Current Reading list

My current reading list includes

The Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. This is a great book to get you started in canning and preserving. Lots of great information and recipes.

Big Little Felt Universe by Jeanette Lim. If you've ever had an interest in making your own felt toys, you need to check out this book!! The patterns and directions are clear and easy to follow, with set by set pictures for most of the projects. There are lots of patterns for playfoods, both basic and advanced. There are also patterns for a camping set, a doctor medical bag, a computer, a purse full of all the essentials and more! My daughter has already made a wishlist for Yule that i'm just starting to get to working on. This book of so many creative and inspiring ideas! If you've been wanting to make felt toys for your child, this book is a great place to start!

Keeping Chickens, Home Dairy and Keeping Bees by Ashley English. i recently was lucky enough to win this hardcover set of homesteading books from Ellen over at Confessions of an overworked mom. Ashley English lives in NC, and is the author of the "Homemade Living" book series from Lark Books. Her books showcases topics related to small-scale homesteading and some of the diverse ways people are reconnecting with their food and food communities and taking up sustainable food practices. Ashley has a great blog called Small Measures that you can check out. The books are well written, with lots of fun pictures and great information. Although i've been raising chickens for over 5 year, i still found a lot of new and useful information in her Keeping Chickens book. Her books also contain recipes, and helpful tips. Really a great series to get you started on any of these homesteading topics.

Ice Pop Joy by Anni Daulter i recieved this book a few weeks ago, and am putting together a review that i'll be posting soon. We've been trying out many of the different recipes, and so far have loved them all. i've been dying to try the Heavenly bar, which is a mix of white chocolate, coconut milk and nuts....Wow. This book has gorgeous colorful pictures, and fabulous recipes to get your kids to eat healthy. i'll be posting a full review soon.

Kids Garden (Barefoot books) by Whitney Cohen and Roberta Arenson This one isn't actually book, but a set of instructional cards that contains forty activities and games. It also comes with an eight-page booklet that contains information on gardening tools, year-round plant care and garden safety. The double-sided cards contain step-by-step instructions and colorful collage artwork. They create a fun and easy way for budding green-thumbs to plant, investigate, learn and experiment. Both of my kids love these! They have gone through the cards numerous times and have both made lists of all the projects they want to do. Many of them will have to wait until next spring, as it is too late to plant, but we have still been able to complete a few projects and crafts. This is really a cool way to get your child outside and interested in gardening.

Goat Song: A seasonal Life, A short History and the Art of Making Cheese. by Brad Kessler
i have just started this one, so i can't say much about it except that i am very much enjoying it. It's the story of a writer and his artist wife that moves to Vermont, decide to keep goats, and learn how to make cheese. The book isn't meant as a guide to raising goats, but is the personal journey of the author. His writing is moving and poetic, with a hint of spirituality. The book has been described as a love story between human and animal, past and present, earth and food. The reviews on this one have been incredible. i'm very excited to finally sit down and read it.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas This is what i'm reading to the kids right now. It is about a pick-pocket street boy, that ends up as a Wizard's apprentice. Like most recent boy wizard books we have have read, there is a definite hint of Harry Potter in the story. Honestly, the story started a bit slow for me, but is starting to pick up. My boy is enjoying it, and i'm interested to see where the story goes. We read lots of books over the summer, and most were just okay. The book Walls within Walls was absolutely fantastic though, and i highly recommend that one. It was incredibly well written and interesting. It combined facts with fiction, and intrigued us enough that we did our own online research of architect Rafael Guastavino after finishing the book.

That's it for my current reading list. With the kids in school now, i am finally able to pick up all these books and magazines i've been wanting to read. Would love to hear your recommendations as well.