Catching Up, Catching My Breath

The trouble with a gap between posts is that when you come back, there’s too much to catch up on. Especially a gap like this one, such an epoch in our lives! Abridged version: the trip up the coast was incredibly fun, the college is wonderful, she had a great week of orientation, today is her first day of school. As in EVER.

And there’s too much to say, so I’m not saying any of it. Instead: some pictures from the hike Beanie and I took yesterday morning.

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Assorted things:

• I’ve resumed posting at the homeschooling side-blog. If you’d like access, drop me a note.

• I’ve decided an easier way of keeping up with the Huck-and-Rilla book log is to tweet it. Every day, I’m trying to tweet a recap of whatever picture books we read together that day.

• Speaking of picture books! I was on my way up the coast when the announcements came rolling out, so I haven’t had a chance to do more than tweet my excitement at having been selected to serve once again on the Cybils Fiction Picture Book panel, Round 1! Fiction Picture Books was my first Cybils judging experience, back in 2008. I always remember the year because I was very, very pregnant with Huck, and we actually scheduled our big discussion with the possibility of his sudden arrival in mind. Of course, there was to be no such sudden arrival. He was born fully two weeks after our discussion, continuing the family tradition of hopeless tardiness.

Since that time, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on several other Cybils panels: Young Adult Fiction (2010, round 1), Graphic Novels (2011, round 1), and Book Apps (2012, round 2). I’m delighted to return to Picture Books—as you know, reading them occupies a significant part of my day—and am looking forward to working with this crackerjack team of fellow judges. Not to mention Pam Coughlan, aka MotherReader, our category chair!

• Her first day of classes!! Did I mention?