love to paint

I had a funny encounter two weeks ago in Goodwill.  I was looking with my little boy for Christmas presents for our family.  There was a woman who was an army staff sargeant also looking in the same area.  I struck up a conversation with her about the pan she was looking at.  Somehow we ended up talking about garage sales.  I mentioned that there are websites that will tell you where the garage sales are (and do the searching for you).  I never remember things like that off the top of my head, so I gave her a card with my blog address on it and said that I'd posted about the sites.  Her response was funny.  She said she was so glad to meet me and know that I was a blogger.  She explained that she had a very different impression of bloggers and then she asked me for a second card.  I chuckled.  Here I was with Eli in my tennis shoes, jeans, and a long sleeve shirt--carrying my "outdoorsy" style purse that doesn't like to stay shut. ...

It is a rare book that can make me laugh when it comes to Christian fiction.  Really that's because I haven't many Christian authors who incorporate humor well into their writing.  This morning I finished reading A Change of Fortun e by Jen Turano.  On the back of the novel, it identifies this book as her first published novel.   I enjoyed it.  It's a Christian historical romance fiction book.  The story centers on Eliza Sumner who has traveled to America in the late 1800s to reclaim her lost fortune. There is one scene from the book that made it a good book for me.  It was the humorous scene on pages 102-103.  I was left with a good feeling about the whole book because of that scene.  I even read the scene out loud to my husband (which I never do!) and he laughed.  I laughed so hard because I cried.  The scene came out of the blue but perfectly fit in the tale.    I enjoyed the characters.  They were likea...

I do not often look at books and just "love!" them. I have to admit that I am picky. This year we've been using a video art curriculum that they've learned quite a lot from. I'm still always looking for great art resources. This book is definitely one to add to my collection! The story isn't particularly exceptional, but I enjoy how the information is introduced to children on how to think about and ponder sculpture. It is introduced simply and at their level. My oldest daughter (9 yo) has already read the book and liked it a lot. I know she will absorb the information about the different types of sculptures and how to appreciate it from this book. Basically, a trio of mice travel to the art museum for a sculpture exhibit. They see various types of sculptures and then focus on one particular sculpture. They look at it from all angles and then sketch it. Then, they think about how it makes them feel and what it makes them think of. I loved this discussion! Th...

Have you ever considered how often we, as a culture, communicate to parents that children are an inconvenience?  It hurts my heart so much when I hear the things people say and do.  As a culture, we have become so self-focused that children are often seen as an interruption.  It was an old adage "children should be seen and not heard". I feel as if that adage is unknowingly reinforced by how people treat parents and their children. I was explaining to my mom why we don't invite any guests over for Christmas Day.  When we have guests over, we try to make sure they are comfortable and receive our attention.  We do have guests over on Christmas Eve.  It's a tradition with the family that comes over--one that we look forward to every year.  But, on Christmas Day, we want to focus on our family--our children, our parents, and siblings, and celebrate with them.  On Thanksgiving this year, we had family over and a couple who has spent several holidays ...

Last summer, I read a textbook about Reading Assessment.  It was extremely dry and treated children like robots rather than children.  It made me consider the state of education and testing in schools today.  In putting so much emphasis on the results of testing, we are turning our children into statistics--instead of what they are--human beings.  It was very interesting because one point the author made is that the break for a child can be at multiple points in the reading process.  It was amazing to realize how the reading process can be broken down.   The simple view was where theorists started in the 1980s by stating that reading comprehension (R) down into the product of decoding (D) and linguistic comprehension (C).  Now, there are more complex models. Hollis S. Scarborough's rope model used breaks down the process into language comprehension and word recognition. Language comprehension includes: Background knowledge, vocabulary, langua...

One of the things that I've noticed among many homeschooling moms is that we get concerned about the morals and lessons in the stories our children read. I remember when Autumn was a year and a half old, I began reading Curious George stories and realized that almost all of the time there are no consequences for George when he's done wrong.  I was so alarmed and at first I wanted to give away all of our Curious George books.  But, my daughter loved monkeys and I couldn't quite bear to give the stories away.  Then, I had my second daughter and she loved the stories too, so the stories stayed.  We all loved the PBS George series and that cemented George's place in our home.   Reading obviously matters a lot to me.  I've thought a lot about what I read, what my children read, what I read to them, and why.  Several books gave me some wonderful food for thought and I'd highly recommend them if you haven't read them.  Gladys Hunt wrote three books-- H...

Yesterday, my brother called and shared with me that he'd read something that really scared him last week.  It was an exposition about global warming.  He explained that it had huge implications for where we live and for the United States.  He also explained that none of it was new information, it was simply and succinctly reiterated and it caused him to fear for us--for the world.   I responded that I know global warming is real, but I can't get lost worrying about it, because I realize I can't change it personally.  I consume the least energy I can, recycle, tried to compost (and failed this summer), don't drive unless I need to...  It's very easy for me to get taken over by fears.  I think it is for most of us.  For the past year, I've struggled with our home.  I thought we were buying a solid house that needed only easy cosmetic work like painting--little did I know how wrong I was!  We've worked so hard to fix this house and we've...