Money Saving Mom®

I know it’s the end of March and I’m just now getting my February book recap posted, but hey, we’re going to celebrate that it’s getting done and overlook that it’s getting done so late! 🙂

If you saw my post on my goals for 2025, you’ll know that I’m doing monthly goals instead of yearly goals this year. So I didn’t set an overall reading goal for 2025, but I am planning to set monthly goals.

For February, my goal was to finish 6 books and I’m thrilled to report that I finished 6 books! No fiction this month, again (except for the Little House book I read to the kids!) but I did work on reading a fiction book and am super hopeful I can get back into regularly reading before bed as it’s something I love so much!

Each month, I plan to share reviews of the books I finished the month before since many of you have begged for me to bring back my book posts here on the blog. I’ll also be sharing what I’m reading in real time over on Instagram stories, on the podcast and in my personal email newsletter.

The 6 Books I Finished in February

• Breaking the Patterns That Break You – I loved getting to interview the author on my podcast (listen here) and found that this book was packed with so much good inspiration and food for thought. In addition, Tori’s story is just so hope-filled and encouraging and I love how she weaves parts of it into this book.
• Habits of the Household – SO many people have said this book is a must-read and I was cynical… and then I read it! YES! Please do yourself a favor and read it! Once I finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again! I so appreciated the thoughtful, Christ-centered, non-legalistic approach to habits and how we can create more rhythms in our home to be intentional and point our kids to Jesus. It really challenged and inspired me in very practical ways. Highly, highly recommended! Jesse and I ended up doing a whole podcast on the topic of habits, inspired by this book.
• Lift Your Eyes: Daily Invitations to Behold Christ in Motherhood — I love Whitney and this devotional is a beautiful collection of encouragement for weary moms. She reminds us to look to Jesus and not be discouraged or overwhelmed by the hard parts of motherhood.
• Being Fully Known — If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know I’m a huge fan of the book, Sacred Rest, by this author and had her on my podcast years ago to talk about the real reason we’re so tired. I was so honored to have her back on my podcast to talk about her new book. It was a beautiful episode and I think it will really encourage your heart.
• Little House on the Prairie — The younger kids and I read this together before bed. We’re reading through the entire series this year. I will say that I had forgotten how negatively they speak about Native Americans and we ended up having some good discussions about all people being made in the image of God and how some people used to view other races.
• My Dear Hemlock — This book is a really unique one and if you love C.S. Lewis and The Screwtape Letters, I think you will find this book to be one you definitely want to read. Stay tuned for a podcast episode with this author coming soon!

For those of you who ask when I read: I always have a few books going at once and I read a few pages or a chapter of a Christian inspiration book plus a business book every morning. Then, my goal is to read at least 30 pages of some more fun reading in the evenings before bed — memoir, fiction, etc. I have been struggling to get that in because, usually by the time I go to bed, I’m too tired to read. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s the reality!

However, maybe next month there will be a fiction book on my pile of read books (that isn’t one I read aloud to the kids!) because I’m so determined to make it happen! In fact, the last 4 nights I’ve read a few pages of a fiction book before bed, so that’s big progress!

What books have you finished recently? I’d love to hear!

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