Good Reads - June

Called Home by Karen DeBeus

I read this as sort of a morning devotional this month.  The chapters are short and were perfect to read while I had my coffee before starting our day.  This is written by a homeschooling mom.  It focuses on putting God first in our days and letting Him direct our homeschool.  The parts that stuck with me the most were where she talked about how often we make plans and then ask God to be with them instead of asking Him first what we need to focus on.  I also felt better about wanting to be home more and allowing us more free time here.  Society, especially around here, seems to say kids need to be in every sport and activity available.  We tried that road with Josie last year and it wore me out and made me crabby.  Through this book I saw that it's ok to say no and just enjoy being with my kids at home.  This was a good way to start my day and I recommend it as a devotional for homeschooling moms.

"Don't Make Me Count to Three!" by Ginger Plowman

I read this book when Josie was little, but she was such an easy toddler that I didn't put much thought into it.  Now I have Gabe and it hit a whole other cord with me this time.  My kids are both far from bad, but I hear myself yelling, "ONE, TWO, THREE!" way more than I want to.  I want my kids to obey and do it because it's the right thing to do.  This book is a lot like the highly recommended book Shepherding A Child's Heart, only it is written by a mom and has a lot more practical advice and more real life examples of how and when to use it.

Ladies Night by Mary Kay Andrews

I had heard of this author but never read any of her books.  Vicki picked this for our book club's July meeting and I read it in like 4 days.  I really liked it.  This is the story of a semi-famous lifestyle blogger who finds out her husband is cheating on her.  She drives his car into their pool which lands her in anger therapy.  Her husband shuts her out of their mansion home, her bank accounts, and her blog forcing her to start her life totally over.  She decides to fix up an old house and recreate her blog around that.  There are a few surprises and an overall good story line.  I ended up really liking the characters which always makes a book more fun for me.

And With Josie:

Sarah, Plain & Tall by Patricia MacLachan

We did a unit study on this book this month and all three of us really enjoyed it.  Sarah, Plain and Tall is about a family living in Kansas on a farm in the 19th century.  The mother dies (before the story really starts) and the dad advertises for a new wife.  Sarah, who lives in Maine, responds and comes to the farm.  Josie liked the story.  This was the first read aloud that we did discussion questions with and it really helped to get her to listen closely and think about what we were reading knowing there were questions at the end.

Hello, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

I finally went and got Josie another Mrs. Piggle Wiggle book.  The child is in love with these stories.  I really like them too, but feel a little bamboozled by this magical nanny this go round.  The chapters in the first book were long, but manageable.  In this book, I swear the chapters were about 20 pages.  And that's a lot when you've been going all day and desperately want to close the kids doors and clock out for the night.  I was a good sport though and found a way to use it to my advantage; if you want Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, you better be ready for bed 30 minutes early!  The stories in this one are just as great as the first book.  Each chapter tells about another naughty child and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle helps them behave.  The first book was more practical changes, this one had more medication type solutions.  Either way, they are awesome for starting talks about bad behavior and what the kid could do different. If you're up for that sort of thing after 20 pages at 9 PM!