Tagged! 6 things that make me happy

I’ve been tagged! I need to list six (6) things that make me happy. Thanks Chester Campbell for letting me share.

Let me see, there are so many things that make me happy. I guess I’ll just pick the first 6 that come to mind.

Snorkeling – At the moment this is my favorite thing to do. I get out at least once a week and absolutely love it.

Dark Chocolate- For 19 years I couldn’t eat chocolate at all! I had a “hormonal allergy” to the stuff. But, life is good and I’m past that time, so now I can indulge, and I do!

Going for drives with my husband. We take off and explore this lovely island we are living on at the moment.

Rainbows- they always make me smile.

Sunshine with a cool breeze- the best, especially when we’re under sail.

The love of my family and friends- I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Now, I need to tag five (5) more bloggers, so here’s my list.

Shari Lyle-Soffe

Margot Finke

Diane Sagan

Kathy Stemke

Joyce Anthony

Go out and have a very happy day.

See you back here Monday with another tip to take a book beyond reading.

Tip #25 Recipes that go with the story

This tip is yummy! It’s brought to us courtesy of Christina Rodriguez. She says,
“Some of the Hispanic bilingual books I've illustrated include recipes of the ethnic food that is featured in the book. This is something that I'm taking further by making recipe cards for kids to download from my site when it relaunches in the future.”

Thanks Christina. You can read more about Chrisitna and see her great illustrations at her blog.

Check out what types of food the people or animals in your story eat. Find recipes that go along with this and try them out. You can also hop over to Laughing Zebra - Books for Children and check out our yummy carrot birthday cake recipes.

See you Friday with some things that make me happy.

Tip #24 Interactive play

Today’s tip comes from Barbara Techel.

She says, “I take my book beyond reading when I do presentations at school with children. Frankie (my dachshund) is in a wheelchair, which is what the book is about. This teaches some powerful lessons.

“I get the kids involved by having a volunteer help me take Frankie out of her wheelchair so it shows them how easy it is and not to be afraid. I also show them how I do physical therapy for her and then have the practice. It goes over quite well. Instills in them that animals are REAL and they do get hurt and they do need help and teaches them responsibility.”

Thanks Barbara.

This is a great way to teach more and reinforce the story. So, what can you do with your child or students favorite books? Have fun and please do share your ideas here.

You can visit more with Barbara and Frankie at Joyful Paws.

See you Wednesday with another great tip from one of our readers.

When life gives you lemons. . .

Good morning and welcome to February 2009! After a month of daily blogging for the Blog Book Tours challenge, I’m ready to knock it down a notch and start blogging three times a week. So, unless something special happens, I’ll be blogging on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

To kick the month off, I have some awards to catch up on. During January, in addition to the Butterfly Award, it was awarded the When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade”award twice. Thank you Vivian Zabel and Joan De La Haye for bestowing this on me.

According to the rules, I’m to nominate ten (10) blogs that I feel are deserving. Now, many have been awarded this already, so if I duplicate then it just means that you are two times as worthy!

Here goes:
1. Sally Murphy
2. Anna Smucker
3. Karen and Robyn
4. Wendy Lynn
5. Carol Brooke
6. Margot Finke
7. Morgan Mandel
8. Roz Trieber

9. Constance Gilbert

10. Terri Forehand

Now, when you mention your award, please link back to me and Congratulations, you deserve a nice tall glass of ice cold lemonade!