Pages

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Sharing Favorite Books


Yonder is the farmer on a jet black horse.
Yonder are the hills that roll forever.
Yonder is the river that runs to sea.
Yonder. Way over yonder.

My first grade teacher gave me Tony Johnston's beautiful picture book Yonder over twenty years ago, and it's been one of the most well-loved titles in my collection ever since. 

Poetry was not my preferred genre at the time (I gravitated more toward the Babysitter's Club series--ha!), but something about Yonder's captivating illustrations and lyrical language spoke to me.

While pregnant with my firstborn, it was the book I chose to read aloud to the baby I had yet to meet. The themes of family ties and the inevitable passing of time and generations reduced me to tears (although pregnancy hormones may have played a part too).

Enter life with a toddler; you quickly learn to put valuable possessions up. But while rearranging the office this week, I accidentally left my precious childhood book within Gray's reach. It wasn't long and he was roaming around the house with Yonder tucked in the crook of his arm, begging "Read farm book?" to whoever would listen. If nobody obliged, he sat on the floor and slowly flipped through the pages, chanting "There. Just over there."

My valued book is already stained with a strawberry jam thumbprint, and I'm sure it will see worse abuse than that in the coming days. But having a torn and tattered book is a small price to pay for seeing my little boy thoroughly engrossed in a beautiful story. 

Precious things aren't meant to be tucked away in unseen closet corners. Precious things are meant to be used. 

Friday, April 18, 2014

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping by kristina-larson.blogspot.com! I'm Kristina, a Minnesota mom of two who has far more projects than time.

Some of my passions include natural living, play-based learning, thoughtful parenting, and figuring out ways to carve out a simple-ish life in a nonstop world.

I hope this little corner of the blogosphere serves as a place of honesty and inspiration. A place where we can admit we haven't scrubbed the tub in weeks (or was that months?), but also a place where we can inspire one another to put forth our best effort: write in that baby book, make the tortilla recipe that you pinned two months ago, or bundle up the toddler for the five-hundreth time this winter and go outside to hunt for pinecones. 

I'd love if you'd leave me a comment about what you'd love to read about. Visit again soon!