Delightful Family Read Alouds for Fall

4 Oct

Each year our family celebrates the first day of fall with a tradition we’ve come to call, Fallibration. During our annual celebration, we eat a pumpkin themed breakfast on fall themed paper plates and napkins, read all of our favorite fall picture books, and proceed to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Remastered Deluxe Edition). We’ve carried on this tradition for several years and our pile of books has grown along with our excitement over the day.

Here is a list of our favorite fall picture books (many of which are listed under Holiday at BrookesBookshop.com) that we believe you are sure to enjoy! We will be reading and rereading these throughout October. Then read to the end to find our favorite Thanksgiving books too!






Filled with traditions, food, and travel, Thanksgiving is among one of our family’s favorite holidays of the year. I know it can be easy to race through November festivities as we rush to welcome Christmas décor and the unlimited Christmas movies on tv. However, I discovered that I feel more comfortable leaving out the pumpkins and fall décor if we are reading stacks of great picture books to celebrate the season. This list is filled with gems, many of which teach more about the holiday than I ever learned in school.
Which ones on this list are your favorites? See any new to you or notice some that I missed? Let’s chat in the comments!




Make sure and check out all the fall books at BrookesBookshop.com! I pray that this is a beautiful time of celebrations and memory making this fall.

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10 Children’s Book Illustrators You Should Know: Tomie DePaola and Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire

26 Feb

As we end this series, I must say that narrowing my choice to only ten children’s book illustrators you should know is more of a difficult task than you might presume. I have at least three others I could recommend to you, but alas, I will keep to the ten I initially promised and provide you with one for whimsy and one for historical content to finish up.

First up, Tomie DePaola. Tomie Depaola was born in 1934 in Connecticut. He has illustrated and or written over 260 children’s books. His work has won numerous awards including the Newberry Honor Award and the Caldecott Honor Award as well as the Smithsonian Medal from the Smithsonian Institute.

I love Mr. Depaola’s childlike illustrations for their vibrant colors, their fun spirited appeal, and their friendliness. His autobiographical stories are my very favorite and are sure to tickle your funny bone! Here are a few for you to enjoy:


Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire were a husband and wife team who immigrated to America from Europe shortly after their marriage. They were both born at the dawn of the 20th century and both passed away in the 1980’s. Ingri and Edgar collaborated on the art and text of all their works including their incredible biographical accounts, one of which, Abraham Lincoln, earned them a Caldecott Medal. The couple traveled and studied extensively for their biographical accounts making these children’s books notable for historical context in addition to the stunning stone lithograph illustrations.




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Lasting Strings of Joy: The 200th Anniversary of Silent Night

24 Dec

A farmer never knows which crop will produce one hundred-fold…neither do the rest of us it seems. Such was the case for an Austrian minister, Father Joseph Mohr, and a part-time organist, Franz Gruber, on a cold December night, Christmas Eve in fact, two hundred years ago this very night.

As final preparations were being made for the Christmas Service at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, the church’s organist, Franz Gruber, pumped the organ pedals to lead the children’s choir in their chosen song. However, to their dismay, the organ notes never sounded, only a disheartening wheeze.

Father Mohr and his good friend, Franz Gruber, faced the disappointing dilemma of a message with no music. A Christmas Mass void of angelic voices mirroring the Heavenly Hosts.  Hours before the service was set to begin, Father Mohr left his room in the church and walked outside in the dark, cold night, and gazed upon the multitude of stars in the sky. He was touched by the fact that those same stars had born witness to that first Christmas Eve, two-thousand years before above a meager manger in Bethlehem. Father Mohr ran inside, sat down, and penned the first line in what would become six verses of a new hymn, Silent night, Holy Night. All is calm. All is bright. A hymn that had been forming in his mind perhaps in pieces for some years as he often journaled praises to his Lord and Savior, but never an offering fully formed until this night.

Once he finished the verses, Father Mohr quickly met with the Franz Gruber and asked him to come up with a simple tune, a lullaby even, to accompany the verses. A tune easy enough for the children’s choir to learn prior to the Midnight Mass. And so, two hundred years ago, with the strumming of a guitar and the uplifted voices of two faithful men, the first singing of Silent Night graced the host of heaven and the little town of Oberndorf. Over time, the song proceeded to become a beloved Christmas carol sung all around the world in all different languages.

There are two things that strike me most about the history of Silent Night.  First, it would have been simple to accept the situation of a broken organ and continue with the Christmas service without it. However, Mohr looked at a seemingly impossible set of circumstances and gave it his all. He chose to see an invitation, not a limitation, and got to work.

Secondly, while Franz Gruber did receive credit years later for his beautiful musical composition, and rightly so, Joseph Mohr died an unknown, penniless servant to the poor. He would never know this side of Heaven what his musical offering would mean to future generations. Father Mohr spent his short life serving the poorest of the poor, working to provide them with education, and spreading the gospel. In fact, he died in 1848 owning nothing but his guitar and the clothes he was wearing. There wasn’t even money to pay for funeral arrangements after his passing.

Like Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, we are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Disciples who are faced with daily tasks and choices. Choices to work with what we’ve been given, push past the present circumstances, and strive toward an eternal end that we as of yet cannot make out with our finite sight.

We never know what offering will have the greatest impact for generations to come. In honesty, our knowing is irrelevant, our name recognition is as well. Father Mohr and Franz Gruber had no idea the lasting strings of joy that Silent Night would provide the world when they first strummed the song two hundred years ago.

May we learn from the humble, faithful life of Father Mohr as we sing this night…Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm. All is Bright.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Sources for this post:

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15 Christmas Picture Books to Celebrate the Season

2 Dec


Memories shared around favored Christmas books is one of our most beloved ways to celebrate the season. There are many things to see and do at Christmastime that involve activities outside the home, but books provide the perfect stay at home shared time which can take you back in time or to another location entirely. Books allow us to walk in other people’s shoes and experience life as they have. Be it the orphaned child, the homeless family, the shepherd boy, or an elderly woman seeking to catch a glimpse of Christmas magic, you and your family can enter their world and learn empathy and lessons to guide your own steps. Check a few of these out at your local library, favorite thrifted bookstore, or purchase them online at the links below and give them a try.

Her spirits, which had been high, fell a little as a sense of time touched her. How slowly it crawled and yet how fast it flew. She had been young and now she was old and the years between had vanished as though they had never been. ~Elizabeth Goudge, I Saw Three Ships





Stay tuned for our favorite Christmas chapter books later this week. But for now, here is one to get you started!


Merry Reading,

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Of Conductors and Worldview: A Trip to the Orchestra

14 Mar

My two oldest children and I attended a Coffee Concert series with the Florida Orchestra twice over the last few weeks. I love to visit the orchestra. It reminds me of dance classes in younger years; the music surrounds you and all you can think about is the present. The sights, sounds, and emotions that the music conjures within help to focus and calm you like few other experiences. The orchestra also lends to time to ponder and ask questions.

As I studied the musicians and the two different conductors, I couldn’t help but evaluate the importance of their jobs and the styles of the two. I questioned: wouldn’t a group of seasoned, talented musicians be able to play a well practiced piece by simply following the music? They can keep the rhythm and tempo themselves, right? I am not alone in asking these questions. Consider this post from NPR about the difference a seasoned versus a novice conductor makes in the performance of an orchestra. Or this article from the BBC which outlines what a conductor actually does. It would seem that a conductor makes all the difference in the quality of a performance.

Coming from an audience participant, I know that the conductors, at least in the Coffee Concert Series, provide a description of the musical piece, its history, and anecdotes about the composer. Once I have been given this information, I can visualize the score better and understand what the composer is trying to communicate with clarity.

Isn’t God the Grand Conductor?

I believe that God is like a conductor, and Easter is a beautiful score in the musical drama of time and space as we know it. The symphonic score of God, particularly as it pertains to creation, the fall of man, and man’s redemption through Christ, provides the background information that we need in order to understand the world around us. Just as a conductor shapes our understanding of a symphony, so too God forms our worldview with His grand story. Apart from God and His Word, the Bible, I would not be able to answer the questions of life: what is the chief end of man, where did man come from, what went wrong, how can what went wrong be remedied, what is my purpose, and what happens after we die? He, as Conductor, shapes all that I perceive and study around me. A biblical worldview is the only one I have found to withstand such questioning.

So too, the Lord as Conductor, signals to His instruments and lets them know when to play, when to rest, when to increase the tempo or slow it down, when to play a soft note or one with vibrato. God orchestrates our movements if we follow His lead. Even considering last week’s post, God will give wisdom, knowledge, and joy. (See Ecclesiastes 2:26) That is why I can question more over meager because He will answer my questions with a direction, a signal, a command. He will look at us as a Conductor towards His musicians and gesture with His hand and eyes that our turn awaits, our moment has come, our opportunity to play our portion of the symphony has arrived, for such a time as this… Or, we will see that His hand is set towards us to wait and watch.

It’s is amazing what thoughts can come to us on a trip to the orchestra. These were mine. Have you encountered thoughts leading you towards the resurrection, Easter, or worldview in your everyday occurrences this week? Please share.

Below I have linked to several resources that are helpful with a study of the orchestra and classical music. We are diving into six weeks of music study in our home education and will be using a few of these. Following these are some of my favorite and most trusted worldview resources.








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10 Picture Books to Celebrate Black History Month

17 Feb

Each February I look forward to reading books which highlight African Americans to celebrate Black History Month in the natural rhythm of our day. Here are a few of our favorites we’ve collected over the years. My favorite two are listed first. What are some of your family’s go to selections?




Two additional books that I found and will be adding to our library since the first publication of this post are: 


                        Order My Children’s Book on Adoption on Amazon

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Today Is The Day You Can Back our Book on Kickstarter!

1 Feb

Today is the day we have been waiting on and working towards! I can’t wait for you to watch our Kickstarter Video and have the chance to learn more about the story of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale. Here is the link to our Kickstarter page. Take a look, consider backing our project, and then share our page with your friends. The success of printing Thirty Balloons depends on word of mouth. This is as grass roots as you can get, and we pray you would chose to be a part of this journey.

Go ahead and check it out!


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Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale

3 May

Once upon a time, there was a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby boy in need of a place to call home. He needed a mom, a dad, and a few siblings to grow alongside.

A few miles away was a family looking for a child to love forever. The family had a mom and a dad and two children searching for a child to coddle, wrestle, chase, kiss, and teach about the love of the King.

One day, after several months of seeking out such a child, the blonde-headed, blue-eyed baby bounced into their place of worship. He was safely held, that is,  in the arms of a family caring for him until such a time as he was matched with his forever family. For the daddy of the family in search of a baby, it was apprehensive love at first sight. For the mommy, it was a bit of confusion because she thought they were called to love a brown-haired, brown-eyed baby girl. More about her later as she wouldn’t come along for another year…but that would be getting ahead in the story.  After one visit with the baby boy in her home, the mommy, also, was forever in love with the blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby boy.

In fairy tales, evil always ensues before the damsel is rescued, the family reunited, or the kingdom saved. Real life mimics fairy tales because fairy tales mimic real life. This little boy’s story had many a dark and looming cloud.

For nine months the boy and the family grew to know and love one another. They shared firsts and celebrated milestones. The mommy and daddy, and the boy’s temporary family, sent e-mails, made phone calls, attended meetings, and petitioned judges before the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy bounced into the family’s home to stay. (Only modern day stories include phone calls and emails, but they are no less valiant, mind you, than decrees and messengers riding through the night to save the kingdom, rescue the damsel, or reunite the family.)

All throughout these months, and the ones which would ensue, a host of people within the Kingdom began to pray and petition the King for the boy to be placed with this family. Countless men, women, and children throughout the land would ask the King to place the boy with the family forever, and, quickly! The petitions of the people were being heard and would be answered in time.

Shortly after the boy came to live with his soon-to-be family, the court discovered an error that had to be addressed for this story to turn a final page into the second portion of its tale. This error would take ten more months to come to light and, thereafter, be rectified.

All this time, the months were accumulating  while the boy was waiting for the royal proclamation to give him a family. It would be thirty months until the proclamation would be granted. Thirty months before the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy would be given his royal name–that name which his family prays is already written in the scrolls of the Kingdom as in this kingdom. Thirty months until…forever.

Thirty months came and went before this big day arrived…

As the boy and his family experienced the declaring of the proclamation that would unite them for all of their life in this kingdom, they thought of how quickly the thirty months passed in retrospect. Like thirty balloons being lifted to the sky and released in a moment’s time with the wave of a hand, the loosing of a grip, the relinquishing of power.

The weight of the wait was intense and a load, at times, seemingly unbearable. But upon the royal decree, the weight instantly became as light as air. All the cares of the past were lifted away to be replaced by a focus on the future and on raising a knight for the Kingdom.

Lest you forget, fairy tales are full of woe before wonder, and this fairy tale will be like the others and, similarly, unlike. Good days and gloomy days lurk ahead, but this day was a day two kingdoms celebrated with thirty balloons and triumphant shouts filling the chasm between. Maybe, just maybe, one of those balloons reached the other side and greeted others who have waited in like fashion.

*This story is a prologue to another story still unfolding. If it weren’t for this one, the later would never be possible. Woe lurks, but wonder is on the other side. The Kingdom prays and the King whispers, Courage dear heart.


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Surprised by Five Years

5 Apr

For those of you who are frequent readers of this blog, you’ve probably noticed it has been a few months since I posted. In fact, it was Christmas since I’ve last written. No, I didn’t make it a New Year’s Resolution to stop blogging, although it may certainly seem like that. With the addition of our fourth child I have been back to newborn mode, and, quite honestly, we have been searching for our footing as a family of six.

It isn’t that I haven’t thought about blogging and even started some posts in my head. It’s just that the free time I managed to find was spent soaking in, rather than pouring out content. We parents spend all day every day pouring out don’t we? Especially parents of very small, dependent, wonderful children.

In  confession…

I have contemplated hanging up my writing hat for a while, venturing off on a new mode of communication (does anyone else love podcasts?), or, simply sticking with what works for the present. This afternoon, I was attempting to update a few things on the blog. In so doing, I came to the realization that This Temporary Home turned five in January! I knew I had faithfully typed away in this corner of the internet for some time, but I had no idea it was a celebratory anniversary year! For this homeschooling mama it is the equivalent of approaching either kindergarten or fifth grade graduation. Of course it’s homeschool, so no graduation ceremony, but at least I should take us all out to dinner and bake our favorite desserts, right? Or, maybe I’ll lower expectations and simply write a thank you note as we enter our sixth year.

With that said…

Thank you for subscribing, sharing, pinning, posting, liking, and reading five years of posts. I pray we have grown together. I pray something here has lifted your gaze to Jesus and to heaven–our eternal home. Additionally, I pray we have some roads left to travel together.

Following five months of being a family of six, I am beginning to come back around as an individual. There are a few days when the creative, contemplative juices are flowing enough to once again put fingers to keys and articulate what I am learning and viewing in the world around me. Will you come back and visit This Temporary Home soon? I hope you do!

Until then, home is a place called heaven,


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Using Books to Cultivate a Heart for Orphans and Adoption

4 Nov

My passion for adoption started growing long before my adult years. It came as a result of the planting of the Holy Spirit, and it also came in the form of story. Books cultivate life experiences in a safe environment and develop compassion and sympathy, passion and purpose, in children prior to their ability to act on those feelings.

As we enter into the cooler, cozier days of November, it is a perfect time to introduce, or perhaps continue the narration of, stories to our children which cultivate a heart for orphans and adoption. There is a lengthy list at Good Reads and here are a few of my favorites to get you started. I tend to recommend these as read aloud books to be shared with the whole family in order to encourage dialogue. Not all of these books are serious, but they all prompt us to think about orphans and begin cultivating a heart for orphan care and adoption in our homes. As with all books we share with our children, please be sure and preview the content to make sure it is age appropriate and sensitive to the specific environment of your child’s history and emotional maturity.

Don’t have children of your own? That’s okay too! As C.S. Lewis stated, A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.

Read Alouds for K4-3rd grade or older:


Read Aloud Books for 3rd and Up:

 

 

Older students (young adult):

 

One more that is on my to-be-read pile and was recently highlighted in this week’s episode of the Read Aloud Revival Podcast is:

Which books have you used to bring awareness of orphan care and adoption into your life and home? What books would you add to this list? I have always gravitated to books about orphans and in the coming weeks will unfold as much as I am presently allowed about our current adoption journey. Stay tuned!

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