Reading Suggestions

This summer I finished 3 books.  Here they are and my attempt to get you to read them!

The Creative Family is a book written by a fellow blogger, Amanda Soule.  She has tons of great ideas for nurturing your child's creativity.  Plus I can tell she is a tomboy mom at heart, so that makes me like her even more!  Owen is still a little young for most of her ideas, but here are a few of my favorites that I plan on trying out one day:

• Art on the go bags filled with everything you need to be creative anywhere.  She suggests colored pencils in a felt roll, a blank drawing book and (here's my favorite idea) a nature guide.  So that when you're out on adventures you can correctly identify the bugs and flowers.
• Making your kids character drawings come to life by sewing them into 3D pillows or dolls.  Can you imagine how proud your little one would be to get to snuggle with the character they drew!?
• Finding your spot.  "A spot where you find peace and inspiration; a spot that brings you joy and peace...." She specifically encourages this to be in nature where you can go back year after year, season after season to mark the changes to your spot and watch your child grow up there.  (Mine was a tree house and my "school room" I set up in my closet when I was little.)
• Sewing cards.  Do you remember these when we were little?  Basically a shoe lace that we'd thread through a cardboard cut out with holes.  I had forgotten about this and how easy these would be to make!

Oh what a gem this book is!  If you loved Little Women, then you've got to read the story of Jo and her husband's school for boys in Little Men.  I had no idea that I would get so many parenting tips out of this read!  It is so refreshing to read a book written during a time when fathers were cast in such a positive light and families were so tight.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• Jo (the mother) to one of her most difficult students, Dan, after he finished taming a horse, "I am taming a colt too, and I think I shall succeed as well as you if I am as patient and persistent."
• One of the boys received a microscope and the other boys commented on how powerful it was, "Could I see anybody's soul with this microscope if I looked hard?" The father's answer, "No, dear; it's not powerful enough for that, and never can be made so.  You must wait a long while before your eyes are clear enough to see the most invisible of God's wonders.  But looking at the lovely things you can see will help you to understand the lovelier things you cannot see."
• When Meg's husband dies (sorry, I spoiled it) and "serenity shone in her face" she is asked how she can be so strong.  She replies, "Dear Jo, the love that has blest me for ten happy years supports me still.  It could not die, and John is more my own than ever."
• When the boys surprised Father Bhaer (Jo's husband) for Christmas by putting on a play, "Being a German, he loved these simple domestic festivals, and encouraged them with all his heart, for they made home so pleasant that the boys did not care to go elsewhere for fun."

Here's a page turner that I read in 4 days, Chasing Fireflies.  (Which is pretty good for me!)  It's a story of redemption, a father's love, and two orphans.  I can't tell you more because I don't want to give it away, but if you love sports, great southern one-liners and your dad you've got to read this one.  (Well, even if the above criteria don't include you, I'd still highly recommend it!)