Ah well. I thought, based on title/cover/description, that this would have a much heavier travel element (vicarious travel being a 2020 theme and all). It turned out to have, instead, an emphasis on quiverfull and yay-homeschooling thinking, with the teeny-tiniest bit of travel story tucked into the last ten or fifteen percent of the book. (The story of the year they spent in Italy boils down to 'Our daily routine was to get up, take care of the kids, pray, and go to bed! What an amazing year!')

It's not a bad book for what it is (the author has some experience with journalism and writing, which helps!), but I am far outside the book's target audience and this ended up being very much not a good fit for me.

This was a wonderful read. It was like reading through letters from a new friend, by the end you truly felt like she was an old friend just sharing the latest family news.
Reading about her struggles and fears made everything more real. She isn't a super woman, she's normal, with fears and misgivings like the rest of us. I love her general attitude towards life! :-)