Home Sweet Heart

What makes a house a home?

"A home without books is like a room without windows."

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Books - to buy or to borrow?

Bookstores, for me, are like walking into a candy store, especially children's books.  I want them all (at least most of them)!   Practically speaking, my budget won't allow me to splurge too often.  The question is, "When should I splurge?"  Should I get that "classic book", that "keeper book"?  Or should I just borrow it from the library?

One of my very favorite, first homeschooling resources was Honey for a Child's Heart, a guide for parents to help them choose good books for their children.  I was so happy when I recently discovered that the author, Mrs. Gladys Hunt, has a blog by the same title, Honey for a Child's Heart.  In a recent post, Mrs. Hunt recommends that every child should have their own special collection of "treasured books".  She says that "Not any book will do for this shelf." 

How will you know what books should be part of that special collection?  You will know by the language used in the book.  Does it inspire imagination in the reader?  Does it describe good characters and lessons?  Does it completely engage the senses of the reader?

In the words of Mrs. Hunt, "The treasured books will be read again and again. These will be the ones that leave footprints in the heart. Whether wordless picture books or picture books with a minimum story line, or stories that make a child cry out, “Don’t stop now!”—these are the books that say something that leaves a mark on the child’s life."

 

So what are some of your treasured children's books? 

Decluttering

Don't miss Time magazine's 5 Steps to Clutter Free Living. 

As the articles states, the biggest step to decluttering is getting started.  Don't we know that!  But after we get over that hurdle, the next challenge is trying to figure out what to keep and what to toss.   Here are the steps offered to help figure that out.

1.  Define your vision - what do you want for your life, for your families life. 

2.  Define clutter - to reach my vision - do I need this or that or is it clutter.  This is a toughy!

3.  Start small - this is key - maybe one room at a time, or better yet, one closet, one drawer at a time!

4.  Give you clutter to organizations, other individuals that can use it, i.e. charities, churches, etc.  It makes parting with the stuff a lot easier and gives it more purpose.

5.  Examine all aspects of your life for clutter - bad habits, worthless commitments.  There is also a spiritual aspect to this.  How about sin?  Confession is a great gift that the Church gives us to declutter ourselves. 

In the same issue of TIME contains a challenge, How to Live with Just 100 Things.  Ouch, I will pass on that one!