Being Intentional ~ Always Learning

I love to read and I think it's safe to say I read a lot. I average about a book a week and have for the past 10 years.

I want to be intentional about always learning and growing. I want to be intentional about setting this example for my own daughters.

Over the past couple years, there's been a major shift in my reading and I've begun gravitating towards books that help grow me and educate me. Don't get me wrong...I still read fluff and stuff just for fun, but the majority of my reading educates me in some way.

Because I have many areas of interest, my reading varies greatly. Some quick examples are shown in the photos below.


As a home educator following the classical method, I'm using The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer to guide my through some classics. I read Don Quixote by Cervantes in 2011, The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift in 2012. This year my goal is to read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Walden by Thoreau.

As an advocate for Compassion International, I try to keep myself educated about poverty and oppression in a global context. I'm currently reading Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and have quite a collection of books I return to that address ways to help others.

And then there's spiritual growth. I would say most of my reading falls into this category. This year I am wanting to get into apologetics and have several resources to guide me. This is an area my husband is also interested in and we'll likely go through these together.

And of course there are books on parenting.

And marriage.

And homeschooling.

And simple living and minimalism.

It's a good thing I'm on goodreads to keep track of what I've read and what I want to read! And it's a really good thing we have a good library system.

Are you on goodreads? I'd love to have more friends over there.