R.A. White's Blog, page 14
July 7, 2015
Alonca's Quest
I read a lot of posts by other authors, and it seems that a lot of them try to write at least 1,000 words a day. Well, that's not going to be my reality any time soon, but I have been making progress on book 3, and I'm currently sitting at about 144,000 words. My goal was for a 150,000 page book, but it looks like it will be a little longer. Still, I'm very pleased with the way it's headed. The last scenes are more or less mapped out, and as far as I can tell everything fits together.
We have a fantastic cast of characters, monsters, spies, dragons, secret passages, dismemberment, love, hope, and plenty of chuckles. I think you're going to like it :).
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We have a fantastic cast of characters, monsters, spies, dragons, secret passages, dismemberment, love, hope, and plenty of chuckles. I think you're going to like it :).
Subscribe for updates and other stuff.
July 4, 2015
Diverse Children's Books
Here's a new compilation of diverse children's books. Look them over, you might find an old favorite, or maybe a new one :).
Ruth and the Green Book tells the story of an African American family traveling across the U.S. in the late '50s, and how they had to get a special green book that listed where they could find accommodations, since most establishments wouldn't serve them. It's pretty horrifying. You should read it.
Red Knit Cap Girl and the Reading Tree. An Asian girl and her animal friends create a library in the woods.
Diego is the true story about the famous Mexican artist by the same name.
Mel's Diner . Trooper LOVED this book. We read it over and over again. An African American girl whose family owns a diner tells about diner life and experiences.
Coming Home is the story of a boy waiting for his parent to come off the plane after deployment. His parent turns out to be his mom.
The Story About Ping was one of my favorite books as a kid, and Trooper loves it too. It also has a fantastic message about being responsible and owning up to mistakes.
Fire Drill . The name speaks for itself.
Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes. They use mostly Asian foods and objects to illustrate the shapes.
Peace, Baby A sweet book about getting along.
Cleversticks This is a great book about being happy with who you are and finding out what you're good at. A boy shows the other kids how he can eat with chopsticks.
Last Stop on Market Street is a wonderful story about caring for others.
Beautiful Moon: A Child's Prayer is a sweet prayer for others and a reminder of the need for social awareness.
What's Up, Bear? A book about opposites
Plants Feed Me Kids learn about the garden.
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands Nice pictures of all the things God created, paired with words from the song.
Juneteenth for Mazie Read this if you don't know anything about Juneteenth!
Sweet Music in Harlem is a cool book based on an old photograph of a crowd of famous musicians. Great artwork and fun to read.
The Day the Dragon Danced We read this book many times. It's about an African American family learning about Asian traditions and dragons.
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Ruth and the Green Book tells the story of an African American family traveling across the U.S. in the late '50s, and how they had to get a special green book that listed where they could find accommodations, since most establishments wouldn't serve them. It's pretty horrifying. You should read it.
Red Knit Cap Girl and the Reading Tree. An Asian girl and her animal friends create a library in the woods.
Diego is the true story about the famous Mexican artist by the same name.
Mel's Diner . Trooper LOVED this book. We read it over and over again. An African American girl whose family owns a diner tells about diner life and experiences.
Coming Home is the story of a boy waiting for his parent to come off the plane after deployment. His parent turns out to be his mom.
The Story About Ping was one of my favorite books as a kid, and Trooper loves it too. It also has a fantastic message about being responsible and owning up to mistakes.
Fire Drill . The name speaks for itself.
Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes. They use mostly Asian foods and objects to illustrate the shapes.
Peace, Baby A sweet book about getting along.
Cleversticks This is a great book about being happy with who you are and finding out what you're good at. A boy shows the other kids how he can eat with chopsticks.
Last Stop on Market Street is a wonderful story about caring for others.
Beautiful Moon: A Child's Prayer is a sweet prayer for others and a reminder of the need for social awareness.
What's Up, Bear? A book about opposites
Plants Feed Me Kids learn about the garden.
He's Got the Whole World in His Hands Nice pictures of all the things God created, paired with words from the song.
Juneteenth for Mazie Read this if you don't know anything about Juneteenth!
Sweet Music in Harlem is a cool book based on an old photograph of a crowd of famous musicians. Great artwork and fun to read.
The Day the Dragon Danced We read this book many times. It's about an African American family learning about Asian traditions and dragons.
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June 29, 2015
Trooper Stories
-I recently told the story about how my son Trooper used our friend's chap stick for deodorant. If you missed that one, click on the 'Trooper Stories' tab over there to the right. So, this week Jenn came over again, and she wisely left her purse in the car. I know it's really sad that someone has to lock her purse in the car before coming into the preacher's house, but we just roll with it. Anyway, this week we were having a nice, civil visit and conversation while Trooper played with toys at the other end of the room. Then I became aware of violent sneezing, and turned to find Trooper with a nerf missile hanging out of his nose. So much for civil.
-Trooper: Mom, look at those seagulls. They're having fun!
Me: Uh, those are crows, but you're right, it does look like they're having fun.
Trooper: Why they saying 'caw, caw'?
Me: Well, like you said, they're probably playing. Or I guess they could be arguing.
Trooper: Why they arguing? What they argue about? 'That's my egg.' 'No! That's my egg.'
I admit that sometimes I get concerned that Trooper is behind in some areas, but then he comes up with something abstract like that, and I feel confident that he's going to be just fine.
-Our church hosted a women's clothing giveaway this past Saturday, and as I was sorting clothes, I came across a bag that Jenn (see above story) had donated. There were several cute tops in it, and I kept saying how much I liked them. Trooper walked by and I said, "Hey Trooper, what do you think would happen if I showed up wearing all of Jenn's clothes?"
He said, "She'd be naked."
-Please share my stories. Thanks!
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-Trooper: Mom, look at those seagulls. They're having fun!
Me: Uh, those are crows, but you're right, it does look like they're having fun.
Trooper: Why they saying 'caw, caw'?
Me: Well, like you said, they're probably playing. Or I guess they could be arguing.
Trooper: Why they arguing? What they argue about? 'That's my egg.' 'No! That's my egg.'
I admit that sometimes I get concerned that Trooper is behind in some areas, but then he comes up with something abstract like that, and I feel confident that he's going to be just fine.
-Our church hosted a women's clothing giveaway this past Saturday, and as I was sorting clothes, I came across a bag that Jenn (see above story) had donated. There were several cute tops in it, and I kept saying how much I liked them. Trooper walked by and I said, "Hey Trooper, what do you think would happen if I showed up wearing all of Jenn's clothes?"
He said, "She'd be naked."
-Please share my stories. Thanks!
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June 21, 2015
Brothers or Fools?
I just love this meme, and had to share it here as well as on facebook. It's so sad that some crazy people would rather die as idiots. 
Trooper Stories
-Me: Jonathan, have you seen my toothbrush? It's not where I thought I left it.
Jonathan: No.
Me: Trooper, have YOU seen my toothbrush?
Trooper didn't say anything. He just walked over to the couch and felt around under it until he came out with my toothbrush. Do you know how gross that is? I had to scrub dog hair out of that thing because it's an expensive brush and I wasn't going to throw it out for that. Now the comb with poop on it, that I threw out, but poop and dog hair are very different things in my little mind. The crazy thing is that I thought the toothbrush thing was so funny I couldn't even muster a stern never-do-that-again face. I'm creating a monster. He's going to be like Jim from the office, setting up Dwight's desk in the bathroom or setting his stapler in Jello.
-I've mentioned before that Trooper is very picky about his clothes. Well, I don't see that changing anytime soon. I've also mentioned that he can take FOREVER to get his clothes and get dressed, much the same as he can take forever to do just about anything. Well, I do see that changing soon. At least, I hope so. We're embarking on a new form of parenting, one that insists that kids be held responsible for their own actions, rather than being punished by parents. It can seem the same at times, but let me use getting dressed as a case study: Normally, I would remind him multiple times to get dressed until he finally did it, and probably punish him for not listening. It wasn't working. Now, instead of being punished for not getting his clothes, he has a choice: Get your clothes and get dressed, or I will dress you myself. The trick is that the clothes we will pick for him are not clothes he wants to wear. So he can pick his clothes and put them on the first time he's instructed or we will do it for him. Simple, and in theory non-violent, although if you were in our neck of the woods that day you would have thought we were pulling out his toenails when we were putting on his shorts. It was literally a two person job, and he was still 'suffering' when he left the house fifteen minutes later. Obviously we haven't been doing a great job of following through on things or it wouldn't have come as such a big shock when we followed through this morning, but we're on a mission, now, and I think things will be getting much simpler for all of us once we settle in to this new routine. Change is always hard, but often it can be for the better. You know what, I take some of that back. It isn't that we don't follow through, because we do when it's a 'don't do that' situation. It's just that we remind him a dozen times to do the things he must. And I guess that's only a step above not following through at all.
-I was just sitting here eating my breakfast when Trooper said, "Ah! You're naked! Get your shirt on!" I glanced over to my left, and sure enough, Jonathan had taken off his shirt to change it. Trooper said, "Mom! Don't look at him! He's naked!"
Thanks for the warning, kid. Thanks for the warning.
Do me a favor, all of you, and share this blog with some of your friends. The chances are good that they would like it, and I get all warm and fuzzy when a new person subscribes.
Jonathan: No.
Me: Trooper, have YOU seen my toothbrush?
Trooper didn't say anything. He just walked over to the couch and felt around under it until he came out with my toothbrush. Do you know how gross that is? I had to scrub dog hair out of that thing because it's an expensive brush and I wasn't going to throw it out for that. Now the comb with poop on it, that I threw out, but poop and dog hair are very different things in my little mind. The crazy thing is that I thought the toothbrush thing was so funny I couldn't even muster a stern never-do-that-again face. I'm creating a monster. He's going to be like Jim from the office, setting up Dwight's desk in the bathroom or setting his stapler in Jello.
-I've mentioned before that Trooper is very picky about his clothes. Well, I don't see that changing anytime soon. I've also mentioned that he can take FOREVER to get his clothes and get dressed, much the same as he can take forever to do just about anything. Well, I do see that changing soon. At least, I hope so. We're embarking on a new form of parenting, one that insists that kids be held responsible for their own actions, rather than being punished by parents. It can seem the same at times, but let me use getting dressed as a case study: Normally, I would remind him multiple times to get dressed until he finally did it, and probably punish him for not listening. It wasn't working. Now, instead of being punished for not getting his clothes, he has a choice: Get your clothes and get dressed, or I will dress you myself. The trick is that the clothes we will pick for him are not clothes he wants to wear. So he can pick his clothes and put them on the first time he's instructed or we will do it for him. Simple, and in theory non-violent, although if you were in our neck of the woods that day you would have thought we were pulling out his toenails when we were putting on his shorts. It was literally a two person job, and he was still 'suffering' when he left the house fifteen minutes later. Obviously we haven't been doing a great job of following through on things or it wouldn't have come as such a big shock when we followed through this morning, but we're on a mission, now, and I think things will be getting much simpler for all of us once we settle in to this new routine. Change is always hard, but often it can be for the better. You know what, I take some of that back. It isn't that we don't follow through, because we do when it's a 'don't do that' situation. It's just that we remind him a dozen times to do the things he must. And I guess that's only a step above not following through at all.
-I was just sitting here eating my breakfast when Trooper said, "Ah! You're naked! Get your shirt on!" I glanced over to my left, and sure enough, Jonathan had taken off his shirt to change it. Trooper said, "Mom! Don't look at him! He's naked!"
Thanks for the warning, kid. Thanks for the warning.
Do me a favor, all of you, and share this blog with some of your friends. The chances are good that they would like it, and I get all warm and fuzzy when a new person subscribes.
June 19, 2015
McFarland, USA
For those of you who missed it, GO GET THIS MOVIE RIGHT NOW! You'll either empathize or have your eyes opened, but either way it will leave you inspired and refocused on what really matters. My grandparents loved it, my parents loved it, I loved it, and my four-year-old even got into it. My only 'complaint' is that the main character's spirituality was completely disregarded in the film, when from what I understand it was a significant factor in his life and therefore in what happened. Of course, lots of things were changed from the real life situation, as always happens in movie adaptions. If you want to see some of the changes, look here, but I suggest waiting until after you've seen the movie so it doesn't spoil things for you.
See the trailer here.
Subscribe to this fantastic blog here.
See the trailer here.
Subscribe to this fantastic blog here.
June 16, 2015
June 13, 2015
The "What?!" Series
Please make sure you read all the way to the end. It's definitely worth your time. Not as bad as the raw chicken story, but the same sort of thing.
-Me: Look, there's a moth in the corner.
Trooper: Ooh, can I touch it?
Me: Sure, you can try.
Trooper: Can I eat it?
Me: What?!
-A library book sparked a conversation about slavery in the U.S., and as I did my best to explain things on a four-year-old level, Trooper seemed to experience an appropriate amount of incredulity. He asked questions like, 'Why white people kidnap black people?' and 'Why they make them work?' When I thought he was grasping it all as well as he could at his current level of development, he asked, "What about me?"
Well if that isn't a heartbreaking question, I don't think there is one. I answered, "No, not you, honey. That was a long time ago." Of course, five years ago was a long time ago to him, so that was a pretty vague answer, but it was the best I could come up with on the fly.
He said, "Oh. What about Santa Claus?"
"What?!"
-I came in from my morning walk and Jonathan was standing over last night's oily frying pan, pointing at it while he gave me a 'look-what-your-son-did' look.
"What?"
He lifted the pan so I could see the Noise Putty that had been 'frying'.
"What?!"
-Our friend, Jenn, was over for lunch, and while I was getting stuff from the kitchen and she was in the bathroom, Trooper apparently raided her purse. On her way back from the bathroom, she told me that she had found something of hers in the hallway, right about the same time Trooper came to me and asked if I would wash his glasses. It turned out that Trooper had taken a wide, fat chapstick and smeared it over his lenses.
"What?!"
But that's not the end of the story. Later, after Jenn had gone, Trooper told me what else he had done with the chapstick. It went something like this, "Mommy, I put Miss Jenn's deodorant on like this," as he mimed rolling a deodorant stick under his arm. "And I put it on my face. It was spicy."
"WHAT?!!!!"
-Me: Look, there's a moth in the corner.
Trooper: Ooh, can I touch it?
Me: Sure, you can try.
Trooper: Can I eat it?
Me: What?!
-A library book sparked a conversation about slavery in the U.S., and as I did my best to explain things on a four-year-old level, Trooper seemed to experience an appropriate amount of incredulity. He asked questions like, 'Why white people kidnap black people?' and 'Why they make them work?' When I thought he was grasping it all as well as he could at his current level of development, he asked, "What about me?"
Well if that isn't a heartbreaking question, I don't think there is one. I answered, "No, not you, honey. That was a long time ago." Of course, five years ago was a long time ago to him, so that was a pretty vague answer, but it was the best I could come up with on the fly.
He said, "Oh. What about Santa Claus?"
"What?!"
-I came in from my morning walk and Jonathan was standing over last night's oily frying pan, pointing at it while he gave me a 'look-what-your-son-did' look.
"What?"
He lifted the pan so I could see the Noise Putty that had been 'frying'.
"What?!"
-Our friend, Jenn, was over for lunch, and while I was getting stuff from the kitchen and she was in the bathroom, Trooper apparently raided her purse. On her way back from the bathroom, she told me that she had found something of hers in the hallway, right about the same time Trooper came to me and asked if I would wash his glasses. It turned out that Trooper had taken a wide, fat chapstick and smeared it over his lenses.
"What?!"
But that's not the end of the story. Later, after Jenn had gone, Trooper told me what else he had done with the chapstick. It went something like this, "Mommy, I put Miss Jenn's deodorant on like this," as he mimed rolling a deodorant stick under his arm. "And I put it on my face. It was spicy."
"WHAT?!!!!"
June 7, 2015
Interview with Trooper
The following is Trooper telling me about a scene from the movie 'Paddington'. Don't feel bad if you don't understand much of it--I don't either--but it's hilarious and will definitely make you smile. Watching him try to answer the question of why Mr. Brown is 'white' especially cracks me up. If you've been following the blog, you might remember that he's had a problem with that concept before.
June 4, 2015
Trooper Stories
-Jonathan just walked into the kitchen and found Trooper squirting hand lotion into the ice cream maker. The bad news: It was running and had quite a few dollars worth of product in it. The good news: It seems like the lotion was still all on top and so Jonathan scraped it off. Is it safe to eat? Yet to be determined.
-At taco dinner, after I put homemade pico on Trooper's taco: Mom! Oh, why you did that crazy thing? You put that on there!
I'm not sure why he speaks English like a second language. We don't talk like that, no one else we know talks like that, and I correct him several dozen times a day. I guess like everything else, it'll click when he's ready.
-I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but in case you were wondering, Trooper still calls 'Mangoes', 'Flamingoes'.
-At a birthday party for one of the women in my ladies Bible class, the 'birthday girl' was reading one of her cards, and read the words 'God bless you'.
Trooper yelled, "Ah-choo!"
He shouldn't have even been there, since it IS ladies class, but he has to tag along. That day, I was glad he had. He enjoyed the party and was entertaining. It's a little more awkward when we're having a serious prayer time and he's behind us laughing his head off to 'Paddington' with his earphones on, but that's another story.
AND, I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST...
-I was asking Trooper about a cartoon he had been watching because I wasn't real thrilled with what I'd seen of it. One of my questions was, "Do they say any bad words?"
He replied, "No, they don't say 'Oh my dod' or 'dod damn it'."
I swallowed hard, then swallowed hard again. "OK, that's good. And we don't say that either, right?"
"Nope, that's a bad word."
I'm going to be laughing about this one for a while. Totally cracks me up.
-At taco dinner, after I put homemade pico on Trooper's taco: Mom! Oh, why you did that crazy thing? You put that on there!
I'm not sure why he speaks English like a second language. We don't talk like that, no one else we know talks like that, and I correct him several dozen times a day. I guess like everything else, it'll click when he's ready.
-I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but in case you were wondering, Trooper still calls 'Mangoes', 'Flamingoes'.
-At a birthday party for one of the women in my ladies Bible class, the 'birthday girl' was reading one of her cards, and read the words 'God bless you'.
Trooper yelled, "Ah-choo!"
He shouldn't have even been there, since it IS ladies class, but he has to tag along. That day, I was glad he had. He enjoyed the party and was entertaining. It's a little more awkward when we're having a serious prayer time and he's behind us laughing his head off to 'Paddington' with his earphones on, but that's another story.
AND, I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST...
-I was asking Trooper about a cartoon he had been watching because I wasn't real thrilled with what I'd seen of it. One of my questions was, "Do they say any bad words?"
He replied, "No, they don't say 'Oh my dod' or 'dod damn it'."
I swallowed hard, then swallowed hard again. "OK, that's good. And we don't say that either, right?"
"Nope, that's a bad word."
I'm going to be laughing about this one for a while. Totally cracks me up.
