dogs – Peaceful Reader

Love Dogs

There are so many awful things going on in the world today. Terrible laws are being proposed and passed, book bans in several states, Russia ruthlessly exerting its power in the Ukraine. It’s very difficult to see reports flashing on my phone. After I’ve donated, shared, and read enough to keep myself informed I then have to step away and focus on something else and right now I’m thinking of dogs. Yes, dogs. Loyal companions, easy cuddles. They ask for so little but to be loved and fed and walked.

Throughout my life I’ve had a long list of dogs. We had a gray French Miniature poodle growing up and then my dad, a hunter, raised several Brittany Spaniels and eventually two of my brothers owned Brittanys as well.

The first dog I had on my own as an adult was Taylor, a beautiful black Lab, who loved me to the moon and back. I inherited her from an ex-boyfriend because she noticeably missed me after we broke up. Taylor came with me when I moved from Colorado back to Iowa and she lived quite a few years with us here. She was Tristan’s first companion and that dog followed him everywhere. Taylor was so calm even my Grandma Bruch fell in love with her. She would pat Taylor’s head and say “You’re a pretty good girl for a dog.” She passed away one Christmas morning and it was a sad day for everyone in our household.

It took us exactly one year before we found another little black Lab puppy at our local shelter. We brought her home a day before Christmas to surprise the kids. She’s still with us at 13 years old. We had an opportunity a couple years ago to take in an older chocolate Lab dog because her family had a new baby in the house. Izzy was a plodding sweetheart of a dog, heart of gold, with soulful eyes. We were so sad when she passed a few years ago.

(Tarah and Izzy)

Tarah’s now much more gray and slower. In her heyday though she ran races with my husband and ran with him on a regular basis. A few times she’d get lost chasing a deer and return home hours later panting but happy. My husband was more of a cat person when I met him but he has come around. I’m usually the instigator of all things dog (“let’s get another one!” but three summers ago while we were in Northern Minnesota he saw an update from our shelter that they’d received a large batch of dogs and so when we returned home from our trip we thought “let’s just go take a little look…”

Nothing caught our eyes right away as we walked through the sad cages of barking dogs until we rounded this corner in the back and found Ruby, a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback pictured above. She’d come from a puppy mill in Oklahoma, been adopted by a farm family and then returned, someone was mean to her along this way and she came to us with a fear of men. For the first few weeks we thought she was bark-less but no, she was just scared and eventually, once she trusted us, her bark came back (somewhat unfortunately) Ridgebacks were bred to keep the lions at bay in South Africa and she acts like our home is her estate. We love her very much and respect all the trauma she’s experienced. Except that I lost sight of that a few weeks ago.

We were at the dog park when we ran into a friend who had an adorable Norwegian Elkhound little foster pup that I fell in love with and adopted her just a few days later. It was a whirlwind romance but our other two dogs, especially Ruby, did not feel the same affection for Niko. There was a lot of barking and complaining around our house with Niko trying to play with the Tarah and Ruby but to no avail. After some deep soul searching we decided to pass Niko on to friends who have three kids and no other dogs. Niko is a special pup and deserves the best possible life, Ruby deserves my full attention as the trauma babe that she is, and Tarah needs to live out her last few years in peace and harmony because this is the only home she knows. It should be a place of comfort.

And just as I write that last sentence my thoughts went right to the Ukrainian people who deserve that as well. It all comes full circle and dogs do often teach us the deep lessons. Peace be with you as we welcome Spring. Support efforts to help the Ukrainian people. Find resources on this NPR page. Stay in touch with what brings you joy as you reach out to help others.

Reasons for happiness

{NPR-Source}

On Monday we will start back to school with everyone masked up again and I couldn’t be happier! I really dislike wearing a mask; it makes it hard to hear students and hard for me to read books aloud to students. You miss the emotions, the smiles, the glee. You can see joy in their eyes but I miss my students faces; all 650+ of them! On the other hand it will keep us safe from the virus (and other germs) which is important because we have young students who don’t have the opportunity to get vaccinated. We have kindergarten students missing school because of positive Covid tests or due to exposure. I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want our students to get sick or miss school either. I know there will be complaints but bear with us. This too shall pass-eventually!

I recently had a chat with another teacher during a staff breakfast and she relayed that she was going to be away from school for over a week for surgery. She leaned in and asked me if I’d read any good books lately? Why of course I have! I love the start of a good book conversation and she took my two book recommendations with a smile on her face. I’m sure her foot surgery won’t be fun but I do know she’ll be set up with good reading material. What did I recommend? Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly And Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women.

Over the weekend I’ve had a chance to really relax with nothing major on my agenda. I had a good talk with my mother-in-law. My husband and I strolled through our local Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, I read Six of Crows in my bright orange hammock for over an hour while listening to the chickens cluck around me. I watched a little Netflix after the sun went down. I did an hour’s worth of yoga. Today I’m about to embark on a long walk with my dogs. I feel like some weekends we go non-stop but this kind of weekend really helps me settle. What’s on your agenda?

Holiday Self-Care

At this time of the year I start to feel like I’m on a super light speed treadmill and I can’t keep up. Finishing school with students, shopping, wrapping, tree trimming, treat baking, family (Zoom) gatherings, post office runs, holiday cards, it all ads up to a head spinning schedule. This year I’ve had one thing throughout most of December that I’ve relied on either in the morning, right after school, or before bedtime that has kept me steady.

Based in Austin, TX Adriene, and her sidekick Benji, does a monthly yoga journey and Find What Feels Good subscription classes. She has free yoga classes galore on YouTube, including school resources, and I can find a different one every day to fit my desire/need. The energy Adriene sends out on emails and in videos is what keeps me coming back. They are low key, kind, and she encourages you to play in your practice. Angelle connected me to these unique videos and Groovy Girl encouraged me to join her for 25 days of yoga during December. From what I understand they really helped her get through the last few weeks of her semester at school.

Give yourself a self care gift and find one of her videos to just start…once you begin you may not want to stop. It’s a little like eating salted caramel saltines or my friend Jim’s buttery caramel squares. Amazing.

Blessings for a gracious holiday.

Two books for you to read…

There is something magical that happens to me when a student says “You’ve GOT to read this book Mrs. Holt” as they clutch said book tightly in front of them and add “It is soooo good!” (eyes sparkling)

This recently happened with a new-to-Hansen 5th grader, Gabby, and she said all this about Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper, which was on our Iowa Children’s Choice list this year. I always intend to start that book straight away yet that actually rarely happens. That sweet book sat at my desk for a few weeks and finally I finished a stream of other books and picked that one up and brought it home. I am so excited to return to school tomorrow and march right up to Gabby and tell her thank you for recommending this book to me! I loved it as much as she did so now I’m holding it out to you and telling you, my fine reader, to go find this book at a library or a bookstore and take it home, settle yourself on the sofa or outside in a hammock and be prepared to be transported to Stella’s world.

Stella is living in Bumblebee, NC and she tries to write in her journal outside at night because she catches her best thoughts in the quiet. One night she spots men in white robes and a cross on fire right across the pond from her. The Klan is active and creates terrible tension for her small community and her family. Her father joins two other men from the community to register to vote in town and Stella goes along “to be his rock”. When the Klan burns down a house belonging to one of the brave men who registered to vote the town comes together, both black and white to help. Stella is a brave, smart, kind, and enjoyable character that eventually learns to trust her own talents as a writer.

Did not know that Miles Davis plays Stella by Starlight, check it out! I’m sure Sharon M. Draper did.

The second book I’m excited about this week is The dog, Ray by Linda Coggin. I found this gem at the public library while browsing the shelf for a teacher request. It just struck me and I brought it home and it traveled to dance with me for a long rehearsal and I finished it in one day. Yes.

This is the story of 12-year-old Daisy, killed in a car accident, in the first few pages. She is whisked up to some kind of job central and lands back on earth as a…yes, a dog. So sweet. The entertaining part is that she went through the wrong shoot and she can remember her “Daisy” life. She is adopted first into a neglectful, crabby kind of family which makes her take off after a kind homeless man she meets while tied to a bench at the park. Eventually, she meets a young orphaned and homeless boy, Pip. His mother recently died and he’s trying to find his father who does not know he exists. What a journey. Pip is a delightful Oliver Twist-like young man determined to find a forever home and he and Ray find their way together. This story is filled with an interesting cast of characters and will have you turning pages rapidly.

I wish I had a song to go with this one but go back and listen to that fantastic Miles Davis tune!

July is starting off with a bang….

Literally. Fireworks are now legal in IA and it’s a horrible idea. It’s loud, sounds like gunfire continuously, just popping with no pretty after glow. At all hours of the day. I could be out back enjoying my hammock life, reading, dreaming, napping about mid-afternoon and pop, pop, pop; my peaceful moment is robbed. Tomorrow should be even more crazy. I have typed the word “chill” into my calendar for tomorrow so that’s while I’ll be doing no matter the sound affects around me.

Sweet Isabella

We did a tough thing today. We put our sweet Izzie to sleep. Toughest decision every. Many think we should have done it awhile ago but I think there is no right time. She wasn’t deathly ill, she was in pain and had trouble motoring around. The last few months she’d started this odd and consistent woofing that we thought was dog for “I’m not feeling like myself-can you fix it?” And we tried all her favorite treats and a round of pills but nothing seem to alleviate her pain. So we helped her along. Taking a page from the Dog Whisperer I treated her like a queen this past week. May she be romping pain-free tonight on some grassy knoll.

Between the fireworks popping everywhere and our sweet dog it’s been a rough beginning to the middle month of summer. I do have a delicious menu planned for tomorrow as we CHILL. Wild Caught Salmon, arugula salad, a raw corn salad, baked beans (Anton’s must have for any BBQ) and I’m making a strawberry rhubarb pie tomorrow. Groovy Teen and her quest to be dairy-free really misses ice cream so I’ve made her an almond milk version that I hope will turn out. It’s in the freezer as we speak.

Speaking of rough times-my Groovy Girl has requested in strong terms that I stop referring to her on this blog with that every so cute blog nickname. I call my other kids by their names but hers is unique and I like to hide her identity and she’s still under age. So I’ve been blandly calling her Groovy Teen in the last few posts. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Any suggestions…

28 Days of Things I Love; #5

My dogs.

Tarah interrupting my reading.

Tarah, young black lab, and Isabelle, old chocolate lab, are my happy after-school greeters. They lick and bark; fighting for attention. Both seem a bit camera shy but love to eat-mostly trying to find a way to get people food. Tarah has found her way onto our kitchen counters, consuming butter, whole loaves of bread and once an entire array of whoopie pies meant for my book club. She’s banned from the kitchen now.

Isabelle

Bella’s too big for the love seat now

Trying to nap

Weekend Cooking; Little Klein by Anne Ylvisaker

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme over at Beth Fish Reads. Pop over and see what she’s talking about.
This week I’ve been on the North Carolina coast (the Outer Banks) and I’ve done a fair amount of reading (5 books) but only a minimal amount of cooking as we’ve shared kitchen duties and handsome husband and I only had one night to cook. We made a variation of fish tacos after visiting a local fish market. Oooh, I loved picking out fresh caught fish and after thinking about mahi-mahi we choose sheepshead at the recomendation of the fish guy. We also bought a pound of fresh prawns, deveined them, sauteed them in butter and white wine and gobbled them up for an appetizer.

Another night we headed into town and on a friend’s recommendation and ate at Owens’ Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. It was a culinary delight. The calamari appetizer was yummy as was the bottle of white wine we shared and toasted with to celebrate my in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary. I had the grouper and shrimp special with delicious sea breeze mashed potatoes! All ten family members loved their meals, except Teenage Boy who deemed his clam linguine a little too “saucy.” He didn’t leave unhappy though and I would recommend this excellent restaurant to anyone traveling to the Outer Banks.

One morning I made these banana pancakes thanks to Janssen at Everyday Reading-they were a huge hit. Thank you Janssen for sharing this recipe.

Our vacation is winding down (only one more day-aaaggg), we’ve had a great time and I’ll be sad, sad to leave the beach behind. I did read several fantastic books on this trip and one of them was… Little Klein by Anne Ylvisaker.

I adore this little book and will recommend it to everyone this year. One chapter in particular whispered “weekend cooking post”–Recipe for Sleep. It’s dear. Harold Sylvester George Klein is the smallest Klein boy surrounded by three older brothers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and an exhausted but nurturing mother. Little Klein’s mother worries and doesn’t like him to be out on his own-she’s keeping him her baby as her last little one. (I can relate) LeRoy, a stray dog with his own sweet character voice in the book, finds the Klein boys and loves the smell of them. Everybody should read this book.

Recipe for Sleep is one of the sweetest chapters I’ve ever read in a book. Little Klein is having trouble sleeping while his older brothers are gone and he’s plagued by nightmares and worry. He begs Mother Klein to let LeRoy sleep with him but she resists. Instead she reads to him, sings to him, tells him stories but nothing much works.

“Would you read to me about cake?” called Little Klein from the bedroom one night.
Mother Klein shrugged. “What do you mean?” she called back.
“I mean, will you read to me about cake? You know, crack an egg, one cup of flour, like that.”
Mother pondered.
Though he was small for his age, Little Klein had the appetite of one of the Bigs. He was transfixed by the magic with which water and heat turned crisp dry oats into warm mush for breakfast and the way an unappetizing lump of raw eggs and flour and cocoa could turn into a cake with the texture of a spring meadow. Even the power of butter to fuse two pieces of bread together delighted Little Klein.
“Well, excitement is in the mind of the beholder,” said Mother Klein. She pulled her worn cookbook off the shelf and opened it. “It’s worth a try.”
“What kind of cake?” she asked.
“Chocolate,” said Little Klein, snuggling down into his blanket. (199-120)

Charming and beyond. This chapter’s close connection to comfort food make me think Ysvisaker probably is no stranger to the kitchen! Mother Klein goes on to read recipe after recipe to Little Klein.

What a great book!!
Click for Anne Ylvisaker website.

Making connections

I’ve had kind of a depressing day. Sometimes the field of education can be so amazing and other days-total Debbie Downers! Makes me want to open a bookstore where every day would be blissful. I (helped:) clean my daughter’s room tonight and she wanted to count our blessings while we cleaned. I believe she was trying to cheer me up-love that empathy gene kicking in here and there.
This minute I’m feeling blessed to have fresh daffodils on my table in a ruby red vase. I’m also feeling blessed that tomorrow is Friday. Woo-hoo!

Story time this week for 1st graders involved two stories that I loved and that connected well together. I love when I can find pairs of picture books that compliment each other.

We read about pets in Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen’s book, A Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose( 2010)-it’s just fun to say and the kids loved saying it with me as it becomes a refrain in the book. Not every read-aloud fits my style as I ‘m not good with a million different voices. I can do a few but have a hard time switching back and forth but this one worked for me and made the kids giggle and smile…and isn’t that what we are really going for anyway! Amelia really, really wants a dog but her parents keep saying no! She asks every day then turns around and changes the questions on them. She stops asking for a dog and starts asking them questions related to dog care. Oh, it has some fun twists and I greatly enjoyed watching some quick students with their a-ha faces. A-ha faces really light up, another thing we are looking for as teachers as well. This book was a win/win! I had to stop in the middle and explain Amelia’s imaginary dog-but it made for an interesting conversation. Linzie Hunter’s illustrations gave the students much to stare at as they are filled with more than just the story.

Give a blogger a book reviews it here.

A Year of Reading reviews it here.

I matched it with one of my favorite author’s Margie Palatini’s The Perfect Pet(2003)! Also about a young girl (Elizabeth) who wants a pet, any pet-doesn’t even have to be a dog! She has a variety of techniques to get her parents to say yes to a pet. There’s the element of surprise, catching them off guard, or the full stomach…her parents continue to say no to each and every pet she suggests until she discovers an animal already in the house, ready to be a pet! Hilarious. The illustrations are wonderfully drawn by Bruce Whatley-at first I didn’t like how the parents were drawn-very square looking parents considering their very unique-looking Elizabeth but of course, makes sense-they are anti-pet!! Elizabeth is the true star in this picture book!

What connections did you make this week?