Just a Bit of Something

 In going through an old notebook, I stumbled upon this beginning of a story:

Max the Smallest Truck

Max was the smallest truck n the whole yard. Every morning the bit trucks would head out to pick up loads of dirt and gravel and rocks, and Max would wait... and wait...and wait. Every evening the big trucks would come back, dirty and tired, and talking about all the things they had seen that day, and Max would still be waiting. Every night he fell asleep sad and lonely and wondering if tomorrow would be the day. But there was never a load for a little truck.

I have no idea where I was going with this, or if I even had any idea beyond the introduction of Max. Poor Max, doomed to be forever waiting and sad.

Well, It's Something

Sunday School started again yesterday, after a 4-week break. 

My current curriculum is set up so we teach 5 lessons, and then do a review lesson. The review lessons are in a quiz format, and I break the kids into teams. The questions sometimes have a single answer, so only the team who is "up" answers; sometimes have many answers, and we go around the room with the teams taking turns getting as many answers as possible; and are sometimes turned into hangman, where each team takes turns picking a letter and guessing the answer.

Yesterday was a review week and I wasn't sure how much they would remember after the break. They did pretty well. Their main retention, though, was saved for my lesson on how to best guess letters for hangman from the last review week! They did much better this time; the man was never in danger of being hanged.

At least I have evidence that they listen to me! 

It's Just a Little Thing

Yesterday, we had a birthday ladies' tea for a dear friend. She took the time to talk about when she met each of us and something she really appreciates about us.

She did not mention anything related to singleness or children when she talked to me.

It's not a huge deal. It's just that often I feel like people at church see me as the single lady who cares for the children and that's all. 

It was nice that someone sees something else in me as well. 

December

December was long and busy and good. 

I finished my last fall meeting on December 1st, which was the earliest I have finished ever. I try to finish by the end of November, but that never actually works. I was pretty pleased with not going past the first.

Once that was done, December was all about the Christmas concert. There was the challenge of making enough angel costumes for our 16 angels (all of them at least 9 years old, none of them short enough for the "long men's t-shirt" costumes). Then there were practices, the dress rehearsal, and the concert itself. It was a good concert; the children were wonderful and the parents enjoyed it. Plus, I finally broke the 1 hour mark, so that was an accomplishment. It always seems like a lot of work for a concert that's done in 45 minutes.

For several weeks I had felt almost sick on and off, and informed my body that if it must get sick, it had to wait until after the concert. It listened, and two days after the concert I came down with a cold and spent the week inside trying to get better! I wasn't terribly sick; if I had still been working my previous job, most days I would be expected to take some cold meds and go to work. I was thankful for a life where it was okay to get sick, no one would get angry, and no one expected me to work.

Then it was finally Christmas, which is always a good time. I have spent Christmas with the same family since 2018 (except one year I was with another family, and we missed each other and we decided to never do that again). It was quieter as some of the children were sick and there wasn't as much company as there would normally be. It was also very happy and I was very loved and able to demonstrate my love for them.

There has been a pile of snow this winter, mostly on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. It's lovely and I love looking outside at the mounds and drifts and the falling snow.

The month (and year) ended with breakfast with a friend, lunch and shopping with my brother, and dinner at another friend's house with a family I hadn't seen in quite some time (not all on the same day!). 

It was a good month. It was a good year.

2025 in Books: Picture Books

It is time to give some loving to the world of picture books! I read a LOT of picture books, but I only track the ones I read to my Wednesday morning kids with a goal to see how many years I can go without repeating a book. So far it's three years! I read some other picture books, occasionally to other children (although there's some overlap with the Wednesday books); other books I read and decide aren't right for my children.

Some of our favourites from the past year....

• Many by Mo Willems, including:
• Leonardo the Terrible Monster
• The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster
• Knuffle Bunny Too
• Sam the Most Scardy-Cat Kid in the Whole World
• That is NOT a Good Idea
• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
• Knuffle Bunny Free
• The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
• The Pigeon Needs a Bath
• Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late

• By Jan Brett:
• Annie and the Wild Animals
• The Turnip
• The Umbrella
• Mossy
• The Snowy Nap

• Amos McGee Misses the Bus, written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead
• Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
• The Dodsworth books by Tim Egan
• The Trial of Cardigan Jones by Tim Egan
• Snow by Uri Schulevitz
• No T. Rex in the Library, written by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
• Dragons Like Tacos Too, written by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri
• Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, written by Jude Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett
• The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Felishia Henditirto 
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake, written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond
• Blizzard by John Rocco
• Cold Snap, written by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
• Don't Trust Fish, written by Neil Sharpson and illustrated by Dan Santat

2025 in Books: Fiction

Most of my favourite fiction books of the year fall into two categories: historical fiction and Elm Creek Quilters.

Elm Creek Quilters is a series by Jennifer Chiaverini. The books generally center around a group who run a quilter's retreat somewhere in Pennsylvania, as well as some of the people who attend the retreat. Other of the books look back at the history of the area and the ancestors of the current owner of the mansion that houses the retreat. I enjoy the stories and find them good "bus books" (interesting enough for me to forget that I'm on the bus a lot; simple enough that I can focus on them and ignore the noise around me). This year I read 13 of them and that caught me up with the current books. I'm waiting for the next one to come out next year!

My favourite historical fiction (not counting the historical Elm Creek books):

• The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin (WWII, Poland)
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (1922-1954, Russia)
• The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin (WWII, London)
• The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly (WWII, Martha's Vineyard)
• A Town Called Alice (WWII and slightly beyond; Sumatra and Australia)
• Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls (1900s-1950s, mostly Arizona and Texas; the author calls this a "true-life novel" as it is about her grandmother; I think it fits in the same category as the Little House books)
• The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry (primarily 1952 with some flashbacks to 1920s; South Carolina and London/Lake District during the 1952 Great Smog of London)

Other books:

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Lucy Gilmore
• The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
• The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osmon

2025 in Books: Nonfiction

I have read 46 nonfiction and 41 fiction books this year. I also read 15 youth fiction, ranging from early chapter books to later teen books, at least in part to determine if I could recommend them to others. I also read 74 picture books to the homeschool room kids (and a few more to other kids that didn't get recorded). It was a good year for reading. I think that next year I will try for more nonfiction. The challenge there is that they are deeper books and take more time to read and process, while fiction are easier and usually faster to read.

My favourite nonfiction books read in 2025 are:

Biography/Memoir/Autobiography:

• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson 
• Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose (if you only read one memoir on this list, read this one)
• The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis (about Corrie Ten Boom)
• 84 Charing Cross Road and The Dutchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff 
• Gifted Hands by Ben Carson 
• Slow Noodles by Chantha Nguan
• Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar with Derick Dillard and Craig Vorlase
• Mom and Me and Mom by Maya Angelou
• How to Feed a Dictator by Witold Szablowski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (the lives of several dictators as seen primarily through their cooks)
• Reading the OED by Ammon Shea (seriously: he ready the entire many-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary)
• From Jerusalem to Irain Jaya by Ruth A. Tucker (this is a history of missions with many short biographies)

Theology:

• Growing Your Faith by Jerry Bridges (I've read it before, but Jerry Bridges is always worth a re-read)
• Isaiah's Great Light by Kyle Swanson
• None Else by Joel Beeke and Brian Cosby (about God's character and attributes; I should pull it out as I start working on Sunday School lessons about God the Father)
• The Good Portion: Scripture by Keri Folmar
• Dear Titus edited by Nate Pickowicz (Pastor James wrote one of the chapters)
• Unmet Expectations by Lisa Hughes
• An Ark for All God's Noahs by Thomas Brooks (full title: "An Ark for All God's Noahs: In a Gloomy, Stormy Day, or, The Best Wine Reserved Till Last: or, The Transcendent Excellency of a Believer's Portion Above All Earthly Portions Whatsoever")
• Personal Declension by Octavius Winslow
• The Blessing of Humility by Jerry Bridges (I hadn't read this one before and I'm glad I did)

Spies (Technically this could be a subset of Biography/Memoir/Autobiography, but I like them as their own category.):

• Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham (WWII librarian and scholar spies)
• A Man Called Intrepid by William Stevenson (WWII spies)
• Spy Dust by Antonio and Jonna Mendez (Cold War spies)
• The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis (WWII and a bit into the Cold War)

Other:

• Do More Better by Tim Challies (I probably could have put it under theology, but it's also productivity for the glory of God and the good of others, and I found it helpful for organizing my responsibilities)
• Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Victorian Writers Then and Now by Thomas Finch