{12} Picture Books Perfect for Bedtime

We've long been in the routine of reading books to Luke between nightly prayers and putting him to bed.  Most nights.  When we are home.  And it's not super late.  And he's not overly tired.

I'm not currently in the middle of a chapter book with him so we've been working through our picture book stash.  Which, somehow, we've been running low on ones from the library so, GASP, we've been rereading ones we own.  Which considering I'm now buying a book for each boy for each gift giving occasion (Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthdays, Easter, adoption day), our picture book collection is growing even faster.  We really should be rereading those more often!

I try to also read to Luke after school but that largely depends on weather (when it's nice he's outside a lot) or if cousins walk home from school with us (then cousins trump time with Mom), or if we're running any errands or have plans (not often since Sam getting his second nap is a pretty high priority).  A lot of days only one of these story times occur.  And there is just something weird about reading a book about bedtime in the middle of the afternoon.

Here are 12 books about going to sleep, night time, or, as can often be the case, not going to sleep even if it is nighttime.  It's nice to see it's not just our kids.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a product link, I’ll receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you.  Thank you for helping support this blog! 

Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres, illustrated by Christian Slade
One of Luke's all-time favorite board books.  A bunch of different kinds of trucks go through a bedtime routine (are we the only parents who have never sung songs to their kids before bed?).  It's sweet and did get read at many points of the day when Luke was younger.  (We own all the books in the series that have been released as board books, and Sam is probably getting the 4th for his adoption day this summer).

There's a Dinosaur on the 13th Floor by Wade Bradford, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
Mr. Snore is JUST trying to get some sleep but every room he's sent to in the hotel doesn't work for him!  Too damp, too many creatures, etc.  Until he gets to the 13th floor.  (And maybe nobody actually wants him sleeping in the hotel...with a name like Mr. Snore he's probably not a quiet sleeper.)

Hooray for Today! by Brian Won 
When the moon is up Owl just wants to play but he is having trouble finding someone to play with him!  Silly animals all want to sleep when it's nighttime!  We've really enjoyed all three books in this "Hooray" series!

If You Were my Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby by Fran Hodgkins, illustrated by Laura J. Bryant
We bought this as a souvenir for Luke on one of our first family vacations with him.  It's a sweet story of animals getting tucked in for the night, feeling safe, secure, and ready to sleep, just like your darling kids SHOULD be (how often does that happen??)

101 Reasons Why I'm Not Taking a Bath by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Joy Ang
Why would kids want to take a bath before bed?  They probably aren't THAT dirty.  Baths are a waste of time and very dangerous.  I mean, you are almost guaranteed to turn into a prune.  And who wants a prune for a kid?   Really, it's just much better if they don't take a bath.

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman 
It's night time at the zoo and the zoo keeper is making sure all the animals are snug in their cages.  Except for the gorilla who has different plans for how the night should go.

The Night Gardener by Terry Fan, illustrated by Eric Fan
One morning a kid wakes up and finds the tree outside his windows has been trimmed into an owl.  Over the next nights more topiaries appear around town.  Although this gardener, who only works at night, disappears just as mysteriously as they came, they left a lasting impact.

Good Night, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
Mr. Panda's friends all seem to have forgotten important parts of the bedtime routine.  And nobody thinks Skunk skipping a bath is a good idea.  Mr. Panda tries to remind them until Lemur (you can see why this series is a hit at our house) shows Mr. Panda that he missed something too.

Steam Train, Dream Train by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
The dream train pulls into the station as the animals start packing up the cars.   Told in a sweet rhyme that might put your kids right to sleep (please don't tell me if it's that easy).

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late! by Mo Willems
The Pigeon just doesn't want to go to bed and he presents some very convincing arguments that might sound a little familiar if your kids are the type to resist sleep.

When the World is Dreaming by Rita Gray, illustrated by Kenard Pak
Looking into the moon light world of animals going to bed, this one has beautiful pictures.  These animals might have normal looking resting places but unusual dreams.

Noisy Night by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Brian Biggs
It's a noisy night in this city apartment building!  Ever resident can hear what is going on in the floor above them and are wondering what is going on!  You climb along each floor to find out what is keeping a grumpy old man awake.

Things I Like - April

My monthly round-up of 5 things I'm liking, with a few affiliate links sprinkled in.  Thanks for helping support the blog! =)  See more here!

I always am a little shocked when it's time to write this post again.  Even though I've written almost 100 of them and they almost always go up on the last Friday of the month.  It's also a little hard to write when we've just had Easter since we give up discretionary spending every Lent and, therefore, aren't buying a whole bunch of optional things!  (Although I have featured food items here more than once.)  So three of these are from the library (even though I JUST wrote a post yesterday about how we haven't been watching much tv this year either) and another was a pretty valid necessity that was bought during Lent!

1) Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
Something about the start of the new year made me want to get a lot of things checked off my to-do list, even if that was just movies I had been wanting to see.  This was one of those.  I know the plot of the original Mamma Mia movie is a little ridiculous but it is also a really fun, light movie so I knew I was going to want to see the second.  Again, the plot is a little ridiculous but the setting is GORGEOUS and the songs are fun and the whole thing was just delightful.  I watched most of this while attempting to pack away Christmas decorations and I kept pausing my packing to just watch the movie.  And then watched most of the special features.  Just a delight.

2) The Greatest Showman 
I was leery about this one when I first saw a trailer but then kept hearing good things about it.  I am a sucker for a good musical and this was that.  Apparently not super fact based but, again, it was just a lot of fun.  I love pretty much any group singing/dancing scene and for a few weeks I was rotating listening to pretty much just the soundtrack and the new Backstreet Boys album, which is pretty high praise coming from me.  Definitely worth checking out if you enjoy musicals.

3) Crazy Rich Asians

I don't just watch musicals but also do appreciate a good movie based on a book, even if it's not a book I was crazy about (like with this one, which I read years ago).  These people really are crazy rich and the opulence in the movie is astounding.  It was an enjoyable rom-com with pretty likeable leads.  The fashion and sets were amazing and even made me reconsider picking up the book and giving it a second shot.  Or I'll just enjoy the movie (more likely).

 

4) Magnetic Cabinet Locks
These were bought during Lent and were definitely necessary!  A certain adorable someone had become VERY interested in the kitchen cabinets and when he got too close to the (very sharp) pizza cutter it was time to start locking those up.  Matt had told me months ago that he hated the cabinet locks we had gotten when Luke was little and so when I saw these on a blog I thought they might work.  The unlock with a magnet and were pretty easy to install.  I might have rolled my eyes every time I went to grab dish soap in the first week but then then remembered I needed the magnet to open the cabinet...but now we are getting in the habit of grabbing the magnet first.  So now things are more secure, Sam is safer, and I am picking up scattered plasticware all over the kitchen floor fewer times a day! 

BEFORE the cabinet locks

5) SpaLife ph Balancing face mask
I know, people have been all about the face masks for awhile, I even wrote about a clay one years ago (that I still use, when I remember).  I think I had a couple sitting in the bathroom cabinet before I finally did one and it felt good!  It wasn't fun trying to keep it balanced on my face while also supervising a baby bathtime (would not recommend) but my face did feel softer afterwards.  Now I may have a few more sitting in the bathroom cabinet and I keep intending to alternate between one of these and the clay mask every Sunday...a habit I have yet to start.  BUT for just a couple bucks they are a nice indulgence.

What have YOU been liking lately?

What Happened When My Husband (Mostly) Gave up Screens for 90 Days

Over three months ago my husband went to a meeting at church.  I put the boys to bed while he was gone and then was scrolling Instagram.  I sent him a screen shot of a letterboard that said something along the lines of "All parents want is for their kids to go to sleep so they can watch tv shows with bad words and eat the hidden snacks."  (This is pretty accurate.)

Then Matt came home from the meeting and told me he wanted to do a 90 day program where he basically had to give up all screens, fast between meals, workout for an hour a day, and take cold showers (among other things).  My first reaction: "Did you not just see my text???"

We had long been in routine of watching an episode of a show together in the evening, most nights, after the kids were in bed.  Often chasing Luke back to bed at least once.  And after a few months of not really knowing what to watch a bunch of shows were just coming back with new episodes or we found new ones to watch and it felt like we had a plethora of choices!  And now he wanted to give up screens for 90 days?  This was mid-January and Easter (when it ended) felt like FOREVER away. 

I was not the most supportive spouse. 

To be clear, he could still use screens for his job (duh) and could still text (I told him there was NO WAY he could give up texting his wife for 90 days, especially since half our texts are logistical/scheduling stuff), check the weather, use the library app to check out books, etc. Fairly necessary stuff. 

It was really hard to think about not having that tv time together most evenings.  We also were doing weekly movie nights with Luke (most weeks) and Sunday Wii evenings before bed.  Now all that would be gone until Easter (which, again, felt forever away). 

I was mostly concerned with how this would affect me, which is also what this post is about.  There were a lot of other requirements of this program and most, relating to diet, exercise, and private prayer, didn't affect me much so they aren't my story to tell.  I have PLENTY of thoughts on the whole program but I'm not trying to convince anyone to do it or not so this isn't the place for my critical review, which, again, only affected me in parts.

We had less than a week until his 90 days started so we prioritized which shows we were going to wrap up so we didn't leave off in any weird spots.  Then he started his 90 days.

(The cold showers started on our coldest week of the winter - when morning wind chills were around -40°.  So, super fun.)

It was a tough transition, which sounded weird, even then.  Watching tv together wasn't even that big a part of our day - maybe 25 minutes, but it felt like it changed a lot. 

There were weeks where we just procrastinated getting the boys to bed because we weren't in a rush to get in show (especially during the ~10 sick and snow days off school Luke had during this time). 

Then there were plenty of nights we were both in bed before 8:30 because we couldn't watch tv so might as well go to bed!

Matt finished two books within the first month of the program.  I thought I would get more time to read but somehow don't feel like I made huge progress on my reading lists.  Maybe it just gave me more time to putter around during the day since I knew I'd get more reading time in the evenings?

In the beginning we were playing more board and card games, just the two of us but then that kinda petered off after awhile.  It certainly took more energy to get out a board game instead of just vegging in front of the tv.

We probably made more social plans than we usually do in the winter (when we typically hibernate and are fine with that!) because we couldn't watch movies at home after the boys were in bed so we weren't missing out on anything by not being home! 

I was still watching some tv, mostly on in the background when I was working from home during Sam's naps (when I've done all my Grey's Anatomy catching up, except that I am 4 episodes behind, again.)  I watched a couple movies on a few evenings I was home with just a sleeping Sam but my overall tv watching was certainly reduced.  And I was still on social media and reading blogs, which Matt never was anyways so that didn't affect him.

Matt was allowed one indulgence on Sundays which he was encouraged to NOT be screen time...but that's what it usually was.  During Sam's Sunday afternoon nap Matt and Luke would usually play a Lego video games on the Wii and then Matt and I would catch up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine after the boys were in bed.  It's the only show we stayed current on in the 90 days!  He also watched the Superbowl (which was on a Sunday so it counted for that day's indulgence).  I told him it was a good thing this wasn't a Winter Olympics year, we typically watch A LOT of Olympic coverage.

A couple weeks before Easter we really started to talk about how the program changed us and what we want to keep up.  Because as much as I was grouchy about it back in January, I could see some real improvements and changes in our family life.

We had more patience with the boys at bedtime since they weren't interrupting our screen time. 

We were playing a lot more card games with Luke, multiple times a day over spring break, sick days, and weekends.  Some of it is age but he's also a lot better at playing (and sometimes beating us) than he was in January!

We were in a much better bedtime routine, most nights having lights off by 10 (my pre-kids self would be shocked by this). 

Matt was in a steady morning workout routine, when he didn't have to be to work at 5:30am, which made my morning workouts more consistent, since we were both getting up at the same time to do them.

Our pre-school mornings with the boys got better since we both wanted to fit in workouts and showers, only having one shower, so often the boys were both up eating breakfast before 7 which made getting out the door on time for school so much easier.  (That seems counter-intuitive, since we had more to squeeze in between 6-7:30 but having a pretty rigid schedule made it easier.)

Overall we communicated more and had more patience and spent more time together as a family, not in front of the tv.  And I wouldn't have even said we were watching much tv back before this all started!

Matt and I decided we'll probably only watch a show in the evenings 2-3 times a week and maybe one movie on the weekend.  We want to try to alternate Friday family movie nights with Sunday family Wii night.  But we also want to keep up the better bedtimes and mornings.  We want to keep playing cards with Luke. 

As grouchy as I was in January about all of this (and more than a few times during it), I knew it would be better for our family in the end.  And it really was.  I don't know that we would have had the discipline to keep it up if Matt wasn't committed to the program so as much as parts of it were a giant pain (again, more to him than me!), I am glad he did it.

I don't think every family needs to or should take 90 days off of screens but I am happy with the results of it for us.  Except now Matt is talking about doing a family version next year and I'm already leery at the thought of myself completely giving up screens for 90 days.  But that does sound better than cold showers in January.

Book Love: Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

The combination of this library hold coming in and spring arrives just feels perfect.  Is there any season more joyful than early spring?  Christmas has joy but there is also a lot of work behind making that joy happen.  This first string of warm days in the spring, when all you have to do is open windows and stop to smell flowers to feel joyful, it's pretty magical.

The book is titled Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee.  And I really did feel more joyful while reading it.  It might just be the magical combination of reading it as spring was arriving but the author clearly put a lot of work into researching and figuring out what actually makes us joyful. 

The author noticed that while so much of happiness advice and research seems to be centered on internal happiness, a lot of what people say bring them joy are external things: rainbows, a special family spot, confetti.   External forces are constantly affected our internal moods so it makes sense that surrounding ourselves with things that bring joy can lift our moods.  Not constantly, but little hits of joy throughout the day can really change how the whole day goes.

Ingrid gives 10 aesthetics of joy, each with their own chapter, examples, and research.  They are things like energy (bright colors), play (lots of circles, look around, you might start noticing them), and celebration (sparkle!).  Different ones will appeal to different people but I found something immediately relatable in all 10 (I love some good sparkle).

What I liked so much about the book is that she gives so many ways we can bring these little bits of joy into our lives, quite a few of which I was already doing and realized they do bring me joy!  Like having brightly colored rain boots, painting the sides of our kitchen drawers, and leaving balloons hanging a month after the birthday party (they are still up, as I write this, and I have no intents on taking them down until most are deflated).  

She did a lot of traveling for her research in writing this book: Japan, Hawaii, New York City, all across the US.  Giant tree houses, strangely laid out apartments, a bubble house, blooming cherry trees.  Companies that design fun aprons, include confetti in packages, and multiple places related to furniture and home ware design.  She talks with people from non-profits who repaint ugly public schools in fun colors, companies that helped resign prison bathrooms, and a couple who gave up their house to live in a camper, at least for awhile.

So many of these people and companies approach joy in different ways but they all bring some element of joy.  It was amazing to read all the different stories in each chapter, how different people were coming to the same emotion but from very different ways.  Which makes sense since we all start with some of that joy inside of us but adult responsibilities can make it harder to come by naturally.

There is a whole lot we can do to infuse our days with joy. While I was reading the book I felt like my brain was constantly coming up with small projects to do around the house to bring more moments of joy.  I want to hang string lights in the backyard, do some more painting around the house (are we ever out of painting projects??), change some of what's hanging on the walls, and just incorporate more spontaneity into our lives, at least in small doses (the planner in me is a little scared of that last one but an afternoon bike ride would bring joy to my 6 year old without causes me pain).

I've read books about happiness and plenty about organizing but this one had a different approach that seemed to combine so many things I am interested in: routine, home decor, habits, parenting, and life contentment, under one general term.  Focusing on all the little ways I could bring more joy into our lives simplifies it while also giving me so many directions to go.  

This book was a delightful, fun, somewhat quick read that made me look at our home, routines, and what we do a little differently.  I'm very glad I read it and hope I can fill our lives with a little more joy.

Amazon
Goodreads

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Cloth Diapering, Again

It's been a year since we started cloth diapering Sam; he was six weeks old.  And I was terrified.

We made the decision to cloth diaper Luke before he was even home from the hospital, maybe even before he was born.  I excitedly ordered 12 cloth diapers for $300 the day we brought him home.  I was scared to start cloth diapering but once we got into a routine with it I really did like them.  As much as anyone likes diapering. 

I packed up Luke's cloth diapers over two years before we got Sam, a little sad about it.  For almost Luke's whole life to that point we had been washing diapers about every 36 hours.  I thought about diapers probably more than disposable diaper parents because we always had to make sure we had some clean and switched the laundry loads.  It was a marker of how fast time passes when we packed those away.

Regardless, when Sam was six weeks old and big enough to fit in cloth, I was scared to start.  It had been over two years!  Was I going to remember how to do this?  Remember to switch laundry loads?  Spray out the gross ones?  Have diapers drying in the house very regularly?  Would he leak?  How was this going to work???

It was like I hadn't spent 2+ years already dealing with, surviving, and even learning to like all these problems.

So we started.  And it didn't take long for things to not go well.

We had a lot of leakage problems.  It was a frequent occurrence.  

Then within six months of starting almost all of our original diapers were in shreds.  I was DEVASTATED when the first one came out of the laundry like that.  They had cost $25 each and even though we had recouped our costs just using them with Luke, we had counted on being able to use them with subsequent kids!  I didn't want to buy all new diapers, I didn't know what the heck had happened to these, and I liked them!  And what do we do with cloth diapers that no longer function?  Throwing them away didn't seem right!

Luckily, my sister had a large stash, had stopped cloth diapering her own kids, and sold me 11 for a good price.  They were the same brand we had bought originally but a different style.  We had also been gifted two new cloth diapers when Sam was born and had one diaper that Luke had used.  Bringing our stash to 14.  I went through a slightly reduced level of fear of starting new diapers but it all worked out.  Bonus, these new ones dry faster!

And that's where we've been for about seven months now.  Leaking hasn't been a problem for months. We are still using cloth diapers 80% of the time.  Disposables for overnight at home, for sitters, and any time we are away from home overnight (i.e. vacations, lake trips).  We've sprayed out so many that the lever to flip to the handheld sprayer in our shower (which is close enough to the toilet to use as our diaper sprayer) just broke last week, but is still usable.

It feels like cloth diapering should have been easier the second time around.  It was not.  Or maybe we just expected to snap back into a routine when it still took some adjusting, some figuring things out.  But I am glad we are cloth diapering again.

A big reason we did the cloth diapers in the beginning was the cost savings.  We knew we'd be buying formula and figured we could make up some of that cost by using cloth diapers.  And I still do like saving money but I think the bigger issue for me now is keeping stuff out of the landfills.  We've switched to many reusable products like cloth napkins, reusable shopping bags, and I always wash plastic silverware to use again (even though I don't buy any, we still, somehow, end up with a lot).  Cloth diapers fit right in with those.  It feels like we throw so much away and I'm always looking at ways to reduce that. 

We spent $427 on diapers in Luke's first year.  Over 75% of that was our initial cloth diapers.

We spent $145 on diapers in Sam's first year.  50% was our second stash of cloth diapers.

Will these diapers last for a next kid?  I'm not counting on it this time but it sure would be nice if they did!  Either way, cloth diapering, for over three years total, for two kids, has saved us a lot of money and saved the Earth a lot of trash.  I am glad the me of six years ago decided to try them.
  

Other Cloth Diapering Posts:
A Big Cloth Diapering Post (June 2013)
Real Expenses: One Year of Formula & Diapering (April 2014)
Cloth Diapering - Two Years In (May 2015)
So Long, Farewell...Cloth Diapers (February 2016)

Quick Lit - April

When I wrote this post a month ago I was pretty proud of how many books I had been getting through, mostly thanks to not watching tv in the evenings with my husband (less than a week to go on that!).  Then we spent a large portion on March sick and reading (and blogging) just didn't happen as much.  This feels like a shorter list than usual!  Will I be less wordy?  Probably not.

I'm on Goodreads here which I keep very updated with my current reads and on Instagram here where I sometimes post about books.  Also linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy who is one of my favorite books and reading gurus.

A couple other books posts in the past month, I lost my consistency streak with sickness and spring break!

Living Lightly and with Outer Order, Inner Calm

 Little House Book Flight

And now everything else I've been reading!

 Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith
I've read most of her books and this one wasn't my favorite of all of them (one got it's own post back here).  It's two strangers being thrown together for a cross-country train ride - New York to California.  We've done the New York - (almost) Chicago Lake Shore Limited ride many times and reading about it brought back fond memories of countless hours spent on the Amtrak.  It made me want to take the train from Chicago all the way out West.  As for the story, two teens in that summer between high school and college, figuring out some things about themselves and how they want their lives to go.  If it didn't have the train backdrop I probably would have liked this less but it was fine.  3 Stars



I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson
You've Got Mail seems to be a favorite movie among bookish people but I've for sure only seen it once (just last year) but maybe years ago too.  I have seen Sleepless in Seattle many times (again, last year, I was prepping for our New York trip, but also many times before) and that movie did make up the biggest portion of the book.  It was a fun look behind the scenes at RomComs in the 80s-90s and just movie making in general.  I appreciate that RomComs were saved because I have enjoyed a good many of them in my life.  3 Stars



The Rule of One by Ashley Saunders and Leslie Saunders
This is a book I got for free through Amazon Kindle First Look deals but I ended up reading it on paper from the library.  Dystopian YA where each family is only allowed to have one kid but the director of family planning for Texas secretly has twin daughters who trade off whose day it is to go above ground.  The premise was fascinating to me but the actual story was a little eye roll-y.  But the last chapter or two drug me back in and now I may pick up the sequel.  We'll see.  2.25 Stars
 

Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub
I found this book endlessly fascinating.  A woman who describes her family's eating habits as pretty normal, maybe slightly healthier than the majority but nothing crazy, decides they are going to give up all sugar for one year.  They get one dessert a month (such as one slice of pie at Thanksgiving and a birthday cake or dessert for each of them) but otherwise, NO added sugar.  Guess what is in almost everything we eat?  Sugar.  It made me want to try this myself but also scared at how much work it would be.  You have to make so much from scratch!  It did make me wish it was easier to find staples (bread, sauces, condiments, etc.) without added sugar and wonder why it has to be in everything.  Definitely an interesting read.  3.75 Stars

The Huntress by Kate Quinn
I have so many World War II novels sitting on my TBR that I've had to limit them to one a month just to space them out.  This one was about a (fictional but based on real women) woman who was known as the Huntress for the Nazis.  Then a small team of people trying to find her and bring her to justice after the war.  It flashed between two timelines, about 10 years apart and from 2 or 3 different perspectives.  This was a longer one, 500+ pages but I actually think that was ok. I felt like I really knew the characters by the end.  Even though it took awhile to get through I enjoyed it, as much as you "enjoy" a book like this.  4 Stars


Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, & Baking Biscuits by Reese Witherspoon
Sometimes I think I'd really like to live in the South but that might just be my affection for sweet tea. This was a very easy and beautiful lifestyle book about Reese's life growing up in the South. There were recipes and details about parties and fashion and the like.  It made for easy pick up and put down reading over spring break and I did enjoy it, for the most part.  The pages talking about how everyone in the South just LOVES dogs and they run all over the place convinced me I am good in the Midwest (even though there are plenty of people who love their dogs too much here too). 3.75 Stars

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
This was the second in a series about an alternate timeline where a natural disaster happened in the early 50s and the space program was greatly accelerated.  In this book we are in the mid-60s with a station on the moon and a mission happening to put a person on Mars.  It took me a bit to get into the world for the first book but this one was easier, being more familiar with the people and the settings.  I've read a decent number of space related novels and this one was different (alternate time line) and interesting.  I'll pick up the 3rd when it's out next year.  3.5 Stars

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick
I really enjoyed The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, so much it was one of my favorite reads of 2016.   This one was a similar format: older person comes in possession of a mysterious gift, they set out to find the answers and along the way have their perceptions of someone changed.  It drug a little and there were a few characters I just wanted to set straight but it was fine.  The cover really appealed to me and I was reading so much historical fiction or sci-fi-ish that it was refreshing to have a contemporary one in the mix too. 3 Stars

Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places by Jeff Speck
I read the author's first book on this top: Walkable City, over three years ago.  This had some of the same information but laid out differently.  It gave me pride that we do live in a very walkable area with downtown an easy bike ride away.  It's not perfect and there is plenty of room for improvement but our city seems to be on the right track (and got one small mention in the book.  Ok, just in a list.  But it was there.)  Some of it got too technical with the correct turning radiuses for corners and lane widths but overall, it was a very interesting read.  It made me feel like an expert in city planning even though I am most definitely not.  It made me want to walk and bike around even more (except that Target is too far and I couldn't fit all my purchases on my bike).  3.75 Stars

Salt to the Sea by Ruth Sepetys
Another World War II novel but quite different from The Huntress.  This was categorized as YA, following 4 teens from 4 different countries, all fleeing Prussia towards the end of the war.  They all have different experiences bringing them together and all end up on the Wilhelm Gustloff which was then sunk by Russia torpedos shortly after departing.  An estimated 9,000-10,000 people died on the ship, which was way over capacity, taking many more deaths than the Titanic and Lusitania but nearly as well known.  The chapters are very short, many just a page or two, rotating between the four teens.  It was a very quick read and so fascinating.  3.75 Stars

Chapter Books with Luke
The BFG by Roald Dahl
I read this one many times as a kid and Luke really enjoyed the recent movie when we watched it with him last year (or the year before?) so this seemed like an obvious chapter book to read to him.  He really did get into it and still talks about Snozzcumbers and asks questions about the giants. It was a fun one to share with him.  I promised him we'd rewatch the movie once Matt can again. 3.5 Stars 

Better Together by Kallie George, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin
The first book in this Heartwood Hotel series was the first chapter book I tried with Luke.  It's about a group of animals who live in an animal hotel in Fernwood Forest, all told from the Mona the Mouse's point of view.  This is the 3rd book in the series and takes place in the spring.  These are sweet and charming with just enough adventure and "suspense" to make them fun reads with Luke.  He's really enjoyed them and we'll finish the series once summer is here! 3.5 Stars

What have YOU been reading lately?  I'm always curious!

Three Months with my Simplified Planner

I mentioned back in February that I had a paper planner for the first time in years and I was really enjoying it.  It seems like a strange thing to say, that I am "enjoying" having a planner but I also get really excited when I find new organizing projects (hello under the sink mess!) so this makes sense for me.

I had a paper planner all through high school (provided by the school) and college (bought by me) to keep track of homework, tests, etc.  When I worked full-time we had Day Timers, mostly to track our time (since it was billable) and occasionally I wrote down other things but mostly used my tasks list in Outlook for things that needed done.

That continued into my life post-work, where I've been using Swipes for years, to keep track of recurring chores and where I stick all kinds of reminders.  It's always satisfying to end a cleaning session not just with a clean bathroom but to also get to swipe the task off for another week.

So why I thought I needed a paper planner, I'm not sure.  Actually, I do know.  I've been following Emily Ley for a couple years, since I first read Grace Not Perfection, and she sells a line of planners.  They had a pretty one that was blue and had pineapples and there was a Black Friday sale and I like getting things for Christmas or my birthday that I wouldn't buy for myself.  So, Matt gave me a Simplified Planner for Christmas (yes, I did order it myself and he never even opened the box before he wrapped it.  That was my only Christmas gift I ordered myself.  This year.)

I purposely keep my life pretty...not busy.  If I have two commitments during the week, other than school runs, I consider it a busy week.  This week I am going into work for a couple hours and getting a haircut.  And we have to go to the grocery and will walk to the library.  Those are the only times I will leave our house/yard, besides school runs, and it is a busy week.  (Also maybe a few runs, family bike rides, and a family evening trip to Lowes but I mostly consider my daytime appointments when looking through the week.)

I have a pretty low standard for what I consider "busy".  Do I need a planner to keep track of this?  No.  When out and about I use my phone's calendar to schedule appointments (barely a dozen a year) and then when I'm home I transfer to the paper calendar we have hanging in the kitchen.  That's the master calendar but, again, there are plenty of days with nothing on them besides family birthdays.  And that's just how I like it.

It still baffles me a little that I found use out of a paper planner.

What I like is that while there is space for each day to write down appointments, really what I use is the tasks part.  Sure, I use Swipes for mostly recurring cleaning chores but there are plenty of other things I need/would like to get done in a week.  And spending a little time writing them down and assigning days is very helpful for me.

Sometimes I plan out things like Instagram posts for a week.   Sometimes I plan out blog posts (helpful when I'm not at my computer).  Over spring break I planned out what chore I wanted Luke to do each day (I'm a super fun parent).  I hope to use it this summer as I figure out a balance of structure (getting things done) and fun, where to fit in productive stuff (and blogging) with the "sit around the backyard pool" parts.  I mostly use it to keep track of what I need to do when I have time to myself during the day. Largely computer related.  Did that necessitate a whole planner?  Probably not but I have found it to be very helpful.

I have the weekly planner. What I like about this is that it was cheaper than a daily planner and that I really don't need each day to have it's own page.  What I don't like is that my planner doesn't naturally stay open to the current week.  The daily Simplified Planners have spiral binding and I could leave it open to the current day.  But then I also like looking at the week as a whole without flipping a lot of pages.

There is also a spot to write down meal plans for each day but I already have a system for that and it hangs inside a kitchen cupboard so I can easily look at it each day (that we aren't eating leftovers).  Sometimes I write in our meal plans, sometimes I don't.

I am more than a year into using a bullet journal (which I talked about here) and I keep thinking there is probably a way to combine my planner needs and my bullet journal.  But I also know I don't want to be drawing boxes and essentially making my own planner pages inside my bullet journal.  So I don't know that that's the best solution for me.

I don't know if I (/Matt) will buy another Simplified Planner.  I really do like having a planner and the cover is just beautiful (which is important since it sits out on my desk, going against this rule) but I could probably find something less expensive that would fill my "stays open but also shows me a week in a spread" needs.   But then I also looked at the new covers and I was thinking this one or this one might be pretty for next year...so I don't know.  I probably won't decide until about the Black Friday sale.  Or maybe after almost 11 months of using a paper planner I'll have a better decision than 3 months in.

I do know that it's been very helpful for me to plan out my ~2 hours of solitude each weekday, keep track of what I'd like to get done.  But also other tasks that need done that aren't recurring (like cleaning bathrooms) but more of the "print tax return to file" type.  It helps keep me motivated when I do sit down at my computer, to work through the things I've already decided need done instead of getting lost down a rabbit trail of reading other blog posts.  So why I am fairly confident that I'll be using another paper planner for 2020, I'm not 100% sure it will be another Simplified Planner, mostly for the cost and not staying open aspects.  Or it might be because they sure are pretty.

(If you are interested in a Simplified Planner, the academic year planners were just released, you can use my referral link for $10 off.  Which also gets me $10 off but will expire before I (maybe) buy my calendar year planner.)

Looking Back at March

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For most of my life I didn't care for March much, as a month.  It wasn't really winter but it wasn't spring yet either.  It was usually either cold (and snowy) or slightly warmer and rainy (and muddy).  It was about the halfway point of college semesters and still too far from April 15th in all the years I worked tax season. 

Then we got a son with a March birthday.  Then we got another son with a March birthday.  And I don't have to spend the whole month doing taxes.  In general, March is a better month for me now.

Until this year.  It is not much of an exaggeration to say we were sick the whole month.  Luke missed 5 days of school due to fever.  We all got a stomach bug.  I had multiple days of having a fever (like 3 different multi-day stretches!).  Once we got over the worst of it, there were still coughs and congestion (which I've also had since October, I'm never healthy).  I had many nights with hardly any sleep.  We had to reschedule the boys' birthday party.  It was a pretty miserable month, health wise.

So, the boys' birthdays (two of the rare days we were mostly healthy!) were definitely the bright spots and I am relieved we have moved on to April and, for the most part, much healthier! 


Looking back:
1 year ago: Things That Make Me Feel Like Me (written in the early days with Sam!)

2 years ago: Chairs with History
3 years ago: Dilemma: What to Do About the Carpet (SO GLAD we dealt with this!)
4 years ago: An Appreciation of the Seasons (and in Defense of Winter) (Also, what I think of every time I hear someone complain about the weather, especially this time of year.)

5 years ago: The Joys of Parenthood
6 years ago: Making Room for Baby & Some Other Stuff (written after Luke was born but before we knew about him!)
7 years ago: Q: Now That You're Adopting You're Going to Get Pregnant (I think we can safely say the answer to that one is NO, 7 years later.)

1) Finally made Kool-Aid cookies, spring tradition.  Sam figured out pretty quick that he liked them!
2) It snowed on Sam's birthday!
3) Bro's Lemur and climbing stairs, these are a few of Sam's favorite things.
4) The last can of formula!  I do not miss that expense.
5) So we've been getting quotes to replace our (VERY old) AC unit and one of the companies seemingly turned off our heat, after telling me we should also replace the furnace.  Sam and I had a cold day at home.  Suffice it to say, we didn't go with that company.
6) NSA Day, this was over half my life ago!
7) Baking cupcakes.  A lot of cupcakes.
8) We had planned to hang a lot of balloons for the boys' birthday party.  The last time we did this we had to reschedule the party from being sick.  Guess what happened again this year?  Maybe we should stop planning on balloons. 
9) Rearranging furniture for the party and Sam has a new favorite place to climb (I was on the couch with him, he was fine).
10) Chalk on a warm afternoon with my big kid!
11) Finally able to walk to school pick-up again!  I'll miss the added reading time but appreciate the fresh air!
12) An inch of snow to start spring break.  YAY Indiana!


Books finished: 12

Miles ran: 0.00, I'm going to start soon, I promise.  Being sick didn't help things.

Currently watching: I'm caught up on Grey's!  That only took a year.  Matt and I watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the one day a week he can watch screens.
Most read post this month: Quick Lit - March, then {3} Benefits of One Bathroom
Luke's current favorite song: Awesome God by Rich Mullins.  I love that that's what he keeps picking.

The weather is warming up, we've been outside more, and Easter is just over 2 weeks away.  Life is great!

1st quarter progress on 19 in 19

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If my (semi-infrequent, at least lately) blogging has taught me anything it's that I like using the internet for accountability.  I'm great at coming up with projects (ask my husband, the list is never ending) but follow-through, not always there.  That's where you come in.  If I tell the internet I'm going to do something, I'm much more likely to do it.  That's why I planned quarterly updates to my 19 in 2019 list.  I got a failing grade on my 18 in 2018 list (I blame getting a long awaited but slow to arrive baby for that one) and I'm hoping regular updates and mini deadlines will help us cross off all 19 this year.

Here's where we are, one quarter in:

1) Renew passports (0%)
Not yet.

2) Fill all the nail holes & paint (80%)
I have filled all the nail holes and done most of the painting but the last color I have left (for two rooms), well that paint wasn't made to last 13 years, apparently.  I need to go buy more but haven't made it to Lowes yet.

3) Use some of our compost (0%)
Not yet.  I should also include "clean up the rather over flowing bucket of compost outside the backdoor that I've been adding to all winter when it was too cold to empty".  That needs addressed ASAP now that it's warm(ish).

4) Put hooks in the stairway (0%)
I've thought about this one, does that count?

5) Replace porch ceiling fan (0%)
Almost bought a fan at Lowes a couple weeks ago...but didn't.  So, not yet.

6) Replace night stands (0%)
Matt is back to building an end table and coffee table for our front room (they are literally in progress in the garage right now, which is why my car hasn't been in the garage for weeks) and I'm waiting for those to be done to see what kind of budget I have left for night stands.  That's my excuse at least.
 
7) Replace house numbers (75%)
SO CLOSE!  This is one of those lovely projects that I kinda got Matt to take on as his project...  He's made the board, has the holes drilled for the numbers.  It just needs sealed and then numbers attached and hung.  

8) Sand down & repaint Luke's bedroom door (0%)
Waiting for warmer weather.

9) Add flower boxes to playhouse (0%)
Warmer weather needed.  


10) Plant a lilac bush/tree (0%)
Ditto

11) Fill kitchen picture ledges (100%)
Done!   I think they still need a little tweaking but they are filled!

12) Find a daily lip color (0%)
Not yet.

13) Find a delicate, short necklace (0%)
On my list for April so Matt can give me this for our anniversary/Mother's Day in May.

14) Figure out map for travels (0%)
Nope.


15) Organize Luke's school papers (0%)
I'm thinking May and then Luke and I can sort through his school papers over the summer.  I've recycled A LOT but still have A LOT.  I think he'll bring home a ream's worth of paper over the course of the school year.  It's a crazy amount I sort through each month.

16) Go on 4 dates with Matt (0%)
Had one on the calendar...then sickness meant a birthday party needed rescheduled so date got bumped.  Of course I scheduled this for late March so rescheduling this quarter didn't happen.  Maybe in April?

17) Read 6 chapter books with Luke (83%)
We've finished 5 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and have started 6!  Doing very well on this one!

 18) Order 6 photobooks (2018, Sam year 1, Luke year 6, NYC, Las Vegas, summer 2019 vacation) (50%)
Ordered New York's in January, 2018 and Las Vegas in February.  Hope to get Sam's and Luke's both ordered this month.  They are close.

19) Integrate 3 essential oils in our lives (33%)
We regularly (but not every night) use lavender in a diffuser in the boys' room at night.  Sam LOVES the diffuser (we got this one).  Haven't moved beyond that.

So I calculate that at about 22% done which isn't far off of an even 25% for a quarter of the year.  That's not too bad.  Warmer weather should help us knock out a lot of these.   Or so I think/hope.  Getting and staying healthy would also help (March was mostly a lost month for the whole family).  Maybe I'll even hit above 50% by the end of second quarter (end of June).  Yay for progress!

Little House Book Flight

About two years ago I reread the entire Little House series (here).  They were pretty quick reading since they are meant for kids but I hadn't read them since I was a kid myself and it was mostly delightful to go back and read them again.  It really made me appreciate all our modern conveniences and that I will never have to travel across the prairie in a covered wagon.  Or live through a winter like The Long Winter with limited heat and food.

Of course, reading the original series made me want to find out more about the real life Ingalls family, find out how much of the series was real, what you could still find of their lives and homes.  So in the last couple years I've continued to read quite a few books about the Ingalls and their real lives.  The Little House series tell a (mostly) wonderful story of a family surviving (sometimes barely) through circumstances most of us wouldn't dream of putting ourselves in.  They hearken back to a much different time in our country and emphasize the important of family and home and making your home wherever your family is.  I've enjoyed all the time I've spent reading about them and learning a bit of what life could have been like back then.

The Little House Series
The ones that started it all.  Definitely the best place to start.

Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Years by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jim LaMarche
This book attempts to fill in a gap of two years that Laura herself didn't cover in the original series.  It is set between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By the Shores of Silver Lake.  The Ingalls spent those years living in a town, running a hotel.  The writing is very much in the same spirit and tone of Laura's writing.  I read this after I finished my reread of the series but if I were rereading them again (or when I read them to my kids) I'll stick this one in where it goes chronologically in with the original books.

On the Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder
This book is the journal Laura kept as her, Almanzo, and Rose left De Smet and moved to Mansfield Missouri in 1894.  It's a pretty thin book but the only one of all of these I haven't read in the last couple years (although I own a copy and read it more than once many years ago).   The original series leaves off with them living near De Smet and Laura's family but Rose spent most of her childhood and Laura wrote all the books when they were living in Mansfield.  She only returned to De Smet a few times after this move.  I still mean to get to this soon.

Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert
This was written in the 1970s and is a biography of the real Laura, starting with her parents' early lives, how they met, straightening out the timeline of the Little House books, and her life with Almanzo afterwards.  It has pictures of Laura, her family, and their house in De Smet.  The author goes into detail on tangential people a few too many times but it was still a fairly compact telling of Laura's real life.

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by Pamela Smith Hill
I read this shortly after finishing the series and it was a bit of a beast to get through.  It's largely taken from the same source materials as Laura mentioned above but goes into A LOT of detail as the editor and team try to determine who every. single. mentioned. character. in the Little House series was in real life.  There are a lot of pictures and documents included in the book and is very detailed about the Ingalls and Wilder families.  I wrote a whole review of it here and it was really interesting to read the real stories but it took awhile to get through.  Read this depending on your interest level after finishing the original series.

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
This author grew up reading the Little House series and, as an adult, spent some serious time visiting Laura's old stomping grounds and learning more about her fans.  I found it really interesting to read about what's left of the Ingalls' various homes and how Laura is celebrated differently at the spots.  There is nothing left of almost all the homes but there are various museums to visit, all of which I found so fascinating.  You can even spend a night in a covered wagon near De Smet (which the author did).  I read this first many years before I reread the series and then read it again after because I was very curious about all the homes.

Little House Picture Books
I only recently found out about these and now, I think, I've read them all to Luke.  They are basic picture books, pulling out stories from the original series and with illustrations done in the style of Garth Williams who was the original illustrator.  We read enough of them and close enough together that Luke was putting together a bit of the story and seemed to remember parts from book to book.  It would probably be helpful to read them in some sort of order but we just read them as we got them from the library so we bounced from the Big Woods to the Prairie to Almanzo's childhood and back and forth.  I think this gave Luke some sort of introduction so eventually I can read the original books to him.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
I have often recommended this book when I hear people reading the Little House series because it is also based on a real life girl who grew up about the same time as Laura, in Wisconsin, on a farm but in different circumstances.  The author based it on her grandmother's life.  I read this many times as a kid and again after finishing the Little House series recently.  It was interesting to read about a young girl who grew up differently than Laura, even so much of their lives were similar.  It's a pretty quick read but a different perspective than the Little House books.

In making this list I realized how many books about Laura I've read and I know there are many more that I haven't!  It's a fascinating world to dip into and appreciate even more things like running water and modern medicine but also be amazed at what people did to survive over 150 years ago.  I have fond memories of reading the books as a kid and enjoyed them just as much as an adult.  Happy reading!