Needed: Self Nurturing Lessons
By Becky Freeman
Lindsey O'Conner's book, If Mama Ain't Happy Ain't Nobody Happy and What Every Mom Needs by Elisa Morgan and Carol Kuykendall are two books that remind us moms that our well-being and mood affects everyone in the family. So Getting Mama Happy is not selfish, it's survival!
Classic Reader Types
If you are in the mood for an uplifting 25-year-old classic that elevates motherhood to priceless ministry, Edith Schaeffer's What is a Family? Still moves and poignantly reminds me that what I am doing is irreplaceable and of eternal importance. (My mother on the occasion of our first Easter as a married couple gave my well-worn copy to me.)
Also Lindsey O'Conner's newest book, Moms Who Changed the World, is wonderful for you history-buff moms who want to know how in the world mothers like Susannah Wesley managed to do such a great job with their kids. Written, in part, as a biographical time-travel, it is unique and refreshing among books for mothers. (I know Lindsey as a dear friend, and I can attest to this: she walks her mothering talk. She could be speaking and writing like crazy, she is so talented! But she is in the season of having young children at home and has made the hard choice to keep her career in slow gear, as she focuses her energies into being a full-time mommy. I applaud her!)

