Package Arrival

We always get excited when a big box of books thunks down at our door, and a few days ago we received a heavy box from Amazon loaded with goodies for all of us, a bird guide for M, a book of kitchen tips for me (though C wanted it for herself), The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (which we discovered via Farm School) for Brent to peruse and eventually share with M, several other treasures, and, of course, a big box for C.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I’d been meaning to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for months and I finally got around to it last week.  I love Barbara Kingsolver’s writing voice.  We’ve expanded out vegetable garden this year and I’ve been enjoying creating new recipes with vegetables from our CSA.  Still, I was sure what I would think of this book.  Would I find the tone too preachy?  Would I be consumed with guilt about my own foodways and end up putting it down part way through?  Or would I savor it and use it to inspire me to make more changes in how I buy and consume food?

Fortunately, my reaction was far closer to the latter.  While many of the changes the Kingsolver-Hopp family made in their own diets and food-buying “rules” are different than choices I find practical for me at this time, I thought the tone of the book was perfect.  Kingsolver never pretended that her family intended to be perfect in their attempt to eat locally for a year. She willingly admitted that they occasionally made purchases with greater food miles like cranberries for Thanksgiving and some Florida citrus in January.  For me, their efforts to change their own patterns of eating and see how much of their own food they could grow felt much more authentic and inspiring because they weren’t on an all-out, rigid crusade.

I savored the wonderful writing, made note of several of the recipes, and I’m thinking through some changes that I want to make in my own foodways.  I’m looking more closely at where my produce is coming from in the grocery store, shopping at the farmer’s market more, and making more choices to by local produce when it’s available even it if costs more.   I’m considering a vow to stop eating meat from CAFO farms.  There are a few farms with pasture raised animals in my area that sell shares of cows or pigs when they slaughter them in the fall.  For years we’ve talked about purchasing a share or splitting one with another family.  Maybe this fall we actually will.

I learned a lot from the book, some of it expected like gardening knowledge, a better feel for what’s in season (I live fairly close to Kingsolver so our agricultural year runs like hers does), some of it unexpected, intricacies of turkey mating, agritourism in Italy, all of it welcome.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about where our food comes from and what each of us can do to improve agriculture in America.

Non-Fiction Monday: When Bugs Were Big

I read about When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs by Hannah Bonner in this wonderful post at I.N.K (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids).  M and I had read a little about animals that existed before dinosaurs and we both wanted to learn more.  We placed a hold on When Fish Got Feet at our library and checked out the companion volume, When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth.  Both books are written with humor sometimes sassy in tone and while many of the jokes go over M’s 4.5yo head, we enjoyed reading When Bugs Were Big together.  This is an era of history I know very little about and I’m fascinated by the plants and creatures that existed during the Carboniferous period, the primary focus of this book.

For a huge list of books on fossils, dinosaurs, and prehistory, check out this page by retired science librarian, Jack Mount, which I also found via I.N.K.

The Ciabatta Caper

Last night we pulled together dinner from various things we had around the house, trying to use some things up and make something quick. We picked some lettuce, chard, and nasturtium leaves from our garden, and I used a leftover chicken breast to make myself a chicken caesar salad. Brent made a salad using some leftover roasted beets and fennel. We made grilled cheese for the girls which we served with fruit. And we thawed the last of a loaf of Ciabatta that I’d frozen and made grilled garlic bread which we slathered with mango chutney. All very satisfying for dinner on the fly.

We had six pieces of ciabatta, 3 each for Brent and me. I was biting into my second piece when I noticed Brent eyeing the last piece. Not one to part with yummy food that was by rights mine, I said, “Hey, this is only my second piece.” “This was my second piece he said polishing off the last bit of the piece in his hand,” he responded.

Me: I thought there were 6 pieces.

B: There were.

We both looked at the plate again. I counted again in my head. Then I turned to look at M. She was taking a bit of piece number 6 and smiling broadly. We all started to laugh so hard we had to stop eating for a bit. Our daughter who normally confines her diet to mac-n-cheese and peanut butter sandwiches, was happily munching her confiscated piece of “grown-up bread”. You could just seeing her beaming with pride that she’d confounded us so easily.

The Minpins by Roald Dahl

I was looking through a shelf of paperback picture books at the library last week, always a difficult task while watching a speed-crawling baby since it’s hard to read their thin spines. Just as I was about to go scoop up said crawler and go, I spotted The Minpins by Roald Dahl. I remembered seeing it listed in The Read-Aloud Handbook and I was curious to read it myself so I grabbed it.

We read it yesterday day and M and I both loved it. The language is a treat. Sentences like “Do not believe one word of what your mother says about Whangdoodles and Hornswogglers and Snozzwanglers and Vermicious Knids and the Terrible Bloodsuckling, Toothpluckling, Stonechuckling Spittler.” are so fun to read.

In the story, a boy sneaks away into a forbidden forest while his mom thinks he’s playing in his room. While running from one of the forest’s fearsome beasts, he discovers a world of tiny people called the Minpins and forms a special friendship with them.

We’ve been reading The Littles series so M was delighted to read another story about little people. The book is quite long for a picture book and when we had to put it down to leave for summer camp, M was most distressed not to hear the end. We picked it up once she was back home and gulped down the rest. I highly recommend it.

Poetry Friday: Summer Wind

One of my favorite memories of summer time as a little girl is laying under the redbud tree that was in my front yard and listening for the wind, hearing it begin to rustle the leaves, and then to slowly blow over me. Bryant’s poem about the summer wind, captures that feeling so well.
Summer Wind by William Cullen Bryant

It is a sultry day; the sun has drank
The dew that lay upon the morning grass,
There is no rustling in the lofty elm
That canopies my dwelling, and its shade
Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint
And interrupted murmur of the bee,
Settling on the sick flowers, and then again
Instantly on the wing. The plants around
Feel the too potent fervors; the tall maize
Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover droops
Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms.
But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills,
With all their growth of woods, silent and stern,
As if the scortching heat and dazzling light
Were but an element they loved. Bright clouds,
Motionless pillars of the brazen heaven;–
Their bases on the mountains–their white tops
Shining in the far ether–fire the air
With a reflected radiance, and make turn
The gazer’s eye away. For me, I lie
Languidly in the shade, where the thick turf,
Yet virgin from the kisses of the sun,
Retains some freshness, and I woo the wind
That still delays its coming. Why so slow,
Gentle and voluble spirit of the air?
Oh, come and breathe upon the fainting earth
Coolness and life. Is it that in his caves
He hears me? See, on yonder woody ridge,
The pine is bending his proud top, and now,
Among the nearer groves, chesnut and oak
Are tossing their green boughs about. He comes!
Lo, where the grassy meadow runs in wives!
The deep distressful silence of the scene
Breaks up with mingling of unnumbered sounds
And universal motion. He is come,
Shaking a shower of blossoms from the shrubs,
And bearing on the fragrance; and he brings
Music of birds, and rustling of young boughs,
And soun of swaying branches, and the voice
Of distant waterfalls. All the green herbs
Are stirring in his breath; a thousand flowers,
By the road-side and the borders of the brook,
Nod gaily to each other; glossy leaves
Are twinkling in the sun, as if the dew
Were on them yet, and silver waters break
Into small waves and sparkle as he comes.

Understanding Love

C now comes up to M and hugs and kisses her. One day recently, this prompted M to say: “Awwww! C understands love.” I said that yes she does and much of what she knows about love she learned from her sister. I’m thankful to have two girls who love each other so much.

June Carnival of Children’s Literature

The June Carnival of Children’s Literature is up at Susan Writes.  This month’s theme is father’s in children’s literature.  I’m headed over now to peruse some of the intriguing posts.

Our Favorite Short Chapter Books

We started reading chapter books to M when she was three. With the first ones we read, I wasn’t sure if she was comprehending much or not. But I knew we could (and most likely would) read them again in a few years, and I wanted her to have practice just listening to longer books. Some of the first books we read - Winne-the Pooh, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Boxcar Children - were fairly long, but for the most part, we started with short books.

Initially we started reading easy readers some of which had several stories or chapters. Some of our favorites are:

Amanda Pig, Schoolgirl by Jean Van Leeuwen (and others in the series)

Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake A Cake by Cynthia Rylant (and others in the series)

Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff

Then we moved on to short chapter books. The first series we read was Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo. This is a great series for children who are ready to listen to a book with chapters but need something very short. We re-read them frequently and we’ve enjoyed listening to them in the car. Some of our other short chapter book series are:

Pony-Crazed Princess by Diane Kimpton

Sneaky Pony by Hadley Higgenson

The Littles by John Peterson

Magic Treehouse by Joan Pope Osborne

Betsy Tacy (the books get longer throughout the series) by Maud Hart Lovelace

My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Polka Dot Private Eye by Patricia Reilly Giff

Cam Jansen by David A. Adler

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

Big Apple Barn by Kristin Earhart

Magic School Bus Chapters by Eva Moore

Things I’ve Learned From My 4-Year-Old

I was thinking the other day about just how much I’ve learned from M.  When we go on walks, she immerses herself in everything she sees.  Every butterfly, bird, or flower is something worth stopping for.  She wants to study and marvel at every bug, weed, or rock in her path.  It’s taken years but I’m finally learning to see things from her perspective. In other words to really see and enjoy nature, rather than trying to hurry us along.

Like many little girls her age, M loves to create outfits with lots of bright colors and patterns.  Most of these outfits do not traditionally “match”.  But she has a great eye for bringing patterns together that really do work. Lately, influenced by her fashion advice, I’ve found myself selecting clothes in a much wider range of color rather than just my usual neutrals.  On occasion, I’ve even thrown caution to the wind and worn my red and orange sneakers with my pink skirt

M never concerns herself with the “proper” use for household items or art supplies. We have a half-finished room in our basement that has become our art room.  M loves to sit at her princess card table and work with the full spectrum of art media available - crayons, markers, watercolors, poster paint, glitter glue, silky sticks, colored pencils, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, stamp pads, and more that I’ve certainly forgotten.  A few weeks ago she called me down to show me her latest creation.  She had filled a cup with water, squirted glitter glue into it, stirred and created a “glitter wash” for her picture.  I would never have thought to mix glitter glue and water and might well have said no if she’d asked in advance, but it worked wonderfully.  She constantly inspires me to find new uses for things and to exercise my creativity more.

I can’t wait to see what she’ll teach me next!