I had a mother who read to me...

Oh my goodness!  I guess I am learning the hard way that a habit that bites the dust is hard to re-establish!  When I first started my blog I decided I would post every week day and take the weekends off, which worked really great for quite a while.  Then...I had a grandchild on the way (baby blankets! knitted baby hats! baby showers!) and a daughter getting married (crafts! crafts! crafts!!!!!) and I had to choose between crafting/planning/organizing/executing or blogging on a regular schedule.  But coming back from a writing hiatus right before the holidays is making it difficult to stick to a five times a week writing schedule, so for now you can plan on my posting a new blog every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Hopefully that will give me time to give you a few peeks on all the crazy, happy times I've had the last few months and still allow me to put some ho-ho-ho into my holiday preparations!  

My grandmother Beulah Badger and four of her six children.  My mother is on the right.

Up first?  A project I've been wanting to show you for a long time, but getting all the pictures took longer than expected!  A former colleague of mine gave me such an unexpected, memorable and thoughtful gift year before last...he and his father built a Little Free Library for me.  I had wanted to dedicate one to my mother for a long time, but my woodworking skills are beginner level and it was just too much of a project for me to handle.  I was so touched and grateful for this gift.  Thank you, Jeff and Russell!!  I finally got it assembled and painted and was able to present it to my mom when she was here for her birthday.

I had a hard time deciding how to finish the exterior--so many choices!  But when I came across these durable, exterior travel posters I knew I had found the perfect finishing touch, representing a few of the book series that my family loves.  First up, Narnia.  I have wonderful memories of reading this entire series to my younger siblings during a long and uncomfortably hot station wagon trek from South Dakota to Washington state.  We dreamed of the "endless winter" and Edmund's Turkish delights while we valiantly tried to keep our hot, sweaty bodies from touching each other!  Thank you, C.S. Lewis, for amazing tales of courage and faith that kept us enthralled for 1,365 miles (but who's counting?).

I smile every time I remember my family's use of six bookmarks and three copies of the same book, with six eager readers fighting over their turn to read the latest Harry Potter installment!  And the children weren't the only ones anxious to check in on Harry, Hermione, Ron and all the professors! My husband and I were just as excited to have an imaginary butterbeer at the Hog's Head Tavern!

And now that we are all "grown up" (alas) we take our fantasy in more adult fashion.  But there are still enough dragons and magic and sword craft and tales of derring-go to keep us fascinated as we traverse the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones epic series:

A peek inside shows you today's offerings--it has become so popular that books change daily!  It warms my heart to see cars pull up to swap books, walkers slow down and browse, and kids on their way to school peek inside to see what might attract their attention:

And all due to a grandmother who could recite poetry at the drop of a hat and a mother who instilled a deep love of reading and left me with a life long love of the printed word.  As Anne (with an "e") would say, my mother and I are kindred spirits when it comes to our love of books!

So of course today there is only one poem I could possibly choose.  I love you, Mom, and thank you thank you thank you for sharing your passion for books with me!