Books

Never thought i'd have a blog post titled "books"! I'm really not a reader and don't normally choose to read in my free time. But since most of my hobbies require the summertime season, i figure i can do this reading thing.

Right now I am enjoying 3 books. (it's all or nothing)

Don't let the corny title scare you. 52 things kids need from mom is a very good book! Angela is a great author, i've read her stuff before. Her suggestions (and they are just suggestions) make sense, and aren't overwhelming. Just good old encouraging reminders of what our kids need from us. She uses examples from her experiences which is fun to read. Some of things are so simple, like thing #4 "watching them till they are out of sight". I started doing that with Adam. I have always taken him to the door when i drop him off at school. But instead of just turning around and leaving right away like i used to, i watch him until he's turns that corner inside the school and i can't see him anymore. He actually turns around and looks at me right before he's out of sight. I hope that makes him feel good to see me stand there watching him until he's gone. It only takes an extra 10 seconds of my time each day.

Backyard Gardener, a Christmas gift, is a very helpful book on raising and growing your own food, living off your land. It's got our wheels spinning about how to best use our space here for our garden and animals, what to add, what to do different... We're already doing some of the things in here, to a certain degree. But we have a lot to learn! It's a very detailed resource, as it thoroughly covers every veggie, fruit tree, herb, nut, etc. that you can grow and tips on raising animals for meat and eggs. It also gave me the itch to grow stuff NOW, so we made a quick visit to Stauffer's the other day and picked up a few seeds. Now my kitchen window looks like a mini garden filled with this!

(alfalpha sprouts, flowers, salad mix, grass-just for fun-, tomatoes, and herbs).

Power of a Praying Parent...i just read thru but am reading again. The most helpful book in how to/what to pray for in our children. this book is an excellent guideline for praying for your kids. She gives examples too on incorporating scripture w/ our prayers.

The boys love being read to, which surprises me because i don't think of them as having a good attention span. We came home from the library today w/ lots of new books. But I'm contemplating what new chapter book series to start up on. They liked Charlotte's web, which is a chapter book, but it's not a series so after a week that was done. Let me know if you have any ideas on that.