I had so much fun with my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum in December that I decided to give what I study in January a fun name as well and share it here on the blog.

So…here goes…drumroll, please…

I present to you dear blog reader my Wondrous Winter Mother’s Curriculum, below. I anticipate that it will spill into February. Then in March I will make a Splendid Spring Mother’s Curriculum. June, July and August will be my Sizzling Summer Mother’s Curriculum. Then September, October and November will be Feasting on Fall. Then back to Christmas. Yay!! So many fabulous things to learn all year round! This will be so fun!

In December I picked things that were all Christmas-themed. Do January and February have a theme? Yes, a few! All these things I’ve listed below for January and February have to do with winter, snow, wonder, self-improvement, the Old Testament, family, health, and hygge, with a little residue of Christmas. (If you don’t know what hygge means, go here to learn more about it.)

Books

I’ll be listening to and/or reading the following books.

After reading this book, last year in January, I decided that I want to read it every January. I have already found three copies at thrift stores the past two days to give away to friends and my mom to talk about it with them! It totally helps the reader put into perspective what is important about life: Jesus relationships, and service. It’s about a man who died, went to heaven, watched his family from heaven, and came back. He was allowed to live with his family for a few more years with that perspective of going to heaven and back. It’s soooo good!

This is another book that I read last year and want to read every January. It inspires me! It’s important to revisit all the principles and stories the author shares about the importance of vision.

At the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference last fall (my recap is here) one of the presenters, Dr. Andrew Kaufman MD, said that his whole presentation was based on the book above. I want to dig into this and apply it to my own health.

This one is for pure fun. A friend whose book taste I trust recommended it to me. It combines all of Jane Austen’s characters into one novel, where they come together for a vacation in a mansion. Because of a huge storm and the ensuing mud, they are stuck living with the villainous Mr. Wickham for the trip. He is then murdered, and the whodunit search is afoot! I’ve tried JA fan fiction before and was sorely disappointed. I’m hoping this one delivers!

I’m going to get into the one above eventually. Maybe not till March? I started the one below and will hopefully finish it this year. I read about 10 minutes from it every Sunday night, so at that rate it will definitely take me all year to finish. A preview of the book is here.

I heard about the above book from Sister Lili de Hoyos Anderson, in one of her Come Follow Me podcas for December. “What, Elder Holland wrote a book about the names of Christ? How did I not already know about this?!” I thought. Elder Jeffery R. Holland just passed away, right after Christmas 2025. So partly to honor his memory, I am reading this book. I’m also reading it to learn more about the names of Christ as research for a new project. I want to have more truths and at least one story to go with each name the next time we use our Immanuel Wreath, which will be Easter. The project probably won’t be done by Easter now that I think about it, but hopefully by Advent time in December 2026.

By the way, two women are doing a project called @101holynames in Instagram and Facebook to showcase one name of Christ a day between Christmas and Easter, which involves 101 days. This is so wondrous! I love it!

One of my Veggie Gals, Mindy, told me about the above book. I’m listening to it in the video below. It’s fascinating!

This one above is for the Pyramid Project class I’m mentoring. Ever since I heard about it with my older children who took Pyramid I’ve been wanting to read it. I’m also studying the Creation story in the Old Testament this month so this fits with that too!

Meetings/Gatherings/Parties

1. Paola Brown’s Momeopath Insider Circle weekly meetings. These are every Monday night. This works because my 16 year old son will be gone every Monday night for his indoor marching band class. We’ll be doing FHE on Sunday nights because of those two things.

2. Jolabokkaflod Party. Another residual tinge of Christmas. It was hard to fit this into December so we did it in January, just this past Sunday. I learned about this three years ago from podcaster and homeschooling mom Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com. I’m doing it to promote to posterity the idea of winter being the perfect time for cozying up with a book. We will share pizza, books, and chocolate, three of the major delights of life. (Go here if you want to learn more about Jolabokkaflod. Also read the picture book shown in the photo below.)

3. Shumway Family January Birthday Zoom Party. Three family members, including two of my children-in-law, have January birthdays so we will celebrate their birthdays together in zoom to involve the out of town people.

4. Game Night with Friends Playing Word, Social Deduction, and Trivia Games

5. Sunday Dinner with the local sister missionaries. When we lived in Arizona we were able to host the missionaries for dinner all the time. This is the first time we get to do it living in Utah. I’m grateful for all the times people have invited my four sons who have served or are serving missions for dinner. This is a small way to pay them back.

5. A Jane Austen Girls’ Night Out Party. Jane’s birthday is in December. This past December was her 250 year birthday! I’d love to celebrate her birthday every year in that month but I always feel like I can’t squeeze in one more party then. Putting this party in January or February gives me one more thing to look forward to in the bleak midwinter! I have found two Jane Austen-themed board games while thrifting and was gifted one by my son. I hope to play all three at my party.

The roll-and-move one above will be the opening game; as people arrive they can join and be on teams. It involves trivia about P&P as you move the four couples from the story along the paths to their goals.

My son gave me the one above for Christmas a few years ago. It uses cards and a die. I’ve played it a few times but only ever as a two to three player game. I’ve been so eager to play with more, and with people who are willing to inject some dramatic acting/flirting/swooning into it. It doesn’t involve any trivia, but if you are familiar with the characters of the books then that would be helpful with the acting.

I found this one thrifting last summer, which I blogged about here. Talk about thrifting gold! It is so pretty! This one involves trivia about all the Jane books.

Projects

1. Finish crocheting the scarf I started, ahem, five years ago!

2. Finish the Nativity jigsaw puzzle I started in December and never finished.

3. Start the Eric Dowdle National Parks jigsaw puzzle I got for Christmas. It’s like the one below except it’s 300 pieces.

5. Make paper snowflakes for decorating my front room, using the book I got from this thrift haul below. I also have the ones I saved from last year that will go on the front windows. The new ones will go on the side windows. Hmm…maybe I will even clean the windows… 🙂

6. I’ll also make some 3-D snowflakes to form a few new garlands like those below. These garlands will replace the ones I had made a few years ago. You can get the link for the instructions over here.

Skills I’m Working On

1, I’m doing 15 minutes of drawing a day, using this book above. I did the Drawing Textbook, for over ten years (maybe 20!? Can I just say I have been learning how to draw on “full-time-homeschooling-mom-of-7-time”? lol) and finally “graduated” from it in Fall 2025. Drawing totally gives me pure joy. I just feel so calm and into the “flow.” I just finished learning how to draw a dog’s profile using this book. Every day I refine it a bit with shading and erasing. The book on shading I get from thrifting, shown in one of the photos above, will help.

I would love to write and illustrate my own picture book after getting even more drawing skills. Hey, if Janice Kapp Perry can become a composer in her 50s I can become an illustrator.

2. Piano. Playing the piano just gives me so much joy. I want to spend at least 5 minutes a day playing a song from my voluminous piano sheet music collection. I found the book below while thrifting in December so I gave it to myself and I’ve started playing from it. I also found the RD Children’s Songbook during this past year and the RD Classical Music songbook, at thrift stores as well.

3. Organ. I got called to be one of the organists for my ward (church congregation) recently. So I have been dusting off and increasing my organ-playing skills with these webinars from the BYU Organ Dept over here. I play once or twice a month. The webinars are monthly.

Habits I’m Forming

1. 15k steps a day, 4 days a week at least, mostly done at my makeshift standing laptop desk, with some walking outside to get fresh air. Positively Providentially, after I made this goal, one of my homeschool mom friends announced she was doing an Elizabeth Bennet 90-Day Walking Challenge. Go here to get all the details so you can do it too!

2. Putting my blue light blocking glasses on around sunset every night, wearing them until I go to bed

3. Having sunlight be the first light I see in the morning

4. Strength-training exercises at least twice a week, 15 minutes each time.

Podcasts I’m Listening To

1. Old Testament Come Follow Christ podcasts (Unshaken with Jared Halverson, Lili de Hoyos Anderson, Barbara Morgan Gardner, and Hank Smith and John Bytheway)

2. The Wise Traditions podcast with Hilda LaBrada Gore

3. The Schole Sisters podcast which is for classical homeschooling moms.

4. The Black Swan Rising podcast with Michael Rush which is about the last days timeline.

5. The Cleon Skousen Insights Podcast, specifically on the Old Testament

Lastly Decorations!

I’m taking down all my beautiful Christmas picture books that I’ve had gracing my walls, on top of my window ledges and doorways in my dining room/library/front room. As well as the evergreen boughs below the books. It’s just been so fortuitious that I discovered last summer, right before Independence Day, that I can decorate with my seasonal and holiday picture books, because of these ledges with grooves.

My picture books fit perfectly on top of the ledges, nestled right into the grooves. Now I’ll be putting up my wintry garlands: snowflakes, bright-colored pom poms, and hearts, along with my paltry collection of snowy, wintry, and Valentine picture books.

I only have a handful, which is so sad, including the ones above and below. I don’t have nearly as many of them as I do of Christmas. So these will go on the big front window ledge. I will be going to the public library to add to my collection short-term, to fill up the other ledges. I also just got the idea to add some Bible-themed books to the mix since the Come follow Me topic this year is Old Testament, and following Biblical principles leads to self-improvement.

Like I said, I’ll be getting more winter picture books from the library to display. If you want some wintry book suggestions, go here, then scroll down to see the lists under January and February.

That’s it! I’d love to hear what you as a mother are studying and working on in January and February, so if you care to, please comment below and share. Cheers!