Lessons From the Garden

The My Itty-Bitty Bio series are biographies for the earliest readers. This book examines the life of activist and community developer Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to lead a major Native American tribe, in a simple, age-appropriate way that helps children develop word recognition and reading skills. The series celebrates diversity, covering women and men from a range of backgrounds and professions including immigrants and individuals with disabilities. Includes a timeline, primary sources, glossary, and index.

Parenting is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but it's also the greatest blessing God has shared with us. Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? At the end of the day, are we building our children to their best? Ultimately, we are family and we grow through the trials and triumphs together! Seeds of Wisdom for Parents is a series of short motivational stories with gardening tips, prayers and practical takeaways. Surviving parenting can be like gathering marbles on a slanted table but when they fall in place, it's priceless! Parenting, like gardening and weeding have many lessons in common. This book addresses real life challenges for living day to day with the blessings loaned to us for a short time. Pam brings a moment of thoughtful clarity to the daily irritations, thorns and enemies to parenting perfection! Walk with her through her garden and its lessons as she shares parenting ideas with all its excitingly raw precious confounding days! Learning to love and train not 'when' or 'if' but 'in spite of' is a gift given to parents striving to embrace their charges!

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened. ~Anatole France I grew up incredibly shy. I struggled to make the small talk required to 'fit in' with my peers. My dogs seemed to know what I was thinking without describing my emotions or concerns and they silently stared into my soul and cuddle up beside me without asking me to explain or change to accommodate. This is where I first learned to love unconditionally. I explored the woods with a cocker/poodle, befriended the retired police dog next door (that I was told not to touch but found a gentle friend in him), and spent hours laying on the back of horse staring at the clouds while it wandered in a field. I rescued a whippit who made me feel safe through my college years and greeted me each time we separated as if we were long lost friends even if it had only been ten minutes. And I've rescued companions more times than one that ended up rescuing me. Cats, dogs, rabbits, goats, ducks and a Canada goose. And now that our children have grown and moved away, they are my constant companions breaking the silence in our home with joy, laughter and muddy paw prints. These stories from the heart are meant to inspire as well as memorialize our encounters with these precious creatures. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!

Our lives get complicated and when we add holidays and family gatherings to them we may take the complicated up exponentially. I try to see the players (characters) and plots in a perspective that shines a light on their strengths. Sometimes it's tough. We all have that one relative (and you know who I mean) that we need to love in spite of, rather than because it's easy. We live together, we fight over silly things, but we love each other. Come at a family and you'll wished you'd been lowered into a pit with starving wild animals. We might taunt family, but no one else better! As an author, family get togethers are fodder for writing! These stories surround gatherings, friends, family and group events. My wish is that you may embrace each individual in a way that brings new perspective and clarity and that your table brings rich Ohana to you. Ohana= is the Hawaiian term for family whether by blood or by heart. And, no family member is ever left behind. These 25 short inspirational stories about family will have you laughing, crying and maybe recognizing a few of your own family characters.