Can we have a big hearty round of applause for:
Laura @ Laura Williams’ Musings
Congratulations, Laura. Thank you for entering! Email me your shipping address to claim your Ballantyne Christian Adventure Library.
Ballantyne library: and the winner is…
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 30, 2007 By
Random cuteness
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 28, 2007 By
Our kittykait is captivated by her own cuteness. She found an old sound recording of herself and couldn’t resist posting it to her blog. She thinks you’ll be as captivated as she was.
Is she right?
Frugal gleanings
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 28, 2007 By
It’s Friday, so frugal is the topic of the day.
- I would love to hear your opinion over at Frugal Hacks on whether the tasty $1 Double Cheeseburger is worth your time and money.
- While you’re there, check out the other recent posts on Frugal Hacks. I’m giddy every time I think of the fantastic team of contributors over there!
- Do you know who the latest contributor is? Hint: she has started a new frugal blog of her own too.
- This one was too much fun to keep to myself: 25 Things to Do With Old Jeans. We have cut the back pockets out of old jeans and used them for little girls’ purses. It works especially well if the pockets have cute appliques or other details. A long section of double stitched leg seam, closely trimmed, makes a very nice pre-fabricated strap for the purse.
- 13 Free Toys You Probably Already Own. I read this again whenever I find myself tempted to bring home a new toy. The Headmistress’s latest post at Frugal Hacks reminds me of this too.
- PaperBack Swap is a blast! We have already ordered and received many books we love for next to nothing – all we pay is outgoing shipping on books requested by other users. When we refer new members, we don’t even have to ship books to other users. PaperBack Swap is the perfect way to find a new home for books and cds that don’t quite merit a permanent place on our already crowded shelves. The whole process is fast and painless, far easier than selling on ebay. You can list or request a book with just a few clicks of the mouse. They even generate ready-to-print wrappers and offer online postage. Note: There are some objectionable books and categories, and users must be adults; they do not allow children on the site, even with parental permission.
- Got any frugal thoughts of your own? Share them in the comments, or go link up at Crystal’s Frugal Friday. Or do both: sharing is frugal, too.
10 ways to avoid raising a picky eater
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 26, 2007 By
Our children are not picky eaters. A few of them want to be, but it’s simply not allowed in our house.
I think our children are generally content to eat what is served to them because we usually follow these guidelines:
- Do not allow children to request alternate meals if they don’t like what’s being served. A child might be allowed to have bread and milk if I’m serving something I know she dislikes, but not a separate meal.
- Do not get their approval before you prepare a meal. I often solicit their input, but they understand that the final choice is not theirs.
- Don’t assume that your children will dislike all the foods that you dislike. To make that assumption is to encourage pickiness.
- Don’t avoid serving the foods you dislike. As above, this teaches and encourages children to assume that they will dislike certain foods.
- Make sure your children know that even if there are certain foods you dislike, you will continue to try them regularly to see if your tastes have changed. I use this as an opportunity to express regret that I haven’t yet learned to appreciate that particular blessing of God, but hope to someday. Except for raw onions and sushi. They’re just gross. Hubby wants me to add liver to the list of Gross Foods That Don’t Deserve to be Retried, as well the list of Foods That Will Never Be Served At Our Table.
- Likewise, expect or require your children to try foods that they claim to dislike. They don’t need to eat a full serving, but they need to be humble enough to admit that they might actually have been mistaken when they were 3yo and decided that green vegetables were abominable.
- Do not allow them to announce freely which foods they don’t like and their negative opinions of the food before them and before others. This is a courtesy issue. If they don’t care for what is served, they may politely decline. They may not announce that the food looks gross, smells gross, and/or tastes gross. Unless somebody is serving sushi. Or liver.
- Do not bring “backup food” to friends’ homes when you are invited just in case your friends serve something your children don’t like. Of course you might want to bring food when you are invited to dine at a friend’s home and you’ll probably want to bring something that your children like, but don’t let this turn into a child-centered decision. Here again, a child may politely decline and let the host assume that she is not hungry. The host doesn’t need to know how the child feels about her Bolivian Green Bean and Tomato Curry.
- Do not keep children so full of snack foods that they are never hungry at mealtime. Beggars can’t be choosers, but a full belly can be very choosy indeed.
- Avoid serving a sweet drink with every meal: juice, koolaid, soda, sweet tea.
All of our children have likes and dislikes, but they have generally learned not to be ruled by their own preferences, and this is one way to become less self-centered. None of these are hard fast rules, and there are probably situations where each guideline should be tossed down the garbage disposal but these general practices have worked for us.
Obviously, allergies and special dietary needs will create special situations – but the point is for children to learn to be thankful for God’s provision and courteous to those who serve them. And adults too. I despise olives, but I try them regularly just in case my taste changes, and I eat them graciously when they are served to me. I just swallow quickly and drink a lot of water.
Free complete set of Ballantyne books!
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 25, 2007 By
update: the winner has been announced.
OK, people. Are you tired of my forgetfulness yet? I’m finally doing it: the big giveaway for a full Ballantyne Christian Adventure Library. That’s 10 high quality hardback books with a retail value of $199!
These books are not for the faint of heart. Mr. Ballantyne lived among the people about whom he wrote, and he doesn’t mince words when he tells about life among them. His writing is fast and full, descriptive but never slow moving. His Christian worldview (and that of his characters) permeates the book, but they never seem “preachy.” This is what my daughter tells me after devouring all 10 in a matter of 3 weeks.
Want to know more? Here’s my original post about the big giveaway w/more on Ballantyne.
Ready? If you haven’t already done it, just post about the giveaway on your own blog, and make sure you include the following phrase:
Life in a Shoe is hosting a giveaway of Vision Forum’s exciting new adventure series, Ballantyne books.
I’ll take entries until Friday at midnight, CST and I will draw for a winner on Saturday.
Menu
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 25, 2007 By
I missed the boat on Menu Monday, but nonetheless, here it is. I need some accountability in this area, so I’m posting for all the world to see. Just don’t ask me how it went when next Monday rolls around.
My plans rarely include side dishes or snacks. We figure those out as we go, though I’m not recommending the method. Don’t assume that we never eat fresh fruit or veggies just because you don’t see it in the plan! Menu planning is one of several areas that have become very unstructured, in part because I have so many helpers who can figure it out for me at the last minute.
Hubby is low-carbing and I feel better when I eat that way too, so a few dinners are different for adults/children. Sometimes I plan a different dinner for the kids just because there’s an easy option that they prefer and they often like to cook the Kid Dinner. I even let them plan portions of the menu for themselves – with my approval, of course.
Hubby gets home late so we rarely eat all together, though the children often join us at the table.
Monday
breakfast: oatmeal
lunch: leftovers
dinner: hamburger patties w/mushroom gravy, salad, mixed veggies
Tuesday
breakfast: breakfast burritos
lunch: beanie weenies
dinner: taco salad
Wednesday
breakfast: pancakes
lunch: bologna sandwiches
dinner: chicken caesar salad for adults, chicken stir fry for kids
Thursday
breakfast: muffins
lunch: quesadillas
dinner: burgers for adults, sloppy joes for kids
Friday
breakfast: biscuits and gravy
lunch: buttered noodles
dinner: pizza night – every Friday!
Saturday
breakfast: cold pizza
lunch: leftovers
dinner: jambalaya
Sunday
breakfast: ummm…pour a glass of milk and get your tail in the van!
lunch: baked herb chicken (cook in roaster at church for fellowship afterward)
dinner: leftovers and snackage (we don’t really eat a 3rd meal after the church fellowship meal on Sundays)
Boys: is it true?
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 24, 2007 By
Is it just The Boy, or do all little boys come without a volume control? Like an alarm clock, he’s either on sleep or full blast.
He also loves to dance. Don’t ask me where he learned it, but that kid has got the moves – he swivels his hips, snaps his fingers, swings his arms, bobs his head. He loves music. Folk, country, rock, gospel – it’s all good as far as he’s concerned.
But it’s not just old country songs that get him going. If he’s not bellowing for food or mom (sometimes I am the food he’s bellowing for), he’s belting out the Gloria Patri or the Threefold Amen. Always at full blast. He makes a joyful
noise, alright. I’m pretty sure his dad can hear him 52 miles away at work.
Then he blinks his big brown eyes at me, innocently inquires, “Boo?” and my decibel-induced stress melts away.
Censorship, Stewardship and the 9th commandment
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 22, 2007 By
posted by Pc3
We are quite vocal and unapologetic in our support of Vision Forum in our family. Kim has, at my direction, over the course of the last year posted on issues relevant to the patriarchy versus feminism debate and even links to relevant documents as Vision Forum and others have made them available.
After Kim’s recent post on patriarchy, and again on Doug Phillips article on gossip we attracted a little attention from patriarchy’s detractors that led to my having her turn on comment moderation. Over the last month or so Kim and I have had many discussions about our editorial policy, censoring comments and how to apply a biblical ethic to blog writing and to comment moderation. Yesterday I came across this short but brilliant explanation by Tim Bayly that puts the matter ever so much better than I could.
Here are some relevant quotes from the comment (I encourage everyone to read the article and the comments when you have time )
“… I’ve explained it often enough, but once more for the record: when men attack the word of God on this blog, directly contradicting the Holy Spirit , my choices are limited….
I can remove their attack and lies from our blog. …And that is not censorship, but faithful guarding of the good deposit which has been passed on to us.
This blog is not now, nor has it ever been, a forum for the free exchange of ideas. It’s an extension of the ministry of two pastors who are brothers and who have vowed to honor the Word of God. We have no obligation to provide a forum for heretics and rebels against God who seek to devour souls by feeding those souls lies. In fact, we have an obligation given us by the Holy Spirit to silence such men.
On the other hand, egalitarian feminists (Perry’s note: I would add to this list slanderers, and those who believe excommunicants over God’s people and elders) directly oppose God our Father, and His Word. Constantly, they twist Scripture making it say the very opposite of its plain meaning; and constantly they lead God’s little ones astray. Many think they should be allowed to do so because not allowing it will produce the fruit of women like you accusing them of censorship. Or because not allowing it will cause them to appear to be lacking in the collegiality deportment…Other times, we’ve removed comments–almost always for lying and almost never for disagreement with us. Sure, people may see removal for lying as removal for disagreement, but honest souls will know the truth.”
You see, if you own a blog or a website you will not only stand before God for the things you write, but you are also accountable for what you allow others to write and publish on your site. The Baylys understand this very well and as our family has come to understand it I have tightened our editorial control over our site. This is why, in part, we will be moving our blog to wordpress soon. -keep an eye out for the announcement- WordPress give us the ability to not only approve or reject comments like blogger but also to edit the content of them as we see fit. This way we might be able to interact with critics of our views, Vision Forum, Doug Phillips, the Botkin family or Patriarchy in context without letting them devour souls by feeding their lies to God’s children.
(parenthetical note: I owe the Baylys a giant hat tip for helping me to clarify my thinking and the terminology surrounding the blog trolls who are slandering my friends and the teachers of biblical family roles.)
This brings me to my final point, which is the reason we link to and promote those pieces of information, articles, and evidences as they become available. We have a duty to protect the good name of our neighbors. That extends a fair bit beyond not allowing slander but lay burdens upon us to promote and protect the good name of our neighbors insofar as we have the power to.
Question 144 of the Westminster Larger Catechism is helpful here:
Question 144: What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?
Answer: The duties required in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things: Whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbors; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging talebearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requires; keeping of lawful promises; studying and practicing of: Whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.
In light of the above we actively promote and spread the antidote to the lies, slander, and mischaracterization whenever we can. One of the apparent strategies of the blog trolls in question has been to create a series of links and websites that will rise in the search engine rankings so that whenever an innocent gets wind of the rumors and googles Vision Forum or someone attached to them they are fairly certain to see the lies. This is why they put up several sites each, this is why they link proficiently to one another, and this is why they delight in using the names of people or repetitiously in their writing. The ONLY way I know to combat these vicious attempts to destroy innocent names is to link to the truth.
It’s really that simple. Just link to God-honoring commentary, letters and proofs that help to protect the good name of the people I love and repect. The 9th commandment requires it of me and it requires it of you.
In closing I will leave you with a number of links I think are relevent to current issues surrounding accusations against Doug Phillips, Brian Abshire, Patriarchy and the Biblical family.
I hope you will take time to read them and link to them to help in “the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man” and “ standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully” while “discouraging talebearers” and defending the innocent.
Perry C
Links:
Vision Forum Responds to Don Veinot
Part two (NEW)
Brian Abshire’s gracious response to Don Veinot
Vision Forum Responds to the Epsteins and their coloaboraters
Doug Phillips teaches on high tech dishonor
Vision Forum article on Tale Bearing by Alexander Strauch
Vision Forum Ministries article on De-feminizing your family
Doug Phillips and Voddie Baucham cook up some “sacred cows”
Doug Phillips and Geoff Botkin teach us about using the “C” word
Doug Phillips writes about tearing down strawmen
More links and commentary:
- Nathaniel @ Persevero on Cutting the Tail Off of Tale-Bearing
- Ketocton Baptists on Doug Philips: How to Respond to a Tale-Bearer
- Scott Brown Online on How to Respond to a Tale-Bearer
- Shepherd’s Journey on Thank You, Dr. Abshire
- Caleb Hayden on Vision Forum President Doug Phillips Responds to Criticism
- The Stubblefields on How to Respond to a Tale-Bearer
- Stacy McDonald at Your Sacred Calling on What’s In A Name?
- Engstrom Family Cerebrations on Patriarchy Under Attack
Teaching from a Christian perspective
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 21, 2007 By
How Kids Think, a project of God’s World Publications, asked:
I?ve become increasingly aware that my parenting/educational perspective can come more from moralism than a biblical worldview. In an effort to correct this, I sometimes ?over-God? everything by making practically everything I say have a reference to the truth that God allowed for it, God created it, God is aware of it.
How do you approach teaching kids that, ?whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God? (1 Corinthians 10:31)? What does math look like when taught from a biblical worldview? How about science? art? music? How do you avoid the ?squirrel scenario??
You can read the whole post here. You’ll need to read the opening joke in order to understand the squirrel scenario.
My lengthy comment was as follows:
Warning: soapbox sermon ahead. Proceed at your own risk.
How math is taught depends upon the teacher’s religious presuppositions. I think we are largely unaware of this because our culture is built upon Christian thinking and presuppositions. Even those who do not call themselves Christians are still affected by generations of Christian thinking.
In a world that is truly ruled by chance, you never know if 2+2 will be 4. We simply assume that it will be the same answer we have generally seen. (“How do I know that 2+2 is four? In my experience, 2+2 has always been 4.”) This is the logical conclusion of those who hold to evolution.
If I believe that truth is relative, 2+2 will be whatever I believe it to be. This thinking has begun to infiltrate schools, in that teachers will ask for a “a better” answer rather than the *correct* answer. The concept of right and wrong is slowly being erased – perhaps because we have forgotten the importance, the basis, and the definition of the concept.
Many eastern religions hold that all is one. This underlying belief has obvious impact upon mathematics – and believe it or not, it does have practical mathematicalapplication.
Evolution is the most obvious example of why science can and must be taught from a Christian perspective. Evolution is based not upon the simple observation of the world around us, but the *interpretation* of what we see. Non-Christians have interpreted what they see based upon non-Christian assumptions, and put forth their opinions as fact. By teaching these “facts” to very young children, they are teaching children to build their thinking upon non-Christian thought patterns. They are teaching children the “squirrel scenario” in reverse. The answer *can’t* be God, so it must be evolution.
In music and art, our presuppositions very quickly come into play again: how do we know what is good or what is beautiful? Is it because it pleases *me*? Doesn’t this sound a bit humanistic?
What if I hate what you love? Is quality in art or music simply relative? We are certainly seeing the effects of pursuing art and music from an anti-Christian perspective: violent rap music and poo-smeared canvas art come immediately to mind. Without an absolute standard, who are we to say that these works of art are inferior to those of Michelangelo or Bach?Actual methods might vary but teachers must teach every subject from a Christian perspective, or else they are teaching from an anti-Christian perspective. There is no neutrality, even in math, science and the arts, and it is good for our children to understand this from the very beginning.
Frugal Hacks
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 21, 2007 By
If you’re not familiar with Frugal Hacks, I would love for you to make a quick visit. We have lots of new things going on over there.
There are daily scheduled posts each week from some of my very favorite frugal bloggers:
- Monday: Meredith of Like Merchant Ships posts on Cheerful Frugality.
- Tuesday: Amy of MotherLoad: the MomAdvice.com Blog shares tips on frugal entertainment.
- Wednesday: Janel Messenger of Pearls talks about Out of the Box Frugality.
- Thursday: Showcase of Frugal Bloggers, in which I interview a new Frugal Blogroll member each week.
- Friday: The Deputy Headmistress of the Common Room discusses What’s in my hand?
- Saturday: somebody new will be joining the FH team of contributors. This is the last person on my short list of oh-I-hope-she’ll-say-yes bloggers.
And I’ll be giving away another copy of The Tightwad Gazette soon, so keep your eyes open. And just in case you’re wondering, it will be a used copy, because new just wouldn’t feel right.
What diapers do you luv?
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 20, 2007 By
I’m a whatever’s-cheap girl when it comes to diapers. When our oldest was wee tiny, we tried each brand once and decided that she was going to leak around her skinny little legs no matter what brand we used, so why pay more?
We’re pretty satisfied with the Parent’s Choice diapers we get from WalMart, but free is an even better deal so I was tickled to try a free sample of Luvs when it was offered to me.
But this was no ordinary sample. Luvs now have Bear Hug Stretch. This means that we felt obligated to tear open the package as soon as it arrived and test the tabs to see just how far they would stretch.
Remember those Little Caesar pizza commercials, where the cheese stretched for impossibly long distances? Let’s just say you could wrap these tabs around a really fat baby. Or two.
Test number one
Do they fit securely? pass
Then I wrapped the tabs around The Boy, resisting the urge to bring them twice around his waist and up over his shoulders. He was having…ahem…loose bowels…so this would be a good time for a test. Too much info? What did you expect in a post about diapers?
Test number two
Do they control/prevent leakage? pass
Did I mention that The Boy eats far more than any of the girls ever did? It makes sense that he also poops far more. He gave these diapers a run for their money when it came to capacity, and I noticed a marked difference.
Test number three
Do they hold plenty? pass
My girls who help with diaper changes also agree that we seemed to have far less leaks, both because of better capacity and because of the cool uber-stretchiness of the tabs. They also agree that it was really fun to see just how far they would stretch.
They also noticed that the velcro was stronger than on the diapers we usually use. This made it harder for The Boy to shed his diaper prematurely.
The bottom line: Would I buy Luvs? Depending on the price, I just might switch. Better capacity = less frequent changes (we change dirty ones right away of course, but not wet ones). Less leaks also means fewer headaches for me, which will save money on ibuprofen and chocolate. Coupons could even make these cheaper than the store brands.
Test number four
Are they a good value? pass
no – wait – less chocolate? I changed my mind!
The Bible in Verse
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 20, 2007 By
We just spent the last 30 minutes playing a little game with the “search inside this book” Amazon feature of The Bible in Verse by Alvy Ford.
This book has a simple 4 line poem for each and every chapter of the Bible. I first heard about it from Arnold Pent, author of Ten P’s in a Pod.
Can you guess which book of the Bible the stanza below is describing? Extra points if you can specify the chapter.
Time is ordained for all things on earth:
Time to take life, and time to give birth;
Time to embrace and a time to release;
Time to make war and a time to make peace.
I’ve been looking at this book with longing eyes for many months, but even used copies are never cheap. Was the sample above too easy? Try this one:
Hophni and Phineas die in the fight.
Ark of God taken by Philistine might.
Eli succumbs at the news of the ark.
Ichabod named as the glory departs.
So here’s the game: go to the search inside this book link, and hit “surprise me.” Quickly scroll down a bit so nobody will the header of the page, and try to guess from which Bible book the chapters are taken. Do it again. Again. Isn’t this fun???
Too easy? Read a stanza aloud and let the children guess without the benefit of the context from the surrounding stanzas. If guessing the book is too easy, try guessing the chapter.
Here’s an easy one to end with:
In the beginning, God says let there be:
Dry land and firmament, sunlight and sea,
Livestock and herbage to cover the land;
Then, in the image of God, He makes man.
How did you do? Do you have a new book on your wish list now?
A low–caffeine way to start the day
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
September 19, 2007 By
We call this a latte, though I’m sure it’s not at all authentic. Is is good, however, fulfills my psychological need to sip something warm and coffee-ish in the morning, and doesn’t pack the caffeine punch of a full cup of coffee. And it makes me happy. Not surprising since it contains #1, #2 and #6 of the top 11 Mood-Lifting Foods. (HT to Lifehacker for the link)
Mom’s Morning Latte
Combine 1/4-1/3 cup of black coffee and 1-2 tsp. chocolate syrup. Fill to top with milk, and heat until it’s so hot you can barely sip it. Grab your Bible and enjoy some early morning quiet caffeine time.
Now if I could just bring myself to eat a Broccoli/Rice Mackerel casserole for breakfast, I’d be the happiest gal around. NOT.
But the latte works for me.
Recent Comments