Halloween Books

This was an absolute favorite that we will be returning to next year. Both girls LOVED this book, I think in part because Sugar Plum Fairy could read it to her sister. This book appeals to many ages because of it's humor. A little girl and her cat move into a new house that is full of ghosts. Luckily the little girl is a witch. She gathers up all of the ghosts, washes them, irons them and uses them for curtains, tablecloths, bedspreads, etc. Both the girl and the ghosts are happy in this scenario and the kids think it's pretty funny. A win for everyone!

These next two were destroyed by the boy in the house (the little one). We actually lucked out because the library GAVE them to us! Not that I'm going to leave books lying in his path in the future or anything, that would be dishonest;) Plus he managed to tear the pages cleanly out of these books and we might not be so lucky in the future.

A cute British import, this "curious little witch" sees a light left on in a house and goes to investigate. Unfortunately the attic room she peeks into is inhabited by mice and when her cat sees this he leaps causing her to tumble in and break her broom. She makes her way down through the house meeting witches with various talents on her way. In the basement she meets a tinkering witch her fixes her broom and gives it a couple of extras. Great detailed pictures and the last page gives us a view of the house from top to bottom in case you missed anything along the way. Super cute.
I love the illustrations in this book. They are reminiscent of Laura Bannon or Marjorie Flack, in style, if you're a fan, which I am. Great descriptions of what a witch needs to be, to be a witch. None of her spells or brews seem to turn out, however... and then she takes off each of her witchy accoutrements and voila! There's a little girl underneath the big nose, stringy red hair and hat.
We love Jan Brett and although these are not my favorite pictures of hers they do capture the spirit of October fairly well. This is a poetic story which is a little eerie until you realize at the end that a bunch of kittens have been hiding under the porch afraid of trick-or-treaters... the source of the mysterious almond eyes watching, watching.
A favorite author at our house who specializes in re-tellings of classic stories. If you haven't ever read "The Teeny Tiny Woman" (by anyone) you are missing out. And if you think you've read it or had it read to you but can't remember here's a little hint "Give me my bone!" This is fun to read and fun to listen to. Just scary enough that it is enjoyable for all ages.

February: Valentines books!!!

"The Ballad of Valentine" by Alison Jackson, illustrated by Tricia Tusa. My kids LOVE books that are told with a song. I don't always. This one is so cute and is sung to the tune of "Clementine". It was actually fun to sing this story. It was cleverly written and drawn (which isn't always the case. Not sure why a lot of the stories that are told to a song have mediocre pictures... they think the song can carry it??? Nope.) This particular story is fun for mom and kids, is great for Valentines AND has the cutest awkward couple EVER. My favorite from this list.
"The Valentine Bears" by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jan Brett. This is a cute story about a bear couple who wakes up mid-winter nap to show each other how much they love each other. I like this book because it reminds me of my big bear of a husband. I also like this because it appropriately shares what a great adult relationship can look like for a child audience.
"Lilly's Chocolate Heart" by Kevin Henkes. Short and sweet (bad pun) board book. The fun thing about this book for our family is that my first grader can read board books to the little kids without getting bored and putting it down without finishing. No mom required (even though I still stand by and watch- too cute to miss.)
"The Day it Rained Hearts" by Felicia Bond. This was the kids favorite. They love a little bit of the ridiculous. Once they new the story it was fun for them to shout out who each Valentine was for before we reached that page. I didn't realize how funny the idea of raining hearts would be to a 4 and 6 year-old. Or hearts growing on trees, for that matter.
"Valentines Day Is...." by Gail Gibbons. We have a lot of Gail Gibbons books but we usually only enjoy her sciency-dinosaur-astronomy-honey bee-apple tree-etc. type books. I have never been a big fan of her holiday books. I think the reason I liked this one better is that Valentine's Day isn't as religiously based as some of the other holidays. This is a great book to learn more about the history of Valentines Day (for young children, that is) and how we celebrate the day. If you are familiar with Gail Gibbons you will know that the pictures aren't exactly spectacular- but they get the point across. These are things that I never knew as a young kid and I would have loved to have a book like this.

"You See the Light in Me" -- Greg Laswell and Ingrid Michaelson at Scala...

Okay- a few notes.
#1 I have probably watched every version of this on YouTube. This song has not been recorded to my knowledge so this is the only way to hear it.
#2 You need to use earphones- I have found that songs sung live and found on YouTube sound MUCH better this way.
#3 This is not the best recorded version of this song (talking and bumpiness. it gets better a minute in) but it is my favorite because you get to see their personalities the best and because you can best see the way he looks at her in this version. Mmmmmm, love it. If you love this song as much as I do and want to watch a less jumpy version this one is really good too.
#4 They are ADORABLE. I waited to post this until "love month". It's like a good romantic movie only it's less than 4 minutes and is REAL.
#5 Go give the person you love a BIG kiss after watching this and remember how much you love the way he looks at you! If you don't have someone you love right now watch this a few more times and don't worry it'll happen for you too.

January Author of the Month: Jan Brett

Jan Brett, what can I say? I love her paintings- especially her books with a Scandinavian influence. Jan likes to include illustrated borders in her books which I love. I love all of the detail and the foreshadowing hints in them which is really fun for the kids. They love to show off by being able to guess which animal is going to come onto the scene next.

One thing I don't love... trolls. I don't know what my deal is with trolls but I just don't like them. Even though many of her trolls are cute. The word "troll" is so ugly and gross. Maybe I'm weird. Some of my other favorite author/illustrators have a thing with trolls and I just don't get it. It's the one thing I don't like about her version of "The Night Before Christmas". However, Abby loves "Trouble with Trolls" so I guess it's more about what the kids like.

Abby's teacher's favorite author is Jan Brett and she has been highlighting her at school this month. It was really perfect that we decided to focus on her at home this month (I was going to do November). Jan looks like such a fun person! The kind you'd like to be friends with in real life... or travel with. She is such a traveler which really gives her books a special flavor.

Our absolute favorite Jan Brett books:
The Mitten
The Hat
Daisy Comes Home
Annie and the Wild Animals
Gingerbread Baby

Books we really like:
On Noah's Ark- told by Noah's grandson, cute. Look for the big book instead of the tiny board book- it's all about REALLY being able to see the pictures.
The 3 Little Dassies- a great re-telling of the 3 little pigs set in Africa
Gingerbread Friends
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Town Mouse Country Mouse- a little long for my kids but I love the pictures, so I put it into my own words.

Books I don't remember loving but we'll give them another shot:
The Umbrella
Honey...Honey...Lion!
(plus several that include trolls)

Books we have not read that I'm putting on hold:
Comet's Nine Lives
Fritz and the Beautiful Horses
Armadillo Rodeo
The Three Snow Bears
Beauty and the Beast
If I remember, before the February/Valentines blog post, I'll let everyone know what we thought of these.

(She has MANY Christmas books that I'm leaving off of this list since it is no longer Christmas but "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is worth a mention)

New Recipe #1

Okay, this is officially week one of 52 this year and I completely waited until Saturday to try a new dish. Also, this is technically the second time I've made this. However, since the first time was for book club I didn't know whether the fam would love it or not. The ladies at book club gushed but you never know if they're just being nice, ya know.
Here's the recipe for Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes and Basil
I think it turned out a little better the second time. It was a little dry the first time around. Not sure why. I used 16 oz. of pasta instead of 12 and because of that I kinda rounded my measuring or let it spill over. I used more adobo sauce since we like a little more kick at our house (and luckily my chicken enchilada recipe calls for the peppers that come canned in this sauce so we don't have to waste anything.) YUM. The Pioneer Woman is so thorough that I skipped pictures, etc. Check it out, if it sounds good to you give it a shot. This recipe does okay with a little tinkering.

Resolutions 2012

Resolution #1
Okay. I am not in the least bit crafty. (Why does that Beastie Boys song have to get stuck in my head every time I make a similar statement. I also do not "get around".) I am completely okay with my un-crafty-ness. Mostly. I would like to make functional things around the house if it's going to save money. I DO own a sewing machine but the last time I used it the bobbin kept getting jammed because I put it in backwards or sideways or something. HELP.
Plan: to do one "crafty" thing each month. I may begin with some non-sewing crafts until I can brave up. But, honestly, most of the ideas I've gotten from pinterest are sewing ideas. I DO have some Goodwill furniture/frame finds that need some sprucing up. I'll post each months "accomplishments", don't judge. Posting will keep me honest.
I'd also like to have the kids do a craft a month with me (different craft). To some moms out there who do several kids crafts a week this may not sound like much. For me it is. Plus, most kids crafts seem so wasteful to me. You put it up for a while and then it winds up in the trash. Once a month is enough to decorate for the upcoming month and not feel completely wasteful.

Resolution #2
Teach Drama Queen to read. I've been meaning to get this going for a while. Kindergarten begins next September for her. We have a dead-line people! I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Sugar Plum Fairy and was more than pleased with the results. I'll be using it with all of my children now. I just need to go buy some poster board so that we can make a sticker chart for her. Sugar Plum Fairy called her lessons "doing my chart". The stickers are the best part, apparently.




Resolution #3
Trying new recipes. We have around 30 recipes that we do all the time, so I can get us through a month w/out getting too bored. However, I, the mom, get bored and would like to try some new things. I'm making the ambitious goal of trying 1 new dish a week. I'll be posting those results as well.





Resolution #4
I took piano lessons for EIGHT YEARS and can barely play. This, sadly, is because those 8 years were from age 5-13. I also used to sing. Now I hear myself and cringe. It's time for some practice. I don't want to start out too ambitiously so I will limit myself to 1 song a month on the piano and I will practice singing the hymns for the upcoming week in church (a benefit of being the chorister is that I will KNOW the upcoming hymns). I should have been doing this anyway. Bleh.
I would pick the songs for the piano now and list them but I don't want to limit myself.
Resolution #5
Reading: Okay. I don't like choosing a number of books that I'm going to slog through in a year. What if I want to read more than one 600+ page history? What if I want to read a few that require some study and note-taking?

SO... I've decided to compile a list of 10 books that I want to finish this year. I've chosen these books because
1. I need improvement in certain areas
2. I want to learn something or be reminded through a re-read
3. I need to be spiritually uplifted
4. simply because I've been meaning to read them for years and it's time I got around to it

In no particular order:
The Lost Language of Symbolism by Alonzo L. Gaskill
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
The Divine Center by Stephen R. Covey
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self Indulgent World by H. Stephen Glenn, PhD & Jane Nelsen, Ed.D.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Favorite!!! Time for a refresh)
The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade by Susan Wise Bauer