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For the Fairy Chronicle books: Michele, no email given
For the Garage Sale book: Heather of Barefoot in the Garden
Please contact me within a week with your mailing address at momtothescreamingmassesATgmailDOTcom
If I'm not contacted, I'll conduct another giveaway. Thanks for your participation! I'll be giving away any books I review, so keep checking.
Let me start off my saying that I am nothing if not optimistic when faced with the prospect of a yard sale. Attending one or holding one, I have grand illusions of cool, funky purchases that will make my house POP, or selling all the junk in my house and making a fortune. I know people do it; my stepmother has a sale or two a year and makes hundreds of dollars. Me, I'm not so lucky.
Bruce Littlefield had a gravy job. He spent most every Saturday shilling around America, studying what makes us tick - what makes a great Garage Sale, what makes people stop and think, "Ooh, I've got to have one of those. I need that, and that, and you couldn't PAY me enough to take one of those home."
He went Garage Saling on a mission - to outfit his retro 1940's farmhouse in Upstate New York solely with his finds. He hunted his way across America, stopping at the World's Largest Yard Sale, the World's Biggest, and the World's Longest. With first person stories of unusual garage sale characters, and Bruce's own hints and clues for how to find the best deals, this book was much more fun to read that I expected. Huge, glossy pictures and interviews with experts make this book a fun summertime read.
He goes into great detail discussing collectibles found and ways people have made fortunes with cheap purchases, and made me see vintage in a whole new light. I've learned more about Bakelite,recycled art, fishing lures, marbles (one worth $3000!), and Lalique than I ever dreamed.
I haven't got an eighth of his panache, and have never been successful at garage saling, but this book was an interesting read and inspiring to boot.
Want to win my copy? Leave me a comment and I'll do a random drawing!
I have a confession to make.
I buy nice paper towels. Expensive paper towels. Usually, either Bounty or Viva. The Hubster buys the cheap ones, which take five times as many to clean up a water spill, never mind any other substance. So the new and improved Bounty wasn't a big improvement to me, since I'm used to using this quality.I don't scrimp on paper towels - or toilet paper, but I'm straying from the topic here.
We did the "grapes on a paper towel with water flowing over" trick, and the towel held. I scrubbed the tub with three of them and some Comet, and the towel held. I wiped the counters and the table in the kitchen, and the towel held. As a bonus, mine has cool Peanuts cartoon characters on them.
People, these are some goooood towels. Grab some on your next shopping trip.
And, if you use one sheet of these new and improved Bounty paper towels and then write 100 words about your cleaning adventure with said sheet, you could win cash or prizes! (Deadline: June 30, 2007.)
Cross posted to Mom to the Screaming Masses
When I saw this book, I ordered it straight away. The author's son has the same disorder has Riley, so I was really interested to hear her viewpoints. From Amazon:
Three years ago, magazine editor Denise Brodey’s precocious four-year-old son, Toby, was diagnosed with a combination of sensory integration dysfunction and childhood depression. As she struggled to make sense of her new, often chaotic, often lonely world, what she found comforted her most was talking with other harried, hopeful, and insightful parents of kids with special needs, learning how they coped with the feelings they encountered throughout the day.
In The Elephant in the Playroom, moms and dads from across the country write intimately and honestly about the joyful highs and disordered lows of raising children who are “not quite normal.” Laying bare the emotional, medical, and social challenges they face, their stories address issues ranging from if and when to medicate a child, to how to get a child who is overly sensitive to the texture of food to eat lunch. Eloquent and honest, the voices in this collection will provide solace and support for the millions of parents whose kids struggle with ADD, ADHD, sensory disorders, childhood depression, Asperger’s syndrome, and autism—as well as the many kids who fall between diagnoses.
Offering readers comfort, community, and much-needed perspective, The Elephant in the Playroom is sure to become essential reading for parents of special needs kids.
What's not to like about a book that talks like this? Nothing. I really liked this book, although it was not easy reading. In fact, I could only read a bit here and there, because some of the stories are heartbreakingly raw. There are very few books that deal with being the parent of a kid with special needs, and this one fills the space most comfortably. The essays are written by mother and fathers, people who live with the tantrums, crankiness, mood swings and other struggles and do it every day. There are essays both pro and con for medication, schooling, therapy, and so on.
If you are dealing with a special needs child, or just want to have empathy for those who do, please read this book. Found at Amazon for $17.12. I'm loaning this one to the counselors at my kids school.
When I took this blog blast, I wondered what I'd be able to say. Tales from the School Cafeteria? Hello, I WORK in the school cafeteria and I try really hard not to talk about my work on my websites.
Food fights? Unrequited Love? Pizza Friday? Stand-Off with the Lunch Lady?" (Tell us your favorite School Cafeteria Story... yours or your kid's)
I don't really have any stories - none of my kids has been involved in a food fight, except for the time that Mackenzie gave a boy back his food that he'd handed to her. He moved and she spilled it on him. They both got in trouble. There's no Unrequited Love, and no Stand Off with the Lunch Lady. If anything, I have a standoff with the kids, when they bring me their trays. I've tried and tried to get them to drop their silverware first, tray second, and then go out the door. Move from right to left, no one gets food in their hair, no one spills their trays. Yeah, yeah - they don't listen to me any better than they do to you. Sorry.
My kids each have their favorite meals to buy - nachos, pizza, toasted cheese sandwich with tomato soup. My oldest goes to a different school and buys the same lunch twice a week - three pieces of pizza and a soda. NOT my favorite choice of lunch for him.
There are two new sites that I think are pretty cool. School Menu is geared for kids and Family Everyday is for parents.
The kid site, School Menu, is really cute and I plan to let my kids spend time on it this summer during the long, hot days of summer. I especially like the games for them - it's hard to find games that are nutrition oriented, and these ones are pretty good. My son Gabe is going to be thrilled when he sees that Fetch, with Ruff Ruffman is on this site - that's one of his favorites.
The parent site, Family Everyday, has good, concise information. There were some good recipes and an especially informative article concerning the myths about school lunches.
