If you've been following along with my Instagram for the past couple months, you know I made it a goal to read more books in 2017. Specifically parenting/marriage books with a few fun ones just for me thrown in. And while I've slowed down a little since my first stack of books arrived from Amazon back in March...I think I've done a fairly decent job adding reading books into my everyday life. BOOKS, that I hold in my HAND...not blogs on the computer, magazines on the deck, or snippets of Instagram posts on my phone. BOOKS. It was hard a first, but then I couldn't believe how much time I had if I just used it for something other than Netflix and phone scrolling. I feel like I'm a pretty productive person overall, it was just changing a few habits to find time for this 'new' thing I wanted to be better at.
I felt like this summer has sort of been a 'throwback' to the laid-back summer reading list days of old...back when we had to keep lists and log minutes and earn stickers. It's been fun. Here's a little book report on what I've read and liked so far:
1. Shepherding a Child's Heart, Paul David Tripp
I probably should have read this one a month or two before I did because when I read it we were IN the beginning of some intense toddler discipline...but I winged it and basically was already doing everything in the book at that little stage. But this was a gooooood one to read and I will probably revisit it again in a few years. A book you should probably own (there is now extensive highlighting in mine) for underlining and coming back to chapters here and there.
2. The Best Yes, Lysa Tyrkerst
Time management and balancing priorities has been so tricky for me since becoming a mom. In a way it seems like I should have all the time in the world but when things start to pile up on top of each other in our schedule...I get cranky. It helped me figure out how to determine what's good, better, and best. Reminded me who and what my priorities are, and then how to make decisions from there. It was super practical and I will probably read it again.
3. To Train up a Child, Michael and Debi Pearl
Similar to Shepherding a Child's Heart, but a little shorter...and quite a bit more intense/strict. Less grace + gospel message and more of a hard and fast discipline approach. I liked it but probably didn't *need* to read both this and Shepherding a Child's Heart. Or at the very least didn't need to own them both...but I did like being able to underline stuff and I'll probably pass it on to my sister when she's at this stage with kiddos someday.
4. Wild at Heart, John Eldridge
Listen...Josh has been asking me to read this one for as long as I can remember. And being that I'm a boy mom now, I figured it couldn't hurt. It took me the longest time to get through this book as opposed to the others that took less than a week if I was focused. But I did it. Most of it seemed to be a little over-reaching for me and none of the content or writing style really resonated with me (I'm not surprised, I didn't love Captivated, either) but that was to be expected since it's a book for men. My favorite part was probably reading through Josh's margin notes and taking special notice of what he had underlined.
5. Created to be His Helpmeet, Debi Pearl
I've always loved this book. This spring was my third time reading it and it's good every time. I'd highly recommend it, and I'd recommend buying your own copy for underlining. It's harsh and honest...full of truth, and a little brutal to hear, but that's kind of what I love about it. It always helps me look at marriage and my role as a wife in a completely different way.
6. Give them Grace, Fitzpatrick + Thompson
A mother-daughter team wrote this book and it was a PERFECT balance to the first two parenting books I read. It brings the gospel and grace perspective to the nitty-gritty daily discipline and gives specific written examples for how to respond to your child at certain ages in certain scenarios. I will be pulling this one out again and again. If you're a parent, this is definitely one to own.
7. A Woman After God's Own Heart, Elizabeth George
At the recommendation of a friend who is discipling me, we decided to start reading this one two chapters at a time and emailing each other weekly a report of what we thought. It's a SUPER easy read, and the way we're going about this little book-club is really laid back. We probably don't get the reading and the report done perfectly each week but it's been a refreshing way to read a book instead of plowing through them on my own just to check them off my list. I'd recommend owning this one too...I just always find that underlining helps my comprehension so I stick to owning most of the good ones (Note: We aren't finished with this one yet, but we are getting super close, so I figured I'd put it on this list).
8. Proverbs
That same friend recommended I go through Proverbs this spring so I did. I have the She Reads Truth Bible now and I am so obsessed with it. There are reading plans with little check boxes at the beginning of each book. Already organized and laid out for you. Umm WHAT?! I'll admit the pages are extra thin, making heavy-margin-note-taking basically impossible, but I've been using the Risen Motherhood study sheets for each day and that's where I put all my notes instead. I shoot for 5/7 days and that's been pretty do-able for me in this season.
9. Nothing to Prove, Jennie Allen
This is the summer book club I'm doing with a fantastic group of girls from church. We meet at 8:00 every Wednesday night and sit around chatting through the (large) section we read for the week. There are 30 of us, so it's less of an intimate-book club and more about me sitting and listening to Teresa Dodge and some other amazingly-wise-women in the group for an hour and a half. Then we break up in to smaller groups for more chatting in a smaller-setting. I LOVE the book and I love this approach to reading it. It's not been a replacement for my time in the Bible, just a lovely addition and a fun way to read through it (Note: We aren't finished with this one yet either, but are getting close!).
10. Romans
I'm doing the She Reads Truth summer study with my sister, my sister-in-law, and her sister. I have honestly really loved going through the study, but I've paired it with videos from past Cornerstone sermons on Romans as well as the Romans Jesus Project videos on YouTube and that's helped my comprehension and understanding more than anything. This summer study is quite a bit different than the one I did last year...which included more discussion questions and 'study-guide-like' material. This book is just sections of Romans divided out over 42 days with some other correlating scriptures thrown in. Did I need the book? Probably not...but it's pretty and it's been fun to meet up and message my girls throughout the weeks we've been in it. SRT pushes to have their studies last six weeks or less but that's been a little much for the full-time working girls in the group so we decided to stretch it out to last the whole summer...because why can't we do that? So this one isn't finished yet either, but I'm on day 24 and have loved it so far. I'll probably keep an eye on the studies they're pushing out and buy one to do every three-ish months or so to break up the usual routine.
Summer isn't anywhere close to being over, so I have plans for what I'll be tackling next...which I'm sure will last well into the fall if summer keeps going by as freaking fast as it has been:
Galatians
Of Mess and Moxie, Jen Hatmaker (reading this one with my sister and our friend Sarah!)
Present over Perfect, Shauna Niequist
Ephesians
Humble Roots, Hannah Anderson
Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel
Women of the Word, Jen Wilkin
The Mingling of Souls, Matt and Lauren Chandle
Hosea
Loving the Little Years, Rachel Jankovic
Treasuring Christ when Your Hands are Full, Gloria Furman
The Meaning of Marriage, Tim Keller
This Momentary Marriage, John Piper
Psalms
The Hidden Art of Homemaking, Edith Schaffer
So...that's what I've been up to! Lots of time on the deck during naptime with all my books. Full disclosure...most afternoons you can find me IN Maverick's pool reading because the sun moves across the deck and by 2:30 that's the only place I can sit if I want a tan.
MmB
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