some good reads

Hey Moms of little ones, I have two books I've been reading this summer that have been wonderful, and I think you'll love them too.
I got a little devotional to read and discuss with the girls over breakfast since we don't have to rush off to school these days.  It's called Jesus Calling 365 Devotionals for Kids by Sarah Young.  This morning it lead us in a conversation about Ephesians 4:30 (CEV) "Don't make God's Spirit sad.  The Spirit makes you sure that some day you will be free from your sins."
We talked about how it hurts Him to see us struggle alone with our problems, when he is just waiting to help us.  It saddens him to see us blindly walk through our day, not even noticing the blessings He has provided for us.
We looked back over the past hour of preparing breakfast and realized we hadn't thought of Jesus or asked him for help.  We had fought with our sisters.  We were impatient for our juice (and coffee).  So we thought about how much we actually love our sisters.  How great that God let us have each other.  We looked around for other blessings that we hadn't recognized earlier.  Butter.  We were all happy about butter on our english muffins.  It was such a cool morning too, with dew on the grass.  We thanked God for such a beautiful day.
I don't know why we don't start every day this way.

Book #2 is called Loving the Little Years - Motherhood in the Trenches, by Rachel Jankovic.  It's super short and just full of right thinking.  I wanted to underline half of it.  And I kept saying, I wish I could have read this 8 years ago.  One of her tips I've adopted is to stop using the word "overwhelmed", or thinking about how overwhelming this or that may be.  I think I've been using it to describe my circumstances ever since I birthed babe #1, and used it more and more with each additional child.  I realized I think of my life in terms of how overwhelming or un-overwhelming it is moment to moment.  I keep score.  I make note of how much sleep I lost last night, in case anyone asks.  Or I'll make note of how many straight minutes that 3 girls cried and screamed at the same time, so that I can tell Nathan my sad story and he will understand my fragile state when he comes home from work.  But Rachel says, this is your new normal.  Embrace the level of whelmedness (that's my word) and stop saying you're OVERwhelmed.  This is where the Lord has you.
Well, there's a whole pile of wonderful tid-bits that struck me through that book.  It's a fast, easy, entertaining read.

I also just finished Jane Eyre.  That's a lovely book too.

Well, the girls are making their ponies yell mean thing in a british accent, which means we should just get dressed for VBS before it gets any more intense.