Doug Phillips Interviews Olympic Gold Medalist Josh Davis, Part 3
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August trivia
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Shamelessly plagiarized from the Paperback Swap newsletter:
Little-known fact about August: it is a thief! The months used to alternate between 30 and 31 days all through the calendar, but when the Romans decided to give Caesar Augustus a month, they didn’t want to annoy him (= they did not want to be beheaded) by giving him a shorter month than Julius Caesar’s month that fell before his. So, poor February shuffled up and sacrificed a day to prevent an Imperial Tantrum. And September had a day wrested away from her too, so there would not be four “long” months in a row. The Romans were all about symmetry. And um, not getting beheaded.
OK, maybe not shamelessly. I’m ashamed. But it was too interesting to let it pass into the abyss of my memory. I had to preserve it here instead, where I will someday stumble across it again and say, “Wow! That’s interesting. I want to remember that…”
Fund Raising…for the Persecution Project
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moved here for greater visibility. come on…it’s just one more click and it’s for a good cause.
While we’re on the topic of women in civil leadership…
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My good friend Colin and his brother have a collection of audio and video documentaries that look into, among other things,
- How Christians should and are standing against public perversion and
- What are the effects of Feminism on our culture
These are HIGHLY recommended teaching tools for you and your family. If you dont’ have them go here and here to watch the clips, read my previous review then go to this link to buy the whole set for 40% off
You might even considering buying one for your pastor or church library 
New games in the sidebar
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Have you noticed our Fun & Games widget on the lower left sidebar? There are two new additions, both brought to my attention by Mother Hen.
The first is the Age Game. Mother Hen found this for me at the Peterson Clan’s blog. Actually the game is called something like this:
??????01?????
but I thought it might be nice to come up with a snappier name.
- Hit the start button.
- Wait for the countdown, and watch the numbered buttons that appear.
- When the numbers disappear from the buttons, click the buttons in order from least to greatest.
- After several rounds, your score will appear. This is your mental age.
It’s easier than it sounds – just try it! Presumably, the lower you score, the better. I was 26. Surely you can do better than a mother of 9 who was nursing at the time?
The other new game in our sidebar is Set. This is one of our all-time favorites in real life. You can get the deck of cards from Christian Book Distributors, or you can play it online here. I’m not going to give you the rules here because you can find them on the site. In English, even. I will tell you that this is a great family game – one of the few really brainy games in which a child can beat an adult.
Vote Republican?
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My good friend Doug Phillips has this to say:
“I respectfully disagree with part of that statement. I am confident that Mrs. Palin is a delightful, sincere, thoughtful, and capable woman with many commendable virtues. But in fairness, there is nothing “traditional” about mothers of young children becoming career moms, chief magistrates and leading nations of three hundred million, nor is this pattern the biblical ideal to which young women should aspire. At a time when motherhood and marriage is so under attack, the message Republicans are sending is this: Winning political elections is more important than the following proposition given by the Lord: “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, [To be] discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:4-5).”
Read the rest of the article at Doug’s blog.
I respectfully submit the question we ought to ask is not is a candidate “traditional” or “conservative” but ‘are they biblically qualified?’
Is Mrs. Palin qualified?
Why or why not?
A winner
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Did you enter the giveaway of the week? You know, the GOTW? It was here. Don’t bother clicking over, though, because it’s too late now. Just resolve to do better next week, and congratulate the happy owner of a new George Sarris CD of her choice:
Volume 3. We have two of these but they are on tape. I need to update!
If you didn’t enter, let that be a lesson to you, and don’t forget to check back Monday for a new giveaway!
Proverbs
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Like many families, we used to read a chapter of Proverbs aloud every day. I loved the way that given the first line, our girls could complete nearly any verse in the book. This was a habit that fell by the way, particularly when everyone who could read began reading silently and separately.
I’m working now to revive the habit so that our younger ones will have the book of Proverbs imprinted upon them as deeply as the older ones – and so that the older ones (including me) will continue to learn as well.
Every chapter of Proverbs has many highlighted verses in my Bible. Every chapter is my favorite chapter, but one verse that struck me today was this:
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked,
but such as keep the law contend with them.
Proverbs 28:4
Here’s why: we occasionally tackle some tough topics on our blog. Birth control, homosexuality, government education, and ectopic pregnancy come to mind. When we do this, we sometimes let it be known that we think certain positions are sinful. Let me be frank: I believe that birth control is sinful – at least the way it is generally and commonly used. I believe that homosexuality is sinful. I believe it is sin for Christian parents to send their children to government schools. And I believe that every abortion, every time, for every reason, is sinful.
I don’t want to open those topics for discussion here and now. You might disagree and that’s fine. That’s not really the point.
The point is that God’s law matters. It is our standard for evaluating any practice. When we forsake His law and base our beliefs upon our own feelings, we are joining with the wicked. Likewise, when we approve of those who forsake His law, we are joining with the wicked.
The righteous will always contend with the wicked in this world. We shouldn’t expect peace and pats on the back. Tolerance is not a good thing. We must evangelize the wicked, but we must also contend with them, not “love and accept them where they are.” We must never hesitate to call sin sin.
Wrong. Just wrong.
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I was scooping refried beans into a tortilla for lunch when I heard Rachael calling out in distress.
“Mom! I just stepped in dog poop! It’s on my toes!”
My burrito began to look a lot less appetizing.
My outdoor non-electric clothes dryer
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We’re back to drying the old-fashioned way this week. I have to admit that I like it. I know it’s crazy, but I love the motivation to get up and go outside for a few brief minutes of physical activity. I despise exercise, but I’m finding that I enjoy hanging laundry. The chore officially belongs to 10yo Megan but I volunteer to help her nearly every time.
The amount of time it takes to hang a load of laundry is just enough to soak up some warm, delightful sunshine but not long enough to start sweating.
Can anyone name the intended purpose of my improvised drying racks?
The amount of time required to dry a load of laundry outside in late August in south Texas is roughly the time required to wash the next load. I honestly don’t think it takes any longer than an electric dryer. If a miracle happens and drops of water fall from the sky, we can bring it in and dry during the night in the middle of the living room.
Wait – what am I saying? The reason we quit using the electric dryer is because it was taking 3-12 hours to dry a single load. We could hang the laundry on the shower curtain rod and it would dry faster!
It also didn’t help that the dryer was tearing holes in our clothes. Never mind about mysteriously disappearing socks; our dryer was in outright rebellion, wreaking havoc and grim destruction upon our apparel!
Um…this post is over. PerryBoy just created more dirty laundry. You don’t want details.
Doug Phillips Interviews Olympic Gold Medalist Josh Davis, Part 2
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WFMW: keeping kids’ money
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My kids occasionally get their hands on some cold hard cash and they have also been known to lose it. Being a good mom (except when I’m busy being a Bad Mom) I offer to hold it for them if it’s a significant amount, and they usually take me up on the offer. I keep it in my purse so they will have it with them if they decide to spend it. So far, so good.
PROBLEM:
But I have a terrible memory, and I’m liable to accidentally spend their money. Then when they ask for it 10 minutes or 10 days or 10 months later, I deny that I was holding any for them. Now it’s their memory against mine, and ovarian guilt requires me to take their word for it even though I strongly suspect that they really used their money to buy a piece of plastic trash that hit the landfill months ago. Here’s my solution:
SOLUTION:
I just roll the greenbacks up tightly (I don’t hold coins for them) and wrap with a scrap of paper that has the child’s name written on it. I secure this with a rubber band and drop it in my purse. At any given time I probably have 3 of these little rolls in my purse. Six months later, when Kiddo wants her money, we just check to see if she has any. “Yes, here it is,” or “No, you must have spent it.” Easy peasy, sweet and simple. It’s never failed me yet. At least, not that I recall.
Great deal on VF purchases
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If you like to start your Christmas shopping early, now’s the time. Vision Forum just started their big gift certificate sale! For every $95 worth of merchandise that you order between now and midnight Saturday, get a $50 Passport (gift certificate) for free. There’s no limit and no coupon necessary, and no need to split your order into increments of $95 – if you order $190 you’ll automatically get two $50 Passports, 3 x $95 gets you 3 Passports, etc. That’s a huge savings!
The only small print is that you have to use your Passports between October 15th and December 24, 2008. That’s not too hard, is it?
So…what’s on your wishlist? 
If you’re looking for ideas, 11yo Lydia thinks you should check out the selection of drawing items. She thinks the pencils are the best deal, though she likes the fact that the drawing set comes with a case to keep it all together. She also thinks I should make a note to review this post sometime around her birthday.
10yo Megan is partial to several of the Ballantyne titles and can’t wait to get her own copy of To Have and To Hold. She’s also waiting for her chance to buy PerryBoy another set of “Cha Guys.” You don’t know what those are? If you’ve ever seen a sword fight, you know that you’re supposed to yell, “cha! cha!” as you swing at your opponent. Therefore anyone who wields a sword is a Cha Guy. It makes perfect sense, right?
Natalie thinks you might be interested in the silver heart-shaped locket. It’s called the Father-Daughter Purity Locket, but Natalie recently gave one to her closest sister, Becca, as a birthday gift with both their photos in it. So sweet!
I asked 7yo Becca what she would recommend and she repeated Natalie’s suggestion. I guess that means she likes her birthday present! She is also hoping for a set of horses someday.
4yo Rachael’s wishlist has one item firmly at the top: a gumball, preferably red. I don’t think it’s in the catalog, so you’ll have to visit the warehouse with a quarter. Tell them Kim sent you and just might get your gumball for free. After all, the gumball machine is in the warehouse, and I have a lot of pull with the head honcho there.
And PerryBoy’s cowboy hat is plumb wore out, so I guess we can assume that he would like another. He wore it nearly every day for months, along with his trusty pistol and leather cowboy vest. He was a real cowboy, which is fittin’ since we live in Texas in the heart of cowboy country. The Texas Three-Shooter ping-pong gun would also be a good choice, since he carried a ping-pong ball around in his pocket for 3 days last week, panicking every time he dropped it.
As for me, I’ve had my eye on the SnapShot Rubber Band Gun for a long time. I can just picture myself on the couch, yelling at a kid across the room: “Don’t talk to your sister that way!” snap. “You hear me? Look at me when I’m talking to you!” snap. snap.
OK, take a breath and laugh. I’m just kidding. I would never snap my kids with a rubber band gun. Not on purpose. At least, not in anger. 
Doug Phillips Interviews Olympic Gold Medalist Josh Davis
Vision Forum Deal of the Day: save 40-90%!
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