Skip to main content

What's On My Summer Reading List {2013}


Summertime is not just a good time for my kiddos to pack in some reading time, but it's also a great time for me, too!  I admit, I LOVE to read, but as a wife and mama with lots of commitments I often don't have nearly as much time to read as I would like.  But summer is more of a relaxed time for me and I can enjoy having some extra reading~yea!

I've been downloading lots of freebies for my Kindle lately and getting some good recommendations from friends, so I've got plenty to keep me reading for quite a while.

There are several specific books that I really want to be intentional about reading this summer though and I thought I would share them with you today.


1. Unglued, by Lysa TerKeurst: I am actually reading through this as part of a summer book study that I'm leading for the women at our church. I'm loving it so far!  It is really speaking to me about some areas in which I am so wanting to see some personal growth.  


2. Desperate, by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson: I have just begun to read this book and am definitely enjoying it so far.  I love Sally's books and have read several of her others, so I was excited about reading this book she has written with Sarah Mae.  

  

3.  Shepherding a Child's Heart, by Tedd Tripp: I've heard great things about this book for a while now, but haven't had a chance to read it yet.  I always love to read godly input on how to parent better and am looking forward to this read.


4. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I've never read this American "classic"--or even this particular American author.  So when I heard about the movie, I thought to myself I need to check out the book first.  Now, I'm not a big fan of some of the modern American authors (Steinbeck, Hemingway) that I've read thus far, so I don't know how I'll feel about Fitzgerald.  But I do want to at least give our most famous American authors a fair shake and so this book is on my list for this summer.


5. Sparkly Green Earrings, by Melanie Shankle: I've also heard great things about this new book by the author of the blog, Big Mama.  It's a memoir and if it's half as good as her blog, I'm sure it will be wonderful.  


6. The Original Homeschooling Series, by Charlotte M. Mason: This is a freebie I downloaded recently and really want to read.  I have read about Charlotte Mason's educational theories, but have not yet read any of her personal works.  Her ideas intrigue and challenge me and I'm looking forward to learning more of what she believes about education.


7.  Educating the Wholehearted Child, by Clay and Sally Clarkson: This is a re-read for me.  In fact, I try to read it each summer before we go back to homeschooling in the fall.  I always glean nuggets of wisdom from this amazing book (my very favorite homeschooling book) and learn something new each time I read it. It's a great refresher course for me as a homeschool mom!

So there are the top 7 books on my proverbial nightstand this summer.  Hopefully I'll get even more than this read, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

I'd love to hear about what you're reading this summer!  Leave me a comment telling me what you recommend~maybe I'll have to add some to this list!

*****
Don't miss a thing here at My Blessed Life!
Subscribe, Follow, & "Like" today!






Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...
Read more

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while.  It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it.  However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it.  Plus it's a little bulky.   When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it!  It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make.   I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course.  They  have these little wooden door hangers for .79.  I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each.  I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing.   I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had).  Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...
Read more

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...
Read more