Archive for the 'Books' Category

Page 2 of 3

Card-Carrying Members

Published on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 in Books, Claire, Fun, Milestones, Parenting 101 and Photos. 1 Comment

Prior to quitting my other day job, I didn’t have time to drag Claire to the Library, especially when we have so many books here at home. But, now that I’ve got some more free time and she’s gotten a little older, I decided to take her to one of the free StoryTimes they offer for little kids. We decided to go to the “Toddler” session, which is for 2- and 3-yr olds.

That session started at 10:15, and the Library opens at 10am, so that gave us just enough time to get our Library Cards before the StoryTime started. We’re now official patrons of one of the public libraries by our house! (Gee, that only took almost 10-years…)

The elderly lady running the session was very patient and great with the kids. Overall, we had a great time, and we’ll definitely go again.

But I have a question…what is expected of 2- and 3-yr olds in a setting like this? For example, Claire didn’t want to sit quietly on the colorful rug. She wanted to be mobile and try out different spots. If she’s quiet and not really bothering the other kids, is that okay? She was answering the woman reading the stories, because the woman was asking questions. Isn’t that what she’s supposed to do? Okay, Claire’s impromptu singing of the ABC’s (which Claire sang all the way through, in order, by the way) before the StoryTime actually started did seem to come out of nowhere, but how do I stop that? I could feel the other mothers’ eyes burning into the back of my head. Do they expect me to correct her? Corral her? Hold her down? Do they want this 2-yr old to start screaming? Because that’s what would happen. If she’s not hurting anyone and she’s not loud, what does it matter?

If I fought every battle, I’d be exhausted. Plus, I just don’t have that kind of time. And, *I* struggle with expecting perfection. Even I have to remind myself that she’s two. She’s a toddler. She’s very verbal and active, and that’s great. I thought I did a pretty good job of not hovering over her or trying to correct or control her every move, yet still making sure she acted appropriately for the setting.

Finding that balance is a challenge for me.

She’s two, but she’s the size of a three year old. Her vocabulary leads you to believe that she is much older than she is, too, but she still has the disposition of a two year old. Next time, instead of her name, I’m going to write, “She’s just two,” on her nametag.

Maybe they weren’t looking at me with disdain. Maybe I made that all up in my head. Maybe I’m the only one who noticed that my child was the only one not sitting still and the only one answering questions. No one said anything to me, and everyone was smiling by the time the StoryTime was over…so maybe it wasn’t a big deal.

Then, we got to the craft portion of the session. I had no idea there would be crafts. Keep in mind, these kids are toddlers. Claire doesn’t use scissors yet, but she really wants to. Claire doesn’t use glue-sticks yet, but she really wants to. Claire doesn’t want to sit still while Momma uses a pair of safety-scissors to cut out the body and feet of a duck. Who could blame her? Momma didn’t even want to sit there and use safety-scissors to cut out the body and feet of a duck.

Do you see where this is going?

Needless to say, Momma cut out that duck and his feet so fast, he didn’t know what hit him.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Here is Ducky. (The theme of this session was ducks, so all the stories and songs were duck-related.)

I had Claire use the black crayon to draw on the duck’s body while I worked on cutting out the feet. I think it looks like she drew little wings, and I think that’s pretty clever. Momma drew his beak and eye. Claire used the glue-stick to attach his feet, and she did a pretty good job.

Then, we were free to explore the Library. I was really looking forward to seeing the different sections, and finding a special book for Claire to check-out, but she had a different plan. As soon as we were out of the StoryTime Section, she turned into a crazed beast. She got one warning, and quickly disobeyed it.

So, that screaming you heard? That was Claire. And that woman carrying a thrashing toddler under her arm as she sprinted for the doors? Yeah, that was me.

I think we made it out to the car before any of the other patrons realized what was happening. Luckily, the children’s section is really close to the front doors…I wonder if the people on the Library Space Planning Committee have toddlers?

Ducky got to witness what happens when non-negotiable rules are disregarded and consequences become reality, and now he knows I’m serious. You misbehave in the Library, and you go to the car immediately. Period. Puppy told him that this thing happens every now and then, and usually blows over in no time.

Maybe next time we’ll actually get to check-out a book or two before it happens.

Turning Your Blog into a Book

Published on Saturday, March 15, 2008 in Blog Business, Books, Gift Ideas, Photos and Product Reviews. 10 Comments

Tangible.

I love the fluid and instant nature of the Internet. I can write and get my thoughts out to the world instantaneously. I can go back and revisit or rewrite or edit, if I so choose. I can pull up my blog and my photos from any computer in the house…or the world. I love having that kind of access.

But, I appreciate a tangible record as well.

In my gallivanting around the Internet a couple months ago, I stumbled upon a site that will allow the two to exist in harmony. That’s when I decided to turn my blog into a book.

Blurb will allow you to do that. All you do is download the free software, and you’re off! Create whatever you want, whether it be a photo album or a more substantial book. The possibilities are practically endless.

I decided to create a The Casual Perfectionist: The Best of the Blog 2007 anthology for Claire and her grandmothers.

And, here it is!

You’ll notice the badge that now appears on the sidebar of my blog. Anyone who wants to can preview or purchase the book. (…if you choose to make your book public. You have the option of keeping it private and only inviting certain people.) Selling it for a profit is not my purpose for publishing it, and I really don’t even care if any other copies of it sell. I just love the idea!

Seeing my words and photos in a professionally published book is indescribable, and it’s been feeding my desire to write a real book. Nothing is stopping me, so I’ve decided to get the ball rolling.

In case you’re curious, here are some photos I took of the book, so that you can see a little bit of what it’s like. Yes, there is a preview link in the badge on the sidebar, but it will only show you so much. You can see examples of some of the different page layouts you can choose from. There are SO MANY CHOICES, and these are just a few of the ones I used:

You can click on the photos to enlarge.
Clicking a second time will make them bigger.

Here is the front of the book – the photos represent a good cross section of the year.

Here is the back of the book – all the photos are similar to the ones on the front, but they are Claire from the back. (Get it? The back of Claire on the back of the book?)

Here is the binding.

Here is what the copyright page looks like.

Here is my dedication.

And, here are some of the different text/photo layout options:

So, there it is…192 pages of blog in book form. Pretty cool, huh?

So, what do I think of Blurb? Here’s a little impromptu review, which is not paid for by anyone.

Pros:
The professional publication end-product is amazing. You keep the copyright on the material, and Blurb does the formatting and printing. They are kind of pricey, but the end result is worth it.

The software is free. It doesn’t get much better than that. I use a PC, and it worked fine on my computer (slow, but properly…see below). They say it works on Mac as well, but I wouldn’t know.

The software is easy to use. As with any new or unfamiliar software program, it’s a little daunting at first, but the tutorial is great.

The support you get from the company is timely and helpful. They were quick to answer my questions via email, and I even attended a free webinar! (A webinar is a seminar held online, coupled with a free conference call. It was great!)

Cons:
The software program is so slow that I almost didn’t do it. I dare say it was worse than trying to look at the Internet on dial-up. *gasp* Yes, if I was running the software program on a brand-new computer and was only running that, I’m sure it would be faster. In reality, that’s not going to be the case for a lot of other people out there. Because of the slowness issue, I did all my editing in Word and Notepad and copied and pasted it into the program. The reason it took me so long to finish this project was mostly due to how slow this program ran on my computer, oh, and because I was working a full-time at-home job at the time in addition to chasing after a toddler. But, I didn’t let that stop me.

The “slurping” feature they have where you can have the software automatically download your blog into a book format (you can read more about how it works on their site) doesn’t work for blogs hosted on private domains. They don’t make this clear (or at least they didn’t when I started this project). Looking back, I was attracted to this program because of this slurping feature and I was extremely disappointed when I found out it wouldn’t work on my domain. But, I was already in love with the idea of turning my blog into a book, so I found a work-around and compiled my book from scratch, copying and pasting my content from my blog. In reality, this was a better option for me anyway. Go figure.

The ‘constant auto-save’ feature is convenient on one hand, but really annoying if you make a change that disrupts the whole book, because, it’s really hard to go back. Yes, there is an ‘undo’ feature, but it’s not perfect. I got around this little “feature” by saving multiple copies of my book as I went along so that I wouldn’t lose too much work if I messed something up.

And, that about sums it up. Overall, it’s a fabulous program and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make their blog into a book, or who wants to create a tangible record of any kind.

I started this project in January, and I’ve wanted to share my trials, tribulations, joys and excitement about this project of mine, but the two main recipients of the end result read this blog, and I wanted this to be a surprise. After two months of formatting and editing (in the midst of everything else), the books are complete, have been delivered to the grandmothers, and now I can share.

If you get a chance, check out Blurb and give it a try…or just peruse the other books there that have been created by people like you and me.

I’ll warn you though…if you spend too much time on the site, you might have the undeniable urge to create your own book!

Spoiler Alert

Published on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 in Books, Claire and Parenting 101. 0 Comments

Last week, one of my friends gave Claire two Maisy books. Maisy is a little mouse that has all kinds of adventures. In one of the books, at the beginning, Maisy goes to hide and then it’s up to us to look behind each flap on the following pages to see if we can find her. Is she in the barn? No! Is she in the boat? No! Is she in the tree? No!

(You get the idea…)

Well, after seeing that Maisy is hiding behind the door at the very end of the book, Claire thinks it’s rather silly to think that she’s anywhere but where she is…but that doesn’t stop her from wanting me to read the book 25-billion times a day.

Usually, as we’re reading each page, Claire will shout, “No! Maisy’s not there!” and then whisper, “Hey, Momma…Maisy’s at the end behind the door.”

It’s really pretty comical.

So, if you’re ever reading a book to Claire and you don’t want her to spoil the ending for you, make sure you’re reading one she’s never seen…or you’ll be sadly disappointed.

It’s a good thing she doesn’t get an advanced copy of the Lost scripts, or there would be no secrets left!

Loot

Published on Thursday, December 27, 2007 in Books, Christmas, Claire, Fun, Gift Ideas, It's a paycheck, Photos and Visitors. 2 Comments

Momma is trying to get the Kitchen assembled as the Ballerina wastes no time starting to cook (both gifts listed below).

Here is a close-up of the Rabbit Hat (as listed below). What you can’t really see is that the ties have carrots (like the ones on the top of the hat) knitted onto the ends of them.

Click on each photo to enlarge it. Clicking again on each photo will show you even more details.

Everyone was so generous to us this year, and from the sounds of it, everyone enjoyed the gifts that we gave to them as well. It was another successful gift-giving exchange!

In no particular order, here is a list of Claire’s loot:

Claire’s Gift Card, Target Gift Card, money, Wild Animal Baby Magazine Subscription, a Grinch Christmas Tree Ornament, four books, a coloring book with crayons, box of fruit bars, bag of dried fruit, numbers/letters/shapes that stick to the bathtub walls when wet, a mesh bag (in the shape of a turtle) for all her bathtub toys, play-doh set (complete with tools), a kitchen ensemble (complete with sink, fridge, microwave, stove top, blender, and a double oven) and many play food sets (some that you can pretend to cut with faux knives and then put back together with Velcro), dollhouse and two room set-ups, a princess tea set, a dress/turtleneck outfit w/matching purse, hand-knitted hat (complete with rabbits and carrots – see above), and a ballerina outfit.

Whew. I think that’s it…but with a toy store explosion like that, it’s quite possible I missed an item here or there. If I did, I’m sure we will find it over the next few days as she re-discovers all these cool toys. (Some of the food sets haven’t even been opened yet! We’re trying to make this experience last as long as it can!)

I’m hoping to get official Thank Yous out in the mail soon. They’ve been ordered and should be here shortly. (I’m doing something similar to what I’ve done in years past, and it’s a surprise.)

In the meantime…Thanks to all!! Now, I’d better get back to work. Because of an impending storm (which actually seems to have arrived today!), our guests have left us. Luckily, Daddy will be here to keep the Ballerina Chef entertained while I at least pretend to work today.

The Night Before Christmas

Published on Monday, December 24, 2007 in Books, Christmas, Claire, Fun, Photos and Visitors. 0 Comments

Well, there’s no better day to post what I found in my box of treasures!

You can click on the images to make them larger. Clicking on them a second time will show even more detail.

If you look closely, you will see that the inscription on the inside of the book was written in 1976. I was two years old that year, the same age as Claire. Granted, I was nearing my third birthday, but a two-yr old is a two-yr old.

This book has been safely stored in my box of treasures, and this is the first year I’ve gotten it out for the holidays. This isn’t technically a “Book Bag Favorite” because Momma guards it with her life, but it is a favorite nonetheless. Claire loves the story, and she loves Santa (at least in the book…not necessarily in real life.)

Every time she sees a Santa Hat on someone or something she tells us whether she thinks it’s Santa or not. One of the Christmas Cards she got this year had little creatures drawn on a globe for the “Joy to the World” theme, and a lot of them are wearing Santa Hats. She went through each one saying, “That kitty’s prolly not Santa…That cow’s prolly not Santa…That pola’bear’s prolly not Santa…” Boy, nothing gets by Claire!

This year, we’re hosting the Holiday Festivities at our house…a first! I’m really excited to start these traditions, and selfishly, it’s really nice to not have to worry about packing the sleigh and traveling with a toddler across the frozen tundra. I’ll miss seeing my parents, siblings and nephews on the big day, but it feels good to stay home for Christmas. I can’t wait for Claire to experience the hanging of the stockings tonight and see what Santa brings for her tomorrow.

Because we opted to stay home for the holidays, my hubby’s family has joined us. His parents arrived on Wednesday, and his brother got into town Saturday. Luckily, the storms spared their paths, and it was smooth sailing for the arrival of our guests.

And, for the first time in the history of the company, the office where I’m based as an independent contractor is closed on Christmas Eve, so I’m actually able to take a break from my job! Wow! Not traveling AND having time off from work!? I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself.

With all these extra hands and free time, I’m able to focus on some very important things: being able to relax and have fun! Granny brought some of our favorite recipes, so there has been a lot of cooking and baking, and we’ll finally be able to use the delicate Danish dishes (passed down from Great-Grandma) we’ve had on display in our china cabinet.

Needless to say, Claire loves all the company and excitement, and it’s going to be a sad state of affairs around here when everyone leaves. Thankfully, Daddy has two weeks off from work, so hopefully the blow will be lessened a tiny bit. January 7th is when things will get really interesting when Claire is forced to spend the whole day with boring ol’ Momma. Maybe whatever is currently wrapped in a billion packages under the tree will help ease the transition.

But, there’s no need to worry about that now; we’ll cross that snow-and-ice-covered bridge when we get to it. In the meantime, Santa will be on his way soon, and I can’t wait!

A Book Bag Favorite – “Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?”

Published on Sunday, December 16, 2007 in Book Bag Favorite, Books, Christmas and Claire. 0 Comments

“Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?” by Jerry Pallotta & David Biedrzycki

(Click photo to enlarge. If you click on the photo a second time, you’ll see even more detail.)

Here is another one of our favorite books. (You can read all about our “A Book Bag Favorite” series, here.) Claire got this book for her birthday from one of her Great-Aunts and Great-Uncles. It’s a fun book to read, especially this time of year!

Claire loves the entire book, but she really likes the roaring tigers, the mischievous monkeys, and the part about the turtles and the cheetahs.

“The turtles…were…too…slow.”
“Thecheetahsweretoofast.”

Of course the presenter’s enthusiastic delivery of the material may have something to do with that.

Needless to say, this book is entertaining for adults and little kids. It’s short, sweet, and keeps her attention long enough that we get to read it over and over and over. We’ve read it so much that she has it memorized. I love the fact that when I turn to the monkeys page, Claire automatically screams, “Don’t look at my underwear!”

And, in case you’re wondering, Santa appears to be a boxers kind of guy.

A Book Bag Favorite – “A Hat for Minerva Louise”

Published on Sunday, December 9, 2007 in Book Bag Favorite, Books and Claire. 0 Comments

This is one of the books that Claire got with her book bag. It is perfect for the wintry weather we’re having right now!

“A Hat for Minerva Louise” by Janet Morgan Stoeke

I LOVE this little book, and Claire does, too! Minerva Louise is a cute little chicken that gets herself into all kinds of situations. In this book, she’s looking for a hat so that she can stay out and play in the snow.

I love it, and the pictures are a riot!

A Book Bag Favorite

Published on Sunday, December 9, 2007 in Birthdays, Book Bag Favorite, Books, Claire and Photos. 2 Comments

I think I’m going to start another ‘series’ on the blog. I’m going to post on the blog, probably weekly, a favorite book of Claire’s. I got this idea from one of the presents she got from one of my sisters for her birthday.

The aunt with the four boys had made a list of the favorite books in their house, and throughout the year had been collecting copies of them for Claire. Then, she sent them to us with a beautiful book bag she had crocheted (and even lined with plastic)…complete with butterflies, flowers, and a monogrammed “C”!! It is gorgeous and Claire loves it.

Here is the front of the Book Bag.

Here is the back of the Book Bag.

Here is Claire wearing it, and she’s in the process of saying, “I don’t want to stand here. I want to read a book!”

(Click the images to enlarge.)

She also loves all the books. We’re slowly going through them, and Claire can’t get enough.

So, I’ve decided to share some of her favorites (from this collection and others we have) on the blog.

This will be a nice way to keep a record of her favorite books!

Check out the next post or for the first one in our little “A Book Bag Favorite” series, or be sure to check out the category on the sidebar!

My Old Journal: Romance Novels

Published on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 in Books, My old journal, NaBloPoMo 2007 and Photos. 2 Comments

NaBloPoMo – Day Twenty-eight

Well, today is Day 28 of NaBloPoMo, and we only have three days left of the National Blog Posting Month challenge! (Well, it’s easy from here on out! We only have two days after today…and I’ve reserved the last day as a Wrap-Up, so really, we only have one day left! That’s easy!)

For my NaBloPoMo series, I’ve been reviewing my old journal. I stumbled upon this journal when looking for photos to the car accident I had in 1996. I didn’t find the photos until a few weeks later, but I’m so glad I found this journal when I did.

As I mentioned before, there are 206 entries in my old journal, and it spans 277 pages. That’s a lot to break-down into 30 day’s worth of discussions. So, I set out on my task. I devised a “schedule,” working in chronological order from when I was a junior in High School on up through college, and so far, I’ve stuck to it.

Now that I’m on the last three days of NaBloPoMo, I realize that the entries I have left all deal with one thing: Sorting through my feelings of angst. About boys. Silly boys. Of course, it gets somewhat exciting when I accidentally fall in love with someone that one of my roommates has a deep and unrequited love for, so I won’t let NaBloPoMo escape without at least touching on them…

As interesting as it would be for me to go on and on and on about every crush (and who knew there were so many!?), I’ve decided to revise my schedule a little bit and spare you the tedious details.

I’ll touch on those last pages of angst tomorrow, if only because I actually have some really good quotes…priceless quotes…but I won’t bore you with the pages and pages and pages (you get the idea)… In the meantime, I’m going to revisit an on-going theme throughout my journal that I haven’t touched on yet: Book reviews and my love of reading.

I used my old journal not only as a catch-all for my thoughts, but also as a way to keep track of the movies I’d seen and the books I’d been reading. Before I went to college, I read a lot of books – murder/mysteries, crime dramas, romance novels…a variety. In college, I was already reading 150+ pages a night for schoolwork (no lie!), so I didn’t have much time to read for purely entertainment purposes, but I always tried to work a good book into the mix. Romance novels were the easiest, because they didn’t require much of a thought-process, which is exactly what my weary brain needed in the midst of all the studying.

I stumbled upon romance novels when I started babysitting for one of my cousins and his wife in high school. She had a TON of them, and she let me borrow them. I think Jude Deveraux was my first taste of historic romance novels, and I was hooked. I also read Janet Dailey and Jane Peart, to name a few.

Here is an entry about those books and some neat family trees that I created from them, as found on pages 138 to 142. Every novelist had a “formula” that she used in her books, and I wish I would have written that down as well. Each “formula” was unique, yet very similar. Once I’d read a couple of her books, I knew how each of her other books would go. For instance, a typical formula was: Boy meets girl. Girl hates boy (because he’s not right for her in some way). Girl is forced to spend time with boy. Girl and boy fall madly in love. There is a horrible misunderstanding, and one of them storms out. Something dreadful happens to girl (she’s kidnapped by his evil nemesis, etc.). A third party spills the beans that what the boy had thought had happened, really was just a misunderstanding. Boy realizes that not only did girl storm out, but she’s been kidnapped! (In the meantime, girl doesn’t know boy knows about the misunderstanding and is just sure that no one is coming to rescue her.) Boy goes to all lengths to find girl. Boy defeats evil nemesis and saves girl. They realize all has been forgiven and live happily ever after. Some of the books I read weren’t really happy ever after books, but you didn’t know that until you started the next one.

Here is one of the entries to the book lists, and you’ll see in the pictures that I even “tabbed” the tops of these pages with green so that I could quickly locate the family lines and add to them as I read more, later:

THE JUDE DEVERAUX BOOK LIST by me (June 12, 1991)
I am a big fan of Jude Deveraux books ever since [my cousin’s wife] got me started on them. They are romances set in historical time periods, including very colorful characters that leap from the pages and reenact the scene before my very eyes.

I was at a great advantage by being introduced to these books by someone who had already read the majority (at the time it was the majority, but Jude has written more), because she could tell me in what order to read them.

For convenience, I have made a “Family Line” for each family saga (Jude has different sets of books that go through an entire family). So here they are:

[see diagram]

These were set back in the [time of] castles and feudalism, when love and honor for the family name was very strong.

Click on the above pictures to see the Jude Deveraux Family Lines

And, here are some diagrams from the other authors:

Click on the above picture to see the family line from THE JANET DAILEY BOOK LIST by me (June 12, 1991)

Click on the above picture to see the family line from THE JANE PEART – “BRIDES” BOOK LIST by me (June 16, 1991)

So, how does this tie into where I was chronologically in my journal-discussion? Well, I can’t tell this story without talking about Uncle David. (This isn’t actually his real name, because he actually has a rather important high-profile job in the public eye…and well, we all know the power of Google…and because I don’t want to leave him nameless, I’ll call him David.)

David is my best guy friend from college. I would say boy friend, but many would read that as boyfriend, and we never were a romantic item. Of course, in true college-girl style, I tried that idea on in my head and decided that if we were ever together, we’d kill each other. In fact, we even talked openly about that and how it just wouldn’t work. We were too different and too much alike. We could debate for hours about hot topics and agree to disagree after hours of battle. We were completely comfortable being just friends. We grew really close the four years we spent together in college. After college, we went our separate ways, but the new families we have since created are still rather close.

One of my best girl friends (the poetess) and I started calling him Uncle David our freshman year in college, and I can’t exactly remember why. I’m sure it will come to me if I think really hard about it. Anyway, it stuck. In fact, years after we’d graduated from college, when I found out I was pregnant with Claire, I called him and asked him if he was ready to be a Great-Uncle. Needless to say, he was thrilled. I’m not sure how we’ll explain to Claire that Uncle David isn’t really an Uncle…

So, anyway, I can’t talk about Romance Novels without talking about Uncle David. Why? Well, I had purchased some of my favorite romance novels and took them with me to college. One afternoon, he found them.

That’s when it all started: Uncle David’s Story Hour. My friend and I would gather in our room, and Uncle David would read chapters out of my romance novels, making so much fun of the characters. At first, I would gasp out loud and say wistfully, “How can you make fun of that!? The love they have is so beeeeeeeeeeautiful!”

He would do voices. Sometimes he would make gestures (and gagging noises). On really good days he would prance about my room acting out the scenes. He would add parts that weren’t there! He would rip them to shreds with his rapier wit, and we loved every minute of it.

To this day, I can’t see a romance novel and not think of Uncle David’s Story Hour. Oh the memories! Oh the windswept, breathless, glorious, tousled-hair’d and scantily-clothed memories!

A book I know by heart

Published on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 in Books, Claire, From the offline blog, Parenting 101 and Random Thoughts. 0 Comments

The Going to Bed Book
By Sandra Boynton

The sun has set not long ago
Now everybody goes below
To take a bath in one big tub
With soap all over, scrub, scrub, scrub
They hang their towels on the wall
And find pajamas big and small
With some on top and some beneath
They brush and brush and brush their teeth.
And when the moon is on the rise, they all go up to exercise
And down once more, but not so fast
They’re on their way to bed at last
The day is done. They say goodnight, and somebody turns off the light.
The moon is high. The sea is deep. They rock and rock and rock to sleep.

I just typed that from memory. I didn’t even cheat. This is one of Claire’s favorite books. Can you tell?