adventures – Peaceful Reader

Charlson Meadows Retreat

As the calendar page flipped I had an out-of-the-box experience that ended November and ushered in December. Last weekend I had the most amazing experience. I took part in a writing retreat at the beautiful Nancy Nelson Lake House at the Charlson Meadows Renewal Center. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, asked me if I wanted to go with her and her writing partner/friend, Carey. To give myself space I even took Friday off so I had time to drive to Minneapolis, drop Groovy Girl with her cousins, and carpool to the retreat center in Victoria, MN.

This space is breath-taking as you enter through the solid doors where we were greeted by the program director, Nicole. After a short guided tour of the rooms, we were able to select our own bedrooms, unpack and look around at our leisure. The inside of the home is beautifully decorated with art pieces throughout the house.

The retreat center sits on 142 acres of land situated between Zumbro and Stone Lakes. It was snowy and cold for this retreat but the maps of the grounds look beautiful with three labyrinths, hiking paths, meadows, wetlands, and a beach area. I look forward to exploring the outdoors there when everything isn’t frozen (meaning any other season other than winter) yet watching the snow come down on Saturday afternoon was an ethereal experience.

Arriving on Friday afternoon we had time to relax and unwind before dinner was served at 6pm. Before the meal, we sat in front of one of many gas fireplaces and introduced ourselves to the 12 other writers in attendance and then we adjourned into the kitchen to scoop up the delicious offerings by Tena, the local caterer for most of the weekend. Each meal was carefully planned with a good attention to detail. While beef medallions were offered on Friday night the three vegetarians had delicious pasta to enjoy. In the morning we woke to fresh caramel rolls, quiche, and a large bowl of fruit. We shared some meals at the large dining room table and other meals were more casual as we gathered around the island in the middle of the kitchen. Eating was a highlight; the food was wonderfully prepared and I was filled with gratitude to have someone else cook for me. I realize how much energy on a weekly basis I use for meal prep in my house so this was pure joy. I didn’t even have to empty the dishwasher!

Between meals, we were given the gift of time to write spreading ourselves out in the various common rooms in the lake house. The house was built with solitude in mind so while you are working at one end in the library you cannot hear anyone else working or chatting in rooms across the way. My group of three gathered in the library space which had a sofa, comfy overstuffed chairs, a desk, and a fireplace.

We did one group writing activity after dinner on Friday which used prompts to get us loosened up. It was low-key and interesting to hear everyone else’s writing ideas. I headed to bed after that and felt motivated enough to write for another hour or so in the comfort of my secluded room. The rest of the weekend flew by with delicious meals, good conversations, and lots of writing time.

This is a lovely place to spend a weekend and I plan to go back for another writing retreat and I’d love to take part in one of their one-day spiritual journeys. Check out their website for more information on their offerings. Thank you to Stephanie for extending the invitation and thank you to Nicole for your seemingly effortless abilities as a host. I feel better for what I accomplished over the weekend and just simply knowing this place exists.

I did some digging after exploring their website myself and found information on Lynn Charlson, an inventor, and the benefactor of the retreat center. He sounds like an interesting character and I’m sure it is because of his creative energy that the retreat center is infused with such magic.

Weekend Cooking; Cooking for a crowd

{Yellowstone}

Now that summer vacation if finally here the weekends and the weeks begin to run gloriously together except that last week I’ve been assisting my husband with his Arts Camp. My husband (I have my bragging hat on) is a pretty talented director and he does an amazing job of connecting with children of all ages. This art camp is in its seventh year and it is a lot of fun. Kids are paired up according to age and rotate through 4 different classes of art, music, drama and dance. We feed all 70 + kids a snack, my job, half way through their time together. It is a two-week camp and as soon as we finish up next week we are headed out to Yellowstone and Big Sky, MT for a family gathering.

I’ve been working hard mentally trying to think of easy meals I can put together while there. I volunteered to cook the first night and planned to make Katie Workman’s enchiladas I’ve made about 100 times this past year because they are easy and my kids love them. I’ve made them for friends and family and church but not for my brothers, wives, and children so I thought it would be the perfect recipe until I talked to my mother yesterday. After our chat I’m not going to make that recipe but am going to turn it into tacos with all ingredients out on the table so everyone can make their own. I’m also going to serve these margaritas that I love and hopefully my family will also. If they don’t; more for me I guess!

The margarita recipe:

12 oz can frozen limeade
12 ounces of tequila
12 ounces of water
8 ounces of triple sec (2/3 can)
1 can domestic beer
Ice and Limes as desired

Use the frozen limeade can to measure
ingredients. Mix well in a gallon pitcher. If you would like to
blend them; don’t add the water and blend. Either way serve in a small
glass, with limes and salt. Perfect.

0
0
1
57
327
Holt Home
2
1
383
14.0

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
JA
X-NONE

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

I’m going to bring the ingredients to make sushi. Groovy Girl and I have been making these easy rolls for lunch and we love them. All you need are one package of nori, sushi rice, a packet or can of wild caught Alaskan Salmon, a couple of thinly sliced carrots, maybe a few sprigs of parsley or leaves of spinach will work and you can roll up a healthy lunch. Beats a PB and J for sure.

It’s hard to believe when we return from our trip it will be July already and my short summer respite will be more than half over. My new school district starts school mid-August.

Stay cool and out of the rain.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

New Beginnings

{Kaylee and Greg}

I’ve learned to love the phrase “When one door closes another will open” even though it has taken on new meaning for me as I’ve grown older. I used to think the door was closed on you and I now see it that sometimes you can be the one to close the door.

We’ve had a few recent and exciting changes in our family. My stepdaughter Kaylee recently graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio and we made the trek across three states to attend this monumental event. My in-laws and my brother- and sister-in-law with their young daughter, Sophie made the trip as well. They came from the opposite direction to meet us. We not only celebrated Kaylee’s graduation all weekend but also honored Allen, my father-in-law with a family dinner, a craft-beer tasting and many unique cards for his 80th birthday.

As Kaylee closes the door on her last four years of school she is open to new possibilities of where ever her talents will take her. She is spending the summer in Bar Harbor, MA, working at a local brewery with a group of young people. Over the graduation weekend I watched her explain her choices and stand by her idea that she was seeking adventures that would lead to writing opportunities and not just taking a post-college job. She is an excellent writer and my husband and I feel her stories are strong enough that she will sooner rather than later be paid to write creatively. I look forward to watching her develop even more as a writer as she immerses herself in unique experiences.

And I need to find a way to get to Bar Harbor for a visit. I’ve never been to Maine and I’ve heard it is absolutely one of our prettiest states.

As for myself I’ve recently been hired by a new school district to take the place of their retiring teacher-librarian. I’m very excited about this new opportunity but also scared and thinking “what was I thinking…” Even interviewing was a challenge for me but I made it through. It will be frightening to get to know a new staff. I’m comfortable with the staff at Highland and know the expectations of students, staff, and administration. Getting to know a new place of work, student’s names, reading ranges, and likes will be a big hurdle. I did want to push myself professionally though and to do that I had to close the door on the known.

{Groovy Girl and friends after talent show performance success}

Groovy Girl faces her own doors as she graduated out of her beloved elementary school and is now a 7th grade student at one of our local junior high schools. She is excited for the adventure right now but I know once we hit August her anxiety will build until she walks through those new doors and finds she is capable. Luckily my new elementary is just across the parking lot from her school so we’ll be able to give each other strength as we open the doors on that first morning and the second and the third.

Lots happening in this neck of the woods…
How about you? What new challenges are you tackling over the next few months?

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

Name recognition works because as I scanned the new book section at our library Clare Vanderpool’s name popped out at me like it had bright lights flashing around it. Remember the wonderful historical fiction Moon over Manifest? See my review here. She won the Newberry medal for her debut novel. Now she’s written another amazing story featuring two new characters, Jack Baker and Early Auden.

From the inside panel:

After his mother’s death at the end of WWII, Jack Baker is suddenly uprooted from his home in Kansas and placed in a boys’ boarding school in Maine. There he meets Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as an unending story and collects clippings about sightings about sightings of a black bear in the nearby mountains.

Feeling lost and adrift, Jack can’t help being drawn to Early, who refuses to believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the great Appalachian bear, timber rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as the Fish, who was lost in the war.

When Jack and Early find themselves alone at school, they set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for the great black bear. Along the way, they meet some truly strange characters, several of them dangerous, all lost in some way, and each a part of the pi story Early continues to reveal. Jack’s ability to be a steadfast friend to Early will be tested as the boys discover things they never knew about themselves and others.

Like Moon over Manifest Vanderpool combines plucky characters with an amazingly tale that contains both historical fiction with magical realism. My library copy was filled with sticky notes as I marveled over her magical way with words.

Quotes:

“Monday morning came like a cool Kansas shower on a hot, humid day. In other words, it was a relief. Because now at least I had a schedule. I knew that history came first, followed by Latin, English, and math.” {14}

“Finally, I pulled the Sweetie Pie along the dock with a scraping noise that sounded like a cat on a midnight prowl. Preston, Sam, Robbie Dean, and the others all watched with pained grimaces on their faces, waiting for the boat and the noise to come to a stop. I stood up and felt the evil Sweetie Pie pitch left, then right, and before I could say Jack Tar, I was upended in Wabenaki Bay.” {43}

“We walked a ways in silence. Early looked up at the night sky as the clouds cleared and found the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. We followed it into the darkness, in search of another great bear-this one on the Appalachian Trail. My feet were heavy, and the woods closed in around us. There was only darkness and danger in front of us. And now there were dogs and pirates behind us. Early’s quest had gone on long enough. It was time to turn back. I opened my mouth to say so, but Early spoke first.” {187-188}

I can tell you Early does not plan on turning back…

Vanderpool can turn a phrase, can’t she? I feel like there’s a little Bluegrass music playing in the background as Early and Jack explore the Appalachian Trail finding more than just adventure.

NY Times article about Navigating Early
Clare Vanderpool’s website.

The Travel Game

by John Grandits; illustrated by R.W. Alley
(2009)

I love this book!

Opening paragraph: My family owns a tailor shop. It’s on the first floor at 857 Broadway in the city of Buffalo, which you can find on the globe next to Lake Erie in the state of New York in the country of the U.S.A on the continent of North America.

Tad, our wee main character, describes the tailor shop and how the suits are made and how each family member has specific tasks to accomplish at the shop. Tad likes helping out at the shop but is enticed one day after lunch to play a favorite game with his Aunt Hattie. They use a globe and a book: 1001 Pictures from Around the World by George P. Smithers to begin globe-trotting. Aunt Hattie says: “Okay, you close your eyes, and I’ll spin the globe. Then you put your finger down, and that’s where we’ll go.” (15) When Tad points his finger down he’s landed in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean and so Aunt Hattie takes her turn. This next time they land in Hong Kong. They use 1001 Pictures from around the World (which, by the way, is not a real book, I checked) to research Hong Kong and what it looks like. You can’t travel to some place and not have an idea of what it might look like since Tad admits he’s never been outside of Buffalo. Aunt Harriet uses her vivid imagination and story-telling skills to help Tad visualize their exotic destinations.

This book is a must-have for my library in the fall and I have tons of ideas on how to use it. I plan to read it to 5th graders as an introduction to research and world geography. It will also work for discussions on imagination, community, family and visualizing. The illustrations are detailed and add to the coziness of the book. R.W. Alley is the same illustrator as There’s a Wolf at the Door written by his wife, Zoe B. Alley.

Highly Recommended
5/5 stars
Picture Book
Author website-John Grandits
Illustrator website-R.W. Alley

Other reviews:

Katie’s Literature Lounge (she has an activity created to go along with this book)
Tasha at Kids Lit

Lazy days

dedicated to the one I love

I’ve had all week to post reviews and what have I been doing…

laying around…groaning and moaning in complete agony!!!

I have a pinched nerve at the base of my spine which is affecting my left leg and
causing great distress in my brain-meaning the pain overrides
everything else I try to think about. My back and leg did hurt during our Michigan trip but the pain
skyrocketed when I got home.
I dislike pain (most of us don’t…), dislike not being able to walk or
do any number of the household chores waiting for me after camping.

Thankfully my helpful husband has stepped right up to the plate and
taken over…just as he did when I was on bedrest during my last pregnancy.
Okay, that is not to say he hasn’t stepped up at all in the last 7 years but this
is different-he’s become some what of a man servant for me!

He’s doing the massive loads of laundry left from camping, he’s planned and made meals (salmon, even), and he’s driven me
to and fro chiropractic and doctor appointments all in-between getting me glasses of ice water, breakfast,
etc. He’s a Godsend, literally.
Yesterday after pain was not subsiding from adjustments I headed to my regular doctor for some relief. It came in
the form of muscle relaxers and pain meds. As an organic mama I’m not a big fan of over the counter, under the counter or behind the counter drugs but something had to be done or I was going to pull my head off. Really.

Today I’m lucy in the sky with diamonds…
loopy with a dry mouth and eyelids at half mast.
Small price to pay for a pretty decent sleep last night.
oh, and I’m not a-weepin’ and a-wailin’ as I was
the day before. Yes, I even cried walking through my chiropracter’s
waiting room yesterday. (not a positive advertisement)

During the low pain moments I have accomplished some reading…

I finished Devil on my Heels by Joyce McDonald-a great historical fiction that let me escape to Florida’s orange groves for a bit. I will finish The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley today and I’m going through my stack of food magazines to clip the recipes I want to save. I used to save all my Vegetarian Times copies but the stack gets to be too much so now I clip them and put them in a three-ring-binder.

Thankfully friends have kindly taken my girl to the pool several times this week. Fetching ice packs and refreshing my water glass is not her idea of summer fun either!! Hopefully by next week things will be much improved on this end-then I will be crying for joy with new appreciation for walking and sitting pain-free!

What about you…what has you crying for joy this week?

Weekend Update

We’ve been camping in Michigan for one week and we made it out alive. I love camping but I kissed my [dirty] carpet so thankful am I to be home!! Camping makes one appreicate home so much…the indoor plumbing, the kitchen sink, baths, wifi, the ice box, a roof! We went to Michigan so teenage son could fish and so sweetheart husband could run the Charlevoix Marathon [his 10th]. I planned to have some marathon reading sessions in-between adventures. My reading dreams are always bigger than reality. I did spend a fair amount of time with my lovely in-laws and enjoyed a wine-tasting with them (quietly, just the 3 of us).

What I did read:

Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff (yes, I started off easy but it was good and I love Giff)
Serena by Ron Rash (oh, my)

What I’m still reading:

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs (lighter reading after Serena)
Singing for Mrs. Pettigrew by Michael Morpurgo (still, I know, V and A)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (I’m on chapter 10 with peaceful girl-oh what joy to be rereading this aloud for another child!!)

What I carried all the way to Michigan and back without reading:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alen Bradley (even though I’m really looking forward to this one)

I also did a little knitting and worked a large crossword, which are both easy activities to do while riding in the passenger’s seat so I can talk to driving husband. I’m so grateful for his driving abilities!! Love you.

We had very sporadic cell and wifi service and it was refreshing to be off the grid. I did have two posts pre-written before our departure last Saturday and I was thrilled with how well my Father’s Day tribute turned out. It is difficult for teenagers to be without their technology but I love to watch my son fish much more than play FIFA soccer on his ipod. Stepdaughter is still waiting to hear about housing assignments at Oberlin so had to check email each time we landed at a cafe. Please…she wants the new green choice available only to freshman!!! [waving magic mama wand]

I have several posts to write about camping and knitting as well as the books I finished.
As I browsed through other blogs tonight, touching base with many on my blog roll, I saw lots of challenge up-dates (woe is me!) I need to get my reading in gear!!
Now that our major vacation is done and checked off my summer to-do list and number one son is off for a month camping with grandparents I may have tiime to read a ~~few~~ many days away~in my hammock.

Now since I am very sleep deprived [how much sleep do you really get in a tent while it is downpouring?] I need to get some rest. No alarm.

What about your week…what fantastic and marvelous adventures did you have?

Chicago then and now

(Kalila and her dad-my peaceful husband)

My step-daughter Kalila graduated from Northside College Prep on Monday night. It was a grand and lengthy event but filled with many tears and memories. Long ago when I met Kaylee’s dad we used to road-trip back and forth to pick her up from her mom’s Chicago home. She was already an avid reader-she was reading Julie of the Wolves as an 8 year old. She didn’t really care that I had also read it-years ago. Now Kaylee drives herself to us-a time-saver-but I worry every trip. We no longer plan her days, coordinate time with friends-she is a very independent being and soon she will head off to Oberlin in Ohio where she will learn and grow even more. She already is an exceptional person, an economic whiz, a writer just waiting to be published and a humorous yang to her 15-year-old brother’s yin and her little sister’s heroine in her own family’s story.

Kaylee and I had trouble from the beginning forming a relationship and I know this is not unusual but I expecteded it to be different. I wanted too much and she didn’t want anything. I thought I had things to offer her (the hip stepmother) but again, she was so not interested. She loved her mom and made it clear there wasn’t any extra for me. I wish I had acted more like I didn’t matter. She regretted ever thinking it was a good idea that her dad and I marry. It was a hard stretch and we generally battled about at least one thing every time she came to visit. At some point I stopped trying so hard and at some point she hugged me by choice. She and I have formed, just in the last few years, a more permanent relationship and I feel blessed to be let in just a little bit to this inner love circle. We both love reading but as I’ve explored a variety of genres we have crossed over into similar territory. She turned me on to Sarah Dessen and I gave her the Anna Godbersen series.

I look forward to her visits as I know we will find common ground in books, blogs and writing and someday there will be more. I especially love to watch the relationship expand and change between her and her two siblings. Life is ever evolving and we never know what amazing relationships might grow if given the time. I am so thankful for her wit and wisdom and what she brings to our family. Congratulations, Kalila!

Kathryn Stockett Adventure

My friend Tina and I began our blogs at about the same time a few years ago. She reads a lot more than I can ever get accomplished plus she always has her finger on the pulse of hot new books, authors and literary events happening around our great state. A couple of weeks ago she informed me that Kathryn Stockett was coming to a town quite close to us and we decided we had to go. We have girls around the same age and we worked some magic to leave them with dads for the whole Sunday afternoon. Football season is over anyway. She pulled up in front of my church and we hightailed it out of there like we were Thelma and Louise, in a minivan. Luckily we were heading for tamer entertainment; an author reading!!

In fact the audience was filled with mostly white women, with a heaping handful of men, and a smaller handful of women of color. I point this out because I’ve often wondered how the black community views this book and its characters. Stockett spoke to a full house and we were truly mesmerized. She is petite, graceful and fully at ease with herself and the book she wrote. I loved how she spoke-she didn’t give the usual author talk of how many rejection notices she received or advice-she just talked to us like we were all sitting around her kitchen table with her, like we were old friends. She seemed amazed by the success of The Help but was happy it had been well-received, not because she wanted her book to be popular, but because it got people talking about race and that’s big for a small Southern woman.

Even though she said she wasn’t Skeeter in the book it seemed she, like Skeeter, was willing to push against her upbringing to really think about what it was like for generations of black women who worked for her family. During the Q and A session she answered several race related questions and her families feelings about the book. I think after listening to her sweet drawl I might be a little in author love. She was friendly, low-key and so very, very funny that I couldn’t even take notes-I was just so happy to be there!
Thank you Tina for sweeping me off to this event!
*** That and I got a fantastic bargain on a sweet pair of trouser jeans from Ann Taylor about 20 minutes later.
It was just a really great day.***

If you ever have the chance to hear her speak I highly recommend you take the opportunity and she has a full list on her website of speaking engagements from now until Fall. If you have not read The Help yet please pick it up at the library or buy it. After hearing her speak I want to read it again!

Margaret Peterson Haddix's new series

The Missing: Book 1

Found (2008)

I remember reading The Hidden by MPH, the first in her Shadow Children series years ago with my children-the ones that are now teenagers. I don’t think we read the whole series(there are 7 total) but we read a lot of them and we were fascinated by the idea. This new series is just as amazingly unique. She takes a whole plane load of babies and drops them at an airport, no pilot, no friendly attendants. Fast forward 13 years and that crew of babies, adopted into families are now teenagers and are leading regular lives. Two of them, Jonah and Chip, begin to get odd letters in the mail.

Their investigation takes them to the FBI, where they find disappearing janitors as well as a list of survivors and witnesses. Are they survivors or witnesses? From this list, Chip and Katherine, Jonah’s sister make phone calls trying to put any pieces together. Jonah just wants to go back to his regular life before the crazy letters began. Eventually a secret meeting at the local library (nice touch; it is a great place for information) takes place with one of the witnesses and she reveals a few more odd clues. Ahhh, such a mystery!

This book is a great mix of science fiction and I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi but time travel is pretty fascinating. I’m ready to read Sent, the second in the series, which will include a little history according to the synopsis on the back of the book.

I highly recommend everything by this author!

Here is Margaret Peterson Haddix’s website.