White Trash Mama

Practice Makes Perfect

2012-01-04T08:02:00.000-06:00

I've had this twirling around my brain this week and I think writing it out will help me better sort my thoughts. I saw another silly "deep advice sign", which generally just make me groan. Have you seen these? It seems to be a new trend to make cruel signs and believe that they are actually motivating. Some aren't cruel so much as naive, but at this point, all of them make me groan. This particular sign said that "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

I started to groan, seeing it as another "you're not doing it well enough" sign, but then I realized it meant more than that. It really begins to make sense when combined with Einstein's definition of insanity:

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

When you have repeatedly practiced something the wrong way, the only thing you've perfected is how imperfectly you do it.

So I've been pondering this thought since just after Christmas. There are so many things I want to do better. In fact, I don't think there is a single area of my life that I don't need to dramatically improve. But hasn't this always been the case? What makes it possible to step out of that practiced rut? Can I will myself into dropping bad habits? Or, instead, do I need to practice good things until I've perfected them and they've displaced the bad?

The things we do are symptoms of the things we think. What thoughts do we entertain or "practice"? If we desire to be better housekeepers, do we really think this is possible while we are still ungrateful for the homes we are keeping? Rather than imagining life with a matching living room set, and practicing discontent, imagine life without any couch. Rather than dreading dirty dishes, imagine life without a family to feed. Imagine a family to feed, but no food to feed them. Practice thankfulness.

If we want to be better parents, do we really think this is possible while we are focused on our own comfort and entertainment? If you find yourself saying (or thinking) "All I ask...." or "I only wanted...." All I ask is that you pick up after yourself! I only wanted 5 minutes in the bathroom alone! then you probably also find yourself thinking (but not admitting) that you really should get up and find out what they are arguing about, but you're in the middle of something you enjoy....or that you really should take the time to teach them the right way to do something, but it's so much easier to just do it yourself...and then complain about it. Modern thought is that, as moms, we have to look out for our own interests; if we don't get our "me time", we won't be able to be our "best selves". What do you want your best self to look like? Practicing self-centered thought will never perfect selfless-giving. While I'm sure she exists somewhere, I've never met a mom who never took time for herself and worked herself into misery. But I have seen an abundance of moms that were so intent on their own self-interests that their families were miserable....and so were the moms. The happiest moms (and happiest families) I've seen involved moms that were dedicated to doing what was needed, regardless of the cost. More and more, moms seem to consider the cost of their own free time just too much of a price to pay. Practice selflessness.

If we want to be better spouses, can we do so while still thinking about the areas they've left unfulfilled? Any teen-romance movie will tell you that true love is all about "the way he makes me feeeeeel." But this isn't true at all, and that isn't love. Love is noble. Love is a choice. Love is something you give. If the googly-eyed feeling you experience makes you think about how happy it makes you feel rather than how happy you want to make the other person feel, it isn't love. Giving love makes you happy. The bible instructs wives to give respect to their husbands and it instructs husbands to show love to their wives. Many of both sides have said that it would be easy to fulfill their part if their spouse would fulfill their own part. If you want a better marriage, don't practice thinking about how much more they should do, practice thinking about what their needs and desires are. Practice love.

If we want healthier bodies, will focusing on how unattractive we feel change our body shape? Our bodies react to what we put in them. Food is a gift from God for pleasure, fellowship, and fuel. It is not a drug. It is not a medication. It is not entertainment in and of itself. Our bodies respond to the food we give them, just as God created them to do. When you appreciate the beauty of God's incredible machine, known as the human body, you admire His handiwork. Perhaps your body is not what you want it to be. It will never be unnaturally perfect, but rather than focusing on what it is not, focus on what it needs to be healthy. Healthy is beautiful. Practice self-respect.

So this is my New Year's focus. I have spent many years perfecting self-seeking and discontentment. My thoughts are changing. It's time to practice good thinking.

What have you perfected?

Calendars

2012-01-02T06:09:00.000-06:00

Buying the right calendar is a tradition for us. You've probably figured out by now that there aren't very many to be found in the stores after January begins. The calendars leftover are generally of the cat-lover variety. Many years ago, my parents bought us a Lang Calendar Frame and gave us our first real calendar. Truly, once you've had one, the other flimsy things don't even fall in the same category anymore. The first one was Charles Wysocki and we stuck with his art for a few years before Lang stopped carrying them. Thankfully ,they are back now, but in the meantime, we fell in love with Susan Winget and Linda Nelson Stocks. Beautiful stuff! Yes, $12 is a bit steep for a calendar, but they are works of art and you can use Sharpies on them!

But free is always better and I need calendars to print out for school use and other things, so here are a few goodies:

I could not find a source for this sweet artist. If you know who it is, please share so I can give them credit!

The others will link directly to their creator:

And my favorite:

For my school binder, always go with FiveJ's goodies. She has amazing creations and she is incredibly generous with them! I recommend finding her on facebook for links to new printables and other great helps.

Auld Lang Syne

2011-12-31T06:57:00.001-06:00

Written by Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne has been around since 1788, as a Scottish poem that was soon turned into song. Chunks of it were a good deal older than this!

Translated, it is Old Long Since, meaning Old Times or even Once Upon a Time. When we sing "For Auld Lang Syne", we're saying, "For old time's sake."

If you've ever wondered why on earth people sing about forgetting their friends every New Year, you'll be happy to know that the first verse of the song is actually a question: Should old acquaintance be forgot? and the chorus explains why that would be a terrible idea.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind ?

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine !

And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a wearyfoot,
since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream,

from morning sun till dine ;

But seas between us broad have roared

since auld lang syne

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !

And give us a hand o’ thine !

And we’ll take a right good-will draught,

for auld lang syne.

Post-Christmas Stupor

2011-12-27T10:51:00.000-06:00

Christmas School is over and now we stagger around in a carb-induced fog for a week, trying to prepare for real school which resumes next week. Pictures to come!

Christmas School

2011-11-25T20:55:00.001-06:00

It's almost here! The kids are so excited! (okay, so am I!) Christmas School begins on Monday!!!!

In case you're new here, my family goes all out for Advent and we stop our regular homeschool lessons for an incredible month of focus on the birth of Christ and anticipation of His second coming. You wouldn't guess how enthusiastic we can be if you saw us all the way up to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a precious holiday to us and not a whisper of a Christmas carol is to be heard in our house until we've all gone to bed full of turkey and dressing. But the weekend after Thanksgiving sees our home transformed with decorations and LOTS of Christmas music.

Monday morning, we'll begin Christmas lessons with lots of activities, cooking, and crafts. Last year, I shared a website that my husband and I created to share our Christmas lesson plans with other families. Unfortunately, we decided that might not be the best use of our budget this year, so we've had the site removed. However, all of the pages have been saved and I am slowly uploading them to a free blog website, entitled Advent Idea Box. I'm sure there's something there you can enjoy with your family, so stop on in! Also, I'd love to hear about your family's Christmas traditions, so drop me a note and share!

Cutting edge blog material

2011-11-15T14:20:00.000-06:00

Last week, I had an all 'round stinky day. It was a stinky day in a series of weeks of stinky days. There were plenty of wonderful moments in there to more than make up for the stink, but they were quite stinky nonetheless. There were dozens of little things that went wrong and I won't bore you with the details, but rest assured, it was unpleasant.

Chris comes home every evening and asks, "How was your day?" and I almost always respond, "Great! How was yours?" Last night, I told him to sit down. I went through the list and he completely understood when I told him that dinner was on the stove and I would be in the tub with a glass of wine and a good book. I wanted a safe, happy place where nothing else could go wrong.

I settled into a hot, oily bubble bath and started reading about the siege of Acre when Sarah popped in to say hi. Then she popped in to brush her teeth. Then she popped in to say she loved me. She left and I settled back in. King Philippe threatened to leave the Crusade before Jerusalem was captured and King Richard was none too happy 'bout that. Then Honor popped in to say hi. She wanted to brush her teeth, too. Honor (my list maker) was hosting a contest to see which one of her parents said, "I love you" the most that evening. She wanted to give me an advantage in the game. Chris soon caught on. "Mama is winning by 17? Wait, when did you talk to Mama? Mama is taking an "alone" bath!" He announced that no one was to enter the bathroom.

Confident that I could now begin my bath in earnest, I took one sip from my glass before putting it on the edge of the tub. It started to slip and I reached to grab it. My arm brushed it just as it broke against the edge of the tub. I muttered, "of course", before sitting up to move away from the glass. As an after-thought, I glanced at my arm. "ARE YOU SERIOUS???" escaped my lips this time. I hadn't felt anything, but there was a deep, gaping hole in my arm. I squeezed the two sides together and called for Chris' help. It took a while to convince him that he really should interrupt my bath. Really should. Right now. Really.

After this, it took a while for him to extract me from the bath because I was coated in oil and couldn't let go of my arm to help him. Once I was finally out of the tub, it took us an entertaining 20 minutes to get me dressed to go to the hospital. Chris told the kids to get ready for Grandpa's house because mama had hurt herself in the tub. A moment later, my pale, terrified children hurried in to check on me. Apparently, they saw the bathtub and thought the wine that had splashed all over the tub was my blood. The poor things looked like they'd seen a horror flick.

By the time we were all dressed and the kids were reassured, my arm had stopped bleeding and it looked like a clean cut. We decided to quiz the neighbors.

We have been blessed with some great neighbors, two of whom have medical experience and are now used to us popping in to ask, "Does this require a hospital visit?" So, we popped in and asked. The family laughed. We all laughed. It's like a sitcom routine now. He said that yes, if a doctor saw it, I would undoubtedly get stitches. But, because of where it was located, if I was okay with an ugly scar, it should heal fine with butterfly strips.

Keep in mind that it was a really long, hard day. We just wanted it to be over. We contemplated the prospect of 5 hours in the E.R. and the $700.00 bill to follow. And then we patched me up with butterfly strips.

It's a week later now and it seems to be healing beautifully. Since I know from too much experience that stitches stay in for 10 to 14 days, I'm leaving these strips on for one more week before thinking about removing them. I anticipate a scar that is small, but good for conversation.

Math for Turkeys

2011-11-15T10:16:00.000-06:00

I love fall! This is my favorite season. The colors are incredible. The smells are amazing. The food is fabulous. We're adding in some fall crafts to jazz up the regular school work. We'll be breaking for Christmas School very soon, so this week is mostly review. Here are our review turkeys:

The girls really do have their math facts down pretty well, but the project was too fun not to do. I quizzed them on their facts and any problem that took more than a second to answer, I had them write down.

Honor was very precise with her turkey.

Sarah, not so much. She took such slow, deliberate care when placing each piece, but not much care in determining where she would place each piece. I used to be too OCD to handle it, but now I love watching them do it their own way. Sarah has great handwriting, but I fear her 9's and 7's will always be backwards.

All in all, it was a fun, fast math lesson.

Hat frenzy

2011-11-13T21:42:00.001-06:00

I usually pick up my knitting about one week in 20. That I am still going strong, 3 weeks in, is simply amazing. But I'm in hat-mode this week, and I still haven't touched those socks.

Sarah requested a dark purple hat this week. I pulled out the plum-colored yarn but she insisted it was missing something. Digging through my stash, she claimed the teal yarn. Plum and Teal. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted it was what she wanted. The child has amazing taste. I can't believe what she is able to see in her mind's eye long before it takes shape.

She picked "grape" and "celery" last year and, again, I tried to talk her out of it, not realizing that she knew what she was talking about. I need to have this child choose my wardrobe. She has the knack for it.

While we're on the topic

2011-11-09T07:04:00.000-06:00

I skirt this one because people I love and admire adamantly maintain that alcohol is a sin, but in the spirit of embracing "being real", I want to discuss it and I want to hear your thoughts.

Should Christians drink alcohol?

Years ago, we were under a pastor who insisted it was a sin for any Christian to drink alcohol. My husband was a deacon at the time and, thinking he might be asked to step down, we dug into scripture to make sure we understood what God had to say about it. I pulled up every verse with the word "wine" and "drink" in it and had page after page after page to read through. Most of the verses talked about God blessing his people with wine. Getting drunk was forbidden, as was "drinking to excess", but this implies that drinking to "less than excess" is perfectly fine. Paul recommended that Timothy drink wine for his health. And even Jesus, himself, imbibed.

I ran across this article by Pastor Mark last week and it is what got me interested in discussing this topic. It's a fascinating and excellent read. He gives well-sourced arguments for alcohol.

However, there is a section in the bible that does speak against alcohol and it does give me pause:

Proverbs 31:4-7

⁴ It is not for kings, Lemuel—
   it is not for kings to drink wine,
   not for rulers to crave beer,
⁵ lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
   and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
⁶ Let beer be for those who are perishing,
   wine for those who are in anguish!
⁷ Let them drink and forget their poverty
   and remember their misery no more.

I am raising 4 children and they are watching me. I am raising up men and I am raising them to be kings. Will it be a hypocrisy for me to drink wine in front of them?

Also, do I want to classify myself with the poor and oppressed, in need of the reprieve of alcohol?

Obviously this portion is not intended to be absolute, else it would contradict everything else the Bible says about wine, but it certainly needs to be considered.

And this is where weigh in.

What do you think?

My daughter, the lush

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

In celebration of autumn, I introduced the kids to acrostics yesterday. I had all four of them write and decorate an acrostic with the word "LEAVES", using words representing things they are thankful for or words that represent fall. Honor was the first one finished and proudly shared her poem.

Beside the letter, L, Honor had written "licker". Upon further investigation, it turns out "licker" means "liquor". That's right, my darling angel is thankful for the booze that makes her mommy easier to live with. (kidding!)

Upon even further investigation, Honor didn't hear the part about using fall or thankful words. While I'm relieved, I still find it disturbing that the first thing she thought of was booze.

Scarf frenzy

2011-11-08T07:44:00.001-06:00

Rather than knit mates to last week's sock frenzy, I moved on to scarves this week. This is the only one I've finished, but I was anxious to get it ready to mail. It's a gift for my sister and I'm hoping there's a chance I'll actually get it to her ON her birthday, rather than a month later. Because I'm a grown-up like that.

So here's the hot pink scarf, though the picture doesn't show that very well. It's a modified faggot stitch. Don't laugh; it's a real name and it dates back much farther than the current definition of the word.

White Trash Lacy Scarf Pattern:
Using size 11 needles, Cast on 15.
K2, *YO, K2Tog*
Repeat * to* until one stitch left. K last stitch.
Continue until scarf reaches thighs while wrapped once.

Finishing:
With J hook,
There are six "rows" in this pattern. You'll create scallops with 6 Dbl Crochets in each row.
At edge, slip stitch in to start thread.
6 DC. Slst into the dividing knit row, 6DC into next row. Continue to end to create 6 scallops. Tie off and you're finished!

If you don't crochet, Begin scarf with 3-5 garter stitch rows before beginning faggot stitch pattern to create an edge.

I've been playing

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Honor was sick with a bug on Sunday so I ~~avoided housework~~ took the opportunity to tweak the old blog while she ~~fried her brain on Backyardigans~~ rested peacefully. In case you like any of these changes, I thought I'd share the things that made it possible.

First resource is a background pattern creator. I used Pattern Cooler, which is insanely easy to use. It took me a minute to see past the colors in the patterns listed. Once you choose your pattern, you can tweak the colors to exactly what you want with the click of a button. After choosing your favorite pattern and colors, click download and save it to your computer.

To put this on your blog, upload to a free hosting service, such as PhotoBucket. After creating an account, all you have to do is click on the "upload" button and choose the file you downloaded to your computer. Once it is uploaded, you can resize it if you'd like. I click on "resize" and then choose the box that says "percentages". I shrank this pattern to 35% and then saved it. Photobucket gives different linking options, but click on "direct link" to add to your blog code.

Here is the only part that requires HTML, but you only need to click and paste. No new nerd languages required. Using Blogger's new Simple Template, go into "Template" and click on "Edit HTML". A note will pop up telling you that this is a bad idea. It probably is. But you don't have to save anything you do if you don't like it. It will be okay. Click "Proceed". Now, click anywhere inside that gobbledy-gook. Next, on your keyboard, press the Control (Ctrl) button and the "f" key at the same time. Type in: body {background: (or you can just copy that bit and paste it in the search (find) box. Immediately after that part, there should be a color code, such as #ffffff. Leave one space after this and paste in url(http://yourdirectlinkhere.jpg) Obviously, the part in the parenthesis needs replaced with the REAL direct link that you have waiting for you at photobucket. Now, click on Preview to see ~~if you screwed it all up~~ how you like it. If it's a mess or you change your mind, all you have to do is hit cancel or close the window. Either way, nothing changes unless you click "save".

For my blog button, I used the code from Bloggersentral's advice. To create the blog button, I used the advice from Musings of a Housewife, except I used Gimp instead of Photoshop. Gimp is a free program that is very similar to Photoshop, but much more on the free side. The image came from Shabbyblogs and the fonts came from....I don't know. There are a million free font websites out there and I'm a font junky. Kevin & Amanda (in my sidebar) is a great place to start collecting great fonts.

So...that said, I'm not in love with the new design. I can't see the entire page at once with my monitor, so I'm not sure what the whole end-product looks like. I like one square of the pattern, but fear an entire page of it might be obnoxious. And is it me or is there more turquoise on here than in a 1989 prom? Rest assured, there will be more changes to come.

*Updated: I changed the pattern and lost 80% of the teal. I still don't like it. But it's better than it was!

The Projects

2011-11-03T09:07:00.001-05:00

I've been on a knitting frenzy this week. The kids and I have been snuggling on the couch, listening to a lecture by The Teaching Company, called Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages, which I was thrilled to discover in our library. It's been way over the girls' heads, but they've enjoyed coloring while the boys enjoyed listening.

While listening, I've also been knitting and finishing projects. I apparently really like to start projects, but not so much with the finishing. I hadn't touched my yarn since we went on vacation this summer. When I pulled it back out, I realized I hadn't finished the last five minutes of a sock. Once that was finished, I hunted up more yarn and discovered other socks that hadn't been finished. Once these were complete, I realized the job still wasn't done because out of all of those socks, only one actually had a match that had ever been knitted.

In case you are interested in trying socks, this book helped me make my first sock. After it, I found a tutorial online at KnitPicks.com. Kelly's free sock class is incredible. It takes you step by step with videos so you can watch each step instead of trying to interpret written instructions. Here are the socks I finished up (and a mitten.)

I decided to save the project of knitting matching socks for another day and pulled out unfinished hats. I have no idea why I never finished them because hats are so easy to whip up. I didn't think so until I found this bookand now I LOVE them. They are easy to bring together in a day. This book says it is for baby hats, but it shares sizes for bigger kids and is easy to transfer, even to adult cast-ons. CUTE stuff and so easy to follow! Here is a post about the first hats I knitted, using this book. And here is one of the hats I finished yesterday. There was one more, but I gave it away last night before I remembered to take a picture.

And here is my latest project. This one is a hat for Ethan. It is the silkiest yarn ever. It is the first stuff I've bought from Knitpicks and I love it.

We're taking a trip this weekend, so I should have hours in the car to get in some more knitting before I forget it for another 3 months.

Unsolicited Book Review: The White Trash Mom

2011-11-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

I was very excited to pick up The White Trash Mom Handbook from the library, yet I was so disappointed when I actually read it. It was a love/hate thing. The book is absolutely hilarious, but it didn't represent any of what I want out of life. It was more of a how-to guide for those that are White Trash but want to fit into tactful society. Though the subtitle clearly said it was intended to help readers "Embrace Your Inner Trailerpark, Forget Perfection, Resist Assimilation into the PTA, Stay Sane, and Keep Your Sense of Humor", it was actually a "how to fake it" book. I'm sure it could be very helpful for some, but it took an opposite stance than what I recommend. The book insists that modern standards are too high and that these standards aren't going to change, so moms need to join the charade and play along. Along this line of thinking, it is a helpful guide for wading through the shallow walk of life. But I believe that the reason these high standards aren't going to change any time soon is that so many people find it easier to play along or fly under the radar than to just be real. If more of us White Trash Mamas found a way to relax and find our own skin, the standards could become a little more realistic.

From the book:
"Some of my tactics involve being dishonest. For example, pretending you bake a cake when you really bought it at the store. I don't think lying is the right way to live your life. But extreme situations call for extreme solutions. (extreme about cake?) The only reason I give the advice I do is because the current expectations of motherhood are so unrealistic. Call fudging your culinary skills the lesser of two evils."

And the other evil option was?....to say, "Thanks! I picked it up at Kroger's. Their Buttercream is delicious!" Cue the sinister music. Ooooh...Evil!

I'm being a bit mean to this book. Please don't misunderstand. It is a hilarious book that has some very practical tips, like dressing "artsy" (boots and tie-dye to avoid being chosen to head committees) and using proper brown-nosing techniques. It also works as a great faux-tact translator: "Max is very creative and energetic!" really means Max is from hell and needs to be medicated. Hilarious and helpful. So, if you don't want to feel comfortable with who you are but you do want to be accepted by other people who aren't comfortable with who you are either, this is a GREAT book!

By the end of it (read: appendix,) the tone changed and the author gave kudos to brave women, such as Betty Ford who was honest about her problems and helped pave the way for women with similar struggles to get the help they needed.

And in the end, it says,

"Remember that being White Trash is all about being who you are and not giving into the pressure of what other people think."

I completely agree with that statement, even if the rest of the book did not support it.

White Trash Part 3

2011-10-30T13:56:00.003-05:00

It needs re-visited every now and then. Believe it or not, the idea of "White Trash" was a God-inspired quest. It has deep, significant meaning for me even if it does sound terribly tacky. You can follow that journey with the ancient posts "Part 1" and "Part 2" if you're interested, but summing it up: It's coming to terms with who you are and losing the pressure to perform and impress. Embracing the words genuine, sincere, and real. When I hit 30 (a few years back,) I still felt like a child sitting at the grown-up table. I was awkward and immature. And, boy, did I have hang-ups. God took me on a journey (or twenty) and helped me to realize how self-centered my thinking was and helped me to get over myself.

Now, not everyone with class and tact is a phony. I know a good number of people that are genuine, sweet, and graceful. They aren't judging anyone for being less-than-graceful. But that doesn't stop many of us from trying to measure up. And a good many of us were not born with class and tact.

So what is a White Trash Mama? Well, of course we all look different. That's the beauty of embracing who you are: no longer worrying that you aren't like everyone else. The stereotype evokes images of a bleached blonde with dark roots, wearing pajama pants in Wal-Mart with a cigarette dangling from her lips as she threatens to wallop her 7 children of various ethnic descents. This is a stereotype, not a dress code. The factor that truly makes her a true White Trash Mama is the fact that she really does NOT care what you think of her. You can raise that eyebrow, shake your head, and sneer all you want; she'll just snort at you and grab another box of ding-dongs off the shelf before sashaying away.

If you've seen The Help, you've watched a beautiful example of a woman embracing her inner-White Trash Mama. Ms. Celia Foote is a sweet character struggling to fit in. She has no idea why local society shuns her. "The Help" are well aware of the fact that poor Celia is White Trash, regardless of how much money she has. Her dresses are too tight, she drinks too much, and she is too open and honest. But with a bit of help from Milly, Celia eventually accepts the terms and grows into her own skin with beautiful confidence.

I love Celia Foote. I love Milly Jackson. These are women who can't help but be anything other than who they are. Sincere. Genuine. Both of these characters have that White Trash streak, though both have very different personalities. Again, the beauty of it rests in being the person God made you to be and being okay with it.

But what about the times when you aren't happy with who you are? Then change it, stupid. That last bit of advice is for me, actually. I've not been accomplishing half what I want lately and rather than face that fact, I've sought out distractions. My life isn't tidy, so I continuously seek the comfort of my tidy internet world, lesson planning pages (that never make it to the printer) and other tidy endeavors that don't impact my real life. I can deceive myself that they are worthy pursuits, but they are only distractions.

I recently heard a quote (which I cannot find and I cannot remember,) that said the reason many people seek distraction is that they do not want to face who they are. It's been haunting me for weeks. And it's true. And now that I know it, I can pursue improvement or I can pursue distraction. Perhaps you're like me and you never quite grasped social graces. Perhaps you'd love to embrace your inner-White Trash Mama, but aren't happy with your present skin. I advise embracing the fact that this is who you are at this moment, and this includes knowing that who-you-are wants to be better. Be comfortable in the skin of someone who knows she hasn't "arrived", someone who is growing, someone God can use.

And in the meantime, remember:

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination. Christopher Columbus

Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.Adam Hochschild

And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. 1 Corinthians 7:35

Living Books Curriculum - Grade 1

2011-10-29T15:01:00.001-05:00

"The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum." These words, penned by Charlotte Mason over 100 years ago, capture the heart of Living Books Curriculum. Charlotte Mason held revolutionary ideas about the educating of children in early twentieth-century England. For many years, these ideas seemed to have been lost. However, they have been experiencing a revival of sorts over the last 20 years, and many homeschooling families are recognizing the brilliance behind her philosophies--namely, that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life! A Charlotte Mason education exposes children to noble ideas and interesting concepts. Living Books Curriculum provides this rich and varied education without being overwhelming to parent or child.

I incorporated Living Books Curriculum for Grade One with my two daughters, ages 6 and 4. This is the first year of formal schooling for both girls, and I was prepared for my 4-year-old to be left out of many things. I was delighted to discover how wrong I was. Both girls stay enthralled for the duration of our studies each day. The excellent books that are included in this curriculum are irresistible; how could they not be enthralled? Charlotte Mason insisted that children are people and that their minds feed on living ideas found in living books. I am continually impressed with the fantastic book choices which can't help but spark a love of learning. The book list, which can be viewed at www.livingbookscurriculum.com, has a nice balance of modern books and the more classic books of yesterday. The age-appropriate selections hold children's interest and kindle many interesting conversations.

For 36 weeks, students explore a plethora of subjects using beautiful material. The year is divided into four 8-week terms, each followed by a flex/exam week. The program provides all of the ingredients of a rigorous education yet manages to retain the gentleness for which a Charlotte Mason education is known.

Bible Study is done with a devotional that begins with Genesis and progresses through the entire Bible. Two to three stories are studied per week, using both the devotional stories and Scripture readings.

Language Arts is taught through poetry, read-alouds, lessons in storytelling, and Aesop's Fables. All of these are accompanied by narration exercises. Penmanship lessons use the Italics method in a book aptly entitled Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children. The lessons are so simple yet so effective. Italics is an inexpensive book and is intended to be used for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. The poetry selections come from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. My only regret with this subject is that there are not enough poems in the book to cover the entire 36-week school year. By the time the book's poems have all been read, nearly half of the year is still left. The Teacher's Guide encourages readers to continue to read from the same book, and I daresay my girls and I will probably enjoy revisiting old favorites.

A guide to teaching reading is built into the weekly lessons in the Teacher's Guide. These lessons begin with pre-reading activities and alphabet recognition. Unfortunately, I find they are much more appropriate for my four-year-old than my six-year-old. However, children learn to read at different ages and stages and this is a gentle introduction for those at the beginning stages of learning. I have my daughters do different lessons, incorporating the second half of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for my older daughter. I am not a big proponent of pushing children to read early, but some students desire it and can benefit from more challenging material.

Living Books Curriculum uses several different books to explore earth science, physical science, biology, and health. A complete health curriculum is available on the Resource CD accompanying the Teacher's Guide. Some sections of the Teacher's Guide might appear to be overly simple for a first grade child. For example, the assessment at the end of the first term has students classify what is "plant" and what is "animal" using flash cards. Certainly, most first graders can do this easily. However, this should not be considered an indicator of the depth of material studied throughout Living Books First Grade Science. By the ninth week, when this assessment occurs, students have already read many interesting books, participated in experiments, and made many observations about plants and animals that far exceed being able to tell them apart.

Nature study is a key ingredient in a Charlotte Mason education. For those not accustomed to it, it can be a daunting endeavor. The Living Books Resource CD contains many helpful articles that guide parents and students into this new practice. Nature Journal forms are also provided on the CD.

Art, one of the most easily forgotten subjects in the average homeschool week, is scheduled weekly, using lessons from The Little Hands Art Book. This enchanting book does not require complicated resources and does not leave piles of useless clutter in its wake. Delightful art is created as little hands improve in hand-eye coordination and little hearts are inspired. Art appreciation is also developed using "Come Look with Me" books. These books, written by Gladys Blizzard, open students' eyes to the world of art and help them discover the world through the eyes of many different artists.

Music is studied through the lives of composers. Stories of the Great Composers covers the lives of 12 great composers. An accompanying CD allows students to listen to a composition by each composer. These are never quite enough to satisfy my girls, so we usually spend some extra time listening to more of their music through www.grooveshark.com while the girls alternate between coloring and dancing to the music.

World history in Grade 1 begins with the Ancients. On many days, this directly coincides with the matching Bible stories. In fact, the history readings for Grade 1 are more specifically a history of the Israelites. Some children will love hearing these exciting stories multiple times; some might prefer to skip some history readings. Grade 2 history begins again with ancient Egypt. Grade 3 covers Greeks and Romans up to the fall of Rome. This is not ideal for those wanting to study a chronological history in a four-year cycle. However, many families appreciate this multi-stream approach to history, which combines a slower examination of world history studied at the same time as American history from a different era. Grade 1 American history begins with the Colonial Period; Grade 2 covers the American Revolution, and so forth.

Geography is the section that has impressed me with its simplicity. Most of the lessons need only a map or globe and time for a discussion. Students examine a map to identify first what a continent is, then a country, then states, and so forth. Students trace the route of the Israelites during the Exodus. Oceans, continents, and countries are learned through map work and Geography songs.

Mathematics is not included, although there is a section in each week's guide for parents to write in lesson plans for the program best suited to the child.

What I especially appreciate about the Living Books Curriculum is that it helps keep me on task for all the lovely "extras" that I have a tendency to brush aside, such as Art, Music Appreciation, and Nature Studies. The truth is that they are not "extras." They are, in fact, integral to an education that is alive and inspired, that relates to the world around us.

I had a hard time adjusting to the weekly layout rather than a daily line-up. All lessons are written out for the week, not broken down into days. I tend to need more direction on a day-to-day basis, so I spend some extra time each week compiling a daily list for myself using forms provided on the Resource CD. My list is flexible, but it helps keep me more accountable for implementing books as outlined in the weekly layout. For parents wanting something to tell them exactly what they need to do for each step, this could be a deterring factor. For others, this flexibility is a wonderful characteristic.

The price for the entire kit is $525.00. The company does offer a payment option of four equal payments. If you wish to pursue this option you need to notify them. Living Books is eager to offer advice and help you choose the perfect package for your family. The Teacher's Guide makes up $75.00 of the total price. Several of the books in the kit will be used again and again in continuing grades. The prices for individual books in the kit match or beat the most inexpensive prices I can find elsewhere. The high price tag stems from the sheer quantity of books. If this price is too high, and you do not mind not owning your books, you could obtain many of them through the library system instead. For me, $525.00 is a lot of money to invest in curriculum, but I can honestly say that I think it is a fair price for the quality of the materials. Living Books Curriculum stands behind its materials so well that it offers a 12-month, 100% refund policy on all books and materials, less shipping costs. Living Books Curriculum also has a reputation for excellent customer service. Their staff is happy to advise on best-suited grade levels and choices for teaching multiple children. Their website also provides a forum which is very active and can be a great source of encouragement and wisdom for parents using this method.

If you are curious about the Charlotte Mason method and Living Books Curriculum, be sure to sign up for the free Get-Acquainted Sample Pack at www.livingbookscurriculum.com. It contains lots of free goodies. Also, Charlotte Mason's original writings are available to read online at www.amblesideonline.com.

Luck o' the Irish

2011-10-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

Half-hearing a conversation, I heard the boys say something about a leprechaun and (in my best Napoleon Dynamite voice) I muttered, "Your mom's a leprechaun," as I walked through the room. Joel instantly tackled me and held on tight, saying, "I know how this works! And I'm not letting go until you tell me where you hide your gold!" Completely caught me off guard! I laughed until I cried.

The Sixty-Minute Shakespeare

2011-09-11T21:23:00.002-05:00

*This is a MamaBuzz Media review. The product was provided by: http://www.fivestarpublications.com for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I hate to admit it, but I've never really been into Shakespeare. I've read a few, back in high school, but never for pleasure. I homeschool my own children now and our method is a classical/Charlotte Mason hybrid which is supposed to include a healthy dose of Shakespeare.

But we've never done it.

Shakespeare always felt too much like poetry to me and you know how I felt about poetry. I learned my lesson with that subject last year, so I decided I'd be a grown up and try adding in Shakespeare to our routine this year. And of course, it's everyone's favorite subject now.

For the younger girls, I purchased A Midsummer Night's Dream for Kids , which I highly recommend, but that's not what this review is about. For my middle school son and high school son, we went with Sixty Minute Shakespeare.

Sixty Minute Shakespeare is, technically, cheating a bit. In this series, Professor Cass Foster has abridged Shakespeare's plays to make them a bit less intimidating. But don't misunderstand: these are not rewritten! The rich language of the originals is still here, they have just been condensed very carefully.

For instance, in the original Act III, Scene I, it reads:

Quince: Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.

And in Sixty-Minute Shakespeare, the same line reads:

Quince: Pat, pat; and here's a marvail's convenient place for our rehearsal. We will do it in action as we will do it before the Duke.

It has left out only the line "This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring house" which is not integral to the story.

This method makes it a more simple read, which makes it much less intimidating. The book also includes brief footnotes with definitions of Old English words that help tremendously. And, at less than $9 per book, they are very inexpensive and well worth the money.

In addition to being a more gentle introduction for the reader, the book also includes notes for directing the book as a play. This abridged version, with notes for efficient scene changes, rhythms, etc. also makes a gentle introduction to the actual play, not just the text. Pages are included at the end of each scene for director/actor notes.

By next year, we will begin tackling the unabridged originals. Until then, I am enjoying this version very much and so are my boys. They are getting a true feel for the story as well as a true feel for the voice of Shakespeare. They are truly enjoying it and I think this gentler introduction will make them much more prone to appreciating the original works when we get to them.

Now, how would you like you're own copy? Five Star Publications has generously agreed to share a copy with a reader. To enter in a drawing, visit Five Star Publications' website to browse the available abridged plays and leave a comment below telling me which of the titles you would prefer to receive. For a 2nd entry, "like" Five Star's Facebook page.

I highly recommend trying the magical story of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It truly is a delight.

The contest ends next Friday!

"Always travel with a bucket" or "How to lose those pesky vacation pounds"

2011-07-29T12:16:00.003-05:00

My father recently retired from the Marine Corps and returned to his home in Florida. I have 3 sisters who also returned to Florida for a visit last week. It had been 7 years since all of us girls were all together at the same time and my parents generously gave us travel money so that my family could join them.

It was a great week. We always enjoy a roadtrip together. The journey is half the fun! But it was also so good to see family and get to know them better. On the trip down, we were able to stop and visit the delightful family of MommyBrain. Honor and Laura Grace are recent pen-pals and it was so fun for them to get to meet as well. Onward from there, we drove to Mobile where we toured the U.S.S. Alabama. It was incredible. All of the kids LOVED it and I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. After this stop, we drove on to Florida where we had a great visit.

My parents treated all of us to a visit to an Airspace Museum. It took three different vehicles to get us all there and all of the kids were so excited! Just minutes before we reached the parking lot, Honor threw up.

A lot.

She is very prone to car-sickness and honestly, I was surprised we'd made it that far without a little vomit. We dropped the rest of the kids and cousins off with everyone and then Chris and I took Honor to Target to purchase a new dress. Since her carsickness seemed to have passed, we figured fresh clothes would do the trick and we could go on to the museum.

Getting her out of her carseat was most unpleasant. She was in the very back of the van and I wasn't able to reach her until she had deposited a good 3 inches of stew into her lap. It covered the buckle. I had to unbuckle her. I'm sharing this just to brag about what a great mom I am. I suppose the only other option was to leave her in it, but I only briefly considered that option.

We cleaned her. We cleaned the van. We left for the museum. Once there, she threw up again. But this time, I was prepared! I had emptied a washtub that I used to carry our travel snacks and she was able to throw up without any mess. At this point, though, I realized that she did not have carsickness. She had a stomach bug. Ever cheerful, she said that, on the bright side, at least she got a new dress out of the deal.

Chris went into the museum to let everyone know he was going to drop us off at the house while I sat with Honor. She was certain she was finished, so I kept the stinky tub beside me while she sipped water behind me. Suddenly, she gave a little choking sound and I flew into action, swinging the tub around to put in front of her.

First: She wasn't throwing up, only choking a bit on her water.

Second: The tub was already full and full tubs tend to slosh.

Third: Eww.

Thankfully, I managed to get it all on myself only. Chris returned to the van to find me near tears, with vomit on my clothes, in my hair, and IN MY EAR.

We returned home and poor Honor continued to throw up every drop of water that she swallowed. The poor child was so thirsty. I had her swallowing just a teaspoon at a time until she finally begged, "Since I'm going to throw it up no matter what, can I please just chug it?" The bug continued for 12 hours and then she rested for the next 12.

About 6 hours after she started, Joel decided to join in the fun. Again, 12 hours of vomiting and 12 hours of feeling like crap.

The next evening, my dad came down with it. Then Ethan. Then my youngest sister. And then it was time to leave.

Before leaving, we had car trouble. Chris spent hours tearing the van apart and fixing it. We reserved a room at a Drury halfway home, just in case. And I am oh-so-glad that we did. As we stood waiting for the elevator doors to open, Ethan had a relapse right on the hotel floor. By the time we got to our room, Chris and I were feeling it. Everyone else that had this bug threw up at least 20 times in that 12-hour span. Chris, the lucky-dog, threw up once and once only. So not fair.

The next day, we lingered until check-out at noon. We gently drove homeward, Chris and I both feeling miserable. About 3 hours from home, Sarah Grace, the last of us to catch the bug, began throwing up. More and more slowly, we traveled home. The poor sweetheart, slept in her carseat, cradling her vomit-tub in her lap as we got closer home.

45 miles from home, our transmission died.

If I hadn't been so exhausted, I'd have laughed hysterically. On the inside, I sounded like a crazy person. On the outside, I was slow gibberish.

A dear friend drove to pick us up. Thankfully, she has AAA and our van was towed home to our driveway for free. And it sits there still.

So yes, crazy stuff. But again we were bathed in prayer. And miraculously, as miserable as it all was, it was amazing at the same time. It was a beautiful visit. A healing visit.

And the car? Well, I have no idea. But I have peace. I am not worried. How can have fear for the future? I know it is in God's hands.

Year of Whoa or Woe?

2011-07-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

(drafted a month ago)

As I sit down and rest after giving a little girl a breathing treatment and re-wrapping a little boys' stitched up toes, I have to ponder and I have to share.

Last year, we experienced an amazing year of watching God's hands move intimately in our lives. He rescued us in incredible ways. It was a year of "Whoa!" This year, I can't believe it is nearly July already. We've been busy and distracted since New Year's Eve. Our plans are half-started and our initiative is half-hearted. In the meantime, we've been experiencing what our friends keep referring to as "quite a time." But the funny thing is, it hasn't felt like a struggle. We didn't really even notice it being out of the ordinary until people started commenting and telling us they were praying for us. I attribute our obliviousness to those prayers.

I couldn't begin to tell you our little "woes", especially because none of them were terribly serious. The more sobering trials we've had recently include both girls coming down with pneumonia, Joel and I having massive head-colds, Chris having Bells Palsy, and Joel slicing his foot open. Ethan, the poor patient soul, has been serving us all with such a loving heart.

The pneumonia lingered with Sarah and left her prone to frequent asthma attacks. One of these attacks sent us to the Emergency Room where we discovered that she had bronchitis. We've seen the ER a few too many times this year. Any scrap of savings we had has gone to doctor bills.

And yet, we didn't go through the typical where-are-you-God? moments that generally come with these adventures. I'm not sure why. We have in the past. This didn't feel like any kind of spiritual attack. It just....was.

And now? I'm a bit weary, but not discouraged. I'm really not. I am so thankful for the prayers that have lifted us up this year. I am so thankful for a God Who is patient and gracious. He is my Strength and my Song.

Yes, yes, I know.

2011-07-25T19:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not what you'd call an "active" blogger. In fact, I've been so remiss, one could hardly even call me a blogger. Obviously, the scope and goal of this blog have changed through the years and the old girl needs updated to fit those changes. But aside from that, when you get down to the heart of the matter, who cares what the format is like if I'm not even posting?

But there have been plenty of things to post about lately, both good and bad, and I need to get caught up. I actually started a few posts, but never shared them. We've just returned from vacation and that story MUST be shared! But you need the background story first, so I'm going back a couple months to those rough drafts and posting them. So, if you know me in person and you see déjà vu posts, just wait; by the end of the week, I should have the old blog caught up.

Moving from Blogger to WordPress

2011-06-15T13:58:00.001-05:00

I've toyed with the idea for years. I've heard great things about WordPress blogs. I enjoy reading several blos on WordPress. WordPress blogs always look so neat and tidy and professional. But do I really want to make the switch from Blogger to WordPress? I hated to scrap everything I've written here and, after all, I've invested hours upon hours of learning how to navigate and tweak HTML in Blogger. Do I really want to take on the headache of learning a new program? And what about blog followers? Would I lose current followers? Would I have to start all over again? Would fellow bloggers have to update their sidebar links to my blog?

Thankfully, I was offered the opportunity to review an ebook by Sharon Hujik, entitled "How to Move from Blogger to WordPress: A Comprehensive Guide so you Don't Miss a Step." And let me tell you, it is definitely comprehensive. Not overwhelming, just complete. The guide takes you simply step-by-step through changing your blog over to WordPress, without losing or confusing followers. With this guide, you can change your current blogger address over to a custom domain, so that current readers will open your blog as always and be redirected to your new site flawlessly.

You may have noticed that you are still looking at my blog in blogger format. This is not because of any flaw with the book or with WordPress. You see, switching over an old blog rather than creating a new blog, involves purchasing a custom domain. My husband wisely suggested I try WordPress for a few months before investing any money in a switch. So instead of transferring, I've started a WordPress blog to play with. When I am comfortable using it and certain that I'll continue to blog, I will make the switch. It doesn't cost very much to purchase what I would need, so the investment isn't steep, but it would be a waste if I weren't sure that I would use it. From Blogger to Wordpress includes a coupon for $20 to apply towards hosting, making it even less painful.

Here is my current WordPress blog: White Trash Mama. Keep in mind, I am verrrrry new to this, but it has been fun to explore. Through the eBook, I've learned quite a bit. For instance, did you know there are two types of WordPress? There is a Wordpress.com, which is a regular blogging platform. It is completely free and has "Wordpress.com" in the blog address. Wordpress.org let's you use the free WordPress software with your own self-hosted blog. Now, self-hosted is actually a misnomer. It doesn't mean you host your own blog on your own server, though you can. In this case, it is referring to users using an outside source to host their blog.

When I am ready to make the switch, Hujik's book will be invaluable. It takes readers through each step of the process, giving clear and easy to read instructions. Each page is filled with screen shots and pictures that make it so simple to follow. She covers complicated topics, such as FTP clients, Custom Permalinks, Nameservers, and Domain Hosting in such a simple way that anyone could follow and make the switch effortlessly. There is time involved, but thankfully, no headaches. I appreciate that Hujik gives readers an estimate for the time it will take to work through each step of the process.

Right now, you can purchase Hujik's book for 20% off using the coupon code: time4wp. This book really is worth it for anyone interested in making the switch. As much as I've researched blog design and setup, I still cannot imagine making this switch without this book. To get an idea about how helpful this book is, you can download the first few chapters free from her main page.

In addition to the great coupon, Hujik is also generously giving away 2 free copies for my readers to win. Leave a comment below to be entered in a drawing. Winners will be announced June 22, 2011.

Bogart Family Resources....and a Giveaway!

2011-04-28T23:19:00.000-05:00

There are numerous articles and books that preach the merits of teaching students with copywork. Knowing how important this skill is, I have attempted to incorporate it with all of my children. However, I was always too cheap to purchase a workbook about copywork and tried to make my own to correspond with whatever topic we were studying. Unfortunately, I have great ideas and terrible follow-through. I'm afraid my boys missed out on a lot of copywork opportunities thanks to my cheap nature. Thankfully, my girls won't have to wait for mom to invent a page. Bogart Family Resources offers many copywork ebooks for me to choose from and they are amazingly inexpensive, under $5! And I can print and reprint and reprint as needed for each child.

Bogart Family Resources has many excellent titles, featuring the four most popular handwriting styles available: Zaner Bloser, D'Nealian, Handwriting Without Tears, and Getty Dubay Italic. Each title includes ample descriptions and guidance for parents and a plethora of pages of quality copywork. These beautiful copywork pages also include nostalgic drawings in black and white. My daughters love to color these with their lessons.

The title Copying the Basics is an excellent resource to help children master the basics. It is written for younger students and is intended to help reinforce their writing skills while working on other skills as well, such as the books of the Bible, the months of the year, and Roman numerals.

The Bogart Family books also include a series of "Copying the Classics", withmany amazing titles to choose from. These books focus on building Christian character. From this series, I chose McGuffey's Eclectic Primer to help reinforce our phonics lessons while doing copywork. It makes a great resource for students just beginning to write.

For a refresher course in cursive writing for my older boys, I chose from their series "Copying the Poems" and printed The Voice of Spring. This book includes three complete poems and four scripture verses that reference spring. The poems are broken into lesson-sized portions and include The Voice of Spring, Nest Eggs, and Daffodils.

Bogart Family Resources also offer a free ebook available entitled "What About Penmanship". This free book helps parents choose what penmanship methods best fit their student's needs. To download this free book, visit their free downloads page at http://bogartfamilyresources.com/products/free-downloads/

Did I mention the part about the free book?

In addition to this freebie, everyone who signs up for their mailing list receive a gift certificate for $5.00. Since all of their titles run between $2.95 and $4.95, this means another free copywork book!

And finally, the Giveaway! One reader will be chosen from the comments section to receive a free copywork book of their choice. To enter, visit the Bogart Family Resources website and choose which copybook you would most like to win. The giveaway drawing will be held May 9th. Follow them on Facebook for another chance to win (mention this in your comments.)

This is a MamaBuzz review. The product was provided by Bogart Family Resources for review purposes.

Another day, another finger

2011-04-19T16:41:00.000-05:00

Thursday night, while cooking supper, I sliced the tip of my finger with my Pampered Chef Mandolin. With one clean stroke, a chunk of my finger was suddenly in my pan of potatoes.

Go ahead and laugh. I know. Two fingers in one week. Poster child for Pampered chef sales. Heard it.

We're blessed with a neighbor who is an EMT. He came over immediately and said there was nothing left to stitch and that we just needed to bandage it and keep it clean.

By Friday night, it was still bleeding and our EMT neighbor was at work. We're also blessed with another neighbor who is a former corpsman. He checked it out and agreed there was nothing anyone could do for it and that we just needed to keep changing the dressing and keeping it clean. And that's where it got sticky. Literally. Each time we pulled the bandage off, it was attached to the attempted clot and we were, essentially, debriding the wound. The pain of exposed nerves is manageable. The pain of debriding...not so much. Saturday afternoon's dressing change had me close to passing out, so we headed to urgent care in hope of some help.

And the doctor said....there's nothing we can do. Keep doing what you're doing. But use a different bandage. They introduced us to the beauty that is Telfa. If you ever find yourself with a laceration, I highly recommend Telfa. It doesn't stick to wounds! The nurse told me that it would be my new best friend. I'm not sure even she knew what she was saying though. She just really wanted out of that room. When the gal sent in to clean your wound turns green, it must be bad. Everyone else got a good chuckle out of my Pampered chef woes. Stitches on one hand, seeping wound on the other. Hilarious.

So here we are, where we started. But with Telfa. And a Tetanus shot. The doctor said I can't do anything with my hand for 2-3 weeks. It will continue to bleed easily for while. He also said that i will never have a fingerprint on that finger again and that I could pull off crimes if I was careful to use only that finger. So there's a bright side.

I typed this post with one hand

2011-04-06T11:23:00.000-05:00

A little after 6:00 this morning, I kissed my sweetie goodbye and quizzed my eldest about his breakfast preference. He went to the shower, I went to boiling water and chopping apples for his oatmeal. I used my crazy-sharp Pampered Chef Apple Wedger to make the job faster. After "wedging" my apple, I put the tool down on the counter, but left it too close to the edge; It started to fall and I instinctively reached to grab it.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I ran to the sink to assess the damage. I had filleted my pinkie. Deeply. Bits of fatty tissue were trying to curl out of the clean cut. I called Chris, who was still on his way to work, and he came home. We talked and decided that the ER was an hour away, or I could wait an hour and see the doctor in town when they opened. We waited and I pinched the skin together until both hands were numb. Chris went to the store and bought butterfly bandages and Hello Kitty Bandaids.

They made me smile. Eventually, with the butterfly bandages help, I was able to let go of the wound without it gushing. After a while longer it even seemed to stop and dry up a bit. Chris stayed home with the kids while I headed off to the doctor (the only one who takes my insurance) wondering if I could get away with no stitches.

My doctor wasn't in.

I went to a walk-in clinic and discovered that it would cost me $200 to stitch it up. I was then quite convinced that it wouldn't need stitches. I called Chris and he was not happy to hear me consider not stitching it. I asked a nurse for her opinion and she said I could probably get away with bandages. Chris barely accepted this 2nd opinion ( he was not happy) and I headed home. Relieved.

As I turned the car onto my street....I forgot and used my left hand on the steering wheel and busted the cut wide open.

Chris packed the kids in the car and drove me back to the doctor. I tried reading to calm myself down, but I was in the middle of Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle. There wasn't much calming to be found in his descriptions of slaughterhouses...entrails, slick with blood, draining away in a river of death....not calming.

I was seen by a very nice nurse practitioner who told me that she was going to insert a needle in the base of my finger, as close to the nerve as possible and numb it before stitching. "The numbing shot is the worst part." She was the third person to tell me this. I was worried. I asked if there was any risk of complications such as nerve damage (I've had too much trouble with this already.) She shrugged and told me there are risks to everything.

I asked if she had done this very much and she said (I'm not kidding): "Meh. I've done a few."

She was wonderful, however, so I think she might have been messing with me.

She inserted the needle and I barely felt a thing. Whew! We went to rinse out the cut though and I could still feel everything. So she gave me another shot. She gave me several shots in the cut and these stung like fire. She gave me several more shots in the base of the finger. These also stung. After about 8 jabs and lots of fire, I now agree: "The numbing shot is the worst part."

After that it was a breeze. I lost feeling in my entire left hand and was able to just watch with fascination as she attempted to sew through a puddle of blood. I kicked myself and blurted out, "I left my camera in the car!" Sorry, guys; no pictures.

And now, 5 hours later, I'm thinking the wedger did not make my morning oatmeal go "faster"

Morning Manna

2011-04-04T09:21:00.000-05:00

Every year, Chris and I attempt a read-the-bible-in-a-year marathon. The marathon for us has become, how long can we actually keep at it. April seems to be record, but we'll hopefully push through the hump this year and be able to finish. We're both behind already, but have decided to not stress over the end-date. There's nothing shameful about reading-the-bible-in-a-year-and-a-half.

I have found a devotional book to accompany my readings that I really like. It is called Morning Manna and I love to wrap up my morning reading with this devotion book. It does NOT have to accompany a bible-in-a-year reading. The devotions can be pick up and go, completely independent of any other study. But they are shared in a chronological order, beginning with Genesis and ending in Revelation.

Each devotion is dated, with February having 28 days so you will have an extra day some years. A portion of the bible is referenced, such as today's listing of 1 Samuel 16-17, but the devotion focuses on only 1-2 verses from those chapters. Today, it focused on 1 Samuel 17:37 and expounded on the story of David facing the giant. Three lessons are drawn from it: The Lesson of Deliverance, The Lesson of Confidence, and the Lesson of Commission. Each lesson is also tagged with topics which are indexed in the back. In this way, you can look for specific devotions on topics you are interested in studying, such as depression, shame, tithing, etc.

The devotion is also available for the Kindle, but I love pulling out this book, with its buttery-soft cover, and holding it in hand. And after reading through these Old Testament stories so many times, this devotion seems to breath new life into stories that I sometimes rush through with too much familiarity. It's beautiful.

*This book was given to me for review purposes. All opinions shared are my own.

TheraBreath Giveaway!

2011-03-30T16:18:00.001-05:00

This review is a little different from what I usually choose, but Therabreath ads have been taking over my facebook sidebar and it was making me a tad paranoid. So when I was offered the chance to review TheraBreath Toothpaste, I took it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they also sent me the Oral Rinse and Therabreath Lozenges.

TheraBreath claims that it stops bad breath. I don't think I had issues here to begin with (if you know me and feel otherwise I insist you tell me!) but wondered if it might help with morning breath. I'm much more inclined to good morning kisses than my husband and was hoping to increase my chances of morning smooches. I really think that Therabreath stopped the morning breath problem, but my husband thought it actually increased his morning breath. He started sneaking into the kids' bathroom and using their toothpaste.

When I first tried the toothpaste, it looked like I was squirting petroleum jelly onto my toothbrush, which was a little disconcerting. But it didn't have a weird texture at all once in my mouth. It had virtually zero flavor that first time and I was glad to have the mouthwash. The mouthwash tasted like water with a tiny bit of mint flavoring. No overwhelming flavors. I noticed though, that each day I used it, the toothpaste developed a bit stronger flavor. Though I didn't see peelu anywhere in the ingredient list, it eventually developed a taste just like the peelu toothpastes I've tried in the past and couldn't stand. I didn't like it. If you haven't tried peelu, the best way I could describe it is a powdery taste similar to the aftertaste you get with milk of magnesia.

The mints, however, were wonderful. They taste like buttermints with a hint of a tang. I thought they worked nicely, too.

The price for the Toothpaste & Oral Rinse are $10.50 each, which seems rather expensive to me since I wasn't overly impressed. The price for the Lozenges is $13.00, but this is for a rather large box and I found them to be very effective. Generally, breath mints just make me need more breath mints, so I could easily go through a package a day if I did any amount of public speaking. One of these little mints is plenty, so the price of this box cannot in any way be compared to the price of a package of mints. It can easily last for months.

For this giveaway, the winner will receive 1 tube of TheraBreath toothpaste and 1 bottle of TheraBreath Oral Rinse. US entries only; sorry! To enter for the giveaway, you need to leave a comment here with contact information and you need to "like" TheraBreath on Facebook.

This is a MamaBuzz review. The product was provided by Therabreath for this review.

52 Books in 52 Weeks

2011-03-28T21:11:00.003-05:00

My nightstand still has the exact same books it had sitting upon it the last time I updated this post. It's not that I didn't read them, but I'm far from finishing them. Not a one is a book I care to have in the tub with me. And I don't want to carry them in the waiting room to read in tiny snatches only. These are books to be chewed carefully. In the meantime, here are the fun ones that I've finished so far:

Book #21
The Tiger's Wife
by Tea Obreht

This one wasn't fun at all. It was quite miserable. In fact, I couldn't even quite tell you what it was about. A girl, who is a doctor had a grandfather that died. He met two interesting people in his life and liked the zoo. The book gives a bizarrely detailed background story to every insignificant character. Within each character introduction, there is a mini story, complete with conflict and resolution. Within the actual story itself? Not so much. I hated it.

a
Book #20
Tongues of Serpents
by Naomi Novik

I know it looks bad. It's really not. In fact, it's really quite wonderful. I discussed this series earlier in the year. This one is the latest book in the series. I thought when I started it that it was the last book in the series. Unfortunately not. It is the most recently published in the series, but there is still at least one more. It's not that I'm in a hurry to say goodbye to the characters or anything, but a body can only have so much dreadful luck before you give up on them. The next book doesn't come out until March. I don't have the energy to wonder about them until then.

Book #19
Detectives in Togas
by Henry Winterfield

This one is another children's book. It was written in the '50's and I thought it would fit in nicely with our unit study on Roman history. I didn't realize it was so old when I bought it or I wouldn't have worried, but I read it to preview before giving to my sons. Yes, it's clean. I started to worry when the characters discussed a magician/seer. In the end, he's a fraud and nothing dark is remotely glorified.

It was a fun read. Completely irrelevant to our lessons. The boys will like that.

Book #18
Immanuel's Veins
by Ted Dekker

Why do I keep trying? Yes, he was incredible. There was always an edge, but it didn't seem to flirt with darkness, only shine light onto darkness instead. Now there is ick after ick after ick. And yet they are still written by a mesmerizing author.

This book flirted with vampires. Jumping on a trend bandwagon?

Ick.

Book #17
The Fairy Tale Detectives
by Michael Buckley

Yes, it's a kids' book, but I loved it anyway. It was fun and light. Cleverly done. I even checked out the sequel. We all need a little mind-candy every now and then.

My boys will love this one.

Book #16
Ammon's Adventure
by Arnold Ytreeide

We already knew we loved the author. Ytreeide wrote the Advent stories that we've read for years. This year, we read about Jotham's son, Ammon, for a Lent reading. We all looked forward to it every evening.

There was one scene that left us all shaking our heads though. In the book, Ammon is with Mary at a well when she first hears the news that Jesus has risen from the dead. It seems to have forgotten the garden story. Very strange to us, considering how accurate other scenes have been.

Aside from this oddity, we loved the book.

Book #15
Lost in the Labyrinth
by Patrice Kindl

I read this in order to preview it for my 11 & 13 year old sons as we wrap up our study of Greek myths. I was intrigued by the idea of a retelling of an old tale, but this is not what I was looking for. In Kindl's version, Theseus is far from a hero. Instead, he is portrayed as an arrogant murderer. King Minos is portrayed as an adulterous weakling while the nation is ruled by a line of queens that make it a habit to get pregnant out of wedlock.

Much of the story felt more like a Judy Bloom book than an adventurous myth. Readers get to hear about the main character's menstrual cycle, crushes, and a description of her pubescent breasts. It might be an interesting read for a 12 year old girl, but not for my guys.

Any adventure that might have existed in the original myths is delivered here with a deadpan tone. The main character is not a heroine and never claims to be one. She is a tool used by others and everything that happens just....happens. Rather than Greek gods, the religion in this book centers around a goddess. This goddess religion plays a central theme in the book. It had a dark, icky feel to it.

Also, the author switches back and forth between present and past tense, which is a little annoying.

Book #14

Unbroken

by Laura Hillenbrand

Ethan will study WWII in three more years and this book will be required reading. Unbroken tells the incredible story of Louis Zamperini. So many parts to this story are incredible on their own. That all of these stories belong to one man...and that he survived with his spirit intact...is astounding. A brief video clip can be found here. No words I share could possibly do this book or this man any justice. Just believe me when I tell you that you MUST READ THIS BOOK.

Book #13
Victory of Eagles
by Naomi Novik

I have been on a mind-candy splurge lately. It's been FUN! But I'm feeling a little dumbed-down and probably need to start using my brain cells again soon. In the meantime, this was another excellent book in the Temeraire series. Again, I'm pretty new to the world of science fiction/fantasy, but I am surprised how much I've been enjoying it. Don't knock it till you try it, I guess, huh? Anyway, this is the 6th book in the series that covers the Napoleonic wars with a twist....what if there were dragons?

Book #11 & 12
Sea of Monsters & The Titan's Curse
For review, see below.

Book #10
The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan

The boys have been studying the Greeks since Christmas and I thought this might be a fun way to wrap up the unit, but wanted to preview it first. I'm torn. It is an EXCELLENT book. Very well done. Very fun. However, the more books in the series I read, the more spiritual they feel. The characters "pray" to the gods (their parents) and curse with casual phrases such as "oh my gods". I appreciated that in the first book, the one true God was referred to as separate from the mythical gods - existing on a different plane entirely, but in subsequent books, it is more regarded as a man-made concept for those unable to comprehend the mythological god "reality". I would love to recommend the first book, but it is a cliff-hanger, as are the next 2 books. Who wants to start a cliffhanger and not end it. I need resolution. It's an illness.

Book #9
Epicenter
by joel rosenberg

Excellent book. Rosenberg takes key scriptures from Ezekiel and explains how they fit in with modern geography and politics. It does not mean that we're in the last days, but certainly, we could be. He explains how the scriptures will play out when the day comes. He also describes the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the amazing conversions taking place worldwide, and practical advice for preparation for fulfillment of the scriptures.

Book #8
Until We Reach Home
by Lynn Austin
Lynn Austin is one of my favorite authors. Her books fall under the heading of Christian fiction but are a long way from falling under the heading of 'Christian Romance". There is nothing silly here. Heartfelt, yes. Each book makes you think, makes you grow.

This book followed three sisters on a journey from Sweden to America. The run from difficult things only to encounter more difficult things, growing and learning along the way. I loved the book and am hoping that it is part of a series. Each sister parts in the end in such a way that leaves you wanting to know more about their stories.

Book #7
Extreme Measures
by Vince Flynn

This was my first Vince Flynn novel and I have to say that I really liked it. It was a bit rough where language is concerned, which I really can't stand. Generally, I shut the book and move on, but this was gripping and (I hate to say it, but) the language fit in with the storyline rather well. We're talking about military men and I imagine the language was probably pretty mild compared to reality.

The book tackles the subject of our policies on torture of terrorists...a touchy subject to say the least. Flynn makes a very strong case for it. Riveting, hilarious, and more than entertaining...I really liked this one.

Book #6
The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna

Hmmmm. Not sure how to rate this one. It was fascinating, but wasn't your typical fiction. There was no true plot line, rather the entire piece could almost be called character development. We know little about the main character, Vatanen, except that he was your average middle-aged guy tired of his mediocre life. On a whim, he suddenly decided to walk away from it all and begin travelling with a hare that he nursed back to health.

Not a bit of it was boring and it was almost beautiful to watch Vatanen logically approach each adventure that came his way.

*spoiler alert* The end of the book changed so suddenly that it felt as if the original author must have died and his story finished by someone else. Turning a page, our character has suddenly awoken from a drunken binge (he didn't touch alcohol previously,) lost his bravery, and left to hide in the woods. A bear attack brought back his bravery, but also a bit of craziness. He hunted a bear into a foreign country and was then thrown in prison where he rotted out the rest of his days. The end.

???? Right up until that drunken-binge page turn, I really liked the book.

Book #5
Empire of Ivory
by Naomi Novik

I know, I know. There's a dragon on it. Before you think it's a weird fantasy book and decide to discount anything I mention reading again, please know that it actually a great series. Yes, series. This is actually the fourth book in the series and it is not the last.

The books feel more like historical novels than fantasy, set in the midst of battles between France and England. Imagine Napoleon leading the French, army battling army and navy battling navy. Only, in this tale, the countries also have aviators. That's right, dragons. Think of it as a fascinating version of the air force. The stories are lively and riveting, but the truly intriguing part of the story is the relationship between the aviators and their dragons...almost like parent and child.

Anyway, yeah, it might be a little weird. Definitely outside what I usually read. But it is not low-brow nonsense. It's high-brow mind candy. Honest. Try it. I dare you.

Book #4
???
by Kendra Harrison

Honestly, I don't know the title. My cousin, Kendra, wrote an excellent science fiction novel and sent me a copy as a Word document. I converted it to pdf and transferred it to my Kindle, where the title reads "Part 1". Well, Part 1 is a Christian novel that includes daring adventures with elves, dragons, etc. I don't read much in the science fiction department, but I really enjoyed this. In fact, I read my first sci-fi/fantasy last year, with the Temeraire Series. It surprised me how much I enjoyed the genre, so I may have to try some more. Hopefully, I'll be able to satisfy the urge with a Part 2, since this novel turned out to be a cliffhanger.

Book #3
A Walk in the Woods
by Bill Bryson
"Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail"
This is not generally the genre I visit, but it came highly recommended. The book is a memoir of Bryson's hike through the Appalachian Trail. It was hilarious. Bryson has a knack for making about anything funny, yet at the same time, this book was fascinating in its detail and history. For instance, while describing a book he was reading about bear attacks (to prepare for his hike) Bryson wrote:

After noting that just 500 people were attacked and hurt by black bears between 1960 and 1980-twenty-five attacks a year from a resident population of at least half a million bears - Herrero adds "The typical black bear-inflicted injury," he writes blandly, "is minor and usually involves only a few scratches or light bites." Pardon me, but what exactly is a light bite? Are we talking a playful wrestle and gummy nips? I think not. And is 500 certified attacks really such a modest number considering how few people go into the North American woods? And how foolish must one be to be reassured by the information that no bear has killed a human in Vermont or New Hampshire in 200 years? That's not because the bears have signed a treaty, you know. There's nothing to say that they won't start a modest rampage tomorrow.

I learned a lot and could even imagine, for just a brief moment, that I would like to someday hike the Appalachian. It was a very brief moment.

*Note that it does contain some language.

Book #2
The House of Wolves
by Matt Bronleewe

This one was entertaining, but not a favorite by any means. It had all the possibilities of being a National Treasure or Indiana Jones, but it fell flat.

The action was incredible (okay, too incredible, but that's allowable when it's a great book or movie) but the dialogue was plain silly. It was trite.

But I'm a sucker for secret society, conspiracy theory mysteries so I finished it anyway.

Book #1
The Moorland Cottage
by Elizabeth Gaskell

I fell in love with Elizabeth Gaskell a few years ago after watching North & South. Next, I fell in love with Wives and Daughters. Cranford was next, and then I KNEW I had read one of these books instead of just watching them. I found The Moorland Cottage for free for my kindle and enjoyed it on our trip last week. It was sweet and simple and beautiful and I loved it.

Sadly, it was never made into a movie, so I can't watch it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Yes, it was overly idyllic and some might call it sappy-sweet, but I found it moving and sweet, no sap.

I miss my cream cheese drawer

2011-03-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

It's not that cream cheese is out. I'm a big believer in the beauty of fat. It's the things i like to combine with my cream cheese. Well, okay, I'll combine ANYTHING with cream cheese, but my standby quick-grabs.

That there? That was lunch a few weeks ago. Wheat and sugar. I know, I know. Ryvita makes a wheat free cracker. I'll hunt it down one of these days. And the jam....yes, I'll figure out how to make it sugar free. But my house is in chaos at the moment and the words "from scratch" make me long for the peace and calm of a looney bin.

I'm still working on figuring out the eating thing. These are the books that have influenced me the most on understanding and recognizing what real food is and what a healthy diet, as God intended really looks like.

The wheat thing is definitely an issue for my body. It's not a bad food for everyone, but I just can't handle it properly. I already mentioned how much weight I lost with the raw foods detox. I didn't mention that within a week of healthy eating afterwards, I gained 5 lbs. That is a week of HEALTHY eating and working out every morning. Talk about discouraging! But one of my healthy staples was whole wheat. Crackers, pastas, breads...all wholesome and sugar-free, but still wheat. So, much as I love it, gluten and are officially off. Two days off and I've lost 3 lbs. I know, I know. I need to avoid the scale. But it's stationed right beside the gym door on my way out. It's a compulsion.

Now what?

2011-03-12T11:03:00.000-06:00

I am wanting a lifestyle change for my family. A year ago, I cut out trans fats and corn syrups and we barely missed them. But they snuck back in, here and there, and I realized that we needed more than just a small habit change, we need a lifestyle change. However, whole foods are expensive and I need educated on the best way to proceed.

We enjoy our mealtimes together and I want to make this change without having to obsess over food preparation but I also want us to continue to enjoy our meals together. We have already learned to make many meals from scratch, but learning to avoid white flour seems so hard right now. Also, creating meals and meal choices for them to enjoy while away from home seems nearly impossible at the moment. We have cut out sugar for Lent and I'm amazed that it has not been difficult. It helps that it is for a limited time and I see the end in sight. But it's harder for the kids when they go out with friends and are surrounded by sweet treats.

While our meals have been from scratch, we have been a meat and potatoes family that has mostly forgotten to toss vegetables in as side dishes. Knowing this had to change, my family did a week of raw foods to jumpstart this new lifestyle change. We adapted well, but it was easier knowing that it was only for 5 days. Now that we're embarking on a lifestyle journey without an end in sight, it seems more daunting. I want it to become a natural habit to eat wholesome foods with wholesome ingredients that do not include white flour and white sugar.

My children are enthusiastic about any adventure and they enjoy all kinds of food. They enjoyed our week of raw foods, and were excited to discover a love for new fruits and veggies. My husband is willing to eat anything...as long as it tastes good. He does not want to feel deprived. I don't blame him. I, myself, am not enthusiastic, but I am determined. After a week of raw foods, all I crave is pizza and a Dr. Pepper. I'm behaving, but my cravings aren't disappearing.

Added to this challenge, I am sensitive to wheat and my daughter is sensitive to rice. Strangely, even though we much prefer the taste of whole grains and brown rice, our bodies seem to tolerate white bread and white rice better than whole grain or brown.

I want a picture of what this lifestyle is going to look like. I also want to know that it is affordable. Our week of raw foods cost 3 times as much as my usual weekly budget. We cannot do that again.

I used to buy coke every time we went shopping. It seemed so okay. So normal. I KNEW that it had poisonous ingredients in it that can cause everything from diabetes to alzheimers, but I still drank it with glee. In fact, I still WANT one! But I know it's not okay. I really had to shake up my befuddled thinking. But the Reeses! Oh, my! The Reeses. Reeses pumpkins, Reeses Christmas trees, Reeses hearts....and I'm going to see Reeses eggs soon! But now, I realize that cashew butter is crazy sweet naturally. That bananas are insanely sweet naturally. I can make a peanut butter egg from scratch with healthy ingredients that will take me less than 15 minutes. I can do this. I think.

A friend of mine dropped off some material for a program called Prism. It is no white flour, no white sugar type eating that sounds non-extreme...just natural, normal eating. I am trying to figure out where we're going from here...what our menus will look like.

Raw

2011-03-05T06:46:00.001-06:00

Chris mentioned to me that we needed to eat more vegetables. Even the kids were requesting vegetables.

It's not that I didn't know we needed them, I just always thought of veggies as afterthoughts. I love vegetables. Love them. But I've only known them as side-dishes and casserole ingredients. More and more, our veggies consisted of a bowl of green beans warmed up at the last minute to serves beside our meat dish.

Around the time the kids started requesting more salads, I had an email in my inbox describing a raw detox. Raw veggies? Veggies were enough of a stretch for me, but raw?? And yet, somehow, it intrigued me.

And so we did it.

Breakfast on the first morning was easy enough: FRUIT! The kids were thrilled. The girls ate an entire bag of grapes in one sitting. And then lunch rolled around. I started with a pep talk. Basically, I said:

God gave us a pretty cool gift in our tastebuds. He didn't have to make things taste good. He could have made everything flavorless. Or He could have made things just taste decent or bitter to warn us of poison. But He gave us all kinds of flavors to enjoy. Unfortunately, a lot of the foods we eat as treats are not natural things the way God made them. They are fake chemicals that lie to our brains and make us "feel" good, which makes us want more. The flavors are strong and we stop liking real foods and choose fake instead. We're going to do a week of raw fruits and veggies to rewire our brains to help us remember how good real food is. Things might taste "meh" for a couple days while our brains adjust, but you're going to find yourself liking things you never would have imagined. Until then, no complaining. This is what we're eating. It is good for you, so even if you don't like it, you can know that it's healthy and that your body likes it even when your mouth doesn't.

And then I gave them their plates. I didn't think to take a picture at the time, but our plates looked something like these taken by this fun photographer:

I actually left carrots off the plates because I knew it was the one vegetable they liked. I wanted them to try new things and appreciate new flavors. We had red pepper smiles, cucumber noses, broccoli ears, and cauliflower hair. And they ATE it! Well, first they rearranged each others' plates and made angry eyebrows and such. But they had fun doing it before they had fun eating.

The best part? No ranch dressing. They were such good sports. I was very proud. I wasn't such a good sport, but I didn't let it show.

The kids did great the entire week. Honor's dark circles disappeared. My skin had a glow. But they all wanted snacks MUCH more frequently. Salad lunches didn't stay with them long. We upped the raw seeds and nuts for proteins and fats. I added olive oil in as a dressing a few times. I also added in raw oatmeal for a grain. They loved this.

Raw, Soaked Oatmeal

2 cups large oats

4 cups milk (can blend with banana for extra sweetness)

*soak overnight or a couple hours (we prefer 2-3 hours)

Toppings:

chia seeds

nut butters

pureed banana

pumpkin seeds

chopped fruit

chocolate ice cream

Yes, we topped ours with chocolate ice cream. Raw and amazing. You really must try this.

Raw Chocolate Ice Cream:

3 frozen bananas

2 Tb cocoa (or raw cacao powder, we cheated and went with cocoa)

*Puree in the food processor, add milk if needed to thin out.

Fruit, oatmeal, or smoothies made up our breakfasts. For a great smoothie recipe, click on that luscious strawberry photo above to a great blog. For our raw week, we had smoothies for breakfast on most mornings. Ours looked a lot like this recipe, except that we added 1-3 cups of spinach, kale, or raddiccio. It made the color rather funky, but the taste didn't change. These really stayed with us through the mornings.

And we made it. 5 days raw. While it wasn't my goal, I lost 6 lbs by day 6. I never did stop craving warm, gooey foods. It was a texture thing. I wanted soup. Which reminds me, a word to those considering it:

Be gentle with re-entry to cooked foods. Start with a very boring veggie soup. Veggies, water, and sea salt. That's it. For your next meal, you might do brown rice and veggies. GENTLY add foods back in. Do not go out for ribs or pizza no matter how badly you crave them. We went in gently and my stomach still didn't like it. They kids were fine though, so who knows.

In a cluttered room without curtains

2011-02-28T09:56:00.000-06:00

First, let me start with an apology for the condition of these pictures. My camera is on its last leg. I'm not sure what's happened, but it refuses to focus. Also, apparently, I have smut all over the lens. I have no idea how that happened either.

It has been two weeks since I last posted, but many posts have been running through my head. Few were fit for public consumption, but even if they were, I was too busy.

Here is a part of what we've been doing:

Furniture out, carpets gone, clutter disappearing.

Since this picture, we have textured the walls. Today, we paint. We haven't picked the exact shade, but it will be something similar to this:

I'm seriously considering bringing a stick of butter with me to the paint store. Creamy yellow, not too bright, not too pale.

Once we've painted, we start installing the flooring.

Here is our living room two weeks ago:

The kids studied the Tabernacle and designed it with couch cushions and sheets. Poor Doyle, the sheep, was an impromptu sacrifice.

So far, the only pieces of furniture going back in this room are these couches and the coffee table. I would like to incorporate some red here somewhere. Ideas?

(couch photo. ignore the musket crammed in the cushions)

Flight Plan

2011-02-12T21:17:00.002-06:00

Ethan is becoming a man. There are just a few signs here and there, but it's impossible to ignore. My baby is growing up.

I have been on the hunt for good quality books on Christian Living for young men for a couple of years now. I try to share them here when I find a gem, but I honestly haven't found very many gems. However, Flight Plan is definitely a gem worth sharing.

It can be difficult finding helpful books for this age range because the readers are at such an undefined stage. They are no longer boys, yet they are entertained by boyish games. They are not yet men, but their bodies betray them. They long for manhood while at the same time, the activities of the teens around them don't always appeal nor do they make much sense. Another complication is that most books geared toward helping young men navigate their teen years focus heavily on sexual temptations. For those dealing with such temptations, this is a very good thing. For those that still think girls have cooties, this can be boring and even disturbing.

Flight Plan, by Lee Burns & Braxton Brady seems to have found a good balance for a wide audience of young men. It begins by describing this journey into manhood as a mission. A challenging adventure. After the introduction alone, my 13 year old's shoulders pulled back and his chin raised. Here was an author who saw his potential, recognized it would not be an easy road, and expected him to succeed. Sure, mom holds high expectations for him, too, but she also kisses his nose and tells him he's a cutie-patootie. This book was pungent with manliness.

Flight plan helps to cast a vision and helps boys strategize the path to manhood. It helps them see how the choices they make through the teen years affect the man they will become. Each chapter compares this mission to manhood with flying an airplane, opening with exciting true stories of pilots and daring adventures. The stories are brief and quickly turn into discussions of biblical principles and practical application of those principles. Ethan loved that the book is peppered throughout with quotes from famous people, books, and movies and that these quotes fit in so well with what was being taught. I love the questions at the end of each chapter which are designed to get the reader really thinking and applying what he reads to his own heart.

Sex is discussed, but it is one of many topics covered and it is covered very well. It is also covered VERY thoroughly in chapter 8. Parents will want to preview this chapter first and be ready for discussion. It leaves nothing out and not all 13 year olds will be ready for all of chapter 8. Even if they "can handle it", I question the wisdom in pushing thoughts of sex on them when they are not in need of counsel in that area. Immersion in the topic can lead to preoccupation of thoughts they wouldn't otherwise have entertained. When it IS time for this chapter, I think this book handles the topic very well.

Though the book is written directly to young men, it makes a great resource for parents as well. And if you are the parent of a puberty-stricken boy, you know we need all the help we can get.

Be anxious for nothing

2011-02-05T07:32:00.001-06:00

A little more than a year ago, Chris was getting laid off. We had several weeks warning and my worry was so much worse during this waiting than during the actual lay-off. We were already broke, with no hope of saving anything up during his last stretch working. Our bills were already past due and it was Christmas time. I started worrying BADLY. Chris kept reassuring me that God had good plans for us, plans to prosper, blah, blah, blah....and I pointed out that if he were laid off, our house would be taken away from us. It would be in the papers that we couldn't pay our taxes. As I said it out loud, I realized that the humiliation and inconvenience of that COULD actually be God's plans for my best.

I was terrified of God's best.

What if He had a lesson for me to learn through that? I realized that I obviously needed a lesson in pride. I let my anxieties go and embraced God's plan, whatever it might be.

And then Chris was laid off.

His lay-off was suddenly projected to only last a month and they let him cash out his new year's vacation pay (3 weeks!) at once, paying off our bills. During his time off, people anonymously gave us money...to the point that we were feeling guilty because we didn't NEED as much as they were giving. One day, a package came in the mail and it was a stuffed bear with a scroll tucked into it's scarf. I unrolled the scoll in front of the kids and it was five $20 bills taped together. I turned and pointed out the window and the kids saw the two flat tires on the van in the driveway. And they were able to physically SEE that God provides. I wouldn't trade that lesson for job security.

Sometimes His provisions are NOT what we think we want, but they are always what He knows we need.

Not only did we survive that time just fine, we were able to get out of debt....during a lay-off!

But the coolest thing, for me, was knowing that if it hadn't gone that way - if we lost our house and lived in someone's basement - we would still know that we were in God's hands and I could honestly say that there was no place else I'd rather be.

Be anxious about nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6, 7

God Gave Us the World

2011-02-04T10:00:00.001-06:00

I recently had the chance to review a fun children's book entitled God Gave Us The World. The girls have been studying winter animals and bears are on our list, so this book fit in perfectly as a fun bedtime story. The story begins with Little Cub visiting the Bear Museum with Mama Bear. Little Cub is introduced to Pandas, Polar bears, Grizzlies, and even Sloth bears from India. Though it does contain some detail about different kinds of bears and the way they live, the true purpose of the book is to give children a glimpse of diversity around the world and an appreciation for God's creativity and His intimate love for each of His children.

This sweet book shares the message that "Every bear has a special place in God's great, big world," but it also resonates with the message that each of us has a special place here and that we have an amazing God who cares for each of us very much. It is a beautiful picture of God as Creator and helps children (and parents) understand that it is in God's very nature to create.

This book is part of the "God Gave Us" Series by Lisa Tawn Bergren. While I knew about this charming series already, I had no idea the author had so many other works available, for adults and teens as well! The artwork in many of the books in this particular series consists of adorable watercolors by Laura J. Bryant, who is a truly talented illustrator.

This book was a treat for my family. And as Mama bear said, "It's always good to make new friends, try new things, and know more about this world that God gave us."

Days # something, something, and something

2011-01-24T07:34:00.002-06:00

We were gone for a week and doubling up on school and dealing with sick kiddos and.....well, I'm all out of jumble with the 21 days project. I AM completing it, but apparently not in order and certainly not on time, which I suppose negates the 21 days part of the project.

Well, here's that linen closet. We don't use it much.

Before:

It holds tablecloths, sheets, extra household items that I catch on sale, and a box of travel toys that I collect throughout the year. The box is not here (travelling, remember?) but there's a spot for it.

After:

I put the extras in a bin. It felt nice. Now I want more bins.

Here (this is really bad) is the top of my dresser. It's especially bad because it was clean not 3 days before. That's how we roll.

It holds a coffee cup (always,) random Christmas ornaments that we find long after decorations are in the attic, mismatched socks, half-unpacked travel items, and cards from Honor. These items are nearly always on our dresser...year round.

In an effort to keep us from dumping stuff on there, I've placed my yarn basket. It's big, not wholly unnattractive, and will hopefully occupy enough space to deter us from mindlessly cluttering up the dresser quite as quickly. I just need to be sure that there is always enough yarn in the basket to prevent the lid from closing. If the lid closes, it will become the next available surface for dumping stuff.

And now, my shame of shames. Let me preface by explaining that the fridge is very old. It was a gift from my parents when they replaced it with a new fridge. I randomly find pieces of refrigerator on the kitchen floor and cannot find where they came from. Things break off of it rather frequently. The bottom right drawer refused to go on another day. The fridge has seen a very rough life.

My wonderful Sis-in-Law is renovating her kitchen and is generously giving us her old fridge, which is actually rather new. They have already purchased their new appliances and are just waiting for the kitchen to be finished. Knowing that a new fridge is soon-coming has removed any desire on my part to make this one look nice. I've given up on it just as it has given up on me.

In addition to this, I hate grocery shopping. I refuse to go more than once a week. So we stock up to feed 6 people for a week. And we eat a lot of fried rice. Lots. So yes, it's crammed. It will always be crammed.

I have no idea why there is Pepsi in there. We don't do that. We drink it, but we don't buy it for the house. If it's in the house, I drink it. That's not a good thing. It doesn't come home with us. Also, we don't do juice much either, but we have a house full of sick kids.

Here's the after. I took everything out and scrubbed it. I didn't bleach or sterilize because that would imply I cared. I do not. My heart has moved on to my new, beautiful fridge. Sorry, old fridge. You let yourself go and I lost all respect for you.

I just shared my disgusting housekeeping habits on the internet. Have you lost all respect for me?

Summing up their personalities rather well, I'd say.

2011-01-20T08:32:00.001-06:00

My favorite toy

2011-01-18T22:03:00.002-06:00

I took my beautiful Kindle to Texas on last week's roadtrip and I am so thankful for this thing! It was a wonderful toy to have. I never know what book I'll be in the mood for and my kindle allowed me to take
as many books as I wanted. It was a happy-Monday present from Chris and, while I freaked over the price when he gave it to me, I am now absolutely in love with it. I have hundreds of books on my kindle and have spent a grand total of three dollars. Nearly everything I'm interested in is free anyway. Eventually, I'll start looking at books you actually pay for, but I haven't had a need yet.

The especially beautiful part of taking the kindle on the roadtrip was that I could read it at night without the light bugging my handsome driver. For my birthday, Chris bought me this light to go with it and it leaves no glare on the screen and no distracting brightness for those around me.

You can charge it with the same cord you charge the Kindle! It stays lit forever (not literally,) which is great, and it fits all kindles. However, when I have the light attached, my Kindle book-cover bulges a bit.

It's not a bad bulge, but I love this cover (a birthday present from my wonderful Mom-in-Law) and I don't want it to bow, so I'm working on felting a Kindle bag with a pocket for the light. I'll share pictures of that if and when it works.

Oh! Another beautiful thing: A friend of mine wrote a novel and I was able to take it with me on the kindle! So, for anyone interested in how to convert a word document to a kindle, here are instructions. Download a free pdf converter, I recommend CutePDF. Open the Word document and Print to PDF. On your Kindle management page, you have a list of email addresses from which you are willing to accept files. Be sure your personal email is listed here. On this page, you can also set up your own kindle email for free. It will have whatever detail you want plus @free.kindle.com attached. Now, back to the pdf you created! Send this pdf, via email to your @free.kindle email with the word "convert" in th subject line and it will automatically be converted to a Kindle format and transferred to your Kindle.

Other great features include the new ability to loan / borrow books from friends on the Kindle and reading articles on your Kindle. I don't know much about it yet, but a free download, called Calibra, looks like it has some great Kindle helps and features as well.

Yes, I'm gushing, but I'm not pushing. If I were in the market, I'd try waiting patiently until Thanksgiving when they are roughly half the price. Actually, I'd probably buy a Nook instead so that I could borrow library books. For some stinky reason, the Kindle isn't compatible with such things. Isn't that stinky?

Ministering to Older Adults

2011-01-17T11:30:00.001-06:00

I found this in my inbox this morning and found the timing interesting because Chris and I were just discussing this yesterday. I remember growing up knowing families that lived with Grandparents in the home. In-home care for dying parents used to mean 'in the children's homes'. I haven't explored my thoughts here very deeply, but I know that it does not speak well of our society as a whole when our elderly are not only missing out on the honor that is their due, but are also being dismissed as if they no longer have anything of value to add to our society.

I was very excited to see this series written expressly for our older generation of adults:

If you are interested, the mail I referred to was an interview with the author, Missy Buchanan.

Q&A with Missy Buchanan

Even when age creeps up on the body and mind, and life changes from what it once was, is it still possible to have a purpose in life? When it is no longer possible to venture out and do the things you once loved, can you still find a reason to look forward to each day? Missy Buchanan, a leading expert and advocate for senior adults, believes that you can. Buchanan wants to encourage older adults to find their purpose, share their stories, and make an impact on those around them.

Q: What made you decide to start ministering to and writing books for older adults?

Well, as a middle-aged adult, I never had any intention of becoming an author of books for older adults. But because of the journey that my own aging parents were on, I realized how they had become disconnected from their church as their lives changed. They started off as active older adults and then that circle got smaller as they had more needs and physical limitations. As I would visit them at their retirement community, I would also see so many others that were just like them. They needed spiritual encouragement. And so that’s why I got started. The first book began as a project just for my own parents. I wrote devotions and kept them in a loose-leaf notebook. But others started asking for them and things just spiraled from there.

Q: What do you think children need to know about their aging parents?

What I realized personally was that I had been so caught up in my parents’ physical needs that I had neglected their spiritual needs. They were no longer connected to their church, at least in regular worship attendance, and that had been such a huge part of their lives. I almost made that mistake of just totally missing that, and that was the point where I began to write. I looked and there were other books written about older adults but not very many that were written to them and for them. So the first thing I would tell their children is to pay attention not only to their physical needs but also to their spiritual needs.

Q: What is your opinion about role reversal with children and their aging parents?

I hear the whole idea of role reversal where the older parent becomes a child and the grown children become the parent, and I understand what they are talking about because my own parents became more dependent on me. But I think that when we refer to it as a role reversal, and we begin to think of our aging parents as children, we strip away their dignity. We rob them of respect and we overlook the fact that they are not children. They have had a lifetime of experiences that a child has not had. And I think that is an important difference that grown children need to think about and pay attention to. It’s more of a role shift in responsibilities and not a role reversal. I know how much it hurts an aging parent to feel like they are being treated like a baby or like a child.

Q: Other than aging adults, who else has benefited from your writing?

A friend of mine in an assisted living facility asked me to bring some books for one of her tablemates. Her tablemate explained that these books were for her adult children. “They don’t understand what it feels like to grow old, and I can’t seem to make them understand, but your books say it better than I ever could.” My books are all written in the first person as if an older adult is speaking directly to God. There are a lot of adult children that are buying them for themselves and older adults buying them for their grown children.

And I’ve heard of different youth groups that have been reading my books in order to better understand what it’s like to grow old. Instead of just mocking their older peers, they are learning that they share a lot of the same feelings—feelings of insecurity, feelings of fear. As a result of reading the books, one youth group in Tennessee has even adopted the residents of the senior living center across from their church.

Q: How can faith change our idea of growing older?

So many see aging as a punishment, and they dread it so much. But even though it is difficult to be limited by an aging body, they need to look at it as a gift that God has given them. They still have so much to give. They have great wisdom to share and stories to share. I always tell my older friends that their story is not yet over.

Missy Buchanan is the author of Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms and

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults (Upper Room Books).

Click here to watch Missy Buchanan’s recent interview with

Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Roberts’ 86-year-old mother.

Visit Missy Buchanan’s website, www.missybuchanan.com, and blog,http://missybu.wordpress.com/.

Become a friend on Facebook (Aging and Faith) and follow on Twitter (MissyBuchanan).

#6 Dresser Drawers

2011-01-13T09:17:00.000-06:00

Day #5 Challenge SAVED MY REAR

2011-01-12T07:26:00.001-06:00

Again, yes, it looks bad. But we're renovating the kitchen in March and these cabinets are disappearing....I've seen little need to invest in liners and the like. I have VERY few cabinets in my kitchen. This is crammed but there is no place else for these items to go. Wait, except that canning jar. It can go. And that travel mug. Okay, it can go.

But I was telling you how this challenge saved my rear. You see, at the time of this challenge (these posts are post-dated, sorry) I was about to leave for an out-of-state trip. When I pulled everything out from under the cabinet, I discovered a major leak from a pipe....a drip per second. If we had left it that way, we would have returned home to a major mess. Thankfully, that was not the case. We returned home to a nice, dry cabinet.

#4 Linen Closet

2011-01-11T09:19:00.001-06:00

Um, yeah, this was to remind me to get that posted. I'm not ready yet. Pretend you see pretty pictures of a divinely transformed linen closet. In fact, while we're at it, let's just pretend I have a linen closet instead of a hobbit hole-cubby.

#3 Tupperware Pantry

2011-01-10T07:26:00.001-06:00

I don't have one. There just aren't enough cabinets. We have a ~~strange corner hobbit hole~~ cabinet that holds all of our items that aren't used on a daily basis (and some that are.) We call it The Pit of Despair.

So, day #3 of The Challenge = fail. It is what it is at the moment. It will not change. And I can't fit in that odd crevice well enough to take a decent shot to share it with you. Someday soon, the kitchen will have real cabinets and I'll share then. Promise.

We the people

2011-01-08T07:03:00.001-06:00

Thursday, the boys and I sat down to watch C-SPAN online as Congress read the Constitution. The boys read along with a print-out as those powerful words were read. It was amazing.

At another point Rep. John Lewis read the 13th Amendment and I couldn't stop crying. Crying for the tragedy of what it was, crying for the beauty of what it is, and crying for repentance for what our country did. I keep checking Youtube for a clip, but still can't find one.

When the reading was finished, the session started with a request for a budget cut. A 5% budget cut. Rep. Hal Rogers said that the Appropriations Committee would see their 5 and raise them 4...they requested a 9% budget cut. It was clearly said that these budget cuts were just the beginning. While it would cut 35 million from the budget, that was not even close to the amount of debt that increases daily. Our debt is now over 14 trillion. The budget cut passed by a landslide. I'm anxious to see what comes next.

Ethan walked over to me later that afternoon and said, "Thank you for letting us watch the reading of the Constitution."

Me: "Are you sucking up?"

Ethan: "No, it's just that it has occurred to me that when everyone starts talking politics....I don't have a clue what they are talking about. It's time to change that."

Well, for one, I felt pretty lousy because it's my job to explain this stuff to him and I have not done my job. I also felt a great deal of empathy because for most of my adult life, I've felt pretty clueless about politics. I'm just beginning to learn, which tells you that anyone can learn. It matters. It really matters.

I don't want to post this

2011-01-07T07:49:00.001-06:00

Day #2 of the Challenge.

This is so embarrassing.

I really don't want to share.

My desk is the dumping ground for everything. In fact, this picture is actually looking pretty good for how it usually looks.

Since we're all thinking it, let's just point out that yes, my son is frying is brain on a video game. And his sleeve is torn and...soaking wet??? Yes, there is dust all over my monitor and yes, it is propped on an old book. My chair is too tall for this desk and I need the monitor raised up just a smidge.

And yes, we bought a lottery ticket. We don't, generally, but there it is. And yes, there is the Netflix DVD that I lost and ended up buying. But now they'll reimburse me! Yay!

Here's the after, but my camera did that weird thing it's been doing lately and refused to focus.

Let's also point out that the curtain looks horrid with the blue/green paint on the walls. I plan to buy chocolate brown curtains when I find a set that I like. I'm very picky though. I've had a sheeting hanging up for a curtain (see above) and was beginning to grow accustomed to it. I realized after taking the first picture that mismatched curtains are better than sheets so there you go. For now..

Challenge Day #1

2011-01-05T06:58:00.000-06:00

First assignment with A Bowl Fully of Lemons' challenge is to tackle the junk drawer.

You might want to prepare yourself for this.

Don't just jump in thinking, junk drawer? how bad could it be?

It's not kind of bad.

It's really bad.

I don't hunt in there for anything anymore because I get stabbed by things every time I reach my hand in.

Of course, that doesn't stop me from tossing things in there and forgetting about them.

But if you think you can handle it, here's my junk drawer.....

....

...

...

...

Did you hear dramatic music in your head? I heard dramatic music in MY head.

I tossed it all in a box and shook it to make the toothpicks settle to the bottom. I got the kids involved. Ethan tested all the batteries, Joel delivered odd tools to Daddy, and the girls tested the pens.

That's a lot of dead pens that have no business being there. We also had a large number of DEAD batteries that had no business being there. New rules include ZERO writing utensils in the junk drawer, zero dead batteries, and ZERO cheese! Cheese packets? Really?

End results:

It really bothers me that I have two piles of cupcake liners showing here. I'm not sure how that happened. They are all in one pile now, but one stack apparently jumped while I was snapping a picture. I want to go retake before posting, but I'm going to force myself to move on and accept it.

I never, EVER, use rubber bands. I have no idea why we own any. But IF I should ever need any, at least now I know where to find them.

Want to share your junk drawer story? It can't be worse than this, right?

Just like jogging

2011-01-04T20:00:00.000-06:00

Day two of the new year and school is going great. Of course, I've set my standards so low for this week that it would be impossible to fail. Yesterday, my big goal for the day was to teach geography. It took about an hour. We reached our goal. Everyone felt pretty good about that. We did bible studies and Latin, but geography was pretty much all we focused on. Today, we set the goal to work on anatomy and spelling. We spent two hours on each! And it was fun. We reached our goal and it felt great.

I know it's cheating, but I had things I wanted to wrap up and be certain we were finished with before moving on. We have no choice but to take a break next week, so I didn't see much point in jumping into the next semester full blast. At the beginning of the year, we started with around 15 classes and struggled to finish. It felt like constant failure. I refuse to go there this year. We will set goals, reach them, and stretch and grow in the process.

And this is where homeschooling is like jogging. The first day I jogged, I made it one block before getting shin splints and an asthma attack that took me down for an hour. The next day, I made it a few houses farther. The next day, I made it a block farther. (further? farther? I have no business teaching, do I?) Eventually, I made it a mile. It was a constant improvement. I grew. I stretched. Even when I only ran what I'd run the day before, I still ran. When I pile on the schoolwork, knowing there is no way to finish it, we all walk away feeling defeated.

Of course, if I didn't set any goals, there would be no stretching and no improvement. Again, just like jogging. When I reached my goal of one mile, I refused to set any other goals. I was content with my mile. I have never improved on this goal.

With this in mind, we are starting this pre-semester introduction with focused work on few subjects and adding in slowly. I am realizing that 15 subjects (while fine and even necessary) are not going to happen daily. Some things will wait for once a week. Some even less.

I'm attempting to keep my personal goals as focused and practical. I have a gazillion things I'd like to do. But if I plan for a gazillion and get overwhelmed, I often end up doing nothing. 'Some' is better than 'none'. I'm focusing on a few now and some will be added later, after I master the essentials. A more focused quiet time with God in the mornings? Top priority. Making my bed first thing in the morning? High priority. Teaching the kids with zeal? Top priority. Writing, Reading, and Knitting are each getting their 15 minutes of fame daily. That's the best I've got for now and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Dance Fever

2011-01-04T06:43:00.001-06:00

The girls are looking forward to returning to dance lessons. We took a break for the chaos of December and they have missed it.

About those books

2011-01-03T07:16:00.001-06:00

When I first joined the 52 books project a couple years ago, I didn't think I'd actually reach it (in fact, I was short by about 5) but wanted to set a goal and at least increase my reading time. My girls were coming out of the crazy-busy toddler years and I was down to about 5 books per year and knew I wanted to start doing something that I loved again...reading. I was so surprised to discover how many I was actually reading.

I'm actually a very slow reader, we'll blame it on the one eye. :) I'll have about 3-5 books going at one time though and even though I'll go several weeks without finishing one, by the end of the month, I'll have finished 4.

I was worried when I first started that the goal was a selfish one. I want the kids to see me loving reading, but I didn't want to steal time away from them. They know I love to read, but the reading has not intruded into time with the kids at all. In the past, it had. When I was only reading those 4-5 books per year, they were the books I reeeeeally liked and couldn't put down even though the kids had to repeat my name 5 times before I'd stop to answer them. I probably started dozens more, but if they didn't grab me, I'd toss 'em....no time to waste on boring books. Something about reaching for a goal made me continue reading things I would have tossed before. And it was good for me. Very good. No, they weren't all riveting books, but they stretched me and taught me and helped me grow....even the books I hated and disagreed with made me think and argue and form my own opinion more solidly. Don't get me wrong, I still tossed plenty, but I held on to many more than usual for me.

I keep books by the couch, books by the bed, a book (now kindle) in my knitting bag that I carry out with me, and....I hate to admit this, but a stack of books by the toilet.

I grab 10 minute moments here and there and two or three times per week, I take a nice long bath and take along whatever book I'm enjoying the most. I can get a solid hour in during a bath while the kids sleep.

I'm never the one driving, so any roadtrip means I get to read, but I end up visiting more than reading so this doesn't add up quickly. Sometimes, we enjoy an audio book all together and these totally count. I'm thinking of trying audio books while I walk/jog with an mp3 player.

I do a read-aloud with the kids in the evenings, and these count, too.

So if you're thinking it sounds like a lot, but you enjoy reading, pleeeeeeeease join me? Give it a whirl! I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised!

52 Books in 2011

2011-01-02T20:12:00.003-06:00

I did a pitiful job of keeping track last year and I really missed having a running list of books I had read. Starting again this year, I will keep track of my book list with short reviews of each. I will just keep reusing this same post and adding to it with my latest-read on the top.

So far, I have nothing finished for this year, but lots on the nightstand.

My goals are to include the following:

Parenting
Marriage
Faith
Homemaking
Freakin' Long Classic
Biography
Pure Fun Fluff

And at least one from each of the following authors:

Jane Austen - Pride And Prejudice
Lynn Austin - Gods and Kings (Chronicles of the Kings #1)
Henty - Wulf the SaxonA Story of the Norman Conquest
Kathleen Norris (fun fluff) - The Essential Kathleen Norris Collection (12 books)
Chesterton - Orthodoxy
C.S. Lewis - The Problem of Pain
Charlotte Mason -Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The boys are studying the Greeks this month, so I should have no trouble finding a big honkin' classic to scratch off my list.

What is on your list? Do you have any recommendations for books to add to my list?

Christmas Knitting

2011-01-02T06:52:00.000-06:00

I am in love with this knitting book. The beginning has all of the basics for any beginning knitter and the instructions in this section include great illustrations to help you along. Once finished with this instuctional portion, the hats are ADORABLE! Creative and fun hats posed on the most adorable babies.

I've checked it out from the library FOUR TIMES now. I thought a few socks/hats during Christmas would be the gist of my knitting for the year, but this boosted my confidence and opened up ideas for more creative projects. I'm still a beginner, but I am really enjoying knitting and plan to fit in more time for it this year.

New Year, New Me

2011-01-01T19:11:00.002-06:00

It really is a clean slate, isn't it? I can't help but be excited at this time each year. I start hunting up organization labels, such as those found HERE and HERE. I sign up for encouraging challenges such as this one HERE. I download a new Chore Planner. I check out books from the library such as the ones I'm reading HERE:

I redesign my blog, I revamp my school plans, I burst with the adrenaline of a new challenge.

This year, I have so many things I want to do differently that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. It's my mantra each year and if my house were a clean slate, I think it would be easy enough to accomplish, but starting a new mindset with old clutter is....blech. It's just blechy.

This year, I'm excited about the challenege at A Bowl Full of Lemons. The timing couldn't be better for me. And yet, I fear failure. I don't have an area of my life that couldn't use re-evaluating right now. I feel encouraged that I am at least at a point now where I know exactly what my ideal end-result looks like. In the past, I've vaguely knew that things needed to be better and that my life should look more like....what? I couldn't tell you. But I can now. Now I know that it is a purposeful, quiet, simple life. Sweet and simple. The idea no longer bores me, it excites me. I think I've spent the last several years fearing that boredom would set in if I ever actually accomplished my goals. I know differently now.

I am stamping out that voice of fear by remembering that it doesn't really matter if I meet my various challenges or scratch my to-do's off my list. The only thing that can actually change who I am at my very core is Christ. These methods which I can't seem to help but explore each January may give me ideas and inspirations, but they are not able to change me. If I fail at everything else, I will not fail if I focus on getting to know my God. Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you, He promises. I'm drawing near.

Snowmen

2010-12-31T06:51:00.000-06:00

Every year, the kids look forward to Rice Krispy Snowmen. It's one of their favorite traditions.

Ethan's Legolas Snowman.

Sarah's "traditional" snowman.

Joel's singing snowman.

Honor's princess snow-woman.

2010-12-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

Chris, making his goofy Jellyfish Face.

Possibly the coolest person in the world.

Joel turned 11!

And, good grief, MORE cookies.

Christmas 2010 Continued

2010-12-28T16:08:00.000-06:00

Sarah discovered a new favorite hairstyle. The girls made paper chains to decorate the hallway and discovered that they go very well with Princess Leia buns.

This was the halfway point of Advent - too much sugar and too many late nights were taking their toll. We pulled back a bit but it accumulated and we're back to this state again now. Honor has broken out in hives three times today. That's strange for her, so we are cutting WAY back now.

Anniversary, Joel's b-day, my b-day, Chris' b-day....busy, fun month! Mom bought be Raspberry Curd and Nilla wafers for dipping. Yum!

Ethan won first place in a contest for the most unique candy cane. He strung peppers and marshmallows onto a coat hanger. This is his foot, not mine, by the way.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T20:30:00.000-06:00

The kiddos were in a fun Christmas play. My littlest elf had her cast removed the next morning.

My camera pooped out on me. It is still working about half of the time, but suddenly it has to be in the right mood to focus and there is no convincing it to change its mind if it isn't in the mood.

Fun, fun, fun with the cookies!

Fun, fun, fun with more cookies!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

2010-12-22T10:45:00.001-06:00

She truly had no idea there was glitter on her face.

Just in case

2010-12-18T08:56:00.001-06:00

Monday is the deadline for shipping priority mail and getting those packages on time. If you decide to send an Amazon Gift Card instead, there is a chance (if I've set my account up correctly) that I might get credit for books if you click on my link to buy them.....

Forever Younger

2010-12-17T10:47:00.001-06:00

Overheard at breakfast:

Honor: Sarah, that song is getting old.

Chris (my dear husband): Your mom is getting old. (too much Napoleon Dynamite)

Honor: No she's not!

Chris: In fact, she's as old as I am now. (our birthdays overlap by 4 days)

Honor: Well, she doesn't look it.

Mama: Honor, I have chocolate for you on my desk.

Nightlight Giveaway!

2010-12-15T19:37:00.004-06:00

Many years ago, I read in a parenting magazine that a study showed that children with nightlights in their bedrooms were more likely to be nearsighted as adults. Being a new mom at the time (and very nearsighted,) I removed my son's nightlight. A short while later, the magazine printed a retraction, saying that the study had been reevaluated and instead showed that children with nightlights were more likely to have parents who were nearsighted and more likely to use nightlights to help them see their way at night....and genetically speaking, these children were more likely to become nearsighted as adults, but the nightlights weren't to blame, just heredity.

Night lights don't take the blame for nearsightedness, but they have been shown to disrupt sleep patterns when they are too bright. I have hunted for a gentle night light for years without much luck until running across the opportunity to review Purely Product's LED Healthy Night Light. Prior to this, we managed to break many night lights and had given up and just used the closet light each night, with the closet doors mostly closed. This, however, was expensive and made it difficult for the girls to fall asleep and to stay asleep.

All of the lights we tried before had been too bright and both of my girls were not sleeping well. After a few days with the Healthy Night Light, their sleep rhythms adjusted back to normal and they now sleep fine. The glow from the night light is very gentle, yet still lets them see just enough. My girls are both big chickens and they require light at night, not just to find their way to the bathroom, but so that they can always be certain they can see any monsters that might try to hide in their room. As soft as this night light is, I was surprised they never complained that it wasn't bright enough. Though we had tried many different night lights, few of them were LED and this might be a normal effect that could be accomplished with some other LED bulbs. The few LED's I had tried before were deemed too dark.

Now, a gentle light is a great feature, but it is not the key element that this boasts of. This night light is also a mini air purifier. This little device is able to purify a room up to 12 ft x 12 ft. It is an ionizer that also helps people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) The device is always at work, even when the night light isn't in use, so air is constantly being purified.

So, to recap:

#1 It's LED, so the light doesn't affect sleep patterns too badly and is crazy-cheap to use. Pennies per year.

#2 It's LED, so it will not need to be replaced until at least 35,000 hours of lighting.

#3 It's LED, so there is no fear of it becoming hot and burning fingers; It is always cool to the touch.

#4 It cleans the air! The built in ionizer releases negative ions which removes dust mites, pollen, mold spores, pet dander, smoke, and other airborne allergens.

#5 We've had it for months and haven't broken it yet, so it is apparently tougher than every other night light we've tried.

#6...I hadn't mentioned this part yet, but another favorite feature of mine is that it automatically shuts on and off so I never have to worry about wasting the bulb or electricity by forgetting to turn it off. The girls love watching every night as I turn out their bedroom light. Every single night, they sit up with silly grins and watch the nightlight turn on as the rest of their room is instantly dark. It only takes about 2 seconds, but the light seems to slowly spread out as if it is a living thing waking up to stand guard. They love it.

I had already fallen in love with Purely Products website before this review and this product is no different. Purely Product offers a 100% Happy 2 year warranty, unconditionally guaranteeing the night light for 2 years.

One Healthy Night Light costs $19.95 and I think this is well priced. The average LED night light runs $10.00. Your average air purifier runs...a lot more than that. For an even better deal, you can buy a 2-pack of Healthy Night Lights for $29.95, equivalent to buying one and getting one half off. Also, from now until Christmas, you can get free shipping! I am amazed by Purely Products' generosity in their business practices. On top of the warranties, deals, and shipping offers, a significant portion of every Purely Products purchase benefits diaperlove - a non profit organization that provides diapers to children in need.

I need to mention that I had on strange thing happen with my night light. The wall behind the nightlight ended up with a smudge of dust collected above the device. The smudge was about 4 inches in diameter and showed up after a couple days of using the light. After this one occurrence, it never happened again. I have no idea what made it happen, but it wiped off easily enough.

Now....do you want one? Enter a drawing for one Healthy Night Light by clicking "Like" on Purely Product's Facebook page and then leaving a comment here telling me that you did so (and sharing a way for me to contact you.) The drawing will end on Monday.

The Art of Poetry

2010-12-02T00:12:00.002-06:00

I have to be honest: The very idea of reading poetry used to make me gag. I know, I know. That isn't very civilized of me, but there you go. I couldn't stand it.

A while back, I began taking a Charlotte Mason-esque approach to homeschooling and realized that poetry would need to be part the children's education. I started with my fifth grader and 100 Best-Loved Poems. It was horrifying.

I tried to get away with just assigning a poem for him to read through each week. But he wanted to know what they actually meant. "I...well....hmmm...um....isn't it snack time yet?" I started to wonder if the authors even had a meaning behind some of their poems. After reading Kubla Khan, I was convinced I was right. I didn't insist on him exploring the meanings very deeply after that reading that poem.

Next, I introduced my first grader to A Child's Garden of Verses, with the most delightful illustrations by Tasha Tudor. It was delicious to behold and not totally unpleasant to read.
And then a truly strange thing happened. Honor started telling people that POETRY (!) was her favorite subject in school. I purposed to pay more attention to what I was doing right in those poetry lessons.

All we did was read a poem through, stop and discuss it line by line, and explore the illustrations on each page. I began writing out our discussions as lesson plans for the youngest to have a go with the next year. And then a miraculous thing happened. I began to enjoy the poetry readings myself. I had always enjoyed the cuddle time and discussions with my daughter, but the poetry had only been the necessary medicine I had to endure. Now, it was something I looked forward to!

But Robert Louis Stevenson is a long way from Kubla Khan. I doubted I would ever understand grown-up poetry, let alone appreciate it. And if I couldn't understand it, how could I possibly teach it? I feared it was too late for my older boys to discover a love for any poetry beyond Dr. Seuss. How wrong I was!

Classical Academic Press put out a book called The Art of Poetry and it is impossibly perfect. The book is written in a way that helps you see things simply but is in now way written to make you feel simple. It is not watered down nor does it speak down to its reader. Instead, it opens doors and teaches students (of all ages) how to see and understand poetry for themselves.

Poetry had always been intimidating to me, but this book made it more than accessible. It made it enjoyable. I began the book with my 8th grade son. He was more than capable of doing the lessons by himself, but I always enjoy an excuse to spend one on one time with him and, quite frankly, I needed the accountability if I was actually going to learn the art of poetry for myself.

The lessons in the book are simple enough; a different element of poetry is introduced in each chapter and students read poems that contain those elements. After reading the poem, students answer a handful of questions designed to help the student recognize the elements taught and to appreciate different aspects of each poem. There are 16 chapters in the book and each chapter ends with guided activities that help students apply what they have learned.

The Teacher's Guide has answers to these questions and it was invaluable. There are many lessons that I skip using a Teacher's Manual, but this would not be possible with these lessons. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful the guide was to me. In fact, if you are on a budget or if you are an adult learner, it would be easily possible to use only the Teacher's Edition and not need the Student Guide.

My son, who had absolutely no exposure to poetry before this book, understood and enjoyed these lessons. It was not poetry that caused him to enjoy the lessons. He watched his brother struggle through poetry lessons the year before. He saw his mother's lips curl during these lessons. He had no love for poetry before this book. It astounded me how quickly he was able to grasp the meaning of the lessons. His answers were much deeper than I had ever given him credit for being able to come up with before. I can honestly say that we both look forward to these lessons now.

If you would like to see a sample from the student book, it is available on the Classical Academic Press website, as well as other helpful links.

If you are interested, both books are on sale for 20% off from now until the end of December!

And just to clarify: I still detest Kubla Khan and everything he was smoking. It is one poem I doubt I will ever learn to appreciate.

Day Two

2010-12-01T22:49:00.003-06:00

The second day of Advent was the first day of Christmas School for my gang.

Nothing beats a Dutch Baby for a great start to a great season. Yummm!

Also known as a German Pancake, this gets some protein in with the carbs I crave in the morning. I don't know if there is anything authentically German about this, but the name fits in nicely with today's geography studies.

We make our Jesse Tree part of Christmas School, doing it only on weekdays. The first day of Jesse Tree is marked by a hunting for the perfect branch. Each child scours the local backyards for a branch with a curve and little knobbies. It's just how we like them. Traditionally Jesse Trees are displayed upright in a pot, but we like ours on the wall. I use the removable 3M tabs & hooks to hang ours right over our Advent Wreath.

It looks a bit plain at the moment, but the daily ornaments will soon jazz it up. This year, we're using ornaments from Homeschool In The Woods. They make up a very small portion of the History of Holidays unit study pack. I'm pinch my pennies pretty tightly, but this is worth the investment. We've only used homemade/hand-drawn ornaments before because my children hate "Fakey" looking things. When they saw the print-out of Amy Pak's gorgeous drawings, they were happy to make the switch.

Today, we made Peppernut cookies that went with yesterday's Norway studies. I was skeptical about making a cookie that included black pepper, but these were AMAZING. Definitely a keeper. We'll be making more to share with the neighbors.

Day One

2010-12-01T22:48:00.002-06:00

The first day of Advent - Ah! The magic!

This morning, we were excited to see that our church is also observing advent. We were also excited to see cinnamon rolls served during Sunday School. After church, we enjoyed delicious food and good company at Grandma's house.

We explore the Advent Wreath on the first day of Advent. Ours is old and cheap and definitely showing its age. But it has served us well and will continue to do so for a while. Want to know how to make your own dilapidated Advent wreath? Well then, you came to the right place!

Pick up a cheap wire frame and a cheap wreath. Ours joined our family already old and dilapidated, from a secondhand shop. If you would like new, check out Joann Fabrics stores after the first week of advent when they go on sale.

A Simple Advent Wreath Tutorial:

Take four candleholders and shove them up through the bottom of the wreath and frame.

I feel the need to point out here that I am not, I repeat NOT, giving my wreath "the bird". Look closely and see that I have two fingers holding up this contraption.

Find the candleholder through the top again and clear a spot for the candles through the branches.

Reflect on your fingernails while you're at it and consider taking more vitamins to keep them from peeling like that. Shameful.

Sometimes I need to twist some of the branches around the candle to keep them held upright.

Then consider using a little lotion on your dry, crepe papery hands.

Place a larger candleholder in the center, for the Christ candle. We never remember to buy the proper color candles for Advent. They aren't available in our town and require a small expedition to find them. We've become accustomed to cranberry candles and hardly even try to remember any more. Whatever colors you choose, insert all of your candles and you're ready to go!

I also inserted some extra greenery and wrapped bits of metallic ribbon through mine. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the end result, but it's how we've done it for years now. The flowers and bows stay attached to the wreath year-round in the box and seem to have grown together somehow. There is no changing it now.

Ideas for Advent

2010-11-26T22:26:00.000-06:00

Last year, Chris and I started a website so that we could share some holiday tradition ideas with other families. In case you haven't seen it, we'd love for you to take a peek.

And if you have any tips to share or helpful critiques, we'd truly love to hear from you! Let us know!

So thankful for family

2010-11-25T21:56:00.000-06:00

My oldest and my youngest, patiently waiting for pie.

My youngest in 2006

My youngest in 2007

My whole gang in 2007

2008

The youngest in 2009

I'd show you pictures of the rest of the gang, but I have to go sniffle and hug my baby right now.

Thankful for my crappy stove

2010-11-24T21:31:00.001-06:00

Thankfulness requires contentment. A thankful person is a content person....content with what they have. Content with where they are. It doesn't mean they wouldn't change things if they could. It doesn't mean they will not always strive for better. It means they will not waste time bemoaning what isn't. Instead, they are thankful for what is.

Most days, I think I'm thankful, but then I stop and whine about something or other and realize I have a long way to go. My stove is my reminder to be thankful.

The content face I should have

It is ugly as sin and older than dirt, it has been with me since...forever. I honestly can't remember where it came from. It must have been in the first house we bought. It would have looked nicer then, since I have no memory of its beginnings. If it had been awful then, I would probably remember hating it. Through the years, it's white finish has been scratched to reveal black. It's black finish has been scratched to reveal dull grey. The knobs require a special touch (read: extreme pressure) to turn just on, but only sometimes, so that occasionally when you push like crazy, you find yourself sliding all the way around. The large burner on top has completely burnt out (literally, it caught on fire) and the drawer underneath doesn't actually close, it just shoves into place. mostly. when it wants to.

Three meals a day. Every day. Every week. Always, I cook on my small three burners that are not level, causing my food to slide to one half of my pan and I slide my large pan halfway onto my small burner so that the half with food can cook on the half of the pan that covers the burner. And I complain. "I cannot WAIT until we get a new stove. A black stove to match our black kitchen." But we have all white appliances. "Yes, but our new kitchen will have all black appliances."

A more accurate representation of my content face.

But that new kitchen is never at the top of our priority list and my white appliances continue to rebel against their expected duties. And I continue to complain.

A small video at church on Sunday reminded me of what I already knew: a thankful person is content. Cooking that Sunday, I recalled the overwhelming nostalgia that overcame me when I retired our old high- chair. Wow, that thing was ugly. And uncomfortable. And inconvenient. But not at first. It started beautifully, it just didn't age well. I never seemed to notice though. I just appreciated its faithful service.

My stove started fine and didn't age well, just like the high-chair. But how many soups and stews had been simmered on that stove for my sick sweethearts? How many grilled cheese sandwiches had been fried up for a quick lunch? How many pancakes flipped? Green tomatoes fried? My babies grew up with good memories of Mama cooking in the kitchen and not one of those meals could have happened without that faithful, ugly stove.

My dream kitchen. Yes, I realize it's not black.

I cannot say that I now feel emotionally attached to my cantankerous stove. But since my revelation, each meal I've cooked has been a reminder to be thankful for everything that I have.

Christmas idea

2010-11-17T22:20:00.002-06:00

I'm working on a review right now for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Since it isn't published yet, I can't reprint it here, but if you have kids and are unsure what to get them for Christmas, I have to at least jump in and say that you cannot go wrong buying something from Eeboo.com. Everything I have tried from this store has been crazy-good quality and sooooo cute and fun. My review for the magazine sounds a little more grown-up than this commentary, but take my word for it: good stuff! Some, but not all is available on Amazon. Don't tell them, but my girls are getting the paper-doll game for Christmas. They are going to love this!

Catching Up #5

2010-11-08T22:00:00.000-06:00

Did I mention that I love them?

Blacksmith. But you probably knew that, huh?

Really big cows.

Really furry calves.

Honor giving a piggy-back-ride.

The girls in a one-room schoolhouse. They loved writing on the slates.

I thought I was taking a video of the dancing. It was priceless. I nearly cried when I realized it was on the wrong setting.

Imagine banjo music here.

Leaving the festival, I fell in love with the pharmacy sign.

Boring drugs. Maybe they're just not doing it right.

Matching dirty vans. See that dent in the rear right of the van on the right. The back hatch no longer opens. This makes suitcase removal quite entertaining. The carseats audibly laugh at us.

Well into our drive home, we spotted camels in a field beside the road. I was able to snag a shot because we passed them twice. Here is where we turned around because we realized we left our pillows.

But that's okay, because I'd failed to snag a picture of these awesome guys. Truly an amazing family.

Thank you so much Christy!

Catching Up #4

2010-11-07T15:51:00.000-06:00

I am getting so slow at this. All these catch-ups originated in a great weekend with family/friends. I will eventually load all these pictures.

We visited Warsaw, which has the most incredible Autumn Festival I have ever seen. It was HUGE. HUGE, I tell you!

Starting with the craft tents....foods, yarns, woodworking, jewelry, soaps, EVERYTHING.

The girls snagged some hairclips and rings.

Amazing family. This lovely gal is the beautiful Crazy Christian Chic. You should follow her stuff. Funny gal. Funny family. Wonderful family. We love them!

This Festival boasts the best ham and beans I've ever had. Ever.

Isn't this a good picture of Honor?

That's right, I was totally taking a picture of Honor. Honest.

Churning butter outside a cabin wafting out scents of bread freshly baked with a woodstove. Yummmmmm.

My goofy kids.

Still Catching Up (#3)

2010-11-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

More McDonalds shots. Chris STILL trying to figure out the brain-teaser. Ethan sneaking pictures, unaware that the window behind us would not complement his photography.

The Next Great Move of God

2010-10-28T21:59:00.000-05:00

The Old Testament is sometimes discarded by Christians as unnecessary history and is replaced by what is seen as the more relevant New Testament. While the New Testament is obviously integral to God's Word, much is missed when the Old Testament is forgotten. The Next Great Move of God: Christians Returning to Their Hebraic Roots by author and pastor Dr. LaSalle R. Vaughn, helps readers appreciate the Hebraic roots of Christ and the beauty of the Old Testament.

The book covers many interesting twists and turns. In the just the first chapter, the author discusses the churches in the book of Revelation, the Azusa Street Revival of 1906, Constantine the Great, the Spanish Inquisition, the land of Israel, and the Old Covenants vs. the New Covenant. Altogether, these might appear to be rather random, but the author uses all of it to encourage readers to dig deeper into God's Word. It is still as scattered as it sounds, but it flows like a fascinating conversation.

The second chapter introduces readers to our Hebraic roots by revealing the principles behind the salt covenant, the shema, and time alone with God. I had never heard of a salt covenant before and was surprised to realize that it mentioned in bible verses I know I have read, but somehow overlooked. The salt covenant is a covenant of loyalty and trust. This chapter digs deeply into covenant relations, our relationship with God, and our relationships with others.

I am less enthusiastic about chapter three, entitled "Symbols of Our Faith". Dr. Vaughn discusses the alphabet of the Hebrew Bible with skip sequence counting and other symbolic and numeric interpretations. While I do not discount the possibility that there is significance to this, I have always had mixed feelings of fascination and discomfort when reading about it. The chapter does go on to discuss other interesting topics, such as the ark of the covenant, the menorah, the shofar, the tallit, and the Western Wall. The history of these symbols is beautiful, but I worry that some might take this chapter as a license to become distracted by these elements as a 'religion' rather than a faith. The author does not in any way say that these elements are necessary, but presents them only as edifying additions.

Chapters four and five discuss current times and coming times with much insight in an easy-to-follow manner. Chapter six presents an interesting study on eight keys to the heart of the kingdom. Most of these are basic beliefs shared by all Christians, but the author implies that not incorporating the seventh key, the Feast Days of God, can limit one's access to God's Kingdom. A brief description of the Feast Days is shared, but no explanation for why they are critical for Christians to celebrate.

Chapter seven adamantly insists that America is a Judeo-Christian Nation. There are many deep truths in this chapter, but I disagree with the chapter title. Our nation was founded on Christian values, but we are not a Christian state. To the many non-Christian Americans, insisting that it is so (when the Constitution clearly says that it is not) does little to persuade them to accept our beliefs.

My unrest with the book is summed up in the final chapter, when Dr. Vaughn says: "In order for a non-Jewish believer to embrace the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they must embrace Ruth 1:16. Embrace the Jewish people, as your people, and their God will become your God." This sentiment was felt in many other places in the book, if the words were not put as plainly as they are here. I vehemently disagree with this line of thinking. No where in scripture are we commanded to embrace a Jewish culture as our own to become the children of God. We are heirs through adoption. Through Christ, God has loved us as His own. We are commanded to believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and then we shall be saved. This is the requirement. To explore the Jewishness of Jesus is a rich and rewarding study. To incorporate elements of worship shared with God's chosen people can be edifying to our faith. To insist they are necessary for a proper relationship with God goes against scripture.

The Next Great Move of God is chock full of interesting studies that lead readers to delve deeply into God's word and to appreciate the holiness of God. There are areas with which I disagree, but we should always be on guard and ready to compare what we read and hear to scripture, knowing God's word is the unchanging final authority. The good far outweighed the bad in this book, where the bad only served to make me dig even deeper into the Bible.

*You can read an excerpt here.

Catch Up #2

2010-10-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

Ethan in McDonalds

Gracie in McDonalds

Honor in McDonalds

Joel and Chris tackling mind-teaser puzzle at McDonalds

Joel mastered it down to 4 seconds.

Catch Up #1

2010-10-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

Last week, my baby - my BABY - turned five.

She ran through the curtain into the realm of 'big girl' and discovered her first set of wheels...just like all of her siblings. Now, there are no more babies to turn five and run through the curtain and discover a new bike. *sniffle*

After a few turns around the house, we enjoyed her requested breakfast: homemade donuts. yum. And by homemade, I mean that they came out of a biscuit tube. (can't have you thinking I'm all that)

Next, we ran off to visit family. It was a fun road trip and we discovered a new love for Father Gilbert Mysteries, though we could only listen to one because the other was too scary for little ears.

Once there, we visited a fish hatchery. The girls posed like mermaids and Joel...I just don't know.

More. Lots more.

Later.

Sick-leave?

2010-10-25T23:20:00.001-05:00

We've had a cold-bug running through the house for about two weeks now. I discovered this message in the shower today, left by a miserable Joel. He's not nearly as sick as he is dramatic, but he did manage to get out of latin today.

New Shoe Running

2010-10-12T17:52:00.001-05:00

In preparation for fall, I've been sorting through the girls' closet; weeding out the too-short, too-thin, and the too-ugly...all the while tripping over their cascading bins of shoes. I finally sat the girls down and made them try on every pair of shoes to see what fit. Once finished, Honor's bin was completely empty. Sarah's wasn't much better.

Our only shoe option in Smallville is Wal-mart so we made a run to the city for little-girl-shoes. They both walked out with pretty black mary-janes and new tennis shoes. The tennis shoes were on their feet before we left the parking lot. Being the sensitive guy that he is, my wonderful husband knew those feet were itching to break in the new shoes so he took us straight to the park to see how much faster they could run in their new shoes.

It's amazing how well new shoes improve running skills.

Sarah ran as if she were bouncing on the moon. It was awesome.

She plowed over other kids in her enthusiasm.

She was like a cat ready to pounce!

She was stinkin' cute is what she was.

Honor was much more laid back.

But equally cute.

Millions of Peaches

2010-08-27T07:20:00.000-05:00

A good day. Really good day.

It's the little things.

When I asked my 13 year old what he wanted me to request from Netflix, he said no to my offer for a guy movie we could watch after the girls went to bed. No, he said, I don't want to leave them out. Let's get something we can all watch together.

Joel, who thinks he hates Latin, has been using it more and more. In his vocabulary quiz, I asked him to define the word "evoke". "Evoke? I had that word? I don't know it."

wait for it....

"But in Latin, 'e' means out of and voco means I call, so.......'to call out'?"

It's working! It's working!

On the inside, I nearly wet my pants with the glee this confirmation brought. On the outside, I totally played it cool and just said, "Great job!"

Little thing #whatever: my laundry is caught up.

And then dinner. [contented sigh] I love dinner with my family. Tonight, we lingered and lingered and lingered. Discussions were primarily math related for some reason as Chris explained to the boys how to figure the area of a planet and how to make sure you build a house truly square. That led to the Pythagorean Theorem, which Chris still has on the back of his hand because paper wasn't handy but a pen was, apparently.

Dessert was a plate of fresh peaches dolloped with whipping cream. This led to a lengthy discussion on how to pronounce "wh". How about you? Do you say it /wip/ or /hwip/? It also led to lots of singing which left the line Peaches for me stuck in my head.

And this led to a hwipped cream fight that left everyone white and sticky.

It was a really good day.

Too Much or Not Enough?

2010-08-20T21:02:00.000-05:00

School has not gone according to plans this week. We're on week two and still doing school until 7-8:00 each night. My goals in homeschooling are to teach them to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, all their strength, and all their minds. Following these in importance, my goal is to teach them to love learning. One doesn't love learning if one is doing NOTHING but learning. One also isn't growing, contributing, or even actually learning anything at all if school is all that one does. One also begins to talk like Yoda when using the word "one" too much one does.

I have no idea how school is taking so long. On paper, it looks great. There are a few extra subjects this year. Old subjects are harder this year. And I am slower to help with assignments since I'm teaching the girls full classes. I decided last night to give them Friday off and today I set out to pull out the workboxes that made our lives wonderful last year. These certainly help with keeping the schedule flowing better. Even then, I was unsure how I would fit everything in. I had so many perfect plans for the year, yet not enough slots in the schedule to place them.

When labeling a new folder for a new subject (literary analysis,) I saw that the title was too long, so I abbreviated. It was at the moment that I wrote the words "Lit Anal" that it hit me: Yeah, anal. That description fits my stack of lesson plans. Maybe the perfect curriculum isn't actually perfect for us. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

I walked away from the workboxes to ponder and relax. Does a high school student really need grammar and literary analysis. Wouldn't one be sufficient? And spelling - true, his spelling needs work, but perhaps we could drop the spelling program and just incorporate the words he was working on in his reports and essays. My rebellious thoughts considered throwing it all off and just immersing ourselves in good books. The daring idea gave me hope.

And then I checked in on my facebook page. Wait, no, that's my eldest's facebook page. He didn't log out. I checked his account activity and saw that he had left a comment on a friend's photo. It said, "what on earth. were where you."

I....wha....huh??? No caps. The punctuation?? Were WHERE you??? Where did I go wrong?

So, yeah, not dropping grammar.

Nor spelling.

Maybe I can drop lunch. It just messes up the kitchen anyway.

History of Christianity

2010-08-19T17:14:00.002-05:00

The early years of the church, those after Paul's writings and before good ol' Gutenberg have always been enshrouded with mystery to me. While I have read some about it, I've never studied enough of it to satisfy my curiosity. Being the visual learner I am, I was relieved to discover the DVD series, A History of Christianity. My review is based on the first episode of the series, which I was sent to review.

The BBC series is hosted by Diarmaid MacCulloch, the eminent scholar who wrote The First Three Thousand Years. The cinematography is beautiful as MacCulloch takes viewers on a journey around the world, watching the Christian faith unfold and spread. A good portion of focus is on the Middle East and this was very eye opening for me. What little I've read generally refers to Paul's travels and the Roman influence. This first episode explored more Eastern forms of Christianity and different churches that developed through the early years and many that managed to withstand (and some even to have power over) the pressures of society and politics.

I found it interesting that the series discussed not only the historical facts, but also discussed the influence the faith had on society as a whole, even those who believed differently. Through the years, Christianity has undeniably contributed to the changing shape of society. However, this influence was largely discussed as a dispassionate analysis of the evils of the church. While this lack of bias is a good thing, as a Christian, the tone made me feel like part of a pygmy tribe under observation. It is, primarily, a history series, not a theological series put about to discuss faith. It is a history of the church, not a history of the faith. It seems impossible to discuss the history of Christianity without discussing faith or spirituality, but it was accomplished. While I would love to see a history that covered these aspects of our history...what was life like for early Christian families? what did their faith look like on a day-to-day basis?...It was nonetheless helpful to have this deeper look into the history of the church.

Gimme Some Lovin'

2010-08-10T22:12:00.001-05:00

My girls have had the gimmies this week. "Give it to me! I want it!" "No, I want it!" "But I had it first!" "But I wanted it first!" and on and on and on.....

Around 10:00 last night, I rushed in to the girls' room after hearing Sarah let loose a royal wail. Through many sobs and sniffs and moans and Oh! the snot, she managed to squeak out that she wanted the blanket Honor was holding. Honor was nearly as miserable and insisted she had it first. Before I had even grasped the explanation, it had deteriorated into another argument. In complete honesty here, I lost my cool. I believe my words were, "All of this screeching over a freaking blanket??" Yes, mom, I said freaking. I know. Trust me, I know.

They stopped screeching, but kept crying. I talked about sharing and loving and blah, blah, blah but they weren't hearing me....they just wanted the freaking blanket.

I asked Honor, "Do you think you could stand to give the blanket to Sarah tonight?" She, mostly calm at this point, said, "I think that would maybe be okay."

To Sarah, I asked, "Do you think you could stand to give the blanket to Honor tonight?"

In her deep, gruff voice, she gave an emphatic "No."

"Fine then. Honor, the blanket is yours. Sarah you need to learn the joy of giving tonight."

She cried so hard and so loud that she gave herself an asthma attack within 15 seconds of my statement.

We wrapped the fit up gently but firmly and calmed the breathing. Things were fine for the night, but I knew the gimme fits would return soon.

This morning.....they both wanted the same pair of socks. They apparently REALLY wanted this pair of socks. But this time, we had real results and I didn't raise my voice or lose my cool.

We sat down and discussed the word "generously". We learned in VBS that God gives wisdom generously to all who ask. The girls asked what generously meant. I used an object lesson with Junior Mints. "Remember when I shared the candy daddy gave me yesterday? It was my box and I could have kept it all. It would be nice of me to share one candy with you. It would be generous of me to share 5 candies with you. Would you rather I share one or five?"

*side note: thank you, my darling husband for buying theatre sized boxes of candy for me. Thank you.

We went on to discuss how God is generous with a lot more than just wisdom. We also discussed that he wants us to be generous as well. It isn't a sin to keep your candy to yourself. But it is good to share and it's better to share generously. I reminded the girls that they love each other and are best friends (a little brainwashing never hurt) and that it is a joy to share with each other.

Now the weird part. I gave them a new rule for the day (though we only had to use it once.) Whenever they disagreed on something, each should ask the other, "What would you like?" And then....they had to give it to her. So here's what it looked like:

Honor: Sarah, what do you want?
Sarah: The Easter Egg socks.
Honor: Okay, here you go.
Sarah: Honor, what do you want?
Honor: The Easter Egg socks.
Sarah: Okay, here you go.

Honor: Sarah, what do you want?

Sarah: The Easter Egg socks.

Honor: Okay, here you go.

Sarah: Honor, what do you want?

Honor: The Easter Egg socks.

Sarah: Okay, here you go.

Back and forth and back and forth for five full minutes they went until the both broke down giggling. They ran down the hall, still asking each other what they wanted and giving the socks back and forth. We shared the tale with Daddy a few hours later and he asked how it ended. I said, "Honor, let's see your feet."

Easter Egg socks.

Well, we know which one has more patience now.

I won! I won!

2010-08-06T07:28:00.000-05:00

Jesse, over at Orange Marmalade Mama, listed me as "A Blog With Substance." (no wisecracks, people, I'm chalk fulllll of substance...or something like that.)

The rules for the Blog with a Substance Award...

1) Sum up your blogging philosophy in 5 words!

Five words? hmmmm.....
1. Honest. The down-right nekkid kind of honest would be my favorite kind.
2. Uh...I'm running out of words already. How about distracted? Easily distracted.
3. Eclectic
4. Sincere. I'm not sure I always hit it. I hope I do. But if I had to write a philosophy, I'd say writers should write what they feel, with thought to honest representation of those feelings and not about impressing or entertaining a reader. It totally rings my bell when someone likes what I've written, but the only person I usually think about actually reading this is my husband...and I love to make him laugh.
5. Lazy. I'm not a very dedicated blogger. When it strikes my fancy is my general timetable.

That wasn't the easiest instruction to follow for a blog award. These things are always painful for me. I propose a new rule....describe the giver of the award in 5 words. It's always easier to talk about someone else. ;-)

So, Jesse, I would describe your blog as serene, fun, loving, informative, and down-right sweet.

2)Pass the award to five others:

*Two oldies you've heard me mention:
Michael: dripping with substance and sarcasm. Two of my favorite things! And doesn't he need a frilly blog award on his sidebar?
Jenni: thoughtful photos, interesting music, deep thinking, family centered.
*Three new (to me) bloggers:
Kari: wow. beautiful, nekkid honesty.
Heidi: Ah, Heidi. Why don't you live closer?
Amanda: The name of the blog is The Enabler and Her Codependents. Need I say more?
T.J.: Calypso music and a pirate birthday cake right on the front page. Sub. Stance. Very fun.