Tuesday Review

I am always on the lookout for things I can do with my daughter.  She loves to read and she got that from me, so it was only natural that I look for something for us to read together.  I settled on the Elsie Dinsmore series.  I love everything that Vision Forum has in their catalog and it's an unofficial goal of mine to own everything they sell, so I didn't question that these books would be good or bad.  Imagine my surprise when we started reading the first book and I thought I was going to gag over how sickeningly unreal Elsie seemed to be.  Was there a real-life eight year old that could actually be as pious and GOOD as Elsie?  I mean, this girl is meticulously observant and I felt it was just waaaaaay out there.  But I kept reading because my daughter seemed interested.  After we had read about half of the book, she turned to me and said, "I wouldn't like this book if I didn't already have Christ in my heart."

She might as well have hit me on the nose as hard as she could have with the book because that's about how her comment struck me.  Shame on me.  I let myself become cynical to the point where I was turned off of godly behavior in a character in a book!  Lots of prayers went up to God about that and we have continued the series. 

We are on Book Six right now, and I have to say that as a mother, these books are having a big impact on me!  The books follow Elsie's entire life, and right now we are into Elsie's motherhood.  What a role model for motherhood she is.  Gracious to her children....a true teacher and advocate of her children.  Her highest goal is that her children's hearts belong to God in true love and obedience.  Because she disciplines and teaches with kindness, her children are willing to do whatever she asks.  If they ever do disobey it hurts them as much as it hurts Elsie and they are always eager to make things right with her and God.  It brings to mind Romands 2:4, "...God's kindness leads you to repentance."

I am so glad to be reading these books with my daughter.  When I was growing up I filled my head with Harlequin Romances and the latest teeny-bopper paperback fiction.  No wonder I was too cynical for these books to begin with.  "Garbage in, garbage out" is a cliche, but that's because it's so true.  I filled my young mind and even my young adult mind with garbage and am so excited to break that mold for my daughter by introducing her to characters that esteem God and view motherhood as a high calling. 

These are books to invest in and keep so that our daughters can take them with them to read to their daughters.  You may come across Elsie Dinsmore books at your local Christian bookstore.  These have a yellow and purple cover.  Don't buy them.  They are an abridged, modernized version of the original.  Get the original versions of the books from Vision Forum or from Mantle Ministries.

 

Tuesday Review

On the days when I'm feeling a little rough around the edges with this whole homeschooling/mama thing, I think of Karen Andreola's book, Pocket Full of Pinecones.  I really enjoy the Charlotte Mason philosophy, but have never become a true-blue CM woman.  I feel I got too far into homeschooling before I found CM and struggle to implement CM's ways into our school on a huge scale.  But now I've got two littles coming up in a few years....I'm hoping for a fresh start.  So for now, I use a book like "Pocket Full of Pinecones" for inspiration to keep going.  Here's what I'm talking about:

My devotions gave the day its energy... It is proof that I remember Him, depend on His mercy, which is so thankfully new every morning. It is evidence that I trust Him. It is because my days are so busy that I have kept myself from the God-can-wait syndrome. I need my heavenly Father and so I seek Him early. Prayers are the wings of the soul. They bear the Christian far from earth, out of its cares, its woes and its perplexities, into glorious serenity. It is the first God-ward step that the soul takes.

Life can be stressful.  What a comfort it is to 'rest me in the thought' that God is ruling, that Christ is sustaining all things by His powerful Word.

I love this poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that Karen Andreola included in the book:
The little cares that fretted me,
  I lost them yesterday,
Among the fields, above the sea,
  Among the winds at play;
Among the lowing of the herds
  The rustling of the trees,
Among the singing of the birds,
  The humming of the bees.
The foolish fears of what may happen,
  I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass,
Among the new-mown hay.
Among the rustling of the corn,
  Where drowsy poppies nod,
Where ill thoughts die and good are born -
  Out in the fields with God!

This book is set in the 30's, and the main character of the book is taking her kids out of public school to homeschool them.  I wonder how much that was actually happening back in the 30's, but that little tidbit became unimportant to me as I became interested in this little family's transition into homeschooling amid job struggles, pregnancy, a move, helping extended family during sickness.....you know, real life situations. 

The main character, Carol, keeps up the faith during all the ups and downs.  You know, there are those times when life seems too hard and we are tempted to let the "little things" slide.  She never does that and that encourages me.  She keeps her peace during the time her husband is struggling at work.  Rather than nagging him and offering advice, she prays for him and trusts that God will resolve the situation.  She prays for her children constantly and seeks their good.  Someone tell me that this book could not be a good read even for the most die-hard textbook-using homeschooling mom!  I just don't think it can be done.