The Family with Three Last Names

Review: Me and the Pumpkin Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Title: Me and the Pumpkin Queen
Author: Marlane Kennedy
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: 11-year-old Mildred starts growing giant pumpkins as a way to reconnect with her mom who passed away when she was 6.

Review: The best parts of this book were the ones about growing giant pumpkins. It's easy to see the author did her homework on the topic. The story was alright, but a few things bothered me: Mildred didn't always sound 11 years old—saying things like "to no avail," when it wasn't part of her character to be precocious. A few parts weren't really necessary and slowed the story down, like stepping the reader through every single thing Mildred does when she gets home from school one day. And finally, there were a few things that didn't feel resolved, like a mention of how the dad and his co-worker should go on a date but it's never mentioned again.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really into pumpkins.

June Photos Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:06:00 +0000

You won't want to miss the June batch...we finally caught Abby laughing on camera!

Review: What's Going on in There?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:53:00 +0000

Title: What's Going on in There?: How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life
Author: Lise Eliot
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Neurobiologist Lise Eliot brings together insights from biology and cognitive psychology about how a child's mind develops.

Review: Just about every day as I was reading this book, I would read an interesting sentence or paragraph out loud to Erik. I found it fascinating, and before it goes back to the library I'm going to type up a few quotes to keep around for reference.

A few interesting things I learned:

The flavor of your breast milk changes depending on what you eat.
For optimal language development, it's important to have conversations with even young infants. You can do this with face-to-face contact and taking turns so your child gets to hear you speak but also gets a chance to practice herself. Even babies need to know that they are being addressed and that they are being heard.
Sensitive parenting can improve a child's temperament. This means being aware of a baby's signals and responding promptly to her needs. And no matter how busy you are, they should feel that you are available and not ignoring them.
Babies prefer novelty—new places, toys, experiences. It helps their brains grow.
Daily infant massage improves a baby's motor skills development.

I like how the author structures each chapter—starting with the biology up front and then ending with how you can encourage that particular area of development, whether it's a sense, motor skills, social-emotional growth, memory, language, or intelligence. (I have to admit that I skipped over some of the biological details, and that structure made it easy for me to do that!)

The book did leave me with a few unanswered questions. For example, I wanted to know what impact baby sign language has on overall language development. And the author mentions that children in bilingual homes start talking later, but she didn't talk about the optimal age for starting to introduce a second language.

But I would highly recommend this book to any parent interested in how their child's mind is developing.

Review: The Sweet Far Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:57:00 +0000

Title: The Sweet Far Thing
Author: Libba Bray
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Like her mother before her, Gemma Doyle can travel to an enchanted world called the realms. But when Gemma came up against the corrupted sorceress who killed her mother, she bound the magic to herself to protect all worlds from the sorceress. Now all manner of powerful organizations are trying to wrest the magic away from Gemma, and she doesn't know who she can trust.

Review: Clever, passionate, self-deprecating Gemma Doyle—I'm going to miss you. This final book of the Gemma Doyle trilogy was maybe a little on the long side, but I enjoyed it all and I was sad when it was over. At the moment I finished reading the last page, I found myself wanting to immediately start re-reading the first book of the trilogy—A Great and Terrible Beauty. The only other time I've felt that urge with a fiction series is with Harry Potter!

I can't wait to see what else this writer does.

Rethinking Discipline

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Erik and I talk a lot about how we love Abby so incredibly much that it's going to be hard to discipline her when the day comes. We don't plan to use physical violence—spanking, hitting, slapping—in any way. But I'm not a huge fan of timeouts either. I can't see myself using timeouts on a regular basis, although I could see using them for certain situations.

I wasn't confident in my instincts about timeouts until I starting reading Playful Parenting. Here's a small part of what the child psychologist author has to say on timeouts:

Timeouts were supposed to be a humane alternative to whacking children, but they have somehow become the ultimate "positive parenting" tool. The main problem with timeouts is that they reinforce isolation on children who are probably already feeling isolated and disconnected.

Also:

I see most "misbehavior" as really just a matter of disconnection. Children who feel connected also feel inclined to be cooperative and thoughtful. So instead of punishment, which tends to create an even bigger disconnection between parent and child, try thinking about how to reestablish a connection...Reconnecting might require a hug, some quiet time together, wrestling or running around outside, a snack, or a talk. For more serious disruptions, I recommend what I call the meeting on the couch. Most punishments involve exerting power over a child, which just increases his or her sense of isolation and powerlessness. Meetings on the couch build connection and empower children. At the same time, they give us an effective way to provide real discipline: the teaching of our values and principles.

These ideas ring true to me—they feel right in my heart. But even after rereading the words now, I have this knee-jerk reaction to thinking about discipline in this way, and flashes of Supernanny invade my brain. It's hard to ignore the most prevalent form of discipline you see in the media and from fellow parents.

So this morning when I ran across an article about discipline tactics that are most effective, I was reminded of Playful Parenting. A quote from the article:

After all, it's not supposed to be about payback, though that's often what's going on, says Jamila Reid, codirector of the Parenting Clinic at the University of Washington. The clinic's "The Incredible Years" program has been found in seven studies to improve children's behavior. "Often parents come looking for bigger sticks. We tell parents the word discipline means 'teach.' It's something to teach a child that there's a better way to respond."

It'll be a while yet before we can put those tactics to the test ourselves, so I'm curious to hear from other parents about this topic. What are your thoughts on discipline? Have you tried tactics like those in the article? What has worked, and what hasn't?

First Belly Laugh

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:08:00 +0000

Last night, I went to a talk by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, and Mackey talked about the concept of Conscious Capitalism. According to him, a conscious business does two fundamental things:

Stays true to the business's deeper purpose—that is, a purpose other than maximizing profits

Maximizes the value to an interdependent system of stakeholders—employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, community, environment, and so on

When I got home, Erik was holding Abby while I was relaying everything I'd just heard about, and Abby was watching me intently as I gesticulated. I was right in the middle of talking about the second bullet when Abby suddenly started laughing! This was no short little chuckle like we've heard from her up to this point—we're talking full-on belly laugh!

I stopped talking, and we just stared at her while she laughed for a good 30 seconds. I've got to admit that at first I thought my child was possessed. It took a few seconds before I realized what was going on, but once I did, my single most important goal in life suddenly became to make her do that again and again. I tried saying "interdependent system of stakeholders" again, we smiled, we laughed, and we made funny noises—but no dice.

Now that I know we're not dealing with a demonic possession, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Abby's belly laugh is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.

New Duds for Abby

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Abby has now grown out of most of the used clothes we've gotten from friends. We know reusing is best, and consignment shops have tons of onesies in her size. But with her big cloth diaper butt, we can rarely snap them at the bottom. So we've been looking for some cute baby t-shirts.

An artist named Will Heron has a booth at the Austin Farmer's Market where he sells t-shirts with his designs—like the one on the right. He has a great collection of baby clothes, but in Abby's size, they're all onesies.

The last time we were at the farmer's market, I noticed that he uses American Apparel shirts. This weekend, I went to their site and saw that they make a t-shirt in Abby's size too. So I emailed Will Heron and asked if he'd be willing to order those shirts from American Apparel and put a few of his designs on them for us.

He wrote back yesterday to say he included the shirts in his weekly order from American Apparel, and we should be getting everything in about 3-4 weeks. So very soon, Abby will be sporting American-made baby t-shirts with a local artist's designs. Woohoo!

Turning over a New Leaf

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:05:00 +0000

After almost 12 years of working as a technical writer, I am moving to my company's Community Relations team as a Sustainability Specialist. It's a dream job for me, and I still don't quite believe it's really happening. I keep expecting someone to say "Just kidding!" and take it all back.

What does a Sustainability Specialist do, you ask? I'm leading our company's new Green Team, which is a group of employees who will work to decrease the company's ecological footprint. Projects we're considering are starting a composting program on our campus, starting a farmer's market at a nearby shopping center, installing more motion detectors for lights, installing a green rooftop on our buildings, and so on.

I will also work to establish partnerships with local nonprofit environmental groups so our employees can have a convenient avenue for donating their time and talent to the cause. And I'll probably play a big role in creating the company's new sustainability report.

But really, it's up to me to define most of my new role. So if you've got ideas, I'm listening!

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Erik) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:37:00 +0000

So last week at Whole Foods I picked up the most recent copy of Delicious Living. We like this magazine because it has some good articles. In this particular edition there was a picture on the back cover from an artist that does a great job of putting things into perspective. For example, ever want to see what 2 million plastic bottles looks like from a distance then up close?

A couple days later, I was reading the blog of a brewer who is opening up a new brewery here in Austin called 512 Brewing Company and I saw he mentioned the same artist.

It's good stuff. I can only imagine what these images must be like in person when viewing them in their original size.

May Photos Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:16:00 +0000

May was a big month—I had my first Mother's Day, Abby turned 3 months old, and even though we didn't think it was possible, she got even cuter!

Review: The Sorta Sisters

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Title: The Sorta Sisters
Author: Adrian Fogelin
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: Two lonely girls—an orphan who just moved to a new foster home and a motherless girl who lives on a boat with her dad—become pen pals and discover they share a love of science.

Review: Sorta good. I liked the author's drawings throughout, and I liked the characters well enough. But the book was sooo slooow! It was almost 300 pages, and too many scenes seemed too long and drawn out or not necessary at all.

Power Savers Unite!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 25 May 2008 19:06:00 +0000

In January, I signed us up for the Austin Energy Power Saver Program, and then I promptly forgot all about it. But this week, we got a box of goodies for signing up—two compact fluorescent bulbs, an energy-saving night light, outlet sealers, and weather stripping. (As nice as that all sounds, I would much rather have gotten a snazzy cape to show off my Power Saver status.)

Austin Energy started the program because most people use most of their energy in the early evening—to cook dinner, wash clothes, wash dishes, cool down a hot house. During a sweltering Austin summer, all this heavy use at the same time can cause a peak demand for energy, resulting in Austin having to generate more electricity or buy it during the most expensive hours of the day.

So when you sign up as a Power Saver Volunteer, Austin Energy contacts you up to 10 times during the summer and asks you to take four simple actions to use less electricity between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm:

Switch off unnecessary lights
Delay washing and drying dishes and clothes
Cook dinner in your microwave, rather than with an electric range
Turn up the thermostat by three to four degrees

But remember how I said I signed us up in January? Nice and chilly outside. It's not even June yet and we're already hitting the 90s just about every day, so that last request is starting to look a little harder to swallow. We keep our AC at 78-80 during the day, so that would mean bumping it up to 81-84. Dang.

Who knows? Maybe we'll discover that with our fans on and after changing into light clothes, 81-84 can be bearable. But even if not, it's only 10 days out of the year, so we'll survive.

If you're an Austin Energy customer, why don't you join us this summer and we can lament our sweaty situations together? If you're not in Austin, don't feel left out—your electric company might have a similar program. But if you get a cape, I'm gonna be jealous.

Review: A Drowned Maiden's Hair

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:49:00 +0000

Title: A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama
Author: Laura Amy Schlitz
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: An 11-year-old orphan is adopted by three sisters who give her nice clothes and food but keep her secret from everyone they know.

Review: What an eerie little story! I loved it. The main character Maud has just the right amount of spunk—she's no Pippi Longstocking but she can take care of herself. As a lonely orphan, she starts out thinking that any attention is good attention, but she learns along the way that maybe it's not always worth the trade-off.

Review: Flash Point

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Title: Flash Point
Author: Sneed B. Collard
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: A high school sophomore who lives in a logging community finds himself disagreeing with just about everyone in town about why the nearby forest fires are so bad.

Review: YA novels with environmental themes can be hit or miss for me, but I enjoyed this one. Even though the environmental issues were central to the story, it didn't feel preachy at all. The details about birds of prey were so vivid. I'm too much of a chicken to watch nature TV shows about predators, but this book had me riveted and I didn't mind (too much) reading about the birds eating mice and rabbits. And the scenes with the wildfire had me reading at lightning speed to find out what happens at the end!

Review: Downsiders

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Title: Downsiders
Author: Neal Shusterman
Category: Fiction, Children's
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: A boy from a secret underground world called the Downside breaks the rules of his world and sneaks above-ground.

Review: After the first 100 pages, I still wasn't into this book, so I skimmed the rest of the way just to get an idea of what happened in the plot. The problem for me was that neither of the main characters seemed to have a terribly important problem they needed to solve. The boy character, Talon, has a sick little sister at one point, but she gets better pretty fast.

The setting was intriguing, but I just couldn't connect with the characters.

Review: Influencer

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:37:00 +0000

Title: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
Author: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 4/5
Summary: This book articulates the strategies that the world's most influential people use to solve persistent, resistant problems.

Review: The biggest eye-opener for me was the point that verbal persuasion can't solve all the world's problems, especially when you're trying to convince someone to change their behavior. I've always believed in the power of a carefully crafted argument and prided myself on being able to put forth an effective argument for certain things. But this book made me realize that verbal persuasion is just one eensy weensy technique in the grab-bag of influential techniques, and it's an overused and often ineffective technique at that.

I love how this book teases out the different techniques and gives lots of examples of each. The authors recommend that you read it with a problem in mind that you want to solve. The problem I kept in mind as I was reading was how to get more people at my company to recycle everything that's possible to recycle. Too many times at work, I walk by a trash can that contains a perfectly recyclable piece of paper or aluminum can. And the recycling bin is right. next. to. the. trash. If the person had just moved their hand a measly couple of inches to one side, they could have dropped the item in a recycling bin instead of the trash! But I digress...

For some of the techniques, I immediately got ideas for how to apply them to this problem. For others, I couldn't think of anything. So while I don't think all these techniques will work for every problem, this book certainly made me look at the lack of recycling at my office in a new light, and it gave me a renewed sense of hope for increasing the amount we recycle.

I'm going to put this on my wish list to own because I could see myself referring to it fairly often. The authors also have a web site, influencerbook.com, with a worksheet you can fill out to brainstorm solutions to a problem you're trying to solve.

Review: The Starfish and the Spider

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Title: The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Author: Ori Brafman, Rod A. Beckstrom
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 2.5/5
Summary: This book argues that decentralized "starfish" organizations are more powerful than more traditional top-down, hierarchical "spider" organizations.

Review: Mildly interesting. It's been compared to The Tipping Point, but I didn't have any big "aha" moments like I did with The Tipping Point. They gave lots of examples of successful decentralized organizations. And they did try to summarize the qualities those successful groups had. But that part was pretty short—I wanted more of that. I didn't get a lot out of the book that I feel like I can apply in real life. Whereas The Tipping Point helped me to start making connections about how to create tipping points for things I care about. If you're looking for practical advice on how to encourage a decentralized community feel in an organization, this book doesn't have much to offer.

A Gift Card Collage?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:40:00 +0000

Last week, I used up all the money on an HEB gift card I had. So I asked the cashier if they take the empty cards back to reuse:

Cashier: "No. And you can't put more money on them after they're used up."

Me: Holding up now-useless gift card. "So what am I supposed to do with this?"

Cashier: Shrug. "You could make a collage out of them." Laugh.

Ah yes, a gift card collage. What a clever idea. I'll get right on that.

I happen to know that some gift card technology out there does allow you to recharge an empty card because I've done it at Whole Foods. And if that's possible, how hard would it be to take back empty cards and reuse them?

According to the HEB gift card FAQ, I can contact HEB at 1-800-987-4438, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., with my questions or issues about the HEB gift card. Oh, my sweet HEB, you are going to rue the day you hired that snarky cashier with an affinity for arts and crafts!

I called, and the nice lady on the gift card hotline said that they don't have the capacity to recharge used gift cards, although they've talked about the possibility for the future. I registered my frustration with having to throw away a perfectly good gift card, but I'm just one little person.

So my fellow HEB customers—will you call too? I promise it'll just take a couple minutes out of your day. Or if you prefer, you can fill out an online contact form. And let me know what you hear back!

Review: The Off Season

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:07:00 +0000

Title: The Off Season
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: D.J. Schwenk starts her junior year of high school as a linebacker on the football team. Just as her relationship with the quarterback at a rival high school starts to heat up, real life gets in the way.

Review: I liked this sequel better than The Dairy Queen because the action picked up a lot faster. It's easy to root for this honest, hard-working girl who just so happens to be a linebacker. And even though the plot was a little more heavy than the first book, I think it was handled in a much more balanced way that left me feeling hopeful at the end. I also liked that certain things weren't given a Hollywood ending.

Baby's First Farmer's Market

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:02:00 +0000

Every New Year's Eve, Erik and I cook a nice early dinner (because we're lame and never have exciting NYE plans), and we sit down to eat with two sheets of paper. On the first sheet, we list all our accomplishments from that year. Everything from "We switched to cloth produce bags" to "Erik brewed 31 beers" to "Mae won the dog division of Run for the Rovers for the second year in a row." Okay, technically that accomplishment belongs to one of our dogs, not us, but it's not like she's going to make her own list of accomplishments—so we get bragging rights.

On the second sheet of paper, we write down our goals for the next year. Not resolutions. These are goals, which we can start any time during the year. As opposed to resolutions, which if you don't do them every day of the year starting with the first day, you are A Big Fat Failure. So one of our goals for 2008 was to start going to a farmer's market at least once a month. Because even besides the fact that local food has to travel less distance to get to you so you're helping to save a bunch of fuel or even the fact that shopping there supports small family farms, The Sticky Toffee Pudding Company has a booth at the main Austin Farmer's Market, and in said booth they sell scones and other amazing deliciousness.

So yesterday, we made our first trip of 2008 to the farmer's market, which also happened to be Abby's first farmer's market trip ever. She did great in her Zolowear sling until she puked all over herself. But then she was happy to be out of the sling and taking it all in. There was another baby there her age—a little boy—but Abby was way cuter. Even his mom said that girls are so much cuter than boys.

The farmer who sold us some eggs even helped us fully immerse Abby in her farmer's market experience:

Review: Writer Mama

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:44:00 +0000

Title: Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids
Author: Christina Katz
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Freelance writer Christina Katz offers advice for moms wanting to begin a freelance writing career.

Review: I'll definitely be purchasing a copy of this book to keep. The advice for starting a freelance writing career is straightforward and practical, especially how to start off small and work your way up to bigger publications. And by doing just the first few exercises in the book, I got a ton of ideas for articles I could write.

If you're interested in writing fiction, some of the advice will be helpful to you, but in general the focus was on nonfiction freelance writing for magazines, newspapers, and so on.

Review: Writing Motherhood

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:51:00 +0000

Title: Writing Motherhood: Tapping Into Your Creativity as a Mother and a Writer
Author: Lisa Garrigues
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary: Writing teacher Lisa Garrigues offers advice on chronicling your experience of motherhood.

Review: This book has a lot of great ideas for writing prompts. I was expecting more practical information about balancing motherhood and a writing life—there was some, just not a lot. But this book would be worth owning for all the great prompts. You would never be able to say "I don't know what to write about!"

If you're looking for a book with more practical advice for moms about launching a writing career, check out Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids.

April Photos Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:29:00 +0000

Check out the April batch. Here's a little taste of the cuteness within:

Books of 2008 (So Far)

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:09:00 +0000

I'm going to start posting reviews of the books I read, but here's a quick summary of the books I've read so far in 2008. Ratings are out of 5 total. You can find reviews in my LibraryThing library.

And if you haven't heard of LibraryThing, it's a site where you can catalog all the books you own and/or read. Then you can see who's liked the same books as you and get some great recommendations for what to read next. I also like it because I can keep up with what my friends are reading and get good recommendations that way too. And the best part is it's free up to 200 books! Even after that, a lifetime membership is just $25.

Nonfiction

Fiction, Adult

Austenland—3.5
Ella Minnow Pea—3

Fiction, Young Adult

Fiction, Children's

Abby's Abbey

noreply@blogger.com (Erik) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:01:00 +0000

As a homebrewer, I'm always looking for occasions to brew beers for. So about a month after Abby was born, I decided to brew up a batch of Belgian Abbey. And because Abby's body was built with organic food whenever possible, of course this batch would be all organic—from the malt down to the hops. The goal was to brew 5 gallons, but I had a volume error and ended up with 4 gallons. In other words, this was much more concentrated than what I planned on. Belgian beers are notoriously strong in alcohol, and this one was no exception. It clocks in at 9.5% abv. Ouch.

Overall, it turned out great. It's strong, beautiful, sparkling, and elicits reflection. It's definitely Abby's Abbey.