Books I have read in 2016

As 2016 comes to a close I decided to post my goals "check in" a little bit early this year. 

As you may remember I deleted all of my former blog posts because I felt like I needed to have more of a purpose and less of an online diary that nobody was reading. 

I only had one goal this year and it was simple. I wanted to read at least one book a month. Reading has always been my favorite hobby but I literally put it on the shelf when I had kids and college when I didn't think I had the time or energy. I hadn't read any novels since I was pregnant with my 8 year old 😳 This year I wanted to make time for me, in an easy and inexpensive way... By reading.

 

My family doesn't have any sort of tv service... In fact we only have one tv in my bedroom and it has Netflix and Amazon prime only. So instead of watching tv before bed I started reading a few chapters. And instead of listening to music while I did household chores I started plowing through my audiobooks.

Here are the results:

Books I have read 2016

*Breakfast at Tiffany's

-Truman Capote 

*The Girl on the Train

-Julie Hawkins

*Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker 

-Jennifer Chiaveroni 

*1984 (paperback) yay!

-George Orwell 

*One For The Money (paperback)

-Janet Evanovich 

*Eat, Pray, Love (paperback) 

-Elizabeth Gilbert 

*Illusion (paperback)

-Frank Peretti 

*Long Lost (paperback) 

-Harlan Coben 

*Changing the Picture

-Zig Ziglar 

*Parenting without Power Struggles

-Susan Stiffelman 

*Two for the Dough (paperback) 

-Janet Evanovich 

*Three to get Deadly (kindle) 

-Janey Evanovich

*The Hunger Games (paperback)

-Suzanne Collins

*Catching Fire (paperback) 

-Suzanne Collins 

*Mockingjay (paperback) 

-Suzanne Collins 

*Caught (paperback) 

-Harlan Coben 

*Pride & prejudice 

-Jane Austen

*Deal Breaker (paperback) 

-Harlan Coben 

 

*Miracle Cure (paperback) 

-Harlan Coben 

*Four to Score (paperback) 

-Janet Evanovich 

*High Five (paperback) 

-Janet Evanovich 

Currently in progress:

*Tiny beautiful things (paperback)

-Cheryl Strayed 

*Hot Six (paperback)

-Janet Evanovich 

*The Stand

-Stephen King 

As you can see I nearly doubled my original goal! In fact if I can finish up my lingering novels over Christmas break I will have exactly doubled it with little to no effort. It was simple, it may seem silly, but it made a huge difference in my attitude and overall well being for this otherwise very tough year for my family. Self care is an important piece of parenting and I encourage all of my friends to take that into account this year when then are setting their goals😘

Wishing you peace, love, and happiness this holiday season. 

-Stephanie 

How to get your 80 minutes of at home reading in with a busy schedule

I have been hooked on Audible for several years now. It helps cure my craving for reading during those blank moments when I could not otherwise sit and read (while cooking, driving, showering). This year while I was pinning ideas for my classroom I read a blog titled "Ways to use just 1 iPad in the classroom" and one of the ideas was to use Audible to create a listening center and I was exposed to a whole new world of children's literature available through Audible!! Ever since then I have been downloading chapter books for the boys to listen to on their commutes to visit their dads and for the 20 minutes we spend in the car morning and after-school picking up and dropping off their sister at daycare. As the school year comes to a close I thought I would sgare all the books the boys have "read" this year just during our time in the car: 

*A Bear Called Paddington 

-Michael Bond

*More About Paddington 

-Michael Bond 

*The Boxcar Children 1-3

-Gertrude Chandler Warner 

*Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic 

-Betty MacDonald 

*The Beverly Cleary Audio Collection

(Ellen Tebits, Otis Spoffard, Socks, Emily's imagination)

*No Talking 

-Andrew Clements 

*Hank The Cow Dog #1 & #2

-John Erickson

*The Wind in the Willows

-Kenneth Grahame 

*Mary Poppins 

-P.L Travers 

*Magic Tree House # 1-5

-Mary Pope Osborne

*Matilda 

-Ronald Daul 

*Beezus and Ramona

-Beverly Cleary 

Isn't that crazy?! And that's in addition to all the reading we do at home :) We go to the library once a week to rent a movie for the week, pick new audio book on CD for the car, and to let the boys pick a selection of books that interest them. It's been a big help to our weekly routine!