All posts in Happy

I am, perhaps, one of the meanest children’s book critics on the planet. I think most of them, even (especially?) the best-sellers are downright terrible.

What makes me an expert? Perhaps nothing more than sheer volume. You see, every night in our house, we read our children to sleep. Every single night. Every single kid. No exceptions. Not even for vacation. Since my oldest is 15 now, that’s a good 5,000+ nights. I’ve read many, many a book out loud. And therein lies the problem. Maybe the authors didn’t read them out loud to see how the rhymes don’t work, how the sentences stick to your tongue, or how pointless the ending was.

Even though they are nice and short, children’s books are one of the hardest genres to write because they are so hard to get right. I’ve gotten so many best-selling books for my kids that turned out to be duds, I’d almost given up that there were any good books left.

And then I found “An Awesome Book of Love.” Read more…

I have one rule for Mother’s Day: homemade gifts only. My kids are kids; they don’t have a lot of their own money, and the little they do have, I don’t want them to spend on me. And I don’t want them to spend my money on me especially when they think everything in the Dollar Store is magic.

Over the years, they have made me my favorite foods, decorated my door, painted me rocks, made me nature art, all kinds of wonderful, thoughtful, beautiful gifts that I cherish. And they always make me handmade cards.

Read more…