Since I love to read, and usually get through a large amount of books each year, I thought it would be fun to make a list of some of my favorites from the past few months. I read a variety of self-help, memoir, fiction, and YA. Most of these are books I read myself, but a few are new-to-me books I enjoyed with the kids.
The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin (Her Podcast is awesome, too!)
This is Where You Belong by Melody Warnick
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Burbaker Bradley
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen (Linus LOVED this one!)
Where The Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Read-aloud with the kids! Every day they'd beg me to read just a little bit more!)
Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Monday, May 7, 2018
Right now...
We've had some wonderful sunshine in the last few weeks, so we've been spending lots of time outside!
I've been doing lots of yard work, fixing up our garden beds, preparing to turn part of our driveway into sort of a patio area, and planting lots more raspberry plants. The kids love to eat raspberries right off the plant, and they've done well in our yard, so I'm planting lots more! I dug up the grass along the fence to make beds for them.
One if my favorite things about little boys, is that they've all gone through the "bug phase". Simon and Linus are there now, and they have been glued to my side as I've been working in the yard. Every move of my shovel seems to reveal a worm or bug, and the little boys have been in heaven! It's so cute and fun!
Just for fun, a couple of weeks ago, we went yurt camping for a night. It was by the beach, and we were blessed with beautiful weather. Though short, it was a lovely little mini-vacation!
I revamped my meal planning at the beginning of the year, and my plan is still going strong, which means it's working! I'm not sure why it's working, since I've tried coming up with plans before and failed, but I'm just going with it! :) Sunday is soup night, Monday is pasta, then there's Taco Tuesday. Since the kids eat dinner at AWANA on Wednesday, Seth, the little boys, and I usually make something fun like pizza. We usually make Asian or Mexican on Thursday, Friday we have Tortilla soup, then Saturday is open for other family favorites, casseroles, etc. This schedule has made planning meals easy, grocery shopping easy, and has even helped me reign in my grocery budget, which has been amazing!
Our school year is still going well. I'm still happy with our curriculum choices, though I feel like some of our "fun" things have gone a bit by the wayside, so I want to get back to some of those things. Right now my plan for summer is to have the kids do just a bit of schoolwork each day, maybe math and grammar, or some history or world studies like we did last summer. I think that doing this will help us keep up a bit of the schedule that helps our day go so much more smoothly. We'll see if this sticks, or if we get lazy! ;)
I've been doing lots of yard work, fixing up our garden beds, preparing to turn part of our driveway into sort of a patio area, and planting lots more raspberry plants. The kids love to eat raspberries right off the plant, and they've done well in our yard, so I'm planting lots more! I dug up the grass along the fence to make beds for them.
One if my favorite things about little boys, is that they've all gone through the "bug phase". Simon and Linus are there now, and they have been glued to my side as I've been working in the yard. Every move of my shovel seems to reveal a worm or bug, and the little boys have been in heaven! It's so cute and fun!
Just for fun, a couple of weeks ago, we went yurt camping for a night. It was by the beach, and we were blessed with beautiful weather. Though short, it was a lovely little mini-vacation!
I revamped my meal planning at the beginning of the year, and my plan is still going strong, which means it's working! I'm not sure why it's working, since I've tried coming up with plans before and failed, but I'm just going with it! :) Sunday is soup night, Monday is pasta, then there's Taco Tuesday. Since the kids eat dinner at AWANA on Wednesday, Seth, the little boys, and I usually make something fun like pizza. We usually make Asian or Mexican on Thursday, Friday we have Tortilla soup, then Saturday is open for other family favorites, casseroles, etc. This schedule has made planning meals easy, grocery shopping easy, and has even helped me reign in my grocery budget, which has been amazing!
Our school year is still going well. I'm still happy with our curriculum choices, though I feel like some of our "fun" things have gone a bit by the wayside, so I want to get back to some of those things. Right now my plan for summer is to have the kids do just a bit of schoolwork each day, maybe math and grammar, or some history or world studies like we did last summer. I think that doing this will help us keep up a bit of the schedule that helps our day go so much more smoothly. We'll see if this sticks, or if we get lazy! ;)