While lamenting the fact that one of my very favorite Easter books, Petook, was out of print, last year I heard a wonderful rumor that is was coming back!! Then I saw that Ignatius Press was beginning to republish some of Tomie DePaola's most beloved religious books, and my heart started beating faster... Lo and behold, while checking used prices for Petook months later, the pre-order link popped up for the newest edition!! I told everybody I know, I was so excited. And I not-so-subtly hinted that if Ignatius wanted to send me a copy, I would review it in a heartbeat!

 

Family Catechesis at Home: Through the Year with Jesus Giveaway

Lent is almost here! (Or maybe you're reading this late, in which case... I hope your Lent is sufficiently penitential and spiritually enriching!) If you haven't already solidified your family's plans, I've got an idea for you:

 

Katie is a religion teacher and an absolute gift to the Church - if you've never read her blog, please don't miss it! She has an abundance of resources for living the liturgical year whether you're homeschooling, trying to add to your religious education at home, or teaching CCD at your parish. And now, she's published a book!

 

Our Most-Loved Books of 2020

2020 has been a year for the books, literally! With more time at home than ever before, we've been reading even more than we already did (and we were already big readers!!).

Back in February I did a large-scale reorganization and purge of all our books, which has *mostly* been keeping things organized, and has helped the kids know exactly where the books they love most are at any time. And it's given me a better idea of what is getting read and what we could stand to get rid of to make room for MORE books.

In the event that you're still looking for ideas to stock your shelves, here's a list of each child's favorite and most-read books!

Venturing with God in the Congo Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
 

I had never heard of "missionary stories" as a book genre until Venturing with God in the Congo arrived from Conjurske Publications. A sturdily-bound book, I was impressed just by the physical durability of the publication. The book is the perfect size, pages are thick and high quality, and the binding is secure enough to withstand it getting dropped multiple times by my children with no issues!

January Reads

I'm going to blatantly copy Hannah and do a summary of the books I read in January, because I never did get around to a 2019 summary—too many books, and too many from so many months earlier that I can't remember much about them!!

Here's what I read in January:

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Whose Body? ⭐⭐⭐ I've seen Sayers recommended time and again, so I thought I'd give her a try.

Our 2019 Advent Books {Book Stacks + Giveaway}

 

This year is one of those years when Advent begins on December 1 and syncs up with the secular Christmas countdown, and I kind of love it! Last year I put together a calendar of our Christmas and Advent books and coordinating activities, so feel free to use that as a basic guide for yourself this year. I couldn't help adding a few more to our list, though - here are some we're adding to our collection this year:

Our Twelve Days of Christmas {A Giveaway}

We love to celebrate Christmas all the way through Candlemas (February 2), but after spending Advent really preparing instead of celebrating early, we like to make sure we celebrate each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas! After we finish our Advent books, we shift the focus a little. Here's what we're doing and reading this year:

Our Book-A-Day Advent Calendar

Every Advent we set aside quite a few of our school books and replace them with books that will help us prepare for the Incarnation. It makes things beautifully low-key, and I love what a wonderful tradition it has become! In an attempt to actually plan things out this year (instead of the usual fly by the seat of my pants that I do), I'm listing our plans here. Maybe you need ideas? I hope this inspires you! These are some of our absolute favorite books! And while I can pretty much guarantee we won't get to every single thing on this list, I think we can manage most of it.

Book Stacks: Volume 2 (with giveaways!)

You know what? I do these book posts infrequently enough, it might be fun to do a giveaway with each one! And this week I have not one, but TWO books to give away—one for adults, one for kids.

So, what have we been reading these past few months? Well, you'll have to check out my Goodreads to see everything, because it's been 40+ books for me... That's what happens when I get pregnant & have insomnia, thus spending lots of time in bed reading on my Kindle. I'm not going to list them all here, just some highlights! Read Volume 1 here.

Here's some of what I've read!

Book Stacks: Volume 1

Goodreads just emailed me congratulating me on my progress towards my 2018 reading goal, and I was surprised to see I had read 15 books already this year! Then I realized that I was about to finish two more, and that two others hadn't gotten counted... So 19 books so far! I figured we're a third of the way through the year, so it might be worth sharing what I've read (and what the kids have read) and enjoyed so far, because doing just one big summary at the end of the year means I won't remember anything I read at the beginning...

We'll see how frequent these "Book Stacks" posts become, but I think it'll be a good way to organize what we're reading! So without further adieu... Here's what we've read!