Magical Activity to Create a Lifelong Reader: Writing

One of the first questions that may have popped in your head in regards to this post is "how can I promote writing with a very young child who doesn't even hold a crayon yet?"  Well let me tell you that you can indeed do it!  Look no further than ABC and shape books!  Yes, shape books.  Reading and writing go together.  Scribbling is an early form of writing and helps children make the connection that words stand for spoken language.  Tracing is another activity.  Many board books designed for young children have touch and feel or tracing elements to promote scribbling which eventually leads to making shapes which leads to writing letters.  You can even trace the air!  Concept books such as ABC and shape books are found in just about every library.  If not, I would seriously question that library's director.  They are crucial at not only teaching the concepts themselves, but also the development into writing.  ABC books show the letters themselves.  Bonus points if they also include lowercase letters.  And shape books?  Think about it.  Picture or draw a circle.  Can you think of letters that include curved lines?  Now picture or draw a triangle.  Now look at letters, A, M, N, V, W.  Look familiar?  Picture or draw a square or rectangle and you will think of letters with straight lines like L, T, and Z.  Shapes rock!  You can even put them together to form pictures like Lois Ehlert does in her books Color Zoo and Color Farm.

There are great books out there that show ABCs and shapes that can be found all around us.  Read them, and then go on your own letter or shape hunt.  Museum ABC and Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban use actual photographs in their illustrations.  Tana Hoban is Queen of Concept Books (proclaimed by yours truly.)  Colors, shapes, opposites, road signs, etc.  She's got you covered!

Here are some (believe me, there's more!) of my favorite ABC books!

And some (see above disclaimer) of my favorite shape books!

During playtime, encourage your child to color or scribble.  This is prime learning time when it comes to developing writing skills, the fourth magical activity to promote early literacy!

Magical Activity to Create a Lifelong Reader: Reading

Another silly concept.  Obviously reading to your child is important.  It's more important than you realize what it comes to creating a lifelong reader.  It's simple, but one of the easiest things you can do is read in front of your child.  If they see you reading, they are more likely to want to do the same thing.  If you make reading time together an enjoyable experience, it will be something that your child will want to continue doing. 

I absolutely love sharing my favorite books with my kids.  It's an awesome bonding experience and can lead to childhood memories that will last a lifetime.  My favorite picture book is Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.  I loved reading about the Mallard family with my own family and seeing their journey across Boston.  When I found out that Boston was a real place, I vowed to go there one day thus beginning my obsession with Beantown.  It was home of not only the ducks and the landmarks they saw, but also Aerosmith, New Kids on the Block, and baked beans, all things I was very fond of as a child and have continued to adore into adulthood along with Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting, The Departed, Fenway Park, the fact that Boston is a split between Italian and Irish (like yours truly), and Dropkick Murphys.  Side note, I was at a conference once where I met a super cool librarian who had a playlist of kid friendly Dropkick Murphys songs!  That should be a future post!  Anyway...for my 30th birthday I made the pilgrimage to Boston for the first time and fell in love.  Boston Public Garden is my happy place.  For in that beautiful park are statues of Mama Duck and her ducklings!  I knew that one day I would share the book with my own family and bring my kids to see the park and the statues.  I am happy to say that I have checked this off my bucket list.  My girls will have the memory from their childhood that they can share with their own kids and keep the tradition alive.  It all started with a book.  How cool is that?!?!?!

Books also have the ability to introduce words that don't typically come up in every day conversation, thus building a child's vocabulary.  Reading together also allows for conversation where you can introduce new vocabulary of your own.  In the Baby Club program that I lead, we call this introducing million dollar words.  You can do it all the time and build your child's brain.  Bonus!  Find out more information about using picture books to building language skills here.

Promoting this magical skill is so easy.  Take advantage of your local library!  A fact that we share in programs is that the number of books in the home is more predictive of the future success of the child than even the parents' level of education.  This includes books you check out from the library!  Free books = free learning opportunities = SUCCESS!!!  Reading aloud to children is a strong predictor of whether they will be a good reader, so keep on doing it!  Even older kids and teens love being read to!  Trust me, I've done it during school visits, and many times they enjoy it more than the younger kids, especially if it involves singing, rhyming, or imitating sounds.

Find books with rich language and unusual words that you as an adult may even learn!  Bilingual books are a great option too.  Fancy Nancy books will even teach you some French!  Reading together is the single most important way to help children get ready to read.  While you can read anything your heart desires, allow me to share some favorites!

Mainly known for his series A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket created this masterpiece of unusual as only he can.  This book came out in 2010, and I fondly recall my children's assistant, Lee and I enjoying it wholeheartedly.  It even became a bit of an inside joke of sorts.  My library system even had an event where we could meet Lemony Snicket and get a book signed.  We had plans to get this book signed, but I was highly pregnant at the time and not feeling well at all.  So I missed it. Flash forward to the baby shower my co-workers threw for me.  Lee gifted me with a signed copy of this book.  Still have it.  Still love it.  I mean, it has a despondent bird who visits a haberdashery, and you learn what it means to be a mezzo soprano!

Move over, Harry Potter and Dumbledore!  Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith are the magical wizards behind this fractured fairy tale masterpiece that tells the story of the 3 Little Pigs from the Big Bad Wolf's point of view.  Not only are there vocab words a plenty, but this book is just awesome.

The subject heading in my library's catalog comes up "Office equipment and supplies - Fiction."  That just seems ridiculous and magical all at the same time, but that's what makes this book cool!  Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel tell the harrowing story of a red pen that falls into the trash.  A rogue band of classroom supplies must come together as a team to pull off a daring rescue.  You'll laugh.  You'll cry.  You'll be on the edge of your seat!

These are just some of the many, many books that are out there just waiting to be read and shared by you and your family.  Some additional picture book authors that I lovingly suggest (in no particular order except for the first one because Litwin = LIBRARY GOD) are Eric Litwin, Bob Shea, Jane Yolen, Eric Carle, Kevin Henkes, Mo Willems, Adam Rubin & Daniel Salieri (Dragons Love Tacos anyone?), Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Patricia Polacco, Drew Daywalt, and Chris Van Allsburg.

Time to get reading and make some memories!

Magical Activity to Create a Lifelong Reader: Talking

Today we highlight the importance of talking.  It almost seems silly to highlight this because we already talk to our kids, but it's the how and why of it that is so important.  Talking together gives us a goldmine of opportunities to create learning experiences.  It is one of the best ways to help them learn new words and information.

In storytimes, youth librarians often talk about dialogic reading.  It basically means talking about a book together, in particular the pictures in a book.  You don't read the book in a traditional sense, rather the caregiver asks questions and listens to the child's responses, using them to guide the conversation.  If a child can answer a question, they are ready for dialogic reading.  This develops vocabulary and narrative skills, giving the child an opportunity to describe stories and events in a book which will lead to conversations beyond the pages.  I like to tell my preschoolers that they can still read a book aloud, even if they don't know how to read the words yet.  I tell them that they get to be the storyteller.  If I am working with a smaller group, I have been known to let kids take turns on the story stool.  It leads to amazing and entertaining results!  It also empowers them and gives them confidence which is very helpful when beginning to learn how to read.

Saroj Ghoting is an Early Childhood Literacy Consultant.  I have heard her speak at several conferences and in-services throughout my career.  Her website, www.earlylit.net has a wealth of valuable information and resources for librarians, teachers, and caregivers.  She offers tips for how to build vocabulary and tips to build sentence skills.

In storytime, I like to share books that are interactive and can really inspire some interesting conversations.  I take time to ask the kids questions as we go through a book together.  This was how I learned many years ago from a 4 year old that the reason why we don't see dinosaurs around anymore is because they all retired and moved to Florida!  If you take a gander through some of my storytime program outlines, I like to share a variety of books and some that tend to repeat themselves year to year because they have become tried and true awesome dialogic conversation starters.  Bob Shea comes to mind as one of my favorite children's authors.  He often shows up in my programs.  Todd Parr also has amazing books that I like to share, especially Reading Makes You Feel Good.  The cover itself makes me smile even before I open the book!  You can get double duty and use this book to promote the magical skill of reading (coming soon to a blog near you!)  We had an epic conversation about this book that still makes me smile and makes me miss my storytime programs more than I already do!

Books that rhyme, books with repetition, books that ask the reader to mimic sounds - these are all great choices to promote talking and sharing together.  As we go through each of the 5 skills that promote early literacy development, you will see that there is quite a bit of overlap.  It illustrates just how easy it is to seamlessly make them a part of your daily life.  Books that go through the course of a day or follow any kind of journey are great for promoting narrative skills and storytelling.  All Through My Town by Jean Reidy, illustrated by Leo Timmers is a good example.  It would also work for a community helper theme.

I could spend all day giving you book titles, but I will end this post with the two books that I read to my daughters' classes when they were in 1st grade.  I got to be the guest reader during their student of the week festivities.  This was after a long fought campaign to be said guest reader.  Okay.  Real story?  I basically called dibs and refused to relinquish the title to anyone else.  No one was going to do it but me.  Fortunately my girls realized that there was no arguing with their headstrong mother and just let it happen.  Anyway these are the books that I read in 2018 and 2020 respectively that their classmates STILL talk about and love.  Sorry to the other parents, but there was no way you were going to out

read a children's librarian!  Just kidding!  Read these with your kiddos and let the conversations and shenanigans begin!

This was Natalie's choice.  I read it in October 2018 to her class.  Before I began I included a note of apology to her awesome teacher because I knew what was going to happen.  Having read this during school visits prior, I was prepared!  Another fun fact?  I read this book to classes during Right to Read week at our local elementary school to grades 1-5.  Yes, I got 5th graders captivated and talking!  Anyway, my 5th graders decided that Rock bore an uncanny resemblance to Thanos, (Avengers was big at this time!) and that led to a spirited discussion of who Paper and Scissors looked like.  In any situation this book leads to many battles of the famous game.  Reader beware.

I asked my younger daughter, Julianna if she wanted me to read The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors again.  She is a grade younger, so this would be a back to back performance.  She had a better idea.  Julianna loves this book.  LOVES it.  I think it's because the reader has to be very silly and make a bunch of ridiculous sounds in reading this book.  She had the same rock star 1st grade teacher as her big sis the year before.  Mrs. Z was excited because she knew I was bound to read something epic.  Instead of being the guest reader in a classroom, I got to be the class reader in a Zoom meeting this past May.  This book delivered.  The kids loved how Juli's mom got to say things like "blork", "bluurf", and"boo boo butt!"  A word of advice?  This book should only be read aloud by people with a sense of humor and a feeling of no fear when it comes to acting a fool!

The moral of this blog post?  Get reading and get TALKING!  Silly nonsense words are encouraged!

So you want to lead your own storytime...

In the absence of library storytimes across the nation, I highly encourage you to lead your own at home.  Global pandemic aside, you should be leading storytimes at home because they are awesome!  Today I am here to share some info and resources for how to do it, along with my tips for turning storytime into storytimepalooza!  I like to say that everything is better when it's a palooza!

Very first resource is the ultimate resource.  We folks in the youth library biz love www.jbrary.com.  It was started to two children's librarians and has become a go-to for all kinds of wonderful information.  They posted a blog months back with links to a variety of storytime online resources.  You can throw in a couple of these along with your own (future) arsenal of programs!  I have made a habit of posting my storytime outlines on this blog so parents and caregivers can follow along with what I have been doing at the library.  It is also helpful when they want to remember the name of a book, song, or artist.  Plus it gives you a ready-made starting point.

Another very important thing is to have fun with storytime.  Read some of your favorite books, sing songs that you love, dance silly, make animal sounds, wear a costume, use props...the possibilities are endless.  If you are enthusiastic and enjoying what you are doing, it is highly likely that your audience will soon feel the same way.  This is the kind of contagious viral spread that I can get on board with!  Team up with your kids and come up with theme ideas.  Let them take charge and lead their own storytime.  It doesn't have to be a big formal event.  Some of my favorite, most memorable storytimes happened on a whim with no plan in site.  We went rogue, and it was awesome!  If reading is a positive experience, kids will want to keep on doing it. 

Now, this is hard for me as a crazy, over caffeinated children's librarian to comprehend, but sometimes you don't feel like reading or having storytime.  GASP!  This is totally okay.  Always follow your child's lead.  Again, you want to create positive experiences.  Sometimes you may get an hour of reading fun.  Sometimes, it's literally just two minutes before a meltdown.  To quote Pete the Cat, "it's all good!"

In this lovely time of Covid, spending the day at your local library might not be the greatest idea, but many systems across the country have curbside service and even virtual programs to still make the library an important part of your family's life.  You can also check out programs like Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com/) to see if you are eligible for free books to be sent to your child to build their own home library.  Many local little free libraries have also been popping up everywhere too.  I know several of my own library kiddos who have started them!  Even if you have no books at all, you can still create your own.  My girls have been writing and illustrating their own stories this summer.

There are no excuses not to read, and the benefits are out of this world!  I will continue to be here as a resource for you, but don't be afraid to ask other librarians, family, friends, etc.  One of my greatest resources for new book ideas are kids themselves.  Finally, I am including a list of some of music resources that I use all the time in my programs.  Remember how important singing is for early literacy development.  HAVE FUN!!!!

Miss Jen's Favorite Children's Music Performers

• Eric Litwin https://www.ericlitwin.com/music
• Laurie Berkner https://laurieberkner.com/
• The Learning Station https://www.learningstationmusic.com/
  
• Jim Gill https://www.jimgill.com/
  
• Hap Palmer https://www.happalmer.com/
  
• Caspar Babypants https://www.babypantsmusic.com/
• Bari Koral https://www.youtube.com/user/barikoral
• Carole Peterson https://www.macaronisoup.com/
• Lisa Loeb (the 90s girl in me still loves her) https://www.lisaloeb.com/#music-1-section
• Dr. Jean http://drjean.org/html/powerPoints.html
  

Miss Jen's picture book intervention

I can't quite remember how I stumbled across this book, whether it was from something I read, something I heard about, or just discovered on the shelf of the library.  My brain has been in scramble mode since March 13, A.K.A. "The day all hell broke loose because of Covid19."  Since then my anxiety has been off the charts, more than it usually is.  Normalcy is a long lost memory.  I have spent the last four months feeling completely untethered, yet having to put on a brave face to keep my family going and household running smoothly.  Of course it takes a children's book to make me slow down, refocus, and breath.  It's almost like it found me.

The book My Magic Breath Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing is written by Nick Ortner and Alison Taylor and illustrated by Michelle Polizzi.  Now I know the concept is nothing new, and that this is something I could already be doing.  What really connected with me were the illustrations.  I have always been a visual learner.  The various emotions that are experienced by the girl in this book come out in a break of colorful swirls going every which way.  From the very start of this pandemic madness I often said that I felt "swirly" when trying to explain things to my children (ages 7 & 8.)  It helps me to envision blowing out all of my negativity and watching the wind take hold and carry it all away.  This is probably a better solution than wine and White Claws!  I also like the idea of breath being magical.  Another thing I have been saying is that I feel like I am losing my sparkle.  As a children's librarian my unique zaniness is given a place to shine.  While I am chronologically an adult, I have the soul of a child.  I love to use my imagination, and I love when books can take me places.  A lot of my kiddos have told me that I am magical when I do silly things in storytime.  This is my identity.  Hence, why I feel like I have lost my magic and my sparkle these past months.  If my breaths are magical, then I must have some of that left in me!  I look forward to sharing this book with my girls.  I think it will really help them to be able to express their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions.  Their worlds have been turned upside down.  Sharing a book like this and breathing together will hopefully leave kids (and adults) with a happy memory from this crazy time. 

Amazing, right?

Picture Book Spotlight: I Am Perfectly Designed by Karamo Brown

The Queer Eye guys are killing it when it comes to producing picture books with an awesome message!  Today I highlight the book I Am Perfectly Designed by the master of positivity and love, Karamo Brown along with his son, Jason "Rachel" Brown.  A parent-child collaboration!  Can it get any better?  Actually yes it can.  The illustrations by Anoosha Syed are absolutely beautiful, as perfectly designed as the story itself, showing that family comes in a wonderful variety of ways.

The story is built upon something that Karamo told his sons from a young age, that they are perfectly designed from their head to their toes.  Father and son reminisce about when the boy was a young child, recalling memorable times like when he wanted to touch the moon and when they went as syrup and waffles for Halloween.  Dad always reminded him that he was perfectly designed to dream, explore, and feel different emotions.  The son wonders if Dad will continue to do their things when he leaves home one day.  He wonders if he will remember their good times together and if his dad will always think of him.  (Side note, as I parent I was practically sobbing while reading this book.)  Together they understand that they are perfectly designed for each other.

Karamo is known for making people on the show cry, and this Queer Eye expert definitely tugged at my heartstrings.  What an incredible book.  While it's a picture book, it's a story for all.  I love the message.  Our children are perfectly designed, and they are perfectly designed for us.

Magical Activity to Create a Lifelong Reader: Singing

Today's magical activity highlight is singing!  I am a big fan of singing, especially in storytime.  Singing is so important in early literacy.  It slows down language so kids can hear the smaller sounds in words.  That helps when it comes time to sound out words when reading.  Songs also teach through rhythm and rhyme and often include vocabulary not typical of every day conversation.  Even before children talk, they babble which is kind of like their own singing.  Plus it's adorable!  It is easy to incorporate singing into your day.  For example, take a page out of my 8 1/2 year old daughter's book.  She literally sings about things she is doing and narrates the whole experience.  It's like living with a Disney princess sometimes, but this girl has been going to storytime since her days in the womb.  I can definitely see how songs helped her early literacy development.  Another benefit of songs is that we tend to remember things better if they are in song form.  Try naming countries of the world right now.  Go ahead, I'll wait.  Now sing the countries of the world song from Animaniacs!  I don't know about you, but it's been a hot minute since that was a thing and I can still sing along with Yakko like it was just yesterday!  I remember having to memorize a poem in junior high.  It took a lot of practice and repetition.  On the flipside, I could quote every lyric off of the New Kids on the Block Hangin' Tough album right off the top of my head like you were asking me about the weather.  There's just something that makes our brain come alive when you put things to music.  It truly is magical.

One of my favorite things to do in storytime is to sing the story.  It doesn't even have to be a book that is an illustrated song (think Jane Cabrera.)  Some books just have a good natural rhythm, so go ahead and sing them!  A good example of this is I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont.  Not only does it rhyme, but it lends itself well to being predictable which leads to participation from the kids.  Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth and Stephen Gammell is another great book to sing.  It also includes a repetitive line, "Shoo fly, shoo fly, shoo!"  Kids will be able to anticipate when it's coming and sing along.  Then there is Eric Litwin, the ultimate matchmaker when it comes to music and early literacy.  I adore Eric Litwin.  The day I got to sing and dance on stage with him is definitely in my top 10 favorite days of all time!

Another fun thing to do is change up the lyrics to songs or add new verses.  For my annual Seussapalooza storytime, I have created custom verses that I sing during "Down By the Bay" like "Did you see Cindy Loo, tying her shoe?" or "Did you see Thidwick the Moose ride in a caboose?"  I also like to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" with additional lyrics.  He drives a car and even plays baseball!  Sometimes just making up silly nonsense songs can be fun.  I took my rhyme and created a PowerPoint that I like to use that I share with you!

Books that encourage participation through rhyme, repetition, and even sound effects (think animal sounds) are wonderful tools to promote early literacy.  There is so much that you can do.  Explore and have fun.  Below are some of my favorite books that I like to use in my Music & Movement storytime programs, but believe me when I say there are many, many more!

Picture Book Spotlight: Peanut Goes for the Gold by Jonathan Van Ness

So anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE fan of the Netflix series, Queer Eye.  It has been on heavy rotation during these crazy times because I am in need of positivity wherever I can find it, and it delivers.  I love the messages of being proud of who you are, embracing your uniqueness, promoting accomplishments, and coming together to celebrate our beautiful differences.  Now while I love all of the Fab Five, my favorite is Jonathan Van Ness.  He brings the sass, shine, and sparkle to everything he does.  He promotes the importance of self care while highlighting the value of self identity.  Jonathan identifies as non-binary.  Children's and young adult literature have been exploring that people come in a myriad of identities and educate in a way that is appropriate for different age and development levels.  When I learned that Jonathan was working on a picture book, I knew it was going to be something special.  It did not disappoint, and I am super bummed that storytimes aren't happening right now during this crazy pandemic because I would definitely be featuring this book in my programs.

Peanut Goes for the Gold by Jonathan Van Ness with pictures by Gillian Read tells the story of Peanut, a gender nonbinary guinea pig.  The very first line of the book introduces us by letting us know that "Peanut has their own way of doing things."  Immediately I thought of Jonathan telling people to live their best life.  Yaaassss!!!!  People sometimes don't understand Peanut or think that Peanut is weird, but they just keep on living and doing their thing.  Eventually some people join in the fun.  Much like Jonathan, Peanut's energy seems to be infectious.  Probably shouldn't use the word infectious right now.....  Anyway, Peanut has a big goal, and nothing is going to stop them.  Oh, Peanut!  I feel you!  I am the exact same way, and I can bet that a group of preschoolers has the same mindset!  Peanut wants to be a rhythmic gymnast.  They enlist the help of their family for costume, choreography, and music advice and practices everywhere around the clock.  I'm not going to tell you how it all turns out.  You have to read it and find out for yourself, but the main message is that Peanut does things 100% Peanut style!  Sounds a lot like Jonathan, huh?

This is Queer Eye love in picture book form, and the message is something I wish everyone could understand.

Check out my new YouTube page!

Hi, all!  During the quarantine I started a YouTube page where I could post programs, storytimes, etc.  I will be utilizing it more soon!  Stay tuned!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPGNA7A39ecfOn3kycYKfgQ

Five Magical Activities to Create Lifelong Readers

Did you know that there are five things that you should be doing every day with your child?  These five things will promote early literacy and allow your child to grow to be an eager reader.  Research has shown just how valuable these five activities really are, so you could even say they are a little bit...magical.  They are most likely things that you are already doing.  The key is to be mindful of them, and most of all, make them fun!

Drum roll please!

Here are the five magical activities:

• Singing
• Talking
• Reading
• Writing
• Playing

In future posts I will be sharing my own tips and tricks for how to include these activities in a typical day along with research and information that support them.  Learning opportunities are all around us, even in your own home which is a great thing considering we are currently in a global pandemic!  I am also planning on recording some storytimes where I share books and songs that you can share with your children along with activities supporting singing, talking, reading, writing, and playing.  In the meantime I have included some links below that will begin to share some information.

http://www.earlylit.net/handouts-and-activities

http://everychildreadytoread.org/resources/

https://www.ed.gov/early-learning/talk-read-sing

Greetings from the Covid Prep Librarian

    So today is my first day as a Covid prep librarian.  After three months of quarantine life, I went back to Curbside librarian doing all my word behind closed doors.  Now my library system has reopened to the public for the first time since March 13, albeit with 25 % capacity.  That's not the only change.  We are now behind plexiglass windows, much of our furniture has been removed to allow for social distancing, there are stickers on our floor in 6ft intervals (that I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye wanting to pick them up), tables have one chair, and my children's area looks like a crime scene with caution tape everywhere.  Usually this time of Summer is the busiest.  Today I think I have seen a total of 5 kids, and they were in and out with their parents and a loaded bag of books.  It is almost surreal to be here.  It feels like I am in some kind of contagion movie, but unfortunately I am not co-staring with my beloved Matt Damon. 

    I don't feel like a librarian very much these days.  I haven't done a storytime since March 11.  They are on hold indefinitely along with all library programming, basically my favorite part of the job.  Summer is usually Librarian Christmas, bustling with activity, celebration, and joy.  It has been rough.  A big part of my identity is being a children's librarian.  I am also back to full time hours.  I got very used to being home with my kids and even when I went to 20 hours I still got to see a lot more of them.  It's like coming back from maternity leave all over again, only my girls are 7 and 8 years old and really know that I'm not there.  As babies they were good as long as they had food, diaper changes, and snuggles.  They have told me over and over during this whole mess how much they loved having me around more.  Ugh!

    I need to find some kind of outlet.  I want to be creative.  I need to be creative.  So this is going to be my platform for a while.  Hopefully you will indulge me and share this blog with friends and family in need of a librarian.  With each passing day I feel like I am losing my skills and my enthusiasm.  I need to reclaim my sparkle.  So let's get started with this new phase of my career.  I couldn't have imagined 14 years ago when I started that things would be like this.

More soon!

Miss Jen