Summer 2018 Books Recommendations

/
Summer 2018 Books Recommendations

In my mind, summer reading is light and airy fiction that you breeze through while sipping a drink on the beach. My book recommendations are really not that. You'll usually find me picking up a historical fiction or fantasy book instead. That's just how I roll. If you rather have other recommendations, then check out these book recommendations: here, here, or here. 

One thought that crossed my mind as I considered sharing summer reading was whether I should share books I'm interested in reading or ones that I've read and enjoyed. I landed with the latter. This way I know what I'm recommending is good. However, in order to give you books I would totally recommend reading, I had to go back to some I read a while ago - not like forever ago, but like last year or so.

Plus giving you one I want to read is hard. I generally don't know what I'm going to read next until I'm done with the book I'm currently reading. It's at that point, I go through an antagonizing time of scrolling through Goodreads to see what I want to read. It generally takes me about a week to make a decision. Life is tough. 

Read More

What we’re Reading: 27 Months

/
What we’re Reading: 27 Months

One of my favorite things to do is read. According to my mom, I wasn’t always this way. It’s a funny story actually. I was in fourth grade, and it was the first year I had ever earned straight A’s (not that there were letter grades before the fourth grade, but work with me). My mom was a fourth-grade teacher at my school, and her friend was my teacher. When my teacher told my mom about my grades, my mom told her to give me a B in reading knowing that doing so would encourage me to read more at home. I didn’t find out about this until years later. It did work, so my mom knew what she was doing. But really…I deserved that A! 

I like to remind myself of this story because Caleb isn’t the type of kid to sit and “read.” I put quotations there because he’s not a genius toddler that is already reading, but he won’t sit and look at a picture book on his own or have me read to him unless it’s right before a nap or bedtime. While this isn't a lot of reading time, I consider it a win because it took forever to even get to this level. I sometimes would sit there and read to him before bed while he ran around his room. I think it took persistence, finding the right book, and some growing up to get where we are today. 

Finding the right books is key. Once I was able to find topics that interested him, I could get books on that topic. It takes a lot of trial and error. Sometimes I pick a book I think he’ll totally dig, only to see it tossed aside. Luckily, I’m not buying piles of books to figure it out. The public library is heaven sent. I don’t know how we’d discover so many books if we didn’t have the library.

Read More

Book Club: Boundaries with Kids

/
Book Club: Boundaries with Kids

Grab your coffee and have a seat, it's book club time! Today's book is Boundaries with Kids: When to Say Yes, When to Say No, to Help Your Children Gain Control of Their Lives. Whew, that's a long title. 

I aimed to read a toddler-specific discipline book since we've had a rise in tantrums and misbehavior with Caleb turning two-years-old earlier this year. I heard "no" crop up as Caleb's favorite word, or he'd lie down on the floor like a fish out of water when things didn't go his way. Time for me to get serious about discipline. It's terrifying as a mom. You hear all the talk of those terrible twos. And now I hear it doesn't stop at two. Apparently, at three you get the threenager. Seriously? Next, I'll be four is the worst. When do we parents catch a break? ... Eh, don't answer that. 

Can you blame the poor kids? They just discovered their independence and want to experience, see, and control everything. And yet, they are limited in what they can do physically, emotionally, and mentally. They are still developing and need your guidance and support. How frustrating, huh?! I try to remind myself of all this when my little guy gets upset and starts heading down tantrum row. And this is also why I wanted a book with some expert advice and real-life tools to handle these emotional rollercoasters my son heads down.

I asked a friend who has three kids what they recommend for a discipline book. I think someone with three kids probably knows what they are doing, right? More than me for sure; they've had three times the practice! Anyway, they listed a few books, and I went with their suggestion of Boundaries with Kids. 

Read More

Book Club: Bringing Up Bebe

/
Book Club: Bringing Up Bebe

I'm going to be straight with you. I wrote this post a long time ago (although, I've made modifications for today). It was originally written back in July 2016, way before I even had any inkling that I'd have this blog. I must be able to tell the future! Just kidding. There is a more reasonalbe explanation.

The story goes I used to write for HelloBee. Have you heard of this site? It's a great site for new and expecting moms. Basically, all the posts are from contributing writers -- women in some stage of motherhood, from trying to convince to already having many kids. I was one of the contributing writers. I started shortly after having Caleb and wrote for over a year. It was a good time, but now I'm focused on Raising Tacoma. However, this review I felt was still relevant and something you might find interesting. Plus, I'm going to share another book review soon so I felt I should do this one first. So there you have it.

I read Bringing Up Bebe back when Caleb was just a few months old. It came highly recommended by a friend who was also a new mom. It's one of those books that in conversations, moms say, "oh, I've read that," or "oh, I've wanted to read that one." Looking back now, I'm glad I read it while Caleb was just a few months old. In fact, it would have probably been best to read just before he was born. Many of the tips are for when they are just born. But no regrets. I read, The Christian Mama's Guide to Having a Baby before Caleb was born and thought it was excellent. I'd write about that one, but it's been way too long now, and I don't have a post magically stored away. But I do remember really enjoying it and learning about what to expect. 

Okay, now back to Bringing Up Bebe. Overall, I thought it was worth a read...

Read More