Reading & a PDF of a Rare Book for You

There has been a lot of reading going on here. Read alouds were really the only way I could stay sane through night after night of exhausting bedtime routine, and never a break, for the last three months of the deployment. I would feed the children dinner, then have everyone get into PJ's, and we would spend an hour or two relaxing while I read a book. I'd nurse the baby while reading and he would often fall asleep while I was still reading to the boys. It was a great way to wind down the day, and such a peaceful routine before night. These days Daddy is doing the evening read aloud. He is really good at doing the different voices and accents. He's got the Cabbie from Magician's Nephew down so well. I love it. =)

The Read Alouds - {for the 4 & 7 year old}

By the end of last year, we finished up The Long Winter. Early Januar, I was sad to have finished These Happy Golden Years. I'm going to read the last one soon and then I'm going to go back and read all the others, the Caroline Years, and the Martha Years, and any other of those books. Melissa Wiley's Little House in the Highlands. The story of Laura's great-grandmother. Can't wait to read this to the boys. Haven't started it yet, but it's library so we'll start it as soon as the Lewis book is done.

Daddy is reading the boys The Magician's Nephew. They finished The Family Under the Bridge a couple weeks ago. We loved that one. What a wonderful story. Magic Tree House is still going on around here too, in between other books. They are such quick reads. We are on book 30 or so.

The Read Alouds - {for the 2 year old}

Baby's favorite books lately are anything by Ruth Heller. The octopus photo above came from Chickens Aren't the Only Ones. The picture are really beautiful, and the kids are learning scientific classification without even knowing it. These books are meant for older children, but the 2yo is really attracted to the bright colorful photos, and of course, the animals.

Bedtime favorites:

Goodnight Moon

Oh Baby! & Night-Night, Baby

Maybe My Baby - All little children would love this one. We do the actions (nuzzle your chin, kiss your nose) and the baby just loves it and looks forward to it every evening.

Owl Babies is a favorite. He loves elephants, owls, and horsies - in that order.

Anything by Sandra Boynton. 

Anything by Eric Carle.

There are a few others up there in the photo that we keep in our basket that stays in the living room (if they're not by the night stand for bedtime boks). I love board books. They are so wonderful for young children. 

I'm reading:

I read an inspiring and encouraging blog post series at Elizabeth Foss's blog. I encourage you to read the whole blog post series on Habits of Happy Mothers. You can find the first in the series and links to the others at the bottom of this post. 

A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms: 52 Companions for Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul -This is such an easy read. It doesn't take a lot of time to read the short intro about a Saint per week and read the encouraging scriptures and inspiration daily. What a great book, and you can read it over and over again, year after year.

Small Steps for Catholic Moms. I'm reading this one again this year. It literally takes 30 seconds per day. 

Raising Catholic Children - I haven't actually started this one yet, but Popcak refers to it a lot in Parenting with Grace, so I thought it was worth a read. 

The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook. I borrowed this one from the library. Some of the recipes look really good, others, not so much --> can of chicken noodle soup?? Forget it. I don't like cooking with cans, but there are plenty of recipes in there that are really from scratch that I'd like to try.

Herbs for Health and Flavor and Home Herbal - Both library books, both very informative and the latter is a great intro. into growing herbs and making tinctures, oils, teas, and other herbal remedies.

On my Kindle is a PDF file of an out-of-print treasure of a book. I want it reprinted so bad, but I don't know who will do it. I've been emailing people around, asking them to please reprint it. It's called Handbook ofIt is called Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs: The Year of the Lord in Liturgy and Folklore by Fr. Francis X. Weiser, S.J. It was originally published in 1952 and there is a copy on Amazon for $185, and occasionally, another pops up, but I haven't seen any lately. 

This book is a gold mine! It has wonderful ideas for celebrating the liturgical year from customs around the world, as well as a bit of history and folklore as to where our traditions for the liturgical year originally came from. One of the suggestions is planting wheat on the Feast of St. Lucy, because it sprouts by Christmas. Another one explains that the current tradition of blessing Holy Water on Easter and saving it for your family's use througout the year, originated from the old tradition in Europe, where people would draw water from streams and rivers on Easter morning, believing the water to be miraculous in honor of Christ's resurrection. The book is divided into liturgical seasons, so it is easy to read the one that applies to the present time.

I can't find the original online link I got the book, so I've put it on Scribd. (My friend Sue found it, so here's the original website that also has a bunch of other free book downloads.) From what I understand, after doing a little bit of copyright research, this book can be shared and printed. The copyright has long expired. I'm trying to get a Publisher to reprint it, but who knows if they will. You can download it here. 

Almost FREE books:

We get a lot of our books used from Paperbackswap.com. Over the years we have aquired books that we realized weren't books that we want part of our permanent library. So we swap them. With each book you swap, you get a credit that you can exchange for another book. It's really a great way to get books you want, but are willing to wait for. We've put books on our wish list and they will pop up years later, although many of them are there, just waiting for someone to claim them. 

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Phew. These posts always turn out way longer than expected, which is why I don't do them very often anymore. No time to spell-check, so hopefully no major typos, otherwise just let me know. =) Keep praying for us, please. My husband is looking for a career to be our ticket to get out of the Army. I know he'll find one, but prayers are appreciate for the in-between phase.

PS: I had to enable comment moderation. Getting too many spam comments around here masqurading as real comments. I can smell a phony a mile away, so I'm sorry for the word verification and the waiting until comments are approved, but I just like to keep the spam away from here. =)