Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A few of our favorite books for the younger crowd

This list was hastily thrown together. By that I mean that there is no rhyme or reason to the order or selection. I simply looked through our shelves and when I thought, "Oh we love that one!" I jotted it down and put it here. I hope you find a gem or two that will be new to you!

Books by Sandra Boyton (esp Snuggle Puppy and Barnyard Dance)
Books by Peter Spiers (esp Christmas, Noah's Ark and People)
All Things Bright and Beautiful illustrated by Bruce Whatley
Goodnight Moon
Guess How Much I Love You
The Year at Maple Hill Farm
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm
Jesus Storybook Bible
The Big Picture Story Bible
Dr Seuss's Sleep Book
Books by Wendy Anderson Halperin (esp Love Is...)
Androcles and the Lion by Aesop and Janet Stevens
Not a Box (I didn't like Not a Stick)
A Bad Case of Stripes
Blueberries for Sal
The Bee Tree
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs
One Morning in Maine
Horton Hatches the Egg
Could Be Worse
Oh the Places You'll Go
How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World
A Giraffe and a Half
Pancakes for Breakfast
The Gift of Nothing
Little Pea
Gruffalo
St George and the Dragon
The Kitchen Night
I Had Trouble In Getting to Solla Sollew
The Napping House
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub
Are You My Mother
There's a Monster at the End of This Book This is from my childhood and my boys love it :0)
James Harriot's Treasury For Children
The Little Mouse, Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
Preschool Art
Toddler's Busy Book
Preschooler's Busy Book

*Please let me know if you have trouble with a link so I can fix it. Happy reading!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Thoughts on Christmas

Here is a link to a post last year about Christmas generosity and simplicity. It has many quotes and links to others that have summarized the topic very well. If you are trying to figure out just how materialistic to be this year, or how much to simplify, or how generous to be...this post may offer some helpful perspective.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

WONDERFUL Series on Religions

Even if you are not particularly interested in other religions this is worth your time. It made me really appreciate Christianity even more. And, it is a helpful summary of the main religions in the world and how they deal with the problem of evil. One of my former pastors, Pastor Lee, wrote 8 short blog posts on the topic. Here is part of the intro:

A fellow PCA pastor (Joe Novenson) once suggested a metaphor that would help us hold this truth -- the existence of evil in this world -- in our minds in such a way that would allow us to clearly see how the religions of this world differ. It's a very helpful metaphor, and I'm just going to reproduce it here.

Please imagine that life is like a 16-foot deep, 16-foot across, round, slimy-walled PIT. You are in it, and you can't get out of it.

You're in way over your head, in a situation in which you can get little help, and over which you have little control.

But to make matters worse... inside that pit, there's also an 8-foot cobra. He's coiled and ready to strike.

Let's say that that cobra represents all the injustice, death, crime, suffering, poverty, pain, disease, war, & wrong-doing in this world. It represents everything that is wrong -- both in your personal life and in the world in general.

And here's what we're going to do: We're going to escort a representative from each of the world's major religions right up to the edge of that pit. That representative will see you in the pit and offer you his religion's version of "salvation."

We'll see just how different or alike the religions of this world are. Note that if you can think of a religion that we won't bring to the edge of the pit, it's really just a deviation (some would say a "heresy") of one of the religions that we will bring to the edge of the pit.

... to be continued ...

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part6

Part 7
Part 8

Birthday Tips

Here are some GREAT frugal, simple and special birthday tips. This mom has 10 children to celebrate so she has experience with birthdays! I love the personal feeling of her tips and where the focus is. I'll be incorporating some of these!

Letter Reversal

Check out this handy tip to help kids with letter reversals. It has helped my boys.