where the blame game replaces daybook

 

I honestly intended to write up a daybook this week, but a few things got in the way…

Monday morning I think I was finishing a library book {a brainless vacation-type of thing}.  My bad.

Monday afternoon, the Cowgirl suggested we use book tape to mark our history reading books, so that they would be easier to find and re-shelve.  Sure, great idea.  But then she went and found the rolls of book tape and thought we should do it now.  Oh?  I told Tim later that she is a slave driver!  We worked until 10pm Monday night to get through 1865 in our chronologically ordered history guides.  After three days on this project, here’s what the shelves look like in the basement {working on top of the table still devoted to/covered with  their inductive Bible study}

  

Our ‘history’ books somehow expanded from 3+ shelf units to fill all five of the first picture.  Full.  We moved the science books {and higher level literature books} out to this ‘new to us’ shelf shown below.  And pulled duplicate books {piled on/under chair} to box up for someone’s future library, if the Lord tarries long enough for the kids to establish their own homes someday.  And we pulled all of the general juvenile fiction off of the BIG double-sided library shelf, dusting and reorganizing {hmmm, I think we ignored the encyclopedias on the bottom shelf there}…

     

Below you can see the backside of the double shelf… It was fully loaded before we found room on the other side for several books.  Still need to determine what will live on the ‘new’ shelf and what will live on this old one.  {science and how-to books and magazines, ‘higher’ literature classics, dictionaries, music, theology and devotional books…}  Still much dust to battle.  Aaa-chooo!

So much fun.  Why are you laughing?

So that was the Cowgirl’s bad:  This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.  Yep.  Especially since we are dealing with all of the books, not just the history shelves. {sigh}  I do love books.  And even libraries of books.

Then there’s my friend Conny.  Who is blogging A-Z this month.  So I have choose to wrack my tired brain for witty alliterating comments to reward each of her posts.

 

In other news:  Did you know it is almost Easter/ Resurrection Sunday?!  I just have to keep reminding myself.  Seriously?!  We don’t have any plans with extended family, let alone our own little immediate family is missing our college kiddos.  I am planning to serve gyros for our holiday feast.  The choir’s cantata will be Sunday morning.  It will be a time to remember and celebrate Christ’s sacrifice for us, whether I feel like it’s Eastertime or not.

Related to that, I recently found that a favorite {but somewhat forgotten} author has a blog, and a new church home out East {he was in California last I knew}.  Anyhooo, here’s a link for his latest post which relates to Easter –> to be read asap, before Sunday!

This isn’t supposed to be about the jelly beans, right?  But I sent some to my college kids anyway.

 

So that’s all for now.  Off to piano lessons we go!

History reading

 

To motivate myself... and eventually my children, I’m looking through our reading options for history this year.  And maybe it will prompt our real-life friends and family to ask them about what they’ve learned??  : ) 

Beginning with the older students…

Miss Artist and the Computer Geek are both Seniors!  But I’ll not go off on a rant.  I can remain calm and oblivious and just explain that they have been reading through most of the TruthQuest History guides as a review of world history.  And I gave them an additional reading list, of course.  Most of which my book-devouring Computer Geek has already read along the way, at least once.  But here’s the list anyway, the so-called “must-reads” are in bold.

 

 

• The Story of Liberty by Charles Coffin
• Sweet Land of Liberty by Charles Coffin
• Trial & Triumph: Stories from Church History by Richard Hannula
• How Should We Then Live? by Francis Schaeffer
• Invitation to the Classics by Louise Cowan & Oz Guinness
• Six-volume series Basic History of the United States by Clarence Carson {covering the years 1607-2001}
• Postmodern Times by Gene Edward Veith
• Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave by Dave Breese
• History Through the Eyes of Faith by Ronald Wells
• The Law by Frederic Bastiat
• the Uncle Eric books by Richard Maybury ~
• Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?       
• Whatever Happened to Justice?
• Ancient Rome: How It Affects You Today               
• The Money Mystery
• The Clipper Ship Strategy           
• The Thousand Year War in the Mideast
• World War I: The Rest of the Story     
• World War II: The Rest of the Story

 

 

So You Will Comprehend What Liberty Has Cost,

...and What It Is Worth

 

The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture

We also have the DVD version from Francis Schaeffer, which I thought was a much easier way to absorb it all  : )

 

While I’ve heard people complain of Carson’s writing style, I must confess that Tim & I find his perspective fascinating!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the risk of being redundant, I’ve added a few other books to our shelves that might fit this list as well ~

• Understanding the Times by David Noebel
• Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
• Basic Economics by Clarence Carson
• Basic American Government by Clarence Carson

 

 

 

Have you read any of these books??

Homeschooling Resources Meme

 

Julie suggested I join the fun, so here goes…

{I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do this post without pictures though!}

 

1.  One homeschool book I have enjoyed:

This is difficult.  I had to go and look at my bookshelves, trying to put a finger on just one book to name.  :p   Sooo, let me say that Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson was one of my first favorites many years ago.  Then I loaned it to a young friend, from whence it never returned.  :-(

Another helpful book when I was getting started was Gayle Graham’s How to Homeschool: A Practical Approach.  But to be honest, I don’t look at it anymore; thus I couldn’t find it on a current shelf either.

 

2.  One resource I wouldn’t be without:

The Bible.  My husband.  (Yes, that’s two again, but they both flavor our homeschool.)

 

3.  One resource I wish I had never bought:

Hmmmm, just one?  Two books I bought that no one wanted to use:  God’s Design for Heaven and Earth: Our Weather and Water; and God’s Design for Life: The Human Body by the Lawrences.  (now available here, possibly revised?)  I couldn’t believe it.  Weather is such a cool thing to study!  But these are the original black and white books from 2003 which require the mom or student to find other more colorful resources to “take it further.”  And then we found the books by Jeannie Fulbright.  Which would you choose?

We had so much fun exploring the solar system instead  : )

Be careful how you read this item ~ the book pictured I am GLAD I bought!  :D

{The other two are available to anyone who wants them!}

 

4.  One resource I enjoyed last year:

Miss Autrey comes to mind first.  She was the speech instructor for our dvds from A Beka Academy.  She is just plain Awesome.

 

5.  One resource I will be using this year:

Inter-library loan.  So thankful for local librarian Laura! (yay for alliteration)  So sad that another librarian suggested the great books missing from their collection might have been stolen.

Essential with our TruthQuest History.

 

6.  One resource I would like to buy:

Chemistry 101 {for my not-so-science-loving girls} ~ New! at Timberdoodle

 

7.  One resource I wish existed:

Possibly a time machine to go back and enjoy those cozy days and nights of reading with my Littles… who are now all Bigs  :-(

The Cowgirl was still a baby when I read this gem aloud to the older three kids who were five and under…

 

8.  One homeschool catalog I enjoy reading:

{and ordering from} 

Oh yes, Rainbow Resource Center!    I remember a time when I needed to be certain about the copyright date of a book I wanted to purchase; and the sweet helpful girl on the phone took time to go out the warehouse, check the dates, and call me back ~ to be sure I’d get what I needed.  And they are just as friendly in person at the local homeschool conference.  :D

I’ve been very thankful for their detailed descriptions of books in their large-city-phonebook-sized catalog!

 

9.  One homeschool website I use regularly:

Amazon.com/books.  That counts, right?  :D  One item on my wishlist:

 

In the past we’ve made good use of Netflix for finding historical films. 

Or for our beloved TruthQuest History, there’s the yahoo group I used to frequent [before I entered the blog world] ~ HIStoryQuesters

 

10. Tag other homeschoolers.

Jodi ~ Granola Mom 4 God

Julie ~ Julie’s Thoughts

Gina ~ Home Joys

You can also read Julie’s post at Herding Grasshoppers.   And Q’s at Napalm in the Morning.

 

# # #

P.S.  Here’s a completely unrelated factoid:  I bought TWO bunches of bananas 24 hours ago.  There is ONE banana remaining on the kitchen counter. 

this week's read

For Girls Only: A Loving Appeal for Modesty in an Immodest World by Sheila Stewart Doom from Revival Literature of Asheville, NC

If you are a King’s daughter . . . if you have been created to bring glory, not to yourself, but to Him . . . if you have been purchased by His precious blood at great cost and now are His and His alone . . . if your whole goal in life is to please Him with a desire to do what He says . . . THEN you are ready to look into the Word of God to see His will for you in the area of your clothing. 

~Sheila Stewart Doom

A Cry from the Streets

A Cry from the Streets: Rescuing Brazil's Forgotten Children

In the dark world of the Brazilian streets, children, toddlers and teenagers search trash cans for food, steal knives to protect themselves at night, and live in fear of being beaten or even killed by the police. For these desperately needy children, nothing was free - until they encountered the love of Jesus through the compassion of Jeannette and Johan Lukasse.

 

When this young Dutch couple asked God if He could use them to do something about the immense suffering they saw in the world, He led them on a winding path from their home in the Netherlands to the coast of Greece and eventually to the streets of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Their calling was clear: millions of orphaned and abandoned children were living and dying on the streets, caught in the deadly grip of drugs, violence, prostitution, and abuse.

 

What followed the Lukasses' step of faith is a stunning example of how God miraculously uses the surrendered lives of believers to transform the lives of others with His hope and healing.

 

 

The book is available from YWAM Publishing. 

(And the blurb is copied from their website)

 

 

Status: AWOL

I should like to credit my recent disappearance to Leanne’s daybook, but that sounds like blame-shifting…  Let’s just say I took her hint and found a couple books by Francine Rivers… and proceeded to be consumed by them both over the past five days.  (I actually did a few other things those days … and did most of my reading during normal business hours. Meaning I did not stay up until 3am like Leanne  :-))

Leota’s Garden

Once Leota's garden was a place of beauty, where her flowers bloomed and hoped thrived. It was her refuge from the deep wounds inflicted by a devastating war, her sactuary where she knelt before a loving God and prayed for the children who couldn't understand her silent sacrifices. Now, eighty-four year old Leota Reinhardt is alone, her beloved garden in ruins. All of her efforts to reconcile with her adult children have been fruitless and she voices her despair to a loving Father, her only friend.  Then God brings a wind of change through unlikely means: one, a college student who thinks he has all the answers; the other, the granddaughter Leota never hoped to know. But can the devastation wrought by keeping painful family secrets be repaired before she runs out of time?

 

The Scarlet Thread

The story of two women, centuries apart, who are joined through a tattered journal as they contend with God, husbands  - and even themselves – until they fall into the arms of the one who loves them unconditionally. When Sierra discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Catherine Murray, she finds that their lives are amazingly similar. Though the women are separated by time and circumstance and Mary Catherine endured the hardships of life on the Oregon Trail, many of the issues and problems they face are remarkably similar.  By following Mary Catherine’s example, Sierra learns to surrender to God's sovereignty and unconditional love.

Credit:  The book descriptions are from Francine Rivers' website linked above.

Note to self:  Purchase a new box of Kleenex.

And these weren’t even the books on Gina’s list that I also brought home from the library.  Uh oh.

get the gratitude attitude

 

 

 Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

 

Chapter 8:  But Not without Sacrifice

To give thanks to Him for all things, is, indeed, a very difficult duty;

for it includes giving thanks for trials of all kinds;

for suffering and pain; for reproaches; for loneliness.

Yet those who have learned submission will not find it a hard duty.

~Priscilla Maurice

 

Martin Rinkart was a seventeenth-century Lutheran pastor, serving in his German hometown of Eilenberg during the height of the Thirty Years’ War.

Now thank we all our God,

With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices;

Who from our mother’s arms

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

 

I have learned that, regardless of how I may feel, anything that makes me need God is (ultimately, in the truest sense) a blessing. ~ Nancy

 

Chapter 9:  Going Gratitudinal

Gratitude consists in a watchful, minute attention to the particulars of our state, and to the multitude of God’s gifts, taken one by one… And all our whole life is thereby… filled with a gladness, serenity, and peace which only thankful hearts can know.

~ H.E. Manning

 

• Surrender your rights to God
• Commit to a set season of gratitude
• Take stock of your gratitude accounts
• Write thank-you notes
• Do it together, as a Body-building exercise

more from Choosing Gratitude

Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Chapter 5: Of Whiners and Worshipers

One thing is indisputable: the chronic mood of looking longingly at what we have not, or thankfully at what we have, realizes two very different types of character.

~ Lucy C. Smith

“It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation.”  ~ Fanny Crosby

Nancy highlights six differences between grateful people and ungrateful people:

• A grateful person is a humble person, while ingratitude reveals a proud heart.
• A grateful heart is God-centered and others-conscious, while an ungrateful person is self-centered and self-conscious.
• A grateful heart is a full heart, while an unthankful heart is an empty one.
• People with grateful hearts are easily contented, while ungrateful people are subject to bitterness and discontent.
• A grateful heart will be revealed and expressed by thankful words, while an unthankful heart will manifest itself in murmuring and complaining.
• Thankful people are refreshing, life-giving springs, while unthankful people pull others down with them into the stagnant pools of their selfish, demanding, unhappy ways.

Chapter 6: How Can I Say Thanks?

Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.

~ Charles Jefferson

God’s desire is not just to see us doing grateful things but to see us doing grateful things out of the overflow of a truly grateful heart.

• Speak up
• Sing out
• Kneel down

Privately and Publicly
When and Where ~ The Scripture calls us to all-day, everyday gratitude.

Chapter 7:  Thanks… for Everything

When thou has thanked thy God

For every blessing sent,

What time will then remain

For murmurs or lament?

~ R.C. Trench

“Let us daily praise God for common mercies – common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless that when deprived of them we are ready to perish.”

~ Charles Spurgeon

Spiritually speaking…

• God’s nearness
• God’s holiness and faithfulness
• God’s mercy
• God’s salvation
• God’s calling

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ

Ephesians 1:3

Thoughts for Young Men

 

Would you believe I found this beloved little book by J.C. Ryle ONLINE?!  It must be public domain ~ You can read it here!

That makes it all the easier for me to share part of what Tim read to us last night from the section “Special Rules for Young Men”

 

RESOLVE, BY GOD'S HELP, TO SHUN EVERYTHING WHICH MAY PROVE AN OCCASION OF SIN.
It is an excellent saying, "He that would be safe from the acts of evil, must widely avoid the occasions." …

This, too, is one good reason why worldly entertainments are so objectionable. It may be difficult, in some instances, to show that they are, in themselves, positively unscriptural and wrong. But there is little difficulty in showing that the tendency of almost all of them is most injurious to the soul. They sow the seeds of an earthly and sensual frame of mind. They war against the life of faith. They promote an unhealthy and unnatural craving after excitement. They minister to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. They dim the view of heaven and eternity, and give a false color to the things of time. They take away time for private prayer, and Scripture reading, and calm communion with God. The man who mingles in them is like one who gives Satan an advantage. He has a battle to fight, and he gives his enemy the help of sun, and wind, and hill. It would indeed be strange if he did not find himself continually overcome.
Young men, endeavor, as much as you can, to keep clear of everything which may prove injurious to your soul. People may say you are too conscientious, too particular, and ask where is the great harm of such and such things? But don't listen to them. It is dangerous to play tricks with sharp tools: it is far more dangerous to take liberties with your immortal soul. He that would be safe must not come near the brink of danger. He must look on his heart as a barrel of gunpowder, and be cautious not to handle one spark of temptation more than he can help...

~ John Charles Ryle (1816-1900)

 

I hesitate to share how I am thinking I should apply this admonition in my own life because I do not wish to start a controversy.  Yet that’s pretty wimpy, isn’t it?

I have been called a wimp before this.  But here’s a hint.

and the winner is…

I wish I could say ALL of you sweet ladies who entered.  And I think that you will be a winner if you stop to thank God for His many goodnesses in your life.  And if you find the Revive Our Hearts website to be yet another blessing and help in your life.

But as for this book, I only bought ONE to give away today.  So… after putting so many names in a bowl, the Popper assisted me by drawing just one…
        
And the paper says….
 

Amber S.

Amber S. said...

I have heard good things about this Bible study, and I enjoyed going over to the website and doing some "browsing." I did settle in and followed your recommendation to review the "First Things First" transcripts. What a blessing... I'm not done yet, but it is bookmarked, and I will be anxious to get to "O" (-:
Thanks for the great giveaway... what a blessing whether you win or not!

God bless you all!  Thank you for joining in!

If you didn’t win, and would like to look at buying the book  ~ You can find it at the Revive Our Hearts website.  Or for a discount price, look at the previous post with a link to Library and Educational Services.

for the love of books

 

My older daughters made their own book order this year before Christmas.  When Tim got  a chance to preview this one, he decided it was a great choice for him to read aloud to us.   Tim also says it is not the “perfect graduation gift” ~ because that would be too late!  Our boys are 14 and 10 ~ now is the time!

Thoughts for Young Men by J.C. Ryle

(currently $3.60 at Vision Forum’s year-end sale ~ Yes, LESS than FOUR DOLLARS!)

** highly recommended **

 

They gave me this book for Christmas…

Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family

…since I didn’t win it in the giveaway last month… and it is on sale too!  (55% off!)  Read the linked post for more info ~ Kim’s blog is great, but a book in the hand is twice as nice  :-)  Thank you!

While the girls were at it, they bought some books for themselves…

Joyfully at Home by Jasmine Baucham

 

Feminine by Design by Scott Brown

 

While I do not agree on everything with Doug Phillips, Vision Forum, etc., they do sell a lot of worthy books  :-D

And lest you think that’s the only place we buy books, remember my swagbucks get me Amazon gift cards!

Miss Artist has a great affection for Amy Carmichael, so we gave her this devotional book…

Edges of His Ways

 

Miss Music Box had this on her wish list (Miss A granted that wish)…

 

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot

 

Uncle Lee also generously provided some thoughtful gifts:  books on cattle, herb gardens, artisan bread, grammar, thermodynamics (!)

             

I’m not sure why that photo won’t stay rotated!

 

And more happy readers…

         

 

And it’s not even New Year’s Day yet… when we have the tradition of LOTS of new books!  Wanna see?  Don’t tell!  I don’t remember all that’s hidden away, but here’s a few…

from  YWAM Publishing

                  

 

Library and Educational Services

             

(for me, for you ~ Remember to sign up for the giveaway TODAY!)

Also where we purchased the Sam Campbell books for the Cowgirl’s Christmas.

 

Timberdoodle

 

I think I need to buy another bookshelf this afternoon!