love to paint

Last week, I was talking with a friend and she commented to me that her life just wasn't what she thought it would be when she got to the age she is now.  I understood.  I would say the same thing.  Actually, I have said it--to my mom several times over the years.   My husband's coming home tonight after being gone or a few days.  We do not have one of those marriages where people never fight or argue.  I have heard there are a few of those out there.  Though we agree on many things, we also often disagree and we're both strong willed.  There are things I did before I was married that I don't get to do anymore.  He could say the same.  Sometimes it's because of limited time or resources.  Sometimes there's other reasons. On Sunday, one of the young women at our church wanted to tell me about a local ballroom dancing spot, so that I could go.  I smiled and gently told her that I can't.  My husband doesn't like to danc...

I don't read horror books.  I don't watch horror movies.  I get scared really easily.  But some of the scariest books for me aren't horror books.  They're "realistic fiction".  I read one recently that  friend gave me to read called The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle.  It's a secular fiction book that was published a few years ago.   It made me pause.  It scared me greatly because of a story I'd heard from a friend a few months ago.  Let me explain why.   The Kindness of Strangers isn't really about kindness.  In fact, it's about the opposite.  It's basically the story of the discovery a neighbor's predatory behaviors towards neighborhood children and the sexual abuse of their own son.  The book was well written as far as the actual writing goes.  The characters were well developed and believable.  But, at the end of the book I felt sick.  I felt sick over what the bad characters in the bo...

Lois Lowry is one of the best writers of kids' fiction that I've ever read.  I truly enjoy her books.   The Birthday Ball , The Giver (and its companions), Young Fredle ...  When I open up one of her books, I'm struck by the way she uses words to vividly describe characters and settings.  She is clever in her use of words. Once in a while, I come across a book that reminds me of her writing.  A few weeks ago, I read a book by a new author, Jennifer Trafton.  It is titled The  Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic .  From the first page, the book held a lot of promise.  The story is extremely imaginative.  It is the story of Persimmony Smudge and her quest to save the island's inhabitants.  It already sounds like there's a story there, doesn't it? The story begins with Persimmony going to find Theodoore, the potter, to get a new pot because she broke her family's giving pot that gave them the food they needed each day.  She gets s...

I have to be honest.  I like books.  A lot.  But, when we moved, my homeschooling area shrunk by about 66% and most of my books went into storage and a lot were donated.  I just didn't have room for them.  So, now when I'm missing something I used to have, I go to the internet.  Today I needed a hundreds chart.  I found a great one on this site.   http://www.mrnclass.com/daily-class-blog/2011/10/6/printable-hundreds-chart-for-homework.html   Here's a direct link to just the chart:   http://www.mrnclass.com/storage/westlake-documents/math/unit-3/YN_hundreds_chart.pdf I needed the hundreds chart for helping Sami understand what to round to, when rounding to the nearest 10.  So, I added an extra handwritten column on the left that said 0, 10, 20, 30, etc...   That way, we could talk through her assignment and go up or down to the nearest 10 without a super long number line that I just don't have room for, unfortunately.  I ...

There's a huge to do going on right now in the media about the movie The Hunger Games , which is set to be released in the theaters in just a few days.  This afternoon a friend of mine were discussing the books.  She asked me if I was the person who'd sent an email to our homeschool group blasting the books.  I said, no, but that I am concerned about young children reading them.  She, as a long time homeschooler and woman I deeply respect, felt they would be appropriate for teenagers, but not for younger children.  She loved the books and was drawn in.  She couldn't escape them.   Her comments reminded me of how many of us felt about the Harry Potter series (which I still need to write about when I get a chance).  The books were engaging and imaginative, yet often scary and frightening.   Over our vacation two weeks ago, I read a book by Tony Reinke titled Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books .  He goes into great detail about t...

Two weeks ago, the ladies at my church had a retreat.  The speaker is a woman who's been a missionary to Japan for many years.  She shared many interesting things about Japanese culture.  I've thought about many of the points she made often since then, but one particularly came to my mind yesterday. She explained to us that the Japanese people won't do something unless they are an expert at it. I think we too often fall into this thinking as well.  If what we do isn't as good as what someone else does, then 1) we question whether it is worth doing 2) we tell ourselves that we just aren't very good at it 3) we don't even try if we don't think we can be successful at it I found myself thinking these thoughts as I searched through my pictures yesterday.  I wanted to find some to frame and hang on the walls in our house.  But, pictures that once pleased me didn't yesterday.  I have several friends who take very good pictures.  My pictures p...