This Vintage Chica

The Rhythm of Family, Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons

Amanda Soule's new book, entitled The Rhythm of Family:  Discovering a Sense of Wonder Through the Seasons,  is available on August 9th.

Most of you might know Amanda from her blog Soulemama or one of her previous two books... The Creative Family or Handmade Home.

I felt privileged to sneak a peak at it a bit early.  And what a wonderful book!  It just might be my most favorite of the three.

The Rhythm of Family is a bit different than Amanda's previous two books.  Not only are there family friendly projects and recipes...but essays from both Amanda and Steve, aka Soulepapa, on how to maintain family connections throughout the seasons.

And with my bookstore overflowing with "craft books" now, I am more drawn to their thoughts and feelings toward their children and how they can all create family memories by exploring the natural world around them.

(photo does not appear in the book, but is my own and included because I like it.)

From the publisher:

"Written over the course of a year, through the passing of the seasons, this book is a heartfelt and inspiring guide to creating deep family connections and meaningful memories through living in tune with the seasons.  From stomping around in mud boots in the spring to gathering around the wood-stove in winter, our activities naturally change season to season--from the rhythms of the seasons comes the rhythm in our homes, our hearts, our families, and our every day.

Paying attention to these changes slows us down, inspires new types of creative play and exploration, instills a sense of family togetherness, and deepens an awareness of nature and self that can make our lives, days, family, and earth grow stronger.  Through crafts, recipes, and ways to connect with the outdoors, this book is a guide to and example of living a richer life closer to nature."

My favorite things...

:: writing a manifesto for each season

:: how to make wintry weather cowls

:: We Live By the Sea, an essay by soulepapa

:: how to make "bug stay away"

Congratulations Amanda and Steve!  I am so beyond thrilled for you two.

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You can order a copy today or The Rhythm of Family will begin popping up in bookstores August 9th.

Book Review: The Write Start

                        

I love this book.

I've had it for quite some time now.  But I just haven't had time to sit down and really go through it like I wanted.

Until this week.

And like I said.  I love this book.

I originally found Jennifer's blog about a year ago I think.

Being a mama of three boys who will always choose playing soccer and legos over writing or reading, I am always on the search for opportunities to get them to do more of the things I know they need to do.

Enter The Write Start:  A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage, from Scribbling to Forming Letters and Writing Stories, by Jennifer Hallissy.

Jennifer does a wonderful job of breaking up the process of learning to write into four age groups and then provides great ideas of how to encourage your child at each stage through games and fun activities.

I have two 8 year olds who would be in the "storyteller" stage...just learning to use writing to really communicate their ideas.

My kindergardener, 5 years old is still in the "speller" category.

Some of the ideas I loved most were...

• creating stationary for each child to use to write letters to their friends/family
• frame copies of their writing like I already do their drawings
• use our scrabble letters to spell our messages for them when they come down for breakfast

It is amazing how quickly the boys have picked up on the ideas I've told them about in the book.

The biggest hit...writing in code!

So look for it!

Or visit the blog.
And download the templates. 

I hope you enjoy The Write Start as much as I have!

 

A Very Unproductive Kind of Day

(3.5 inches so far this morning and it's still coming down, school is cancelled...snowday!)

One day last week, I drug myself out of bed at my usual 5:30 a.m., made the coffee and sat down to do my morning quiet time.   I was unable to focus on my task at hand and wrote down on the paper in big block letters...
 
What’s Wrong With ME!
 
I ditched my quiet time and began making a list of all of the things I felt I needed to get done – things like order two yards of topsoil and compost for the new garden beds. Clean the wooden blinds on our windows. Organize the garage. Renew my gym membership. Paint the living room.
 
No wonder I couldn’t focus on my study.  I had too many things weighing down on me, things that I felt I should be doing but hadn’t gotten around to yet.  
 
But lately all I want to do is make a cup of tea to hold in my hands, curl up with a good book, put in a movie or snuggle with my boys.  

Where has my motivation been lately?  Why can’t I get everything done?  I began to beat myself up for feeling so unproductive.

Later that morning, I found myself sitting in the car- engine still running- listening to a radio program. The radio host was talking to a man named Dr. John Sharp who had just released a book titled The Emotional Calendar.  But it wasn’t Dr. Sharp’s words that got me thinking, although I did end up getting a copy of his book.  It was one of the callers.

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Read the full post on Steady Mom today.

Photographing Fall

It is day 3 of Tracey Clark's Picturing Fall class.  And I am already enjoying it so very much.  We moved around a lot when I was a kid and I have to say, some of those very same feelings of being unsure, questioning my abilities, all came back.

But as soon as I submitted my first photo, all of the anxieties washed away with all of the rain falling outside my window. 

I am doing this for myself.  I am on my OWN journey.  Here to learn the lessons that fold out before me and only me.

Feel free to follow along if you wish.  I'll be posting all of the daily shots here.

I've been reading through Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace and Learning the Hard Way by Shauna Niequist.  I read her first book Cold Tangerines on the way to Nicaragua and loved it, so I knew this one would hit me in the gut as well.

I am only half-way through it and it has not disappointed.

Here's a few quotes for you from Bittersweet.

"she said it's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about.  What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to dive up in order to do the things you really care about."

"I stop dreaming sometimes, because I'm afraid of what it would take to change my life.  I stop dreaming because I'm afraid of the chaos that a dream might bring, afraid of what a new dream will require of me.  I practice being fine, and tell myself that things are all right, just as they are.  They ARE all right, of course."

"Sometimes the most spiritual things we do are the most physical, the most tactile."

Happy Sunday!

Back-to-School Book Week: Freedom Friday (on Saturday), Gardening Books!

 

Nothing like Freedom Friday on Saturday, eh?

Oh well...we're talking gardening books here today.

Since getting the new Gayla Trail book, Grow Great Grub, I have been eager to share it with you.  I have been a long time fan of Gayla's work and I still use her first book You Grow Girl quite a bit.  However, I think I might like Grow Great Grub even more. Filled with gorgeous photos, diy projects and recipes it is my kind of book for sure.

Old Stand-bys

• Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholemew is my all time favorite
• Organic Gardening for the 21st Century is an old Reader's Digest book, but it is filled with great information about each type of plant and organic pest controls.
• DK Living's, The New Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord

Gardening with Kids

• Of course, it has to be Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy
• A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children by Molly Dannenmaier

On My Library List:

• Tomatoes Love Carrots: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening, by Louise Riotti
• Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) by Steve Solomon
• Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy

And I think that wraps up our Back-to-School Book Week!

Thank you so much for playing along everyone.  It was fun.  Maybe we'll do it again sometime.  

Don't forget to check the comments in the posts below.  Latecomers are adding their recommendations as well.

We're off to the Farmer's Market and to have our fish tank water tested to see why we're loosing fish left and right.  Im guessing one particularly sweet little boy has been feeding them too much.  We shall see.  Happy Saturday all!

 

Back-to-School Book Week: Non Fiction!

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         BREAKING NEWS
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We interrupt this book week for a hurricane.

Sorry all.

We're fine.  Earl has turned out to be a fairly nice fellow...lots of rain, wind.  But no damage here in our area.  Whew!  We'll see how he treats our neighbors further up the coast.

(I'll follow up with Freedom Friday: Gardening Books! tomorrow, which I know is really Saturday.  But Im asking for an extension.)

So back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Non-Fiction!

Like I said on Wednesday, much of my reading these days is focused on my family...being a better parent, cooking better, being more mindful, taking time to notice the small things.  So here you go...

Recent Reads

• Farmer Jane, Women Changing the Way We Eat.  This inspiring book profiles thirty women in the sustainable food industry, describing their agriculture and business models and illustrating the amazing changes they are making in how we connect with food. I have loved reading each woman's story and find the whole concept of women having a dramatic effect on how we eat fascinating.
• Read my previous review of  From Orchards, Fields and Gardens.  I have gone back and re-read parts of this book several times over the past few weeks.  I think it will quickly become a go-to book when life gets crazy and it's time to refocus.
• Consicious Kids:  A Family's Guide to the Greater Good, Activities and Ideas to Inspire Greater Consciousness  
• Steady Days by Jaime Martin.  I am giving every new mom I know a copy of this book.  Professional, intentional motherhood?  Amen!  Read more about Jaime and her book on her website.
• My favorite book of poetry...Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver.  I am a huge Mary Oliver fan and this little book of 47 poems takes the everyday, simple beauty in Nature (which we oftentimes take for granted) and wraps it in simple, lovely prose as only Oliver can.

Rocking My World:

• A Million Miles and a Thousand Years by Donald MillerA good friend recommended this book and I am so glad he did.  I am only in the first half of this book and already my mind is spinning on how to make my life more meaningful, how to give my children an amazing story to live out and how to edit my own life.  Can't say enough good about this funny, honest and thought provoking book.

Old Stand Bys:

• How To Raise Emotionally Healthy Children by Gerald Newmark, M.D.
• Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna
• Wild Things, by James and Thomas...a MUST for parents of boys!
• Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson
• Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck
• Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist
• Amanda Soule's books Handmade Home and The Creative Family...I know they might be considered craft books, but there is so much more about being mindful and focused on the everyday included in these books.  Love them...and her.
• Animal Vegetable Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

I can't wait to get my hands on:

• Radical Homemakers, Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture

 How about you?  What book is rocking your world lately?  What books do you continue to come back to again and again?

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And the winners (yes, two winners!) of the Craft Hope book are:

Miss Mousy Brown:

I would love to win a copy of the Craft Hope book (especially a signed one!) My favorite craft book of the moment is Homemade by Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson but I have to admit to having at least seven more on the go at the same time! :D

and

Carissa:

 I would LOVE to win the Craft Hope book... I've been wanting to get my hands on a copy!

Congratulations ladies!  Shoot me an email and I will get your books signed and in the mail...right after the post office opens back up ;)

Back-to-School Book Week: Fiction (Kid's Edition)!

I have to confess.

I am not a HUGE fiction reader.  I used to be.

These days, I find myself reading biographies, gardening books, parenting books, cookbooks and craft books.

The focus of my fiction reading has moved to my boys.  We still read aloud to them in the evenings.  And there are several kids' fiction books I would love to share with you.

So, let's talk kid's books.

My older boys are entering 3rd grade this year.  I've got one who reads almost anything he can get his hands on.  And one who resists with everything he has.

But here is what "we" are reading.

• Our first favorites were Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Treehouse Series.  If the guinea pigs has been a boy and a girl they would have been named Jack and Annie we love this series so much...like so many other kids.
• We have also discovered Roald Dahl.  Zane's teacher read The BFG to his class outloud and he was hooked.  Since then we have read Dahl's The Magic Finger and The Minpins. September is Dahl month in the UK.  If you are a fan too, download a month of Dahl inspired activities here.
• The Hardy Boys series
• The Elliot's Park series are great transition books from easy readers to chapter books...lots of pictures.
• Encyclopedia Brown and 
• The R.A. Montgomery Choose Your Own Adventure books...especially for my reluctant reader.  There are other CYOA books, but this is the series we have landed on.
• Abel's Island and the Tales of Despereaux (much different than the movie) were great evening read alouds.

Make sure you check the comments in the other Back-to-school Book Week posts.  There are so many great book recommendations below the original post.  Thanks to all of you who have been playing along.

And lastly, you still have until today at noon to enter to win the new Craft Hope book.

See you tomorrow for the Non-Fiction category.  That is if we don't get blown out to sea by Hurricane Earl.

Back-to-School Book Week: Cookbooks!

Sorry this post is up a bit later than I had hoped...but behind the scenes, we are preparing for what has the potential to be a pretty nasty hurricane.

But on the front side...It is still Back-to-School Book Week!

And to day the book subject is cookbooks.

Favorite Old Stand By:

Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book (1996).  My copy is so worn out it lost its spine cover several years ago.  But everyone knows its a BH&G with that red and white checked cover.  I have an even earlier copy (1975) that I picked up at a thrift store that is taped together with duct tape.  I have a feeling these cookbooks are lots of people's old stand-bys.

Favorite New Purchases:

The River Cottage Family Cookbook I love this cookbook!!!  I love everything about it.  I love the gorgeous photos!  I love how the pages feel in your hands.  I love that all of the recipes are fairly easy and are family focused.  I love that they include little tips here and there for substitutions, omissions, little educational tidbits here and there.  Love this cookbook!

Mad Hungry:  Feeding Men & Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn.  I first picked up this cookbook for the title alone.  As a woman living with 4 boys (1 being my husband who can eat an entire chicken in one sitting) I was interested right away.  This book contains simple (but very hardy) meals that will "stick to your ribs".  But the surprise to me was how she explains teaching her boys to cool right along side.

Favorite Gluten Free:

The book I use most often is The Gluten Free Gourmet:  Cooks Fast and Healthy by Bette Hagman.  I like many of her recipes, but if anyone has another favorite that uses more items you already have on hand, I'm looking for another to have on hand.

Others:

I still have a stack of MS Everyday Food magazines.  And still rely on them for quick ideas if we're having someone over for dinner unexpectedly.  I may not end up using a recipe out of them everytime I pick one up, but it really inspires me to make a great (and attractive) meal when I being the process.  And the smaller size is perfect for throwing in your purse.

I can not wait to get my hands on Jamie Oilver's, Jaime at Home: Cooking Your Way to the Good Life.  We are 5th on the list from the library.  We've followed Jaime's Food Revolution and are big fans!!!

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How about you?

What are your old stand-bys?  And your new favorites?

 

Back-to-School Book Week: Craft Books!

Its book week here!  See the original post here.

And up first are my favorite craft books.

I haven't had a chance yet to post about Craft Hope: Handmade Crafts for a Cause by Jade Sims yet.  But if you haven't purchased a copy of this book, run out and buy it...right now.

The publishing of this book is such a personal experience for me.  If you have been reading this blog long enough, you know about my visits to Nicaragua with ORPHANetwork.  You can read the original post on Craft Hope.

The book contains over 30 projects with step by step instructions and templates.  Each project is paired with a a worthy charity in need.  Perfect, eh?  Make two...one for you and one to give away!

There are two projects in the book benefitting ORPHANetwork.  One is for more dolls for the new children coming to the Casa Bernabe orphanage and another is for crib sheets and burp cloths to benefit the childcare center outside of La Chureca, the Managua City Dump. Of course these are the projects that mean the most to me, but some of my good blogging friends have also included a project or two that will benefit their favorite charity.  You might recognize a few of them...

Stefani Austin, Ellie Beck, Amanda Carestio, Christina Carleton, Lisa Cox,Maya Donenfeld, Malka Dubrawsky, Molly Dunham, Celine Dupuy, Cathie Filian, Wendi Gratz, Betsy Greer, Jenny B. Harris, Vickie Howell, Rebecca Ittner, Rebeka Lambert, Kathy Mack, Kaari Meng, Manda McGrory, Aimee Ray, Eren Hays San Pedro, Amanda Blake Soule, Blair Stocker, Amanda Swan, Susan Wasinger, Dana Willard, Rebekah Williams and Geninne D. Zlatis!

All  are amazing projects, all thoughtful, and all beautiful... and all designed with the intention of helping and giving. 

Lark Crafts has given their Craft Hope contributors each an extra copy of the book. They even recommended that their designers sign them. So I will do just that, and send it off to one of you... with a little bonus surprise tucked inside... just a small something, I crafted with love and care for you. As always, I'll ship it anywhere in the world...  please leave a comment by next Wednesday, September 1 noon EST, and I'll announce the winner on Thursday morning.

Other craft books I am loving:

• A new favorite, Green Crafts for Children by Emma Hardy
• Homemade Fun: 101 Crafts and Activities to Do with Kids, Rae Grant
• Sew Liberated, by Meg McElwee
• Handy Dad for the crafty man in your life!
• An old time favorite I keep coming back to, Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet
• And finally, I don't have this book yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

Tomorrow's Back-to-School Book Week brings you COOKBOOKS!

If you are playing along, leave a comment below with your link.  I can't wait to see everyone's recommendations.  My book list always has room for a few new books!