Five Things: “Special Events”

05 Friday May 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Home and Family, Home Education

Tags

children, engagement, homeschooling, marriage, motherhood, Nature, pink eye remedy, Scholé Sisters, Special Events, The Friday Five

Here’s some of what we’ve been up to lately:

My boys recently participated in their first musical stage play, “No Strings Attached: The Musical Adventures of Pinocchio.” They had a fantastic time playing 19th-century school boys, donkeys, a marionette, and singing fish. They were the youngest in the production, so the five-hour-long dress rehearsal was pretty exhausting for them (and their parents), but they absolutely had a blast.
When the last performance was over, our five-year-old shed a few tears. I assured him that he would have the opportunity to be in another play sometime, but he was quite upset that it would likely not be Pinocchio again. “I like THIS play!”
He later had a dream that they did the play again, and he reported the following morning with a beaming smile, “It was the most wonderful dream!”
Pink eye isn’t exactly the kind of visitor that you usually want to celebrate as a “special event,” but it’s been a guest at our house for a couple weeks this spring so it’s at least worth a mention. We’ve had pretty good luck getting rid of it by mixing a 1/2 teaspoon boric acid in one cup boiled water. Once it has completely cooled, you can place a few drops into each eye. We had our kiddos lay down on a table and close their eyes while we dripped a bit of the water onto each eye near the tear duct. Then they could open their eyes so that the water could come in. This is way easier than holding a spoon over open and very frightened eyes.
I invited my local Scholé Sisters group over for a Nature Study Day at our place. We live on seven mostly-treed acres, have a creek running through our property, and last fall seeded a part of our land for wildflowers. We feel so blessed to have such a lovely slice of creation right outside our door, and it was so much fun to share it with friends! We identified trees and flowers, had a picnic lunch, and the kids spent the rest of the time playing in the creek. Having other curious moms around with their various field guides also meant that we now know a little bit more about what’s growing on our land than we did before.
We also had our last day of co-op classes a week ago. In the first hour, my youngest got a cookie in his Hands-on-Science class, and my oldest enjoyed a cupcake complete with his own personally-decorated edible stamp for his Stamping Through History class. As if that weren’t enough of an end-of-year celebration, the much-anticipated Book Club Party awaited them after recess. Each family was to choose a favorite book and bring a snack and an activity to share with the whole elementary group. We settled on Stuart Little the morning of, and I like to think our little table-top presentation turned out alright considering the high level of procrastination. After so much excitement the kids fell fast asleep in the van while I ran errands.
Unfortunately when we got to the library and I actually had to get out of the van and take the kids with me, my little guy didn’t wake up happy and said he didn’t feel that well. I knew we only needed to go inside for five minutes, so I carried him–the five-year-old on my right arm, purse and bag of books on my left. Well, that did it, apparently. Just as we stepped up to the front door of the public library the poor little man puked all over my left side. And my purse. And on the bag of books. And all over the steps.

Maybe eating all those cheese cubes after an equally large amount of sugary treats wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Again, I wouldn’t normally consider sharing a puke story as part of a “special event,” but how often do I get to be “that mom” with the sick kid who just made a horrid mess for everyone else to walk through? I’m at least hoping this was a “special” occasion–and not a new norm.
And, when I think about it, I am so incredibly thankful that the mess happened outside where a kind man washed it off with a few buckets of water. A few more steps and it would have been inside the library itself: on the carpet, smelling up the whole place for who-knows-how-long. Or it could have happened in the van. God was merciful. And I was thankful. With no fever and the sick feeling lasting only about six hours, I also thanked the Lord that this was apparently just a response to way too much junk food and not a virus.
Our last day of co-op sure was fun–a real blowout!
This isn’t a last-but-not-least kind of #5. No, this is a save-the-best-for-last #5. Ten years ago today it was Saturday. I was studying for the last finals week of my senior year of college. Later that afternoon, I played paintball with a few friends, including this guy named Nathaniel. After the game we all returned to campus and discussed dinner plans. My dad had told me to go to a local Italian restaurant to try a few dishes so he could plan for an after-graduation lunch for our family and close friends when they would all be up for the ceremony the following weekend, so I lamented that I wouldn’t be joining the group for dinner. Nathaniel said he had a project to work on. We all parted ways.
But an hour later Nathaniel asked if he could borrow my camera for this project of his. I obliged.
After cleaning up for the evening, I grabbed some books to study at a local coffee shop after dinner and headed to the restaurant. I asked for the manager, just as my dad had instructed, and she curiously led me to a table in the back. A table set for two. A table where a cleaned-up Nathaniel sat with his Bible open to the verse that says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing…”
After a few nervous words and a question from him, I said, “Yes.” And he said he loved me for the first time. He pulled out a ring and my camera.A “project”, huh?!?

If I had known what his “project” was, I would have probably worn some make-up. 😉

How about you? Any special happenings or celebrations lately? Any “special” visitors or messes?

Learning from My Children: To Dance Like David

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Home and Family, Living Faith

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boys, children, dancing before the Lord, dancing for joy, dancing like David, Joy, Learning from my Children, meditations, motherhood, Music, parenting, Reflections, worship

https://i0.wp.com/www.jesuswalk.com/david/images/tissot-david-dancing-before-the-ark-640x444.jpg

“David Dancing before the Ark” by James Tissot. The ephod might have been a simple robe like this, or it might have been a loincloth.

Last night as I was making dinner I put on a Fernando Ortega CD.

My seven-year-old began moving to the music, something reminiscent of interpretive dance and ballet, though he has had no instruction and has seriously no chance at all of picking up such graceful moves from his parents.

At the end of “All Creatures of our God and King” my son announced that he wanted to dance to that song for next year’s talent show.

My initial reaction was less than enthusiastic. I’m a rather reserved person. I’d be somewhat embarrassed for him if he did something like that, something so…so…contrary to our culture’s gender stereotypes. I wouldn’t want him to be labeled or made fun of.

And then it hit me: I was responding in my mind like Michal did to David.

Are you familiar with the story?

And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.

Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

My precious boy was dancing before the Lord, in jeans and no shirt, joyfully moving his feet and lifting his hands to heaven, rejoicing in a song of praise that he has long loved. Not unlike David danced before the Lord to celebrate the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

And I was thinking about what other people would think of it if they saw it. Not unlike Michal, who despised David for his exuberant worship and criticized him with biting sarcasm.

My son wasn’t the one missing something–I was.

“I will celebrate before the Lord,” David responded. “I will be more lightly esteemed than this!”

Oh for the freedom to express our love for the Lord, giving Him the worship that He is due without allowing the fear of man to hinder us.

Am I willing to be undignified in the views of the world? Am I willing to come to God as a joyful child? Without reserve? Without concern?

Am I willing to give my children the freedom to do so?

My boy may not remember this idea by the time the talent show comes around next year, but I at least am taking his example to heart.

Has the Lord ever taught you a lesson through the simple, unreserved faith of your children? Please share in the comments below!

Embracing Short Lessons

27 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Lauren Scott in Home Education

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Charlotte Mason, children, Children are born persons, education, For the Children's Sake, homeschooling, motherhood, Right Start Math, Short Lessons, Struggling Learner, Teaching Math, Teaching Reading

I had an a-ha moment today.

And who would have thought that it would come from two very different experiences happening on the same day?

195

I’ve posted before about the initial struggles I had with our math curriculum. Since that first-year learning curve, it’s been pretty smooth sailing. Until this week.

Our curriculum made some huge leaps this week, as far as I’m concerned. My oldest son struggled with two separate lessons that took his addition skills and subtraction skills up a few notches. And by a few notches, I mean like FIVE. There were some tears, and I decided to split his work for one lesson over two days. “Short lessons” is one of many principles of education promoted by Charlotte Mason, a British educator at the turn of the 20th century, whose methods I have been reading about in For the Children’s Sake.

We would revisit his worksheet tomorrow, I said. In the mean time, I did some digging.

Looking back over our lessons, I realized that while the jump in addition may simply be larger than I agree is appropriate (at least for a child who is young-for-grade-level), the leap in subtraction was mostly difficult for two reasons:

I didn’t exactly understand what I was to be teaching, since it is something that simply isn’t taught in a traditional approach to elementary math (let me know if any of you are used to learning to mentally subtract two-digit numbers with borrowing BEFORE learning the pencil-and-paper algorithm, k?). Once I did MY homework, however, and began to really understand the strategies for myself, I realized that I had made things more complicated than they were intended to be.
The curriculum did not focus on subtraction for nearly 30 lessons! Sure, there was occasional practice in a warm up or on a review sheet, but the concepts were not discussed in the slightest. I had to realize that the lessons alone were NOT sufficient to prepare my son for the challenge of mental subtraction with borrowing. But, as I examined my text book, they weren’t intended to. Our curriculum, you see, is more than lessons–it includes many suggested math games and facts practice sheets. The lessons introduce new material. The games provide the bulk of the practice. But we rarely played the games if they weren’t already included in a lesson’s activities.

My conclusion from this negative experience is that I’ve been too focused on getting to the next lesson. Or to the next child on a given day. My son is slow to get his work done, so we’ve not had time leftover for games. Instead of seeing that as a hint to slow down, take a day off for a “Game Day”, and build the skills that would help him work faster, I’ve plowed forward, getting us further in the book but not necessarily further in skills and understanding.

As all of that was sinking in this morning, I had the pleasure of a very positive experience with my younger son.

Today I got to introduce my five-year-old to “one-thousand”. Place value may not seem that exciting to adults, but when you’re five, and you’re the little guy, it’s pretty exhilarating to finally feel like you are catching up with your big brother. After the concepts were introduced, one of the exercises was to write in his math journal “5000 dogs”, “8000 pigs”, “3000 cats”, etc. This little man is just beginning reading lessons, and we’ve been stuck pretty much at the beginning. He often forgets his letters and their sounds, and the idea that sounds, once identified, can be blended together to form words has been pretty much lost on him.

But today…

I helped him say each sound of each word in turn, then write the correct letter. He actually guessed the letters correctly most of the time. Then we worked on sounding out the words he’d written. He blended sounds together rather painlessly for the first time ever!

We were both thrilled!

He happily copied his name and the words “can read!” right next to where I had written them on his paper. A math lesson turned into our most successful reading lesson yet!

We were so excited and felt so full that it seemed silly to do anything more! In the past, if we had made some progress on reading I would have thought “more is better” and pressed on to do the next lesson–or at least tried to re-focus us on finishing the math lesson. But today I realized that the joy of learning is the ultimate goal. And I saw very clearly how pushing for more would have ruined the moment for both me and my son.

It made me wonder: How often has my son had a “moment” in his learning, but I didn’t detect it? How often have I squelched his joy in learning by trying to move ahead too quickly?

With my oldest’s recent painful math lessons, I saw how my desire to “finish this today” and “check off a box and move on” over the past several months has done him a disservice. We would have done much better to have played more games by insisting on less arbitrary “progress”. Behold, the negative effects of ignoring Charlotte Mason’s concept of short lessons.

Once I got around to my second-born, I was ready to put the rubber to the road, and we had the incredibly awesome experience of seeing the joy of learning spill over into the rest of the day because we didn’t bury it in any more school work.

Less is more. Especially when you’re five. And maybe even in your thirties, but that’s another post for another day.

We are forging ahead, but our destination is now a more distant consideration. Stopping to smell the proverbial roses along the way is now on my list of “objectives”.

I have learned today that I am teaching a child, my child–not a subject or a curriculum. I’ve heard others say that before, but now I own it by experience.

Any other teachers or homeschool mamas out there? Have you had this “a-ha” moment, too? If you’re into Charlotte Mason’s philosophies, how has implementing the principle of short lessons helped you and your students?

Of Children and Angels: A Thought Experiment

14 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Lauren Scott in Home and Family

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

children, children and angels, do not despise, love, meditations, motherhood, parenting, thought experiment

Ditto by Raffael, public domain

Imagine with me, if you will, that your children are little cherubs instead of mere humans. (I know, I know, this is an inaccurate view of both children and of angels, but bear with the thought experiment.)

Suppose your little cherubs, instead of being in your care every day and every night, were instead entrusted to your care only during the day, and you were to return them to their heavenly Father every evening. What would they report to Him?

Would they climb up on His lap, throw their arms around Him and say, “Oh, Father, I had the most wonderful day! This ‘mother’ you have given me is so kind! She is so much like You!”

Or would the child perhaps say through a sniffle, “Oh, Father! She yelled and yelled and yelled! I wanted her to see my picture, but she was too busy. I wanted her to play with me, but she had ‘work’ to do. And when I cried, she yelled and scolded me even more. Oh, I wish I could just be with You.”

Or perhaps, “Oh, Father, today was rough. I disobeyed ‘mother’ and she spanked me. She told me to talk to You about it, too. I’m sorry. She said she would talk to You, too, since she yelled when she didn’t want to. I guess we both need You. Will You help ‘mother’ and me to be more like You?”

Or perhaps, “Umm… Hi. Do You really love me? This woman who You gave me to isn’t very nice. She says she loves you and that I should, too, but she ignores me, and when she doesn’t ignore me, she hits me. And I don’t even know what I did wrong. Are You even there?”

Point being: If we could imagine the report our children would give to God each day were they to literally go and sit on His lap, how would that change the way we treat them? And besides a report that could be given, how does our behavior coupled with our claims to follow Christ add up in their little heads? Do we put a stumbling block in front of them? Do we upset their faith by our lack of self-control?

Or do we, by both consistent love and consistent training (and confessing humility when it is–so often–needed), demonstrate the heart of the God who gave His own Son so that these precious little ones could someday call Him Father?

Now, the Bible is clear—children are not angels—angels are more like bright, shining, terrifying mighty-men than like the silly little cherub images that humanity has conjured up. But Jesus does say in Matthew 18:10,

See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

Directly preceding this verse is the exhortation to pluck out our eye or cut off our hand if it causes us to sin. Do we take Jesus’ command to “not despise” our children this seriously? What gets in the way of loving our children the way we ought? Are we willing to part with whatever it is? For their sake? For the sake of the glory and gospel of Christ? In the very fear of God?

Lauren’s Bible Reading Plan for Busy Moms

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by Lauren Scott in Living Faith

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Bible Reading Plan, children, devotional, motherhood, New Years 2016, Seriously Satirical

I have done several kinds of Bible reading plans since I became a believer in my early teens. The first few times around it was difficult to find the discipline to read the Bible every day all year long, so I usually left off somewhere between February and September.

As I grew up, I became a bit more disciplined. In recent years, I have followed the reading plan I found in my day planner and Justin Taylor’s Plan for Shirkers and Slackers. Both are wonderful plans.

In the past year, however, that discipline has largely fallen apart in favor of working through some much-needed topical bible studies—when I could find the time. But when I finished the last study, it left a vacuum of sorts, both in my schedule and in my plan. As a result I turned to My Utmost for His Highest in the mornings.

Bless you, Oswald Chambers, for your brevity.

This devotional only takes about five minutes, and it has been a wonderful tool to spark prayer, meditation on scripture, and worship. Occasionally I also pull out The Valley of Vision as a further aid to prayer and worship. I plan on continuing with this, but at the same time it’s not the Bible, and I find myself hungering for more of God’s word in my daily fare.

But who has time for a devotional and several chapters of Bible reading before the kids get up and it’s time to make breakfast? I know some of you do—good for you! Keep it up! But others of us can’t afford to chip away at our sleep (whether in the morning or at night) due to our current season of life or health issues. Can I get an Amen?

One of the most difficult aspects of sticking to a Bible reading plan for us busy (and sleep-dependent) moms is the question of when we will do it and do it consistently. When it comes to developing habits we can stick with, it helps to attach our new habit to a habit that we already practice each day, like praying as a family before sending the kids to bed, drinking a glass of water as soon as we wake up, or taking medicine before a certain meal. With this principle in mind, I’ve created this Eight-Step process for establishing a Consistent Bible Reading Time. Here we go:

Lauren’s Bible Reading Plan for Busy Moms

Step One: Locate a Bible (a compacted size may be preferable) and a Bookmark

Yes, you can find it.

Step Two: Place Bookmark in Bible

It’s handy if the bookmark comes already attached!

Step Three: Locate the Toilet

Step Four: Locate a Drawer or Basket near the Toilet and put the Bible in it

You know, a place where you already keep necessary items.

Warning! Shelves or Baskets above the Toilet are not a Good Idea if you do not own a Water Proof Microban Bible. No, I don’t know this from Experience, but I do have a rather Vivid Imagination.

Step Five: When nature calls, or when the kids have driven you crazy and you need to Relieve Yourself of Burdens and Refuel Your Soul, go do your thing in the bathroom (locking the door behind you). But be sure to leave your Phone in your pocket and read your Bible instead.

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Step Six: When you are Done, be sure to mark your place with the Bookmark and put the Bible back in its special Drawer or Basket BEFORE you do anything to soil your hands. Just because we’re in a Common Place doesn’t mean we have to treat the Bible as Common—Keep. It. Holy.

Step Seven: Flush and wash hands. (Of course.)

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Step Eight: Step back into the Domestic Mayhem with a Smile.

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That’s it. Just read the Bible from front to back and use a book mark to keep your place. Or if you get bogged down in the Old Testament, read one book in the Old and then the next in the New Testament, using two book marks, and just go back and forth after each book until you’ve read the Old Testament once and the New Testament…more than once. You could even just start with a goal reading through the New Testament, or just the Gospels on repeat. Whatever your preference, my plan is all about finding the time to actually do it by anchoring it to something you find time for every day anyway.

My personal goal is to actually make it through the Bible in a year by reading it while I’m on the can, so I aim to read three chapters every time I sit down and I’m not-in-a-hurry. You can read different amounts each time or set a goal like I did. Either way, you’re redeeming that alone time and saturating your mind with truth. I’m pretty well convinced that it will work since I’ve read through several books simply by keeping them in the bathroom. In fact, when you’re done with this pass through the Bible, check out Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic—my all-time favorite mommy bathroom book (short chapters, anyone?).

Now, I know this may not work for everyone…for those of you who are very regular you may never spend more than two minutes on the toilet. Take that minuscule period of time to count your blessings, favored ones. For the rest of us, we know we’ll be spending some considerable time in the bathroom—and especially on days when we just need a few more minutes of solitude while the kids are silently destroying something in another room (at least it won’t involve toilet paper this time, right?).

And just think! When you finally get up from reading the scriptures, and hopefully praying for God to give you grace to love your children as you should, you will be so much better prepared to not rip their precious little heads off when you find them painting the windows with peanut butter. Or flooding the kitchen and living room by emptying the water filter reservoir. (True story.) Imagine if you’d spent that time on your phone heathenishly playing meaningless games, scrolling endlessly through your news feed, or watching late night TV excerpts and the latest movie trailers on YouTube. You’d surely feel guilty and make the kids pay for it. But instead you were reading the bible. No guilt. No guilt at all.

…And hopefully no reactions you’ll later regret.

And who knows, perhaps sanctifying potty time will motivate you to consecrate the space more often (read: keep that porcelain throne spotless and shining—and maybe even light a candle. What could be more inviting?).

At any rate, I’m highly optimistic that this new Bible reading plan will go quite smoothly for me this year.

The Grace of Grape Tomatoes

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Lauren Scott in Home and Family, Living Faith

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

clumsy me, devotional, grape tomatoes as a means of grace, grocery shopping, He Remains Faithful, Jesus, love, meditations, motherhood, weaknesses revealed

I was on my period. I hadn’t had enough to eat. It was about 11am, and I was at the grocery store with two little boys. We grabbed some bananas and carrots, and then I saw them: organic grape tomatoes. With the exception of one picky eater, my family enjoys snacking on these little red gems. So I picked up a package to examine it. Some of the tomatoes looked a bit wilted, so I placed it back on the temperature-controlled shelf and began to reach for another box.

And that’s when it happened. The box didn’t exactly like the way I had set it down, apparently, so in protest it decided to slowly lean forward until it fell to the ground, bouncing from cauliflower to lettuce to floor, where the box finally burst open, allowing over half of the precious fruit to scatter on the icky grocery store tile. Since there was no store clerk around to tell me, “Oh, it’s ok, I’ll take care of that,” I bent over and picked up every last tomato, closed up the box, and put it dutifully in my cart, with the words, “You break it you buy it,” spinning around in my head.

I thought at this point God was trying to teach me something: despite my being a bit of a grump about the whole thing, at least I did the right thing by picking them up and paying for the potentially damaged goods. But God wasn’t done with me yet, nor was He done with the grape tomatoes.

We meandered through the store, grabbing the things on my list (or was this the day that I went in for nothing more than peanut butter and made a list in my head as I shopped and ended up with half a basket full of groceries?), until we finally made it to the checkout line and then headed home.

My blood sugar levels were dropping by now and my muscles felt a bit weak. But we had to unload and put away the groceries before sitting down to eat lunch, so I got to it. I rearranged a few things in the fridge, managing to make room for the abundance of groceries I hadn’t planned on bringing home today (but when you’re out on Monday you might as well make the most of it and try to get what you need for the week so that by the time Thursday rolls around you can be at home doing something productive instead of having to go out to the store again, right?).

Then there they were, the last item to put away, those floor-germ-infested tomatoes. I figured I’d give them a preliminary rinsing off before putting them in the fridge using just water, until I thought better of it and pulled the vegetable cleaning spray out from under the sink. Spray, spray, spray. Toss, toss, toss. Rinse, rinse, rinse. That wasn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll just do this again before serving them so I feel confident that they’re clean.

And then it happened again. As I was turning toward the fridge, my limbs defied me and, after bumping into the refrigerator door, I dropped the box of tomatoes onto the floor…the kitchen floor that didn’t get cleaned last Friday like it was supposed to. And, sure enough, the box opened on impact and all those clean tomatoes went rolling on the floor, under the lip of the fridge, the oven, and the dishwasher.

I started to get angry. One of those less-than-justified “Why, God?!?” moments. But then I felt the tension in my clenched fists subside as I realized this was from His hand—not a curse, but an opportunity. An opportunity to see that I don’t have it all together. Not only am I not as physically in control as I’d like to be (hello, dropping the same box of tomatoes on the floor TWICE in the span of about 90 minutes), but neither do I really have things together emotionally or spiritually. I was ready to raise my fist at heaven, figuratively speaking, to whine and complain and throw a grown-up tantrum…over some tomatoes. Forget that I “did the right thing” in purchasing them at the store. I grumbled against the God of heaven. These tomatoes were simply a small chisel in the hand of a master craftsman, working to chip away at the hardened, bitter stone of my heart, in fact rebuking my self-righteousness by revealing to me that there was work to be done there at all.

On many occasions this kind of scrutiny, though private, would cause me to despair because I wasn’t living up to the perfect standard that I so desperately desire to meet. But in this instance, those tomatoes became a means of grace for me. As I washed them off again, with tears beginning to form in my eyes, I realized that Jesus came to save sinners. He came to die for sinners, to make them clean. And I am one. There is hope for me. There is grace for me, a sinner.

Like those tomatoes that needed washed yet again, so did I. What a joy that His gift of forgiveness, love, and cleansing is not given begrudgingly, as I grumbled at first to clean the tomatoes, but freely. In the very moment that I knew my sin and unworthiness, I also knew that “It is finished,” and I am redeemed, restored, and loved.

There are a lot more elaborate ways the Lord could choose to show me my sin and His love. But this simple little demonstration was sufficient to show that my attitude in such a small thing revealed big things about my heart. But “where sin abounded grace abounded all the more.” His mercy and grace are infinitely bigger than my sin. And so I thank God for the grace I found in an ornery package of grape tomatoes.

Books Read from July 2012 to June 2013

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by Lauren Scott in Books, Home and Family

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children, devotional, Home and Family, Jesus, motherhood, parenting, Reading List

I have, for quite some time now, wanted to keep a record of the books I’ve read each year. What better place than on a blog? I started keeping track of this in 2012 in my day planner, but now here it is making its debut on the interwebs.

Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp Excellent overview of parenting and child-training according to biblical commands and principles. At the time I had a one- and three-year-old, so it was a good time to take a first pass at this book.

The Autobiography of George Mueller Incredible testimony to God’s grace and provision, not to mention a great example of faith and prayer. Must read.

The Hand of God by Alistair Begg This book was given to me by my youth pastor when I graduated high school. It’s a look at the life of Joseph, eleventh out of the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel), sold into slavery in Egypt, raised up from the dungeon by God to save his people and declare God’s good purposes in it all. It’s a Romans 8:28 kind of story. And one that I’ve read through twice now.

Managing God’s Money by Randy Alcorn Very thorough look at the Christian view of stewardship. Challenging our usual perspectives, freeing us to give generously and manage our money well so that we can use it wisely for God’s purposes (because, as the title suggests, it’s all God’s anyway). I only slightly disagree with the handling of the subject of debt, being that my husband and I have a conviction to never go into debt–even for a house.

Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic I read this little gem of a parenting book twice that year. Encouraging. Hilarious. Spiritual heart-surgery for moms.

Lose Your Mummy Tummy by Julie Tupler Having a one-year-old at the time and recently discovering that my stomach muscles were not quite where they used to be, I picked up this book and have been doing the exercises (when I think of it) and have indeed significantly improved my condition.

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot One year after giving birth to my second son, I had just gotten off of prednisone, and the darkest year of my life was finally giving way to somewhat brighter days, but the struggle for joy, vision, and stability continued. Elisabeth Elliot’s words in this devotional pointed me to tough, trusting stability in Christ and in Him alone, helping me to crawl out of my pit of depression. God bless Elisabeth Elliot.

The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson Dealing with depression you can hardly see straight enough to motivate yourself to do anything, much less inspire your children as you care for and train them. This book by Sally Clarkson gives fresh perspective on motherhood, encouraging moms to give grace to their children, looking to the life of Jesus as our example.

Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon This would be a follow-up to Nourishing Traditions which I must have read the previous year. They promote properly prepared grains and legumes, whole foods, low sugar, and healthy fats (particularly coconut oil and cod liver oil) to aid weight loss and alleviate health problems. Good read, but many of the recipes are far fetched for my lifestyle.

Preschoolwise by Gary Ezzo Love ’em or hate ’em, I have read most of the Babywise books. I don’t necessarily endorse them, but have found them helpful in establishing order (generally more so with toddlers and older) and especially for the tools I can add to my child training toolbox (blanket time, anyone?).

The Pilgrim’s Regress by C S Lewis Listened to this as an audiobook. Fascinating exploration of ideologies that compete with a biblical worldview. The “regress” section of the book, however, is quite disappointingly short, but that is understandable since Lewis penned this book shortly after becoming a Christian himself. He couldn’t write what he didn’t yet know. 🙂

Oh, For Real! by Heavenly Homemakers’ Laura Coppinger This is a cookbook. And it is a wonderfully practical whole-foods cook book. Yes, I do read cookbooks. This one has a great bunch of introductory information and tips.

Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst As you may have noticed, there are a couple of cook books on this list. So you might safely assume I have a thing for food. And that explains the need for this book.

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman I revisit this book regularly. It’s a great read every time, and a great resource when I need to refocus on one particular area of my life as wife, mom, homemaker–so much is covered in this book. It is a manual for life. I believe this was the second time I read it.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry The follow-up distopian novel to Lowry’s The Giver. Nathaniel and I read this together on a road trip. I still need to find a copy of The Messenger to complete the series…

The Jesus StoryBook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones I have read this through I don’t know how many times with my boys. What a joy to cover the stories of the Bible from beginning to end, all with an eye to the main story of redemption through Jesus Christ. It is beautifully and whimsically illustrated. While I enjoy this book with my children, I do feel that at times it does a bit more interpretation than I would have liked, especially in the way it puts words into Jesus’ mouth that are not even real paraphrases of things He actually said. Creative license? Yes. Main message remains unchanged? True. But it is still an area in which I think we ought to exercise a bit more caution. That is all.