Tom's Ice Cream Bowl

This spring we have been taking some time to enjoy some of the quintessential spots in the area.  For almost two years, we've been told that we MUST visit Tom's Ice Cream Bowl.  The ice cream was good.  The atmosphere was old-timey.  The sandwiches were ... meh.  We wanted to try the nuts, but a certain toddler of ours was recently diagnosed with a hazelnut allergy.  It was a fun departure from our typical routine. 

Literary Tourism - Oregon

Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary

When I learned that Beverly Cleary would be celebrating her 100th birthday this week, I decided it was time to revisit one of my old favorites of hers.   I sat back, relaxed, a breathed in the sweet smell of an aging paperback. 

Emily lives in Pitchfork, Oregon, a small farm town.  She is envious of her cousin, Muriel, who gets to visit the public library in Portland and check out any books she wants, especially Black Beauty.  Emily and her mom decide that it is high time that Pitchfork had a library too.  They start fundraising and collecting books so they can have the joy of a library in their own town.

I love this book.  It's in Cleary's typical episodic style so each chapter could stand alone.  Emily is energetic, brave, and a little bit prone to trouble.  She gets the hogs drunk with rotten apples and bleaches her horse, but saves the day when her grandfather can't stop his Model-T Ford.  Cleary has a special ability to really understand the mind of a child.

This book also created an excellent sense of place.  While it is a far cry from representing today's Oregon, it illustrates very directly, Cleary's Oregon, the Oregon of her childhood.  Many references were made to Emily's pioneer ancestors. the men and women who crossed the Oregon Trail to settle on the frontier.  There was even a Chinese character representing the many who travelled from Asia to the western United States and the time.  For a book of its age,  it handled this little bit of diversity very respectfully. 

If you're looking for a charming, quick childish read. this is a great choice.

To My Unborn Son

Before you were conceived,

I dreamed of you;

Then woke to search 

Through rooms, in beds and under cushions.

Frenzied, I would whisper

Where is he?

Until my consciousness reminded me

You were not there.

Now in quiet moments, I feel the flutter

Of your arms and legs inside me

As I pray that you will grow

Healthy, strong, and good.

Soon, I will swaddle you,

Lay you in your bassinet,

And fall asleep to the rhythm of your breath

Until I wake with a mother’s anxiety.

Frenzied, I will whisper

Where is he?

Until I realize, you are there

Filling the vacancy in our home.

Joshua's Favorite Things

Oprah has list of favorite things to market specific products.  I've decided that Joshua should have list of favorite things to help market his awesomeness.  So here you are.

Favorite Toys: 

1.  Balls
2.  Mr. Monkey
3.  Balls of other sizes.

Favorite Foods:

1/  Blueberries
2.  Oranges  (Are you sensing a ball-like theme.)
3.  Broccoli

Favorite animal.

1.  Dogs ... just dogs ... any dogs ... all dogs

Favorite books:

1.  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do YOu See?  
2.  Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
3.  Goodnight, Moon

Favorite Things To Play With (Not Toys)

1.  Pots and Pans
2.  Hairbrushes
3.  Daddy's Ties

To be continued ...

The Ramblings of a Toddler

Look! A rock - oh there's some leaves!

I'll stuff the brown ones up my sleeves.
They're itchy  - oh look the rock
I should stick it down my sock.

That hurts a bit - I see a bug
It looks dead. I want a hug.
Mommy, will you carry me?
Down, down!  Another bug!  See.

Mommy, watch me climb those stairs.
One step, two - now it's a chair
Tap, tap my legs against the stone.
Look up - no let's just go home.

Running, running, now I walk.
Let's go – Hey, look, a rock!

Literary Tourism - Virginia

Most of my experience in Virginia has been in the Washington D.C. area.  It's quite a lovely state.  Most of my literary experience in Virginia has been with a series of novels about a high school that trains female spies.  While those books are fun, they didn't really meet my goals for the project.  But thanks to my book group, I have visited Virginia through prose.

The Cross Gardener by Jason F. Wright

John is born on the side of Route 11 in the Shenandoah Valley when his mother gets into a fatal car accident.  John is shuffled through a few different foster families, but finally finds home on an apple orchard with a good father who has adopted two other sons.  John's life is constantly impacted by death.  His oldest brother drowns while on a school trip.  His father dies of lung cancer.  But worst of all his wife and soon-to-be born son die in a car accident traveling home from the county fair.  John and his daughter, Lou Lou, are left to cope.  In John's struggle to grieve, he meets a man who calls himself the Cross Gardener.  He maintains roadside crosses and asks John to help him.  Along the journey John learns to have faith despite his sadness.    

The sense of place in this book is excellent.  When doing research for another book the author loved the Shenandoah Valley so much that he moved there.  The descriptions are accurate and detailed.  (I looked it up.)  John's love for his home mirrors the author's passion for it.

I liked the book.  You may have guessed by the title that it is Christian literature.  It's refreshing to find literature that extols virtue as a virtue.  The language was clean.  The characters were all people doing their best to live a good life - religious or not.

I have a few criticisms.  First, and this is mostly for Christian literature in general, it was melodramatic.  It was trying too hard to make me feel things.  I felt like I was being manipulated.  Second, the characters were pretty hollow.  Third, at times I felt like I was reading the summary of a story while at other times the author gave me every minute detail that I didn't need.  Fourth, the symbolism was overt.  I prefer a little subtlety. 

But overall it was a good book.  I felt uplifted and surprised at the end, and I liked the peaceful tone of the Cross Gardener.

Family Photos 2015

What do you think?  Should we put them on our Christmas cards?