I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While I wasn't familiar with the author's popular blog, I was attracted to the subject. Living in this age of distraction as a mom, I love anything on the topic of how to create traditions and spend thoughtful time making memories with our children. I will say it's important to read a book like this in the right frame of mind - that it's full of great suggestions, but not helpful if it's read as prescriptive. Smartt has put a lot of care into creating a helpful resource for first generation families creating new memories. If you can look at it through the lens of inspiration, it's less overwhelming for those of us that tradition making doesn't come so naturally to.

I love Jessica’s encouragement to always find adventure. Sometimes it seems bleak our that were too wrapped up in the mundane. This book has lots of great ideas to help create lasting memories!

This was an really good book and nonjudgmental way to look at adding traditions into your home. Honestly most of the book is a lot of what you've already read, or found on the internet. The best parts for me were towards the end when she talked about traditions in work, rest and faith. Those were topics I haven't heard people talk about when it comes to traditions.

Overall highly readable and relatable, to me as a Christian mother.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book

This book has given me such great tips on making things easier. Memories can be made in such simple ways, it really only takes a little effort.

This book was a wonderful look at how to build meaningful traditions with your children. Similar to the work of Noelle Piper and Sally Clarkson, this books helps parents focus on their everyday actions and what those are teaching their children about what matters in life. I think this book is a great resource for parents asking themselves how to take their relationships with their children to a deeper and more purposeful level.

Written in an incredibly engaging style that both challenges and encourages, this book is a fast read in the best sense. It carries the reader along while still providing plenty to think on. A reviewer elsewhere described this book as an introduction to liturgical living, and the section on holidays is certainly that. There is a lot here that fits very well with the idea of living liturgically in the domestic church, even if the book doesn't put it that way. Many of the ideas in this book, liturgically focused or otherwise, can be found elsewhere, but they are arranged well here. That said, if you already have searched for similar ideas elsewhere, this book won't be terribly new.

The book quotes Edith Shaeffer and Sally Clarkson fairly extensively. I've read a lot of Clarkson and hope to read more and have had Shaeffer on my reading list for years. I'm alight to finally pick up The Ministry of Motherhood, What is a Family?, The Hidden Art of Homemaking, and others after reading this book which draws on them.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an egalley of this book for review.

This is an excellent book for the Christian parent. Not just for finding ideas to create fond memories for their children, but ways to weave the love of the Father into those experiences. As Smartt puts it "There is an underlying current, a rubric, that helps us know what's the best use of our memory-making time. Faith is that map, and it tells me where I'm going...Making memories is great, but there is a goal larger than capturing that perfect hiking photo..." Smartt shows us that by weaving the gospel into our traditions, we can make them mean more, not less.
Along with discussing what her family does and why, she also lists several ideas for each season and theme in our lives. Sunday breakfast or dinner, pancake Saturdays, or yearly trips to the lake house, all of these experiences are important for our children not just to make them feel our love, but God's a well.

This is an excellent book to help parents, but especially moms, be more intentional with parenting through setting up family traditions.

Loved this book so much! As a busy mom of 3 this book resonated with me. We as moms are constantly bombarded through social media about what the "perfect" mom looks like and what she does to ensure her children have a childhood they remember. Yet it is a struggle to keep up with those images and before long we find ourselves frustrated, stressed and feeling less than because we don't match up. This book however is here to change all that. Jessica tells us to give ourselves grace and tells us that the hard work that we do is worth it and that we are enough! Jessica doesn't shame you and instruct you on ways to play catch up to those pinterest moms. Instead she meets you where you are at and walks step by step with you as she gives advice while also sharing her own personal story! Would highly recommend

The Memory-Making Mom by Jessica Smartt is a wonderful book for moms and dads alike. Here, the author has not written a guilt-laden tome. Rather, you'll find a book with the most simple ideas designed to breathe life into everyday family life. I absolutely loved some of the ideas in this book and found them easy to implement with great rewards. This is a book to read and re-read. Traditions help frame a well-lived life. Get this book to help you find the ones right for your family. I highly recommend it! I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I zipped through the digital version of this book, and it’s a keeper! Jessica, I’m grateful that you did the work to put this on paper...this is going to be so helpful for moms who aren’t wired this way but want to be. 🎉 I have started giving this as a gift to new moms! (I was on the launch team and received an advanced copy for review. Even before I was selected for the launch team, I had placed my order!)

Considering how much fun I had with the new Advent traditions I started for my family this past Christmas, I was intrigued when I read about Resurrection Eggs in the book Memory Making Mom by Jessica Smartt. It’s a pretty Smartt book (hehe) — but seriously, I highly recommend this book for those of us who like having family traditions and rhythms. If you want to start traditions and don’t have them, this book will give you more ideas than you could ever imagine, and then you can figure out which ones work best for your family. As a school teacher, I truly believe that students will a strong family life are better prepared for what life throws at them — and it throws a lot at them nowadays. Having the types of rhythms and traditions Smartt recommends would give a sense of security and also nurture curiosity. Anyway, back to the Resurrection Eggs. I had never heard of them, but it’s one of the ideas mentioned in this book. A quick Google search will give you plenty of DIY ideas for Resurrection Eggs; they would be very easy to make at home. I ended up ordering some online because I am in a pretty busy season of life, and they were priced very reasonably. The idea is that your family gets together and opens one Easter egg each day, starting 12 days before Easter (since the pack holds a dozen eggs). Inside the eggs, you’ll find a symbol from the Easter story. There’s also a short reading to go with each one. This builds up interest and gets the family ready for Easter when it comes. Lent is a time to reflect upon suffering and sacrifice, which could be an intense idea for little ones, but the Resurrection eggs tell the story in a way that would be memorable and accessible for everyone in the family. I’m going to give it a whirl, and I have a feeling it will become a tradition. I got a few other ideas from the book that I’m going to use this Lent and Easter as well.

Such a sweet book full of ways to make memories and grow love in your home and family. REally enjoyed so many of the ideas, and added a few to my pinterest while I was at it.

Also though:

"We can't do it all, but we can make our own beautiful memories"

That right there was my favorite part of this whole book; the admission that , while all the pinterest-worthy ideas are great, none of our lives will look like that all the time. We ALL need that reminder.

This book is a balm to this weary mama’s soul. With three under five and one on the way, I find plenty of excuses not to do all that I can do with and for them.

Insert Memory-Making Mom. This book is worth the included extensive list of ideas for establishing traditions and making memories as a family alone. However it is so much more than that! The author is gracious (we can’t do it all, nor should we try) and yet challenges us to do something!

In an age where we are being told everything but our own families should take priority, this book reclaims the pleasure. beauty, joy, whimsy, and work! of what it means to prioritize family in this post modern world, all for God’s glory and our good!

Will purchase copies for my girlfriends!

Memory Making Mom was a reminder for me to slow down the days and be more in the moment to make the meaningful memories that life is made of. It’s never to late to start a new tradition. This book has so many ideas on traditions you can have with your family. Turn those small moments into BIG memories. I was blessed to be able to read an ARC before the launch date but also ordered a copy for myself. I will also be ordering it as a gift as its great for a new mom or one that just needs a reminder to take the time to build those lasting memories.

I love this book! Its so important to make memories for our children and ourselves. Jessica Smartt shows us how to do this with ease. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and have such awesome memories of people and places. But unfortunately in our busy society it is getting harder and harder to find time to just do the things that will last in memory. Buy this book and a photo album and take lits of pictures

If you're looking for fresh and fun ways to breathe life and memory-filled moments into your home, look no further. Jessica packs this book full of wisdom, encouragement, and oh so many great ideas to become the memory-making mom you want to be. And the best part? There's no pressure whatsoever in these pages to do it all or to be the best. Instead, you're told that any tradition is better than none, and that big isn't always better, and that's something I really appreciated. Through telling her own family's stories and experiences with traditions, this book is filled with heart and number and simply relatable content that I absolutely loved.

Sometimes this type of book can simply leave me feeling inadequate and almost worse off for reading it, because all I read through in the text is the many ways that I'm falling short as a mom or flat out inadequate in certain areas. I can happily say that I didn't once feel that way while reading this book. Maybe it's because of the no-pressure way that the author writes, and doesn't put her own self on a pedestal. Either way, this made for one amazing, relatable, encouraging, and inspiring read that I will be coming back to over and over again! Something that is made easy by the compiled list of over 200 tradition ideas in the back of the book for easy reference!

I really appreciated the vast range of topics covered in this book that I hadn't even thought were possibly tradition-making moments. Such as, when sickness has come into the home or while doing work. Of course we see great ideas on the more common tradition times, like holidays and birthdays, that I was able to draw many new ideas from as well.

I'm so thrilled by the way that this book has given me a lot of points to come together and chat with husband about as we seek to set in place some of our own traditions for our young family. The things to consider sections at the end of each chapter have been a great help in this and is a feature that made me love this read even more!

When you can walk away from a book feeling changed and inspired, it's always a wonderful thing. This would be a great book to gift to a new mom, and is one I will be recommending to all of my mom friends!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher Thomas Nelson for kindly providing me with this free review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Basically, this is a Protestant's introduction into living liturgically. Yay for respect for tradition! It is imperative. Those Golden Nugget memories lock in the love and learning in one's childhood.

Sprinkled with personal anecdotes between the activity suggestions, the book makes it fathomable to integrate tradition in frequent succession. The author states that she wants this to be a real mom book, that the activities are suggestions, not a list of must-do items. It is a Christian book with multiple scriptural references. though the Kindle versions needs improvement, I'm sure the culture will fix the little bugs. I am giving it four stars because I am hoping that a book like this will inspire moms to use the liturgical calendar to teach kids about their faith in a fun way. Hopefully it will be deeper than simply a series of crafts.

There are many other resources you can use to go even deeper, including remembering wonderful people who have gone before us, the saints, and celebrating their feast days, as well.

Memory Making Mom
By Jessica Smartt
I have enjoyed this book so much!
It is so easy to get caught up in mom guilt. I find myself living an unbalanced life to try and counter the guilt. I have said yes to far too many things in order to feel sufficient. If I am not doing all these things then I am not a good mom… Memory Making Mom introduced positive ways to make memories with my family and help me find balance in being a mom. I think that there were so many great ideas shared. Here are a few things I gleaned from this book. Picking up a few traditions rather than trying to do them all is really all you need to do. I was reminded that making memories is not about having things perfect all the time. Traditions can be anything from a formal dinner to eating fast food on different occasions. Its what is consistent that your kids will remember. You cannot force happy memories so you need to relax and find what works for your family.

Seriously friends check this book out!

I absolutely love this book. I honestly couldn’t put it down. Jessica writes in such a nonjudgmental way, she really encourages moms to step up and make a memorable life not only for your children but for the parents as well! I will definitely be purchasing this book for all my mom friends, especially new moms.