I grew up with Mary Engelbreit and Kim Jacobs calendars. With the cozy homes depicted in their art, I couldn’t help but dream about creating a home someday. My mama, who made our old Victorian house an extension of her loving arms, would walk through our neighborhood with her four daughters. Each of us girls […]
The rain has ceased, and the green plants look aglow in the dim light. In the midst of springtime, a mystery is drifting down, settling around us, like mist. It is whispering the “magic deeper still” Aslan spoke of in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe . . . the magic that began before […]
Reading the whimsical picture book, When Ruby Tried to Grow Candy by Valorie Fisher, to my younger son recently, I found a delightful depiction of my philosophy of gardening: Plant what you love! Just a few weeks ago, my garden was sleeping. My friend, who lives in a high rise, asked to see it, but […]
Bedtime for Frances was first published in 1960, and it is still in print! Why? The wording is perfect and playful, the illustrations (involving anthropomorphic badgers) feel familiar yet fascinating, it is both humorous and (for children) mysterious, and . . . we are all Frances! Well, at least I am. No matter how old I […]
Bunny Day by Rick Walton, illustrated by Paige Miglio, teaches children the concept of time. Flipping through the gorgeous illustrations offers adults fodder for dreams. This book contains a plethora of decorating ideas for anyone who’d like their home to look as though it were plucked from the pages of a picture book. The Cuckoo […]
Last night, I stayed up to watch ice dancing on the Olympics. To me, ice dancing is a picture of what two souls are experiencing while falling in love. Each ice dance is like watching a romantic movie condensed into a couple of minutes. I felt this beauty when I was a little girl, and […]
This is the first post in a series on decorating your home according to children’s books. What I’ve always wanted most in a house is coziness— a house that smiles, a home that points to heaven. What better place to get decorating ideas than from the pages of children’s books! Goodnight Moon is a good […]
What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada is a powerful picture book. Read it, and you may learn (or remember) something about yourself. To my husband, it was a book about riding motorcycles. To me, it was about being brave enough to finish writing the novel I tucked away after someone didn’t […]
Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.” – William Shakespeare I have a confession to make: I cry when I return home from road trips. All those hours gazing out the car window, I’m free to imagine my perfect life . . . the country house surrounded by a wide circle of trees, the […]
By the end of November, my heart was screaming, “No more!” Pain and tragedy struck our extended family, our friends, and our neighbor. “You have to keep trusting,” I could hear Nancy from church saying. What wisdom! God’s love has never left us. His autumn blessings have drifted down every day. Remembering them, my jittery, […]
A Children's Book World 