7QT: Car Trip Tricks and DIY Renovations

1. First things first. Someone is making me this Banana Split Icebox Cake for my birthday. Or Mother's Day. Or both. Even though they're only 3 days apart.

No Image of Banana Split Cake Until I Take a Photo Myself. Copyrights etc.

Or maybe Easter. Meg, can I make this for Easter?

My mother used to make this, way back when. It was heavenly.

2. Heads Up!

The April What We're Reading Wednesday link-up will go live this Wednesday on April 1st. No joke.

I'm going to be road-tripping it to D.C. with my brood and I look forward to reading your posts all the way there.

3.

 Remember when the older gentleman behind me at mass told me I have a blessing and a challenge?

While we are on this 12 hour journey, I have shoved a few tricks up my proverbial sleeves to entertain my *ahem* challenge.

Wikki Stix Rainbow Pak like play-doh, but cleaner, and good for mid-air use, or for making letters on a piece of cardboard.

Little Cuties Activity Tin. Magnets. Cutie pets. Lots of teeny tiny pieces to keep little hands occupied.

Magnetic MightyMind. Jill loves Mighty Mind. Plus, the box says it "makes kids smarter!" My set is not magnetic, but I can retrofit it with MightyMind Magnetic Design Tray & Tile Magnets.

24 Creative Plastic Stencils from Highlights and a sketchbook.

Crayola Color Wonder Travel Tote No mess. Nuff said.

You could call these my five favorites, so I'm linking up with Jenna @ Call Her Happy.

4. You know there will be some movie watching in the car.

To see my Holy Week movie picks, go here and here.

5. But I myself am a bookish person and so I have stocked up on audio books of a historical nature.

Ben Hur (Radio Theatre) abridged and performed by Focus on the Family's Radio Theater because Holy Week.

The rest of my choices are all U.S.A./D.C. related.

Betsy Ross: The American Flag and Life in a Young America by Ryan Randolph. It's only an hour. I think even Jill can handle that.

Hana's Suitcase - A True Story by Karen Levine because the Holocaust Museum is on my to-do list.

Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman - which we've already started listening too. You'd think you'd need to see the photos, but you don't. In any case, I have the book too for reference.

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin - see my review here.

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson because Ford's Theater is in D.C.

Did you know that Laura Hillenbrand edited her epic story of Louie Zamperini? Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive is abridged for younger, sensitive readers (such as myself ;)).

I found these comments from an Amazon reviewer encouraging:

As a middle school librarian, I wanted to share this unbelievable, inspirational tale, but the more graphic & violent scenes in the adult version were disturbing and overwhelming.
Laura Hillenbrand has taken out some of those more graphically violent parts of her adult version, but still communicated the depravity and inhumane treatment of Allied POW's by the Japanese.

Edmund is especially excited about Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive because he and Peter saw the movie.

6. Challenger Jill will play games on my phone too. Thank you Jesus.

She uses cheap-o noise blocker AUVIO® Kid's Headphones that have been surprisingly durable.

I won't deny that she plays Disney Princess Palace Pets and the free Princess Maker Dress Up game, but mostly she plays Starfall.

She's done Starfall ABCs so much, she knows all the letters and sounds. She also loves Starfall Learn To Read, Starfall Numbers and Starfall FREE which is nursery rhymes and fairy tales, seasons, shapes,colors, etc.

I did pay $35 for unlimited access to all of the Starfall content. It has been worth every peaceful penny.

7. Lots of beautiful changes around here.

Remember this hideous china cabinet?

Peter made it beautiful with leftover wall paint and new hardware and we had the room painted. Lighter and brighter, baby!

Then, I made some DIY Pottery Barn-esque white cotton drapes using twin flat sheets, curtain ring with clips and and extra-long special-order oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod.

We hung the rod high and wide so that when the curtains are open, not on square inch of sunlight is blocked. Also, it makes the room look huge. Cathedral like.  Not bad for an afternoon's work.

I have read about people transforming their front hall closets. With eight, sometimes nine people in the house, not counting guests, my coat closet is at capacity.

I convinced Patrick to build me this (even though he said it's my worst idea ever), upon which we will hang many hooks.  Squee!

Linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes.

Have a blessed Easter with much candy!

It's What We're Reading Wednesday! All about Richard Peck.

If you have never heard of Richard Peck, run to your nearest library or bookstore and check out A Long Way From Chicago.

(Or simply click over to your library's website and request a copy online.  If you can manage a Facebook page, you can figure out your local library's website.  You can even set up your online library account so that the librarians email you when your book comes in, and again when it is almost due.  The wonders of technology in the modern age!   You can DO IT!  I'm looking at you, Donaldson.)

If A Long Way From Chicago is checked out or sold out, you can begin with the sequel, A Year Down Yonder, which Edmund and I recently read together for the library's Kids' Book Club.

A Year Down Yonder takes place during the Great Depression.  Fifteen year-old Mary Alice is sent downstate (that's Illinois speak for anywhere that's not Chicago) to live with her Grandma Dowdel.  Her father has lost his job.  Her parents have given up the apartment for a one room rental.  Her big brother, Joey, is away with the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Mary Alice does a lot of growing up in her year with Grandma.  Grandma teaches her generosity, by providing the whole town with pecan and pumpkin pies for the Halloween party.  She teaches her justice, when they catch a Halloween prankster with a pan of homemade glue.  Grandma teaches the value of hard-work, as they tramp through the woods at all hours on winter nights trapping foxes for fur.  She teaches her friendship when they check on the town outcasts after the tornado.

My favorite lesson is the lesson on charity.  The chapters follow the seasons, and I always get choked up by the Veterans' Day Turkey Shoot, without fail.

I do not want to give anything away, but this chapter led to a deep conversation about World War I, mustard gas, the movie War Horse (also excellent), and my own great-grandfather who spent three days in No Man's Land with a bullet wound.  Thankfully, the third day brought the Armistice and he was rescued, or I wouldn't be here today.

Mary Alice learns to see Grandma Dowdel as more than a large, fiercely private, baking wonder with a 12 gauge shotgun.  If you've read A Long Way From Chicago, you already knew that too.

Grandma Dowdel is hands-down my favorite literary character of all time.  Peck writes her with a no-nonsense charm.  Lines like, "She aimed one of her chins down the platform." and "Like a ship under sail, she went to the door."  made our family giggle out loud.  I just know you'll love her too, with "her big hands on her big hips."

We've listened to these books on car trips as a family, and enjoyed them both child and adult.  Some of the subject matter is a little mature.  Whose live infant ends up in the Nativity play manger, and how Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel discover the painter boarding with them is painting the postmistress...in the nude...are two such examples.  Both episodes are hilariously written.

Scholastic says these books are appropriate for grades 4th through 7th, as though anyone out of 7th grade would not want to spend an afternoon with Grandma Dowdel.

Pshaw.

Scholastic also give us a glimpse into the wonderfully creative mind of Richard Peck, who along with Grandma Dowdel is one of my heroes.

Edmund and I are back-tracking now and reading A Long Way From Chicago.  It takes place in the late 20s, early 30s.  Joey and Mary Alice spend one week every summer with Grandma Dowdel and something outrageous always seems to coincide with their week.

I'm hoping to finish up in time to read A Season of Gifts in December, the last of the Grandma Dowdel books...at this time.  One can always hope.

Then, we'll probably read On the Wings of Heroes or Fair Weather or The Teacher's Funeral or Here Lies the Librarian.  That should bring us to next October, when I like to read about Blossom Culp in  my favorite ghost story, The Ghost Belonged to Me.

I see that Richard just had a new title published this summer.  I'll have to check it out.  I own his previous mousy adventure, Secrets at Sea and though it was lovely, I prefer his novels set in rural locales starring real people.  (Did you hear me, Mr. Peck?  More stories about small town characters please!)

Go read about Grandma Dowdel.  I'm craving pie just thinking about her.

An InLinkz Link-up

It's "What We're Reading Now" Wednesday!

My dad and I stopped in at the Daughters of St. Paul bookstore while I was back in the Show-Me State, and I picked up this board book for Baby J.  She says, "Hi, Jesus." whenever she sees the Infant of Prague statue in the back of church.  I've been trying to get her to say "Hi, Jesus." to the icon of Christ in the Mothers Room, but icons are little bit harder to get friendly with.

What Did Baby Jesus Do? is  a very sweet board book complete with illustrations of Baby Jesus in the manger, with the shepherds, with St. Joseph, and with the Holy Fam on the way to Egypt.  Baby J and I really like it.  She especially likes the barnyard animals.  She's big into barnyard animals right now.  "What does the cow say?" and all that.

"Hi, Jesus."  That pretty much sums up my prayer life right now.  Sort of a "I'm here, You're here." prayer.

Anyhoo, I'm also slogging my way through Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.  I was so entranced by The Scorpio Races that I wanted to read the rest of Stiefvater's YA novels.

I can sum up Shiver in one word:  DISAPPOINTED.

Shiver is a werewolf tale and has far too many parallels to the Twilight books to be considered original.  I'm only just over a hundred pages in, and our heroine, Grace, has a weird bestial love affair obsession with the "wolf with the hazel eyes."  She soon discovers that he is in fact a human, at least some of the time.  And they like to sleep in her bed together, just smelling each other.  She digs his wolf-like scent.  If that's anything like the way my dog smells, ewww.

They are only kissing so far, and of course sleeping and sniffing, but you know they want more, and they'll probably get it, and she'll end up bearing his wolf cubs or something.

She climbed out of bed; in the daylight, I could see just how clingy and unbearably sexy her camisole top was.  I turned away.  "You don't have to be so chaste, you know.  It's not like I'm naked."

Yeah, I'm done reading this trilogy.  On to brighter and better things...

Edmund and I listened to this on audio as part of the lamest spring break ever, in which I dragged Edmund, Lucy, and Baby J to two different malls, two days in a row, and we all got dental check-ups.  Throw in some mad house cleaning and a road trip.  I'm making it up to them though.  Today, we leave for Hotlanta on an Airplane of all things, then a shortish drive to Augusta, cousin frenzy, a chance to go to the Masters, a pontoon boat with tubes, and Easter candy.  Alleluia!  And God said, "Let their be Chocolate Bunnies!"

Plus, I win Mother-of-the-Year, because I said that I would put his pocket knife in my checked bag.  Can't expect a boy to travel without a blade.  How would he make a distillery to drink his own urine if he didn't have the proper tools?  We really must stop watching Survivorman.

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater is a fun, silly story about, well, I'm sure you saw the movie with Jim Carrey, or at least saw the dvd on the shelf at Target.  The book is not much like the movie, as I discovered by asking every 30 seconds, "Did this happen in the movie?"

I do like that Mrs. Popper.  When funds are running low, she suggests that they eat the penguins.

Survivorman would approve.

Audio Books and Craft Books

Regarding Audio Books-

What would a road trip be without them? How would I have convinced all of my children to stick with Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising in the most appropriate month of December? Now, we all point out when the rooks are gathering. How would they have learned about eye-crosserosis from Hank the Cowdog? How would we have learned how to pronounce "Hermione"?

When it comes to audio books, I have three words to say: Full Cast Audio.
These are the books read by a cast of talented actors. Each character has it's own voice. These are a cut above the rest. That's not to say that there aren't fabulous recordings of single reader audio books, too.

Some of my favorite audio books are:
The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop, read by the author and a full cast
The Battle for the Castle, the sequel, also by Elizabeth Winthrop, read by the author and a full cast
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, read by James Avery
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, read by Alex Jennings
Half Magic by Edward Eager, read by a full cast
Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson, read by the author (hilarious!)
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, not sure who it's read by, but click on the link for a free audio book
The Story of the Treasure Seekers, also by E. Nesbit, also available for free
Little House in the Big Woods as well as the rest of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
All Creatures Great and Small and everything else by James Herriot ever wrote, read by Christopher Timothy (who played Herriot in the television series)

Plus, here is a list from my dear friend, Miss Amy, who works at my local public library, purchases the audiobook collection, and enjoys audiobooks with her lovely family too.

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Tale of Desperaux by Kate diCamillo
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell, read by a full cast
Half Magic (again)
Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds
Season of Gifts (warning: may contain Santa spoilers) by Richard Peck
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Stuart Little by E.B. White
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

And now for a word about Craft Books.

We don't own many. The titles we own were purchased because we were borrowing the library's copies ALL THE TIME. We needed our own copies, plus they make excellent gifts.

Cartoon Cute Animals: How to Draw the Most Irresistable Creatures on the Planet by Christopher Hart
Pair this book with a sketchpad and some nice pencils or markers. My 12 year old daughter and 8 year old son are still using it one year later.









Draw the Marvel Comics Superheroes from Klutz
More advanced skill is required for this book than the Christopher Hart book above. Hmmm...I wonder if Christoper Hart has other How to Draw books....
In general, I love all of the Klutz books.







Tiny Treats by Julia A. Monroe
Cooking on a teensy scale. Adorable!










The Kid's Cookbook by Abigail J. Dodge
We've owned it for years. Honestly, they have the best birthday cake recipe on the planet.










Kids Knit!: Simple Steps to Nifty Projects by Sarah Bradberry
This book taught me how to knit, an obsession which continues to this day, which is why I couldn't help my girls with the projects in the next book.








Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful by Narumi Ogawa
My daughters have made the bunny on the cover, as well as some hats and scarves. The patterns are super adorable, though it helps if you have an experienced crochet master in the house, which we don't. Thank God for grandmas.








Loom Knitting Primer: A Beginner's Guide to Knitting on a Loom by Isela Phelps
Last year, for his 8th birthday, my son got one of these looms and some thick red yarn. He spent several winter days working on a baby blanket for his yet unborn baby sister. Knitting with a loom is like working with tools. Manly. Also, my daughter got a hat and scarf for Christmas that her friend had made her on a loom like these.






My motto for this year's Christmas shopping is less technology, more books, music, sports equipment. Every one of my children (except the baby) has a sketchbook and sketch pencils. They love them dearly. The ligers, the lettering, the anime, and the battle scenes they draw are done during the blissful silence of unplugged moments. Sketchbooks work in the car, and never need to be charged! If you're going to get sketchbooks for your kids, get them the bound book-like kind, not the notebook kind. Make them feel like real artists, which they are.

Have a blessed Advent!

Random Roundup: Pop-ups and Poems

My eight year old son is home from school today: low grade fever, tummy ache. He feels too bad to go to school, but not too bad to eat like a horse and play in the backyard and talk incessantly. He had to show me all of his favorite pop-ups in this amazing book, Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to the Galaxy. I've gifted this book many times, but only to children who are old enough to respect the pop-up genre. You know, "Flip. Look. But don't mess with it." This is probably the coolest book we own. Edmund's favorite page is the one where Luke battles Darth, and their lightsabers LIGHT UP! I like the one where Leia takes her hood off. Poetry in motion.

Speaking of poetry, our resident seventh grader has to memorize a poem for her drama club. I did not have to go to the library for this, because once upon a time, I read a really good article about poetry for children and bought every book on the recommended reading list. Turns out, I would only recommend three of their choices. Lucy loves her fancy, illustrated by Tasha Tudor, copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. (But has she actually read any of it? I suspect not.) My favorite is Robert Frost's Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening illustrated by Susan Jeffers. I keep it with our other Christmas books. It will appear during Advent, linger through the winter, and disappear around spring. Keeps it fresh and new every year.

But we found her poem in Poetry Speaks to Children, complete with audio recordings. Did you ever wonder what it's like to hear Langston Hughes recite one of his own poems? Or Roald Dahl? Or Robert Frost? Maybe it's just the English major in me, but I get worked up every time I hear the scratchy old recording of James Berry reciting his "Okay, Brown Girl, Okay." And it gets even better, because before he reads the poem, he talks about the letter he got from a girl who was teased about her skin color. It can be very moving. And good to listen to in the car. But please, don't try to listen to the whole book in one sitting. That will kill anybody's love of poetry.


Which poem did she choose? "About the Teeth of Sharks" by John Ciardi.

Discovering Elizabeth Enright

Finding author Elizabeth Enright's delightful novels for children has been one of the best things about this summer. Written in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Enright's books have been re-printed with her original illustrations. Her stories about Gone-Away Lake, the Melendy Family and Thimble Summer are all lovely tales about children, their mishaps, and their adventures.

Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away chronicle the discovery of a dried up lake community from the past by two young cousins. Portia and Julian befriend the eccentric, elderly couple who still live there, exploring the abandoned Victorian mansions and listening to the exploits of the people who once lived there. Enright received the Newbery Medal for Gone-Away Lake in 1958.

The Saturdays is a charming novel about the four Melendy children and their decision to pool their allowances, thus allowing each of them one Saturday apiece to do something truly thrilling. In The Four-Story Mistake, the Melendy children leave their beloved house in Manhattan for a large home in the country. Then There Were Five is the most dramatic of the four novels. The Melendy children rarely see their father, due to the onset of the war. They meet over-worked orphan, Mark Herron, on a scrap collecting drive, and try to keep Mark safe from his abusive guardian with criminal connections. In Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze, the two youngest Melendys are the only children home during the school year. Anticipating a bleak and boring autumn, Randy (Miranda) and Oliver receive a mysterious letter sending them on a scavenger hunt that lasts until spring.

My personal favorite Elizabeth Enright book is Thimble Summer. Newbery Medal Winner of 1938, Thimble Summer begins with the Linden family struggling through a drought on their Wisconsin farm. Young Garnet finds a silver thimble in a creek-bed and believes it may be a magic thimble when it rains later that night. The rest of Garnet's summer is touched by magic as she escapes being locked in the library all weekend, runs away and returns home unnoticed one busy day, and shows her pig at the county fair.

All of these books are perfect for reading aloud, or listening to in the car. My daughters and I have been enjoying them all summer and I plan to share them with some nieces for birthday gifts. Perfect for ages 9-12 and Highly Recommended.