recent reading and related thoughts

Two books I have been reading since we got back:

You can link to the author's blog here.

And Romancing Your Child's Heart:

*Note: Many of the books I mention here I have borrowed either from a friend, the library, or interlibrary loan (which is a fabulous set-up if you've never tried it), though we do have an extensive collection of our own around here as well. If a mentioned book is good enough in my opinion to be worth going out and buying, I will say so, such as the Artisan Bread book. Here is my frugality showing up again!

It was ironic how the two coincided, since they weren't particularly related. But as I've gotten closer to the end of Romancing Your Child's Heart, he's spent one chapter talking about wonder and worship, which led into or tied in with the following chapter about creativity, which is, obviously, the theme of The Creative Family. Both books emphasized the value of being outside, letting your children get dirty or make messes, and the importance of being creative and sharing in "wonder" with them. We went out for a walk along that little spring and saw a variety of animals and wildlife the other night. The kids seem to be really enjoying those times of doing that.

On the topic of books, I saw this post on this blog last night and thought it quite humorous:

I'm doing the unthinkable

I'm decluttering books.

Shhhhhhh...