Home and Family Books

I thought it was my own secret obsession. My God, how I love laundry. Until recently, I lived with a clothesline out in the yard. Now, I use a commercial washer and dryer, and it's nowhere near as much fun!

However, I do sometimes wash some things by hand, lovingly hanging them up inside the house. What is it about the smell of clothes drying on the line that refreshes the spirit so very well? It takes me back to being a young child reaching up to hang out the towels on the line, all the while relishing the sunshine smell and nature all around me.

This book just takes you back to another place and time, and those wonderful nostalgic feelings that laundry brings about. The pictures are wonderful! This is a book to cherish.

If you are looking for a little item for the "Wishing Well" at a bridal shower, this is an awesome present. But first, be sure to get one for yourself! Thank you, Andrea VanSteenhouse, Irene Rawlings, David Foxhoven and Jason McConathy for this trip down a fragrant and sunny memory lane!

"The simple act of picking clean, wet clothes out of a wicker basket, shaking them out, and hanging them up makes me slow down, giving me time to compose the rest of my day."

Washing machines are great for convenience, but there is a magical quality to hand washing clothes with a delicious essential oil soap (orange or lavender) and hanging them outside to dry. Of course, this means you need a clothesline and a secluded back yard.

As a child we used a soap called Sunlight and washed clothes in a ring washer. I know, I'm too young to know about ring washers, but in Africa that is what we used and we even had a sink with a washboard type surface.

The spinning umbrella clothesline was behind the house with a mountain right behind where animals could easily find their way down to our house. Often while putting up clothes, I'd walk up the steps and scare a baboon who would screech at me for interrupting the stealing of fruit. I'm not sure who scared who more, but clothes definitely ended up thrown about the garden as I ran one way and the baboon ran the other.

Memories of running outside to quickly take down the clothes in the afternoon is also a fun memory. As the rain would start to soak the clothes and sheets, we'd frantically be pulling them off the line, then hanging them inside to dry overnight.

With memories of hanging out clothes on a line, this book becomes even more meaningful. If you have a penchant for lavender ironing water and verbena soap, this will also be a delight.

This unique book has recipes for making your own soap with herbs, describes the variety of clotheslines, shows pictures of many different clothespin bags and explains how to wash linens. How do you make a new clothesline last longer? Why use a naturally scented softener?

Throughout this informative and very practical guide there are also moments of inspiration for designing your own laundry room. The storage of linens with small herbal sachets is followed by recipes and creative ideas. A special section shows how clotheslines found their way into art. Urban clotheslines and country clotheslines are included. Remember clothespin toys? They have pictures of those too.

"I know this sounds funny, but I think of hanging clothes as an almost religious experience." ~Betsy Bennett, artist (Sheets to the Wind II painting)

Now and then I just wish I could take my laundry down to the river and wash it on stones. I have strange notions, but mostly they appeal to my outdoor nature. By washing our clothes inside, we miss out on the feeling of the sun on our skin and the sound of clothes whipping about in the wind. While at my mother's house one day I found two clothespins and decided to keep them. My mother and grandmother always had clotheslines and I remember many happy hours as a child running through the sheets warmed by the sun.

~The Rebecca Review

This is a real glimpse of another era, but one not so intangible as we might think....we can definitely enjoy it, too. Some of the sweetest things in life are the simplest pleasures, and a sniff of our bedsheets after drying in the sun, or drying off with a towel that did the same is a perfect example. Since our olfactory sense is the one most tied to memories, this book would be a great one for those new to housekeeping or new mothers. I can remember running through the sheets on my mother's clothesline, smelling my clean clothes as we brought them in and folded them. I do the same for my family when I have the time, and my 78 year-old mother recently expressed a desire to start hanging out her wash again. So since April 19th (yes, it's a Monday--traditional washday for years and years and years in our country) is National Hang Out Your Wash Day; I got the book for my mom and will pair it with a clothesline and clothespins. It's a wonderful little book, and even has a recipe for lye soap that we used to make as kids. It was pretty gross but those farm women were strong and even though I'll bet it took the skin right off their hands, they used it. We could learn a thing or two from them, I'm sure.

I guess I hadn't thought about it till I read this book, but the simple act of doing the laundry can generate an almost Zen like satisfaction. We wash our clothes almost every week, and it seems like a chore... or is it? Take a walk back in time and even through today and look at the way we do wash and how. This book brought back the smells I remember of my Mother over the enamelled steel tub rinsing and scrubbing. Me and my sisters had endless fun running between the sheets and clothes hung from the seemingly endless lines of drying laundry in our back yard playing hide and go seek. For any of you who remember when simple pleasures were derived from simple tasks, and satisfaction from a job well done wasn't pushing a button on a TV remote you ought to give this a read.

I like books full of nostalgia and simpler ideas. Like the other reviewers I found it a good walk through memory lane. We never had a clothesline since we grew up in the city, but I remember seeing them on movies and the like. Its definitly a piece of Americana. I picked this up mainly because of the stress of the current war on terrorism, I needed something simple and nice. This made me feel some more trust and confidence in our values and the core of what is America. I really needed a break from all the crud books coming out on politics from former hippies trying to make a buck (sorry Mr. Bob Woodward). I like knowing that at our heart America is the home of the free, brave, and simple folks doing normal things. Thanks for an easy, stress free, good book.

This book truly lives up to its name "Family Entertaining" - which means, in short, that it is full of wonderful recipes perfect for friends and family. I bought it just before my son's graduation party because I wanted a cookbook with recipes teens would eat but tasty for adults as well. I couldn't have picked a better book for the task. Adults raved about the Wild Mushroom Risotto while the teens loved the Barbequed Chicken and Best Baked Beans.
Later in the year I used it to plan a more upscale dinner with a Mustard-Glazed Salmon, Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons, Pasta with Broccoli and, for dessert, a choice of Raspberry-Pear Cobbler or Killer Brownies (some adventurous souls had both).
Best of all, the recipes are a cinch to fix, yet impressive enough to serve company. This one's a keeper!

When this book came out in 1998, I special ordered it before it hit the shelves. I was a huge fan of the Home and Family show with Cristina and Michael, and was sad to see the show end, but Cristina's book is a wonderful addition to anyone's kitchen. I make her marinated thanksgiving turkey and dressing every year, and get raves from friends and family. I had never made a turkey before and the first time I made it several years back, it turned out devine. I would highly recommend this cookbook to anyone, and it also makes an awesome gift for Christmas!

My kids and I used to watch the Home and Family Show together and what inspired me to buy this cookbook was all the recipes in the book were made at one time or another on the show and my kids and I would make them together!The recipes are fairly easy and good.

THIS IS THE BEST COOKBOOK I OWN AND I OWN ABOUT 50. I DONT HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO COOK , SO I LIKE THINGS SIMPLE TO PREPARE. THIS IS A GREAT COOKBOOK FOR EVERYONE.

This book has the BEST recipes that are very easy and different. I bought it for her rice pudding recipe and it did not disappoint. Try her Marinated turkey, salads and soups. Very nice cookbook and I recommend it to everyone.

Your story is a beautiful demonstration of the power of Love & Honor & Trust.
It reminds us that money, homes and toys are just
things that can be replaced. Love and family and promises kept are
real. We can find good in extremely horrific circumstances. We are
capable of handling more than we know. A true hero is revealed. A
child shall lead them... Let us empower our children and show them
how to lead! Thank you for putting things in perspective for us all.

I love how you captured the essence of the story with such brevity!

[[ASIN:B00021OZZ8 The Twelve Gifts of Birth - MUSIC]

In De'Monte Love I find a calm within the storm -- a six-year-old boy who promises to care for his brother, cousins, and friends during Hurricane Katrina, and keeps his word. Rodney Vance and Martino Dorce, the author and illustrator respectively of this story, poetically highlight the best in human beings: our ability to rise above tragedy and to love and care for others in times of great need.

In the innocent days of childhood, there were very few problems that couldn't be remedied with a cookie, a hug, a favorite toy, or holding hands to cross the street. In this wonderfully told story written by Rodney Vance and illustrated by Martino Dorce, the diminutive six year old hero has a problem that's going to take giant-size courage to resolve. Specifically, he has promised to care for his siblings in the frightening aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when they become separated from their parents. This is a beautiful read-aloud book that reinforces the importance of keeping one's word and never giving up hope. Dorce's illustrations burst with fresh color and his depiction of the storm is extremely well done. This book - based on a true story - is a treasure that youngsters, parents and grandparents will enjoy sharing together and talking about.

"Every child should read De'Monte Love because it illustrates that no matter what age we are in are life, the most valuable lesson is to learn how to love and care for one another. During such a tragic storm Katrina, De'Monte teaches us how to hold on to his life jacket of love for his brother and family. I love Rodney Vance for extracting this positve message and telling this young man's story." Ivy Westmoreland

From the first day I saw this book, I knew it would be a must-have for libraries in the schools I work with. Telling the story of Katrina from this young boy's perspective provides opportunity and insight for teachers to make meaningful connections to an event that has impacted so many. The teacher materials that go alongside are excellent. If you are a principal, librarian, teacher or know someone who is, "De'Monte Love" is a must-have!

If I could only buy one book to help me get through a family member's dementia this would be it. I have read it, underlined it, quoted it and used it. It is a source of information and comfort. This is a must buy!!

This book is absolutely wonderful. Other books on caregiving were too clinical. This book is like having a wonderful conversation with friends who have been through what you are experiencing. The book offers the perspectives of many different caregivers which was very helpful because the nature of the dementia differs for many people. There were helpful tips and suggestions and words of advice from caregivers and this was presented in short easy to digest segments.

I am a caregiver to my 90yr old blind mother who suffers from vascular dementia as well. This book was written by other caregivers with information , questions and answers that can only be appreciated by those who care with someone with this type of illness. The book covers many types of dementia, whether it be Alzheimers, vascular or others. What is really important is that the book encourages the caregiver to take care of themselves if they are to be able to take care of their patient.

This book is one of the best books on caregiving and dementia. It gives real life stories and situations that one can really relate to. The authors have done a great job. Each chapter is about a different issue in the life and path of the person with dementia as well as ones about the caregivers. You will see so much of yourself and the person you caregive for in these pages. I gained further insight into what to do in many situations I have encountered as a caregiver. Good stuff and highly recommended.

I find this book to be a very loving and thoughtful account of the stories of caregivers of loved-ones with Dimentia. It has practical advise on how to cope, where to go for support and even a some comical moments told with the utmost of respect! I would recommend this book to anyone who is a caregiver or knows someone who is. It seems we all know someone with this disease.

This is a fantastic entertaining book with entire meal ideas for multiple events. The book even includes ideas on decorating, table settings, invitations, party gifts, etc.

I'm working my way through all of the events and have tried five so far. The food has been absolutely delicious, although some of the recipes are more complex than what I'm used to. Thankfully, the book advises what tasks can be done the day before, the morning of, and then right before guests come over so you can budget your time accordingly.

I've found that some of the recipes can be simplified by using more basic ingredients (ready-to-cook lima beans instead of fava beans in the shell, etc.) Also, several of the recipes use a lot of butter, whole cream, etc., so you could cut back on these ingredients or make substitutions if you want something healthier.

I would recommend this book for those who love to entertain!

I just adore ANYTHING Williams Sonoma! Very useful, very tasteful and very beautiful to look at!

I LOVE the ideas they've given for family dinners, tea parties and such. The recipes sound wonderful..I'm dying to try the roast beets salad, stuffed dates with goat cheese and the chocolate walnut cake! The book also gives useful hints on what all can be prepared or assembled ahead. It makes it easier for us...I'm sure any and all guests you entertain using the themes and recipes presented in the book will really appreciate it!

Great book for those who love to entertain and cook for others. Their themes are unique but easy to pull off, and I love how they also have crafts ideas on party favors, flower arrangements, decorating ideas, etc. in addition to the recipes. Probably my most favorite entertaining book so far.

This really isn't so much a cookbook as it is a book for people who love to entertain. The book has party/entertaining ideas divided by season. Each season has 4 entertaining "ideas", each of which is amazing.

The recipes are terrific but more importantly, the book includes table settings and ideas for party favors and gifts for your guests. It's a beautifully photographed and thoughtfully written book with a wealth of great ideas about how to entertain. It has something for both the novice and seasoned party giver. Buy it, read it, and throw a dinner party--that's my advice! Then you can bask in the glow of your guests' admiration.

Esther's Uncle Mordecai is the gate keeper.He raised Esther from a baby. My favorite part of the story is when Esther becomes queen of Persia. My favorite part of the story is when he laughed. When he was done laughing, he said "Esther, you are now queen of ersia". I like the book Esther because it is taken from the Bible. The comments are the same as in the Bible. If you really like the Bible story, I insist that you read this book!

Esther was an ok book. It is easy to read. It was about
this girl named Esther and how she became a queen and
saved her people. I recommend this book to anyone.

Esther's Uncle Mordecai is the gate keeper.He raised Esther from a baby. My favorite part of the story is when Esther becomes queen of Persia. My favorite part of the story is when he laughed. When he was done laughing, he said "Esther, you are now queen of ersia". I like the book Esther because it is taken from the Bible. The comments are the same as in the Bible. If you really like the Bible story, I insist that you read this book!

I like this book of Esther because it is all what God knew what was going to happen. My first favorite part is when the king crowned Esther Queen of Persia. That was God's plan. Later, a man named Haman wanted all the Jews killed. God wanted Esther to save her people. My second favorite part is when Esther shows up to the king uninvited. Esther had the courage to do that. But, will Esther save her people in time? Read this book to find out.

I have read dozens of Jewish books to my kids, and this stands out as one of the few that I am going to keep for THEIR kids. The reason? It portrays Esther as a real person that girls can truly identify with, while not straying from the honest Torah understanding of the holiday. Additionally, the combination of realistic text (presented in the form of Esther's diary) and stunning illustrations make this book a literary treat. I wish this author-illustrator team would get together to create stories about all the Biblical heroines!

The epic is conceivably the endpoint of the modernist implosion into premodern aesthetics and anti-formal/anti-perspectival tribal art. Whether that makes GUNSLINGER modern, postmodern, or premodern is anyone's guess, 5 of 8 dentists prefer "postmodern." The book smears semantics and Heidegger and cocaine into a psychedelic, post-industrial dreamscape. Ed Dorn studied an americanized version of "psychogeography" at the Black Mountain College with Charles Olson and Robert Creely which contributed to the development of his slow-acid-laced-western-sound poetry aesthetic: "I have no wish to continue my debate with men, my mare lathers with tedium, her hooves are dry. Look, they are covered with the alkali of the enormous space between here and formerly."(Gunglinger, Book 1). This should be read with some cigars and cactus and MM's cover of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's "Get My Rocks Off" and Beck's parenthetical "Lazy Flies" ("The skin of a robot vibrates with pleasure, Matrons and gigolos Carouse in the parlor").

Dorn has crafted a hysterical political allegory. Swift would've busted a gut at his work.

It's great that Ed Dorn's poem (in book form, though it was originally published in a sequence of smaller parts, and assembled) is back in print, after the single-volume version took a short drop to the OOP lists. There are few poems that so effectively capture a decade -- and a century. Read it; fight with it; enjoy the sensibility. This is a book about the American West and, like the work of Charles Olson (one of Dorn's teachers), it is about poetry as a means of understanding aspects of the psyche, motivation, and acquisitiveness that is so American.

That's the good new; you'll read this and laugh about parts, and agonize over others, and relish still more. But be wary of the "Introduction," which is a heavy bolus of words (read the back cover excerpt, if you doubt me). Yes, the folks at Duke (a University Press) felt it necessary to drop a scholarly "Introduction" on the book, but Perloff's offering will inspire you to reach for your Metamucil. As a scholar, she is accomplished (publications on Beckett, Plath, Pound, O'Hara, Lowell, Stevens, Yeats, Williams, Berryman, Rimbaud, Zukofsky, Blackburn, John Cage, Goethe, Ginsberg, Ashbery, and a dozen others), but her treatment of Dorn is at best wooden, and with 35 years of writing on poets she musters great range without summoning either a notable depth or enthusiasm.

Buy the book for Dorn's own work and fight to cherish the results.

The late Ed Dorn wrote a masterpiece with "Gunslinger", an anti-epic poem that prefigures many post-modern gestures from its 60s era starting point. Funny, cartoonish, erudite to the extreme, it also locates a tuned lyricism in the Western vernaculars that Dorn uses: the metaphysical aspect of our legends, the sheer questing for answers as Euro-Americans come treading closer to a West coast that will stop them and force them to settle and create lives from dust and ingenuity, comes alive in way that never escapes the zaniness of Dorns' narrating inquiry into the nature of the search.

A masterpiece

An epic poem so richly filled with wisdom, wordplay & laughs that a little of it is often enough. Dorn's characters - who are derived from both John Bunyan & Paul Bunyan - wander through a landscape that feels like a spaghetti western existing inside a Star Trek wormhole. All of the rituals of the Great American Desert are honored & performed in ways that surprise & delight. The cinematography is nonpareil. Does the Zlinger fall in love with Lil? Does he ride off into the Sunset of Happy Trails? Does Walter Brennan make a cameo appearance? Read on, fellow pilgrims, read on.

Bob Rixon

This book was recieved quickly. I founds the book to be very informative and useful. I found the answers to several of my questions I had. I will keep the book close to use for a reference and I am sure I will use it a lot. Thanks.

I have the 4th edition (at this time is the most recent edition in print) and as a psych home care nurse, this little, portable wealth of knowledge has helped me validate to management, as well as to public health and other surveyors, the range in situations that qualify "homebound status" for psychiatric patients. Throughout the book there are samples provided to support a variety of situations that help the nurse better understand, and therefore more accurately report, on each sector of the OASIS forms. Medicare regulations are explained in detail, and I learned information that I had not known in the 14 years I have been doing mental health home care nursing. The manual provides a history and background of homecare, its evolution, provides an overview of documentaion, including the importance of coding, and its significance in home care. Also, valuable tips on improving the nursing visit, setting achievable goals, managing the case, and the guidelines for care for all the home care disciplines, are provided, so the nurse can be knowledgable regarding the roles of the other disciplines. There is a great resource section at the end of the book, and home care definitions, roles, and abbreviations are delineated in this manual as well. All home care codes are listed.

With the often-confusing regulations and data gathering tools out there, at least we on the front lines have this portable manual to help us sort out our assessments and evaluations into the accurate coding and leveling criteria that supports what we do, what we observe, and allows for the appropriate revenue to support the levels of care our patients require. As OASIS data-gathering evolves, newer editions will be needed to keep up with the miriad of changes that will ensue, but at least here is a standard we can all make good use of, and I am willing to bet every nurse, from novice to manager, will find something in this manual that was not known or delineated as well to them in the past.

This manual would also make a wonderful teaching tool for nursing students. They may as well learn early on how intricate the data-gathering tools are in the real working world. Accurate notations on the OASIS forms can either make or break a case, not only regarding reimbursement, but as to whether the levels of care, and variety of disciplines, that you feel are needed, are allowed to provide services to your patient. Hasty and inaccurate translation of evaluations and assessments onto the OASIS forms results in inability to justify to Medicare that the levels of intervention you are requesting are appropriate.

I love this book because, being in the home health industry you have to know what you're charting. If charting is lacking then you will not get the full reimbursement that you are entitled to. Thanks alot.

i had the early verison and used it for making my care plan. the content is now updated and still valuable.

A MUST resource guide for all nurses who work in the Home Health industry.

Being from the Midwest originally I felt such a homey feeling reading this book. It is well laid out an filled with amazing SCRUMPTIOUS recipes. Additionally it is a trip through time with the Harley & Davidson families that any Harley Lady should have and know about. You will smile and feel good inside curling up looking at the recipes, pictures and historical info. Blessings & Ride Free!

This book is much more than a cookbook! It evokes the feel of a walk down a tree-lined street of yesteryear. Filled with sepia toned images and intriguing narrative, it is a book to savor. It reads like a personal glimpse into the lives of the Harley and Davidson families and chronicles the lifelong friendship of William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson.

The book emphasizes the fact that Harley Davidson Motor Company was indeed a family affair, only twice as good with two families of friends. Images of family always include food and the Harley's and Davidson's are no different. Two granddaughters, one of Harley (Margo Manning) and one of Davidson (Carol Lange), compiled this collection.

With categories such as "Kick Starters," "On the Course and On the Trail," and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mixology," the volume contains recipes for all types of food. Manning and her cousin John Harley traced Harley family ancestry to Littleport, England and farther back to Bavaria. Bavarian recipes handed down through the family dot the pages as well as a number of Carol and Margo's moms' recipes that reek of 50's cocktail parties and dinner parties.

With recipes such as Curried Artichoke Rice Salad, Comfort Casserole and After-the-Ride Punch, there is something here to please every palate. On a personal note, I had sworn off cookbooks as my collection had taken over my home. I had to break my rule and get this one as much for the feel and the story as for the fabulous food!

I bought this for my husband, being a Harley fan, he loved all the old facts and actual pictures of the Harley and Davidson Families. It makes for a good history lesson. The recipes are pretty good too, but if your someone who needs pictures. There aren't any pictures of the recipes.

This book gets you excited about cooking again! It has great recipies in several catagories such as "Kick Starters: Treats to grease your bearings and get your motors running" and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mixology: Specialty drinks and beverages with a splash of history". All of it revolving around family was great and with summertime right around the corner, cookouts are too! The book even included the family trees of the Harley and the Davidson families. It was an inspiration to gather the family and make our own family history cookbook; that way we never forget where that awesome Banana Pudding came from or how to make grandma's famous Thanksgiving stuffing.

The graphic design of this book is fantastic! The schematics of Harley parts, as well as photos of the Harleys and Davidsons make this book a must have for lovers of good design, good food and good stories. I'm happy to see the women of these families
honored. A must have for any cookbook collection!

I've met Marlene and appreciated her candor and warmth. She knows what she's talking about and it's worthwhile reading!

I am from Lansing, MI and Marlene called me when they arrived. It was really neat.

It was nice to have the trip we all followed on the Internet put into book form. Marlene did a good job of journaling what most of us only dream about doing!

What a terrific journal of the Graham families adventures across the USA. I found it so informative as well as entertaining. The whole families perspective is given of each special place they saw and the people they met along the way. The hospitality of complete strangers that they met via the internet and the Graham families desire to get to know the people and the characteristics of the region they were visiting, intrigued me also. They told so much about each region with it's special features no matter if it was small town USA or a US capital city. That is truly the only way to get to know the real physical and spiritual beauty of our country.

We were very fortunate to get to spend some time recently with the Graham's as they traveled through West Virginia. They are just as terrific and special as you can imagine. I would recommend this book to everyone wishing to travel or for pure reading enjoyment. A real treat!

It had created quite a stir when the Grahams sold their house, packed up their van, and set off to explore the U.S. Much of America and the major media all wanted to know what the family discovered along the way and fans have followed the Graham's progress via the Internet.

Classifying this book is hard. It could be a journal, a homeschooling guide, a history lesson, or even a travel guide. Picking up the book is easy. Just start at any chapter. Photos are plentiful and are peppered generously throughout her book.

Marlene gets an "A+" for organization. If you have this book in your lap (or even your easy chair!), you'll quickly find what you are looking for.

It is a book that gives the A-O.K. to America from a family who insisted on "taking its pulse."