12 Books to Celebrate Mom

16 Apr

They’re typically the ones behind the camera and not in the pictures, the ones who stay up late and get up early to make sure the items and plans for the day ahead are in order. They’re the clothes washers, diaper changers, taxi drivers, heart shapers, and forever companions. Yes ma’am, I am talking about mamas.

We are a month away from Mother’s Day. With nearly every holiday I grab a heaping stack of books and read aloud to celebrate the occasion. I thought, why not highlight mothers during read aloud times too! Below are 12 books that highlight moms and the special place they hold in the family, and in their children’s hearts.

A few ideas for sharing this particular stack of books:

  •  place these in a book basket and encourage your older, literate children to read them to your younger children
  •  have this special stack set aside for dad to read aloud
  • snuggle in close with your children and read them aloud yourself

I’ve included board books, picture books, and one chapter book. Don’t forget, older children like to be read to as well, and they also benefit from and enjoy picture books.

Join me here on Thursday for a list of Mother’s Day gift ideas for your book loving mama and be sure to leave your own Mother’s Day book suggestions in the comments.


You can now purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale is Published!

11 Apr

Emily and I, along with our entire family, are proud to announce that our book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, is now available on Amazon and for purchase through our local church’s bookstore. Yippee! This has been a wonderful family project for us and a goal realized personally. Thanks to over 70 backers of our Kickstarter campaign, we were able to see our dream to fruition.

All along it has been our ambition that in telling our son’s adoption story we will encourage and promote adoption to a broader audience as well as provide a means for adoptees to discuss their adoption stories around the shared experience of reading aloud.

Two of our sweet friends with their copy of Thirty Balloons. Share your pictures using #ThirtyBalloonsBook

I think this book is best suited to read aloud to children eight years of age and up. However, our youngest two children, ages three and eighteen months, request the book be “read aloud” by telling a shorter synopsis as they look at the pictures. With their shorter attention spans, even discussing the pictures in a book and retelling in our own words builds interest in books, exposes them to new vocabulary, and helps accumulate time spent together. In fact, if your child will sit for a bit longer, you might consider reading the book over several settings.

Three backers from our Kickstarter Campaign purchased Kindergarten Kits. These kits are bundles of twelve copies of Thirty Balloons and a bundle of 30, Thirty Balloons balloons! These are being hand delivered to three local schools this week along with our list of Ten Ways to Get Involved in Foster Care and my top selections of picture books highlighting orphans and celebrating adoption. I am so excited! I know that many children in the public school system either are, or have been, in the foster care system and it is my hope that they can relate to this story in a positive way, or that our story will open doors to talk about the emotions that it stirs up. Moreover, I hope that our story will encourage students of all ages to consider how they might work, even now, to help children in need of forever homes.

Have you ordered your copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale yet? If so, would you leave a review on Amazon here? If not, I have a special offer for you if you order before May 2nd. Order your copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale and I will send you the pdf downloads of my top picture book recommendations and ten ways to get involved in foster care for free! That way you can share these with your family and community.

I look forward to more writing projects in the future that increase adoption awareness. Thirty Balloons turned into an incredible family project and we are extremely honored to share it with you. Thank you for praying for us and supporting us throughout this journey.

Keep holding onto hope,

 

 

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Twelve Books to Celebrate Easter with Your Family

21 Mar

It can be easy to leap into spring planning for a break from school and work, and eagerly seeking the signs of a new season: dogwood blooms, azaleas, buttercups, and irises. Next thing we know, Holy Week is upon us and we have just enough time to break out our Easter resources and decorations.

Our family anticipates celebrating Good Friday with a trip to the local bakery to grab fresh hot cross buns, dying Easter Eggs on the Saturday before Easter, and perhaps initiating a few new traditions. However, the best way we celebrate and focus for Resurrection Day is by reading a heaping stack of books. So, until we savor the hot cross buns and dye eggs, we ready our hearts and prepare our minds with some of our favorite books to celebrate Easter. Below are twelve books that we return to each year. Plus a bonus book that we are adding since the publication of this post. Happy Easter!

 



Plus one book more…

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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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Will More Over Meager Make for Better?

9 Mar

Many people desire and pray for rapid growth, for example when launching a new church, starting a new business, publishing a book, or starting an Etsy shop. Few people know how to manage rapid growth well. We pray for it, and may even anticipate rapid growth, but how do you really prepare for the unknown?

I’ve read of pastors who didn’t know how to handle rapid growth in their church. We’ve all seen the downward spiral of professional performers or athletes because they couldn’t handle the responsibility that comes with wealth and acclaim. Few people can handle affluence of power, prestige, or their pocketbook well.

I’m wrestling with some questions right now that arise after a period of rapid growth in our family. Three years in the process of adoption, not to mention transitioning from parenting two children to four children in a span of three months, rapid growth occurred unexpected, all be it, blessedly. One side effect of rapid growth in our family is the rapid decrease of space in our home. For months now we have wrestled with the idea of purchasing a home with a bit more space: garage, fenced in backyard, maybe an extra room. We already live minimally because we own a 1200 square foot villa with no garage. There just isn’t room for storing extra material possessions. I am constantly, out of both desire and necessity, paring down our toys, wardrobes, and household items.

As we have wrestled and prayed over purchasing a home with more living space. I have asked myself whether I really need more space to live a more fulfilled life; to function optimally as a home educating mom. I know I can make our space work, but do I need to? Wouldn’t I save myself sanity and effort with the addition of a fenced in backyard? Or would I find that in acquiring more, would it even make a postive difference in the long term?

For my husband and I, we know and have witnessed how the rest of the world’s poorest people live. We know that there are people in South America who spend their entire lives living on a trash dump in Honduras. We know that many people in African villages live in huts and serve what they have with a smile and immense hospitality towards those who enter their home. They make much of their meager offerings.  

Even this week in reading, Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful, I am reminded that much doesn’t mean abundance of life, rather gratefully receiving all that God offers of Himself means life lived abundantly. Did you catch that? More doesn’t mean fullness. We can find fullness of joy in the small and incomplete often better than the full and overflowing portions of life.

As a side note, and this will be an entire post someday, read this quote from Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful: (the girls) seemed oblivious to the idea that some people might weigh the joy of loving someone against the pain of potential loss. In regard to foster care I hear this all the time as an excuse not to foster children. Read this book if you are prayerfully considering foster care or adoption.

So I guess what I would love to know is this, have you found that getting what you think you want makes you happier in the long run? Has a larger space, bigger office, promotion or fresh start met the needs you thought they would? I know that we can be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. I know that. But how do we know when bigger becomes better and moving on leads to the more God wants for us? How do we know when we have a holy discontent that needs our attention and not the Land of Plenty’s (and plenty of people in the church) constant messaging that more is what we need and should go after?

These are the questions I am wrestling with today. Because when I look at people who have bigger and more I don’t see an overabundance of evidence that it makes a difference in their daily lives for the better. There are always things we as parents and individuals will be anxious over that goes beyond square feet and wide-open spaces for our children to play in.

It’s your turn. Tell me your experiences with making much of more or meager. When you felt freedom to go after the more did it lead to the better? I truly need to hear them.

 

 

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The Story Behind St. Patrick’s Day

1 Mar

 St. Patrick's Day

I’ve grown up believing St. Patrick’s Day to be a holiday giving every adult in America (and anywhere else the world over) an excuse to drink beer and celebrate life fully donned in Irish green. I mostly dismissed the holiday with the small exception of wearing green so as not to get pinched along with the annual viewing of Darby O’Gill And The Little People. However, little did I know about the man, St. Patrick, missionary to Ireland.

In his autobiography, The The Confessions of St. Patrick, Patrick outlines his history and conversion to Christianity.  Enslaved in Ireland and working in green, Irish pastures as a shepherd, Patrick recalled the truths of the Gospel which had been taught to him during his childhood in Great Britain. Patrick then put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ to save him from his sins. From that point forward, Patrick was a new man in Christ and would live with a new purpose:

Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favors and graces the Lord designed to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven. (The Confessions of St. Patrick)

Once more, green pastures were the home of a man who would lead people to the One True God. Like the young shepherd, David, another disciple was being made to walk in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Surely goodness and mercy had followed a young man unaware of the future stretching out before him.

Six years Patrick worked as a shepherd-slave in Ireland before receiving a message from God in a vision to escape back to his homeland. Once safely reunited with family, Patrick dreamed another message from God to return to Ireland as a missionary spreading the good news of the Gospel. Patrick’s life work was revealed. He would later take the oath of a priest and return to the land of his slavery to set people free in the name of Jesus Christ.

Behold over and over again I would briefly set out the words of my confession. I
testify in truthfulness and gladness of heart before God and his holy angels that I never had
any reason, except the Gospel and his promises, ever to have returned to that nation from
which I had previously escaped with difficulty.

(The Confessions of St. Patrick)

This year as you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, remember the missionary behind the man we know as St. Patrick and the mission which continues.

Below are my favorite picture books to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with our family. Click here if images aren’t showing up in your browser.

 

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Five Ways I Make Time to Read

21 Feb

People, especially fellow moms, often ask me how I find time to read. In fact, I’ve been asked a few times this week.

That’s an interesting question. When do I read exactly? I have to stop and think about the question because, frankly, I feel my day isn’t complete if I don’t read for at least twenty minutes or more. It may seem silly that I don’t have a set routine I adhere to, or maybe crazier still that I am unaware of such a routine.

So, after some head scratching, here are five ways that I make time to read each day amidst meeting needs of home and family and homeeducating our children.

  1. Read in 10-20 minute spurts. I grab moments to read any chance I get. I know reading fills my emotional and mental tank, so I give myself permission to read here and there throughout the day: while the kids are playing or working on independent tasks, frequently for a few minutes just after dinner, and certainly after the kids go to bed for the evening.  Another wonderful way to do this is by listening to audiobooks. Two audio books I have listened to this year are Wonder and Pictures of Hollis Woods. I read these while exercising, folding laundry, and anytime I was driving solo.
  2. Read with a purpose. Once I started compiling the Orphan Adoption Book List, I was reading with a purpose. The list really focused my selections. Now I am working on a few more booklists and once again it helps me read with intention and drive. Additionally, once I discover an author that I enjoy, I read as many of his or her books as I can find. This year’s author is Wendell Berry. I fell in love with Jayber Crow of the Port William Membership and followed the book with Hannah Coulter, also set in Port William, Kentucky.
  3. Put down the cell phone. Perhaps the greatest distraction from daily reading for me is social media. Particularly Instagram and, less so, Facebook. I typically waste the first precious moments of reading time catching up on my IG feed. I find that putting the phone away affords me much more time for reading. I don’t mind my kids finding me with my nose in a book near as much as my face in a cell phone. Believe me, they see me doing both regularly.
  4. Give everyone a daily break. Ah naptime, you are my favorite! While two of our four children are too old for naptime, we continue to adhere to a quiet break each day. Typically for an hour or so all children will be in their rooms for either nap or an activity of their choice. Most of the time the kids use their quiet hour for listening to audiobooks or reading to themselves. While the kids are in their rooms I read for at least 20 minutes. It is my experience that housework will wait.
  5. Take a book and leave a book. I grab whatever book I am reading and throw it in my purse as we head out the door. This way if there is a snippet of time I am prepared to read instead of scroll (see number 3 above). Also, I leave a few books in my car, in so doing I am not caught without a book to read. That is how I came to read Miracles on Maple Hill (*highly recommended). I had left my current read at home before leaving for my daughter’s dance class. Luckily, I had this gem of a book in the car to read while waiting on her to finish.

With these five methods of increasing my reading time I have already read 11 books this year! I am listing what I have read so far. Maybe you will find one or two books to add to your night stand or keep in your car. (Click here if reading in a browser.)

It’s your turn, how do you make time for reading?

 

 

Pre-Order My New Children’s Book on Adoption on Kickstarter

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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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The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

14 Feb

I love that the beginning of Lent and the celebration of Valentine’s Day were the same day this year.

Valentine’s Day, in the traditional sense, is not my cup of tea. However, the true meaning behind Valentine’s Day in memoriam of St. Valentinus I can absolutely support. A man of God risking imprisonment and death in the name of biblical marriage raises far greater emotions than candy hearts and red roses. (Read more here.) 

Lent is really a preparation for a wedding. It is a yearly observance of Christ’s death, a celebration of His resurrection, and anticipation of His return to bring His bride to her eternal home. How beautiful that we could begin the preparation of Easter, the promise of the wedding to come, that of Christ and His Church, with a remembrance of a man committed to upholding marriage and performing marriage ceremonies as God mandated.

Easter is at the center of the greatest love story ever told–that of the love of God for His created image bearers. A story which was written before the foundations of the earth, necessitated by the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, and accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Christ came to earth and died on the cross in our place so that we could be called the sons and daughters of God. So, as it turns out, the greatest love story ever told is also an adoption story.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. ~Galatians 4:4-7, ESV

 

 

Pre-Order My New Children’s Book on Adoption on          Kickstarter

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Side Effects of Chasing Our Dreams

9 Feb

Chasing our dreams can be a thrilling, and frightening, experience. Months and years of preparation go into a product and then we put it on display for any and all who will partake. It’s a little misleading actually, because our daily lives aren’t finished products–only portions of our work are. So when people see or hear your product, they only see a portion of you; it is so easy for us all to fail to see people’s work as only a part of a whole and not a whole itself.

After launching Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale on Kickstarter and being a guest on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast (listen here), I can most certainly attest that finished products are one thing, daily life is another. The last two weeks have been thrilling and exhausting. As my husband and I seek to encourage others to add to their family through adoption and consider the orphan and children in foster care, it is a great time for spiritual warfare. For one example, without elaborating, the last two weeks have been extremely difficult in the parenting category for one of our children. Another example, we have had one case of the flu and one of strep throat the past week as well. You may also be pleased to know that laundry and home education didn’t take a vacation either.

However, one amazing side effect of launching a Kickstarter Campaign and putting myself out there so to speak, has been the effect on our two oldest children. When our children watch us attempt something that scares us, it encourages them to do the same. 

I recently read, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance. One take away from this book was J.D.’s feeling of not having the inside information afforded to higher income families. Even after completing law school at an Ivy League School, he still felt like somewhat of a poser. He knew the hillbilly culture from which he hailed, but didn’t know what he didn’t know until embarrassment or experience taught him. For example, he didn’t know to wear nice shoes and a jacket to an interview instead of army boots and a tucked in shirt.

Sometimes, it can seem that way even if you don’t share J.D.’s cultural history nor broken family background. It may feel as if everyone else has an instruction manual that somehow you missed out on. Like there is a world-wide memo system that wasn’t afforded to you.

However, when our kids see us reaching for goals and dreams that make us uncomfortable, and for which we are on a significant learning curve, it’s like we are handing them that memo, that instruction manual—and they don’t even realize it. Our experiences while our children are in our homes becomes a continual testament to them about how life works. How trial and error, efforts and failures, all come together. Our pursuits, in ways we cannot see, inform them as to what is possible for them to attempt.

Last week, my two oldest children were working, by their own endeavors, to write books of their own. When my oldest son tells me, “I am going to publish my book. Remember how I was going to have you just type it out on the computer and print two copies off? Well now I want to publish it like your book mom.”  My oldest daughter turns to him and says, “How are you going to do that?” “Kickstarter!” he replies.

Kickstarter! That’s a word that I didn’t even know until January of this year. Now my 8-year-old son is plotting to publish his first book on Kickstarter.

Your dreams and current goals very likely look different from mine. That’s not important. The point is, that in reaching for your God-given dreams and goals, your are influencing and informing your children and your community. You are exemplifying what is possible when you push past comfort zones and fear, and that is a beautiful side effect.

 

 

Pre-Order My New Children’s Book on Kickstarter

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