Too Little Time?

Lately, I have been feeling pretty overwhelmed, but I was encouraged by this quote by the Maxwells in Managers of Their Homes: A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Home-School Families:

"You can absolutely not do more than there is time in the day, but you can absolutely be sure there is time to do everything God intends for you to do."

Homeschool Resouces: The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

This week, I am going to discuss a very controversial topic: reading!  There are lots of people out there who have very strong opinions about how to teach a child to read.  I am not one of them.  When I started noticing signs of reading readiness in Mary, I started asking just about every homeschooling mom I knew what program they used.  Do you want to know what I discovered?  Every single person I asked used a different program.  To confuse matters even more, every single one of those moms successfully taught her children to read.  That really impressed upon me that there was no "best" reading program out there.  If there was, certainly every mom would be using it!  I had to find the best fit for Mary and me.  I chose to use The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading because of its recommendation in The Well-Trained Mind.  Incidentally, I chose this book even though NONE of those moms that I polled had used it!

Honestly, I really liked the title: The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  That was me: an ordinary parent (at best)!  And that's what I wanted to do: teach my child to read.  The premise of the book is just that: parents can teach their children to read.  You do not need a special degree or training to teach your child how to read.  Another distinct emphasis of this book is that you can teach your child to read before she can write.  I started this program with Mary before her third birthday even!  (I probably won't start so young with all my children, but Mary had learned all her letters and their sounds and was really interested in reading, so I ran with it!)

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading is an explicit phonics program, which means that "the basic sounds of letters are taught systematically and then blended into words."  There are a total of 231 lessons, beginning with vowels and consonants.  By the end, the student will read words with seven syllables!  In between the student learns blends, digraphs, silent letters and much, much more.

Since Mary couldn't write when we were using this book, I also purchased magnetic letter tiles.  After I taught a lesson, I would ask Mary to use the letter tiles to form words from the lesson, sounding out each letter as she did so.  This really helped to reinforce the lesson.  We also enjoyed the review games that are interspersed throughout.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading really worked well for Mary and me.  At age five, she still loves books, so much so that I actually have to restrict her reading time so that she can get other schoolwork done!  Recently, I have begun to use this program with Maggie also.  She has done really well with it so far and has learned all her vowels and consonants and their sounds.  We are continuing to play games to review the vowels and consonants before moving on with lesson 27 and reading short-vowel words.  I think this program is great for children who show early signs of reading readiness and are really interested in reading.  I definitely would be careful not to push a young child to read if she was not interested, though.  Doing that could cause a child to loathe reading!

Meet the Rest of our Family

From left to right: Malachi, Bronwen, Alice, Ava, Bear (I don't know how he got in the picture), Silly Sally, Grace, Olivia.  Not pictured: Betsy

How many babies do two little girls need?  Apparently, lots!  We have a total of eight, that's four per girl.  Malachi, Bronwen, Grace and Betsy belong to Maggie and Olivia, Ava, Silly Sally and Alice belong to Mary.  Now, I am all for simplicity, so part of me thinks one baby per child is enough.  I think about asking the girls to choose which baby they would like to keep and give all the rest away.  But, these babies are like their little children.  They have carefully chosen names for them.  They bathe them.  They dress them.  They feed them.  Baby Olivia even flew with us to California to visit Nana and Papa!  Plus, each baby is unique.  Olivia and Malachi both have pacis, teddys and bottles, but Olivia came with a bed and Malachi came with a carrier.  Silly Sally can go in the bathtub and the swimming pool.  Bronwen has a bracelet on her wrist because she just came home from the hospital.  Grace has a paci that attaches to her clothes and really pretty booties.  Alice has hair that can be brushed and styled.  And, lastly, the mysterious Betsy has braids.

We do have a home for these babies and their clothes and their blankets and their pillows and their pacis and their stuffed animals and their bottles and... However, they are so well-loved that they never seem to make it there.  Instead, they are sleeping on the bed, eating in the high chair, celebrating a birthday, taking a bath, or being examined and bandaged at Mobley Infirmary.  I guess I don't really mind having so many babies, since they are all played with and loved so much!

Picture Books We Love: Mouse Paint

I was first introduced to Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh when one of our local librarians shared a reading list for preschoolers with me.  We borrowed it from the library and really enjoyed it.  Then, my mother-in-law, a.k.a. Nana, who always brings us tons of wonderful books, brought it for Maggie.  This is a fun book to teach children their primary and secondary colors. 

There are three white mice and three jars of paint, one red, one yellow, one blue.  Each white mouse climbs into a different jar, which predictably results in one red mouse, one yellow mouse and one blue mouse.  They make paint puddles on a white piece of paper and dance in the puddles.  The red mouse turns the yellow puddle orange.  The yellow mouse turns the blue puddle green.  The blue mouse turns the red puddle purple.  The mice then clean themselves off and paint the white paper instead.  First, they paint the paper red, yellow and blue.  Then, they mix colors to paint the paper orange, green and purple.

After reading this book, we mixed paints ourselves to make new colors (we did not dance in puddles, although I'm sure my girls would have really, really enjoyed that)!  Fun, fun, fun! 

Faith is a Telescope

I found the following passage in Muscular Christianity by P. G. Mathew encouraging, so I wanted to share it with you:

Faith provides a firm ground to stand on while we await the fulfillment of God's promises.  By faith we can be sure that all of God's promises to us will be fulfilled.  Faith is assurance in the present.  It gives the object hoped for a present power in the soul as if it were already possessed.  Faith gives us a vision of things future.  It is like a telescope that enables us to see distant objects and be energized by that sight to live our lives in the present. Paul says, "We live by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).  By faith we see spiritual realities now and deal with the present in the light of that reality.

Stickers, Stickers, and More Stickers

A while ago, my mom, a.k.a. Grandma Nancy, shared this awesome tip with me.  You know all those address labels you get from the non-profit organizations?  She cuts the addresses off and uses the pretty picture part for stickers.  Brilliant!  I still have the same number of return address labels, but look at all the new stickers my kiddos have!  They LOVE them!

The Mobley Pop-Off

I developed a love for popcorn when I was pregnant with Mary.  David and I had to have separate popcorn bowls, though, because I wanted mine way more salty than he could stomach.  Popcorn continues to be a favorite snack in our home.  We like it because it's healthy and inexpensive.  In fact, we like it so much we have two different popcorn makers.  We thought it would be fun to have a Pop-Off to determine which of our popcorn makers makes the best popcorn.

The Stir Crazy Corn Popper on the left requires one tablespoon of oil for 1/3 cup of kernels.  When all the corn has popped, unplug the unit, put the cover on and flip it over.  Voila, you've got your snack in a bowl!  The hot air popper on the right uses hot air rather than oil to pop the kernels; however, you do need to supply the bowl.  Just pour the corn kernels in the top, place a big bowl under the chute and plug the unit in.  When popping is completed, unplug the unit but do not remove the bowl immediately because there will still be some popping action after the unit has been unplugged.


Both units took about two minutes to pop 1/3 cup of kernels and both produced about equal amounts of popped corn.  Despite the claims of the individual makers, there were about equal amounts of unpopped kernels also.  So far, the only difference was the 1 T oil and the approximately $15 price difference between the different makes.   

Stir Crazy

Hot Air Popper

Our two judges (David and Mary) tried the popcorn without knowing which was stir-popped and which was air-popped.  Surprisingly, the difference in taste between the two was barely noticeable. However, we found that we have a slight preference for the air-popped popcorn. 

Here is my nut, Mary, trying the popcorn. Poor Maggie did not have a nap, so she actually fell asleep right after dinner and slept through all the excitement. We did save some for her to have for a snack the next day, though.  Since she woke up at the crack of dawn, it was actually a pre-breakfast treat.  This all happened before my brain awoke, so, sadly, there is no picture:(

By the way, in case you're like us and want to sit down and read a book since you're canceling your Netflix subscription, check this one out:

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Chocolate is really supposed to be good for you, right?  We love to eat these yummy pancakes on Saturdays.  No syrup necessary!  This recipe makes quite a lot, enough for us to have leftovers for breakfasts during the week.  (I do realize that before long leftovers in the Mobley home will be a thing of the past.)

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c white flour
1 T baking powder
2 T sugar
1 t salt
1/3 c chocolate chips (regular is fine but mini is even better)

2 eggs
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c milk
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c water
2 T oil

Stir together dry ingredients (whole wheat flour through chocolate chips).
Stir together liquid ingredients (eggs through oil).
Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.
Cook on griddle or in pan coated with cooking spray.

Picture Books We Love: CLICK, CLACK, MOO Cows That Type

We acquired CLICK, CLACK, MOO Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin from some friends of ours whose older children had outgrown it.  This book traveled with us in our Honda Accord all the way from Davis, California, to New Orleans, Louisiana, along with Mary and her potty and our two cats and the litter pan they refused to use. 

I have to say there is no great moral lesson in this far-fetched tale, but it is really a funny book that our children love.  Farmer Brown has some odd cows--they like to type.  This method of communication empowers the cows in a sense.  First, they demand electric blankets for themselves.  Then, they demand electric blankets for the hens, too.  To show that they mean business, the cows and hens go on strike!  In need of milk and eggs, Farmer Brown agrees to an exchange through Duck: electric blankets for the typewriter.  The best part of this book is the predictable repetition of "Click, clack, moo.  Click, clack, moo.  Clickety, clack, moo."  There's a really neat twist at the end, too!

The Family of God

In Muscular Christianity, P.G. Mathew discusses the practical application of Hebrews 10:24 and says this:

As members of the family of God, we love both our Father and his children.  When people are in love, they want to be with each other.  Nothing can keep lovers apart.  They think up ways to be together.  Love knows no obstacles.  It is the same in the family of God.  We come from far and wide to worship and have fellowship with the people of God.  We know each other's needs and take care of them.  When one member suffers, we all suffer; when one rejoices, we all rejoice.  We think up ways to spur one another on to love.  Love is evident everywhere--a love that translates into deeds done to help God's people.  We spend our time, talents, and money to help others, especially the household of God. 

I recently experienced this outpouring of love from the family of God.  I was sick.  Coughing, sneezing, fever, headache, sore throat, achy, exhausted.  David had to go out of town for the week for his work.  He left me on a Sunday afternoon with four children to care for when I really felt like I needed someone to care for me!  Someone did!  On Sunday evening, a friend brought me dinner.  On Monday morning, another friend called out of the blue to see if she could take Mary to Sports Camp.   On Tuesday, another friend brought me dinner.  On Wednesday morning, that same friend watched Maggie so that I could take Matthew and Jonathan in to the doctor.  On Friday, another friend took Mary shopping and to play at her house for several hours.  Another friend and her husband offered to pick David up from the airport for me.  To me, this is the picture of the kind of active love described here.

A Puzzle Tip

Recently, Maggie has been quite the puzzler.  She has moved on from the wooden puzzles to jigsaw puzzles!  I have been enjoying watching her figure out how the pieces fit together in the different puzzles that we own.  The reality in our home right now is that often when she wants help, I am occupied with one of the boys and can't come right away.  While waiting for me, she figures it out on her own.

All this "playing puzzles" brought to mind a tip that a friend shared with me years ago, which I have found really helpful.  To make sure the right puzzle pieces get returned to the right box, label the back of the puzzle pieces and the box or in this case the backing with the same label.  This has really come in handy when we have clean up to do after playdates with friends.  That's usually when we have multiple puzzle boxes/backings and lots of pieces scattered on the floor. 

Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide

Of late, I have been seeing firsthand the reality of God as Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide.  At birth, one of our twin boys, Matthew, weighed 4 pounds 3 ounces.  Despite this low birth weight, he was otherwise healthy and, unlike his brother, Jonathan, was not admitted to the NICU.  Shortly after being discharged from the hospital, however, his weight had fallen to 3 pounds 13 ounces and he was jaundiced.  After a five-day stay at Children's Hospital, we were able to bring him home.

The doctors have always monitored his weight very closely.  He has continued to be small but seemed to be following his own growth curve...until recently.  From month three to month four, the little guy only gained 5 ounces, weighing in at 9 pounds 8.5 ounces.  Our doctor always gives us a record of the height, weight, head circumference, and percentiles for each of the boys.  Matthew's says <<5%.

Upon the doctor's advice, we scheduled an appointment with the lactation consultant at the hospital where he was born.  I was so happy that we got an appointment with Shannon because she also is a mother of twins!  First, she weighed Matthew.  Then, I nursed Matthew and Jonathan together for a good 45 minutes.  Then, she weighed him again.  He only took in two ounces!  She concluded that he was an inefficient nurser and recommended that we supplement him with breastmilk from a bottle following each feeding.

Since then, his growth has improved.  At five months, he now weighs 10 pounds 13.5 ounces!  I rented a hospital pump and now pump after each feeding.  It's a lot of work.  I nurse the boys together, then feed Matthew his bottle, then pump.  Then, I clean everything and get ready to start all over again.  In between, there are diaper changes and clothing changes and housework and shopping and schooling and laundry.

I know I could just supplement with formula, but I do believe that breastmilk is God's perfectly designed nutrition for babies.  Here's where the importance of trusting that God is Jehovah-Jireh comes in.  I am feeding him 2 ounces, but I am not always able to pump 2 ounces of milk.  The supply of frozen breastmilk is dwindling.  Every time I go to pump, I pray and ask God to provide enough milk for my baby.  This has been a really difficult and challenging experience for me.  You may have noticed from my shopping posts that I am a planner and a stockpiler.  We do not now, nor have we ever, lived from paycheck to paycheck.  We did go through a brief period where we had a negative net income.  Even then, we still had savings in the bank to draw upon.  We also knew our situation was only temporary--it was only until David found a faculty position.  This situation is different.  My stockpile is almost depleted.  Yet, I believe that God wants me to breastfeed my children.  I am not going to throw in the towel.  I am going to call upon the name of God.  I am going to call upon Jehovah-Jireh to provide!

Two Chips Off the Old Block

I don't often get to see the top of David's head.  He's tall and I'm, well, vertically challenged.  Last night, when I was cutting his hair (and I got to see the top of his head), I noticed a striking resemblance to our two boys!  Three baldies!

David

Jonathan

Matthew

Bowling for Spaghetti Sauce!

Last week we stocked up on Splenda.  This week we stocked up on spaghetti sauce.  Lakeview Grocery, a local grocery store, sells these jars of spaghetti sauce which are really tasty.  Not only that, but they are free of high fructose corn syrup.  They were on sale for 5 for $5, which is a stock-up price for natural spaghetti sauce in the land of no double coupons.  We use this on pasta, in lasagna and even as the sauce for homemade pizza.  Your eyes are not deceiving you.  I bought ten jars!

I know, I know, you are wondering since I enjoy cooking so much, why I don't make my own sauce.  Well, occasionally I do, but mine just never comes out tasting very good. Plus, it's a whole lot cheaper to watch for sales

and stock up when the jars go on sale for $1 or less.

The girls were very distraught I didn't take them with me because they LOVE Lakeview Grocery.  Not only does Lakeview Grocery have kiddie shopping carts, but they also have ice cream.  You feed the pig a quarter for an itty-bitty cone of soft serve.   Since they were so disappointed, I let them each have a go at bowling.  OK, you know me, I was sitting right behind the jars, so there was no way any of them were gonna break!  We still have all ten jars in tact and can you guess what's for dinner tomorrow night?

Substitutionary Atonement

I read this quote in Muscular Christianity this morning and thought I'd pass it along:

The ultimate cause of our salvation is the Father's will, which the Son fulfilled by the sacrifice of himself on the cross.  Freely and willingly, unlike brute animals, Jesus loved the church and gave himself for her.  The sinless Son of God, our great high priest, offered himself as the perfect offering as our substitute.  We will not experience even an infinitesimally small part of God's wrath; he suffered it all in our place.

Picture Books We Love: Caps For Sale

Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina is the story of a cap peddler.  Unable to sell his caps, he goes for a walk in the country and settles down under a tree for a nap.  When he goes to sleep, he has his own checked cap and all 16 caps for sale on top of his head.  When he wakes up, though, all but his own checked cap are missing!  Looking up, he finds 16 monkeys in the tree, each wearing a cap on his head.  He shakes his finger at the monkeys demanding his caps.  They do the same.  He shakes his fists at them.  They do the same.  He stamps one foot.  They do the same.  He stamps both feet.  They do the same.  Finally, he throws down his cap in frustration and anger.  The monkeys do the same.  So, the peddler picks up his caps, puts them back on his head, and returns to town.

We have so much fun with this story.  Sometimes, we just pretend to be monkeys.  Sometimes, we pretend to be the peddler and check that we have our caps on top of our heads and march around, shouting, "Caps!  Caps for sale!  50 cents a cap!"  And, of course, we always enjoy a game of Money See, Monkey Do!  There is also a wonderful two-page illustration of the monkeys wearing the caps in the trees that we like to use for counting practice, too!

I don't recall reading other works by Esphyr Slobodkina.  If you have and you enjoyed them, please let me know!

The Great Splenda Stock-Up

The last time I bought Splenda, I found a broken box in the As Is section at Sam's.  It was a big box of 1,000 packets for $10.  (For my NOLA friends, the As Is section is near the bakery on the right side.  I always check it out when I'm there.)  I think that was a couple of year's ago and we finally used it all up.  We like to use Splenda in tea and now David likes to take it to work with him to sweeten his yogurt.  I've been on the lookout for a great deal on this stuff.  Last week, I found these boxes on clearance at my Walgreen's.  They were marked down to $2.89, so I bought four and used four $2 off coupons from Splenda's website.  In the land of no double coupons, that's a pretty good deal.  Then, I also found a $3 off coupon in the newspaper.  I guess I could have used that at Walgreen's, too, but you know, I really didn't feel like haggling with them about their coupon policy to get them to give me a box for free, so I just took my coupon with me to Wal-Mart.  The packages are regularly $3.98 there, so it came to $0.98 after the coupon.  Five boxes for under $5 and now I don't need to think about Splenda for quite some time!

You may be wondering, why the peanut butter container?  That is the excitement of shopping in New Orleans.  While I was at Wal-Mart, there was a ginormous thunderstorm and the lights went out.  Fortunately, Wal-Mart is prepared for such things and the back-up generators kicked in right away.  There was a huge line of people at the door waiting for the storm to die down, but I was just looking at my watch thinking the boys were in desperate straits, on the verge of starvation, so I ventured through the torrential downpour without an umbrella or a jacket to the van!  The outside of the Splenda box did get a little bit soggy and was sacrificed for the sake of the boys, but the peanut butter jar is a wonderful stand-in! 

Hearty Lentil Soup

Are you sitting down?  This is a recipe loved by the Mobleys that does not have even a trace of chocolate!  We eat a lot of soup year-round, even when the heat index is 110.  We counterbalance this by eating ice cream year-round, too, even when the temperature drops below freezing.

Three reasons I like to make soup:

1. I can make it when it's convenient for me and reheat just before my husband gets home.  Yesterday, I made this soup at 7:00 am.  These days I take advantage of every opportunity whenever it happens to present itself.  When you have twins, you really learn to think outside the box!
2. For some reason, my kids do not object to vegetables in soup as much as vegetables served other ways.
3. Soups are healthy and economical because meat, if used at all, is more of a garnish than the main course.  Most of the soups that I make have beans or legumes at center stage.
4. Soups freeze well.  I always make extra to put in the freezer.  Whenever I'm having a rough day, I rely on my freezer stash rather than take-out!

Hearty Lentil Soup

2 c lentils
1 c chopped green pepper
1 c chopped carrots
1 c chopped onion
1 c chopped celery
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 t dried sage
1/2 t crushed red pepper
2 t minced garlic (or 4 garlic cloves)
10 c water
14 oz. smoked turkey sausage, sliced
28 oz. canned diced tomatoes
8-10 oz. frozen spinach
1 cup brown rice, cooked according to instructions

Bring lentils through water to boil.  Cover and simmer about 30 minutes.   Meanwhile, cook 1 cup brown rice according to instructions on package.  Add sausage, tomatoes, and spinach and heat through.  Stir in cooked rice.

We like to sprinkle Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning on top to jazz it up.  I am so thankful for my friend Katie who taught me that Tony's makes everything taste better!  ENJOY!

The Clothesline Update

I know you have all been wondering how our clothesline adventure is going ever since I wrote about my brilliant idea to put up a clothesline during hurricane season.  Well, I am happy to officially declare it a success!  Twenty feet of line sounds like an awful lot until you try to hang your clothes on it, so I actually ordered a second line.  We (meaning my husband) had to criss-cross the lines rather than run them parallel because of our backyard configuration.  Even if it looks a bit non-traditional, the clothes still get dry.  Last week, we actually had excessive heat warnings every day, so I was able to dry every single load of laundry on the clothesline!  Yippee!  I did err on one point, though.  I failed to make the lines low enough for the girls to reach.  Does Miracle Grow work on kids?  Fellow cloth diaperers, I am pleased to report that the sun has an amazingly wonderful effect on my cloth diapers.  My previously stained used since 2006 cloth diapers look like I just bought them!  They are bright white!  I am sure there is a science lesson in there somewhere...I can't wait to see the savings on our Entergy bill, although I guess last week's savings were probably eaten up by air conditioner use, since it was so hot!

Homeschool Resources: Saxon Math

Recently, I have written about how much my kids like the teddy bear counters and pattern blocks that came with the Saxon K-3 manipulatives kit, so you may have already guessed that we are big fans of Saxon Math.  Mary is starting Saxon 2 this year, but I am waiting until next year to start Saxon K with Maggie, although I always reserve the right to change my mind.

I chose to use Saxon Math for a few reasons.  In The Well Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise provide reviews of several different math programs designed for home use.  They recommend Saxon Math as "the most thorough and understandable math curriculum for home instruction."  Secondly, my husband, a homeschool graduate and now chemistry professor who is really good at math but can't handle numbers, was taught Saxon Math. Those two factors alone pretty much sold me on the program.

I like Saxon Math because it uses an incremental approach to teaching math.  This is very different than the way I learned math in school, but, in my opinion, far better!  Every day, the student learns a new concept but also continues to review and practice what was learned previously, reinforcing the concepts.  This program also has lots of really fun activities for children included in the lessons and is not just a boring math workbook.  Mary has really enjoyed the activities, especially setting up and playing store.  I guess that shows what we spend a lot of time doing, huh?  Finally, although I almost never follow them exactly as written, I do really like having scripted lesson plans.  What a huge timesaver!

Every lesson begins with a meeting between the teacher and the student.  In Saxon 2, our meeting consists of calendar work, counting, graphing work, pattern recognition, showing time to the hour, and writing number sentences.  It looks like we will also practice counting money later in the year.  After the meeting, there is a scripted lesson in which a new concept is taught.  Following the lesson the student reviews math facts previously taught.  Math facts are initially demonstrated with tangible objects, like linking cubes or color tiles, and reviewed with flash cards.  After reviewing the math facts, the student completes a sheet of 25 facts.  First, the student tries to finish as many as possible in one minute.  Then, the student completes the remaining facts.  In my opinion, math facts just need to be memorized and the best way to do that is continuous repetition.  After the math facts practice, the student completes a two-sided worksheet, which reviews the new concept taught as well as concepts taught in previous lessons.  Every fifth lesson includes a written assessment and every tenth lesson includes an oral assessment, so that you can gauge whether concepts have been mastered or require further review.

In closing, I want to emphasize that this program definitely requires a significant amount of parental involvement. If you are looking for a curriculum that your child can complete independently, then this is probably not the program for you.  That said, my one data point just LOVES this program.  She truly looks forward to her daily math lesson!

Picture Books We Love: Ian and the Gigantic Leafy Obstacle

I first came across Ian and the Gigantic Leafy Obstacle by Sheila Miller when I ordered a preschool curriculum from Sonlight.  Recently, Maggie has requested to read this book over and over again.  I like this book because it teaches that God is almighty and hears our prayers!  In this book, a missionary is stuck in a Thai village unable to get down the mountain because of a fallen tree in his path.  The Thai people he had been witnessing to remind him of his God who answers prayer and tell him just to ask God to move the tree.  So, Ian prays and asks God to move the tree.  After he prays, the tree is still there.  Ian then learns that there is yet another village "at the end of the road" he has not been to.  Unable to get down the mountain, Ian goes to the real village at the end of the road to share the gospel.  Six miles away, another man is in search of his favorite elephant, Tusker, who has wandered off.  Two days later, Ian comes back from the village at the end of the road, finds the tree still there blocking his way down the mountain, and prays again asking God to move the tree.  Then, the man who lost his elephant appears and tells Ian he can move the tree.  He comes back with Tusker, who successfully removes the roadblock.  Amazingly, they discover that the time when Tusker "wandered off" was when Ian first prayed and asked God to move the tree.  God heard his specific prayer!  Moreover, the people of the true village at the end of the road never would have heard the gospel from Ian if the tree had not blocked his path!

Motherhood

I love this quote that I read in Don't Make Me Come Up There!: Quiet Moments for Busy Moms by Kristen Welch:

"I was an awesome mother until I had kids.  Now, I'm just like everyone else."

I can definitely relate with that!

The Ground Song

This wonderful hymn has been running through my head all day, so I thought I would pass it along.

Now I have found the ground wherein
sure my soul's anchor may remain--
the wounds of Jesus, for my sin,
before the world's foundation, slain;
whose mercy shall unshaken stay
when heaven and earth are fled away.

Father, thine everlasting grace
our scanty thought surpasses far.
Thy heart still melts with tenderness,
thine arms of love still open are,
returning sinners to receive
that mercy they may taste and live.

O, Love, thou bottomless abyss,
my sins are swallowed up in thee!
Covered is my unrighteousness
nor spot of guilt remains on me,
while Jesus' blood, through earth and skies,
mercy, free, boundless mercy cries!

With faith I plunge me in this sea,
here is my hope, my joy, my rest;
Hither, when hell assails, I flee,
I look into my Savior's breast;
away, sad doubt, and anxious fear,
mercy is all that's written there!

Though waves and storms go o'er my head,
though strength and health and friends be gone,
though joys be withered all and dead,
though every comfort be withdrawn,
on this my steadfast soul relies--
Father, thy mercy never dies!

Fixed on this ground will I remain,
though my heart fail and flesh decay;
this anchor shall my soul sustain
when earth's foundations melt away;
mercy's full power I then shall prove,
loved with an everlasting love.

Key: G, by Johann Andreas Rothe (tr. John Wesley), David Marshall, 1927

What I've Been Reading

As I said in this post, David and I both have resolved to read more.  I have had a lot of opportunity to read lately because my in-laws came to visit, which gave me lots of down-time, and then I was sick, which gave me even more down-time.  Here's what I've completed:

I chose to read Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Life and Get What You Want Out of Life because it had been a while since I read a financial book and it was free for my kindle!  In this book, the author focuses on more big picture ways to save your money.  She does not talk about how to slash your grocery or electricity expenditures.  Instead, she talks about shopping around for auto insurance and what specific coverage you need or do not need.  She talks about who needs life insurance and what kind and for how long.  She talks about how much homeowner's insurance you should have and the kind of coverage you should carry.  She also talks about putting aside money early and at regular intervals for retirement and college.  She discusses the different kinds of savings plans out there and the pros and cons of them.  She also includes a calculator to help you figure out how much you should be setting aside annually for retirement.  I really benefited from the practical advice in this book, especially concerning retirement savings and insurance coverage.  However, there were parts of this book that I did not benefit from.  The budgeting chapters seem to be addressed to the person who decides how much to spend by what's in the bank account on any given day.  That's just not how I think about finances.  I'm more of a planner.  Also, I guess to be honest, I didn't technically finish this book.  I skipped the chapter on buying a house because, well, we already own a house.


Dare I admit that I read this book: Surrender the Wind?  That's not to say that it was not a good book.  Actually, I enjoyed it.  It is just not the type of book that I typically choose to read.  Why did I choose it?  Well, again, it was free for my kindle. I am not much for fiction usually, but my husband introduced me to Jeff Shaara on one of our road trips and I found that I really enjoy historical fiction.  I like learning about history through the dramatization of actual historical events and people.  I thought this was in the historical fiction genre, but I would really classify it as historical romance, not a steamy harlequin romance, but romance in the sense of a love story.  It is about an English man, who had settled in America and fought for America in the American Revolution, but then inherits his grandfather's estate in England.  He falls in love and marries and then there are just lots of twists and turns, which I can't divulge without totally destroying the book for you.  It was definitely a book that kept my interest and was full of suspense.  It was actually a perfect book to read when I was sick and trying to rest.  Interesting but not mentally taxing.



Have you ever wondered if a chicken could survive with its head cut off and, if so, how?  Have you ever wondered if man could make rain?  Have you ever wondered who invented cat litter or vaseline?  Did you know that we once had an emperor?  Did you know that we once considered using bat bombs?  Have you read the one novel that is e-less?  Would you enter a contest to have the most babies in ten years?  Find all this out and more in Einstein's Refrigerator and Other Stories from the Flip Side of History.  This book is written by a high school science teacher, who first tests the stories out on his students to see whether they would be of interest to people.  He has done intense research to verify that the stories are indeed true.  This is just a funny, funny book, and I enjoyed it a lot.  I also don't usually choose to read funny books, but this was also free on my kindle.  This new world of kindle is not only encouraging me to read more but to read things that I wouldn't have otherwise picked up!


The girls and I read Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up during our read aloud time recently.  (I had never read either as a child, but they were recommended in Hand That Rocks the Cradle: 400 Classic Books for Children.) They are about a little girl, who is orphaned, and moves in with her wealthy and dutiful aunt.  Pollyanna plays a game, called the glad game, in which she tries to find something to be glad about in every situation.  She just softens the hearts and minds of everyone she meets, including Aunt Polly, and gets them to join in playing the glad game with her.  She has such an impact on people that one of the doctors considers her to be medicinal!  Wz were just in stitches reading these books! 

And I'm still working on:
Muscular Christianity Learning Endurance from the Book of Hebrews by P.G. Mathew
The Quest for Character by John MacArthur
When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances by Carol J. Kent
The Tightwad Gazette  by Amy Dacyczyn
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George