Peaceful Reader

Peaceful Piggy Meditation

by Kerry Lee MacLean

2004

This is just the kind of book I love to find and share at Peaceful Reader; one that focuses on how to make our world calm. This book is simple with out being preachy or over-the-top. It begins like this:

“Sometimes the world can be such a busy, noisy place. Sometimes it feels like you always have to hurry, hurry, hurry…”

We feel like that at our house many days and from blog hopping around so do many other families. This book gives you clear reasons why we all could use a little daily meditation and how to fit it in with ease.

“Peaceful piggies know when to take a break, find a spot and just breathe, breathe, breathe.”

This is a great book to help at home and at school, as kids can do this at their desk, during testing, anytime they need to find that power within. We do live in a stressful world-one with many worries for children-and having an activity they can count on to bring them back to a peaceful feeling has gotta be a fantastic teaching tool.

P.S. Kerry Lee does her own illustrations, which are charmingly cute, making her extraordinarily talented!
Browsing around her website I discovered three other titles: Moody Cow Meditates, The Family Meditation Book and Peaceful Piggy Yoga-all available for purchase at her website.

For more information:

Kerry Lee’s meditation website.

Find it here at an IndieBound book store-Peaceful Piggy Meditation.
and while browsing I found this site, Luck Duck Children’s Books, with an awesome list of alternative titles for kids-many of the books I love like The Peace Book by Todd Parr are on this list.

Yoga Community

The yoga studio where I have participated in several events and taken classes had their one-year anniversary tonight and I was asked to be there as a yoga student and as a blogger-and it was so much fun. I took my little Groovy Girl (as she is a little yogi) and we set up my laptop, a few yoga books and my cards. We drank tea and visited with lots of current, former, and future yoga students. I ran into a ton of people I hadn’t seen in ages and met some new and interesting people. I also met another local fellow blogger-Mariah, who writes about food at Green Swamp Soup. We had a great time chatting about mutual interests in local foods, co-ops, and our meat-eating sons. Groovy Girl and I were able to participate in an hour long yoga class, stretching and sharing a mat together as the studio was filled to the brim with happy do-ers. It took me back to when she was just a wee thing, watching me do yoga at home and would climb on to my mat with me and bend in tandem. Oh, my they grow so fast!

I feel refreshed, renewed and ready to start yoga classes again next week. I have a New Year’s resolution to go for ten weeks. I have another NY’s resolution, which was to get to sleep closer to the 10:00 pm hour so I can wake up early, stretch and be prepared for my day. Hmmm. Here it is, 11:10-oops!

**** Another confesion…that is not me doing that amazing yoga pose above. I know, you’re shocked.

The Night Fairy

Laura Amy Schlitz

Angela Barrett, ill.

2010

117 pages

This elementary fantasy is a wonderful easy read for everyone who loves fairies, like we do at our house. My 8-year-old Groovy Girl makes fairy water every other day (or so it seems) with markers, lots of water, and tiny jars. The result is sparkly, multi-colored water (think pinks, oranges, sea green) by putting a small (picture the mess in my upstairs bathroom sink) amount of water into the teeny, tiny jars (mini marmalade jars), then sticking a marker tip into the water, and watch the color flow into the water. Magically, the marker is not permanetely damaged through this creative process. She sets these jars on her windowsill, for fairy purposes. I haven’t figured out why or what fairies do with this water…it just is what it is.

The Night Fairy is an adventure starring Flory, a young night fairy who at three monthes old has her brand-new, beautiful wings snapped off by a blundering bat, swooping through the night. She’s left in a sweet, gray-haired human’s backyard and has to learn how to survive without flying. Luckily, this human loves animals and is constantly putting treats out for the birds. Flory befriends a squirrel, Skuggle, who is always hungry and the two learn to help each other.

Flory was no longer alone. She felt that she had made a friend, though she wasn’t quite sure what friendship was. Skuggle was not the best of friends, because he would have eaten her if he could; also, he never talked anything but food. flory wasn’t the best of friends, either. She knew that if she had been able to fly, she wouldn’t have bothered with Skuggle. She was using him. All the same, after she struck her bargain with Skuggle, she was less lonely. (32)

She finds other animals along the way; both friends and foes, even helping a hummingbird escape a spider. She uses her mind and her limited use of magic to defend herself and find out more about the world around her. This imaginative little book is filled with great adventures that many fairy-loving young humans will love. The end of the story paves the way for, hopefully, more escapades with Flory. Flory would probably love to live in my daughter’s room with all the fairy water there for her.

Laura Amy Schlitz won the 2008 John Newbery award for her book Good Masters, Sweet Ladies!

The Night Fairy website.
Planet Esme’s review.
Green Bean Teen Queen predicts it as a Newberry Dark Horse winner.

Weekend Cooking-A casserole of sorts

I don’t have a recipe for a casserole-I’ve never made a casserole after having far too many of them growing up but too me a casserole is an odd mixture of things together and that is what I have for today’s Weekend Cooking post.

Thursday night was my stepdaughter’s last night home with us as she wanted to get back to Chicago to see friends. For a special dinner I made Pad Thai. It was the best we’ve made in awhile so I have that recipe to share. Plus my brother called this morning asking me what to do with the leftover ham bone he had (frozen) from his Christmas dinner. We talked it over and decided making soup would be the best option for him and his 6-year-old son, except he didn’t think split pea soup would work. In my Soup, A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka I found a chicken soup recipe that adds ham-which is perfect for my meat-loving brother! Two meats in one soup-Hot Dog! I have that recipe to share right here-Chicken Soup with Chinese Flavors. I can’t wait to hear his success story with this recipe.

Then my Vegetarian Times magazine arrived last night with a beautiful photo of lasagna on the front cover! I’m a sucker for lasagna recipes so I will be trying this recipe for Kale lasagna this week. I’ve shared two of my favorite lasagna recipes; Eggplant Lasagna and the newer, Spinach and Feta Lasagna. so if you are looking for something delicious to cook this weekend, any of these lasagna recipes will make you happy! The interesting thing about the Kale recipe is it is made in an 8-inch baking pan so it will be smaller-not as many leftovers, which sometimes can be a good thing but might be just perfect to feed my family with a side salad or some fruit and bread-don’t ever forget the bread here.

Okay, here is the star of the week, Vegetarian Pad Thai:

1 pound Asian Rice Noodles
1/4 cup soy/ Tamari sauce
1/2 cup lime juice
3 T. peanut butter
2 T. hot sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 block tofu
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T Sesame oil
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup crushed peanuts
4 scallions, sliced

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.
2. Whisk together soy sauce, peanut butter, lime juice, sugar, and hot sauce.
3. In large wok, sautee tofu, onions and garlic in sesame oil.
4. Add cooked noodles, peanut butter sauce to wok, stir well.
5. Top with sprouts, chopped peanuts and scallions. Serve hot.
6. I added fresh chopped basil at the table.

It was delicious and we had enough for lunch leftovers the next day.
Served with fresh bread and a spinach salad.

What’s in your “casserole” for the weekend??

Happy Cooking and reading!
Check out other Weekend Cooking posts at Beth Fish Reads.

Snowmen, Snowwomen=Snowpeople

(photo courtesy of Snowman Pics)

This first week back at school is always tough-teachers and students are tired. In the Midwest its been cold and will be cold, cold, cold through March. It is a long season for kids to tolerate. To bring a little fun into the first week back and share their holiday break stories, we’ve been talking snowmen and reading books featuring the funny snow creations. Here’s my list of books I’m using with students through January, hopefully giving kids a light-hearted look at winter.

Read this week:

It’s Winter (2002) by Linda Glaser-great alliteration which keeps even the youngest students awake with the fun sounds. Even though this is fiction it has interesting facts and just as the reluctant listener might be giving up their head snaps back at the mention of bats and bees hibernating!

All You Need for a Snowman (2002) by Alice Schertle-I’ve fallen in love with this book and don’t know why I haven’t used it for a read-aloud before. Poetic passages and whimsical illustration keep liitle ones(and me) mesmerized. “Three hand-packed, triple-stacked balls of snow. Hat on top, where a hat should go-that’s all you need for a snowman. Except for…” and the next page gives you another item to add to the big, billowy snowman

To Read:

Snowballs (1999)by Lois Ehlert-This one has always been my go-to book for winter. This year a teacher borrowed it before I had a chance to which may be a good thing as it led me to search anew.

A Snowman named Just Bob (1999)and its mate A Snowgirl named Just Sue (2005)by Mark Kimball Moulton- good, paired set to read together. A bit over the top in cheesy though and long.

Oh! (1999)by Kevin Henkes-in simple form shows the pure joy of winter snow.

Tracks in the Snow (2003)by Wong Herbert Yee-good, mini-mystery showing us a lovely outdoor winter world.

Snowmen at Night(2002) by Caralyn and Mark Buehner-with a little imagination a young boy thinks of fun things snowmen must go off and do while everyone else is sleeping. Classic fun and probably what we will read next week.

Stranger in the Woods; A photographic fantasy(2000) by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick-Love this story, the kids love the “mystery” and the photos are beautiful!

There was an old Lady who swallowed some Snow! (2003)by Lucille Colandro and Jared Lee-rhyming, rollicking fun and kids cannot resist getting involved in this readaloud.

A Really Good Snowman (2005) by Daniel J. Mahoney-I discovered this charming tale last year and enjoyed reading it aloud because it has such a sweet message about helping smaller siblings out. Cute animal characters compete in a snowman competition. Perfect for 2nd and 3rd grade.

What am I missing? What snowman and winter books are your favorites?

Share your ideas in a comment so I can expand my collection.

2011 Reading from my shelves project

Last year I took on 50 books and did not finish the list so this year I’ve kept some of the unfinished and added a few. I’ve picked 24 specifically so I can read two each month,which seems like an easy way to stay on track. Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for rehosting this helpful challenge.

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska
Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The Snipesville Chronicles; Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When by Annette Laing
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
Red Scarf Girl by Ji Li Jiang
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie
The Reluctant Tuscan; How I Discovered my Inner Italian by Phil Doran
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Inheritance by Natalie Danford
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing; Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson
Every Sunday by Peter Pezzelli
I don’t want to be crazy by Samantha Schutz
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

This year I will succeed at this challenge, This year I will succeed at this challenge, This year I will suceed at this challenge, This year I will, I will, I will….
***To join this challenge click here to sign up: Reading From My Shelves Project/2011

Almost Wordless Wednesday

My Library Guinea Pigs and their fan club, the “GP crew”

Dark Places

Gillian Flynn

2009

345 pages

From the back cover:
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived-and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, when the Kill Club, a secret society obsessed with notorious crimes, locates Libby and pumps her for details-proof its members hope may free Ben-she hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club. As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started-on the run from a killer.

Gripping! Genererally this is not my type of book but my husband picked it out from Barnes and Noble(he’s into the three for the price of two member deal) and I’m sure this heading on the back helped [Named one of the best Books of 2009 by The New Yorker]-my husband loves The New Yorker. He begged me to read it so we could talk about it-he liked it that much. I read it in 2 1/2 days because it is a thrilling, alternating chapters book to read. You get to know all these different angles and I couldn’t put it down. And even though the murders were gruesome to read about I didn’t get scared, really-just emphathetic to the characters involved.

Random quote:
I steal underpants, rings, CD’s, books, shoes, iPods, watches. I’ll go to a party at someone’s house-I don’t have friends, but I have people who invite me places-and I’ll leave wearing a few shirts under my sweater, with a couple of nice lipsticks in my pocket, and whatever cash is floating inside a purse or two. Sometimes I even take the purse, if the crowd is drunk enough. (52)

My husband has become a fan of Paperback Book Swap as well and he quickly located a copy of Sharp Objects, Flynn’s first book so we have that on our to-read pile now. His pile is not as big as mine by any means but just the fact that he now has a pile is a fantastic coup for me.

Along for the Ride

Sarah Dessen

2009

383 pages

     I’ve now read all of Sarah Dessen’s books and as soon as I was feeling good about this, my friend Tina gave me the news-Dessen has a new one coming out in the Spring. Bring it on, Ms. Dessen-I’m ready for it.
     This is the story of Auden and her dysfunctional family. Both parents are college professors, accomplished writers but short on emotions. She has one older brother, Hollis who seems to have used up all their parental energy leaving none for Auden. This is the story of her summer; the big one set between high school graduation and her freshman year at a prestigious university. Her parents are divorced and she chooses to spend it with her father, his new wife and their baby. Luckily they live in a house on the beach and there is an extra room for Auden.
     It is a perfect time for some reflection as Auden prepares to make the leap to college student, away from her mother. She is a complex character, silently suffering from her parent’s divorce. She doesn’t have a set of girlfriends to hang with and she seems to just be waiting for college and the comfort books and studying bring to her. She’s is a night-owl, a loner and smart beyond her years. Her stepmother, at first glance, is flighty, girlish and struggling with her new role of mother and wife. Her dad is a self-centered poop who shuts himself off from those at home, those closest to him, making the same mistakes he made during his first go-round as a parent.
    Auden spends her time running interference between her dad and her stepmother, Heidi, and trying to comfort the colic-y Thisbe-who knew this would be just like her own parent’s marriage.   To get away she spends time on the boardwalk. During one of these late night wanderings she meets Eli, a night time loner as well.   I enjoyed the casual relationship between Eli and Auden, which develops more as they understand each other better. Eli has layers; he is worth getting to know which makes it difficult on both of them as neither is interested in spilling their sad secrets.
     I loved the surprises many of these characters hold in store for the reader, making it easy to understand how not to judge a book solely by its cover or a person by their first impression.  Speaking of book covers; the cover art on this one is cute, adorable-love the pink polka-dot dress BUT…who is that boy on the cover…that is not Eli, who is described “a tall guy with longish dark hair pulled back at his neck, wearing a worn blue hoodie and jeans.”(41) Bike-riding guys tend to be leaner, less muscle-y in their arms and Eli is usually wearing a dark hoodie. Maybe it’s just that Eli appeared to me in a different way and the guy on the cover seems more Jake than Eli. That’s about the only thing I disliked about this book. What I liked: the shop girls at Clementine’s, the quest to fulfill Auden’s lack of normal childhood experiences and Heidi’s transformation back to independent can-do woman. If you haven’t read any Sarah Dessen books yet you are missing out on an author who really sees things from a teenager’s angle.

Random Quote:

“In truth, I hadn’t expected my mom to care whether I was around for the summer or not. And maybe she wouldn’t have, if I’d been going anywhere else. Factor my dad into the equation, though, and things changed. They always did.” (19)

Click Sarah Dessen for her author website.
Another point of view review:

Missie at The Unread Reader.
and Samantha reviews it at Someone like Samantha.
Find it at an IndieBound book store near you…Along for the Ride

New Year's Day – Black-Eyed Peas

How many of you eat black-eyed peas, a symbol of prosperity, for the new year? It is a family tradition for us. Each year I’ve tried a new recipe and it isn’t always easy to find one that is meat-free. This one I found in a recent parade magazine in an article about Katie Lee from The Early Show. It was easy to make and tasted great.

Hoppin’ John

serves: 6

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 15-oz cans of black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup vegetable broth or water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, minced
Cooked rice
Shredded white cheddar
Hot sauce (optional)

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, red bell pepper, and garlic. Saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in black-eyed peas, broth, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low; cook 10 minutes. Stir in green onions and parsley.
3. Serve over cooked rice and garnish with cheese and hot sauce.

My Tweaks: I soaked a bag of black-eyed peas from the bag instead of using cans. Like lentils, they are easy to soak and cook. I did not add green onions and I used parsley instead of cilantro (flat leaf parsley) only because I had parsley from another recipe. I didn’t add parsley to the recipe but put it on the table as a “condiment” so my kids could add it if they chose. Same with the cheese as Groovy Girl is not a cheese lover. I used brown rice and my husband and I added hot sauce to our bowls, which added just the perfect amount of spice.

Cheers to prosperity in 2011.

Teenage Boy said “why do we keep eating black-eyed peas for dinner?-it hasn’t worked yet.” This led to an interesting discussion of how many different ways prosperity appears in our lives if not in cash form!
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and I’m late in posting because I took a three hour nap after church. It felt great and must be my way of shoving my head into the sand as my holiday break comes to a close. Tomorrow it’s off to work we go!
This is what comes up when you google the peas…