Fall on the farm

Leave it to my kids to need a song

They needed a song to help them memorize the poem. Fortunately for me, there already was one.

Sheeeeeee's back!

My sister Hannah has reappeared on the blogging scene.

So go give her a shout out. :^)

In Flander's Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

1. Print the poem here and the minibook version here
2. Wear poppies in remembrance - I love to find the ones made by veterans at the VA hospitals, but if they're not available use these

My southern girl

As a northern child, I found the idea of southern children confusing their vowel sounds kind of amusing. You know the "pin", "pan", and "pen" all sounding the same, when to me they were distinctly different.

My Anna girl is a girl of the South. She loves her greeits (grits). And today she was stumped by that adorable southern accent of hers (she's really the only one in our immediate family that has one, Daddy's wore off in college speech classes long ago). She was on the "st" in "stop" page in her phonics book, and got stuck on a word. She asked, "Mom, what is s-t-i-l-l ?" I replied teasingly, " 'still', as in are you still reading that page?" "Oh!", she returned, "I thought it was 'steal' like you steal something!" After many attempts she proudly nailed an "i" in Indian sound right in the middle of "still."

I know it's going to improve her reading, but I kind of hope that she doesn't lose that drawl.

Remember

thanks to Ann for finding this video for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Autumn rainbows

Election Day 2008 brought a gift - beautiful rainbows all over the sky. First we saw this one in the field across from our home. It was so wide at times, almost like it was double-width.

Eventually, we had a double, but it only lasted a couple of minutes.

We left about ten minutes later and drove ten minutes away to Ethan's football practice and got to see this one and all the beautiful foliage around it.

Ethan forgot his cleats and as I drove home I saw another rainbow in a different direction towards the library.

*

Then as I neared home the most amazing one of all - a complete and absolutely HUGE arc across the sky in front of me and it seemed to be right there near the end of my street as I turned in, but I knew that it was too dusky (and I was in too much of a hurry) to get pics of that one. It was such an amazing experience and friends all over my area were talking about the rainbows on facebook that night. :^)

*

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed,

because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

And our response?

The same as it always should be - PRAISE. God is good all the time; He is control; and the Church, despite persecution or roadblocks, is unstoppable.

So join me in our Third Annual Thanksgiving Psalm Memory Challenge.

So far we've memorized Psalm 100, 150, and 67. This year's Psalm will be Psalm 63.

A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

1 O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

6 When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

Now, it's your turn. Choose a Psalm to say with your family at each meal (or however you memorize) and leave your name in the comment box with a link to your Psalm on your blog.

In case you actually wonder how this happened

Children of the State by WORLD magazine



hat tip to Kendra

The election for kids

Update: Check out the links for election printables at LaPaz Home Learning

1. If possible, take your kids with you to vote. Try to avoid voting between 7-9 AM, noon-2 PM, and 5-7 PM.
2. Then head to Krispy Kreme for your free patriotic donut with your "I Voted" sticker - buy one for your kids too. :^)
3. Make a Future Voter button from Kaboose's election page.
4. Solve election word problems for math or print other election day worksheets from abc teach.
5. Need a mind-numbing game? Try the online election word search at the weekly reader election pages. Not really for younger kids - it took me four times to beat the timer!
6. There's lots of interesting stuff at Scholastic's election page.
7. And, of course - Time for Kids. The page of worksheets is a real gem. My fav on that page is the electoral college map. I alos like this candidate comparison sheet for young kids. Older kids can read this article, then fill out these worksheets.
8. Check you local PBS station for some of these new Election day episodes:

Electoral College

Their stance on LIFE - in their own words

Halloween night

She wanted the littlest pumpkin

Making "pumpkin stew"

Ethan made a dragon pumpkin

"trick or treat!"

Another side of the story

Are these truth or myths?

A reader recently wrote:

you are sadly misinformed, and only flaunt your ignorance by biting the bait and perpetuating this nonsense.NOBODY WANTS to get an abortion, PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION IS A MYTH, and you should probably just make decisions for your own body. period.

My response:

I personally find promoting partial birth abortion as a myth to be as ignorant as promoting the Holocaust as a myth.

If you don't want to murder someone, you typically don't do it. This does not imply that the person receives pleasure from their choice, but it is not in involuntary action. It requires want, or will. I realize that this decision is usually a painful one and women do not go skipping into and out of abortion clinics, but that does not justify their actions. If their child were seven days old instead of seven weeks gestation, no one would even try to justify it. And somehow there would be another solution. I know that some situations must surely seem impossible, but we do not have the right to end an innocent life.

Women should make decisions for their own body, but they should not have the right to dismember or otherwise slaughter the body of the child that they carry.

The unborn entity within the pregnant woman's body is not
part of her body. The conceptus is a genetically distinct entity with its own
unique and individual gender, blood type, bone-structure, and genetic code.
Although the unborn entity is attached to its mother, it is not part of her (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life009.html)

One of the government's actual duties is to protect life. If every life is not sacred, soon no life at all will be sacred. It is not difficult to trace this path in other societies, even recent ones like Nazi Germany or modern day Holland.

When abortion becomes acceptable, so will euthansia. And then forced abortions. And then infanticide and not treating children born with handicaps. And then involuntary euthansia, choosing when people should die so as not to burden society. All you have to do is read a little history to see this pattern. It's a slippery slope.

For specific questions about a Christian view of abortion go here.

For more information on several topics of bioethics go here.

To find an abortion recovery center near you, go here.

Most importantly, what does the Bible say about abortion?

Halloween festival

My kids love this annual event that includes a miniature train ride, inflatables, carnival games with candy prizes, a small farm animal petting area, climbing around on hay bales, and trick or treating in the fairy tale forrest (getting treats from fairy tale characters in the woods). And I like that it's only $5 a child for all of the activities!

My Rosie

She had to have a picture with this leaf

She likes to do this.

Her first real dance lesson.

This is how she fell asleep the other night.

And this is how she fell asleep tonight.

She came into the bedroom, found an empty spot

between me and the laundry, stuck a pillow in the basket,

pulled some pillows over her legs - and fell asleep!

Job the book ~ powerful

You can listen to or read the entire poem or order the book here.

My friend went to heaven yesterday

Please pray for the Pryor family.

Funny Forward

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES

Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables, by getting someone else to hold them while you chop.

Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat, by using the sink.

For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

If you have a bad cough, take a large dose oflaxatives; then you'll be afraid to cough.

You only need two tools in life - WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

Remember: Everyone seems normal, until you get to know them.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

I'm in love with a pasta sauce!

I'm not much of a brand name shopper. There are a few things, some because it's the only brand that my family can eat or use for one reason or another, fewer because I just really prefer them.

As far as pasta sauce goes, I tend to buy what's on sale. There have always been some brands that I've preferred over others, but never one kind of sauce that just blew me away.

Meet Classico's Traditional Sweet Basil Pasta Sauce. This stuff is so good that I'm going to be watching for Classico sales, then stocking up.

So what's your favorite pasta sauce?

Reed diffuser?

Does anyone know of a regular store chain or type of store that carries reed diffusers that are empty? Target and Walmart has them, but I don't want their artificial fragrances. I'd like to just be able to get the diffusers so that I can fill them with my own essential oils.

A Night of Reformation

Hey, all! While we enjoy celebrating Halloween from great costumes to the Great Pumpkin, I know that some of you do not.

This is a great resource for all of us - the opportunity to celebrate the Reformation. I don't own this book, but I do have a couple of their other books and they are fantastic.

We will have the pleasure of celebrating both this year. Our friends are having a Reformation party, focusing on the life of John Calvin this year. So we'll put aside our spiders and bats for a few hours and enjoy some Reformation history.

And then off we'll go to secure our year's supply of candy - because everyone knows that that's what it's all about (at least in our book)!



For some fun halloween activites, check out last year's post.

Pirate Songs CD

Any pirate lovers at your house (or just kids who can't resist a great sing-along CD)? Then this is your next just-for-fun kid CD : Disney Pirates Of The Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Song CD. From traditional songs, to "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me)" to the silly "The First Mate Is a Monkey" this CD is a keeper. The only drawback would be if you mind a minivan full of kids singing along at the top of their lungs, " yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!" Personally, we find this pretty amusing.

Columbus Day activities

1. Journal and coloring pages from the Teacher's Corner
2. A printable board game
3. The coloring page we used this year (we celebrated early on Friday)
4. Great worksheets for young kids from Time for Kids here and here
5. A great poem and Columbus Day song from Teaching Heart
6. Another great worksheet from Schoolexpress
7. The Library of Congress has a nice history of Columbus day with lots of links, so does Kaboose.
8. We made these ships from FirstSchool last year. DTLK has a fancier ship .
9. And just for fun Today's Kitchen's "Columbus Day recipes"

A Vote for Obama is a Vote for Infanticide

I don't love McCain, heck, I don't even like him - but this guy is sick, heinous. How could anyone support this practice?! This is not ancient Sparta or Nazi Germany. And this is not a good man.

If you vote for Obama, this is what you're voting for. This is the kind of change you will get.

And you will deserve it. But I pity your children and grandchildren. Especially the ones you will never know.

That's all I have to say.

For those who haven't seen it - the final Twilight trailer

You can view this in high definition at http://www.myspace.com/trailerpark.

Thanksgiving music

I was teasing Leslie about listening to Christmas music already (she was previewing an album) and lamenting the lack of Thanksgiving music. She asked what should be on a Thanksgiving album. So,I thought, let's take a shake at it. Two albums. One classy, maybe a beautiful instrumental album, and another fun, probably at least some vocals, kid-oriented album. What to put on them?

Classy:

1. Simple Gifts
2. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
3. We Gather Together
4. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
5. Bright Canaan? - I love early American hymns
6. America, the Beautiful

I think some quoted Psalms or other verses of thankfulness dispersed throughout could be really cool too.

Fun:

1. Over the river and Through the Woods
2. Turkey in the Straw
3. Praise Him, Praise Him, All Ye Little Children
4. Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise Ye the Lord

What tracks would you add?

Here are some albums I just found through a search that appear to go along with my wishlist:

1. Thanksgiving CD - Various artists, Wyndham Hill
2. Gospel Kids Songs Of Thanksgiving CD - great song selection, but the gospel-style music would really get on my nerves
3. The Thanksgiving CD : Quincy Choral Society - a choral CD, but the vocals are, in my opinion, sub-par
4. Great Thanksgiving - Now this is a choral CD! Who can argue with the vocal quality of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
5. Harvest Home: The Dale Warland Singers - beautiful
6. Home For The Harvest - a classical Thanksgiving

I'm coming up with way more Thanksgiving Cds than I expected, but I can't find a children's CD that I like.

Do you have any good Thanksgiving albums?

A Day at the Apple Farm

We shook up our annual apple picking tradition by going to a different orchard this year. The main reason for the change was the opportunity to try out a corn maze. It was hot in that open field and it's a good thing that it didn't take us long because the natives got restless quickly. They also had some really cool stuff at the p[layground, inclusing the tepee and the bouncing tubes. But all in all, I think we'll be back at our beautiful, cool mountaintop orchard next year.

Stuff I'm printing today

1. Crayola's Nature Walk activity page - my kids are going to take this to do at their Gran's for a seasonal little science/art/writing activity
2. Crayola's Autumn Leaves coloring page - I'm going to have the kids color these with their crayola :^) markers and then cut them out and make a border over the deck doors
3. There are other fall Crayola activity pages here.
4. Wondertime's Autumn Adventure cutting pages for Rose
5. Halloween bookmarks from Jan Brett to enjoy this month.

Scavenger Hunts

Can you tell that I'm an all or nothing sort of person. I break my blog silence, and now I can't shut up!

After some political posts - did you call your senators yet?! - here's some fun for you and your kids.

Wondertime has posted some great scavenger hunts, and links to even more. My favorite is the "Get the Green" scavenger hunt. So print and go have a green afternoon tomorrow.

Thank God for voices of sanity

Thank you, Senator DeMint, for continuing to be a man of principle, wisdom, and integrity. We salute you!

September 22, 2008 - Washington D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) announced his opposition to the $700 billion plan proposed by the Bush Administration to bailout Wall Street. "

After reviewing the Administration's proposed bailout plan, I believe it is completely unacceptable. This plan does nothing to address the misguided government policies that created this mess and it could make matters much worse by socializing an entire sector of the U.S. economy. This plan fails to oversee or regulate the government failures that led to this crisis. Instead it greatly increases the role for Secretary Paulson whose market predictions have been consistently wrong in the last year, and provides corporate welfare for investment firms on Wall Street that don't want to disclose their assets and sell them to private investors for market rates. Most Americans are paying their bills on time and investing responsibly and should not be forced to pay for the reckless actions of some on Wall Street, especially when no one can guarantee this will solve our current problems."

"This plan will not only cause our nation to fall off the debt cliff, it could send the value of the dollar into a free-fall as investors around the world question our ability to repay our debts. It's also very likely that this plan will extend the cycle of bailouts, encouraging other companies to behave in reckless ways that create the need for even more bailouts, triggering an endless run on our treasury. This plan may make things look better for Wall Street in the next couple months, but the long-term consequences to our economy could be disastrous.

"There are much better ways of dealing with this problem than forcing American taxpayers to pay for every asset some investor doesn't want anymore. We should start by reforming government policies and programs that created this mess, including the Federal Reserve's easy money policy, the congressional charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act. Then Congress should pass a number of permanent and proven pro-growth reforms to encourage capital formation and boost asset values. We need to make permanent reductions in the corporate tax and the capital gains tax rates. We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which encourages companies to take jobs and investment overseas."

"It's a sad fact, but Americans can no longer trust the economic information they are getting from this Administration. The Administration said the bailout of Bear Stearns would stop the bleeding and solve the problem, but they were wrong. They said $150 billion in new government spending using rebate checks would solve the problem, but they were wrong again. They said new authority to bailout Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would solve the problem without being used, but they were wrong again. Now they want us to trust them to spend nearly a trillion dollars on more government bailouts. It's completely irresponsible and I cannot support it."

Congressional Bailout

It is time to contact your members of Congress and tell them to not ruin our economy any more than they already have.

Leslie forwarded Ron Paul's letter giving a sane view on this topic. Then, at the bottom of the post, I've copied for you my own letter to my Congressmen. You're welcome to copy and use it to contact your own.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.The events of the past week are no exception.

The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder.

Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we're being told it's unavoidable.The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!

• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.• Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.

There goes your country.Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary." Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.

Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.

Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it.

Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?

Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.

In liberty,

Ron Paul

Dear Senator _______,

I wanted to go on record to strenuously urge you to reject the federal bailout of these mortgage companies. It is not a Constitutional right or responsibility of Congress, and that alone should stop you. It should be illegal.

Yes, this could create a financial disaster. But better we deal with the monster now in the way a free market demands, than create an ever increasing federal debt that will bring far greater disaster as the American dollar becomes as worthless as Confederate currency.

Listening to the same national financial advisers that allowed this mess to be created is nothing better than sheer idiocy, and I hope that you will endeavor to think outside the Washington bubble and see what financial minds across the globe easily see.

This is not your place. Please leave it alone.

Sincerely,

Alicia

Feeding the kid

Rosie's Three Year Pics - I know, they're late

I had a smear on my camera lense that I didn't discover until I'd returned home - I'm hoping that the printed pictures will still look okay. I never got furthur than a few jotted notes for her birthday letter either. I've got to see if I can still write it before "two" is hopelessly blurred with "three."

Why can't I get back in to blogging?

I really don't know.

I read all of my blogs on bloglines, but I just can't seem to get in to posting. School is busy, I've been reading actual books in my spare time and we've got plenty of other stuff brewing that keeps me occupied too.

But I hate to lose you all, so I'm going to try to reconnect here.

To start with, here are some pics from this weekend's adventure:

On safari

Yep, that's Ethan feeding a cow.

Anna Kate's "dog -goats" - they look like a cross

of some kind, don't they?

Rosie feeding a bottle to a kid