Saturday, August 18, 2012

NINE days until school starts!

I know. I'm not in school anymore, right?

Why am I counting down the days?

Welcome to the life of a public librarian. We work through the summer. Not only do we work, but we work hard.

Yes, I know. There isn't a whole lot of heavy lifting involved in being a librarian. Oh, don't get me wrong...those book carts can get pretty heavy and once, this summer, I had to carry two boxes containing 500 heavy medals* from one side of the building to the other. I kid you not, my arms were shaking for the rest of the day.

But the hard work I speak of is keeping your composure and public face on all day. Every day. All summer long. Even after repeatedly pointing out the display of Wimpy Kid books and explaining why the performer series is for kids and if we allowed parents to attend, a child would not be able to see the fill in the blank.

I love people and love my job but after three months of heavy usage, I am looking forward to my friends getting to spend more time with my school counterparts!

And to be honest, I can feel my forced smile starting to show. No sense in frightening the children...

*Not heavy metal - no lead in the library, although I think we have some Metallica CDs in our music collection.



Thursday, August 16, 2012

A Tree Dies in Grapevine


We are sad to say that our lovely backyard oak didn’t survive last summer’s drought, so we are inviting friends with fond memories of its lush shade join us for a final celebration underneath its branches.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Pete the Cat and His Four GROOVY Buttons by Eric Litwin

Illustrated by James Dean. (I can't make this stuff up!)

So even though I work in a library and am surrounded by books all the time, I am still surprised every now and then by something I missed.

Case in point...Pete the Cat books. I don't know why, but I "missed the boat" on this book. Better late than never? Let's hope so!

So, as I mentioned, I didn't really pay attention to the first couple of books in this series, but I picked up the latest one, PETE THE CAT AND HIS FOUR GROOVY BUTTONS. I laughed so hard and then thought...Holy Hannah, the kids are going to LOVE this at storytime.

Then I thought...Hey...I can make a flannel board out of this to use WITH the story.

So I did. Here is my "Pete," who I drew in bits on separate pieces of construction paper, and then glue together, and laminated.


So anyway...Pete is a cool cat who wore his favorite shirt with four GROOVY buttons. He loved his shirt so much he sang a song about it. "My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy button..." but one popped off.

Here is the deep part: Did Pete cry? No. Buttons come, and buttons go.

Seriously.

That right there spoke to me.

Especially in light of recent changes.

So the funny part of the story is that I was going to sing the song as part of storytime, but I made up my own tune in my head.

Boy was I wrong.

The tune the author came up with was VERY different. And so much fun.

Here is the video:

Now while I am sorry to not have noticed Pete, groovy buttons or no, before, I now get to discover what so many people already know!

Changes...they are coming.



With the news that our old blog spot is going away, there is a mad scramble to find a new blogging home.

I confess that while I have had this spot for a while, I so rarely use it. I confess it isn't as easy to use and I guess they have recently changed the format, so that I now have to re-learn the dashboard.

Maybe that's a good thing.

While there are good routines to get into, like exercise and writing, there is always something positive about stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new.

My husband, upon reading this will smirk and call me Mary-bland in his head. He will snort and say that I HATE change. And I do. But even I am smart enough to know that change is inevitable and will come whether I welcome it or not.

Just trying to go with the flow folks.