Happy Wednesday!    Is it hump day already?    We’ve had quite a bit of down time over the past week and a half.  It’s really nice but it feels funny to not be “scheduled” and have to look at our daily planner.   The television is only in Polish, we don’t have a car and so we feel somewhat isolated most of the time.  It’s okay because it makes our little unit stronger, and it’s also afforded us some extra time to read and recharge.  We’ve been getting lots of big smiles from our girl!:)   Daddy has figured out that his beard tickles her and cracks her up.

  When Karolina is napping I’ve been scouring the internet for books about raising daughters and/or parenting and family topics.   I know the BEST book, the ultimate “self-help, how-to” book is the Bible and we’ve been utilizing that also of course, but I did end up choosing, and ordering a small batch of books I am excited about.   One is by GK Chesterton:

“Brave New Family” received excellent reviews and I was able to get a used copy from Amazon for under $10.

Another is “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters” by Meg Meeker.

She has a great library of books to choose from, including “Strong Fathers, Strong Sons” and “The Ten Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity.”   She is actually going to join us on the morning show in 3 weeks, hopefully we will have a copy of the book to give away.   Her website is also great.

In addition I ordered “The Mission of the Catholic Family” (for under $3.00).   I also had to get a book that my friend Jen highly recommended.  It’s called: “The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God: The Story of Ruth Pakaluk. ”  Oddly enough, that particular book is probably the least directed towards “parenting” and/or raising a daughter, but it’s the one I am most anxious to read.   Needless to say, this will be a book-heavy summer and I can’t wait!

Do you have a favorite book about raising children and building a strong family?   There are so many good ones out there, sometimes I think it’s better to go by word of mouth because it would be impossible to read them all.    I’ll report back after I’ve had a chance to crack them open!