On My Bookshelf–Week 2

Another great week of books here.  I finished a few and spent a good bit of time reading in Sense and Sensibility.  Here are my mini reviews of the books I finished, plus where I got them.

Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Ostyn– This book is written by a mother of ten, 4 born to her and 6 adopted.  I’ve read her blog Owlhaven for a short while and found her to be fun and frugal.  This book spends the first four chapters helping you get your frugal shopping feet under you and following her in a shopping trip while the rest of the book is full of recipes and tips for cooking.  From main dishes to cuisine from other countries and baked goods to homemade items like salad dressings and seasoning mixes this book has a variety.  I’m excited to pick a new dish from here each week to try!  I bought this book on Amazon.

A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family – This is also by Mary Ostyn, author of the cookbook above.  This tells the story of their family from small family to adoptive family to large family.  She tackles topics like making space, supermom myths, and children who are likeable helpers instead of self-centered autocrats.  There is a chapter on encouraging sibling friendships (with ways to work on less than friendly relationships).  I found it to be a fun, encouraging book to read.  I laughed often and found myself stopping my husband to read aloud paragraphs to him.  Great book!  I borrowed this from the library.

Allerednic: A Regency Cinderella Tale--In Reverse by Chautona Havig – This was a fun, clean Regency romance and that is hard to find!  Following the story of countess-to-be Lady Charlotte, who relies a bit too often on the advice of others, and well off Jasper Seyton this story was sweet and had a few unexpected twists.  I also enjoyed the parallel romance between Jasper’s trusted servant and determined bachelor Worley and a servant in Lady Charlotte’s household. I got this book free for Kindle.  You do check the Top 100 Free Kindle Books list regularly, don’t you?

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman – I was re-reading this book looking for some encouragement.  I actually started it near the end of December and one thing that makes it an easy read is the chapters are short.  I could read one when I had just a few minutes and then chew on the ideas while I went about my day with my children. 

Part one has 17 chapters that lay a foundation for caring for a large family and seeing it as a blessing.  Yes, there is more work and more needs to meet when there are more people in the house.  Our attitude about the increased load matters!  In these chapters are basics for teaching children a strong work ethic, finding balance, and living with littles in the house. 

Part two has 29 more chapters on more specific topics.  She advocates having a ‘day’ to focus on extra work in areas. A few examples:

• Town Day – Planning errands and appointments to fall on one day when possible.
• Laundry Day – While her family does a few loads of laundry daily she uses this day to catch up if needed, to clean the laundry area, and to get all that laundry put away if it hasn’t been done all week.
• Kitchen Day – This day you do extra deep cleaning in your kitchen such as wiping out the microwave or cleaning out a cabinet.  You also do extra baking for the week on Kitchen day so you get most of the floury mess done at once.  She suggests following up with Cleaning Day the next day.

Other chapters in part two discuss routines around chores with the children, read aloud time, quiet time, and meals.  She has suggestions for pregnancy and new baby times, homeschooling, and many other areas.  This book is on my shelves and I have reread it several times, taking away a fresh perspective on large family life each time.

That’s it for my reading this week.  You can see everything I’ve read in the Books Read 2013 tab above.  What have you read lately?