Every year the local libraries in the KC Metro area participate in the Metro Youth Services Librarian’s Read Challenge. Our library is participating and I’ve been reading a ton of juvenile and teen books lately, not that it’s really anything new for me. While the challenge is to get more people to read juvenile and teen books, I’ve been challenging myself to read more period. When I come home at night, the TV is staying off and I’m reading a lot. The days I’ve been sick with strep throat, I’ve been on the couch reading. It’s amazing how much you can read in a weekend afternoon or an evening. So far I’m at six books with a little over 1050 pages since January 1.

I’m keeping a book log over on my reading blog, Reading Up a Storm.

Last night I had the privilege of participating in a Mock Caldecott Award at the Johnson County Library. Librarians from the metro area and the public were invited to participate.

At the Mock Caldecott, the winner was:
Alphabeasties by Sharon Werner
with honors going to:
The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem by Mac Barnett
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal

(book images from Goodreads)

It’s been a very busy year for us. We’re finally starting to feel settled in our new little homestead. Throughout the year, we’ve been blessed with so much. And I feel honored to have dear friends to share the year with. I also feel so fortunate to have had wonderful books to have been with me along the way. It’s been an amazing year to learn and find new books that I have loved. While I miss the engagement of classes at school, I definitely don’t miss the work and I love working with the kids. I’ve read and listened to a lot of books (120 to be exact) this year between school reading and reading for pleasure. It’s been a combination of picture books, middle grade books and teen books, which I’m drawn to most.

In no particular order are my favorite books from 2009:
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
Poppy by Avi
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Helen’s Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher by Marfe Ferguson Delano

We started the year knowing that within days of the year starting we’d be apart for several months. Bryan moved into the house that’s been in my family since it was built in 1931 and a few days later started his new job as an assistant manager at one of the Kansas City area libraries. A weeks later I started my final semester of graduate school. It was an exciting time but also nerve-wracking wondering if I would find a job.

Through February, March and April, I visited Bryan a lot. Each month we knew that our time apart was getting closer to the end. April was an exciting month, I participated in the annual Storytelling Festival at the Graduate School and a few days later interviewed for a job. I was offered the job as a Youth & Teen Librarian and couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was a relief to have a job before graduation.

May found us saying goodbye to many dear friends that we’d made in the Champaign-Urbana area. I graduated with my Master of Science in Library and Information Science. I was a real honest to goodness officially certified librarian! The day after graduation, we packed up our apartment and headed to Kansas City. The movers moved the rest of our stuff in on Tuesday and I started my new job on Wednesday.

This summer we spent a lot of time in the garden and enjoying the fruits of our labor. So many amazing tomatoes, peppers and fresh herbs. We’re still enjoying butternut squash that we picked in November. There are definitely plans to expand the garden next year.

With the threat of a huge snow storm (huge for the KC area), we headed over to my parents for Christmas Eve.
We all stayed overnight at Mom & Dad’s and woke up for Christmas morning there. It was very lovely.

The snow was beautiful to see Christmas morning. The wind helped the snow drift nearly two feet in my parents driveway.

Coming home Christmas afternoon, not so lovely but we got home safely. Most of Saturday was spent inside, except for some shoveling and one snow angel. The flakes were as big as cornflakes, which required a bit of tasting. All in all a very lovely holiday weekend.

I’ve been knitting again recently and am working on a wonderful pair of Mittens from Pakistan for Bryan from the Folk Mittens by Marcia Lewandowski. They are a much needed gift.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

At my library, I’ve been running a teen writing group. It’s been quite successful and the teens that have come each month have been really enthusiastic. At last night’s meeting, we had a video conference with Sarah Darer Littman, an author of teen novels. It was a really great experience and afterward the kids kept saying how “awesome” it was to talk to a real writer. I think she made an impact on them.

As part of each writing group meeting, the kids have an opportunity to read some of their own writing. It varies from what they’re working on on their own or what they wrote during our writing sessions that day. The first meeting, I didn’t have anything to read and the kids let me know that they fully expected me to participate in the group reading time. Thankfully, the second meeting, we read from what we’d written during the writing session that day.

A few weeks ago, I attended two different conferences in a week, one for young adult/teen librarians and another was on reader’s advisory. At both, I was struck by people who were participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). They were regular people, like me, trying to write a novel in a month. I’ve also been listening to a lot of audiobooks during my commute to and from work each day. Earlier this week, I had ideas swirling in my head (something that hasn’t happened to me since high school) and I decided to sit down and write. So I’ve set a writing goal for myself for each day and we’ll see how far I get. I’m not writing a novel in one month, I’m just setting a goal of writing 500 words each night. I guess it’s a job hazard when you’re running a writing group for teens.

Fall has definitely come to the little homestead.

This weekend we spent some time getting the front garden prepared for the winter, we got all of our bulbs planted. Then we prepared another garden in the front using the lasagna method to prepare the soil. Come spring we’ll be able to plant some flowers in that garden.

It’s been a great fall for us. The tomatoes in the garden continue to amaze us. The lettuce and peas I planted Labor Day weekend are growing well and we were able to harvest a few leaves of lettuce this weekend.
Saturday, we picked all of our carrots. They were so bunched together it was impossible to just pick one.

We’ve also managed to finish cleaning out the upstairs. We have our crafting area along with a guest bedroom for visitors. It’s such a great space and Bryan has been taking full advantage of the space, much more than I have.
I think once the cold really sets in and I’m a bit more into crafting, I’ll spend more time upstairs, especially since it’s warmer than the downstairs.

Life in the little homestead is treating us well. Besides the garden we’re definitely in that full-time job mode where most things only get done on the weekends. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, some to prepare for my first class visit to the library. The perception of a librarian getting to read all the time at work is definitely only that, a perception. Last week, we had eighty third graders visit the library, where I told them a story, book talked four books and then they received a tour of our new library.

The garden has been feeding us quiet well. Just over a month ago the cherry tomatoes started to ripen. I had no idea how many cherry tomatoes we would receive from five plants. In all I think we’ve picked over 9.5 pounds (4.3 kg) of cherry tomatoes. A pound of cherry tomatoes is a lot since they are so small. At one point we made pasta sauce, kept a container for ourselves, gave a container to my parents and donated over a pound of tomatoes to the local food bank through their Plant an Extra Row program.

With so many tomatoes we had to use them. We set out to find a good pasta sauce recipe for cherry tomatoes, which we found. Through combining and borrowing different ingredients from several different recipes, we had our own pasta sauce. It was extra gourmet. It was better than any pasta sauce I’ve had in a fancy restaurant. It was bursting with flavor and we made a special meal out of it.

The cherry tomatoes are winding down and have fallen victim to what I think is the tomato worm along with with some other little flying bugs. We’ve managed to rescue about another half pound of cherry tomatoes from doom.

In August, there was talk around our area about the great Midwest Tomato “Famine” of 2009. Everyone had a gazillion green tomatoes for weeks and no red ones. As an experiment, we brought a few green ones inside to see if we could get them to ripen.

About three days later as the ones inside were starting to ripen the ones outside started to ripen too. So we’ve been inundated with brandywine and moonglow (orange tomato – back row, center) tomatoes. We can’t use them fast enough so we’ve been sharing those too.

Then to add to the harvest, the peppers became extremely generous about the same time the tomatoes did. At one time there were over 30 jalapeño peppers on one plant.

Needless to say, the first year garden has been a huge success and we’ve been spoiled. Over Labor Day weekend, I planted several fall crops – lettuce, peas, carrots and beets. We’re also planning the flower gardens for the front yard for the spring. Who says fall isn’t a gardening season? What with bulbs for next spring and planning for next summer! :)

There are a few things I’ve learned from my garden this year:

1. Don’t plant cherry tomatoes next to the entrance of the garden. When they really get going in the middle of the summer, it’s like walking through a tomato jungle.

2. Good soil, sun and water will make the garden grow bigger than I ever expected.

3. Don’t fret about the plants that don’t make it because there’s a reason they didn’t live. There wouldn’t be any room in the garden if they had survived.

4. Give butternut squash a bed all its own.

5. Always be amazed how much the garden changes over a few days, especially when new flowers and peppers appear.

6. Eleven basil plants is plenty but we’ll have pesto for the next year.

7. Cage all of the tomatoes not just some.

8. If making beds in the garden instead of rows, make the walkways larger than two feet wide as the tomato plants will grow so large that they will practically intertwine themselves over those two foot walkways.

9. Never underestimate the power of the flower to invite bees. They love our tomato plants this year.

10. When you move into a new house some of the plants you want to buy may suddenly appear in your yard because they were planted by the previous owner.