Barb's Observations

@barbs-observations

As I live my days one at a time, I try to learn and observe as much as I can. I take a lot of pictures of what I observe and will share many of them here. I will also share those random thoughts that come to mind that don't fit the themes of other blogs. I chose a childhood photo because I try to see the world with fresh and childlike eyes. Even though I'm closer to the end of my life than the beginning, I find myself becoming more curious every day.

123 posts

Posts

How to Take the Joy from Literature

This afternoon I’m weeding through some of my books and came across one by a favorite children’s author, Jean Little — Hey World, Here I Am! On page 28 I came across a poem, “After English Class.” It’s written in the first person in the voice of Kate Bloomfield, who describes how she used to like the Frost poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” She liked the sound of the words and their…

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#Books #Education #Elementary Education #Homeschooling #Jean Little #Literature #Robert Frost

(28) Reading: Why do people who love reading love it so much? - Quora

(28) Reading: Why do people who love reading love it so much? – Quora

(28) Reading: Why do people who love reading love it so much? – Quora.

How would you answer this question? Those who responded on Quora have eloquently described what drives people to their books for a world view and an imaginative view of the world. Please go read the answers. I could never be this eloquent trying to summarize them. Don’t miss the answer by Ojas Patil. What’s in the image is…

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#Books #Quora #reading

I Guess I'm Just Not With the Times

I Guess I’m Just Not With the Times

I have watched as today’s’ publishers of children’s and young adult books have been letting their characters model what I consider atrocious English usage. Two of the most prevalent examples of this were using the word “goes” instead of “said.” Example: “So he goes “You’ve got to be kidding.” And so on.

The other example was the use of the word “like” as a placeholder while thinking of…

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#Education #English #ESL #language

Prompt Writings: My Lost Epiphany It's Monday, and I found this treasure on #Mondayblogs. I never retweet what I haven't read, and today I'm finding more than one poem link being tweeted that I really like. Here's another one: where I found the poem and image perfectly matched.

This Week Has Been a Blur

This Week in Writing

I haven’t written much since I last posted here. Whenever I am working on a major blog post it’s hard to get really serious about another one at the same time. I’m hoping to publish the big one tomorrow. It’s partly author interview and partly book reviews. I’ve been corresponding with local children’s author Beryl Reichenberg for a few weeks now, and I’m now in the final…

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#blog posts #Books #Journal #reading #shopping #Writing #writing online

Cooking, Writing, Shopping, Exercising, and Reading

Back to the Kitchen

It seems I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen. I had picked some of my chard and kale from the front yard, and I needed to use them. The kale had sprung up by itself next to the garage. Here’s what I did with a previous batch of home-grown kale.

Volunteer Kale Plant, © B. Radisavljevic

I tried a new recipe this time, one with chicken, kale, and onions. We both loved it.…

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#affiliate marketing #Black Friday (shopping)#Blogging #cooking #Cyber Monday #gardening #Online shopping #reading #Writing

Thoughts on Black Friday

Our Thanksgiving Celebration

We enjoyed a long anticipated family dinner in Madera at my nephew’s home Wednesday afternoon. He usually has to work on holidays, so the family often celebrates when he’s available. Family members live long distances from each other, so getting together at all is something to celebrate. Even so, my other nephew had school and couldn’t come. I enjoyed the family time…

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#affiliate marketing #Black Friday #celebrations #Family #Thanksgiving #traffic #trips

Thoughts on Social Media Drama

Why All the Social Media Drama? Some People Need to Feel Superior by Always Being Right

Many people have been hurt leading up to and after the election by social media drama. Friends and family have rejected each other because of opposing views. It seems some people have forgotten how to be kind to others. Although many talk about tolerance, they aren’t tolerant of others who disagree with…

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#Facebook #Facebook bullying #how to deal with an online bully #online bullies #social media #social media drama #social media trolls

(via Smart Parenting: Let's Talk About Preventing Social Media Drama - SheSaved®)

I highly recommend this for moms whose children are active on social media.

In the Dark, Monday. 11-21-16

A Plan B Morning

The rain stopped sometime last night and the sun was bright when I opened my eyes a little before ten. (My normal bedtime is around 2 AM.) I headed for the computer only to see that the power was out. When we called PG&E we learned we’d get our power back around 2 PM. No hot tea for me in the morning!

Since I couldn’t use the computer or the phones, I decided to go to the gym…

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#Books #power outage #reading #Technology

eyecontactnow

This photo was taken by Lea Valdna. She is from Saaremaa – the largest island in Estonia. Since 2009 she lives in Läänemaa, together with Grete and Tatjana. On the photo you can see Grete.

You can purchase a print in different sizes of our photos at:

http://eye-contact.artistwebsites.com/

Here you can read more about EyeContactNow:

http://eyecontactnow.tumblr.com/post/114847502670/eyecontactnow

barbs-observations

Those bales of hay are huge. They don't seem as tall here. They remind me of giant shredded wheat portions.