X is for boXes

Boxes have so many functions. The best part about a box is opening them, seeing what is inside. But boxes can take on a whole new life after being a vessel. They can become storage bins, a place for tacks, tools, and bobby pins. 

Kids usually find the best uses for empty boxes. Boxes make terrific tunnels, hats, and sleds. 

When I was a young mother living on a tight budget, I made a kitchen play set for my daughters out of appliance boxes. I taped over the heavy staples, cut doors and flaps and painted the boxes in bright colors. My husband and I also made puppet show theaters, airplanes and trains from boxes for the kids. What a hit! The kids enjoyed hours and weeks of play. 

My theme for the 2022 AtoZ Blog Challenge is titled Grand Prompts To Ask Your Grands. Each day in April I will present a conversation starter/journal prompt to ask your parents, grandparents, aunts, older neighbors, co-workers, yourself…you get the idea. The questions are meant to forge connections between and within generations and inspire storytelling and journaling. 

Pray for Peace

Enjoy ❤️.   Like 👍.  Share 😊. 

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If you had purchased a paperback or ebook The Heart of Bakers and Artists, The Dreams of Singers and Sluggers and/or Becoming America’s Food StoriesThank you!

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The Heart of Bakers and Artists

The Dreams of Singers and Sluggers

Becoming America’s Food Stories


Hope you are hungry. Becoming America’s Food Stories recalls the tales that have been told around my family’s dinner table. The histories explain the motivations over bowls of macaroni, antics play out while slurping soup, and laughter echoes throughout the dining room. Pull up a seat. There’s always room.
The Heart of Bakers and Artists is set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, 1911. The story follows nine-year-old Lily, an American-born child of Sicilian immigrants, who wants to prove she is not a little kid. To be a big kid in the crowded tenement neighborhoods, she must tackle bigotry, bullies, disasters, dotty bakers, and learn to cross the street by herself
The Dreams of Singers and Sluggers picks up where The Heart of Bakers and Artists left off.Lily has big dreams to sing out with her powerful voice, but must do EVERYTHING, since Mama fell into a deep depression, the baby is sick, and the “Black Hand” terrorizes the neighborhood, threatening her chance to sing at the New York Highlanders Fourth of July baseball game.
Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.

8 thoughts

  1. Giving a big box to a child can give hours of play. My son in law sometimes would bring a big box home on Friday’s creating a hobo house for the girls for the weekend. He’d often even cut a hole in the top for a drop light. Their weekend house often gave him quiet time on the couch!

    Liked by 1 person

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