New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all!!!! I'm starting mine a day early. I've been thinking about my reading for the coming year. We'll mostly spiritually. I really want to keep myself in the Word. I think I'll start blogging about my scripture reading and supplimental reading that encourage me spiritually.

For today, I'll start with my Operation Christmas Child week 1 memory verse, which I've read many times in the last couple of weeks.

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Isn't it AMAZING how he came?

Oh the places....

Dr. Seuss, I believe said it best, "Oh the Places You Can Go". I came across a great passage in The Russians series by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella. Book 1, The Crown and the Crucible, tells the story of a poor peasant girl who is leaving her small village to go to St. Petersburg, Russia. I love her description of how the few books she has had the opportunity to read (which she read over and over and over) have given her a glimpse into a world she otherwise would have had no idea about.

Anna knew more of the outside world than did most of the sixty inhabitants of Katyk. Even though such knowledge came from the pages of romantic books, she knew there were splendors as well as evils to be encountered. Even if from fairy tales, she knew something of the scope of human nature. She realized there were good people and evil. She knew there were choices to be made that would determine her future. She had an idea that a girl's heart, mind, and spirit might be stretched to the very limits.

...In her own small way, Anna felt like a knight in one of the ancient stories, leaving home for distant lands to seek out a dragon in some unknown corner of the empire, thus to prove her mettle and fulfill her destiny.

List of books for boys by a boy!

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/09/best-books-for-boys-booklist-written-by.html

Yesterday's post by Ann Voskamp @ aholyexperience.com!

Included is a list of 22 books that her son felt most impacted him as a man. Some I have already wanted to read, some are new to me! Yum! I have 3 boys too!!!

Scattered

I have been scattered. Training for a thiath...starting school...behind on house work....then last night I read this...http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Stop-cleaning-the-kitchen.html

Then this morning it goes much deeper. (Thanks Bonnie for telling us about this!!)

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/08/prayer-why-we-struggle-and-how-not-to.html

Yes, I started this training putting reading my Bible first...but slowly I have put that off to get my training "in on time". Thanks Ann Voskamp for the reminder of what is truely important!

Lord, I love you!
You are what makes me strong.
I am nothing without you.
No stoke, no ride, no walk/run has meaning apart from you.
I cannot love my husband or children without you.
I cannot even keep the kitchen clean without you.
You are everything.
And all I need...
All I want!
Then everything else will fall into place.
Thanks for taking my eyes off of myself,
And putting them back where they belong,
Adoring You!

Love to Eat Hate to Eat

I have been reading lots, but have had no time for posting. I have been reading Love to Eat Hate to Eat: Breaking th Bondage of Destructive Eating Habits by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I have been blown away with the depth to which she explains my struggle and the incredible biblical advice she gives to help remedy it.

I have learned that my struggle comes down to one of two things usually. They are: Love of Independence ( I want what I want) and Love of Pleasure.

I am starting over today in chapter one in order to read through it again with my dad. We have also started the 6 week total body makeover by Michael Thurmond, which my dad had much success with previously. I will try to blog after a few chapters of Love to Eat Hate to Eat. Not sure how much time I will have.

I am also training for the Ramlin' Rose Triathlon. I have started a new blog for that, http://ramblinrosebound.blogspot.com/ but I cannot figure out how to link them together...anyone have technical advice let me know!!!

Stepping Heavenward

I knew when I read this book the first time that it would not be my last read. So, here I am again. Stepping Heavenward was written in 1869 and is the story of one girls process of sanctification. The account begins when she is 16 years old and unsaved. She is well aware of her sin and yet struggles with a lack a desire to mortify it. Through conversations with her dear pastor, his wife and her mother, she begins to understand what it is to follow the Lord. The story follows her throughout her life as she grows in grace and truth.

I do not know about everyone else, until the day I read Romans 7 and found I was not the only one who struggled again my flesh to do the things of the Father, I was in awe! I was just a teenager, but it was quite a load off of my heart! Through the years since that time the Lord has patiently and lovingly continued to guide me to Him...stepping heavenward.

Shepherding a Child's Heart and Study Guide

I cannot recommend Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp and the study guide that goes with it enough!! I am learning so much. I am receiving Biblical answers to things I have struggled with the whole 13 years I have been a parent! I have a feeling I will need to do this study more than once, because I have much to learn and repent of!!

Home from Childlight USA Conference

I am home from the Childlight USA Conference. I have soooo much to blog about. My mind is whirling around with plans for high school next year, and a more liberal array of subjects for the younger ones next year!

The work Charlotte Mason did has been such a blessing in so many lives. I am thankful every day for what I have learned so far. Using CM is stretching me and mold me into a better mom and teacher!

At Last!

I am investigating At Last! A Reading Method for every child. If anyone has any input PLEASE comment!

One more quote today from Mere Christianity

"Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disquise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."

Quote From Mere Christianity

I was sure I had blogged about Mere Christianity. I have been trying to read it for some time. But, it looks like I haven't. Well, I just came across a quote I'd like to share!

God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: The thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from!!! He is our only possible ally and we have made ourselves His enemies.

More to come!!!

Update

I haven't had any time to blog, but I have been reading a lot. I am still reading Mere Christianity. I have been reading lots of Christian fiction. I recently read Karen Kingsbury's Even Now and Ever After. Great books! I also read Beverly Lewis' Heritage of Lancaster County trilogy. They were my first Lewis books.

The biggest thing I have to blog about is Dr. Phil McGraw's Ultimate Weight Solution. I am progressing steadily through it. To be honest, the timing for picking up this book was amazing. My doctor told me a couple of weeks ago that my weight issue is coming from stress. The stress topic wasn't new between my doctor and I. At first, I was not so sure what that meant. The more I contemplated it, the more I began to see how the two could be related. Then I came across the book. Once before I had skimmed it, skipped to certain chapters and discarded it. This book can not be broched in this manner to be of any help! It must be read and applied. So, I began to read slowly and take notes. Was my doctor ever right!

Through the first "key" I discovered the fallacy of my negative self talk. I have been thinking of how these keys apply to the Bible as I have gone through them. For this key, I was reminded of Philippians 4:8 "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise". The negative thoughts we allow to control our thinking in no way meet this criteria!

The second key is emotional healing. This is about how we take in stress and allow it to affect us. The Bible says that we should "take every thought captive", so I know allowing my emotions to be out of control does not glorify Him. When a serious event happens in my life, out of my control, I tend to have very strong reactions. Like yesterday, when my son came in with blood spouting out the back of his head. The book says it is not about the stressful event, it is about the negative things I say in to my self that scare myself. It is about allowing my mind to go over and over and over it again. It is about calming myself with deep breathing, prayer, reading the Word, ect. Basically, it is about my reaction. So, today I realized that I get a great rush of adrenaline that sets my system off, sometimes for days. So here, I have to decide to let it go, exercise or something to release it all, be thankful it wasn't worse and move on! And when the event involves feeling hurt by someone, talk to them, or write a letter, forgive, choose to not let it change me and move on! What does this have to do with weight? Don't allow food to be what soothes me when all of this process it taking place. Makes sense huh?

So, I'm on to Key 3 now. Looking forward to it!!!

Not a Tame Lion

My favorite quote from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is from the conversation between Susan, Lucy and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver when they meet. Susan asks if this Aslan is quite safe because she feels she'll be rather nervous about meeting Him. Mrs. Beaver says that only a silly person could stand before Aslan without their knees knocking.

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

(This has sunk into the being that is me and often recalled. This notion is even more understood from reading Book 1 in Mere Christianity, also by Lewis, which I and a friend are reading together.)

(Thanks for indulging me :-) ) So, I said all that to say that I found a book called Not a Tame Lion which OF COURSE caught my eye!! It is a book about the Spiritual Legacy of C. S. Lewis by Terry Glaspey. (For those George Grant fans, Grant wrote the forward!!)

I love the angle of this book. It is part biography intertwined with the messages of the writings of Lewis. What a brilliant idea!

So, I'll probably comment more about this book, but I'll leave Chronicles of Narnia fans with this one fact. Did you know that Lewis and his housemates opened their home to evacuated children during the war? (just like in The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe!!!) Glaspey states that this is probrably the insite it took for Lewis to be able to write such wonderful children's Literature!

The Village on The Hill: A Story of the Church Conflict in Germany

I have just finished a very moving and perhaps even convicting book published in English in May of 1940. The Village on The Hill: A Story of the Church Conflict in Germany is a true account of the village of Lindenkopf just before and after Hitler came to power and the Nazi regime began to control Germany.

The old pastor of the local German Christian Church retired and a new younger pastor was sent to the village. Peter Holzschuh, a woodman and member of the church council, had been in the military with Pastor Stefan Grund during the first world war.

The church had previously been content to attend services on Sunday with little or no impact on their daily lives, though they are upstanding people. However, Pastor Grund began to call their attention back to the Word, eventually even holding extra Bible classes to teach the people.

Slowly, but surely, this town, fairly disconnected from the outside world before, began to see the effects of the Nazi regime in their small village. Gradually, the German Christian Church was infiltrated and the upper leadership replaced with members of the National-Socialist Party. A separation became necessary and the Confessing Church was formed, which declared that it stood on the Word of God alone. I will not spoil the story for any who have the opportunity to read this book, so, this is my only introduction!

I have never read anything about the Christian church during this time, I confess. The story of their struggle is amazing. It reminds me that we must all "be prepared in and out of season", learning to love God and studying Him through His Word. We must be ready to stand on His Word and trust him alone for our salvation, else we also could fall prey to looking for the salvation of our nation and all that we hold dear in man and government. We pray for our government and obey its laws to the extent that they do not go against the Word of God. His Word endures forever.

I leave with one quote from the book:

This was the sort of thing we felt that our fathers had endured; they, too, had gathered together that God's Word might not be taken from them; they, too, had sung the battle-songs of the Gospel in the face of their enemies. Hundreds of years had passed since the Reformation, floods of water had rolled down our millstream since then, plagues and wars and revolutions had broken over our village, new things had come in and old things died out; but the Word of God had not died; we could see once again how much it was alive.

Children are Persons

"I have never, as far as I can remember, given one moment's thought as to whether any drawing that I was doing was for adults or children. I have never changed one conception or line or detail to suit the supposed age of the reader. And I have never, in what writing I have done, changed one word or phrase of text because I felt it might be over the heads of children. I have never, I hope, insulted the intelligence of any child. And with God and my publishers willing, I promise them that I never will."

Robert Lawson
Author of Rabbit Hill

Dave at Night

Dave at Night was written by Gail Carson Levine. She also wrote Ella Enchanted. Dave is a "rascal" as his dad calls him, growing up in NYC. His mom died when he was born, but his life is turned upside down when his father dies when he is eleven.

Since all of his family is poor and he is a rambunctious little boy, no relatives will take him, but his "genius" brother is taken in by an uncle. His step mom takes him to the Hebrew Home for Boys or the HHB. The home is not exactly the loving place outsiders imagine it to be. Dave discovers quickly that is a hard place to live. But, soon he sneaks out and meets Solly, Ira and the night life in Harlem of the 1920's. He returns in the morning to the HHB, but meets with the wrath of the Superintendent who thinks they caught him trying to run away instead of coming back.

I felt like I was with Dave as he walked through his emotions trying to understand the life around him and discover his "gift". His story did not end the way I wanted it to, but it ends the way he wants it to! ENJOY!

Quote from Wind in the Willows

The boys are reading Wind in the Willows right now and we came across a powerful quote I just had to post. The field rat is speaking to the Water Rat:

"It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!"

And I echo, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Knowing God by J I Packer

Some things really struck me just now as I am reading the preface and Ch 1 of J I Packer's Knowing God. He writes:

In A Preface to Christian Theology, John Mackay illustrates two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house watching travelers go by on the road below. The "balconeers" can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen for differnt points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical-problems of the "which-way-to-go" and "how-to-make-it" type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too.

Balconeers and travelers may think over the same area, yet their problems differ. Thus (for instance) in relation to evil, the balconeer's problem is to find a theoretical explanation of how evil can consist with God's sovereignty and goodness, but the traveler's problem is how to master evil and bring good out of it. Or again, in relation to sin, the balconeer asks whether racial sinfulness and personal perversity are really credible, while the traveler, knowing sin from within, askes what hope there is of deliverence. Or take the problem of the Godhead; while the balconeer is asking how one God can conceivably be three, what sort of unity three could have, and how three who make one can be persons, the traveler wants to know how to show proper honor, love an dtrust toward the three Persons who are now together at work to bring him out of sin to glory. And so we might go on.

I am really struck by the explanation of this. It makes perfect sense to me as a traveler. Balconeers might say, "How do you know that God is even there?" But His children say, "I just know He is!" Even when I struggled as a child with doubting my salvation because of the wickedness I still saw in myself, when I stopped worrying and looked to God, I had no doubt that I knew Him and had sensed his Presence and known His work in my life. The thing is, one can never know this from looking on "from the balcony" so to speak. But those who truely know God, though doubts and fears may assail us from time to time, know that we know.

And then Packer goes on tosay:

My proposal is this. You will know how (John) Bunyan's pilgrim (in Pilgrim's progress), when called back by his wife and children from the journey on which he was setting out, "put his finders in his ears, and ran on crying, Life, Life, Eternal Life." I ask you for the moment to stop your ears to those who tell you there is no road to knowledge about God, and come a little way with me and see. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and anyone who is actually following a recognized road will not be too worried if he hears nontravelers telling each other that no such road exists.

Her Children Arise Up and CALL HER BLESSED

I just finished a good book on Motherhood. It was published by Castleberry Farms Press, the people who brought us the wonderful courtship series. Mr. and Mrs. Steven Castleberry write of memories of their own godly mother and grandmother and the examples they lived. There are chapters on motherly attention, being compassionate to others, showing genuine love for your children, fearing the Lord, being content with what you have, being cheerful, being home, loving your husband, prefering others and children's praise of their mothers.

Zeezok Composer Series

We are all enjoying our composer study right now! We are reading Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming of Tower Bells by Opal Wheeler, published by Zeezok Publishing. The story is very well written! We are enjoying the story of the childhood of Beethoven right now. We also have the Companion CD (Highly recommend!!). It is wonderful! It has each song in the book as well as coloring pages that go along with the story! The music score is even in the story book so you can learn to play too!

There are many other composers in this series! I can't wait to read them all!

Little House on the Prairie: The Pilot

I know many of us love the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have only just begun to read them this year with my AO Year 2 children. However, I grew up watching the TV show.

I have heard from many LHotP book fans about how far the TV show strayed after the first couple of seasons. Recently, I purchased the Little House on the Prairie: The Pilot and was amazed at how well it stuck to the story line. Not, only that, but it is actually the WHOLE book! Then, the series picks up with the next book, On the Banks of Plum Creek, when they move to Walnut Grove.

I was disturbed with the way they portray Ma as disagreeing with Pa about many things, which she did not do in the book (although she wasn't fond of Indians, she was never disrespectful to Pa about it). However, she does realize the error of her ways reguarding Edwards and the Indians!

I quite enjoyed the Pilot and cannot wait to watch it with the boys when we finish the book in the next couple of weeks.

The Spiritual Power of a Mother

I haven't blogged in awhile; my reading has been a little scattered. But, last night I finished Michael Farris' (President of HSLDA) The Spiritual Power of a Mother. I was very encouraged!



The mother child relationship is something that has always intrigued me. And I have observed very destructive use of the spiritual power that a mother has. So, the title is what drew me to this book.

As mothers, we have an unprecedented opportunity of influence in children's lives. But, Mr. Farris points out one big thing that really struck me; I have mulled it over since I read it. He says, that our primary job as mothers is NOT to teach them not to pick at scabs and wear clean underwear (no matter how much they need to hear that...HA HA). Nor, is it to teach our children ABOUT God.

"Teaching about God is important, but the most important thing you can teach your child is to believe in God....We teach our children to love God through the course of everyday living by having them watch us as we live a life of faith. This is God's ordained teaching method for obeying His most important command to parents: teach your children to love God."

Ouch. So, no amount of preaching AT them will develop a love for God (kind of sounded better in our heads huh?), but mostly, the faith we live in front of them. He goes on to give examples of poor behavior that we often exhibit in front of our children which teaches them the opposite of loving a Sovereign God.

He goes on to walk through many of the daily battles Homeschool Moms face with fatherly advice and humor and realistic goals. I have been very encouraged by this book and hope you will be too!