It takes Quarantine to Get Me Back to my Blog: Danish Living Books

I knew it had been a while since I blogged. How is a year and five months "a while"?

Mom time, that's how.

And "I'm going to get back to blogging" is on my list of things to do during the quarantine. I even have a pile of books, ready to go.

So I'm going to start with Danish Living books. This was out of my parenting in other countries binge, that developed into hygge research. And these are the books that I cozy up to about every Thanksgiving, when the weather gets chilly.

1. The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, is just a nice little guide to hygge, the Danish concept of coziness/familiarity/being snuggly to cope with the cold. Although it's not dismally dark where I live in the winter, I still like a little hygge in the winter, and this where I go.

2. The Hygge Life by Gislason and Eddy. More hygge, love the recipes. Slow down and be cozy.

3. How to Hygge: The Nordic Secrets to a Happy Life by Johansen. More cozy, more recipes, just more.

4. The Year of Living Danishly by Russell. This is another book I read just about every winter. Russell is an American who moves to Denmark and learns to cope, by embracing Danish culture. This is a charming little book and I like Russell's voice. Maybe I read this in the winter to remind myself I live closer to the equator than Denmark and really, although I hate February, it's really not that bad where I live. There's a little adult content, I wouldn't hand this book to my 10-year-old.

5. The Danish Way of Parenting by Alexander. I skim through this one, I think Russell (see above) has a better voice, but still, there's insight to Danish parenting culture in this book.

Christmas Read Alouds 2018

Every year, the holidays come and I tell myself to be reasonable with finding Christmas read alouds. 

It never works. 

I thought that I was adding "just a few" more books to our reading pile.

 I don't think 27 counts as "just a few", but I did find some good ones. 

So here is the master list: 

And here are the ones I added to the pile: so grateful for a great public library system! Not all of these were the definite favorites, but I can never tell which ones my kids will adore so it's fine with me if we have lots of books around. 

I'm Not Santa by Allen (This gets the kids' favorite award for 2018) 

I've Seen Santa by Bedford

Madeline's Christmas by Bemelmans

Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett

Christmas Mouseling by Chaconas

The Money We'll Save by Cole

The Nutcracker by DoCampo

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Dean

Santa Rex by Idle

The Nutcracker by Jeffers

An Angel Came to Nazareth by Knott

Tyrannoclaus by Lawler

The Waltz of the Snowflakes by MacKay

The Friendly Beasts by McGinley

Santa Duck by Pilgrim

Is it Christmas Yet? by Prater

Twelve Days of Christmas by Randall (Fun folk illustrations!) 

Merry Christmas, Curious George by Rey

The Perfect Christmas by Spinelli

Santa's Snow Kitten by Stainton

The Bearer of Gifts by Steven (a very nice Santa/religious tie-in, the best one I've found)

Snowman Magic by Tegen

Pick a Pine Tree by Toht

DinoChristmas by Wheeler

Sharing Christmas by Westerlund

The Beautiful Christmas Tree by Zolotow (Lovely themes of caring) 

Every year I try a new way to wrap up the books---this year 2 or 3 kids out of the four wanted to unwrap a package every time we found time for story time. Which was fine, because I'd kept the packages small (one or two books, three if there was a theme like "These are the Night Before Christmas books"). The rest of the books I kept in piles around the house, upstairs, downstairs, on the piano, etc. 

As always, this is a fun tradition for our family. A lovely way to spend time together that doesn't include spending money, having to leave the house, or consuming calories. 

I'll try to keep it under control next year. 

Thanksgiving Read Alouds 2018

Thanksgiving Read Alouds 2018.

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano

*Thelonius Turkey Lives (on Felicia Ferguson’s Farm) by Lynn Reed

*Thanksiving at the Tappletons by Eileen Spinelli illustrated by Maryann Cocca-Leffer and also the version illustrated by Megan Lloyd
Ten Hungry Turkeys by Balsley
Duck for Turkey Day by Mitter
*Time for Cranberries by Detlsen
Thanksgiving Mice by Roberts
This First Thanksgiving Day by Melmed
The Great Thanksgiving Escape by Fearing
Thanksgiving Rules by Friedman
Over the River and Through the Woods by Child
This is the Turkey by Levine
*Sharing the Bread by Miller
*'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Pilkey

*I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Judith Schachner 

*Turkey Surpise by Peggy Archer
Thanksgiving at Our House by Hallinan

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy

*The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell

*Thanksgiving is Here by Diane Goode
*The Perfect Thanksiving by Eileen Spinelli

*My personal favorites. 

If you want a read aloud about Thanksgiving and young Tad Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's son), Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines is good. 

My bigger boys liked Two Bad Pilgrims by Kathryn Lasky, but I think it gives them ideas about what explosives. 

Halloween Picture Books 2018

Some of our favorite holiday traditions are picture books. With Halloween, we also add a few quirky videos like Studio C's Kyle's Hyper Halloween and, of course, the Simpsons' version of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven". I feel like I've done my literature enrichment when my children, giggling, quote Poe all around the house.

So here are some picture books for your Halloween reading. Favorites are at the top:

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda White
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
Bone Dog by Rohmann
We're off to Find the Witch's House by Krieb
Room on the Broom by Donaldson
Big Pumpkin by Silverman
Ten Orange Pumpkins by Savage
Click Clack Boo by Cronin
Pet the Cat Five Little Pumpkins by Dean
Jungle Halloween by Cocoa-Leffler
The Very Best Pumpkin by Good
Pumpkin Smasher by Benarde
Pumpkin Cat by Turner
T Rex Trick or Treat by Grambling
Cat Nights by Manning
Five Little Monkeys Trick or Treat by Christelow
Brooms are For Flying by Micheal Rex
Moonlight the Halloween Cat by Rylant
Humbug Witch by Balian
Three Bears Halloween by Duval
Sheep Trick or Treat by Apple
The House at Night by Swanson
Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin by Walton
Pumpkin Trouble by Thomas
Only a Witch Can Fly by McGhee
And The Comes Halloween by Brenner
Corre Corre Calabaza by Mejunto and Letria (it's in Spanish)

and

The Ugly Pumpkin by Horowitz, which is more of a Halloween/to Thanksgiving book.

Happy Halloween.

Family Vacationing in the Beautiful Black Hills

My family just joined a long-time friend family for a vacation in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.

The truth of the matter is that really, I planned the whole thing so I could see our friends. The place was irrelevant, and even a joke to me, when I asked my Colorado friend, "What's close to you? What can we go see?" "Mt. Rushmore!" she said, and we laughed. Ha ha. Then I told my husband who said, completely seriously, "I've always wanted to go there."

And that was how this trip started.

But as I did more and more research on all my trip research-y places (guide books, National Park passports, mom blogs, etc) I read about so many things that we could do in the Black Hills. Most resources said there was more to do than a four day trip would allow, and that it was a lovely place to visit. This is all true.

First of all, the Black Hills are beautiful this time of year and the locals are hospitable, down-to-earth, and accommodating. There are lots of places to stay (we found a house on vrbo), and every town, although small, has enough restaurants to give families enough options.

There are caves and parks and trails and museums galore and it's hard to choose what to do. But here was how it all panned out as far as our itinerary went:

1. Day one. We got up early to beat the crowds and went to Wind Cave national park for the family tour of Wind Cave. Caving is not on my list of favorite things to do---I just can't think too hard about the fact that I'm 200 feet underground WITH MY CHILDREN. But the kids liked the tour and I liked coming up the elevator back into solid ground.

Then we went to Mount Rushmore. Our friends opted for the audio tour, which was a smart choice, I realized, when my kids kept pilfering their headphones---full of interesting information, and a novelty enough to keep my (crabby, tired, whiney) 4 year old entertained. Next time, we'll just get our own headphones. We stayed at MR and perused the museum and stayed for treats. Note to self: All the desserts (even the Thomas Jefferson recipe ice cream) are gargantuan. Two, maybe three people could share them.

Later, we went to the Circle B Chuckwagon dinner and cowboy show in Hill City. Fun, just what you'd expect. I got my summer dose of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and the fiddler was actually good.

2. Day Two.

We did the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park and got stuck in a herd of buffalo. Custer State Park far surpassed my expectations. It's amazing, which is why we came back on Day Three.

The weather was threatening to turn stormy, so we made the long drive to the Badlands, which were awesome.

The Badlands is a must-see. It's two hours or so from Mount Rushmore, but worth the trip. Lots of interesting walks and hikes and no one cares if the kids climb on the rocks---I think they are happy to have tourists do the fossil uncovering.

We took the long route out of Badlands and drove to a field dubbed "Robert's Prairie Dog Town". My daughter especially wanted to see the prairie dogs and they are cute, yes they are---from a distance of course, no touching. 

And they have fleas, yes, they do. The prairie dogs stayed in the field but the fleas hitched a ride. Shame on those fleas. If you don't want to risk fleas, stay out of the field and on the pavement.

Then we went to the very quirky mega-monstrosity that is Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota (home of Wall Drug!) Words can't describe it: It's a drugstore! It's a restaurant! It's a chapel! Every quirky South Dakota tchotchke is sold here! And there are bathrooms! And free water! And a t-rex! And a jackalope! And history! 

It's like a big American inside joke and now we know it. If you like that quirky sort of Americana, don't miss it. The folklorist in me went bananas. 

3. Day Three

We started the day in Hill City at the Geological Institute of South Dakota Museum. It's small, but it's packed with fossils. This was a highlight for my oldest because he's full of facts about dinosaurs and I was entertained as he chattered about dinosaur teeth, feet, and meat. Fascinating. I would have passed it by, but was glad Eric wanted to stop. 

The rest of the day we spent in Custer State Park, first driving the Needles Highway, and then at the blissful Sylvan Lake. We played in the lake and canoed and enjoyed the perfect weather and meeting people from all over the country. 

And that was the trip, but here are four more notes:

Note 1: Every year in August there’s the Sturgis motorcycle rally. We were there the week before, just as the bikers were starting to come in. Although it was totally fine that we were there the week before, I wouldn’t go the week of the motorcycle rally, just because it’s too crazy. I actually found the bikers to be very courteous, it was just the numbers I was happy to avoid.

Note 2: The Black Hills so beautiful in the summer. And it smells so good there, I'm not sure why: the sage? 

Note 3: I love our country and I'm used to being on the coasts or in the West. But it was nice to be more central US because we met people from the north, south, east, and west, all converging in central. 

Note 4: We packed in all that we could, but there was so much we missed. We never got to Rapid City, and we missed the mammoth site in Hot Springs. I would love have to have had time for Spearfish Canyon (the locals confirmed this is beautiful), and Deadwood sounded fun. There are also a bunch of caves to explore, or (like me next time) just send the rest of your family. There just wasn't enough time. 

All in all, we had a lovely trip. If you want a resort vacation, look elsewhere. But if the great outdoors with quirky side trips is your cup of cocoa, I'd say put this on your list. 

Us Against You, Butchering Art, Island of the Mad

Here are my latest finds:

1. The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris about the advent of sterile surgery. Definitely a topic I wouldn't chose! Ew. The book is vivid about surgery practices of the nineteenth century and they were gruesome. As in cringe-when-I-read it gruesome. But factual, so therefore fascinating. Surgery had to start somewhere. If you like historical novels, give this one a try. Fitzharris is a fine writer and I always admire an author who can make a topic (like surgery) that I think: "No thank you", to be something that's actually pretty interesting because of the way she tells it.

2. Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, the sequel to Beartown. Some sequels are total letdowns after the first fine book, and I wondered if Backman could keep it up. He can. Adult themes, not for my tween readers, but I'd love to suggest it to a (non-offended!) book club of intelligent readers. Backman is one of the few authors would can make me heartily laugh and get to profound realizations in the same paragraph.

3. Island of the Mad, the next in my favorite detective series starring Mary Russell as a sidekick to Sherlock Holmes. I was waiting for this to arrive at my library because it was just published a few months ago. And Laurie King keeps up her Laurie King self. Bedlam mental hospital! Venice! Fascists! Cole Porter! Sherlock Holmes as Zorro! If King only did a great mystery plot, I'd be hooked. But King has this expansive vocabulary! Like the word "susurrations", which means "a whispering sound" and King uses it to describe the ocean waves. Marvelous.

She plays with the concept of gender identity, so if that makes you nervous, or you have a young reader you don't want to go there yet, now you know.

Happy summer reading!

Educated by Tara Westover, and Idaho

One of the latest "to read" books is Educated by Tara Westover. It was recommended to me by a friend, then I kept seeing it on book blogs and books lists and more smart friends were talking about it. (I LOVE my smart friends!)

Tara grew up in rural Idaho and there's a reason rural Idaho has the reputation it does, I can vouch for that because I lived there myself for a while. When my kids ask me for stories about my childhood they know that any story about Idaho is going to turn into a tall tale: that when you drive into town you go back in time, that the dinosaurs wander the streets, and that the only day of summer is the 4th of July---that one is true actually. I tell these tall tales because the reality is just too weird to describe, and I wasn't happy there. When we moved to California, I came back alive.

But all these years I've wondered if my memories of rural Idaho were tainted because I was there when I was 8 years old and we left when I was 12, and those were awwwkkkkwarrrd Deborah years. Maybe it was just me.

But the way Tara describes rural Idaho living, I can firmly say: Nope. It wasn't me.

I'm talking small town Idaho, by the way. I'm sure Boise is better, it must be.

Of course, Tara's parents had plenty of issues, while I had parents who didn't. So it wasn't her home life I could identify with, but the attitudes of the people in the town and the general life perspective. You'd have to live there to get it, but it's what makes Napoleon Dynamite funny.

So rural Idaho is the setting. Where people stockpile guns and only heal with herbs and are suspicious about government everything. And that's considered normal. Add to this that Tara's dad is manic depressive and paranoid, and her mother is living his warped reality, and there's abuse of all kinds in the home, they live their own version of Mormonism, and Tara is homeschooled . . . . well that's a story.

But what makes an interesting story is that Tara gets out to the rest of the world.

The saddest thing to me is how well she portrays what happens in the mind of a family member who has been taught her role---children get this young, what role they are expected to have. The dark side of this is abuse where family members are taught to accept and even continue harmful family patterns. This would be a funny story about a weird family if it weren't for that abuse. And that Tara is taught to accept it.

The redemption of the story is that when Tara gets out to the rest of the world, she gets away from the abuse. But oh, the battles in her mind and heart to do it.

This would be a fascinating read for any book club. For people who are going to get all "Well most Mormons aren't like that!" huffy, they'll be offended.

Of course most Mormons aren't like this. But let's examine the dark side of when religion is used as justification for crazy behavior, and that can be found in any faith.