A Book Addicted Family

The kids just left for school and I just finished dishes. So I walked around the house to get started on my day when I realized my kids and I might have a problem. Books. They are always all over the house ... except the bookshelf!

Follow me on the literary trail through my house that was left over this morning.

On the blanket chest and chair; a dictionary, three books and a magazine.

On the window seat; two books, two magazines and a kindle.

Dining room table; two books.

Yahoo'a bedroom; a Bible, a hymnal, and three books.

My bedside table; a kindle, a devotional and two books.

Oh, and my sketchbook on the bed.

Yep. Books have always been important to me and it looks like I've successfully passed that gene on to my kids too! Now if only someone would invent a book that would reshelf itself.

Another Mural FINALLY done!!

You probably don't remember this but waaaayy back in January I posted a bunch of quotes that I was considering incorporating into a mural for my bathroom. 

Well, I ended up actually starting this mural in April, believe it or not, but then life just got really hectic and I had a hard time carving out big chunks of time to paint. It was 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there. What made this mural even harder was that I chose some lousy paint! I ended up having to put on 3 COATS to cover evenly. Next time I paint a mural I am definitely putting a lot more time into researching paint!!! 

Last week though, finally, FINALLY I finished it!!!

I ended up choosing the Oscar Wilde quote, "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy? 

My bathroom is kind of small and I couldn't get a photo of the full mural but I think you get the idea. (The light in there is terrible too.)The mural begins  above our mirror and sink on the left....

...then wraps around a corner and is above a window on the right. 

This little old mural only took me.....4 months!! Ha, if I didn't have kids I probably could have finished in 4 days! 

On a little side note I put up a new curtain in this bathroom, right below the mural. It had Venetian blinds in it, which I hate. DR and I argue over windows and light. He always wants them closed...he's got this thing about privacy! But me, I want the windows wide open letting in as much light as possible. 

Then the blinds broke, YAY!!! Now for a compromise...I looped a bunch of ribbons onto a tension rod as a curtain. This photo looks lousy, it looks much better in person, but now DR and I are both happy. He gets his privacy and I get light!!! 

I wish I could take credit for this wonderful idea but nope, I found it on Pinterest...of course!! 

What next? Should I attempt another mural? I'm not sure. Of all the 7 houses we've lived in I've never finished more than two murals before we had to move. Should I attempt another, or worry about bringing down the resale value?? 

The Never Ending Book Battle

If you were to walk into my house on any given morning, before breakfast mind you, this is what you'd see.

My kids with their noses stuck in a book. Don't get me wrong, I love to see my kids reading. I just wish they weren't reading all the time. My kids are such bookworms we actually have to have a "no books at breakfast" rule. I think they'd rather read than eat some days. 

Most days my living room floor and couch are littered with books. I shouldn't complain though, I'm glad they're reading. I'm just tired of tripping over books all the time. 

There are days it would be nice to put our bookshelves behind locked doors. 

Just for a little while. 

Buster the Backseat Beaver Book Review

Before I was married and became a stay at home mom I was an art teacher. I taught middle school art in fact for five years and loved it! I know,most people thought I was crazy teaching 11,12, and13 year old's but I always enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm, and yes even the sarcasm of middle school students. 


Of course all of my students are now in their twenties and some I have been lucky enough to meet up with again on Facebook. It's been really neat to see these students get married, have children and grow in their careers. One of my students has been getting very creative lately!! My former student Stuart Troxel has songs for sale on iTunes and has published a children's book; Buster the Backseat Beaver. (Watch out Ree Drummond!) 

Ha! I love how on the bottom of the cover Stuart's added his age after his name and really the title of the book was enough to pique my interest despite being written by one of my students. 

Every page is written in a similar pattern; 

see buster

see buster take a bath

buster takes a bath in outer space in a little town called the moon 

I enjoy the text because even beginner readers can read the start of the page and parents can get a kick out of the end of the page. Who wouldn't laugh at

"buster applies for a small business loan because he wants to open his own financial planning and screen door installation company"

I just love the illustrations too. Didn't he do a great job! They are big, bright and attractive to kids. The thing that I really like about Stuart's book is that his personality really shines through in the pictures and words. He always had a unique and quirky sense of humor! 

See this guy at the back of the theater? His face is hidden in the book four times. What's funny is that this guy, Justin, was another of my students. 

Way to go Stuart! I'm really proud that you've worked so hard and shared your creativity with others. It's a great book and I'm looking forward to more adventures of Buster the Backseat Beaver. 

You can find your own copy of Buster the Backseat Beaver at lulu.com where you can also publish your own books. 

Something Wonderful to See.

I saw something wonderful yesterday. 

Here it is. 

Big brother reading to little sister. 

What's even better he sought her out and asked if he could read a book to her. 

I've been waiting for this moment since the day she was born. 

Amazing how much him reading to her helps me out. 

Boys Behold! The Power of Underwear!!!

Yes, that's right today I'm presenting to you the wonders of underwear! But not just any underwear but the power of all that is preshrunk and cottony....Captain Underpants!!

Captain Underpants is my boys' favorite series of books right now. Santa dropped off the series of eight books...and we've already read them all....and we are reading them again.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants is the story of George and Harold, two 4th graders who hypnotize their mean and nasty old school principal, Mr. Krupp, into believing he's Captain Underpants, the superhero in the comics the boys create. However, things get out of control and Captain Underpants has thrilling adventures with George and Harold in tow involving space aliens, Booger Boy, Super Bionic Hamsters, horrible cafeteria ladies and squishies.

If my boys EVER get caught doing a squishie I'll never let them read another book again. Don't know what a squishie is? A squishie, aptly demonstrated by George and Harold in their 6th epic novel, consists of sliding ketchup packets under the toilet seat so when the unsuspecting potty patron sits down ketchup gets squirted in their underwear. Nice...

Warning: IF you are an English teacher (the two of you I know read this blog) you may want to avert your eyes to the unpleasantness in the next photograph.

Captain Underpants books aren't always up on the rules of spelling or grammar.

And they can get violent. In fact every book has an incredibly graphic chapter in Flip O Rama. The art teacher in me loves Flip O Rama, teaching the basic principles of animation!

And there is PLENTY of gross little boy humor; Wedgie Woman, Booger Boy, accidentally turning their grandparents into superheros too, and hanging police officers from signs.

 (hee hee, I always think of my sister when I get to this page)

Captain Underpants books can get gross and immature and rolling on the floor funny.

But the best thing...the very best thing I've found in the Captain Underpants books is this.

Yip has been making his own comic books...tons of em'! He's constantly drawing and writing and always asking me how to spell something.

"How do you spell Frankenfart?"

"How do you spell evil?"
"How do you spell Poopypants?"

Okay, those aren't exactly the words I would choose to teach him to spell first but hey...my boy is excited about reading and writing! If wedgies and farts and squishies keep him reading then move over Superman because Captain Underpants will always be my hero! And that my friends is the power of underwear!

Hoosiers! A book for you to read!

One of my Christmas gifts this year was the book So Cold The River which is set in French Lick and West Baden Springs, southern Indiana!

In case you aren't familiar with the history, West Baden and French Lick are full of natural mineral springs. In 1902, Lee Sinclair opened the West Baden Hotel, which until 1955 sported the largest free spanning dome in the country and offered baths in the "healing" springs. West Baden catered to the upper class and many hotel guests (like Al Capone, FDR, Bing Crosby) would come from Chicago on the Monon Train to bask in the mineral waters of the area. At the time the mineral waters were touted to cure just about any ailment.

Not only did West Baden sport a plush hotel complete with casinos, billiards, a pool but outside there were vast gardens, golf courses and hiking trails among other amenities. Although not as lavish, a mile down the road French Lick also had a hotel.

Interior 1993 (photo courtesy of this site)

West Baden hasn't always looked so nice though. During the depression the hotel was finally closed and sold to an order of Jesuit priests in 1934. And through the years the hotel deteriorated until the early 90's when interest in restoration of the building began to grow.

I was able to tour West Baden in December of 1998 in the midst of restoration. I know I took pics but for the life of me I don't know where they are. Even then however I remember being in awe of the size of the hotel's atrium.

The winter of 2006/07 DR and I spent the weekend at the French Lick Casino, only a mile from West Baden. West Baden is now a fully functioning hotel but high priced! It is fabulous! I don't even have the words to describe it!

But this is how it looks today! Gorgeous!!

Anyway, back to my book. So Cold the River is a mystery about a man from Chicago who has come to West Baden to film a documentary but in the process is "bewitched" by some of the mineral water. He begins to see visions of the past and ghosts and one particularly evil ghost returns to the present.

Not only do I love this book because it is a well told story full of suspense but it's full of Indiana history and geography too. Larry Bird, Upland Brewery, the love of Indiana basketball are all mentioned through the story.

If you have ever been in southern Indiana or heard of West Baden/French Lick or just like a good ghost story you would enjoy this book.

Marker Monday - The Textbook Purse

Literally...this is a textbook purse...made from an old Biology text my sister found in a used book store. My sister Ruby made this for our other sister Rose for Christmas. I'm jealous...I want one. I don't need another purse....wait, sure I do! I'm a woman. Don't we always need another purse?

Do you have any of those old big college textbooks laying around? Those would work great for this project.

And my sister found the best fabric for a microbiology text. It makes me think the inside is crawling with living little critters.

Here are the video directions my sister used. But I found two different sets of directions online that seem similar; here and this one with pictures.

I really want to make this purse! Now I'm on a quest to find the perfect book, fabric and handles.

Hmmm....should I go with an art text? Or a cookbook or....oh I know! Wouldn't it be great to find a big book of fairy tales or other great big kids book and use it as a toy tote for church? Time to raid the kids' bookshelves.

Are you as excited about this purse as I am? No? That's alright, I always knew I was a craft nerd.

Sunday Devotions - The Grace Tree

Last Sunday during the church service the tree at the front of the sanctuary was decorated. Our minister spoke about the symbolism of each ornamentation as it was placed on the tree. I thought it was a lovely way to decorate a tree and so our minister gave me a copy of the sermon to share with you. I'm only including part of it, it's two pages long in it's entirety, but if anyone is interested in the whole thing please e-mail me and I can send you a copy.

To be sure, Our Lord was crucified upon a tree, but doesn't tradition indicate it was a dogwood tree? And this is an evergreen - A Christmas tree.

And so it is that as we do not worship the tree but Him who was lifted up on it, we now begin the process of transforming the tree of salvation, the bare Christmas tree, into that most precious tree, the Grace Tree.

It was on that first Christmas that the star was born but it continues to give forth its light to all mankind. Today we await, not the coming of the star, but its return. Hear the words of the risen Lord Himself concerning the return of the star. (The star is now lit.)

It would not be long before the light of that star spread throughout the earth to bring light to a sin darkened world, hope where there was only despair, victory where defeat had reigned, love in place of hate. It was prophesied by Isaiah long before. (The lights are now lit.)

The tree is no longer alone and bare. It has new meaning with these added symbols. It might now be know as the Tree of Light and Life, but still cannot be called the Grace Tree. It was not without great cost that the Light was to shine forth in a world of darkness. We now must focus on the cost of redemption. In order for the Light to overcome the darkness and reestablish the relationship between God and man, a perfect sacrifice was necessary. The continued sacrifices of bulls and goats might cleanse the flesh but not the spirit. (The red garland is added to the tree.)

What is it that could cause God to offer His Son, His only begotten Son, to die upon a cross for the redemption of man? Is it somehow He, in His infinite wisdom and knowledge, could see that man was essentially good? Was it that under the surface mankind really deserved such an extravagant and costly salvation? Or was it something much more? (The three white streamers are placed at the top of the tree.)

And so it was that God, in His infinite mercy and grace, delivered man from his sinful nature, restoring him to that relationship with the Almighty that had been his at the creation. Bought at the price of Christ's death, man had received forgiveness. god had fulfilled His promise as set forth in the book of the prophet Isaiah. (The white tree skirt is placed on the bottom.)

And so at last, we come to the final symbol, that which will transform the simple Christmas Tree into the tree that speaks of the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord - The Grace Tree. Now we add to the tree, thirty three red roses, symbols, each one, of the years of preparation our Lord spent on Earth to be our Savior. Symbols of the resurrection in Him who is the Rose of Sharon.
(Thirty three people from the congregation place roses on the tree.)

Dear God, Thank You for reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas. You gave us Your Son as a sacrifice to cleanse us of our sins. Amen.

There is so much more to this tree and sermon than what I've shared here but if you are interested I'd be happy to send you a copy.

Stupid camera....

This is my camera....Canon PowerShot A470. Just a point and shoot...there isn't much I can do with it. I can adjust the exposure darker or lighter and of course there is settings for portraits, kids & pets, fireworks, etc. But fstops and aperture settings are predetermined by the camera, I can't fiddle with those settings. Yet, I've learned how to push this camera pretty far.

Usually I don't use sepia settings; if that's what I want I'll usually edit it later with picnik. But yesterday Yahoo and I were in the basement playing and and just to play with the camera a bit, flipped my camera's "manual" setting to sepia.

After shooting a few frames I realized the camera was set to a really long exposure time and creating these ghost like images. So I fiddled a bit thinking I'd accidentally adjusted the exposures wrong. I even made sure I had the flash on.

Nope, I still kept getting really long exposures in some cases almost a second long! GGRR..that's not what I want it to do. I want to get an image from the camera without resorting to editing all the time. (I'm not even sure where that light is coming from in the above image.)

I edited all of these photos to make them darker with more contrast just so you could see the details.

I finally realized that sepia setting must be trying to emulate photos of old with the soft and fuzzy images due to long exposures and the subject sitting still. Hey....Yahoo doesn't do the sitting still thing now does she??


I do believe the time has come....I've grown out of my old camera. Rather than just a mom who is pointing a camera at her kids to capture a moment I am to the point where I have an idea of what I want an image to look like before I even pick up the camera. Sometimes I want a certain creative effect that I can't make happen with my little old camera.

So, here's my goal...

A Nikon D3000....or maybe a D40, I still have time to decide.

I'm going to start saving up for this baby and if I'm lucky it may be under the Christmas tree come December.

 I've been reading a book called Understanding Exposure.

 

This book does a great job explaining exactly what fstop, aperture and ISO settings are some fabulous images to demonstrate them and what effect they will have on your photos. I remember learning this stuff in a college photography class but honestly I didn't have a very good teacher and didn't retain much. But this book makes me want to jump outside and start taking pictures of everything!! So I've started a quest to move on to new phototaking experiences. Hopefully by this time next year I'll have a camera that I have much more control over and I won't have "ghosties" in my photos unless I want them there.

Marker Monday - Buck Wilder Books

A while back I posted about a book I had read, Why Boys Fail and the falling literacy of boys everywhere. The author went on to cite the lack of books interesting to boys as part of the problem.

Lack of boy friendly books has definitely been a problem with Yip and Yap. A couple years ago we stumbled upon Buck Wilder books and the boys love them! Buck Wilder is a friendly woodsman who lives with a pet racoon in a tree house. He spends his days searching for clues and has adventures to solve animal problems in the woods. Some of his adventures include Who Stole the Animal Poop? and The Ants Dig to China. Buck Wilder explains the behaviors of animals and the balance of nature in humorous ways.

I know we have more Buck Wilder books around here somewhere other than just these three but of course the boys have them stashed somewhere.

I

Can't you imagine every little boy wanting to read a book about poop?

When I was growing up, my family camped every summer so I was especially excited to find The Small Twig's Hiking and Camping Guide by Buck Wilder.  Buck Wilder looks like Grizzly Adams to me!

The boys find the animal track and poop page especially interesting. They can read the animal names on their own now so who am I to complain that they are readng about poop?

The camping guide also highlights different parts of the country where you may want to camp and the sights you would expect to find. The Grand Canyon, the Appalachian Mountains, the Pacific Northwest are just a few of what can be found inside. There is also a guide about what essentals to pack for camping.

My guys and I love these books. The illustrations are entertaining and the content is fun to read while being educational. Some other Buck Wilder titles include;

Buck Wilder's Animal Wisdom

Buck Wilder's Small Fry Fishing Guide: A Complete Introduction to the World of Fishing for Small Fry of All Ages

The Work Bees Go on Strike (Buck Wilder's Adventures)