29 Books to Read in 2012

I love books! I always have! I was a very young 4 when I learned how to read and so I don't remember learning to read! I just always have! I remember my mom reading to me every night. I remember all the magazines my mom would order me because she knew I would read them. I would read my magazines cover to cover, devouring and savoring every article ... and smell. :P yeah, total book nerd here. and newspaper day was my favorite day in class. I recall looking forward to every Friday, not because it was before the weekend but because it was newspaper day! LoL. I loved the feel and smell, it seemed almost perfect. ... maybe I have issues Ha! Ha!

I would sooo love for this picture to become a reality in my house! minus the small dog... I would need a greyhound or great dane in the picture :D

Here are the 29 books I plan to read in 2012:

1. Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst
2. Learning by Karen Kingsbury
3. How to Maximize Your Child's Learning Ability by Lauren Bradway & Barbara Hill
4. Longing by Karen Kingsbury
5. The Green Smoothies Diet by Robin Openshaw
6. Louder Than Words by Jenny McCarthy
7. Home Warming by Emilie Barnes
8. A Charlotte Mason Companion
9. The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants by Ann Bradshaw
10. Momology by Shelly Radic
11. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
12. The Twelve Teas of Inspiration by Emily Barnes
13. The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas by Linda Dobson
14. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
15. Simpler Times by Thomas Kinkade
16. The Firstborn Advantage by Kevin Leman
17. Loving by Karen Kingsbury
18. Supernanny by Jo Frost
19. Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
20. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
21. What Every Mom Needs by Elisa Morgan & Carol Kuykendall
22. Feathers From My Nest by Beth Moore
23. Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr.
24. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
25. Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
26. The Death Cure by James Dashner
27. The Passion of Jesus Christ by John Piper
28. The Christmas Spirit by Joel Osteen
29. A Prairie Christmas

So there you have it! I own all these books except 3. I have already started reading Made to Crave. It's pretty good so far.

2012 Goals

I love, love, love goal planning. 2008 - 2010 were successful goal planning years for me. 2011 I kind of was just there, taking it one day at a time. So, I'm renewed for 2012! We will be moving to a new state by the end of this month and I'm super excited about it! This move has caused me to rethink some things and majorly simplify!

Memory Keeping:

• Keep up with project life
• keep shutterfly updated and have an ongoing photo book
• record something once a week & keep separate yearly video folder
• turn VHS home videos into DVDs
• finish Nathanael's baby album
• finish Zack's baby album

Personal:

• Read through the Bible in a year - do weekly check ins on Sundays
• Read 29 planned books this year
• listen to extra books in text to speech format on my kindle while cleaning or doing other hands occupied, brain free activities
• make a 30 by 30 list
• make, do, or whatever one thing each week from my saved projects/resources (magazines, pinterest, print outs, cookbooks,etc)

Marriage:

• Have a monthly date night (Jan. excluded b/c he is in NC for the month)
• have a weekend just us

Kids/School:

• Swim & tennis lessons for Chris (he did these last year and it was a perfect fit for him)
• Join Cub Scouts
• Join the science museum once settled and money available
• go to the homeschool convention
• join a homeschool co-op once settled
• start chore system back up and have everyone (except the baby obviously... no I think he should too :P) one assigned night a week to HELP in the kitchen with dinner and evening kitchen routine
• do an activity once a week one on one with EACH from saved resources

Ministry:

• start our weekly family night back up
• host cook outs weekly or biweekly during spring - fall inviting everyone we know (with reason)
• reach out monthly to someone however God directs (neighbor, extended family, church members, etc)

Financial:

• set up a budget & use the cash envelope system
• start/open our Disney fund (set for may/june 2016)
• open a vacation account
• Get life insurance for Nathanael
• combine all kid's insurance payments into auto pay and save $
• make a will

I know glancing at this list may seem like a lot but it's really not. For example with memory keeping - I already do the first and third thing listed I just want to make it my goal to keep doing that! the fourth thing requires me to take a VHS tape with me on my Costco tape and turn it in. the last two things are probably only going to require about 4 hrs of my time all together!

As I make a plan for each I will post about it. Then post again as it's complete. Best wishes to your 2012 goals! I look forward to linking up with MoneySavingMom for accountability in purposeful living!!!

My Favs 2011 Part 2

Books - Here is a list of all the books I read this year with stars by my favorites and BC by my book club books

1. Giving It All Away: The Doris Buffet Story BC
2. Breathe by Keri Wyatt BC
3. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp**
4. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean
5. A Pig in Provence by Georgeanne Brennan
6. Leaving by Karen Kingsbury**
7. One Thousand White Women BC
8. The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory*
9. Uniting Church & Home by Eric Wallace
10. Dressing Your Truth by Carol Tuttle **
11. For the Family's Sake by Susan Schaeffer *
12. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski
13. The Maze Runner by James Dashner*
14. Honey for a Child's Heart by Glady Hunt
15. What Women Fear by Angie Smith **

Not my longest book list ever but better than nothing ... right? :)

Blogs - blogs I visited most often (not awesome ones I want you to think I read;)

1+1+1=1

Confessions of a Homeschooler

Counting Coconuts

Cherish Everyday

Websites - once again websites I visited most often

Money Saving Mom

Becky Higgins

Amazon

The Mom Creative

Dressing Your Truth

YouTube Channels - yes I have youtube channels I subscribe to. they are not life changing. just my own fun interest. if the boys are watching a cartoon, I have my own viewing time.

Carol Tuttle

Elle'sGlitterGossip

AllThatGlitters21

SunshineLovesFire

OrganizedLikeJen

MyHousewifeLife

TV Shows - we have not had cable our whole 8 years of marriage. We decided this year for various reasons that we would start having cable yearly Nov. 1 - March 31. So I am new to TV. but here's what I got into this Fall 2011 -

Wizard's of Waverly Place

Shake It Up

Jerseylicious (comes on Style -not Jersey Shore which comes on MTV)

Giada at Home

The Rachel Ray Show

The Martha Stewart Show

Tori & Dean

Quints by Surprise

Movies -

Harry Potter 7: Part 2****** we seen this in the theater and I loved it! My #1 movie of the year!

The Dilemma

X-Men First Class

I have not seen Sherlock Holmes 2 but I'm sure it would be on my list!

My Favs 2011 Part 1

I've been seeing tons of videos and blog posts on "end of year reviews". I thought it would be fun to do some myself. Don't worry - I know I'm flaky with my blog so I already wrote all my posts and they are set up to post everyday the rest of the year! YaY! :D

MY 2011 Favorites Part 1

Girl Stuff- Due to something that happened last year, this year I renewed myself. I certainly didn't want to be self centered but children & hubbies alike enjoy you the most when you put the me in Mommy. (i heard that somewhere) So I spent some of this year remembering myself and "rediscovering" me. My husband has enjoyed this greatly. ;) anyhow I have always loved "girl" products. I just do. I can't help myself. When I was in high school I think 50% of my money earned went to beauty. The smell of a nail salon soothed my weary teenage soul! While it wouldn't be wise use of our money to do most of what I did as a teenager, I did use coupons and rewards to stock up my lonely beauty supply. Pictured here are my favorite finds of the year. Most of these I've used since Feb. If any look unused it's because I've bought another of it.

• Ulta Professional foundation brush
• Ulta medium powder brush
• Ulta smudge brush
• Victoria's Secret kabuki brush
• Victoria's Secret bronzing powder (sun goddess)
• Ulta lipsticks 134 & 138
• Lady Speedstick Stainguard (daringly fresh) ~ I've used this brand since middle school
• OPI mermaid tears ~ most used, most complimented nail polish I've ever had
• Juicy Couture ~ I got this bottle for Christmas 2 years ago and I just finished it last month
• Physicians Formula smoky hazel eyes
• Almay bright eyes - i've gone through tons of these (um ok 2, but that's a lot!)
• Mary Kay eyeliner bronze
• Almay smart shade smart balance 100 - my favorite foundation of all time

so now the homeschooling world knows (or at least those that subscribe to my blog LoL) - it's true - I love girl products!!

In the Kitchen-

I've had these babies for 3 years now! They are called spoonulas (in case you didn't know) and I've found it to be completely true! They do work as a spoon and a spatula. In fact, I do not own any spoons (cooking) or spatulas! I just have these and I love them! I've use these things for everything - they've frosted every single cake made in the past 3 years, stirred countless soups, stews, sauteed countless veggies, and so and so on, you get it!

In the Mommy World - I became an Amazon Mom. This is probably my favorite "mom" find of the year. Where I moved to is 30 minutes from "town" and there is not a nearby BJs. So I found Amazon Mom. I love it. I subscribed to Pampers Cruisers and Babyganics wipes. The diapers come once a month and last 5 weeks. The diapers come once every other month and last exactly until the next shipment. When your an amazon mom and you subscribe these products become $37.75/160 diapers and $15.19/400 organic wipes! They are affordable, I'm never out, and I never have to remember any while in the store! I really enjoy my Amazon Mom membership. It's defiantly my best Mommy find of the year! :)

Raising Rock Stars ~ Week 4 & 5

Week 4:

Letter- I

Number- 4

Sight Word-can

The only picture I could find for this week was this half finished board. I must say ... it looks a little... shabby. Well I'm sure learning and fun were achieved that week. :)

Week 5:

Letter- F

Number- 5

Sight Word-for

Resources:

1+1+1=1

Confessions of a Homeschooler

*all resources are linked

Christmas Activities I

There is so much to do for Christmas, so many ideas, but I try my best to not overcrowd it. There are just so many choices. I plan on listing in a few posts on some (or all :D) of the activities we are including this year.

• I seen an idea on pinterest where you wrap up your holiday books like presents. So I have a total of 19 holiday/winter books that are being wrapped up plus one big Christmas Stories book to fill in the gaps. We are going to read one Christmas/winter story a day from Dec. 1 - 25. (i will list the books in the post with pictures)
• I found these cute December Calendar Dates to use for our calendar.
• I'm printing out these little calendar date pages to use daily in our circle time. (you would click on the part that says "download mini images" above the book section) In our Christmas Stories book there are lots of little stories about how they celebrate Christmas in other countries that will work perfect in conjunction with the calendar pages!

I'm working on these things right now as I type! I can't wait to share pictures but wanted to share the links in case others wanted to do it too!

Charlotte's Web ~ book & movie

I've been wanting to do this post for sometime. Maybe a month or so ago we finished our first read a loud for Sonlight Core A ~ Charlotte's Web. We are behind on Sonlight's schedule but slowly we are making these kinds of read a louds a daily family activity. Chris enjoyed this book. I think some parts were a little slow to him but he certainly listened. I enjoyed the re-living! My mother read this book to me when I was in first grade, a little bit, every night before bed! This was a great starter for the year.

I decided that any read aloud that there were movies of, we would watch the movie AFTER reading the book for something fun. I picked out the Charlotte's Web with the people, not the cartoon. I was regretting it at first b/c it's so different from the book. However, after we watched it, we had a lengthy discussion on the differences in the movie and book. I couldn't believe how much Chris noticed! It really opened my eyes to how much he was paying attention when I thought he wasn't. One example of something he noticed was that in the movie when Fern and the boys are at the fair, they buy tickets. In the book, they use money to pay for their rides! Such a small detail, I so didn't even notice that!

Overall this read a loud was a great experience. ... I would recommend the cartoon not the people movie of this book though. The cartoon has much less differences from the book! Still a great family experience whatever movie you pick.

*pictures are linked