Weekly Roundup: LibriVox, Mahjong Solitaire, and Good Mom Moments

Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow.

And I'm Catherine hileco.

Every Thursday, we're bringing you a library find, a pick from our archives, and a parenting or pop culture tidbit or two. Let's start with Catherine's library find of the week.

Okay, so I have a library find for you audio book lovers out there. Oh yeah, it includes Terry. So I'm not quite sure how you pronounced this, but library vox is a catalog of free, public domain audio books that are read by volunteers. So I'm sure the quality is ver varied.

But how do you volunteer to read? That's what I want to do. I want a volunteer to read books for them.

Oh well you gotta find that out. Yeah, this is the the volunteer to read them aloud, to record them, and then anybody can.

You can volunteer to do this right here, volunteer.

Yeah, you can volunteer to listen because anybody can listen. So yeah, this was actually the department heads that the library mentioned this to us. So you know, your library has libby, which or probably has libby which is an app for borrowing audio books, but they are limited in terms of how many copies they have and how many they can lend out because they are quite expensive for

There is on this site a thing to volunteer for Liberal Box. They need readers. There is something called this is quite delightful a proof listener NA perfect listen to recordings submitted by the readers and flag obvious errors easily corrected before books are catalogs.

I know, this is so fun.

I would like to do that because I've often thought I would like to get into like being an audiobook reader. But you have to like have a little portfolio or something before you can, right, So this is.

How you do it.

You find some public domain book that they haven't read yet, Yeah, record it and send it in and you can even do short works. Yes, I wonder if they let you just like read things that you've written.

Am you never published?

Yeah, here's my book that I wrote when I was in college.

Yeah, I never went anywhere.

I'm sure somebody would like to listen to it.

Yeah, so it's pretty it's pretty cool that this is a thing. I mean, I know, like I don't know if they still used to do like books for the blind where people would record those do to your basis.

That's another thing I've looked into volunteering forms. There is a way to do that, but.

You'd have to read with your eyes in order to record with your mouth. How would that work? Yes, you'd have to just blow up that text as big as you can.

That's true.

That's okay.

I could do that. I have it on a computer.

I can blow it up, right, So one of those magnifying glass things, right.

So anyway, I thought that was very cool and an awesome resource for people to know about time.

That is very cool.

That is for people who want to use their time in productive ways, either by listening to reading or reading for listening, and you know they're doing something all the time that benefits other people or themselves. Those people will be listening to audiobook books and recording for audiobooks. What I will be doing is playing Majong Solitaire on my phone because I have an attention span of that tree frog that was bothering Sawyer.

On Lost, So I have.

I think we were talking about Majong a few yes weeks ago on this very podcast.

Right because my mother and her man on the Inside Style Residents learned how to play maj Yeah.

Well I do not know how to play the game, but it reminded me that there is like a Majong Solitaire online and AARP has one on its website, so that tells you who the target on it, and so I played the one on the ARP website for a while. Basically, all it is is you're matching tiles. You have a bunch of tiles, some of them are in stack, so you can only use the top one, and you have to like look over this this board of I don't know how many, but enough tiles that it's a challenge

One was not so satisfying.

And also, boy do you never feel more stupid than when you are looking at these things and you're like nope, nope, nope, no matches here and you hit the help button and there's like five.

Things in front of your face.

How could I not see them? So this made me feel like, Okay, this is a challenge. Clearly my aging brain is not taking in everything in its environments. This will be a good thing. See, this is not just wasting time. This is a good thing to find too much and notice everything. So I sort of went a little further afield. I found a couple other websites that had it, but I thought, maybe there's one on my phone.

But it's good.

I like it and it's not that complicated and I can just play a game in a short period of time, but I can take also take as much time as I want AARP, why are you rushing people? Just let us There should just be a thing to turn the timer off, which maybe there is, and I can't see, just like I can't see there are two identical tiles there. Why can't you see them? So there's probably a big flashing churn time or off button that I'm just my

And many, many, many many.

Websites will come up because old people will be bored and we're looking.

Back over here, Grandma. We got.

It's super big tiles over here, Granny. Just for your sad sad eyeballs love it anyway, Okay, I am wasting time on this week excellent precious time that I don't apparently have much left of is going.

To but at least you're not on social media.

I'm not on social media.

So you needed something else.

That's right.

Good, Okay, So what do we have from the archive this week?

Well, two years ago, we were talking about good mom moments, those times that were like, yeah, I'm doing it, I'm I'm acing this thing. We feel like we need to shout those moments out when they happen, or remember them fondly, because you know, we need to, we need to keep our spirits up right. So, yeah, were they Well, surely there are some you said that Yours was, you know, worrying and praying.

Worrying and praying. Well, that's still that you're that's still what I do.

You're good at those things, and you maror me get any appreciation for them, but.

I do not.

No may or may not no no, no zilch zero. You know, I get that. What was that line from running point, I'm not interested in any of that, stop dogging.

Yes, well, I felt also to return to extra hut grade. They sometimes mentioned tiny triumphs, you know, little little moments where you're like, yes, you have well it's very tiny.

Hmm.

So yeah, because number one, it's like, oh he's reading. Number two, he's contacting me. Number three he is doing school work like he needs it for a project of some kind. So yeah, it's excellent, excellent, good feeling all around.

Yeah, what have I done, Lely?

I have not done much other than stay on my office with my door closed. So that's possibly interpreted as being good, right, And.

She's in there planning games on her phone, but.

It's not bothering us.

I am.

Maybe I will maybe take a a good mom moment the times that I go to the dog park with my daughter and our dog, because I am being a good mom to both my daughter by keeping her company and the dog getting to the dog park. So sometimes we pick up my son on the way back, so then I'm a good mom to all three. Wow, I'm not driving, my daughter is driving around there. I am

There aren't that.

Many places in the world anymore where you can just walk up to some stranger and say hey.

Right and start a chat.

Right, yeah, but if you want to say, hey, what brand of dog is that?

Or you know, your dog is sure cute. That's a good looking dog. That's this is my go to line.

That's nice looking dog. Right looking dog, that's a great looking dog. People all go yes, I know. Well, I'm sure they're as do I. They are happy to be reminded once again.

There dogs are so good looking.

Dogs are just it's even like an ugly dog just has character, you know, right, you can't any dog you look at gotta say, yeah, I think that's that super scruffy dog that looked like he'd been uh you know these seen things, yeah, and done and done.

Stuff he was.

I think he was at the dog park the other day, but on their way out, so I didn't get too bad to bask in his scrappy presence, right, and imagine plots for him, Well, you just have to keep going.

Back at point yeah, yeah, it's like.

Yeah, do we think that's what Vincent's gonna look like in a few months.

Yes, that is definitely what Vincent is going to look like. At the dog part, like yeah, yeah, you guys, you guys.

You guys have no freaking clue.

I had to eat frogs in the Jungle Man. It was rough.

Everyone kept the dying and disappearing and yelling at me.

Yeah, yep, they go first forget me for episodes.

They go for days and days of like no one even thinks spares a thought for that dog, and then als, where's Vincent?

Where's Vincent?

We can't find him. We need to find him. Where's Vincent?

That hat?

You know?

I had to eat ranch dressing. Eight year old ranch dressing.

It's been in the jungle, yeah, which probably most dogs would not care.

That dog should have got its own sequel, you know, yes, I want to know where that dog went afterwards.

But yeah, so this this dog, this dog looked like.

It was more you know, maybe it had been in the mob, maybe knocked over some liquor stores, maybe did some hard time, and you know it's it's just up for anything.

The dog is in the witness protection progress. Ye, he's hiding out in suburbia at the dog park.

Just hope he never gets it. Don't ever take me to the city.

People know me there.

It would be good Bloomfield anyway. So yeah, so I'll claim that is my good mom moment. I'm not always able to do it, but when I can, I really enjoy it and I feel virtuous. Right, look at me, everybody, a little outing.

Right in hitting myself perfect.

I'm also starting in again like my second my second childhood here with helping at the vacation Bible school.

It's at church.

I didn't even do that when my kids were I hired people to go with my son.

But I don't know if I've ever done it.

So it's like, gonna go hang with the little's cute quite as good as the dogs, but it'll be fun.

I'm gonna be in the drama section.

So I guess that's kind of a good mom thing, just not a mom to like my personal kids, right one of the church moms. Actually, I think most of the people who did it are actually are teachers.

So I was like, I'm just a mom, but that can help.

Yeah, some little thing I could do. So was it is it like currently, like a spring break kind of thing, or is it gonna be in the summer.

The summer, in the summer.

Last week in preparing July, I think yes, I had their first meeting and I went, nice, Yeah, a good mom because I'll be getting out of the house and not bothering their personal family little kids. Yeah, kids, that'll make me feel mommy.

When I remember one time some I don't even know how I got roped into this, but I had to. I was voluntold, I guess to listen to kids prayers at religious ed and like, because they were supposed to be memorizing all these you know, certain prayers, and I was basically testing them on if they were.

And I'm like, I've just done that too.

What am I like if they don't know, I'm going to fail them? Like it was just I felt horror.

I felt so bad.

I just prompted them, you know, a lot, until they got somewhere in the ballpark and then I was like, yep, they're.

That's exactly what I did. They were paring kids for their first confession, and they had to know the Act of Contrition and they had to know what like sinnias and stuff like that, and there was a whole list of questions which they'd probably been studying in their class. And it's like it's the same thing. They gave me like a form to evaluate them. And some of them, a couple of kids just came in rattled it off like boom, so they got like the excellent there was

Course it's the very leading question.

Yes, but they got it. And I went out brought them out to their mom, going she got it, and they're so happy, and the one say al yeah, So those kids are going to probably when they go into confession, not know anything.

Who tested these people? Kids just adorable, adorable little kids and they're trying so hard.

And I know what it's like to be asked a question and have nothing in my brain whatsoever except maudjung Diles.

Just frozen, like.

So I'm going to be doing.

That again now, and it's like, I'm gonna have to ask them what constant because I heard some of the other ladies who were like teachers giving these and they were not so nice.

They were they were sticklers.

It's hard, and I don't know the act of contrition by memory. There's a card in the confession.

I use it.

Probably most adults do too. So we're getting why did they have to know it?

They just have to go in in there and say I'm sorry and you know anyway, So yeah, yeah, I've done that too, and that's interesting. And there's little kids are so cute. Yeah, you forget that when you have big kids, right, normally at this point one might have I don't know grandchildren. But that's not going to happen, so I have to go. It's like going to the dog park. I have to go to the vidy.

I love it.

Oh well, all sorts of ways to be a good Oh, my guests, you could borrow other people's children, very ically perfect.

Be your mom for these five minutes. It'll be fine.

Who is this lady perfect? Well, we'll wait to hear more about the adventures in vacation Bible school.

Yes, yes, I'm sure it will be quite an adventure. There's a couple of women from my kids elementary school. It's a couple of teachers, but they were never my kids teachers because they weren't especially they were regular ed and my daughter was in regular D but she started at a higher grade than these two.

Women we were in.

So I don't know that if they even I think they remember me. One of them definitely remembers me, but not in a oh that was that bleep who was so much trouble, but just oh yeah, she worked in the library, m h. And her kids are so cute, so that's nice.

Thank goodness.

There are no special ed teachers, else it would be like, oh you no, stay out of my way. Thank you for listening. You can find all our episodes on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find recaps, links and an opportunity to comment on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.

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