Well, probably not for the last time EVER. But, unless there is GREAT public outcry, I’m going to retire it as a weekly thing. I’ve really enjoyed doing it, but I want to have a little more flexibility on what I post. Perhaps I’ll bring it back for holidays or once a month, or over the summer. We’ll see. The suggestion box is open below.
But now, here are this weeks’s questions . . .
1. What is your favorite picture book?
I am a big, big fan of picture books. I love a picture book with truth and humor and good illustrations. I love it when we accidentally learn something when we read one.
I have quite a few posts on picture books:
PICTURE BOOKS: THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE PRE-WWII TO HAVE A MESSAGE WORTH SHARING
FUN, FEASTING, AND BEATING THE DEVIL WITH SWORDS: A FAMILY MICHAELMAS
I should actually update that post, because I found this at a used book store over the summer, and it’s my NEW favorite:
My New Baby
by Rachel Fuller. It covers everything big brother or sister needs to know, plus it has just the most perfect illustrations of breastfeeding, which all my other books have lacked.
I have too many favorites. I’m almost done.
I’m going to give you a long time favorite:
This version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears
has been a favorite of my kids for years. Instead of drawings it has the most amazing photographs of intricate woodsy and cottage-y tableaus created with lovely dolls. And it’s a fun retelling of the classic story as well.
And a new new one that I JUST got in the mail today from the author illustrator himself.
Catholic Churches Big and Small
If you buy it now, then win the giveaway, you’ll have a copy to share!
All links are Amazon Affiliate links, if you click through my blog and shop at Amazon, I get some cents to spend on schoolbooks for my kiddos!
2. Are you a boycotter?
I’m not. I know that people absolutely have a right to spend their money as they choose, and I know that I have a moral obligation not to give money directly to support evil. But as for boycotting businesses owned by people who disagree with me. THAT, I don’t do. When all that went down with Chick Fil A a few years back and the other guys were boycotting a guy who shared my beliefs, it felt wrong to me that folks would be trying to put him out of business for disagreeing with them. It felt like bullying.
I’m not going to give money directly to support things I don’t personally support, but I’m not convinced that boycotts based on the personal views of business owners are the best way to change hearts and minds. I have friends who disagree with me on important matters. That’s allowed.
Of course, you might disagree . . . :0)
3. How do you feel about cheese?
I am strongly in support of cheese. Almost always and on almost everything.
4. How many pairs of sunglasses do you own?
Four? I think. I have very light colored eyes and I’m pretty sensitive to the sun. I have a pair in the car and one in my purse and a couple of others lying about.
5. How long has it been since you went to the dentist?
Six months. I’m going in for a cleaning next week. And hey, I’m not pregnant so I can have x-rays!
6. If you could visit any religious site in the world, where would you go?
I’ve been lucky enough to get to see many amazing sites: Guadalupe, Mexico; the Vatican and all over Italy; Fatima, Portugal and Spain; Lourdes and France. I’d most like to see the Holy Land with my family. I went as a high school student and it was very moving. I’d love my husband and kids to see it. I’d also like to go to Poland some day and visit the JPII sites there, with my Jack who is named for him.
No installment next week, so if you’ve always wanted to play along . . . THIS is your moment. These are your questions. Tell the world how you feel about cheese while you have the chance.
Answer this week’s questions for yourself in the comments. If you have a blog, answer the questions there, link back to this post, and link your blog post up below.
Right, you had me at cheese, so this is the week I'm going to do it!
1. Baby Jude is a bit young to read picture books (he's more of a GIVE ME MILK/ cooing at me and the curtains kind of guy at the moment) but I cant wait to introduce him to some of my favourites, "la famille Passiflore" (the first few ones which are a bit darker but also less silly than the later installments). I think they have been translated to English – all their furniture is rabbit-shaped! It's the best!
2. I don't boycott companies for their ideas, but I do try to do it when I disapprove of their practices (not easy, as those are often the companies that offer the best bargains, but England has A LOT of second-hand charity shops, so we manage).
3. Aaaaah, cheese! Cheese, cheese, cheese… My mum introduced stinky cheese in our diet when we were 4 month old, so we have been slightly conditioned. In fact, my husband felt like a cheese-pariah, not liking cheese when he met my family that he trained himself to like it (apparently, we're cheese-bullies as well as cheese-obsessed).
4. I think I've got a plastic pair I got free with a magazine somewhere. England is hardly renowned for its dazzling sunshine, so I mostly don't need them, and my mum has about a million of them, so I generally steal hers when we go to France.
5. About 3 months ago I think? Dental care is completely free in England when you are pregnant and during your baby's first year, who am I to refuse a freebie!
6. I would love to visit the Holy Land, I am very jealous you got to go!
I will miss this thouh, I loved discovering random facts about people!
Yay for Baby Jude, cheese, and free dental care. And good news about Doctor Who!
P.S: I am happy to report that the latest Doctor Who episode seems to have finally dropped the whole barely disguised Catholic-Church-of-the-future-being-evil story line. I am reserving my judgement on Peter Capaldi.
1. Favorite Picture Book of All Time? The Salamander Room … swoon. We've had a copy since my oldest (now 19) was small. Even the crazy toddler sits and doesn't make a peep when I read it. It's gorgeous. Another favorite is Cactus Hotel. And the Napping House …. so so many.
2. I am …. but pretty quietly. We don't do Girl Scouts, but I don't lambast my friends who do. I simply go on and on about how much we love AHG. 😉
3. Cheese? Ask me what my midnight snack was? Cheese and crackers. There's a reason God created cows. Milk and cheese. (and yogurt. and ice cream.)
4. One pair, that I ADORE — by Spy. Love them. Once I made the jump to better sunglasses, instead of dollar store ones, there's no going back.
5. Ha ha. 2 months ago – for a root canal. The dentist and I are too close.
6. Hmmm. Guadalupe for sure, would love the Holy Land as well … and Lourdes, and Ireland (surely that counts as a religious site?)
Sigh. How much of a public outcry do you need?
1. Lots of favorites, but A Visitor for Bear is one that I love love love. I adore the little mouse's persistence and how he softens the heart of the crochety bear.
2. I also don't boycott businesses, but I absolutely do not buy Girl Scout cookies in any form. It feels like they are in a whole different field.
3. Love cheese of all kinds..except a few insanely stinky ones from France that I tried.
4. I have one cheap pair at all times until some little person gets ahold of them or they get crushed in the diaper bag. Then I buy a new pair. My eyes are very sensitive too, but I would certainly not be able to keep track of four different pairs. I keep mine in the diaper bag since goes where I go.
5. My kids go every 6 months because they love it, but I secretly hate it. Never seems quite worth waisting a perfectly good babysitter on.
6. I'd have to go with the Holy Land too.
Darn, I love Answer Me This!
Well, bummer! Answer Me This was actually how I found you blog through some mysterious internet rabbit hole. I enjoyed reading them enough that I stuck around and read some more, and eventually became a subscriber! I'll miss them, but I do enjoy your reading your blog, so I'll stick around! 🙂
I would be very sad to see it go. I find myself prompted to write things/share stories that I wouldn't otherwise. Maybe one Sunday a month?
I, too, will miss the Answer Me This segment but I do understand that it is a lot of work for you and appreciate your doing it at all.
I will miss Answer Me This! I love learning random trivia.
1. I think I recommended My New Baby to you and that makes me happy because I love it. Mine is an earlier edition without words and I really like it. I really like Denise Fleming books, they have great illustrations. I also like books that offer the morals I want to discuss.
2. I'm not a huge boycotter, but I do avoid Nestle. Also, I don't buy conventional chocolate (hardly) ever because it's well documented that its cacao is often harvested with child slave labor.
3. Love cheese. Hot, cold, lukewarm. Mmm. I'm not huge on really fancy cheeses usually though, which is just as well.
4. 2 I think – one in the car and one in my purse. Cheap and easily replaceable because I get awful headaches from too much sun.
5. Just a couple months, I keep on the 6 month schedule
6. Probably back to the Vatican with my husband. He's not Catholic, so it needs to have lots of non religious visitor appeal 🙂
No more Answer Me This? Nooooooooo! I feel like I just joined in on all the fun, and now it's going away. 🙁 I really really really hope it sticks around, but I do understand if you just feel you need a break from it all.
Count me in as part of the public outcry! I have loved participating!
I want to fight for Answer Me This but this is only my second time doing it in months. So I guess I should have contributed more if I really cared that much. But I promise you I read every week! And I love the questions and your take.
Speaking of, if I hadn't already loved you before I would after your take on boycotts. I 100% agree and I could go on and on about them and their popularity these days.
Sigh, I too seem to be an Answer Me This junkie…. I'm going to flagrantly steal the idea and keep it going on my own [if that's allowed]… I sort of like having regular feature blog posts on my own blog, it keeps me motivated to write regularly. Hence, Polyvore Wednesdays and Thrifting Thursdays…. now Answer Me This Mondays….coming soon to TTE
😀
Tammie, you're welcome to host until I figure out what I want to do with it!
I have enjoyed reading your answer me this posts but I understand not wanting to be tied down by it. Maybe a once a month thing can happen? So on this last one I will actually participate!
1. Picture books, I don't know. I got a Dora one for my goddaughter but I didn't like it much.
2. I am not a huge boycotter although I do try and be careful where I spend my money. I really dislike Starbucks but I know they do treat their employees well despite where the company gives money. I prefer coffee that is not so bitter so I typically avoid Starbucks at all costs.
3. Cheese, oh how I love thee! I do love me some cheese. I went dairy free for over a year and it wasn't as hard as I thought but the fake daiya cheese does NOT compare to the real thing. I mostly have raw milk cheese now and hard cheeses. There is a sheep milk feta cheese at TJs that is oh so yummy! In fact today I am making taco pizza for dinner w/ some raw cheddar on it, mmmmm.
4. I have one pair of sunglasses but I think I need more. I am always looking for them because I will not go out in the sun w/ out them, I have very sensitive eyes. I like the idea of having a pair in the car, purse and work bag.
5. I am bad it's been about a year and a half maybe two years since my last dentist visit. I really should go in the next couple months.
6. I would love to visit the holy land some day, I think it would be a great experience. We had the chance to go a couple years ago but I was very sick and my husband had a very serious freak accident at work the day before we were suppose to go so we canceled our trip. Perhaps some day we will go… we also would want to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico someday.
Thanks for hosting Answer Me This!
I like the idea of once a month or doing an eight week thing for the summer. Or maybe I'll just take a little break and go right back to once a week. I'll have to think about it.
We really enjoyed visiting Mexico City. The Basilica is very modern, not usually my taste, but it's beautiful and not stark feeling at all. There were a ton of people there and everything is very colorful! The pyramids are great too, if you have an extra day.
I don't think anything can get more modern than our L.A. Cathedral, so not my taste at all! I am sure the Basilica is fine compared to that 🙂
Amen to that! Great tapestry though. :0)
I love this segment but get it can be taxing. Perhaps once a month 🙂 Yes?!
It took three tries to get to the Holy Land as first was 1967, 6-day war, next 1972 YK war and finally made it in 1999 with family. You were out of college on flight school and Kara in college. Egypt was year before in 1998.
2016 World Youth Day is in Krakow Poland so may not work for Anita and cold cold place in May
1. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson, must be the version illustrated by Rachel Isadora (might be OOP). A perfect New Year's Eve read aloud, but I always choke up reading it. A great lesson on how the miseries of this life are merely temporary and that we await bliss in Heaven.
2. I boycott in a not in your face way. It helps teach my children about sacrificing convenience or desires for higher causes.
3. I am not allergic to dairy, so cheese is my friend. My current favs are honey goat cheese and creamy Havarti. I also love melted Muenster on sandwiches and sautéed Queso Blanco cubes.
4. My stylin' Kate Spade shades are prescription so I have only one super cool pair.
5. My dental plan permits twice yearly check ups, so that's how we roll. I am due soon.
This is my first, and I guess last shot, at Five Favorites.
Christine Scarlett
Oops,mI missed the question about religious sites. Most have been to Rome/Vatican City, so I would definitely say the Holy Land with Steve Ray as our guide.
That's a really lovely point about sacrificing convenience, Christine. I'm going to have to stew on that one for a bit.
Consider this my huge public outcry. AMT is so much fun and I really love it. Maybe somebody else could take up the reins while you decide what do to with it long term? Pretty pretty please?
Got get in one last time!
1. Beatrice recently found "My New Baby" at the library too, and checked it out several weeks in a row – pretty cute! But my all-time favorite is toss up between "St. George and the Dragon" (but it's very long!) or "Seven Silly Eaters." I think the illustrations are whimsical and cute, and I love that the rhyming doesn't interfere with the story, as happens so often.
2. I don't really boycott. I'd rather just support causes of which I approve.
3. Cheese lover.
4. I'm down to one pair, but they're nice. Almost two years ago, I invested in a really expensive pair (at Bloomingdales with a gift card I received), and they've lasted this long. My cheeeeep extra pairs always seem to get broken, but I just don't let the kids (even fussy babies at Mass!) touch my nice ones. They've lasted and been great.
5. Got my teeth cleaned last week.
6. I don't have a real urge to travel, but I do hope to make it to Rome someday.