Reading

Before I forget! Roger and I read two books together this year. The first was The Purpose Driven Life. It's this great book that teaches you how to focus on God and why he put us here on the earth. You make a promise to read it in 40 days and we did get it done. It teaches that God does have a plan for everyone and much, much more. It helps you set goals for yourself and what is expected out of Christians. It teaches that a huge goal for us on earth is to do what is expected so we can go to heaven. I've never been very good at summarizing, but it is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!

The other book that is easier to descibe is The Five Love Languages. I would recommend this book to all couples and people in general. It teaches that there are five basic need categories for people to feel complete. It is said that most people are one of the categories and if that need is being fulfilled they are a happier person. Sometimes they have a second one that is also of higher importance. Once you figure out yours or your spouses, you learn to understand how they work and can be better spouses or friends to them. The categories are: Words of Affirmation, Touch, Acts of Service, Gifts, and Quality Time.

It was really fun to read this book together because it was so thought provoking. We realized that Roger is always doing nice, helpful things for me around the house because his love language is Acts of Service and that's what makes him feel good, so that's how he shows me he cares. I on the other hand, compliment him, tell him he's a great provider, and leave notes for him because my love language is Words of Affirmation and since those things make me feel good, that's how I show him that I care. We've learned that we obviously need to try to do the opposite where I need to go out of my way to do services for him (ha, ha) and he in turn is working on compliments. My second love language is Quality Time so reading this book together definitely fulfilled a need and helped us to understand each other better.

We also learned how to read our boys. We learned that S.Jessen is definitely words of affirmation. Words can make or break his day... so we focus on positive reinforcement and are very careful and clear with our words when disciplining because he takes it all to heart so much. That doesn't mean we don't discipline though... We're just learning what works best with him.

Tater is definitely a quality time feller. Any time we play something as simple as stacking blocks or a game he will throw his arms around us and say I love you! He feels loved best when we spend time together. All kids like to spend time with their family, but I've noticed that Tate especially asks to do things together and that's how we started figuring him out.

I feel like we will be better parents and spouses for having read both of these books. Let me know if you end up reading either one of them. I'd love to talk more about them!