February 2012
10 posts
On Seven Silly Eaters
Almost ten years into life with our first-born, we are still trying to understand his curious food-related quirks. Spaghetti is a hit, as long as the tomato sauce has no chunks or visible spices, and preferably comes out of a jar labeled, “Ragu.” Pizza is acceptable as long as the edges are cut cleanly and don’t involve any “flying cheese.” Sandwiches consist of meat...
On Harry and Horsie
My favorite moments as a mom often come when I am eavesdropping on my children. If you are friends with me on facebook, you have seen a multitude of status updates that are simply the things I have overheard in the midst of their play. This morning alone, there were snakes that had transformed into robots and penguins in polka-dotted underwear roaming the halls of our home. Their imaginations are...
On Valentine's Day Writing
I must confess that I have been in a bit of a writing rut lately. I haven’t had much trouble revising my manuscripts to smithereens, but I have had more than a smidge of trouble writing anything new. So when I read about this Valentine’s Day writing challenge on Friday, I thought I would give it a try, in the hopes that actually writing something from beginning to end would help. The...
On Caps for Sale
Oh, CAPS FOR SALE, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
This has got to be one of the most well-loved books on our bookshelf. Surprising, considering it breaks one of the major picture book writing rules, which is that the main character should never be an adult. But guess what, folks, there isn’t a child to be seen anywhere in this book! But there are monkeys. Oh, the monkeys!...
On Goat-Singers and Illiterate Knights
I want to be here right now telling you how great this Newbery Challenge is going. How I am enjoying every word written by our brilliant, award-winning, children’s writing forefathers. But I am struggling. To be on track, I should be at least on book 6. But as it stands, I am halfway through both book 1 and book 2. See, I was having a hard time with...
On Perfect Picture Book Fridays!
I always have so much fun recommending picture books, so I have decided to join up with the lovely Susanna Leonard Hill and her writing pals as a contributor to Perfect Picture Book Fridays! So, here we go…
CORA COOKS PANCIT Written by: Dorina K. Lazo...
On Picture Book Admiration
This year is the 50th anniversary of the outstanding picture book, The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. There is so much to admire about this book. It takes the simplest of activities, a young boy taking a walk on a snowy day, and somehow makes it completely captivating. My kids especially love the pages where Peter makes tracks in the snow, with “toes...
January 2012
5 posts
“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who...”
– ~Anna Quindlen
On Challenges for the New Year
Staying home with 4 kids means that I never really feel like I finish anything. The dishes may be done for now, but more will magically reappear…sometimes within seconds of completion. Even if the homework is technically done, there is always more reading to do, guitar to practice or flashcards to study. I’m pretty sure that is why I have become drawn to signing up to participate in...
“I love books because they make tangible that most intangible of things: ideas....”
– Ginny Kubitz Moyer, Between the Covers : On loving books in a digital age via Busted Halo
December 2011
3 posts
November 2011
10 posts
tiny reads: The Giant Jam Sandwich: Grooviest book... →
This was one of my favorite books growing up, so I was delighted to read this blog post from tiny reads. Click to read the whole post and enjoy!
tiny-reads:
Some books I loved as a kid, I read them today and wonder: WTF I was thinking? But this book—I swear, the more I read it, the more I love it. I definitely have a thing for books with really good, unforced rhymes. But the awesomeness of...
On Being a Perfectionist
I’ve never liked trying new things. I’m not sure at what point in my life it started, but I have strong memories of being a kid and shying away from things I had never done before. Playing a new game was never fun for me because I was too worried about not knowing the rules or being just plain bad at it. So at some point, I stopped even trying. When I was faced with something new,...
WatchIt’s NYC Marathon Day! Love this video and makes me even more excited about the possibility of being there in person next year!
October 2011
7 posts
“But a real book is helpless. It needs us desperately. We have to pull it off the...”
– -Mo Willems, in “Why Books?” from The Zena Sutherland Lecture
go read the whole amazing article HERE
On Civic Responsibility
There is a famous quote that says, “When you go into court, you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” If that is the case, then I am really, really dumb because in my 36 years, I have somehow managed to find myself on 3 juries. At the beginning of this month, I spent 9 days serving as a juror. From the moment my name was...
1 tag
September 2011
5 posts
On Editors, Agents and Contracts, oh my!
Being a writer was never on the list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t really consider myself a creative type, so it just didn’t seem like a good fit. Lawyer? sure. But a writer? I just couldn’t see it. Maybe that’s why it took me 31 years to figure it out. 31 years! So making the decision 5 years ago to jump into the notoriously slow-paced publishing world...
On ipods and unexpected motivation
The only time I really listen to music is when I am running. Sometimes I’ll mosy on over to grooveshark when I have a moment to write at home, but that is pretty rare. When Rob bought me an ipod for my birthday several years ago, (one of his not-so-subtle encouragements to run) I thought I would never use it. At home, my ears are one of my most valuable mommy assets. If I’m blaring...
“PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.”
– Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
On the "well-adjusted" fourth child
This week, Lily and I started going to a home preschool co-op. She was way too cute as she got ready for school. She insisted on bringing a backpack, and asked what time Daddy was going to pick her up. She has watched her siblings go to school every morning for her whole life, and she knew exactly what to do. Being the youngest of four, there was no trepidation, no nervousness, no tears related to...
8 tags
August 2011
5 posts
On the things we lack
Today, my little LuLu turned seven. Now that she is seven she has rejected all things pink and princessy, and asked for turquoise cupcakes with either dolphins or peace signs on top. Dophins? Heck no. But I thought that surely even I, the craft-impaired wonder, could manage a peace sign. Um, I was wrong. When Lucy saw the cupcakes, the conversation went something like this:
Me (trying to sound...
3 tags
On Running
I was dragged kicking and screaming into becoming a runner. My husband Rob, who is a relentless distance runner, would encourage, nudge, and ever-so-gently suggest that perhaps I would like to start running? I came back (not always as gently) at him with every excuse I could think of:
“No time. How would we possibly fit another running schedule into our life?”
“It’s boring! Give me a team, a...
“Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is...”
– E.L. Konigsburg (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler)
On this blog
Someone, somewhere, at some point, said something that goes a little like this: You have to write a million crummy words before you actually start to write some good ones. So, being that I want to be a writer and all, I thought I’d better start purging those million words and get to the good stuff. Malcolm Gladwell, in Outliers, says, “it takes 10,000 hours of purposeful practice to...