I Dare! I Can! I Will! -- new picture book about the Icelandic women's day of protest

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Have there been times when you thought all the women of the country should go on strike? Strike from housework as well as careers? I know I have many times. Whenever women's rights are being stepped on, I think about it. But then I think about how hard it would be to get everyone to do it. And, of course, what I see as stepping on women's rights some women think is all right. But one day in Iceland, the women did just that and today I get to share a new picture book about that day! The book is I Dare! I Can! I Will! by Linda Ólafsdóttir. It is recommended for ages 6 to 9.

New Christmas Picture Books to Share

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Christmas is coming up fast!! This year I have two fun new picture books to share with you. One is a wonderful one that shares the spirit of the season and the other shares a real Icelandic tradition. The first book is Season of Light by Jess Redman and illustrated by Raymond Kaulitzki. It is recommended for ages 3 to 6.

Jingle Bells, Christmas Miracles & More! -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copies of these book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own, and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Christmas is fast approaching us. Are you ready this year? If you are looking for some last minute holiday spirit gifts check out these books. There is something for everyone!! Did you know in Iceland books are exchanged on Christmas Eve and they spend the rest of the evening reading? I saw it on Facebook and the picture is credited to Arizona Penny Dreadfuls. The books I share today with you would be perfect for children's gifts as well as some adult gifts. The first book is Jingle Bells: A Magical Cut-Paper Edition by James Lord Pierpont and illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat. 

Christmas in Different Lands: Stockings, Shoes and more!

For my post today we are going to explore the Christmas tradition of stockings and/or shoes. This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Christmas in Different Lands Series. Growing up stockings were always a big thing. One of my sisters loves stocking gifts. We all would run down the stairs and get our stockings and start opening the gifts. As we got older it changed to us taking turns opening one stocking gift at a time so everyone could see it. As we got older still (adults) we started buying a few stocking gifts for everyone. As a child I always thought my stocking was not as exciting as the rest of my families. I had a hand knitted one that was going to be a sock for my father, but was too big. Everyone else had felt ones that had fun decorations and their names on them. My mother tried out all sorts of things on her sewing machine when making them before my birth. My sisters always tried to tell me my plain one was better because it stretched, but I didn't buy it. When we were adults my mother hand knitted new ones for all of us that are beautiful. She still has them at her house in case any of us are there for Christmas morning (my family usually is not but everyone else often is). My family still has the stocking tradition. Hazel is always very excited to hang our stockings and actually has made, bought and found stockings for Ducky and some of her dolls. (I recently shared one that I made for her doll as well.)

Christmas Candles in Different Lands

Candle Photo By By Elmar Ersch (Own work)
 [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This year for Christmas in Different Lands each post is exploring some aspect of Christmas in at least three different continents. Today we are looking at candles. How do you use candles at Christmas time? With electricity there are not as many uses as there once was but some are still used for special events. In New England often there are single candles (and for some multiple candles) in the windows of a house or church. I shared a bit about Christmas in New England last year.

Picture of New England Church during Advent

 Candles are also used in many other ways. Often there is a candlelight service on Christmas Eve at church as well as the Advent wreath candles during Advent. I shared a bit about our Advent wreath a couple of years ago. Many countries especially in Europe use Advent wreaths and/or Advent candles. Countries like Germany, Austria, Croatia, and Belgium often have Advent wreaths as well as the United States. 

Sharing Saturday 14-12

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to those who went to visit the many amazing posts! I know I was inspired by the many that were shared! Here are a few of my favorites.

A Few of My Favorites

 

1) From For the Children: Preschool Construction Measuring Up

2) From Buggy and Buddy: Flower Crafts for Kids: Textured Tissue Paper Flowers

3) From Like Mama ~ Like Daughter: O is for Owls and Ocean

4) From For the Love of Spanish: Arco Iris Activities & Free Printable

5) From Buggy and Buddy: Easy Art Projects for Kids: Splatter Paint and Tape Resist

6) From Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: Charlotte's Web Storybook Decorations for Your Family Dinner Table

7) From Living Montessori Now: Montessori Monday - Montessori Inspired Sewing Activities

8) From JDaniel4's Mom: Easter Game - Egg Toss Bottles

9) From Sparkling Buds: Flashback Friday's: 3-D Palm Art

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: This week we shared a simple St. Patrick's Day craft and Round-Up of all our past St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities, our Iceland post for Around the World in 12 Dishes, our second Virtual Book Club for Kids March post by sharing Hopper Hunts for Spring, we reviewed The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade book by Meomi and are giving one away an Octonauts DVD  and we explored raspberries for our fruit exploration this week!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the fun Octonauts DVD!!

Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

 

 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Iceland--Skonsur

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

This month starts a new season of Around the World in 12 Dishes! One of the biggest changes is that we are trying to all post on the third Monday of the month and Around the World in 12 Dishes has its own blog with an intro to the country also being posted on the third Monday of the month. I wrote this month's introduction, so be sure to check it out. I will not be sharing about the country here since it is already on the blog for Around the World with 12 Dishes. 

Our first stop this year is Iceland! Now my sister happened to travel to Iceland this summer, so I have a few of her pictures to share with you! It looks so beautiful there. It makes it hard to believe its name is Iceland, however having read a bit about it, the country was named after an explorer spent a tough winter there. 

When looking for a recipe from Iceland, I discovered it was not going to be easy for us. Their main foods seem to be fish (Steve and I don't like it) and lamb (we don't like lamb either). However I found this great site full of Icelandic recipes.  I showed the recipes to Hazel, well I read the English names to her and let her pick one. She decided on the Skonsur or the thick pancakes/pan-fired bread. 

The recipe was in grams and milliliters, so I pulled out our scale to measure the dry ingredients. Hazel measured the flour for me. I am converting the recipe into cups since that is what we usually use.

Skonsur (adapted from Jo's Icelandic Recipes) 

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1 cup milk (we needed a bit more)
• 2 eggs 

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add the eggs and melted butter and stir. Thin with the milk. Stir until smooth.

Pour on a greased skillet and fry on both sides at low temperature. Cakes should be like thick pancakes.

Serve cold with any kind of topping that is good with bread.

Hazel helped with the cooking, but the batter was so thick it was hard to get into the pan. While they were still warm, Hazel and I split one to taste. It tasted pretty much like our normal pancakes, but a bit different. Then we made sandwiches with them for lunch.

Steve made a sandwich the next day and liked them as well. Overall a success!

We also have been reading books about Iceland. I shared these in the introduction post, but will share them here as well.

 

Hazel has been asking if we can do this for every country around the world, so stay tuned. Oh and she wants to do every state as well. We may be busy with this idea. 

Around the World in 12 Dishes is hosted by the following amazing blogs!!

Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids' Makings, The Mommy Talks and The Usual Mayhem

Around the World in 12 Dishes also has a Facebook page and a Google+ community page, feel free to like/join them, too, while you’re there.

For this month's Iceland you can print the placemat and passport pages. Then you can check out all these great recipes and feel free to add one if you have cooked any Icelandic recipe or done a craft! Also here is the cover for the passport for Season 3!

March Happenings

This month promises to be a good one. However the beginning is a bit crazy. A good friend has her young son (less than one) in the hospital, and I have been helping with her older son's care, so if I miss a few days this week you will know why. This month will be filled with fun activities, crafts and reviews plus a giveaway!! I know I am excited for spring and cannot wait for it to get here. We will continue our Hawaii escape posts until then. I am also looking forward to Easter and the preparation of it with Lent. We will also continue our Friday Fruit Explorations and Hazel has been asking to do some under the sea discoveries, so expect to see some of that as well. It is so fun to have her at an age where she is asking questions about things and we can do some research together on them.

Now for our monthly clubs and posts. This month  for Virtual Book Club for Kids, the author is Marcus Pfister. Do you know his books? They are amazing. The first book I was introduced to of his is The Rainbow Fish. My sister had given it to us as a hand-me-down. She had bought it for my nephew when he thought he should be given things by strangers because of his cute looks. It is the perfect book to deal with that issue. So many of Marcus Pfister's books help teach life lessons. A little about Marcus Pfister: he was born in Bern, Switzerland and still lives there. He became a graphic artist. In 1986 his first book, The Sleepy Owl, was published. Then in 1992 when The Rainbow Fish burst into the international book scene, he stopped his work as a graphic artist and focused solely on his book authoring career. (Source)

Hazel and I have been enjoying so many of his books and we are having a hard time choosing which one to pick for the club post. It will be one on this collage though.

Update: Here are our posts: Ava's Poppy and Hopper Hunts for Spring and an older one on Rainbow Fish.

March begins a new season for Around the World in 12 Dishes. It is hard to believe we have been through a year of it already. We had so much fun joining in this journey, that we have signed up for another year. Here is this year's schedule:

Our first stop is Iceland! This summer my sister happened to take a trip to Iceland, so I have a few of her beautiful photos to share!!

I also wrote an introduction to the country for the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog, so I will not be sharing as much of the country's background here and will just provide a link for you to the introduction. That will give me more space for our crafts and such. Here is the cover for this season's passport pages. You can begin your exploration of Iceland with the placemat and passport pages. Join us the week of March 17th to see our Icelandic adventures!

So stay tuned this month for St. Patrick's Day crafts, Lent crafts, spring crafts as well as our fruit explorations, under the sea crafts and explorations, Iceland, Marcus Pfister, and a few reviews including some on The Octonauts. I hope you will join us!!