Book Review (s)

I've been trying to read a lot more and have been spending a good amount of time at the library. We currently have our nephew in town and I have been reading with him almost every night. Currently I picked up some craft books (Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts and The Michaels Book of Arts and Crafts) Both books are detailed and give great ideas for presents/activities to do. One in particular that I am quite fond of is a calendar made out of rice paper and dried flowers. You sketch the month and flower onto the rice paper and form a beautiful crafty calendar (punch holes at the top and insert a ribbon) ex:

Another book is The Duggars: 20 and Counting. If you are not aware of who the Duggars are, they are a religious based family that has a t.v. show on the TLC. They use the bible to guide them and GOD is their greatest teacher of all. I am currently obsessed with them. I love the way their children are well behaved and the family is an ideal unit. They do everything thing together and respect one another. They are also super smart, learning to play the violin at age 4, and are home schooled by their mother, Michelle (who by the way is the sweetest thing).

Their book was a description of their life story, how they are able to stay out of debt with a 20 person family, their role in politics, and even some home-made recipes. They also talk about strategies to help parent your child and give biblical quotes that are inspiring. Here are a few of my favorites passages from the book:

Words to Live By

* Be careful what you're good at doing, because you'll probably do a lot of it.

*Be careful what you praise your children for doing, because they'll do a lot of it.

*Be careful what you criticize your children for doing, because they won't want to do it anymore.

Some of their family rules

* Think pure thoughts

* Always display kind actions, even if you have been mistreated

* Have sincere motives with no thought of self-gain

* Never raise a hand to hit

* Never raise an eye to scowl

*Never let the sun go down on your wrath. ( Don't go to bed angry or guilty)

And last but not least another book (if you call it that) is My father's daughter cook book by Gwyneth Paltrow. I love her, not because she is an A+ actresses, but because she seems some what normal. She is always trying to improve herself and better her children's lives. Plus I love that she tries so many different things and doesn't care that she's trying new things in the spot light (which can be scary) Anyway this book is a dedication to her dear father whom she lost to cancer. There are numerous recipes with healthy alternatives (Turkey bacon instead of pork, Organic eggs, organic milk...) **Side note, I used to think organic stuff is what all the cool kids were doing until I read up on it and realized that regular milk, eggs, veggies and meat contain so many chemicals that are so harmful for your body and children's body. It's insane to think of the amount of chemicals in some items.

Anyways a couple of great things she shares is:

On having children help in the kitchen,

" I regularly think of some parenting advice my father gave on one occasion. His theory was that children positively respond to being trusted with something they don't expect you to trust them with." Examples of this are: Crack eggs, turn the pepper grinder, level off flour, sugar, etc..

For more recipes, check out her book or visit her website GOOP.com

Joe's been reading too, more like studying actually. He got the GMAT handbook.

Going back to the library for more and will keep you posted. Hope all is well!