Hi there Blog Friends– We’re deep into tree trimming and cookie baking around here. My smart young buddy Jenna is coming over to bake this morning and Larry is spending these days shepherding people on a “Walk through Bethlehem” every night at church. It’s pretty much full on Christmas time for us. And I’m counting the days until kids walk in the door!
So I’m taking a little Blog Break– to slow down the season, spend time in thankfulness to God and to have sweet time with people we love celebrating together. At times you just have to simplify– and this is it.
I’ll still be Instagramming at “Rhonda Sittig”
But I’ll be reading along keeping up with all my Blog Buddies– and hopefully will be back posting in the New Year. Hugs to all!! And I hope and pray you have a blessed and beautiful Christmas.
Some Links to our Christmas Favorites:
Chocolate Cranberry “Fruitcake”
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! And God’s dearest blessings to you all…
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If you’re a reader (and I think a lot of you are!), get read to be charmed by Anne Bogel’s new book, I’d Rather Be Reading, the Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life. You’ll see yourself on these pages in chapters like Confess Your Literary Sins or Bookworm Problems (so funny!).
I discovered Kate Morton this year and am starting to make my way though her engaging stories. Mostly recently, The House at Riverton. In this book, is the recounting of a 98 year old woman with the family who lived in the house and the tragic death that shaped their history. It was written before Downton Abbey but feels very much the same in detail and characters (I wonder if Julian Fellowes read the book!). The narrator tells the stories of Hannah and Emmeline, sisters, whom she served as a lady’s maid. The story pulls you along right until the end when the mystery unfolds. Now I’m waiting for her newest book, The Clockmaker’s Daughter!
Love and Ruin by Paula McLain describes of the tumultuous love affair and marriage of Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. Mostly told from the point of view of Martha, third of Hemingway’s four wives. She is a writer and journalist and strong personality who comes to love Hemingway when they are both war correspondents, in war torn Madrid, as Franco captures the country. They made their home together in a writer’s get away in Cuba and travel and write around the world. Fascinating picture of their relationship– and of course, it sent me to Wikipedia to see home much of the story was actual. MacLain also wrote The Paris Wife, the telling of Hemingway’s first marriage, also a worthwhile book.
Last month’s book for our was Lit group was Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward. This story was a difficult one, narrated by sturdy 13 year old Jojo and his drug using mother Leonie. Living in southern Mississippi with Jojo’s grandparents, they set off on a road trip to collect Jojo’s father who is being released from prison. The story is populated by Jojo’s younger sister, his steady grandfather, Pop, an ailing grandmother and a pair of ghosts from the past. The book is at points disturbing and at others hopeful. Not an easy book, but a worthwhile one. Winner of the National Book Award.
I’ll end with a sweet story, Dear Mrs. Bird by A J Pearce. Emmeline is a young woman, living with her best friend Bunty, in war torn London during WWII. She spends her nights at the phone bank for the Auxilary Fire Services, which responds to nightly bombings. And by day, she is the assistant to crotchety Mrs. Bird, an advice columnist for a women’s magazine. When Mrs. Bird discards letters from people who truly need help, Emmy can’t help responding to them. It’s a story of deep loss and firm loyalties, of the courage of two young women. I’m not sure why, but this book reminds me of a 1940’s Katherine Hepburn movie– girls with spunk! Very enjoyable
To read more book notes (all my books from the the last 3 years)–
Martin Luther wrote, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”
Just read Prayer, Our Deepest Longing by Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest. Great worthwhile book.
Baked Pumpkin French Toast
Pumpkin Bran Muffins
Maple Pumpkin Granola
Pumpkin Pecan Rolls with Maple Glaze
Peach Crostata
Hi Reading Friends– I have one question for you — What are you reading?? Do you have some recommendations? I’d love to hear them! Always looking for worthwhile books to track down and read.
There’s been multiple readings of The Lady with the Alligator Purse every day around here. It’s a sing-along book about a baby who drinks up all the bathwater and eats up all the soap, resulting in visits from the doctor, nurse and, or course, the Lady with the Alligator Purse, who saves the day! Nadine Westcott has added her lively lovely illustrations to a whole string of children’s songs in books like Miss Mary Mack and Down By the Bay. All books you’ll read/sing again and again.
Hug by Jez Alborough is also on high demand here. A baby monkey sees an elephant mom & child giving hugs and it sets him on a search for his own big hug. Along the way he finds other jungle animals hugging and is about to despair when his Mom appears with– you guessed it– an enormous hug! Few words, just illustrations tell the story. Was fun to talk though and the bonus was big hugs from my reading buddy!
Go Dog Go is a classic by P. D. Eastman (but in the Dr. Seuss collection). It’s just a series of observations about dogs doing crazy things, in the simplest vocabulary and happy illustrations. That’s why it’s great reading with a toddler and also a wonderful first book for a kindergartner to take on reading on his own. It’s silly and whimsical and ends with a big dog party!! Any kid who likes dogs, will like this book.
The Monster At The End of This Book by Jon Stone is the best! Good old Grover notices from the title that there is a monster at the end of the book. He spends that next several pages trying to stop you from turning pages so that you will not get to the monster at the end. It’s funny and interactive and happily (spoiler alert!) the monster at the end is just him–lovable Grover. I recommend this book be read with that grumbly Grover voice for best effect!! Lois and I love it– with her stuffed Grover sitting on her lap!
Here’s my reading buddy Little Lois and I reading at the library after Toddler Story Time.
One of those books that sticks with you long after you’ve turned the last page, Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover is a riveting story. Westover grew up in a large survivalist family near he mountains of Idaho. Her rigid father ran a junkyard on their land, her mother a mid-wife and herbal healer. Over the years family members suffered gashes, burns, concussions and were just treated at home, the medical world distrusted. As well, the children did not attend schools and were cut off from the wide world. Tara suffered from an abusive brother and parents who would not protect her. When one of Westover’s brothers goes to college, he encourages her to do it as well. She teaches herself enough to take the ACT and eventually goes/graduates from Brigham Young University–hearing for the first time of the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. She continues on to study at Harvard and to earn her PhD from Cambridge. But through these years she constantly struggles over her relationship with her family, with loyalties and the fears of her childhood at play. A fascinating crazy true story about the ties of family and the power of education.
Eleanor Oliphant is a quirky socially awkward young woman whose days are filled with office work and nights and weekends are spent alone, consuming frozen pizza and vodka. She makes the acquaintance of Raymond, the IT guy at her work and he gradually becomes the friend she needs. As you read along, the story of Eleanor’s disturbing childhood becomes apparent. Raymond’s dogged friendship see’s her through her darkest hours. Enjoyed this story for the interesting characters that I fell in love with by the end of the book–faithful kind hearted Raymond and courageous Eleanor.
Kate Bowler is a professor Duke Divinity School. At 35 she has a wonderful husband and a small new son– and is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. She realizes how much she believed she could control her own life circumstances — that things did happen for a reason. What results is her journey through involved treatments, surrounded by family and friends. Her honest, vivid, sometimes funny account is Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved. Her truths about how to live when death is a near possibility are heartening and ring true.”
And I’ve saved the best for last. I have to admit to being a huge fan of Shannan Martin, first on her blog and now her Instagram posts that are sweet, funny, honest and open my eyes to the world of need around me. So when there was an offer to receive an advance copy of her latest book, The Ministry of Ordinary Places, I jumped at the chance! Shannan tells stories– of people in her neighborhood and how strangers became friends. She writes about digging in deep with the people around us, about being intrepid in how we love people, about sticking around for the long haul. My copy is dog eared right and left– and I’m ready to go in and read it for a second time to collect all the thoughts I need to remember for my own care taking of people I love. Loved every well crafted page of this amazing book. You can find Shannan’s Instagram meditations/warm hearted stories at “Shannanwrites.” And her book is due out October 9th.
And some last thoughts:
The Thankful Heart 