Saturday, October 13, 2012

Books, Books, Books

At Martha's request, I thought I would share some of the books I have read this year.

Orthodox Books:
  1. Diamonds on the Bosphorus
  2. The Illustrated Life of the Theotokos for Children
  3. A Trace in the Sand
  4. Bright Faith: Father Artemy Vladidimorv Talks with Western Orthodox
  5. Letters to Saint Lydia
  6. Christ is in Our Midst: Letters from a Russian Monk 
  7. Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witness

I enjoyed reading all of these books. More than likely I will reread these again in the future. The Fr. Arseny book I had already read and is one of my favorites. If I had to narrow this list down I would definitely read books 1, 3, 4, and 7 again in the near future.

Fiction Books:
  1. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 
  2. Tears of the Giraffe 
  3. The Hunger Games Trilogy
  4. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
  5. Smoking Seventeen (Stephanie Plum Series) 
  6. Explosive Eighteen (Stephanie Plum Series)
  7. The Help
The most recent books I have read are the the first two books in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these books (as suggested by Martha)  and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I also enjoyed reading The Help. As far as the others go they are really based of personal preference. I was pleasantly surprised with the Hunger Games Trilogy they were a quick read and compared to some of the other popular fiction they are mild in regards to various undertones you can find in other books. The Stephanie Plum series books I began reading with my mom when I was expecting Pic Pic. There is not much substance to the books and are rather quick reads. I continue to read them as a bonding experience with my mom. We also read James Patterson books together as well. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a difficult read. Although I enjoyed the suspense factor it was rather risque at parts and I found myself having to skim over some chapters.

Non - Fiction
Getting Started in Homeschooling
One Thousand Gifts

Both were books I have read previously, good little reminders of things we may forget when we get caught up with our day to day tasks.

Currently I am reading Raising Them Right an expert from a Path to Salvation. Some of the Orthodox books l would like to read in the future are Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, Everyday Saints, Path to Salvation, The Other Side of the Bonfire, and the Scent of Holiness. As far as fiction is concerned I want to continue reading the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Tudor Court Series by Philippa Gregory, classics. I am not much of a history person and thought that reading a historical series might peak my interest. I also have not ready many classics and thought that it might be good to read them. Does anyone have any  recommendations on which classic would be best to start with? I don't read much non fiction books but ones that I would like to read are centered around a Charlotte Mason education.




Friday, October 12, 2012

October Goals

I finished a number of my goals for this month already. The remain goals are to:
  1. Create Month Budget Notebook and complete September Budget
  2. Organize Jacob's Clothes 
  3. Transition kids summer clothes with fall clothes
  4. Update all cell phone photos to snap fish
  5. Read three books (so far I have finished two).

Goals and Lists

My mind has been all over the place lately, or more so than normal. I am not sure if it's pregnancy related or just plain old busyness due to having young children. I often find myself making extensive lists of things to do but often find that half or not more of what is on that list is not that important. I sat down recently to review what it is that I would like to accomplish throughout the rest of the year.
  1. Continue Working on MFW 1st grade and add additional preschool activities. 
  2. Start Potty Training Ice Man
  3. Jacob's Birth
  4. Finish goal of reading 24 books this year. 
  5. Establish home management system
  6. Continue with my higher education courses
  7. Clothing Organization
  8. Room Organization
  9. Utilize Blog
  10. Photo Organization
  11. Maintain and Update Budget regularly
Some of these goals are rather large and will carry over next year. With this list, I will be able to have a more focused sense of direction on what areas I want to concentrate on.  Additionally to creating this overall list, I have started making monthly lists of what needs to be done in regards to this overall list. By making this monthly list I am also able to decide whether or not a task is really of any value. It may be something that would be ideal but not worth focusing on now. After a monthly list I have broken things down further in a weekly to do list. This list usually has items referring to the monthly list as well as any items that need to be done throughout the week. I have been using just a regular notebook for this.

Long Over Due Update!

Where to begin? Its been a busy year for us this year. To start, I will share a pregnancy update. Currently I am 37 1/2 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. So now our family will be even, two and two. After, the rough first trimester, things have gone fairly smoothly. The baby is currently not head down so a c-section has been scheduled. I will be honest, I was rather disappointed initially about the possibility of a c-section, especially since I haven't had one previously. I am no longer disappointed but am slightly nervous as it is a whole new experience for me. As far as having things prepared for this baby, I have been procrastinating more than I ever have. I have a rather lengthily check list to work on before his arrival in a week and a half. Fortunately, my mom is flying in tomorrow to help out. Besides the pregnancy, I have returned to school and have started work on a master's program. I have completed the first three classes and will be taking a break for the birth and recovery of the baby. Now on to the rest of the family.

Hubby began his second year at seminary at the beginning of September. It has gone by rather quickly so far. The big news for hubby is that he was recently sworn into the Air Force as a Chaplin Candidate as a 2nd Lt. His plans are to join the reserves after graduation. He will be gone for most of the summer as he will be training. He has also been busy with basketball practice.

The girls have had a busy start to the "school year" as well. They both are attending karate class at the YMCA as well as religious education class at the local parish we attend. I thought life was busy with three young ones but now with various activities it has gotten much more busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Pic Pic and I started school in mid August this year as to give us a head start before the baby's arrival. This year we went with My Father's World curriculum. So far, we have both have enjoyed it. We have taken a break since coming into to my last month of pregnancy and with that break we have noticed how much more she is working on reading. She tries to read everything she sees. It is such a wonderful thing to witness. Dan Dan is finally completely potty trained. It was such a different experience with her than with Pic Pic. Dan Dan defiantly had to make the decision on her own that she was ready regardless of any encouragement from Mommy and Daddy. One day she pretty much decided that she was done wearing pull ups and that she was going to go potty on the toilet. It is such a relief that we are done with her potty training. She is also doing some "school work". When she joins us with school she works on hand writing and letter recognition as well as gross motor skills (mainly lacing and cutting activities). Right now she uses some of Pic Pic's old preschool workbooks that have uncompleted sheets. I plan on purchasing Christian Liberty Press Preschool Workbook for her. We used it for Pic Pic and she enjoyed it.

Ice Man is defiantly in the two year old little boy stage where he is all over the place. He is still on the small side but has grown tremendously. His vocabulary is expanding, with everyone of the kids it is such an amazing experience to see them state new words or expressions. He has transitioned to a big boy bed and is out of the crib. We initially thought that we would wait until after the baby was born to work on transitioning him as the baby will be in our room for sometime. However, once he saw a big boy bed in his room he was ready for the change. Although, most nights he sneaks into our bed. We have begun potty training him. Our potty training techniques have been to sit them on the potty first thing in the morning and then before bath time to get them use to the potty. Then when we notice that they are "taking care of business" we place them on the potty. This worked with Pic Pic and by the time she was two and a couple of months she was going number two on the potty. However with Dan Dan, this did not work. She had to do it on her own terms. Ice Man, however is doing well with this method. He doesn't tell us when he is going but we keep an eye out for it and he goes willingly when we notice it. Yesterday we purchased his first set of pull ups.

So that sums up our life in a nutshell. My hope is to blog more to have a family record or journal of sorts to document our life. I also want to utilize the blog to help with motivation to work on various tasks pertaining to family and home life.