A Warm Winter Day

Warm Winter Day equals a trip to the zoo...

...and take-out pizza for dinner.
(Early bedtime, too.)

A Book For the New Year

I've spent much time since Christmas speaking of my goals for the coming months and of books I want to read, both to myself and to my children.  Dare I propose to you that there is a book that all moms should read in this new year that could bring all of our goals and aspirations into focus? 

The first book I checked off my list this year was Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson.  Haven't we all been there?  I remember clearly having three small children, ages three and under.  When Owen was born, Gavin was three and Maddie was two years, two weeks old.  Owen was a fussy, sensitive, snuggly, needy baby.  Most days were about tending to the basics-- getting everyone dressed and fed-- and most days I felt inadequate and helpless.  I have good memories of that time, but I still wondered if I played enough, smiled enough, loved enough. 

Fast forward six years.  I now have five children, ages ten and under, and it's a different world.  My youngest is independent and confident.  My oldest children help with everything from laundry to dishes, plus they are companions to me and to each other.  I don't have as many feelings of desperation, but I still wonder if I discipline enough or too much, if I'm teaching them what they need to know or pushing them to learn what they're not ready for.  

Once I began this book, I wanted to keep reading.  It was a balm to my soul.  I found myself nodding along and I found myself searching my heart. I loved the conversational style and I loved how the authors took turns writing, one from a "living it now" perspective and the other from a "been there, done that" mentor perspective.  What made this book so refreshing was that it was not a how-to book of ideas or suggestions.  Instead it spoke of accepting motherhood with selflessness and of seeing our children as souls needing grace.  

My favorite passage from the book, and the one that has come back to me over and over, was when Sarah Mae speaks of a story that Sally Clarkson told from her time as a young mother: 

"She felt like her efforts weren't proving fruitful, and no matter what she did with her children or how many times she told them what to do, it wasn't working.  Clay [her husband] said to her, 'Honey, at what age did you stop sinning? Because that's when our children will stop.' " 

Desperate is not a book of formulas or trendy parenting advice. It speaks to the heart of mothers with Biblical edification.  It takes the pressure off of families to be perfect and lays a foundation for grace-filled parenting.  

Sarah Mae says, "There are forty different ways to parent, but we need to ask, 'Lord, how do you want me to raise my kids?' "

*****

I was provided an advanced reading copy of this book through BookSneeze®, but all opinions are my own.

My "Kid Lit" Year Wrap-Up

At the end of the year, I shared my personal reading totals, but mentioned that I was not including the books I read aloud with the kids in the count.  However, for years I have been keeping a simple list of the books we share together.  I make a copy for each child and put it in their school portfolios at the end of the school year.



Click to download your FREE copy of my basic Read Aloud Log Sheet.

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I began choosing longer books with chapters to read aloud in the afternoon when Gavin was three and Maddie was almost two.  Sometimes I read to Gavin during Maddie's nap time and sometimes she would join us, playing quietly on the floor. Each child develops differently, but Gavin had the attention span to stay with a book over several days or weeks of reading, plus reading good children's literature was more stimulating to me-- a mom of tiny children-- than endless board books.  To this day, Maddie will sit and listen to anything-- from a simple picture book to an advanced classic. 

Now, with five children, boys and girls, ranging in age from two to ten, the choosing of read aloud material is trickier.  Good books bridge age gaps and gender gaps, but I try to vary between adventure and gentility, mystery and comedy, animal stories and biographies.   I don't require that every child listen to every book.  Knowing that they have their own tastes, I let their interests lead. 

Now on to the highlights...and a look ahead to our 2013 reading plans. 

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The kids and I shared twenty books together this year, which does not count school books or picture books. (It doesn't even count The Trumpet of the Swan that we finished reading with our small homeschool co-op this year. That was a great one, though, so I should count it!  Okay.  We read twenty-one books together this year. 

In January 2012, we began the Henry Huggins series by Beverly Cleary.  Geared towards boys, this six book set has stories of fishing, a clubhouse, a mangy dog, and responsibility.  Geared towards boys, it was still my favorite of all the books I read aloud to the kids the whole rest of the year!

We also read the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing series by Judy Blume.  It was wildly funny, but I was glad to be reading aloud because, beyond the first book, I needed to edit a few things out as I read.

We sprinkled a few independent choices in among our series reading, like Lassie Come-Home adapted by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Susan Jeffers (two of our favorites!), Palm Tree Manhunt by Paul Hutchens, and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

We ended the year with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever because we read it every year and who am I to mess with tradition? 

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I'm beginning this New Year with the Rebecca (American Girl) series.  Maddie has been wanting to read this series for a couple of years and I think Alaine is old enough to enjoy them, too.  The stories are simple (though often educational) and there are just enough illustrations to keep her interest. I won't ask my boys to listen in, but I bet they will anyway.  If we get time, we'll  tackle the  Caroline series, too.

For the boys, I'll swing over to some of the Encyclopedia Brown series.  My husband read them as a kid, and I did, too, and I know my mystery-solving boys will eat it up.  I especially love that each chapter is its own stand-alone mystery so even if we go days without reading, we can pick the book back up without a problem.  We don't plan to go days without reading, though! For now, we're  reading one mystery a day at the table after we've all finished eating.

I also have plans to read books with wide appeal this year like The Borrowers and  Pippi Longstocking,  Maybe we'll even finish up our Beverly Cleary run with Emily's Runaway Imagination and Mitch and Amy.

What did you read with your children last year?  Do you have plans for 2013?

Names of Jesus Learning and Memory Cards

During the month of December, the kids and I spent our morning Bible time studying the many names of Jesus, using my friend Allyson's Names of Jesus Advent Cards.    Memorization was never one of our goals, but they challenged each other every day to remember as many as possible.  On the last day before Christmas break, Brian promised them a treat if they could name all 25.  They listed 24 names and then stalled out.  (They got a treat anyway.)

Since there are many more than 25 names for Jesus...and since my children responded so well to this learning format...and since Jesus does not end when the Christmas decorations get packed away, I asked Allyson if she would mind if I created my own follow-up set of 25 Names of Jesus Learning and Memory Cards. 

We plan to begin studying these new cards when we start back to school in February, but they could also be tucked away (or pinned) until next December when Advent season begins again. 

"If Christmas does not mean everything in July, then in truth it means nothing in December. If I need a cooling in the weather and the sight of familiar decorations to cause my heart to leap like a lamb--  if my heart cannot celebrate today as I consider the birth of our Lord Jesus, then Christmas reveals a problem in me."
~Michael Card~

Would you like to print a set of these cards?

Click here for your FREE download!

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*****
Download the Expansion Pack with 6 additional cards!-- new December 2013

Resolutions are Pish-Posh

Resolutions are funny things.  I make grand plans and then lose my resolve within a few weeks.  Then I feel guilty or discouraged that I didn't follow through. 

Maybe it's all simply a word game, but instead of resolutions, I like to make goals for the coming year. 

Resolutions are rigid and can be broken.  Goals are flexible. Goals are ideas of things I'd like to try or accomplish, not rules I've set for myself. 

Last year, I posted a short list of goals for 2012.  (The lines and red words are my updates.)

• Make a pastry pie crust from scratch and make a graham cracker pie crust from scratch--
  made lots of new recipes in the kitchen, but never got around to the crusts
• Read the Samantha (American Girl) series aloud with Maddie
• Read the Henry and Ribsy series aloud with all the kids
• Write monthly letters to our Compassion child-- wrote more than usual, but not every month
• Learn to make a yarn pom-pom  : photos here and here
  
• Work with the kids on better stewardship with their money :  details here
  
• Move our books from boxes to shelves-- unloaded some of our boxed books onto our first built-in wall unit.  The rest will be unpacked onto the second built-in which was installed in November and still needs to be painted.

I also mentioned we were contemplating a dog.  We ended up with a black Lab puppy and 3 cats!

Some goals were not made until mid-year.  Last January, running was not even on my radar, but in the fall, I began training for a 5K. I've finished the first phase of my training program a few weeks ago and am starting the second phase this month.

These are some of my goals for 2013:

Short-term Goals:

• Work on the walls:
  
  1. Have the 3 boys paint pieces of abstract art for their bedroom wall 
  2. Make a large photo poster for our living room wall
  3. Update some of our  frames with more current photos

• Finish moving our books from boxes to shelves.
• Attempt some of the ideas on my Winter Pinterest Board

Longer-term Goals: 

• Run a 5K in the spring
• Work with the kids on responsibility and finishing tasks to completion
• Potty train Alaine
• Continue to find ways to welcome people into our home
• Have a date night with Brian (at home or out) once a month

Do you make resolutions? What are your plans for this new year?