BOOK: A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family

A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family ~ A Real Life Book For Real Life Moms.

For my birthday in March, my parents sent me an Amazon gift card. You can't send much else from Australia, as it's too expensive. Far easier to order something from here and have it shipped directly to me. I had $65 to spend on whatever I wanted that was on Amazon. I knew it would be books, it's always books. I love books and books are such an encouragement to me. So began the hours upon hours of searching for the best books to spend my $65 on. For hours I looked up categories, titles, and read reviews.Then I saw it. It was titled "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" by Mary Ostyn of the Owlhaven blog. I looked at the description. I read the reviews.

And this was a book I knew right away that I just had to have. I had three books arrive in that shipment, and they were all good, but this one was my favourite.

If you are looking for a book full of Bible verses and spiritual encouragement, then this is NOT the book for you. I LOVE books that have Bible verses and spiritual encouragement, and I bought one of those at the same time as this one. But what I needed was the message this book contained. This book is full of practical wisdom and advice from a mom of ten kids.

Right away I appreciated the fact that the author, Mary Ostyn, although having ten kids herself, realized that a "large" family in this day and age really consists of anyone with three or more children. She wasn't snobby about those that had less children than she does. Her ideas are tried and tested ideas that work not only for her ten children, but for families with three or four.

Although I don't have what I would consider to be a "large" family yet, I have a young family, and it appears that we may end up with a large family if God chooses to keep blessing us with children. That's why I'm interested in finding out a lot of tips now. Even with a young family there are unique circumstances and frustrations that go along with it.

I felt that "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" to be THE most encouraging practical book that I have read yet on raising a family. The Spiritual encouragement books have their place, but so also do the books like this full of practical encouragement from Christian moms, as it is often the practical that bogs us down and begins to affect the spiritual. I find that if I am not so overwhelmed practically, I am not so overwhelmed spiritually either.

I don't believe that there are many books out there like this one, and the ones that are out there aren't as good. As a Christian mom, I'd rather read practical advice from a Christian mom. All moms, Christian or otherwise, have wisdom to share, but I believe that Christian moms will have even richer wisdom to share.

Mrs Ostyn's book is fulfilling a great need for the older women to teach the younger to love their husband and children, as they are instructed in Titus 2.

I also liked the fact that Mrs Ostyn talks about how she integrated her adopted children into her family. For any mom who has adopted or is interested in adopting, this is a great book also.

There are plenty of ideas in this book, such as: how to make more space rather than just moving to a bigger house, which toys are a good buy and which are not, cutting back on finances, kid's activities, vacations with a large family, things to worry about and things to just let slide, etc. This advice is from a mom who is living the daily reality of ten children...six of whom are adopted. It's a real life book for real life moms.

Find "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" on Amazon.

While I'm on the subject of this awesome book, I'll take a few minutes to advertize Mrs Ostyn's new book. I haven't read it, but if it's anything like "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" I know that I want to. The new book is called "Family Feasts for $75 a Week" and you can learn more about it here.