love to paint

Everyone deals with sickness differently. Some people want to be left alone and never asked about it. Some don't. Some people think that medicine is bad. Some people will push for medicine thinking it will make everything better. Some people think that things will go away if you don't go to the doctor. Some people go searching for health issues when there aren't any. Last year, when I visited my mother's hematologist with her, she told me to only search as far as I had to--and then to stop.  I was given the same advice by a rheumatologist. We live in a complicated time.  Women are getting double mastectomies because they have a certain gene.  In a time when people think that doctors want to prescribe everything and do every procedure they can--that is not what I have experienced. What I've experienced is: + One specialist telling me that I'm not sick, but that I do need to take Vitamin D (blood test showed it was low and it's very important to ...

Recently, I was talking with two friends about a YA book I had recommended.  Neither of them connected with the book, though they had enjoyed other books I'd recommended before in the past.  I couldn't explain exactly what I had liked about the book because it had been several years since I'd read it.  So, I headed for the library to check it out. The book was Hope Was Here , but Joan Bauer.  The book is recommended for ages 12 and up (7th grade).  I have found with other books by Ms. Bauer that I usually think the recommended age should be two years above what it is.  The story is about a teenage girl named Hope.  The story begins with her traveling to Minnesota with her Aunt Addie, who is essentially her mom.  They are leaving their restaurant where her aunt was cook and she was a waitress.  Addie's partner stole their money and they were forced to close up shop.  The story follows Hope's journey in this new place.  Much of the ...

Yesterday, I shared a devotion at our church's women's brunch.  I thought I would post it here.  These are thoughts that have been on my mind this week, because it was such a crazy, busy, over the top stressful week for me.  But, it is done now.  The next week portends to be a stressful one as well, but it is Christmastime!  I want to focus on the Lord and remember Christ's birth, but it can be challenging when life is crowding in.  These were the thoughts I wrote down when I sorted through it all... What are you dwelling on? Who? What? When? Where? Why? And How? Yesterday, I was struck that these are amazingly simple questions that have enormous relevance to our lives. I'm going to tackle these questions today in a round about way and how they apply to Christmas and our lives. The Who is the easy part of the picture—us. Then we can move on to the WHAT: What are you dwelling on? The Past? The Present? Or the Future? ...

Yesterday, I sat reading from two different books.  Both of which I put down.  Both of which I don't intend to pick up again. The first book was a mystery by Dorothy Sayers, a Harriet Vane mystery titled Gaudy Night .  I made it through the first chapter and then was so overwhelmed by the cynical attitudes of the characters about each other that it made me want to cry.  I think I have considered cynicism a modern invention of the last thirty years, but this book made me aware that cynicism has a much longer history than I had realized.  This book was originally published in 1935.  Harriet Vane's life mirrored Dorothy Sayers' own life in many respects, according to my husband. As I read the first chapter, I was struck by the wonderful and varied language Ms. Sayers used in her writing.  I loved that aspect of the writing.  In order to read the book, I had to think and consider the impact of the vocabulary she chose. Heaviness began to permeat...

This morning I finished reading Melody Carlson's annual Christmas novel.  This one has a funny name (as they usually do)-- The Christmas Joy Ride .  The story follows an 85 year old woman, Joy, and her neighbor, Miranda, as they travel in a large motorhome decorated for Christmas.  They are traveling from Chicago to Phoenix to deliver Christmas decorations to some that need cheer. I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, but then it turned sour on me.  The last delivery was so unrealistic. I found myself actually wanting to sit down and rewrite the dialogue between the characters.  I had enjoyed the main character for most of the book, but then that disappeared.  She was presumptuous and unkind.  The ending was extremely unbelievable for me--much more so than the average "tied up in a bow" Christian fiction ending. What's most interesting to me is what I realized after I finished reading the book.  Many Christians talk about how Christ is missi...

In our house, the reader of mystery novels is my husband.  But, every once in a while, I do pick one up.  That was the case last week when I sat down to read Ann Gabhart's new novel, Murder at the Courthouse .  Ms. Gabhart's fiction novels are all written under the name Ann Gabhart.  In a new turn, she takes the name of A.H. Gabhart for this series of mysteries she has written.  I think it's a little funny, but I do understand.  I can imagine that it can be difficult at times for authors to break out of the genre mold when they have written one "type" of book for years.  "A.H. Gabhart" sounds a lot more like a mystery author's name (ie. PD James, GK Chesterton, PG Wodehouse). As I opened up this book, I knew from the first page why I have enjoyed Ms. Gabhart's books over the years.  She is one of the better Christian writers whose books I have reviewed. The plot of Murder at the Courthouse centers around a deputy sheriff, Michael Keane, and ...

I'm nearing the end of my stack.  One more to go after the book I'm about to review.  Of the books I read this week, this book had the weakest writing.  It was a very interesting thing to sit down, open up a book, and feel that my middle school writing students could have written the essays in this book. That said, the reason people will read this book is not for the writing.  It is for the stories and the primary subject--Horses. I have a daughter who loves horses.  Honestly, it is a love that I don't understand or grasp.  I decided to read The Horse of My Heart: Stories of the Horses We Love , edited by Callie Smith Grant, with the hope that the stories would help me understand my daughter a little better.  This collection of stories did impress upon my heart something I already knew--that there are many people who love horses.  They love them the way my husband loves dogs.  They love them the way I love to take pictures and capture God's...

A few years ago, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield wrote a memoir.  Her book was about her journey from being a lesbian, women's studies professor in upstate New York to being a Christian pastor's wife and mom of four kids.  Her book was aptly titled The Secrets of an Unlikely Convert .  She was won over to Christ, not by man's words or by the four spiritual laws, but by Christ and the Word of God.  Her first book was intended to share her story--to encourage people to love instead of to preach.  There was a pastor and his wife who God used to encourage and walk alongside her quietly, listening in love, unwavering in God's Truth.  This book was not intended to be one given to someone living a homosexual lifestyle with the hope that it would convince them of the truth. But, Ms. Butterfield has now written a second book with tackles sexual sin and God's Truth.  This new book is one that can be given to one who is struggling.  It is one that address...

My oldest daughter is in that tweendom stage and my middle daughter is entering that time as well.  On Sunday as she was getting ready for church, she told me that she has her own style.  She said it sweetly with a smile on her face.  I looked at her in skinny jeans and a grey blousy shirt and agreed.  New territory. A friend of mine recently shared that her daughter and her friends--fifth graders are looking forward to the school dance that will be held at the end of the year.  Her daughter isn't into boys, but this is a girl ask boy, or boy ask girl situation.  New territory. Last week at lunch during our co-op day, I talked with the middle school girls, which included my 7th grade daughter, about what their families talked about at dinner.  We often have very humorous conversations at our table, so Autumn and I explained how my husband was interrupting Autumn's story with "in a volcano", "by a volcano", "under a volcano", "inside a volc...

Grace.  We are saved by God's grace.  And the Word calls us to show grace to others.  It is one of the most beautiful and wonderful, yet difficult words.  Over the years, I've several books about grace that I have learned from and enjoyed.   The Discipline of Grace is probably my most favorite.  A second place would go to Becoming a Woman of Grace by Cynthia Heald.  Lastly, What's so Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey is full of challenges to Christians about what Grace looks like and should look like. In front of me, sits another book about grace.  It is titled Grin With Grace by Kathy Carlton Willis.  Ms. Willis writes from her heart in this book.  It's full of stories of her life and what the Lord has taught her.  She writes with a very casual tone as if she was talking with a group of ladies at her church.  The tone of her book sounds like that of talks I've heard at various women's retreats I've gone to over the ...

Last year around this time, I commented to one of my sister in law's that I hadn't been reading much Christian non-fiction.  I had enough on my plate simply keeping my head above water.  Heavy nonfiction was not where I wanted to be spending my time. So, it is quite a surprise to me that the majority of the books (all but one) that I have to review and read right now are nonfiction.  Over the next week or two, I'm going to be plowing through them.  I'm starting with two that are a little similar. The first is by Barb Raveling, The Renewing of the Mind Project .  I often have authors email me and ask me to read and review their books.  That's the case with this one.  After emailing back and forth with Barb, I decided to read her book.  I'm glad I did. There's a whole jargon that we use as Christian.  Words we take for granted without exactly defining.  Forgiveness is one of these.  I think "renewing your mind" as the Scriptur...

Tonight I walked into my kids' bathroom and I was thankful...  to not have a stinky toilet anymore.   We have lived in our house for almost 4 years and the toilet has always smelled.  I've cleaned it.  I've cleaned all around it--the walls, the floor, the tank!  Still, it stank, stunk, stinked... I know that doesn't make sense, but it really smelled!  None of the guests in our home ever mentioned it to me.  My kids admitted to me today that they were immune to it.  They hadn't noticed.   I did. Yesterday, we got a new toilet!  Now, I have a white toilet (rather than a turquoise blue one that was installed in 1958).  Now, I can sit on the toilet seat cover when it's down because it's strong and isn't thin plastic that will cave in if you sit on it.  It's such a little thing, yet I'm very thankful for it.  It's hard to pull a splinter out of a child's hand and have them sit on the floor or the edge of the bathtub. ...

We just got back from vacation.  I enjoy the long drive because it's usually a chance to catch up on some reading (and book reviewing).  I only read one book on the way home this time, because I was working on the class I'm teaching this year. The book I read was Your Sacred Yes by Susie Larson.  I wanted to read this book because of the author, not the subject.  Susie Larson wrote one of the parenting books I regularly recommend, Growing Grateful Kids .   Your Sacred Yes focuses in on the subject of overcommitment and priorities.  Ms. Larson wants to challenge women to think about their commitments and priorities in light of walking with God.  Our focus should be on Him, not on what we want to do. This book didn't resonate with me--which I think has to do with its timing my life rather than the book itself.  I do think it's a good book.  There's a lot of great food for thought.  For example, on page 56, she says "we need to develop...

A funny thing about education is how people come up with new words for old practices...  For grades 1-3, I use Harcourt Trophies and the corresponding workbooks for the base of my children's literature curriculum.  In the workbooks, there are many pages that require students to fill in the appropriate word from a word bank at the top in a blank within a sentence so that the sentence makes sense.  These are called "cloze" activities. I've been noticing the use of the word "cloze" on many teaching resources over the past year, including many print books, and have puzzled about this word that I didn't use 15 years ago when I was getting my master's degree.  I just didn't bother to look it up.  Yesterday, I was looking at a book from fifteen years ago--that used that word and I asked my friend about it.  She explained that it's a practice that helps a child develop the skill of learning what sounds right together in a sentence.  Ah, that totall...

Last night, I came across a coloring book, but then discovered that the author had a website with tons of fun stuff on it!! The author is Samantha Snyder.  Here's a link to her main page:  http://www.doodle-art-alley.com/ She has tons of free coloring pages on it--for the older child (like me) who loves to color!  She also has a classroom doodles page   www.classroomdoodles.com where she has a page for each subject and some really cool ones for noise levels!  I'm going to use these with the writing class I'm going to teach this year.  I love the idea of "spy mode" and "ninja mode"! Oh, and if you have a child who likes Harry Potter, there are a bunch of pages on the main page that she did for Harry Potter Quotes!

A few days ago, I posted two links to some music history composer pages.  I spent part of this week putting together my plans for studying music history/appreciation for the next... however long.  We usually study this together as a family once a week for 30-45 minutes.  I realized after I put all of this together that this is my way of notebooking.  I know many moms collect resources through the year as they move from one topic to another, but I am not able to stay on top of that amidst my school year, so I have to have everything assembled before the year begins.  That's one reason I like textbooks--everything's all together! I read another post by a homeschooling mom that wrote a notebooking curriculum and labeled it as a high school curriculum.  The difference was that she required students to write a report on 2-3 composers from each music period.  I think the way I've set up my notebook, it can easily be adjusted to any grade (3-12).  For ...

Yesterday, I finished writing my daughter's study skills curriculum for this year.  I needed a VENN Diagram.  I have a binder for each subject that I stick resources in, but I couldn't easily find one, so I just opened up Open Office and made my own.   Just now I found a simple file online that has 10 graphic organizers in one place.  YIPPEE!  Here's a LINK .

Last school year, I posted HERE about my music study plan since my oldest daughter stopped taking piano lessons.  I was excited to find some free notebooking pages to use along with our studies this year as we go through the historical periods of music.  Classics for Kids allows you to go through the composers by period to get a sense of what the music during that time was like. Here is a link to the great and FREE :) notebooking pages that I found: HERE .  The site is practicalpages.wordpress.com I like the composer pages as well as the music appreciation pages.  I suspect I will use a combination of the two over the next two years in our music studies!  I am going to have my kids listen to the talks on Classics For Kids and take notes.  There is also a short printable biography for each composer on that site that you could print instead.

My kids read a lot.  A lot.  I can't read everything they read.  It's impossible.  I do have a few sources, but aside from those I keep looking and looking...  I am constantly searching for good books for them to read.  I try to find good series I can trust.  But, I've also found some great novels along the way. Here's a few sources I go to: 1.   Honey for a Teen's Heart , great discussion of reading and gives both maturity and reading level for books, as well as world views of authors 2.  Heart of Dakota, Sonlight 3.  My book review opportunities (which are mostly done now) 4.  Books from when I taught middle school--I have to go back and review these though, because I am finding that I no longer subscribe to the idea that it doesn't matter what kids are reading as long as they're reading.  Instead, I want good stuff to go in their heads and junk food isn't always beneficial.  A lot of books have the potential ...

My daughter is entering 7th grade this year.  Wow!  Wow...  Wow.  All sorts of emotions flood my head.  She's a tween.  Her academics will be changing this year.  She'll be taking 3 classes at co-op (though 1 of them will be taught by me).  I have most of her curriculum in place, but I needed a plan for her vocabulary notebook.  I use a combination of things because I'm a cheapskate. 1)  For grades 6-8, she does 30 pages (1 page per day) from the book  101 Vocabulary Words in Context each year.  Then, she works in a vocabulary notebook... 2)   Vocabulary Notebook I was talking with my husband the other day about the Economist.  We have a student subscription (which is much cheaper than a normal subscription).  He asked if the girls could use it this year as part of their curriculum.  And the idea clicked!  I am going to have Autumn read 1 article per week.  She will highlight the words she do...

When Autumn was 2, I found a great set of math manipulatives in a bag at a garage sale for $3.  That was when I started my collection.  I knew I wanted to homeschool, so I just started keeping an eye out.  My youngest is now entering 2nd grade and my math manipulatives have been used a lot over the last 9 years (beginning when my oldest was in PK3). Here are the manipulatives I've found most helpful (and that I would buy at retail price if I hadn't gotten them at a garage sale).... 1.  Unifix Blocks   A set of 100 is very helpful.  I store them in a tupperware, rather than stressing about getting them all back in color coded stacks of 10 each time we use them.  I had the other type of cube at one point that look like this:   But, I found them harder to link together and I wasn't as pleased with them, so I gave them away. 2.  Scale I found this at a garage sale and had no idea how often I would need it in the future for m...