Who is Nancy?

Hello!  I’m Nancy from Babies and Bookcases. Let me introduce myself.

I started this blog because I wanted to share the way reading has shaped our family life.  It all started with my love for books and my desire to work with them to honor the rhythm of the seasons.  My love of the seasons really shapes how I approach my life.

Here’s a little about my history…

I have a graduate degree in Literature, and I use that as an excuse to fill my house with books.

I’ve also managed to fill my home (more or less) with children. I have three children and a lovely husband. On any given day, you can find one of us, book in hand, trying to find a quiet spot to read. Lately, I’ve resorted to reading while I cook, not always a good combination…..

Most of the work I’ve done outside the home has been as a teacher. Working with the littlest humans, mature adults and everyone in between, has taught me that what we all have in common is a  need for rhythm and order.  With our family, rather than test dates and due dates, the seasons provide good starting and stopping points.  We re-group when the seasons change, and we look forward to what the new season will bring.

As a die hard creative, I need to be making something to feel sane.  The types of things I work on also change with the changing months.  Seasonal creative projects bring the children into this rhythm and provide a structure that reduces stress, helps them cope with their everyday frustrations.  Our emphasis on the seasons help by giving us a greater context into which we can fit our daily trials and difficulties:  “It’s okay that you want to toss your boot out the window, you’re frustrated because its the beginning of winter and you’ll get used to it.”

Let me share with you how this approach helped me with raising my children, organizing my home and getting things done.

Let me share that process, and my love of reading, with you!

9 Random facts about me:

• I love coffee but I keep trying to really get into tea.  Why, you ask?  Because the literary heroines I like drink tea…who wouldn’t want to have tea with the Dashwood sisters (please let me know if you caught the reference to Austen’s Sense and Sensibility just there).
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE stationery and I would live in a stationery/office supply store if I could.  There is nothing bad about it: the smell of paper, the possibilities that all those blank notepads hold, the markers and colors….I could go on, but I won’t!
• My favorite movie is When Harry Met Sally…I annoy people by quoting from it all the time
• My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice…well, at least this week it is.
• My favorite book changes almost daily…they’re like children to me, I can’t chose between them.
• I LOVE gardening and Orchids and Tulips and Dahlias, oh my! Bonus tidbit: I annoy my friends and family by naming flowers that we come across.
• I have fallen in love with yarn crafts and I am really becoming obsessed with crochet.  It is my go to for relaxing and re-setting  my day when I need a break.
• I cannot throw anything away.  I do eventually get rid of stuff, but if it could potentially be useful, I have a really hard time doing it. Read about this ‘problem’ here: Organizing the Italian Way
• Re-imagining how something could be used is one of my favorite things to do.

I’m so glad you stopped by, let’s get a conversation going!