Wednesday Reviews: Thanksgiving Stories

I know it’s cutting it close, but on this day before Thanksgiving, I’d like to review some books for the diners who are sitting at the kids table.

The first is The Night Before Thanksgiving“>. Like the characters in this book, my children and their cousins giggle about the same things I snickered over with my cousins — goofing off at the kid’s table, putting olives on our fingers, and eating leftover turkey sandwiches. Nostalgic and fun.

The second is a more artful story The Very First Thanksgiving Day, which touches on the fact that we Western Europeans owe our very survival on this continent to the Native Americans who shared their skills and bounty with our ancestors so many years ago. Beautiful illustrations and a repetitive rhythm children love. Artful and insightful.

My seven year old daughter fell in love with this book, which she read to her two year old cousin last week. It’s not about our Fall holiday, but it does a lovely job of encouraging gratitude. Give Me Grace is short enough to memorize in a couple of readings, and the alluring illustrations feed the eye as well as the soul. Bright and meaningful.

Finally, I’d like to recommend this pretty, classic story. Ox-Cart Man is not directly about Thanksgiving, but it’s cyclical story of growing-and-harvesting captures the turning of the seasons, while it’s spare bounty quietly instills a since of gratitude amongst our overly-modern children. Classic and grateful.

Click on the links in this post to order these items, or any items at Magpie Suggests, and your purchases will help fund this site. Thank you for your support!

Lukie grills his millionth s’more over the backyard fire pit last summer.

I’m in Texas for a few days visiting my sister’s family before we make the big move to Denmark. This is one of her middle children, Lukie of the Four Years. I got to say, he’s got a little piece of my heart.

For a long time Becky had all boys, which resulted in one of my favorite mothering lines ever:

“Boys! Stop spitting on the carpet! (pause) I just had it cleaned!”

It was the pause that did me in–as though if it hadn’t just been cleaned, well, she just would have let it slide.

Another motherhood quip I love came while I was talking to Jen on the phone:

“Mada! Stop hanging shovels in the neighbor’s tree!”

This was during the ‘we live dangerously era’ when Jen’s kids would regularly build towers taller than their heads out of any available sharp or heavy object.

Or how about this one, coined just this past weekend at the cousin-fest:

“Boys! Give Catie and Gillian a weapon…everyone gets a weapon.”

I don’t know…kids, they do things to ya.

What’s your favorite parenting one liner?

Me and my Lukie.

When I was a child, I found this book on my great grandmother’s shelf. The author wrote it for her goddaughter in 1924, and it is full of the games she and her 13 neighboring cousins played. I only had two cousins nearby, but we spent many a rainy day flipping back and forth through the book, scheming about what we would play when the clouds finally cleared.

The Daring Book for Girls is just such a book, updated for the modern girl. Filled with stories, facts, games, and activities, nearly any girl can find something to catch her fancy. The mechanical gal among us might use it to build a scooter. Someone on their way to camp might take it in the car to read up on female explorers, and then turn the page to figure out how to paddle the camp canoe. And just about any girl would want to know how to levitate a pal at a slumber party!

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what a real, live girl has to say:

“This is the kind of book that you read while you are trying to do something new. I like the cool science experiments like the lemon-powered clock. My sister and I liked the jump rope songs and we learned new hand-clapping games. I also learned how to tie a bandana, how to run a lemonade stand, and how to make a sit-upon when we go camping.” (Eden, age nine)

Unlike reprinted ‘remember when’ books, author Miriam Peskowitz keeps things current by including items no vintage writer would have even considered for girls: science facts, sports how to’s, financial information, and things involving tools and pocketknives are peppered throughout the guide. The author also includes stories about women of color—like the espionage adventures of singer Josephine Baker, or the surprise discovery of Sara Culberson, a modern-day tribal princess of Sierra Leone. Other multi-cultural nods include the stories of ancient queens from around the world, how to tie a sari, and illustrations which include children of various skin colors. And The Daring Book for Girls sounds even better in Spanish: El Libro Aventurado para las Chicas!

One more added bonus…you can pick up a beautiful hard-bound copy for under twenty bucks!

This is just the kind of book a favored aunt would give her spunky niece. And aren’t you lucky—it’s here just in time to give a girl you love the gift of adventure this holiday season! (Click here to buy in English or in Spanish.)

This review is sponsored by MotherTalk. The reviewer did not recieve compensation for this review. Find my other weekly reviews at Magpie Suggests.

After spending TWO HOURS in the piano teacher’s waiting room helping two second graders spell EVERY SINGLE WORD of their report on bumblebee bats (which are so rare, no one even knows what the eat), my fourth-grade daughter hit me with this one:

“I can’t believe you and Dad think things like making dinner and doing dishes are more important than helping me with my logic homework. I guess you two are just willing to jeopardize my educational future!!!!”

Now that I have a digital recorder I’m going gaga making soundscapes, audio essays, and interviews. In one such interview, Eden chatted with me about living the artist’s life — specifically about quality control, mass production (pro or con?), and pricing your artwork for sale. There’s some really helpful stuff in there.

By the way, Eden is nine.

Listen to Eden on Art

It’s a little bit of a rough recording because I don’t know how to edit properly yet, but hang in through the not-too-long slower bits to catch Eden’s pearls of wisdom. In the recording I mention this product and this event, and Eden talks about my vintage collection which you can find here. Also, as a nice little tie-in I’m reviewing the band you hear at the end of the podcast in my weekly review over here. Happy listenting!

P.s. I’m a little shy about posting these podcasts, so if you feel like commenting it would go be ever so encouraging. And I promise to learn how to edit soon!

Here’s a retroactive post from my life as an non-traditional ordained minister. You’ll find more Magpie posts on spirituality every Sunday from here on out.

Jesus in My Stomach
orginally posted November 10, 2003

Yesterday my sister in law emailed me from Africa. She’s a missionary there, in Kenya. She and her husband work incredibly hard to install water systems and build medical facilities and school houses. They are an amazing couple.

Anyway, she emailed us yesterday to tell us “very exciting news.” Now, when I see this in an email from my relatives, I assume this means someone is having another baby. (We are the only ones stopping at two.) However, this time she was super excited because her four year old daughter had accepted Jesus into her heart.

Now I’m happy about this. This is very, very sweet. But at the same time, this makes me wonder, because even though I am an ordained minister, I have not so much as even offered to pray with my children about asking Jesus into their hearts. In fact, it hasn’t even crossed my mind.

After reading the email, I turned to Cate, who was sitting next to me at the computer and said, “Cate? Where does Jesus live?” “In your bah-dee silly!” Cate replied. (Cate is three.) “Oh Yeah?” I answered, nonchalantly, “Where?” “Here.” Cate pointed to her heart, with an uncapped purple marker, tapping her sweater several times.) “That’s great Catie. Glad to hear it.”

On to the next child, age 5, who’s cutting out paper dolls in the living room. “Eden, where does Jesus live?” Eden answered, sounding very bored and put-out, “In heaven….on the earth in the olden days….in my heart.” Again I try the nonchalant parent voice, “Yeah, that’s good to know Eden. You know, Auntie Jewel says Joanne just asked Jesus to live in her heart.” At this point Eden put down her scissors and looked at me with her head cocked to one side and her mouth scrunched up like she does when she thinks a grown up is trying to pull one over on her. “Jesus lives in everybody’s heart. Everybodies in the whole world, Mommy!” “Yeah, Eden. That’s kinda what I think too. (pause) Unless someone wants to kick him out.” Eden shrugged. Then she went on to her paper dolls and I went into the kitchen, confident that my kids were aokay in the ole’ salvation book.

That’s pretty much how I form my theology. Thirty four years of sermons, 12 years of Christian education, 4 years of Christian college, three years in seminary… and it all boils down to 2 conversations with the 5 and under set. Go figure.

Of course, the next day Cate told me Jesus lived in her stomach…with her baby, “Nina”….not sure what that’s supposed to mean…

The children are playing at opposite ends of the cove, each alone unto themselves. Eden surfs endlessly, riding the waves on her boogie board. She is brazen in her surfer-girl two-piece, whilst everyone around her is clad in neoprene to endure the cold water. Cate, on the other hand, is more cautious, standing only mid-calf in the surf, half-wrapped in a cover up skirt, her toes never leaving the protective shield of her water-sneakers. Cate throws fistfuls of sand in the air, her mouth forming songs and fairytales for only the surf to hear.

I marvel that they are so good at this – being alone, living within the present wave, drifting on the ebb and flow of the tide.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Thank you for these, your gifts,
which we receive from your bounty.
Amen.

A sample from the small-is-beautiful book of our rockaway memories.

a photo of a circus page in the shared journal Jen and I passed back and forth the last time we were blocked

I was so good about advance-posting things for while I was on vacation, and now that I’m back I’ve barely had time to touch the key board. The kids are bored with thier toys and feeling twitchy about the upcoming transition back to school. I’m longing for some studio time but loath to say goodbye to the few sunny days we’ve had this season in Seattle. Does anyone else find the last two weeks of “school’s out” a bit trying? What’s your solution? Post ideas below!

I did manage to happen upon a fun summer read while on vacation, and offer it to you now as twlight read for the dog days of Summer. Check out my review of Water for Elephants over at Magpie Suggests — and enter to win your very own copy! (Ooooo, I love give aways!)

The Day of the First Fruits or Shavuot usually falls in May or early June, but in this grey Seattle Summer we’ve only just now begun to reap our harvest. Cate’s been tending a little pot of green beans and nasturtiums on the playhouse porch. A few days ago our housemate Sharon came beaming in from the backyard telling Cate to go peek in on her pot. Cate couldn’t be more delighted as she scampered about the yard holding two perfect green beans, the first of her tiny harvest. To show our gratitude for ‘the fruit of the vine’ we followed the Jewish tradition of marking our first fruits with a red cord, marking them as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Like many of the ancient sacrifices held in the Temple, after the prayers and the ceremony (in this case the tying of a ribbon bow) we turned our offering into a communal feast, and I carefully cooked these two beans separately from the rest of our farmer’s market stash for dinner.

This past year I’ve been working on the concept of abundance, trying to embed in my psyche the idea that there is always enough — enough power, enough talent, enough opportunity — for everyone, If. IF we practice community. If we stop hording. If we open our eyes to the needs of others. If we live generously there is always enough for a feast.

Dayenu, it is enough.

A Prayer for Shavuot:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe,
who has kept us in life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.

The girls spent the bulk of their Saturday at the PDX Zineposium dodging the numerous line drawings of phalluses and severed heads in order to find all that is kid friendly in Zine culture. They gathered plenty of swags–tiny buttons, handmade stickers, and this Volume 4, Issue 5 of a zine consisting entirely of identical bunnies. On the 20 minuted drive back across the Oregon/Washington border (the girls rolled down the windows to kiss the Washington air) Cate wrote a story to accompany the pictoral zine.  It basically went “Bunnies, bunnies bunnies. More bunnies and …. Bunnies!!”  After a while it did acquire a semblance of a plot. Here’s how she retold the story later in the hotel room, illustrated with the entire zine. Read the rest of this entry »