No App to Replace Your Lap
Grandma Diane’s Story Time With Elsie and Eli
What with COVID-19 and our social distancing as well as being pretty much confined to our homes, all of my school visits have been canceled until this virus lifts. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. In the meantime, my grandkids came up with the idea to create “Story Time With Grandma Diane”. Every day (M-F) on my Facebook page at 11:00 a.m., I read a favorite children’s book. Homeschoolers can now listen in giving their caregivers a little time for a cup of coffee or a little breather. We started doing this on Monday, March 23 and will continue until the kids are back in school. Tomorrow I’ll be reading my own Life in the Neck New Friends as a special request of my great-niece Lily Lindemann in Oshkosh. Tune in and enjoy the story along with the rest of us. If you have your own copy, you can follow along as we read. Hope you listen in.
No App To Replace Your Lap
Gratitude is the Best Attitude
Gratitude Defined:
Gratitude is thankful appreciation for favors received. Webster’s
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home. a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie
In this time of great fear and difficulty with the COVID-19 virus hanging over our heads, with schools closed, social distancing, and many many of us working from home experiencing being quarantined for perhaps the first time in our lives, we as a nation and as communities would do well to think about what we do have instead of what we do not have. For most of us, our daily needs at this point are being met. We have homes, food on the table, and clothes to wear. Most of us can walk and talk, see the beauty that surrounds us, listen to music that stirs our souls and makes our feet want to boogie. We have family and friends to love and be loved by in return. Focusing on our abundance rather than the lack in our lives helps us experience the sense of fulfillment which is gratitude at work. This fulfillment creates in us the desire to share what we have with others. What better time than now for us to reach out in love and thanksgiving to the community in which we live? What can YOU do to bring some happiness and joy into the lives of those around you?
No App to Replace Your Lap
Just thinking . . .
Covid-19 has forced us to stay home and spend more time together as a family. Schools are closed, parents are working from home, sports have been canceled (professional as well as school and community programs). So what’s a person to do?
Social media is full of advice for and from all of us. As I’m thinking about all of this, what comes to mind is that list of things I wanted to do when I retired. Read, write children’s books, clean the pantry, and the list goes on!
Now having two grandchildren home from school everyday for the unforeseeable future, my thinking has turned to them and to how can I help the “boredom” that they seem to be complaining about so much as time passes. I trust that if I put my mind to it, I can come up with a plan that may turn this time together into an opportunity to grow in learning, understanding and love.
Children need and want structure. It helps them feel safe and in control - they know what to do and when to do it - even though they will argue about it. So to provide structure we need to first talk about the “have to dos” and the “want to dos” and then make room for both in our daily schedule.
So that’s my job for today - working together to make our daily schedule. This could be exciting. I’ll let you know what happens . . .
To be continued . . .
50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled Due to COVID - 19
March 21, 1970 Butch & Diane Davies
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer Trailer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Davies 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration Canceled due to
COVID - 19
As Butch and I were busy planning our wedding fifty years ago, we never took into consideration that the world would be suffering a pandemic of Coronavirus when it came time to celebrate our 50th Anniversary. Who Knew? Right?
Our party on March 21st has been canceled. It has been fun in the planning – going through old pictures and old memories – putting together a slide show for your viewing enjoyment – never to be seen. Oh well !?!?!?
So instead of celebrating with all you on Saturday as planned, we will be sitting home on the couch watching nothing on TV and eating macaroni and cheese. Send happy celebratory thoughts our way and envision the fun we could be having together.
Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer
By Diane Davies
Illustrated by CA Nobens
Meet Diane Davies
Children’s author, Diane Davies, takes us on a journey into her “neck of the woods” where she not only acquaints us with the neck, but also explains how she got started writing and why she continues. As a part of the tour, we hear about all 5 of her books (2 adult’s and 3 children’s) and get a sneak peek at questions her young audience members ask and how she answers them. Davies gives us an honest, thought provoking glance at being a children’s author.
Children’s author, Diane Davies, takes us on a journey into her “neck of the woods” where she not only acquaints us with the neck, but also explains how she got started writing and why she continues. As a part of the tour, we hear about all 5 of her books (2 adult’s and 3 children’s) and get a sneak peek at questions her young audience members ask and how she answers them. Davies gives us an honest, thought provoking glance at being a children’s author.
0:00 Intro
1:16 How I got started in writing
2:31 From There to Here (book)
3:14 Breast Cancer Saved My Life (book)
4:10 Life in the Neck New Friends (book)
4:43 Jeannie Ann’s Grandma Has Breast Cancer (book)
5:17 Life in the Neck Squirrel Trouble (book)
5:58 Why do you write?
8:34 Is this your favorite job?
9:57 Writing and the pandemic
10:38 Life in the Neck Christmas
11:49 Where do you buy my books?
14:18 Did Cancer hurt?
15:03 Are you rich from selling books?
15:42 How did you learn to write books?
16:53 Where do you get your ideas?
17:43 Do you draw the pictures?
18:15 How long does it take to write books?
20:50 How does a book get made?
24:16 When will you broadcast live again?
25:36 Contact information
There is Squirrel Trouble at SC Toys in downtown Hastings
Watch Diane launch her book Life In The Neck: Squirrel Trouble at SC Toys in downtown Hastings, MN.
Local author, Diane Davies, launches her much anticipated second book in her Life In The Neck series, Squirrel Trouble. It was a festive Sunday afternoon filled with family, friends, and fans of Diane. The star of the children’s book, Eli, was on hand to help Diane read and sign books.
Visit SC Toys in downtown Hastings and pick up a copy of Diane’s latest book, Life In The Neck: Squirrel Trouble, this holiday season. It’s an incredible adventure and a perfect gift for young readers.
