My New Years Resolution

I have two new years resolutions. 

One is to stay within my grocery budget. 

The other one is this: 

These books have been recommended to me for years by friends and/or family members and I just never had time (or desire) to read them. 

But this is the year. Why? Because it is going to be a nursing year. And as I suckle my bonny wee babe I could either stare at the wall or I could invigorate my mind. I choose invigoratation. 

Each book is over 700 pages and each takes place in roughly the same time period (1850s to 1870s).

The locations of the books are very different, however, which will make for some interesting comparisons.  David Copperfield takes place in England, Anna Karenina in Russia, and Gone With the Wind in my backyard (well, almost).  

I will start with David, then move to Anna, and for dessert I will have Scarlett. Mmmmmm. 

After I finish each book I will give you my review and tell you if the books was worth the read, if it was stimulating or if I was bored out of my mind. 

And to be honest, as tremendous as this goal seems I probably have a better chance at finishing these three novels than staying within my grocery budget. 

But don't tell Turkeyboy I said that. :)

My Mother-Talent

There are lots of different ways to be a good mother. Some mothers get down on the floor and play with their kids. Some mothers keep a perfectly clean house, somehow teaching their children to always take their shoes off at the door and eat sitting down at the table. Some mothers teach their kids to be bilingual. Some mothers are ultra crafty or take photos of their kids that are so cute they look like little Pottery Barn models. Some mothers know the secret to getting kids to eat anything they cook. And then there are the sporty mothers who can teach their kids to do cartwheels and shoot basketballs.

Every mother has her special thing—lets call it a “mother-talent”—that make her kids idolize her; something that really makes her know that she is a good mother; something that gives her that reassuring feeling that even though she might make some mistakes there is at least one thing that will bring everything back to balance again. And someday, when her kids look back on their childhood and they write their memoir they’ll say, “my mother and I always did this, and it was our special thing.”

But I am not the kind of mom that gets on the floor and plays with her kids. I don’t keep a clean house. My kids prefer whole wheat Ritz crackers over anything I cook. I don’t teach my kids other languages and contrary to what I try to make you believe, I am only semi-crafty. My kids are much cuter in real life than in the photos I take of them, and anyone who knows me knows I am most definitely not the sporty type.

No, those are not my special mother-talents. And I am okay with that, because I know that there is more than one way to be an excellent mom. I have another mother-talent that I love, and I would never trade it for anything. My special mother-talent is reading.

In the eight years that I have been a mother I think I have read at least a thousand picture books, most of them twice. I have also read dozens of chapter books outloud. We listen to books on tape in the car, and my daughters and I all love to write our own stories to share with each other, illustrations and all.

Reading to my kids is my therapy. It is one thing I can do with my kids where I know there will be no fighting and we will all have a good time. We go to the library once a week and always check out as many books as the library allows, and if I smile and bat my eyes sometimes they will let me check out more.

Then we come home, we sit on the couch and stack the books next to us in a big tower and I read until I’m hoarse. Don’t call me while I’m reading to my kids, because I don’t answer the phone. It is our very favorite thing to do together.

Since this pastime is a big part of my life, I definitely have some opinions about good childrens lit, and since I have opinions that makes me an expert, right? J And now that summer is here, I wanted to share my vast knowledge with you. Okay, not my vast knowledge, but maybe this will give you a short-cut to weeding through all the not-so-great books at the library so you can find the ones that are really worth the trip.

I am of the opinion that for every Caldecott-winning book there are about 200 other great books out there that never got an award but are still just as fantastic. Also, since I sit on the couch reading picture book after picture book I crave books that have some adult appeal. And, being an artist myself, I am a sucker for breathtaking illustrations.

But first, here are some books I always steer clear of:

Picture books written by celebrities. The illustrations are usually good (because the publisher pairs the celeb up with a PROFESSIONAL ARTIST), but the story isn’t.

Books that are trying to push agendas or beliefs not in sync with your family’s beliefs. Sometimes you can tell by the title what you are getting into, but other times you just find out later at home. These go on my black list.

Books that smell like urine. There is a bit of roulette when it comes to checking out library books. Usually the smelly books really are the best stories, and that is why some little kid was dragging it around to all parts of the house. Unfortunately, those books seldom get weeded out of the stacks because no one wants to go back to the librarian and say, “hi, we checked out this book and it smells like toilet water. But I promise it wasn’t our toilet water.” If you don’t want the credit for the smell, just put a sticky note over the bar code that says, “this book smells bad,” before you drop it in the book drop and when the librarian goes to check it in she will see the note and incinerate the book (usually with her eyes if she’s like some librarians I’ve encountered) and order a new one. That way you and your family can still hold your heads up in public and the rest of us don’t have to check out the book you ruined. J

By the way, if you find the above book at Chapel Hill Library and you smell something bad, I promise it wasn't my family's fault. Good story, though.

Picture books that have more than 100 words on a page. Too tedious.

Picture books that have less than 3 worlds on a page. Not worth it. These might be good for young kids, but they take up too much room in your library bag to bring home. Read them at the library and leave them there. The exception to this is “worldless” picture books, which are different.

Now that we have those out of the way, here is a running list I’ve kept over the past two years of my very favorite library books. I’ve tried to choose books that you may not have heard before. I hope you and your kids find them as delightful as we did.

For laughing out loud:

Press Here by Henre Tullet (my vote for best book ever!)

Piggy and Elephant easy reader series, by Mo Williams

Knuffle Bunny books by Mo Williams

“Wordless” picture books:

Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman

Boy, Dog, Frog series by Mercer Meyer

Other great books:

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

Crictor by Tomi Ungerer

The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie de Paola

Little House on the Prairie Picture books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illus. Renee Graef

Hurry Hurry Mary Dear by N M Bodecker

While You Are Sleeping by Alxis Deacon

The Rough Faced Girl by Rafe Martin

And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon by Janet Stevens

Heckity Peg by Don and Audrey Wood

Birds by Kevin Henke

Baby Brains by Simon Jaes

The Tale of Tricky Fox by Jim Aylesworth

Mary’s Penny by Tanya Landma

Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale (for tweens)

Just Like A Baby by Rebecca Bond

I have more, but I’ll save those for future posts. I can’t have you checking out all my favorites at once.

Last word:

My friend has a “Mommy and Me Bookclub” that I think is such a great idea. You should check it out.

I’ll start posting our Mermaid Crafts on our Mermaid Treehouse website in two weeks. Hurray for summer!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

The motivating factor for everything I do in my life is to somehow teach my children to make good choices. Although right now I have power over virtually every aspect of their lives, my power (especially with Sophie and Syrena) is fizzling. But if I can teach them now to see things for what they really are, and to give them tools to use when they are in trouble, they will make choices that will open doors for them and bring happiness into their lives. Sounds easy.

As you can tell, from my last few posts, my kids are CAH-RAY-ZEE about Harry Potter. They make potions on the back porch, "fly" around on brooms, and Syrena wears my old glasses all the time, pretending she is Moaning Myrtle. We had the missionaries over for dinner last week, and my kids and the missionaries spent the entire dinner talking about Harry Potter. BOTH elders knew everything there was to know about Harry and totally charmed my kids. I realized that those elders were of "the Harry Potter generation"--those lucky kids who got to grow up along with Harry.

One reason why I love the Harry Potter books is that they go right along with my motherly agenda of teaching my kids how to thwart evil influences. And J.K. does it so effectively.

The other day Sophie was making "Hogwarts" letters for everyone in the family. In the first Harry Potter book it mentions that the letters were "sealed with the Hogwarts coat of arms." Being a smart figure-it-out-for-yourself kind of gal, on the envelope she drew a jacket surrounded by a group of severed arms.

Well, we talked about what a "coat of arms" really is, and then I got one of those brilliant ideas that you know only comes from heaven. Lets make our own Dyreng Family Coat of Arms! (minus the severed arms.)

So using the Hogwart's coat of arms as a reference, for family night we brainstormed our own version and came up with this:

Lest you think that we had a delightful evening discussing what makes our family wonderful and how we are going to preserve our children's purity forever, let me just tell you that Danny was screaming, Sophie and Syrena kept pulling out their books to read and Naomi insisted on climbing on my head. When the torture was finally over, the girls all decided to make their own coat of arms. Syrena's motto at the bottom of hers was "Stay Away From Dementors."

So you've made it to the bottom of this post which is amazing because I never read blog posts this long, but I did want to mention one more thing. Having the desire to lenthen their childhood as long as I can I've told them that they have to wait to read the 4th Harry Potter book. ("But don't worry, you can read the 1st, 2nd and 3rd books as many times as you want!") They moan and groan...I tell them I was 25 when I read the forth book! For some reason that doesn't stop the eyes from rolling. But I still have some power over them, and I will wield it while I still can.

We are at the beach. There is sun, waves, sand and shells.

And what do my kids want to do?

This is what Harry Potter does to kids.

The Hundred Dollar Brick

I love libraries. When we first moved to Hillsborough I asked the realtor about the library. She paused and said it was "quaint." However, soon after we moved, Orange County started building a new library.

They invited anyone who donated $100 dollars to get a brick engraved with a message or a name on it. If I hadn't just recieved $100 from Scott's grandma I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. I usually use "grandma money" for clothes or furniture, but I decided this time I would be a little more creative and get something that would last.

Now in addition to getting our books at the new library the girls run to find "their" brick.

So here is our $100 brick, and it is worth every penny.