Three weeks of reading that lit up my life

Our focus for literacy right now is how literacy can light up your life. Three weeks ago I challenged everyone to read at least five minutes each day of the May Conference issue of the Ensign. As it so happens, the last three weeks for me have been some of the most challenging I have seen in a while, and those five or more minutes every day ended up being my anchor to finding peace through it all. Who knew I would be the one to benefit the most?

One thing I was struck with was the beautiful pictures in this issue. I always love to study the faces in these conference issues, but this time around they were in color, and the people were so much more real to me. So many different walks of life, so many stories behind each of those smiles. It reminded me of how much we are loved by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. How much they know who we are and what struggles we are facing. How grateful I was to be reminded of that! Truly, reading these talks lit up my life these past three weeks.

Now here's another amazing thing. Remember your brain only requires five minutes to start responding to new information? Well, on average it takes only three weeks to form a new habit. Put the two together and now you’ve started a new habit for reading and learning. Congratulations! And what better way than through the conference talks?

So now it's your turn. How was your experience reading five or more minutes each day? I'd love to hear from you. I know the other sisters in our ward would too. Leave a post and tell us how it went!

Finding good material

Sometimes it’s difficult knowing which books (or other media) are “safe” to choose for yourself or your families. There are many resources available to give previews and reviews of the content. Other than the recommendations of trusted friends, how do you know what's good? One good resource is the website http://www.commonsensemedia.org/. On the site, you can read reviews and comments from others about what is in a book or movie. Of course, you must always use the Spirit as a guide, but this is a good place to start your research.

There are lots of smaller groups out there too, trying to sift out the good picks from the rest. I list these here with the caveat again that I cannot vouch for all the reviews posted on these sites, but they do tend to have similar standards and opinions of content. Here are their sites:

http://www.ldswomensbookreview.com/wordpress/
                  (or the related site http://ldswbr.blogspot.com/ )

http://homespunlight.blogspot.com/

http://www.squeakycleanreviews.com/

And finally, a great site for building your own community of readers! This is a great one to put together with people you trust so you can share great reading without worrying about the content.

http://www.goodreads.com/

Check it out!

Time for summer reading!

School is just about to get out. Congratulations to all those who have survived another year! Now summer affords us the time to read and enjoy learning in different ways. It’s so important to keep reading. Think of a way your family of one, two, or more can be motivated to read. Maybe a trip to the ice cream store for pages read or a family activity of some other sort. Or read a series aloud together. For children, there are lots of summer reading programs out there too. Here are some great links to check out:

• Recommended Books from the Friend (click on the link, choose any recent year, then click on the May issue. The recs are under the article title "Book Reviews.")
• Summer Reading at our local libraries: Make a Splash! Or Make Waves (for teens)! Drop by the library to pick up your booklet and activities. Also be sure to check out Cobb County Library System's extensive program offerings for children of all ages and their familes.
• Summer Reading List Ideas
• Borders Summer Reading Deal   Read 10, Get One Free!
• Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Deal       Read 8, Get One Free!
• Scholastic's Summer Reading Challenge
• Fun activities from Reading Planet, sponsored by RIF (Reading is Fundamental)
• An article about making summer reading easy from msnbc 

Make this a reading summer!!