Thursday, August 25, 2011

One For Me & One For You

"And he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks..." - Maurice Sendak






















When S was working with his OT, I ran over to the library to return some books and discovered they were having their annual book sale. Our life is chock full of perfectly timed lucky surprises like that...and yours will be too at the end of this post.


I grabbed a short stack of Native American tales for a friend...and I found one or two books that I can now scratch off our wish list. Then I found this gem by Sabine Lohf.

I have always admired books that truly tickle the imagination, especially those that lean toward the earthy side...






















S studied that musty manual cover to cover then began making fleet of dream vessels.

















As we watched our flotilla set sail on imaginary adventures, I was reminded of the two review copies sitting on my studio table. I haven't shelved them because they are so lovely that I keep referring back to them for inspiration and ideas for the months ahead. I contacted the generous folks at Shambhala Publications and asked if I could host a giveaway because I greatly enjoyed these books and I know you will too.

The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons by Amanda Blake Soule is a soulful (pardon the applicable pun), and inspiring book that offers recipes, crafts and family activities that follow the rhythm of the seasons. Warm and welcoming, it's a guide that nurtures family bonds and fosters a deeper connection with nature.

Playful Learning: Develop Your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl is a wonderful book that honors the connection between play and learning. The book is loaded with activities and resources that will empower parents to create play based learning experiences within the home. This guide thoughtfully demonstrates how parents can participate in their child's education in very significant, meaningful ways.

If you would like to win a copy of one of these two gems. Simply leave a comment. Tell me which book you're pining for then share with me one of your favorite childhood memories. Please remember to include an email so that I may contact you. Anonymous comments will not be included as it is impossible for me to contact you. The books will be sent directly from the publisher. Winners will be picked by Random Generator and announced next Thursday September 1st!

Thank you, Shambhala, for your generous spirit and for publishing books that have heart!

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posted by Wendy at 5:41 AM

23 Comments:

Blogger Kirsty @ Bowerbird Blue said...

Well that is a very hard choice, they are both amazing looking books. The rhythm of family's cover gets me with that apple pic. I love you're quote from Where the Wild things are. Feel like I am sailing in and out of weeks all the time. I remember being trusted to head off with my little sister and our dog for an adventure to the river. Finding special hidden places, tadpoles, stepping lightly on cracked clay, trying not to break the pieces, and the smell of the peppercorn trees that towered above us. beckwood@aapt.net.au

8:31 AM  
Anonymous vickie said...

Wendy! ahhhh a give away and for rhythm of the family which i have been TOTally pining away for. so now you know which one i am craving...now lets see:

sitting in the willow trees with all the neighbor kids waiting for our mud stew to be ready for lunch. seriously those trees were a huge part of my childhood memories...love them.

sunraystudio@earthlink.net

:)

9:33 AM  
Anonymous erin said...

a favourite childhood memory, but how to choose? i'm so blessed to have an entire childhood filled with magic

as i sit here writing and deleting...thinking of what one to choose- all the great and grand ones, it's really the simple vignettes that i'm drawn to-

sharing a cold, glass bottle of cream soda with my papa, and jelly beans too- of course.

picking out flowers to bring to the airport to collect my mom- being able to run right to the gate to greet her.

building a barn with my dad for my sheep, feeling proud of my accomplishments, splinters and all.

mud fights late into the night with my brothers-
blizzards and power outages, roaring fire and ramen noodles... scrabble games that mom always wins.

we're always trying to *make* those magic memories... without realising that it's the basic, everyday- where the magic is found.

---

i have the rhythm of family on my wish list. gosh, isn't she such an amazing woman?!

10:11 AM  
Anonymous Jeanette LeBlanc said...

Oh goodness, so hard to decide which one. I love the idea of both books....can you decide for me? ;) I suppose I would go with Playful Learning.

My favorite memories are all about my summers by the shore in Nova Scotia. Loud, boisterous extended family, long days by the beach, no schedule. Only happiness in my heart when I remember it.

Jeanette

11:54 AM  
Blogger Natural Mama said...

I would have to pick The Rhythm of Family, it looks like a delightful book!
As far as favorite memories go I have many, but playing in my backyard in the teepee my mother had made me is at the top :)

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Pamela said...

They both look fabulous, but I guess I'd choose RHYTHM OF FAMILY.

One of my favorite childhood memories is watching a very close lightning storm with my dad. We even got in the car and drove in for a closer look. The lightening seemed to fill the sky, and it was one of those wonder-filled moments that childhood is often full of.

-Pamela Scholten
pamela.scholten@hotmail.com

2:02 PM  
Blogger Melanie J. said...

I'm definitely pining for Rhythm of Family by Amanda Soule, would love to shape my life more with the seasons. As for a childhood memory, i must have autumn on the brain because my mind just glimpsed our dining room table covered with fresh tomatoes, one of the few successful times my mom had a garden going. I was in grade school. I'm at celticautumn69@yahoo.com (http://embermadrone.blogspot.com).

2:07 PM  
Blogger CLAUDIA said...

Both books are on my wish list, and I would be thrilled with either. A childhood memory? Lying in the grass in my yellow bikini reading The Little House on the Prairie series - all summer long!

9:00 PM  
Blogger Carrie at Rhubarbsky said...

Both, Both, Both! ACK! I guess if I *HAD* to pick, I'd go with Playful Learning since I'm likely going to buy Amanda's book no matter what.

and, jeez, a favorite childhood memory is harder to pick than which book!
I'd say playing on the beach with my bro at the grandparents house. . . building forts and floats and collecting seaglass.

Thanks, this is such a generous and amazing give-away!

rhubarbsky at gmail dot com

11:13 PM  
Blogger denise said...

Oh, I've been wanting to check out The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder.

A childhood memory.

Most of my favorite childhood memories are of me wandering alone with my dog in the woods, in the old pre-civil war cabins and collapsing farmhouses in the middle of overgrown fields and forests, catching crawdads in the creek, a big treehouse with rickety hammered in steps on the tree trunk...and riding my bike down the wooded hill home, feet in the air, hoping any sunning copperheads I run over in the path don't flip up and bite me. ;)

1:06 AM  
Blogger nina beana said...

oh wend, you have the best cyber connections! and shambala books is such a great company!

i've been anxiously awaiting the release of amanda soule's newest book and would love a chance to win a copy! i wanted to drive up to her opening at the bookstore in portland, ME last week but my car started acting funny...

my favorite childhood memory is going up in the tractor bucket with my dad every late-august and picking apples and pears on my grandfather's farm that we lived on. i can still taste those crisp fruits!

thank you for being you! <3

7:33 AM  
Anonymous Vanessa said...

Thank you for such a generous giveaway, I have been following Soulemama's blog for some time and have wanted to pick up her Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder book!

My best childhood memory was when I was about 6 or 7 up at my grandparents cottage. Walking along the beach with my grampa, looking for magic glass, smoothed pieces of beach glass that had washed up on the shore. He told me that they were special, I very much believed him and tried to find as many pieces as I could :) I miss him, he passed away 5 years ago in May and I still think of him often, especially when I find beach glass :)

barefoothappyness at gmail dot com

2:39 PM  
Blogger Mary said...

oh man that is hard. I guess if i have to choose it's be rhythm and family.
My favorite childhood memory is of my brother and I going to the back lot of our suburban house and playing in the small woods there. we'd build houses out of sticks and pretend we were living in the wild woods and eating animals to survive. it was so much fun, and I think kicked off my imagination and ability to play for hours outside.

11:07 PM  
Anonymous Emily said...

I would love the Rhythm of Family book. It is actually on my Amazon wish list.

My favorite childhood memory is of my dad coming home from work each day. He would shout "Daddy's home!", and my brother and I would throw ourselves on him. He would hug us and twirl us around very dramatically, then we would hang out on the couch horsing around and cuddling for a while.

bigkittytalks at yahoo dot com

1:13 AM  
Anonymous Patti @ Jazzy Mama said...

I would love to win the book by Soule Mama.

My best childhood memories are of long summers riding my bike to the edge of the stream when I would sit with a novel and a bag of soda crackers. A book was never far from my hand when I was a kid!

ptinh0441 at rogers dot com

11:58 AM  
Blogger SalemMomma said...

I would absolutely love to win either of these books! My favorite childhood memories would be either one of the many camping trips we took when we were little, or the Christmas baking we did with my mom, which is one of the traditions that I now do with my children. Thank you for the chance to win!
jujubee676 at msn.com

1:10 AM  
Blogger Cheryn said...

you have the bestest and kindest, generous giveaways, wendy.

I would love to own either of these books.

one of my favorite childhood memories- although it was a bit sad, it was just one of those deep ones, holds a special little spot in my heart:
while waiting for the schoolbus, I saw a pigeon stuck in the fence, which just tore my heart apart and I ran home crying to tell my mom. This of course warranted a day off from kindergarten, and my stay home was spent drawing and painting a picture of "rainbow the pigeon." ( a piece of art I still have :)

12:31 PM  
Blogger Bonnye said...

What a fun giveaway! I think we would love to get either of these books! But I am partial to the playful learning one. One of my favorite childhood memories involved art and learning-
My father was in the navy- and was gone overseas 9 months out of every year. We used to cut paper strips and wind a paper chain all over the house and take a link off every day until he came home. It was fun to make and hang- and I can still feel the anticipation and excitement as it got shorter and shorter! Fun memories.
Bonnye Sensenig
bonnyejean at gmail dot com

8:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd like The Rhythm of Family! As a child I remember climbing a tree in the yard that had a perfect 'bench' for me!

Trudy
onlyjustine at yahoo dot com

10:44 AM  
Blogger Erin said...

It's too hard to choose a favorite...I love both blogs, but I've been most excited about Mariah's book, Playful Learning. Thanks for the chance and I really hope that I win! My favorite memory is spending time swimming and playing at my grandparent's lakehouse.

11:50 AM  
Anonymous Gemma said...

I am totally pining for the one on the seasons. I moved into a new place almost 3 years ago and am just beginning to connect to it. Seasonal activities would help, I am sure, and also give me a way to connect to my niece and nephew, who are wees. abnewc@gmail.com

6:04 PM  
Blogger Janelle said...

I'd like Rhythm of the Family! So many wonderful memories: a lemonade stand on a hot summer day, beach treasures, beautiful Christmas decorations handmade with Nana, new shoes for school, picking wildflowers and bringing them home to Mom just because!
Chanticlear1(at)gmail(dot)com
Best wishes and thanks for a chance to win this wonderful giveaway!

10:13 AM  
Anonymous Diane Melendez said...

I would love to win the rythmn of family book so that I can share these special activites with the little ones I love.

I have many very special childhood memories but my favorite, believe it or not was when I was a child in elementary school. We live in Florida and back in the day school was not airconditioned. So you can imagine how lovely it was one day when a cool rainstorm began. I sat near the front door of the room and the electric went off. So the teacher told everyone to put their heads down on the desk to rest. I did as she instructed and watched the rain and inhaled its freshness. Then to my delight as the grass out the door became more and more soaked in puddles, hundreds and hundreds of tiny little frogs came out to sing like crazy. It was for me a moment of peace with life and nature. I felt the breath of God that day.

Diane Melendez
kui900@msn.com

11:11 PM  

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