Spring Break 2017 Reading List

      I LOVE to read! Like so many other children, when I discovered the world of books I would lie awake for hours, straining my eyes, leading to my need for glasses at the young age of seven. I was always that child that spent every summer reading as many chapters as possible to collect points for the library's summer reading program.  Not much has changed, I still love to read, but having so many class reading requirements doesn't leave a lot of time for pleasure reading. I picked four books to flip through this break in addition to my daily Bible reading and the novel I started this weekend. These books are new additions to my library that I've had to wait a few weeks or months to really begin.

• The Housewife's Handbook  by Rachel Simhon: This was a 75 cent find from McKay's over Christmas break! This fun little book provides so many housekeeping hacks from cleaning heirloom silver to ironing your man's white cotton dress shirts. It's like Pinterest in paperback form, teaching you how to make your own DIY household cleaners and how to best organize certain aspects of your home. Did I also mention the author is English? This makes for some especially fun spelling and word usage throughout the book. I love how this book promotes a somewhat lost art form in our society. I can't wait to employ Simhon's ideas in my own home someday!

• The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabbour: This book provides inspiration to the gardener interested in expanding their growing season. Niki's garden is particularly amazing as she lives in Novia Scotia, Canada! If she can harvest throughout the winter, I can too! This book comes with handy instructions for building your own polytunnels or cold frames as pictured on the cover! I'm also learning about experimenting with new crops I've never tried eating, much less growing! Now I'm itching to plan the layout for my summer garden!

• The Plant Recipe Book by Baylor Chapman: This book is eye candy for any biophiliac that loves beautiful tabletop plantscapes! The pages are filled with instructions for creating 100 living indoor plant arrangements! I'm being inspired to mix plant textures and colors as well as repurpose household containers to display them. I totally have little vintage gelatin molds that I plan on planting little succulents in like Baylor demonstrates! She also provides tips to maintain your little plants so you aren't in the dark when it comes to caring for them.

• Milk Cow Kitchen by Mary Jane Butters: I first got hooked on her magazine "Mary Jane's Farm". That's where I discovered Mary Jane Butters also published a book on raising a backyard dairy cow on your homestead. She gives many tips for small scale dairy management including mastitis testing, building a small stanchion, milking by hand vs. milking machine, at home heat-treatment, breeding and pregnancy, health concerns, etc!  I'm positive if we were to meet, Mary Jane and I would be kindred spirits. We're both fru-fru farmgirls that love frilly aprons and vintage mason jars almost as much as our bovine companions. The photography in this book is gorgeous and almost the entire front half of the book is filled with recipes to put your home-grown dairy to good use! There are instructions for homemade cheeses, dinners, desserts, and best of all: ice cream! I highly recommend this book for any aspiring homesteader!

   Reading books like this on a daily basis is important for me to stay on track with my goals for my life. Whenever I get bogged down with agriculture school, books like these refresh my spirit and remind me of my goals to be a productive homesteader and housewife in the future. I desire to share the fruits of my labor with others and craft a life-giving home that brings joy to all that come in.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." -Proverbs 31:30-31 ESV