Kid Gift: Story Starters

My sister gave the girls a great gift recently called And Then...Story Starters. A box is filled with cards and each one has the beginning of a story that the girls can finish. The packaging is beautiful and the stories are really fun. The girls love them. I've been amazed to hear what's in their little minds when they finish the story. 

I know once they are older in school they will write and illustrate their own stories, but I've never thought much about doing that at home. Now that my older one is starting to write more I think that will be really fun. These story starters really help get their creative juices flowing.

I've started giving these as gifts too. One of my friends says she and her kids go around the breakfast table, each adding on to the same story. So cute.

Writing Wedding Vows

Did you write your own wedding vows? Chris and I didn’t. We were babies and a little scared of the whole wedding process, so I think it was the right choice for us at the time. But I think when done right, writing your own vows can show other people how you feel about your significant other in a way nothing else can. It’s also a way to exhibit your writing skills in front of your family and closest friends, which is pretty awesome.

But wow, writing your own vows seems a bit intimidating, doesn’t it? Writing vows should be simple, down to earth and personal. Super easy, right? 

I’m currently reading Amy Poehler’s Yes Please (I love this book!). In it she talks about Mike Schur, the creator of Parks and Recreation, writing Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt’s wedding vows. They are so well written and great inspiration for someone writing their own. They’re sentimental, but not too mushy:

BEN

In the ten years I worked for state government, my job sent me to more than fifty cities. I lived in villages with eight people, rural farming communities, college towns-I was sent to every corner of Indiana. And then I came here. And I realized that this whole time, that’s what I was doing-I was just wandering around, everywhere, looking for you.

[…after several funny lines…]

LESLIE

So I will just say this. The things you have done for me-to help me, support me, surprise me, and make me happy-go above and beyond what any person deserves. You are all I need. I love you and I like you.

BEN

I love you and I like you.

This makes me wish I had written vows. Maybe we'll write some for an anniversary and read them at dinner.

Did you write your vows? Was it tough or a piece of cake?

Best Writing Could Win an Inn

I may have found a better use for today's writing time. The best 200-word essay could win this $900,000 inn located in Western Maine. The current innkeeper won this gorgeous place the same way two decades ago. Love that the power of words can actually get us something these days. 

Ok, who's dreaming of running an inn? Go and get writing!

Reinstating a Paper Planner

I mostly use my iPhone for appointments and plans. I like it because I can set reminders and I always have it with me so I can add to it at any time. I don’t sit at a desk much during the day, so it is my main reference point for plans. But the iPhone calendar doesn’t do it all for me. I can’t see my week or month in detail on one screen. I have to look at a list of events or click on each day individually. I want to see everything bigger and in more detail. Sometimes I want to write with a pen.

So I’m back to trying a paper planner. It’s been about 10 years since I’ve used one of these. This one is called The Passion Planner and I’m obsessed with it. It has a page for the whole month, shows each week with room for tons of detail, provides space for lists (oh I love lists), goal setting and even journaling or sketching! It's so much more than just a calendar. 

The only downside is that it can’t fit in my pocket or purse so I don’t have it with me at all times to make plans on the fly. There will definitely need to be some overlap with the iPhone. I’m still trying to figure out how I can use both together, but I love the idea of being able to open this book and see my plans, lists and goals in one place.

Do you have any great tips for keeping a calendar? Do you use paper, a computer or a combination?

Book Bucket List

Do you have a book bucket list? For a while, I've had a list of books I own and intend to read some day, in addition to recommendations I’ve gotten from my sister and other friends who read a lot. But I've wanted an even bigger list to tackle over time that would make me feel like I’m checking off some of the really important ones. It would be a nice complement to the more current bestsellers I often tend to read.

Amazon has a list called 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, developed by Amazon book editors. The list looks really great – it covers different life stages and genres. As I went through it, so many were books I’d want on my bucket list.

Another bucket list I’ve looked at may surprise you, as it’s from one of my guilty (but not guilty) pleasure TV shows – Gilmore Girls. The list, which has been compiled by different sources on the Internet, includes books that the character, Rory Gilmore, either read or referenced throughout the series. This Rory Gilmore list on Goodreads is longer, with 398 books. It is a great place to find both classics and contemporary books to add to your list.

I’ve used these two lists as a starting point to create my own, adding others that I've wanted to read for a while. I've read several of the books on my list, but some long ago and I'd like to re-read them. Not only have I forgotten a lot of what I've read, I'm guessing I'll take away a bit more at age 35 than I did at 18. 

Below is my list:

1984, by George Orwell

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Are You There God? It’s me Margaret, by Judy Blume

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Haley Print

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

A Brief History in Time, by Stephen Hawking

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

John Adams, by David McCullough

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Louis

Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child

Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Midnight’s Children, by Salmon Rushdie

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen

A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert A. Caro

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

A Room of One’s Own, by Virginia Woolf

Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand

The Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

The World According the Garp, by John Irving

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

I'm sure I'll add to this list down the road, but I didn't want it to be too overwhelming. I love me a paper list, so I’m going to write them down and stick the list on my bulletin board as a reminder to keep reading.

What are books you'd want on your bucket list?