There are so many things going on in bloggityville. I just checked over at the 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party, and there are over 430 blogs signed up. Wow! That’s a lot of people. The party will go through Friday — so you’re still invited to join in the fun.

The new issue of Christian Women Online is out this month — so you’re probably seeing this cover picture of Ellie Kay on people’s blogs. I hope you’ll find a chance to go read my interview with her. My Book Buzz column focused on Ellie’s new book, 1/2 Price Living, published by Moody. She’s known as “America’s Family Financial Expert.” And she’s a mom of seven children who also skydives! She has some great tips on how to live on one income — and why it’s worth it.

I browsed through the whole issue last night — and every article and column was so inspiring. I especially enjoyed Allison Bottke’s Boomer Babes Rock column this month, entitled Seven Things You Can Do Today to Start Living Your Dreams. She shares about a big risk she took recently and what she learned from it. Allison is someone who inspires me because she says she didn’t publish her first book until she was 45 years old. But within six years, she’s become the bestselling author of over 20 books — the God Allows U-Turns series, as well as other non-fiction books and two novels (one not yet released). I read Allison’s A Stitch in Time novel, and she’s a fabulous, funny writer! The theme of her column is “It’s never too late!” I love this. Don’t you?

Other things going on:

I joined in the Carnival of Christian Writers last Monday at Gina Conroy’s Writer … Interrupted site. There are submissions from several authors and two literary agents who acquire books in the CBA. Every one of these posts is rich with information — but I must say that Chip MacGregor’s post on Ten Changes in Christian Publishing is truly fascinating.

I wanted to thank author Jenn Doucette for sharing about me and my book on her blog. Out of all the blog tours I’ve given, she’s the first person who has ever taken the time to write a post about each one of her tour hosts. How nice! I like hosting blog tours — but it does take up time to upload the right-size author photo and book cover — as well as devote a day to it. So this was much, much appreciated!

Tricia Goyer is one of the most prolific writers I know — and she somehow manages to keep up with at least a half-dozen of her own blogs. She recently posted an article from me, Six Tips for Building a Savvy Blog Readership on her It’s Real Life blog. This stemmed from something I’d posted to an online group, giving me a chance to expound a little bit on one of my pet peeves — I find it unnerving when someone I barely know writes and asks me to link to them! I link to other bloggers when I’ve gotten to know them or I really like something specific they’ve written. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this way, because there’s some more about this at Shannon and Chilihead’s Blogging Basics 101 site, which is packed with useful information.

I also want to thank Bethany House publishers for including my interview with C. Hope Flinchbaugh on the front page of their site this month. They have a section entitled Authors in the Media, which I think is a great way to interact with readers. I don’t know many publishers who do this — but check out the left side of their home page. The Bethany House site is always fresh with updates — a bonus for their authors!

And last but not least, I wanted to thank author Sharon Hinck for linking to me in her Around the World Blog Tour. This is one of the most fun tours I’ve given — and it’s no wonder Sharon’s novels have become so popular (besides the fact that Becky Miller is an inspiring, funny character) — she treats us little people like we matter. I thought it was neat that she had a “travel agent” set up her tour. I’ve never heard this expression before (in the context of blog tours) — but I thought it was a nice way of thanking an assistant who took care of all the correspondence required to set this up.

I think I’m caught up now — this is what happens when I take off a week!

[Edit: I’m adding some ice cream to this post because I had no idea how many people would be stopping in from the party. By the way, welcome! I’m Heather, and I love blogging about books! Care for some strawberry ice cream?]

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

I’m BACK!

How was your week? I can’t believe I took a whole week off from blogging. Well, here’s a good excuse to come back — there’s a humongous Ultimate Blog Party going on over at Janice and Susan’s 5 Minutes for Mom blog.

Adorable — they even decorated their home for the party with balloons and streamers, made party food, and dressed up their kids.

Here’s what you do if you want to join in the fun and be eligible to win FREE PRIZES. (Don’t we all love free things?)

You just write a post on your blog with a link back to the party, then add your name to the “Mr. Linky” set up on their site. And voila! You’re a party guest! Grab a grilled cheese sandwich and rock on.

Do any of you have a decluttering success story this week? As promised in my last post, I want to give somebody this free book — Too Much Stuff, by Kathryn Porter. Thank you to all of you who bravely shared your decluttering goals — I feel like we have a support group!

Mary of Relevant Blog, who has moved across the Atlantic twice in the past few years, says she’s a “decluttering fanatic,” but would like to get rid of some extra cups. She even has a great article online with In Touch Ministries full of tips for us stubborn packrats.

Deb of Mountain Musings is working on clearing out a space by a window in her bedroom to move a recliner so she can relax and get some reading/craft projects done. Sounds lovely!

Tonya of Raising Eagles is working on decluttering her study/office, which also must serve as an attic and storage room. She says, “I am confident that the Lord will help me … as He always does.” How encouraging!

Elle of Fall on the Grace is also in a decluttering mode, trying to pare down the abundance of children’s toys, which have been overflowing since Christmas. (I can definitely relate!)

Heather of Cool Zebras says she has been inspired by watching “Mission Organization” at her parents’ house. YEA! My mom is always telling me about the latest extreme organization makeovers on this show. I need to watch it too!

Liza of Liza’s Eyeview says the main area she wants to start with is the garage. Me too! Thanks for the support — it is NO FUN cleaning out a garage. We don’t even park our cars in ours right now because there’s a tractor and kids’ bikes and toys filling up all the space — but we need to do something about this!

Lisa asks us to “please pray” for her as she gets rid of clutter. She has found true joy in leading a preschool faith-based workshop and wants to keep going with this. She says, “Good luck to all of you with overwhelming emotions that literally seem to stack up around you!” So true! — our emotions are stacked up around us. What does this mean if we can get a handle on our clutter? Will we have a better handle on our emotions? (Praying for ya, Lisa!)

Connie is hoping to restore some order to her computer shelves and clean out some boxes in the basement from eight years’ worth of school teaching. Sounds like a great place for an educational yard sale! I’m sure there are many families who would be thrilled with a teacher’s cleanout!

Ruth of “It’s True,” Sighed Roo is also working on her office area. She’s been busy road-tripping to the beach, building up some great memories for her family!

Cmommy of Singalullaby says her goal is to “let it go,” when figuring out what to do with paperwork. Yes! This is also a problem I have — I think I’d better hang on to things, just in case. I also need to let it go!

OK … Drumroll please!

I put all of your names in a basket, and the name I drew to win the FREE book is…

CONNIE!

Congratulations, Connie! I’ll email you to get your snail mail address and get this book sent to you ASAP. And what a coincidence — we’ll both be down in our basements getting rid of clutter. YEA!

Well, I do not have a total success story from my decluttering goals this past week. I did clean out one kitchen cabinet — but I haven’t reorganized the craft supplies yet. I also spent several hours in the basement, and I took one trunkload of much-worn and beloved baby clothes to the Salvation Army. I was almost in tears when I handed the workers my boxes. It was like handing them a decade of my life!

But I felt better — FREE — as I drove away. I know I still have a long way to go, but in clearing out the past, I’m making room for the future (sounds corny, I know).

Here’s a quote from Kathryn Porter’s book, Too Much Stuff:

“With every piece of clutter that went out the door, I lost pounds of emotional weight. My soul felt lighter. Whatever feelings of comfort or happiness I derived from having too much stuff were multiplied by letting things go. I came to understand a new definition of the word freedom. My heart sensed God’s presence like never before. And I experienced a peace and clarity previously unknown to me” (from page 18).

Kathryn writes that her friends who came over to help her said this, “You can’t keep everything and keep a clean house.” This phrase became a mantra, something Kathryn repeated as she let go of the clutter that was robbing her of peace and joy.

You can’t keep everything and keep a clean house. (It has a nice rhythm, doesn’t it?)

Say this, as you give away your abundance to others. (And to the trash can!)

I know Connie will enjoy this book! I wish I could send one to all of you — it really is the best book I’ve read on this topic. So many books focus on the organizing itself — but this one goes to the heart of the matter, teaching you how to draw strength and power from God, through prayer.

Although I love FlyLady and her routines dearly, I think Kathryn’s book teaches us the spiritual principles we need to accomplish our goals — relying on PRAYER and God’s Word as the source of our emotional decluttering — which leads to freedom in the physical sense!

Well, I have a ton more things I need to catch up on since I’ve been “absent” for a week — but I’ll spread some linky love tomorrow (there’s been a ton going on in bloggityville that I’ve been wanting to tell you about).

Also! For a couple of days, I thought maybe I should quit blogging to make more time in my schedule for other things — but then I checked the mail one day, and I got a package from Taiwan full of treats for my family! From a blogging friend! I want to write a separate post about this — but let’s just say the timing could not have been more perfect because my kids thought this was the coolest thing ever.

One more thing happened relating to this — a Christian author wrote me yesterday wanting to know if I could help with some research for a book she was working on. Well, the book topic is not something I’m too familiar with, but I wrote her back and said one of you bloggee people has a total passion for this topic! So this author contacted the blogger I mentioned — and GUESS WHAT? They’re a perfect match. She wrote back and said in all-caps, “You ROCK!”

So I can’t quit. Because it’s fun to feel used by God to connect women to resources they need. Anyway! Thus the name, “Mom 2 Mom,” although I certainly don’t want to limit this to only moms.

I hope you have a great weekend — and don’t forget to head on over to the Ultimate Blog Party!

I have a book on my desk that I’d love to give away to one of you:

TOO MUCH STUFF, by Kathryn Porter.

Kathryn was a guest on Mom 2 Mom a few weeks ago, and she has totally inspired me to do some major decluttering.

In her book, she shares her personal struggle (and victory!) over this area in her life, and now I feel like I have my very own organizing coach, cheering me on.

Here’s what her website, Clutterwise, says on the home page:

We love stuff.

Clothes. Shoes. Make-up. Jewelry. Books. Pictures. Movies. CDs. Letters. Recipes. Magazines. STUFF! Our consumer-driven society is constantly enticing us to want more, and before we know it—it’s just too much!

What begins as an innocent collection of odds and ends soon grows into heaping mounds of clutter and chaos. Before we realize it, clutter seeps in and sucks away our time, peace of mind, and our freedom. Clutter mentally and physically sucks the life out of us and traps us in a life we were never meant to have.

As we head into March next week, do you have an area of your home that you’d like to attack and declutter? It may be something small, like a junk drawer in your kitchen. Or maybe it’s bigger, like a closet … or even a room.

Leave a comment here about what project you’d like to attack, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win TOO MUCH STUFF. Let’s form our own DECLUTTERING support group. The chore is not such a pain when we know we’re not alone.

I’ll be taking off next week from this blog to do some major spring flinging around here. I’ll randomly pick out a winner from the comments next Friday, March 2 — just in time for the Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom. Sounds like great motivation to lose a few pounds (of clutter)!

The areas I most need to attack:

1) My file cabinet — purge and reorganize.
2) The basement — clean it out and set up a permanent gymnastics area for the girls (who started a new gym class last week and need to practice at home).
3) Set up a craft “station” in one of my kitchen cabinets — so that we have no crayons or markers outside of the kitchen (irresistible to busy toddlers).

How about you?

My face is so red!

I checked my blog stats yesterday and wondered why the top keyword search the past couple of months here has been “Beth Moore Blog.”

I haven’t blogged about Beth Moore since last September, so people are going back and reading through my archives of when we did the online Living Beyond Yourself Bible Study.

Then I googled “Beth Moore Blog” to see what the URL was for Beth Moore’s blog — and out of nearly 900,000 sites, Mom 2 Mom Connection popped up first! I’m mortified! Beth Moore is a Very Important Person! What are all these people thinking when they accidentally end up here? Why am I considered the #1 authority on Beth Moore’s blog?

Scary.

Actually, Beth’s Living Proof Ministries DOES have a new blog. She blogs with her daughter, Amanda, and today there is also a post by her daughter, Melissa, on American Idolatry. Now that sure seems like a fun mother/ daughter activity. The main blog link is here.

The big thrill for me is that … if everything works out … I’m going to go HEAR Beth Moore speak in person!

We’re making our plans now to attend the 2007 Women of Faith conference, which will be August 10-11 in Atlanta.

If you found my blog through a google search, click here to read the Living Proof Ministries Blog. And click here to find out if there’s a Women of Faith conference coming near your city. I went last year and had an awesome time and can’t wait for this year!

[Edit: I have been informed that individual tickets are already sold out for the Atlanta conference! You have to find tickets through block seating, such as churches that buy huge blocks. Oh, this thing is going to be so FUN!]

The jonquils are blooming out in our front yard. Yesterday, I was turning cartwheels outside.

I took this quiz today and discovered it’s official: I HAVE SPRING FEVER! Es tu?

You Belong in Spring

Optimistic, lively, and almost always happy with the world… You can truly appreciate the blooming nature of spring. Whether you’re planting flowers or dyeing Easter eggs, spring is definitely your season!

I’ve started a new category on this blog, children’s books. I thought about going back through my archives and updating my posts to include this category … but nah! I’ve got a little spring fever.

So I’m going to be writing about children’s books more, as I READ more children’s books — and I’m also starting to act more like a kid — which comes in handy since I’m usually surrounded by them.

Today has been warm and sunny, and the girls and I have been practicing cartwheels in the backyard. At my age, this began with some stern directions:

“Girls, do you know what to do if I fall and can’t get up?”

“Dial 911?”

“Yes, but first see if I can talk. If I can still talk, then just go get the phone and call Daddy. If I’m out cold, then call 911 and tell them our address.”

Ah, the joys of aging!

I’ve been trying to reread some of my favorite children’s books, and today I started on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. This is about two kids — a brother and sister — who run away from home to hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

I loved this book as a child, and now it’s fun to see WHY I loved it.

Today, I read a couple of great similies in chapter two, both in the same paragraph:

The bus bounced along like an empty cracker box on wheels — almost empty. Fortunately, the bumps made it noisy. Otherwise, Claudia would have worried for fear the driver could hear her heart, for it sounded to her like their electric percolator brewing the morning’s coffee.

I also browsed my new issue of The Christian Communicator, which came in the mail today. There was a nice interview with Shannon Hill, a fiction editor with WaterBrook Press. She offered 12 pieces of advice for writers, whether they want to write for WaterBrook (the Christian fiction line owned by Random House), or other publishers.

Her tip #8 included this:

Being well read is a must for editors and writers. At writers’ conferences I ask, “What are you reading?” You don’t have to be reading what you’re writing. It could be Graham Greene or the latest John Gresham or a Harry Potter novel. It tells me something about what you enjoy or what inspires you.

Well, if I were to meet this editor at a writers’ conference, I would have to confess this whopping mouthful of a title: I’ve been reading From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

And turning cartwheels in my backyard.

Today we are visited by one very funny lady, Jenn Doucette, mom of three, and founder of Daisy Ministries (Discover, Anticipate, Identify & Seek after Yahweh, God).

Jenn is the author of The Velveteen Mommy and co-author of Up — Devotions for Faith that Connects. She loves connecting with women and inspiring them to grow in their faith — laughing along the way. Her newest book is called Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This.

Welcome, Jenn! I love the title of your book — can you tell us what you mean by “days like this?”

You know — one of “those days” that is normal to every mom, but would have scared you silly BK (before kids), such as:

You wake up late because your four-year-old was messing with your alarm clock — only to realize your three grade-schoolers are mere moments from missing the bus so you hand them each a granola bar for breakfast, toss some lunch money in their backpacks and get two of them to the bus stop.

But the remaining first-grader lingers behind while trying to tie her shoe in-between sobs that she’s the “student of the week” and you haven’t sent in any special show-and-tell around the historical theme of the week (World War II era pottery made in Nigeria), nor have you sent in treats or a handmade photo anthology of her life …

I know what you mean! Those show-and-tell days can be downright stressful around my house too.

It’s also the day the Visa bill came, your car ran out of gas at the grocery store, your toddler threw up on you in the checkout line, and you got your period. A week early.

Yep. One of “those days.”

Yikes! What has been the most challenging aspect of motherhood for you?

The out-of-control part. And I don’t just mean myself. I like things neat and tidy (physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, etc.); motherhood has nothing to do with neat and tidy other than the neverending pursuit thereof.

But just like God, it’s the biggest challenges that have grown, stretched, and shaped me the most in the last twelve years. I’ve learned not to run from the challenges of motherhood; rather I embrace them (and publish them).

I’m glad you’ve published your mothering challenges because your book was so much fun to read! Can you tell us why you decided to include “12 rest stops” for moms?

I liken the Busy Stage of motherhood to driving in the fast lane, outta control and running on fumes. While doing some online research about driving safety, I found a top 12 list for the most common dangerous driving habits demonstrated by Americans.

So I fashioned 12 corresponding Rest Stops for moms to use as strategies for avoiding burnout:

1. Reconnecting with Others
2. Reclaiming Contentment
3. Resolving to Listen
4. Redefining Beauty
5. Relinquishing Pride
6. Rediscovering Wonder
7. Repairing Relationships
8. Reestablishing Priorities
9. Resting and Relaxing [my personal favorite!]
10. Revisiting Strategies
11. Rekindling the Romance
12. Restoring Your Soul

Why do you think it’s important for today’s moms to take time out to rest and recharge?

Because things are always going to get busier. And more complicated.

We have choices thrust in our faces every day that just continue to expand. In order for moms to avoid the inevitable burnout, I think it’s imperative for us to just STOP every now and then to recharge and refresh. We may miss out on a few things, but in the long run, we’ll be better moms.

That’s true — and now I have your permission to take a guilt-free break this afternoon and finish up a book I’m longing to read. To recharge my battery. So thanks!

You’re welcome. 😉

Do you have any advice on how a woman can keep her sense of humor when she’s having one of those “days like this” or even “years like this?”

There are quite a few good strategies. Here’s my own top five:

— By keeping in touch with a friend or a group of friends who will listen and keep you grounded.

— By talking with moms who are a stage (or two) ahead of you.

— By talking with your own mother (if possible).

— By taking a break occasionally to visit the lighter side of life – don’t lose the “fun girl” permanently just because you’re a mom!

— By reading a Junie B. Jones book every few months.

Ha! We have a whole bookshelf of Junie B. Jones books, and Barbara Park has such a silly sense of humor. Your last book was called The Velveteen Mommy. Can you tell us a little about that book?

It’s about the humorous frustrations and hidden joys of motherhood. I found the toddler stage in particular to be riddled with funnies in the midst of the yuckies.

In Velveteen, I take you on a fun journey through the trenches, complete with a few Biblical lessons in-between. If you need a change of pace, some comforting conversation, a sympathetic shoulder for a tear or two, and lots of laughter to lighten your load, Velveteen Mommy is for you.

Sounds great. It looks like you’ve got a lot going on with Daisy Ministries — why do you feel a calling to encourage today’s moms?

Because it’s a jungle out there, baby. We moms need to stick together if we’re going to survive this thing called motherhood.

Oh, I love that quote! I think I’m going to have to jot that down to hang on my dashboard to read while I’m hauling kids around. I’m not alone — I’m sticking with moms like you!

Seriously, when I first became a mom, the difficulties were so . . . overwhelming they seemed unbelievable. And then they became kind of funny (but perhaps that was because I was so sleep deprived).

When I speak to women, I notice one consistent fact: THEY ALL LOVE TO LAUGH. And well, I’m a ham and love to make people laugh, so it’s a good relationship.

I’ve realized that once you can share your own failings with someone else and make ‘em laugh, they’re more open to hearing the gentle message of hope of Jesus. He wants us to love others. Encouraging them with hope and humor is my way of demonstrating that love.

You can catch up with all the funny stuff Jenn Doucette has going on at her website, Daisy Ministries. Jenn is a proud member of the CCA, Christian Comedy Association (Not to be confused with Corrections Corporation of America or the Center for Computational Aesthetics . . . or the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association).

Surprise! Such a lovely topic on this chilly February morning. I know … I normally discuss something more pleasant such as books. But today I want to track a little progress we’re making on the “toilet training” front (which started today).

By default, I think I’m an expert in potty training. This is my 5th time through this process! I’ve figured this thing out, so why not pass along what I’ve learned? Maybe this will help some mom out there who is entering this exact same stage I’m in.

Our youngest daughter will be two years old in April, and this is the perfect time to start potty training. She wakes up dry from her naps, she’s bright (of course I have to say that), she has older siblings she wants to keep up with … and I’m tired of buying diapers.

Here’s my #1 piece of advice on all this: it’s up to the mom (or dad) to decide when it’s time to start toilet training, not the child. It seems like most breezy magazine articles I see in parenting magazines make it seem like it’s up to the child.

Well, here’s the truth: notice who the advertisers are for these magazines. Disposable diaper companies. They’re making millions/ billions off making poor parents feel like young two-year-olds can’t be potty trained. They’re making huge size 6 diapers so that even four-year-olds are still in diapers. And so they find writers who will support them by writing articles that put the child in charge. Plus, it sounds nice and makes parents feel less guilty for putting it off another year.

That’s my philosophy. I’m a Gen-X parent, and I fell into that way of thinking when I used to read secular parenting magazines that came to my house free before my first child was born. I didn’t realize how they were slowly brainwashing me into thinking I didn’t know what I was doing.

Your child is not in charge: you are. Every child would rather wake up clean and dry wearing cotton pants rather than a wet or dirty diaper. Every child! They just need to be trained. When the parent decides.

But I’ve also learned that little girls are much easier to train than boys — so I’m hoping this process will be quick. Boys just don’t seem to notice the mess — if they’re busy playing, they’ll just keep on playing.

Today, we got the potty seat out, cleaned it again, and I’m letting my daughter get used to it. She’s carrying it around and sitting on it while still in her diaper — like a little chair. This is step one.

I’m not in a rush with this, as I would be if it were August and I wanted her trained by September. If you’re in a rush, skip the slow, get-used-to-the-potty stage, put your child in new underwear they pick out themselves, and then just stay home for a week and put them on the toilet every hour, until they go. Then reward them — and they’ll get the hang of it.

Gradually, I’m going to try to get my daughter to use her potty — she will eventually. And then she’ll get lots of praise! Now here’s the trick I learned somewhere. Once she goes on her own, without me having to ask her, she gets a treat: one M&M candy. This really works! She will learn that going to the potty will lead to a little sweet treat.

After a few weeks, you can stop giving the reward treats. By then, she’ll just enjoy the dry feeling — and be proud of her “big girl” pants.

This is much easier done in the summer, when your child can walk around in only a shirt and underwear (or some people let them run around naked, but we just don’t do that here!) A t-shirt works fine, and modesty is good, especially in large families like ours.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I don’t have to buy diapers anymore! I’ve had diapers on my grocery list for the past eleven years. Once we get through this, I think I’ll splurge and buy the Starbucks brand of coffee! Maybe go get a full body massage! My husband jokes that we’ll have a huge bonfire and burn the remaining diapers.

Wanna come? 😉

I was a sophomore in high school when Sarah, Plain and Tall was published, so I missed out on reading this delightful children’s book. I bought it for my girls for Christmas, and we found time over the cold, quiet weekend to read the book together.

What a beautiful story.

I won’t tell you about it — you can read a review here. But I wanted to tell you how interesting it was the way we responded to reading this book together. In this story, Sarah likes cats, and she likes to draw. My daughters and I talked about how nice Sarah must be, since she takes care of animals — and how God loves people who are kind to animals.

While I read, the girls got out some crayons and drew. My six-year-old drew a picture of our fluffy prodigal cat (who ran away but came home), and my nine-year-old drew a variety of little pictures.

When I finished Sarah, Plain and Tall (which was quite short, only 67 pages!), I felt like reading more — so I read the girls a couple of stories they’d written a year ago, when our hamster died. They loved hearing me read their own words, just like I’d read Patricia Maclachlan’s.

Then they each got busy writing something new — which they couldn’t wait for me to read. If you’ll indulge me a minute, here’s what they wrote (along with their pictures):

A Story of Briar Rose (by daughter, age 6)

One day, a little sweety pie named Briar Rose the great pie.
She is not really a pie, but we call her that because she’s really qute.
One day when Mama was reading Sarah Plain and Tall, Briar Rose interrupted my story I wrote when I was in kindergarten by doing something very qute.
She was in the side of the under the couch laying down.
Oh how she loved the warm air coming out of the vent.
Oh how I can’t stand how qute she was!
I could not even sit down because guess what Briar Rose sat down instead.
One time Briar Rose ran away from home. And did not come back for a very long time. We missed her so much. But one day she got sick, and had to come back. We took her to the vet and we saw our grandmother. She had a ear enfeckshen [the cat, not the grandmother] and she tilted her head when she walked. Now it is still tilted.
And still very qute.

(Oh, I almost hated to have to tell her that “cute” is spelled with a “c,” but the teacher in me must do these kinds of things.)

You Can Learn Your Pictures Too! (by daughter, age 9)

Practice these pictures. You can practice drawing, saying, writing, and find these pictures in places around your home. Try to find them in stores too!

Star, Rain, Teddy Bear, Flower, Blue Circle,
Ice Cream Cone, Grass, Rose, Pictures, Potato,
Milk, Juice, Water, Lake, Chick, Swan,
Snow Man, Rabbit, Grapes, Yellow Triangle,
Book, Ball, Jelly Biscuit, Punch, Shirt, Pants,
Skirt, Dress, Rocks, Inchworm, Hearts (Blue and Red)

What would we have missed, as a family, as a mother and daughters, if we’d watched TV instead? Since I can’t stand kid shows, I would have most likely been in a separate room doing my own thing, while they sat in front of the TV.

Or even if we’d watched a movie together, a good family movie, they still wouldn’t have responded with their own pieces of writing — I don’t think. Although watching movies together can be a good bonding activity, it still doesn’t even come CLOSE to the interactive joys of reading together.

I guess that’s why I’m so nuts about books!

I’d love to collect a bunch of parent/child literature responses like mine here — parents who read out loud to their children and experience something exciting — and then teach a workshop of some sort (when my kids are older).

In contrast, here’s an article from today’s Scottsman’s News: Children’s TV is Linked to Cancer, Autism, Dementia. Yes, TV does more to our children than make them fat and lazy; it can damage their minds and bodies.

Read with your children!!! 🙂

When I was at the SCBWI conference (which I’ll be talking about forever!), I sat in a session with one of the Scholastic editors, and she said, “Andrew Clements is one of the most talented writers of this generation. Kids love his books! I wish we could clone him!”

Hmmmm … (a writer I need to learn something from, it seems.)

I happened to read his book, The School Story right before I went to New York, and it was fascinating. It’s about a little girl, Natalie, who wants to be a novelist. Her mom is an editor for a large children’s publisher, and Natalie sees the stack of unsolicted manuscripts that her mom never has time to read.

So a friend of hers, Zoe, offers to become her agent, and the story is so cute — giving me a behind-the-scenes peek at what an editor’s job is like living in NYC. Now I’m curious to read Frindle, which was Andrew Clements’ first novel, published in 1996. It became a New York Times bestseller. What is it about that book kids love so much?

I visited his website, and I found his bio page so inspiring, especially this last sentence. (Brought tears to my eyes even.)

Clements says:

Sometimes kids ask how I’ve been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don’t have to do everything at once. You don’t have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it’s the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you’re living a good life.

The tag line on Clements’ website says, “Writing for children is a great privilege.” I couldn’t agree more.