Happy endings??

At the end of Polly Horvath's My One Hundred Adventures,  Felicity marries Ned and Jane (Felicity's oldest daughter) has finally had one hundred adventures.  In Northward to the Moon, we discover that Ned, who carried the whole family off to the prairies of Canada to become a French teacher, doesn't speak French and has been fired.  Hmmmm, another typical Horvath novel about an atypical family.

Now, Horvath doesn't always deliver pat happy endings but the first book had a happy ending and this is a family of very nice people with a talented, serene and delightful mom and a normal (at least, I think so!) teenage daughter.  So, the whole way through, I expected a happy-ish ending. (And to be honest, the ending isn't UNhappy.  It's just abrupt and unsettling!) So, Ms. Horvath, there had better be a third book.  That's all I'm saying here.  Because, although the ending of Northward to the Moon, makes perfect sense and I had an inkling it was coming, I have QUESTIONS!  Lots of them.  If not for me, write the book for Jane.  She could use some answers, too.



 

Books and Videos

I have spent the last couple of weeks re-discovering how very much I love reading.  I read a lot, anyway.  But SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books gave me the push to read outside my comfort zone.  New authors, new genres, new subjects.  I mean, how often have I thought to myself, "I need to read a book about a frog scientist and then I just have to learn more about the first all-female swing band."?  Never.  But now I have read a book about a frog scientist and I have learned something about America's first all-woman (black women for the most part) swing band.  I have read a book about the Darwins and their differences of faith and I have read graphic novels and short stories.  None of these are books I usually choose.  And because these books are all so different, I have learned - again - the joy of reading.

On a similar note,I've noticed that publishers are using YouTube more and more to sell books.  It was a video that got me to read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.  The book was good, very good, but the video was excellent.  I just saw a video about a spiritual guide called hand wash cold by Karen Maezen Miller.  Now I want to read the book.  The images the videographer chose, based on the author's written images,are so lovely, so reminiscent of a gentler time.  Hearing the words gave me a fuller sense of the author.  The book is out in April.  I look forward to reading it.

Project suggestions

I feel like I need a new project - something with a deadline that will make me excited to get out of bed and keep my brain running - happily- at night.

Something different!  I have a lot of projects in the works already, storytelling performances to prepare for, Summer Reading Club to pull together, the craft fair people to chase down - LOTS of projects.  I have done those things already.

Now, that I've written the last few sentences, I realize, I don't have time for a new project.  But it is Spring (officially) and my spirit feels restless and dissatisfied.  Where is the poetry, the art, the packets of seeds?  Where is the time to spend as I want?

So it is NOT a new project that I need.  It is a walk.  Or Spring Cleaning.  Or an attitude adjustment.  I just have a temporary lack of direction, Spring Fever at its worst.

Random-ness

Tweet-ish random thoughts (I guess, sort of)

I have finished my term as a club pres and NO ONE else wants the job.  Neither do I.

I am jealous of my sister who is so enthusiastic about her job - at which she is excellent, btw.

The Battle of the (Kids') Books starts tomorrow.  Check out the contenders and make your prediction HERE!!!  Here are my personal favorites for this year. (Since Suzanne Collins' Chasing Fire is not even mentioned, I will take a deep breath and plow right in.)  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate,  or  When You Reach Me,  or A Season of Gifts.   I have to be honest.  I did not read all the books on the slate.  I did not read any of the non-fiction.  Nor did I read Fire by Kristin Cashore, or The Storm in the Barn.  I promise to read those books as soon as they come back to the library.  (and Marcelo in the Real World and two others.  I am sooooooooooooo embarassed.)  This would not have been a very good Tweet.

Still on BO(K)B:  Tales of Outer Suburbia  is a real contender and Peace, Locomotion was touching and true.  Fight on great books for young people!  ON to victory!  But I stand by my top three.  (Unless I read some of the others and change my mind.)

Back to randomness:
Why is housework so darn boring and so necessary?

I think I would totally stink at Twitter.  

Doing nothing

I am a big fan of doing nothing until I actually do it.  It is almost 2 pm and I have done NOTHING of import all day.  Snowstorms do that to me.  But around mid-afternoon - like NOW - I start to berate myself.  I haven't even READ anything today.  I have six books waiting to be read.   I haven't done ANYTHING and tomorrow - or the next day - when I have to go back to work, I will kick myself for not taking advantage of all that "FREE TIME".

There are so many easy ways to waste time.  This morning, I found myself mesmerized as I read the scrolling list of day cares on the weather channel.  I have no children at home.  Go figure.  Well, I get better get moving.  I still have some free time left.

Containers that I love

Here is a list of the containers that I like a lot:
Oatmeal boxes:  They're round and they're boxes!  That's reason enough.

Clear plastic clamshell containers - the ones that produce comes in.  I recycle them.  But as I put them in the recycling bin, I can't help wondering what kinds of stuff I could store in them.  The possibilities are endless.

Really big coffee cans, or plastic jugs:  These are great for collecting compost, or storing batteries in before recycling or holding buttons and beads.  And they're big and they're round, too.  I like the ones that have handles molded into the plastic.  How convenient, if unnecessary.  How many of us are going to tote around a 3 pound container of coffee?

Shoe boxes:  Oh how I love shoe boxes! Shoe boxes are a whole world of organizational potential in themselves.  I can store photos in them.  I could make dioramas out of them, except I have no need to make dioramas.  I can organize small office supplies in them and all those little things that collect in my junk drawer. They make great valentine mailboxes for kids.  Or underbed treasure storage; or stackable craft supply storage because they are flat.  And they have lids that detach so anyone can open and close them easily, unlike other boxes that need the lids tucked in, in that special over-under way, to keep them closed.

Copier paper boxes:  They are like really big shoe boxes and they are great for storing fabrics and yarn and old magazines and holiday decorations and they stack too!!!  (Sigh!)  I wish I had one right now....

Glass jars:  For specialty cookie mixes, and paper beads, and soup mix, and to store bread crumbs and cornflake crumbs in.  Glass jars are excellent.

I also like pill bottles but I never use them for anything.  Recycling has made the need to find other uses for containers sort of obsolete.

And I hardly ever do any of the organizing that these containers promise that I can.  I wonder if my affection for these containers is just nostalgia.  There was a time when the things I cherished most could fit in several shoe boxes.  Now, I want decorative baskets with matching liners.  Shoe boxes are a whole lot cheaper, though.  And they stack!

Confessions and Mind Wipes

Confession, they say, is good for the soul.  That's one thing the Catholic Church has gotten right.  There is something cleansing about admitting your sins out loud to another person.  There is something reassuring in knowing that the person who hears you will not repeat the confession, as well.

That said, a mind wipe would be even more comforting.  Here I am, confident in the knowledge that I am a good person, and out of the deepest reaches of my mind I remember THAT .... or that OTHER thing...or even worse the time that I....  AUUGGHHH!!  I apologized!  I made amends.  I promised, honest, never to do it again.  I did my penance.  Why does it come back to haunt me?  And since most sins - at least the ones that matter - have victims, I then worry about them, too.   Did my unkindness cause a permanent scar on someone's psyche? Did I damage someone's faith in themselves, self-esteem, trust in humanity? How could I DO that, or SAY that or ...??

I propose that when someone sins, confesses, does penance and atones,  everyone involved should have their minds wiped of the event.  The sinner should know the importance of never doing that kind of thing again, but, not know why.  The victim might have altered feelings about the sinner but the reason would be hazy.  Yeah.  I'd sleep better not being able to remember some of the stupid things I've done.