Summer, Sunburn, and a Smidge of Sadness

Our week was full of preparations for farm market as is the norm from June to October and it was a beautiful day. My vendors had lovely produce. Emily bought her favorite peach jam from Dave the jelly man. And, afterward her friend picked her up to go the pool.

Father's Day was also a beautiful day. Emily and I gave Bobby his gifts of dark chocolate, season two of The Rifleman, and a new fluffy bed pillow. I then fixed my family breakfast and Emily had her newly purchased jam on toasty English muffins. When the noon hour rolled around Bobby took Emily and I to the pool for a few hours of swimming.

We all slathered on the sun screen which was a 70 spf to avoid burning; but as is normal, I burnt anyway. I am not an albino or a redhead with milky white skin, but I inevitably always burn the first couple of times in the sun. What's a girl gonna do except liberally apply some aloe vera after.

Besides the sunburn, the only damper on the week was the reminder that Father's day bought. The fact that both Bobby's and my fathers have passed away. Thankfully, we both have good memories of time spent with our dads. In fact, it is my father who instilled in me my love of words and my love of literacy. I remember him telling my brother and I that children who could read well could grow up and do anything, something that has become my motto.

So the books I chose to read this week are very appropriate. The first book, Fun Dog, Sun Dog, is a great summery book which includes the normal summery things like swimming. Dog goes to the beach with his owner, but that is pretty similar to going to the pool. And the awesome rhyme in this story is the type of rhyme that writers are always told about. Rhyme done well.

The second book I read was called, Ten Kisses For Sophie. It was a sweet story of Sophie who worried that there wouldn't be enough kisses for everyone at her Grandmother's party. Sophie was so worried that she snuck down in the middle of the night to count the candies and make cards for the guests. There were ten guests counting her so she relaxes. That is until her father gets a call and they find out that there will be an extra guest. Will there be enough kisses for Sophie to have one? I guess you will just have to read this book yourself to find out!

And lastly, I read Here In The Garden which is a story of a boy dealing with the loss of his rabbit. Emily read this book as well and told me that she thought it was good but it was a bit sad. Losing a pet or loved one can be sad, this is true. But I love how the main character concentrated on all the good memories he had of time spent with his beloved rabbit. That is how I chose to deal with the loss of my beloved father. I don't dwell on his absence, but instead think about the wonderful lifetime of memories we created while he was alive!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

Ordinary is Extraordinary

I find that the most ordinary events like attending a mother daughter pool party, having family over for a cook out, or finding a rabbit in the weedy flower bed is cause for celebration. Even making homemade granola in preparation for Farmers' Market brings joy. I don't always remember, but I try really hard to appreciate all the moments in each week because each moment is a blessing.

 
My ability to go to the local library, come home armed to the teeth with children's books, and my opportunity to share what I read with others is also a blessing. The fact that each of you tune in to share in my week and my literary ramblings is most amazing.  I ask myself if it gets any better then connecting with readers all over the globe that I might never have had contact with otherwise. I think not.

So this week as I looked over my massive reading pile, I was drawn to three books in particular. The first was a beautiful Jan Brett book called The Turnip. The badger family find a enormous turnip which they wish to harvest for winter, but they can't seem to pull it out of the ground. Neighbors and friends keep trying to help them pull the turnip out, but to no avail. Eventually the turnip is is y6anked front he ground by a homeless rooster. Or is it? I guess you will just have to read The Turnip for yourself to find out.

The next book I read was Pirates On the Farm. Yes, I know there is a vegetable/farm theme going on. Just chalk it up to my excitement about farmers' market season. Any how, this book is a delightful and funny story of a group of pirates who buy a farm and attempt to fit in. Told from the point of view of the neighbor child, it is also a tale of making new friends and celebrating differences. This book is definitely worth checking out.

And the last book I read was one I have seen the cover of on many other book blogs. An intriguing cover that draws you in and makes you want to know just what is going on in-between the front and back covers. It is called The Night Gardener. First of all, I have to tell you about the truly magnificent, extraordinarily spectacular art work in this book. It is old timey in feel. Something classic that you will want to cherish for years to come. And the story, it is a bit mysterious, but happy and shiny at the same time. This book is written by the Fan brothers,Terry and Eric, and I don't know how they came up with this beautiful collection of pictures and words, but it is definitely a book to be cherished and shared.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

  

Summer is Coming!

All of my spring traveling is now behind me and Emily and I are working diligently to finish up the school year. She just has one week left and a choir concert to participate in, and then we can focus on our summer activities which includes gardening and the farmers' market.

Emily has spent the past few months making bottle cap magnets to sell. We ordered 100 count packs of caps, packs of tiny magnets, glossy accent filler, and glue for the magnets. I also hopped over to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy a one inch hole punch. We punch out small round pictures from almost anything: old cards, magazines, catalogues. Pretty  much anything that has super tiny pictures. Emily then pastes them into the caps with a minuscule amount of accent filler. When they are dry she applies a liberal amount of filler on top to seal the picture. And last but not least, she glues a small magnet on the back. They are just the cutest magnets ever and I'm sure they will sell well. She also has a few Perler Bead magnets to sell as well.

I just went to the store to stock up on supplies for the baking I do for farmers' market. Soon the smell of home-made granola, brownies, scotchies, and mini quick breads will permeate our  home. This year I am also going to add the candied pecans I took to  my author friends to my repertoire.

Bobby will soon be planting our Sun Sugar orange cherry tomatoes, sweet yellow onions, and some peppers. Hopefully the black raspberries I planted last fall will produce their first crop this year as well. All of this talk about farmers' market, garden plants, and planting makes me think about books on the same subjects, so here are a few of my favorites:

Holly Bloom's Garden

Apples To Oregon

Our Community Garden

Mortimer's First Garden

And although I have yet to read Jack's Garden, it looks like a book I definitely want to check out!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by and join the Literacy Musings Monday Blog Hop where you will find other great blogs, or my personal website, Fun With Aileen, where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own early grade Fern Valley chapter book series and my Quack and Daisy picture book series. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days. 

Gardens and Gumshoes

As most of you who follow my posts regularly know, I participate in my community's local farm market every Saturday July to October.  I started this about three years ago when I was looking for outlets in which to sell my first book, Fern Valley. But as time went on, it became so much more then that. It became a place to socialize with fellow vendors. It became a place to meet members of the community I would not normally have met as a stay-home-mother. It became a place to take the baked goods I love to produce. A reason to try new recipes. A place where Emily could play with other children in the community. A place to buy local products such as crafts, honey, jelly, fruits, flowers, and vegetables. In short, a truly pleasant part of my life.

I find it interesting to see what harvest people will bring to the market each week as the season progresses, and so I thought this week I would share a garden related book my daughter won during the summer reading program at our local library. It is called Victor's Garden and the really interesting thing about this book is that if you flip it over, the story is told in Spanish as well as English.

It is a story about a shy boy named Victor who gets permission to start a garden in a lot next to the school with help from his science teacher. At first only a handful of kids join them, but interest soon grows right along with the veggies. The theme of the book is good nutrition, exercise, and good health. The only negative item I found in the story was when the science teacher took Victor's soda and poured it on the vegetables. When Victor told him soda wasn't good for the plants, the teacher replied that it wasn't good for him either. And while I agree that an overabundance of soda is definitely not healthy, I really don't think an occasional soda is going to be detrimental to one's health. It's all about moderation. All in all though, it was a very good story.

Another exciting thing happened this past week as well. I had a book all lined up to read, but Emily beat me to it. And then to top it off, she enjoyed the story so much she asked if she could read it to me. It really doesn't get much better then that my friends. The book she enjoyed so much was called Gumshoe Goose: Private Eye. Now I don't know about you, but I just love the word Gumshoe. It is such a deliciously old fashioned word and one that most kids probably wouldn't even know today.

So if you want to treat your young readers to a new vocabulary word and a story of a goose that is a detective, then I suggest you look for this book. If you do, you will follow along as goose expertly figures out who kidnapped Baby Chick Chick and is holding her for the ransom price of one chocolate cake!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming September second! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Blog Hops, Books, and Friends.

This past week was pretty busy as I was getting ready to host a garage sale with my sister. I didn't realize just how much junk, I mean how many sales items I had, until I started hauling things to the garage. The good news is that we sold over two thirds of what we put out.

Of course I still left myself plenty of time to read a few books, and I even found a new blog hop to join called Make My Saturday Sweet. It is hosted by a lovely American mom who has been living and raising her children in South Africa. So if you have a minute, stop by, read her blog post, and check out her great blog hop buddies!

And don't forget this week's selection of books. As I have written about before, it's always fun to find books by friends at the library, and this week was no exception. My very talented friend Salina Yoon, author and illustrator of the penguin books, delighted me with Penguin on Vacation.

Everyone needs a vacation from time to time and Penguin decides to take his at the beach. He has adventures and fun, but best of all, he discovers that where you spend your time isn't nearly as important as who you spend it with.

I also read The Curious Garden by another very talented author/illustrator friend of mine, Peter Brown. This whimsical book will delight children with it's beautiful art work and make them itch to plant a garden all their own as they follow Liam's adventures. It is also a testament to the fact that you don't have to be perfect at what you do. You just have to love what you do and keep working at it. And if you do, before long your joy will spread much like Liam's curious garden spread all over town.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

It's Garden Time!

It's that time of year again where excitement over our yearly garden gently wraps each of us with a blanket of anticipation. My husband tills up the clean, fresh dirt in our raised beds, I search for the right plants, and Emily helps plant, weed, and water. 

Just this past weekend, I purchased two beefsteak tomato plants.  Now I just need to find the Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes we plant, decide if we want onions and lettuce, and make my rounds at the Amish garden stands to find flowers for my flower beds.

As is my custom, I made a trip to the library to gather a large stack of books for reading and reviewing and decided a couple of them should be about gardens. The first book I read was The Vegetables Go To Bed by Christopher King. It's an older book, but if you can't find it at your local library, there are used copies available at Amazon.

Told in rhyme, The Vegetables Go To Bed, tells the tale of vegetables in the garden who are mostly reluctant to go to sleep for the night. The illustrations are what make this book truly spectacular. The first letter on each page is a special letter with a small picture of some kind and the vegetables have gentle faces and hands giving them the appearance of being alive. Very subtly, the story of the vegetables getting ready for bed and growing while they sleep, parallels to the way children are reluctant for bed and grow while they sleep. I think this would be a great book for children five to eight.

The next book I read was Cecil's Garden by Holly Keller. This is also an older book, but well worth hunting down. Of the two, this book was  my favorite. Cecil, his brother, and his sister set out to plant a garden but it is only big enough to hold five rows of vegetables. Unfortunately, they have six packets of seeds. Since they can't decide which seeds to eliminate they end up going into the house without planting anything. Cecil decides to go for a walk and finds both his mouse friends and his mole friends arguing amongst themselves as well. Cecil decides he just doesn't like arguing and he is going home to plant his garden. The creative solution he comes up with is very exciting and well worth finding out about.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Children's Book Week and Diversity

Normally my children's book reviews show up every Monday, but in honor of children's book week, I thought I would squeeze in an extra review. Since the only book that I haven't yet read at my house is Henry & The Incredible Incorrigible, Inconveniently Intelligent Smart Human by Lynn Messina, a trip to the library was mandatory. But don't worry, the review for that title will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

While at the library browsing, I noticed a book with a great cover that immediately made me think of the book diversity conversations that have been going on in social media lately. So I scouted around a bit  more and found some other books that looked diverse and decided that's what I would post about today.

The book whose cover caught my eye, Our Community Garden, provoked a conversation between the children's librarian and I. She informed me that our town, Shelby, Ohio has it's very own community garden. I wasn't aware of this and as soon as it stops raining, I think I will go down and have a look see.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed reading Our Community Garden which takes place in San Francisco. Several school aged children live next door to a community garden where they each plant something different. Tom`as grows tomatillos for his famous salsa, Cassandra grows carrots, Allison Chin grows asparagus beans, and Audrey grows skinny, purple, eggplant. When harvest time roles around, everyone makes a special dish out of the vegetables they grew and they all have a community feast.

Not only does this book show a diverse group of children, it also promotes community which seems to be lacking quite a bit in this day and age. I heartily recommend this book!

As I continued to wander the aisles looking for any books that might catch my eye, I saw two additional books by an author I had previously read. A while back, I read Everybody Bakes Bread, by Norah Dooley, which I enjoyed immensely. So when I saw Everybody  Brings Noodles and Everybody Cooks Rice, I knew they were must reads for my diversity post.

In Everybody Brings Noodles, Carrie helps arrange a neighborhood block party. Everyone is making something special to eat, and each dish turns out to be a noodle dish. This thrills Carrie to pieces since noodles are her favorite food and she has a blast trying noodles dishes from all around the world.

In Everybody Cooks Rice, Carrie's mother sends her off to fetch her brother for dinner. As  Carrie visits each neighbor where she thinks her brother might be, they are all cooking rice dishes from different countries around the world. Each family offers Carrie a small helping, and by the time she returns home,  she is too full to eat the rice dish her mother has made.

What I love about these books are the glimpses into a community of diverse families and the different ethnic recipes they are preparing. And a beautiful bonus to each book is the inclusion of recipes at the end. Not only do these books entice me with their interesting stories, but they appeal to the cook in me as well.  And speaking of rice, if you want to add a new recipe as well as new reads to your diet, here is a rice recipe that is a favorite at our house.

Yellow Chicken Curry (Indian)

1 pound skinless boneless chicken diced
1 TBS Red Curry Paste
2 TBS Sugar
1 TBS Yellow curry powder
1 can coconut milk
1 can cooked sliced carrots
1 can sliced white potatoes
2 cups instant brown rice cooked

In large skillet cook chicken and set aside. In now empty skillet add curry paste, sugar, curry powder, and coconut milk. Mix thoroughly and simmer on medium heat. Next, add carrots and potatoes which have been drained. Last, add chicken and stir well. Simmer for about ten minutes so the flavors can blend. Serve over prepared rice.

Well, that about wraps it up for today. Join me next week for another exciting episode on my normal Monday. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Waiting For Spring...

Now that we've entered March, we know that spring is just around the corner. March, however is an unpredictable month full of roller coaster temperatures. Take, for instance, this past week in my beautiful state of Ohio, sixty degrees one day and twenty the next. So as I sit here writing this blog post, I am grateful that the books I chose to review this week are books that gently remind us of what awaits. Books that will hopefully linger on our minds like the delicate beauty of newly blossomed violets.

The first book in my lineup is Chicken In The Kitchen by Tony Johnston. Told in rhyme and accompanied by deliciously cute illustrations, this book takes us on Dog's journey to make his chicken happy. Dog's chicken runs willy nilly about the kitchen until Dog finally figures out what his chicken wants. Once he figures it out, Chicken is not only happy, but Dog's ends up with an unexpected surprise. Pretty sure both your boys and girlies from ages four to eight will enjoy this happy book.

Next I read The Imaginary Garden by Andrew Larsen. Such a great book to read as I notice small growing things begin to emerge in my flower beds. In The Imaginary Garden, Theo and Poppa enjoy passing the time of day sitting in his garden underneath a beautiful tree. But one day Poppa moves and there is no room for a garden in his new apartment. All is not lost, however, as Poppa teaches Theo to use her greatest gift, a glorious imagination. Children and adults alike will enjoy the imaginary garden that Theo and Poppa create, and who knows, perhaps it will inspire you to create an imaginary garden of your own!

Wrong Way, by Danish author Mark Macleod, turned out to be a delightful book about a mother and her three baby ducks. Wrong Way isn't like his siblings, and doesn't do anything quite the way Momma tells him. But even Momma comes to recognize that doing things differently isn't necessarily wrong. You might have a harder time fining this book unless you find a used copy, but it's worth checking to see if your library carries a copy.

And last but certainly not least, I read Fluffy and Baron which was written and illustrated by Laura Rankin.  Baron is a gorgeous German Shepherd who makes friends with a small duckling named Fluffy who comes into his life. Soon they do everything together, that is, until some wild ducks show up. will this be the end of Baron and Fluffy's friendship, or will Fluffy come back to him?

This last book reminded me a bit of the Fluffy that came into our life. Our Fluffy is a cat and not a duck, but we love her none the less. She likes to hide among Emily's stuffed babies. Can you find her?

Where In The World Is Fluffy?

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.


The Season For Gardening

Every Spring my husband eagerly starts working in our raised bed gardens. He tills under the rye grass he planted the previous fall to replenish the nitrogen in the soil, he carefully plants the tomatoes and onions which are the main staples in our garden, and he waters diligently. Then he sits back and watches everything grow until harvest time.

I, on the other hand, take care of the flower garden, planting, weeding, watering, weeding, dead-heading, and weeding. I think you have probably gathered by now that lots of weeding occurs. Both gardens bring us pleasure and delight our visual and olfactory senses as well as our taste buds.

All of this gardening was on my mind when I made my latest trip to the local library, and I sought out some books about gardens that I thought would be just as visually and mentally stimulating as our real life gardens. What I found were two delightful books both which happened to have mice as the main characters (that was not planned).

The first book I chose was Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was written from a Christian perspective. Mortimer, the mouse, overhears talk about a garden and planting seeds and sets about to find out what a garden is. He then decides to plant a seed of his own, and along the way, he learns patience as he waits for his seed to grow. Mortimer discovers the miracle of God's growing things and come harvest time, his one small seed has multiplied into enough to share.

The second book I chose was called Princess Chamomile's Garden by Hiawyn Oram. Princess Camomile is bored and so the Gardener invites her to work with him in the big garden. But, the big garden is too big and Princess Chamomile sets out to remedy that by planning her very own smaller garden complete with a hopscotch area, hide and seek bushes, a tree house, and so much more.

Signing off for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day.

P.S. And don't forget to send me pictures of your children reading for the summer reading program. It can be pictures of them at the library, with their favorite book, or in their favorite reading spot. At the end of summer I will post them for every one to see! You can send them to astewart27@neo.rr.com.

Creative Kids and Characters

Since my daughter, Emily, was very small, we have been making crafts. Crafts are so much a part of our life that whenever she has a play date she expects me to have a craft ready for her and her friend. So it didn't surprise me at all that while on Spring break this week she came up with a craft of her own. She managed to save some toilet  paper rolls, scavenged out craft drawers, and created these cute t.p. girls.

Looking at these imaginative girlies made me think of a creative character named Holly in a book I just read. Everywhere Holly looks there are beautiful gardens full of lovely blooms and she wants to grow perfect flowers too. But no matter how hard she tries, her flowers just won't cooperate. But Holly is inventive and persistent and manages to create a long lasting beautiful bunch of flowers. To find out how, grab your own copy of Holly Bloom's Garden!

Signing of for now with wishes for a bright and beautiful day!