Have ‘Just A Minute’?

If you do, you might just have a chance to win a book!

Over on the Compassion blog today, there are some details on how you can earn a chance to possibly win one of 50 copies of this book, Just A Minute by Wess Stafford. This book includes 68 stories, 68 moments that have changed the lives of children. If you love the mission of Compassion, you will want to have a copy of this book in your home library. Reading this book will inspire you to remember to take a minute, a moment to make the difference in the life of a child.

So go ahead and enter the contest! And if you do, let me know where you shared your picture. But hurry, you only have until February 28th!

My continuing education…so to speak

“No one can get an education, for of necessity education is a continuing process.”

-Louis L’Amour

I love to read!

We have books in almost every room in our home, and I am usually reading at least three books at any given time. I have always loved to read. I was the one who would get in trouble for reading past my bedtime with a flashlight. The flashlight would be taken away, but that didn’t stop my. I would sit by window and dream of living with Laura Ingalls out on the prairie…

A few years ago, I was reading a blog post of a friend of mine where she talked about a commonplace book. In this particular blog post, Cheryl talks about the importance of investing in ourselves as wives and moms to be reading good books to encourage us to continue in this path we have chosen to follow.

I have now filled up two composition journals with quotes and Bible verses that have spoken to me over these past few years. I was just thinking today what a gift these will be for my daughter when she is old enough to become a wife and mother.

Have you read any good books lately?

Holiday Countdown winner is…

 

 

A couple of days ago, I posted about a giveaway for this cute holiday countdown. Today was the day to pick the winner, and the winner is…

 

 Yay Jill! Be sure to send me your mailing address to kymk99 at yahoo dot com. I know your family will enjoy this!

 

I really enjoyed reading everyone’s Christmas tradition, so now I am going to share one with you. Years ago, I read in an article in a Family Fun magazine about wrapping up your Christmas books each year at Christmas. Each day, the kids choose a ‘present’, open it, and then you take the time right then to read the book. Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few Christmas books! Our Christmas books are always packed away and only come out at Christmas time, which makes reading them each year quite special.

 

 Now that my kids are older and our schedule is sometimes a little busy, we don’t always have a chance to ‘open’ and read every book that has been wrapped. These were the leftovers from last year.

 

 Since Matthew was at school today, Kelsey went through and picked these books to read this year.

 

 These are the extras! This is the result of lots of after Christmas half off sales.

 

Our stack of books is wrapped and ready to be read! I wonder which one the kids will pick in the morning?



How many books are you currently reading?

This is my current reading stack…yes, that means I am reading 4 books right now. There is a system to my reading madness which I will share with you.

1. Bible – this is the most important book for me to read. Since becoming a Christian 13 years ago, it has been the book I try to start my day with.

Since starting the Hello Challenge back in January, I have been working on being up before the kids so that I can start each day reading my Bible and soaking in His truth.

Along with my Bible reading, I have been working through a study of 1 Peter this summer. This study has challenged me to not just read His Word, but to observe the truths, promises, and commands are in each passage. Looking up key words in the original language has been my favorite part of this study though.

2. Christian non-fiction – after I finish my Bible reading and study in the morning, if I have time before the kids are up, I like to read at least one chapter in some type of Christian non-fiction book. These have ranged from homeschooling books, marriage books, raising kids books, learning more about extreme poverty books, etc. These are books I like to have in our home library as reference books when I need them.

3. Biography – a few years ago, since my kids are older, we implemented quiet reading time after lunch. Boy has it changed how my afternoons look! During the school year, we are constantly moving from one lesson/activity to the other in the mornings. Then after lunch, there always seemed like we were busy doing something. By taking a break after lunch, this caused all of us to slow down and be quiet for even a half an hour each afternoon.

During this afternoon time, I usually like to read some type of biography. There are so many people that have lived before us that have made great impacts on our world. I feel it is important for us to take the time to learn from them.

4. Classics and fiction – after eveyone has gone to bed for the evening, I love to pick up a classic title or some work of fiction to devour for a while. I usually don’t buy many fiction titles since I read through them too quickly, but I do love to add classics to our home library.

Our local library does seem to stock quite a few Christian fiction books, so when our CBD catalog comes in the mail, I look through it to see what titles our library has in the system. A few authors that I enjoy are Francine Rivers, Beverly Lewis, and Karen Kingsbury.

So, how many books are you reading?