For the past couple of weeks, my brain has been buzzing with thoughts regarding whether our family is complete and how I really feel about not having a girl. I wanted to post about these things, both to share my heart and also to work through my thoughts on paper (er, computer screen). They're heavier topics, though, so I'm taking my time writing about them, and they're not ready yet. I'm hoping to post the first one next week. 😉

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you what I've read so far this year. Even though Theo's sleep schedule is so much better than it was, I am still definitely feeling "off." I feel like I'm living inside a snow-globe, and every time one of our babies is born, the globe is shaken vigorously. The result is beautiful chaos, and the bits of glitter and white plastic have only begun to settle. I've noticed that when I feel like this, I tend to read more from the self-help and non-fiction genres, as you shall see. Here's what I've read so far this year:

{Made to Crave: Satisying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa TerKeurst}

I still have some baby weight to lose (see above about the snow-globe), so I thought TerKeurst's book would be a good choice for me. It was! Much like Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, I think it's one of those books that is good to read on a regular basis, perhaps once every year or two. When I am in the midst of reading these books, I notice that I struggle less with self-control.

In chapter 1, TerKeurst describes three ways that Satan tries to lure us away from loving God: cravings (trying to get our physical desires met outside the will of God), lust of the eyes (trying to get our material desires met outside of the will of God), and boasting (trying to get our need for significance met outside the will of God). She highlights how Satan used these tactics when tempting Eve in the garden and again when tempting Jesus in the desert. The parallels are fascinating, especially when we realize that he is still using those same tactics on us today. I may not struggle too much with cravings , but I do occasionally get tripped up in terms of lust of the eyes  and boasting. TerKeurst's book is a great balance of the philosophical and practical, and she shares her story with humor and humility.

Note: I actually listened to this as an Audible book. Thumbs up for the narration! However, I started to listen to TerKeurst's The Best Yes on Audible, and the narration is terribly dry and monotone. I'm going to have to read the paperback version of that one.

{Babywise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep by Robert Bucknam, M.D. and Gary Ezzo}

I was afraid of this book. If you listen to some people's opinions, Babywise was written by a pair of demons hell-bent on creating sickly, dehydrated babies. However, there are also scads of readers praising this book for its helpful advice and common sense approach. Let me set the scene for you. When Theo was four-months-old, he was sleeping in our room, which is actually our preference for the first several months of our babies' lives. He was doing okay at night, but we were ready for him to move into his own room. And daytime naps were hard. Theo cried as soon as I laid him in his crib, and he would only take short naps in his swing, which was located in our school room. We all had to be super-quiet while he was napping, which was a piece of cake with three other boys. (Har-har!) I hadn't had a good night's sleep in about nine months (I don't sleep well when I'm pregnant either), so I was stumbling around like a sleep-deprived zombie and doing very clever things like putting packs of gum in the dryer. Ahem. We felt that Theo, at four months, was well past the point at which we needed to be concerned about his being dehydrated if we went too long between night feedings, so I ordered the most current edition of Babywise. 

Honestly, I don't know why people get so worked up about this book. (Perhaps the advice was different in previous editions?) Bucknam and Ezzo explain how parenting philosophies have changed over time, and they promote a happy medium between feeding your child based on the clock (behavioral parenting) and feeding your child on-demand (attachment parenting). They never tell you not to feed your baby. Instead, they tell you to use both the clock and your knowledge of your child (their age, whether they're in a growth spurt, whether they're sick, etc.) to determine when to feed him. It seems like common sense to me. They do give you permission to let your baby cry, as long as you know that they are all right and their needs are met. And that permission is exactly what I needed to get Theo to have a dramatic improvement in the quality and length of his sleeping. We only had to let him cry a little, and then he started sleeping for hours at a time in his crib! Because he was better rested, he was also more content and alert during the daytime hours. I truly was giving him (and myself!) the gift of sleep.

Note: I read the parts about babies' sleep schedules and skipped the sections on breastfeeding and other parenting topics I didn't need help with.

{Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie}

I feel like Sarah Mackenzie owes me a coffee due to the royalties she must have made off of me. (Okay, okay, I admit it. I just really want to have coffee with Sarah Mackenzie!) I purchased the Kindle and Audible versions of this book. I loved it so much that I bought the paperback version as well, so I could highlight the heck out of it and write notes in the margins. If you are a homeschooler, I think that this is one of the first books you should read. Its focus is not so much on the nuts and bolts of homeschooling (although she has lots of fabulous practical advice), but more on the general attitude a homeschooling mom can and should embrace: a demeanor steeped with peace, coming from the knowledge that God is in control and our primary job is to be faithful to Him through our service to our family. She helped me with one of my biggest homeschool struggles this year: What do I do with Logan (my just-turned-3-year-old) while I do school with the big boys? I tried everything to include him and entertain him and ended up relying on the television for a part of each morning. (Ugh! So much "mom guilt!") Mackenzie advises to give time to the little ones first, to fill up their tanks so to speak, so they will happier to entertain themselves for a while. I've started doing this and, not only have I found Logan to be more content without the TV, but I am also experiencing less "mom guilt" about giving more focus to my older boys during school time. (I had actually been doing the opposite... trying to speed though my time with the big boys, so I could give my attention to the littler ones. Well, Theo always gets top priority right now, but you know what I mean!) Mackenzie also inspired me to start a commonplace book, which I intend to fill with lots of wisdom gleaned from Teaching from Rest. 🙂

Note: I listened to the Audible version of this book. Sarah Mackenzie narrates it herself, and I love that I could occasionally hear her children in the background. Their sweet voices kept it very real! Thumbs up for her narration!

{Who Was Lucille Ball? by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso}

I had been curious about the Who Was series for a while and, frankly, I just love me some Lucy. When I saw that the newest subject of the Who Was series was Lucille Ball, I snapped it up faster than you can say "Happy peppy people." (Are there any Lucy fans out there who get that reference?) The book took me about a half-hour to read, and I concluded that this series would be a perfect introduction to biographies for my almost-nine-year-old. As for my opinion about this specific book, I did enjoy learning about one of my favorite TV personalities, but I was left a little disappointed... I was hoping Ball had some noble motivation for her pursuit of an acting career. Instead, she was presented as someone who worked incredibly hard to become a star because she enjoyed attention. For someone who brought so much happiness to generations of viewers, there could have been a bit more emphasis on her higher intentions, if she had any.

{Who Was Jesus? by Ellen Morgan and Stephen Marchesi}

When we give our children gifts for Easter, Christmas, and birthdays, Dan and I try to follow the "something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read" guidelines. When I noticed that there was a Who Was Jesus? book in the Who Was series, I thought it would be perfect for my oldest son's Easter basket. However, since the entire series is not specifically written for a Christian audience, I wanted to preview the book before I gave it to my son. I think the authors do a nice job of presenting the material in a way that is true and satisfactory for the Christian reader, while not putting off the secular reader. Morgan and Marchesi present most of the information by saying, "The Gospel of Matthew says..." or "Christians believe that..." I was reading with the purpose of finding something offensive, and I didn't find it. In fact, I learned a few things myself! I like how the authors state that we don't know much about Jesus' childhood (true), and then describe the childhood of a typical Jewish boy at the time and suggest that Jesus' childhood might have been like that. I was also able to learn a few interesting facts from their description of the disciples. In sum, I think this book will be great nestled between a chocolate bunny and a new pair of summer shoes in Shane's Easter basket. 😉

I'm currently reading The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines on my Kindle. I'm a big fan of Fixer Upper, and I'm really enjoying the book so far. I do wish I had this one on Audible, because I've heard that Chip and Joanna read it themselves, and I think that would make this delightful book even more charming. I'll let you know what I think of it when I'm finished.

So... what are you reading right now? Any must-reads that I should add to my reading list?

Oh! And here's that GC&M update I promised. I've been posting on Fridays for a while, but it came to my attention that a lot of you (not me) tend to actually have plans on Friday nights, so I'm going to try to post earlier in the week. Keep your eyes open or, better yet, subscribe to this blog, so you don't miss a single post!