Rainy Days

I just love the peace from rainy days. I feel like life can slow down a little bit on these days! 

Rainy days were made for reading! 

J.K. Rowling

The well-known author has been on my mind lately. Last week it was her birthday who she shares with her famous character Harry Potter. After seeing a recent episode of Who Do You Think You Are? I learned that she also shares that day with her Great Grandfather.

J.K. Rowling (Jo) started a phenomenon for readers and writers alike. She brought imagination and fantasy and she modernized it and brought it to life for millions. I didn’t read her books until about 10 years ago. But she has inspired many other writers and it just set off and opened the door to imagination.

“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.” ~J.K. Rowling

I watched the WDYTYA episode and as I watched her go back through time learning about her ancestors I realized how as they made decisions and accomplished goals that affected their family down the line, she did the same. We can learn more than wizardry from JK Rowling. She has taught us about hope, and determination and never giving up.

When she was a single mother she would write in a little café and rocked her baby’s stroller as she wrote. No matter what our circumstances, how much money we have and where we live, we all have our imagination. We can all dig deep and find what we love and do it.

From her journey on WDYTYA She learned about a lot about her family. Love, heartbreak and rising from a fall. About her 2^nd Great Grandmother “I feel we are what we are because of her bravery.”

   
 
 

Our lives are all important and worth something. I’m sure she never imagined that a little story about an orphan wizard would start a wild fire of stories. We all have something to give and we can all be important and remembered to someone. That is what I love about Genealogy. There are so many stories out there.  J.K. Rowling once said “No story lives unless someone wants to listen.” I am listening and that is why I am trying to find my families stories. I can learn so much from my ancestors.

 

Wonder

 

A few books have been said to change people’s lives. There are always classics on the list, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giver, Pride and Prejudice, The Diary of a Young Girl are just a few. Harry Potter became a sensation to readers and writers alike, changing the audience of many books. A few of my other favorites on the list are The Help, The Book Thief, The Fault in our Stars, The Hiding Place and Unbroken. One book in 2013 has joined the list, Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

It’s a story of a young 12 year old boy named August who is different. August was born with physical disabilities which lead to him being home schooled. August’s parents decide that after seven years of staying home it was time for him to go to school. They enroll him in the 7^th grade and the book takes us on a journey of his first year at school.

 

 

There are so many books that have negativity; it’s nice to read something inspiring. Wonder is a book that teaches love, friendship, forgiveness, humility and wants to make you become a better person.

Wonder is an eye opening book for people of all ages, young and old. It teaches us all a lesson to not judge a book (person) by its cover, because some books may just surprise you and have a story full of love and takes you on a journey of true friendship and self-discovery. 

 

Think of your favorite books, how they have changed you and how you can include the things you learned into your life.

 

R.J. Palacio has now written other short stories with the characters from the book Wonder.

 

I've only read Pluto so far, but I would love to read them all. Shingaling is coming out in May.

 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A few years ago I read the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith for the first time. I have heard a few people say they didn't like it. They say it was boring, or slow. But to me this book was inspiring, sad, and so honest. Betty Smith is a poet. This book was a memoir of her life, but her publisher said no one would want to read a true story like that, so she called it fiction. What a tragic life, yet so beautiful the way she lived it.

 

My dad gave me this First Edition book. I was so excited. He gave it to me because my daughter's name is Brooklynn and he thought it would be fun, but he didn't realize how much I truly love the story of Francie Nolan.

 

It is funny how something can be so ordinary to someone, but to another it is a treasure. I try to look at life with that outlook to make things extraordinary. 

 

There are a lot of parts of the book I love but here is one of my favorite quotes.

 

She thought: If I open this book fifty years from now, I will be again as I am now and there will be no being old for me. There's a long long time yet before fifty years. . . millions of hours of time. But one hour has already gone since I sat here . . . one hour less to live . . . one hour gone away from all the hours of my life.

 

"Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry . . . have to much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me me sincere -- deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time, so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."

 

I am not perfect. I have a lot to work on. My house isn't perfectly clean, I get upset at my kids, today I am sitting still in my pjs with no makeup on, we sometimes eat frozen pizza for dinner, but I try. I love my life, I love my kids and my husband and I try every day to be happy.

I want to live my life every minute that I can.

Books

A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.

–Neil Gaiman

Since I was young I loved reading. I even made a library out of my closet in my bedroom. I used a ruler to keep the books place and made a card catalog so I could keep track of all of my books. Somewhere between Junior High and High School I wasn’t reading as much, although, I still had a love for books. I remember I wanted to start a café where people could, relax and while there, they could read my books. When my oldest was a baby I would feed her a bottle and read to her. I read her two of my childhood favorites, Charlotte’s Web and The Secret Garden.

Since then my love for reading grew. A little book called Twilight came out and I just had to read what everyone was talking about. The opinion on the series varies, in my opinion it was a fun, book of fiction that had my imagination all over the place. I couldn’t stop reading after that. I then got caught up in The Hunger Games series. I wanted to read books of all different genres.

I read for so many different reasons, to get away from reality, to capture some part of history, to laugh, cry and appreciate my life. I don’t always have time to read, I sometimes wish I was one of those people who started a book and didn’t put it down until I finished, but I’m not. I love reading, I sometimes read a book in a day, other times a week.

I have tried to get my kids to love books as well. My oldest is an avid reader and at nine years old she read 175 books in 2014. My six year old, and four year old like books, but aren’t as obsessed as I am. I will love books until the day I die, even when I cannot read. I will keep the stories in my head and always replay them over and over again.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

- Jane Austen