This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for several years and I loved the characters. Leif’s tale just trots along taking his reader on an unexpected journey through one moment in their lives. Life is like that where one incident can overshadow all other expectations for a person. We see it today in the crazy debates about Obama’s patriotism, wearing a lapel pin or not.
Category: Uncategorized
South Dakota
We’ve already taken our one big summer road trip vacation and it was great. We traveled across the state of South Dakota, site-seeing along the way. We saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, a great Sioux museum in Chamberlain and of course, Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse carving, which was fascinating even though it wasn’t finished. Even as a work in progress it has an extensive museum attached and was very informative and the kids loved it and well, isn’t that what we are aiming for when we set off on these long voyages in the station wagon!! It certainly isn’t the fancy motels or the screaming in the back seat. At the Crazy Horse museum I purchased a book called Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog. Combining work with play I read it throughout the rest of the trip. Very good read about how our ancestors continued to be cruel to our original Native population through the 60’s and 70’s. Of course, most of us really smart people already knew that but this book helped me see just how senselessly cruel we were and are still probably. I of course grew up wanting to be a Native American…I wanted to belong to a tribe…I loved our family trip to Pipestone. And now I know that at the same time I was wanting to be an Indian, Indians were being subjected to awful abuses on their own small reservations. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Sioux Nation history including Leonard Peltier.
With all my ramblings I didn’t even get to all the fun we had in Denver, CO for the second leg of our journey!!
Traveling
We had an amazing trip to Madison, WI for Memorial weekend. We explored the large Madison farmer’s market Saturday morning, which was amazing-so much local food in one place!! I was in some kind of shopper heaven yet I couldn’t really make any grand purchases because i didn’t have a portable ice box with me. We had a great brunch at an Irish pub with Sean. We shopped on State St. and found a lot of hippie stores. We met up with Sean and Jared for dinner also and had a fantastic Indian meal. And that was all in one day!! We did spend some quiet time in our cozy super 8 motel, which had a heated and open outdoor pool. We spent Sunday in the famous and very campy “WI Dells” and were blown away by the size of the hotels and water parks!! We did play a fun game of miniature golf.
Tristan and I both really loved Madison and will be excited to go back.
Parenting
It is really difficult to be a parent today. It is a wonderful experience and I cherish my children but they really can drive me crazy!! We seem to be in a negative, cranky mode right now and I need to find a way to lift us all out of it. I wish there was a magic food for that. Maybe it is time to put quiet meditation into practice. Last night before I feel asleep I visualized turning cable off for the summer so we could build with legos and dance outside.
Very first post
I’m excited to begin this blog…something I have been wanting to create for two years and haven’t done!! Tina’s blog today was the catalyst for just doing it!! It also makes me feel behind…time to catch up! The latest adult book I read and loved was The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood! It was amazing to love it so much because it is such a sad book and made me shed tears, really cry, cry, cry!! The book made me focus a bit more on appreciating my wonderful children. I finished Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, which has been on my “to read” list for a year. I finally read it and thought it combined fairy tale themes with the Holocaust very well. I am excited to take home the Iowa Children’s Choice books for the summer and read those. My after-school student book club is reading The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I didn’t think this book was going to capture my attention as much as it does. It brings up many themes for our girl’s group to discuss, such as forced marriages, the desire to learn, money and how it makes the world go ’round and prejudices on many levels.
That’s all for now-
Peaceful Reader 