Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 194

Sounds Like a Product I Could Get Behind

Rilla asked for something this afternoon, but I didn’t quite hear her at first.

Me: “You want a popsicle?”

Rilla: “No. A pie-cicle.”

Me: “A bicycle?”

Rilla: “NO, Mommy, a PIE-cicle.”

Jane, giggling: “What’s a pie-cicle?”

Rilla: “In the fridge!”

(She opens the freezer.)

Rilla: “Oh. I mean an ice cream cone.”

Bento Trail

Today was another sick day for me. The kids are much better, though. I could have cried with relief when Scott told me he was staying home from work today to take care of everyone. Here at the darkening end of the day, I think I’m finally seeing a glimmer of wellness in the distance. I still have no voice and a cruel cough, but I’m getting better. Hurrah.

Sick or no, we took a fun little spontaneous stroll through an interesting topic today: bento boxes. In Harvest Moon your character is given a

Twitterlog 2009-06-15

Two hours of sleep? Is not enough. #Today? Agley. #I’ve just been told by my 10 yr old that my greatest strength as a mother is putting the perfect amount of mustard on a sando. I aim high. #Dear Pork Chops, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable in wishing you would just go cook yourselves. With fried onions, preferably. #Hello chocolate, my old friend. #Turns out this stay-at-home mom gig is a lot harder when you’re sick. #Alphonse lives: “Untimely Ripp’d” http://www.alphonsecomic.com/ #Dear Ach

I Have Too Many Tabs Open

I’m kind of quarantined at the moment. The baby and Rilla seem to be more or less over the nasty little bug we’ve been passing around, but it appears to find my company irresistible and invited its nasty little friends over for a keg party in my immune system last night. I woke up at 4 a.m. with a fever and honest-to-goodness chills, the kind that make your teeth chatter. Fun!

So Scott’s doing Saturday morning cartoons with the rest of the gang, and the baby just crashed on my lap (he’s the one w

Betsy-Tacy News and More

Early afternoon lull here, and I’ve got so many shreds of discussion fluttering around inside my head that I thought I’d try to catch hold of a few of them and see if they can be stitched into a patchwork post.

Author Gail Gauthier and I have been having an interesting conversation about “negative” and “positive” book reviews. It started in the comments of one of Liz B.’s excellent posts at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy, and has continued on Gail’s blog. I love what Gail says about abandon

Too Fuzzyheaded to Read or Write

I’m battling something ugly of the viral sort, so not much from me today. Here’s a good read elsewhere: commenter Jane Wilkerson left a link to this interesting piece on reading Dickens four ways (book, audiobook, Kindle, iPod). Right up my alley; thanks, Jane!

Picture Book Spotlight: Let’s Do Nothing

Let’s Do Nothing by Tony Fucile (Candlewick, 2009).

On July 24th, many unschoolers (and others) will celebrate “Learn Nothing Day.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek sort of holiday, the point being that it’s impossible to live a day of your life without learning something.

Well, I’ve just found the perfect picture book to read on Learn Nothing Day. Except, darn it, what if we learn something from the book?

Ah, it doesn’t matter. I’ll never be able to wait until July to share this with my gang, anyway.

Franki

Twitterlog 2009-06-08

My 13yo just came inside to report that our neighbors are having a backyard party & the rest of my kids were peeking through the fence. #Oh come on. This is the second time they’ve played The Lion Sleeps Tonight. #And now? Mr. Roboto!! #What the heck are they listening to? Keeps cycling thru song openings, laugh tracks, movie dialogue, a-weem-a-way, “They’re heeere!” #Thinking of taking the brood to see the painted cows in La Jolla today. Hmm. #Everybody say hello to my dear friend Eileen! @litt

TBR Pile Additions

Reserved:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

Why:

Have read lots of posts about it this year & meant to get to it sooner, but it was this Battle of the Kids’ Books post at SLJ that got me to click to the library hold site. Frankie lost this round to We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, but judge Rachel Cohn’s explanation of her decision made me want to read both books. I’ve got a baseball story in my queue already, so I’ll save We Are the Ship for anot

48-Hour Book Challenge Ends

For me, the 48 hours officially ended at 7 this morning. Practically speaking, that meant it ended about 11:45 last night when I fell asleep halfway through Genesis by Bernard Beckett. I found a couple of nice chunks of reading time yesterday, bringing my total up to 8 hours and 13 minutes, plus about an hour of networking time. Finished Catching Fire: wow. More on everything later but wanted to squeak this in under the deadline and now I must dive into my busy day. Visit MotherReader for the ro