book stack

IT was a new years resolution I determined on at the beginning of this year that motivated my then pregnant self to resource a little more faithfully in the parenting department. I have always been a fairly even keeled pregnant woman, in fact, despite uncomfortable pregnancies, I was always pretty happy. Happy to eat whatever I wanted. Happy to have an excuse if I needed one to sit on the couch with my feet up, etc. Then along came my fourth pregnancy and I don't even know what happened. I was, how can I put it graciously, imbalanced. Even though I tried hard not to show it, I was ready to cry in my coffee, cry in my tea, cry in my yogurt, on my cereal and my other carbohydrate filled food in general, 95 percent of the time. Plus, I felt irritated all the time.
 I remember my husband looking at me and saying "what is wrong with you?"
"Well I'm pregnant duh. It's not my fault I've been an angel every other pregnancy and now you get to see what the rest of the male sex has to deal with". No, I did not say that. I took a tear filled look at myself with the intention of making the inevitable  remaining months of pregnancy more pleasant for everyone.

 Long story short ,I knew I needed to just remind myself of the principles of parenting, the reasons I chose to homeschool and why I was married in general (just kidding). I stacked every book I had ever purchased on those three things (parenting, homeschooling and marriage), ordered a few more and committed to read fifteen minutes every day out of that stack.

 Every single evening I lugged my largess to the treadmill  and walked my two miles at 3.5 MPH with a book in hand. It was one of the best things I could have done. I started feeling inspired, empowered and basically just encouraged. Very often I would read much more than fifteen minutes because the words were giving me the direction I was craving. Sufficed to say I have continued this habit all year even after my baby was born and happily my hormones went back to their regular balance.

Being a parent of four, my times of binge reading have faded into oblivion. I remember staying up till 2 a.m. in order to finish a riveting mystery I just couldn't put down or reading Pride and Prejudice over the weekend just because I felt a hankering for Mr. Darcy, or reading five books at the same time...successfully.

Maybe we as moms can't blast through a book in one sitting or maybe you never liked to read that way anyway, but I don't care who you are, everyone has time for fifteen minutes. I strongly recommend developing this powerful habit. If you have more than one kid you know they might have the same mom and dad but they are widely different.  Though our discipline should be consistent, different kids need different approaches.

Since we are talking about parenting, I won't include the stack of marriage books (save that for another time) but I will include some of the homeschooling recommendations because school is too intertwined in everyday living for me. The top six are wonderful reads and some of the bottom titles I have not yet finished but I intend to. Some were hard to find and I picked them up used. Glean what speaks to you. Sometimes just a little change brings about wonderfully positive results.

Home Grown Kids By, Dorothy and Raymond Moore
Hints on Child Training By, Trumbull
For the children's sake, By, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
Home Built Discipline By, Raymond and Dorothy Moore
Child Training Tips By, Reb Bradley
If Jesus were a parent By, Perkins
Guardians of Purity By Julie Hiramine
Bring up boys By, Dobson
Bringing up Girls By Dobson
Home spun Schools By, Raymond and Dorothy Moore
THe strong willed child By Dobson
Dare to discipline By Dobson
The ten commandments of parenting By Ed Young
I love this thing called parenting...well, most of the time By. Wendy Treat
MomSense By, Jean blackmer

If you have some books to recommend I would love to hear them and add them to my ever growing stack. Much love.

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out. ~Erma Bombeck