Informative Reviews for Homeschooling Moms…and a slice of our life as well
Yesterday afternoon I ordered two books from Amazon.ca, with free shipping. The books were scheduled to arrive sometime between February 28 and March 2.
Imagine our surprise when a delivery truck stopped in front of our place this afternoon.
Yes, only 26 hours after ordering them, the books were dropped off at our house!
Excellent customer service is so rare these days that I wanted to share this story.
Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Amazon (yet), but I’m very impressed with them.
As I was thinking about my week, I realized that many of the everyday things I do have saved our family huge amounts of money. My sisters and some friends do many of them, and I’m teaching them to my children, too. However, a lot of people don’t seem to know how rewarding these skills can be, in terms of money as well as joy.
Two bonus skills that may not work for everyone but that can save thousands of dollars:
What skills would you add to the list?
For more tips, visit No Ordinary Blog Hop, Encourage One Another Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Works For Me Wednesday , Raising Homemakers, Thrifty Thursday, and Frugal Friday.
You’ll never guess the ending. You’ll never forget it either. While you read, you might be afraid and slightly nauseous like I was. Or maybe not. You would never give this book to your little ones, but for older ones it is just the thing: Leepike Ridge, by N.D. Wilson.
Tom doesn’t like his mom’s friend Jeffrey, who also happens to be his schoolteacher. He’s upset that she smiles at him like she used to smile at dad, before he was gone. And when Jeffrey wants to marry his mom, Tom is so angry that he cannot sleep, so he sneaks out of his window. In the moonlight, he climbs the stairs down from his house on the high rock, hurries to his beloved stream, floats away on a slab of refrigerator packing foam, and … disappears.
He finds himself far underground, tumbling along with the stream, believing each breath to be his last. But he survives, finds a corpse, a castaway, buried treasure, and, finally, the way home.
Here is adventure, literature, and history, all wrapped in a story so compelling you and your children will not be able to put it down.
The author, N. D. Wilson, is a Christian with a zany sense of humor and a classical education. You can learn more about him here and should be able to find his books in most libraries.
Note: Exodus Books suggests that readers would be between 8 and 13, but I can assure you that none of my children would have enjoyed it at age 8. Or 9 for that matter, and maybe not even a year later. It all depends on how imaginative your kids are.
Disclosure: I borrowed this book from our library and read it twice. As usual I am not compensated for my reviews and my opinions are my own.
From Katherine's Farm
We’ve always tried to grow some of our own food, for both health and financial reasons.
It wasn’t until later that we realized it was a wonderful educational opportunity as well, perfect for our homeschooling family. We learn about plants and animals, bugs and diseases, and soil. What’s more, we learn how they are all inter-related. We learn basic skills that are being lost by so many in our culture. And, just as importantly, we understand, in a small way, what has kept most of mankind busy through the centuries: acquiring food. Farming. Foraging. Hunting. What a window into other cultures and history!
Pulling weeds, I discovered that food production teaches spiritual lessons, too. Jesus often talked about weeds, seeds, and soil. If you’ve ever traced thick tangles of long, long quack-grass roots, you’ve seen a shocking portrayal of sin; it can be growing and spreading under the soil without any surface evidence, and then erupt in all its hideousness. If you’ve ever left tiny weeds too long, you understand the importance of fighting sins when they just begin. So much of the Old Testament, too, involves life on the land, and the prophecies are full of related imagery.
For all these reasons, and more, our interest in growing our own food has continued and increased. Now, besides a huge vegetable garden we also have a small orchard, bees, and chickens. The ducks are pets, but the dogs’ job is to keep deer, coyotes, and foxes away. Loving fuzzy little animals, the children are pleading for rabbits, or a pig, or miniature goats. My husband even mentioned miniature cows for milk! Obviously, we have some decisions to make!
It’s no wonder, then, that we’re attracted to books and DVD’s about farming, especially the old fashioned kind that resembles our own simple, low-budget endeavors.
We absolutely love Katherine’s Farm, the beautiful story of a year on a small Manitoba farm told from a young girl’s point of view.
To see how pioneers farmed, we enjoy the DVD Summer on Ross Farm, about 19th century life in the Maritimes. We also love to visit Upper Canada Village, a working farming community museum portraying the 1860′s.
All winter long, we’ve ‘visited’ an early 1900’s farm in Devon, England, for an hour a week. Edwardian Farm was originally a BBC TV series, but is now available on YouTube. It’s full of beautiful photography, fun, humor, and learning. We’ve fast-forwarded a few scenes such as those involving spiritualism, and a few times Christianity was mocked, but on the whole this is a wonderful series.
We’ve also discovered Joel Salatin, a Christian natural farmer and writer who homeschooled his children. You Can Farm is a fascinating but realistic book about farming, business, and lifestyle. Currently my husband, Miss 14, and I are enjoying Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. Mr. 16 read it as soon as it entered our home and loved it. I’m thinking of reviewing both of these books for you, sometime.
And, of course, we enjoy the wonderful children’s book series, Little House on the Prairie (much better than the movies) and Little Britches (language warning, but excellent values).
And so we happily keep on learning.
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Disclosure: As usual, I am not compensated for my posts nor for mentioning the resources above, some of which I’ve reviewed.
This post has been linked to Barn Hop #50.
In my life this week… Between routine tasks, growing bean sprouts, trying to keep up with little spring cleaning projects, and bringing the car back and forth to our mechanic, 40 minutes away, it’s been a busy, busy week.
But it was fun, too. On Monday I sat down with pink paper and a pair of scissors, hoping Miss 9 would become interested, and started cutting out valentines. She did, and hung them up too. Miss 11 made red jello, Miss 14 promised to make icing for the heart-shaped cornbread I was making for breakfast, Mr. 16 approved of it all, and my husband looked confused. It’s been so long since I had the energy to do something like this!
In our homeschool this week… We’re plodding steadily along, enjoying most of it most of the time.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… Nothing this week except for the encouragement to keep on keeping on.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… The library, judo, catechism, friends, an award ceremony.
My favorite thing this week was… Again there were so many things! Here are a few:
Questions/thoughts I have… How will we manage to keep up our intense homeschool program when the outside work begins? The younger children can study less, but the older children really need to keep on going. And the outside work is necessary for our family. I recently read about the need to decide on the sacrifices you’re willing to make to meet your goals, since ‘setting sacrifices on purpose is significantly better than setting them by default.’ That is so true!
Things I’m working on…
Homeschooling. We’re completely back into our routine, and we’re moving on steadily.
Birding. The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend. So far we’ve only observed two blue jays, some chickadees, and a large unknown stranger that sits in the tops of trees and sounds like a cross between a hen and a duck.
Dejunking and spring cleaning, both on my own and with Jessica’s Zone Defence. I hate deciding what to tackle when, and this is the closest I can get to someone telling me what to do. I love it! I’m working on the mending basket, the homeschool book pile, and the box of books to sell, and maybe the old photo box.
Getting fit. I’m focussing a bit more on food than exercise for now, and that requires a lot of decisions, another reason I’m thankful to have someone else making the spring-cleaning decisions for me.
Planning the garden and other outside work. Actually, my family’s been reading Joel Salatin’s books and wants to get back into chickens as well as try a pig, a goat, or rabbits. I’m the one adding the ’or’ but some of them want it to be ‘and’.
Home decorating. We’ve lived in our home for over 11 years. It desperately needs repainting and that requires decisions about color and more. I’ve started a file with ideas; perhaps I should open a Pinterest account. Fortunately this will be a multi-year project and my husband is happily focussing on our fancy baseboards for now. Those will be a beautiful glossy white.
Blog background stuff. In a few weeks Google Friend Connect will no longer work on WordPress blogs. Apparently a Facebook page is the way to go, so I’m trying to set that up. Facebook is not my up of tea. Does anyone have a better solution?
I’m reading… John. I am also reading The Odyssey (the version by Samuel Butler) , Mindsight, Fit and Fabulous in 15 Minutes. I finished Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul. It is one of the books studied in Omnibus 1.
With the kids, I’m reading Acts, The Long Winter, Rozemarijntje Gaat Naar School, and Wambu by Piet Prins. Neither The Long Winter nor Wambu is particularly cheerful at this stage, but the worst is almost over in both books.
I’m grateful for … Sunshine. Friends. My family. Blogging. Clean-swept floors.
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This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and to Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
encouraging each other to care well for the bodies God has given us
My personal goal is to regain strength after a debilitating illness so that I can live a healthy, active life with my family.
Your goal may be to lose weight, look better, feel better, or run a marathon. Whatever it is, please feel free to join Fit Mommy any time, no matter what your current level of fitness is. You can check in using the comments at the bottom of this post.
There’s something dynamic about setting goals. Last week after determining and posting my fitness goals, I felt so inspired that I was very active. Too active. And I’ve spent this week paying for it.
Since I’m hosting Fit Mommy, I really wanted to get moving soon, and I did. But I wasn’t ready, so I had to take even more time off. Finally I gave in and took the time to think instead….
And I noticed that many moms in their 30′s and 40′s have great fitness goals and great motivation. We just forget that our bodies are what they have become, and we try to do more than we can. Then we injure ourselves, and, determined to keep on going anyhow, we don’t allow enough time for healing.
I think the problem is that we forget to listen to our bodies but set endurance and intensity goals as though we were in our teens. It doesn’t work that way, though, and fitness encouragement has two sides.
Remember The Hare and the Tortoise? Slow and steady wins the race. It always does.
This week I was the hare, resting after the first dash. Ha! But I’m planning to live next week like a tortoise. Step by step. Here’s how I did this week.
Record my fitness accomplishments each day…Yes.
Do 6 repetitions of my eye exercises 5 days a week …I did them 4 times.
Go for a daily walk and average 6100 steps a day … No. I went for one walk and took my kids along just in case I didn’t make it. (What’s that about listening to your body? Hmmm?) After last week’s enthusiasm, my daily steps were only 1900, 2700, 5800, 4700, 3500, and 3200 averaging to almost 3600.
Do 6 repetitions of my physio exercises 5 days a week … I did them two and a half times.
Do 5 repetitions of my organ keyboard and pedal exercises, 5 days a week… I did them three times.
T-Tapp: Learn 2-3 pages of Fit and Fabulous each week, and practice what I know daily.… I continued learning, but need to pace myself and do only a few repetitions even if the DVD suggests many.
Avoid sugar five days a week … No. We ate healthy cornbread on Valentine’s Day, but covered it with cream cheese frosting. The children were thrilled, and it did taste remarkably good, but it drained me of energy. I will focus on meeting this goal.
Eat lots of vegetables, including fresh ones, and yoghurt … Yes. We enjoyed a lot of fruit and vegetables, as well as some yoghurt. The first batch of sprouted beans is ready to eat today, the only really fresh food we’ve had since fall. I’ll be thinking more about healthy eating as well, because I suspect that’s where I will be able to regain my energy most quickly.
Relax daily…Yes. We went to bed very early and gave ourselves time to rest.
Have fun with the kids, including active fun… I was too tired to have much active fun. However, we really enjoyed our Valentine’s Day, decorating and eating special foods. Other than that, we’re back into our reading aloud routine.
How about you? Did you exercise, eat well, and relax happily this week? Let’s encourage each other to care well for the bodies God has given us. Please link up your health and fitness post in the comments below, and don`t forget to link back here from your post. Then enjoy visiting and encouraging other Fit Mommies just like you.
Note: Fit Mommy Friday is the Health and Fitness Check-In column of The Christian Home Carnival.
For years we’ve been using Lifeviews and The Consequences of Ideas by R. C. Sproul to show our teens how modern life is shaped by philosophy. Although these books are somewhat scattered, they clearly trace the ungodly origins and development of many ideas that we almost take for granted. They have been very helpful in our homeschool even though they were not written as curriculum.
Now, in Chosen by God, we have encountered a completely different aspect of R. C. Sproul. Chosen by God discusses some of the most debated aspects of the Bible: free will, predestination, God’s sovereignty, the fall into sin, and the knowledge of salvation. Using the Bible, church history, and logic, Sproul explores these concepts from various angles.
If the word ‘predestination’ upsets you as it does some people, be aware that it is explicitly mentioned in the Bible (Ephesians 1 and Romans 8) and that “Virtually all Christian churches have some formal doctrine of predestination,” although there are many different understandings of it. Sproul points out that:
“If the Bible is the Word of God, not mere human speculation, and if God himself declares that there is such a thing as predestination, then it follows irresistibly that we must embrace some doctrine of predestination…. It is our duty to seek the correct view of predestination, lest we be guilty of distorting or ignoring the Word of God. Here is where the real struggle begins, the struggle to sort out accurately all that the Bible teaches about this matter.”
Originally Sproul’s view of predestination was Arminian. As he studied, he reluctantly—very reluctantly—became convinced of Reformed thought. Once he understood it, however, he rejoiced “in a gracious Savior who alone was immortal, invisible, the only wise God.” In Chosen by God he explains what changed his thinking and hopes to convince others to believe as he does.
Powerfully written, Chosen by God presents an often-misunderstood doctrine in a compelling way. Although Sproul has a gift for teaching complicated, controversial concepts in a clear way, this is not an easy read. It is, however, well worth your time, especially if you have questions about issues such as predestination. I am grateful to have read it and highly recommend it.
Note: This review is the first in a series of posts involving Omnibus, Veritas Press’s excellent literature/Bible/history curriculum. Chosen by God is one of the secondary readings in Omnibus 1.
While most of the Omnibus 1 target audience of preteens will not be spiritually and mentally mature enough to understand Chosen by God, it is a wonderful book for teens and adults. Omnibus 1 treats it respectfully and clearly, highlighting important points and applying its ideas to modern everyday life as well as to history.
Disclosure: We borrowed Chosen by God and I am not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own.
This is my tenth book in the in the 2012 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge and is linked to Saturday Reviews.
by Russ Campbell
Last week I mentioned the furor associated with Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood. Sadly, that decision has been reversed.
Here’s a newspaper article that sums up the whole story in impassioned terms.
Tucked into it is this discussion of the link between breast cancer and abortion:
For the past 15 years, there’s been a growing controversy over the link between induced abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer. In 1996, a paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health provided the first evidence of a connection between abortion and breast cancer. Pooled data from 28 studies demonstrated that women who had abortions had increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 30 percent. Subsequent studies supposedly disproved this association, but a 2005 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons paper showed these studies had methodologies that were sufficiently flawed “to invalidate their findings.” And, in 2007, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons reported that induced abortion was the risk factor that best predicted the incidence of breast cancer in European women.
In 2009, a key researcher at the National Cancer Institute reversed her position and stated that abortion is a significant factor in raising the risk of breast cancer. Dr. Louise Brinton co-authored a 2009 study stating that induced abortion increased the risk of triple-negative breast cancer by 40 per cent in women under 45. The paper, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, stated the above and then lent its support to previous studies by saying that this increase was “consistent with the effects observed in previous studies on younger women.”
You won’t find this information on the Canadian and American cancer sites which work hard to deny a link between breast cancer and abortion.
Now, I have not investigated any of the research in depth. However, as a scientist, I do know that a researcher’s presuppositions play a role in experimental design and analysis. I also know the tremendous influence that funding agencies have in directing research direction and goals.
And I’m realizing that many organizations are not really interested in women’s health but in a pro-abortion ideology or in money.
Aside: Two resources that opened my eyes to some of the background issues involved in the abortion debate are Unplanned by Abby Johnson (about a Planned Parenthood worker who changed her mind about abortion after assisting in one) and Uncle Sam’s Plantation by Star Parker (in which the author mentions that abortion providers target poor neighborhoods and suggests that this may be race-related).
