High School Homeschool Curriculum For Sale

After 27 years of homeschooling our children from Kindergarten through their senior year we have several books and resources on hand. I am currently selling some of our high school curriculum.

Contact me at Karabeth6 @ gmail (dot) com if you are interested in purchasing any of these science, math, economics, or foreign language sets. The prices quoted do not include shipping. Real cost for media mail will be added. Once we have agreed upon the total price I will direct the buyer to my Paypal account.

Thank you! And happy homeschooling!

This older BJU Press French 1 set includes cassettes (I told you we homeschooled for 27 years!), hardbound text, a slightly used softbound workbook, and spiral-bound teacher's editions: $5 for the set "as is!"

Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry 2nd Edition, hardbound text and softbound Solutions and Tests manual: $10 for the set.

Apologia Exploring Creation with Physics 2nd Edition, 3 piece set containing hardbound text, softbound Solutions and Tests, and multimedia CD: $30 for the set.

Apologia Advanced Physics hardbound textbook and softbound Solutions/Tests manual: $30 for the set. 
Update 9/14/15 - I recently discovered my copy of "Daily Lesson Plans for Advanced Physics in Creation" by Lynn Ericson, ©2006 Schola Press (not shown). This will be included at no extra charge. 

Saxon Math Algebra 2 Second Edition: $10 for the set.

BJU Press Economics for Christian Schools (1st edition), spiral-bound teachers edition and hardbound student text: $10 for the set.

From Fear to Faith: A Personal Testimony

I have been open about my private physical health problem so let me be just as frank about a private spiritual health problem I recently experienced. This may not be the kind of thing you would expect a pastor's wife to write - after all, aren't we supposed to be super-spiritual or something? - but what follows is true and from my heart.

* * *

One day toward the end of June I was sitting here at the computer typing a Bible Journal entry for the daily blog post.

"You know that this is all an exercise in futility. God is not real and the Bible is fake."

That's the thought that crossed my mind. I immediately stopped, prayed, and tried to dismiss it but it troubled me far longer than I thought possible! I've been a faithful follower of Jesus Christ for almost 40 years now. Recently I had even completed 27 years of providing my children a Christian education through homeschooling. Once that was completed I had turned my focus to personal ministry. After much prayerful consideration, and with Pastor Dad's blessing, I had begun investing additional time and money into helping people with their needs. Specifically, this was to be centered on the following 3 groups of people that God says cannot be expected to repay their benefactor:

• widows
• orphans (or those who are unwanted, or unborn, or from broken homes: all of whom can be similar to orphans)
• foreigners.

You know, those people that God told the Israelites to help when He had Moses write the Pentateuch.

Alumni and Faculty of Karabeth Baptist Homeschool, a division of Gateway Christian Schools, Memphis, TN

Things had been going well. At least they had been until that awful, frightening thought took up residence in my mind ...

A few nights later I had a terrifying nightmare! I had another a few weeks later. Those dreams made me not want to sleep for fear of having another. I began to doubt my salvation and this was not the first time. But when I was a child and doubted it was because I wondered if I had understood, or repented, or trusted Christ, or {fill in the blank}. This was different. This was "There is no God no matter what you believe."  I cannot conceive of a more hopeless thought!

Scriptures tell us that only fools say there is no God, that Jesus is God in the flesh who defeated spiritual and physical death for us, and that if there is no resurrection we are of all men most miserable. That pretty much summarizes my situation. I felt like a miserable fool. Things stayed that way for several weeks but I carried on as well as I could, including typing blog posts despite the troubling thought in my head. My life, and the rest of the summer went on in its course. (That was chronicled in a previous happier post.)

* * *

Then on July 19th I received the following excerpted email from a church friend. It was so timely and so appreciated. 

Just been thinking about you and the Pastor all week....especially yesterday and today.
Mrs. _____ told us that when someone comes to mind and you don't know
why, to just pray for them.

When I read this email I sunk to the floor and cried.  Someone was praying for us! For me!  God, if there truly is a God, had put me on this woman's mind. (She would later tell me that God awoke her in the night several times that week and that was when she prayed.)

Once I regained some composure I typed this reply:

Thank you for your prayers. Mrs. _____ was right. We need them! It has been a very stressful week.

Personally, I have been struggling with doubts. That's probably not the kind of thing you want to hear from your pastor's wife, but it is true. On top of everything else he has had to deal with lately your pastor has had to hold his frightened wife and calmly tell her that the God we say we love and worship really does exist.

I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH and yet I am struggling with it. I have been very open about this with my husband and he has been very patient with me. He thinks that my Bible Journal that I post daily on my blog has earned me oppression and perhaps he is right. It had been my best year of personal Bible study so far and I had been devouring scripture like a starving person grabs food. Then the doubtful thoughts began sweeping over me and I panicked.

I'm still devouring scripture, though, and believe God will make Himself known to me. In fact, I find the thought that He told you to pray for us very comforting. Thank you for telling me.

Her response was simple but profound:

I love you and I want you to know that I never thought you were more than human. 

Okay, we all know I'm only human, but it was comforting to know that others do not hold me to a higher standard than other humans. Evidently ministerial family members do experience doubts and there are spiritual people who pray for them!

I later remembered that being human is what Jesus coming to earth was all about! Yes, He is 100% God but He is also 100% man (and no, I cannot explain this). It is because He is human that He could experience everything we do yet remain sinless and that makes it possible for Him to be our Savior.

* * *

The very next morning, July 20th, I picked up Lisa and Roman at the airport. As I looked at the smile on the face of that happy little cherub in the stroller my heart was pounding. I love that little guy! I do not want to lead him astray! We raised his mommy and her siblings to have faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone as their mediator between their sinful selves and the holy God. It is the same faith that we are presenting to our grandchildren. What if we had misled our children all those years and were continuing to do so? I must find the TRUTH before it is too late! After all, being sincere in a faith isn't enough. It is obvious that many sincere people are sincerely wrong since all views of faith cannot be right. They are mutually exclusive.

* * *

Besides my babysitting responsibilities at church camp I had also been planning to be a counselor. Given what I was going through then it did not seem prudent for me to lead a group of teen-aged girls in spiritual reflection. I attempted to talk to our teen camp director's wife Sunday morning, July 21st, to tell her that I was not going to be able to be a counselor but that didn't work out. I took my place in the choir and tried to get through the song service but that didn't work either. I left the auditorium in tears while we were singing a hymn. I later found myself sobbing in the arms of my surprised pastor-husband during the closing hymn. He asked the congregation to pray for me, as one God-awakened/email-sending member and he himself were already doing. (In the 4 weeks since that service I have had numerous people tell me that God has been awakening them at night and they pray for me. I haven't had any more nightmares so perhaps their intervention - and lack of sleep - has helped me rest.) Telling our congregation about my fear was one of the most humbling things I have ever had to do and yet it was the key to recovery.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  James 5:16 

The next day was our 35th wedding anniversary as well as the first day of camp. It is not unusual for those two things to coincide and actually seems fitting since we have been ministering together since the days we took our vows. But my spiritual peace did not return to me overnight and so instead of being a counselor I worked as support staff which gave me more time to read, study, and pray. It was time well-spent toward examining the Bible, other belief systems, and my own heart.

* * *

I later spoke with my friend, the email buddy, about the things that had been troubling me, one of which is what happens when we die. What if I am wrong about death and there is no God, no Jesus, no Heaven? This wise woman told me that what I am seeking is dying grace and I won't need it until I am dying. Right now I only need the kind of grace necessary to live day by day. It is one thing to make sure that one is on the right path, and indeed, it is what I and my husband have dedicated our lives to help people find, but it is another to fear death.

She was right! It is grace for today that I need and God will take care of all my tomorrows. 

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

If you want me to tell you how I reached my conclusions about God and the Bible I will be glad to do so, but not now. Since most of my readers are believers you may know the path I wandered. My starting point was this: If God is real, then I am a Christian because I believe Jesus paid for my sins. With that in mind, and the prayer, "Lord, help thou my unbelief" I began my research.  And once again I was able to experience the joy of my salvation! The fear is gone and faith has taken its place!

Pastor Dad and I with the 8 blessings that call us "Grandad" and "Gram." We are determined that each of these precious youngsters hear over and over again about the living God who loves them, sent His Son to pay for their sins if they will repent and believe, and desires to live with them throughout eternity! 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 

Summer 2013 Wrap-up

Our 2013 Graduate

Many of the students in our area are heading back to school. Even the homeschooling families are sending in their notifications of intent and making final adjustments to the curriculum. Not I. For the first time in many years, I am not preparing for a new homeschool year.

When our oldest graduated in June, 1999 our youngest was not even ready to begin kindergarten the following autumn. But in June, 2013 The Bear graduated from high school. It took 27 years for us to home educate all 4 of our children from kindergarten through twelfth grade but we did it! 14 years is a long span of time between oldest to youngest siblings, but I am glad for it because it means that I have had at least one of my offspring with me for the past 32 years. And we are still not empty-nesters! The Bear will attend a local college this fall and will live at home. But while he is making preparations to go back to school in a few days, his mother - for once - is not.



After all the paperwork had been filed for The Bear's diploma (I STRONGLY recommend an umbrella school during the high school years because it makes dealing with colleges and employers so much less of a hassle!) we turned our attention to other endeavors. Our church had a wonderful Vacation Bible School week in June in which we were active workers and participants. This is always a MAJOR event for our congregation and we love it!

Then Pastor Dad and I began some much-needed work on our house and lawn. We watched it rain on our lawn and gardens, which helped water all the new plants and some of the lawn reseeding. (It has been a rainy summer.) We have also enjoyed the slightly cooler-than-usual temperatures this year. We even stood in the rain with umbrellas over our heads while watching the grandchildren swim on the 4th of July in my dad's pool. And as usual, we celebrated birthdays with several of our loved ones. Oh, my! It has been a wonderful, busy summer!

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of picking up Lisa and Roman at the airport. Lisa had agreed to work as a counselor at our church camp as long as someone (uh, that would be me: no arm-twisting necessary!) watched Roman. Since Karen and Philip are directors of our junior camp I also took care of their newest little one.

Gram with her baby grandsons

The boys riding around the campground in style

The 6-month-old Roman and the 3-month-old "Baby Boy" were introduced to each other before we headed to camp. (I think their moms just wanted to know if I could handle two infants at the same time. Ha! Ha!) The boys played together on the floor. Three months can make a big difference at such young ages. Roman picked up Baby Boy's foot as if to show him his toes. If he could talk he looked like he would be saying to his cousin, "See these, dude? You're gonna love them! They're great to suck on whenever you misplace your pacifier!"

After camp, Dan flew into town to join the family. A few days later several of us attended a Red's game. The game itself wasn't much to see, (We lost to the Cards. Boo!) but we had fun in the stands. Our pictures even flashed across the scoreboard briefly as the cameras panned the audience while playing the song "Pretty Woman" (obviously they were highlighting our beautiful daughter, The Princess, but we got to photo bomb).  Pastor Dad said he was glad they didn't show us during the "Kiss Cam" because he and I had several people between us. I had to agree because if either of us had been required to kiss Fen or Diamond Girl right after they ate sticky cotton candy I'm afraid we would have been permanently bonded.  :)

This past Sunday we celebrated The Bear's graduation with an Open House. He had asked that we wait to officially celebrate when Dan, Lisa, and Roman could be in town. Sounded like a good idea to me!

Several pictures were taken at the event.  This one is of our 4 children and their grandparents. Pastor Dad's parents are on the left and mine are on the right in the photo.

The Bear is the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family so all the grandparents have only adult grandchildren now.

Pastor Dad and I were added for this 3 generation portrait.

And finally, here is one of The Bear being supported by his sisters and brothers-in-law, the "siblings" who helped raise him and added much-needed support through the years.

That's Pepper photo-bombing. That dog! ~sigh~ (I guess she thinks she helped raise him, too.)

More Books For Sale

We're still cleaning out bookshelves and boxes. I've divided these by subject into 4 lots. Prices include postage within the United States and Canada. Feel free to pass the word along to anyone hat might be interested. All books are free of writing or highlighting and come from a smoke-free (but not dog-free) home.

Lot 1: Cherokee Unit Study ($12.50)

This set of 4 books consists of the following:

• Cherokee Psalms, A Collection of Hymns in the Cherokee Language (all reading levels) - original price $3.00 bought at the Museum of the Cherokee in Cherokee, NC
• Cherokee Heritage (junior high - adult levels) - original price $5.95 bought at the Museum of the Cherokee in Cherokee, NC
• American Indians in America, Volume 2: The Late 18th Century to the Present (junior high - adult levels) - original price $5.95, not sure where I bought this
• The Cherokee (elementary ages) - original price $4.95



Lot 2: Ancient Civilizations Unit Study ($7.50)

There are 2 books in this series and they are both published by Troll Associates

• Growing Up in Ancient Greece (hardback, top corner dog-chewed personally by Pepper back when The Bear was 12 years old and she was his birthday present but no words or pages severely harmed.
• Growing Up in Ancient China (paperback, originally priced at $4.95)

Lot 3: Dog Books ($7.50)

These were not used to school our children. I bought them to read myself when we were getting ready to add our first Labrador Retriever to our home in 1993. I guess you could say I was the homeschooled student who needed to know what to expect (she says with eyes rolling heavenward). Suitable for responsible children and adults.





Lot 4: US History potpourri suitable for Unit Study ($25.00)

There are nine titles in this set:

• Liberty (Scholastic Books paperback) - originally $3.99: a detailed look at our beloved symbolic statue from conception to restoration
• Abraham Lincoln Fact Book & Teacher's Guide (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $4.95
• Civil War Commanders (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $5.95 - includes brief biographical sketches of commanders from both sides of the conflict
• A Gallant Christian Soldier: Robert E. Lee,The Sowers Series (hardback) new paperback edition is available at Amazon for $7.99
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage (souvenir paperback published by The Ladies Hermitage Association) - color photographs and text detailing the life, times, and home of the 7th President of the United States
• The Lost Colonists: Their Fortune and Probable Fate (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $6.50 - describes one theory concerning the residents of Roanoke Island that disappeared between 1587-1590.  (This book is suitable for high school - adult readers.) 
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane [A Newbery Honor book] (paperback) - originally $12.95 - contains original photographs taken by Wilbur and Orville Wright
• George Washington's Rules of Civililty & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation (hardback) - originally bought at Mount Vernon Gift Shop for $9.95
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (SoHo paperback edition edited by Charles W. Eliot, various prices and editions available online)





Feel free to contact me at karabeth6@gmail.com with any questions

Very Mini Homeschool Curriculum Sale

I'm getting ready for another - and our last - year of homeschooling. While putting together lesson plans this past week for The Bear's last year I noticed a few things that I no longer need. Some of these things are brand.new. As in UNTOUCHED. I don't know why that is except that I changed my mind somewhere along the way. Anyway, I could store these things until next year in the hopes of participating in a curriculum fair that doesn't conflict with other things on our schedule (as has happened the last, oh, say, 5 years or so) but I think that perhaps someone who doesn't have all their curriculum purchased or likes to plan ahead for future years might buy them now.

FOR SALE

Alpha-Omega LIFEPACs elective: Geography (Jr. High or High School)

These workbooks have no marks and come with the Teacher's Guide/Answer Key.

$15.00 postage paid. Retails for $28.95 and sells at Christianbook.com for $26.06 at their website. Covers are slightly different but it is the same 1997 edition.

I will take a check or money order but would prefer PayPal. Contact me at karabeth6@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing this set.

5 LIFEPACs and Teacher's Guide

Teacher's Guide Table of Contents page

Teacher's Guide

Scope and Sequence toward 1/2 credit of high school Geography

Free Friday: Return to Vacation

Oh, I wish!

It can't be done so I'll just return to the pictures of vacation. If I'm really delusional --er-- blessed I might even start to feel a bit warmer than I do right now just remembering the desert. Well, I can dream, can't I?

This year Lisa and I decided to take the power plant tour since the guys were there to share the experience with us. It was very enjoyable and very educational. (But don't tell The Bear because he just thinks we were on vacation!) These are some of the turbines that provide electricity to most of the southwestern United States.

And not only is the facility functional, but it has its artistic elements too. (There I go again with all that educational talk!)

I shot this picture blind. No, really. I couldn't see a thing with the blazing sun shining directly in my eyes so I closed them. I thought it turned out surprisingly well under the circumstances.

After we finished our tour we walked across the Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, the same one you saw behind Dan, Lisa, The Bear, and Pastor Dad in the previous picture, and the same one casting a shadow across the face of the Hoover Dam in this picture. (I'm feeling warmer already! How about you?)

The turbines we saw are housed in the building on the bottom left of this photo. And that's Lake Mead in the background.


A few days later we went to Red Rock Canyon to descend and ascend the rocks. What a workout!

Down we go!

And up and over we go! Pastor Dad wanted to know if I was coming. I explained to him that it's very important for the photographer to stop and take pictures and gulp air so I made sure I took lots and lots of pictures. (I won't bore you with all of them.)

Sometimes it is important for the photographer to have a picture taken of herself just to prove that she really was there. Or maybe she just needed to sit for awhile and gulp air.

Some folk didn't seem to require much rest. (And some folk were in danger of breaking his their necks a great deal of the time. Not to mention any names or anything, but even big sister looks like she's delivering a stern lecture.)

The park itself is full of diversity! Not only are the formations different from place to place but even the temperatures differed by several degrees depending on how much sun the locations receive. We saw our first snow of the season near an area overshadowed by some high hills.

Brr! Now I'm cold again! And it's time to wrap up this segment of the travelogue from our December Vegas trip. One more post ought to finish it. That's it until our next Free Friday!

Timeline: Genesis, Job, and John

Courtesy of Faithlife Logos software

I love studying history sequentially. It just helps make sense of the whole subject when things flow in order.

Studying the Bible is no different, at least for me. I like reading passages within their proper historical context. Let me take a moment to present the overview of the passages you're reading this week.


Genesis (Beginning events happening circa 8,000-4,000 BC and covering almost 2,000 years in the first 10 chapters; recorded by Moses many years later during the years of the Exodus)

The book of beginnings! If you believe that God created the world exactly as He said that He did in Genesis chapter 1 then you believe that there is no such thing as "prehistoric" anything as far as it pertains to the earth. Take a moment to think about that. If history began in Genesis chapter 1 then there is no "pre" history since God tells us exactly about the first moment of earth's existence!

That's exactly what I believe, just in case you're wondering. I believe the world to be no older than 10,000 years.
(****A tip for homeschoolers or anyone who is curious: If you ever want to do a really neat math/history project take sheets of paper or half-sheets of poster board and mark them off in 1/4 inch segments to make a timeline. Allow each 1/4 inch to represent 10 years. That's your scale. Then devote a different color of pencil or marker and make a thin bar line graph for each Biblical patriarch from Adam to Jacob using the book of Genesis as your guide. You'll need some decent math skills to plot on the graph where each man belongs when he is born, when he becomes a father to the son that is given, and when he dies. Don't put the years in BC until later but mark your time in "years of creation." For instance, Adam was created in Year 1, became the father of Seth in Year 130, and died in Year 930 according to Genesis 5:1-5. If you do this you will be amazed by many things! First, you'll see that Adam saw many generations of his "greats," if you know what I mean. Second, you'll see that Methuselah died the year of the Noah's flood. Third, the colorful bar graph will help you visualize just how many generations there were alive at the same time since men lived to be over 900 years old! This is a great assessment of early historical events. Make sure you have LOTS of paper or half-sheets of poster board before you begin. Adam's life alone will cover 23.25 inches which means his life ends 1 1/4 inch from the beginning of the 3rd piece of 8.5 x 11 inch paper taped together longways. Once you've got your generations plotted through Jacob find a Bible commentary to give you an approximation of when he lived and you will be able to go backward through time to assign years in BC notation to approximate the year of creation. We did it ourselves over twenty years ago.)

So starting our reading in Genesis (no matter what your creation theology) probably makes sense to you. But what's the reasoning behind choosing the books of Job and John for this first week?



Job (Events happened approximately 2,000 BC; recorded many years later)

The book itself was written later than the events that occurred in it (as was the case for the creation story contained in Genesis that is credited to the authorship of Moses; the same Moses might have been used of God to record Job's story, too, but no human author took credit for it). Several scholars (including John MacArthur: see The MacArthur Study Bible, c. 2006, notes for Job; and especially Dr. Henry M. Morris The Remarkable Record of Job, c.1988, Chapter 1) think that Job was the contemporary of Abraham. This would be possible because the name of Uz, the probable ancestor of Job for whom his hometown received its name, is listed in Genesis 10 near that of Abraham's ancestors (cf. Genesis 10:21-25).

Morris and MacArthur also point out that the land of Uz was likely near the land of Midian. This could be another reason to suggest the authorship of Moses since he spent time in Midian prior to returning to Egypt and leading the Jewish Exodus.It seems reasonable to place the Book of Job after Genesis 11:9.



The Gospel of John (References creation c. 8,000-4,000 BC but deals with the life of Jesus c. 4 BC - AD 29; recorded by John circa AD 80-90)

John was not the first gospel account written but it is the first that we'll read. Actually, John's gospel was probably the last of the four written yet I enjoy reading the Gospel of John alongside the Book of Genesis. "In the beginning . . ." they both begin. Unlike the synoptic gospels, John references Jesus as the creator of the world! This opening statement is enough to immediately establish Jesus' claim to deity.

Each of the four gospels concentrates on a different aspect of the nature of Christ. John focuses on Jesus as God and there's no beating around the bush! He boldly proclaims this by going back to the creation account to do so. That's why we're reading the Gospel of John first even though other gospel accounts were written earlier.


In conclusion, our Old Testament timeline covers about the first 2,000 years of the world's history (c. 4000-2000 BC) and the New Testament timeline is of the life of Christ from eternity past (which is the only "pre" history I believe existed) through to the life of Christ (birth c. 4 BC - death c. AD 29).

Looking Forward to 2012

Sample picture entitled "Winter"

Yeah, I know.  It's been awhile.

Once I finished my 52 day birthday celebration at the end of November I just kind of fell off the map again.  Or so it seemed.  Actually, soon after I completed that series I took a trip to a different part of the map with Pastor Dad and The Bear because we just couldn't let 2011 end without a family vacation.  That's one of the perks of homeschooling, you know.  Just pack up and leave when everything else on the schedule says "go for it!"  So we did. I'll post my pictures soon. (Probably Friday.)

One of the things I did while on vacation was think.  As Fen says these days while tapping his head in his best Pooh Bear imitation, "Think! Think! Think!" I did a lot of my thinking while confined to my seat while crossing the country on those jet planes that took us to our destination and back.  I prayed while thinking about what I want to do with my little piece of the blogosphere, too, and I feel like the Lord gave me a focus and a mission. I've been charting the course and making preparations ever since.

I am convinced that Bible reading is one of the most important things we must do and yet it can also be one of the most neglected things.  I became convicted that we need constant encouragement and not just the yearly mention of it as New Year's Day approaches.  With that in mind I outlined a few ideas of how to proceed.

For starters, I will be updating the Bible reading schedule page this week so that anyone can find the Bible reading plan at any time.  Feel free to print it out once it appears.  You'll know when it does because it will say "2012" and not "2011" on the tab.  I've been editing last year's schedule by . . . well obviously, changing the dates . . . but also by moving some of the portions to fit a better chronological timeline and to keep things within a 10 minute reading session.  It only takes 10 minutes a day for 6 days each week to read through the Bible in a year.  That means no one has an excuse for not reading.  No one is so busy that they can't read for 10 minutes each day.  Okay, I've been known to hide in the bathroom a few times just to have a few moments to myself but running water into the bathtub while reading my Bible tends to drown out noise while providing an inviting hot bath at the end of the reading session.  That's just my way of getting away from it all.  You'll need to find your own Happy Place occasionally.

As an added incentive I've also decided that each Saturday the scripture portions pertaining to the following week (like we did for Take Ten in 2010) will be posted as a weekly reminder.

On top of that, I would like to encourage memorization and perhaps a bit of discussion this year so for now, this is how I anticipate the weekly posts to appear:

Saturday:  The schedule for the following week

Memory Monday:  A list of verses to learn or review from the scheduled passages.  Just pick one.  Or if you memorized them all as a child, review them to keep them fresh.

Timeline Tuesday:  Just a little historical background or other tidbits concerning the passages we're reading.

Wisdom for Wednesday:  A s.h.o.r.t. devotion highlighting something from the scheduled reading segments.

Thursday's Tune-Up:  Okay, I intend to meddle a bit each Thursday.  Besides reading my Bible in 2012 I would also like to exercise regularly and do a bit of creative work in order to keep my body and soul healthy as well (the Bible reading is for spiritual health). You can be my accountability partner and I'll be yours if you'll let me.  I think part of the whole man-as-image-bearers-of-God thing is that we are triune beings, too.  We're body, soul, and spirit (or physical, emotional, and spiritual components if you prefer that terminology) and each has needs that must be met.  That's something we'll explore each Thursday.  Think of it as a weekly check up.

Free Friday:  It's just what it says.  I'm leaving it open for whatever suits my fancy.  (Warning!  Grandchildren pictures and more of  the "my crazy life" variety stories just might show up here each week.)  Friday is my potpourri bin for life's minutia.

Well, that's it!  Here's my Bible reading/healthy living/exercise/this-is-what's-going-on-around-here-on-the-Hill-in-2012 blogging plan.  

Talk to you soon!

Sometimes Heredity is Just Plain Quirky!

Have you ever been to the doctor or the dentist and had him mention something unusual about you? I don't mean that the doc was making fun of your anatomy. On second thought, I guess that is sort of what I mean. Specifically I mean that something about your person is different from that of the general population

I had that happen several years ago when I went to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth removed. That's when I discovered that I wasn't having teeth extracted.  I was having a tooth pulled. Specifically, the upper left one. Because that's all I had, that's why!  (I know this wisdom tooth deficiency explains so much about me to some of you.) :)

This one-wisdom-tooth discovery intrigued me on so many levels!

• As a foodie person I was thrilled that few meals would be missed! (Just eat on the other side!)
• As the home economist I was glad to pay for only one extraction!
• As a home-schooling mom I was interested in setting up a Punnett square to see if this was a family trait passed down to my kids.
• As a hobby genealogist I was interested in determining if this was something that I'd inherited from my ancestors or if I was actually the DNA mutant. (I don't think I like the sound of that!)

It turns out that I am not the mutant!!!! My mom only had the two upper wisdom teeth and so did her mom! We don't have any knowledge of generations before Grandma.

But I only had 1 upper tooth, not the deviant 2. Only time would tell if this would be the trait passed on through my DNA. Then a few years ago the orthodontist told us that The Bear only had buds for 2 wisdom teeth (not 4, but not 1 like me either). So I did pass on the "only the uppers" trait and The Bear might be the only one of my four children to inherit this recessive gene. (I'm not sure now but I can find out easily enough. Well, girls?) This means that for some reason (probably a childhood illness) the tooth bud for my upper right wisdom tooth did not develop but that it did not cause a further DNA mutation either.

Just this week a cousin's child said that she is cutting a wisdom tooth. She's in her mid-20's, which is also about the time I got mine. (Late tooth eruptions is another one of those tooth oddities I inherited. My parents considered dentures for me as I neared my first birthday without chompers. Just kidding.)

Anyway, being curious I asked my first cousin once removed (for all of you who need schooling in generation labeling) about the number of her wisdom teeth. She only has the uppers! Since her grandma was my mom's sister she inherited this recessive mutation from my maternal grandma (which would be her great grandma), too! Now I'm so curious that I wish I could determine which of my grandma's siblings had it (she had 2 sisters and 1 brother) and which of the next generation has/had it (there were 10 children in the next generation) and so on down through the generations.

So while the rest of the homeschooling families are doing Punnett squares for peas and fruit flies, or human heredity like the ability to roll the tongue (I can't), taste the bitter strips (I can), blood types (I'm O+) and ear attachment (mine aren't, I don't think) I'm more interested in diagramming our family's tooth genetics because that's a study I could really sink my teeth into!  (Sorry, I just couldn't resist a parting pun concerning Punnett squares.)    :)

Suede Parka Recycling

In my part of the world it is time to put away the coats and parkas in favor of short sleeves and swim suits. Unfortunately, my winter coat gave out on me before the winter season had ended - actually, the parka in question gave out before the winter season even began - but I couldn't bring myself to throw the suede garment away. I decided to recycle it.

The first several pieces were used by my Ohio History students to make reproduction maps. I wish I'd taken pictures of their efforts, but alas I did not so my poor representation will need to suffice.

We were studying French fur traders and the Native Americans at the time, so their maps showed waterways and trading posts and/or villages. That's Lake Erie shown at the top and a portion of the Ohio River at the bottom right. There are no land divisions shown other than the towns because this map represented the time prior to statehood. Since the students weren't little guys I allowed them to use permanent markers to draw physical features.

The students' maps used glued shell and wooden beads to mark settlements instead of the colored markers shown here. Then they each used a portion of the faux fur from my parka's hood, combined with bits of the coat's original belt, to tie their maps up into a roll. At the end of the year several of them mentioned that this was one of their favorite projects.

Map of Ohio Territory

I still had plenty of scrap suede even after the map activity so I set my hand to making a bolo jacket for the girls' Barbies from some of the smaller pieces.  Here is the doll that I borrowed (and which they never realized was absent from their stash).  She has since been returned, but I haven't given them the jacket yet.  It isn't gift quality, but I haven't found the right moment.

Barbie modeling her suede bolo jacket

And now it is summer and I'm still finding pieces of suede in my scrap stash. I decided to use part of it to decorate the strap of an inexpensive pair of flip-flops. 

I bought all of the craft items at Hobby Lobby today.  Being the frugal gal that I am, I am pleased to say that many of the notions were on sale.  There's a 40% off coupon at http://www.hobbylobby.com/ this week for the Vintaj charms shown.  The flip flops were also on sale.  The leather cord and beads were full price, but there is so much of each left over that I intend to make some jewelry, too.

Here's the finished product.  Well, okay.  Technically it's only half of the finished product since I have two feet, but once I got the first shoe finished I had to quit and get caught up on some housework.  Specifically, I needed to do our laundry.


I did mention that we had VBS last week, right?  Well, I had the foolish mistaken notion that I could keep up with my chores last week in spite of the additional time constraints. It wasn't to be.  (Just goes to show I must be an optimist in disguise!)  If I didn't stop and do some laundry today the residents of this house would be running around  - uh - unclothed.

Well, I supposes there might still be enough of the suede left to make primitive loin cloths for the guys and scant coverings for me.  Now there's a craft the pre-adolescents in my Ohio History class would really have rated highly! 

The Books of March 2011

This post has been modified slightly.  My apologies to my readers.

A bit late, but here are the books that I read last month:

• Life in Defiance by She Reads recommended author, Mary E. Demuth.  This is Book 3 in the Defiance, Texas trilogy.  (The two previous books in the series, Daisy Chain and A Slow Burn were reviewed in prior months.)

This book was the completion of the saga about the disappearance of a young girl named Daisy from the small town of Defiance, Texas. And now I can say that I know the whole story.

Mary E. Demuth is a superb crafter of words.  Her choices evoke a sense of presence.  You are in Defiance. And you are one of the individuals frantic for the discovery of the young girl's fate.

The third book in the series is written from the perspective of pastor's wife, Louise Pepper. Ouisie, as she is called, is a repressed soul who carries many secrets.  The first book is written from the perspective of her son, Jed, and the second book is written from that of her friend, Emory Chance.

There was a year's pause between my reading of the first book and the second and third so I had regrettably forgotten a few of the details.  When you begin this saga make sure you have all three of the books on hand so that you can digest the story in its entirety.  This is a story about hurting individuals and God's redemptive love that you'll want to read straight through from beginning to end.    A visit to the author's website reveals that Ms. Demuth is no stranger to suffering herself.  It is most likely her own journey through pain via grace that provides the acute pathos in her writing.  Even though I knew these books comprised a work of fiction I still cried after reading them because I instinctively knew that this was written by a woman who was no stranger to pain.  And let's face it.  At the time I needed a good cry.

• The Inheritance of Beauty by Nicole Seitz.  This is the She Reads book of the month.

Like the Defiance trilogy above, this book is about individuals whose lives hold secrets.  In this case, the individuals have grown old and have kept their childhood secrets hidden deep within them.  What happens when some of them suddenly find themselves residing in the same care facility?  Read the book to find out!

This is a charming story that explores the personalities and heritage of a few individuals from their childhood through to their days in an assisted living home.  Besides the issues of beauty, aging, and the loss of independence, it touches on what can result when people try to hide sin.  More than one generation in this book is guilty of trying to weave deception into truth.

A couple of cultures ride separate tracks throughout the story only to cross at unexpected junctures. We are provided glimpses into the superstitions of the white inhabitants of the town and that of their Gullah neighbors, all residents of the Bible belt. 

We are also afforded a look at the real beauty that emerges from inside a person as their outward beauty fades.  One can only hope that the decency that the caregiver in this novel shows to the residents in her care is mirrored in nursing homes everywhere.  

There are a few fanciful scenes in the story but they work well within the context of mental stability of the elderly and the tricks that the mind can play as a result of trauma and selective memory as well.  I enjoyed the book and recommend it.

• Buckeye Presidents: Ohioans in the White House by Philip Weeks. 

I read this book as part of my study and preparation for the Ohio History class that I was teaching to a group of homeschooled students in grades 4-6.  I found it to be helpful in preparing brief biographical sketches.  This book was published by Kent State University so I am assuming that Mr. Weeks is a professor and fellow Ohioan.  It was refreshing to read about Ohio's contributions to the Presidency by someone who knows Ohio, her politics, and her people.  Frankly, some of the other works I consulted were broad-spectrum presidential tomes that barely scratched the surface on the topic and I understand that a manuscript that covers the complete period of U.S. government of necessity must be brief.  I, on the other hand, wanted to provide my students with meatier tidbits than the appetizers afforded in the other books.  Buckeye Presidents helped me give them some pieces to chew on.

• Oddball Ohio by Jerome Pohlen 

Ah, yes!  More Ohio research.  This "odd" volume provided a bit of levity along with history.  It is also an unofficial tour guide of some of the stranger places in Ohio.  The author's humor is a bit, um, risque in places so I edited judicially whenever I read something aloud to my students who otherwise were appropriately amused by both the author's humor and the tawdry places he was extolling.

• Adam Bede by George Eliot.

It took me a lot longer to listen to this classic novel than what I intended.  But once I was well into it I kept going.  There were things about the story that I enjoyed (the clear presentation of the gospel) and things I didn't (the ending, for one).  Yes, I know that Eliot was a woman and that she embraced agnosticism, but she still managed to have several sermons preached by a few of the story's characters.

I didn't think much of the book's ending.  Since this is a classic there is surely no "spoiler alert" in effect so I'll just wade right in.  The fact that Adam married his brother's longed-for love at the end to make what Eliot saw as a happy ending didn't make me happy at all.  I suspect that in real life it would not have made Adam's brother, Seth, happy either even if Seth did get to be the doting uncle to several fine children.  Really?  I waded all the way through the story just to feel like the author gave up and slapped any old convenient outcome on as the ending?  Why yes, I did.

I have never read Silas Marner and am now wondering if I should do so.  Or perhaps, that is the story I should have read in the first place.  Anyone else have an experience with the writings of Eliot and care to share your opinion?

• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. 

This was one of the audio books that I downloaded through the Ohio eBook program.  Like all of the Narnia saga that I've read (actually heard) so far, I liked the story.  Lewis's wit and humor (should I spell it h-u-m-o-u-r) are especially evident through the voice inflections of the British individuals who have so far been utilized to narrate this chronicle.  Like all the Narnia tales, I found this one to be engaging and easily digested in a day's time.  The brevity of the eBooks (4 hours on average) make for a fine afternoon of "reading" while doing housework.  The fact that this book has not been made into a movie meant that it was all new material to me also.

• Lady in Waiting by She Reads author, Susan Meissner.

This historical novel by one of the Christian authors whose works I've recently encountered thanks to the efforts of the She Reads ladies is probably my favorite of her works.  Like The Shape of Mercy and White Picket Fences this story is based upon a token object that ties the past with the present.  In this case, it is a ring with an inscription, including the name Jane, that sets the story in motion.  The present-day Jane is intrigued by the discovery of her name in an antique ring and sets upon a journey to solve the mystery of the long-ago Jane's identity. 

There are actually two mysteries in this story.  Besides the owner of the ring, there is the puzzle of the modern day Jane's marriage.  The confusion over the broken marital relationship seemed believable as did Jane's relationship with her parents, sibling, and coworkers.  Life really isn't two dimensional, is it?  Most of the characters were sufficiently complicated and rounded.

The plot providing the historical theme is a fictitious account of the life of Lady Jane Grey, a niece of King Henry VIII.  If you are familiar with that period of world history then you are aware that many of the people surrounding Henry and his offspring were unusual indeed if they died natural deaths.  I enjoy studying the period but am mighty glad not to have lived in it!  The peasants and gentry alike were likely to suffer cruelly as the world experienced religious and monarchical upheaval.

March was a good reading month for me.  So far, April is proving to be even more promising!  And I'm ever so grateful to the fine folks who make eBooks available to me.

The Great Freezer Cleanout Continues

Guilty! I confess that I took the picture of the geese at the neighborhood Frisch's Big Boy during the week when we were cleanning out the freezers, pantries, and cupboards.

But not guilty for eating dinner there. We just dropped by for coffee and dessert. (I had the coconut cream pie. Yummy!)

As for food, well, we're still cleaning out the freezer. As my blogging buddy, Karin, pointed out occasionally the thing needs to be emptied and restocked. Something that was originally bought as a bargain might end up being totally wasted otherwise. Not. Good.

And as Karin also pointed out, the occasional mishap will happen. The last time our freezer was emptied was when we were hit by Hurricane Ike back in 2008. Grills all over the area were fired up to cook the contents of electricity-starved freezers: The Great American Barbecue as hosted by Hurricane Ike!

I was a bit remiss in my efforts to keep you posted, but I had good reason for it. There was a convention in town and a funeral out of town that we attended. I'm working my brain to remember what I cooked last week. Oh, wait! It's coming back to me.

• Wednesdays are always busy days.  I boiled eggs for our lunch and The Bear and I had ours as egg salad sandwiches.  Pastor Dad just ate his with a pinch of salt.  Some of us ate fruit.
• For supper that evening I used my food processor to grind a package of dried out hamburger buns into crumbs.  I then coated flounder fillets from the freezer with some of the crumbs that were mixed with Italian seasoning spices. Olive oil was drizzled in the pan and over the tops of the fillets before baking to make a crispier crust.
• Thursday's lunch consisted of hotdogs from the freezer and some buns that were NOT dried out or freezer burnt.
• Dinner that night consisted of a whole chicken (previously cut into halves before freezing) being roasted in the oven.  Canned vegetables were served as a side dish.
• There was enough of the chicken left to make sandwiches for Friday's lunch. 

After lunch our family went downtown to the homeschool convention.  We didn't get to go as early as we would have liked or stay as late as we intended because we were either home packing for our travels or traveling itself.  Pastor Dad had a funeral to preach in Tennessee.  We left after Tim Hawkins' show (and were mighty thankful that we had tickets for the early one!) to drive south, reaching our destination around midnight our time.  We returned home the next day and made preparations for Sunday dinner, which DID happen as scheduled (much to everyone's surprise, including mine!).  I'll tell about that meal in a separate post.

In conclusion to last week's great freezer cleanout let me state that due to unforeseen circumstances (a funeral) and the fact that we barely made a dent in the contents of the downstairs freezer, I will continue the Great Freezer Cleanout this week also in a somewhat modified manner. (Meaning that there are a few things that I absolutely must, muST, MUST buy at the store this week!)

The Books of February 2011

This was not a month spent reading a lot for pleasure. This was more a month for research, specifically as it related to the Ohio History Class that I teach each Monday in our homeschool co-op. But even that netted me some reading pleasure.

This was also a month that saw me spending a great deal of time on the road for the sake of basketball. I'm one of those folks who can read just fine while riding in a car, but I've never tried to do it while actually doing the driving.

Without further ado (and whining), I will review the books I read last month. But first, I'd like to draw your attention to something. It's March! Yippee! The month that spring officially begins. :)

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, here are the books I read in February.

• Suddenly Frugal by Leah Ingram.

You might recognize the author by her blog of the same name. I know that I did and that is one of the reasons I checked out this book from my library.

This was the book I alluded to when I said I wondered why I hadn't written it. (Well, I know the answer to that, really.)  To say that I do - and have done - probably 90% of the stuff in the book is not an exaggeration. In our case, it is not that we are suddenly frugal. It is that we are looking for more cost-cutting tips. I did find a few that were new to me and some that I knew already but needed to be reminded to do.

One of the new tips I learned was that vinegar can be used to clean laminate floors. We replaced most of the carpet in our house with a quality wood-look laminate a couple of years ago and I had found that the cheap store-brand alternatives to Swiffer mopping cloths were not worth the money I paid for them so I always used the real thing (which should make several members of my extended family who work for P and G very happy). However, I am pleased to have the vinegar and water frugal alternative. My floors look G-R-E-A-T.

If you "suddenly" find yourself needing some frugal suggestions I recommend this book. It will get you moving in the right direction. And then, for more industrial strength frugality, go borrow the bound volumes of The Tightwad Gazette (written by Amy Dacyczyn) or better yet, find them in a thrift store.

• A Slow Burn by Mary E. Demuth

This is the second book in the Defiance Texas Trilogy. I began reading this set a year ago while in Texas (which was purely a coincidence). The first book, Daisy Chain, didn't get a fair review when I listed all of my 2010 reads in one lump sum. I said that I didn't remember much about the book, and that was true. Now that I've read the second of the trilogy I remember the first, too.

The series is about the disappearance of a girl named Daisy and is set in 1973. Book 1 is written from the perspective of her friend, Jed Pepper, a preacher's kid. Do you see any similarities to my own family yet? Well, yes, The Bear was a 14-year-old preacher's kid this time last year. Like Jed, he is also pretty trustworthy and somewhat of an introverted deep thinker. Perhaps now you see why the book disturbed me a bit too much to want to remember something written from the perspective of the tortured 14-year-old boy who feels responsible for his best friend's disappearance.

These good qualities are about all that The Bear has in common with Jed, though. The Bear's preacher-dad is NOTHING like Jed's dad, thankfully. In fact, despite the fact that I kept seeing The Bear's face as I read, the rest of the family and the people in his father's church resemble nobody that I know.

A Slow Burn picks up the story where Daisy Chain left off but the thread is picked up by Daisy's grieving mother, Emory. She is haunted by her own feelings of remorse. She wasn't a good mother to Daisy. In fact, she wasn't a good neighbor, friend, employee, or anything to anyone with whom she came in contact. This book is about her journey to find her daughter's killer (yes, Daisy is dead) and the spiritual journey she begins in spite of her desire to avoid it.

I recommend these books, but only if you have the time to read the whole trilogy because the first book left me totally deflated and this second book left me waiting for Emory to find the answers to the questions that troubled her, including the identity of the killer.

(P.S. I began the third and final book in the trilogy this month but did not finish it. I just completed it last night and will review it next month.)

• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

This was the audiobook presentation of the much-beloved Narnia tale. I know it is the bonafide first book in the series but I read (heard?) it following The Magician's Nephew. I've seen the movie so the story line was not a mystery to me. Still, I think it is good to actually experience a story in an author's own words.

• "Ohio Valley History" Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 2009

This book is not a book at all. It is a magazine. But it happens to be an exceptional magazine. The magazine itself states on the inside that it is "A Journal of the History and Culture of the Ohio Valley and the Upper South, . . ." Subcriptions may be obtained here. I borrowed this copy from the library.

Why did I read this magazine? It provided research toward a lesson I was teaching in my Ohio History class. My students are 4th-6th grade homeschoolers and I think it is important that the information I present be both interesting and accurate. This particular edition had an article concerning European migration and the Kaskaskia Indians. We happened to be studying how the Native Americans in the Ohio region were influenced by French fur traders.

As an added bonus, after I returned home with this magazine I found that another article in it was written by a professor that Pastor Dad and I met last year at the conference we attended in Mississippi. And as an added added bonus the article was about the pastor of one of the churches that started the church that Pastor Dad now pastors. Okay, that's not quite as confusing as it sounds. (A certain pastor pastored a church in KY in the 1700s. That church later helped start our church.) The article was interesting to me, too, because it discussed regional and cultural biases among Baptists in the late 1700s. Ohio was a frontier microcosm of the blending between the New England  and southern cultures. Most historians are familiar with how that blending in the 13 original colonies wreaked havoc with the nerves of our Founding Fathers as they worked to coalesce the colonies into a nation. Those regional prejudices extended beyond governmental procedures and into how churches conducted their worship and missions. This, of course, was aggravated by how differing affiliations interpreted Scripture concerning church polity and its offspring, missions.

But for those of you who are not interested in Native Americans or church history, this volume also contained an article about a heinous robbery/murder and the resulting execution of the perpetrators, plus one about a steamboat of long ago. There was also a section for book reviews, which I found helpful for suggestions for further reading, particularly to adequately prepare for certain future Ohio History lessons, which was the impetus for obtaining this magazine in the first place!


So the results for this month are not that spectacular, but they are what they are:

1 non-fiction book
1 non-fiction magazine (which had more information in it than many of the non-fiction books I've read)
2 fiction books (1 via audiobook)