In Living Off Grandma’s Sayings: From Leeds to the Legislature, retired Missouri State Senator Yvonne Wilson recounts her experience growing up in the segregated community of Leeds in Kansas City, Missouri, with her Grandma and describes the impact of this experience on her life as an educator, state legislator, and public servant. Lessons learned from her Grandma formed the bedrock of Senator Wilson’s career in the Kansas City, Missouri, School District during the turbulent years of desegregation, her time in the Missouri House of Representatives and Missouri State Senate, her service in the Kansas City community, and her role as wife, mother, and grandmother. Throughout the book, Senator Wilson reflects on the continued value of her Grandma’s sayings.

Drawing on her grandma's lifetime of learning and biblical wisdom, Judith Robl provides charming devotions to help women embrace timeless principles and pass them along to those they love. Each offering is adorned with artist Audrey Jeanne Roberts' endearing paintings of teacups and other charms of hospitality and generosity. Readers will discover the blessings of Scripture verses that support each insight, the strength of personal prayers, and life-shaping teachings from Grandma including: Success is getting up one more time than you fall down. Give generously from your own purse. One good turn deserves another. This beautiful volume of wisdom encourages confidence, generosity, honor, and faith and makes a great gift of guidance and love for graduates, new brides, friends, and for moms to give to their daughters for any occasion or "just because."

Old sayings, idioms and synonyms are as Americana as apple pie. They are a part of our history and culture. "My Grandma's Old Sayings from A to Z and More" is a collection of over 800 old sayings and their meanings, that took the author five years to collect. Growing up in a small southern town in the 1950s and 60s, old sayings were a way of communicating. Although, times were hard, people didn't complain. It was a time when people said what they meant and meant what they said. They loved their neighbors. When a neighboring family hurt, all families hurt. When ask how things were going, the answer was always "fair to middling". When they parted ways at the end of the day, it was always "I'll see you tomorrow if the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise". The author's grandma was a God-fearing woman who was full of joy. She loved to talk and old sayings were part of her everyday conversations. She had a saying for every situation, for good times and bad times. The "And More" at the end of the book is food for thought. There are fun words and phrases, do's and don'ts, sayings for good luck, sayings for bad luck, superstitions and little words with big meanings. Also, learn how people loved old sayings using body parts. Now, you can join the conversation and have fun! Remember the old saying, "to make an omelet, you'll have to crack some eggs."

If you don’t have your own grandma near enough to snuggle up to and hear gentle words of advice, here’s a book intended to be your “special grandma.” Grandma wants you to grow up to be a grown-up who is healthy, responsible, kind friend to others, and at peace with your life. She doesn’t want you to turn forty wondering how you got to be just a “tall kid.”

In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this “compelling...unvarnished, resonant” (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father. Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home. Also available in Spanish as La distancia entre nosotros.

Bert Facey saw himself as an ordinary man, but his remarkable story reveals an extraordinary life lived to the full. Bert Facey was a battler, ever optimistic and hopeful despite the hardships of his life. A true classic of Australian literature, his simply written autobiography is an inspiration. This edition has been specially adapted for young readers.

A vivid and funny memoir about growing up Gypsy and becoming American Fifteen-year-old Oksana Marafioti is a Gypsy. This means touring with the family band from the Mongolian deserts to the Siberian tundra. It means getting your hair cut in "the Lioness." It also means enduring sneering racism from every segment of Soviet society. Her father is determined that his girls lead a better, freer life. In America! Also, he wants to play guitar with B. B. King. And cure cancer with his personal magnetism. All of this he confides to the woman at the American embassy, who inexplicably allows the family entry. Soon they are living on the sketchier side of Hollywood. What little Oksana and her sister, Roxy, know of the United States they've learned from MTV, subcategory George Michael. It doesn't quite prepare them for the challenges of immigration. Why are the glamorous Kraft Singles individually wrapped? Are the little soaps in the motels really free? How do you protect your nice new boyfriend from your opinionated father, who wants you to marry decently, within the clan? In this affecting, hilarious memoir, Marafioti cracks open the secretive world of the Roma and brings the absurdities, miscommunications, and unpredictable victories of the immigrant experience to life. With unsentimentally perfect pitch, AmericanGypsy reveals how Marafioti adjusted to her new life in America, one slice of processed cheese at a time.

The remarkable story of an 'ordinary' man. Bert Facey's childhood ended when he was eight years old. That was when his grandmother had to send him away to work for his keep. Bert grew up tough in the vast, wild outback of Western Australia. He lived to eighty-seven, and wrote down his extraordinary story for his grandchildren. In spite of its difficulties and sufferings, he always believed he had had 'a fortunate life'. A classic in Australian writing, A Fortunate Life has been specially adapted for young readers.

You say you wanna serve Him And live your life His way You say you wanna know Him And never go astray You say you have no agenda No need to lie at all You say you're in His purpose You're standing on the wall You know you have those watching Believe in you all day You know you have those asking Is this the Lord's way. . . . These are the words to a song Constance, Baryy and Vonder heard playing on the radio. Their lifestyles caught-up with them and they found themselves searching for a way to escape the humiliation, pain, and feeling of being marooned on Hell's Island. They had pretended to love God and live for God for so long until they started to believe their own pretense. But in actuality they were practicing Religiosity, a self-gratifying relationship with God where you choose how you serve Him. When their lives shattered into broken pieces they had a choice to make -repent or remain broken. Follow them through the process of self-righteousness to selflessness to servant and allow their journey to enlighten, encourage, and enhance your journey to an awesome relationship with God.

Abandoned by her father and rejected by her mother, 4 year-old Jennie is taken without explanation from her kindergarten class and driven through the night to live with her grandparents. They live on a farm where gophers pop out of the ground, turkey gobblers give chase, the bathroom is in a little house near the woods, and which is austere and culturally limited. Almost from the beginning she tries to run away back to live with her mother in Minneapolis. But her grandparents, although undemonstrative, steadfastly support her. Grandpa helps her with her homework at night sitting around the kitchen table lit by a kerosene lamp, she sits on his lap, while riding the binder, and curls up with him on the sofa at nap time. She helps her Grandmother with the chickens, picking eggs and feeding the pigs. But conflicts arise. Especially with her aunt , Hilda who is spiteful and humiliating. Jennie wants to run away and find her father in Canada but all her attempts fail. As far back as in kindergarten, Jennie liked to draw. So in first grade when she was asked to draw the picture placed on the blackboard in front of the class, she worked hard to copy the exact likeness. The picture was The Last Supper. After that, she became known as the class artist. Hilda felt Jennie was wasting her time drawing and discouraged her. Reading, another of Jennie's interests, was also considered wasteful. All through high school Jennie continued to be the school artist. During this time she became attached to Frank, a future farmer with a kind, uncomplicated view of life. He loved her but knew her dream was to leave the farm and go to study art. After graduating from high school Jennie is offered a job in Washington, D. C. Her grandmother slips her thirty dollars and urges her to leave at once, before Aunt Hilda can interfere. Her new life in the city is a shock and a revelation. Jennie discovers art galleries, takes her first real art lesson using pastels, and begins to acquire a new set of goals and values. Two years later, she returns to Minneapolis and enrolls at the University of Minnesota in art. Life is a struggle as she has to work to support herself and pay for her education. While working at one of the her jobs, she meets Jim, a young psychology student who is using the G.I. Bill to attend university. Soon they marry, unknown to either Jennies' mother or her aunt Hilda. Jim is very supportive of Jennie's interest in art. Between leaving the farm and starting university a series of tragedies occurred. Her grandparents died—first her grandfather, then her grandmother. Earlier a favorite uncle shot himself. Another uncle died under questionable circumstances and her mother becomes committed to a mental hospital while her father remained a mystery in spite of efforts to locate him. After graduating from university, she paints and exhibits her work, exploring new directions of expression. It is not easy to find success. When galleries are either hanging her work upside down or failing to pay her, they disappear from sight. Her first real success comes from entering a painting in an exhibition in New York. Titled Subjective-Objective, the painting and received first prize. From then on Jennie's goal to become an accomplished artist plays an important part in her life. Still, she couldn't forget the farm where her uncle now lives. One day, she decided to go back to the place she'd grown up and had wanted to escape. Seeing the faded wallpaper on the upstairs hall the stippled paint walls, the empty bookcase, Jennie becomes aware she has slowly moved from the austere and culturally limited setting of the farm to a new world, one of painting, art, and intellectual interactions. She'd left the farm and could not return. Back in Toronto, Jennie walked into their condo, past th