Welcome to Literacy Musing Mondays, Week 28. Literacy Musing Mondays is a weekly linkup that features the best posts on literacy and reading. We love book power around here! We also love featuring champions of literacy and the love of reading!
This week we continue our guest post series! I am so excited to be connected to such a great sphere of bloggers who love literacy, reading, and learning. Our guest poster this week is Jody Collins.
Jody Collins has known Jesus since she was 19 years old and a best friend took her to Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California in the 1970’s. She and her husband have been married 42 years and currently live near Seattle where they worship at this Foursquare Church. She serves in Women’s Ministry and also on the Worship Team. Her two grown children and five grandkids thankfully live less than three hours away and she hugs them whenever she can.
During the school year she is an elementary substitute teacher and in her spare time, reads and writes. A lot. When she’s not at her desk, you can find her in her other happy place—the garden, watering, weeding and worshipping.
Jody blogs at http://www.threewaylight.blogspot.com/. Her twitter handle is @jodyo70
How Books Saved Me
Some of the most delicious morsels we consume are not the meals we partake of, but rather the nourishment of words which speak to our souls. When you are the oldest of five children with alcoholic parents, life is tenuous and uncertain, to say the least. Rocky around the edges and loosely glued together by basic threads of food, shelter and clothing. I could always count on the those basics while growing up. Although my father was often either unemployed (“I’m just in between jobs”) or underemployed, we did not go hungry. God, via neighbors and friends throughout my young life, saw to it that we had enough to eat.
But the meals that really saved me, body and soul, were the feasts I found in glorious stories, words that took me away from a chaotic and crowded household to a world of people and places that shone with beauty, peace and plenty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am lending a hand to my son as he and his family move house (for the 3rd time.) My grandson Hanan, the oldest of 5, is hiding in his room reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” As a teacher and a grown up I am loathe to call the Wimpy Kid books ‘literature’ but I will say this—those books have got my grandson reading.
Books were my solace when I was growing up, too. I remember hiding away in my room, shutting out the noise and the too-muchness of my four siblings. As early as the age of 12 or 13, whether I wanted to or not, I was often left to babysit my brothers and sisters while my parents stepped out for the evening.
When I was in charge I just let my brothers and sister play on their own (those were simpler times) while I escaped into the pages of a good book. I found beauty and gentleness, people who were just like me, getting by on little, yet living with happy hearts. A big family was a plus in hard times; I could definitely relate. ……I got lost for hours.
Jody essay is so inspiring and real. If you want to read more, you need to head over to her blog!
Now back to the linkup. What have you read this week? What literacy activities have you participated in with your family and loved ones. Please share. All family-friendly posts are welcome. 😉
Ashley @Circling the Story
Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Instagram
Mary @Maryandering Creatively
Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/ Instagram
Tami @ThisMomsDelight
Blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus
Last Week’s Top Clicked Post!
In this post, Abi features wonderful stories that can spark some great discussion about being a good friend as well as choosing good friends. One of my favorites that she features was:
Rainbow Fish
by Marcus Pfister – Selflessness/Giving
She also gave out some great tips on how to find used books because some of the books she featured are out of print.
You could be next to be featured! Remember, we try to make it worth your while to linkup with us by promoting your posts across our social media networks. We also pin your posts to our Pinterest Board!
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Now it is time to link up to the Literacy Musing Mondays hop!
You will have until Saturdays at 12 p.m. now to link up! So come back often. 
Linkup Rules:
- Include a link back or the blog hop button linked to this hop on your posts.
- Link up the urls to your posts not to your blog.
- Please remember this is a family-friendly linkup. We reserve the right to delete any posts that are not family friendly. We love all kinds of literature and genres including family-friendly inspirational romances, fantasy, or scifi. We do not welcome anything with excessive sexual content or cursing.
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- Tweet about the link up too.
[tweetthis]Come join the fun! Link up your family-friendly, book- or literacy-related posts at Literacy Musing Mondays![/tweetthis]
Linking up with these hops this week: Inspire Me Mondays at Create with Joy, Inspire Me Monday at Angie Ryg,Mama Moments Monday, Motivation Mondays, Good Morning Mondays, Inspire Me Mondays at Table for 7, Mommy Monday Blog Hop, The Book Nook – Blog Party For Book Lovers!, Together on Tuesdays at Chronically Content, Totally Terrific Tuesdays, What to Read Wednesdays, and Booknificent Thursdays.
Jody, I am sorry you had to deal with alcoholic parents in your growing years, but God was watching over you then and still is today as I love to read your blog. I lost my father when I was 12 to pancreatic cancer so I had a different kind of experience, yet books were my solace. I used to walk to the library and stay in those stacks for as long as I could. Then, with a book for the week or two, I would walk home slowly looking at the pages, stopping at Mr. S’s stone wall and sat for a while to read. I was the oldest of three and finding quiet with 2 younger sisters was tough. As I grew older, I learned to get up on the roof of the garden shed, a ever-so-slight slanting roof, and hide with a book. I loved to read and still do.
Caring through Christ, ~ linda
https://thereaderandthebookreviews.wordpress.com/
http://beingwoven.org
~ linda recently posted…Peter’s Greetings