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Dear Reader,
Enjoy the long holiday weekend. My column will be here on Monday if you want to tune-in and I'll be giving away leftovers. Cool, left-over stuff that's been sitting on my shelf for quite a while that I just haven't gotten around to giving away. Hats, cows, cookie droppers (the kind I use when I bake my chocolate chip cookies), lanterns (I have one in my bedroom), book bags and bubble machines (I have one of those, too.) Turn on a bubble machine and all kinds of magic happens. Tune-in Monday for the Left-Over Giveaway.
From my Email Bag:
(In response to yesterday's "picture-perfect" column.)
"Dear Suzanne, thank you for understanding the way I choose to live. Yes, I could keep my house picture perfect and miss all that I love; frog catching with my two-and-a-half year old granddaughter, laying on our backs making pictures of the clouds, holding her little brother and inhaling his sweet babiness. There are always our shared books, she snuggles into my lap as I read to her using all my character voices, melting when she giggles and reaches around my neck saying you're funny Grammie. My paternal grandmother barely spoke English. Our conversations were difficult, but whenever I think of her I remember her wonderful smelling kitchen, the dusting of flour as she taught me how to make homemade noodles and how to earn the trust of a homeless cat. Was her house neat and picked up? I don't know and further more, I don't care. I can only hope that my grandchildren remember me half as fondly as I remember mine. I need to go and make a mess."--Catherine Lee
"Suzanne, the 'family photos' concept is a grand slam. Maybe you should copyright the term 'family photos' similar to three peat. Excellent. Thank you for the daily reading."--John
"Suzanne, I just wanted to thank you for being so dedicated in your effort to share books with us in the book club. Some topics are more interesting to me than others, but you have definitely got me interested in reading again. I have been caught in a rut of reading only what my children want read to them. Now I'm able to read books for my own enjoyment and more at my level. Thanks again!"--Carmel
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
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http://www.DearReader.com
READ THE CLASSICS: In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/2ory4c
Hi Suzanne, This is in response to your "picture perfect" column. When my son was little I had to work all the time, and that left very little time for a "picture perfect" house. Never mind any good quality time with my son. So I chose time with my son. When you die, your clean house is not going to matter, your money, how much or little, isn't going with you, all the things you acquire here on earth stay here too. What matters is how you treat your child{ren} will always be what they remember the most. So forget any guilt over a messy house, just enjoy your family. A house staightened up is fine. I have a frame with a poem on it, and everyone should memorize it that has children and even if you don't, in case sometime you have family with kids over. There is no author name on it so I hope it is okay to reprint it. Maybe someone out there knows who it is. It goes like this: Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait til tomorrow for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my babies and babies don't keep. Teresa
Posted by: Teresa | August 31, 2007 at 10:45 PM