World Book Day

Why do I have so many pictures of books on my post today? It is because today is World Book Day. Let us celebrate books today.  All kinds of books. From Nursery Rhymes to children's story books to young adults and adult novels. I don't think we can celebrate books enough, but let us start today. 

A lot of people say that it is hard

 to raise children in this world today.

 I am not sayingthat books make it easy to raise a child, but if a parent sincerely desires to keep his / her children out of trouble, giving importance to reading and spending maybe half an hour a day reading to a child will give him or her a healthy start to life.  I am not saying that there will not be any struggles or hurdles or hardships, but until we make an attempt to create an interest in our children to read we will not find out what else we need to do.   

Children love toys and they may not like it if we give them books for gifts, but for a change give them a fun book. Sooner or later they will look into it and start taking an interest in reading. After all, our professors must have been children once upon a time and their parents must have  given them some kind of incentive to read. Otherwise we would not have anyone to teach us.

 

Love throughout the year

Some people in  my family do not understand the meaning of "Valentine's Day" as such. My mom always use to say that unspoken love should always be there and not just one day out of the year. My husband has the same philosophy.It could be because I worked in clothing industry for a long time, I started appreciating all holidays and all fun occasions. Also I believe in using any occasion that I can find to make a person happy and why not? This world throws all kinds of hardships at us (all of us) so why not send good vibes to cancel out bad ones.

In sociology and civics we learned that a lot of people get into bad habits and even get into mischief and criminal activities because they grew up without anyone believing in them. My question is how do we believe in people whom we don't know. When I was new at my job in vendor audit my process coordinator was very harsh during work but during breaks she was very friendly. I told her that I was confused about her strange attitude. She told me that she learned in her school that she cannot be nice to coworkers but would like me to be a friend and be in my circle if it is all right with me. Although people at work like to be friends with people of their level only, I told her that it is fine with me.

My daughter believes that people should reach out to people who are not in their social circle and step out of their comfort zone. . 

A Valentine for every one

Charles Schulz is not with us anymore but a lot of households watch Charlie Brown's Valentine's Day. We all watch the little girls forgetting (on purpose) to give Charlie Brown a Valentine.  If Charles Schulz was alive would he ever write an episode when Charlie Brown would get some Valentines, if even a few?  I wouldn't know. Although I can guess that there are kids who do feel like Charlie Brown does on Valentine's Day. I am not so sure if we are lucky enough not to ever have a heart broken kid. We can work towards making that happen as parents and as grandparents.  Therefore I am writing this post a week earlier. If as parents some of us have purchased or are helping our kids make little Valentines we can make sure that they have enough (maybe some extra) so no one is left behind without one. I remember back in 1996 one of my co- workers was venting about having to buy two boxes of twenty-four Valentines because her daughter had twenty eight kids in her class. She thought that her daughter's teacher was being fussy about either no Valentines or a Valentine for each kid. Friends or not. I suggested that she could make cards with her daughter and it would give them quality time together as well. I am not so sure if she took my advice for the following year, but I certainly hope that the teacher is firm about that rule. 

A Book in a Jar

A couple of years ago I was really worried about losing my memory. Then I started taking vitamins after reading a comment by Sharon K. Mayhew who was thinking about the possibility of vitamin deficiency. It turns out that doctors have become very serious about testing vitamin levels in their patients' blood tests so they can give them supplements if needed. My doctor specifically prescribed Vitamin B-12 for me. She was worried that my levels were too low. She is given instructions to make sure all of her senior patients (above 55) are tested and then treated if they need supplements. I hope that all of her patients are as lucky as I am. I have developed a liking to reading as if I have just learned to read. A couple of years ago, I could read magazines and small articles but when it came to fiction I would not remember the first chapter after finishing it and I was not able to follow through when I started the second chapter. I would be lost and feel so devastated that I would just put the book down. I was confused because English Literature was my favorite subject. All through my college life I would not go to bed without reading and sometimes I would get lost in reading a book and forget about dinner even. So when I was not able to concentrate I was getting irritable and feeling helpless. Now that I am able to enjoy a book, I feel like sharing my joy with everyone. Some people say that instead of making resolutions for the New Year, they take a jar and put in the jar every nice thing that they have achieved. This year I finished a book in five days.