Tonight in church we sang "I'll go where You want me to go".
There is something that I have been struggling with for a while. Every time I think about it, I decide in the end that it's not an issue anymore. That I have matured enough spiritually that I am all good in this area. And then later someone says something or I read something, and it all comes crashing down again. Tonight in church we sang "I'll go where You want me to go".
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I love library fun! A different library got out their pets for the kids to look at and touch. Here there were about 25 kids that showed up, all crowding around, trying to get closer than anyone else. I don't remember what animal this is, but it stores water in its tail, kinda like the camel stores fat in its humps. The library lady said that it can lose its tail, but the second one will grow back disfigured and won't store water like it should.
The movie came out recently, and then I saw the book at the library. It looked like something EJ might enjoy with the fairies and stuff. So I read the book, then watched the movie, and decided the book wasn't good enough for him. Cons of the book: 13 year old girl uses crass language throughout 9 year old boy disobeys and mom "pretended not to notice" (this theme is carried throughout the book) Probably when he's old enough to deal with the book, it will be beneath him. The writing style is geared toward 9 year olds. Cons of the movie: Violent goblins and ogre Minor language (less than the book, I think!) I think by the time he's old enough to watch the movie, he will still be interested in it. I enjoyed the movie. :-) But I probably won't let him watch the movie until he's 13 or so. I'm developing my own rating system of movies, and it's very simple. Whatever Hollywood has rated a movie, I just bump it up one notch. Makes it easier to decide if he can watch a movie I haven't seen yet. There is another series of books entitled "Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles". I'm thinking of reading those books since there isn't a sequel to the movie yet.
On Monday we had two library fun things. The first one was at Trussville library (the same place Aesop's Fables puppet show was). Some people came from a Karate school to talk to parents about the benefits of Karate and to let the kids break a board. Just enough to whet all those kids' appetites, you know?
It's not actually my birthday. It's my blog's birthday! And it's actually not for five more days. But I just couldn't wait!
I can't believe I've had this blog/website for a year. It really seems so much shorter than that. Through this past year, I have learned a lot about myself--and others. I've learned that my mom is my number one fan, but I'm my kid's number one fan, so that doesn't surprise me too much. Love you, Mom! I've learned that some things spin way out of control, and others fall flat on their faces. I've learned that as fun as "making memories" is, if I don't write it down, I'll forget about it. (Speaking of which, I still need to write about our anniversary from 2 weeks ago...) When I set out a year ago, I had all these great expectations of what it would be like. My wisdom would pour through my fingers and I would go viral within two months; people from around the world would have my web address saved in their bookmarks; I might even be asked to speak or write books. Well, um, yeah, that didn't happen. And now that I think about it, I'm not really sure why I thought all those things. And more importantly, I am so glad none of that happened! I'm actually happy with my 40 recurring visitors. I thought I would do more date ideas. I had great ideas of alphabet dates and other fun stuff, but alas, life got in the way. We still went on dates, but mainly just for celebrations. So that's my goal for this next blog-year. Do the alphabet date thing. That will be fun. I just have to make sure life doesn't accidentally "happen" again. Everything else, though, I think I'm happy with. Anyway, I wanted to give my blog a present, so I redesigned it. A little. Well, okay, a lot. I like it, do you? Two weeks ago, our library had an activity. First, the kids had to follow this path that literally wound through the entire library. (It's not a very big library, but still!) This is EJ crossing back over the path. Eventually, it ended in a mostly-empty room I'd never been in before.
This is book one in a series of I think 3. The books are long, almost 200 pages, so I was hoping they would be suitable for EJ. It took me about 4 hours to read it (mom style, you know, being interrupted every so often). I reviewed it on Amazon: This book has a good story-line and creates interesting sub-plots. The children don't obey very quickly, but the parents always get on to them, and according to the gerbil's POV, their behavior is unacceptable. Mild swearing throughout makes it unsuitable for kids under 12, but I'm not sure a 13 year old would be too interested in the childish escapades. Too bad the author had to ruin a perfectly good book with language. Other than the language, which was quite pervasive, I did enjoy the story. I think if I find one at the thrift store, I'll buy it and marker out the bad words. I could totally see EJ reading it multiple times. I haven't read the other two books in the series, and I probably won't unless we buy them--to mark out the bad words.
When I saw that there was a whole series of Jigsaw Jones Mysteries, I was excited. Not wanting to give my son material to read I haven't read first, I decided to check it out of the library first. I was so disappointed by what I read. In the second or third chapter, Jigsaw is told by his mom to clean his room. His response was basically "not now, I'm busy". She in turn responded by saying, "This is not me asking, this is me telling. And now this is me exclaiming, Clean your room!" She walks out of the room, and the rest of the page is spent exploring Jigsaw's thoughts: "I have better things to do than clean my room. I am an important person and have important things to do. Studying clues is better for me right now. This is no time to pick up legos." His mom never makes an entrance back into the book to reprimand him; he never feels bad about his disrespect and disobedience. There is no way, as wonderful as the rest of the book is, that I would want my son to read this. I have enough other things combating my son's attitude I don't need to add to it. I just don't understand how someone could on purpose write such attitude-garbage. P.S. His real name is not Jigsaw, it's Theodore, and any time anyone calls him Theodore, he gets upset. Not like, I just dropped my ice cream on the ground kind of upset. More like, I've played this level one hundred million times and WHY CAN'T I WIN THIS STUPID GAME ALREADY kind of upset. I reviewed this book on Amazon and gave it a one star. Too bad, too, 'cause the mystery part was pretty cool.
We went to the downtown library on Monday for some fun crafts. They had free popcorn and lemonade. There were four tables set up. Here EJ is making fossil rubbings. His didn't really turn out well, but I made one that looks nice. We made bead crafts. He made a necklace for his aunt--until he finished, and then he held it out to me and said "Surprise! It's for you!"
Preferences, standards, convictions...Obedience, submission, humility...Heavy topics for most people. But when a caregiver (I'm gonna say mom, since I am one and will be mentioning some personal examples) is trying to instill these qualities in their precious children, they become less stuffy and boring, and magically transform into important subjects with which to reward much diligent study.
{Can you tell I read a book that was written in the 1940s today? I don't enjoy reading stories in that language, but man, it just gets in my brain and flows unhindered onto my computer keys.} |
Who am I, you ask?
In 2006 I had a stroke, and every day my husband encourages me to use my remaining brain cells to the best of my ability. I love to organize, make crafts, and go on adventures (safe ones). I hope that through my blog posts, you will be encouraged to accept and make the best of challenges God throws at your life. Categories
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