(And All My) Work Be Praise

People tell me every year that they love to see my list, so I shall continue the tradition! Here's last year's , which also has links to previous years. A note: I gave brief explanations when possible. I  highlighted in green  books that I especially loved,  highlighted in blue  books that my kids especially enjoyed, and  highlighted in red  books I do not recommend. Books I listened to as audio are marked with two asterisks (**).  The Bible : the whole thing, twice for the New Testament (still following  this reading plan ) Christian Non-Fiction **On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books **M is for Mama: A Rebellion against Mediocre Motherhood The Secular Creed More than a Carpenter The Meaning of Marriage Partners in the Gospel (devotional for pastors' and elders' wives) Habits of the Household Parenting Teens with Love and Logic Philippians commentary by Ralph Martin Teaching Psalms, Volume 1 by Christopher Ash **The Astronaut...

Nine years ago, I wrote names on a bunch of popsicle sticks, labeled a jar "prayer," and started praying occasionally with my then-very-little boys. You can read it about it here: http://workbepraise.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-prayer-jar.html.  Not long after that post, I unexpectedly got pregnant with Toby. To put it very mildly, that fourth boy in 4.5 years threw everything off kilter, and even little routines like the prayer jar fell by the wayside as we merely survived. Then we moved 800 miles across the country. Then we had two more kids. And while we have definitely developed routines of all sorts over the last decade -- our homeschool days have been predictable and manageable for two years now! -- I've had no success getting morning prayer (or morning anything, really) to stick. But here are at the end of our second month of school, and we're doing it! I really only made one major change: I don't wait for everyone to be at the table . I have kids who rise at ...

At this point, you can pretty much count on three blogs a year from me: my end-of-year reading log, my fall curriculum post, and something else that strikes my fancy somewhere along the way. But because I like to see what other people are doing, and because I like to look back on my old curriculum posts and laugh at how life didn't turn out like I planned, I'm sticking with it! T-10 days till our official first day, and here's what's on the docket: Levi: 8th grade Math: still undecided. Wait, what?! For my most mathy kid? Yes. We're waiting to hear about a scholarship opportunity before we decide how to proceed. Right now, at 11am on Aug. 19 while I'm writing this, he's taking his college algebra and  precalculus CLEP tests, one right after the other.  Science: finishing up Apologia biology, then studying other resources for two months in the hopes of taking the CLEP test in December. (And then, being done with biology forever. He hates it.) History/literatu...