books read in 2015

It's that time of year, when I move the book list from it's little home on the right side of the blog into it's own little post.

here is the books read in 2014 post.

My goal for this year was 40, I reached 27.
It feels a little disappointing, then I figured that I read at least 1 book every 2 weeks.

I think that's pretty decent!!

Some of the front runners of this past year were:

Stern Men

Unbroken

The Martian

Why Not Me?

I've also gotten myself into a few new series that I love and now I have to wait for the next book to be released:

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Marywood Rose

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Dr. Thomas Silkstone Series by Tessa Harris

Here is the list in it's entirety:

1-Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

2-A Beautiful Mess Happy Handmade Home

3-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

4-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

5-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

6-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unseen Guest

7-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Interrupted Tale

8-The $50 Home Makeover

9-Fahrenheit 451

10-The Devil's Breath

11-Yes Please

12-The Lazarus Curse

13-Flight Behavior

14-Stern Men

15-Gone Girl

16-The Boy Who Lost Fairyland

17-Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

18-The Shadow of the Raven

19-A Little Princess

20-Orphan Train

21-The Martian

22-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Unmapped Sea

23-What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

24-The Mysterious Benedict Society

25-Why Not Me?

26-A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned

27-Solo: A Memoir of Hope

Some real disappointments on the list included:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - this one was an okay read, but something that just rubbed me the wrong way, was the author continuously mentions that "at least I never walked", to the point that he wanted to put it on his tombstone when he died. I felt that this was a complete missing the point of running as well as alienating a whole gigantic group of runners who are just starting or are using the 10min/1min way to run. 

Solo: A Memoir of Hope - I was just telling Thom that when I first picked this book to read, I thought it was about a girl who sailed a boat solo (I have no idea why!). I started to read it, and then when I mentioned it to some friends, they said "oh, Hope Solo, she's the soccer player from last summer". Hmmm? Apparently, when I pick books, I have no idea what they are actually about, and I also lived under a rock during the Women's World Cup.  So, once I knew about the semi-scandal involving Solo and read a few other articles, it changed the way I perceived this book. Obviously all biographies are biased to the person writing it, but the last half of the book felt a little phony.

This year, I'm aiming for 40 again (I've done it before right?!)

an intervention.

Wow. My book list this year is lacking. Big time.

It's so short and there are a few reads on that list that I did not even enjoy all that much.

It would seem that I can get sucked so easily into little games on my ipad. We downloaded a game for Isla, an Inside Out emotions game where you shoot emotion balls.... why do I even feel the need to explain this?

It didn't teach anything about emotions, except how internally upsetting it was to get stuck on a level for days at a time. To be honest the last level I was on, I was stuck on for 3 weeks. 3 weeks! On a silly children's game.

Remember how it was for Isla? Apparently it was for me.

And then I read this on Lil Blue Boo. And it was too real and too close to home and now I am done.

I also remembered a sermon from a few months back about doing things that are truly soul filling and soul restful.

And truly, tv and ipad games aren't cutting it.

So I am now trying to fill my evenings with reading, gardening and crafting-- I'm working on a few little projects in that area.

Even these past few nights have proven more filling (and restful!) than any straight tv night over the past few months.

I get it, I feel tired, I'm a full-time mom and wife with a full-time job and trying to keep up with friends and family part-time, it can seem like a lot. TV does seem like a relaxing mind numbing way to end my day,

But it hasn't been giving me the rest I've been craving.

And frankly, I don't really want my mind to be numb.

Books read in 2014

This past year ended with our house being sick, we had stomach bugs, then colds, then flus, all of us, pretty much one after the other.

This new year has started with me being sick. I have still been up coughing most of the last 4 nights.

Being sick is no fun.

It did however help me finish up my reading for 2014. 42 books.

42!

I did it! I reached my goal.... Wait! I just checked, my goal was 41! I beat my goal!

These were a few of my faves:

The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful
This book was beautiful. It was like a breath of fresh air to my house and, even more importantly, to my soul. Almost like a breath I didn't know I needed. It gave me peace and patience about my house. Nester gave me permission to take my time, to not strive for perfection. When I think about what I really want my home to reflect-care, peace, coziness, rest-it doesn't need me to have every thing perfectly done, everything in it's perfect space.

The 5 Love Languages of Children      
I borrowed this one from the library, but I think I may buy it. It has been instrumental in the way I interact with my girls. The book says that most children do not have specific love languages before the age of five, but I have been seeing where they tend to lean, and by recognizing these, I have been able to show them more love in a way that they feel and receive.


I also read a lot of children's and YA fiction this year, there were a lot I loved!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
This one captivated me from the very beginning. The author, Ransom Riggs, based this books around old photographs, weird and mysterious ones. He wrote the book based on images he had or would search out images to fit where he wanted the story to go. It is a time travel, mystery, love story filled with monsters and children and birds. oh it is wonderful. I read the second in his series as well, Hollow City, just as delightful, and now I am waiting for the third to be released
(there is also supposed to be a movie done by Tim Burton-be still my heart!)

I also started a series called The Incorrigible Children Of Ashton Place. I read the first two books. The quaintness of the settings and the lovely affections and proper etiquette of Miss Penelope Lumley, accompanied by the sweet wildness of her 3 little charges had me hooked from the get go! This is definitely a book meant for the younger than young adult group, but oh I have fallen in love with them. Their are two more loaded on my Kobo just ready to go.


And here is the full list of books read this year:

1-A Wrinkle in Time

2-A Wind in the Door

3-Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)

4-Many Waters

5-Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife

6-Found: A Memoir

7-Critical Care

8-A Swiftly Tilting Planet

9-The Book Thief

10-The Midwife of Venice

11-An Acceptable Time

12-The Third Wave

13-Charlotte's Web

14-Escape from Camp 14

15-The Silver Linings Playbook

16-The Nesting Place: It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful

17-Little House in the Big Woods

18-Notes From A Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in A Chaotic World

19-The Harem Midwife

20-The Anatomist's Apprentice

21-Beyond Molasses Creek

22-Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

23-Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar

24-The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

25-Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children

26-The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

27-The Five Love Languages of Children

28-Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator

29-An Irish Country Girl

30-Dad is Fat

31-The Dead Shall Not Rest

32-Still Lolo: A Spinning Propeller, a horrific Accident, and a Family's Journey of Hope

33-Divergent

34-Insurgent

35-The Girl Who Soared Over Fairlyand and Cut the Moon in Two

36-The Secret Language of Doctors

37-The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

38-Finding Ultra

39-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place-Book 1: The Mysterious Howling

40-The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place-Book 2: The Hidden Gallery

41-Allegiant

42-Flea Market Fabulous



Books on the list for this year:
-A Million Little Ways (this was on last years list, but I did not get to it)
-Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All
-Simply Tuesday:Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World
-The Best Yes
-Making Habits, Breaking Habits
-Flight Behavior
-What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I'm hoping to keep around the 40 book mark again this year. 

**this post contains affiliate links**

don't do it!

I know it's been a little bit. (june! yeesh.)

I just had to pop in because I added a book to the book list that I do not recommend.

Everything's Perfect when You're a Liar.

I thought it would be funny. I think it was supposed to be funny?

It was more like a weird story of growing up with a lot of pot smoking and swearing.

So... if you like that kind of thing, maybe this is the book you've been waiting for?

I didn't want anyone to think that my list of books is all books I've read and loved.

Most are. This one was not!!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Thankful Thursday

this week I am thankful for:

-these lovely lasses. sigh.

-a 30th Birthday weekend away (for my bestie!) with 6 ladies and a baby: 

time to sleep in, eat good food, laugh, shop and reconnect

-Olympics!!!! Yay!!

-My mom coming in on the train today

-Isla. Here are some things she has said this week:

           "look, my breathing is dusty"  (in the cold)

           "Mommy? When I'm a woman, can I drive your car?"

           "You know everything don't you?" (to her Gramma Kiki)

           "Uncle Ryan is silly, huh?... And Uncle Noah... And Mike"

           "You came back!" (to me after I was away for the weekend)

         

Books read in 2013

So... my goal of reading 40 books this past year was apparently *ahem* a little ambitious.

I think it actually wasn't that unattainable but Thom put a Sudoku book in my stocking last Christmas, and while I breezed through through the first three quarters of the book, the last section, the diabolical section, had me stumped and I would pick it up and put it down and then pick it up and then threaten to throw it out and then pick it up again.

Finally in the second week of December, I tossed it. Unfinished, but no regrets on that one!

(oh and let's not forget that new "Harry Potter book" debacle!)

I think getting wrapped up in the Hunger Games trilogy really helped push me to stick to reading and let the Sudoku go for good.

Here is the completed reading list of 2013:

1-Loving Your Kids on Purpose

2-Animal Stories

3-This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories

4-The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

5-Her Fearful Symmetry

6-"Who Could That Be at This Hour?"

7-Almost Amish

8-That Scatterbrain Booky

9-With Love From Booky

10-As Ever, Booky

11-The Help

12-The Power of Three

13-The Real James Herriott: A Memoir of My Father

14-Half Magic

15-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Angency

16-Castle in the Air
17-The House at the End of Hope Street

18-The Dog of the South

19-An Irish Country Doctor

20-The Hunger Games

21-Catching Fire

22-Mocking Jay

just over half of my goal.  Wop wop.

feels a bit lacking.  

I'm going to basically keep the same goal, but up it to 41--basically just so it feels like a new resolution.

My faves from this past year:

Fiction: The Hunger Games Trilogy 

Non-Fiction: Loving Your Kids on Purpose

I honestly thought I had read a lot more non-fiction, but I think I did some major starting and not finishing!!

On the list to read this year:

-A Wrinkle in Time Quintet

-A Million Little Ways

-Finding Ultra

-The Harem Midwife

Any more suggestions? 

Also, I am loving my new Kobo and love love love that I can download books from the library to read on it!

Thankful Thursday

i am thankful.

thankful for the people i work with.

thankful for new Church in the 'Hood beginnings.

thankful for a day that google helped troubleshoot small person sleep troubles (instead of those days that all the most unhelpful info is at the top of the search results!)

thankful for vaccines that keep people healthy. 

thankful for the OSC seed catalogue coming in the mail!

thankful for downloading library books onto my Kobo.

thankful for small people cuddles and smiles and love.

thankful for life.

resolution update

back in January i resolved a few things to happen over this year.

here is the updated list:

1-to finally stop biting my nails for good -- disgusting habit, even more so when you are a nurse. blech.
update: well, they aren't being bitten, it's been about 2 months i think, but i go back to work next week, so we'll see if they last til then!!

2-to go outside with the girls in the winter! -- this is tricky for me, i don't like being cold and it seems like a 
tremendous amount of work to bundle up 2 littles when i don't want to be outside in the first place!
update: we went out a bit. proof: 

on this day Isla refused to let Megan sit on her lap

so she sat on Megan, then as we were coming home, the sled tipped, Isla barely fell out but cried like she was dying, and poor little Meggie basically did a starfish face plant into the snow, a poor little old man walking down the street jumped over about 3 snow banks and almost fell down to try and pick her up, small babies stuck face down in the snow i guess are a little alarming! anyway, when i picked Megan up she just blinked at me. This is a pretty accurate demonstration of first-born vs. second-born. 

just a little snow this winter

3-to get back into cloth diapering -- i was a cloth fiend with Isla, and i had a pretty decent start with Megan, but kind of fell off for awhile (mostly they get cleaned and then live on top of the dryer for weeks at a time!)
update: after a few fits and starts, we've been back on full time with Megan when she's not at daycare and with Isla during naps.  Yay!

4-to sew some things -- really i just want to sew, anything at all. 
update: sewed some amazing bunting for a friend's little nursery, and started a quilt! oh, and made some little face or bum cloths, hurray!

5-to read 40 books this year -- as mentioned here.
update: just finished my 13th, i would probably be further on if it weren't for the longest most disappointing finally give up JK Rowling book. 

a reading interlude

oh man, i've been on the waiting list since last summer for JK Rowling's new book "The Casual Vacancy"

-image from Amazon.ca-

i am not enjoying it, not even really one little bit.
it seems boring and i don't care or want to know any of the characters better.
if i hadn't been waiting so long (or keeping track of all my books read this year!) i would most likely put it down and walk away.

Thom says my problem is i keep calling it "that Harry Potter book"
his exact words were "you keep calling it the Harry Potter book, but Harry isn't going to apparate into this one"

he's not? well then why am i still reading it!?!

has anyone read this? does it redeem itself at all?

all i feel when i sit down to read it is: "oh, not you again"

maybe it's time to pack it in, life's too short to read bad books.

***updated to say that i read to about page 250 and then couldn't give it anymore. it was negative, filled with unnecessary swearing and terrible people... every last one of them... not worth my time or energy***

it's a new year!

wow.

2013.

it's funny to watch old tv sitcoms from the 80's where they think that by this time we will have hover-cars and robot butlers and all kinds of crazy "futuristic" things.

not so much!

i've been working out a small list of resolutions in my head, mostly i like to pick fairly achievable ones as i like to cross things off my lists :)

so in no particular order, here are some:

1-to finally stop biting my nails for good -- disgusting habit, even more so when you are a nurse. blech.
2-to go outside with the girls in the winter! -- this is tricky for me, i don't like being cold and it seems like a tremendous amount of work to bundle up 2 littles when i don't want to be outside in the first place!
3-to get back into cloth diapering -- i was a cloth fiend with Isla, and i had a pretty decent start with Megan, but kind of fell off for awhile (mostly they get cleaned and then live on top of the dryer for weeks at a time!)
4-to sew some things -- really i just want to sew, anything at all.
5-to read 40 books this year -- as mentioned here.


so, those are a few of my resolutions... do able, but i also know that i have to be intentional about them all.

i like that.

{books read in 2012}

this year, i was keeping track of the books i had read (they were in my side bar)
i made it up to 38, which considering i was pregnant, had a 2 year old, and a new baby, is pretty impressive i think!

I am almost done another one, but considering today it the 31st, i don't  think i can make it to an even 40.

i could maybe make 39 by the end of tonight, but it would be pretty near impossible, so i'm happy with 38.

my friend Stuart made a resolution last year to read a book a week (or 52 books in the whole year... i don't think it actually has to be one a week)

i'm not sure i'm going to be able to make it to 52 this year (still have a 3 year old and a fairly newish baby after all!)

but i'm going to make it my goal to get to 40 books this year.

i'll keep track in the side bar again like i did this year :)

my top picks from this year:

The Parenting Book by Nicky and Sila Lee
Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions by Lysa Terkeurst
Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition by James Raffan

it's funny to me that these are all non-fiction books, because generally my favourites are always fiction.
i guess it was a different kind of year :)


Here is my full list from 2012:

1-Elizabeth I
2-The Virgin Cure
3-Because of Winn-Dixie
4-Owls in the Family
5-Anne of Ingleside

6-The Parenting Book

7-The Making of a Nurse

8-Fire in the Bones

9-Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

10-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

11-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

12-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

13-Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

14-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

15-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
16-Death Comes to Pemberly

17-All Creatures Wise and Wonderful

18-All Creatures Bright and Beautiful

19-The Magicians of Caprona

20-Witch Week

21-The Lives of Christopher Chant

22-Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci

23-The Night Shift

24-Little House in the Big Woods

25-Howl's Moving Castle

26-Fantastic Mr. Fox

27-Charmed Life

28-No One is Here Except All of Us

29-Five Bells

30-A Recipe for Bees

31-Conrad's Fate

32-The Pinhoe Egg

33-The Gilly Salt Sisters

34-Ru

35-Heaven at Home: Establishing and Enjoying a Peaceful Home

36-Young House Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update & Show Your Home Some Love

37-Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions

38-The Snow Girl

Day 6: a book I'm reading

I'm currently reading

Heaven at Home: Establishing and Enjoying a Peaceful Home by Ginger Plowman.
 

 

 I got it from the library on kind of a whim, I was looking for a book on parenting and godly-parenting.

 

this one came up.

it's been amazing.

it reminds me a bit of babywise with some other relationship and organizational ideas thrown in.

it's about letting your kids be who they are in Christ and allowing yourself to be who you are in Christ as well.

 

there is always room for improvement and grace and growth.

 

i actually think i may reread it right away, as it has had a lot in such a small book and i want to make sure that i am getting all that i can out of it.

 

she also points to scripture for the basis of all her points.

 

it's possibly a life-changer, this one. 

 

 

oh my.

call me embarrassed.
has nobody noticed that none of the books on my list have changed since the fall?
(and that the title of said books was 'fall reading!)

well, i have remedied that today.
i have also added a new book list (like Edie)
where i'll keep track of the books that i have already read this year.

i'm currently reading Elizabeth I by Margaret George.
over the past few years i've fallen in love with historical fiction.

this book is loooooong. it is interesting, but not riveting or adventure filled.
i am halfway through.

i'll let you know what i think once i'm all done.

what are people reading or anticipating reading during these chilled months?

Day 6: a book i'm reading

this one is easy peasy.

i usually have a few books on the go

but lately, thanks to my friend Kristen, all that i have been reading is the Twilight Saga.

i started them just before Thanksgiving (Canadian) and i am halfway through the fourth and final book.

Kristen has also been having me watch the movies as i finish the books.

now a little background.

i have been a sort of resister of the series.

i thought that there was no way that they would be as good as some other series, like Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events.

when i decided that i would read them for interest sake (this was a while ago) i mostly expected something somewhat entertaining but something that would read like a Sweet Valley High or Babysitters Club book.

boy was i wrong!

i am seriously unable to put these books down.

the writing is very descriptive and you feel like you are entirely in a vampire/werewolf world.

they also are not as scary as i thought, you know, gruesome for gruesome sake.

certainly there are some tense moments, but it is more the situations and less the gore and blood.

basically, i can't get enough of this series and as i am quickly approaching the end of the last book, i feel a like my world is ending a little sad to think about it all being over.

at least i have the new Breaking Dawn movie to look forward to!

so, if you have been putting of reading Twilight because it seemed silly, or like you were jumping on the band wagon or ridiculously mushy or something like that, i very strongly urge you to try it out!!

and in case you weren't sure...

the Journey

There is a blog that I have been reading, I think for just over a year now.

It's called "The Journey" and you can find it over at www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

Here is a bit of her story from the Amazima Ministries website 

(I was going to edit this, but the whole thing is amazing, so I left it all)

"In December of 2006, 18-year-old Katie Davis from Brentwood, Tennessee, traveled to Uganda for the first time. She was immediately captivated with the people and the culture. 

In the summer of 2007, Katie returned to Uganda to teach Kindergarten at an orphanage. As she walked the children home, she was shocked to see the sheer number of school-aged children sitting idly on the side of the road or working in the fields. She learned there were very few government-run public schools in Uganda, and none in the area where she was working. Most schools in Uganda are privately operated and therefore require school fees for attendance, making impoverished children unable to afford an education.

God laid it on Katie's heart to start a child sponsorship program, matching orphaned and vulnerable children who are unable to afford schooling with sponsors anywhere in the world. Sponsors pay $300 per year to send one child to school, providing school supplies, 3 hot meals each day, spiritual discipleship, and medical care. Originally planning to have 40 children in the program, Katie had signed up 150 by January 2008. Today the program sponsors over 400 children.

Shortly thereafter, Katie established a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called Amazima Ministries International. The organization seeks to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people of Uganda who need it most. In the Lugandan language, Amazima means "truth." Also, Katie became a mother for the first time in January of 2008 to three orphaned girls.

Katie also reached out to the Karimojong people of the Masese community. The poorest of the poor, and losing their children to malnutrition and starvation at an astounding rate, she noticed their desperate need for nutritious food. She started a feeding program to the community, nourishing over 1,600 children Monday through Friday. This allows the children to attend school and therefore not go to the street to beg. Also provided is medical care, Bible study, and general health training.

As friendships developed with the Karimojong people, Katie wanted to help the women in the village provide for their families. She initiated a self-sustaining vocational program to empower these women to make unique Ugandan magazine bead necklaces. They are also taught money management skills. The necklaces made by the Karimojong women are purchased and sold in the United States.

Katie recently announced a dream to start, staff, and operate an Amazima school in Uganda. As a mother herself, she recognized the need to teach children critical thinking, problem solving and the fundamentals of learning in a Christian environment. Amazima hopes to open the school in 2012.

Now the mother of 13 daughters, Katie offers, "People tell me I am brave. People tell me I am strong. People tell me good job. Well here is the truth of it. I am really not that brave, I am not really that strong, and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am just doing what God called me to do as a follower of Him. Feed His sheep, do unto the least of His people." 

Katie is not a frequent blog updater (understandably so!)

But when I see a new post from her on my blog roll it is the first one I read.

She is inspiring and I like to hear what is going on in her life and pray for her.

I can't be there, but I can lift up prayers to the Lord who is beside her every day.

 Katie has just recently written a book.

Called "Kisses from Katie"

I'm going to order it from amazon and read it.

Is anyone interested in doing a little read-along with me? 

A virtual book club of sorts?

You can link to the book on Amazon Canada up there or to the right under 'some fall reading'