Story Time Saturday - Our Favorite Winter Books

The weekly installment of (some of) what we're reading this week 

"The sun that brief December day

Rose cheerless over hills of gray,

And, darkly circled, gave at noon

A sadder light than waning moon.

Slow tracing down the thickening sky

Its mute and ominous prophecy,

A portent seeming less than threat,

It sank from sight before it set.

A chill no coat, however stout,

Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,

A hard, dull bitterness of cold,

That checked, mid-vein, the circling race

Of life-blood in the sharpened face,

The coming of the snow-storm told.

The wind blew east; we heard the roar

Of Ocean on his wintry shore,

And felt the strong pulse throbbing there

Beat with low rhythm our inland air."
-John Greenleaf Whittier

The shortest day of the year is almost upon us! I can hardly believe winter solstice has come around again. My husband and I got married on winter solstice, so it's a sweet day for the family. 

It seemed a little too close to Christmas for me to do a post about our favorite Christmas books, so instead I'm going to list our absolute favorite winter books to read while the nights are long - all snugged up on the couch. 

1. The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader. 
The illustrations are so beautiful. Great story about woodland animals getting ready for winter.

2. Winter  by Gerda Muller. 
This is our all time favorite winter board book. Gerda Muller's illustrations are so detailed and fun for people of all ages to look at. This book doesn't have words, but beautiful images of a family enjoying winter activities together. We enjoy making up little stories about the family or just looking at the pictures. Gerda Muller has made one for each season and they are all great.

3. The Three Snow Bears By Jan Brett 
Most of Jan Brett's books are winter themed, but I'm listing Peter's all time favorite. A retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Snow Bears tells the story of Aloo-ki who comes across an igloo while out with her sled dogs. The igloo belongs to three polar bears, who left while their breakfast cools. Like all of Jan Brett's books, the illustrations are stunning.

4. Bear Snores On  By Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman 
A fun story about a bear hibernating in his cave totally oblivious to the party the other animals are having around him. Eventually he wakes and joins in the fun. Peter loves to retell this story with his stuffed animals. It's a great introduction to the concept of hibernation.

5. The Snowy Day By Ezra Jack Keats
I'm sure everyone is familiar with this one, but I just couldn't leave it out. It was one of my all time favorite books as a kid. Peter also loves it. This book captures childhood wonder like no other.

6. James Herriot's Treasury For Children By James Herriot
This is such an incredible collection of James Herriot's fantastic stories of a British Veterinarian. The illustrations are so lovely. Although not all the stories are set in winter, there is a cozy feeling about all the them. The stories themselves are unabridged, so they are fun for the parents to read over and over again too. This is an all time favorite of ours!

7. Owl Moon By Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr
Oh my gosh, this book is so stunning. It tells the story of father and daughter walking through the night to see an owl. It's written poetically and the illustrations are gorgeous. We love books about appreciation of nature and parents spending time outside with their kids. At the end, when the little girl gets to see her first owl, I always tear up a little. I'm a sap like that.

8. Snowflake Bentley By Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian
This is my all time favorite winter picture book biography. It's about the scientist Wilson Bentley who developed the technique for photographing snowflakes. Through his photographs it was discovered that no two snowflakes are identical...and that they are stunningly beautiful. Illustrated with charming woodcuts.

9. Animals in Winter By  Henrietta Bancroft and Helen K. Davie
Another great nonfiction picture book about winter. This one talks about what the animals do during the winter. I've been reading it in anticipation of our plan to decorate a tree for the wild animals (birdseed pinecones, strings of popcorn and cranberries, and suet) on one of the 12 days of Christmas. I'm hoping that will become one of our yearly traditions.

I hope everyone has a peaceful winter weekend! 

*This post contains affiliate links ~ For any purchase made through the links I post, a small stipend goes to our family book fund.  

Seven Quick Takes

Today I'm linking up with This Ain't The Lyceum for Seven Quick Takes Friday! 

1.  Peter has gotten so much more articulate and mature in the last week. It's amazing how quickly that happens! I'll write more about Ectodermal dysplasia soon, but Peter was born with it and he does not have any teeth (yet). We often tell him about how he will get denture teeth from the dentist soon and he's very very excited. This last Sunday after Church was the first time Peter came to me saying "Mama, my friends want to know why I don't have teeth."! I was wondering how I would handle this, and it was way easier than I had anticipated. We go to a lovely Catholic Parish full of the kindest parents & kids. I went over to explain why Peter doesn't have teeth only to hear a couple of the older kids already doing so in the kindest and most sensitive way ever: "Peter can't grow teeth." one of them said, "But that's okay! He will get his teeth from the dentist". "Just like how some people need glasses to see" chimed in another kid. Yes. I chose the right community for raising my kids in. 

2. Advent has been awesome. I'm so glad that I've taken the season more to heart this year. I'm saving up my celebrating for the 12 days of Christmas and it feels good! We're loving the Jesse Tree and singing Advent songs. We even found one that Peter likes to sing with us: Easy Advent Song For Toddlers. Rosie even signs along a little! 

3. My kids have both rolled and scooted very early, which makes diaper changing a challenge. With Peter I spent so much time laying him back on his back. With Rosie, I've tried a different approach and it works great. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this before!

Yes, it's on backwards. 

4. We've had so much fun with this super easy to make trolley. I just tied a little box to a toilet paper tube and then strung it on yarn across our cabin. The Playmobil and Duplo people/animals no longer have to traverse our cabin in the back of a Unimog. 

5. It's that time of year again, everyone is getting sick. For the last 2 years, I tried to avoid people who were sick, and we ended up isolated and still caught everything. This year I'm not going to be as cautious about other people's illnesses, instead I'm using great herbal immune boosters and trying to eat a clean diet. We've done a lot of foraging this last year and this week we're making some tinctures. It's been a few years, so I'm super excited to build up my now depleted medicine cabinet. 

Nature journaling, toddler style.  

Playing in the dirt while I gather the early fall crop of nettles. Yum! 

6. One of Peter's Christmas presents is a little kit (I put together) for starting a spring garden. I keep having conflicting feelings about this because what I really want is to start homesteading on a property of our own. But the reality is, that will likely not happen for a few years. Meanwhile, there's everything right about starting a small garden. Maybe we can even get a bee hive going! 

7. Rosie's been keeping me up at all hours this last week. I've gotten lots of time to read and pray, so I'm just seeing it as productive time. My feelings about sleep deprivation have shifted dramatically this year. When you can't change it, why let it bother you? Instead I sleep when I can and enjoy it when I can't. 

Being Charitable When There's No Money To Give

"None of you should be looking out for your own interests, but for the interests of others"

~1 Corinthians 10:24

Our family is financially very poor. We are far below the poverty line. We started our family young, both my husband and I in our early 20's. For many many many reasons I am so happy that we started young. We both love being parents, we have a lot of energy, and it's been overall the best thing ever. The only minor detail is money. Well, maybe major, depends on how you look at it. We're definitely still getting all of our ducks in a row in that department. We've made the solid decision to have me be the stay at home parent (for many reasons) so Cosmo has been studying computer science and doing odd jobs to scrape us along. (working/studying hard, 60+ hours a week)
And I know it won't be like this forever. 

Being poor has forced us to look directly to helping our neighbor, rather than donating to the many incredible international charities or local causes. As it turns out, there are countless people in need even on our small fairly affluent island.

"There fared a mother driven forth

Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,

Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand

Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,

But our homes are under miraculous skies

Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things

Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings

Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home."

G.K Chesterton (The House of Christmas) 

  In March, our dear Rosie was born. Just as with Peter, I had a very easy pregnancy, a nearly painless homebirth, followed by every major breastfeeding issue that can occur. Rosie wasn't nursing and I was panicking. (Those postpartum hormones really don't lend a hand either). We finally got her diagnosed with both tongue and lip tie. It was a relatively easy fix, and I'm thankful for that. When we went in to get her surgery done, I had to fill out a lot of paperwork. One of the forms was to check for postpartum depression.  It asked me to check off the boxes of major stressful life events.
I was shocked as I sat there checking off every box but one (I wasn't having marital difficulties, thanks be to God). It has been a very rough year. Possibly the hardest I've ever had.  It had not landed though until that moment. My mom had just had a major stroke, we had just moved (twice now), we had a baby who couldn't eat, we are financially poor, and I can't remember the other things, but they were applicable at the time.

The strange thing is, I didn't notice. I had horrible PPD and anxiety after Peter was born. After Rosie was born, I was living through one of the hardest years of my life, and I was mostly okay. I credit that with my new faith in God, an active prayer life, and to all the many people who came and helped us and my family. I am eternally grateful to everyone who helped.

Cosmo and I lay in bed one of those scary nights during the weeks when we didn't know if my mom would ever walk again and decided with much sincerity that we wanted to be a helpful family. 

So, although at this time we could easily be a charity case, we have turned our attention to helping others as much as we possibly can. 

We make a point every week of bringing meals to families who are sick, having a hard time, or simply seem like they need to be touched by a friendly gesture. I clean and do childcare for a family who is living through chronic illness.  I knit little things for people in need. I help my family. The more I turn my attention to giving, the more energy I seem to have. There are truly so many easy ways to give. Living frugally actually does a lot of good for our planet. For instance, we really try to not waste food.

“We must remember that when we waste or throw away food, it's as if we're stealing it from the table of the poor. From those who are hungry! I invite everyone to reflect upon this problem of waste, so that solutions to this problem can be faced with seriousness. May the solutions lead us to a culture of solidarity and sharing with those who need it most.” -Pope Francis

Do I throw away the half-quart of 3 day old soup my family is sick of eating, or pack it up to hand over to someone on the street?  

“Truly I say to you that with difficulty a rich person will enter into the kingdom of heaven! And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person into the kingdom of God.” - Mathew 19:23-24

So perhaps it is a great blessing that we are poor. When we someday have more, I'll be excited to be able to donate money too. But I'm never going to stop helping my neighbors, friends, and community. It's building up our family in so many ways. Peter often asks me "Who we be helping today, mama?" or "Are we going to clean someone's house today? Can we go now?" 

How to do Story Time Tea With Toddlers (and Babies)

"Drop Thy still dew of quietness

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace."

~John Greenleaf Whittier

We love love love to read in our house. I read aloud all day, listen to audio books while cooking/cleaning, and I try to find solid reading time for myself as often as possible (split with knitting and time in nature/prayer). So it might seem odd that I have select reading times set through our day, but I do. I find that I have an easier time staying in my role as mother and educator of my children if I keep a good daily schedule. The best part about keeping a schedule is how much more free time it has allowed us. Anyhow, one of the activities I hold close to my heart is our daily story time tea. It's not always easy, actually some days I hardly want to do it, but we always enjoy it.
I pray the liturgy of the hours (it's a Catholic thing). Because I already pray in the 3:00 hour, it's easy for me to lead us in that prayer and then have a good tea! 

Here are some of the ways I've found make it easier and more doable: 

1. Read Anywhere/Everywhere 

Most days we are home and have a proper tea on the table. 

But other days we are still playing in the forest.

And still other days we take a more casual approach on the couch. 

2. Offer A Theme (and then read whatever your toddler wants)

Don't get me wrong, I love Richard Scarry. But Peter goes through phases where the only books he wants to read are "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" and "The Counting Book". Both are long and kinda drive me bonkers. For Story Time Tea, I often will offer a theme. 

Today's theme was Space and The Moon. 

Kids get excited about a theme and they love repetition, so a weekly theme would work well. With the theme books laid out before tea starts, we usually read most of those before Peter runs and grabs "The Counting Book". That being said, I never ever not ever say "no" to reading a book because I am sick of it. That's just the choice our family has made. Because Peter loves "The Counting Book" and I've read it a bazillion times, he could count to 10 around his 2nd birthday. He loves numbers and I feel passionate about nourishing the interests my kids have. 

3. Have Snacks and Tea

Afternoon snack is a good idea for everyone. I usually have a couple cups of Irish Breakfast tea to keep me going and I give my kids chamomile to help them chill out before the late afternoon crankiness starts. Before Peter was born I read a book about French parenting. The only thing I learned in that book that fits with our own family is the afternoon le goûter.

According to the author, it is during their afternoon snack that they give their kids the sweet treat of the day. That made so much sense to me. Why give dessert after dinner, right before bedtime? If there is going to be a sweet treat in the day, have it with afternoon tea, a couple hours before dinner!

4. Exercise the Kids Before Sitting Down

We always take our daily walk before Story Time Tea. Or we go play at the park. 

Today, at the park. 

5. But Above All, Just Read To Your Kid(s)!

We love our Story Time Tea because it combines le goûter, books, and a fun daily tradition for our family. Having activities through the day helps me keep going as a mom, but it would make other parents crazy! 

Peter loves taking a turn "reading" to Rosie. He remembers the stories very well. 

Our weekly haul from the library. 

Story Time Tea outside...airplane themed! 

Peter and Rosie snuggling during Story Time Tea