Great (old) book

This is a book we had growing up (click on image to go to Amazon description):


(Thanks, Granny Jean and Boopy for hauling it all over the world until I wanted it. :) )

Yesterday the girls and I went on a walk (they were in the Burley, with some library books and snacks...so I guess technically I went on a push...but I digress). Sabine was reading A Chocolate Mousse for Dinner -- or it might have been The King who Rained -- to Vivian. (Also favorites from my childhood.) She came across the phrase "a family coat of arms" and asked what that meant. We talked about what they were, and I had a vague recollection of coats of arms being a section in Steven Caney's book.

Sure enough, there were a couple of pages on coats of arms, and ideas for making your family's own. Sabine made ours with a monkey for humor, a lightbulb for ingenuity, and a fox for cleverness. Not bad.

I love Steven Caney's writing style and this book is jam packed with fun things to do/read about -- from making a quill pen to fortune telling to grave stone art to how different kinds of nails are made. You can even buy a used copy on Amazon for $.39 (plus $4 shipping, of course...) but you might see one at a yard or library sale sometime...keep your eye out for one!

I'm a winner!

So you know those people who always win raffles? Yeah, not me. I never win drawings. I mean, really. NEVER. I buy the raffle ticket(s) write down my name and contact info, and just forget about it.

OK, now that I really think about it, maybe I won a thing or two at one of the Life is Good Conferences, but then again it might have been Bret or Sabine or Vivian's names on the ticket...usually I stick with things that I can semi-control like silent auctions (out of my way, I have a pen and will use it!!!).

But as of tonight, I'm a winner! First, I got out of the house with minimal mommy-clinginess from Vivian. (Granted she was upstairs in the bath when I left and Bret was talking to her, so maybe I just didn't hear the screaming.) Then, after a blissful 15 minute drive where I got to blast the radio and sing loudly to the station of my choice without another soul in the mini-van asking me to pick up the water bottle that fell under my seat, or what snacks we have in the car, or telling sisters to please stop antagonizing each other (so, not every car ride is like that, but you know what I mean), I arrived at Bolt Fabric Store for Amy Karol's book signing for her newest work:



I just bought the book tonight, so I can't comment on it, but I'm thinking it's going to make me more than a little distracted from packing! Must...concentrate...on...filling...boxes!

I have had her first book



for several years, and have found much inspiration from it. While the projects and patterns are great, I think the best thing about it is the attitude that ANYONE can sew, and that there's no need to be perfect...It feels like you're working alongside one of those nice friends that is supportive/funny/kind and wickedly creative.

Did I mention how deliciously wonderful Bolt is? I found it a few years back during a visit to Portland when I bought another sewing book (Sew What Skirts) at Powells, and the cashier asked me if I'd been to Bolt (nope). I wrote down the name, and lo and behold it was down the street from the Community Cycling Center which was on Bret's to-see list, so it was a win-win.

(Confession, I still have the fabric, washed and everything, that I bought that day to sew a skirt from the book...fortunately, I still love the fabric, and really will make that skirt someday...)

Anyhow, we were talking about me being a winner, right? So the time for the drawing arrives (this is after I've asked Amy to sign my newly purchased second book, and my first book, found in the house out of its Dewey decimal order on the bedside table and we've had a nice chat...she's just like she comes across in her book -- very warm and sweet -- wait, that sounds like I'm describing a Krispy Kream donut...never mind...), and my name is drawn. Mine! Me! Wahoo!

This is what I won:



It says on the outside: This bag contains very important craft supplies and possibly some chocolate. Yes it did! Two packages of iron on fabric transfer paper, a copy of Bend the Rules Fabric (which I had Amy sign for Kat -- she needs a nice surprise, right?) two bundles of sweet fat quarters, a box of Amy's new labels (they have just the amount of sarcasm that I love!), and indeed, some chocolate (shhh, I didn't tell the girls, though Sabine read it on the bag...I tried to gloss over it...). It was such a nice treat to win, and just what I needed at the end of this week.

I also got to talk with several interesting women -- many of whom are teachers of classes at Bolt (did I mention that Bolt is about a mile from our new house?) And that they have not only an amazing fabric selection, but also some amazing classes? And there's a solar waffle cart across the street? Oh yeah.

Oh, and when I got home, Sabine presented me with this creation (the photo does not do it justice):



Bret has made some lovely little sculptures with copper wire (dog, cat, flowers...must take some photos...) and Sabine got a hold of a little wire, a bead and a button. Sweet little flower. Creating things is so wonderful, as is receiving things that have been created by hand.

All right, this ended up being a much longer blog post than I intended...but it may be the last one for a bit. Tell me to go back to packing if you see me here again in the upcoming weeks.

Reading nook

I was making lunch the other day and heard Sabine running back and forth, up and down the stairs. She said she was creating a surprise. She used the pillows from the guest room (under the pink blanket...she said we'll put them back in the guest room when people come to stay, don't worry) the ever-popular Chix Rule blanket made by our friend Theresa, some throw pillows from the couch and a $5 end table from Goodwill.

The window is at the mid-level-landing of the stairs...


The older book on top is a Webster Consolidated Encyclopedic Dictionary from 1950. It belonged to my grandparents. It has several pages of full color animals, plants, etc. Sabine's been enjoying it. Bret bought The Knowledge Book on one of his solo-job-hunting trips to Portland last year. Dave took him to the National Geographic Society's huge warehouse sale that only happens every couple of years...I can't wait to go to the next one!

The story of my life

No, not mine...Helen Keller's...

I've been reading a book for an upcoming Multnomah County Library book discussion group, so I had to put down this one for a few weeks.

I'm now coming back to it (well, after I finish Tales of Beedle the Bard) and wanted to share a couple of quotes that I found interesting, from a homeschooling perspective.

In case you care, I'm quoting from The Restored Edition, ISBN 0679642870.

In order to understand how Helen Keller was able to articulate this insight at the age of eleven, how language became her mind's wings, we must look at Anne Sullivan's methods as a teacher, reminding ourselves that The Story of My Life is above all the story of a unique education. John Macy commented that Sullivan's method was both a "natural method" and "a deconstruction of method." By this he meant that Sullivan did not teach Keller language in a series of structured lessons, but rather she created for her--and immersed her in--a total environment of language. (xix)

I like this because it's kind of how we homeschool...total immersion in life.

It was my teacher's genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me. She realized that a child's mind is like a shallow brook which ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education and reflects here a flower, there a bush, yonder a fleecy cloud; and should be fed by mountain streams and hidden springs, until it broadened out into a deep river, capable of reflecting in its placid surface, billowy hills, the luminous shadows of trees and the blue heavens, as well as the sweet face of a little flower.

Any teacher can take a child to the classroom, but not every teacher can make him learn. He will not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his, whether he is busy or at rest; he must feel the flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks. (33)

I like the ideas expressed here...that children can be exposed to a lot of things, and while we might not witness their learning right away, they're soaking it all in. I also like the idea that children need to feel empowered to learn on their own...that no one can make anyone learn anything. However, if we can provide the right materials/opportunities/things they need at the time they need them, our children can't help but learn.

But I soon discovered that college was not quite the romantic lyceum I had imagined. Many of the dreams that had delighted my young inexperience became beautifully less and "faced into the light of common day." Gradually I began to find that there were disadvantages in going to college.

The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, where one hears only in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep sweet chord to in the soul that until then has been silent. But in college there is no time to commune with one's thoughts. One goes to college, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures--solitude, books and imagination--outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day. (79)

I didn't necessarily feel this way at college, maybe because Cornell College uses the block plan, where you take one class at a time for 3.5 weeks then move on to another class, but I feel grateful that my kids have the luxury of time...with their thoughts, and to pursue their interests.

While my days at Radcliffe were still in the future, they were encircled with a halo of romance, which they have lost; but in the transition from romantic to actual I have learned many things I should never have known had I not tried the experiment. One of them is the precious science of patience, which teaches that we should take our education as we would take a walk in the country, leisurely, our minds hospitably open to impressions of every sort. Such knowledge floods the soul unseen with a soundless tidal wave of deepening thought. "Knowledge is power." Rather, knowledge is happiness because to have knowledge--broad, deep knowledge--is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man's progress is to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life. (83)

Knowledge is happiness. Yes!

I'm looking forward to getting back to this inspirational story.

What I willed into our house

OK. I know it doesn't look like much. And the pegboard...well, I could always take a leaf of Kat's page and cover it in paper, but hey, it's a book display shelf! As a librarian, I know how much more appealing outward facing books are, and I wanted a better way to strew our large selection of books, as well as ones checked out from the library. I'd been looking at them on various sites, dismayed by their hefty price tag ($150 and up, not including shipping). Bret said he could make one (with Papa G's Shopsmith) if I could figure out the dimensions. But that takes tiiiiiime. And I really wanted this now. But I didn't want to spend the cash.

In steps Portland Craigslist to the rescue! I found a garage sale that said they were moving, and selling lots of furniture. (I'm also looking for an inexpensive art materials cabinet, inspired after reading (well starting) the book The Creative Family.) Bret took the girls to Laurelhurst park, while I drove to the sale. I had to "sneak up on it" as I'd forgotten my piece of paper with the address, thanks to numbered streets and some great landmarks (parks/playgrounds) I didn't get too lost.

The first thing I see is the pegboard display (which, Bret assures me he can modify to have even more display shelves). Did I mention it also has some shelves in the back, and it has wheels? And they were selling it for...EIGHT DOLLARS. I also found 3 bulletin boards for $2 each, and two folding tables for $25 for the set (a 6' one for my sewing room, and a 4' one for art projects downstairs). Dang. I love a good yard sale.

And, I love thinking about something that I'd really like to have, putting it out there, and having it find me. Very cool.

New favorite book...and it's a SERIES!

I sneaked out of bed this morning at a little after 6 to finish reading this book. Since I don't have time to write my own review (mama's gotta make her latte while little Viv is napping...priorities, you know!), here's what Booklist has to say:

The escapades of the Greek gods and heroes get a fresh spin in the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, about a contemporary 12-year-old New Yorker who learns he's a demigod. Perseus, aka Percy Jackson, thinks he has big problems. His father left before he was born, he's been kicked out of six schools in six years, he's dyslexic, and he has ADHD...Riordan's fast-paced adventure is fresh, dangerous, and funny. Percy is an appealing, but reluctant hero, the modernized gods are hilarious, and the parallels to Harry Potter are frequent and obvious.

I had purchased the first 3 in the series for the JHHS library, upon recommendation from a student. Then friend Kristin told me she was reading (and loving!) them with her older nanny-charge. Going to start # 2 tonight...the 4th in the series is due out this May. Enjoy!

Three books, one week

OK, so I need to update my Shelfari list...but until then, I wanted to post on some reading I've been doing. Last week I finished Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by (local author) Ted Kerasote. Bret received it from Julie and Shawn for Christmas. Very interesting story about the relationship between a man and his dog -- who lives an extraordinarily "free" life for a dog -- lots of roaming in the small town of Kelly, WY, hunting, skiing, etc.

I then went on to another animal book with the fictional Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. Read it in about 3 days -- it was excellent! The narrator is in a nursing home and tells the story of his life, when traveling circuses were abundant (well, declining, actually). Great love story, both between humans and animals. This was our bookclub read for Feb, we're meeting next Tuesday.

Finally, I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road. This was loaned to me by our friend Bud -- who wanted to know what I'd think of it. Well, thanks for the freaky nightmares mister...just kidding, but only kind of! What a strange, futuristic, unpleasant novel...and yet I couldn't stop reading it. A great book for discussion.

Some interesting quotes from Grace Paley

I just finished reading the book Just as I thought (well, honestly, I skimmed over the last 1/3, but I really enjoyed the first 2/3!), essays by Grace Paley. She was born in 1922 and died in 2007 after a battle with breast cancer. In addition to being a writer, she was a political activist.

I especially liked the following quotes:

I don't think the thing for me has been civil disobedience so much as the importance not asking permission. For instance, we had kids in our public school who had trouble reading or writing. A few of us just got together and said we'd better go ahead and help out. We suspected that the principal wouldn't want us around. So we simply went into the school and scattered ourselves among the teachers and began to work with the kids. It's true that three months later we were kicked out, but we got a lot done, and methods and forms were created so parents could come back and be useful. People will say to this day, "How did you women do that? Who did you talk to?" We didn't talk to anyone. We just did it. So I can't say it was civil disobedience. It was just an effort to make change by making change. We talk a lot about living in a free and democratic country but we're always asking permission to do very simple things.

and

[She was in jail as a result of attending a protest, and heard women singing and long song and wanted to write it down because she didn't think she cold memorize it, but she had no pen or paper.]

...Which is how I finally understood that I didn't lack pen and paper but my own memorizing mind. It had been given away with a hundred poems, called rote learning, old-fashioned, backward, an enemy of creative thinking, a great human gift disowned.

This second quote makes me think of all of the time I wasted learning "things" that someone else thought I should "know" -- and grateful for the things I've learned that have been useful, like music and sewing and writing. The first quote reminds me to be brave, and not give away my rights, I'm thinking especially as they pertain to my children and family.

Using kids' desires as leverage

I was reading Spiritual Parenting by Hugh and Gayle Prather until I put it aside because my friend Julie loaned me the AMAZING book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I just finished the section on Italy last night and had to go downstairs to eat a bowl of pasta with pesto and cream...a poor substitute for the real Italian stuff, but she made me! I have to admit, the Prathers were beginning to lose my interest around page 40, but I really liked the following two paragraphs, and thought I'd share them, and remind myself to not try to change my kids...

[Their house up to this point has been tiled, with no soft surfaces on the floor due to their son's severe allergies.] "...[Jordan] had been lobbying for a rug in his bedroom for several weeks...When Jordan first brought this subject up, we made the mistake that many parents make. Instead of considering the request strictly on its own merits and out of our desire for what was best for Jordan, our unconscious response was 'Oh, one of our sons wants something. How can we use this as leverage?' Most adults are actually far more manipulative than most children. [emphasis mine] Using our kids' desires as leverage is just one of many ways we manipulate them, but it is a particularly unloving way because, in a sense, we are asking them to sell their souls. We hold out something they want and say 'You can have it as soon as you become the person I want you to be.' As soon as you become a neat, tidy person; or a more outgoing person; or a punctual person; or an academically oriented person; or a 'respectful' person. The truth is that many of the world's geniuses, mystics and greatest innovators were not tidy, outgoing, punctual, or especially polite. Jesus was not respectful of authority; Einstein found school boring and showed little scholastic ability; and Buddha rejected his father's idea of family duty.
Usually it's because they still have some degree of inner strength and integrity, and not because they are perverse, that children fail to live up to the so-called negotiations or contracts adults make with them -- the terms of which, in reality, are conceived of and imposed by adults and are not "agreements" at all. In many instances children are fighting for their identity and not "waging a power struggle" when they deviate from a parent's understanding of what a child "agreed" to do. Often they are withstanding a basic misuse of parental authority and power."

Not that I expect/want my girls to grow up to be the next Einstein/Buddha/Jesus, but why risk squelching them?