Austin's Story

Today I am taking on Austin's story.  I'm writing "Pawpaw's Recliner, The Places you will go".  In this book of short stories, if you can recall, Pawpaw has 11 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.  Austin is one of his grandchildren.  In Austin's story, they will be building birdhouses so they can watch the birds while sitting in Pawpaw's recliner.

One of the things I can remember from being at my dad's house is that there are so many little bird feeders.  He will even show you the hummingbirds eating from them when we are on facetime.  This has been a love of his and my mom's for years.

Building something with a child will always bring you closer.  The skill, the time shared and the thought and conversation that comes out of it is so amazing.

Have you built anything with your child?  Do both of you get aggravated?  Patience is something that I think we as humans seem to be losing these days.

IN my stories I try to make sure that the adult characters have a lot of patience since they are becoming a role model for the child.  

When I would read books to my children when they were small, I made sure that there was a lesson in the book.  I oftentimes would take that lesson and give them an example from real life as well.  This helped them concrete the message into their memory.

Books were always a way for me to escape the world along with learning lessons and teach it to my kids in a patient manner.  I wish parents would go to this first instead of sitting them in front of a TV.  

Now I'm not judging because my kids got plenty of TV and game time, I tried to balance it out, but I was a single parent for most of their young lives.  I made sure that I did the best I could and often times as a parent, the best you can do is sit them down to a TV because you so exhausted.  I empathize with parents today.

Anywho, I'm getting off of topic, I hope this birdhouse building story turns out super cute and Austin and Pawpaw love it.  They haven't spent any time together and don't know each other well.  These stories that I write are also a way to get them closer to their Pawpaw, for the ones who are not.

Happy writing and Happy being a Human

CJ