love to paint

I just wrote what I think will be a very unpopular review on Amazon for a book called Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch.  Here's the gist of my review... When I was in my 20s, I had a conversation with my dad once and he said something that has always stuck in my head. He said that if someone is mean to him, he's going to be mean right back--but even worse. I said, "really?" He asked me if I wouldn't do the same. I replied, "No! Because if someone is hurting me then that means that they feel even worse." Bullying is a big problem right now in schools, but I don't believe that teaching kids to trick bullies (and essentially bully them right back) is the answer.   None of the negative reviews of this book on Amazon have actually talked about the plot of this book. Stephanie goes to school and kids make fun of her ponytail. The kids say to her "ugly! ugly! ugly!" She calls them "brainless copycats". Being a school teach...

One of the fun parts of Christmas to me has always been Christmas movies and Christmas stories.  What I love about them is the sense of hope that is present in each one of them.  I love what Gladys Hunt says in Honey For a Woman's Heart when she talks about why women read.  We often read to learn new things and see outside of our worlds, but we also read simply for enjoyment.  Christmas stories are simply enjoyment to me. I've noticed that Melody Carlson has published a new Christmas fiction novel for the past few years.  Last year, she published The Christmas Dog .  I reviewed it and enjoyed it.  It was one of the rare books that was simply a good story but wasn't about romance the way many Christian fiction stories are.  This year, the Christmas novel she has published is titled Christmas at Harrington's .  This story is of Lena .  She is released from prison and is starting over.  She finds herself seated next to Moira on the b...

I got quite the surprise this morning when I tried to go on Facebook.  I was kicked off of it!  They disabled my account.  I think what happened is that I did not attach my primary email, but rather my secondary email, to facebook--for obvious reasons I'm sure y'all understand.  So a few months back, I opened an account with my maiden name to check on who had gone searching for my name on facebook.  I believe this was a violation--which I had no idea of until this morning when they disable the account I use.  Obviously, I wasn't trying to do anything wrong, but my what a surprise.  Somehow, they figured out that I had done that.  When I think about how they did that, it makes me anxious. Here's the kicker--in order to get my account back or rather--to apply to have my account reactivated, I have to upload and send them a copy of my federal id.  Obviously, I am NOT going to do this.  So, NO more facebook for me.  I'm sure God has a ...

Recently, I was considering what book to review next and as I looked through the list of several books I came across The American Patriot's Almanac .  It wasn't usually the kind of book that I review, but I wondered if it might be a great resource to supplement our learning of American History when it comes time.  It was published by Thomas Nelson, which is very interesting to me.  Thomas Nelson publishes a surprisingly wide variety of books. So, the book has sat on my desk for a week and a half.  I gazed at it and the heftiness of it.  Today I finally picked it up.  The reason I chose to preview this book was what I read from the first few pages online.  What I read made me realize how much I need to teach my children that they live in a country that is worth being proud of.  Often people praise our country and then detractors say that they're blind and ignorant.  So, I was curious if this book would prove to be blind or ignorant as people...

When I read a Christian fiction, I hope for a couple of things.  One of them is appropriate language used in how the characters think about each other and relate to one another.  Another is a sense of hope--it is the hope of Christ that I long for as I read the story in someone's life, whether at the beginning or at the end of the story, but I look for it somewhere in there.  We are called to be in the world, but not of it. The scripture says in Philippians 4:8 " Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  We are to be wise about what we think about and so that is why I am very careful about what secular fiction I read.   I have very different expectations of secular fiction.  I read two of Jodi Piccoult's novels a few years ago and my stomach was left in knots at ...

During the sermon, I usually draw pictures for Sami, my 5 year old daughter, which she colors in.  I decided to have her trace words on Sunday, so I wrote at the top of her paper, "Jesus loves me." She took the paper and the first thing she did was write "Mr." in front of Jesus.  Well, she was right--he is a man and Mr. is a sign of respect, still it made me laugh! =)

Growing up in a Quaker church was very interesting.   I learned far more about Quaker history than I did about Jesus.   I learned a lot about God, but not as much about Jesus.   In our church, we had a male head pastor and a female assistant pastor.   The Quaker way is that all people in the church are considered ministers.   It's very easy to see that I grew up with a very egalitarian view of women and men.   I mentioned in my last blog entry that I had only heard the word "submission" once before I married.  I had no understanding of what it meant.  But, shortly after I got married, God put me on a journey to help me understand His desires for me in my marriage.  Along that journey, I began to consider what submission meant for women in regard to church leadership.  There are two scriptures that specifically state that elders in the church are to be men and that women are not to teach or exercise authority over men.  These scrip...

Over the course of my marriage, which is now almost 10 years, I have been challenged by the Lord from the beginning about submission.   When I married my husband, I might have been called an Evangelical feminist.   I was raised in a Quaker Church and had only heard the word "submission" once when I was a senior in high school at a Baptist church.   The gal who spoke of it was someone that I did not look up to, but rather always felt judged by.   After that first time, I didn't hear the word again until I got married nine years later.   My husband and I met and married in six months, so you can imagine how much we had to work out and navigate in that first year.   It was a rough year.   A few months into our marriage, I came upon a book titled Feminism: Mystique or Mistake by Diane Passno.   Ms. Passno talked straight and didn't dance around the issues.   Her book opened my eyes about the lies I'd been fed by feminism over the years. ...