Greetings! It seems its time to start anew... How are you? How can I help?

be kind... 

Parenting Class Starting in Orange County

S.T.E.P. (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting 9 week course is starting on March 19 with a free orientation! Please visit www.tiredofyelling.com for more information and registration.

The Story of Beautiful Girl...

I highly recommend this novel by Rachel Simon. It will move you to anger, tears, joy and wonder at the complexity of life. Lynnie is institutionalized by fer parents, forgotton by all except her younger sister. Lynnie beautiful, sweet and completely unable to fend for herself survives the institution and manages to escape pregnant with a guard's child. The friendship of a young deaf man sustains her until they are seperated. The trials and adversity of lives partially expressed are softened by kindnesses along the way. The expose of institutionalized care for the developmentally delayed changes care in America forever and Lynnie is reunited with her sister, and eventually her parents. Lynnie and Homan grow into themselves. Homan becoming a nationally recognized artist and Lynnie blooming into an acclaimed artist in her own right. The end is magical, yet assured in a world where wonder never lets up and love, well, love is simple. Enjoy the read!

Seed Exchange...

Hello all - I just spent an hour doing one of my favorite things... ordering seeds! Let's do a seed exchange ... how does February 26th or March 5th sound, both Wednesdays. We can have dessert and warm our insides while dreaming of spring. My thought is we can share the seeds we buy, I always have way more, and I always want to try new things. Here's one of the websites I ordered from: http://www.turtletreeseed.org/index.html. Sugar Loaf Mtn Herb in Sugar Loaf also has a great organic seed collection!! I got a basil mix from Hudson Valley Seeds that was amazing! Here's the site... http://www.seedlibrary.org/ While you are dreaming of the garden google vertical gardens, http://www.pinterest.com/tomokaz/vertical-garden/ I may have found a solution for my darn wood chuck, grow up!

A Great Read...

Animal's People by Indra Sinha is a disturbing, genuine, warm, raw and intelligent novel about a young man fully engaged in life. A life disrupted by chemical disaster, loss, extreme crippling, poverty and love. Animal runs the streets on all fours after a chemical accident twists his spine into a lateral position. Born perfect , left on the convent doorstep by desperate parents after the local American chemical factory explodes, Animal is cared for and taught by nuns. He is bright, intelligent, caring and angry, for he knows the difference between to have and to have not. We follow him through a modern story of exploitation by those that have. In the end he finds justice, poetry, compassion, healing and place. The story ends with these words; Khuda hafez. Go well. Remember me. All things pass, but the poor remain. We are the people of the Akropolis. Tomorrow there will be more of us. And somehow I feel hopeful!

Happy New Year !!

I hope you are including fun in your New Year's Resolutions! My favorite is spending more time in nature. Another is to post reviews of the wonderful new books I have been reading. So here goes! The Universe Versus Alex Woods is a wonderful story of the adventures of a boy. It begins with a rather sordid arrest and as our hero states "Sometimes when people ask you for a full explanation, you know damn well that's the last thing they want. Really, they want you to give them a paragraph that confirms what they already think they know. They want something that will fit neatly in a box ... And that can never be a full explanations. Full explanations are much messier. They can't be conveyed in five unprepared, stop, start minutes. You have to give them time and space to unfold." Our story unfolds with an extraterrestial accident, our hero gets hit in the head with a meteorite while sitting at his kitchen table. He becomes an instant media hit and is forced to deal with the resultant side effect of epilepsy. Naturally, Alex becomes an expert on astronomy and neuroscience while striving to become a truly delightful, compassionate and genuinely funny young man. He befriends an older neighbor who introduces him to Kurt Vonnegut. With natural curiosity Alex starts a book club called the "Secular Church of Kurt Vonnegut". During the day a struggling middle schooler and at all other times an intelligent, kind and curious boy, the author describes the events that lead to our hero being arrested with pot in the glove compartment, an urn filled with the remains of his cremated neighbor in the front seat and the ability to stay focused during a bizarre police interrogation. For more excerpts check out http://www.alexwoodsbook.com/. The book is available at your local RCLS library. Enjoy!!

Far From the Tree...

I recently had the priviledge of reading an amazing book. Far from the Tree by Adam Solomon is a heavily researched but compassionate look at a variety of families faced with learning from the inside out about the differences that call us to love and tolerance. The book requires a bit of commitment, but I felt my humanity was expanded on in the process. Please explore this link www.farfromthetree.com for stories about some of the challenges that today's families face.