December 2024 reads

December was a sad and weird month where my family went through quite a lot in a very short time. It was quite a rough ride (which is not anywhere near over yet so we'd love your prayers!) but we watched God come through for us again and again. I didn't read much at all in the first half of the month but once we got into a rental house things calmed down a little bit. Then I was too sick to do anything but make soup and read! Plus, Christmas novellas are short reads I whipped through in no time at all. 

First, grown-up reads:

📖 Bible study: Genesis... Though it was tempting to turn to Job 😂 Still working through all of my Bible study very slowly and intentionally rather than hurrying to read a certain amount each day.

📖 A Carol for Christmas (Christian, Christmas fiction)... I always enjoy a more emotionally driven story but it tends to be harder to find deeper Christmas stories. Robin Lee Hatcher is one of my favorites for a reason!

📖 The Christmas Bus (Christian, Christmas fiction)... This was my buddy read with my mom this year and I finished it on Christmas day. This was not my favorite kind of deep and emotionally evocative read but it was a fun and sweet Christmas read we both enjoyed.

📖 Cosy: The British Art of Comfort (secular, nonfiction)... I'm a cozy girl at my best but I desperately needed some comfort this month. I loved this book but it did contain a curse word (the F word) at least twice. As we are replacing all our lost belongings we've been very focused on a more minimalist approach, not just collecting a bunch of stuff but seeking out the few specific items we truly need/loved. Now I'm also focusing on making sure these are cozy items that bring us comforting feelings, too.  

📖 Dashing Through the Snow (Christian, Christmas fiction)... I listened to this one as an audio book on a long drive where my kids weren't present. I was glad they weren't because there was random talk of a man who claimed to have had intimate relations with an alien. The rest of the book had almost nothing to do with that and was an overall fun Christmas read but i am starting to think I only like Debbie Macomber's nonfiction writing.

📖 The Dorito Effect (secular, nonfiction, science / health)... This was such a fascinating food science read! I didn't expect to learn much about artificial flavorings and such, but I did! But I actually picked it up for the info about how produce is weaker, both nutritionally and in flavor, and learned so much about that! 

📖 Mother-Daughter Murder Night (secular, fiction, mystery)... I read this one because I saw it reviewed as 'Gilmore Girls, but with murder.' I agree with the description. It was a fun one, not gruesome or scary and full of family dynamics as a mother, daughter, and granddaughter amateur sleuthed to solve a murder. This one did contain a few curse words + a few other words/phrases some will be offended by in the 2nd half of the book. I overall enjoyed it but was also reminded why I stick to Christian fiction + a select few known secular authors.

📖 Tin Can Serenade (Christian, Christmas, fiction, short story)... This is the world's shortest little epistolary novella, like a 30 minute read, but in Amanda Dykes' classic historical fiction style. Thoroughly enjoyed!

📖 Untangle Your Emotions (Christian, nonfiction)... I'm pretty decent at feeling my feelings (most of the time, anyway) but I still found this book very helpful. It's a great companion book to Get Out of Your Head, which I also enjoyed.

📖 Zen Mama (secular, nonfiction, pregnancy)... This one was fun but probably most ideal for (crunchy) first-time mamas.

And for my kids' shelves...

📖 American Murderer (secular, late middle grade, nonfiction)... This nonfiction about a southern hookworm epidemic and its treatment was so fascinating to me! One of my kids likes health/disease books almost as much as I do. 

📖 Parkinson's Disease (secular, YA, nonfiction)... Helpful but sad... This book was read for informational purposes, not for the sake of feeling hope 😞

📖 Scooby-Doo and the Spooky Strike-Out (secular, chapter book, fiction)... These kind of books are of course kinda meh to me but they're always a big hit with my younger kids.

📖 SmART (secular, middle grade, nonfiction)... My oldest and I found this brain/attention/art book so fascinating! I love that some of my kids will enjoy this one for the brain side and others for the art side.

📖 Who Was Winston Churchill? (Secular, middle grade, nonfiction, biography)... In spite of all the many WWII fiction and nonfiction ice read over the years I know very little-- next to nothing!-- about Winston Churchill. I wanted to learn more about him after learning how inspiring he is to many Christians. I don't think this book painted the vibrant picture most people are seeing but it was still overall fine.

Library picture books we loved: The Christmas Doll // Lefty: A Story That is Not All Right // Over and Under the Snow // We Believe in Christmas

Bookish links- January 2025

January new releases I'm excited about: The Happy Healthy Plant-based Cookbook // Uniquely You 

I always love seeing everyone's favorite reads of the previous year! Here are a few, many which contain secular reads... Janssen and her team // The Unlikely Homeschool // From Our Bookshelf // Chantel Reads All Day // Amy's storygraphs are so fun!! // Gretchen Louise & family 

How cute are Stacy's seasonal e-reader covers?

Old blog posts you may be interested in this month- Winter picture books I love // Great Christian movies 

I looked at so many planners this year! I always like for each day to have 2 sections (one for homeschool + meal and other home management planning, one for general To-Do s). I prefer a column layout but it isn't mandatory. I love habit trackers and goal/reflection pages but can live without them. I looked at probably 50+ planners in person and ultimately picked this one. So far it's working quite well for me, though I do wish it had a column layout.  

Artistic bookworms- 2025 reading log from Everyday Reading! I love this one from Dash Into Learning, too. 

This Lord of the Rings adventure book game looks so fun! 

Celebrity and influencer-themed book recs 

Cute art... A bookworm's belongings. 

Heidi St John's favorite read-alouds 

Faith-based resources for emotional health + healing 

Overcoming the Struggles of Sacred Mornings: How to Prioritize Your Time With Jesus

11 Romantic wedding ideas for book lovers 

For those who can embroider- Drink good tea, read good books 

I don't know who this is or what else she puts online but here's a cozy hands-free Kindle reading set-up that looks perfect for a chilly winter night 

6 tips for decluttering your bookshelves 

I lost all my homeschool supplies to the house. Here's what we're starting over with this month: Math // Story of the World, volume 3 // Typing // Handwriting // The English Grammar Workbook 1 and 2 // The Spelling Teacher's Lesson a Day // Writing Fabulous Sentences and Paragraphs. // buddy reads, read-alouds, and independent reading // Spanish for Gringos // Geography workbook for the first grader // also doing map work and using library materials to finish our last science unit since I couldn't justify paying full price with less than half of the unit left 

2024 Reading Stats

These are mostly just for me. I'll share my 2024 favorites soon, too! 

Today I....

Baked cookies with my kids

Cooked chili as our Christmas Eve meal.

Felt so many emotions... Sad/anxious for my cousin and her baby, joyful seeing my kids' Christmas Eve joy, miserable because of this brutal lung sickness I got from my hubby, grateful for all that God has done for us in this hard season, sad remembering the miscarriage that happened on Christmas morning last year, more excited than ever to give my kids gifts since they've lost so much.

Listened to a family Christmas playlist on repeat!

Played Mario Kart with my loves. 

Prayed so many times for my cousin, her preemie baby, and their family

Prepped homemade orange cinnamon rolls for our special Christmas breakfast tomorrow

Read the second-to-last chapter of The Christmas Bus, my buddy read with my mom this year. 

Sipped a healthier storebought holiday nog, yum.

Stayed home in leggings and a hoodie all day!

Watched I'll be Home for Christmas (reminded us both of our  childhood years but wasn't necessarily a win for us) while we stuffed stockings and wrapped presents. 

November 2024 reads

Another good reading month... Lots of audio book listening while I unpacked and settled us in, then too exhausted for much besides an episode and a chapter or two most nights!

First, the grown-up reads!

📖 Bible study: I finally finished Luke and then I started the apocrypha, the collection of books that originally appeared in the first King James version that were later pulled to make printing cheaper. They're no longer considered part of the Biblical canon but after learning more about the history of it all, we purchased a copy! I'm currently (slowly) reading Esdras 1.

📖 Airborne (Christian, fiction, suspense)... I was sick while reading this deadly virus story 😅 It was a good one! I will definitely try more Diann Mills when I'm in the mood for suspense again.

📖 The Bridge (Christian, fiction, Christmas)... Just what you look for in a Christmas novella- sweet, slightly cheesy, slightly dramatic. I already requested the movies (2-part story) from my library!

📖 Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family (secular, nonfiction, science)... This one is from 2010 but I still got so much out of it! I'm so grateful to not have had a cell phone for so many of my childhood years and I'm so glad we haven't let our kids use ours too much! 

📖 Firstborn (Christian, fiction)... This one is centered around a woman who secretly gave a child up for adoption at age 16 and how her husband is reacting to this unexpected news when her firstborn child shows up in her life. This was just what I love in a Robin Lee Hatcher book- deep, rich, meaningful struggles with flawed characters who are attempting to find solutions to worldly problems in a godly way. 

📖 Sacred Marriage (Christian, nonfiction)... Goodness, loved this one! I had made myself a goal to read a marriage book this year, a goal I make most years, but kept putting it off because, I dunno, we're just in a good place. I begrudgingly used up a Hoopla download on this just to say I'd done it but of course I ended up so inspired! There were lots of things that didn't apply to my specific marriage but I was especially moved by thoughts on marriage being an amazing place for Christians to grow spiritually- to work on becoming more like Jesus by loving our spouses unconditionally and looking for ways to serve our spouses. But! It did take me a while to get through the audio version since marital intimacy came up far too often for me to ever listen with my kids around. It's not just mentioned in the intimacy-specific chapter(s?) but just all throughout the book. Anyway- recommend.

📖 Spiritual Midwifery (secular, nonfiction, pregnancy/birth)... Honestly? Too much for me😅 A lot of the birth stories were too hippie for me and there were a few language choices I found vulgar (to be fair, she actually went over this in the beginning, that there's no winning here since some are offended by this and others are offended by more clinical terms) BUT the actual midwifery information was so helpful! I still think often about becoming a midwife or doula when my own children have all grown up.

📖 The Summer of Yes (Christian, fiction)... The cover made me expect pure fluff but there was some great, deep stuff in this book about female friendship + regret + second chances! There's a romance thread here but it's not like a typical romance story and was such a delight! Not very Christian though, fyi. 

For my kids' shelves:

📖 Cooper Kids Adventures #3: The Tombs of Anak (Christian, middle grade, fiction)... It has taken me too long to get to book 3 but I finally did! I expected to push through for my kid's sake but instead I really enjoyed it! I learned last year that Christian archaeology books really fascinate me.

📖 Dream Traveler's Quest #2 (Christian, middle grade, fiction, fantasy)... You all know fantasy isn't my favorite and this one is especially too fantasy for me but it was fine and a hit with my oldest.

📖 Fatal Fever (secular, middle grade, nonfiction)... I am always so into health stories and found this history of Typhoid/ Typhoid Mary so fascinating! My heart breaks for that poor woman though.

📖 Kingdom book 2: Kingdom's Hope (Christian, fantasy, YA)... Not my personal favorite kind of book but one I do think will be a hit among some of my kids. I'll move on to book 3, too.

📖 Little House in the Big Woods (secular, middle grade, historical fiction, TGTB book list)... My youngest of course has no memory of this one from the last time we read it so was so excited when I pulled it out as this month's read-aloud. She did feel sad about some of the hunting/butchering descriptions but the overall cozy and idealistic portrait of their family life was very appealing to her.

📖 No Place Like Holmes (Christian, middle grade, mystery)... Fun read for mystery fans.

📖 The Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids, volume 10 (secular, middle grade, nonfiction)... This reads more like a magazine. I was hoping it would teach a lot of great skills but it was more of a combo between fun and weirdly informational. It'll really interest one of my kids, probably none of the others.

📖 Operation Happy (Christian publishing house but no Christian themes or mentions, middle grade, historical fiction)... I did like this Pearl Harbor WWII story in the end but I was on the fence about it for the majority of the book. I was also bummed it had no faith themes at all. Zondervan has been letting me down in this department for the past few years.

📖 A Plague of Unicorns (Christian, middle grade, fiction, fantasy)... I thought this one was okay but not a favorite. There is a lot of talk about unicorns "eating and excreting" and one mention of a character wondering where babies come from.

📖 The Seed of Faith (Christian, middle grade, Christian fiction)... Such a lovely (short) Christmas read with a good message. 

📖 A Smart Girl's Guide: Manners (secular, nonfiction)... I liked this one. There are a lot of "obvious" etiquette issues addressed that even adults don't all know, like not to ask people embarrassing questions, but there were also more subtle issues addressed here that will help our young ladies navigate the world with fewer socially awkward moments.

📖 Summer on the North Star (secular, middle grade, TGTB)... I'm always up for a good Alaska story! Not my very favorite but I liked this one just fine.

📖 The Tinker's Daughter (Christian, historical fiction)... Loved this historical fiction account of John Bunyan's blind daughter, Mary, and her faith journey!

📖 The Trumpeter of Krakow (secular, middle grade, historical fiction, TGTB book list)... The middle ages are a favorite historical fiction time period around here right now and this one worked just fine!

📖 Wolf Soldier (Christian, YA, fiction, fantasy)... Not my style (not a fantasy fan) but will definitely appeal to my oldest in a couple years, and probably some of his younger siblings too. I can already tell this is going to be a favorite series.

📖 Zia (secular, middle grade, TGTB book list)... I didn't love Island of the Blue Dolphins but I actually really enjoyed this sequel!

Library picture books we especially loved: Bunny Should Be Sleeping // The Eye of the Whale // Pup 681