Friday Feature: Read Across America

Today is Read Across America celebration day at Holcomb! A few days late, as the official celebration is on Dr. Seuss' March 2nd birthday, but a fun day nonetheless. The last couple of years, the theme has been focused on Dr. Seuss, but this year the kids were challenged to dress up as their favorite book character.

For Caroline, that was EASY - Harry Potter is hands down her favorite. And Mom and Dad have entered the bonus round, as the Halloween costume got used AGAIN!!

John was far less interested in participating; I asked him the other night if maybe he wanted to be Shaggy or Scooby, since he's read a lot of Scooby Doo mysteries lately, but he was emphatically against that idea. Good thing, too, since I have no idea where I would've gotten either of those costumes. I noodled on it a little bit longer and landed on Stink, Judy Moody's little brother.

John tore through the Stink books; I haven't read them myself, but my best guess is that Stink Is Judy's mischievous, smart-alecky little brother. If I'm right, then it's self-explanatory why John loves those books. Easiest costume ever, too - pants, red shirt. John did ask this morning if I could color his hair yellow... um, no. Spikes achieved through gel, yes. Reasonable compromise.

So here's to reading for learning, reading for pleasure, reading for whatever your heart's desire!

Harry Potter: Eyeballs to Earbuds

Today is one of those days when I wonder why there isn't a profession that would allow me to do nothing but read books of my own choosing 10 hours a day and get paid like a rock star. Hard to understand why that job doesn't exist.

Like most people, I've bounced around from hobby to hobby in my life, with a few that have stuck - scrapbooking, running, and reading. When I think about it, I'm not sure reading really counts as a hobby. If something is as essential to your happiness and well being as breathing, eating, or sleeping, should you still define it as a hobby?

I recently combined two of my passions - running and reading. Given that for the last several months I've spent a cumulative 6ish hours a week wearing out the soles of my Saucony sneakers, I've listened to my fair share of "motivational music playlists" with the same songs. Even with 80+ songs on a playlist, at some point, you've heard them all waaaay too many times.

Time for a new solution. Audiobooks.

Lucky for me, the Fayetteville Public Library has a collection of audiobooks for check out. Free. And not just obscure titles - best sellers, classics, etc. Over the course of the last few weeks, I've been working my way through the Harry Potter series. I've read all of the books a bazillion times, but this is the first time I've listened to them.

You know what? Totally different. I  hear things I don't remember - nuances in the words and the language, and more than that, the interpretation of the emotion and inflection behind the words. I guess when I read, I hear them in my head the same way, every time. But listening to the narrator's interpretation gives a new richness and depth to the characters.

Don't you love good books that you can read over and over, never get tired of, and even find new things in the story every time you read them? What is it about some books that makes them enjoyable on the fifteenth - or even twentieth - reading?

I love J.K. Rowling's series, in part because she makes the characters so alive in the pages. The more I read them, and now hear them, I realize that I also love them because the writing is so engaging. As I've listened to them, I've been struck by how deliberate and artful her word choices are; her sentence structure is; her balance of dialogue and narrative thoughts to move the story along. I think in every English major there aspires the Great American Writer, but knowing a book as well as I know all of the Harry Potter books makes me realize just how difficult and unique a thing it is to write well.

So here's to audiobooks bringing favorite books to life. And here's to books you can read countless times and love as much or more every time. I'd love to hear what your own personal classics are, so if you would, take a moment and give me a title or two to add to my list.

Monday Funday

What to do when the kids are out of school and Mom has the day off, too? Especially when the weather looks like this?

Well, let's be honest, the weather today didn't start off exactly like that - it started off so windy that I opted to sleep in and hit the treadmill later. That's right - 50 some odd degrees, no rain, and I chose the dreadmill. I still haven't recovered from the mental beat down of the head winds in my last two marathons.

Lucky for me, I had my post-race massage scheduled this morning, so I started off *my* day with a little bit of indulgence. Didn't hurt that it was a Living Social deal so I got it 50% off.

So massage and workout done, too late for breakfast, and it's time to get home and figure out what we're going to do with the rest of the day. With my Lenten intent to spend more time with the kids, I came up with a three step plan:

1. Lunch at McDonalds
2. Caroline's treat for accomplishing her reading goal
3. Fun time at the library

Too bad it didn't occur to me to take pictures until we were at the library. But you get the picture: 6 piece McNugget Happy Meal results in random toys that make my kids think they've won the lottery. Extra bonus: our McD's has an indoor play place, and with nothing pressing on the agenda, the kids got to play to their heart's content. Add a friend from Caroline's 2nd grade class, and it's almost like a play date. Except I made no effort. Which makes it the best play date ever, actually.

McDonald's down, treat time next. This month, the kids are participating in the Book Hogs reading program at school. For added incentive, I told them that when they hit 500 minutes of reading, they could pick their treat. Naturally, Caroline is already at 600-something minutes, so today was the prefect day for the treat of her choice:

There is apparently a lot of peer pressure in the 2nd grade set around Dippin' Dots. She shared with me that she was the recipient of mild ridicule when she told her friends she'd never had it before. Problem solved.

Next up: Fayetteville Public Library, one of my absolute FAVORITE things about living in Northwest Arkansas. National award winning library, right here in my little town. Since we moved here, Caroline has read her way through the entire Junie B. Jones collection, and just last week finished book #48 in the Magic Tree House series, all courtesy of the FPL. John has recently been into anything Star Wars, and loves the Elephant and Piggie books. That's what he wanted today - and I realized, this is the perfect opportunity to teach my kids about call numbers!! (Get excited! Book nerds unite!!)

Author: Mo Willems. John finds the "W" shelf:

Just like that - two new Elephant and Piggie books. BOOM - I'm feeling like a pretty good mom today.

John found LOTS of books today - Berenstain Bears, Elephant and Piggie, a couple new Star Wars book, and other random titles that looked good to him:

Caroline, on the other hand, wasn't sure what to look for. I made a couple of suggestions, but she's just not-that-into Mommy's Ramona Quimby or Nancy Drew ideas at the moment.

Trying to be the paying-attention-Mom, I asked Caroline what she thought she might like to read, and immediately, she responded with a request to find some new American Girl Doll books. We head right to the computer to look them up, and voila! Caroline's turn to learn how to find books in a library. We hit the jackpot - the entire Rebecca series, two of the McKenna books, and one on Jess. I'm clueless, but Caroline apparently knows who each of these girls are, so she's super happy. Which in turn, of course, makes me super happy. Today's haul:

Pouring down rain outside and nothing pressing to do or places to be, so I tell the kids to settle in on one of the comfy chairs by the window, hang out, and read while Mommy goes up to the adult section for a couple of minutes to pick out a few new books of my own.

True confession: romance novels are my guilty pleasure. Sure, I'll read Pulitzer Prize winning books and if I ever get my Masters degree in British Literature I'll write my thesis on how Thomas Hardy used his writing to expose the oppression of women in 19th century London society, but in the meantime, I can tear through a 300 page Nora Roberts tome in about a day and a half.

I do enough heavy thinking at work, anyway. :)

Last up for the day - homemade oatmeal cookies. My mom used to make oatmeal cookies all the time, and my poor kids have never even had one. Before Christmas I got a wild hair to make some, so naturally, two months later, I finally did it!

Nothing is ever the same as your mom's, but I have to say, they were pretty good. The white chocolate chips and dried cranberries didn't hurt.

So that was our Monday Funday, also known as President's Day. I feel a little guilty that I didn't take the time at the library to do a little history lesson on Washington and Lincoln, but there's always next year.