Friday Follow and More!

Welcome to Mrs. BG!  If you are visiting for the first time, this is a collaborative blog authored by five gals of the bookish persuasion.  We muse, chat and laugh about any topic remotely reading related that tickles our fancy. Come on in and sit a spell! 


This is our first time to participate in Parajunkee's Follow My BookBlog Friday.  As the moderator of Mrs. BG, it is my job to to handle this sort of bloggy business.  I was not going to link up to Friday Follow since I'd already joined two other hops BUT THEN I saw this week's Friday Follow question.

What embarrassing thing have you done on cold medicine?

Hahahahahah!  That just happened this morning!!  I woke up early and my Nyquil from last night hadn't worn off yet. I attempted to edit DeLynne's latest Dinner Dictionary post.  With a groggy head and blurry vision (from Nyquil nothing else),  I added a Bob Marley photo and somehow lost DeLynne's last paragraph! How embarrassing! I hope she isn't too miffed with me when she wakes up in Australia in a few hours. 

Cold medicine and blogging don't mix, folks!!



Mrs. BG is also joining in these delightful hops this week.

Welcome! Welcome! New bloggy friends!

If you have a thing for books and bargains, please come back on Monday and join Mrs. BG's first linky party: Bargain Book Bonanza!

Dinner Dictionary on ice

We will talk about anything at our table. Tonight, with the thirteen year old and the nine year old we discussed the difference between smack, crack, and ice.

We arrived at this subject through the Rastafarian religion discussion we were having. I used Wikipedia to look up Rastafarian, and we discovered that it 'is not a highly organized religion; it is a movement'. Hubby snorted at that, saying that pot smokers weren't good at organizing themselves.

I was shocked to learn that Bob Marley was only 36 when he died, and that about 5% of Jamaicans identify themselves as Rastas. I thought it comprised a much larger portion of the population.


Editor's Note: This is Lesa. I was adding a photo to DeLynne's post and somehow lost the last paragraph. So Sorry! I've never lost anyone's work before and my only excuse is that allergies are making me crazy and my vision is blurred! When DeLynne wakes up in Oz, hopefully she will retype what was lost.

Until she wakes up, a synopsis is that the drug info came from a big workshop she attended through her volunteer work at a women's shelter for domestic violence.

DeLynne asked: Do you talk openly with your children about drugs?

Ok, I am awake and had no cold medicine and my cup of Lady Grey is steaming comfortingly at my elbow. I accept full responsibility for this. I know Lesa just cannot stand a post without a photo. I should have put up one myself!

I went on to say that to answer the ice/smack/crack question I referred to a handbook given to me at a workshop by QuHIN for local volunteers. I am so blessed to be able to spend time each week at Sonshine Sanctuary (crisis accommodation for victims of domestic violence) with wonderful people. At Tuesday's information session one woman said she dreamed of opening a home for teen mothers, and ten years later we were sitting in Lily House. Women are just amazing, aren't they?

What are volunteers doing in your area?

Do you speak openly with your children about drugs?

Those Stinkin' Kids! Part the second

This is the final installment in my series (sounds pretty impressive, right?) about how spoiled these kids are today. With their books and their reading nooks and their....LIBRARIES!

Check out the gorgeous library at school! (It had me at "We're getting a large shipment of new books, and need this whole area clear." Sigh.)

First off, let me say that this is an all new eco-friendly school. The classrooms have the most calming sky blue walls, with soft yellow and pale green painted through out the rest of the building. The offices are fantastic - the nurse's office is roomy and has separate rooms for the ill and/or faking, instead of mere curtains. The classrooms in the lower grades have restrooms inside them. All the classrooms are HUGE and all have big big windows, which add so much cheerful natural light!

I am really impressed, though, with their library. I fell in love with this library and asked the very hospitable librarian, Ms. Librarian (names changed to protect the innocent) if I could take some people-less photos. Ms. Librarian asked Ms. Principal, and they both kindly agreed! And so. Here we are.


In the front of the school. Such big windows!



Shelves waiting for the new shipment! See the sky light?



Computers, computers, computers! Crazy, right?



So...you think that's  impressive? Well, just wait til you see this part:



Am I right or am I right? Pretty spoiled!



Could you not just die?? I mean, seriously, these stinking kids and their fantastic library! I practically swooned the first time I saw it! SWOONED, I say! What a great reading area!! And the colors are so relaxing...just adds to the "right" atmosphere...you know what I am saying? Do you? It's restful. That's what I am saying. Restful. Relaxing. Reading. 

Now, the down side? Just one. There are no old antiquated books on the book cart. But that's okay. I'll take my kids to my fave Half Price Books, so they can see how it's done "old school".

So, do your kids have a great school library? What was yours like when you went to school?

Storytime: Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

Talon's February offering for the Read to Me Picture Book Challenge is Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward.


This book was purchased at the Scholastic Book Fair a couple of years ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew  Talon would love it. A cute kitty that gets into one 'cat'astophe after another. Yep, great toddler fare!

Here is Talon's vlog review. Warning: may cause motion sickness. No tripod, a rocking chair and a book circling: Watch at your own risk! 





If you didn't make it through the vlog, here is a synopsis.  Talon says this book is about Cookie, a cat that causes a mess every day of the week. Everytime, Cookie has an accident something goes everywhere.

Talon thinks the book is funny. At age three, he laughed hysterically over Monday's accident: Poor Cookie fell in the toilet and water went everywhere! 

Now at the more mature age of five, he laughs at Wednesday's accident: Cookie upset the trash can and garbage went everywhere!  Talon and I get tickled imagining an aggravated trash can! In Oklahoma, we say 'knocked over' or 'tumped over'.

Talon says he has learned something from this book: Do not do what Cookie does!

This book is a great choice for parents or early childhood teachers to read to children age two to 6 for storytime.

Little ones can relate to a curious kitty innocently exploring the environment and inadverdently creating mess after mess. Cause and effect and days of the week are portrayed in a fun way.

I read Cookie's Week to the entire three year old Head Start class when I'm off schedule and can't see speech/language students individually. They love Cookie's antics.

Don't tell the author that I add an 'UH OH!'  between each of Cookie's explorations and the resultant accident to improve the flow and drama of the narrative. 

 A repetive catch phrase is a language therapy trick to entice kids with limited verbal skills to verbalise more. All kids love catch phrases, whether they are delayed or not. It makes the storytelling experience interactive and the whole class almost knocks me over shouting 'UH OH!'.  (the 'everywhere' at the end of each accident is also repetitive and shoutable)

The illustrations are cute softly colorful watercolors. Funny and realistic that most pages only show a paw or tail sticking out of a mess or disappearing around a door as Cookie scampers off to the next disaster.

Talon and I highly recommend Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward.

And we both hope that on Sunday, Cookie rests... but we have our doubts.

Introducing A New Bookish Linky Party: Bargain Book Bonanza!

Exciting news!  Baja's Cozy Book Nook will soon begin hosting a new weekly bookish linky party: Bargain Book Bonanza!

The theme, if you didn't already guess, is bargain books.

You know-- those books that are a steal. And I don't mean pilfered books but cheap books. Dirt cheap books!

Books for a song that make you almost sing a celebratory aria right in the middle of the bookstore..  or book fair.. or yard sale.. or thrift store.. or even while sitting at home in front of the computer screen after clicking 'confirm'.  (by the way, home is the safest place to belt one out along with the obligatory victory dance-- not so many funny looks that way)

What about you, do you mainly purchase bargain price books?

As a library girl with limited funds and space, I rarely buy books and only buy if they are discounted. But this past year, that all went out the window! Space Shmace! So what if my house is bursting at the seams. Bargain books are addictive. In fact, one of my 2011 bookish resolutions is to aquire beaucoup bargain books! 

Can you guess the consequence of my folly?  Yep, bargain books are coming out of my ears!!  

It was fun posting four frugal book hauls last year so I decided to start an in-house recurrent feature titled Bargain Book Bonanza (BBB).  Seemed like a plan-- especially since my Mrs. BG bargain hunting amigas would likely participate. 

So how did BBB morph into a linky party?

 While participating in photo meme linky parties with my other blog,  I kept noticing how many thrifty/crafty/vintage/decor type bloggers were also linking  photo meme posts to multiple parties to show off their frugalicious finds. (and boy, do those gals know how to party-- some link to ten plus linky parties at a time, Whew!)    

Lightbulb!!  Booklovers need a linky party to show off bargain books!   Why should other blogging communities have all the fun?! Right?!

I was jazzed so jumped on FB immediately for a quick confab with the other ladies of Mrs. BG. They enthusiastically agreed the idea had merit.

Leslie, my favorite co-blogger, even said: People like bargain shopping and the bragging rights!  So true, Leslie-- and only other book lovers can sincerely woohoo and truly appreciate the coolness of a book bargain. Don't ya'll agree?


 DeLynne, my other favorite co-blogger, shared genius ideas for managing our BBB posts and even found photos to consider for a button.  Shopping carts filled with unknown books or small wicker baskets filled with known books. How to decide?  
 
Then the next day, Tracy, our resident queen of computer geekery and all things photo editing surprised us with: 

A wicker shopping cart filled with books plus the embed code!  Isn't it brilliant?!  Tracy is brilliant and definitely my favorite co-blogger! ;o)

Do you like the idea of a Bargain Book Bonanza linky party? 

The first BBB link up will be on Monday, March 7, 2011. 

 All book lovers are invited to carouse, make merry and revel with bargain book abandon! 

New and used books welcome!

BBB book(s) do not have to be current. If a past book bargain did not get the bravo it deserved from your real life friends/family, claim your bragging rights now! 

If your BBB book(s) arrived in your mailbox, feel free to double or triple link your post with Mailbox Monday and/or In My Mailbox or any other applicable linky parties.

See you all here at Mrs. BG next Monday!  Can't wait to learn about more sources for bargain books!