making space for creativity
For Lent, right before we go to bed, we’ve been lighting a candle, singing a song, and saying a short evening prayer compiled by our dear family friends Jim and June Young. During Advent and Christmastide our kids loved lighting the Advent candle with the wreath and singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” in our…
2000 Newbery winner, Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis: Bud Caldwell, age ten, is a motherless boy with spunk and a hunch that he can find his long-lost father. Set in depression era Flint, Michigan, Bud is a young African American boy who has been at an orphanage or out at various foster families…
Over the past few months we’ve been developing our home church practice after Wisconsin’s weather made outdoor church services no longer possible. And while we miss church a lot, especially the eucharist, it’s been a sweet thing to do church together in a way that’s meaningful for each member of the family. I think it’ll…
1999 Newbery winner, Holes, by Louis Sachar stars Stanley Yelnats, a chronically unlucky boy who is sent to the juvenile detention Camp Greenlake on false charges of theft. With half the story taking place a hundred years before, the past and present of Stanley, the other inmate/campers, and “The Warden” are spun into a tight,…
This is my 7th year of birthday reading lists! (You can see the others here: 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 // 35). My top picks for this year are The Soul of Discipline, Okay for Now, Bandersnatch, Fertile Ground, The War that Saved My Life, Krakatoa, and The Body. Adult Fiction 1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. This…
1998 Newbery winner, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is a verse novel set in Depression-era panhandle Oklahoma during the devastating Dust Bowl. Narrator Billie Jo is an only child of fourteen whose mother is finally pregnant with a much anticipated new baby while their farm is enduring a terrible drought. I came into…
Dear Friends and Family, Last week we started doing a little Advent devotional time with the kids. Pajamas on, teeth brushed, kitchen clean, all the lights off we gather around the table. We strike a match and light our first beeswax advent wreath candle and say together “Jesus Christ is the light of the world!”…
1997 Newbery winner, The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg stars four unlikely sixth grade academic quiz bowl team members. Exploring the backstory of each character’s specific talents and knowledge, the book is told in a series of five narrators: the four competitors and their teacher and coach Mrs. Olinski. The stories are told…
I’m 75% through the Newbery Award winning books! Here’s a quick look at # 1-25 and 26-50. For this batch (#51-75) from 1972 to 1996, some of my very favorite books of all time I got to re-read (again!). These are books I have returned to and re-read over and over: Mrs. Frisby and the…
1996 Newbery winner, The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman has long been a favorite of mine by one of my long-time favorite authors. I think that reading Karen Cushman’s first novel Catherine Called Birdy (1994) was one of the reasons I wanted to study early modern English history in college and graduate school. I love…
1995 Newbery winner, Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech is part road trip tale of a girl and her grandparents, part mystery story told along the way. In both, main character Sal goes looking for answers about why her mother left and comes to terms with what happened the year before. Since this book has…
This is my fourth year doing that fun social media challenge #onedayhh where you take a picture of your ordinary life every hour and post it on social media. (Two years ago I made the pictures in a blog post as well.) Except that this year our Thursday wasn’t particularly ordinary with my husband Evan…
1994 Newbery winner, The Giver, by Lois Lowry is a book that is often cited as an all time favorite. It is a hard book too, but one that you are so glad you read. Young Jonas lives in a future world without pain or suffering, but when he is chosen to become the keeper…
For eight weeks now, I have been able to get up and write before 5 am. It’s been a longtime coming. Over the summer, we embarked on moving our newly two-year-old out of our room and into the room she shares with her big brother. My husband was absolutely key in this working, and now…
1993 Newbery winner, Missing May, by Cynthia Rylant is about 12 year old Summer and her remaining guardian, Uncle Ob, who are mourning the recent death of his beloved wife, Aunt May. I first read this book in fourth grade (when evidently I was reading a lot of Newberies like Shiloh and A Bridge to…