Christian living

Weekly Sunday pictures!

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June 10, 2012 by Kittykait 4 Comments

Posted by: Kittykait
I know I’ve promised weekly posts multiple times and failed every time (sorry!), but this time I think it will be easier to keep it up, because I just got a smartphone (yaaay!), so I can post on the hour drive to or from church. Basically, I won’t have time to procrastinate! My plan is to post pictures of Megan, Lydia and me (and whoever else is close by), probably without many (or any) words, because as much and as well as people write I’ve always loved looking at pictures they post. It’s so much more personal and easier to process, it gets the point across better, like a little peek into someone’s life.

wpid IMG 20120610 152802 Weekly Sunday pictures!

wpid IMG 20120610 152605 Weekly Sunday pictures!

wpid IMG 20120610 095045 Weekly Sunday pictures!

Filed Under: church, Everyday life, photos

4 Moms: Homeschooling in a rotten mood

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May 24, 2012 by kimc 7 Comments

4moms35kids 4 Moms: Homeschooling in a rotten mood I’m going to assume this week’s topic refers to the students’ mood, because I am never in a rotten mood. Especially not now, even though my older children are old enough to sit themselves down to school when told and my younger ones know that late morning is OUTSIDE PLAY time. When they think I’m in a rotten mood, it usually means I’m correcting them because they are being disobedient.

Oh, wait. We were supposed to talk about our own mood? Oh.

Well, the short answer is we don’t homeschool when I’m in a rotten mood – or at least, we shouldn’t. Just like we shouldn’t run errands when I’m in a rotten mood. For that matter, we shouldn’t do anything at all when I’m in a rotten mood because the very first thing on my to-do list should be, “Repent.” It’s often easier said than done, but moods have a powerful trickle down effect, and a cranky mom will quickly find herself with cranky children on her hand. Attitude correction only becomes a bigger and bigger project when you put it off.

Maybe this is where it’s good to keep in mind the goal of homeschooling. Academics play an important part, but they are not the end goal. We are preparing our children for adulthood, teaching them to serve Christ in every area of life. If mom is in a rotten mood and just spreading her mood to the people around her as she tries to teach her little ones the 3 R’s, we are heading in the wrong direction.

We need to leave our gift at the altar – or our schoolbooks at the table – and settle offenses.

At this point, if my kids read my blog they are staring slack-jawed at one another, shaking their heads in disbelief. ”If she really believes this, why does she walk around being crabby?” Because I am sinful, prideful, and I like to blame my bad attitude on the sinners around me.

¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ~Romans 7:15-24

If we try to do school when attitudes are amiss, we are teaching and learning exactly the wrong lessons. We are teaching our children that sin is acceptable in ourselves, and others need to just live with it. While it’s true that we are all sinners and will always have sin in our lives, we should also be vigilant to put down our sin nature whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. Just because it is in us doesn’t mean we should allow it to camp out on the front room sofa and offer it a big glass of iced tea.

The other moms are talking about it, too. Here’s what they say:

Connie at Smockity Frocks reminds us that we are big girls and ought to act the part.
Headmistress @ The Common Room exhorts us scripturally and reminds us that some days, it’s just fine to cast your bread on the waters by heading to the pond to feed the ducks.
Kimberly @ Raising Olives explains how to do an attitude adjustment on Mom.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms:

May 31 - teaching children to cook
June 7 - How did you know you wanted/could handle a large family
June 14 - Q&A
June 21 - How do you keep up your energy?
June 28 - favorite freezer meals

Abortion: murder, or chicken dinner?

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March 25, 2012 by kimc 45 Comments

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, but I just had to say this out loud.

There’s an article circulating in which pro-abortion activist Jessica DelBalzo loudly proclaims that she loves abortion. I can’t quite bring myself to link directly, but you can find it easily enough on google if you want to read the whole column.

A few excerpts are enough to convey her viewpoint:

“I love abortion. I don’t accept it. I don’t view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. I donate to abortion funds. I write about how important it is to make sure that every woman has access to safe, legal abortion services. I have bumper stickers and buttons and t-shirts proclaiming my support for reproductive freedom. I love abortion,” DelBalzo declares.

To put an even finer point on it, she goes on to say:

Suggesting that abortion be “safe, legal, and rare,” and crowing that “no one likes abortion,” accomplishes nothing for women’s rights. Pandering to the anti-choice movement by implying that we all find termination distasteful only fuels the fire against it.

I just want to say that she is absolutely right on one point. The pro-choice camp is divided, and a large number of them don’t seem to know on which side of the fence they really belong.

If abortion takes a human life, it’s murder and we should all be appalled at every instance. It should be illegal under any circumstances.

If abortion takes a non-human life, it’s no more “a necessary evil” than sitting down to a chicken dinner.

Which is it?

Filed Under: feminism

When Motherhood seems too hard

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February 22, 2012 by kimc 3 Comments

I gave Kelly’s new ebook a plug on Facebook when she released it yesterday, but Perry called from work this morning to gently admonish me. He reminded me how eagerly many of you received my Life With Littles and encouragement For Tired Young Mothers of Many posts. ”Don’t you think Kelly’s book would strike a chord with your blog readers?”

I think he was right. He usually is.

Kelly Crawford of Generation Cedar has a new ebook for moms, and the title alone is perfect: Devotions, Advice & Renewal for When Motherhood Feels Too Hard. Isn’t that every day?

When Motherhood Feels Too Hard is the daily inspiration you need to not just get through a day, but to FLOURISH as a mother, to build a home, and to ignite a passion in your children that will impact the next generation for the glory of God!

If the title wasn’t enough, I would be totally sold on Jennie Chancey’s review:

“This eBook is Kelly’s “cup of cold water” to mothers. We all need refreshment and encouragement when the hard days come, and Kelly has provided bite-sized (but meaty and thought-provoking) daily devotionals that urge us to take our calling as mothers seriously but remember at the same time that we are vessels of clay in need of God’s filling. These words are true whether you are the mother of one or the mother of ten! Thank you, Kelly, for sharing your beautiful insights into the calling of motherhood “from the trenches!” -Jennie Chancey, Ladies Against Feminism

When Motherhood Feels Too Hard is available as an instant download (PDF) or for your Kindle. I’ll be starting my copy very soon. Anyone want to join me?

Filed Under: books and poetry, Christian living, mom needs sleep, parenting, reviews

Cultural views of debt and children

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February 15, 2012 by kimc 7 Comments

edit: code is now fixed. Sorry for the trouble!

I shared this on Facebook, but I was so tickled with Kaitlyn’s Photoshop work that I didn’t want those of you who are not on Facebook to miss it.

The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing, but in our culture we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture. ~Doug Phillips

Like it? Grab the code:

<a href=”http://inashoe.com/2012/02/cultural-views-of-debt-and-children/”><image src=”http://inashoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/babies-vs-debt.jpg” width=”248″></a>

Or view the image on Life in a Shoe’s Facebook page to share it.

Filed Under: worldview

Twilight vs. Tangled

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January 24, 2012 by kimc 6 Comments

I shared this on facebook and it was so wildly popular I didn’t want my non-facebook readers to miss it. The image below is not mine, but I think it’s a brilliant summary of what is wrong with the Twilight obsession that continues to consume our society. Girls, this is an intelligence test.

For a more in-depth analysis of the book that begat the movie, check out Doug Wilson’s multi-part book report beginning here, or his 8 minute video on the subject below:

Filed Under: worldview

Church retreat. Is it supposed to be this scary?

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November 7, 2011 by kimc 6 Comments

Yes, I know. The church isn’t supposed to be retreating. We are to advance, as an army victorious! But we took a break to rest, regroup, and retreat over the weekend, and we liked it!

Last year’s gathering at Piney Woods was our first, though the event had been happening for years without us. This year, the kids wouldn’t let us off the hook. We were forced to go. They even paid for a portion of it when we hemmed and hawed about the expense. There was no way out. It was awful.

I jest.

It was wonderful.

Aside from canoes and kayaks and friends and fabulous food, it was also peaceful and beautiful and just plain fun. Bethany was in awe of “pumpkin pines” all over the ground – pine cones, of course – and PerryBoy (who has announced his intention to be known as Batman Perry or Monster Perry rather than Little Perry) spent nearly the entire time in a canoe perfecting his paddling technique.

Batman Perry 179x300 Church retreat. Is it supposed to be this scary?

The girls had a grand old time at the dance on Saturday night, topped off with midnight pizza, while the grownups stayed up way past bedtime. Perry and I learned to dance the exhilarating and complicated Posties Jig with 3 other couples.

Lydia, Natalie and Perry rocked the airsoft war. I think our girls put to rest any doubts that young ladies could take the heat, and Perry (Big Perry, that is. Not Batman Perry) had a glorious scene as Rambo in which he ran through the woods mowing down rows of outclassed combatants with his superior firepower. He expects to come up against some heavier weaponry next year.

And then there was the ropes course.

Kaitlyn suited up first.

She’s fearless. See her fearless face?

The first part of the course was climbing a pole and walking across another pole, using the rope as necessary to balance. Kait did it with panache, I think. I’m not sure what panache is, but it sounds cool and collected.

Lydia suited up too, and took on the course.

After the balance beam, the next task was to cross the converging cables. Stand on one cable and hold the other in your tightly clenched fists. As you inch along, the cable in your hands converges with the one under your feet, then another cable rises from your feet. The trick is to keep your grip and balance as you transition from one to the other.

Megan did it too.

Her favorite part of the course was the zipline. She didn’t even hesitate when it was time to jump off and freefall into the wild blue yonder, waiting to reach the end of the slack in the harness.

Oh, did I mention that a few adults did the course too? There were 3.

I know this guy:

He did the course just like the kids, zipline and all – but that’s not all. I haven’t told you yet about the scary part of the ropes course. Oh, you thought it was scary already?

The second part requires an additional harness. They call this part of the course the Pamper Pole. I’ll let you figure out why.

Up, up, up…

When you reach the last step, you’re not done yet.

Stand upright and brace yourself. The next step’s a doozy.

Technically, you’re supposed to try to catch the trapeze. Good luck with that.

I know this is a photo-heavy post. Maybe you’d like to be done now? But I have a few more photos I’d like to show off. I did the ropes course too. It was THE MOST TERRIFYING THING I’VE EVER DONE. CAN YOU SEE ME STILL HYPERVENTILATING 2 DAYS LATER?

I think I was more scared than anyone else there. For that, I get a separate post. Also, I have a knot in my stomach just from looking at the photos of my turn. I’m not sure I can edit and upload them without a drink first. What? I’m a presbyterian.

Filed Under: church, fun, photos

Giveaway: Shakytown and Monstrous Regiment of Women

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August 19, 2011 by kimc 107 Comments

Edited to add more ways to win!

For this week’s giveaway, we have 2 films that we intended to give away long, long ago:

SHAKY TOWN: A Documentary

The Gunn Brothers take you to San Francisco (“Shaky Town”) to show you a history of Christian persecution including fire bomb attacks, threats, legal assaults, and now, more recently, a mayor who attacks the Christian institution of marriage.

You’ll hear testimonies from Christian Heroes involved in a front-line battle against immorality in the so-called “tolerant” city. You’ll also see real video footage of Christian churches in San Francisco being attacked by violent groups of homosexuals. So be warned, this movie is not for the faint-hearted!

and…

The Monstrous Regiment of Women!

The Monstrous Regiment of Women, The Gunn Brother’s award-winning second documentary, goes all out to demolish the feminist worldview. From a consistently Christian perspective, they show how feminism has had a devastating impact on the church, state, and family.

Starting with the infamous 16th century essay written by the reformer John Knox against the reigning female monarch, the Gunn Brothers find plenty of application to America’s political landscape; where feminists vie for every possible office including the presidency.

Featuring an all star, all female cast, the Gunn Brothers prove that feminism has in fact restricted choices for all women, brought heartache to the lives of many, and perpetuated the largest holocaust since the beginning of time.

Now the Gunn brothers have another exciting project in the works, this one guaranteed to stir up trouble. It’s not part of this giveaway because it’s not even finished yet, but watch for it soon!

IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America

“IndoctriNation” is a 90-minute documentary film that takes the audience on a panoramic exploration of one of the most important and controversial issues in the history of mankind, the issue of education.

Traveling all over America with his family in a big yellow school bus and conducting a series of candid conversational interviews, Colin Gunn, a Scottish filmmaker, actor, and homeschool father of seven children living in Texas, is on a quest to discover the origins of our modern educational system.

What he discovers is a masterful design that sought to replace God’s recipe for training up the next generation with a humanistic, man-centered program that fragmented the family and undermined the influence of the Church and its Great Commission.

Part documentary, part testimonial — a confessional and a rebuke, this film is above all a challenge and an encouragement to millions of Christians who need to know what history, experience, and the Scriptures have to say about what is perhaps the pivotal issue of our time: the discipleship and training of the next generation.

Help finish IndoctriNation

Are you eager to see this film? You can help! The Gunn Brothers are offering $50 Backstage Passes to raise funds for the completion of the movie. Pass holders receive:

“IndoctriNation“ DVD – first run copy, mailed to you before the premiere.
“The Monstrous Regiment of Women” – a full-length online version of the award-winning movie.
“Shaky Town” – a full-length online version of the award-winning movie.
Exclusive uncut footage of all of our interviews, updated throughout the production cycle. These include Samuel Blumenfeld, Doug Phillips, Herb Titus, Gary North, Erwin Lutzer, Ray Moore, David Goetsch, Kevin Swanson, Geoff Botkin, T.C. Pinckney, Martin Selbrede, David d’Escoto, Col. John Eidsmoe, Gary DeMar, Bruce Shortt, Israel Wayne, Joe Morecraft, and others.
Access to unique backstage footage, including exclusive videos of producer meetings and behind-the-scenes footage.
Access to our online VIP premiere of the film, to be experienced with friends and family as a tool to help stop the indoctrination of Christian children.

I’m gettin’ mine. Get your Backstage Pass here.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

One winner will receive both Monstrous Regiment and Shaky Town. To enter the giveaway, do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment here for each entry.

Leave a comment on this post.
Like IndoctriNation on Facebook.
Like Life in a Shoe on Facebook.
Share this giveaway on Facebook.
For 3 bonus entries, blog about this giveaway. Remember to leave 3 comments so you’ll be entered 3 times.
For 3 more bonus entries, blog about the IndoctriNation movie and Backstage Pass.

We will take entries until Friday, August 26, then choose a random winner!

Filed Under: feminism, giveaways & deals, videos

Femininity vs. feminism

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August 13, 2011 by kimc 11 Comments

73566 s Femininity vs. feminism

Yesterday I listened to Adventurous Femininity by Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin. I’m always so impressed with these 2 young ladies. They never fail to stretch my mind in new directions, and this message was no different.

Description from the Vision Forum website:

Which activity is more feminine: embroidering a pin cushion or digging up ancient artifacts in a foreign land? The answer may surprise you. In this practical message from Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin, femininity is examined in terms of how a young woman can fulfill her unique calling within her family—not by defining which adventures and activities girls “can” or “can’t” enjoy. The exhortation to young women is clear: Do not pursue a brand of femininity that is so obsessed with its own girliness that you can’t get your hands dirty with real service for Christ.

My favorite bit:

We need to be very careful that we don’t pursue a brand of femininity that is so obsessed with its own girliness that it can’t get its hands dirty with real dominion…This attitude defeats femininity’s real created purpose and it’s a lot closer to feminism…

There’s a lot more to [feminism] than a desire to dress up in pin-striped power suits and do man’s work. Essentially, feminism is the desire to be autonomous. It’s the desire to be independent from a man and out from under his authority, and this is a tendency that even the girliest girl wearing the frilliest apron and making the wholesomest muffins can have. If muffin making becomes a girl’s priority over serving her father in more urgent or useful ways just because she really, really likes to make muffins, then her motive is really no different from the feminists. It’s selfish at its heart.

Doesn’t it make perfect sense? I had an inkling of this, but had never been able to clearly formulate the thought. I knew that feminism was alive and well among thrifty, conservative SAHMs, and this is why. Many of us have lost our focus – or allowed it to become blurred because we are not self-conscious about the why’s and wherefore’s of what we are doing.

Filed Under: feminism

4 Moms talk about church

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June 2, 2011 by kimc 14 Comments

4moms35kids 4 Moms talk about church

Welcome to 4 Moms. It’s Thursday again and the 4 of us are talking about church. Some of you have been wondering what kind of church we attend, and how friendly they are to our personal convictions and large families.

One of Kimberly’s readers asked, ”I’m curious about the kind of churches you all attend. We are protestant and can’t seem to find a church that teaches or even accepts our convictions about birth control. Do you all go to churches where there are other large families or do you just accept the differences?”

There are no easy answers to these questions, but I can share our own experience and reasoning.

Our family attends a CRE congregation, where we have been members for about 6 years. It’s an hour drive, and we drive past many other congregations of Christian brothers and sisters on our way. We spend a lot of money on gas and put a lot of miles on our van, but we believe it’s worthwhile to be in fellowship with like-minded believers whenever possible.

That’s not to say we never associate with others who disagree with us – we have friends in our home almost weekly who don’t agree with us or each other on many points of doctrine. Even at our church, not everyone thinks or walks in lock-step agreement on every point. Our large family is welcome there and in good company, though not all the families are large. Homeschoolers are in good company, though not every family in our group homeschools.

We chose to worship with this congregation because we are likeminded on the issues that are most important to us and while it is not insignificant, our position on birth control is not what we consider a core issue. Nor are homeschooling, large families, skirt-wearing, or other such outward signs of inward convictions…Instead, they seem to flow out of other issues.

Families worship as families in our church, and Sunday school is age-integrated. This is important to us, so we are thankful to worship with Christian brothers and sisters who agree. Our church baptizes infants of believing parents, welcoming them as communing members. This, too, is a priority to us.

There have been times when we didn’t know of any like-minded congregations within driving distance. In these cases, we worship with the Christian brothers and sisters around us as we are able, trusting that our worship is pleasing to God and seeking encouraging fellowship where we can find it – in the company of local Christian brethren, online, in visits to long-distance family and friends, etc.

The other moms are talking about it too:

Upcoming topics for June:

June 9 -
June 16 - Homeschooling the challenging child
June 23 – Q&A
June 30 -

Be smarter: Listen to Bahnsen

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May 27, 2011 by kimc 30 Comments

Wednesday I spent 6 hours on the road, a little short on sleep. I had some young companions and the drive was broken by the usual bathroom breaks, nursing breaks, and a stop for gas/food – not to mention the normal chit-chat, so I didn’t have to fight drowsiness.

44630 m Be smarter: Listen to Bahnsen

Today I was behind the wheel again, this time with much less sleep. Fortunately I had Greg Bahnsen to keep me company. We love Greg Bahnsen’s lectures about philososphy and how to defend the Christian worldview against those who hold to atheism, evolution, and other fairy tales.

We love it so much that when I started playing it, there were calls from the back of the van to turn up the volume. Dr. Bahnsen is brilliant, but he is also entertaining and easy to understand. He makes you feel smart. You can do this.

His primary approach in debating worldviews is to direct the discussion back to its foundation – to force his opponent to acknowledge the presuppositions upon which all of his arguments rest. There is no neutrality, and atheists are no less creatures of faith than Christians. All of their beliefs, like ours, are ultimately based upon one underlying foundation. The question is, “What is your ultimate authority?”

I wanted to take notes as he spoke, but I know better. Typing/texting while driving = Colossally Bad Idea. No lecture necessary on that point.

There was something he said and repeated for emphasis, and I really wanted to remember it but I forgot. I’ll have to listen to that message again. I was more careful with the next statement that caught my attention, and repeated it to myself several times as he elaborated and expounded: All ultimate authorities must be self-authenticating.

Did you catch that?

When unbelievers ask us how we know the Bible is the true, infallible Word of the One True God, we can answer that we know because the Bible tells us. When you’re talking about an ultimate authority, you’re at the top of the food chain. If you can go any higher, then you’re not at the top yet.

This applies to unbelievers as well. Ask how they know what they know. Keep asking, “But how do you know?” until they reach the top.

Is it science? But how do they know the current research and theories are correct?

Is it their own eyes? Don’t they believe in many things they’ve never personally witnessed, like the existence of cells, atoms, or 3 toed sloths in the wild?

Is it their own opinion, or the majority opinion? Opinions change.

For most unbelievers, it comes down to logic in the end. And how do they defend the assertation that logic is the true, final answer? By use of logic, of course. How else? Their ultimate authority, like ours, is self-authenticating.

The difference is that they have faith in the authority they choose, while objecting to ours. This is not logical; it’s arbitrary, a foundational flaw in their reasoning. This is a failure to apply sound logic, their self-proclaimed god. You’ve got ‘em now.

Intrigued? You should be. He also clearly explains why Christians can appeal to logic but unbelievers can’t, and countless other such traps that your hapless victims will set for you and walk right into. OK, maybe I’m being a little flippant, but I’m not exaggerating. Now you have a taste of why we love these lectures.

If you’re on the Vision Forum mailing list, you should have received an email today with a single-use code to save 20% on any purchase. Use it to buy the Christian Worldview Training Set (22 CDs). Just do it.

No code? Use mine, if nobody else beat you to it: 93CB34547KNL (exp. 5/31)

Somebody beat you to it? Maybe another kind soul will share her code in the comments?

Filed Under: worldview

The problems in modern education

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May 4, 2011 by kimc 3 Comments

ht: The Feast of Booths

Gkc16 The problems in modern education The basic cause of all the problems in modern education can be summarized in three words: Darwin, Marx, and Freud. The theories of these three men have pervaded all of modern thought. Their ideas are much alike in that they are narrow, materialistic, fatalistic, and utterly anti-Christian. Their influence has been felt far beyond their limited fields. Darwin’s ideas have contributed to a blind belief in progress…

Each of them took not so much a half-truth as a hundredth part of a truth, and then offered it not merely as something, but as everything. Having never done anything except split hairs, [each of them] hangs the whole world on a single hair [whether it be biology, economics, or psychology]. . . . It is yet another mark of this sort of agnostic that he is ready to assert his absolute knowledge of everything to the verge of a contradiction in terms. Just as he will always try to write a history of prehistoric man, so he will always struggle to be conscious of his own unconsciousness. . . . Just as it is the latest fad to prove that everything is sexual, so it was the last fad to prove that everything was economic. The Marxist notion, called the materialist theory of history, had the same sort of stupid self-confidence in its very insufficient materialism.

As the one fad conceives everything about the bird to be connected with mating, so the other conceived everything connected with it to consist of catching worms. . . . These fads fade very fast, and it may seem hardly worthwhile to prick bubbles that will burst of themselves. Nevertheless, there is one consideration that makes it worthwhile. It is a character of all these manias that they cannot really convince the mind, but they do cloud it. Above all, they do darken it. All these tremendous and rather temporary discoveries have had the singular fascination that they were not merely degrading, but were also depressing. Each in turn leaves no trace on the true and serious conclusions of the world. But each in turn may leave very deep and disastrous wounds and dislocations in the mentality of the individual man…

… instead of finding forgiveness for our sins, sins that we committed through our own fault, we get the most amazing psycho-babble, wrapped in the mantle of science, which explains that our sins are not sins, and whatever it was we did, it wasn’t our fault. It was our parent’s fault, or our teacher’s fault, or simply nature’s fault. The evil perpetuated by this sort of counseling is twofold: we become less responsible for our sinful actions even while we long for a forgiveness that never comes. It is the marriage of Freud and Darwin, of one pseudo-science to another.

~G.K. Chesterton

Filed Under: education, worldview

Helping our Christian brethren

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May 3, 2011 by kimc 3 Comments

Recognizing that each family has different priorities, there are 3 fundraisers that we would like to tell you about today. Each is for a cause that, we think, seeks to glorify God and further His kingdom. Please consider giving to one or more and also passing the information via social media. We make it easy for you with social media buttons at the bottom, but if you click through, all 3 have buttons to allow you to share directly from their sites. Passing word along via your social network will help each of these different efforts to meet their goal!

Honor WWII Veterans

normandy Helping our Christian brethren

One of Vision Forum’s core principles is teaching people to obey the 5th commandment by honoring their parents. That is the driving force behind their upcoming Normandy project, A Final Farewell to WWII’s Last Living Heroes.

As of right now they are 67% funded. If they do not raise the entire amount by May 7, they lose all of it.

Bring Kasey home

From our online friends, the Earlywine family:

Our son Kasey, that we are adopting from an orphanage in Eastern Europe is turning 5 on Wednesday, May the 4th. Also, Sunday, May the 8th is Mother’s Day! So, in honor of both we are doing an on-line event to raise money to pay for our plane tickets to go get our son and our in country expenses. Our goal for this fundraiser is to raise $5000! Please consider helping us however you can and share this event with your family and friends!

PLEASE HELP US ENSURE THAT THIS WILL BE THE LAST BIRTHDAY OUR SON HAS TO SPEND ALONE WITHOUT A FAMILY IN AN ORPHANAGE!

Every dollar counts and gets us closer to bringing our son and one of his orphanage-mates home.
GO here to donate to our family sponsorship page: http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorearleywine

Help Alabama families

Last but not least, the Lee, Crawford and Boyd families were devastated by the recent tornadoes which blew through the South Wednesday night. These are exemplary, faithful, Christian families who now even in their loss are responding with faith and confidence in the Lord. They need help. Currently, there are more than a hundred people physically assisting them on the ground. Now they need the funds to begin the process of rebuilding. In some cases, with only the clothes on their backs, they will be starting over and need cash for shoes, food, temporary housing, immediate medical bills and basic needs.

Tom Lee died heroically protecting his family as their home collapsed around them. In God’s Mercy his wife and thirteen children survived after many hours of being trapped under rubble. Daughters Tiffany and Emily are in the hospital and suffered potentially severe nerve damage. Their insurance does not cover these medical bills, their father is dead, and their home and possessions are gone.

The home of Aaron and Kelly Crawford (of generationcedar.com) and their nine children was completely destroyed by a tornado on Wednesday night taking all of there earthly possessions including all of their vehicles and all of Aaron’s construction tools which are his source of livelihood.

Gary and Jane Boyd and their nine children survived without injury but their home was severely damaged by trees falling on it. Their home was the rendezvous point for the Lee and Crawford families in the hours following the tornado since it was the only one left standing.

You can see videos of each family here. The Moore family is providing additional updates on relief efforts. The donation buttons below send your money DIRECTLY to the local church, Christ Church Branch Cove, and your gift is tax deductible.

Filed Under: Christian living

Giveaway: Family-building webinar

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February 22, 2011 by kimc 284 Comments

NOTE: This post as been edited to allow international readers and cutomers to enter the giveaway. Vision Forum will deliver your download – if you win or purchase -through an alternate system that BlueBehemoth.com Thanks!

Vision Forum is producing a new product that I’m really excited about. This time I made sure to get a copy for myself when I asked to do a giveway:

Just read the titles of the 20 weekly messages by Doug and Beall Philips:

How to Organize Your Home to Promote Family Unity
How to Cultivate a Love of Reading with Your Children
How to Make Mealtime Meaningful
How to Prepare for a Year of Home Education
How to Take Children Safely Through an Airport
How to Involve the Whole Family in Family Worship
How to Address the Plague of “Jive Talk” in Your Home
How to Encourage Masculinity in Sons
How to Encourage Femininity in Daughters
How to Handle a Social Worker Visit
How to Wage War on Sibling Rivalry
How to Use Household Decorations to Teach Character
How to Talk to Your Children about Miscarriage
How to Involve the Whole Family in Hospitality
How to Build an Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Children
How to Watch a Movie As a Family
How to Cultivate a Love of Meaningful Poetry with Your Children, and Why Doing So Is Important
How to Prepare Your Children to Listen to a Symphony
How to Take a Road Trip with Your Family
How to Select the Best Locations for Family Vacations

Can you see why I’m so excited? It almost reads like a list of 4 Moms posts or FAQ for Families. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m full of good intentions that fall by the wayside, but I’ve resolved that I actually will make time to listen to these, because they are so relevant to everyday life for us.

Beginning March 1, every Tuesday morning for twenty weeks you will receive a link to your new downloadable message from Doug or Beall, hosted at Vision Forum’s partner website BlueBehemoth.com.

Don’t have a free BlueBehemoth account yet? Get one so you can take advantage of daily free downloads!

The Giveaway

These 20 weekly messages are being sold for $95. That’s a great deal at less than $5/message, but you can save $10 by ordering before Feb. 28. You can save another $25 by using the coupon code SAVE25 (exp. 2/28).

Or you just might get them free by entering our giveaway.

For your first entry, leave a comment telling which message from the list above you think would be most helpful to your family. You must do this to enter.

For up to 11 additional entries, do any or all of the following and leave a separate comment for each. Each legitimate comment will count as one entry.

Post about this giveaway on facebook, twitter, and/or your blog. Leave a separate comment here for each place you share.
Share a link to your favorite product from Vision Forum on facebook, twitter, and/or your blog. Again, leave a separate comment providing the link for each.
Share your favorite Life in a Shoe post on facebook, twitter, and/or your blog. Leave a comment telling where you shared it.
Create a free account on Blue Behemoth and leave a comment here to tell me.
Subscribe to Life in a Shoe and leave a comment to let me know. If you’re already a subscriber, just leave a comment saying so.

Don’t procrastinate: Because of the time-sensitive nature of this giveaway, we’ll take entries until midnight Sunday and announce the winner on Monday, Feb. 28. That will give the rest of you time to take advantage of the special $85 price.

Filed Under: Christian living, family, giveaways & deals, Vision Forum

4 Moms: teaching Bible

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January 6, 2011 by kimc 17 Comments

Welcome back to the weekly 4 Moms post, in which 4 moms with a collective total of 35 children share our knowledge, experience and and helpful tips in maintaining health, order and sanity.

First, I recommend you see what the other 3 Moms have to say about teaching Bible:

Connie at Smockity Frocks

Headmistress at The Common Room

Kimberly at Raising Olives

If I seem a bit giddy, disjointed or just plain insane today, chalk it up to any or all of the following factors:

I’ve taken a month off of blogging and am having a bit of trouble getting my brain back into blogging mode.
My lovely children talk nonstop. To me. I love them, but holding a train of thought is about as easy as holding a real train.
I was up nearly all night with 3 sick children and a baby who is ruining my reputation by refusing to sleep through the night.
My washer exploded this afternoon, flooding the laundry room. Remember the part about vomiting children?

I’m not complaining. I’ve had worse days. Not many, but a few. There was the Great Poop Flood of ’99, for example. Hey, check it out: we’re #1 on Google for the search term Poop Flood. Call it a silver lining around that black, black cloud.

At any rate, days like these remind us why we need God. It’s easy to forget when everything goes right, but His Word is an encouragement when things go wrong, a light to our feet (Psalm 119:105), and a reminder that everything is part of His will and plan for us (Romans 8:28) – plans for our own good (Jeremiah 29:11), even when it doesn’t quite look that way.

I’ve blogged in the past about how we teach Bible and some of our favorite resources, so I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into depth today. The methods change over time and some of those past posts look nothing like what we do now, but they served us well during other seasons.

Bible Time for Little Ones

George Sarris Bible CDs

It’s All Bible Time

Family Worship

Daily Proverbs

and more on Proverbs

Right now, everyone old enough to read is making their way through the New Testament at a rate of 10 chapters/day. Those too young to read are listening to me as I read a portion of each day’s selection aloud. Our plan is to begin and end in month of January. Of course you miss a lot of small details when you read at this rate, but you might be surprised at how much of the bigger picture you catch. It’s a very different way to read the Bible.

I would love to make this a yearly tradition, but we’ll wait and see how that idea is received next January.

This is something we did years ago, when we had 2 rather new readers who were still a little slow. They found the idea of 10 chapters/day daunting, but they buckled down and did it, and by the end of the month my reluctant readers were fluent bibliophiles who had done what I didn’t do until my 30′s: read the entire NT. After that, they willingly set themselves to the OT.

I have similar hopes for Natalie and Becca this year. Both are intimidated by what we have undertaken, but I know they can do it. It will be a challenge for all of us, and all of us will know God a little better at the end of January.

In fact, does anyone want to join us? If you start today, you can be done with the entire New Testament in less than 30 days. You might even beat us, because we’re not off to the best start. We’re learning a lot this week about bending our plans to God’s will for us on a daily level.

Upcoming topics for 4 Moms 35 Kids:

January 13: Favorite cold weather foods. Be ready to link up with your own recipe!
January 20: Book recommendations for preschoolers
January 27: Q & A. Got a question? Leave it in the comments on my last Q&A post.

Filed Under: 4 moms 35 kids, Bible

Tuesday poetry (and sometimes prose): C.S. Lewis quote

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October 12, 2010 by Deanna 6 Comments

Posted by : Deanna

Grrrrr…..This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I could claim that I was busy all last week, (which is true by the way.) but I really was just being a flake. I’m sorry.

Alrighty then. This is an excerpt from C.S Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. I have yet to read the whole thing, but I love what I have read. He has such a way of putting things that just really makes me think.

…Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam- he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts. And that has practical consequences. As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point it will heal, as a dead body would not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way, a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble- because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ himself carried out.
That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or -if they think there is not- at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

I love reading deep thoughtful stuff that he writes. I recently read “A Grief Observed”, and it really was some food for thought. I haven’t quite processed it all, and most likely I’ll read it again today or tomorrow. It was very thought provoking to read through someone else’s deep sorrow like that. I wish I could have read it when my little sister Sarah was stillborn. I think it would have helped. Maybe next week I’ll post an excerpt from that.

Filed Under: Christian living, deep thoughts, thoughtful stuff

100+ Reasons to Have Children

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July 19, 2010 by kimc 50 Comments

Lately I’ve come across several lists of reasons not to have children. I find it very sad and telling that nearly all of the authors’ reasons are based in immaturity, materialism, myths, and misconceptions. Yes, children require work, money and personal sacrifice, but these are all things we do willingly because we love them. These are joyful sacrifices for a worthwhile cause.

I couldn’t help but work on my own version. Here are a few of the perks of having children, in no particular order. Some are tongue-in-cheek, while others are dead serious. I’ll let you try to guess which is which.

Please understand that I am not criticizing those who do not have children, particularly those who struggle with infertility. I am also not suggesting that you or I should have children just so that we can save some bucks when it’s time to file taxes, or use the stork space in the grocery store parking lot. My point is that children are a blessing and a delight, not a burden to be avoided at all costs.

What would you add to the list below?

100+ Reasons to Have Children

Have a happier marriage.
Pay less income taxes.
Learn to share, and like it.
The ultimate diet plan: morning sickness and breastfeeding.
Enjoy snuggles on demand, around the clock.
Cuteness abounds.
Disposable diapers. There. I said it.
Receive preferential treatment in grocery lines.
Be seated first (or last, if you prefer) on planes.
Park in the “stork” space at grocery stores.
Have an excuse to buy cool toys and cute little outfits.
Children will love you on your worst day, and…
they think you’re beautiful, even on bad hair days,
or when you’re not wearing makeup.
Free entertainment: kids are hilarious.
Laughter is good for your health. See above.
Have family still living when you’re old.
Have someone to help you when you’re old.
Grandkids!
Have someone to help care for your pets.
But who needs pets? Kids are way cuter, and they last longer.
Unlike pets, kids eventually learn to take care of their own poop.
Get a lollipop every time you go to the bank, along with your children.
Tone your arms the old-fashioned way: tote a toddler.
Kids eat free at many restaurants.
Have an excuse to buy junk food.
Sharing your junk food means less stays on your own hips.
Children will eat and appreciate your failed cooking experiments.
Embarrass your kids. You won’t believe how fun it is. Displays of affection with your spouse work well for this.
Be better able to encourage other parents during rough times with their children because you’ve been-there-done-that.
Blow bubbles.
Give your friends somewhere to send their kids’ hand-me-downs.
Burn calories: play with your kids.
Kids will help hone your reactions with obstacle courses on the stairs.
Save money by not buying birth control.
Have sex without worrying about pregnancy. It’s fun.
Ask anyone who has given birth: the pains of labor are worth it.
Pregnancy reduces menstrual cramps in subsequent periods.
Pregnancy lowers your risk of ovarian cancer.
Breastfeeding lowers your risk of breast cancer,
and uterine cancer,
and osteoporosis.
Not using birth control lowers your risk of ectopic pregnancy.
Think pregnancy dooms you to getting fat? Take a look at my mom with her 14 kids. Can you even tell which one she is?
Pregnancy requires you to eat more. I can appreciate that.
Be motivated to be a better person. Little eyes are watching.
Help raise the languishing birth rate.
Learn alongside your children.
Read books you never would have discovered on your own.
Reread your childhood favorites with and to a new generation.
See the world through new, unjaded eyes.
See yourself through your baby’s eyes. It’s amazing.
See yourself through your children’s eyes. You’ll never be the same again.
See your flaws reflected in your children. It’s enlightening and humbling.
Kids will make you proud and keep you humble.
If you make a mess while eating, everyone will assume the kids did it.
Kid will say what you wish you could say, but can’t.
Strengthen your relationship with your own parents by becoming a parent yourself.
Stay physically active. It’s much harder to be lazy when little ones depend on you.
Improved immune system. It’s a law of nature: Moms never get sick.
If you do get sick, you have someone to take care of you without your spouse taking time off work.
Baby smiles.
Carrying a baby? Strangers will smile at you.
Babies are also a great conversation starter.
Learn to delight in everyday occurrences.
Translate toddler gibberish with ease for puzzled onlookers.
Your own love for your child gives you a small taste of how much God loves His children.
Live vicariously: remember that toy you never got as a child, but you’re too old to want it now? Let your kids try it out.
Relive your childhood: remember the toy you did get as a child? Let your kids try it out.
Rediscover the joy of crayons.
Job security: moms have it.
Learn and believe that happiness really doesn’t come from material wealth…
…yet be amazed at how much joy you can buy your child with a quarter.
Kids are cheap.
Marvel that 2 people can produce children that are better-looking than either parent. Heredity is a strange and wonderful thing.
Be welcomed home like a returning war hero every time you go grocery shopping or to the post office.
Be looked at like this:
Soft little fingers and toes. They’re cute on other people’s children, but utterly priceless on your own children.
The unbearable cuteness of newborn-size diapers. (credit: Deanna)
Discover your super powers: make milk, and heal mortal wounds with a kiss.
Ask any parent you know if they regret having kids.
Learn to appreciate simple pleasures: ice cream cones, a single M&M, homemade cookies.
Do you love your spouse? Experience a miracle: a new person who looks like both of you.
After 10 years of children, washing dishes becomes optional. (credit: Deanna)
Get special treatment on Mother’s Day.
Breakfast in bed is fun, even when it’s cheerios and multi vitamins. (credit: Becca)
Experience the triumph of potty training.
Have the advantage of a youthful memory again: have your kids remind you about important things. (credit: Megan)
Expand your wardrobe: share clothes with your teens.
Gather candy from the piñata without getting funny looks.
Have help cooking.
Be a safer driver,
In a safer vehicle.
Free or cheap manicures and pedicures. I pay a dollar.
Ditto for back/shoulder rubs.
Perpetually late? You don’t even have to blame it on the kids. People will assume.
Vanity? You’ll look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
Paint your kids’ nails in a color you like but could never wear yourself.
Have your bed made for $.25/day. Maid service has never been so cheap or cheerful, and there’s no need to report payments to the IRS.
If you’ve never had a baby fall asleep on your chest, you just don’t know what you’re missing.
Homemade friends. My children are some of my favorite companions.
Kids with money ROCK! They buy their own clothes, treat you to Starbucks, and buy you unbelievable birthday/Christmas gifts.
World domination through militant fecundity! [maniacal laughter]
Children are part of God’s purpose for creating marriage:But did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks godly offspring. Malachi 2:15

Want to see another list, more thoughtful and eloquent than mine? 40 Reasons to Have Kids

If, on the other hand, you like ‘em funny, try this: Reasons to Have Children.

Visit other posts about being a homemaker at the Homemaking Link-Up

Filed Under: Best of, big family, family, parenting, worldview

A woman’s place is in the home

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June 29, 2010 by kimc 21 Comments

Well, not exactly.

I may not agree with him on everything, but I usually like what Doug Wilson has to say, and I really enjoy how he says it. I’ll even confess to enjoying his sarcastic sense of humor. This time is no exception. Is it bad that I was laughing at his feminist joke even before I heard the punchline?

Filed Under: Christian living, videos, worldview

Bible verses for labor, anyone?

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May 28, 2010 by kimc 32 Comments

Not that I need them just yet, but you never know!

Do you have any favorite passages you like to meditate on during labor? I’d love to have a list in the comments so I can find them when the time comes. If you don’t mind, please copy the scripture itself into the comment for me (Bible Gateway is a good place to get the text) so I won’t have to go look for it, and feel free to say why that particular verse or passage is special or appropriate to you during labor.

I’m feeling much more ready to have and meet this baby – not just in terms of having things prepared, but also more ready to face labor and delivery. Overall, I’m having very little false labor, far less than usual at this stage, but last night I was awake for several hours with minor contractions, and found myself hoping that it might be real labor. This is a huge shift from the apprehension I’ve been fighting for the past weeks, and I’m so thankful that God is preparing me. He always does; I don’t know why I let it worry me each time!

Now I’m just wondering how far into my traditional 2 week window of eagerness I am. Did it start when I began to think a lot about labor, with my May 17 Baby on the Brain post? That would mean I might very well deliver on Memorial Day, which would thrill me.

Or did the countdown just begin over the last day or two? That could mean that I’ll be up to 2 weeks late, longer than I’ve ever gone before. That wouldn’t be terrible since the heat bothers me more when I nurse a newborn than it does during pregnancy. I wouldn’t mind getting just a bit more of the summer behind us before delivering, though I really am getting eager to meet this little one.

Now don’t forget: what’s your favorite labor verse? Share, please!

Did you place your guess yet in our Big Baby Giveaway? Enter to win $475 worth of gifts from Thanks Mama, Bill Tiger, Maccessorized , Marie Madeline Studio, New Creation Apparel, and Vision Forum!

One more bit of insider info to help with your guess, if this wasn’t enough: today the midwife estimated that the baby was currently about 6.5 lbs. If she’s right, that would be our smallest ever!

Filed Under: Bible, pregnancy/labor Tagged With: labor verses

Thoughts on labor

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April 2, 2010 by kimc 11 Comments

This morning in my Bible reading, I came across this:

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

I Thess. 5:1-3

I’ve read this before, but this time it struck me a little differently – maybe because I’m less than 2 months from my duedate.

This is how the last two weeks of pregnancy are for me: every day I feel as though I could go into labor any minute. Is today the day? Maybe today is the day. I feel like today could be the day. I just can’t shake the feeling that labor is imminent.

But then – the feeling goes away. And then labor begins. Is it just me, or does it work that way for you too? I’ve mentioned it to other mothers and it seems to be nearly universal. And I can’t help but think that Paul is referring to that short period of time after the feeling of imminence and urgency has passed, but before the first real contractions begin – or rather, God is. Maybe Paul didn’t know all that much about the psychology and physiology behind labor, but God certainly does.

The application? I don’t know. Don’t be complacent, because just when you feel like relaxing is when you need to be most ready? Don’t ask this pregnant brain to think much beyond labor and delivery for the next 8 weeks. But maybe you can figure it out yourself.

Filed Under: Bible, pregnancy/labor

Giveaway: Evenings With Victoria Botkin

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February 23, 2010 by kimc

This giveaway is closed, and a winner has been announced here. Thanks to all who entered!

I don’t usually let giveaways overlap, but this one is important.

My friend Victoria is a sweet and wise woman, and always reminds me of my own mother when I’m around her. I suspect she has this effect on many women, and I’m glad to hear that she is actively mentoring young wives!

I loved her advice on how to choose a curriculum, but now she is focusing more directly on counselling a wife in her role as her husband’s helper.

From the family website, Western Conservatory:

How does a wife help her husband be the man Christ wants him to be? How can she inspire him to love her? How can she discover the forgotten joys of being the helper God designed her to be? Beginning March 1, Victoria, beloved wife to Geoffrey Botkin, will host weekly online mentoring sessions for women as a homemaker’s resource to the worldwide Christian community. Mother to five boys and two girls, Victoria draws insight from 30 years of applying Scripture to marriage with one of America’s most visionary men.

Join Victoria as she discusses subjects such as woman’s great power, sinful tendencies, obedience vs. submission, independence vs. submission, freedom vs. submission, beauty, dress, makeup, respect, women’s rights, hospitality, speaking words of life, managing with grace, pitfalls of perfectionism in homemaking, Hollywood expectations, trials, trust, and cultivating personality. Victoria will begin each session by responding to pressing, appropriate questions from participants. Topic headings include:

All about Eve

All about Sarah

The Proverbs 31 wife

About love

How to help your husband love you

How to become a wise woman

Sessions will take place Monday evenings from 8 to 9 p.m., Central Time, March 1 through April 26, 2010. The cost for these nine sessions is $49 per woman, and daughters may listen in with their mothers. The sessions will also be recorded and MP3s made freely available to participants shortly after each session, so that any who cannot join all nine sessions live may still hear what was discussed.

GIVEAWAY

Interested? The Botkin family has offered one of our readers free attendance to all nine sessions! This would include daughters who listen in with their mother.

To enter, just leave a comment telling whether you are familiar with any of the Botkin’s work or products and what you think about the product(s). No, they didn’t put me up to that. I came up with it myself because I like them. :)

As usual, you can enter up to 3 more times by linking to this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, and/or your blog. Please leave a separate comment here for each entry.

We’ll take entries through this Friday, then announce a winner just in time to start next Monday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t forget to enter our 2 other drawings:

Filed Under: Christian living, giveaways & deals

Birth control makes me mad

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December 17, 2009 by kimc 69 Comments

My sister-in-law Catherine called me last week asking for advice for a friend of hers who seemed in danger of miscarrying for the second time in 8 months. I gave what advice I could, which wasn’t much, and asked her to let me know what happened.

Her friend miscarried, and was heartbroken. After losing her previous baby earlier this year at the same point – 8 weeks gestation – she desperately wanted to carry this child to term.

Catherine asked me if I had any idea what might cause multiple miscarriages at the same point, and we talked about possibilities. Her friend had asked her doctor, who assured her that miscarriages were common and it was nothing unusual to have 2 in a row. He told her that any further answers were beyond the scope of his knowledge and she should talk to a hormone specialist.

Then Catherine said it: her friend had been on a birth control pill until just before the first pregnancy and miscarriage.

Didn’t her doctor know this? Doesn’t he know the side effects of the drugs he provides to his patients? Besides skyrocketing rates of ectopic pregnancies, birth control pills and implants are known to cause abortions and birth defects. They are known to cause miscarriages in pregnancies that occur during or after use – sometimes up to a year or two later. This information is available on the package insert of nearly any pill you can buy but doctors plead ignorance, or worse yet they deny it outright!

That poor young woman lost her baby. She lost two babies. You can make the case that she should have learned more about the risks of the drug she chose, but I hold her doctor even more responsible. I also hold those around her responsible. Someone among her friends should have known and warned her.

Those of us who know these things need to spread the word. I need to.

Our friends and family may not agree with us on whether to use birth control, but they need to know that certain methods do far more than simply prevent pregnancy. If our friends and family believe that life begins at conception, then they need to know that nearly all of the most popular, most effective methods have a Plan B: murder any unborn child that gets past Plan A. It’s right there in the fine print that they’ll find in the package.

The quotes below are from Drugs.com. You will find the same info on nearly any birth control you search except for a simple condom. All birth control pills work this way. IUDs work this way. Implants that gradually release hormones into the bloodstream work this way.

What is Yaz? Yaz prevents ovulation (the release of an egg from an ovary) and also cause changes in your cervical and uterine lining, making it harder for sperm to reach the uterus and harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus…

What is Depo-Provera? Depo-Provera is a form of progesterone, a female hormone that prevents ovulation (the release of an egg from an ovary). Depo-Provera also causes changes in your cervical mucus and uterine lining, making it harder for sperm to reach the uterus and harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus…

What is Mirena? Mirena is a plastic device containing the female hormone levonorgestrel. This hormone causes changes in your cervical mucus and uterine lining, making it harder for sperm to reach the uterus and harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus...

What is Norplant System (levonorgestrel intrauterine system)? Levonorgestrel is a female hormone. This hormone can cause changes in your cervical mucus and uterine lining, making it harder for sperm to reach the uterus and harder for a fertilized egg to attach to the uterus…

Filed Under: Christian living, iron sharpening iron, pregnancy/labor Tagged With: birth control, birth control pill, miscarriage

Bucks for Bibles

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September 8, 2009 by kimc 3 Comments

Although we are seriously biased toward Vision Forum, we also think American vision has some amazing products and unbelievable specials at any given time.

I just got this email, which I think is a great idea and a fantastic deal:

Bucks for Bibles

You’ve heard about the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program. But instead of giving away taxpayers’ hard-earned money and destroying perfectly good used cars to earn political points, we’re giving you cash in exchange for your used Bible. That’s right. We’re working with another ministry to collect used Bibles and give them away, free of charge to anyone who asks, anywhere in the world in exchange for 50% off a brand new 1599 Geneva Bible TODAY. We’ll trust you to send us your used Bible before the end of September to:

American Vision
ATTN: Bucks For Bibles Ministry
3150 B Florence Rd. Suite #1
Powder Springs, GA 30127

NOTE: Applies to 1599 Geneva Bibles Only.
This Offer Expires Monday, September 14th at 11:59 PM EST!

I should mention that we are also partial toward the Geneva version of the Bible. We have several of these Bibles in our house, and they are beautiful. The notes are always helpful and often eyeopening – not to mention very interesting as an historical curiosity.

Filed Under: books and poetry, worldview

400 yo Bible bookmarks: choose your own

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August 13, 2009 by kimc 6 Comments

bookmarks 400 yo Bible bookmarks: choose your own

400 year old Bible pages

Since we haven’t hit you with too many sales pitches lately (er…have we?) I thought I’d just mention that I have a very nice lot of bookmarks for sale. Like the ones on our Geneva Bible Pages site, these are each made from 1/2 of an ancient Bible page, damaged but still amazing. All are from 1640 or earlier, either King James or Geneva version.

Unlike the ones on our other site, I’m going to do something a little special here. I’ll let you choose your bookmarks! These are $7 each, with free shipping. We like payment by Paypal.

Orders will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis with preference given to larger orders. May I suggest that you provide a backup choice for each request just in case your first choice is not available?

Here’s what I currently have available, listed by the headers at the top of the pages:

roman letter – A modern looking font, easy to read. Many pages still have the “f” looking letters for “s”, “u” instead of “v” and other obsolete spellings.

Salomons prayer for the/Salomon praises God (II Chron)
The Arke of the Couenant./people. His facrifice (II Chron)
Ieroboams deftruction forefhewed./He is flaine of a lion (I Kings)
Who neede the Phyfition./Iefus came to preach. (Mark)
Chrift tempted. New doctrine./Confpiracie againft Chrift (Mark)
The Prophet feduced;/Rehoboam dieth. Abijam (I Kings)
The Church in captiuitie/Gods power and mercie (Pfalmes)
A fhrewd wife./The want of the word (Proverbes)
Know thy flocke/Tale-bearers. (Proverbes) – includes a favorite of ours, The wicked flee, when none purfueth: but the righteous are bold as a lyon.
The tongue of Canaan/Deftruction of Egypt. (Ifaiah)
Of Damafcus and Ifrael/Ifaiah goeth naked. (Ifaiah)
The defcription of an harlot./The ftudie of wifdome (Proverbs)
The churches favours, and/Davids zeal to ferve God. (Psalmes)
Obedience the beft facrifice./evils. The majefty of Chrifts kingdome. (Psalmes)
Jacob bleffeth his fonnes./Jofephs age and death (Genesis) pending
His death/Jacobs funerall. (Genesis) pending
Of Diues and Lazarus. Abraham bofome./The great Supper (Luke)
The fteward. Riches of iniquitie./The prodigall fonne. (Luke)
Samfons jawbone. Deliahs/The foxes. Samfons wife burnt. (Judges)
Againft furetiefhip, idleneffe, &c./Of whoredome and riot (Proverbs)
Samfon killeth a lion: His riddle/falfhood. Samfon is taken (Judges)

gothic font – A fancy, old-fashioned print. A little hard to read, but beautiful to behold!

The Ifraelites goe out of Egypt:/Mofes fong. (Exodus) pending
The fea is diuided/Pharaoh purfueth them. (Exodus) pending
Gods wonderfull power:/in affliction. (Psalmes)
Dauids prayer/His promife to Dauid (Psalmes)
The Paffeouer./Chrift accufed before Pilate. (Luke)
Luke (headers missing) – Peter will deny Christ; Christ arrested; Peter denies Him;

To place an order, just leave a comment telling us what you want. We’ll email to let you know if your choices are available and give you a total for your order.

Filed Under: Bible, blogging & technology

Call me Bigfoot

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August 11, 2009 by kimc 24 Comments

Maybe you’ve already read it. This article has been making the rounds and stirring up both sides of the great carbon footprint debate: Having Children Brings High Carbon Impact.

…Take, for example, a hypothetical American woman who switches to a more fuel-efficient car, drives less, recycles, installs more efficient light bulbs, and replaces her refrigerator and windows with energy-saving models. If she had two children, the researchers found, her carbon legacy would eventually rise to nearly 40 times what she had saved by those actions.

“Clearly, the potential savings from reduced reproduction are huge compared to the savings that can be achieved by changes in lifestyle,” the report states…

If it’s new to you, make sure your force fields are up. No matter what your lifestyle, if you have children you are burdening the planet more than you ever imagined. You are environmentally irresponsible, to say the least.

If you have already seen it, I hope you took time to read some of the comments too. Many are from people like us who value children. Others are from environmentalists, but they are hardly in agreement. Maybe we as Christians don’t have room to talk, but I can’t help being amazed at the division within their own ranks.

While some simply follow the leader and nod in agreement, others follow the reasoning to its logical conclusion: death. Still others see the inconsistencies in the prevailing arguments coming out of the environmentalist camp, and some even say things that I can wholeheartedly agree with.

There are currently over 300 comments. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Of the serial killers I’m aware, John Wayne Gacy was the greenest. His victims were young, so he snuffed out many years of carbon consumption. He could have only been greener by targeting females.

Sad, but true.

…This article is a joke, right? If there aren’t going to be any more people, what’s the point of saving the planet. It’s not as if cockroaches care how many greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere…

Ooooh, never thought of that.

Duh. This is obvious. And useless. Reproducing has little inherent harm to the earth. Why don’t we have a discussion questioning the reasons for gross consumption by people in the developed world? Why don’t we talk about the emotional issues that drive Americans (and to a lesser but growing extent, the rest of the world) to spend/toss/spend/toss at soaring rates?

Let’s hit at the core of the problem. When we start being honest with ourselves about why we need a 4-pages-long registry for the birth of a single baby, then maybe we’ll see a greener earth…

Very good question. We need to be good stewards of God’s creation, and we need to raise up children to continue taking care of His creation until He returns.

You liberals keep swearing off kids. Soon, there will be fewer of you.

I’ll admit it. I was thinking the same thing.

I suggest that all the people who want to help the planet commit suicide. This will completely eliminate your carbon footprint and will reduce the world’s population.

How can you argue with logic like that?

So, [to a previous commentor], you do want someone to feed you when you can’t work anymore (indirectly, through taxes, Social Security payments and such), but you don’t want to spend any efforts for this yourself?

Somehow the liberals never seem to think this far ahead. Our children will be feeding them, paying their bills, and dispensing medication in their old age.

What gives the already-living a special ethical status if the safety of the earth is truly at stake? Those so concerned about the earth that they tell others whether to have a family can start reducing the earth’s population one at a time any time they wish.

That’s right. Let’s put our money where our mouth is, shall we?

As my friend Dug always said: “I’m not having kids; I can pollute as much as I want.”

And they worry that those of us with kids are being irresponsible…

So from this can we derive that war IS the answer?
Do we need more giant wars like WW1 (16 million dead) and WW2 (50-70 million dead) instead of puny wars like Vietnam (2 million dead, max) and Iraq?
Should we stop trying to prevent influenza pandemics and millions of deaths from malaria?
Should we stop trying to feed the hungry?
The four horsemen of The New Ecology: war, conquest, war, famine and death.

Wonderful! Perhaps, in time and with concerted effort, we can achieve negative population growth! Imagine, the earth will be devoid of human life, but positively crystalline in its pristine grandeur!

There is a time and place for sarcasm. I believe this comments provides an excellent example.

Economists (even very green economists) might take a different viewpoint on the issue posed by the blog. Carbon footprint is a cost, one of many costs entailed by childbirth. On the other hand, a new human being is a good thing, a positive value.

So, the question really comes down to whether the value of a child exceeds the costs, including the environmental impact. Clearly, some readers believe a child has little or no value. For others, the value of a child far exceeds any conceivable cost.

As to my own values, I would need to know whether we are talking about my kid or yours.

The emphasis was mine. I wanted to make sure you read to the end of that comment.

If the point of saving the planet from global warming by reducing our carbon footprint isn’t to leave a better place for our children, then why bother? If we can’t have kids, we might as well use this place up while we can.

I’m a pacific northwest dwelling, environmental promoting, prius driving mom, but even I have to admit, sometimes these environmentalists miss the forest for the trees.

I suppose we could just commit suicide as well, or bomb any country we chose and elminate a large carbon footprints worth of people, but that would also hardly be the point, now would it?

Amen, sister. And that’s where I’m tempted to hug a tree-hugger.

Go read some more comments, but be warned. The language is a little rough here and there.

Just call me Bigfoot. Apparently my carbon footprint is even bigger than my shoe size.

Filed Under: babies, Christian living, crunchy stuff, worldview

We are a bloody people.

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August 7, 2009 by Perry C. 26 Comments

Bear with me there are extensive quotes below from several different articles.

From Whitehouse .gov

Speaking shortly after the confirmation, the President said he was grateful for the Senate’s confirmation, and gave special thanks the Senate Judiciary Committee for their hard work. He then reflected on Judge Sotomayor’s qualifications, and the historic nature of her confirmation:

….They’ve gauged her respect for the proper role of each branch of our government, her commitment to faithfully apply the law to the facts at hand, and her determination to protect our core constitutional rights and freedoms….

This is a role that the Senate has played for more than two centuries, helping to ensure that “equal justice under the law” is not merely a phrase inscribed above our courthouse door, but a description of what happens every single day inside the courtroom...And in the end, the outcome of your case will be determined by nothing more or less than the strength of your argument and the dictates of the law.

These core American ideals – justice, equality, and opportunity — are the ideals she’s fought for throughout her career…

You can read the President’s full statement here.

(emphasis mine and every time I read one of the phrases I thought “Unless you are an unborn child”)

In a National Review Online article titled “Death by Privacy” Contributing Editor Mark R. Levin tells us

“Finally, Blackmun focused on his legal rationale in Roe. He began with a review of the right to privacy, writing, in part:

The Constitution does not explicitly mention any right of privacy. In a line of decisions, however…the Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution. In varying contexts, the Court or individual Justices have, indeed, found at least the roots of that right in the First Amendment…in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments…in the penumbras of the Bill of Rights…in the Ninth Amendment…or in the concept of liberty guaranteed by the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment….These decisions make it clear that only personal rights that can be deemed “fundamental” or “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty”…are included in this guarantee of personal privacy. They also make it clear that the right has some extension to activities relating to marriage… procreation…contraception…family relationships…and child rearing and education….

Blackmun felt that the right of privacy, wherever it comes from, includes the right to abortion. Do not look any further for legal argument amidst the voluminous opinion, because it does not exist. Perhaps the extensive historical analysis was included to compensate for the lack of legal analysis.

But Blackmun went further, and the Court followed. Not satisfied to strike down the Texas law, Blackmun began to write what seemed to be a new federal statute. According to Blackmun’s opinion, a woman’s right to abortion could only be abridged by a compelling state interest. In effect, Blackmun argued that there was an inverse relationship between a woman’s interest and the state’s interest that ranged across a spectrum from conception to birth. Therefore, the state’s interest at conception was minimal but increased as the pregnancy progressed, reaching its peak at the end of the pregnancy. A woman’s interest, paramount at conception, began to give some ground to the state’s interest in protecting the fetus as it matured toward being able to live outside of the mother. But Blackmun specifically declared that the unborn child was not a “person” under the Fourteenth Amendment, and thus had no equal protection rights.”

During her confimation hearings Rupublicans asked Judge Sotomayor how she felt about the status of abortion in America.

“The court’s decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey reaffirmed the court holding of Roe. That is the precedent of the court and settled in terms of the holding of the court.” - Sonya Sotamayor speaking before the Senate Judiciary Comittee during her confirmation hearings.

You cannot make immorality moral by court precedent or legislation. Abortion remains an evil, murderous thing whether or not the court and the legislative branch.

So in honor of Judge Sotomayor’s historic confirmation I am posting a video that puts a live face on the “private” act of abortion, and saying a prayer. I am prayng God will grant repentance in time to spare us from chastisment.

Now I will be joining the 40 days for life campaign this fall.

How about you?

Filed Under: Christian living, Dad's corner, news & politics, worldview

New Video From Vision Forum.

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July 30, 2009 by Perry C. Leave a Comment

Darwin Speaks on God, Sovereignty, and Evil from Vision Forum on Vimeo.

At the Reformation 500 Charles Darwin debated John Calvin. In this exclusive interview, Darwin reveals his beliefs about God, sovereignty, and evil.

Filed Under: Christian living, Dad's corner, videos, Vision Forum

Geneva Bible Page update and special offer

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July 22, 2009 by kimc Leave a Comment

There’s a lot going on at our family business, Geneva Bible Pages, and we hope you’ll share our excitement. Read all the way to the bottom for the special offer.

Bookmark orders are being filled today and tomorrow. You can still get them at a very good price – just 4/$21, with free shipping.
Everything on the site is still on sale for 30-50% off. Check out the Family Bundle we created: 3 beautifully matted pages, ready to frame, and a set of 4 very special bookmarks, all for $90! Take a look and bug me to upload photos of new items, like the floating frame. Really. I need the motivation.
We’re changing the way we do our framed pages and adding new products. Check out the new, more affordable Standard Framed Page, and the simple, elegant floating frame.
Coming soon: we will be adding specific framed passages to our own For Sale page here at Life in a Shoe, so you can see just what you’re getting before you order. These will come in a variety of more ornate frames, but still with archival quality acid-free materials.
I’d also like to add very special title pages to our line of products. To help raise the funds to buy a batch of these pages, I’d like to try to pre-sell a few with a great offer. Here’s the deal: order any framed page on our website before August 1 and receive a free upgrade to a title page. Just mention this offer in the “notes” area of your order or leave a comment here to let me know. The catch: your order will take an extra week to ship since we don’t have the pages yet. It’s a pre-order, ok?

Filed Under: Bible, blogging & technology

Big Giveaway

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June 10, 2009 by Perry C.

This one isn’t a Vision Forum giveaway, it’s a GenevaBiblepages.com giveaway, and we need your help.

The Skinny:

We over ordered – double actually – our stock, but instead of sending it back we decided to keep it and put our inventory on sale. We are running a 40% off sale over at Geneva Bible Pages. We’ve even created a special Family Bundle at 50% off!

What you can do:

Blog, Twitter, Facebook,Digg, do whatever it takes to help us get the word out about this sale. We need to move this inventory fast – like in the next 2 weeks and we are prepared to make it worth your time to help us.

What’s in it for you? Besides a great deal on a really cool gift, that is.

There’s also 400 bucks - well up to 400 dollars retail in products from GenevaBiblePages.com.

Blog about our sale and giveaway (or facebook or twitter) and then come back here and leave a comment with a link to your efforts. We will take entries until midnight June 17, then we will select a winner to pick up to 4 individual items from GenevaBiblePages.com absolutely free. Our most expensive item sells for $94.99 each so that’s practically 400 dollars in retail.

But wait! There’s more! (Now where have I heard that before? )

I will actually let the winner choose 200 dollars cash instead of up to 400 dollars in merchandise if they prefer. Would you choose filthy lucre instead of a set of framed 400 year old Bible pages?

As always shipping is entirely free on GenevaBiblePages.com free Big Giveaway

Filed Under: Bible, blogging & technology, giveaways & deals

My very strange dream

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June 5, 2009 by kimc 11 Comments

I mentioned quite a few upcoming posts, but I’m going with the one about my bizarre dream and its meaning first for several reasons:

It doesn’t need photos, which means I don’t have to peel my tired bottom out of this chair until I’m done.

Well, that’s pretty much the whole list. I thought there was more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment. Maybe this isn’t the best time to compose an introspective post after all…oh yeah. Second reason:

An introspective post is long overdue on our blog. Don’t you agree?

MY DREAM

I dreamed hubby and I were at a gathering with many other adults. They ranged from friends and casual acquaintances to those we barely knew by name. I think they were you: our readers.

We were participating in some sort of athletic activity, taking turns at an obstacle course. It was another woman’s turn, but she didn’t want to do it. She would have to take out her false teeth, and she was ashamed to do so.

(Hey, quit laughing. Do your dreams make perfect sense?)

I decided to encourage her: “Come on, you can do it! Don’t be shy. Look, I have false teeth too. I’ll take mine out!” I popped out my false teeth, right then and there. It actually felt good; I hadn’t realized how uncomfortable they were.

(Hey, I said quit laughing. It’s not that funny. Well, maybe it is.)

A few minutes later I found myself in the bathroom examining my teeth in the mirror. The false teeth were actually more like caps, and I had broken, disfigured teeth beneath. I wasn’t surprised to see them, but I was taken aback at just how bad they looked – especially my two front teeth on top. “I really should get those fixed,” I thought to myself. “Why haven’t I done that already?”

fade

Ok, that was the end. Are you stumped? I’m not, which makes sense to me since dreams are often a sign of what’s going on inside our own heads. Here’s what I think it means.

THE MEANING

I think my teeth are my life. This is actually quite common in dreams. For example, when you dream that you are losing your teeth it often means that you feel you are losing control of your life.

In this case, I think my teeth – my false teeth, to be specific – represent the “public me.” KimC. You generally see the cheerful me, the hardworking me, the humble-and-submissive-to-my-husband me. The patient, charming, brave, kind, generous-to-a-fault, ever-holy-and-pious KimC.

Yes, I do post about real life. I have a whole category dedicated to Gone Awry. But more often than not, those posts are about me keeping my cool and my fabulous sense of humor even as all my best laid plans go awry.

I don’t know if anyone is laboring under the assumption that I’m perfect (no? whew!) or even that I’m any better than you are, but I want you all to know that sometimes more than just my plans go bad. I can be cranky, rebellious, selfish and lazy. It can be very difficult to persuade me that I’m wrong. I tend to be blind to my own faults and shortcomings. That’s just the short list. I’m sure there’s more, but I suspect that the part about being blind tends to keep the list short.

And like my real teeth under the false ones, I think I need to feel a bigger sense of disgust over these flaws of mine rather than a flippant willingness to accept them as a part of my personality. I need to hate my sin nature and turn from my sinful ways. Don’t we all?

That’s what I think my dream meant.

Filed Under: Christian living, deep thoughts