Holy Cow! You guys are hysterical!!! I knew I’d get some great ideas for how to use that cookie writer! What a clever and ambitious bunch you are. I’m really happy that so many of you managed to get one of them — I’m thinking I need to write the seller and ask for a commission LOL!
Other than all the cookie writer excitement, it’s been a quiet week here in Thimbleannaland. A little boring actually, and it worries me that it might be the calm before the holiday storm. (Notice I did NOT use the “C” word — I’m not ready!)
Anyway, I caught TheEmptyNestChild yawning and it reminded me of the big yawns I’d get out of the boys when we read bedtime stories. We loved reading together and I thought I’d tell you about my two favorite memories of those times.
One night we were reading 2095 by Jon Scieszka. (2095 is from a great series for early readers called The Time Warp Trio — a group of books about three boys who travel in time. Most of the time they traveled to historical eras in the past, but in this book they were traveling to 100 years in the future. Kids love these stories ’cause they’re so funny.) Anyway, I read this passage:
“What’s the date today?” I asked.
Director Green slid her finger across another panel. The blue numbers 9/28/95 appeared.
“September 28,” she said.
And then I stopped reading and we had a wow moment and a laugh — the actual date that we were reading was 9/28/95. What were the odds of that??? Ok, maybe you had to be there, but we were really excited!!!
(Hey Look! I won a prize at Anna’s and it arrived in the mail this week. Thanks for the moda squares and chocolate Anna, I love it!)
Here’s one of my favorite passages from a children’s book, ever. It’s from The Twits by Roald Dahl and it’s describing Mrs. Twit. (Oh how we love Roald Dahl.)
But the funny thing is that Mrs. Twit wasn’t born ugly. She’d had quite a nice face when she was young. The ugliness had grown upon her year by year as she got older.
Why would that happen? I’ll tell you why.
If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
How cool is that? Did I mention that we love Roald Dahl? Well…speaking of bedtime… I hope you all have a great weekend. I get a sewing day with the quilty peeps tomorrow. Yipee!!!
XOXO,
Anna
What a wonderful quote, and soooooo true! Enjoy your chocolate and other goodies. And yes, enjoy the calm. It’s as if I can feel the holidays and all of the rush creeping up on me. Oh, I love all of the fun, but I wish I could slow it all down and take it all in, rather then feeling rushed and overwhelmed (like I sometimes do).
:sigh
okay, i’m not the first commenter, but at least i’m the most important!! :)
i was so busy trying to be the first that i haven’t read your post yet.
i’ll go read it and come back and tell you how great you are inna sec.
did you know that roald dahl was brilliant? his son was born with hydrocephaly and he had to undergo dangerous surgeries as he grew to insert a shunt into his skull to drain the fluid from his brain. roald dahl, designed, invented and patented a shunt device that would “grow” with his son so he didn’t have to continue to undergo the dangerous surgeries.
isn’t that cool?
I think that Roald Dahl is great too. Such profound thoughts in his work.
I love that passage in the twits too, it’s so well-written and my girls seem to have really absorbed it. It’s so vivid for them that they actually quote it to me (not verbatim- they’re not geniuses!) but I love that it’s become part of their way of thinking.
What a perfect quote!!!!!!!!Have a wonderful day with the peeps…please tell them “Hi” for me.
Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors too. WHen I was teaching I often read his books aloud to my students. My favorite is George’s Marvelous Medicine.
Anna, Boy, you timed it right to get your cat in the yawn position. Is he really that bored? I get what you mean about the books. I used to love to read to my kids and they loved it too. The Twits was a good read and we also loved Roald Dahl. By the way, I love the cookie messages in the last post. What a great tool!! I could just see my kids with one of those in their hands. Because they are young teens, I could see words like poop come up quite a lot as a favorite. But I am not sure that I would be inclined to eat a cookie that says poop on it.
Looking at TheEmptyNestChild makes me want to yawn too!
What a beautiful quote of Roald Dahl!
What a great quote from Roald Dahl. We loved reading to our kids too. My husband just read stuff to them that he remembered liking or have discovered as an adult He read a lot of “Roald Dah,” “E.B. White” type books to them.
Being an English teacher, I had this idea that I’d read all of the Newberry Award winners until I discovered that the more recent award winners were often political choices. We still read and enjoyed a ton of them.
We kept a little journal from when the kids were like five, and I still will look at it every one in a while. I’d often ask the kids if they’d learned anything. When we finished These Happy, Golden Years, the last book in the “Little House” series, my daughter said she’d learned that, “If a boy asks you out, it means that he wants to marry you.” I loved that. She’s sixteen now. She probably doesn’t think that anymore.
My son read the Time Warp Trio – I’m not sure that was one that we ever read together. I too love Raold Dahl – love the fact about him that Brigita put up there.
I still love to read children’s books (practice for being a granny) and Roald Dahl was one our favorites. Love the quote you chose from The Twits. Was TheEmptyNestChild trying to tell you he wanted some quality time with you?
Ok, when I looked over my comment above it may imply I am going to be a grandmother…NOT!…right now that is. :-)
The EmptyNestChild looks how I feel.
Oh, and I ordered one of those cookie thingys.
COuld not resist – so many possibilities. ; )
Roald Dahl always managed to say some of the wisest things in his books – so clever!
When I saw the picture of the cat yawning it made me yawn. Seriously. I do that easily though. We love Roald Dahl too. I can’t tell you how many times we have watched The witches. My kids now grown still love that movie.
That timing was so amazing! We have always loved Roald Dahl in our house. In fact, as I was putting Maisie’s bedroom into boxes yesterday I found that exact book under the computer desk, covered in cobwebs…now that is spooky!
What a great gift in the mail! I do love Dahl as well! Maybe I’ll do the BFG or something else with my students this year!
The Emptynestchild looks hilarious in that pic!
That makes me smile!
We love Roald Dahl too.
I loved reading to my boys when they were little. We always found ourselves laughing about something. I must say I miss those days.
Wait people found the tool?? Where? I need one!! O.k. I guess I’ll go back and read your comments and look for clues! Have a great day with your peeps tomorrow!!
The kitty yawn reminds me of when I would read books to my little flock of kids. I was always so tired by the end of the day that I began to slur my words and nod my head and fall asleep WHILE reading to them. They’d often shake me and say, “Mommy, are you falling asleep?”
Love the beautiful/ugly quote.
Jody
I can’t believe I haven’t read Ronald Dahl. Our home is filled with books, childrens and grown ups alike. How is it that I’ve missed this. I believe a trip to the bookstore is in order. Thanks for this.
When I was at secondary school we went to a neighbouring school for a ‘meet the author’ session and it was Roald Dahl!!!!! He read an extract from one of his books and had the most wonderful reading voice.
My two have most of his books and they’ve been bedtime favourites for a few years now :)
Genius.
xxx
Hi Anna:
I love your story about when you and your boys were reading. I think that would be so cool … same date!!! I also loved your post a ways back on the quilts you all made in your sons’ classes. What a great idea!!! Cat is cute, too!!!!
Blessings,
Mary Jane
Love that cat yawn.
Cats do really thorough yawns, don’t they? They don’t bother putting a paw in front of their mouths to be polite. They just give it laldy, as we say over here (ie really go for it).
Thank you for reminding me how much I love Roald Dahl! The Twits was one of my son’s favorite books. I’ll have to buy it for my granddaughter – she would love it!
Love the cat yawn – it makes me sleepy. Zzzzzz…