Rathbone: Eggs for Hatching, Eggs for Eating, Eggs, Eggs, Eggs

[CheerioLounge]

I think it's wonderful that your boys love to read! My mom tells me that I was an avid reader from the time I could hold a book. We all know how our moms like to brag on us! Do your boys like horses? If so, I would like to recommend the books of Marguerite Henry. They are great stories and several of them are a historical fiction. Subjects like the Chincoteague Island ponies, the origins of thoroughbred horses from their Arabian roots and The origin of the Morgan horse. Fun and educational! I loved them as a kid.

 

[snapshot]

I remember reading every Robert Farley book in the library! Glad your little ones are enjoying reading books! It gives us such a good foundation for life!

I have not decorated at all this year (no kids here) and no money for gifts either. A very simple Christmas--just God!

I guess I did decorate my pups!!!!!!

 

[Britesea]

Reading is such an important skill. Once a person learns that, everything else in the world opens up for them. One of the reasons our house is so crowded is that we have a huge library. I am sorry for people that cannot or don't want to read

My SIL once asked me what sort of things my children would like for Christmas, and when I told her they would like gift certificates to a book store above all things, she blurted out "But it's not good for children to read so much!" What a sad commentary....

 

[rathbone]

I loved both Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. So yes those are definitely in our future. I don't know if any of you are familiar with them but there is a series of books about Billy and blaze by C. W. Anderson. His illustrations are gorgeous and my sons found the stories (Billy and blaze save a calf from a mountain lion) jaw dropping riveting.
Another series I adored when I was about eight years old is Little Britches by Ralph Moody. Have any of you read those?
I would very happily take recommendations on books. I'm still learning how to mother boys.
I am very much looking forward to them reading deathwatch by Robb White and all of the Gary Paulson type books. But yes, way too young for those still.

 

[hqueen13]

Billy and Blaze!! I loved those books when I was a kid too! That was really my first exposure to horses as a child, and then came Farley and Henry. I knew where every single set of horse books was in our elementary school library. And they were all old with the cloth bindings on them, but they were wonderful and so loved.

 

[framing fowl]

I loved Billy & Blaze too! Another good series is the dog books written by Jim Kjelgaard.

 

[rathbone]

I loved Billy & Blaze too! Another good series is the dog books written by Jim Kjelgaard.

kjelgaard sounds familiar...a german shepherd perhaps? I am going to go google his name and see what comes up.

How funny - so many of you know these authors. I seriously live in a literary vacuum here - NO ONE READS...and I am considered odd. Nice to be among friends.

 

[hqueen13]

Oh I LOVE to read... I was chewing up all those books at a very young age. Have you explored the Brian Jacques series, Redwall? He is such a prolific writer, I think he pushes out a new one of those every year, and they aren't small books! I have a number of them in hardback. I was reading them from about 3rd grade up, they are great for kids to explore because they are challenging since he writes different speeches of animals in various dialects, but the stories are simple enough, and always leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling

 

[rathbone]

I think I have a Redwall book around here somewhere (at the office) I will look for it.

 

[rathbone]

A friend of mine died on Christmas eve. Her daughter called me crying unintelligibly to tell me. I finally was able to make out her actual words after a while although for whatever reason - when the phone rang - I already had in my mind that Candace was calling to say her mother was dead.
Her name was Tammy and she lived in Colorado. She was barrelling down a utility road, hit an embankment, was not wearing a seatbelt and was partially ejected through the roof of the truck which then flipped over and landed on her.

Tammy and I were yin and yang. We had nothing in common. Nothing except the fact that we were both about the same age and pregnant and due at about the same time, carrying girls. Tammy tried to befriend me and I will tell the truth...I didn't make it easy for her. I could clearly see that we had nothing in common and I figured it just wouldn't work out. I was devoutly religious and she was hellbent to break any and all rules. She was a free spirit if I ever met one.

Well fast forward several years. She has two girls, I have two girls and we are very much friends. I have now realized that yin and yang actually compliment one another.

Some time after her girls were no longer babies, Tammy discovered horses. She wanted horses therefore she got horses. And she was never so happy as astride a horse. Wayne would watch the girls and she and I would go riding. In our relationship she was the leader and I the follower. If she wanted to do something, I was usually swept along. She had that habit you know, of sweeping people along. And so she led and I followed. We would ride through town, cross the tracks and wind along the golf course heading to Jack Smith Park. By the time we arrived it would be black dark with only the stars twinkling and if we were lucky - the moon shining bright.

As we approached the grass of the park, the horses would quiver with excitement and I would hold my horse back. But not Tammy. She would lean forward, run her hand over the horse's shoulder and whisper to him - then kick him into a gallop with her heels, moving from an easy walk, skipping right past a canter and going straight to full out run. And she would race him across the grassy lawn riding flat out as fast as the horse could carry her, wheeling around at the end of the park and racing back just as fast: barrel racing with invisible barrels.

At the end of her racing, she would always, ALWAYS want to swim the horses across a narrow band of water. It frightened me. I worried that something would happen but she always looked me straight in the eye and said everything would be fine. And I followed her.

Easing the horses down into the water she would ride, and the horse would walk along in the water until he suddenly bobbed up, buoyed by the water. And she was right, nothing ever happened, until something did happen. She was well into the water, the horse's legs churning away as it swam when suddenly the horse seemed to panick. And he went over sideways and with him, down went Tammy. I was never more frightened in my life. I was astride a horse in the water, in the black of night, and my friend and her horse have suddenly gone under with only the roiling water to tell me where they are. And the horse came up. And it seemed like forever... and she came up spluttering and laughing.

I was crying and beside myself with worry but she swam to shore, pulled herself out and flopped down on the sand. I was screaming at her - telling her how frightened I had been, that she could have been seriously hurt. She said she was hurt. That he had kicked her when they went under. "and then when I got really scared, I just put my feet against him and pushed away" she laughed. And then she called the horse and swung herself up, and rode down into the water again just to show that she wasn't afraid.

I have a million memories of Tammy. I chose this one for a reason.

For most of us, life is something that happens to us. Life didn't happen to Tammy - she dictated her own path in life. Tammy was outrageously alive. Some people watch life and for them that is living. I am of that ilk. But others, well others simply eat life up - and that is what she did. If life kicked her - she kicked back. She lived in all caps. So while I am sorry at her passing, I know that while she was alive - she was absolutely 100% ALIVE.