to be nice.  So, I do my best to project a positive attitude when I'm dealing with other people.  I don't always.  Most of the time, but everyone has an off day. 

It doesn't take much.  A sincere smile goes a long way.  A fake smile is better than nothing.  A little friendly chit-chat goes even farther.  It doesn't have to be anything much.  Something to make some sort of connection with the people you are interacting with.  Look around you.  Look and see all those people doing jobs that don't get much attention.  

In our media saturated society it seems that everyone dreams of being a star.  All those reality TV shows that turn people into stars, doesn't everyone dream of being a star?  It takes a lot of people to make a star.  I'm not just talking about the make-up artists and sound people either.  What about the people so far behind the scenes that you don't even know they're there?

Who made that bread you're eating?  Who caught and processed the tuna between those pieces of bread?  Who loaded the cans of tuna onto the truck so that someone could drive those cans of tuna to a grocery store near you?  Who unloaded the truck, who stacked the cans, who rang up your bread and tuna purchases at the grocery store?  At my grocery store, they also bag your groceries for you.  I always give the check out clerk and bagger a smile and a thank you.  That person; and so many others, made that tuna sandwich possible.  It's nice to let them know that you appreciate the job they've done so that you could have something for lunch.

It doesn't take much effort to be nice to other people.  Be crabby when you're home alone.  It doesn't take long for a fake smile to become real.  Share a smile, and chances are pretty good that one will be reflected back at you by the people you are interacting with.  See if that doesn't change your fake smile to a real one. 

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.  ~Mother Teresa

A half-baked idea is okay as long as it's in the oven. ~Author Unknown

You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea. ~Pablo Picasso



I've spent the past several days daydreaming.  I've given myself permission to sit back and idly think about various things.  I peruse magazines for ideas, search the web for ideas, and look online for ideas.  I fill my head with ideas and then sit back and let them percolate.  These are things that I've been thinkjing about for decades, years, months, or days.  You never know when something new might spring up when you sit back and let all the ideas simmer. 


Do you give yourself permission to daydream?  Do you set aside time for it?  This is a first for me.  I gave myself permission to sit back and think about stuff.  It's spring, so most of my ideas are about the great outdoors.  My gardens, the patio that I want to make this summer, travel plans, the woods, flowers, fences, and the list goes on and on.  The trouble for me lies in making those dreams a reality.  I need to work past my fear of not being able to complete something, and just get started.  I should probably make a plan of some sort first.

I'm a thinker, not a doer.  Grand ideas that never seem to come to fruition.  I shouldn't say never.  I've seen a few ideas through to completion.  It just seems like I've got more great ideas than time, resources, or talent.  Ahhhh, and that's why it's good to just sit back and take the time to sort through the pile of good ideas.  I'm also not a follower of plans.  Give me step by step directions and chances are pretty good that I won't follow them exactly.  There are times when I exhibit a higher level of confidence than competence. 

Small steps.  Things like patios aren't created overnight by the rank amateur.  I need to put together a bit more of an actual plan.  I loved sketching out my "dream house" when I was a kid.  I'm fortunate enough to be married to a man who can turn my sketches into something a bit more professional looking.  He also knows stuff about concrete, so I bet he could figure out how much we will need for the patio of my dreams.

Maybe if I plan better I'll be better able to follow those plans to competion.  A step by step guide for myself.  More work in begining, but perhaps a better outcome.

Here's hoping my competence will be greater than my confidence.

And now it's time to look around online for more great ideas.  Time for a little more daydreaming.

 

The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away. ~Linus Pauling

There's always something happening in my brain.

Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!  ~~Dr. Seuss



I've been reading and listening to some interesting books lately.  In many ways the books draw many of the same conclusions in different ways.  Obviously, we aren't talking fiction here. 

The first two I've been listening to, the third I actually read (no, I haven't seen the movie).   There have been parts in each book that bring up something I remember from one of the other books.  The first two books encompass different ways of looking at genius and the role of right brain thinking in the future.  Left brain thinking used to be the way, but Daniel Pink makes a strong argument for promoting right brain thinking.  Right brain thinkers are those people who not only see the big picture, but they think outside of the box.  Right.  Yep, that's me.  Right brainer, mostly.  Google right brain vs. left brain quiz and the search will land all kinds of choices.  I took a few, and they all came back with my right brain taking a slight edge over my left brain.  Hunh.  Imagine that.  Malcolm Gladwell makes a case for genius being a product of time, place, and practice rather than person (or their right or left brains).  Bill Gates became Bill Gates not only because of the unique opportunities he was presented with but also because of how he used those opportunities.  It would seem like these two titles wouldn't get along, and yet somehow they do. 


What does Waiting For Superman have to do with either of the previous titles?  It's a different way of looking at education, from a couple different viewpoints.  Do you need to think outside the box to embrace some of the changes that are proposed, or to alter them to suit your needs?  Yes.  Do you need to be a little right thinking to do so?  Perhaps.  Will your previous life experiences color your views?  Yes. 


Can you change from left thinking to right thinking if that's the way to success?  I haven't gotten to that part of Daniel Pink's book yet, and since it's an audio version I don't actually know if there is part of the book on that.  So I don't know what the experts say, but I think you can.  You may not be able to switch over entirely, but I think it isn't a bad idea to give it a try.  You certainly wouldn't lose anything except a bit of your time.   


Where does right brain thinking come from?  I don't know.  Books?  Genetics?  Situations?  Is it possible to change from seeing a problem by concentrating on one part of it to seeing a problem with all of it's causes, ramifications, effects, and beyond?  Do you know when you're only seeing part of the whole?   When I was a kid, I got into a "gifted" program.  I got to do some extra fun things, I got to be creative and think outside of the box.  We learned about problem solving.  Not problem solving math problems, or grammatical problems, but future problem solving.  I don't remember much about the specific problems, I just remember that they were heavy topics at the time, and we were told to find ways to solve them.  A whole process ensued, and creativity was a huge factor in it.  Why did the "gifted" class get to hone our critical and creative thinking skills?  Perhaps it's because this was during the 80's when the left brain still reigned supreme.  


One fun thing I remember from this class is being shown an object and then asked to list in a minute or two as many things as you could think of that it could be used for.  How my imagination flowed!  Mini-brain storms is what they were.  I could list until the time ran out, often with more ideas than time allowed.  (Or are my rose-colored glasses tinting my memories?)  Daniel Pink mentions this in his book, or was it Malcolm Gladwell? 



Play this game with a kid: find a rock or stick and take turns listing off things it could be used for.  Anything and everything is a good answer as long as it uses the object.  Do you run out of ideas before the kid does?  Remember, there are no wrong answers as long as the object is being used in some way.  Remember the "what if" stage of childhood?  How do answers to the game of "what can this be used for" change before and after that phase?  It's a bunch of food for thought.  How do you recapture some of that "what if" attitude of endless possibilities?  Will answering questions about what a tin can can be used as help you get it back?  I don't suppose it would hurt to stretch your brain a little. 


Imagination.  Fun.  Thinking out of the box.  Creativity.  Is it any wonder I enjoyed these books?

Waiting For Superman is a look at how our education system is failing.  I started reading it because I'm interested in the ways the education system is trying to improve.  What I found is that much of what we're looking for in improving our education system is reflected in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink.  It was an interesting thing to be reading/listening to these books all at around the same time.  They each played off of the other in ways I didn't really expect when I checked them out. 



What do you think?  Have you read any of these books or similar works by other authors?  Are you a lefty or a righty?What's going on in your brain?    

Isn't the brain fascinating??




The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person. ~Frank Barron, Think, November-December 1962

Deadlines for the perpetually late

Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time finds time on his side. ~The Talmud

Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst. ~William Penn

I started reading Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child this morning.  And now it is 11:00 pm and I'm just starting to write this week's blog posting.  Nuts.  Usually I'm only a little bit late, today I'm running way behind.  I am perpetually late.  With just about everything. 

Just ask my mother.  I was late from the beginning.  I was a couple of weeks late.  I've gotten better, now I don't run much more than 15 minutes late.  Usually.  All the clocks in our house are set a bit fast.  I never know exactly what time it is.  I'm not sure I want to know.  I don't even trust the time given to me by my cell phone or iPod.  I'm pretty sure they are exactly set by some time-keeper, but it always seems as if they must be off a bit.  They never seem fast, always a bit slow.  The clocks in my house are fast, my electronics are slow, and I'm never entirely sure what time it is. 

Next week I start a two week stint opening up the library.  Scary, right?  Not really, I'm on time when I absolutely need to be.  Usually.  I allot myself extra time to get where I'm going.  Something usually comes up to foil my plans.  That something is usually me, but sometimes it's the four-year-old that I live with.  Just one more game, just one more page, just one more minute, and it turns into longer than I had intended.  The opening of the library is serious/fun business, so I'll be on time for that.  Next week I should have the blog rolling out on Wednesday.  I'll actually get it done at work instead of at home. 




I used to get this blog done on Wednesday nights.  Work was kind of busy this Wednesday, so I didn't get any of this writing done then.  Lots of people in and out, and then we had book club (Little Bee by Chris Cleave) and I spent some time trying to finish it.  I was 22 pages from the end when book club started.  Good thing not finishing the book won't get me kicked out of book club.






This blog is particularly late this week because I was reading something good.  It's especially good because I've been doing a fair amount of deep reading lately.  I'll have more about that next week.  This is something thrilling, exciting, and page-turning.  I'm a huge Lincoln and Child fan.  Their books are a lot of fun for me.  Today was the perfect day to lay under a blanket, on the couch, with a cup of coffee and a good book.  A rain/snow mixed dreary day is exactly right for an easy read.




I work at a library, so I should be spending time reading.  Right?  I only work 5 hours a week, and sometimes you just can't get all the stuff done in that time.  Do I want to work more?  No, I'd rather sit home and read.  If I have to take my work home in the form of a blog that I need to write, so be it.  That's the price I pay for getting to work so little.  Does that make sense?  I suppose not.  It's after midnight now and I should really not be allowed to type anymore.  Time to go to bed.  I'll try to stick to my deadlines a bit better in the future.

Old Time, that greatest and longest established spinner of all!.... his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes. ~Charles Dickens

The Circle of Little Golden Books

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

It was an odd feeling to see one of my first storyhour kids come in last night with his daughter.  I can't possibly have been working here that long, can I?  Well, I suppose so.  This wasn't the first child of a former storyhour attendee that I've met.  This is the first time I've had a conversation about books for babies/toddlers/children with a former kid.  Crazy. 

I vaguely remember being a new parent.  Books were always part of my life, but it amazed me to see the different books that were available for kids.  Who knew they had books specifically for babies?  It was only after my oldest child was about six months old that we really got into reading.  It was later that I went to a conference about early literacy and found out that I should have started reading to her at day one.  Oh well.  We made up for that in the years to come.  What I remembered from when I was a kid reading, had been updated for my own child.  Babies like black and white pictures, pictures of faces.  They don't completely understand the words, so the words you use don't have to match the words on the page.  You can read them anything!  If you read while feeding the baby, read aloud.  Books, magazines, newspapers, it really doesn't matter what.  Tell stories without printed words.  When they're babies they're just soaking it all up to be used later.  Those words and stories come back later as a neurological pathway that's more like a highway.

The books for children have changed from when I was a kid.  I don't really remember board books in my childhood.  It's possible my youngest siblings were given them, but I was too cool for that.  Books that are a bit more sturdy; books that will hold up to a child who is still exploring how things work and therefore throwing, eating, and standing on (among other things), books.  As babies you have control over what you read to them.  They get mobile, and chances are that you will be reading Goodnight, Gorilla over and over and over and over again.

There are books for kids that are not boring, that are funny, that don't rhyme, that are conversation starters, and the list goes on.  If you grew up reading the Berenstain Bears and Dr. Seuss and haven't checked out the children's section since, you're in for a happy treat.  There are so many fun books.  Books that are as much fun for you to read as they are for your child to listen to, look at, and memorize. 

Kids will pick books you hate, books you don't enjoy, and books you'd rather they didn't.  But that will come later.  During the toddler years, you still have some control over the books in your house.  Some.  Bring a toddler to the library and chances are that you will come home with a book you aren't crazy about.  Oh well, you can return it earlier than the due date.  Books you hate might come into your house.  It's okay if you tell your child that you don't really care for the book.  At least, that's my opinion.  You can have a little discussion about why you don't like it and let them respond with what they do like about it and emphasize that it's okay to have differing ideas.  It's a good thing to let them pick out their own stories.  The book may be pure torture to you; but if your kid likes it, read it at least once.  Surround yourself with books you like, and chances are that your kids will bring you books you like.

Eventually they will be picking their own books without any help from you.  If you read a lot of fun books, it won't be hard for them to do.  It's a fun experience to watch your child's literary development.  It's fun to see them select their own books.  You just never know what they'll pick.  For all the books they pick out for themselves, it's good to pick one out for you to read to them.  Then you'll know that there is at least one choice in the house that doesn't make you cringe.  While you're at it, pick one out for yourself.  Then you can reward yourself for having had to read Clifford's Big Adventure again.

If you want some suggestions, stop in.  We're full of them.  I'd love to share some of my favorites with anyone who is willing to take them.  I have a lot of favorites. 

The story - from Rumplestiltskin to War and Peace - is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories. ~~Ursula K. LeGuin

Squirrels, squirrels, squirrels

Tarry a moment to watch the chaos of a playground, crayola-colored shirts of running children, all trying out their wings. ~Dr. SunWolf

It's that time of year again.  Snow has melted, things are starting to green up, and the children have turned into squirrels.  Maybe not all of them, but some of our young patrons have been doing some pretty good imitations.  My children have turned into squirrels.  It's excess energy.  They're bouncing off the walls, talking in louder voices; and in the case of my children, cart-wheeling across the living room. 

In the past week there has been a lot of squirrel activity at my bird feeder.  It must be time for them to come out of hibernation.  It's time for the kids to come out of hibernation as well.  Up and down the tree those squirrels run, up and down the walls the kids climb.  I suppose that's why I spent so much time playing in the puddles as a kid.  I'm sure my siblings and I also acted like squirrels until my mother told us to "Go outside!"  I think she was smarter than that though, I don't remember her saying that in the spring.  She probably got us to find the delight in spring long before the squirrel problem started.

Back when I was a kid, we didn't have much to lure us to stay indoors.  Computers weren't what they are now.  There was no online gaming for us.  We only got about four TV channels on a good day, and those channels didn't play shows marketed specifically to kids.  Skip an episode of Hogan's Heros to go play outside, not a big deal.  We'd probably get the chance to see the same episode again at a later time.  We were country kids.  Our friends lived down the county road and once we were old enough, we could bike and meet up with each other.  We burned off some excess energy on the ride.  Did we have more recess time than kids do now?  I don't know for sure, but it certainly sounds like it.  Spending time outside in the spring makes for good sleeping at night.  And less rammy behavior indoors.

Apparently I need to send my kids outside more.  The kids who come into the library on these brilliantly beautiful days to do some online gaming need to take a break every half hour and run around outside.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin--

Energy and persistence alter all things.  

In my words--

These kids are driving me bananas with their excessive exuberance.

As long as the sun is shining, go outside.  When the rain starts falling they can grab their umbrellas, raincoats, and mud boots and head outside.  After they get soaked, they can come back inside.  Still squirrelly?  Of course they are.  But, it's toned down a little.  This spring-time frenzy is not a bad thing.  It's fun.  It's noisy, it's energetic, it's humorous.  It's letting loose of those constraints that winter seems to envelop us with.  It's happiness in its truest form.  Squirrel form.

Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self. ~~Iris Murdoch  

Is it summer yet?

No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky. ~Llewelyn Powys

It may not be summer, but it's time for me to start thinking about the summer reading program.  The beginning of March, and I'm fast forwarding to June. 

It's all about creatures of the night this year.  Or dreams.  Or space.  Or something.  The only thing I know at this point in time is that it's going to be fun.  I love bats, owls, stars, dreams, and reading.  I've got to come up with a project for six weeks of summer fun.  I already know one of the weeks.  Owls.  We actually made some last week for story hour, and again this week, since it was a different group of kids.  It occurred to me after we finished them last week that they could be made again this summer for the DREAM BIG READ program. 

I passed around an example of our owl creations at our Kick Off  For Summer Reading meeting last week.  With a little imagination and some inspiration from pinterest, we made some owls out of book parts.  When you're at a meeting with other people who are involved with children's literature, it isn't terribly surprising that attention was paid to the book that was used in our creation.  One copy of Little House On the Prairie was falling apart, and had to be taken out of circulation.  It's hard to throw out a book that looks lovely and holds so many good reading memories.  Good thing I found a use for it.   

One week done, five to go.  I need to find books to go along with my weekly theme.  I need to figure out what prizes would be most appealing.  We're a small library in a small community, so I average only about 14 participants.  That means that even with our tiny budget, we can get prizes for everyone. 

Prizes.  I can't remember what I did in the beginning.  For a lot of years I've had a prize store.  The kids enjoy it.  Me, not as much.  Every year it's a quest to get enough of the one thing they're all going to want.  I rarely hit the nail on the head.  As a parent, I don't want my kids to bring home all kinds of junk.  But, that's what kids like.  I order water bottles and T-shirts, and the kids pick out rubber balls and tiny stuffed animals. 


I've also been thinking about how I award prizes, and how I calculate who should get prizes. In the beginning, it was a list of books read. Well, that was kind of ridiculous. Kids would read books that were way below their reading level just so that they could rack up the number of titles on their list. Harry Potter? Forget it, that only takes up one line. I've done the time thing over the past few years. Color in the time you've spent reading. Except, that's kind of a pain as well. I don't keep track of how much my kids read. They read. I'm not going to get out the stopwatch every time they pick up a book. One children's librarian mentioned that for their summer reading program they just keep track of the days read. If you read at all during a day, you can check it off. I think that might be the way to go. It would certainly make my life; as the parent of a few participants of the summer reading program, easier. If it doesn't happen this year, I'll switch over to that next year. 

I've got some work to do.  Good thing I have a month and a half to figure it out.  I'm excited for this year's program.  It's a fun theme, and I think the kids will get a kick out of it.  Summer is a time to read whatever you want to read.  Lay under a tree with a glass of lemonade, and read.  Although, with the Dream Big-Read theme; it should be lay under the stars with your flashlight and read.  Sitting by the campfire, under a sky full of stars, mosquitoes buzzing around your head, the sound of waves crashing on the shore; book in one hand, flashlight in the other--aaahhhhhhh, summer reading!

Books - the best antidote against the marsh-gas of boredom and vacuity. ~George Steiner

For the love of mud.

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.
-Hal Borland

Yay!  March is here.  I'm not a huge fan of February.  It seems to be the longest month for me.  By February I'm sick of winter, and ready for the mud puddles of spring.  This winter has been a bit odd.  I didn't have a problem with February because it hasn't been very wintery.  Although, with the lack of snow, I knew we wouldn't have the kind of spring I like.  The kind where you have to wear your mud boots and stomp through some puddles in the driveway.  I love mud puddles.



We finally got some snow last weekend.  We didn't get as much as they were predicting earlier this week.  The 12 inches fizzled down to about 3.  Bummer.  I would have liked a few more inches of snow.  Fresh snow at this time of year is beautiful.  You know it won't be around all that long; and if you're a puddle jumper, you you know it's going to melt.


I know that most people hate the mud.  There are a few of us who enjoy it.  We wait anxiously for those first warming winds that will turn the snow into spring.  Yes, it can be a bother.  Those kids covered in mud coming through the front door and bringing the muck with them.  The endless loads of heavily soiled laundry.  The difficulty getting to the house when driving through the sloppy mess of a driveway.  The vehicles coated in a thick layer of dried filth.  I can hardly wait!


We're supposed to get warm temperatures next week, and that will get things going.  How long will we get to enjoy the puddles once they come?  One never really knows, so you have to take the enjoyment or put up with it one day at a time. 

Try to see the fun in mud.  If you were forbidden to play in the mud as a child, get yourself some mudboots and go outside.  As a kid, spring was a time for building boats out of whatever scraps of wood were available, among other things.  We'd take the boats out and float them in the puddle at the end of the driveway, or down the ditch.  I remember running through the puddle in the middle of the field and getting soaked.  We would walk across the biggest puddles to see how deep the water was, trying to go as deep as we could without the water getting into our boots.  Springs were great.  Finally to be outside without having to wear endless layers of clothing. 

Find your inner kid.  Float things on the puddles, make rivers to drain the puddles off of the driveway.  Granted, you can only do that if you don't have a paved drive.  Find out how deep the puddles are.  If you got snow, there will be puddles somewhere even if they aren't in your yard.  Go to the park.  Find the mud.  It's fun.  Let yourself relax and enjoy the beginning of spring! 

The mind of the people is like mud, from which arise strange and beautiful things. -W. J. Turner

Did you read that movie?

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes. ~John Le Carre

It's time for the Academy Awards again.  This year there are a lot of nominated movies that were based on books. 
Which ones?  Here's the list:


"Hugo" -- "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick


"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson


"The Help" -- "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett


"The Descendants" -- "The Descendants" by Kaui Hart Hemmings


"Moneyball" -- "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" by Michael Lewis


"My Week with Marilyn" -- "My Week With Marilyn" by Colin Clark


"The Iron Lady" -- "The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer's Daughter to Prime Minister" by John Campbell


"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" -- "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer


"Albert Nobbs" -- "Albert Nobbs: A Novella" by George Moore


"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" -- "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" by John le Carré


"War Horse" -- "War Horse" by Michael Morpurgo


Which ones have you read?  Which ones did you see?  I skimmed through The Invention of Hugo Cabret when my daughter was reading it, but I never did find time to sit down and read it.  We didn't see the movie.  Both The Help and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I read and then watched.  There are a few of those movie titles on my "To Read" list.  Maybe I'll get to them, maybe I won't.  Or maybe I'll just watch them.  Chances are that if I didn't catch it in the theater, I'm not going to see it.  It's rare that I plop down on the couch to watch a movie.  Somehow, there are always other things to do.  I can spend the same amount of time watching TV, and I don't feel guilty.  Maybe that's because I can get things done during commercial breaks.  The only thing that may get done is making popcorn, but I could get some laundry folded, dishes washed, or pages read if I wanted/needed to.  That's tangential though.


I see the Oscars in the same way my husband sees the Super Bowl.  Snacks are needed, and your whole evening is devoted to the television.  It's much more fun to watch award shows with friends.  Especially while you and your friends are on a tropical vacation.  But, I digress.  It's fun because everyone can throw out their own opinions on who should win, and who should not.  Between my husband and I, we've seen the same movies so there isn't a whole lot of discussion about which awards should go to whom.  That, and I don't think he really cares.  He feels about the Oscars much the same way I do about the football game that is played between commercials during the Super Bowl.


It's rare that I've had more than one film to root for to win.  This year there are a couple.  But, I'm especially excited about the ones based on books.  Hunh.  Imagine that.  If Hugo wins best picture, it would be the first time a Newberry award winner has also gotten the prize.  Really, how many times have Newberry books been nominated?  None.  But several of them have been made into movies.  Holes and A Wrinkle in Time were both made into movies in 2003. 

Do some checking around online.  You can find a whole list of books made into movies that have earned Academy Awards or other prestigious prizes.  To make your life easier, you can click here to find a selection of Best Picture Oscar Winners.  Although that list was compiled in 2006--so there may be some missing, especially after this year.  Six of the nine movies up for Best Picture this year were based on books.  

It's a good year to have read the movie.




Never judge a book by its movie. ~J.W. Eagan