​Well, here we are! It’s April 2020 and most of the country has been working from home for a month. If you have small kids at home you are learning how difficult it is to juggle, work, zoom meetings, meals, showers, nap-time, homeschooling and every other work and household crisis. I really hope that you have an understanding boss and a helpful partner, because this is a lot.

I started working from home part-time when my oldest daughter was three. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my daughter while she was little. My significant other is a business owner with a demanding schedule, so running the household mostly falls to me. I was lucky enough to be able to step into a part-time, work from home schedule, which allowed me to focus on my family more. It was the right choice for me and my family.

Please use this post and companion Pinterest Board as a way to find free and low cost learning and activity websites. I have included resources to help you access free ebooks and e-audiobooks, homeschooling resources, tutorials and classes for adults, exercise videos, and online tours of famous zoos, aquariums and museums. I have also included reliable drama free news sources to help you stay up to date in this unprecedented time.

If you are an educator and would like to add resources please click “Join” on the Pinterest Board and I will approve you to add new content. If you are a blogger and have ideas for indoor activities you would like to add please join the board as well. Let’s all turn this crisis into an opportunity to learn and grow!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Volunteer Appreciation Week 2020 is April 19-25.

I have one job during Volunteer Appreciation Week. Make the volunteers feel appreciated. Obviously.

Over the years of managing volunteers I have experimented with my tiny volunteer appreciation budget to find the best low cost and free gifts.

Not only does the gift need to be inexpensive, but it also needs to appeal to all of my volunteers. I have an eighty year old man and a fifteen year old girl, what one thing can I get for both of them?

For a long time I couldn’t figure out why the books with “Whoever’s” Wife or Daughter as the title rubbed me the wrong way. I knew that I didn’t like them, but I didn’t know why. The realization was gradual, but I feel like I now fully understand my issue with these books.

The problem is the possession. The “This-Man’s” Wife or Daughter. Like she does not exist without that relationship. She is defined by what some male relation does for a living. She is not her own person.

Many of these books have a good premise. Many of them feature a wife or daughter who is the real hero of the story. I can understand why an author or publisher might chose that title. Maybe she is breaking free of His shadow or secretly responsible for all of His accomplishments. However, there are other, better options. She Has a Name!

It’s officially the time of year when people start giving up on their New Year’s Resolutions. That’s right, two weeks and most people are done. It’s no wonder really, everyone is so busy and no one seems to have enough time for themselves. How do you follow the Whole 30, when you don’t have time to cook? How do you work out when you work 12 hours per day? Here are some quick tips to help you free up some time, so you can prioritize your personal life.

If you are reading this you are either a librarian or an avid reader. If you are an avid reader, you probably read more than me every year. You can read this article, laugh, pat me on the head and tell me my goals are adorable. If you are a librarian, you probably read, on average, what I read every year. You can read this article, quietly nod in agreement, and *maybe* leave me a comment, thanking me for my brilliance.

I only started setting reading goals when my second daughter was born two years ago. I decided to re-read all of the Harry Potters while I was taking my unpaid-maternity-leave. I read all seven in the allotted time, easily. I then continued to read one book per two-week check-out, even after I went back to work. With no problem.

The key to my success was my smart phone. I started downloading books to my phone, so that I would read instead of wasting my life scrolling social media. I had no idea how much time I was wasting on mind numbing social media, until I did this. I went from reading something like 12 books per year, to 24, and in 2019 I read 37! This is the part where the avid readers pat me on the head. In March 2019, I rediscovered audiobooks, which effectively doubled the number of books I can read. WooHoo!
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So, for 2020, I will basically read one book per week. I know I will occasionally read something that is a little long, or I will be busy with work or some other excuse. So, my official goal will be to read at least 40 books next year, but I expect to read closer to 50. What’s your number?
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Here are some tips to get you out of a reading slump:

Here are some prompts to help you find books outside of your comfort zone:

Tell me about your reading goals and strategy for 2020. Comment below:

This time of year, we often find ourselves obligated to attend multiple social events with family, friends, and coworkers. If you’re an introverted librarian, like me, the thought of crowded rooms full of noisy people and distractions is overwhelming. I have struggled with these parties for years and have finally collected enough “helpful tips” to actually enjoy myself. Here is what has worked for me.

I think that introverts need to prepare themselves for parties, like marathoners before a big race. Get plenty of sleep the night before, eat healthy and drink lots of water. When it comes time to start getting ready for the party, I usually have a coffee and an apple or banana. This combination seems to give me a boost of steady energy. When I get to the party, if it’s appropriate, I’ll have a glass of wine. This gives my hands something to do while the alcohol works its magic. Obviously, having a drink is entirely up to you.

When I first started working at the Library, we had a handful of volunteers who worked a disorganized ten hours per week. We had a few volunteers that had been coming in for years, they would come in when they wanted, do their task and leave. We also had short term volunteers, they would show up when they were available and we would scramble to find work. We had volunteers, but we didn’t have a volunteer program.

When I finally became a proper Reference Librarian, I immediately started conspiring to take over as the Volunteer Coordinator. I liked working events, I liked working circulation and I liked working with Teens, it just seemed like a good fit. It was not a difficult sell. Once I took over, I immediately started a schedule-based volunteer program, and by the end of the month was getting 40-50 hours per week of volunteer work. 

Olivia by Ian Falconer was first published in 2000, it is a popular book featuring a high energy, high fashion piggy on her adventures with her family. The interesting thing about dressing up like Olivia, is that the books are illustrated in black and white with just a little red, so the look is highly stylized. Olivia has several books and a TV series so she is a very recognizable character. 

Most parents will be able to assemble this costume with items they already own, a trip to the store and very minimal craftiness.

This is the fourth DIY costume post, please check back on Tuesday for a list of additional costume character ideas.

You will need:

Visit Sayyes.com​ to learn how to make easy piggy ears

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers was first published in 2007, it is a popular book that most kids have already read. Jeremy Jacob is a regular boy who gets help babysitting from a silly pirate crew. Assembling a costume is easy because Jeremy Jacob dresses like a normal kid, who has pirate friends. If you add a bandana and a big belt to your kids’ normal jeans and tee shirt, you probably achieved the perfect Jeremy Jacob costume. Ahoy, Pirates!

Most parents will be able to assemble this costume with items they already own, a trip to the store and very minimal craftiness.

This is the third of four DIY costumes, please check back for more ideas.

You will need:

​Let's Collaborate! What characters do you recommend for easy costumes? Comment below:

Fancy Nancy was first published in 2005, it is the quintessential girlie dress up book. One of the nice things about dressing up as Fancy Nancy is that you can use your creativity. There are dozens of Fancy Nancy books and Nancy has a new look in each book, so as long as you are fancy, you can be Nancy. I based my costume creation on the original Fancy Nancy book, but any book in the series works great!    

Most parents will be able to assemble this costume with items they already own, a trip to the store and very minimal craftiness.
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This is the second of four DIY costumes, please check back every day this week for more ideas.
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You will need:

​Let's Collaborate! What characters do you recommend for easy costumes? Comment below:

Halloween is fast approaching and with it, parents in desperate need of a last-minute costume based on a book character. If your town is like mine, the schools celebrate some sort of book based, non-Halloween, dress up bonanza. This means that parents will buy their kids a Halloween costume and then panic when Trixten and Paxler tell them they can’t wear it to school. I have created four school friendly costumes that parents can put together pretty easily. The first is Dylan the Villain, I will post a new character every day for the rest of this week.

Dylan the Villain was first published in 2016, it is an under-rated, fun and mischievous book. I chose this as one of my DIY dress up books, for a couple of reasons. First, we love Dylan the Villain. The story is about a highly competitive, robot building, super villain in training. What’s not to love? Second, Dylan the Villain, is a title character, which helps with recognition. Lastly, even if you have never read Dylan the Villain, you would still recognize the costume as a super-villain (or maybe hero) without having to ask.

Most parents will be able to assemble this costume with items they already own, a trip to the store and very minimal craftiness.
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You will need:

For a DIY tee-shirt cape visit cutesycrafts

​Let's Collaborate! What characters do you recommend for easy costumes? Comment below:

Almost every summer, my family and I go on vacation to Breckenridge. It’s become imperative that we get out of the 100-degree heat of North Texas Summers and into the nice cool clean mountains of Colorado for a few days. We rent a nice Airbnb within walking distance of town, go for hikes, play at the omnipresent festivals and enjoy good food. It’s always a nice break from the stress and heat of Dallas.  

Being a good librarian, I almost always visit the library of whatever town that I am travelling to, but for some reason, I had never made it to the Breckenridge library. This year, I actually scheduled a time to go on a guided tour with the Branch Manager and Operations Manager, it was such a good idea. My typical self-guided library tours definitely skim the surface of everything that libraries have to offer. It was so fascinating to hear the history of the building and about the projects and challenges of the library.    

For the complete article click "Read More"

Harry Potter is the number one thing that I am fanatical about. I have read all of the books no less than three times, I own the First American Edition hardbacks of all the books, plus the beautifully illustrated editions, I went to the midnight opening of all eight movies, and I have been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. I am a Ravenclaw and I have seriously considered getting a Harry Potter inspired tattoo. However, I had never been to a Harry Potter Convention, so a super fangirl friend of mine and I decided to go together. I only got to go for one day, so I missed a lot of good programs, but we still managed plenty of mischief.

The very first thing we did was get my friend a Butter Beer, because she needed breakfast, and at Leaky Con you have butterscotch flavored slushies for breakfast. After that, we went to a party game hour, that was hosted by the actor who played Frank Longbottom, James Payton. The host called participants out of the crowd to compete in a game of trivia, a spellcasting duel, and a game similar to Taboo. It was entertaining to watch, but there were a lot of people in the crowd, so the chances of participating were small. I wonder if breaking the crowd into smaller groups and allowing everyone to play as a team would have been better? Maybe having a limited registration for participants and unlimited entry for audience? This was still a fun event, but when only 12 people out of 80 get to play, it’s a little disengaging.  ​

For the complete article click "Read More"

I recently realized that I have never attended a book club that I was not being paid to mediate. I enjoy participating in book clubs in this capacity, but I thought I should try one out as a civilian. In the book Big Little Lies, the main characters start an “erotic” book club (which isn’t really) and all they do is hang out and drink and maybe talk about the book a little. It sounded like fun. Pretty much right after I read that, one of my neighbors invited me to join her book club, so of course I over-enthusiastically accepted.

It was pretty much exactly like Big Little Lies. Big perfect house, beautiful and intelligent women, and me, doing my best Bridget Jones impression, as per usual when I’m nervous. I was a few minutes late, yet I was still one of the first people there, I really need to work on my fashionably late entrance. I’m either too early or actually late, how have I not got this down yet? I brought cookies and a Cabernet with a twist cap, because I was not about to try to open a corked bottle with an audience. I think I made the right call. 

I suppose most people learn to cook from their parents or maybe by watching cooking shows, but I learned to cook at the library. My mom cannot cook. I recently went to her house for lunch, she made steaks on the grill, one side was CHARRED the other was frozen, we had cereal. I have never watched cooking shows, except in waiting rooms, I actually enjoy them when I watch them, but I haven’t ever sought them out. Does anyone watch them? Is it a spectator thing or are you supposed to cook along with the host? Just wondering… My husband and I primarily ate out when we were younger, but then I started getting more interested in health and decided I wanted to learn to cook, so I started checking out cookbooks at the library.

I loved it when a new cart would come in with a few new cookbooks on it. A couple of the library ladies and I would fight over who would get each new cookbook first. Then we would all review and recommend new recipes to each other. I would consider a cookbook to be “good” if I made one or two recipes from it and liked at least one. Then I would photocopy (is that legal?) the recipe I liked and add it to my recipe binder. FYI, I have moved most of my recipes to the “Recipe Gallery” App on my IPhone, but I still have the binder, just in case. I now have a core understanding of how to cook, so I am not as excited by new cookbooks, but I still enjoy flipping through the new ones when they come in.

For the full article click the "Read More" button

I read to my oldest daughter, Piper, as soon as we brought her home from the hospital. I knew that she would not understand what I was saying, so I had purchased some of the original Brothers Grimm fairy tales and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. I wanted something that was kid appropriate, but also entertaining for me. I read these to her frequently and we both enjoyed them. Since then we have devoured hundreds of Board Books. Her first favorite board book was Olivia, which we read nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine times. We have read thousands of beautiful and fun picture books, thanks to our public library. I never had to introduce reading to her, because it was always part of our routine.
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When my second daughter, Emi, was born, I was very concerned about creating a positive dynamic between my two daughters, so I actually didn’t start regularly reading to her until she turned one. The time when I should have been reading to Emi, I spent talking with Piper in front of her. I do not necessarily recommend this to all parents, but it worked for us. I still exposed the baby to an extensive vocabulary as my older daughter is a very expressive talker, saying words like “technically” and “preference” by four years old. Thanks Books!