A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Two Questions about Blogging Slump



 

I have not been posting very prolifically lately.  This is often because a) I don't have a lot of time to post or b) because when I have time, I can't think of a lot of good posting material. 

So here are my two questions that relate directly to this problem.

1) How do you bloggers carve out time in busy schedules to devote to posting?

2) What do you do when you have bloggers block?

Looking forward to the answers

For more questions head over to Self Sagacity.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A Bargain for Frances - A Review


I really like Frances.  She is one of my favorite children's characters.  If I had to pick one reason why I like Frances so much, it would be the songs.  Frances, like Winnie the Pooh and myself likes to  sing her inner dialogues.

There are 3 or 4 Frances books that rotate as being my favorite.  The distinction for best is generally incumbent upon which one I am reading at the time.  A Bargain for Frances may well be the best of those 4.  For the purpose of  full disclosure, I did read it to Puppy at bedtime tonight.

One of the reasons I like it so much is that it deals with the sensitive issue of being taken advantage  of  or manipulated by a peer  and does so in a perceptive, and wry way.

As indicated in  Lillian Hoban's delightful cover art, The titular bargain in " A Bargain for Frances has to do with a tea set.  Frances is saving her money for a china tea set, and is tricked by her friend Thelma to buy her plastic one instead.  She is tricked, even though her mother had just reminded her that whenever Frances plays with Thelma, Frances gets the worst of it.Frances  definitely gets the worst of the tea set transaction when Thelma uses the proceeds from the  sale to  buy the very type of tea set Frances had been saving for.  Finding she has been hoodwinked, Frances cleverly turns the tables on Thelma.

There is so much that I adore about this book.  The best part , for me, has to be Frances' comment to a rebuffed Thelma that they could be careful or they could be friends.  And as Frances says at the end of the book, being friends is better. 


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Interjections (RATS!)



For more Wordless Wednesdays click here.

Obligatory Been A While Post

Homeschool dad here it's been almost a week since I posted.
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but I have been pretty busy. I'm going to take a few minutes and put some pictures up from the past week or so and I hope to have regular post up soon.
Lemurs at the Brookfield Zoo.
Interjections (Rats!)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Six Words From Monster Jam

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SUPER
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FLYING
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ACTION

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THRILLS

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LAUGHS
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FUN

If you are in the Chicago area click here for Monster deals on how to get to the remaining 4 shows at the All State Arena. Make sure to use the code MOM.

I will have at least 1 more post about the event before the weekend is out..
For more Six Word Saturday click here.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Wordless Wednesday


For More Wordless Wednesdays click here.

And The Winner is . . .

 

Congratulations Koz Boys Mommy who won the 4 tickets to see Monster Jam this coming Friday.  Thanks to all who participated.  I’ll share my review of the show on Saturday morning. 

Friday, February 3, 2012

Monster Jam Give-A-Way

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You'll believe A Car Can Fly
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Monster Jam is coming to the All State Arena February 10th to the 12th.   If you use the promo code MOM when ordering tickets you can get 1/3 off on each adult ticket.  Kid's tickets are $10.00.  Click HERE for more info

DID YOU KNOW?




 The Monster Mutt hat which comes with the big ‘ol floppy ears
is one of the most popular items available at Monster Jam events.

Now Hear This!





10 year olds know awesome!





Here are all the ways to enter.

1. Leave a comment as to why you want to go to Monster Jam.


2.  Tweet about this give-a-way and then leave a comment.


3.  Post about this give-a-way and then leave a comment.


4.  Follow this blog and leave a comment.


5. Leave me a comment on Face Book

I will be drawing a winner on Monday 9 p.m. central.  The tickets will be at Will Call on Friday night.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Friday Fragments

Fast Fragments.



Fragment 1: Amy and I will be out the door in a few minutes to work a Compassion table together at the Rock & Worship Roadshow Concert. I am looking forward to  time away from those snotty kids of mine spending some time ministering with my wife.

We have been Compassion sponsors for a few years now, I have not really blogged much about it before.  In the future, I will be blogging more about Compassion and their ministries around the world.  If you have any interest in finding out more about supporting a child through compassion, click here.

Fragment 2:  Our library has a serious backlog when it comes to use of the display case in the children's department.  It wasn't always this way.  Spider Droid and Bunny displayed their collections 1 or two months after signing up.  Puppy signed up last Spring, and was told that there wasn't a  month available to display her Pillow Pets and Webkinz until April 2013.

This Monday, we got a call from the director of the children's section of the library.  The  scheduled February presenter was no longer interested in displaying their collection.  (Keep in mind they probably signed up in 2009 or 2010).  Puppy was called in to be a last minute replacement.  I am not sure how she leap frogged the 13 people in front of her.  It may well be that since we are such fixtures at the library, they knew we could get the collection to them by the first.  Which we did.

Fragment 3: 

Last year Spider Droid and I had a blast at Monster Jam.  We are going to go again this year.  Tomorrow I will be posting a give-a-way here and on my FB   &  Twitter pages.  You can win 4 tickets to the Friday February 10th show in Rosemont, Illinois.  

Stay Tuned.

Those are my fragments and I am sticking to them.

For more Friday Fragments click here. 


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Blogging From A to Z and the current COH


I wasn’t planning on posting much tonight beyond saying that the Current COH can be found at Cajun Joie de Vivre.  But while surfing the net (Do people still say that?), I saw this cool thing that is coming in April.  It is called Blogging From A to Z.






The basic gist is that you post 26 blogs in the Month of April starting on Sunday, April 1st with a topic that starts with the letter A.  On April 2nd you post about a topic that starts with the letter B.  You continue in this fashion, skipping all subsequent Sundays, until you are posting about something that begins with the letter Z on Monday, April 30th.

It sounds like F U N to me.  So I am in.  I’ll tell you a little more about it in the time heading up to 4-1-12

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip