Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 39

Open mouth, insert foot

I had the hugely fun experience today of receiving a present in The Creative Exchange, an Instagram present swap organized by Sam Dunne of Dunne With Style. When you sign up for this exchange, you are assigned a person to secretly stalk on Instagram for a couple of weeks, and then you put together an assortment of small goodies for her and send it off. Meanwhile, someone else is doing the same thing for you. I had boatloads of fun getting to know my recipient via her feed and picking out treasures to send her—the package is due to arrive tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see how she likes her presents.

Well, today I received my package from a lovely woman named Karla, and I’m just blown away by the abundance and gorgeousness of her presents. She did a great job sussing me out via Instagram, because every single item made me squeal with delight. I mean, it’s all just perfect.

I just had to run to Periscope and do a show-and-tell video because the whole experience was so much fun. I was watching the replay just now and heard myself say something completely stupid. Like, so stupid I gasped. (This is not uncommon. I routinely wince at the memory of idiotic remarks I’ve made, but it’s eighty times worse watching it on video.)

I was describing how this experience—opening these presents that are so exactly what I would pick out for myself—reminded me of the time I visited my online friend Lisa and her family for the first time. We knew each other through my blog, and in fact years earlier, Lisa’s daughter, a very young girl named Annie (age eleven, I think), had left a comment that solved a sewing machine problem I was having. Such a gem. Well, years later, I was driving cross-country with the kids, and Lisa knew we’d be passing her town and invited us for dinner. And Annie, who was a teenager by then, surprised me with an amazing homemade dinner that was all my favorite foods. She had gleaned this information by reading my blog over the years and so thoughtfully put together a delicious feast for me of things she knew I would love! Amazing. I was blown away.

So, okay, in the Periscope I’m talking about how today’s experience—having Karla pick out such PERFECT presents for me based only on the hints about my tastes and hobbies she picked up from my Instagram—reminded me of Annie’s feast: this one other time I can think of that someone I hadn’t met in person gave me a wonderfully on point treat based on things I’d written.

Telling it like this, I think you get how I meant it. But what I SAID was: “I’ve only once in my life had an experience quite like this, where somebody gave me something that showed such thoughtfulness and such a grasp of what I love…”

Um, NOT WHAT I MEANT.

I can think of MANY, MANY times in my life when someone gave me something that showed immense thoughtfulness and a grasp of what I love. Like my parents, for starters, who do that on a regular basis. Or how about my husband? The guy who once socked away a stack of my favorite Ritter Sport bars because we had to be separated for several months and he knew a day would come when I’d be in desperate need of a chocolate remedy. Or my kids, routinely. My sisters, my cousins, my in-laws. And a stream of friends come rushing to mind…Sarah H. giving me that Karl Larsson book as a going-away present because she knew I loved him. Erica and my other local friends, all the abundance of goodies in birthday baskets over the years. Alice, all the way back to the basket she brought to the hospital when Jane was sick, crammed full of the exact things it turned out we would desperately need. Lesley’s beautiful Small Meadow gifts over the years. Krissy, the Midori!!! I mean, the list goes on and on. I could keep this up for hours. Meals, presents, endless kindnesses. Thoughtfulness and a grasp of what I love. Over and over and over: all these cherished friends.

So, yeah, the key words missing from that sentence were “where somebody I’D NEVER MET IN PERSON gave me…”

Of course even as I write that, I’m thinking how inaccurate it too is, even with the addendum…we got a lot of thoughtful presents from strangers when Jane was ill. So maybe I should also add “such a grasp of what I love, picked up by things I posted on the internet.” LOL. I’m howling at myself now. Probably that’s not accurate either. The second I hit publish on this I’m going to think of ten times a kind reader sent me something sweet. Actually, I’m recalling instances already.

So basically I’m just a nitwit with the good fortune to be on the receiving end of a lot of thoughtful gestures. Despite what I may babble while live-streaming, I appreciate each and every one.

(But Karla, seriously, you nailed it.)

Anyway, here’s my show-and-tell scope…if you’ll just kind insert the appropriate mental edits to my boneheaded remarks!

december 1 show-and-tell

1. Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett: always our first book of the season. My younger three love it every bit as much as my older three did. I’m right there with them—the troll voices are so much fun to read aloud, and there’s a bit at the end that chokes me up every single time. Plus we have a red wooden horse exactly like the one in the book!

(Why has Amazon started slapping a copyright notice on book covers? They’re fair use.)

2. I really appreciate the downloadable lock-screen calendar Inkwell Press provides for free every month. What a nice gift! I like being able to turn on my phone and see what day it is without clicking to my actual calendar. I’m lazy that way. If you sign up for their email list, Inkwell will send links to each month’s wallpaper options—lock screen, home screen background, and desktop. Pretty nifty.

3. I mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter last night, but for those who missed it: 50 Incredible Minecraft Seeds You Must Try is free on Kindle right now and it’s pretty darn cool. It includes seeds for PC, Pocket Edition, XBox, etc. My kids and I were pretty excited to explore some of the Pocket Edition maps today…there’s one with four villages squished together and another with a mountain village that looks like something out of Howling Fjord. I ran around the mountain one for a while and it was a hoot. The blacksmith shop is high up on a rocky crag above the rest of the town.

4. The Jacquie Lawson Advent Calendar! We look forward to this every year. It’s an animated Advent calendar with some new little piece of story to click on every day. I’m glad my friend Phoebe reminded me to download it today. (Costs $4.) This year’s theme is “Victorian Christmas,” which, you know, had me at hello.

5.

 

Postcrossing Fun

I joined Postcrossing a couple of months ago and now it’s taking over our kitchen wall—in the best way. This is a site for exchanging postcards with people around the world. Hmm, “exchange” isn’t the right word because these aren’t reciprocal swaps where you send a card to someone and get one back from the same person. Instead, you create a profile and then you’re given the name and address of another user. You send a postcard to that person. When he receives it, he registers the card, which prompts the system to send your address to someone different. In the beginning, you’re allowed to send up to five cards at once. As people begin to receive and register your cards, your maximum increases. Not that you have to send out five, six, seven cards all at once. You can do it one at a time if you like.

So far we have sent out ten cards and received eight—from Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Taiwan, India, Switzerland, Germany, and Finland! As you can see, we’re taping them to the wall above our world map. So much fun. This is a pretty delightful way to combine the joys of snail mail with a whizbang dose of world geography.

Assorted Thursday thoughts

1. I would like to take a drawing class. In a paint-spattered classroom with a real teacher standing over me grimacing at my line. It’s been 15 months since I started sketching (almost) every day and I can see I’ve made progress, but I’m craving instruction.

2. I’d better finish reading that KonMari ebook before my checkout time expires and it goes *poof* from my Kindle.

3. I wish all the things I want to KonMari right out of my house would go *poof* like an expired library ebook.

4. My brain keeps playing the following conversation on repeat: I should do the Everyday Matters Drawing Challenge. That would really help me improve. Ooh, I know! I should post each day’s entry to Instagram; that would keep me motivated. WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? THEN PEOPLE WOULD SEE IT. Right, that’s the point, accountability, encouragement. BUT FULLY HALF YOUR INSTAGRAM FRIENDS ARE PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS, YOU WILL EMBARRASS YOURSELF. Sigh. Right. Of course. I wish I drew better. I just need to keep at it every day. Hmm, maybe I should do the Everyday Matters Drawing Challenge… 

5. Whenever a form asks for hobbies, I never think to put down “listmaking,” but I totally should. I make lists all day long. I have lists of lists. I could compete in the List Olympics. If there were a Nobel Prize for listmaking, I’d be a contender.

6. Today IS Thursday, right?

In which I am interviewed about this here blog

I’m all smiles today because I had the fun of being interviewed about blogging by Lesley Austin. Her questions were wonderfully thought-provoking and set me musing about how to rearrange my days to allow the daily blogging I maintained for so many years. I miss it! Lesley’s questions helped me hone on on what has shifted in my daily rhythm so that I’m blogging less often than I used to.

Lesley’s site is so lovely—it was a real treat to see my words on her beautiful page. And I was really moved by the photos she chose from my archives—some of my particular favorites, and some moments I’d already forgotten.

Here’s a tidbit:

How do you think your own way of connecting and being in the world influences your blogging?

I think I was made for sharing neat stuff. Scott and I have a joke about my superpower being enthusiasm. For me, full enjoyment of a thing (book, game, app, article, website) comes only when I get to talk about it with other people. I think that’s why I took to blogging so readily, and why I’ve stuck with it for so long—it’s been a place I can always jump to to say “Ooh look at this awesome thing I found.” I’m a magpie, a curator. I think all my internet spaces reflect that urge—I share links all over the place.

You can read the rest here. And do visit the other posts in her series of interviews-about-blogging:

a conversation about blogging with Sarah

a conversation about blogging with Jane

Thank you, Lesley!

Periscope: The biggest decision of my week

Popped onto Periscope today to discuss readalouds, including how I approach character voices. You can catch the replay at katch.me (or watch it below). I dust off my Scottish accent around minute 27.

Picture quality seems a bit dodgy–sorry about that. It looked fine on my screen during the recording!

Our Week in Books, November 1 Edition

Happy November! Just a quick list (no commentary) for this week’s books recap—my weekend is running away again.

 

Family Read-Alouds:

I finished The Search for Delicious. The kids were glued to every page. Stay tuned for a Periscope in which I will discuss what book I chose for our next read-aloud and how I arrived at this choice. I’ll also talk a little bit about how I approach character voices.

Speaking of doing voices, Scott just started reading the first Harry Potter book to Rilla. His Dumbledore is magnificent.

  

 

Some of the picture books we enjoyed last week:

Ninja Baby by David Zeltser and Diane Goode

No, That’s Wrong! by Zhaohua Ji and Cui Xu

Blue Whale Blues by Peter Carnavas (links to pdf)

The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree by Stan & Jan Berenstain

This Orq (He Cave Boy) by David Elliott. We received a copy of this book from a friend at Boyds Mills Press and it became an instant hit. I booktalked it on Periscope on Thursday, if you’d like to hear more about why we fell in love with it. (The link will take you to katch.me where my scopes are archived, or you can scroll to the bottom of this post and watch the replay there.)

  

What Rilla read:

The Best-Loved Doll by Rebecca Caudill

Several Oz graphic novels (see this post for more about why they’re her favorite books)

Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda (in progress)

 

What I read:

“The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allen Poe for a class I’m teaching

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (in progress), also for the class — this is Beanie’s reading list, too

Beanie also read:

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

I know I’m forgetting something. And I forgot to ask Rose for her list at all!

My boys are both enjoying:

The Magic Tree House books — they’re both working their way through the series. It’s such fun to see them side by side with their coordinating books.

   

Things Scott has recently read:

Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page by Brad Tolinski

Swag: A Novel by Elmore Leonard

Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd by Mark Blake

The Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths by Tony Fletcher

News!

I’ve launched a series on Periscope. I’m calling it “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something True” — this will be a regular feature in which I do my favorite thing: talk about books. A family favorite (that’s the “old”), a new gem, a library book, and a nonfiction title. I tried out the format last week and I think it’s going to work nicely! Here’s the first installment. I’ll announce future editions here and on Twitter.

Related:

     

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Virtually Perfect

Rose was just recollecting with great affection all the times when she would return to the house, exhausted after a full day, and know she could count on me to have a pantry full of tasty things to eat. “And you always had a nice hot bowl of stew waiting for me,” she murmured dreamily. “Awesome stew.”

Real-life friends reading this account will be understandably puzzled. But it’s true, every word.

All right, I may have omitted one teeny-tiny piece of context.

what my stew looked like

what I looked like when I made it

That’s right. When my children reminisce about their mother’s wonderful home-cooking, they’re talking about a computer game.

What would you like to chat about on Periscope?

I’ve been meaning for a while now to give Periscope a try, because I think it would be a great platform for the kind of book- and resource-sharing I like to do here on the blog. , just to see how the platform worked. To my surprise, viewers started arriving within seconds! I spent about ten minutes chatting with some very supportive friends, and I loved it. I’m hooked. This is something I can have a lot of fun with.

I’d love to know what topics you’d be interested in hearing me chat about. Today’s viewers gave me some excellent suggestions, including doing some read-alouds of my work. I’m keeping a list of ideas and will try to do a scope at least once a week, if I can work out some better lighting than what I was getting in my bedroom for today’s impromptu recording.

Because I hadn’t yet signed up with katch.me to archive my scopes, this one will only be around for the next 20-something hours. By tomorrow evening (Pacific time), it’ll be gone. I’ll aim for another round early next week, so let me know in the comments here what you’d like to chat about! And thanks so much to the sweet friends who dropped by and encouraged me with all those happy little hearts bubbling up on my screen.

Throwback Thursday

Today I cleaned my desk. I organized my shelves. I cleaned under my bed. Can you tell I have a revision to finish?

I was reminiscing on Facebook about when we drove cross-country to move here in 2006. Monday was the 9th anniversary of our arrival, which shocks me. We’ve lived here longer than anywhere else in our marriage. I never saw that coming—that my kids would grow up in Southern California.

The FB conversation brought up my old post about our scary encounter with junkyard dogs on that trip—one of the posts that makes me really happy I started blogging.  I shared the link and was mildly irked to see it come up with one of my sidebar buttons as the giant header image Facebook likes to add now. There were no photos in the original post. Images were optional in 2006. I wound up going back in and adding a picture from the trip. Oh, my younguns were so very YOUNG back then!

I miss blogging like that. So much of that kind of “here’s what happened today” anecdotal posting has shifted to Facebook—it unrolls so naturally on that platform. Blogging seemed to take on a more…hmm, formal, is that the word I’m looking for? Polished?…a more polished tone. I dash off quips and stories on FB, and there’s that happy dopamine burst of reaction. But always, always, I want to pull it all back here to our family archive. We have over ten and a half years of history here. “We,” my family—and we, you and me. Some of you have been with me since the very beginning in 2005. “I remember when you moved,” wrote one FB friend today. “I was reading your blog like a novel, and it was a great upheaval in the plot!”

No great upheavals in the story today. Huck lost his other top front tooth. The Tooth Fairy brought him a buck per tooth, which vast fortune he had lost track of by lunchtime. I walked down the hall in time to hear him mutter, “I want my two dollars!” None of the kids knew why this reduced me to giggles.

Yesterday, hustling out the door to piano lessons, I heard Rilla say as I got into the car, “Mom gets a pass. She’s never the rotten egg.” A generous statement, considering I’m always the one hollering, “Is everyone ready?? We’re out the door in two minutes!”—while I’m still half dressed.

Wonderboy (who REALLY needs a more grown-up blog name, but would you allow it?) is giving a speech at school tomorrow about his family. He described me as a “homeschool teacher and an author” and Scott as “an author, a really good cook, and a good shopper.” True on all counts.

He loves his school, but we missed him (and Jane!!) at the park on Monday. Nine years. I still can’t believe it.