Restless to Renewed

11/16/2025

11/10/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HzCApaZvo/

The Book Boat Women of the Mississippi — 1904

In 1904, when river towns along the Mississippi had little access to schools or libraries, a small group of women brought knowledge to the water. They were known as the Book Boat Women — educators, widows, and dreamers who turned old barges into floating libraries that drifted from town to town, delivering books, newspapers, and hope to riverside families.

One of them, Eleanor Finch, a former schoolteacher from Iowa, spent her savings on a decommissioned cargo barge. She and two friends painted it white, filled it with donated books, and christened it The Knowledge Belle. They loaded it with shelves, kerosene lamps, and a hand-cranked printing press that produced small pamphlets of local poetry and news.

As the Book Boat drifted downstream, children would run to the shore, shouting, “The library’s here!” Farmers traded apples, quilts, or cornmeal for borrowed books. In a time when literacy was rare in rural America, the women taught reading lessons right on deck — often by lantern light as river fog curled around the hull.

During one harsh winter, when the river froze, Eleanor refused to stop. She walked miles across icy banks carrying sacks of books on her back, ensuring no child missed their reading. “The river,” she said, “only sleeps. The stories do not.”

By the 1910s, their floating library inspired copycat boats in Minnesota and Illinois, spreading learning through the heartland. The Book Boat Women proved that education could travel — even on restless waters.

10/03/2025

Just released!

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09/22/2025

A couple of years ago, a few R2R friends went to a Janet Clazzy Christmas special at the Temple Theater in Portland, TN. We interviewed Janet on the podcast that year. The event was sophisticated, festive, and simply beautiful. This year, she will be featured in another Christmas program (Carpenters Christmas). My husband and I will be going, and tickets are less than $22 each. Make plans to get into the Christmas spirit with Janet! https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/templetheatre/7172/event/1441966
https://www.templetheatretn.com/

09/22/2025

Friends. Robin and I have been working with Pam Brown on her book, Becoming Shoudless. If you are interested in joining her Advanced Reader Team, sign up on the link below. Pam is a woman with many talents, working as a nonprofit fundraiser and as a life coach for women. Her only request is that if you join the team, you leave an honest review on Amazon after reading the book. Thank you!

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08/13/2025

Ruth's Journey of Courage and Redemption https://restlesstorenewed.buzzsprout.com/2197291/episodes/17565217-ruth-s-journey-of-courage-and-redemption

08/11/2025

I am playing around with creating computer art. I can't draw or paint!