2015 Reading List

Have I ever told you that I love to read? Like, panicky-stressed-out when I finish a book if I don't know what to read next? Never go anywhere without a book because what if I suddenly have 30 seconds of free time? Spent recess through most of elementary school reading on the playground and getting annoyed with classmates who came up and asked what I was reading because, hello, I'm busy?

True story.

So I love to read, but I'm kind of dysfunctional about it. When I start a book I tend to neglect little things like sleep, laundry, and dishes until I finish it. And that doesn't seem work so well with the whole parenting thing, unfortunately. I've taken to reading in spurts--I'll read a book or three, then I'll go for weeks without reading anything substantial. No bueno. I miss reading.

This year I was inspired seeing reading lists pop up on a bunch of the blogs I've been following. I've never made a reading list before, but I decided to give it a try. I'm so excited. Not only does this mean that when I steal away for a couple minutes to read I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something (don't you just love being able to check things off lists?), but this way I'll avoid that awful panic when I finish one book and I can't decide what to read next. 

This is only a partial list, because it is awfully light on the fiction, and I kind of thrive on my fiction. So any recommendations to slip in between some of that heavier reading in the second half of the list would be most welcome. It is probably overly ambitious even without adding any other books,.. I got somewhat carried away in my desire to take care of books I've been meaning to read for quite some time. Alex and I have this bad habit of buying books much faster than we can read them. And Alex is not helping matters by bringing home daily loads of books the school library is giving away. I think he has doubled the number of books in our house in the last few weeks. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but if the library could give away a couple bookcases as well as all these books that would be fabulous.

So here is what I have so far:

Lilith -- George MacDonald (already finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it... may be adding more MacDonald when I need a break from the scholarly stuff)

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church-- Benedict XVI 

The Shadow of His Wings -- Fr. Gereon Goldmann

Angels (and Demons) -- Peter Kreeft

The Treasure of Homestake Gold -- Mildred Fielder 

Jesus the Bridegroom -- Brant Pitre

The Silmarillion -- Tolkien (a millionth-time reread, can you tell by the binding?)

Life of Christ -- Fulton Sheen

Ascendance Trilogy -- Jennifer Nielsen (read the first one last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it; our library finally made the other two available to checkout as ebooks)

Theology and Sanity-- Frank Sheed

A Pilgrim's Journey -- St. Ignatius of Loyola

A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms -- J. Clinton McCann

Kristin Lavransdatter -- Sigrid Undset (read it two years ago and may have liked it even better than Tolkien... maybe... possibly...)

Love and Responsibility -- JPII

Orthodoxy -- G.K. Chesterton

On the Reliability of the Old Testament -- K.A. Kitchen

no, Ignatius Press is not sponsoring my reading goals--but I wish they would!

Last year our family did a collective Big Year (it's a birding thing). We had so much fun with the friendly competition that this year we're doing a Big Year with books. Too bad I made this list before finding that out--I would have put much shorter books on my list! But I'm already loving reading with (a little) discipline, and looking forward to the accountability of having set actual goals (which now exist forever on the internet). I'm sure I'll be checking in to report on my progress. If not, you can just assume I got lost in Middle Earth and fell off the bandwagon.

Happy Birthday, Liam the Agreeable!

Guess who turned two? This guy!

Two months ago... whoops!

At least we celebrated his birthday on time! We had an All Saints Day/Construction themed party mash-up.

From left to right: Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, St. Joseph, and David.

Later St. Joseph went from 1st century carpenter to a modern construction worker who was too busy to stand very still for a picture.

Once everyone had a hard hat we moved outside to crack open geodes. Notice the impressive mix of costumes combined with the party hats. So random. So us.

Daddy's birthday helper.

I made this icebox cake (with the homemade wafers) and I was thrilled with how it turned out... despite the achy muscles from hand-whisking that much whipped cream.

And it must have been a hit, because the rest of the family has requested it for Michael's birthday party in a couple weeks. We shall see; so far Michael's requests for birthday food have been ice cream, ice cream cake, and corn on the cob (?!). Come back in March when I finally get around to blogging about Michael's birthday, just before it's time to celebrate John Paul's birthday. Hmm... I'm sensing a pattern here.

Back to this guy!

Two is both my favorite and not-my-favorite age. There is a generally delightful abundance of communication and an often frustrating lack of reason. Liam is talking up a storm, and I absolutely love it. Right now everything is "dat's siwwy!" He and Michael got a talking Spencer ("Sodor's sleek silver bullet," for those of you not up on your Thomas and Friends) from Cici for Christmas, and one of the things it says is, "I'm Spencer the Grand!" When Liam is playing with it he always repeats, "Pencer da Gwand, dat's siwwy!" Spencer also says, "Out of my way, slowcoach!" and now Liam can often be found running laps around the house yelling "Ow da way, so-hoach!"

Partially inspired by Spencer the Grand, we've started calling Liam "Liam the Agreeable" because his answer to almost any question is "Yeah," regardless of his actual opinion or intent. Alex and I joke that he is the second son from the parable in Matthew 21:28-32. Liam is the one to immediately and docilely answer "yeah" or "o-hay," and then run off and do the opposite of whatever we asked (or forbade).

He is constantly following and mimicking Michael. I hope Michael loves it as much as I do. Liam repeats whatever Michael says, mimics whatever he does, follows wherever he leads. If Michael is sent to timeout, Liam will go along and sit down next to him. But he is also totally his own little person, with his own sense of humor and mischief. He is also a wonderful big brother, incredibly sweet and affectionate to John Paul... except when he is (not infrequently) stealing his toys.

My favorite is when Liam prays. He make the Sign of the Cross (more or less... most days a little less than more) and prays with us before meals. He sings and prays along in Mass. When he hears the bells at the consecration he always whips his head around and whisper-yells, "Jesus!" and it always melts my heart. He has established his own little litany of patron saints when we pray together as a family after Mass, and it goes something like this: "St. Thomas... St. James... St. Henry... St. Percy..." Okay, so maybe he's a little confused about differentiating between saints and trains, but in his defense Thomas, James, and Henry are all saint names, and  there is a Bl. Thomas Percy. I love how proud of himself he is as he announces each name and waits for the rest of us to ask their intercession.

Oh Liam Roderick, you are a joy and a handful. We love you so dearly and we are so thankful for you!

Merry Christmas

On this feast of Epiphany, we continue to wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas!

I cannot put into words how thankful I am that the Church celebrates a whole season of Christmas and not just one day. And not just because it means that this video and these pictures aren't late :)

We took a video of Michael and Liam wishing you a Merry Christmas (Merry Krik-kras, in Liam's case).

Merry Christmas from Ashley Crane on Vimeo.

And we attempted to take pictures of the boys*

Liam is more interested in cuddling than the camera

Brotherly love

Look! A Daddy!

As good as it's going to get without us being late to Mass

Wait! We had hats last year! I need a shot with hats!

Maybe Michael needs a bigger hat...

John Paul is so done with this.

*Full disclosure: We just did the video on Christmas day--I decided we didn't need to torture everyone to try to get a family shot or a shot of the boys. Then I look at last year's picture of Michael and Liam and started kicking myself for failing to get a picture this year. So the boys wore their Christmas outfits to Mass again this morning so I could make up for last week's parenting fail.