Recent Reads

Charlotte's Web... We listened to this audiobook on our drives for a couple weeks because one of my girls is obsessed with piggies. I forgot how much I love this book! The kids loved it, too!

Five True Horse Stories by Margaret Davidson... This was a very quick read I will be adding to my kids shelf for a second-ish grade reading level. It offered very quick stories about five famous horses including Justin Morgan, Misty, and Brighty of the Grand Canyon (actually a donkey). It wasn't super detailed but it was well written and a decent little read.

Imagination Station 7: the Curse of the Prince's Tomb... another super quick read, but a good one. I will also be reading the next book since it is about cannibals and after that I think I will just be skimming these ones. I have seen nothing inappropriate for our family in any of them. My six-year-old has started to read the books himself and absolutely loves them. He is in the middle of the third book now so I'd better move fast!

The Psychobiotic Revolution... this book is so amazing! I cannot recommend it enough. I learned so much and it was so fascinating. This concept, the microbiome, has been so incredibly helpful in my journey to healing. Learning about how impactfull our microbes are in our mental health has been huge. There was really only a small amount of information on bulimia (though it did pack a powerful punch), but there was so much awesome information about anxiety and depression. I am now choosing my probiotic specifically to target these three areas and I'm very excited to see the impact that will make on my physical and mental health!

Sex, Purity, and the Longing of a Girl's Heart*... this was a super quick read that I actually read straight through in one sitting, from about 7pm-10:30pm. I have not done that since having children so that was kind of a treat. I know it's a very personal topic subject but I personally found this one to align with the values I would like to teach my own daughters and have absolutely added it to my shelf for them to read as young teenagers. Kristen and Bethany, who are sisters, do an amazing job teaching the values of both physical and mental purity while also explaining the importance of staying far away from shame in this area. They did an excellent job letting young women know that their longings are perfectly natural, normal and even God designed... But that it is up to us to control our minds in regards to them.

Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine... once I started looking at the trauma aspect of my healing journey, I was shocked to discover just how much trauma I had experienced throughout my life, and how much trauma every person experiences. I had to work through memories of physical and emotional pain caused by others, seeing a limp toddler pulled out of a car accident, being the driver in a roll over car accident, a friend's death when I was in middle school, and all kinds of experiences that I had never considered before as trauma. After reading the emotion code and following Dr. Christopher Motley's work through podcasts, videos, and Instagram posts, I was pretty confident I was missing something in my healing work and reached out to ask him what he recommends next. His suggestion was this book, which I heard one of my favorite bulimia recovery mentors speak about the very next day! I pretty quickly got my hands on this book. I would not call it a riveting read but it was definitely very powerful and informative. I learned a lot from it, and actually learned some things I can do to help my son work through some of his dog fears surrounded by the trauma of recently having been bitten by a neighbor's dog.

*I received a free copy of Sex, Purity, and Longings of a Girl's Heart from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.