Reading Is Reading

I've noticed something about some of the parents/adults that come into the bookstore. Alot of them have very strong opinions about what their child, or the child that they are shopping for, should be reading, which, let me state right here, I understand. You want your child reading great books. You want them to excel. I do however take issue when I hear parents saying things like "He's just 1 year old. He can't read, why would we buy him books?", or "I don't want her to be able to cheat and look at pictures to figure out what the words are." about a child who is just learning to read. Or getting upset when their child only wants to read a certain type of book. This is what I say to that-

Reading is reading.

No matter what kind of book your kid wants to read, if they want to read, they're doing better than alot of kids. Lots of kids hate reading. Partly, because of school(if it's assigned they want nothing to do with it during their free time) and partly because they have yet to find a book that interests them. If your kid is reading books that are at a lower reading level than their age, don't make them feel bad about it! Reading ability levels can be a sensitive subject for some kids. I read some books now that are in the Ages 9-12 section. They are definitely below my age appropriate reading level but they're great and I enjoy them!

Please, please, please, read to your kids when they are babies, just learning to read, and even after they've been reading on their own for a while. Not only does it let you spend time with them, it helps develop their imagination, their vocabulary and so much more! Instill a love of reading and books in them when they're young!! Keep at it and they'll start to want to read it themselves, when they're ready. Kids don't learn on your schedule. Keep encouraging them and exposing them to great books and they'll get there!!

Lost In Translation

After years of seeing people write 'lol', 'ttyl' and a host of other texting/messaging acronyms, I just have one thing to say.

I'm not hearing what you're trying to say.

When you write 'lol' I don't hear you laughing, I hear you saying 'l,o,l'.

When you write 'brb' I imagine that you must be cold, not that you're going to be temporarily unavailable.

And the worst one, not that we can blame this on messaging, is RIP. There is nothing restful or peaceful about the word rip. Especially when it's in all capital letters. If you're genuinely upset about the passing of a loved one or public figure take the time to write out three little words. I mean really.

That is all.

Ready For Change

I was searching through my iTunes library for an appropriate title for this post and I found numerous options. I chose this title because of the lyrics. Here are a couple lines that particularly struck me:

I promised I'd change about this time last year

We both know how that went

What does it take to start over again

Step out of comfort my friend

Yes, and change for the better

The first line describes how I have been feeling recently. Last year, at about this time, I started feeling like God had something big for me. Like I was right on the cusp of something extraordinary. I started getting really excited! I was praying about it and wanted to be ready for it, whatever it was, when it came.

Then, I got distracted. I let other events and people in my life distract me and I simply...forgot that I had been intensely listening for God's voice.

Months and months passed and I started feeling restless. The question "What exactly are you doing here?" would pop into my mind on a regular basis. It popped into my mind not in a "I came into the kitchen but I have no idea what exactly I'm doing in here" sort of way but in a "What am I doing with my life?" sort of way.

About a month ago, I began to feel like I was recalling a long lost memory. At first it was kind of fuzzy but slowly I remembered, "Oh right! I was excited about what God was about to do! What happened to that?"

So over the past few weeks, I've been praying, reading my Bible and trying not to get distracted as I wait for direction. In the past, I've been somewhat hesitant to give up certain parts of my life. I'm trying to let those go this time, to "step out of comfort" and "change for the better".

I don't know what this change will look like. It may be small, it may be bigger than I can imagine. I can only hope, that this time around, I'm ready for it.

Bookstore Sadness

The other day I was reshelving books that had been returned and found this card in the inside cover of one of our 9-12 books.
Just in case you can't read what the card says, let me help you out: "Hope Myles is not disapointed. Dad" It really looks like a Grandpa's writing. So it looks that a Grandpa sent his grandson, Myles, a book for Christmas hoping that he liked it and he returned it!! I feel so bad for this Grandpa and it makes me think that Myles is a bratty kid, although I really have no evidence of that. I took the card thinking that someone should hold onto it. Poor Grandpa.

Like Mother & Father?!?

Years ago, when I was knee high to a grasshopper(or maybe a bit older), I thought turning into either of my parents was a fate worse than death. I was a "free spirited child", or so I've been told, and my parents seemed slightly boring to me. Always wanting to be on time, to be responsible, work efficiently, all the things that turn an "energetic" child, such as myself, completely off. I never understood it. Why do something now when you can do it later, was often my motto and sometimes still is. However, the older I get, the more I come to realize....dun-dun-dunnnnn-I'm turning into my parents.


Now, the resemblance between my mother and myself is nothing short of eerie. Many people have told me that we also share some mannerisms, so turning into my mom was something I was preparing for. It was inevitable. I should just accept it. Turning into my dad on the other hand? I never saw it coming.


**I should state right now that both of my parents are wonderful people. I love them both but, like many people, I did not appreciate them in my younger years the way I do now.**

I like to think of myself of the perfect mix of OCD and laidback-ness(for the purposes of this blog lets pretend that's a word). There are certain things I'm fairly anal about. I like to have a plan but once I have a plan I can pretty much go with the flow. However, my desire for concrete plans, getting things done in a timely manner, in the manner I think they should be done(all of which are traits my Dad has in spades) are characteristics that have really come to show themselves in the last few years of my life.

The more leadership I take on in the church, the more the voice in my head says "Hey there, remember when you used to think your dad was nuts for acting like this? Welcome to the club!" At first, there was a part of me that was quite resistant to the discovery of Dad-like qualities(like I said, I hadn't been preparing), but now that I've had a chance to think about, absorb it, take a breath, I've decided to embrace it. However, along with this discovery I've made another one.

I am completely different than anyone else. I know this is something you learn in, like what, kindergarten? But recently, I've come to know it in a whole other way. I may be similar to my mom and my dad. I may be anal about following the rules of games, like my sister is. I have things in common with friends and family. But my combination is different. My path in life is going to look different than my friend's. The life I'm living now already proves that. I'm excited about the different way God is going to use me in my church. I'm excited about the different way God is going to use me in this world. I just hope I'm ready for it.

Winter Pride

I have owned a car for approximately 2.5 years and I'm beginning to notice a trend. Every winter, when the snow begins to fall in mass quantities, it takes a bit of time (which I rarely allot for) to brush off your car, warm it up, the whole deal. I've noticed that I get a feeling in my heart when I accomplish all this and get on my way. Pride. I feel proud of the fact that I'm the one brushing off my car. I scrape the windows, I shovel around the tires when I get stuck, I push the heaps of heavy, white snow off the windows so I can see. I'm doing it. Something swells in my heart when I'm in a parking lot preparing my car for the road and I look around to see scores of men doing the same thing, while their wives or girlfriends sit in the car warming up. Don't get me wrong, if the time comes when a gentleman offers to brave the cold on my behalf, I'm sure I'll gladly take him up on his offer. Until that time however, I will smile as I scrape.

Spell Check

There are some words that, no matter how hard I try, I can never remember how to spell. In general, I'm a fairly proficient speller. I have a couple tricks that help me remember how to spell certain words like "piece". The word pie is in piece. Piece of pie. That's how I know it's p-i-e and not p-e-i. There are some words that when I say them in my head they sound mispronounced but it helps me remember how to spell them. Like environment. In my head it sounds like envi-ron-ment, reminding me to include the 'n'. Still, there are words that no trick has helped. It doesn't matter how many times I misspell it, I'm destined to never know the correct spelling for sure. Here's a sampling:

Field-even typing it out I had to delete the misspelled word and do it again. This one gets me every time and drives me up the bend! I never know until I write it out and then I know because it looks wrong. Why I can't just picture it in my head before I write it down, I don't know.

Psychic-A customer at the store yesterday was looking for a book on psychic readings, I went to the computer while she stayed in the section and it took me forever to come up with the correct spelling. I kept coming up with physics books. So infuriating!

Vacuum-This word always looks wrong to me. Misspelled, correctly spelled, it doesn't matter. It looks weird to me so I alway just spell it with 2 c's and 2 u's, even though 75% of the time I'm fairly certain it's the wrong spelling.

Awkward-For a long time, I spelled this word 'ackward' because that's what I thought the correct spelling was. Truly. I thought other people were misspelling it.

I'm sure there are more that I misspell but these are a few that I can think of off the top of my head. Until next time, happy creating, happy writing, and may you know that you're not the only one who spells that word rong.