No App to Replace Your Lap
Grandma Diane’s Story Time With Elsie and Eli
What with COVID-19 and our social distancing as well as being pretty much confined to our homes, all of my school visits have been canceled until this virus lifts. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. In the meantime, my grandkids came up with the idea to create “Story Time With Grandma Diane”. Every day (M-F) on my Facebook page at 11:00 a.m., I read a favorite children’s book. Homeschoolers can now listen in giving their caregivers a little time for a cup of coffee or a little breather. We started doing this on Monday, March 23 and will continue until the kids are back in school. Tomorrow I’ll be reading my own Life in the Neck New Friends as a special request of my great-niece Lily Lindemann in Oshkosh. Tune in and enjoy the story along with the rest of us. If you have your own copy, you can follow along as we read. Hope you listen in.
No App To Replace Your Lap
Gratitude is the Best Attitude
Gratitude Defined:
Gratitude is thankful appreciation for favors received. Webster’s
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home. a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie
In this time of great fear and difficulty with the COVID-19 virus hanging over our heads, with schools closed, social distancing, and many many of us working from home experiencing being quarantined for perhaps the first time in our lives, we as a nation and as communities would do well to think about what we do have instead of what we do not have. For most of us, our daily needs at this point are being met. We have homes, food on the table, and clothes to wear. Most of us can walk and talk, see the beauty that surrounds us, listen to music that stirs our souls and makes our feet want to boogie. We have family and friends to love and be loved by in return. Focusing on our abundance rather than the lack in our lives helps us experience the sense of fulfillment which is gratitude at work. This fulfillment creates in us the desire to share what we have with others. What better time than now for us to reach out in love and thanksgiving to the community in which we live? What can YOU do to bring some happiness and joy into the lives of those around you?
No App to Replace Your Lap
Just thinking . . .
Covid-19 has forced us to stay home and spend more time together as a family. Schools are closed, parents are working from home, sports have been canceled (professional as well as school and community programs). So what’s a person to do?
Social media is full of advice for and from all of us. As I’m thinking about all of this, what comes to mind is that list of things I wanted to do when I retired. Read, write children’s books, clean the pantry, and the list goes on!
Now having two grandchildren home from school everyday for the unforeseeable future, my thinking has turned to them and to how can I help the “boredom” that they seem to be complaining about so much as time passes. I trust that if I put my mind to it, I can come up with a plan that may turn this time together into an opportunity to grow in learning, understanding and love.
Children need and want structure. It helps them feel safe and in control - they know what to do and when to do it - even though they will argue about it. So to provide structure we need to first talk about the “have to dos” and the “want to dos” and then make room for both in our daily schedule.
So that’s my job for today - working together to make our daily schedule. This could be exciting. I’ll let you know what happens . . .
To be continued . . .
50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled Due to COVID - 19
March 21, 1970 Butch & Diane Davies
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer Trailer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Davies 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled due to
COVID - 19
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Meet Nancy and Gordon Fredrickson
Farm poets and American farm heritage authors Gordon and Nancy Fredrickson of Lonsdale, Minnesota join Kiddie Lit Market’s Diane Davies for this interview. To tell stories that preserve, promote and encourage agricultural literacy is the Fredrickson’s mission. Their stories for children are about farm kids told by farm kids. These same stories for adults are a nostalgic trip into yesterday. Listen and learn as Gordon recounts with us his life, his love and his and Nancy’s many books.
Farm poets and American farm heritage authors Gordon and Nancy Fredrickson of Lonsdale, Minnesota join Kiddie Lit Market’s Diane Davies for this interview. To tell stories that preserve, promote and encourage agricultural literacy is the Fredrickson’s mission. Their stories for children are about farm kids told by farm kids. These same stories for adults are a nostalgic trip into yesterday. Listen and learn as Gordon recounts with us his life, his love and his and Nancy’s many books.
“A story not told is lost forever.”
0:00 Introduction
1:56 Who are Nancy and Gordon
3:16 Lunch is served
3:46 Where was your farm?
4:08 No vacations
4:24 Children and chores
5:10 Be kind
5:28 Country school
7:19 Time off
7:40 Read to your dog and kitty
7:55 When did you start writing?
9:05 The small farmer
9:49 Gordon’s first book
10:40 Holiday books
10:50 School program
11:15 Nancy co-writer and photographer
11:50 A Farm Country Haying
12:21 Why write
12:35 A tribute to Gordon’s parents
13:28 Where do people buy your books
14:48 School visits
15:51 I feel rich
16:13 Getting recognized in public
17:11 What advice might you give inspiring authors?
18:09 Interesting quote
18:48 Novels, poetry, and Nancy’s memoir
19:35 Poetry for farmers
Learn more about Nancy and Gordon: https://www.gordonfredrickson.com.
Learn about Kiddie Lit Market, https://www.kiddielitmarket.com.