Wednesday, September 02, 2015

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.

Friday, January 16, 2015

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 PlaceI 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. 

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