Reading List for 2020

It has been awhile since I have talked about books at all! Like, almost 2 years. It's time! I've still been reading regularly, I just haven't blogged about it at all. I think that in 2019 I read more non-fiction than average, but I would still like to up that a little. Non-fiction just take me forever to get through because they give me so much to think about and I can only read a little at a time since I'm processing. I read 19 books in 2019, which is a little lower than I would have liked, but I still feel pretty good about it.

Here are some books that are on my current non-fiction reading list. I may not get to them all this year, because, like I said, I'm slow at non-fiction, but these are all books that I already own and haven't gotten to, or that have been on my list for awhile! (Books with a * are books I own and will probably prioritize for that reason).

• None Like Him by Jen Wilkin*

• Raising Kingdom Kids by Tony Evans*

• Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey*

• Woke Church by Eric Mason*

• The Power of God's Names by Tony Evans*

• Chosen By God by R.C. Sproul

• Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

• Daring Greatly by Brene Brown*

• Leaving Ordinary by Donna Gaines * (I'm in the middle of this now)

• She is Yours by Wynter & Jonathan Pitts * (My husband & I started this a few years ago)

• The Story of Everything by Jared Wilson * (Also in the middle of this)

• Parenting by Paul David Tripp

• The Gospel Comes With A Housekey by Rosaria Butterfield

• Gay Girl Good God by Jackie Hill Perry

• Mending Broken Branches by Elizabeth Oates

• No More Perfect Kids by Jill Savage

• Why We Pray by William Philip

• Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

So, I guess I certainly have some work to do this year! A lot to dig into, and I'm sure I'll be adding even more to my list as the year goes on. I have several people's book lists saved that I'm wanting to look over and get some recommendations from. If you have any good non-fiction books you'd recommend, send them my way! I have a whole separate list of fiction books I want to read, and I can generally read a lot more of those throughout the year! 

What I've Been Reading: Vol. 4

Wow, it has been awhile since I have done a "What I've Been Reading" post! I like to do these a few times a year to update on the books I've been reading. For my first 3 posts click here, here and here.

As always, you can find me on Goodreads if you want to keep up on what I'm reading! 

• I remember really liking Don't Let Me Go, but now I see on Goodreads I only gave it 3 stars, so I'm not sure what I'm forgetting! It was a sweet and heartbreaking story about a community of strangers coming together to save a family. There were a lot of foster care/child services things happening in the book and this was at the time when we were in the thick of waiting to find out if we'd be chosen to adopt our sons, so it was an emotional read, but I really enjoyed it. Now that I'm thinking back, I think it was maybe that I didn't like the way the story ended. It wasn't necessarily a "happily ever after" ending, which I guess in some ways is nice because that's real life, but it made me sad.
• Leaving Carolina was kind of 'blech' for me. I didn't like the main character and felt like she just made really awful decisions all the time and it was annoying. This was part of a series that I had gotten from the library, but I stopped after this book. It was ok, but I would rather read stuff I really love.
• This sweet story about a girl who leaves her Amish community to get married to an English man was really precious! A Plain and Simple Christmas was a really quick, easy read and I enjoyed it a lot! I read it in November so it got me into the Christmas spirit really well. I felt like I could connect with the characters and really felt for all of the characters no matter which side they were on. I would definitely recommend this one. 
• The Five Love Languages of Children was one that my husband and I read together, which we enjoy doing with parenting and sometimes marriage books. I liked this book a lot. Now that my girls are getting older it is getting easier to see their love languages coming out. This gave us some practical tips for loving them in the way they will most feel loved and some parts about disciplining according to their love language definitely made us think. We did skip a few chapters that didn't apply to us such as a chapter on single parenting.
• The Inn at Ocean's Edge is the first book in Colleen Coble's Sunset Cove series. I generally really enjoy Coble's books and this was no exception. It was her typical suspense/Christian romance book. This one kept me on my toes and the storyline was great! I definitely was not able to predict what had happened or was going to happen in this one. 
• Mermaid Moon is the second in the same series. And I just realized I never read the final book in this series! That may have to be my next book. This was another typical and great Coble book that I recommend if you like suspense! 
• If you have read Karen Kingsbury's Baxter family series, you will enjoy Love Story. It tells the story of how John & Elizabeth fell in love. It is a beautiful story of redemption, family, adoption and unconditional love. It also catches up on Cody and Andi, which seems kind of random to include in this book, but I loved that storyline as well. 
• My Brother's Keeper was on the highlighted books shelf at the library one night, so I randomly picked it up and read the cover and it sounded good enough. It was really good! Definitely a suspense/thriller/crime novel. I absolutely could not have guessed the truth behind everything until right when we were figuring it out in the book. 
• I heard about this book in some adoption groups I'm in and when the author herself mentioned it in one of the groups I decided to grab in on Kindle while it was on sale. Goodbye, SaraJane is a heartwrenching memoir from a former foster child. It was hard to read as a former foster parent, but I'm glad I did. It was also sometimes hard to read in a physical sense as the grammar, punctuation, etc. wasn't great. But I would recommend it to those who want a real life look at some of the heartbreaking realities of foster care and foster care adoption. It reminded me why we became foster parents. 
• What Alice Forgot had been on my list for such a long time! I finally got around to reading it and it was hard to put down. It made me so sad at so many parts at how easily marriages crumble into nothing. Overall, I ended up really liking this book. It was interesting and kept me engaged and gave me lots of feelings-happy, mad, sad, excited-the whole spectrum.
• Odd Child Out was another that was on display at the library. I'm really glad I picked it up! Another crime thriller that kept me on my toes. I had no idea it was going to turn the way that it did. I am saying that in all of the suspense books though-maybe I'm really bad at predicting books! I can always figure out what's going to happen in t.v. and movies so I feel like I should be the same at books-who knows. Either way, it was a really good book. 
• I just finished My Husband's Wife and I honestly can't decide if I liked it or hated it. I really can't. I guess maybe I felt some of both. I think it could have been a lot shorter. Overall, I think the book made me really mad because of all of the affairs and disregard to the sanctity of marraige that took place, and thus ruined everyone's lives. But I guess that is probably the majority of the world, so I shouldn't be surprised-it was just really sad. It was definitely suspenseful and also an easy read so it was pretty quick from start to finish. 
• You Are Free took me months and months to get through. Mostly because we were traveling, and holidays, and moving, etc. I finally finished it and it's another that I can't quite decided what to think about it. It was a good book. It was helpful in a lot of ways, but it didn't change my life. There were some parts that were a little overly mystical for me. I did enjoy the author's stories a lot and I could apply a lot of the areas she needed freedom in to my own life. Overall I think I would recommend the book. I appreciate that she continually points back to Jesus and how we are free through Him already. 

What have you been reading lately?! 

Resources for Talking to Your Kids About Race

After my post the other night about ways to support my bi-racial sons, I had several friends inquiring more about how to talk to their own kids about race. 

This is a hard question that I am honestly not sure I have a great answer to, so I rounded up some resources I've seen, read myself, or seen shared in groups I am in. I have not personally read or listened to every word in all of these, just a little disclaimer. But I think they are all great resources from people who have a lot of wisdom on this topic. 

Why You Need To Talk With Your Kids About Race Podcast 

Race and Parenting: Why raising 'colorblind' kids is actually a terrible idea (includes helpful suggestions for different age groups!

Raising Social Justice Warriors   (helpful 'guide' on how children think about race at different ages)

Here's How To Raise Race-Conscious Children  (more resources at the bottom of that post!)

Teaching Tolerance : How white parents should talk to their young kids about race

Racing Race Conscious Children (TONS of resources and great conversations) 

Race Conscious Children facebook page

How to Talk to Kids About Race: Books and Resources That Can Help

Why I Talk About Race When I Read With My Toddler

Here are some great book lists to get more diverse books into your home, which is an amazing way to open up conversations about race in the early years.

37 children's books to help talk about racism & discrimination  

28 black picture books that aren't about boycotts, buses or basketball

Diverse Book Finder 

19 Multicultural children's books teaching kindness & empathy

Where's the color in kids' lit? Ask the girl with 1,000 books (and counting)

I hope that this is a helpful jumping off point for many of you! These conversations are important to be having with children of all ages, for every family! After going through all of these resources I'm thinking I am going to have to do a post on some of our favorite diverse children's books soon! 

To Read List

It seems like I always have a whole slew of books I'm wanting to read. When I see recommendations on blogs or instagram, I add them to my ever growing list of "want to reads." I thought it would be fun to share some of the books that are on my list, and see if anyone has any other recommendations for me! These are in no particular order.

1. She Is Yours by Jonathan and Wynter Pitts (Just ordered this!) 

2. You Are Free : Be Who You Already Are  by Rebekah Lyons (also just ordered this one!) 

3. Goliath Must Fall by Louie Giglio

4. Are My Kids On Track? by Sissy Goff, David Thomas and Melissa Trevathan 

5. Fatherless by James Dobson 

6. Love Story by Karen Kingsbury (A new Baxter family novel!!)

7. Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families by Russell D. Moore

8. Chosen for Greatness: How Adoption Changes the World by Paul Batura

9. The Most Misused Stories In The Bible by Eric Bargerhuff

10. The Most Misused Verses In The Bible by Eric Bargerhuff

11. The Christian Wallet by Mike Slaughter

12. The Lifegiving Home by Sally Clarkson

13. Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman

14. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers

15. Bridge to Haven by Francine Rivers

16. Quick Tips for Busy Families by Jay Payleitner 

So I definitely have months and months worth of books on my list, but I'll get to them all eventually! What great books have you read lately? 

10+ Learning Gift Ideas for Kids

A few years ago we started doing the "something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read" thing for Christmas gifts. I liked the idea of it, because otherwise I just go crazy buying so many cute things for Christmas and it's overwhelming, but after a couple years of it, I found I was really just buying certain things to try to fit into one of those categories. It wasn't working for us anymore, so we switched up the categories a little bit. What's working for us right now is: something you want, something educational, something to DO (or use for something you do), and something to wear. The 'something educational' can seem kind of boring, but I've found SO many cute learning toys and books and items that I had to share some! These gifts are perfect for challenging little one's brains and I promise they'll be having so much fun, they won't even know they're learning!

1. Science Lab Set  

We got these for both of our daughters last year for Christmas and they are obsessed with them. They get them out all the time to use different parts of it and love having their own science kit. They come with a cute little set of cards that have different (easy) experiment ideas on them. 

(Here's a cool science activities book we love to go with it!) 

2. This playground design building set looks so cool! I think kids would have such a fun time building things and letting their little people or finger puppets or something like that use the playground they built! 

3. Picasso tiles are a hit in our house! Just like magnatiles, but a lot easier on the pocket book, my girls love using them to build castles for their characters, or shelters for their animals. My toddlers enjoy messing around with them and building towers with them! They are fun for such a wide age range of kids, I think that they would be a good investment for any family. 

4. Beautiful book sets are always such a nice gift. Our family loves reading series of books, and I love aesthetically pleasing sets! Here are some of our favorites, or ones we have our eyes on: Mercy Watson, Roald Dahl, Puffins Classics, Ordinary People Change the World, Chronicles of Narnia, Oz, Winnie the Pooh , The Little House , and for when my girls get older, I'm coveting this Puffin in Bloom collection.  Of course you also couldn't go wrong with an American Girls set for girls 2nd-3rd grade and up or so. 

5. My girls saw this Project Mc2 Ultimate Spy Bag when we were browsing in Barnes & Noble and were over the top excited about it. There may have been tears from one child who didn't want to wait until Christmas for it. The thing IS pretty cool. Upon further investigation, I found out that this is apparently based on a Netflix Original show, and that there are a bunch of other really cool kits as well, including: nail science kit, spa studio, create your own lip balm kit, crayon makeup science, and more! I'm going to see if I can talk my girls into each requesting a different kit, instead of 2 of the spy bag so we can check out a couple of them! 

6. Usborne Big Books are SO cool and a great way to learn about a specific topic. We have both the human body and sea creatures big books, and many more on our wish list! They have giant fold outs and are just huge with tons of details in the beautiful pictures and awesome facts. At only $15 a book, these are a great investment! 

7. I saw this ALEX future coders kit the other day, and thought it was a really cool idea! There is a whole line of them for ages 4 and up, and all are under $30! My kids have several friends who would absolutely love these (parents, too)!

8. My daughter has had {a similar} magnet kit for probably 3 years or so, and all of my kids still love it! They like to try to duplicate the pictures, or just make up designs of their own. It keeps them busy (and quiet!) for a long time. 

9. My kids really enjoy learning about geography it seems, and I think one of the learning globes could be a really cool addition to a homeschool room, or even just a kiddo's bedroom! They have some really cool options out there, but here is one of the more reasonably priced ones that still has really cool features. 

10. This Art Lab for Kids book has been on my list for awhile, as I've thought of using it to "teach" art in our homeschool. I think paired with a little art kit, this would make a great gift for a budding artist! They even have a version for younger kids! 

There are a few things on this list that I think my kids are going to be getting for Christmas this year! What other great learning gifts have you been given, or gotten for someone else that were a hit? 

I'll see you all again tomorrow for Blogtober day 4 where I'll be sharing a favorite recipe!  

Kindergarten Read Aloud List

I love read alouds! They were always one of my favorite parts of school as a kid, and one of my favorite parts of teaching! My girls and I have been reading books aloud now for quite awhile now, but I am really looking forward to getting into some great books this year!

 I compiled a list of "to read" books for our Kindergarten year, and we can't wait to get started! I tried to stick with mostly classics, rather than doing books based on TV characters or the like. Here is our list for the 2017-2018 year, in no particular order! 

Charlotte's Web

Pippi Longstocking

A Bear Called Paddington

James & The Giant Peach

McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Freckle Juice

The Last Of The Really Great Whangdoodles

Mary Poppins

Matilda

Peter Pan

Dr. Doolittle

If we have time, I may also start some Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Winnie the Pooh. 

I am not sure how much time we will allot to reading aloud every day, so we will see if we make it through the whole list! Can you think of any other great pieces of children's literature good for 4-6 years old or so that I missed? Give me all your recommendations for great read alouds in the early grades! 

What I've Been Reading: Vol. 3

Time to recap what I've been reading for the last few months! I actually didn't read a single book in June, which is weird for me. Life was just busy and crazy and it fell by the wayside. I'm trying to decide what I want to read next so I thought I'd go through and write about what I've read recently!  For what I read the first few months of 2017, go here, and for some of the books I read in 2016 go here. 

• Just a Kiss was the final book in Denise Hunter's Summer Harbor series. I loved the whole series so much! It kept me on my toes and they were all sweet romance stories. I love that each book focused on a new main character/couple but we still got to find out about the characters from the other books and how they were doing! I was sad to be ending this sweet series. 
• Tidewater Inn is the first book in Colleen Coble's Hope Beach series. I loved this book as well. It was kind of a thriller, but not scary, and I had NO idea what was going to happen until right up at the end. The suspense was great in this story! This was one of those books where you really just fall in love with the characters and feel like you know them. 
• I started Boundaries in early 2016 and only read a few chapters slowly and it was always on the backburner. Not until this year did I pick it back up and zoom right through it. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it really helped me see how setting appropriate boundaries is so necessary in relationships, no matter what the relationship is (personal, romantic, professional, etc.) It also helped me see where I have made some mistakes with setting, or not setting boundaries. I think the reason I didn't love it is because I felt like there should have been a lot more examples on how to actually set those boundaries. There were tons of stories of people setting boundaries and having their lives changed for the better, but I think for people who have struggled with setting boundaries, a big reason why they have may be because they don't actually know how to set them. If there were more practical tips in the book I think it would have been helpful, however, the book was very eye opening and I can see how it could be life changing for a lot of people and I'd consider it a must read for most people!
• I loved the idea of the book Raising Uncommon Kids, however, it's another one I have mixed feelings about. My husband and I read this one together, and we both felt 'meh' about it. I love the way that she took 12 biblical traits and gave stories, tips and practical ways of teaching them to your kids. I love the importance of we as parents having those traits in ourselves before we can expect our children to model them. But I think maybe just a lot of what she talked about was unrelatable to us. I can't quite pinpoint why I didn't love it. We got some good ideas that we have implemented, and hope to implement, with our kids, but the majority just felt like we couldn't relate to it. I don't know if our family dynamic was just so different from hers or what, but something just didn't click with us. There were also several times where things just plain didn't make sense to us. At the end of one of the chapters, where she gives practical suggestions to make it stick with your kids, the examples she gave made no sense in relation to the chapter we'd just read. We read over them several times and both were at a loss to how it went with that chapter at all. I'd still recommend reading it, since there are some really good suggestions for parenting with a Biblical mindset. 
• Rosemary Cottage is the 2nd book in the Hope Beach series. I also loved this book. Obviously it was very similar to Tidewater Inn, and featured some of the same characters. This one also kept me on my toes trying to put the pieces together!
• Seagrass Pier was the final book in the Hope Beach series, and while I liked it, I definitely had a harder time getting through this one than the first 2. This book honestly freaked me out. The first two were suspenseful but not scary. This one scared me. The poor main character in this book is basically trying to keep herself, her young daughter, and her mother who has dementia, safe from a psycho stalker and it just felt too possible and frightening to me to really enjoy it all that much! The ending definitely threw me for a loop when she finds out who the stalker is...I didn't expect it at all.   
• Another Coble book-Because You're Mine. The book sounded interesting, but I really didn't like it much at all. I felt like I didn't connect with or like the characters at all. I don't know if it was poor character development or what, but it just wasn't there for me. It was also very predictable at some parts, and just ridiculous at other parts. After all of the mysteries were solved, there were still several random things that I felt were unresolved and that was annoying to me. I typically love Colleen Coble but this book fell short and I don't recommend. 
• Finally, The Hate U Give is the most recent book I've read. This book was powerful. I'll let you click over to read the full description, but I highly recommend this book. As someone who has been trying hard to learn more about systemic racism, and break down some of my own (unintended, but there nonetheless) racial bias, this book was very helpful for me. I think it was a very honest portrayal of many events occurring in our country right now re: an unarmed black male killed by a white police officer. There's so much more I could say about this book, but I'll stop, and tell you to read this book! Reading it helped me further understand how great my white privilege is and gave me some new perspective on racism in America today. 

And that brings me to today! Still trying to decide what I want to read next. Any suggestions?! 

What I'm Loving Lately

Did any of you used to link up to the blog hop "What I'm Loving Wednesday"? This totally reminded me of that!  Here are some random things I'm loving this week! 
I have been a long time TOMS lover, and my step mom got me this "knock off" pair for Christmas. Ohmygoodness. I like them WAY better than TOMS. They are more comfy and I honestly think possibly even better quality?! We will see how they hold up! I am pretty sure she got them on Amazon, but last time I was at Target I saw they carry them now in a whole bunch of colors! And I want every pair! 

I have been LOVING nature walks lately! I love seeing kids be kids in nature. Love watching them explore their surroundings. And the plus side is that they eat and sleep well when they've been on the go all morning! We went on at least 3 this week. I have been scouting out a lot of the trails we've never been to around town! 

I got these bars at Aldi last week. Ugh. They are so good. I shouldn't tell you to buy them, because you'll just want to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...but you should buy them cause they're good.

I always feel like we don't see people nearly as much in the winter. We just kind of hole up and hibernate, I guess. It seems like we see friends way more in the Spring/Summer than other seasons...maybe because there is more to do. But we have been loving seeing friends a little bit more often lately. This morning we met up with a few at the little petting zoo and park and that was fun. 

I started reading Colleen Coble's Hope Beach series and it is SO GOOD! I seemed to have been reading a lot of Christian Romance stories which are good but really predictable most of the time. This series had me on my toes! So good! I just finished the 2nd book, Rosemary Cottage, and cannot wait to read the 3rd/last one in the series. I don't want it to end! 
We finally caved and bought a swing set for our backyard. We go to parks A LOT, but it will be really nice with 4 kids who need to burn some energy. We bought this one specifically because some of the things on it will be helpful with one of our little one's therapies which I am excited about! The kids have been loving it and my oldest has recently learned how to "pump her legs" which she is so proud about! She'll just go out there and swing, swing, swing for the longest time. 

What things have you been loving?! Have a great week, everyone! 

What I've Been Reading: Vol. 2

Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about all the books I had recently read. I had intended to write one of these posts every so often, but I never did again. Until now! I'm not sure how many people find book posts interesting, but I always love getting recommendations for books. So, here is what I've been reading since about January! 
(Also, FYI, I go more with just telling about the books I've read and not really doing a synopsis. I figure you can read those anywhere.) 

• The Connected Child was gifted to us by someone in our foster care circle based on some of the things we were going through and it was helpful to read! A lot of it was based on children who were adopted overseas and had lived in orphanages previously, but much of it was applicable to us being foster parents as well. I would recommend for foster/adoptive families who are going through certain struggles with their children. We learned a lot of things we can change to hopefully improve some things for our littles. 
• Smitten is a collection of novellas written by 4 Christian authors. I LOVED this book. Such a light hearted, sweet, easy read. Each author writes the story line of one character so each of the short stories focuses on a different friend and you get bits and pieces of their stories through the other girls' stories, too. My only complaint about this book is that I wanted more! I loved all the characters and the short stories didn't give me enough time with each of them! 
• The Goodbye Bride was the second story in a series that I started last year (that I didn't realize was a series when I started it!) This book was really good! I am falling in love with Denise Hunter's writing style. I can't put her books down. I could not figure out what was going to happen in so much of this book and it just kept me on edge the whole time. I will let you hop over to the link to read the synopsis. I would personally start with the first book in the series, but I think this also has enough information that it could easily be a stand alone if you didn't want the whole series. I just got the 3rd book in the series from the library last night and can't wait to read it! 
• Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full  is a short little encouragement book about focusing on the gospel as a mother. I don't think there was anything hugely life changing in it for me, but I really enjoyed it. It has so many good little tidbits that had me thinking and encouraged me to focus more on the Cross on an hourly basis. 
• Secretly Smitten is another collection of novellas by the same authors as Smitten. It takes place in the same town, but has different characters. The characters from Smitten show up in a few places, but not as part of the main story lines. Again, a cute, easy read. 
• A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers. The only other book by Rivers I have read is Redeeming Love, which was amazing. So I had high hopes for this one. I don't read a lot of historical fiction but I absolutely loved this book. She tells the stories of 5 women in the lineage of Christ-Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, Ruth and Mary. Each story brought these women to life for me so much. She did such a great job of making a picture of what each of their lives and struggles were like! 
• My sister in law gave me Me Before You when she had finished it. I hadn't even read the back cover when I started reading so I had literally NO idea what it was about. Whew. I just finished it a few days ago so I feel like I am still processing it because wow. So many feelings.  Apparently I am living under a rock because it's been a very popular book and now movie so odds are you may have heard of it so I won't get into the details but it is a heart wrencher FOR SURE. (And don't watch the movie after you've read the book-my husband and I watched it last night and both thought it totally botched the book!) I have a lot of thoughts-good and bad-about this book, but like I said, I'm still kind of processing it right now. This is a really intense story, so if you aren't prepared for a lot of feelings, don't read this one. 

I am about half way through with 2 nonfiction books right now that I should finish in the next week or so and I have a few new novels from the library I'm looking forward to digging into next! What have you read lately? 

Goals for 2017

New Years Goals. I never used to set goals/resolutions because I felt like it was setting myself up for failure. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, or maybe it's because I need more accountability, but I have been setting goals the last few years. A lot of times I make goals for a day, week or month, but these goals are more long term things, and things I want to be working at/towards throughout this entire year. Last year, I basically only had 2 goals. 1. Read through the Bible chronologically in one year. I met, or rather will meet, this goal as I started it a few days into 2017, but I am almost done! Yay! 2. Read 50 books. I had recently rediscovered my passion for reading and loved how relaxing it was, and wanted to commit to reading a lot more last year. However, when I set the goal, I had 2 kids, and a little over a week into the start of 2016, I unexpectedly had 4 all of a sudden. Needless to say, I did not meet that goal, but I don't feel bad about it. I did read 28 books, have 2 more partially finished, and started 2 or 3 that I didn't like about 50-100 pages in and stopped. So overall, I think it was a pretty good effort considering the year we had! With all that being said, here are my goals for 2017! 
Complete another Bible reading plan As soon as I finish up my chronological plan (in just a few days!) I am planning to start a new one. I really enjoyed reading through the Bible chronologically over the last year, especially because I had gotten a new study Bible the Christmas prior so it really helped me get more context and really learn the Bible! But I did really miss reading in the New Testament. I missed learning from Jesus' life directly, and I missed a lot of that application in the NT. Because of the way my plan was laid out, I didn't start reading in the New Testament until October, so I spent 9 whole months in the Old Testament. It was a great learning experience, but I am so excited this year to slow down a little bit and really relish in the New Testament! Last year was A LOT of reading every day, which was great for what it was, but like I said, I want to slow down a little bit this year and really focus on certain passages. I chose a plan on the YouVersion app called OWNit365 New Testament (NT)+ Plan. It is 6 days a week and each day you read a chapter from the New Testament and on the 6th day of the week, you read a chapter from the OT that was referenced during that week's reading to help with context. I think it'll be perfect for what I'm looking for this year, and I am excited to dig in! 

Read 25 books I am going to set a reading goal again this year, because I do love reading so much and want to make sure I still take time for it this year, even though I imagine it will be another full and crazy year! I think a goal of 25 books this year will be more realistic and will give freedom on crazy weeks to take a break! I have a whole list of books I have been wanting to read and haven't gotten to yet, so I am really excited to get started on this goal, as well. 
Health and Fitness  I know I need/want to set some health goals for this year, but I'm not 100% sure what they are going to be yet. This weekend, I made some plans for meals for the month, and what I'm going to do for prep. I know this'll help me to set myself up for success! We have made a lot of healthful changes over the last few years, but we still have a long ways to go. I think this will be a big health year for us-mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. We have high hopes for the healthiest year we've had for all 6 of us! 
Blog once per week Over the course of many years, I have let my blog fall by the wayside. It is usually one of the first things to get neglected when life gets busy, and it seems to really ebb and flow with certain seasons. This year, I am going to try for consistency and blog at least once per week. I love having blogging as a creative outlet and for "me time" so I think it will be nice if I set aside a little time each week to make it happen! 
Daily memory journal Quite some time ago, I thought it would be nice if I could just remember every single day. My kids do and say the funniest things sometimes and I know it will be hard to remember all of those things one day (it already is sometimes)! I decided to just take a notebook and each night before bed, write down something from the day. This might be something hilarious one of the kids did, it might be something I'm thankful for, it might be an event from the day, or even something I struggled with that day. I want to be better about memory keeping, and I think if I kept this up year after year, it would be really cool to look back on some day. It will probably just be a few sentences (or less) every day, but I know I will treasure it in the future, and it would be so fun to show to my kids decades from now! 

Christ likeness Of course, my most important goal this year is to be more like Jesus by December 31 than I am today. I learned SO MUCH about God last year (which I am still hoping to get a chance to share about soon), both through reading and through my own trials and life, and I am excited to apply all that I learned this year to my life, my actions, my personality, and my relationships. I am thankful for the opportunity for growth and change and am looking forward to what God does in me this year. 
{ This is the first year that I have come up with a word for my year, and if you want to read more about that, you can here! I think a lot of my year, and my week to week goals will center around that :) }  

Kids Books We Are Currently Loving

We LOVE books in this house! Always have, always will. Both of my girls have been book worms their entire lives, and you can often find my husband and I with our noses in a good book at night! (I wish I could say the same for our littles, but they are WAY too busy to sit for a book...or for a page of a book. *sigh* Someday!) I always love finding out about kids books we haven't explored yet, so I thought it would be fun to share some of the current kids lit on rotation in our home! I would love to hear what some of your current favorite kid's books are! 

Tim Bugbird's Dessert Fairy Books We absolutely love these books! We have had Izzy the Ice Cream Fairy for several years, but have started collecting several more of these books this year and they are just so cute! I am hoping to eventually add them all to our collection, and they are really affordable books, so it shouldn't be too hard! I think these books make great gifts for little girls, if you ever need something easy for a birthday party or something! Amazon has most (if not all) of these books!  Why we love them: The illustrations are unique and very engaging. Cute rhyming stories. Every book has a great message, like working together to be successful, being careful with your words, being persistent, etc. One of my FAVORITE things about these books is the diversity you see in the illustrations. So many different beautiful skin tones in each book, and that is something very important to our family! 

The Biggest Story This is one of those books that my children maybe don't fully comprehend yet, but I think it's such a good starting point for them and we'll continue reading it and having conversations about it throughout the years! (Here's the Amazon link) Why we love it: Absolutely stunning illustrations that we all enjoy looking at! We love that it tells the story of the gospel and ties the entire Bible together in one big story. It touches on many of the shortcomings of Biblical characters, which could be seen as a negative, but I think it helps my kiddos to understand how much we need Jesus. 

Mercy Watson I don't know where I first heard about these books, but I am SO glad we checked them out! Our whole family fell in love with the characters. My girls often pretend play with characters from Mercy Watson, or "Mercy Wapson" as they call her ;) We flew through each one when we would check them out at the library, and we ended up getting my oldest daughter the boxed set for her birthday so we can keep coming back to them! They are early chapter books, and we do them as read alouds during school time or at night. The brief synopsis is that these books are based on a pig named Mercy Watson who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson. She is basically like their child and they dote on her and call her their "porcine wonder". Mercy LOVES "toast with a great deal of butter" and is often investigating something or another and annoying the elderly neighbor, Eugenia Lincoln. The books are just a hoot...such cute story lines with memorable characters every kid will love! (Amazon) Why we love them: I probably already gave it away, but we love that these books are funny, easy to read, have hilarious story lines and such fun characters. The illustrations are so cute and very vivid, too! I love that they have been a really great introduction to read alouds. There are still pictures on most, but not all, pages, so my kids are starting to get a little practice with imagining the stories as I read them! 

Five Minutes Peace: This was one of my favorite books as a little girl! I'm not sure why I liked it so much, but my girls like it just as much! We found it a few months ago in some of my things and have been reading it over and over again, ever since! It is such a cute little story AND I am so excited-when I was looking it up on Amazon just now, I saw there is a whole collection of stories with this family! I had no idea! The story is about a Mama elephant who just wants 5 minutes peace from her 3 little ones, but you know she didn't get that. It's a funny telling of how the kids try to get Mom's attention during her "peaceful" bathtime.  Why we love it: The characters are relatable-my kids enjoy seeing the Large kids hobbies and personalities. Obviously as a Mom of 4, I can relate to not being able to do A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G. alone! It's a super nostalgic book for me since I have so many memories of my mom reading it to me as a little girl. 

I Believe In Jesus: Leading your child to Christ: I first heard about this book when Callie reviewed it a few months ago. I really respect that Callie always does her  homework on how theologically sound books and resources are, so I knew it was a recommendation I could trust and was excited to get it in the mail! The book is a basic explanation of the Gospel for children.  Why we love it: I love that it is an easy way to continue Gospel conversations with my kids. It's a great conversation starter and explains the whole Gospel to them in an easy to understand way. My kids love it because it talks about all the things we talk to them about-Jesus, Heaven, sin, His death & resurrection--but in ways that most kids books don't do. I think it really brings it to life for them and is starting to help them make great connections! 

The Princess In Black Collection: The Princess in Black books (I believe there are currently 4, but I hope they make more soon!) are really fun, easy chapter books about a Princess who moonlights as a superhero. My girls are very into superheroes right now so they really enjoy these books! These are another set of books we have used as read alouds during school time.  Why we love them: Not to sound too cliche, but "girl power". I love books that show my girls that they can be strong and super, too! Princesses are fun, though my girls have never much been into them, but superheros are just awesome! My girls are really into them this year, so they love that the Princess goes out to fight crime in secret, but can still be a girly girl, too! 

Fancy Nancy Series: Fancy Nancy is a little girl that LOVES being fancy! She is always putting on tea parties, using fancy words, and coming up with something creative.  Why we love them: I love them because they teach my daughters big words! Nancy uses "fancy" words and then explains what they mean. I have noticed my girls using a lot of these words in their vocabulary, which always makes me smile. The girls love them, because Nancy is always up to something fun! 

Clark the Shark Dares to Share: Clark is a shark who needs some help remember that sharing is a good thing. The story is super cute and really funny.  Why we love it: As a mom, I love every reminder my kids can get about sharing! My girls really enjoy the story and silly characters! 

I Like Myself: This story is about a quirky little girl who talks about all of the different parts of her, and how much she likes them! We have had this book for a few years and have yet to grow tired of it! Why we love it: We love all of the silly words and traits this child has, and I love that it teaches my girls to be proud of who they are! Not just of their bodies, but of their minds and personalities, too! 

Veggies with Wedgies: This hilarious book is about a crop of veggies who want something to wear, but nothing fits right. They decide to try on their farmer's underwear, that is hanging on the clothes line above their garden.  Why we love it: It's a book about vegetables wearing underwear. My kids think it's hilarious. I think I'll just leave it at that!

What I've Been Reading: Vol. 1

I mentioned in my last post that I have set a goal to read 50 books in 2016! There have been weeks where I'll read 2 or 3 books, and then weeks where I don't read at all, and that's fine. It has all seemed to balance out so far! I was thinking that I'd like to write about what I've been reading, but I really don't want to give plot reviews. I feel like it's really easy to look up what a book is about and I don't want to take the time to reiterate the plot, so I will probably only talk about my opinion of the books and briefly touch on parts of the plot. Eventually, I may break it down into fiction/non-fiction or something, but I will probably continue to only blog about 5-10 books at a time or so, instead of reviewing each book individually, so that I'm not writing about books every week!  I've been keeping track of what I've been reading on Goodreads, which I like for organizing and also keeping track of books I'd like to read!  

• At the beginning of this year, I finished up the Matched series, with Reached. My 14 year old sister actually gave me Matched to read while we were visiting at Thanksgiving and I kept reading the series. It was good, but I did think that Reached drug on too long. It could have been shortened by at least 100 pages and been really good!  I would recommend the entire series. Though it is young adult (I won't lie, young adult fiction is sometimes my guilty pleasure!), the whole concept of the series was really intriguing! 
• The next book I read was called The Sweetest Thing by Elizabeth Musser. This historical fiction novel takes place during the great depression. It was really interesting to see world's collide in this book. For some reason it took me about 100 pages to get into it (I almost stopped reading), but once I did, I ended up LOVING it! It was such a sweet story about friendship and faith and I would totally recommend it. 
• The 3rd book of the year was Double Blind by Brandilyn Collins and let me just say, good luck putting this down! I think I read it in less than a day. This woman is going through a really hard time and trying to decide if she wants to be in a medical trial that involves brain surgery. It is SO good and I honestly couldn't figure out what exactly was going to happen right up until the end! Five stars! 
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. I had heard a lot about this book so I decided to give it a read. I had mixed feelings about it. The plot was interesting. It basically follows 3 different kindergarten moms and their lives. There was quite a bit of language and some vulgarity that I didn't care for, but the book itself was interesting. I remember in the beginning thinking it was kind of hard to keep all of the characters straight, but once you get to know them and figure it out, the book takes off. It covered a lot of intense topics but in general wasn't a very "deep" book and was a really easy read. 
• The Husbands Secret was next. Honestly this book mostly just annoyed me. I kept waiting for something suspenseful or interesting to happen, but the things that were supposed to be cliff hangers just weren't. I'm not sure if it was just how it was written or what, but I definitely didn't think this book lived up to its hype.
• Another Brandilyn Collins book, Gone to Ground. Again, can't put this one down. I think I read this one in a day or two again. The basis of it is that there are murders happening in a small town and 3 different women in town all think they know who the killer is. SO suspenseful! And not really too scary. I'm not a horror fan or anything and this didn't scare me. I pretty much decided by the end of this book that I want to read all of Collins' books! I love them! 
• Hold Tight by Harlan Coben was also really good! Another very suspenseful, but not scary book. A good one when thinking of computers and technology and all that we share online and how it can be tracked and traced and used against us! There were a few storylines in this one and it was interesting to read the book from different people's perspectives. 
• Another Collins book! I told you I'm going to read them all! This one was Deceit. I think I liked this one slightly less than her first two that I read, but it was still really good! This one was a little more "creepy" than the other ones. Lots of cliffhangers and suspense! 
• Last year I read pretty much the entire Baxter family series from Karen Kingsbury and was obsessed with them! I loved their family and stories! I didn't realize that the Above the Line books had Baxter characters in them so I accidentally skipped over these. I was a little disappointed because I know how some of the characters' stories are going to end since I read the next series not knowing I skipped this one, but there are a lot of new characters in this one as well. The book is Take One  and if you have read any Kingsbury stories before and enjoyed them, you would love this one as well! There are 3 more in this series that I'm sure I will get to this year. I love a good series!
• The Kitchen House. Whew. So many feelings about this book. It was really, really intense. So many horrible things happened. But at the same time, it may be a real depiction of what life was like for slaves on plantations. I'm not really sure how accurate the story line is. It is definitely a very sad but engaging story that takes place over more than a decade. I would recommend it, if you are up for a heart wrencher!
• Orphan Train. Another heart wrencher, BUT with a happy ending! This one was so interesting to me. It takes place from the perspective of two girls, decades apart. The present day character is a teen in foster care, and with us doing foster care right now, this engaged me immediately. The other character is living during the great depression era and is an Irish immigrant who becomes orphaned and is sent across the country on an orphan train. I loved watching this story come together and thought it was a really interesting, though heart breaking read.
• Most recent was The Selection Stories: The Prince & The Guard. The Selection was another one that my sister gave me, and became another guilty pleasure. It was like a mix between The Bachelor and some of the dystopian YA novels out there right now. This particular book is two shorter stories based from the perspective of 2 men in the series. I would definitely recommend reading the other books first, so nothing is given away, but I did enjoy this quick read. 

Right now I have a couple of non-fiction books I'm working through: Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson, and Boundaries by Cloud & Townsend. I'm only a few chapters into each as I feel like non-fiction are usually slower moving. I'm also working through a fiction series right now as well.

What good books have you read lately? I think my favorite of this year so far was Gone to Ground, but I've read a lot of good ones already!