Milk and Honey

A good friend recently brought an interesting book to my attention. Honey For A Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use For Books in Family Life is a look at how reading can not only enrich your child's life but also your family life.

I have been casually thumbing through the book for a couple of weeks now, but when JillyBean was feeling crummy on Saturday I used the time to dive into its pages. I will admit that nothing super surprising is revealed, but it does put a lot of thoughts and assumptions together with information I have learned over the years about the importance of introducing kids to books. Everything that you probably know about reading with your children gels together in this book.

Gladys Hunt approaches the subject from a Christian perspective, but I would not consider it a religious book. She doesn't guide parents away from particular subjects, rather challenges them to really think what lessons and images are important for them to pass along to their children. What sort of traits do you want your children to develop? Find characters and situations that will help them grow. Knowing her religious background, it was interesting to read her take on the Harry Potter series. The poor wizard got a bad rap from Christian church leaders for supposedly introducing children to witchcraft. She calls that bunk and discusses how children are quite able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Besides, giving children a healthy dose of fantasy will not turn them into bad people.

She opened my eyes to quite a bit in regard to children's literature. For one, I realize that I cannot pass on my lack of enthusiasm for poetry to Jilly. I should use this time to rediscover the beauty of some poems and introduce it to her and help her grow an appreciation for the art. I also need to be on the look out for diluted versions of classic children's tales. I grew up loving the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie series. Apparently they have been rewritten into easier chapter-styled books and much of the beauty of Ms. Wilder's prose is lost. Also, Disney has done its share to dumb-down great children's stories so I should be weary of branding and marketing schemes. I have a specific concern for this in regard to A. A. Milne's beautiful Winnie the Pooh series, which sadly has been hijacked by Disney. Pooh was a childhood favorite of mine. I dreamed of living in the Hundred Acre Wood and going on adventures with Pooh, Piglet and Eyore. I fear that Jilly will never grasp the sweetness of the relationship between Christopher Robin and Pooh and instead will continue to ask about Darby and Buster who are part of the My Friends Tigger and Pooh series on TV. Daddy says I don't need to worry. As she grows older so will her appreciation for real stories.

Artwork is just as important as language is in children's books. As Hunt discusses, small children will "read" the pictures before they learn to read the words. I have certainly seen this in JillyBean. The art of a book can draw a child deeper into the story and such images will remain with them forever.

Finally, Hunt made me rethink the importance of reading with your child. Sure it helps with language development, but more than anything it strengthens the parent/child relationship. Naturally we read to our children at this age, since they can't read on their own, but it's important to read aloud or continue to read books together as children grow older. As she writes, reading aloud brings the story and its characters to life. Plus, sharing a book together creates a bond. Characters in books become shared friends and plots become shared experiences.

Honey For A Child's Heart includes a great book list in the back with suggestions for toddlers to teens. It is a valuable tool and will now be a standard shower gift for everyone I know having a baby, so act surprised when you receive one.

Valentine's Week

In spite of the 18 inches of snow outside our front door, it is a lovely day today. However, Jilly and I had some catch-up work to do in preparation for Valentine's Day. We started early this morning finalizing Valentine cards to get in the mail and made a couple of other crafts. I knew that I was on the right track when JillyBean looked up at me, smiled and said, "mommy, I have so much fun with you." It made my heart melt.
First things first, we had to complete the Valentine's cards that we started a couple of weeks ago. I got the idea from the February issue of Martha Stewart's Living. These cards were made by rolling up pieces of corrugated cardboard and turning them into stamps. Martha's idea was that they would look like roses (you can also cut a piece of cork to make the stem), but I thought that they turned out looking like hearts, which was perfect.

Jilly dabbed the stamps in red ink and went to town. Each person who receives one of her cards this year gets an original and no two are alike. As I mentioned, we did these a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if it was the paper that we used or if she overdid it on the ink, but they needed some time to dry before flipping them over to complete.
On the other side, we wrote a personalized Happy Valentine's Day note to each recipient, attached a photo and stuck on a couple of festive stickers. I think that they're cute and unique and will be cherished by each family member and friend who receives one. Plus, other than the writing, the cards were completely decorated and designed by Jilly. I didn't give any suggestions to her about the amount of ink she used or the placement or amount of stamping she did. She was very proud of the final product as well.

In addition, Jilly and I completed our Valentine chandelier that I mentioned last week. It turned out just as lovely as I had hoped and spices up the dining room quite nicely. We decided to hang it in there to surprise Daddy when he gets home tonight. Hopefully he'll notice. Jilly helped glue the hearts together with her trusty glue stick. She is such a pro!

Spending a morning doing crafts with Jilly is one of my favorite things to do. It gives us time to work together and talk about not only what we are doing at that moment but other things going on around us. I treasure mornings like this.

Sick Day

If we have to deal with illness at least it's during a time when there is not much else to do. JillyBean woke up crying about 4 o'clock this morning and something inside me knew she had thrown up. After a quick dunk in the tub and a strip of her bed, she curled up with me and the day began.

She's been puny most of the day and is vomiting off and on. Not to give too much information, but I think that what's coming up now is what she held back earlier. Throwing up is scary for a little kid and this is the second time she has done it (the last time was a little over a year ago). She cries as it comes out and sobs how she doesn't want to let it out of her while I hold back her hair and stroke her back trying to let her know that it is OK. At one point she looked up at me with the most pathetic look and asked, "I'm going to get better, mommy, right?" All I could do is hug her and tell her that I was sure she would be much better by tonight and back to normal in the morning.

For now she's lying on a towel and sheet covered couch watching movies and resting.

When life gives you snow....make brownies!

My backyard looks like this today
So I made these

We are expecting 18-24 inches of snow this weekend. We are not expecting BeanieDaddy to make it home from work tonight. So, to get us through the afternoon and into tomorrow I decided to make brownies. Brownies seem to be the forgotten child of the chocolate dessert family. At least they are here. I'm more apt to do a cake, or cupcake or candy or something else. Brownies are usually an afterthought for some reason.

But I knew I had the ingredients on hand (at least I was pretty sure) and a page from my Southern Living Christmas Cookbook with a menu for a coffee and chocolate party has been taunting me for weeks. However, I had to make some alterations. The recipe calls for bittersweet baking chocolate and I had semisweet. After doing a little investigation, I learned that you can add unsweetened cocoa to the semisweet chocolate and you would have something closer to bittersweet. Also, the recipe calls for 2 cups of semisweet chocolate morsels. I have had a bag of raspberry chocolate morsels in the pantry waiting for a home so I used them instead. The result: pure heaven. It turned into one of those desserts that is so yummy but a little too rich to eat too much at one time. The hope is that these will last a while.

Here is the full recipe with my changes.

Dark Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from 2008 Southern Living Christmas Cookbook
1 cup butter
8 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate squares
2 cups raspberry chocolate morsels, divided
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, toasted
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt

Microwave butter, bittersweet chocolate, and 1 cup morsels in a 4-quart bowl at high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until chocolate is melted, stirring mixture every 30 seconds. Whisk in sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Toss together walnuts, 1 Tbs flour, and remaining 1 cup of morsels. Stir remaining four and salt into sugar mixture. Stir in walnut mixture. Spread batter into a greased 13- x 9-inch pan.

Bake at 350-degrees for 30-40 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from pan (a wooden pick inserted in center will not come out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

In addition to the brownies, I made this pulled pork marinade recipe from The Naptime Chef. I doubled the recipe and added 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper and a little more than a pinch of red pepper flakes to give it a little more of a kick. And wow did it add kick. The smell of the pork roast cooking in the crock pot all day is amazing. I think this will be my go-to marinade/barbecue recipe from now on. Too bad Dad won't be home tonight, but there will be plenty when he returns.

Snow Days

The first snow of the season fell on my birthday, Dec. 5. However, nothing stuck in our part of town. Everyone around us got some white fluffy stuff to play in except for us. The second snow came tumbling down when we went to Tennessee just before Christmas. There was plenty when we returned, but not seeing it fall is sort of like getting cash as a gift - it's great, you can do a ton with it, but it's not the same as the anticipation that builds when you unwrap a pretty box.

Well, I FINALLY got to see snow fall and stick this weekend and it came back today. Jilly loves the stuff and it has been a bit difficult keeping her in the house. We went out this afternoon, after her nap, because a lot of neighbor kids were in the courtyard (essentially our backyard) building snowmen and a fort. We were out for more than an hour. Not even the promise of hot cocoa could lure her back into the house. I swore that she could go back out in the morning and I am sure that we'll make another run in the afternoon.

It's beautiful and I love looking at it and playing in it, but I am SO ready for summer and afternoons spent at the pool.

Thanks for nothing, Phil.

I realized that I didn't have the supplies I needed yesterday to begin our cute little Valentine crafts. So in preparation for Groundhog Day today, Jilly and I made groundhogs.
We used this template that required a toilet paper roll. Funny how I have plenty of empty toilet paper rolls but not enough craft paper for Valentine's Day. Jilly had fun coloring her groundhog then getting the chance to use stick glue to put him together.

It was also a good chance to teach JillyBean about the tradition of Groundhog Day.

Thanks to Puxatony Phil seeing his shadow this morning, we can expect another six weeks of winter. Actually we may not since Phil has only been correct 40 percent of the time. But the snow outside my window and predictions of more coming today and into the weekend seem to point to Phil being accurate this year.

So, we are off to the craft store today to pick up supplies to get us through these next chilly weeks.

Getting Crafty

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I have a couple of goals that I have set out for 2010. One is to send at least one hand-written letter to a friend each month. Birthday wishes, a thank you note, or other events don't count. This is my way of getting back to the simple pleasures in life - receiving a little something in the mail box that isn't a bill or junk. Plus, it's a way for me to let my friends know how much I care for them. So far I'm on target with that goal.

Secondly I have decided that I am going to explore the crafty side myself. I have never been all that creative. Yes, I used to make money as a writer, but that was as a news writer/reporter. I simply took facts and presented them in a readable format. I suppose some creativity crept up from time to time, but not much.

I know that I am not very imaginative. I have ideas but don't know how to put them into play. So, to kick things off I will allow myself to become inspired by others.

Since January is in the books, and I now view that month as a time to get back to normal after the fall and winter holidays, Jilly and I are going to get cracking on some fun projects. I also view February as the perfect month to start this since it's the month of Valentine's Day. We have already borrowed an idea for making cards from Martha Stewart and now we're on to some cute decor.

The woman who is responsible for our MOPS blog posted these ideas and Jilly and I plan to tackle at least one today.

I like this banner from Crafting Chicks. I made a cute birthday banner for JillyBean's birthday last year, but I like the style of this. I will probably use this to help create her Thomas birthday banner this year.


And our second project is a Valentine chandelier that is featured on the My Little Gems blog.

I think that this will look cute all year long in Jilly's play room.