Little Bits of Life

National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) 2008

The NOBA awards have become my field of wildflowers. When I cannot do, I read. I have never really taken advantage of the library system. The last couple of months though it seems that I go to the library probably twice a week. Watseka Public Library has an excellent summer reading program once a week for preschool age kids that Lily and Jacob love. I’ve filled my evenings with reading both to the kids and for myself. It has been marvelous, sitting down with a cup of tea and a good book. I have indulged my heart with great devotionals, works of fiction and of course the dreaming and scheming of the next trail or park I’m going to take myself to and saturate my spirit with the beauty all around. The National Outdoor Book Awards or commonly known as NOBA’s each year feed my frenzy for the outdoors. I’m working my way through last years books and am so excited (bolded are ones I’m planning to read). Here are the books from 2008…

  • Natural History Literature Category - The American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. By Susan Freinkel
  • Outdoor Literature Category - Forget Me Not: A Memoir. By Jennifer Lowe-Anker.
  • History/Biography Category
    • Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of the Grand Canyon. By Elias Butler and Tom Myers.
    • Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes. By Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver.
  • Classic Category
    • Through the Grand Canyon to Mexico. By Ellsworth L. Kolb.
    • The Pacific Crest Trail (Series, 3 volumes)
  • Children’s Category - The Pole. By Eric Walters. Puffin Canada/Penguin Group,Toronto
  • Nature & Environment Category
    • The Last Polar Bear: Facing the Truth of a Warming World. Photographs by Steven Kazlowski.
    • The Great Lakes: The Natural History of a Changing Region. By Wayne Grady.
  • Design/Artistic Merit Category
    • Surfboards by Guy Motil.
    • Bruce Aiken's Grand Canyon: An Intimate Affair. Paintings by Bruce Aiken. Text by Susan Hallsten McGarry
    • Honorable Mention - Soul of the Heights: 50 Years Going to the Mountains. Photographs and text by Ed Cooper
  • Nature Guidebook Category
    • Birds of Peru. By Tomas S. Schulenberg, Douglas F. Stotz, Daniel F. Lane, John P. O'Neill, and Theodore A. Parker III.
  • Outdoor Adventure Guidebook Category - Florida Keys Paddling Atlas. By Bill and Mary Burnham.
  • Instructional Category
    • Road Bike Maintenance. By Guy Andrews.
    • Whitewater Kayaking: The Ultimate Guide. By Ken Whiting and Kevin Varette.

* Full List and details can be found at http://www.noba-web.org

For the Records

Since I actually want to keep track of each month’s holidays that way i can celebrate them year after year, I’m still posting this months. Although half over, it’s always better late then never right… I got to celebrate many of them, just never seemed to find the time to blog about them. I’ve been super busy potty training Jacob AND Hannah. Little Miss Hannah decided that she wants to be potty trained at the age of 11 months! Her older sister Lily was potty trained by a 1 1/2 and it looks like Hannah wasn’t about to let her sister beat her on this one. They both absolutely LOVE the potty that my mom bought for them when she was out visiting for a couple of weeks. It sings any time anything lands in the bowl… instant reward and it’s been working like a charm. I’ve really had to encourage Jacob with rewards but i think we’ve finally found a system that works. If he sits on the potty he get’s one little smarty, if he goes in the potty then he gets a nickel for his nickel jar and a sticker for his potty chart. I found the cutest little potty chart for him. Free downloads a for behavior charts can be found at http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/ My two favorite are the policeman and froggy ones at the bottom of the potty training page http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/toilettrainingcharts.htm. They are perfect for little tykes who don’t really understand the concept of the days of the week. This is so much better then normal charts where they get new stickers for each day of the week. Every time he is able to go in the potty he helps the froggy (the one he chose) jump closer to the lily pad. This gives them a goal to getting stickers and it carries on from day to day that way they don’t feel like a failure if they don’t get any stickers for the day. I loved the Holy Spirit conference and I have so much I can write about it, I don’t know where to possibly begin (so I'll leave it for now, I might get to it later ~ no promises though) :D Peace for now…

AUGUST CALENDAR

  • 1 Friendship Day
  • 1 National Rasberry Cream Pie Day
  • 2 Sister's Day
  • 3 National Watermelon Day
  • 4 National Chocolate Chip Day
  • 6 Ruthie's Birthday
  • 7 Purple Heart Day
  • 8 The Day to Create
  • 11 Mom's Birthday
  • 12 Middle Child's Day
  • 14 Koolaide Day
  • 15 National Lemon Meringue Pie Day
  • 15 Bangladesh's National Mourning Day
  • 18 Cupcake Day
  • 19 Aviation Day
  • 19 Birth of Norway's Crown Princess Mette Marit
  • 24 National Waffle Day
  • 30 National Toasted Marshmallow Day
  • 31 National Trail Mix Day

 

  • Simply Your Life Week (1-7)
  • Waffle Week (31-9/6)
  • Peer Gynt Festival
  • The Hamsun Festival
  • Telemark Folk Festival
  • Oslo Jazz Festival