Getting Older...is like a good piece of cast iron.

A new blog suggested by Liz...

We're all getting older.

I know, I know. Some people would like to ignore that, but I'll confess, I embrace my aging. I find myself just a bit happier and a bit more comfortable in my own skin as I get older. I love the life I've built with Himself. I love the family we've built. Well, I'm happy.

Maybe I don't mind getting older so much because I have a fondness for old things. My house is filled with antiques. I was talking about buying a Griswold pan for all my Minions. I want one to give each of them as they graduate. (I know, it's a few years off, but I like to be prepared.) I've been teaching them to cook...and a lot of my cooking is in my Griswold, so that's where they're learning. I would like all of them to be fully functioning humans when they are young adults. Learning to feed yourself and others is a part of that. Learning to care for your personal needs is another...which is why after a summer-of-cooking, next summer is going to be the summer-of-laundry. They're going to learn how to do their own laundry, fold it and put is away. (I do love summer-themes...a couple summers ago, we had a summer-of-rafting. We built a few with varying degrees of success and eventually came up with a working raft! And you can ask the Minions about their summer-of-salad...loving salad was not the result, but they can all eat a salad, I'll call that a win.)

Back to the Griswold. The cast iron pans were made here in Erie. (If you read my books, you know how much I love writing about my hometown. I love collecting things from Erie as well.) The pan I cook in almost daily is over 100 years old. It's old, but still functional. One of the pieces we picked up recently was rough. It was rusted and had some pitting. We've been working on it and it's once again functional. It's developing a nice finish. It might be a bit worse for wear, but it does it's job.

That's what I'm hoping for as I age. Maybe I'll be a bit rusty with some pitting, but I want to still get the job done. I want to be hanging with the kids as they learn to build rafts, learn to cook, and do their own laundry. And so many other things. I want to help them find the beauty in the outdoors. I want to make them ask questions and go looking for the answers. I want them to be fully functional humans. 

I've always been a fan of the triple goddess. Maiden, Mother and Crone. I found my younger years uncomfortable, and truly felt I came into my own in those mid-years, raising kids and caring for the elderly in my life. And I look at the crone-years with a sense of potential. The kids don't need me the same way. The Minions still have a few things to learn from me, but they don't need me as intensely. I feel like I'm coming into my own. Like my Griswold, I might show my years, but I still have work to do and I can still get it done!

I can't wait to see what comes next!

Holly

PS. Speaking of what comes next, have you read my most recent books and pre-ordered the what's-coming-next ones?

Slip and Fall: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #2 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook A View to a Kiln: A Harry's Pottery Mystery #1 Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, Nook
A View to a Kiln on Jeopardy!!

Exclusively available for Kindle and KU.
 Around the Square
Book 1, 2 , 3 are out now. 
Book 5 is available for preorder!

Hometown Hearts

Banned Books Week

 It's banned books week again.

It breaks my heart to see the growing list of books being banned across this country. I grew up in books. Really.  I read LOTR's so many time I feel quite accurate saying I grew up in Middle Earth. I solved mysteries with Trixie Belden (she gets a shout out in the Maid in LA series). I traveled the universe with Heinlein's Lazarus Long. This wasn't one of his juvenile fiction books. And there's a very good chance some of the themes were too adult for me when I first read them, but I loved Lazarus.  

Books saved me in so many ways. They raised me. They made me think and question the world around me...and question my place in it. I walked in other shoes. I saw the world through other POV's. It's infuriating seeing books I loved on that list. 

What I'd really like is to never have to have another week that warns about the dangers of banning books. But the amount of books being banned has picked up over the last year, so I don't think that's coming any time soon. Until then, I'll keep talking about books...especially the banned ones.

If you don't like a book...don't read it. If you don't think it's appropriate for your kids, don't let them read it. But don't take away my right to read it, or try to limit what my kids can read. I tell the Minions...if they ban it, read it. Figure out what that book is saying that people don't want you to know. For instance, I read about a teacher being fired for reading her class My Shadow is Purple. I bought it, loved the story, read it to the Minions then had a talk about inclusion and acceptance. They got the message of the story and couldn't understand why any adult wouldn't want them to read it.

I don't get it either.

Want to find out more? Check out BannedBooksWeek.org. Banned Books in the US. Heck, just Google banned books. Look up "libraries and banned books." Buy banned books. Read banned books. Really. If someone tells you not to read it...read it.

Holly