Spring is Surely Coming

This is the season of new things. I look around our city and see the daffodils and tulips popping out of the ground. It makes me so thankful for seasons. When I lived in Africa there was 2 seasons - summer and winter(only 3 months long and not really cold). The Lord created the harshness and coldness of winter to temporarily silence plants and animals. Sometimes humans too. During the ice storm this year there was lots of time for reflection. God provides these resting times i nour lives so our spirits can be renewed.

Did we use the winter season wisely? Did we spend more time in His presence and Word? I certainly did not. I became caught up in the 'things' that needed to be done so we could have more time to enjoy the nice seasons.

Did you snuggle with your children in front of a log fire and just read for the entire day! Mmmm. I read lots of books but they were scheduled ones msotly. When I did stop and read the fun and exicting, mysterious ones I had my family's attention totally. These are my favourite times during the day. I can hold the attention of 2 wriggly boys who would rather be making noises galore with their cars, trucks and trains.

Are you wondering if I am healing from my grief in the past 3 years. Well yes and no. I do not get sad every day, just occasional moments during each week. I am blessed to realize that. Mourning is so exhausting. Grief can envelope your brain, spirit and soul, and eventually your physical health. My health is gradually improving. Praise the Lord.

Gluten Free, Sugar free and additive free has done wonders for my physical awareness, and my spirit too. You see the Lord is healing me both inside and out.

The photo above is our precious Brendon taking at a photo shoot in spring time before he got cancer!

Nourishing Traditions/New Ways of Eating Healthy

It has long been on my heart to share with folks about healthier ways of eating and have neglected to put information or links on this blog. I recently was reading a blog I follow http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/ and she linked to one of my favourite sites through this post ( http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2011/02/free-ebook-healthy-4-life-from-the-weston-price-foundation.html ) . The link is placed here below for those who are interested in reading a version of "Nourishing Traditions" but it is smaller and in PDF format and able to be read on your desktop. Once you have read this little book you may then see why it is better for you to eat this way! Then you can save up to buy the thick book called "Nourishing Traditions" which guides you into all the reasons why we should be eating soaked grains, bone broths, grass fed meat, chicken and eggs, raw milk and so on.

http://www.westonaprice.org/images/pdfs/healthy4life2011.pdf

I just briefly glanced through this book this morning and it gives you an excellent outline on how to change over to this way of eating. You do not have to buy all organic everything either. That gets expensive as our family knows all too well.

For the health of you and your family take a peek. The download is free for you to have anyway. Most libraries have copies of the "Nourishing Traditions" Book too.

Keep our family in your prayers please as we have a case of regular flu, stomach flu, arthritis and knee pain, as well as some extended winter blues going on here.

Thanks - Julie

Review: Sarah's Wish

I recently was privileged to sit down and read on my own a marvellous book called "Sarah's Wish." It is written by author Jim Baumgardner and published by Tate Publishing. I took the book with me on our vacation and definitely shut myself up in my room with a view of the mountains and my eyes on the text (mostly). I was hooked from the first few pages of it. No I am not just saying that but really loved this book. I have not read a book (fiction) by myself for about 3 years. that is too long of course.



I am not going to let you know everything that happens but just give you a tast. the story is obviously about Sarah, a young lady who is in a tragic accident with her mother. She is left an orphan. She is taken in by a lady called "Granny' who is so funny and has a character all of her own. The book is set in the early 1800's when states were being set up but also there was a lot of slavery going on in the USA. Granny and Sarah's mother were both involved in the hiding and moving of slaves called the "Underground Railroad" movement.

The book shares some of the adventures of Sarah and Granny and their dealings with the authorities both good and bad and some of the slaves too. There are two other books in the series called Sarah's Promise and Sarah's Escape. They both sound exciting and I guess Mr Baumgardner is still looking into writing more. If I had daughters I would not hesitate to order this for Christmas for them! They are learning history and a little geography and some old American English all at the same time.

Included in the first book Sarah's Wish is a link in the back page to an audio download of the story so you can let younger one's listen to it or copy it onto a disk and play in the vehicle or MP3 player. I am sure that I will be purchasing more of this series in time. Sarah's Wish sells for $9.99, the audio CD's from the website are $16.99, or all three of the above books I mentioned for $39.95. Shipping and handling is free on most products. Here is the link to their website ( http://sarahbooks.net/index.html )or you can link to the Homeschool Crew review site to what other folks are saying about "Sarah's Wish" at
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/726402/

Review: Guardian Angel Publishing

I have five books to review from the above Publisher who have an amazing standard of work. These books were all sent to me in eBook format but are available on CD or in print for additional costs.

The first review is for a book titled “Earthquake!” After re-reading this little 30 page book I can see it is an easy to comprehend narrative of the how’s, whys and what to/ what not to do’s of earthquakes. The information provided is brief and to the point. It covers what happens during one; shows areas of the world mostly likely to be in earthquake zones; what to do before, during and after an earthquake in order to stay safe and healthy.
This short eBook sells for $5.00 and downloads easily. Print copies are $11.95 plus $5.95 for S&H. CD format available for $9.95 plus $5.95 S&H.

The second book I read is titled “Gifts From God” authored by Cynthia Reeg. This book is pure pleasure to look at. It is refreshing to see children being talked about as gifts through one of the pages. Photography is exquisite and professionally finished thanks to Photographer Mary Sue Roberts. The Scriptures are set into the photographs and are encouraging to the reader. It sells as a PDF file for $5.00. Once again a CD or Print Book (8.5 in x 11 in) is available for extra.

Thirdly I read “Maybe We Are Flamingo’s”. I liked this colorful and humorous story of 2 flamingo’s born into their flock, but not realizing that they were supposed to be a different color for a year before they turned pink. The story explores their different ways of finding out what they need to eat and how to live before they turn pink. They learn about themselves by asking questions and watching others. They decided to be themselves and not to try to be anybody else. That is something we should all learn!
An eBook format is $5.00 whilst print and CD copies are additional. This book is able to be downloaded to an iPod or iPhone to be read whilst waiting at a doctors office or in line at the store or bank. That is a useful feature for those who are able to utilize it.

My fourth adventure into these books was “No Bones about It - The Sum of Our Parts.” This book is full of light humor and easy to understand facts and explanations, as well as some crazy pictures set up in a rhyme format. The point of the book is to help the student learn about all the bones in their body. By working it ‘s way from the head to the toes the rhymes help the student remember the names of the bones. Once the book is read through a few times it begins to stick in your mind. I wish I had had something like this to help me in biology when I was a teenager!
My son was not interested in this book too much so I will probably reserve it for next year’s curriculum. I intend to print it out anyway and put it in a folder for me to just pick up and read sometime when he is bored! As a PDF download for $5.00 it is an easy addition to any science or Biology curriculum.

“Hamster Holidays” I think was the most enjoyable book out of all the ones I was blessed to receive. This is a delightful read for both young and old alike. The arrival of it in my Inbox was great as my 8 year old and I have just started the journey into Nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns etc. This is a hard road to take for boys I think! The book gives an index with meanings of nouns and adjectives, different kinds of nouns and then places them in the poem format. The different grammar expressions are in different colors to make it clearer to the student to identify the nouns and adjectives. One reads the antics of the Hamsters during all of their holidays whilst learning at the same time. There is a brief study guide at the end of the poems to reinforce what the student has learned with the answers included.

I did happen to have some time today to look over the website for http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/ and see a wide variety of books to help all kinds of learners both classic, eclectic and those that just get it any old how! A few freebies are available too. This is a well organized website with some video clips of most of the PDF books. the other reviews from the rest of the TOS Crew for 2009-10 are on the following link at the Homeschool Crew website :
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/718692/

These products were sent to me as I am part of the TOS Crew for 2009/10 and the above review is my opinion.

My goodness it is a while since I posted. My son D and I have been gearing up to start school. We have been leanring HTML still and not quite got it down yet! We have been practicing Math with some software that encourages the child to better their score each time they play.

We attended our sons grieving classes last night and he has a blast. We as parents go to another room and talk about our children that are still living and how they are coping, as well as how we face those continuous questions about how we are doing. Losing a child is one of the worst things I have ever experienced in my whole life so far. My husband and I do not understand why the Lord did not choose to heal Brendon, but are coming to terms with the fact that God knew B would only be here for 5 short years and packed as much as he could into that time. We would have done lots more fun stuff with him his last summer if we really truly knew he was going to die. We would have had more fun trips to fun places he liked to go like the zoo, and the Indiana State Museum. Possibly a trip to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati. We will probably visit there in the fall this year.

I am planning a possible balloon release for the 12th September. This is one of the days in September that will be recognized as Childrens Pediatric Cancer awareness day. We will go to the cemetary in the early evening and release some balloons with Brendon's site on it and www.curesearch.org written on it. Curesearch is an organization dedicated to doing research on all kinds of pediatric cancers without any government involvement. Of course they are getting further with their research than other cancer societies right now. I want to make people aware of how common childhood cancer is becoming and we need to raise money for research as well as taking care of some of the families who can not turn to alternative medicine like we did as they can't afford it. With the new health care bill there may be something introduced where if a child with cancer is not going to live longer than 6 months then no more treatments will be offered to the family. It is not cost effective as this person will no longer have a positive effect on the society in the future. I did not want my child to be just a number, but he was a living, breathing person and not an experiment.

If you can not make it to the cemetary in Indiana from where you are at then release a balloon from your backyard by all means with Brendon's name and caringpage site written on it. perhaps someone will find the balloon and become aware of this situation and learn something new as well as contribute. I will post more later today on the products we are reviewing for Homeschool.

Hank the Cowdog reporting for duty!

A few weeks ago we received a package from Maverick Books, home of Hank the Cowdog. Maverick books was created and is owned by John R Erickson and is found online at http://www.hankthecowdog.com/. Inside the package was a CD of songs and stories from the book series, a cassette tape with clips from the audio recording of the “Tornado” episode, a book titled “Hank, the Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse”, and a game for children to play called “The Tornado Game.”

As we were on a long road trip to a friend’s house I popped the CD in the player and we began to listen. All of a sudden our van was filled with talking dogs and buzzards and cats, as well as the family that live on the farm where these talkative animals reside. The animals were loud and boisterous and my son loved the CD with all the different clips of what to look forward to in the future episodes he may get to listen to. He roared with laughter through some songs and others had a perplexed look on his face too. The fast talking pace of a few of the characters especially Hank at times, may have caused this look The CD is titled “Tales and Tunes from Hank the Cowdog” and sells for about $3.00.

Our next adventure was to listen to excerpts from the tape titled “Tornado”. This was a fairly accurate account of what would happen to any kind of animal or human being carried up into the centre of a funnel cloud and tossed about all over the place. Hank and Drover get carried by the tornado they were trying bark at, up into a tree on the neighbor’s farm at least 2 miles away from their home. The neighbor finally realized there were dogs in his tree, and we are left wondering how they are going to be rescued from their plight! Hank and Drover both probably looked very disheveled after that windy day!

I read the book about Hank’s adventure called “Hank, The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse” with a little bit of apprehension. After listening to the language on the tape and CD of the characters I was aware of some words like ‘stupid’ and ‘moron’ that were being used. This book builds up the case for the neighbor’s strange one-eyed horse Tuerto to come over to Hank and Drover’s farm and tried to attack two little girls that were visiting. Hank stood up to the horse and defended his territory as the ‘head of security’ on the ranch and had more than a few hurt limbs in the process. He was of course compensated for his bravery by Sallie Mae who took him into town to get bandaged up.

The final product we loved was the “Tornado” Game. This my sons thoroughly enjoyed. The pieces are very small to play with but great for little fingers. My son D loves this game and got his relatives to play it with him this last weekend. It has given us a few challenges in sportsmanship when he loses of course, but that is life. The object of the game is to get your Hank and Drover dogs and your Buzzard Junior into home after moving around the board without landing on a tornado square, or being sent home by an opponent landing on the same spot as you. This board game sells for $12.99 on the website and is definitely a fun one. It is in a neat self storing box easy to pack in a suitcase or hand luggage bag.

Each of the books in the series in paperback sells for $4.24 and hardback for $12.99. The audio CDs and tapes vary in price between $14.99 and $17.99. Packages of books, audio in CD or tape format are also available on the website. My son is 8 years old now and understands most of the content but I would say these books are for a reader of 9-10 years of age who can discern the content a little better.

We will be playing the Tornado game many times over after today and possibly venturing into more stories of Hank and Drover and Junior the Buzzard in the future months and years ahead. Swing on over to their website for some more information, or to the “Homeschool Crew” by clicking the link on the right column for some other reviews that other Crew members have entered there. Thanks.