September reads

First, the grown-up reads!

📖 Bible study... Luke. Verrrry slowly, reading my Bible much more slowly these days on advice from our pastor. Seeking to understand each little bit rather than seeking to get through a lot.

📖 Better Together by Pam Barnhill (nonfiction, homeschool)... I felt so inspired by this little book on homeschool morning time and added so many great readings to our morning basket this month.

📖 Finding God in my Loneliness (Christian, nonfiction)... I was experiencing a strange kind of loneliness in early September that's hard to explain. I felt no loneliness at all in my home life or spiritual life but more in a female companionship kind of way. I am normally very content in This area but i think it was a combination of hormones and wishing I could be experiencing pregnancy alongside a friend. Fortunately that's gone now and I'm back to joyful contentment. This book wasn't quite what I was after and was one of those I had mixed feelings on. I liked several things and disliked/disagreed with a few things. 🤷🏼

📖 The Power of a Woman's Words (Christian, nonfiction)... I read this one very slowly, really savoring and reflecting on tiny morsels at a time. I was reminded of so many things people have said that have stuck with me over the years and reflected a lot on the gifts I want to give with my own words.

📖 A Skeleton in God's Closet (Christian, general fiction)... I was very into this one, about an archaeologist who uncovers something that will turn Christianity on its head. It was so good! I was genuinely invested in the outcome and sped through it. I would say this is a great book for guys, too. There is alove interest but it doesn't dominate the story.

📖 Slow Death by Rubber Duck (secular, nonfiction)... This book is from 2009 so I admittedly already about all of these toxins and had thankfully phased all of them out of our day-to-day life already but I still enjoyed seeing it all in one place and remembering why it's so important to focus on natural, God-designed things!

📖 The Stranger in the Lifeboat (secular publication with a strong faith focus, fiction)... Mitch Albom is for sure my favorite secular author. All of his books I've read so far always move me and make think, reflect, and enjoy a deep a powerful prayer session. This one did contain a curse word. (The A word)

📖 Truly Madly Deeply (Christian, fiction)... This is another Baxter Family stand-alone novel- you don't have to have to read any others to fall into it but you'll of course appreciate it more if you have. This one is largely focused on a high school senior switching career paths and facing a lot of opposition from his mother, and his girlfriend's sudden diagnosis and battle with a health crisis. I now have just two Baxter books left! 😱

Kid shelf reads:

📖 The Bronze Bow (secular, middle grade, Biblical fiction, TGTB)... The cover of this one didn't really appeal to me so I was surprised by how much I loved it!

📖The Golden Goblet (secular, middle grade, historical fiction, TGTB book list)... A bit depressing at first but pretty good!

📖 Joni's Story (Christian, middle grade, memoir)... Loved this memoir by Joni Eareckson Tada and promptly read it aloud to my older kids, too. Fyi to parents, there is one paragraph early on where Joni explains her depression after her accident and that she asked a friend to kill her, using very specific suggestions. I just skipped over the specifics when I read it aloud.

📖 Little Pilgrim's Progress (Christian, middle grade, classic)... It has taken me years to read this classic!

📖 London Art Chase (Christian, middle grade, fiction)... This first book in the Glimmer Girls series was cute and something my daughter has been so excited about! For some reason Amazon shows this as book 2 but it's for sure book 1. 

📖Penny (Horse Diaries) (secular, middle grade)... A paint mare story for my horse-loving kiddo!

📖 Time Crashers: Viking Attack (Christian, middle grade, choose-your-own-adventure)... I liked this one alright but parents should know there is of course fighting due to the Viking theme. In one story line, our MC does meet a violent (but not graphic) fate and youre encouraged to use your time machine and try a different storyline if you don't like that ending. 

Also, library picture books that stood out: Because Barbara //  Cozy Light, Cozy Night

Would You Rather?

If you'd like to fill it out too, you can find a blank copy here 😊

August reads

First, the grown-up reads!

📖 Mountain of the Dead: The Dyatlov Pass Incident (secular, nonfiction)... My most recent obsession subject! I always loved the story of Roanoke as a kid, then later the Mary Celeste and the missing prince sons of King Edward IV. This story might be my favorite unsolved mystery of all. A group of Russian hikers set out in the 1950s and were all found dead but in ways that didn't make sense. They had slashed through their tent from the inside rather than using the opening, run out into extreme cold without the shoes and winter gear inside the tent, and "froze to death" nearby but several of them with massive and fatal internal injuries yet no matching external injuries. But there's even more to it! And no true answers, just theories. I'll have to work really hard not to read more books on the subject 😅

📖 Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way (secular, nonfiction)... Self-explanatory, I'm sure. I overall liked this one. I think it might be a re-read but i can't remember for sure.

📖 Shaped by the Waves (Christian, fiction)... I just adore Christina Suzann Nelson novels! She's one of my favorite Christian fiction authors. There are domestic violence trigger warnings for this one but oh man, was it a good read! Cassie is back in her hometown in Oregon to be the caretaker for her ailing aunt (dementia and Parkinson's) and reading through an anonymous story that seems to connect to her own life. Meanwhile, Nora is pregnant with gestational diabetes and looking for her biological family to understand family history. Slowly seeing how things are connected was such a treat!

For my kids' shelves:

📖 Aedyn Chronicles series (Christian, middle grade, fantasy)... Not a very favorite fantasy but a soft hit nevertheless

📖 Frightful's Mountain (secular, middle grade, fiction, TGTB book list)... This third book in the trilogy is primarily focused on Frightful (the falcon). I liked it, I think more than the second.

📖 Jack Zulu and the Girl With the Golden Wings (Christian, middle grade, fantasy)... This is the second in this series and was a big hit! We love SD Smith around here! Lots of good vs evil battles.

📖 Son of Angels series (Christian, middle grade, fantasy)... This series is about a boy who discovers he's part fallen angel. There are lots of good vs evil battles and this series quickly became a new favorite for one of my kids.  

📖 Sylvia and Aki (secular, middle grade, fictionalized biography, TGTB)... I absolutely loved this story about Japanese internment camps and race. It reminded me a lot of one storyline from Echo! 

Bookish links- October 2024

October new releases I'm excited about: Specters in the Glass House // All We Thought We Knew 

The prettiest, short little photo montage to get you excited for cozying up with a good book this autumn. 

Did you know there are writing pens that cost over $1,000?! 

Christian cozy mysteries 

I used my Tyndale Reader Rewards points for a free book last week! I thought I was getting All We Thought We Knew but it was out of stock so I got How the Light Gets In. If you sign up using my link, we both get points towards free books 😉

My daughter loves this poster- Cool cats read books 

My current favorite contemporary Christian fiction authors for those who like to see a lot of character and relationship development + tough issues in a book- Robin Lee Hatcher // Karen Kingsbury // Christina Suzann Nelson 

Exciting... Well on Wheels: a Christian Bookmobile 

16 Christian romance novels readers are guaranteed to love 

When I lived in Flagstaff, Arizona there was a church-run coffee shop (now closed) whose sandwiches were named after Beatles songs. I occasionally got the Eleanor Rigby but I usually got the Paperback Writer. I loved the theme element and it makes me certain I'd love these fun book-themed coffee shops! 

Autumn picture books we love 

Did you see that the Christy Award finalists were announced? Winners will be announced November 14th! 

The cutest ideas for a storybook-themed wedding! 

Christian and clean historical fiction with mystery and romance 

Teachers (but not homeschool parents) can get 6 free audio books per month 

Homeschool moms of younger kids, I really enjoyed this Jennifer Pepito interview on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast. 

11 books to get you and your family back into the Bible 

Also, Jesus loves you 💙

Soup Season!

Soup season is back and I am so excited! I still had soup for lunch almost every day this summer and now I'll have it for all my lunches + some of my dinners. It's my favorite! There's something so cozy and comforting about it! Plus, soups are such a great and easy way to get more nutrients you may or may not have eaten if it wasn't in soup form!

All of the soups we make are gluten free and plant based but they'll still work for you if you aren't. Feel free to add chicken or cheese and dunk some crusty French bread into it- you do you! I'll also include curries on our list because they show up on both Soup Night and Rice Bowl Night in our house. I'll also include chili, and of course this glorious clip to go with it.

Soups we already know and love:

🍛 Baingan bharta... One of my favorite Indian food dishes, and the only way most of my family eats eggplant! We had a big Indian food taste test night once, made a big pot of rice and we each tried a few bites of multiple different packaged Indian food dishes. This was one of them and it was a hit so I was happy when the first recipe I tried was a win. I eat a bowl of this like a stew but my family likes it over rice + riced cauliflower. 

🍲 Black bean soup... I don't follow a true recipe. I make this with garlic, onions, tomatoes, black beans, rice, cilantro, and lime juice. Plus seasoning. It's a little different every time but it's always delicious. Especially topped with avocado chunks and diced raw red onion! 

🍛 Bombay potatoes... This was another hit from Indian food taste test night and is my best recommendation for anyone who has never tried Indian food. The flavors are mild and who doesn't like potatoes? I eat it in a bowl like a thick stew but my family likes it over rice + riced cauliflower. One of my kids loves adding peas to theirs. 

🍲 Broccoli soup... We've tried so many dairy free broccoli soup recipes, goodness! Probably one from every cookbook on the list below, quite frankly! But PlantYou's Panera copycat video is our favorite version. (We don't actually like the version in her cookbook!)

🍲 Creamy tomato gnocchi... My daughter and I call this Christmas Soup because of the red tomatoes, white gnocchi, and green zucchini + kale. We serve it on Christmas Eve now. I also recently served it to my meat + dairy eating parents and they both liked it, too! 

🍲 Curry potato... My daughter and I love this with cashew cream mixed in! We also enjoy it with chickpeas and/or peas mixed in. 

🍲 Hannah soup (that's what we call it, anyway!)... I blend it a bit more than she does and add salt + cayenne. This was my very favorite soup for a while. I ate it for lunch every day for I think eight months! 

🍲 Lasagna soup... This is my current favorite soup. I make a few minor adjustments to this one (like omitting nutritional yeast and blending sunflower seeds + pumpkin seeds + hemp hearts + crushed red peppers as the cream, for example) but I also enjoyed it exactly as the revipe states. I just can't help myself and know what we like + what I value nutritionally so I tend to tweak just about every recipe I touch! 

🍲 Loaded cauliflower baked potato soup from The Colorful Family Table... Pretty good! Potato soup is actually not my favorite (after like a thousand bowls of creamy / cheesy potato soup my taste buds still aren't really impressed by plant-based versions) but this one is okay and my kids who weren't addicted to the dairy version love it. 

🍛 Madras lentils... This is another dish we all loved on our Indian food taste test night. Once again, my family likes theirs over rice + riced cauliflower. 

🍛 Peanut butter curry...  After trying this at a gf + vegan restaurant in the city i knew I had to come home and make it for my family. Big hit! Always served over rice + riced cauliflower. 

🍲 Pumpkin chili... We first tried this one at a restaurant and several of us absolutely loved it! I make a few tweaks to mimic the restaurant version + top with cashew cream. 

🍲 Rustic Italian vegetable... We don't follow a strict recipe with this one. We tried and loved the Amy's soup so make a homemade version. Garlic, onion, carrot, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, rice, chickpeas, seasoning. Delicious! 

🍲 Spinach soup... So healing when we're sick! It doesn't taste like spinach at all, just like tomato soup. Maybe I'm more open to this than some but I blame my mom for feeding us green ketchup in the 90s 😂

🍲 Three-bean chili... Super simple! Garlic, onion, tomato. Sometimes green chilies or jalapeno or bell pepper. Black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans. Garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika. Cayenne for those of us who like spice. 

🍲 Sweet potato chili... Basically same as above but with pureed sweet potato all mixed in! 

Soups we plan to try this year 

🍲 Amy's Creamy Wild Rice soup from Gluten Free Vegan Cooking in Your Instant Pot... I've been wanting to try a wild rice soup for years! 

🍲 Creamy celery and Cannellini bean soup from Eat Better Live Better Feel Better... I don't tend to love fully blended soups that aren't tomato but I've thought this soup looked yummy for years! 

🍲 Italian wedding soup from the most recent Forks over Knives magazine... It's pretty unlikely that I'll be impressed by the lentil-based "meatballs" but one of my kiddos really wants to try so we'll see! 

🍲 Jalapeno popper soup from Lissa's Raw Vegan Soups, Stews, Curries & Chilis... This one always sounds so yummy to me! 

🍲 Lazy lentil soup from PlantYou... I'm big on lentils and this looks and sounds great! 

🍲 Minestrone from PlantYou... One of my kids loves a packaged minestrone soup. We try not to do much packaged food so we've decided to try this recipe! 

🍲 Pinto bean soup from Simple and Delicious Vegan... A friend recently said pinto bean soup is even better than black bean soup so, okay! 

🍲 PlantYou's hidden veggie noodle soup... I have star-shaped pasta in my pantry so I can make this next time my kids are sick with sore throats. The broth will be healing but they won't have to swallow pieces of veggies with a tender throat! 

🍲 Pot pie soup... I have wanted to try this one for some time now but what I remember loving about (Banquet brand 😆) pot pie was actually the crust! So we'll see if I actually make it. 

🍲 Roasted red pepper & cauliflower soup from PlantYou... I was super into roasted red pepper soup for a while in the early 2000s and suspect I'd love this one! 

🍲 Tortilla soup from Gluten Free Vegan Cooking in Your Instant Pot... A few of us tried and loved a restaurant tortilla soup last year and we've planned to try making our own this year ever since! 

My personal favorite plantiful cookbooks containing soups and more: The Colorful Family Table // Eat Better Live Better Feel Better // Forks Over Knives magazines // Gluten Free Vegan Cooking in Your Instant Pot // PlantYou // Simple and Delicious Vegan 

Do you have a favorite soup to recommend? 

Also, Jesus loves you! 💙