It’s soon to be 2023! Hurrah for new beginnings and second chances and New Year Resolutions! Do you make them? How do you do? If you’ve not been too successful, try kickstarting your resolutions this year with a 30-day challenge.
What is a 30-day challenge? It’s adopting a particular action that would have a positive influence on your life if you could just consistently do it. You promise yourself “This time, for sure!” You think you’ve read the science that says this will work. It seems kind of simple. However… our human brains are very resistant to change and seem to be threatened or afraid of change. What to do? Promise your brain that it only has to work with you on some easy first steps for a quick 30 days. Maybe easy-peasy? Continue reading “30-Day Challenges for Your New Year”
Anyone who celebrates Christmas knows that traditions are an important part of the holiday. Perhaps it is decorating the Christmas tree that brings back special memories for some, while others enjoy the hustle and bustle of shopping for gifts to give to their loved ones and friends. Maybe it is a traditional holiday song that gets them in the spirit of the season or the joy of the annual gathering of family and friends on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Whatever those special moments or memories might be, there can be no doubt that tradition is a cherished part of the season. Continue reading “Exploring Holiday Traditions in Europe”
Get ready to flex your baking and crafting muscles, dear readers. December 12 is Gingerbread House Day. According to “The Guardian,” this seasonal tradition started in the early 1800s, inspired by the “Hansel and Gretel” fairy tale. Now, there are multiple festivals every year celebrating the art, including the creations of entire gingerbread villages. I confess I have only ever tried my hand at one single confectionary construction of this type, and a less than photo-worthy effort it was. However, I’ve decided to up my winter coziness game this year and therefore might give gingerbread houses another go. Looking to the library for help, I found a few likely resources. Continue reading “It’s Gingerbread Time”
Our digital library is more than just audiobooks, homework help and Ancestry.com. It’s more than just Freegal music and Hoopla movies and Libby ebooks. We have an amazing set of databases that your library card makes available to you where ever you have internet access.
Following Creativebug’s tutorials, I made two different types of cloth napkins and repurposed a paper bag and fabric scraps to wrap them. Photo credit Maggie Maginness
You probably don’t need me to point out that Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is coming right up, and Black Friday will be here before you know it. If thinking about shopping for the holiday season has your blood pressure rising, consider making some of your holiday gifts and decorations this year (okay, you’ll likely have to do some shopping for materials, but hopefully it will be less shopping, more making, and more using odds and ends you already have). Continue reading “Worried About Holiday Shopping? Try These Craft Projects Instead!”
After surviving the heat and drought of this summer, the fall weather is welcoming. The cooler weather encourages more time spent outdoors: walking, group activities, taking pictures of the fall colors, sitting on your porch and moments of introspection. It is the perfect time to begin or continue journal writing. Join us in making a journal to celebrate National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This simple hand-bound journal can be used for beginning your first novel, writing important thoughts, remembering an activity or placing photos. After making our journal, we will have supplies to decorate with strip paper painting. Check this list for more journal ideas.
Join us in the Friends Room of the Columbia Public Library from 2-4 p.m. on November 5. Space for this in-person program is limited, so please register.
Posted on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 by Sew Happy
Let’s take a virtual tour of “reportedly” haunted locations in Callaway and Boone Counties; we have many of them between the two counties. And this being a library blog, I want to also encourage you to learn more about these locations. Come in and explore our collections when you finish scaring yourself silly! Continue reading “Let’s Tour Our Haunted Region!”
You already may know that you can check out a bag of books for your book group. Or a telescope for exploring the night sky. Here is another new type of kit, one I’m especially excited about. This Summer we are adding kits for people who would like to try knitting or crocheting for the first time, or who would like to return to the craft. Yes! I am so happy we are offering these physical kits. They live at Columbia Public Library and can be interlibrary loaned to any of the other regional branches.
Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 by Reading Addict
In “The Sum of Us” Heather McGhee says, “The American landscape was once graced with resplendent public swimming pools, some big enough to hold thousands of swimmers at a time. In the 1920s, towns and cities tried to outdo one another by building the most elaborate pools; in the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration put people to work building hundreds more… Officials envisioned the distinctly American phenomenon of the grand public resort pools as ‘social melting pots.’ Like free public grade schools, public pools were part of an ’Americanizing’ project intended to overcome ethnic divisions and cohere a common identity — and it worked.” It worked, she conceded, until integration arrived. Continue reading “The Sum Of Us and a Reflection on the WPA”
Do you have memories of your parents or grandparents canning and preserving and then serving up that food to you? I do. My maternal grandmother canned just about everything. In my turn, I used to can tomatoes and beans. Opening a jar of tomatoes in January (in Minnesota!) was a joy because the entire kitchen smelled of summer for a brief time. Green beans from my small garden were not as popular with the family, unfortunately, but I still canned them for soups. This work made me feel closer to my canning ancestors, who didn’t waste anything and who had to can if they wanted to enjoy summer harvests in the cold winter months.
Want to give it a try? If you don’t have a garden, farmer’s markets are a great source. I know we are through berries and maybe done with green beans. Apples, beets, peaches and corn are still available as well as all of the pickling vegetables. Meat and soups can be canned any time you find a great sale somewhere. Continue reading “Canning the Summer Harvest to Eat Well in Winter”
Anyone who celebrates Christmas knows that traditions are an important part of the holiday. Perhaps it is decorating the Christmas tree that brings back special memories for some, while others enjoy the hustle and bustle of shopping for gifts to give to their loved ones and friends. Maybe it is a traditional holiday song that gets them in the spirit of the season or the joy of the annual gathering of family and friends on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Whatever those special moments or memories might be, there can be no doubt that tradition is a cherished part of the season. 
After surviving the heat and drought of this summer, the fall weather is welcoming. The cooler weather encourages more time spent outdoors: walking, group activities, taking pictures of the fall colors, sitting on your porch and moments of introspection. It is the perfect time to begin or continue journal writing. Join us in 