Favorite Author / Quotes

People may wonder how I find so much time for blogging. The truth is that I am trying to instill in my children a love for writing. They grew up as I did with a mother who clearly loves to read. I read aloud to them, and used a literature-based curriculum, affording them hours every day for reading truly great books. Consequently all seven children love to read. It's a learned value.

Likewise I am hoping my love for writing will rub off on my children. They are required to write for thirty minutes every day. I try to do at least that much, too, not asking them to do more than I am willing to do myself. Like any other skill, the more we practice, the easier it gets. Someday I want to spend my leisure time reading my children's blogs.

Another discipline of mine as a writer-wanna-be is to read good stories. One of my all-time favorite authors is Bess Streeter Aldrich who wrote so descriptively of growing up in the pioneer days in Nebraska. My very favorite book is A Lantern in Her Hand, which gives me hope that my years invested in my children will be well worth the effort.

Here are a few notable quotes:

"Junior is eleven. The statement is significant. There are a few peevish people in the world who believe all eleven-year-old boys ought to be hung. Others, less irritable, think that gently chloroforming them would seem more humane. A great many good-natured folks contend that incarceration for a couple of years would prove the best way to dispose of them." Mother Mason - 1924

"Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed you more than your body. It warmed your heart ... filled it too, with melody that would last forever."
Song of Years - 1938

"Humor, her faithful companion for fifty-two years, had returned from his mysterious vacation, and with the rest of the family had met Mother at the station." Mother Mason - 1924

"Her fight with Time had been persistent, as shown by the array of weapons on her dressing table. But Time was beginning to fight with his back to the wall... They were hopelessly, irrevocably middle-aged.... You can never, never recapture youth."

Mother Mason - 1924