Books

2018 was really the year of the books for me. And, it's not like I spent a ton of time reading leisurely, but the amount of books that came in and out of our house was an all-time record for us.

We have been lucky to have two amazing libraries in our new city. They both have incredible selections - and what one library is missing, the other has. 

We checked out 501 books in 2018 from the first library, and I can't find that information from the second library, but the count is high.

I'm grateful for our libraries and all they are able to offer us for free. I don't always check out novels for myself, but I do like to bring home new cookbooks, and lifestyle and design books to flip through.

For the boys, I started off the year choosing a theme for each homeschool week, and then selecting a group of books from the library based on that theme. This fall, after we moved into our new house, I fell off that "theme" wagon, but my goal is to get back to that for this new 2019 semester.

At this point of his first grade year, Nolan is reading SO WELL. He needs a little encouragement to pick up a chapter book (he would rather build Legos), but he reads quickly and doesn't stumble over big words. He loves Nate the Great books, the Flat Stanley series, Elephant & Piggy, and books full of facts about animals.

Ephraim is turning five in January, and he hasn't begun reading yet, but it's coming. I need to set aside time to work with him alone, the way I was able to do with Nolan when he was in preschool. Ephraim loves Pete the Cat, Mother Bruce books, Skippyjon Jones, and even Mommy's collection of Fancy Nancys. :)

As for August - he wants to read Little Blue Truck and Paw Patrol, and he loves lift-the-flap type books.

We do a readaloud at bedtime - currently, we're making our way through the Boxcar Children series, which the boys love, and are so nostalgic for me.

This week, in the back of my mom's garage, I found a box of my picture books that I haven't seen in 17 years! I have wondered whatever happened to them, but I was never able to locate them! I'm happy I can share them now with my boys.  :)

I have to also mention that I reached my 2018 Resolution to read the entire Bible in a year! In the past, I've never been able to make daily Bible-reading into a solid habit. If you want to start for 2019, I strongly recommend the One Year Bible! It breaks the Bible up into 365 days, and each day has an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a piece of a Psalm, and a verse or two from Proverbs. There were days when I struggled to read certain parts of the Old Testament (the long geneologies and the descriptions of battles), but then I would be blessed by that day's New Testament passage or the Psalm reading. Some days, I ate chocolate chips while I read for a little extra encouragement ;) I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do for 2019, but I know that I have to keep getting into the Word every day and not lose the momentum.

The last thing that I'll say about the topic of books is that Stephen sent the final draft of his Sidekicks book to his publisher today! I'm so proud of him.

Here's to a New Year of reading!