This Weekend at Good Books in the Woods
I’m pretty excited about this. In preparation and celebration, I am currently reading Storyteller
It’s HERE!
Guess what I’ll be reading this evening? The third installment of the Seed Savers series! Heirloom is here and I have the distinct pleasure of kicking off the blog tour on the 14th!
October 2013 Events
ALSO, Don’t forget to check the Good Books in the Woods Event Page… That place has some nifty stuff going on this month too. http://www.goodbooksinthewoods.com/news/
Introducing the Octopus… and Tolkien Week
Weekly Low Down on Kids Books and Adventures in Homeschooling with an Octopus and Tolkien…
Title: Squishy the Octopus
Author: Mary Reason Theriot
Illustrations: Zoie Mahaffey
The last few weeks have been exciting. With the start of fall and the new school year and kiddo turning three in October, we’ve been diving more heavily into “school time.” There was a video floating around on facebook, courtesy of the Libertarian Homeschooler or maybe Practical Homeschooling – not sure which, dealing with the camouflage abilities of the octopus.
The video we watched (Where is the Octopus?) is here: http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html.
Add in discussions of legs, all things regarding the prefix “oct,” and an a event where Mary Reason Theriot debuted her children’s books, we’ve had quite a big week!
Authors Mary Reason Theriot & Jennifer Theriot
Theriot is quite a popular novelist on Amazon. Living in Louisiana with her husband and daughter, she avidly writes spooky thrillers with a southern twist that only the home of the Cajun seem to be able to offer. But most recently, with the aid of her extremely enterprising daughter, she’s branched out and started writing children’s stories as well.
In Squishy the Octopus, a little octopus with a big anger management problem learns to control his temper with the help of his other sea creature friends. On various pages, like in the video above, Squishy changes color. My own little kiddo got really excited when this happened, “Let me see the picture!” she’d exclaim, “What color is he now?”
Unrelated to sea creatures, but highly related to our homeschooling life, is the fact that this week is Tolkien week. September 21st was the 76th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. An day that was celebrated with the first annual Fall Festival at
Archie Rocks Acoustic, little Theriot and my own kiddo in the garden at GBITW.
Good Books in the Woods. There was a costume contest, a toast to Tolkien, Mary Reason Theriot doing a book signing, Aoristos portraits being drawn and more. It was a pretty neat event, which we wrapped up at home with the kiddo indulging in a long time favorite The Lord of the Rings cartoon (the 1978 one, we have it on VHS… and yes, we still use our VCR).
September 22nd (yesterday) was Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthday! They were born in different years, but on the same day! Something, I suppose, only truly geeky Tolkien fans care about. So this week is Tolkien week.
I may work for Half Price Books, a company I absolutely adore for so many reasons, but I spend a good chunk of my spare time at Good Books in the Woods. It is definitely my home away from home these days. My kid plays in the garden and with the toybox set up in the kids section while I absorb the ambiance of a house taken over by books. If my husband ever let me, the inside of my house would look exactly like Good Books…
When I’m Not Reading – Riders of the North
Riders of the North is a Social Bike Ride in the northern suburbs of Houston in an attempt to get a Critical Mass going. Our first run was last night (Thursday) from 7:45 pm until… well… much later.
We had our first ride last night and at any given point in time had between 15-20 people. Not bad for a first run. We met in Old Town Spring and traveled to The Woodlands, hung out in Market Square at Bar Louis, and headed back to OTS again. Depending on where you were coming from, whether you rode your bike or drove your car to OTS, the ride was between 20-25 miles. My legs feel AWESOME, aka this is one of the best work outs ever.
We’re going to be doing this weekly until we get enough people interested in doing a formal Critical Mass at the end of every month. We’d love to have more riders join us, just hit up our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/610444132308669/
We stopped to eat at Bar Louies where I downed a Chicken Caesar Salad, a crap ton of water, and Angry Orchard Beer. That beer was phenomenal and extremely refreshing after cranking out ten miles on my bike.
So while I’m not reading, come join me for a bike ride. Even in the Texas heat, after dark with the wind in your face, the world feels great. There are some great peeps on the ride and despite a few kinks along the way (people riding at WAY different speeds, two flat tires, and a spill), I think we all had a blast. I certainly did.
If you know of any great bike books, leave me a comment. I’ll read them.
Anakalian Whims 