What I Read: February 2023

These books were all completely unplanned.

I remember bits and pieces of Kindergarten vividly, and one of the things I think of fairly often is an activity that we did where we had a big paper calendar of the month of March and each day we decided if the weather was “lion” weather or “lamb” weather and pasted a photo of one on the calendar day. At the end of the month, we had to think about whether or not the adage “in like a lion and out like a lamb” applied to March like we were told. I can’t remember if the adage held up, whether or not there were more lions or more lambs. But I do remember that charting, taking something invisible and making it visible.

We were sick for three weeks of February, and then pushed through a couple of days of “wintry mix” that then froze, thawed, and froze again. Scott got sent out on storm trouble for work, which means we didn’t see him during the freeze-thaw-freeze-repeat days. The kids and I finally left the house on Friday for a glorious trip in the sunshine to the chiropractor, coffeeshop, and library — and a last-minute grocery run so I could make what I have dubbed Cara’s Rotisserie Chicken Soup in our house (new favorite from my friend Cara, the soup and this essay).

Cara and I have been texting in recent months about parenting and living rural (her mileage from civilization beats mine by a long shot) and how hard everything is these days, from going to the grocery store to making decisions to even just flat-out being nice to our kids.

If I’m being honest, February held a lot of “lion” days for our house — and I don’t mean just the weather. February was intense — lots of highs, lots (LOTS) of lows. All our attitudes are out of whack. We need sunshine and warmth and time spent outside (that doesn’t involve chipping ice off of anything). We need to see friends. We need to see each other outside the four walls of this house.

I’m not sure if March will come in like a lion and go out like a lamb (please, Dear Lord, let there be some lamb days in there, in the weather and in my attitude!). But I do know that ditching your meal plan to make a friend’s recipe that she delivers to you via a voice message makes a day better. It makes a long-distance friendship visible, and reminds you that nourishment can be as simple as a really good soup.

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Here’s what I read in February:

Attached to God: A Practical Guide to Deeper Spiritual Experience

by Krispin Mayfield

I took a weirdly long time to read this fairly short book. It wasn’t because it was dull or uninteresting or unhelpful, I think I was just in a place where I should have been reading fiction instead of non-fiction. Mayfield is a licensed professional counselor who does a lot of work with Attachment Theory, and I was right in that it made a good companion to Dr. Becky Kennedy’s Good Inside that I read a few months ago. Mayfield lays out three basic styles of attachment and shares how the way we attach to our primary caregiver(s) is also how we most often attach to God — and how we can work to uncover the things holding us back from a deeper experience and create a different pattern for ourselves.

Goodreads | Bookshop

Sea of Tranquility: A Novel

by Emily St. John Mandel

As soon as I finally finished Attached to God, I knew I needed fiction, and I needed it to be good fiction. I’d like to think this hardcover of Sea of Tranquility was sitting on my shelf for that very moment. If you are one of the many who loved Station Eleven by Mandel, definitely pick up this novel by her as well. It’s a bit sparse, but contains Mandel’s trademark lyrical writing. Set in a future moon colony and on the Earth during a novelist’s book tour, the novel spans a couple of story lines that all come together in a gorgeous way as the pages turn. It’s a bit mysterious and a bit sci-fi, but rolled into incredibly readable literary fiction. Loved; will read again.

Goodreads | Bookshop

The Vanderbeekers #5: Make a Wish {audiobook}

by Karina Yan Glaser / narrated by Robin Miles

The Vanderbeekers are days away from their dad’s 40th birthday… and they still haven’t figured out the perfect gift for him. Which is a problem, since they managed to give their mom the chance to open her dream bakery on her 40th birthday. They need to find something soon…

This series continues to delight. The mix of kids and their ages and personalities continues to lend each adventure the perfect combo of whimsy and responsibility. This installment touches on handling disappointment, demonstrates anti-Asian-American sentiment in an age-appropriate way and discusses why its wrong and what our response can be, and shows the kids working together to bring joy to the people in their lives. I’ve been putting off borrowing the next book in the series since I know we’re getting close to the end and I don’t want to leave the Vanderbeekers behind.

Goodreads | Bookshop

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace

by Sarah Mackenzie

I picked this up after a friend recommended Mackenzie’s podcast and the book was mentioned there. It’s a mercifully short book (just 80 pages), and really resonated with me in the rough days of February when sitting down to “do school” with Arthur was hard more often than it was good. Mackenzie writes from an explicitly religious point of view, so keep that in mind as you decide if this one is for you or not. I found her perspective refreshing and helpful; I’ve got at least a half a dozen page markers in the slim volume, and will likely purchase a copy for myself to keep and re-read as needed if I decide to continue to keep children at home for school.

Goodreads | Classical Academic Press

The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids

by Sarah Mackenzie

The library should make it harder to check books out, really. It was too easy to click over from requesting Mackenzie’s other title to request this one at the same time… I’m just saying that a tougher-to-navigate online library catalog could save my nightstand some space. All that aside, I really liked this one. I know I’m a few years behind in picking it up, and no one really needs to tell me that reading aloud to kids is good for them, but I do think I needed the reminder that reading aloud is good for *me*. Parenting small children is not my strong suit. I like predictability and routine and logic… and children are none of those things. I’m intentionally trying to lean into my strengths these days, and reading books with my kids is one of them. The days go better when we read more. My attitude is better when we read more. It was nice to have a whole book to tell me that none of that time is ever wasted. Mackenzie’s reading lists in the back section reminded me of some gems we’ve missed, and got me excited for more and longer read-alouds as my children grow.

Goodreads | Bookshop

I just pulled The Winners off the shelf — the final installment of the Beartown trilogy by Fredrik Backman. It grips you from the first page, but does need a lot of content warnings: sexual assault, rape, gun violence, abuse. None of it is gratuitous — but Backman is writing about hurt people in a struggling town, and that hurt shows through. Don’t start the series here! Pick up Beartown first. It’s a series about hockey a hockey town, but it’s not about the hockey.

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What I’m Reading With the Kids:

I think we have officially read everything Kate DiCamillo has ever written. I do think that Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken and La La La are the least compelling of all her stuff we’ve read, so it’s kind of a bummer to end on them. But literally every other title by her we have devoured and plan to read again and maybe purchase ourselves, so I’d call that experiment a win.

We’re wrapping up our unit on penguins, and I’ll share a list of those reads soon, but for now know that we ALL love Flight School (not a wonder that Lita Judge, the author of Red Sled has wowed us again), One Cool Friend, and Lost and Found.

As spring hints at arriving, we’re starting to dig into our collection of spring books + some that are new. Here are two that I nabbed from the library and fell in love with: Old Rock and Hello Lighthouse. They are not explicitly spring-themed, but they make me yearn to be outside, and that’s kind of the same thing these days.

Lisa Hensley asked if we’d ever read the Toot & Puddle books last month — I had never even heard of them. Nabbed these three from the library and can see why Lisa loves them: the two pigs are friends, and they honor and celebrate each other’s differences so well. Sweet tales of friendship are maybe my favorite picture book genre? Thanks for the recommendation, Lisa! We’ll definitely add Let it Snow to our Christmas Favorites.

That’s all for February! Here’s to more sun and more good books. Maybe even books IN the sun?!?