Books We're Reading in January

While I don't keep track of the stacks and stacks of books the kids grab to read just because, I always love sharing what we are reading, and seeing what other people are reading. I'll sort this list by person, and just include current reads or books finished in January.

Rebekah (age 3) 

She's not reading on her own at all. But her favorite books right now are Black Beauty and anything fairy tale. 

Tobias (age 6) 

Not reading on his own yet. His favorite books currently are The Cat in the Hat and other books by Seuss, as well as fairy tales. 

Samuel (age 8)

January reads include Ollie the Ox and Other Animals, Ash to the Rescue, Secrets of the G.S. Ball, and The Kingdom of Wrenly: The Dream Portal. 

Mason (age 10)

His recent reads include Pumpkin, Ginger, and Spice; The Boxcar Children #17, The Boxcar Children #18, Who Was Elvis Presley?, What Was Hurricane Katrina? and stacks and stacks of nonfiction books.

Caleb (age 11)

He read book 5 of The Impossible Quest: Battle of the Heroes. He just started The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice book 1). Also did a reread of Wings of Fire #4.

Oliver (age 12)

He read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and now is working through Wings of Fire Legends: Darkstalker. 

Daniel (age 14)

He read Ella Enchanted and is reading The Phantom Tollbooth. He loves funny books and these both have been a hit!

Emma (age 16)

She just finished The Hobbit (again) and is rereading The Fellowship of the Ring currently. I love when kids reread favorite books because the conversations we have about them the second or third time through have great insights and connections.

Joseph (age 17)

He's read The Prophecy of Bane, The Curse of the Warmbloods, and is currently reading The Marks of Secret. Those are books #2-#4 of The Underland Chronicles.

Family Read Alouds

We are slowly working through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix together. The boys have also been doing several books together. They finished Dragonwatch #5: Return of the Dragon Slayers, Eragon (a reread for them), Eldest (a reread for them), and are working through Brisingr right now. 

Mom (age 40)

I do a mix of reading for fun and reading ARCs (advance reader copies) of books for authors that I then post reviews about on Amazon. I'm also a decently fast reader, I made it through 200 books last year alone. My January reads have been:

• Hunted by K.M. Shea
• United by K.M. Shea
• Wren by Rachel Rossano
• The Wolf Gate by Hanna Sandvig
• The Rose Gate by Hanna Sandvig
• The Lily Gate by Hanna Sandvig
• The Masked Fae by Shari L. Tapscott
• The Baker and the Wolf by J. M. Stengel
• Charming Artemis by Sarah M. Eden (originally an ARC last year, this was a reread for me)
• Tex by Liz Isaacson (ARC)
• In the Waves of Tristwick by Deborah M. Hathaway (ARC) Currently reading
• The Gentleman and the Maid by Martha Keyes (ARC) Currently reading
• Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent's Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age by Julie Bogart (ARC) Currently reading
• The Beast and the Enchantress by Camille Peters - Currently reading
• The Snow Queen: Heart of Ice by K.M. Shea

It is almost February and we will pick up another read aloud as we start homeschool book club back up. Our February title is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. We haven't read it in years and years and years. I can't wait to see what my children think of it. 

Have you read any of the books on our January lists? Did you enjoy them?

Jan 15th to Jan 23: Snow, Illness, and Books

 We had a wonderful late Christmas on Saturday with extended family. Good food, good conversation, and lots of laughs. Sunday the whole family was at church. I feel like it is important to note that, because in the winter in a large family it is rare for everyone to be healthy enough to all be at church. A winter cold that runs through a smaller family in a week or two can take us 4-6 weeks before the eleven of us get through it. It is more common to split the family between home and church as those who are well go, and those recovering stay home. 

In the late afternoon the winter storm that is wreaking havoc across the U.S. reached us in Ohio. We had a couple hours of ice that slowly accumulated before switching to snow. The kids went to bed hoping to wake Monday to a lot of snow.

Ice Emma found

They were quite happy to see we had 4-5 inches of snow when they woke up. After breakfast and some chores everyone headed outside for a couple hours to play. 

Rebekah wasn't thrilled when she got snow on her cheek, but eventually moved back to playing.

Unfortunately, Rebekah also woke up with a dry cough. She did not eat breakfast. When we came back inside from playing she drank some hot cocoa and ate some goldfish. She coughed and threw up about 10 minutes later. Her fever started climbing and she snuggled up on the couch to rest and watch Encanto, one of her current favorite movies. The rest of the day she sipped liquids and nibbled the occasional bite of food. I called her pediatrician for a quick check in by phone. 

The rest of the kids played games, drew, wrote on works in progress, and enjoyed the day.

Tuesday Rebekah woke up feeling much better, and able to keep food down. Still sounding froggy, but up and active. The pediatrician called and said to bring her on Wednesday for COVID testing, because they like testing kids on day 3. They also said her symptoms could be any of the 99 other winter viruses people usually have (so grateful for a pediatrician that recognizes this still!), so we shall see.

Wednesday Update: Rebekah is feeling great and tested negative for the virus. I'm getting her cough. The day was pretty straightforward with kids doing school, even during the hour I was gone with Rebekah getting tested. I love that homeschooling is such a normal thing for them, with or without mom at the helm. Our afternoon was filled with singing and dancing along to Encanto, drawing characters from Encanto, etc. I spent a solid block studying my scriptures and preparing seminary lessons, which is my afternoon routine. 

In the evening I drove around a bunch getting 7 kids to their church activities and back home, because some groups met at different times or places than usual. The kids all had a great night with their friends and doing interesting activities. 

Our Climbing Dome and Swing

Thursday morning was cold and homeschool-y. I spent some time updating a couple kids' homeschool portfolios for the year. We learned about lizards from around the world (science and geography), did a whole lot of math levels, read great books, answered 1001 questions, wrote, edited, did grammar practice, diagrammed sentences, and so on. The older kids read about Tajikistan in Notgrass World Geography, a landlocked mountanous country in Central Asia. A couple teens cooked dinner. We watched two episodes of World Watch Geography, playing a bit of catch up as we missed yesterday's episode. (If you've never heard of it, it is similar to CNN10) 

Friday was bitterly cold outside and we happily stayed in with our books and blankets. Kids trickled through the end of their lessons. The coughing cold spread to Daddy and Tobias. 

Saturday Emma and I went to Ikea to pick up some Kallax shelving units in different sizes. We did not get all the shelves we wanted, because they were out of stock. You see, we have a lot of books, well over 1000. We only had one large book shelf (5 shelves 5 feet long) in the dining room before this Ikea trip. Most of our books lived in the walk up attic, sorted by topic/school subject in labeled boxes or rubbermaid tubs. We were able to switch out books, but it was a lot of work. All my kids love reading, so every week someone is digging around in the attic storage for more books. 

We spent the weekend building shelves, anchoring them safely, and then filling them with books. We also were home from church with half of us still dealing with the winter cold.

Here is the new shelf in the piano room, mostly filled (for all it's fancy sounding name because of the piano in the room, this is also the computer room, the entry to the house, and part of the living room). On this shelf we went with two rows of chapter books and two rows of bigger books. Some of the chapter book shelves are stacked two deep.

This is the new shelf in my bedroom. This one is mainly curriculum, and a few of my own books. The bottom from left to right is The Good and The Beautiful Math for the younger 4 kids for their first 5 years of school (Math K, 1, 2, 3, 4). For example, Samuel only has one year left of math here, while Tobias has 4. Beside that are our science units in binders from TGTB. The next row up holds Apologia Science, TGTB History, TGTB Constitution and Government. The top two rows are much more mixed batches of curriculum, as well as one square of favorite chapter books double stacked.

The attic shelf is this one. Lots of chapter books stacked two deep on the top two rows. The bottom row is a mix of history and science nonfiction books and picture books.   

 In the end, we will need at least one more 3x4 Kallax shelf, when it comes back in stock. We have 4 or 5 boxes of books left to shelve. I have to be honest, there have been times when we've donated books, sold curriculum we were finished with, and decluttered books that we just didn't love. But I am so grateful for a library of books right in our home! It was a wonderful blessing during the COVID shutdown of our public library system, which lasted for months. It is always fun to see different kids discover books on our shelves that were favorites of older siblings. I also like that the kids are often found with a stack of books in their bed or on the couch or floor reading. 

I would love to know if your family keeps a lot of books, like we do, or if you are more minimal in the book department? Do you have a favorite book or series? I'll share a what we're reading post soon to give a peek at what we're reading here.

October 2021 to January 2022: Catching Up

Life is always full with a large family. My last update was early in October of last year, which means I have 3 months to catch up on. There is no way to do that well, but I will try to hit a few interesting moments. 

October was uneventful, which I appreciated. We had steady progress in homeschool, teaching seminary went well, and we had two birthdays - Joseph turned 17 and Daniel turned 14. 

November decided to make up for the uneventful month before. I woke up one morning barely into November, walked into the bathroom, and stepped into water. 

Overnight, a pipe burst from what they think was a pressure build up under the bathroom sink, and flooded rooms on 3 floors of our home: bathroom, kitchen, dining room/homeschool room, basement. It was not the way I had hoped to kick off the holiday season. 

We spent part of a week in several hotel rooms with no kitchen, while the water restoration company started the drying out process at the house. We would go over to the house each day to be able to use a table for meals, or wash laundry, or just all be in one room together.

It was loud with a lot of dehumidifiers and industrial fans going, but better than sitting in a hotel. We did swim in the hotel pool, which the kids enjoyed. 

We ate out a lot, as we couldn't use our kitchen at all, and some kind souls from church brought us meals some nights as well. 

After the first week, the floors were dried out, we had our bathroom pipe fixed and bathroom working, and most of the appliances were tested and worked, so the insurance company sent us home. They also sent the water restoration company back to rip out the kitchen ceiling and parts of the walls. Picture nearly 100 years of dirt and coal dust falling everywhere after they pulled down the three different ceiling layers. It took nearly another week to almost get the rooms clean as the dehumidifiers kept running and the industrial fans kept blowing on the ceiling to dry the space out. Our contractor put up insulation and plastic right before Thanksgiving (after things were dry) so we could cook without having to watch for things to fall in our food. They planned to come back in December to do the repairs. 

School during this three weeks of November was pretty much unschooling. Kids read, studied topics of interest, did real life math, learned a lot about water mitigation, finances, and so on. We did a few field trips for something fun to do and hit up a science center, a museum, and the zoo.

Emma also performed in the local high school's fall play, Leaving Iowa. She was Fred the mechanic (on the right). 

We were hosting Thanksgiving at our house, so Thanksgiving morning was spent cooking some of the food and enjoying Makayla being home from college, because my mom and I had driven down to Virginia to get her in a 14 hour round trip just before. About 25 minutes before our extended family was to arrive, bringing their own additions to the food, we got a phone call. My mom had fallen down the steps outside her house, loading the car with food, and broke her femur badly. She went to the hospital, Thanksgiving went on, and then my sister and I headed to the hospital that evening with food. She had surgery the next day, and for nearly 2 weeks was in the hospital (I was able to visit several times).

Oh, and we put Makayla on an airplane to go back to school the day after Thanksgiving, because without Mom available to watch kids or help drive, it was just easier for everyone. 

We also celebrated two birthdays in November, Tobias turned 6 and Caleb turned 11. 

December was slow and quiet. We did our usual homeschooling until the contractors showed up and spent a week repairing our home, while we lived in it. Ceilings, walls, cabinets, paint, etc. The kids spent that week learning all they could about construction. 

We celebrated one birthday in December, Emma turned 16.

We also decorated gingerbread houses, which we don't usually do, when my husband's sister visited from Utah right before Christmas.

Christmas was different, as my mom was still not able to leave her house. Makayla flew back and we had Christmas with my sister's family at her house, where the cousins/siblings had a gift exchange. We decided we would plan a second Christmas for January or February with grandma (my mom) and grandpa. 

As Christmases go, this one went well on the gift front. It is sometimes crazy shopping for ten children, most of whom also have birthdays between October and February. And even when the kids give us ideas of what they might enjoy, you never really know until the gifts are opened and some time passes, whether what you pick out was a hit or not. This year we had a lot of hits. 

In late December we got a warm day and spent hours outside together. The teens put together the one family gift we bought this year: a climbing dome and swing. We built a fire and cooked outside, played, and worked together. 

We also rearranged the boys' bedroom to fit 7 twin size beds. This involved taking down one of our triple bunk beds, getting rid of the junior bed that was too small, and building two new double bunk beds. The youngest 3 boys are in the remaining triple bunk bed, and the older four boys each have one bed of the two new bunk beds. (In case you are new, the boys have had the biggest bedroom in our 3 bedroom house for years. The 3 girls share a bedroom. And as we have no babies left, Daddy and I have our own bedroom with no crib.)

New Year's Eve was spent as a family, doing an at home escape room with the oldest 7 kids, while the younger 3 kids played. Makayla flew back to school the next day. We celebrated one birthday in January, Mason is now 10. 

Now we are in January and have been doing school as usual. We've really enjoyed our curriculum choices this year, and it is always encouraging to be halfway through the school year. We did have the construction crew come back one day this week to replace carpet that was damaged during the water disaster of November. 

We went to COSI, a science center, last week. While I took the younger 6 kids to several different exhibits, Daddy and the 3 older kids spent their time in the visiting Marvel themed exhibit. 

Tomorrow we will finally have Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. Then we are on to February and two more birthdays. 

Life is full but blessed!