Category Archives: nostalgia

My Favorite Season

August 6, 2009fall, nostalgia, summerKirsetin

This summer has been filled with friends and books and long days at the cottage. I love these days without rushed schedules and juggling mealtimes. It’s such a treat to be able to make dinner whenever we’re all hungry, without working it around a meeting or practice or game. Summer is a solidifying force in our family, and I aim to keep it that way.

That said, summer isn’t my favorite time of year. It’s not even close. Fall wins, every time.

Every season has its perks, and there are things I enjoy whenever the weather changes. That first, beautiful snowfall, that comes down on a dark night and blankets our world with a soft white blanket; the tiny buds on the trees and the flowers pushing their way up to the warmth and light; the laughter of the boys on the tube behind the boat and long walks along the beach: all of these things, I enjoy.

But fall stands alone as my favorite, year after year. I love the colors of the leaves, the cooler days and much cooler nights, but more than anything, it’s the sense of renewal that calls me. You might think this would happen in January, when the rest of the world is celebrating the start of a new year, or in the summer, when we have more family time than we could even imagine at other times of year. But it doesn’t. For me, the new year begins in the fall.

It’s just around the corner now, and I’ll embrace it when it arrives, but I’m not wishing summer away yet. I’m still looking forward to sunny days at the beach and reading books in the hammock. I’m still enjoying walking to the farmer’s market and making dinner when the need arises. I’m still taking advantage of these slower schedules to create memories with my kids. Every season has its perks, after all.

photo credit: graybeard763

My Favorite Books: Ten Books That Make Me Think

July 30, 2009book club, books, nostalgiaKirsetin

The books speak to me. As I look up from the table at the library, where I’m spending most of my day today, I glance up at this shelf of teen books, and I hear them. They tell myriad stories: some sad, some adventurous, some scary, and some very, very funny. We read them, and they challenge us. If we’re lucky, sometimes they even change us.

One of the reasons I enjoy belonging to a book club, is that it forces me to read books I may not choose otherwise. I’ve never been a big fan of biographies, for example, but a few years ago we read John Adams, by David McCullough. It surprised me—I liked it!—and it remains one of my favorite books. David MuCullough brought their world to life for me in a way that no history class ever did. As a mother and wife, I empathized with Abigail Adams and realized that she was made of much tougher stuff than I am. I’m still amazed by her story, as much as his.

But it’s not just serious stories that capture me. I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. As a child, I spent hours in libraries – in every town we called home, and in my grandmother’s town, too, which we visited several times a year. In those early days, I enjoyed a good mystery and I was especially fond of Nancy Drew. I admired her courage and her wisdom. I liked her friends, Bess and George; I thought having a boyfriend like Ned Nickerson was pretty cool, too. But most of all, I loved their adventures. They took me along with them, to discover the Secret of the Old Clock and solve the Password to Larkspur Lane. When I read these books, I wasn’t a 10-year old girl reading a story. The words of Carolyn Keene transported me, as I solved the mysteries right along with Nancy, Bess, and George. Those stories changed me, as books would continue to right up to today, as I questioned and pondered and discovered new ideas. Books open worlds we may never contemplate without them. Don’t you agree?

If you’re in the mood for a good read—although not necessarily an uplifting one—here are a few others I count among my favorites. This list is by no means exhaustive—there are many, many books I’ve enjoyed over the years. However, these remain among my top picks because no matter how many times I read them, they always make me think. They challenge me, and they change me. I hope you’ll discover their magic, too.

· Lord of the Flies, William Golding

· The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

· Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

· The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

· A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

· The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

· Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson

· The Life of Pi, Yann Martel

· Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

· The Red Tent, Anita Diamant

Are any of these among your favorites? Are there books you love that I didn’t include? Please leave me a comment and let me know. I’m always up for a new read.

Footnote:

On one particular visit to my aforementioned grandmother’s library, I noticed a few Nancy Drew books I’d already read, that had different covers from the ones I owned. As a frequent re-reader, I checked them out and was surprised to find that it wasn’t only the cover that was different. The words were different, too! The books in the Nancy Drew series have been updated throughout the years, and I’d stumbled onto a few earlier versions. When I offered to replace the older books with new ones, the librarian agreed. I couldn’t believe my luck. I still have those books, and even though I haven’t read them in years, I won’t be parting with them anytime soon.

Fun Summer Games for Kids: 9 of My Kids’ Favorites

July 14, 2009activities for kids, nostalgia, summerKirsetin

During the summer at our cottage, we are close technological cousins of the Amish. No landline. No television. No computer for goodness sakes. Wi-fi is a far off dream.

And yet my children survive. One might even argue that they thrive. Forced to find something else to do—I know, horrors!—they resort to good old-fashioned fun. And, surprisingly, when their friends arrive to visit, no one ever seems to notice our stunning lack of technological connectedness. Instead, their friends simply join in the latest game. It results in the kind of running, laughing, negotiating, and yes, even yelling, that’s music to a parents’ ears. It’s a unique kind of joy.

Are you looking for a few ways for your kids to have fun without Sponge Bob, iCarly, or Guitar Hero? Invite some of their friends over and have them try a few of my boys’ favorites:

Ghost in the Graveyard. In this game, which is played at dusk or dark, the kids choose a “base” and a person to be “It,” just like with hide-and-seek. The person who’s “It” closes her eyes and counts to 12 in this manner: “One-o’clock, two-o’clock, three-clock…” all the way to “Midnight,” which as far as I can tell must be yelled with extreme vigor. All of the other kids run and hide. (They don’t hide together; each child has their own hiding spot). Once they choose a hiding spot, they can’t move—no sneaking to a new spot after the person who’s “It” starts looking. When any child who’s hiding sees the person who’s “It,” they yell “Ghost in the Graveyard!” and everyone runs like crazy for base. “It” tags as many of them as possible. Everyone who gets tagged is “It” (together) for the next round.
Sardines. This one’s also in the hide-and seek family, but can be played anytime of day. It’s sort of like reverse hide-and-seek. One person is chosen to hide. Everyone else closes their eyes and counts, together, to 30 (or any agreed-upon number). Then, they yell, “Ready or not, here we come!” and split up to find the Hider. When any seeker finds the person hiding, they quietly join them. The last one to find the group is the Hider the next time.
Hide and Seek Tag. How many hide-and-seek variations are there? Tons, apparently! In this one, one child is “It” and everyone else runs and hides. The person who’s “It” counts to 30 (or any agreed-upon number) and then yells, “Ready or not, here I come!” “It” seeks out the other kids. If she sees them, she tries to tag them. If she’s successful, they become her partner and help find and tag the other kids. If “It” doesn’t tag the child they find, that child can run off and hide again. There’s no “base” in this game. Kids keep running and yelling and tagging until everyone has been tagged. The first person who was tagged is “It” the next time.
Cornhole, the Bean Bag Game. “Corn-what?” you ask. That’s what I asked, anyway, the first time I heard of this game. I’m not sure if it’s a game unique to the Midwest, or if I was just out of the Cornhole loop all my life, but this is a recent discovery for us, courtesy of our good friends, now referred to as the Cornhole Pros. This game is perfectly acceptable to pull out for either kids or grown-ups, and is especially fun on those Sunday afternoons when friends are over for a burger and a beer. If you haven’t heard of it before, click here for the scoop on what it is and how to play.
Croquet. Seriously, you know how to play this, right? You may not have played since you were 12, but I think just about everyone’s played it at least once. If somehow you missed it, you can read the instructions here. This is a good all-family game, and the kids loooove to beat the grown-ups. Get yourself a set.
Bocce ball. Here’s another game I didn’t know about until after the age of 25. I’m fairly certain I was introduced to it at a party when my husband’s Italian relatives dusted off an old set from the garage. The great thing about Bocce is that you can play with almost anyone – young and old alike can be really good or really bad at Bocce. Even even small kids can play (small like 5, not like, 2, unless they’ve got exceptional throwing skills!) The gist is that you throw the little white ball and then everyone tries to get their ball closest to the little white one. How’s that for a generic explanation. Very detailed instructions, here. If you don’t have a set, I highly recommend it for lots of Forced Family Fun.
Ultimate Frisbee. The way my kids play this game, it’s kind of like football with a Frisbee. There are two teams, and each team has an end zone. The point of the game is to get the Frisbee into your endzone and score a point. To start, each team lines up in front of an endzone. The team with the Frisbee yells, “Ultimate!” then throw the Frisbee to the other team. The player who catches it can take up to 2 steps and then must throw it to another teammate, working their way to the endzone. (I think my kids made up this 2-steps part. In “real” Ultimate, I don’t think any steps are allowed. Experts, feel free to weigh in!) The defense (the team who initially threw the Frisbee), can’t hit other players or take the Frisbee directly out of the opponents hands, but they can block throws, knock down the Frisbee, or intercept it. If an incomplete pass is made and the Frisbee hits the ground, the opposing team gets the Frisbee at that spot and heads towards their endzone. The team with the most points wins.
Badminton. Put the net up in your yard & hit the birdie over the net. That’s the gist of it, although there are all sorts of official rules. You can read them, here.
Traditional games: football, basketball, tennis, soccer. All still fun.

There are a few other games my kids also enjoy, but they aren’t favorites, so I didn’t list them above. Jarts (aka Lawn Darts) is one. We play with the newer version with the blunted ends, not the kind my brother and I tried to kill each other with. Ladderball is another, although I suspect they’d like this better if we had a more sturdy set. Ours is the plastic version with many, many pieces, some of which have mysteriously gone missing.

How about your kids? Do they have some favorite outdoor games you could share? Are these some of their favorites, too? Let me know what they like or we’re missing and I’ll share the ideas with other moms in a future post!