The Half-Way Point. Gear up.

Well here we are, the humidity in the Midwest is higher than the Eiffel Tower and the clouds of smoke have drifted from the lighting of fireworks. (wait, scratch that...the teenagers down the street just shot off some more firecrackers....anyway...) We've made it to July. It's no longer June-the point during the summer when you feel like time is laid out before you and all your plans and lists are just waiting for your abundant time and good weather to allow them to be crossed off, instead It's July, June has been replaced with the panic that there's only roughly four weeks left of dreadful humid, sticky, sweaty heat in which to accomplish all the goals, buy all the school supplies, cram in a last minute vacation to see family and resume the busyness of fall. Oh July.

July also happens to be midway through the year. Midway through No-spend year to be exact. It's time to let you all know how its REALLY been going. Oh.....did you forget? Here we are over here STILL not spending extra. Did we really make it this long? Well....I'll clue you in on a little secret. So far during No-Spend year our master bathroom shower AND toilet started leaking at the exact same time (conveniently) prompting a bathroom renovation that was supposed to be the very last thing we did to the house...because after all, if you're going to replace the toilet, you might as well do the floor while you've got the toilet up, and if you're doing the floor, you might as well expand the shower like you've been planning on, so the shower needs re-tiled as well...and you get the idea. We are keeping the existing vanity and counter tops to line up with No-spend year as much as possible. So be proud.

 On top of the impromptu bathroom reno, spring brought the day when my husband laced up his grimy, dirty tennis shoes, put on his sweat stained baseball cap and went out to the shed for the inaugural, manly ritual known as the first mow of the season. He came stomping back in 45 minutes later declaring his riding lawn mower wouldn't start. He'd tried everything. He then marched his grimy shoes and baseball cap right back outside to succumb to the dreaded task of mowing our 1/2 acre lot with the push mower. But oh boy, did the cap come off and the sweat poured down his defeated face when he announced the push mower also had something wrong with it. WHAT????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? no, he wasn't kidding. There was absolutely no laughing involved. BOTH....I repeat, we have two mowers and neither one was functioning. A call was made and the repairman is swamped and his quote was at least 4 weeks out before we would have either mower back. Well, I don't know if you're familiar with how much rain we've had this season, but rain makes grass grow and the grass will not stop growing because the repair man is swamped. SO, I drove my obedient wife-behind to Wal-Mart...yes....I know....don't even say it....to buy the absolute cheapest, saddest looking, box so small I could lift it by myself into the back of my expedition lawn mower to hold us over for at least four weeks. Guys, we still don't have our mowers back....we'll probably see them at Christmas. It will be my husband's Christmas gift. He will get his self-propelled push mower and his ginormous riding mower back in time to pull them with a sled into the shed, have the freezing temperatures damage whatever it is that takes four months to fix on an old lawn mower and we'll send them back to the shop in the spring. This will be our new bit, supporting the lawn mower repairman's summer vacation. You're welcome, sir, for the trip to the lake...it's on us and our mechanical bill.

So in case you're keeping track, we're down a shower, a toilet, all the tile necessary for a bathroom renovation OH and wait, did you know there's cement board and mud and grout and a million other things that add up to spending way too much at Lowes on Saturday mornings. They entice you with nice dreams of fixer upper results, you get your family together, you drive in the pick-up to the store, its a fun family outing and then BAM a tub of mud costs $50 but you'll actually need one full tub and exactly three scoops out of the second tub to finish your job. You know, to do it properly.
Okay I'm really starting to get off topic now...back to the count, a shower, a toilet, tile for the bathroom and now a riding lawn mower and a push mower. But wait, lets back up...did you read what I loaded the lawn mower into....that's right...the second car we weren't going to use this year. WELL as this year has decided to be the year of expensive surprises instead of No-spend, I took a second job to work for the summer and so, we needed a second car so I could go to work and Micah would have a vehicle to use with the kids if he would need it. So, enter repair costs, insurance costs, license costs and oh yea...just for fun, my car needed a new battery.

Mentioning work reminds me that I woke up one day with a serious toothache. Like the worst kind that radiates through your jaw and up to your head. I knew exactly what it was. I still had all four wisdom teeth. I had been told many times to have them removed. The most memorable time was twelve years ago as I was visiting the dentist for the last time while still on my parent's insurance. I was getting married soon and he assured me I should get them out now, while I was young and they weren't bothering me (and I wasn't paying for it) but did twenty year old me have time for mouth surgery??? Certainly not. Why, I was attending college and planning a wedding and oh yea, working full time. But you know what....I want to go back and grab twenty year old me by the shoulders and shake her really hard and bend down into her face (because apparently I've grown taller in the last twelve years???) And I want to tell her I will never have more time for myself then I have right now. Things will never be less complicated, and more straightforward and I will never EVER EVER have as much time as she has now. But you know what....twenty year old me wouldn't listen to 32 year old me, I'm almost positive. So instead, what happened was, I juggled three kids, taking sick days off work, finding a sub, figuring out transportation for my kids to and from school, paid for the surgery myself and oh yea just for fun, my DD (designated driver for the impaired, high on pain killing laughing gas me) got called out to a SWAT call because some guy decided to hold someone hostage in an apartment on the same day my surgery was scheduled. But yea, I was too busy attending community college and playing wedding planner at twenty. It needed to wait.

So, just in case you've lost track, no spend year has cost us licensing fees, repair fees, new battery fee and insurance cost on a second car, a new toilet, a new shower, the tile for the bathroom, wisdom teeth removal surgery, not one but TWO lawn mower repairs and don't worry...we're only to February.

The last two months haven't been any kinder to our budget. In May I lost control in a bad rain storm on the interstate and crashed our truck into a guard rail going roughly 70mph. The air bags didn't go off, and everyone was okay. But it was a deductible cost on repairs for the truck. Another costly surprise.

The final surprise came in June when our air conditioner stopped keeping up. The repair men (we've had three estimates) say it cannot be salvaged and so we're looking at the cost of a new unit. That is a BIG unplanned expense to say the least.

Final count for No-Spend year in July: two lawn mowers, a bathroom renovation, multiple car expenses, mouth surgery, accident repairs on the truck and an air conditioning unit. This is depressing.

D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.

But, maybe not. Was the goal of No-Spend year money driven? Yes and No. We needed a financial overhaul and No-spend year was how we chose to attack it. But No-spend year was about establishing a mind set. An understanding. A contentment. Does it matter how much money you have, if your air conditioner breaks...its' unexpected. If you get in an accident and wreck your car....it's unexpected. Nobody plans for these things. That's why they're called surprises. But our mind set has also helped us to keep going during all of these things.

I truly have found a contentment unknown to me before. the bag of hand me down clothes means everything to me now. The gift of a candle, is excess and I feel spoiled now. The fact we have two working vehicles for when the battery doesn't start in one, or when I got in an accident with the other, is a luxury now. That we had car insurance to keep the deductible low, that I have dental insurance to be able to get my tooth pain fixed, that we have family who helps loan us small air conditioner units while we figure out what to do about a new one. And lets not forget, when you WIN A VACATION when you didn't think you would get one at all. All of that, is extra. It's all not necessary. Its all humbling to realize how much I have when I feel like I've lost so much and the bricks are piled high making a wall bigger and bigger attempting to stop us from gaining the full potential of accomplishing this goal. But it seems, when you're content, when you're optimistic, when you have your best friend for your life partner and you have God giving you blessings, you look at that wall and you see a rock climbing date and gear up.

What’s Mine or Theirs?

When did you first get Facebook???? Do you remember? How old were you? What were you going through in life at the time? What propelled you to taking the first plunge into social media? I suppose my social media journey started back with Xenga pages and MySpace. My goodness, my teen years spent chatting with friends through aol messenger are hilarious in contrast to today’s use of texting. But boy did it feel like a grown up thing, to put something out there for the world to read. To design a page with all my favorite things and wrap my life into one tidy package presenting exactly how I wanted to be viewed by the world. Facebook came along my first year in college, back when it was actually designed for kids in college. It was, coincidentally, the method my future husband used to contact me and we met in person after chatting one afternoon through Facebook messenger.

Facebook has come a long way since those days in 2006 and not only Facebook in the picture but multiple other social media sites I’m not even a part of because well, I’m holding out and standing my ground as long as possible and not jumping on the Instagram or twitter wagon. (Are twitter days over? I don’t hear much of that one anymore) anyway..... I’ve been pondering something lately, and want to bring it up and spark a discussion. Food for thought....something to think on.

Are the photos we post online of our kids our property, or theirs? And when does the distinction change? At what age do they get a say in what we post? Have you thought about this as a family? Had this discussion with your own kids?

If I had Facebook when it was first starting in college, and now my generation is having kids and posting baby photos and toddler photos and elementary photos galore, then it brings to mind we are the first. We are the first generation of parents who have children who are growing up having their whole lives on Facebook, out in front of the world. We as parents are the first generation raising children who quite possibly have thousands of photos of themselves out on the web before turning 13. Or 16. Or 18. Or whatever age we’re going to call the magic number of when they themselves get their own Facebook.

My oldest daughter is turning 10 this year. That means within 5 years she will have her own Facebook account. She’ll have her own name and her own decision to make about what she posts and doesn’t post. Here’s the thing, if I had pictures of her in the bathtub with siblings, or drooling while eating a popsicle, or tripping down the stairs, or saying something silly....these would all be connected to her Facebook she gets as a 13 year old. When she applies for her first job, her boss could search her name and come across pictures from her childhood. Her birthday, month, day and year would all be accessible to whoever wishes to see because of elaborate birthday posts I’ve made over the years. Her friend (and rivals) in middle school will have full access to use, edit and distribute any of these child hood photos they wish to get their hands on.

The only place in the world to go to find a childhood photo of myself is my parents house. You would have to literally drive there in a car, find a photo album and search it through to come across a photo of the curly headed blonde 4year old I once was. The coworkers at my job, the administrators at my college, the teachers of my high school  have no access to any of that. These days, a simple search by any one of these people can gain access to dozens of photos, daily activities, vacations, likes/dislikes. Strangers have the same access as great aunt Edith.

I get it. I mean, you’ve sat and watched as your friends posted their engagement photos,  wedding
Pictures, gender reveal announcement and now newborn photos and you want your turn! Of course you do! Is there anything necessarily wrong with little Cindy’s baby photo being seen by his boss someday? No, not really. But does Cindy get to choose? Or do you?

My daughter already says things like “mom, don’t put that on Facebook.” And I don’t even post my kids’ faces on social media. She already is concerned about what’s out there of her. Which I’m actually really glad and think is healthy.

I wonder, if we just put some more intentional thought into what we posted of our children. I wonder if we were just more careful to think about the fact that each photo you post will be on the internet forever. Of course uncle Dan from across the country wants to keep up with your family....so text him pictures. Of course it’s fun to share photos of your kids on their best days, but the video of them throwing a tantrum will also be available when they’re 22 and dating, or 35 and own their business.

Here’s the thing, the whole purpose of parenting is to prepare our children to grow up to be adults who hopefully can function in society and not live in our basement forever, we want them to be successful and happy and contributing members of society. We have to remember that our use of social media needs to prepare them for adulthood too and if we use our accounts with the expectation our children will be adults someday, I wonder if what we post would change.

Listen, I get it. We’re just so darn proud of our beautiful little babies, our sassy three year olds and our wise and thoughtful big kids. So, so proud. We want to share that, we want validation as parents, we want the recognition for our kiddos. But, at what cost? I’ll just leave you with this, we are the first. The first generation who is deciding how this will play out. How does it look to have a child grow up with their entire lives broadcasted to the world? How does that impact their middle school years, teenage life or  adult life? Will they grow up and ask you to delete pictures of themselves from the internet? Would you?

Thrifty, Practical Decorating

One of my favorite things I’ve made a priority in my home is what I’ve decided to call “practical decorating”. I’ve been doing it for years without really giving it a name, but after thinking it over and looking around my home for something worthy of adorning the pages of this blog, I began to see a theme throughout each room. Everything has a purpose. Everything is useful AND beautiful (to me at least). Here are some of my favorite examples of practical decorating from my own home:

We inherited some beautiful aprons from my husband's grandmother and I really wanted them to be visible as well as accessible because we use them almost daily. So, I hung them right on open hooks in the kitchen. They’re easily accessible, and add a beautiful pop of color to my kitchen! With aprons as vibrant as these, there is simply no reason to stash them away in a drawer or behind a pantry door. 

I actually first saw this idea in the IKEA showroom, but I love how it translates to my kitchen. My cookbooks sit on open shelves on the walls. They serve dual purpose as decor and once again, are easily accessible for every day use. Cookbooks for me, are much more than a practical tool but also sentimental. Gifts given to me by my grandmother and mother, and I love how I'm reminded of these things as I glance around the most common room in the house. 

Here’s another one of my favorites. I found a mail holder at a thrift shop, washed it, and hung it in my kitchen and use it to store produce. It’s once again, super convenient and adds the perfect pop of color! Plus, as a bonus, it frees up counter space since now all my fruit and veggies hang on the wall! 

Another one of my favorite things to display is art work from my very own littles. These are pieces my two oldest did in Preschool and Kindergarten. They each created their own versions of Van Gogh’s “Vase of 15 sunflowers”. I absolutely adore these pieces and they also adorn the walls of my kitchen! I love when the pieces on my wall have a good story to go behind them!

Jumping over to the master bath-I needed a simple storage idea for our wash rags. I found this adorable basket last year, and right away had the idea to hang it on the wall. Practical, and adorable! 

Another option I use a lot, is I decorate with pictures of my family. I have these three photos of my babies, all in mismatched frames, hung at the end of our hallway to our bedrooms. There’s nothing more important to me than my family, so it’s the perfect choice to look at and remember their younger years every time I walk down the hall! I've also never had professional pictures of our family taken. Ever. So, don't be scared off if you feel like you don't have "good enough" pictures to display. Some of the best pictures are those candid's that really express the love between your family! 

Back to the kitchen- I found these old cooking magazines at a garage sale a couple years ago, ripped out a page I found to be nostalgic and complimentary to my kitchen. I framed the magazine page and hung it next to the big windows in my kitchen. This is a super cheap option and so unique! 

When decorating, one of the first things I think about is purpose. I want it to work well with every day life. I also don't want a bunch of items sitting around getting in the way. Simplicity and practicality are probably the best ways to describe my style. Of course with a pop of color here and there! ;) Let me know your favorite ways to decorate with functionality! 

Libraries change Lives

Game changer you guys. Game changer. Utilize your library. If you aren’t a regular at your local library, you are missing out. Having an online account with my library where I can order things and put things on hold has been fantastic. Literally I can search for books by genre, by things my kids are interested in, or just search what’s new. I place a hold on the item I want, and as soon as it’s ready, I get an email. I can then use the DRIVE THROUGH yes, drive through to pick up my items.

We haven’t used redbox, we’ve been checking out old favorites and waiting patiently for our turn to view new movies for FREE! Recent examples  have been Spider-Man into the universe, Ralph breaks the Internet, and classics like Sound of Music and Andre. Here’s a tip-I literally check the “new movies” section every day or two. Even then, by the time I place a hold I’m usually 150th-300th or so in line. But our local branches are all connected and they have several copies so it usually moves fairly quickly. 

I’ve loved being able to look up science books and get several and then keep the ones my kids like for longer, and just return the ones that weren’t quite the right fit. It also is kind of helping them feel like a “surprise” is waiting for them at home. It’s also helping curb my habit of picking up treats or trinkets for them while I’m out and about because I’ve thought about them, searched for something, found it and brought it home, it helps curb my gift giving habit. Instead of buying them something, I’m pouring energy into finding something I know they will love for free from the library! 

There are also countless event and program opportunities through the library. There are classes and seminars on how to learn to do something, homework help, lego groups, storytimes for toddlers and lets not forget the summer reading program that will be coming up soon where your kids  earn free books and a t-shirt! They also have an adult summer reading program now!!!! 

Our library also has a resource where you can live stream some movies and audio books! What???? Yes! Move over Netflix. 

I typically have a revolving relationship with the library and as a result have around 15-30 items checked out at all times usually with different due dates, so here’s how I keep track of it all:

There’s a basket dedicated to library materials in my living room. Everything goes in there as soon as we get home. When we are finished reading a particular book or we’ve watched the movie, it goes into a specific bag that hangs in the front coat closet ready for me to grab whenever I’m going back to the library to pick up more holds. I usually stop one way or the other once a week at the library for returns or to get more items or both. 

I also love that I get an email reminding me when items are due back. I get an email 3 days before items are due. This helps me remember to either make sure to read or watch the item OR to get online and renew it. 

This system has worked pretty well for us so far. Everybody knows everything from the library stays in the living room and we really pay minimal fines and have never lost a library book because of this. (Somebody reach over and knock on your wood desk right now for me) 

Bottom line-for this penny pinching family-the Library has been a lifeline. We LOVE that we have such a fantastic reaource that literally costs us nothing yet makes us feel so spoiled! What do YOU love about the Library???? 

Happy At Home

I always knew I wanted to be a mom and always knew I wanted to stay home with them. I had visions of happily teaching my future children everything they would ever need to know with smiles on our faces and laughter filling the house. I imagined matching bows in the girls’ perfectly combed hair and little boys who said “yes ma’am” and helped me take out the trash while skipping merrily down the driveway. 

You don’t even have to have your own kids to realize this dream would never be reality. We didn’t have to wait long after marriage because by the time we’d been married for a year I was 7 months pregnant with our first bundle of joy. A bright and bouncy baby girl made her way into our world and with her came my first dose of the reality of parenthood. 

There were smiles and laughter and giggles and even the occasional matching bow but there were also tears, so many tears. There were ruined outfits due to messy diapers and spit up and tired eyes and exhaustion. There was confusion and doubt and fear. So much fear. How was I ever going to manage to raise this human without completely ruining her? 

I had the privilege of staying home with my first baby, and then my second and eventually my third. I made this work by always baby sitting for one family at a time on a full time basis in addition to homeschooling my own children. 

Some days it felt perfect, it felt right. It felt like I was meant to be a mom and teaching them at home and like we would always have fun together, side by side as we discovered the world and each other. But, some days it was overwhelming. I felt like I was drowning in housework and homework and like I would never find myself again. I was busy all the time and felt like I had no time for myself. 

I knew I had to find a way to make it work. A way to salvage some joy in the mounting chaos that was life.. I realized I needed to figure out how to be happy at home. 

At first I thought I needed to redecorate and paint and love my environment. This produced more discontentment and so rather than being satisfied and fulfilled I was left feeling frustrated with not only my situation but every little thing started to bother me. And I mean EVERY LITTLE THING. Like the mail being laid on the counter in the wrong place, my husbands shoes kicked off next to the chair in the bedroom, the old couch  we still had from a yard sale when we were first married. I was going the wrong direction. I was growing more and more frustrated with everything and not finding any lasting peace or joy at all.

Eventually through a study I launched myself into through the Bible’s definition of the word “peace” I started to reevaluate what I had understood the word “peace” to mean. 

I thought that once everything was right in my environment, situation and other people changed enough, I could then be allowed to experience peace. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I noticed that in the Bible the word “peace” is actually described as something to strive for, to work for, to maintain. All of these are action words. Peace requires work, striving, and effort to accomplish. 

Peace needs to be achieved internally before it can be achieved externally. For me, internal peace is very much tied to my external environment. I feel the need to accomplish all my work before I allow myself to relax. The problem with this of course, is we all know the work is never really done. I was pushing myself to exhaustion and not finding any joy in all the in-between moments. I needed balance. Big time. 

I’ve been working hard on this for the past year. About taking a deep breath and sometimes letting the mess rest till morning. Sometimes the dishes sit in the sink. Sometimes the floor is just dirty. Sometimes the clothes sit in the laundry basket folded (or maybe not) waiting to be put away for a few extra days. I’m trying to learn to focus on one or two small things to help me relax and find some joy and peace despite not having everything all in order.  

The first one is that our house is constantly filled with music. If someone isn’t playing an instrument, then the other is singing. And if everyone is busy, we are definitely listening to music. Our favorite way is by using this speaker hooked up to Alexa. My husband got me this for Christmas and we all have been loving  it. We love to listen to music to get us going in the morning, to encourage dancing while we clean, or to calm us down after a rough day of school or work. Music is life in this house. 

I have a problem. A candle problem. I love, love, love the coziness that a candle can bring to a room. I also love the freshness a good scent can fill the room with. It literally centers me when I have a candle lit. Give me a cup of coffee, music playing and a candle lit and I can let any amount of chaos take over my life. Lol 

This one is a fun one. We have no “fancy” dishes in this house. I love to use what we have and not save anything for special occasions. A Tuesday afternoon is a perfectly good reason to serve snacks in beautiful dishes wouldn’t you agree? The kids probably don’t care, but mommy Is happy when a pretty table is set. Even if it’s just family and just a Wednesday night. Anything to brighten up our table, is welcome at my house. Because it can’t help but brighten your mood to eat off of beautiful dishes, right? 

Maybe you don’t care at all about how your table looks, or if you ever light a candle in your house again. What small things do you do in your life to brighten up your day? 

Waste Not Want Not

One simple thing that has stood the test of time and been proven to save money, is the practice of using what you have, first. Always. Our great, great, great grandparents would roll over in their graves if they knew how we waste and replace these days. We have lost an appreciation for the art of making things last. It’s so easy to toss and buy again that we don’t often have a real reason to work hard to salvage something. However, this was one thing I intentionally set out to be better at this year. I knew this would be one that would impact our budget and our life more than anticipated. When I thought I needed to go to the store and buy something, my challenge was going to be to look high and low and use some creative thinking to make whatever I could, work. 

This has manifested itself in a myriad of ways over the course of the last two and a half months. On day 8 or something like that my child brought me a white-out cartridge in literally a tangled web of white sticky string, and I immediately began walking toward the trash can. But just before tossing the valuable office tool into the white bag of decaying nastiness, I paused, looked at the disaster in my hand and sighed a heavy “this isn’t really what I meant” guilty sigh. It took me over ten minutes to sort, untangle, tie and restring that red plastic white-out dispenser. But I tell you what, I’ve never been so proud of my diligence. It worked, I no longer NEEDED anything again. I had solved the problem, solved the need and my list for the store remained at a balance. 

The same idea has come into play countless times in the last ten weeks. We think we NEED  to buy shirts for the upcoming parties at school, but I used materials we already had in the craft room and they came together beautifully and kept our hands busy on a snow day. Using this practice once or twice doesn’t add up to very big savings, but a habit of considering all options BEFORE purchasing something new, will lend itself to a surprising amount of money left in your pocket! 

Even though I’ve been meal planning, and we aren’t eating out, there are still days where things don’t go as planned and still times when the refrigerator has a random assortment of food left and it’s taken some major creativity to create a decent meal. Last week, this looked like baking chicken breasts in a bath of marinara sauce, shredding some mozzarella and spreading it on the top and naming the conoction “pizza chicken”. It wasn’t too bad, actually. This weekend however, it looked like making one of my absolute favorite things ever, overnight oats! I had some strawberries and raspberries on their last few days. Slightly soft, and ready to turn. I thought about just tossing them, and then I remembered this awesome make-ahead breakfast or snack! You just put the oats in the bottom of some glass jars or plastic containers, (about 1/3 cup) pour 3Tbsp milk onto the oats. Top with a couple spoonfuls of yogurt, sprinkle of berries and a drizzle of honey. Let sit overnight and enjoy! These are so great! My son and I love these and will take for lunch even sometimes. Also, bonus, they’re just so beautiful! It was the perfect way to use up some slightly mushy fruit and make use of every dollar I had spent at the grocery store! 

What We're Reading This Week

Round two of "What we're reading this week" is upon us. I thought I would include what we're reading during our family devotion time in the evenings. This book is incredible. It's devotions based on science and how absolutely remarkable God's creation is. We've been doing this nightly since the summer and everyone loves it. We're almost to the end, but I'm keeping this one to go back through again in a year or two. 

You guys!!!! I had this book when I was little and I came across it at a thrift store sometime last year. I pulled it out and the kids are getting a real kick out of it. They love reading one or two of these silly poems after our devotion every night. Seriously-this is a good one to introduce your littles to poetry and rhyming. 

Lily's been working her way through Nancy Drew graphic novels this week. I think this is her second one since we left the Library yesterday. hehe She's decided she really likes mysteries and will continue to pursue this genre! I love when they find something they really like to read! 

This is my read this week. Its a tough one guys, I'm not going to lie. It's full of triggers so if you're prone to set backs, this might not be your book. I was studying psychology when I met my husband in college and I am truly fascinated about what makes people who they are. I'm curious about how others live, feel, and think. I want to know what makes people, at their core, who they are. Because of this, this book caught my eye. I never imagined I would relate to it as much as I have though. It's been tough to read at times, but also really made me think. This is a well written, fast paced book. I would highly recommend it to people who are confident it won't set them back in their own psychological health. 

Weston is a reader. Through and through. He read these top three books today during his snow day. This is a series he found at the library yesterday and they're an easy read and apparently funny. 

 This is the other series Weston has been really loving. I've been requesting them from the library and he will finish one in about 30 minutes as soon as I bring it home! He laughs out loud to these books and Lily usually reads them as well and they walk around quoting funny bits from them like you would quote a line from a movie! Love it!

Norah discovered Winnie the Pooh recently and we've been working our way through these stories. I'm amazed how still she will sit and really study the pictures and listen intently while I read. You can't go wrong with a good old classic like Winnie the Pooh!