2007 Goal Update, Part 4

In January, I made a New Year's Resolution.  I don't usually make them, but did this year because it was for a worthy cause.....my daughter.  :-)  The link to the original post is above.  You can go HERE to read the other updates I've posted about this.  Just scroll to the bottom and start from the January 15th post.

In a nutshell, my goal is to make a connection with my daughter through some of the chores I have to do around the house every day.  I chose to focus on doing laundry together this year.  My success with this goal is mixed.  Part of that is due to the changing dynamics in our family.  Back in January, Third Son was usually in bed by the time we were ready to tackle the laundry.  Today, at 17 months, he's wide awake and into everything!  I have found myself falling back on my Daughter as a babysitter for him so I could get the laundry done without having him into everything in my bedroom, where we fold and iron.  She is so good with him.  She's the sweetest Little Mama I think I've ever seen, which makes it easy to have her take up the task of keeping Third Son entertained.  But then that leaves her doing her thing, and me doing my thing, and there's not much of a connection that way, eh?  So the last few weeks I have had to make a conscious decision to have my Daughter come fold laundry with me and bring Third Son along so he's not into the dishwasher and garbage can as my Husband and two older sons clean the kitchen from dinner.

We are constantly distracted in our conversation because of Third Son's antics, but I've found that even that brings us together in our work, and it's all good.  And we've had some interesting chats!  Well, lately, my Daughter is doing all the chatting.  She has taken to telling me stories while we work.  Man, that girl can spin a yarn.  We also play a casual game of hide and seek.  Whenever one of us has to leave the room to put something away, or go get hangers, the other hides.  So it's fun.  :-)  I plan on this being our job together for forever, and I hope she looks back at this time together when she's doing the laundry for her own family, and decides to reach out to her own daughter in the same way.

I think next year we'll start scrubbing the kitchen floor together. 

heh heh. 

No, seriously.  ;-)

Pregnancy Update

Since this is my fifth pregnancy, you would think that I am a little more savvy in all things related to pregnancy, but the other night, after spending a good two minutes grunting my way to a comfortable spot in bed, I said to my husband, "I don't think I can get any bigger."  My husband told me that yes, I will get bigger, and I said, "No, I don't think I can get any bigger."  So there.

I think Third Son agrees.  Yesterday he wanted me to read him a book, so he plopped down on my lap and kept trying to scoot back!  I finally had to say, "There's no where else for you to go!" 

I am 24 weeks along.  It seems as if it has taken forever (you know, about 24 weeks) to get to this point, but on the other hand, it seems as if I was blogging a pregnancy announcement just yesterday!  At my OB appointment today, I had to face the dreaded Glucose Tolerance Test and it really wasn't that bad.  I was definitely ready to eat by the time I got home, but I wasn't freaking out as I have in the past.  I know that the difference is Cod Liver Oil.  I used to have low blood sugar issues, but ever since we started taking Cod Liver Oil every day, it has never been a problem and things like the Glucose Tolerance Test is a very little deal.

Another great thing about this pregnancy is that sugar is replusive to me.  Never in my life have I been repulsed by sugar.  Love it!  Crave it!  :-)  So with the nausea of the first trimester and my new hatred of sweets, I lost ten pounds the first trimester.  The nausea is over, but the sweet thing continues, and I have never gained back all of the ten pounds yet.  There is a real possibility that I may end up weighing less after this pregnancy than when I started!  No, don't worry about me, the good Lord knows I have it to spare.  ;-)  But I have never lost weight during a pregnancy.  I'm one of those gals that gains 50 pounds and looks as if she's about to give birth any day even though she has eight weeks to go.  HA!  I tell ya, there is NO SUCH THING as a "normal" pregnancy.  Just like the kids, they are all different.

Cuisenaire Rod Fun

Today I'm working on lesson plans.  Can I say that I LUV working on lesson plans?  I don't know what it is about filling in the little rectangles on my kid's daily schedules that thrills me, but it does.  If only we could ALL be so easy to please.  ;-)

I want to re-visit place value with Second Son this week.  I thought it would be fun to pull out the Cuisenaire Rods again and wanted to find some activities with the rods for place value.  On to Google.  Love that, too. 

Here are some fun links I have found.  Not necessarily to do with place value, but learning with the rods in general. 

Cuisenaire Rod Math Games from Paula's Archives
Cuisenaire Rod Patterns - scroll down on this page
This is a great link! Cuisenaire Activity and Exploration Book

Bringing Up Baby, Part 2

So I started praying that God would show me what it meant to base our homeschool on the Bible and I received an answer through another book that He placed in our path.  I've written a post on how the book Ten P's in a Pod fired up my husband and me in the area of Bible reading.  We have begun reading to our kids from the Bible two, and we aim for three times each day.  We believe that God is less concerned with Biblically based curricula than He is with us going straight to the Word with our children.  We believe that is what is meant by basing our homeschool on the Bible.  Not sure that others would say it means the same thing to them, but that's what we believe God is telling us.  What this has meant for us is a family who is learning how to work harder and faster to fit the chores and play that we want into our day so that we are sure of getting in the All Important Bible Reading.

A little blurb from Ten P's in a Pod has been ringing through my head.  The book was written by Arnold Pent III, one of the sons.  This is what he said his mother said about all the Bible reading she and her husband did with their children:

My mother has often said, "During the time when the children were all much younger and going through rebellious stages of one kind and another, it just didn't seem we were making progress with all the Bible reading we did.  But as the months and years went by, and they started becoming conscious of the world around them, I saw that spiritual seed coming to life and giving an unending stream of Godly insight and a desire and determination to spend their lives for Christ."

And who doesn't want that for our children??????  We are taking Arnold's Mom's words to the bank and counting on their reliability!  We're taking God's word for it as well.  ;-)  In Joshua 1:8, He says, "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

So the Bible is my new parenting book and my search for the perfect parenting book is over!

Bringing Up Baby

A friend of mine and I have scoured the earth's best parenting books.  We read them together, have special meetings at the library to talk about our inspiriations we have gathered from them, then go our separate ways and proceed to do little, if nothing, that we have learned from all those books.  We truly have been looking for that magic potion that would tell us the way to lead our kids away from their character issues.  Yet everything we read seemed to be lacking, even though most of what we read was written by Christians.

About two years ago, my husband and I read the book When You Rise Up by R.C. Sproul, Jr.  Great book.  Not necessarily about parenting tricks, but more about discipling our children.  We loved the book when we read it, and this small excerpt stuck in my brain:

What does it take to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?  The Bible, and the Holy Spirit to illumine the Bible.  I have a Bible.  I have several, in fact.  And the Bible tells me that it equips me for every good work.  It is a good work to raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Therefore, it equips me to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It stuck in my brain, but meant nothing to me in a PRACTICAL sense.  Then about a year and a half later, I was reading a blog, and the writer said, "we base our homeschool on the Bible."  I was glad to read that, and at the same time, thought to myself, "What does that LOOK like?  What does that MEAN?"  We read the Bible to our kids every day.  Did that mean that we also based our homeschool on the Bible????  I didn't know, so I started praying about it.

To be continued......

My New Look

How do you like the new look of my blog?  My husband is a wonderful Web Man, and designed it for me.  He is SO good to me!  :-)  Thanks, honey! 

I hope to add more interesting stuff to my sidebar as time permits (HA!).  ;-)

We Have the Mind of Christ, Part 3

 

Here's a challenge.  Put your children in place of the woman in the black t-shirt.  Put yourself in the place of all those who tempted her away from Christ.  Ask yourself if there is anything you are placing in front of your children that takes time away from their life with Christ, as in Bible Study, Church, One-on-One Discipling from you or your spouse.  There are many, many things that we, as parents, come up with to fill our kid's time, such as sports teams, co-ops, youth groups, a book that is a must--read, & etc.

This is a subject that I think we parents must constantly visit.  Exactly what is it that we are doing that is drawing our kids to Christ?  Do they know that they have the mind of Christ  (1 Cor. 2:9-16) and can draw close to Him in a way they never imagined through reading the Bible and prayer?

My Husband and I used to have the goal that we wanted to raise our kids to be "better" than we were by the time we hit our 20's.  Not a hard thing!  ;-)  We definitely had some {partying} issues.  But now our new goal is becoming to teach our kids that they have the mind of Christ.  What power we give them to maneuver through life's surprises, if through God's grace, we succeed in meeting our goal.

Read these:
Most Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf Following Spiritually Active Teen Years
Most Adults Feel Accepted by God, But Lack a Biblical Worldview
Teens Evaluate the Church-Based Ministry They Received As Children

We Have the Mind of Christ, Part 2

As far as reading the Bible to our kids goes, there is a book that has had a HUGE influence on my husband and me.  It is titled Ten P's in a Pod.  Looking at the cover of this book, you might think that it's a sweet, anecdotal book about a Mom and Pop and their eight kids and all the situations they find themselves in and the outcomes of those situations.  Well.......yes.  But there is so much more. 

The Father of this family, Arnold Pent, was truly a man who obeyed God's command in Dueteronomy 6:4-9.
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

The Pent family traveled together, spreading the Word of God and they were REAL.  They meant every word they said when they spoke of Christ because they were immersed in the Bible.  As a family, they read the Bible three times each day AND they each had their own personal Quiet Time with God.  Scripture had a real meaning to them and they were able to be effective in their ministry because of it.  And even though they're not traveling around together today, the testimony of how they lived their life and loved their God shines through in Ten P's in a Pod and is still affecting others for Christ today. 

The Pent family sure have affected how my Husband and I are approaching life with the fam.  Our goal now is to read to our kids from the Bible three times each day.  It's a shame, but we find it a struggle to achieve that goal.  We've got twice each day under our belts, but man, are we struggling with "finding time" to fit in that third reading.  It's hard to give up our worldly goals for a squeaky clean house, certain activities for the "good" and "benefit" for the kids, and even academic goals.  These are our own issues that we know we have to work on surrendering to God.

More to come.....

No Gene for Divorce

Good news.  The research is in, and there is officially no gene that causes divorce.  Whew!

Family Quote of the Week: No Gene for Divorce

"The propensity toward divorce does not lie mainly in the genes, new research suggests.

An Australian study of twins and their grown children finds that family history plays a key role, however. Adults whose own parents had split had nearly twice the risk of going through a divorce themselves, the researchers found.

But there is no "gene" for divorce, so to speak, said lead researcher Brian M. D'Onofrio, an Indiana University psychologist. "Genetic factors that influence both generations do not [significantly] account for that increased risk," he said.

The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family."

(Source:  Carolyn Colwell, "Family, More Than Genes, Helps Drive Divorce," HealthDay, July 20, 2007; http://www.healthday.com .)

I subscribe to a newsletter that is sent out by The World Congress of Families.  Check out their website HERE.

The newsletter goes further on to discuss studies on murder rates and how divorce has been found to be a huge influence in the rates for murder.  Read on....

Criminologists have long believed that murder rates will climb when the number of young people grows, especially in areas where unemployment runs high and urban populations are growing.  However, a new study by Rutgers sociologist Julie A. Phillips suggests that the homicide rate may track less closely than previously thought with the size of population centers or with the number or employment status of the young people.  But one all-too-certain portent of murder remains: namely, divorce.

Examining county-by-county data collected between 1970 and 1999, Phillips uncovers a pattern that contradicts rather than confirms conventional wisdom among criminologists. In analyses that she calls "intriguing," Phillips shows that the statistical relationships between homicide rates on the one hand and unemployment and population size on the other are both negative, so manifesting "effects that run contrary to common theoretical expectations."  

As most criminologists would expect, Phillips does discern "a positive association between the proportion [of] young [in various areas] and homicide rates within U.S. counties across time."  But Phillips's multi-variable analysis establishes that "criminogenic forces, such as poor social conditions..., can alter the association between the relative size of the young population and homicide rates."  

One particular social measure especially helps Phillips recognize areas with the kind of  "low social control" that looses murderous impulses, even if those impulses are "less heavily concentrated in the young age ranges" in the affected areas than some theorists might have expected.  The indicator of social breakdown that Phillips highlights as a predictor of murder is the divorce rate.  

Unlike elevated unemployment rates and burgeoning population size-both surprisingly linked to lower homicide rates-high divorce rates do augur bloodshed.  In four out of five of Phillips's statistical models, the county divorce rate emerges as a statistically significant predictor of the homicide rate (p < 0.05 in all four models).  "On average," Phillips accordingly observes, "higher levels of the percentage of the population divorced are associated with larger homicide rates within counties over time."  

County coroners, it appears, will often be called on for grim duties wherever the divorce courts are busy.

(Source: Julie A. Phillips, "The Relationship Between Age Structure and Homicide Rates in the United States, 1970 to 1999," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 43 [2006]: 230-260.)

We Have the Mind of Christ

We've been doing daily Bible Study with our kids for years now.  We start off each school day with some hymn singing, Bible reading, and prayer.  We work hard to be as consistent during the weekends.  Not something we are always successful at doing, but we're getting better.  There have been times when I wonder why my Husband and I even bother with it because it seems that more often than not, the words are falling on deaf ears.  Oh, ME of little faith!  I forget Hebrews 4:12.  "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

The last two weeks, the kids and I have been listening to a series of messages by Dr. David Jeremiah.  He is a wonderful communicator, and the kids get a lot of what he says because he doesn't talk over them.  The series has been on the Basics of the Christian Faith.  Great messages on "What the Bible Says About......Communion, Church Membership, Christian Fellowship, Baptism, Christian Service, Tithing, Spritual Gifts, Evangelism, The Power of God's Word, Prayer, Eternal Security, and Salvation."  Dr. Jeremiah has called it Spiritual Training Camp for Believers.  It's been very good, and sparked a bit of conversation with the kids. 

I can't remember which message we had just listened to, but somehow First Son admitted that when he was baptized when he was seven, after accepting Christ, he said he didn't think that his heart was in the right place.  He said he only accepted Christ because he wanted to be baptized, but during our Bible Study time, he came to realize the error in his decision, and was ready to make it right.  After he said that, I was mentally screaming to myself, "He said that it was during our Bible Study time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  What a blessing to know that God's Word had not returned null and void as I was afraid it was doing.  God is so good, and today we are rejoicing as he and our Daughter are getting ready to be baptized in a few weeks.

God is so good to confirm all we have been doing.  There have been times when I doubted because we use no Bible Study Curriculum.  Only the Bible.  On homeschool loops, I have participated in many a discussion about what Bible Study materials everyone uses with their kids and I know there are a lot of good ones out there, but I've never been able to shake the thought that relying on JUST the Bible is enough.  And everytime I chime in with that opinion, I am completely ignored.  Don't get me wrong......I don't expect everyone to come along and pat me on the back and chat me up just because I have an opinion, but it has worried me on two counts.  First, I worry that our society relies too much on materials that explain the Bible, rather than relying more on the Holy Spirit to teach us.  The next thing that plagues me is insecurity.  I start wondering if my Husband and I are doing the right thing.  Should we get some sort of material to help us teach the Bible?  But God has been faithful to His Word and taught my Husband, me, and the kids through our time together. 

We read 1 Corinthians 2 this week.  Verses 9-16 say:
However, as it is written:
   "No eye has seen,
      no ear has heard,
   no mind has conceived 
what God has prepared for those who love him" but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
      The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 
 "For who has known the mind of the Lord
      that he may instruct him?"  But we have the mind of Christ.

What we gathered from this, is that having the mind of Christ, we are able to be taught the truth of scripture from the Holy Spirit alone, and we are certainly seeing the fruits of that around here.  God is good.

Timeline Notebook, Part 3!

I'm going to chalk this whole experience up to pregnancy hormones.  After looking at what it would cost to make our own timeline notebooks and comparing it to buying one already made for us, I saw that it would be cheaper to buy the ready-made.  My brain went into overdrive and I immediately placed an order for the notebooks.  Dork that I am, I never even talked with my husband first.  So when he got home and I told him the entire saga, he said, "Can you see if you can cancel your order?  I can get you what you need through our office manager at work at wholesale cost."  Oh!  Well, okay!  ;-)  So he's investigating now.

But even without the wholesale cost for the notebook I was interested in, there are other ways that I could have made the whole project cheaper.  But ya know when you get something in your head and just can't shake it?  That was my issue.  To make it cheaper, I could have bought just regular notebooks that are cheaper and still printed out the horizontal timeline pages....we would have just had to turn our notebooks around to look at the pages horizontally.  A friend of mine is doing this with her notebooks.  I was hung up on a single, beautiful line, going all the way across the page.

Another thing I thought of as I was ruminating over this whole thing was that I don't HAVE to print the lines on the page with our printer.  I could just get a fat magic marker and a ruler and draw those babies right on there.  Not as pretty as printed pages, but good grief, it would surely do the trick! 

So who knows what we'll end up with.  I'm sure whatever it is, it will be PERFECT.  :-)

Timeline Notebook, Part 2

Well, I'm disgusted.  I went to our office supply store today to get all the goods I needed to put together our very own timeline notebooks.  I went to two stores.  At the first store I bought a ream of card stock, printer ink and those labeling things that you can affix to the edge of things.....what are they called????  LoL  Anyway, they were 4 bucks.  A small thing.  An unrelated purchase was a white board that was marked down to 8 bucks.  The grand total for this stuff was 55 bucks!  I didn't get notebooks because they didn't have the kind that open horizontally.  I went to another store to look for those, and again, they didn't have them.  I was told to search the web.  I did, and the cheapest I could find was 25 bucks! 

So after thinking about the expense of building my own timeline notebooks (and I considered the cost of a vertical timeline notebook as well), I have had to give in and just buy them because believe it or not, it was cheaper.  I bought the Record of Time Timeline Notebook from Homeschool in the Woods.  It's so darn beautiful, and I really do prefer the horizontal timeline.  I bought three of them, and bought them at The Old Schoolhouse Store because they offer FREE SHIPPING!

God's High Calling for Women

God’s High Calling for Women from Pulpit Magazine: http://sfpulpit.com Posted: 06 Aug 2007 02:01 AM CDT The following is adapted from the Grace Church elders’ distinctive on “The Role of Women.” Although women have traditionally fulfilled supportive roles in serving the church and gained their greatest joy and sense of accomplishment from being wives and mothers, the feminist movement has successfully influenced many women to abandon these divinely ordained roles. Unfortunately, this movement has made headway even in the church, creating chaos and confusion regarding the role of women both in ministry and in the home. Only in Scripture can God’s intended design for women be found. The Old Testament and Women In the creation account of Genesis 1, God’s first word on the subject of men and women is that they were equally created in the image of God (v. 27). Neither received more of the image of God than the other. So the Bible begins with the equality of the sexes. As persons, as spiritual beings standing before God, men and women are absolutely equal. In Genesis 2, there is a more detailed account of the creation of the two equal human beings that reveals differences in their God-given functions and responsibilities. God did not create the man and the woman at the same time, but rather He created Adam first and Eve later for the specific purpose of being Adam’s helper. Eve was equal to Adam, but she was given the role and duty of submitting to him. Although the word “helper” carries very positive connotations — even being used of God Himself as the helper of Israel (Deut. 33:7; Ps. 33:20) — it still describes someone in a relationship of service to another. The responsibility of wives to submit to their husbands, then, was part of the plan from creation, even before the curse. The first books of the Bible establish both the equality of men and women and also the support role of the wife (see Exod. 21:15, 17, 28–31; Num. 5:19–20, 29; 6:2; 30:1–16). Throughout the Old Testament, women were active in the religious life of Israel, but generally they were not leaders. Women like Deborah (Judges 4) were clearly the exception and not the rule. There was no woman with an ongoing prophetic ministry. No woman was a priest. No queen ever ruled Israel. No woman wrote an Old Testament (or New Testament) book. Isaiah 3:12 indicates that God allowed women to rule as part of His judgment on the sinning nation. Jesus and Women In the midst of the Greek, Roman, and Jewish cultures, which viewed women almost on the level of possessions, Jesus showed love and respect for women. Though Jewish rabbis did not teach women and the Jewish Talmud said it was better to burn the Torah than to teach it to a woman, Jesus never took the position that women, by their very nature, could not understand spiritual or theological truth. He not only included them in His audiences but also used illustrations and images that would be familiar to them (Matt. 13:33; 22:1–2; 24:41; Luke 15:8–10) and specifically applied His teaching to them (Matt. 10:34ff.). To the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), He revealed that He was the Messiah and discussed with her topics such as eternal life and the nature of true worship. He also taught Mary and, when admonished by Martha, pointed out the priority of learning spiritual truth even over “womanly” responsibilities like serving guests in one’s home (Luke 10:38). Although men in Jesus’ day normally would not allow women to count change into their hands for fear of physical contact, Jesus touched women to heal them and allowed women to touch Him (Luke 13:10ff.; Mark 5:25ff.). Jesus even allowed a small group of women to travel with Him and His disciples (Luke 8:1–3), an unprecedented happening at that time. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene and sent her to announce His resurrection to the disciples (John 20:1–18), despite the fact that women were not allowed to be witnesses in Jewish courts because they were considered liars. In Jesus’ treatment of women, He raised their station of life and He showed them compassion and respect in a way they had never known. This demonstrated their equality. At the same time, however, Jesus still did not exalt women to a place of leadership over men. The Epistles and Women In the Epistles, the two principles of equality and submission for women exist side by side. Galatians 3:28 points to the equality, indicating that the way of salvation is the same for both men and women and that they are members of equal standing in the body of Christ. It does not, however, eradicate all differences in responsibilities for men and women, for this passage does not cover every aspect of God’s design for male and female. In addition, there are many other passages that make distinctions between what God desires of men and what He desires of women, especially within family and within the church. The Family While Christian marriage is to involve mutual love and submission between two believers (Eph. 5:21), four passages in the New Testament expressly give to wives the responsibility to submit to their husbands (Eph. 5:22; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1). This voluntary submission of one equal to another is an expression of love for God and a desire to follow His design as revealed in His Word. It is never pictured as demeaning or in any way diminishing the wife’s equality. Rather the husband is called to love his wife sacrificially as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25) and to serve as the leader in a relationship of two equals. While husbands and fathers have been given the primary responsibility for the leadership of their children (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21; 1 Tim. 3:4–5), wives and mothers are urged to be “workers at home” (Titus 2:5), meaning managers of the household. Their home and their children are to be their priority, in contrast to the world’s emphasis today on careers and fulltime jobs for women outside the home. The Church From the very beginning, women fulfilled a vital role in the Christian church (Acts 1:12–14; 9:36–42; 16:13–15; 17:1–4, 10–12; 18:1–2, 18, 24–28; Rom. 16; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 1:5; 4:19), but not one of leadership. The apostles were all men; the chief missionary activity was done by men; the writing of the New Testament was the work of men; and leadership in the churches was entrusted to men. Although the Apostle Paul respected women and worked side by side with them for the furtherance of the gospel (Rom. 16; Phil. 4:3), he appointed no female elders or pastors. In his letters, he urged that men were to be the leaders in the church and that women were not to teach or exercise authority over men (1 Tim. 2:12). Therefore, although women are spiritual equals with men and the ministry of women is essential to the body of Christ, women are excluded from leadership over men in the church. Men and women stand as equals before God, both bearing the image of God Himself. However, without making one inferior to the other, God calls upon both men and women to fulfill the roles and responsibilities specifically designed for them, a pattern that can be seen even in the Godhead (1 Cor. 11:3). In fulfilling the divinely given roles taught in the New Testament, women are able to realize their full potential because they are following the plan of their own Creator and Designer. Only in obedience to Him and His design will women truly be able, in the fullest sense, to give glory to God.

Timeline Notebook

I took down our KONOS wall timeline because Third Son, the ultimate toddler, kept taking down our timeline figures and chewing on them.  I don't have time to camp out by the timeline in case he decides to take an interest in it, so I decided to call it done and take it down.  Since then, I've been mulling over starting Timeline Notebooks with the oldest three.  Today was the first chance I have had to sit down and investigate my options.  My first thought was to order the Sonlight Book of Time.  First Son and I used that back before our KONOS days (we are no longer active KONOS users.  I use it to supplement what we do now.).  But they are 20 bucks, and 20 bucks X 3 is too much for our school budget, so I kept looking. 

I decided to Google "Timeline Notebook" and came up with a ton of results!  The first link I came to was a great help.  Homeschool in the Woods has a great page on their site that has suggestions for many different kinds of timeline notebook set-ups.  I really like the Chronological Card File in a 2-ring binder idea.  Further on down the page, I found the format for me.  The Horizontal Format.  Homeschool in the Woods sells a beautifully done timeline notebook called the Record of Time Timeline Notebook that is in the horizontal format, but it's 37 bucks.  Thwarted again.  ;-)  So my computer-guy Husband volunteered to format some timeline pages for me.  He's good that way.  :-)  But I thought, SURELY someone out there has done this already and I kept looking.

My search was rewarded and I found some great links to timeline pages that are ready for the printer.  Here are the keepers that I found:

This link is to Timeline Dividers.  I am going to use these and possibly color code each time period.
This is a nice Horizontal Timeline, though not my favorite.
This Timeline is my favorite because it can be personalized - you can put the timeline dates as you wish since they are not pre-printed on the pages.
Another Horizontal Timeline.
Vertical Timeline.
LOVE this page.  Not a timeline page, but a good page for Oral or Written Narrations.  I plan to include this in our notebooks.

India Short on Women

It breaks my heart to think that anyone would not welcome ANY child to their home.  But I guess there are people in countries like China and India, that have turned their backs on God and follow the devil's ways.  Satan seeks to devour and destroy God's creation, especially people.  The orphanages in China are over-crowded with baby girls, and even worse, in my opinion, is India.  The women in India are persecuted if they do not deliver baby boys.  Abortion abounds as families are desperate for ONLY boys.  And now India is short on women which brings about men  (usually brothers) sharing a wife and s-x trafficking.  Go HERE to see a slide show about how India's families are being affected by this attack from Satan.

Can you imagine how broken down the Indian women are?  As a Mother who is currently carrying a baby girl due December 14th, I can't even IMAGINE showing up at a clinic to have her aborted.  The stress and pressure that these women must feel to take such drastic measures!  And then to not only do it once, but over and over again.  The death and destruction of their own children just HAS to affect them mentally and spiritually in such a huge way that we here in the U.S. can never imagine.  God bless them. 

The Freaky Origins of Christian Rock

I came across an article titled The Freaky Origins of Christian Rock.  It is about the beginnings of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).  It was interesting to read where CCM has sprouted from.  Kinda scary, actually.

I am a product of my teenage brother's and sister's music from the 70's.  I was still in elementary school back then.  With three teens in the house, there was constant music.  My brothers and sister had a ton of albums and 8-tracks, and I listened right in with them.  Name just about any song from the 70's and I will be able to sing at least a little bit of it.  I remember sitting on my big brother's bed with my next oldest brother and little brother listening to our older brother's Cheech & Chong album.  We laughed and laughed and laughed and listened to that album over and over.  I'm sure we missed a lot of the "real" humor of the album, and I cringe when I think of the things, like this album, that I was exposed to at so young an age.

Moving on to the 80's and my own teenage years, I continued to be steeped in secular music.  I listened AND taped Casey Kasem's Top 40 every Sunday afternoon, and the Top 100 Countdown on New Year's Day.  I watched Solid Gold, American Bandstand, MTV and Entertainment Tonight.  I lived and breathed the stuff.  Again, name a song, and I can probably sing it for you.  My husband makes fun of me because I can sing along with the muszak at the grocery store.  What can I say.....it's a special gift?????

When our first son was born, I found I didn't have the heart to listen to secular music anymore.  It just seemed wrong to expose him to the lyrics, music and culture that could bring nothing to him.  I segued into CCM, but have become increasingly disillusioned with this music and it's representatives.  Take a look at the band Kutless.  If you didn't know any better, you would look at those boys and probably label them as a secular band.  I mean, they look just like one.  Look at the band Stellar Kart.  Ugh.  I cringe looking at those boys.  I'm sure they're very sweet and all, but what are they doing that is any different than a secular band?  Both of these bands are opening in the Newsboys current tour.  I mean, it LOOKS as if they are trying to emulate the secular bands.  Their music sounds like a secular band, they look like a secular band.  They've just changed up their lyrics to mention God.  Is that it????  Is that all they have to give?  They look like the rest of the chaff. 

I have no desire for my children to try to emulate a bunch of boys and girls who can think of nothing better to do than to emulate secular bands in everything but their lyrics.  Aren't we called to be set apart?  And yes, there are other CCM artists who don't look quite as scary as the boys in the above-mentioned bands do.  I understand that.  But in so many ways, if you look into their lives, and the award shows they all attend, again, it seems like more imitations of the ways of the world.  One evening, I tuned into the Dove Awards and was shocked and amazed to see dancers in scanty costumes dancing around the stage to a Christian song.  I've never watched it again.  It was just too much. 

So....I will not encourage my children to listen to CCM.  I feel as if I have no choice.