love to paint

I was reading a free fiction book this week that I had downloaded from Amazon.  It was titled All for Anna , by Nicole Deese.  I haven't found an easy way to find the free kindle books, but if you scroll down to literature, then scroll down to inspirational fiction, then have the books sorted by cost... well, then the free books will come up first.  One might say there must be a reason these books are free.  I think the reason is that they're usually the first in a series. If the author gets you hooked, well, you'll buy the next one in the series! In this case, it really did hook me (I enjoyed the author's writing) and I was able to "borrow" the second book from Amazon Prime's lending library.  But, back to the book at hand and the lesson I learned... The book All for Anna focuses on a 24 year old young woman, Tori, who is dealing with PTSD because she wasn't able to save a little girl from an accident.  The story keeps moving and I enjoyed reading...

This is the next post about one of the booklets. Today I'm going to write about the booklet I read first. It is titled, Help! My Anger is Out of Control , by Jim Newheiser.  It's interesting.  I don't always know what books God is going to bring across my path and what paths He's going to take me down.  I picked up this booklet this morning and I'm glad I did. Anger is something I've had to deal with in my life--just like everyone else I know.  It is an emotion that is part of being human.  But, anger can be very destructive.  This booklet made me stop and consider the sources of my anger and what prompts me to get anger.  It also made me consider my own sin and its ramifications.  I felt the author had some very valuable insights.  The first thing I learned was that anger is our response to our own judgment against perceived evil against us in our lives--it comes from judgments that we make.  The examples the author gave for his ...

My next few posts are going to tackle seven books from a new series that Shepherd Press is publishing.  These are small books that you'd find at a side table at your church.  They're great, because you can sit down in less than an hour and read what they have to say.  The books I've read so far have given me a lot to think about and process. The first booklet is about Depression.   Carol Trahan has written a small and easy to read book. It tackles the type of depression that are part of the normal ups and downs of life. This is not a book for anyone who deals with ongoing, prolonged depression. She says from the get go that she is a biblical counselor, not a medical doctor. Even so, I wish she had included a few questions about how to discern which type of depression you are experiencing and how to get ongoing help. But, as to the material in this book, I liked it. Quite a lot actually. I thought that she made some great points about depression and sadness in t...

This morning I was looking around and found some free resource guides on CS Lewis.org's site.  You can find them here:  http://www.cslewis.org/resources/studyguides/  The study guides are age appropriate based on the age at which students would read those books.  For example, the guide for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is for grades 3-5, but the study guide for Letters to Malcolm is written for high school students.

I just discovered this free resource on PBS Masterpiece Theater site:  Teacher's Guides               Teacher's Guides Access free online teacher's guides from MASTERPIECE that feature films and books from the PBS television series. Get discussion questions, activities and more. View on  www.pbs.org Preview by Yahoo   There's a guide for Austen's books and Dickens' books as well as several other high school level books that Masterpiece Theater has done productions of.  

I have decided this: The Best Way to Be a MOM:   Be a Gumby and not a Ball Point Pen.   Two days ago, my middle daughter fell on the grass when she tripped.  Yesterday, she went to the doctor and within 3 hours had a splint on her hand because of a tiny fracture.   I did not wake up thinking I would have one of my children in a splint at the end of the day.   It was just the way things worked out.  I had a choice.  Be a Gumby--flexible and set aside my plans for the day.  Or I could be a BallPoint Pen and be unwilling to bend, complaining as I had to rearrange my day.  I decided my family needs me to be a Gumby.

Today I posted a review of a book for middle schoolers on Amazon.  The book is Almost Home by Joan Bauer.  (What 5th grade girl wouldn't pick up a book with a cover like that?)   Here's my review... It's very interesting to me that all of the reviews are positive for this book. And there are a lot of positives about it. Joan Bauer is a good writer and it's a well written book. The plot moves along, the characters are interesting, and it would resonate with a lot of kids.  The cover conjures warm feelings and it makes you want to like the book.  It tugs at your heart. When I was teaching middle school English, I would have assigned this book to my class. I know I would have. There is very little character description, so readers will make their own minds up about what the characters look like. I had many students who lived through situations similar to what the girl in this story, Sugar, walks through. But, as a homeschooling mom, I'm not going to ass...

This weekend I felt like reading a book, so I actually read three.  The first was the one I liked the best of the three. I feel bad admitting it though.  It was a cheesy, Christian romance book titled Married 'til Monday by Denise Hunter.  The title (and the cover) makes me think of a Harlequin Romance, but for some reason I wanted to read it because of the story line.  It was good.  Surprisingly good.  The story is about a couple who broke up three years previously and now must pretend for a weekend that they are still married.  The story was a little slow at times, but I began asking God about part way through the book what He wanted me to reflect on.  And the lesson to me was this.  One's childhood baggage follows people into marriage and into their adult life.  It will come up when you don't expect it.  So, know your issues.  Know your achille's heal.  Know the wounds that God has healed and that He's working on....