Anna and the French Kiss

While I was on spring vacation with the boys I read Anna and the French Kiss, after hearing so much about it from Twitter friends. They were absolutely right. It was terrific. Cute, funny, and with realistic teen characters. Nothing supernatural, no one fighting to the death (even though it may have felt like that to the characters. It was refreshing to read a book that was complete unto itself, that wasn't the self-conscious start to yet another series. I highly recommend it. :)

Books Update

I finished reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare today. I also read The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan for my book group. You can read my reviews for both over at Goodreads.

Knitting

I'm listening to the On Point replay of today's show on the resurgence of knitting. Looking at the blogs that are listed on that page, I realized that I haven't said anything here about my own knitting resurgence.

I was taught to knit when I was an exchange student in Sweden in 1985-1986. My host mother taught me, and I learned the terminology in Swedish. I also knit "backward" from most Americans, so I'm a bit of an anomaly among local knitters.

I hadn't knitted for years, but started up again last fall at the urging of some lovely ladies that I work with. I found out that they get together to knit at lunchtime every day. I had been thinking longingly of knitting for a while, but didn't think I had time to do it. You know, two boys who are involved in EVERY sport, a husband, a full-time job, and all that reading I'll never get caught up on. Anyway, I figured that if they were getting together every day, I didn't really have an excuse not to join them.

I started with some yarn I had laying around, knitting up a scarf with a pattern I found online. It's pretty, but you can tell my tension is very uneven. I then had the great good fortune to win a knitting basket at our workplace United Way raffle. Therein I found some lovely yarn, notions, and books to get the creative juices flowing. Since then, I've knitted scarves, hats, and ear warmers for my family. I've found that the boys' sports are actually great for knitting: I can work on a project and keep an eye on them at the same time. Bonus!

At Christmas I got my sisters, nieces, and nephews involved by buying them each a Klutz knitting book. I wanted them to learn something that I was having so much fun with.

I realized the other day that I haven't knit anything for myself other than the hat from the Klutz book. I've decided to make myself a scarf that will match my winter jacket, and have ordered some lovely cotton yarn, tagging onto an order one of my knitting colleagues is placing. I can't wait to get started. :)

Now my oldest son, Will, has told me he wants to learn how to knit. I'm wondering if I should have him start with the Klutz book, or try to teach him myself.

Talking Birds & Bees

We have two sons. This makes me outnumbered. Even counting the cat, a very pretty calico named Marnie, I'm outnumbered. So when I'm met with the question, "Mom, if you don't have a penis, what do you have?" (we encourage our boys to use the proper names for ALL parts of their anatomy), I'm kind of at a loss. I mean, my descriptive powers only go so far. I'm not good at drawing pictures, and show & tell is, obviously, out of the question.

So, I went to a friend who is both a fantastic nurse and the mother of a 15-year-old boy to ask her for -- what else? -- book recommendations, and she recommended two fantastic books. The first, geared toward ages 7 and up, is called It's So Amazing!: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families. The other, for ages 10 and up, is called It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health. 

Both books use very clear, straightforward artwork to convey meaning, with the "younger" book using more of the artwork and cartoon-like panels to give the information. There is no mincing of words, no beating around the bush, and nothing said to make anything seem like it's taboo or titillating or shameful.

Now, instead of trying to explain what Mom has instead of a penis, I can open up It's So Amazing! and show them what Mom, and every other "girl" in the world, has. I've recommended these books so many times to other parents at baseball and soccer games that I figured I would just write a blog post about them and just direct people here from now on. Good luck to everyone raising kids with answering the tough questions!

Librarians do Gaga

A Twitter friend sent me the link to this video, and I absolutely loved it. You gotta love librarians. Truly. We're wonderful people.