Tuesday's Proverb

When pride comes, disgrace comes; but with the humble is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)

Happy Fourth of July

We celebrated the Fourth with family - and except for one little ER visit (everyone's okay now) we had a fine time. Tyler really liked his first taste of swimming, I think he wore his daddy out.

The Festival

Yesterday we went to the Kutztown Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival. We watched a glass blowing demonstration (fascinating stuff), there were people demonstrating how to thatch a roof and make sauerkraut and make apple butter and candles. And how to make brooms, or weave or work leather. All kind of hand crafts were being made and on sale. We ate funnel cake and kettle corn and hot dogs with sauerkraut. We watched a couple of great shows featuring musically talented families. The weather was beautiful. A great day - but exhausting!

Trailer for When Mike Kissed Emma

The release date for When Mike Kissed Emma is coming up fast (August 19) so I decided it was time to finalize the trailer and get it out here for people to see.

Without further ado - here it is:

Tuesday's Proverb on Wednesday

False scales are an abomination to the LORD, but a full weight is his delight. (Proverbs 11:1)

A Secret Message

Flipping through one of my yellow notepads for a blank page, I came across this cryptic message, in all caps and written in pencil:

Attention AGENT
THE PSA IS ALMOST READY
TO QUESTION THE
CRAB
F.UR.THER INVESTIGATION
COMING SOON
P.S. THIS MISSAGE
WILL SELF-DESTRU
CT
_______________
THE RED LIGHT
SPELLS "YOU ARE
"COOL" IN MORSE

I think the kids have been reading spy books. Or are planning a coup.

Summer Sunday Afternoon

What could be better than hanging out on the hammock and eating popsicles? (the popsicle is obscured by Pippi's foot, but it's there.)

Summer Fun

Thursday was the last day of school and, amazingly enough, it wasn't raining. And as an added bonus The Princess and Spiderman were spending the night at Ammy and Grampy's house. So after school we piled into the car and headed to the start of summer.

Celebrating the Good Times

We went to a wedding yesterday.

We didn't have far to go, the church was down the road and the reception was next door, in our neighbor's backyard.

Everything about it was fun, the Mass was lovely, the party was fun, the weather (after what seems like endless rain) was gorgeous. But what really made this party special is that it was so long in coming.

When we first moved into our house we met our neighbor who was living with his elderly mother. We also met his girlfriend (who didn't live there). She told me that they'd been dating for about ten years.

We moved in almost fifteen years ago.

Yes, this was a marriage twenty-five years in the making.

All of their friends and relatives were so happy to finally be able to say they were at Lou and Kathy's wedding. (Because, quite reasonably, some of us never quite expected that day to come.)

We hung out with our other neighbors, and danced and drank (and yes, despite what one of my neighbors insisted, you can have too much Sangria). The kids ran back and forth between the food and our backyard where they ran around and played on the swing set and generally had more fun then if they'd had to keep out of the way around the grown ups.

It was a night to remember. As it should be. After all, it was twenty-five years in the making.

As an aside: Anyone else ever think it odd that an iconic song for a generation, a song that everyone knows all the words to is "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf?

Tuesday's Proverb

The lips of the just know how to please, but the mouth of the wicked, how to pervert. (Proverbs 10:32)

Toys for the Ages

There's been a lot of talk lately in the kidlitosphere about kids and if they are being pushed to read books that are too advanced for them to early. Don't push kids away from picture books too early, is one bit of advice, let them enjoy things that are designed for their age. Some of the best links to this discussion are here at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Then yesterday the kids got out the marbles and the marble machine pieces and were having a blast playing with them. "Maybe we can get another set and add to this," Pippi suggested. That's when I realized I had bought the set for Harry about 5 or 6 years ago when he was in pre-school. I considered it a pre-school toy - but they are having just as much fun with it now, maybe more, then they did when we first got it.

There are a lot of toys we've kept through the years (there are also things we've gotten rid of or passed down - space is rather limited after all.) Every now and then the kids get out the Thomas the Tank Engine set or all the Fisher Price Little People and have a blast. Pippi still loves playing with her doll house and setting the rooms up. And I even find her playing with the Barbies now and then (something she never actually did in pre-school.)

Our neighbors are always quick to throw things out (their house must be so much more organized than ours!) but their daughter was only about five when the play kitchen went out with the trash. All I could think was that she probably could have enjoyed that for several more years.

But are we too quick to move kids up and through toys. Give them Barbie when they're two and then by the time they are six they will feel too grown up for it. But do we really want our kids to feel too grown up for toys by the time they hit double digits? Isn't it as bad as pushing them past picture books as soon as they can decode words on their own.

People lament how children grow up too fast. But what if we didn't make it seem that once they were in school they were too old for dolls or trains? What if we encouraged them to play like kids even when they were well into elementary school - or beyond?

Just something to think about.

Tuesday's Proverb

The mouth of the just yields wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. (Proverbs 10:31)

Monkey Boy

When one of my brothers was about three he was told he could be anything he wanted to when he grew up. He said he wanted to be a monkey.

I think my son takes after his uncle. Not 0nly does he regularly climb doorways and walls today he was getting his kicks by shimmying up the legs of the swing set in the park, hanging from the top bar and jumping down.

If I didn't know better I'd think he was part monkey.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Forty-four years ago two young people pledged to love each other forever. So far they're doing a pretty good job of it.

My parents got married while my dad was in law school. I was born the next year - a year before he graduated. This year he retires.

My parents showed us by example how to live a good life, how to be good partners to each other and how to be good parents. Hopefully we'll live up to the example.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Tuesday's Proverb

The just man will never be disturbed, but the wicked will not abide in the land. (Proverbs 10:30)

Knowledge We've Gained and Lost

I was thinking about technology the other day and how wonderful it is to have a world of information at my fingers via the Internet and Google.

When I wanted to make rhubarb-strawberry crumble, but didn't feel like sifting through my cookbooks for a recipe, I simply typed it into Google and found a recipe that worked for me.

When my son was hit by a baseball and complaining of serious rib pain, I looked up the symptoms for cracked ribs on the internet, and since they pretty much matched his symptoms, brought him to the emergency room (where, luckily his ribs turned out to be merely bruised.)

Want to know if the guy in one movie was in another, or when a book was written, or when the next book in a series is coming out. The internet provides the answers.

Does this make us smarter, I wonder, then people who lived a hundred years ago?

But then I think of the things a woman if a middle class neighborhood in a town in New Jersey would probably have been able to do 100 years ago, that I really can't lay claim to now.

She would have known how to take a chicken in the backyard and turn it into dinner. I prefer my chicken boned and skinless and if presented with a chicken in the backyard I think I would switch to eggs on the menu as opposed to the meat.

She would have been able to make clothing for her children - and possibly for herself and her husband as well. In my defense I did make my daughter a sun dress once. She was four. She's twelve now.

She would have been able to can and preserve food and it would have been a part of her regular seasonal chores.

She would have knit hats and mittens and scarves for her family. (I did crochet hats this year).

She would have a better understanding of natural cures for things. Instead of reaching for the bottle of medicine she would have concocted a poultice of some sort.

Not to say that there aren't people these days who do these very things; but most of them (especially regarding the chicken or canning) live in more rural conditions than I do. And would the woman from back then have been at a disadvantage in many other ways - of course.

But what are we losing?

When reading The Swiss Family Robinson I felt vastly inferior to that old-fashioned family that could be stranded on an island and immediately know what plants to eat for food and how to build themselves a liveable structure. Should I find myself in that situation, I'm much more likely to die of starvation or exposure. (So, I'll try to avoid that situation - why I never auditioned for Survivor)

There was another book I read once, The Harvester, by Gene Stratton Porter (and I could have long and lengthy discussions about this book, but I'll spare you) where the main character collects herbs for medicines. Is there anyone who knows that sort of thing anymore? Who can make usable medicines out of herbs growing in a garden. Is this information that was passed down from generation to generation to generation and is now simply not needed anymore.

It all just makes me wonder, what have we lost? If a modern, urban American, were left to live by his or her wits without Internet access or stores. Could we do it? And how much would we have to re-learn that our grandparents simply took for granted?

Making the Trailer

Edited to add: If you can't see the embedded video, please let me know. And, if you can't see it, here's the link.

Movies have trailers. And now books do too. So, I've been thinking that When Mike Kissed Emma needs a trailer too.

What I'm going to share with you here is not the finished product. And will only be available to view until the finished product is ready. But I had so much fun making up this dummy trailer that I thought I'd share it with you.

Rest assured the real thing will be more polished, and it won't feature pictures of my kids. (Though Pippi thinks the one of Harry with the trombone should stay).

Tuesday's Proverb

The LORD is a stronghold to him who walks honestly, but to evildoers, their downfall. (Proverbs 10:29)

'Cause That's So Much Better

"We used to play Terminator in gym class," said Pippi. "It's a lot like dodge ball. But they banned dodge ball because it was too dangerous."

Friday Flowers

A little peek at my backyard gardens tells me that the roses are in bloom, the rhododendron needs to be cut back (see my kitchen window hiding behind it), the Mary Garden has been taken over by hostas and the rhubarb is ready to pick.