Homeschool Planning: Preparing my Upcoming Homeschool Year (Part 1)

 

I’m so excited to be kicking off a two part series called, “Homeschool Planning” and it will have two parts!! Part one, will be all about how I prepare for my upcoming homeschool year, so a more broad type of planning and preparation. Part two, will include a much more detailed look at how I plan out my curriculum for a new school year and break things out for each school week.

Let’s jump right in!!

I’m a homeschooling Mom to five girls. I have a 4th grader, 3rd grader, 1st grader, and twin 3 year olds!! I started teaching my oldest in preschool, which means I’ve been homeschooling for 6 years now. The first few years were the hardest, because I was never homeschooled and had a big learning curve. However, God was faithful to patiently teach  me what I needed for each specific year. 

Today, I’m going to share the broad ways I begin to prepare for an upcoming school year. I will be sharing about how I pray for our upcoming school year to begin ready to order new curriculum. My favorite!! These aren’t hard and fast rules about what you need to do, but simply my process. I hope you will find this helpful as you begin to prepare for your own upcoming school year.

5 Ways to Prepare for Your Upcoming Homeschool Year

1. Pray for wisdom. I use the Val Marie Paper Prayer Journal to keep track of my monthly prayer requests. I have one section labeled, “Homeschool” so I can have a place to write down prayer requests for a particular month. My main prayer request is wisdom about our curriculum. Seriously, this is so important!! I also pray to have a zeal and excitement for homeschooling. As I pray, I begin to catch a vision for upcoming homeschool. Our lives are far from perfect, but God has been faithful to answer my prayers!!

2. Write down ideas. I use the notes app on my phone to jot down ideas about our upcoming school year. Currently, I have a note called, “2022-2023 Homeschool”, and I created in back in July 2021 after we began our current school year. This note is very helpful to me, because I can write down ideas for next year without having to commit to anything. Additionally, it helps me remember all my ideas and see what things will work for our upcoming school year. 

3. Choose a curriculum. Typically, around January or February, in a very broad sense, I begin to decide on our main curriculum for the upcoming school year. Both, in my mind and in my notes app. Don’t forget, nothing is set in stone and God might lead you to make some changes down the road. However, making these overall curriculum choices early on helps me to have time to go through my own books to use what I have, order new curriculum and books, and buy other supplies before we start our next school year.

4. Use books you already have. It’s important to go through what I already have and this is a principle I live by in most areas of my life!! Deciding on curriculum early on gives me a chance to go through what I already have to set books and other supplies aside for our upcoming school year. I have a big plastic box full of all my incredible finds sitting in our school room!! Additionally, this process will help you save money!!

5. Order new curriculum. Once I have gone through my own bookshelves, I make a list of the main curriculum and books we will need to order. I also make lists for each of my girls of the individual curriculum each of them will need for the coming year. Again, planning early lets me have time to wait until books or curriculum go on sale to buy them. It also gives me time to order new curriculum, check it out and return it if I don’t like it. Seriously, I love curriculum, so as the boxes of curriculum begin to arrive it feels like Christmas morning to me!! 

I hope this was helpful!! Please let me know if you have any questions. In the near future, I will write the next blog post in this series.

My 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket

 

A few years ago, I shared all about, “My Mom’s Morning Basket”. Today, I thought it would be fun to share an updated blog post all about what is currently in my Mom’s morning basket, because somethings are the same and some are new!!

I bought my Mom’s morning basket on sale at Hobby Lobby!! It has sat in the corner of my for almost 2 years!! Depending on the season of my life, my basket will be more full than other times. Every month or so, I try to go through my basket to purge it of unnecessary things, which can easily accumulate in my basket if I’m not careful. Thankfully, I just went through my basket as we kicked off the New Year, so it’s the perfect time to share all about my 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket!!

Below, is a list of what’s in my morning basket. I will go through each item and tell you how I use it. If I can find it, I will include a link for each item, so if you’re interested you can learn more about that specific item or buy one for yourself.

 What’s in My 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket?

1. My ESV Thinline Bible 

I love this Bible!! I bought it on sale at Lifeway in Texas back in April 2013. Thankfully, it fits in my purse perfectly and not too bulky to bring when I’m traveling. Even though, many of my girls have drawn in my Bible, I can’t bring myself to use anything else!! My good friend taught me to label those precious scribbles, which I have done and they’re too important to use something else. 

2. 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets 

Every year, I purchase the Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets. They’re a goal planner which help me focus on the things that truly matter to me. Each month, I fill out a tending list of things I want to work on that month. My Powersheets live in my Mom’s basket, which make it easier for me to check off tasks as I complete them!!

Click here for more details about My 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets.

3. Give Me Jesus Journal

For more in depth Bible study, I use the beautiful Give Me Jesus Journal from Well-Watered Women Co. In the Bible study section, there is space to write out your gratitude, scripture, what you’re learning about God, how this changes the way you live, and prayers. There are two additional sections: Jot it Down and Prayers and Praises. If you don’t need the extra sections, they also have a simplified Give Me Jesus Journal that’s just has the Bible study pages. 

4. Spiral Lined Journal

I’m currently using a pretty journal I got last year for my birthday!! I use this lined journal to write my sermon notes in each week at church. If I have a chance, I also use it to write out prayers to Jesus about what we did on a specific day. Just more of a generic journal.

5. Cultivate What Matters: Write the Word Cultivate Forgiveness

Being a Mom of 5 kids, means I don’t always have a lot of time for in depth Bible study. For this reason, I love the Write the Word journals from Cultivate What Matters. I’ve used these for years, because they let me spend as much time with Jesus as I have to give on a specific day. It’s just two pages which includes space to write what I’m grateful for, the Bible verse for that day, what’s on my heart, and my word for the day. I’m currently working through the Cultivate Forgiveness, which has been good!

6. Val Marie Paper 2022 Rhythms Prayer Journal 

For years, I always wanted something to use to keep track of all the things I want to pray about each day. I was so excited to discover the Val Marie Paper Rhythms Prayer Journal!! God has used this tool to help grow my prayer life so much!! Each month I can write out my prayer requests and easily remember for whom I need to pray.

7. Cultivate What Matters: Intentional Action Card Deck Wellness

This is a new product from Cultivate What Matters!! It’s full of beautiful cards, which prompt me to work on my wellness one small step at a time. So far, I’ve really enjoyed them!!

8. Lots of fun pens, pencils, and goal setting sticker book!!

I have a pink Yoobi Pencil Organizer filled with highlights, pens, pencils, and the Cultivate What Matters: Goal Sticker Book. Personally, it’s more fun to use pretty pens and stickers while I work through my Bible study and other journals. 

Now it’s your turn, do you have a Mom’s morning basket? If so, what’s in it?

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2021

 

Back in 2020, I shared a blog post called “Cultivating a Love for Reading” where I talked about my struggles with reading. You see, I’ve always loved books, but I have never been a good reader. To this day, I’m still a pretty, slow reader. In my previous post, I went on to share about how I’ve never been a good reader, but I decided to try to grow my love of reading through baby steps. It’s taken a lot of practice, but in an answer to my prayers, God is growing my love of reading each day!! I’m so thankful!!

All that to say, I was so surprised when I checked my GoodReads app, to discover how many books I read last year. A grand total of 377 books!! Just to clarify, my total is so high, because it includes adult fiction and non-fiction books, picture books, school books, and young adult fiction I pre-read for my girls. Most of the adult books, I listened to on audiobook which was helpful, because I could listen to my book while making dinner, walking, or working on a puzzle. As you can see, I used my wireless headphones so much, now they’re broken. Every year, I’ve grown into a more avid reader and I couldn’t be more proud of this accomplishment last year!! 

Honestly, I had the privilege of reading a lot of incredible books last year!! I’ve done my best to narrow this list down to my top 10 favorite books I read in 2021. 

These aren’t in any particular order…

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2021

1. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by, Delia Owens

2. “The Nightingale” by, Kristin Hannah

3. “The Well Watered Woman” by Gretchen Saffles

4. “Risen Motherhood” by Emily Jensen

5. “The Call of the Wild and Free” by, Ainsley Arment 

6. “Dear Mr. Knightley” by, Katherine Reay

7. “Creativity, Inc” by, Ed Catmull

8. “Welcome Home” by, Myquillyn Smith

9. “The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by, Mario Escobar

10. “The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11” by, Garrett M. Graff 

*Bonus Reread* 

“The Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling

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Finally, I couldn’t resist sharing my favorite reread of last year, which was “The Harry Potter” series by, J.K. Rowling. I listened to the audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale and they were incredible. I had forgotten just how much I love these books. 

Now it’s your turn!! What are some of your favorite books you read last year? Have you read any of my favorites? If so, what did you think about them?

August 2020 Homeschool Favorites

In celebration of our new homeschool year, I decided to share some homeschool favorites with you. Honestly, I haven’t done this in a while, so I have tons of favorites to share with you all. That being said, I’ll share some now and wait to share more in the coming months. The favorites I will share today are ones I use everyday in our homeschool and I’ve found these to be so helpful this year.

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Booster Bricks Club

All of my girls, love playing with Legos. As a result, this past Christmas we joined the Booster Bricks Club. There is a new theme each month and we work together as a family to complete the corresponding challenges. You read through the theme-based storybook, which tells you when to complete the specific challenges. There’s even a Facebook page you can join, which gives you a chance to upload pictures of your completed challenges. It may not be a curriculum. However, during the pandemic it has been a fun thing for all of us to work on while we’re cooped up inside. I can see us being apart of this club for many more year to come!!

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Homeschool Supplies Caddy 

Over the years, I’ve tried lots of things to store my girls school supplies. I’ve tried giving them their own individual pencil boxes, pretty lunch boxes, and individual bags with different supplies, like markers or crayons. Unfortunately, nothing has worked very well, because by the end of the school year my big girls dumped all the crayons and everything they didn’t want into Matilda’s bag. Oh my. 

That being said, I’ve been on the hunt for a better solution for our family. I was so excited when I found this wire caddy at Ikea in Hong Kong. I liked it some much, I even shipped it home. As a result, I’ve been collecting empty jars and containers, which I could use to hold all of the school supplies on a daily basis. This basket lives on my bookshelf and I pull it down whenever we work on school. We use what we need, clean up, and put it away when we’re done. No fighting over markers or who doesn’t want a certain color in their pencil bag. It’s been such a nice addition to our homeschool room this year.

Currently, I have scissors, rulers, sharpened pencils, crayons, colored pencils, glue, and markers in my supplies caddy.

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Musical Multiplication from The Good and the Beautiful 

My family loves music based curriculum! Which is why I’ve wanted to buy “Musical Multiplication” from The Good and the Beautiful for a while. For that reason, I just had to share this curriculum, because it is so much fun for all of my girls. We got it at the end of our previous school year and have been using it ever since. We started with Olivia and let her work through the first book with corresponding songs. It’s become such a favorite, all my girls want to take turns working through the book and singing the multiplication songs. I highly recommend this curriculum for children struggling to nail down their multiplication factors.

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Plum Paper Planner

Two years ago, when we lived in Hong Kong, my friend Shelli gave a Homeschool Planner. Honestly, it was the first time I had ever used a homeschool planner. Normally, I just used a weekly planner, which I designed and printed out at home. Each week, I would fill in what we needed to get done for school. Unfortunately, we have the worst luck with printers, so the pre-printed homeschool planner was the perfect solution when I didn’t have a printer.

All that being said, last year I couldn’t find the same type of planner, my friend had given me. As a result, I scoured the internet for the perfect planner which would work for homeschooling. After watching tons of YouTube videos and reading recommendations, I finally decided to take the plunge and buy my very first Plum Paper Planner. I loved it, because I can customize each section as needed and add homeschool sections to the back. It’s been one of my favorite homeschooling tools, so this year I bought another one. The one I got this year is a little bigger, so I have more room to write in my planner each week.

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Sonlight Reader Boxes 

 Once our girls learn to read, we transition from Sing, Spell, Read, and Write to The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts program. In addition, we pair individual The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts curriculum with Sonlight Grade Level Readers. For example, this year Olivia is using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 3 and Sonlight Grade 4 Readers. Click the link to read more about our 2020-21 Homeschool Curriculum Choices.

As a result, our girls have had stacks of Sonlight Reader books, which they work through each year. In an effort to free up some extra space off of my books shelves, I created Sonlight Reader Boxes for each of my girls. Additionally, I typed up a checklist, so as they read through their books they put a sticker on the chart. Their boxes stay at their spot on our homeschool table, so they can see the progress they’re making each day as they take time to read books out loud. This has been a huge hit with the girls and they’re excited about this fun change to our homeschool room.

What are some of your homeschool favorites this month!?

Cultivating a Love for Reading

I’ve always loved books!! This isn’t too surprising, because I come from a long line of readers. I’m so grateful for the legacy my Grandma began which has been passed down to my Mom, me, and now my girls. It’s just wonderful.

Do you want to know the truth?

Even though I love books, I haven’t always been a good reader. For a long time, I read slowly, didn’t like reading out loud, and struggled with proper pronunciation of new words. For lack of practice, I read very slowly, because I really had to pay attention in order to comprehend what was taking place in the story. Seriously, if I got called on in Sunday school to the Bible passage, I would become overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. I’m not good at pronouncing all those names in the Bible, so I would pray and ask God to help me not mess up too badly. For that reason, when it was my turn to teach, I would listen to the audio Bible on my phone and learn how to pronounce the names before I needed to teach.

The struggle was real!

Additionally, I’ve felt like I never found my niche or specific genre of books which I most loved. Thankfully, in college, my friend Michelle encouraged me to read the Harry Potter series. I took one look at how long those books were, felt intimidated, and said, “No, because I wasn’t a kid anymore, which meant I couldn’t read children’s fiction anymore.” Honestly, I don’t know why I felt this way. Michelle gently explained, just because I was an adult didn’t mean I only had to read adult books. Finding out, I could still read children’s books was a huge paradigm shift for me and suddenly opened up a world of books I never had the opportunity to read when I was a kid.

My friend, continued to present her case to me about the Harry Potter books and how I would learn about the wizarding world right along with Harry Potter himself. She explained, they were a great read and I should just try the first book and if I didn’t like them I could stop. Michelle was so adamant, she took me down to Powell’s Bookstore and bought me my very own copy of “Harry Potter and the Socerers Stone”.

Leaving me without any excuses, I finally caved.

Just as Michelle said, I began to fall in love with the book and its characters!! In no time, I finished the first book and moved on to the next. I was hooked and nothing could stop me now. I was so proud of myself when I finally finished the entire series. To this day, they’re some of my favorite books of all time. Thanks friend for igniting my love of reading, which has never wavered.

After Harry Potter, I continued to read through lots of children’s and young adult fiction, which I had never read before and you can check out the list of some of my favorites below. I can’t imagine missing out on all of these incredible books!!

Fast forward to 2020...now I’m a homeschooling Mom and my job is reading out loud to my girls. Truly, only God could help me face my fears and work on being a better reader. I’ve been far from perfect, but I’m thankful for my girls love and grace as I stumble through unfamiliar words. I’m still a work in progress, so a few years ago one of my goals for the year was to cultivating a love for reading. I tried my best to read 3 good books each month. I also compete in a yearly Goodreads Reading Challenge with my hubby. Last year, I read 135 books, which included all the kids book I read to the girls. I was so proud of myself for reaching my goal and I’m praying we can pass on a love of reading to my own girls.

Normally, I read through a fiction and non-fiction at the same time, because I still feel like I’m still trying to make up for lost time as I continue reading through all kinds of books I never had the chance to read when I was a kid.

How have you been cultivating a love for reading?

Do you enjoy reading? Or do you struggle like me?

For anyone who’s struggling to sit down with an actual book, I encourage you to try listening audio books. Honestly, it took me forever to get used to audiobooks. I starting listening to podcasts, which helped me grow into larger audiobooks. As a busy Mom, this has opened up a world of amazing books, which I wouldn’t have the chance to sit down and read right now. It’s been such a blessing and gives me something to listen to while I clean, make dinner, etc.

Finally, it’s always easier for me to be excited about a book when it’s been recommended by my family or friends. That being said, if you’re trying to get back into reading, I want to give a list of incredible book recommendations as a place to start reigniting your love for reading.

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10 MUST READ  BOOKS  

1. “The Penderwick Series” by, Jeanne Birdsall

2. “The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street” by, Karina Yan Glaser 

3. “The Hunger Games Trilogy” by, Suzanne Collins 

4. “Little Women” by, Louisa May Alcott

5. “The Wild Robot” by, Peter Brown

6. “The Divergent Series” by, Veronica Roth

7. “All of a Kind Family” by, Sydney Taylor

8. “The Giver” by, Lois Lowry

9. “The Harry Potter series” by, J.K. Rowling

10. “Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime” by, Janet & Geoff Benge 

My Mom’s Morning Basket

I’m so excited to share my Mom’s Morning Basket with you!!

Several years ago, as apart of our homeschool, I decided to try something new. I got the idea from Ashlee at ‘Grace and Grit’ on YouTube. Ashlee is a homeschool Mom and she uses ‘The Morning Basket‘ technique, by Brave Writer aka Julie Bogart, with her homeschool curriculum. I really liked this idea and couldn’t wait to try it out during our 2017-18 school year. Honestly, in our family, it’s been a huge hit and to this day, we still use a morning basket.

Additionally, back in 2018, I even put a Christmas spin on our typical morning basket. To learn more about it, click the link to read, “Blogmas Series: Our Christmas Book Basket” now.

This year, I wanted to try something completely new for myself. You see, I always have my Bible, journals, books I’m reading, devotionals, and more floating around the house. There hasn’t been a central location for these items, which means I can’t always find them when I need them. It’s frustrating and takes away from my time with the Lord when I have to search all over the house for my Bible or a pen.

As a result, I thought it would be nice to buy a basket for myself where I would keep these important items in one central location. I did a quick Google search of “Mom’s Morning Basket” to see if this was even a thing and I was inspired by lots of other articles, which helped me narrow down what books to put into my Mom’s Morning basket. I’ll share more about those details below.

Immediately, I drove to Hobby Lobby, where I found the perfect basket on sale!! Seriously, it was less than $5.00. Thank you Jesus!! I was excited to bring and discover it was the perfect fit for all the books I have right now. Thank you Lord for providing just what I needed during this season.

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What’s In My Mom’s Morning Basket?? 

1.) Cultivate What Matters: PowerSheets 2020 

2.) Val Marie Paper: 2020 Yearly Prayer Journal 

3.) Non—fiction book (Currently “Sacred Marriage” by, Gary Thomas) 

4.) My personal journal

5.) My ESV Bible 

6.) Devotional (Currently, “My Utmost for His Highest” by, Oswald Chambers) 

7.) Write the Word journal (Currently, “The Garden”) 

8.) My pouch for pens, pencils, and Cultivate Faith Sticker Book

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In case you’re wondering, I’ve used PowerSheets for years!! They help me break down my big goals into small baby steps, so I can work on a little each month. I keep this book in my morning basket, so I can easily access my monthly tending list and record my progress on action items. Click the link to read all about, “My 2020 Cultivate What Matters: PowerSheets”.

Currently, these are the books I reach for most often and it’s nice to have them all in the same spot. Once, I finish reading my non-fiction book, I will replace it with something else. The same goes for my Write the Word journal. I’m not a huge fan of devotionals, but it’s nice to have one in my basket on busy days when I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and study the word. It’s always an encouragement of my weary soul.

One more things, during my research about Mom’s morning baskets, many of the ladies said they have a book of poetry in their basket for themselves. I don’t have one yet, but I thought it was a cool idea.

Now it’s your turn, what’s in your Mom’s Morning basket?

Starting a New Chapter

Back in the spring of 2018, I stepped down from being a leader and receptionist at Weight Watchers after working for them for 7 years!! Stepping down was two fold, because I was pregnant with twins and by 30 weeks my midwife put me on modified bed rest. This meant I couldn’t be up on my feet for long periods of time. As a result, I wouldn't be able to effectively complete my duties as a leader and/or receptionist when needed. Additionally, we had plans to move to Hong Kong shortly after the babies were born. With our international move upon the horizon, I was certain that I could no longer work for Weight Watchers. 

Honestly, Weight Watchers has been apart of my life for so long, it was hard to imagine NOT begin there to help people on their own weight loss journeys. Without completely realizing it, when I stepped down from Weight Watchers I started to feel like I couldn’t help people the way I used to when I was apart of Weight Watchers.

My healthy lifestyle knowledge and roots are so deeply embedded in Weight Watchers that it was hard to imagine my life separate from Weight Watchers. On top of that, one of my greatest fears about moving to Hong Kong has been that I would gain all my weight back from emotional eating and stress over such a big life change.

In the weeks and months leading up to our big move, I began to pray and pour my heart before the Lord. I asked Him to help me continue to make healthy choices, even when life was overwhelming and I just wanted to eat everything in sight.

As a result, since we moved to Hong Kong I have been reading a lot of books to expand my knowledge about healthy eating. Each of the books listed below are so good!! I have been reminded that I can't conquer my weight loss struggles without the Lord by my side. I have also learned that I need to limit my sugar intake and other processed foods. I won't share too much about this now. However, if you're interested I can share more about what I'm learning in future blog posts.

Here is a list the books I’ve read so far. If you have other healthy eating book recommendations, please let me know in the comments below.

"Trim Healthy Mama Plan: The Easy-Does-It Approach to Vibrant Health and a Slim Waistline" 

by, Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett

"Body Love: Live in Balance, Weigh What You Want, and Free Yourself from Food Drama Forever" by, Kelly LeVeque 

"Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction"
by, Asheritah Ciuciu 

"Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food"
by, Lysa TerKeurst

Finally, today, God used several people in my life to begin to show me that even though I don’t work for Weight Watchers I can still encourage and support others on your own weight loss journeys. This has always been a passion of mine and I can’t wait to see how God continues to use me to help other people reach their weight loss goals.

It’s safe to say, I’m very excited about this new chapter of my healthy eating journey. I can’t wait to share it with all of you!!

Blogmas Series: Our Christmas Book Basket

"A book is a present you can open again and again." - Unknown

Everyone in our family loves books, even our kids which is such a wonderful blessing. From the time they were babies, we’ve put books in the girls hands and tried to teach them to love and cherish books as much as me and Jon. 

So far, our plan is working.

Last year, as apart of our homeschool, I decided to try something new. I got the idea from Ashley at ‘Grace and Grit’ on YouTube. Ashley is a homeschool Mom and she uses ‘The Morning Basket‘ technique, by Brave Writer aka Julie Bogart, with her homeschool curriculum. I really liked this idea and couldn’t wait to try it out during our 2017-18 school year.

This technique has been a hit in our home and we've been doing it ever since. The girls know that all of the books that we will read from each day are found in our special morning basket. We take time each morning to complete our required reading for our Sonlight curriculum. There isn't any question about where I put the books, because they belong in the morning basket. On Fridays, I change the books so I am all ready for our upcoming school week.

This Christmas I thought it would be fun to have our very own Christmas Book Basket that is designated specifically for Christmas and winter books!! 

I started out by going on a treasure hunt around the house, searching high and low, for all of our books about winter or Christmas. I brought them all downstairs to the living room, so that they can be together in one central location. I also found a basket (actually, my basket is currently a box until I can get a cute Christmas basket) that I could these holiday books inside. Then I placed my basket under our Christmas tree. That's right, our small Christmas tree is set up in the living room on a table. The basket fits perfectly underneath the table.

I hope that this will help all of my girls to remember to return these holiday books to the Christmas Book Basket.

I also plan to go to the library each week to get new Christmas books for us to read as well. If I find anything that is a good read, I will be sure to share it with you on my Instagram Stories. 

Incase you are wondering, scroll down to see a list of the books that I found around my house and put in our basket. Just for fun, I also included some of my other favorite Christmas books that I don't have at our house.

Christmas Books:

“A Creature Was Stirring: One Boy’s Night Before Christmas” by, Carter Goodrich

“Animals in Winter” by, Henrietta Bancroft & Richard G. Van Gelder

“Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street” by Lauren Collier Swindler

“Frozen” by, Disney

“God Bless Christmas” by, Hannah C. Hall

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by, Dr. Seuss

“Noodles: I Love Christmas” by, Hand Wilhelm

“Snow” by, Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

“The 12 Days of Christmas” by, Jane Cabrera

“The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving” by, Jan and Mike Berenstain

“The Chilly Little Penguin” by, Russell Punter

“The Gingerbread Kid: Goes to School” by, Joan Holub

Chinese book called...

“Green Festival” by, Unknown

Other Favorite Christmas Books: 

"A Christmas Carol" by, Charles Dickens
"Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by, Karma Wilson
"Christmas in the Big Woods (Little House Picture Book)" by, Laura Ingalls Wilder
"Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas" by, Jane O'Connor
"Little Miss Christmas" by, Roger Hargreaves
"Llama Llama Holiday Drama" by, Anna Dewdney
"Merry Christmas, Geronimo!" by, Geronimo Stilton
"Mr. Popper's Penguins" by, Richard Atwater
"Red Sled" by, Lita Judge
"The Bears' Christmas" by, Stan Berenstain
"The Berenstain Bears' Old-Fashioned Christmas" by, Jan Berenstain

"The Family Under the Bridge" by, Natalie Savage Carlson
"The Legend of the Candy Cane" by, Lori Walburg
"The Polar Express" by, Christ Allsburg

Help Me Brainstorm

I do not even know where to start this morning.

Let me just begin by telling you that it has always been a dream of mine to write a book. I have had this desire for a long time, but I never knew what I would write about in my book. I think that this is one of the main reasons why I started this blog, because I wanted to be able to practice my writing skills without the pressure of feeling like I needed to get my book finished.

Then, this past weekend, I received an email from one of my Living a Changed Life readers. This woman explained that she would be willing to purchase, "Living a Changed Life" in book form.

How exciting!!

Off of the top of my head, this book would include the story of my weight loss journey, recipes, helpful tips, and more.

source

So, I guess now I am curious to know what the rest of you think about this idea...

Would you be interested in "Living a Changed Life" the book?

 



I would really love your feedback, so be sure to leave me a comment with any thoughts that you have about this book idea!

Finally, please pray with me as I consider whether or not to take the time to make "Living a Changed Life" into a book. I will need wisdom from the Lord and patience as I begin to see if this is God's will for me right now. Above all else, pray that the Lord will receive all the glory for any book that I am able to put together. Without Him, I would not have a story to tell.