A Few Words to Make You Smarter

I used to post a Word of the Day when I first started blogging.  I got out of that habit but decided I'd find some new words for you.  In my search, I ran across a list of the "100 Funniest Words in English."   I will list the ones (or variations) I am also able to find in the dictionary.  I'll bet some of you will try to use them on a regular basis.

Our first word is argle-bargle, which is a variation on the frequently used argy-bargy.  These words mean a lively discussion or dispute.  I remember being at work one night when two groups came out of the bar across the street and had an argle-bargle.  This is of Scottish and English descent.

Have you ever used the word blunderbuss?  This is either a muzzle-loading firearm with a flaring muzzle or a blundering person.  I can see definitely using this word to describe the latter in many instances.

I know you'll use this next word as often as you can - borborygmus.  Say it like bore-bore-rig-mis.  It is the rumbling of your intestines caused by moving gas.  Next time you're in a crowded room and hear something coming from your belly, be sure to throw people off by letting them know it was just borborygmus. They won't ask you what that means because they won't want to admit they know less than you do.

Have you ever written lines on a piece of paper from left to right and then right to left?  If not, do it now.  You are producing a boustrophedon.  Again, makes you sound so knowledgeable.  I can hear the conversations now.  "What did you do today, honey?"  "I created boustrophedons.  You?"

Have you ever noticed a callipygian person?  What does it mean?  It means having shapely buttocks.  It is used as an adjective so make sure if you say it you make the g sound like a j and not a hard g or you might get slapped either way if you tell someone they are a callipygian person.

I'll end with this one for tonight.  Have you ever had collywobbles?  I'll bet you have.  Have you ever been nervous before speaking in front of people or before you got married or before a date?  If you had butterflies in your stomach, then you had the collywobbles.

Now you have six new words you can use - argle-bargle, blunderbuss, borborygmus, boustrophedon, callipygian, and collywobbles.  Which one do you think you'll use the most?  In a house with three teens/pre-teens, I'm going to guess I'll use argle-bargle the most.  Too many argle-bargles, and I'll be sitting at the table making boustrophedons.  :-)   Enjoy!!

Unfolding Resolution

People balk at the idea of New Year's resolutions.  Most are broken within the first month of the new year.  Perhaps people don't really want to change.  Perhaps the resolutions aren't attainable.  The whole idea has gotten a bad rap lately.  I was going to title this post something like, "Goals...Not Resolutions," but, you know what, a resolution isn't a bad thing.  The dictionary defines resolution as a firm decision to do or not to do something.  I have made some New Year's resolutions.  I have made a firm decision to do five things this year.

Our family sat down New Year's Eve, and each person came up with five goals for the new year based on an idea of a friend.  (Thank you, Linda!)  The categories for our goals were personal, family, spiritual, friends, and school/work.

I want to share my resolutions with you.  If you so choose, you can hold me accountable.  This may be part of the problem with resolutions.  It is certainly easier to remain true to your decisions if  others know of them and are given permission to ask you how they are going.

Therefore, I resolve in the personal category to eat better, exercise more, and lose 10 pounds.  My family resolution is to have more dates with my family.  I want to have more date nights with John for sure, but also to go out with my children and get to know them as they grow older.  We used to take them out individually when they were younger and do something special with them, but we got out of that habit.  It is time to get back to it.  My spiritual resolution is to have better devotional times with God.  I have been very lax in doing so and need to give God more of my time.  I resolve to communicate more and better with my friends this year and, finally, I resolve to figure out what it is I love to do and use it to help our family, in the area of work.

Our move south and out of my comfort zone has me out of my comfort zone personally.  I have been trying to evaluate my life, and this is how I have come to these resolutions.  I look forward to the changes that God can bring about through them and look forward to sharing my progress with you.  Again, feel free to hold me accountable.

2012: A Year in Review

2012

I love New Year's Eve.  It is my favorite time of the year because I love endings and new beginnings.  A new year is full of hope, 365 days to come that are not known to us.

I think 2012 has been our most eventful year ever.  We started this year with a desire to move to Florida.  We spent quite a bit of time painting and fixing up our Canonsburg house before we put it on the market in April.

The kids cleaned the brush off the hillside behind the house.

The kitchen before the remodel

The kitchen after the remodel

Our house was on the market for four days before we signed a contract with the first people who looked at it.  We saw this as a confirmation from God that we were definitely following God's direction.

While we waited to move, we finished out our school year at our co-op in Washington, PA.  I taught on the Civil War to the 6th through 8th grade class, so in April our family went to Gettysburg, PA.  The kids had never been there before, and I wanted them to experience it before we moved.  We bought an audio tour of the battlefield and followed it along to all of the sites.  I was very pleased to learn that my kids enjoyed Gettysburg and learning about the history.

Peace Light Memorial

Little Round Top

Nate's depiction of death after Pickett's Charge

We went to Destination Unknown with the junior high youth group from our church in McMurray, PA - The Bible Chapel.

Performing in a skit in which I rubbed peanut butter in another leader's hair. Sorry it is blurry.

Students playing games on the court.

Finding M&Ms in whipped cream in the rain with only their mouths.

Jacob turned 14 in January.  Nate turned 12 in March, and Paige turned 11 in November. Paige performed in her dance recital on June 1st, and she found a new dance school in Jacksonville.  She, however, is sure she will never find a dance instructor quite like Miss Bethany.

Jake found a Lego Robotics League when we moved.  His team came in 2nd or 3rd in his first competition and gets to move on to Regionals in February.

Nate took part in a Lego Movie-Making camp this summer and took a video production class at co-op.  He is as much into his Legos as he ever was and received three sets for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, my brother and his family and my parents came to our new house for Christmas week.  It seemed very strange to not have any snow or cold weather for Christmas Day.  My mom is having a hard time remembering it is New Year's Eve today because the weather is so nice.  :-)

On Halloween, we moved into a house we had built.  Before that, we spent five months in a rental just down the road.  

Our house in the final stages before closing.

Since being here, we have found a new co-op.  We are working on making new friends.  I know it'll take some time to make the kind of friends like we had in PA, but we're off to a good start.  We have found a wonderful church and joined a small group.

We have gone on field trips to local forts, an alligator farm, Disney, St. Augustine Old Jail, many different beaches, camping in the panhandle of Florida with friends, among other things.

We got a puppy 3-1/2 weeks ago.  She is a chocolate lab mix named Cocoa.  She is precious, and we are thankful to our friends, the Konrads, for giving her to us.

So, as eventful as 2012 was and how evident it was to us that God was at work in everything we did, I look forward to 2013.  It'll be a year with new goals and new adventures, and God will still be at work in our lives doing immeasurably more for us than we could ever imagine or deserve.

May you have a blessed new year as well!!!

Arthur Christmas: A Movie Review

The husband/dad was going out, so I was left to figure out what to do with the kids.  I had a Redbox code, so I told them we could get a movie.  Before venturing out, we looked online but didn't see anything.  Our next plan of attack was to view the available movies on demand on Directv.  Jacob saw Arthur Christmas and asked if we could watch that.  I mistakenly thought Arthur was Ernest from the "Ernest Goes To..." movies.  There was no way I was going to waste my time watching one of those movies.  When I explained to Jacob that I didn't like Arthur, he helped me to realize that it was Ernest I didn't like and should hold nothing against Arthur.  I told him that I did see that movie online at Redbox, so we went to pick it up.

I didn't hold out much hope for it beyond a goofy kid movie, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It is an animated film whose main character is Arthur Christmas.  He comes from a long line of Santa Clauses, though he was not in line himself since he was the younger brother.  After delivering all the packages on Christmas Eve and going to bed, the elves cleaned up the wrapping from their own Christmas party and found a toy that had not been delivered.  Since it didn't seem important to anybody that one child would be left without a toy, Arthur took it upon himself to enlist the aid of his GrandSanta to deliver the toy before sunrise Christmas morning.

I laughed throughout this movie.  It was very cute and had some very funny lines in it.  I was not bored once and did not feel it was a goofy kids' movie.  I even told my kids that we should buy it and watch it every Christmas.  I didn't watch it for any deep meaning, just the entertainment value.  It has a lot.

Perhaps there was an underlying message somewhere about how technology does or doesn't make things better as Santa is seen traveling in the S-1 at 45,000 miles per hour, but GrandSanta was able to save Christmas by traveling in his good old-fashioned sleigh with only one metal reindeer left at the end.  If there was, I missed it.  Perhaps there was some bizarre twist with aliens like in every movie Hollywood seems to ruin these days, but it was funny (there weren't really any aliens in this movie).  Perhaps there was some anti-aging sentiment since GrandSanta was seen as a relic like his sleigh, but I missed it.  There really wasn't.  It was all just funny.

I highly recommend this movie.  It is fun, and it is lighthearted.  Come on, if you can watch Elf over and over again every year at Christmas, there is no reason why Arthur Christmas can't be enjoyed in the same way.

What Were They Thinking?

I was at work yesterday when two college-age girls came into the store where I work.  They seemed just like any other customer who comes into the store to browse.  They spent some time looking at some silver necklaces we have and seemed to really like one that had a tree within a circle dangling from the chain.  They moved across the room to the wall on which a hundred other necklaces hung and continued to talk about the tree necklace.  Another customer came in asking for directions while these girls were at the necklace wall.  I noticed them leave a few minutes later.  I turned around to the display where the silver necklaces were and noticed that the tree necklace was not hanging there anymore.  There is no guarantee that these girls took the necklace since I did not see them do it, but I was not able to find it anywhere in the store.  (The rest of this post assumes culpability.)

I have not worked in retail before so have never had to experience being the victim of shoplifting.  It wasn't my necklace that was taken, but I felt violated somehow.  I was taken advantage of.  In an instant when I was helping someone else, a thief very quickly swiped something that caught their eye.  What is it that possesses someone to do such a thing?  Is there anything so completely necessary that a person feels they have to resort to such low measures?  I get the person who steals something to eat if they are starving, but I don't understand stealing a $24 necklace.  I suppose it is a sickness.  I know that they have sin in their hearts because we all do, but is there a gene missing in their DNA?  How are people born without a conscience?

It took me quite a while to get over the fact that this happened.  Now I am just angry and saddened that someone has to live with the sickness that afflicts them.  Thankfully I am a positive person for the most part and will continue to see the good in people before the bad.  To assume the worst of people would depress me.  I suppose I can pray for them and hope that they will somehow be convicted of what they have done and seek to make amends or at least to never do it again to someone else.  

It's All Fun and Games...

I was on thin ice on pay day when I set a mouse trap in my kitchen.  I was taking a risk with my life but did not have a clue.  I was the mastermind who thought it would be perfection to connect four traps together to catch the mouse, but I was sorry and needed an operation because in the dark I had to scrabble for the cheese that fell off and only found trouble when the traps snapped down on my fingers.

What's the common factor?

Christmas Songs Aren't Written by Floridians

My title is probably a sweeping generalization.  I haven't done the research to know for sure, but I don't think anybody who has ever lived in Florida has written a Christmas song, at least not a popular one they play on the radio 80,000 times between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.  I have been waiting for this time of the year since I moved here in June.  I wondered what it would feel like to not see snow during the winter.  I wondered what it would be like to not have 30-degree days on a regular basis.  Now that we are here and there is no snow and every other day is in the 70s, it seems a bit strange to be listening to Christmas music on the radio even though I know in my head that it really is the Christmas season.

Let's think about some of the Christmas songs we hear.  The obvious one would be "Let it Snow."  The song is about wanting the snow to fall so the two lovebirds would have an excuse to not have to go home.  If it were written in Florida the title might be something like, "Guess We Have to go Home Since it's Never Going to Snow."

How about "Frosty the Snowman?"  The closest we'll ever get to a snowman here is if we make a whole lot of shaved ice and roll it into a ball, but then "Frosty the Shaved Ice Man" doesn't really have the same ring to it.  "Sleigh Ride" has a line that reads "We're riding in a wonderland of snow."  It would be a wonder to see that much snow here to need a sleigh.

I suppose there is one song that could have been written by a Floridian - "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."  It would have to be a dream.  Since the Christmas songs started on the radio the day after Thanksgiving, I have thought about how many songs talk about snow and how foreign a concept that is to those who live in warm climates.  Kids who have never seen snow really have no idea what it is like to be in that "wonderland."

I will agree that snow is pretty...if I'm inside and warm and don't have to go out in it.  I have decided I'd like snow more if it came when it was 70 degrees.  I won't miss having to scrape my windows.  I won't miss weeks on end of subfreezing temperatures.  I'll have to admit, though, that I'll miss the feeling of the Christmas season that snow brings, since that is what I grew up knowing.  It'll take some time to get used to Christmas lights on the palm trees and wearing shorts for family photos around the tree.

Here are some memories of a recent Pittsburgh winter...

Be Left Holding the Bag...

Activity Bags is a company with a fresh approach to teaching your children at home or on the road, whatever the case may be.  Perhaps you have older children you need to focus on and also have preschoolers running around or begging to be taught right along with your older children.  Maybe you are traveling and need something to keep the kids busy while in the car or at Grandma's house for the holidays.  Activity Bags may just be what you have been looking for.  This company was started by two homeschooling moms who themselves were looking for ideas to keep their preschoolers busy.  After two years of testing and developing, they put together their first book, Preschool Activities in a Bag - eBook 1.  They now have several different eBooks available such as additional preschool ebooks, science ebooks for elementary grades, a math ebook, reading games, and travel games.  I had the opportunity to review the book you see to the left, Science Experiments in a Bag - eBook 2: Chemistry, Human Body & General Science.

You may be wondering why these books are titled "...in a Bag."  The idea is that a group of moms can get together and each be in charge of gathering the supplies for one activity or experiment.  All of the necessary items for that activity would be placed in a bag, each mom creating enough bags for all the moms in the group.  This way every mom would receive an activity bag for the activities assigned but not need to look for all of the items for every activity on their own, although this can certainly be done on your own if you are not interested in being part of a swap.  It will just take a bit more time to gather the necessary items and put them into bags, if you choose to organize this way.

These books are laid out very well.  They are easy to follow and provide thorough explanations for all activities.  There are many sections with questions and answers.  Most likely any question you'd have about this series of eBooks and activity bags would be answered in these sections, as it seems these are questions that have already been asked by other parents.  Here you can see an example of one of the activities in the science book.  It lists the supplies that are needed and gives very detailed instructions for assembling the bags.  An experiment label is included that provides the name of the experiment, the type, supplies provided and needed, and also provides a warning:

"WARNING: This activity may contain small parts and is not intended for children under 3 years of age. Supervision is required. Plastic bag may pose a suffocation hazard if placed over the head.  Before starting this experiment please do the following; ALWAYS wash your hands BEFORE and AFTER an experiment, ALWAYS work with an adult when doing any of the experiments in this book, NEVER taste anything in an experiment unless the directions say you can, and FOLLOW the directions exactly as it appears on your experiment log.  REMEMBER that some experiments take longer than others. You need to be patient and take your time. If you rush, you might ruin the experiment and have to start over. RECORD all your results thoroughly and completely. HAVE FUN!"  As you can see...very thorough.  If you choose not to use plastic bags for safety reasons, you can use large manila envelopes instead to hold all of the supplies.

The Science Experiments in a Bag - eBook 2 is geared towards grade K through 8 and includes 25 experiments for just $15.00.  Older children can do some of these by themselves.  Younger children will need the help of an adult.  This book works very well when used in conjunction with a chemistry, human body, or general science textbook.  "It is an introduction to the wealth of material in many other books available in libraries and bookstores."  The student learns how to use the scientific method and is provided logs for recording findings.  It is suggested that a binder be used for the logs when finished with each experiment.  This is a good way to hold onto all that data, especially if portfolios are required at the end of the year.  Another great thing about these science books is that they cause the student and/or parent to think of other experiments.  Perhaps the antifreeze experiment is done; the student may then want to see if another substance such as sugar has any effect on water freezing.  Answers to the questions for each experiment are also provided.  Science Experiments in a Bag - eBook 2 is also sold as a bundle with Science Experiments in a Bag - eBook 1 (which is Biology, Nature, and General Science) for just $27.00 (a savings of $3).

Each of the eBooks that Activity Bags sells is $15.00.  If you are interested in having a swap, the coordinator handbook is free.  This book will give you all the information you need to hold a successful swap.  There are also Daily Activity Journals with journaling activities, writing prompts, and games.  These sell for $15 a piece as well but are also sold as a bundle for extra savings.

At first glance, the activity bag idea seemed a bit confusing to me.  Once I really started researching, it all made perfect sense.  These two ladies want to provide the best experience possible for their customers.  They know what it's like to try to keep preschoolers busy, so they want to make life a little easier for other moms as well.  Everything is spelled out very clearly, and there are great experiments and activities.  They have been thoroughly tested by other moms and their kids.

If you do have further questions, you should not hesitate to contact Activity Bags.  Their email address is info@activitybags.com.  The phone number is 303-288-0948.  If you would like to send them something by mail, their address is Activity Bags, LLC; 8090 Downing Drive; Denver, CO, 80229.

Go to the Schoolhouse Review page to read more reviews on the products sold by Activity Bags.

DISCLAIMER:  I received this product free of charge in order to provide an honest review of it.

Vocal Coach - Learn How to Sing

The Vocal Coach with Chris & Carole Beatty has a product called Vocal Coach Singer.  My kids and I love to sing, and I know I don't sing well.  I recorded myself once in college because I thought I'd sing a solo at church.  I listened to it and have been self-conscious about my singing ever since.  I thought I'd finally have an opportunity to learn how to hit the notes I was just missing all these years.

This product sells for $99.99 as MP3s and $119.99 as CDs.  The MP3s come as zip files.  It is geared for junior high through adults.  They also sell a product called Teaching Kids to Sing that has a target age of 5 through 6th grade which sells for $44.99.  Since the majority of my family is junior high and older, with the exception of my daughter who is in 5th grade, we received Vocal Coach Singer as downloadable files for the purpose of the review.  The Vocal Coach website details what is included in the set:

7 Training CDS:

• Getting Started
• Complete Breathing
• Complete Warm-Up
• Complete Tone
• Complete Expanding Your Range
• Complete Diction
• Complete Performance

4 Workout CDs:

• Daily Workout High Voice 1 & 2
• Daily Workout Medium/Low Voice 1 & 2

Plus these great educational tools:

• Guidebook - Full-size instructional guidebook to ensure success
• Printable lead sheets - each exercise in our course, plus track lists
• Personal Singer's Journal (Getting Started Journal & Workout Journal) to track your progress
• Vocal Coach Song Evaluation - Evaluation form to enable you to make more intelligent song selections

Each of these CDs is loaded with practice songs and exercises to help improve not only your singing but your regular speech as well.  Training in things like posture, breathing, and diction will help anybody who speaks or sings in public.  Not being a singer, I don't know what is normal as far as training goes, so some of the exercises seemed a bit weird to me and my kids.  They were often found standing straight up against a wall or lying on the floor.  My boys didn't seem to mind, but my daughter doesn't do things that are on the odd side.

One of the exercises on the Complete Warm-Up CD has you singing the phrase, "Hum-Chew."  As you "chew," you are supposed to literally chew; you are supposed to move your jaw like you are chewing while you are also trying to sing.  I could not keep from laughing.  It was hilarious to see and hear.  I did notice, though, that it worked.  It loosened up my jaw muscles and kept those muscles from tiring if I was singing for a long time, like when I was in the car going to pick up one of my kids from some activity.

One thing that was hard was being able to follow a simple tune without an instrument in my house that I could play for us.  Since the sheet music is included for the activities, it would be very simple to play the notes and sing along without the CD (after having listened to it first).  Since I didn't have that, I know I wasn't singing the same thing as the CD.  My kids seemed to do much better at this than I did.  Maybe they were meant to sing.

Chris and Carole Beatty provide a lot of great instruction.  It is evident that they have a passion for singing.  The CDs are of high quality and easy to understand.  The number of exercises that have been given definitely provide enough practice for a long, long time.  There was no way we could have gotten through all of them in time for this review.  The Workout Med:Low Voice CD alone has 35 exercises.

It is recommended that those using this product practice at least 45-60 minutes a day.  Most days we used this we were probably around 30 minutes or so.  If there was one person in my family who was serious about singing, if they were in musicals or choirs, this product would benefit them greatly.  When I first heard about this product, I didn't know what to expect.  I wondered how voice lessons could be done in this format.  I thought voice lessons meant you sang and the teacher told you to go lower or higher to hit the right note.  This is not that at all!  There is so much more to singing than I knew.  I do want to hit the right notes when I sing, but I don't think I'm ready for an hour a day of the exercises included in this program.

Like I said previously, however, this is a good product even for those who are simply interested in speaking more clearly, using their voice appropriately, even if not using it for singing.  So many people today mumble.  Their diction is lazy.  This program helps that.  An explanation is provided as to why breathing right, posture, speaking clearly, etc., is important.  

If you or your children are singers or public speakers, you may want to seriously consider this product.  I believe it will benefit you/them greatly.  If you have more than one child who would use this program, it is definitely worth the $99 (even $119.99) you would pay for it.  

I'd encourage you to check out The Vocal Coach website.  They have a blog and many free resources on their website.

You can contact The Vocal Coach at customerservice@rede-commerce.com or by phone at 615-280-0554 (9 a.m.-4 p.m. CST).

Read more reviews about this product at http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/786778/.

DISCLAIMER:  I received this product free of charge so that I might use it and provide an honest review.

Hope

I think I have one political bone in my body.  That's it, no more.  I vote in the Presidential elections and usually in the midterm elections, but that's about it.  I'm sure I should do more.  I often read about things and think I should call my representative, but I don't.  I don't know enough about most things, and I don't want to sound like an idiot on the phone if I call to ask them to vote for or against something.

I voted yesterday.  My candidate lost.  C'est la vie.  I didn't wake up very happy, and it carried over into how I handled virtually everything negative that came my way today.  Perhaps I let every circumstance be negative because of my attitude.  I let myself forget that all is not lost.  I honestly don't know what our current President has done in the last four years that has been good.  I certainly don't know how he'll work to make anything better in the next four, but I don't want to be a doomsayer.  I can't believe that America will cease to exist in the next four years.  I'm sure there will be those who think I am being naive.  You know, I'd rather live with hope than live in fear.

It is disheartening that so many Christians are allowing the results yesterday to steal their joy.  When I think about how big my God is, I can't help but smile.  The sun will still rise in the morning.  God controls that.  The sun will still set tomorrow night.  He controls that, too.

When God is in control, as He always will be no matter what happens in life or what anybody says, there is always hope.  With God on the throne, there is always peace, maybe not in this world, but there can be in my heart.  There is always love.  It might not be seen very often in society, but I can be one who loves others as God has called me to do.  God has promised me that He will never leave me nor forsake me.  I have hope.

I don't hope in government to meet my needs.  I hope in the One who allowed that government to stand.  If God allows that government to fall, I won't be disappointed.  I didn't hope in it in the first place.  I will follow God.  His ways are always better than anything man can envision.

 

The Journey to Faithfulness

Apologia offers a book for mothers and daughters full of stories of Biblical characters and devotions that will encourage them to grow deeper in their faith, Journeys of Faithfulness.

This book is recommended for girls ages 12 and up, but I was able to use it with my daughter who is almost 11.  She enjoys the historical fiction genre and especially loved the story of Esther in this book.  She thinks Esther is just amazing!

Sarah Clarkson is the authoress of Journeys of Faithfulness. She has included devotionals in this book as well as stories of Martha and Mary, Esther, Ruth, and Mary (Jesus' mother).  The whole book is very well written, although I liked the devotionals more than the stories of the Biblical characters.  She adds a great deal of background story to each of the women's lives, so much so that I feel it is stretching a bit. Martha is made to seem quite angry and spiteful towards Mary who doesn't share her desire to prepare.  Esther hits a point where she has lost all hope.  Ruth's story begins with her life as a child living in a pagan society.  I felt I needed to be sure my daughter knew that most of what was written was fiction.  She said, "Of course it is, Mom."  The stories are well written but, because they are about Biblical characters, I feel caution needs to be exercised when adding things to their lives and events that took place.  So, I was a little bit uncomfortable while I was reading this book.

Each chapter ends with a short Bible study and thought-provoking questions.  Three or four Bible passages are given that relate to the story told in the chapter with a number of questions that can be answered in the space provided.  Being that my daughter is just 10, going on 11, some of the questions were a bit beyond her ability to answer.

This book sells for $13.00 through Apologia and is worth the read for older girls.  So long as they know that much is added to the story to make it more detailed and that a lot of what is written is made up, then there shouldn't be a problem. The devotions that are included after the Biblical character story are, I think, more enjoyable (like I said earlier).  They are true to life and not made up.  They are Sarah's own testimony, what God has done in and through her.

Paige, my daughter, has already said that she wants to read the story of Mary, Jesus' mom, next in the book.  (We've been skipping around.)  She is enjoying it enough to keep reading, but I think the reflection through the questions and Scripture passages will come when she is a bit older.

If you are interested in reading other reviews about this book from the Homeschool Crew, simply go to http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/786679/.

DISCLAIMER:  I received this product free of charge so that I might use it and provide an honest, unbiased review.

The New Addition - We're Home!!

I am sitting in my bed this foggy Saturday morning.  Notice I said my bed.  My bed had been lying in pieces in the garage of our rented townhouse for 5-1/2 months.  I am looking at my dresser, which of course sat beside my bed in the garage.  However, it was not in pieces.  :-)  I am also looking at boxes.  If I went out into my living room, I'd be looking at more boxes.  If I went into the guest room...you get the idea.

We moved into our brand new house on Wednesday, just 4 days ago.  We picked it out in the middle of May, and I felt the whole time like I was having another baby.  We'd drive by at least 4 days a week to make sure something was happening.  If time went by when nothing happened, I'd worry that it wasn't going to be done on time.  I was constantly asking the doctor, I mean construction supervisor, questions about the progress.  When was this supposed to be done?  Why was that done that way?  I'm sure he'll be glad to have his inbox back and no longer filled with emails from me.  Seriously, it wasn't really that bad, but I was anxious more than a few times.

The day of delivery, of our new house, I was thrilled.  It felt like Christmas.  Our closing went smoothly, and we were handed the keys.  We unloaded two U-Haul trucks full of boxes and furniture into the house.  The rest of that day was spent buying a washer and dryer and the furniture we didn't have.  So, Thursday was a day of unpacking.  This is when the postpartum depression started to sink in.  I wanted to enjoy my new home, but I was tasked with unpacking boxes and finding a place for everything where no place yet existed.  Screws for shelves cannot be found.  A power cord for a computer monitor could not be found (it finally was).  I cannot figure out how I packed our house in Canonsburg.  I must have been excited to leave.  All I know is that everything will eventually be found because EVERY box needs to be emptied.

Yesterday, I drove to the post office which is 25 minutes away from our house.  Normal post offices don't exist with frequency here in northern Florida.  You can buy stamps at the grocery store.  You can send your boxes and pay for shipping at the UPS Store and at many different gas stations.  I must be old-fashioned because I like to go to the post office where I work with a postal worker, not someone who owns a gas station, when I need to take care of my outgoing mail.  Anyway, I went to the post office to get our mail key.  (Our neighborhood has a centralized mail kiosk at the entrance to the plan.)  When I went there, the postman couldn't find the keys for our street.  He called someone who said our HOA had the keys for our street.  Does that make sense to you?  It didn't to me either, but I figured he must know.  I got in the car and called the HOA who said they didn't know where my keys were.  Needless to say, I grew extremely frustrated, more frustrated than I should have.  Two hours later I received a call from the HOA stating that my mail keys were at the post office.  Really?  When I was there earlier I thought about asking the postman to look again for the keys, but he probably would have been insulted.  John and I had errands to run after he got home from work, so we went back to the post office and got our keys.  The postman I had worked with earlier noticed me when I walked in and, though he was working with someone else and there were five other people standing in line, he did not make me wait for my keys.  He was extremely apologetic.  I couldn't be mad at him.  We got our mail key and, on the way home, our mail.  Yes, after only three days, we had a stack of mail.

So, as I sit here peacefully on this no-longer-foggy morning in Florida looking out the back door in my bedroom to the magnolia tree in our backyard, I am thankful for the new addition to our family.  I am thankful that God made me feel like I was leaving home last November when we drove back to PA from Disney.  I am thankful that He has orchestrated everything and has put us here in this gorgeous house, complete with mail key.  LOL.  We will be receiving our washer and dryer and additional furniture this next week.  We will put things on the walls, and we will finish emptying our boxes; and our house will be a home. Hopefully a home where people feel welcome, a home full of love and blessings from God so we can, in turn, bless others.

A Wonderful Alternative to TV - Sugar Creek Gang

Have you been searching for something that could take the place of the computer or the television in your children's lives if just for a short time?  Do you see old pictures like the one below of families entranced by the voice emanating from the radio and wish that your family would do that every once in a while? 

I grew up with a television.  We never listened to stories on the radio.  That "tradition" carried on to my children.  Of course, they grew up with computers. They barely even know what a radio is.  Thankfully, Beloved Books has made this experience available to us.  I was fortunate enough to receive the first volume of CDs of the Sugar Creek Gang.  This was a book series written by Paul Hutchens, a Baptist minister and evangelist.  His first book was published in 1939.  The book series was recorded in a studio by Paul Ramseyer.  The audio series is now available to us.

While I was excited for my kids to have this new experience of listening and engaging their imaginations in a new way, I wasn't sure they would enjoy it as they are accustomed to visual activities.  When my daughter first heard we were going to review it, she balked at the idea.  She, however, was the one who ended up asking if we could listen to it in the car each time we went somewhere.  We actually finished the entire first volume of 12 CDs.  There are 36 books in the series, and each one is contained on 2 CDs.  In total, there are 72 CDs sold as 6 book sets, i.e., six volumes.  Each volume is $54.95 if purchased separately.  If you buy them as a complete set, the cost is only $279.70.

The stories in the first volume were "The Swamp Robber," "The Killer Bear," "The Winter Rescue," "The Lost Campers," "Chicago Adventure," and "The Secret Hideout."  Jacob's favorite story was "The Killer Bear."  Nate liked "The Lost Campers" best, and Paige enjoyed "The Secret Hideout" the most.  I didn't have a favorite story but liked the science lessons and random tips that were provided throughout like how to get rid of a tick.

While listening to it in the car once when our whole family was present, my husband asked that we stop listening to it.  He said that, while the stories are interesting, he did not enjoy listening to the different voices the narrator used and disliked the fact that he seemed to frequently correct himself.  He didn't feel like it was polished enough.  I hadn't noticed until John said something, and then it was obvious to me.  This was the only negative thing about the series.  For me, the benefits and enjoyment the kids received from listening to these stories far outweigh any imperfections.

Many Bible verses are used in the stories, and they frequently share the Gospel.  The stories are wholesome, which is a rarity these days.  Being that the books were written in the '40s, there are words that are used that we don't use today, like "rubbers" for rain boots.  So, it is funny to hear them.  My kids don't know any negative meaning of these different words because they aren't in a setting where they are used.

I feel completely comfortable leaving the room while the CDs are playing because I know there won't be anything I'll have to explain later.  Better yet, I know there is teaching on how to live a Godly life written into the stories.  This is done in such a way that it's not an adult telling the kids what they should or shouldn't do.  They are taught by "kids" through events that happen in their lives.  A great deal of admiration is given to his parents by the main character, Bill.  I find this extremely refreshing, especially when he remarks that he loves his parents because they don't let him think that doing wrong things is right and get away with them.

The Beloved Books website says that this series has had a "life-changing impact on countless young people."  We have only listened to the first volume.  There has not been any great change in my children over the past 4 weeks.  I do see how listening to this series on a regular basis, though, would do just that.  If they would fill their minds would good things, things of God, instead of junk they hear on the television, the natural outflow would be a changed heart.  There are five more volumes we haven't listened to yet.  I will be buying more.  Christmas is coming!

If you are interested in hearing the first book, "Swamp Robber," you can go to http://www.belovedbooks.com/freebie.html.  You can have them send the two CDs to you at a cost of $4.95 or you can download the story in MP3 format.  The story is under copyright, but you have permission to burn this one story to CD.  Instructions are provided on the freebie page.

Beloved Books does sell other materials such as KJV Scripture memory songs, a CD of songs set to the stories found in I Samuel to II Chronicles (sounds very interesting), The War for Mansoul (a retelling of John Bunyan's Holy War, complete with dramatized audio recording), missionary biographies on cassette (my children don't even know what these are), historical fiction on CD, G.A. Henty stories on CD, and more.

You can read other reviews of this product by going to the Homeschool Crew page.

If you would like to contact Beloved Books, their contact information is:

Beloved Books

PO Box 878

Fenton, MI  48430

810-735-0977

belovedbks@aol.com.

If you live in Michigan or visit there, the store address is 8572 Silver Lake Road, Linden.  Store hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11-3 Eastern Time.

DISCLAIMER: I received this product free of charge so that I might provide an honest review of it after using it for a time.