It has always been true that the world has a way of catching us off guard. Many of us like to think we have our life in control. Especially if we were fortunate enough to be born into a comfortable middle-class family, we have been taught to work hard and life will reward you. Pestilence, … Continue reading Sabbatical Series: Music’s Magic Healing Place
If your gift list includes youngsters who are beginning explorers in the wonderful world of reading, my latest children's books will instruct in a delightful way. Perfect for spring holidays, end-of-school graduation/recognition ceremonies, birthdays, and fill-in-the gap summer reader/activity books. For those recipients who live close by, have the books sent directly to you so … Continue reading Nonny Day books for Spring!
The little girl in the photo playing the piano is me, Connie Carlisle. I’m about ten years old. My Dad and I are in our basement in the Churchill Downs neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of the many houses my family called home in this part of the city. This old upright piano … Continue reading If My First Piano Could Talk…
The seasons of Christmas and Easter are intimately related. Below you will find a video of my song of praise for all seasons, "Sing Hallelujah, Give Him Your Heart." It tells the story of the birth and life of Jesus in a way that is understandable to children as well as adults. Along with the … Continue reading A Song for All Seasons: Sing Hallelujah, Give Him Your Heart
Last week I met via Zoom with two educators—Ms. Kari and Ms. Jasmine—plus student/family participants in a 4-H Sweet Potato Pie Making Project in Sitka, Alaska. My daughter and tech support Eve Carlisle Polley joined me. It proved to be a delightful, fast-paced hour and fifteen-minute get-together joining Sitka and Louisville (over 2,500 miles). Eve … Continue reading Nonny says Hello to Sitka, Alaska Families! (Zoom Meeting for Cooking, Chatting, and Having Fun)
Some of you may be thinking, “What in the world is a house for Toddler Jesus?” Let me give you some background information before I jump into telling you how my two school age granddaughters and I recently made a little cardboard and popsicle stick house. We are going to use it at Christmastime alongside … Continue reading A House for Toddler Jesus
Dear Nonny's Blog Readers, I'm excited to share with you the news that the Sitka School District in Alaska will be using my book Sweet Potato Pie, Oh My! as a part of a sweet potato pie kit giveaway. The school district is distributing to fifty Sitka students and their families a kit with all … Continue reading Nonny’s Books are headed to Alaska! (New Project with Sitka School District)
Hello Nonny's Blog Readers! This year I've been pleased to share good times with you as we published the third book in the Nonny Day Series. All three are available for purchase through Amazon, and Volume 2 is on sale right now for under ten dollars.** VOL 1. Sweet Potato Pie, Oh My! VOL. 2 … Continue reading Nonny’s Children’s Books for the Holidays
Today’s blog post will wrap up our story of the Flat Stanley who came to visit me in Louisville, Kentucky from my great nephew Ben’s house in Glenn Dale, Maryland. If you have not read STAN VIEWS SELF-PUBLISHING UP CLOSE (Part One) or STAN VIEWS SELF-PUBLISHING UP CLOSE (Part Two), you might want to click … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part Three)
Our Flat Stanley of last week’s blog post is continuing his visit with Nonny in Louisville, Kentucky all the way from Glenn Dale, Maryland. It is the Christmas season which means days and evenings are full of activities. What follows is a continuation of Stan’s journal. If you read last week’s blog post, you are … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part Two)
Many of you, my blog readers, are aware that I am currently self-publishing my third children’s early reader through Amazon.com. However, there’s a little guy named Stan who witnessed one of my self-publishing endeavors first-hand and up close in my home office many years ago. Actually it was on Christmas Eve in 2008. This Stan … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part One)
Happy to let you know the Alphabet Excursion & Higgledy-Piggledy E-book is now available. Share? If you have family or friends who are Kindle readers, would you consider sharing this message with them? At no cost they can access the full book, and perhaps it will be a good match for them and the kids … Continue reading Alphabet Excursion & Higgledy-Piggledy for Kindle
For two and a half weeks in the early nineteen nineties my husband, the Dad Driver, our Pre-Teen Daughter and Daughter’s Best Friend travelled in our over-sized family van to California and back home. Their tent-camping odyssey stretched west from one state or national park to another, beginning in Kentucky. Their second day found them … Continue reading Life is Just a Bowl Full of Cherries
Last week I shared with you one of my first blog posts Stinky Story in celebration of publishing posts through WordPress once a week on Friday mornings for three years! Here's another early post from Nonny's Blog which is also meant to entertain. Occasionally I like to write in a different persona. This story is … Continue reading Two Too Many!–But Not Too Many Years of Nonny’s Blog! 3 and Counting…
As announced last week, I'm excited to have been sharing Nonny's Blog with you for three years! In celebration, this week and next I'm sharing a couple of my first writings posted in April, 2018. This post contains the contents of an actual letter I sent to my four school-age grandchildren--you know, one of those … Continue reading Stinky Story–Celebrating 3 Years of Nonny’s Blog!
By the spring of 2019, my first musical composition for choir had survived the serious inspection of my church music director. After I had done much editing of the score, my song--whose lyrics and melody had been in a folder for many years prior--was deemed worthy of public performance by his trained eyes and ears. … Continue reading Sing Hallelujah, Give Him Your Heart!
I recently shared two blog posts about memories my two daughters had on the early influence of music in their lives. Since there always is a bit of rivalry among siblings, I thought I’d better write a blog post about music in the life of my first-born child, a son. So, that’s what you are … Continue reading Jumpin’ Back Into Music Performance
We see a wide-eyed little girl, maybe six or so, in a church worship service. She’s standing next to her mother in a pew at the left side of the sanctuary, very close to the pianist whose fingers move adroitly over the keys of the ebony baby grand piano. The child’s eyes shift from the … Continue reading Vibrant Vibes: A Musical Phenomenon
When my children were little, we always had lots of music in our home. One of my adult daughters recently reminded me of one of those times. She said she remembered watching me play a lively upbeat pop tune on piano and sing words about putting a nickel into something called a nickelodeon. She told … Continue reading Music’s Magic Healing Place
As I was video-chatting with one of my grandsons recently, my casual conversation drifted to a time in my marriage before children. I told him I had had my first full-time teaching position in the adjacent community of Jeffersontown, or known by most of us as J-town. And my husband was working as a machinist … Continue reading Special Delivery
Spring 2019 was a wonderfully fulfilling time for me. I had been working several months on giving music and mini-drama to a formerly tucked-away lyric which told of the birth and life of Jesus in a way understandable to children. I enlisted the music director at my church as my proof-reader and advisor as I … Continue reading A Musical Score Written in God’s Time
I want to share with you a poem I wrote for my oldest grandchild when he was about ten. I printed it, put it in a frame and presented it to him as an extra Christmas Eve gift. I’m sure whatever else I gave him—and this was before any of the other grandchildren were born—seemed … Continue reading Ode to Stephen
My second children’s book, Sweet Pickles Among the Marigolds, is now available in a Kindle version through Amazon. Maybe you are a librarian, children’s early education center director, primary school teacher, homeschooler, parent/grandparent or other caring adult. If you want a peep into excellent materials and ideas to spark enthusiasm for reading, you might consider … Continue reading Sweet Pickles’ Ebook Release!
When I was a young child and a pre-reader, I was introduced to the nursery rhyme, “Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?” Back then I never wondered why she was contrary. But as I grew older and planted gardens of my own, I found out why she was in such an unhappy … Continue reading Nonny . . . How Does Your Garden Grow? (photo gallery)
Last week I was excited to share with you the news of the publication of my latest children's beginning reader/activity book. It's called Sweet Pickles Among the Marigolds: A Rhyme of Garden Fun. Today I'll give you a sneak peep between the pages with a recording of my sing-along song Pick Some Pickles! You'll find … Continue reading New song, new website, new book… Celebrate with me!
The shutting down earlier this year of physical schools and preschools due to the Coronavirus left many parents, grandparents and others to assume full-time roles as facilitators for learning. And now as the summer looms large with its own set of concerns as to how to fill the time of the young ones, may I … Continue reading Keeping Young Minds and Bodies Busy–My New Book Release!
We see a wide-eyed little girl, maybe six or so, in a church worship service. She’s standing next to her mother in a pew at the left side of the sanctuary, very close to the pianist whose fingers move adroitly over the keys of the ebony baby grand piano. The child’s eyes shift from the … Continue reading Vibrant Vibes: A Musical Phenomenon
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