#ccls

I'm going to a child life conference in Los Angeles! So I won't be online starting from tomorrow but I will be back online most likely by Sunday night. I’ll still have my scheduled incorrect quotes going but that’s about it. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to meet other child life specialists and child life students like me. I've never gone to a conference before so I'm not sure what to expect but I'm nervous and excited anyway!

I boldly thought to myself, that doesn’t apply to child life because we’re there to normalize the environment for kids and support their coping!

She was an 18 month old with partial blindness and slow processing skills due to a drug overdose. I met her last week during a pediatric playroom appointment where I solely observed her but yesterday, I got to read to her and sing her favorite lullabies. She doesn’t talk but she was VERY vocal yesterday and even kept saying “hi” to me repeatedly, it was sooo cute!

She did start crying at some point which made me panic because I didn’t know what I was allowed to do to comfort her. But thankfully a nurse came in and told me that she wanted to be held, which was proven to be accurate after the nurse picked her up from her wagon and held her and then passed her to me. She REFUSED to let me put her down afterward, she would lean her head on my shoulder and play with my badge while occasionally looking up at me, say “hi”, and then put her head back on my shoulder.

I hadn’t held a baby in well over a decade so I wasn’t used to it and gods, my arms were getting tired but it was so worth it! Her story is so sad but she’s such a sweet girl who’s already faced so much adversity. I know that I’ll be seeing a lot more cases like hers or even worse once I get further into my child life specialist career. But for my very first patient, a completely adorable sweetheart, I’ll cherish these moments with her.

It’s finally time to vote for our first book! The results of our first poll have classics as our winner, followed by fairy tales. I’ve picked three fiction and one non-fiction based on your book suggestions. Now it’s time to vote the book!

SEPTEMBER BOOK POLL - closes on September 15th

please vote only if you’re going to at least try to read the book

please, don’t write your vote under this post!

refer to the tag #ccls and #cozycottageliterarysociety for anything related to the club

if you don’t know what the CCLS is, here’s our FAQ and our rules

So, here we are! The Cozy Cottage Literary Society is officially opened. Here are some rules & guidelines for the Club and discussions:

General Rules:

You don’t need to follow me on Tumblr to be part of the club

You don’t need to be a core/aesthetic blog to be part of the club, just to be interested in the genre we’re reading (here an example list)

I am 26 years old and other members will be 20+, though our content will be sfw please be aware of this if you’re a minor

Though I know our main goal will be to read and enjoy books together, I want this to be an inclusive place. If you think you can’t deal with people because of [insert reason: race, gender, sexuality etc], then I’d suggest you think twice about joining.

You don’t need to read with us every single month, just try to be a little consistent and vote only if you know you’re going to try and read the book

Book Rules:

The book will be chosen by poll a month prior, so we all have time to get a copy

I know this might feel an issue for some: buying books is not a requirement. If you can, head to the local library. I also hope we’ll read enough classics to have some books available online for free.

At the same time, you can read the format you prefer. Book, e-book, audiobook: the choice is yours!

If English is not your first language, don’t worry! You can read the books in whatever language you feel the most comfortable with.

We will use Discord for the monthly discussion about the book of the month. This way, no one will need to make an account on a second social media to enjoy the club.

Discord activity, however, is not required. If you want to keep it to Tumblr, that’s perfect. I will post discussions about the books here, too.

If you didn’t finish the book, you’re still welcome to discuss it! Why didn’t you get to the end? We want to know!

If you have any idea or activity in mind, I encourage you to propose it in the Tumblr tag or Discord. This is our book club and any input to grow its activities is appreciated.

the official tags are: #cozycottageliterarysociety, #ccls, #booknameCCLS for the discussion during the reading month. Please warn when you post spoilers: tag it, put it under a cut. Just let other readers know!

Between members:

As I said, I want this to be an enjoyable experience for everyone. Keep it civil when you discuss your opinions on the book! And please don’t let fandom culture rule the tone of the discussion.

No spam is allowed

No sexual/explicit content is allowed

No slurs are allowed, against any minority, religious group or person.

Preferred pronouns are to be respected. Be sure to let us know what yours are when you introduce yourself!

Sensitive topics might pop up when discussing books. Hateful comments or hateful speech won’t be tolerated.

Any disruptive behaviour will lead to ban from the Discord and you’ll be removed from the network. 

No one is forced, or should feel forced, to follow other members of the club on Tumblr nor to interact with other members of the club outside of the club if they don’t desire to do so. I’m kinda sad I need to include this one, but this being 2019 internet I feel pressured to do so

This post is long overdue, and I’m sorry for it. My life is really busy atm. But we finally have the winner of the September book poll!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde will be our first book!

We will start reading on September 23rd. It has been pointed out that this time of the year is full of “end of the month celebration”, so I’d suggest to set a reading time of four weeks (from Sept 23d to Oct 20th) and plan our monthly discussion during the last week of October (21st-27th). This way, Halloween and November 1st won’t be in the way. If we find out we can’t finish the book, we will postpone the book chat and continue reading!

Where to find a copy of the book:

The library is the perfect place to start! Since it’s an old book, it should be easy to find copies

gutenberg.org and archive.org should both have copies if you prefer ebooks

US residents should also have the Libby app option! (which is something I really envy you guys)