It’s like a barnyard around here.

There’s still a rooster roaming the yard. How he’s lived this long, I’m not sure. Why I continue to allow him to live, I’m even more unsure. He crows at all hours of the day and night, but lately, he’s pushing me to my limits.

He’s taken to thinking the front porch is for his residing pleasures. The concrete patio has become his playground.

My children’s shoes keep tracking in the signs of the suicidal animal.

If he’s hanging out on the porch and patio… and leaving the remnants of his time spent there for everyone to know where he’s been… he must be suicidal.

Between “Some Other Guy’s Rooster” as Charlotte has affectionately named the stray, and two of these furry gray balls of infuriating named Fred and Angus (both girls, ironically enough):

who like newspapers, which is fine with me, but also like the inside of my home, which is NOT fine with me, I’m just going to go crazy. Between the rooster making a mess of our play spaces, and the cat climbing the screen and running inside every time the door opens, it’s like a three ring circus around here. It’s driving me crazy.

Looking at the bright side, it’ll be the animals that send me over the edge. The kids’ consciences can be relieved. They didn’t do it.

TOS Review: Barbour Publishing

This year, Barbour Publishing, Inc. has published Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story by Annie Tipton and asked the Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew to review the book and let you all – and them – what we think of it. Based on the life and diary of main character Emma Jean – EJ – Payne, a 10 year old girl with tragic hair and growing up in the boring, boring town in Wisconsin. She can’t wait to grow up and get out of there. While her actions are almost always good, she doesn’t always land on her feet.

This paperback had me nervous at first, fearful I was going to encounter attitude problems and challenging authority figures from the characters of a book. From personal experience, this is not something I want my children reading about. It doesn’t end up in any good thing.

Eden (8) read the book first. She was pretty thrilled to get a book in the mail that was ”for her” to read. I heard about it. And heard about it. And heard about it. “It’s funny. The main character’s dad is a pastor. It’s so funny. They talk about God a lot. It’s so funny.” Yeah. My own dear daughter, well-meaning but oh, my goodness, the things she comes up with sometimes… Eden related to this book on a very personal level. She loved it.

Liberty (10) read it too, and while she wasn’t quite so ecstatic about the book as Eden was, she still talked about it often and happily read it. As a pickier reader, I was happy to have her find a book she enjoyed and read without dragging her feet about it. She’s really starting to understand jokes and have her own sense of humor, so this was pretty fun for her. EJ is 10 in the book, but very much not like Liberty with her serious, quiet manner, but Liberty still appreciated having a fun book to read.

I was pretty happy with the book. It’s great to find materials for my kids to read that I agree with, and this one fit the bill. The characters, while certainly portrayed as sinful people, they learn from mistakes and find a lesson worth learning in the end. I’d rather read about sinful characters that find grace and mercy in Christ than when books build characters that can’t possibly be real. EJ had a lot of lessons to learn (and it sounds like more are coming!). She isn’t perfect, but she seems like she understands that too.

Much of the book is entries from EJ’s diary – the diary her mother gave her because she believed it would be a “good outlet” for EJ. The very first page has some pretty funny stuff, and even Sterling (6) started reading it. He hasn’t gotten very far, but he keeps picking it up. I love how even he “gets” the jokes. If funny is what it takes to make my kids want to pick up books, then so be it. Throw in a Christian theme and a lesson that my kids can draw from too, and it sounds something we’ll look for more of! Book 2 is coming, and I already have requests from my kids to get our hands on a copy ASAP.

Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story has 192 pages and is published by Barbour Publishing. It retails for $5.99 and is available here.

To read the rest of the Crew’s opinions on Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story by Annie Tipton, head over to the review crew blog.

Facts of Life (by Alexandra)

  

Gus helped his dad ride through the weaned calves checking for sick ones yesterday. The boys have a pretty impressive understanding of how life goes. They have watched calves being born when it is calving season. All mother’s make milk for their babies, but during the weaning process they know that the calves no longer get milk from their mom and sometimes they get sick without the good stuff in her milk. Sometimes they get so sick that they die.

One of my chickens sat on eggs and even managed to hatch one of them. They chick made it 2 days before one of the cats ate it.

Tough stuff for little boys to understand, but they do amazingly well with it. It’s hard to shield them from much when our life is so surrounded by animals and the life and death of them. I've come to conclude that, while it's sad, it's good for them to experience. The knowledge that life leads to death, that people die too, that Jesus died so that their death isn't permanent... it all becomes an integral part of who they are and learning what we believe. Hard lessons, but important ones too.

A friend gave us another kitten. He got named Spike the 2nd. (If you remember back, the owl got Spike #1) Gus was outside building him a house on Saturday when he came running into the house crying. Almost to the point of hysteria, I finally was able to decipher what he was saying enough to figure out that it was something about my dog eating Spike that had him upset. I look out onto the porch to see Spike calmly sunbathing on the pillow he had been instructed to stay on.

“Pretty sure the dog ain’t eating your cat, honey.”

“Well she is eating something! It was all wet and gross!”

“Hmmm, lets go see…  Do you think that it could be?…”




Mystery solved. The kids watched for a few minutes and then went back to their cat house building.  There was a comment made at dinner to the effect of her “milk” being a lot bigger but that was about the extent of it. “When can we PLAY with them? They just sleep all the time right now!”

Around and around we go. It's a pretty incredible life in which to raise these sons of mine. They get to experience so much, to learn from real life, and to see so much firsthand. What a joy life is!!

TOS Review: God’s World News–Early Edition

 

As part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve been reviewing God’s World News, receiving their magazine for grades 1-2, Early Edition, and full access to the grade level I received at their website www.gwnews.com, and new websites www.kids.wng.org, and (should I have received a magazine on the teen level) www.teen.wng.org.

 

I requested Sterling’s age level, Early Edition. He’s six, in first grade, and reading very well. He’s devoured his magazines that he’s received so far, and told me over and over of the stories he’s read. The first morning after the mail came with his first issue was awesome. “Mom, did you know?” “I found ___ on the map.” “Mom, where’s ___ on the map? I can’t find it.” His first issue (September’s) came with a map to use with each issue, and oh, my word, has Sterling had fun with that. He’s studied it at length, finding all the states we’ve lived in, been to, countries he’s heard of, places he’s read about in his magazines. I have a feeling that thing isn’t going to make the year. We talked of hanging it on the wall, but he informed me he would not be able to look at it as well that way. Well then.

The magazines each contain 24 pages. They are colorful and printed on thick newsprint from what I’ve gathered. Amazingly, they haven’t ripped or fallen apart. I’m impressed, after what they’ve been through.

The website access is amazing. I’ve spent several hours on there and barely scratched the surface. Back issues of all God’s World Magazines (including World, one I’ve read some online and always in the eye doctor’s office, and have been thoroughly impressed with their views and vantage points. Plus… we have a writer from World in our own congregation. It’s a fabulous magazine. Unfortunately, our entertainment budget remains at $0 so we’ve never subscribed. For now though, I get to read it online. I was thrilled when I learned this – and further thrilled when I could “add” family members and added Blaine, so that he may read with his own username and password. Ah, it’s the little things.

The answer keys to quizzes in the magazine (during the school year – no quizzes in the summer) are online, as are extended news lessons, biographies in PDF form (I found one to use this week, was all excited about it, then my computer shut itself down and lost it. And just like that, what was it about?! Live and learn. Bookmark. Download. Now I’ll have to find another one to use. There’s 120+ to choose from – it shouldn’t be hard!) Weekly email newsletter Teaching God’s World News is available to subscribers, and is the easiest way to access all that I’ve mentioned.

Chalk it all up to say, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed Early Edition and all the online content that goes with it. Sterling is thrilled to get a magazine in the mail just for him, I’ve really appreciated all the articles inside, and I’m so excited to be able to read many of the other offerings online. The news chosen for Sterling’s magazine has been in good taste – I assumed it would be, knowing what I know of the adult magazine, but it did not disappoint. Sterling is getting a taste of the world and what goes on around him in a format I really appreciate, from a Christian worldview I also appreciate. Awesome.

Early Edition retails for $32 for ten monthly issues, but God’s World News has it available here for $28 a year for a single subscription. A school-year subscription, with issues September through April, retails for $25 but is available from God’s World News here for $21. Further discounts are offered for multiple magazines to the same address.

To read more reviews on Early Edition and God’s World News’ other magazines available for the young reader to young adult, check out the Review Crew Blog.

Sterling.

Sterling lost his first tooth last night. He’d mentioned earlier in the day that he had bumps on the inside of his gums that hurt. I told him he must have scratched them up on toast or some such thing. He complained again later, so I looked to see what was going on. His adult tooth was coming in, behind his baby tooth that has been loose for months but he’s babied enough that it never got looser.

I did what any parent would do. I bribed him. “You get it out before tomorrow morning, and I’ll give you a dollar. You still have that baby tooth in your mouth in the morning, and I pull it and you don’t get to complain.”

Compassionate? Of course.

Thing is, money speaks to Sterling like nothing else. He hoards it. So when he got the chance to add to his stash, he was all over it.

“How am I supposed to wiggle my tooth during supper?!” he asked.

I told him he could take a break and eat.

“But then I won’t get it out tonight!”

Pretty soon, he was asking for help. Sounding somewhat like a woman in labor, he moaned and huffed and puffed and I got it looser. He took to eating an apple in hopes that it would help. It didn’t.

I told him I’d get it out. He indulged me and stood there willingly. Thirty seconds later, he was spitting a tooth across the kitchen floor with a look of terror on his face.

Just like that, my baby grew up just a little. And he got his dollar.

Grace.

My children have an imperfect mother.

I know. Shocker.

I show my children depravity at it’s finest.

But where there is sin, there is grace. Forgiveness. Another day.

I distinctly remember the first time I ever apologized to one of my children. It was the hardest moment I could recall. So humbling. Since then, it’s become far easier. I have had lots of practice.

It’s a balance, this motherhood thing. We make mistakes, we learn from then, we move on, striving to do better. And then we make more mistakes. Scripture talks of the faith of a little child. The forgiveness of a little child is also a remarkable thing. Whereas I want to stay offended, and struggle to forgive and move on, a child forgives and immediately acts as if they really aren’t offended. As if I didn’t really just mess up once again, use a harsh tone, hurry them along when they were already doing their best, or interrupt their story to remind them of chores. They just forgive, move on, and love me still.

It’s incredible.

Today, I’m thankful for grace. God’s grace, grace from my husband, grace from my children, grace from my friends. Lately, I feel more in need of it than ever. I struggle, I sin, I fall flat on my face, and yet, God has offered me free grace. Over and over again, I’m in need of it.
I was called “super mom” again the other day. All I could think is, “Wow, have they got the wrong lady.” I try, I fail, I try again, and fail again. Motherhood is the most humbling experience of my life. My frailty is fully displayed to these six little people – and when I think I might be conquering just one small portion in life, one of my children says or does something that I taught them that reminds me, once again, that it’s so much worse than I ever thought.

Grace. Forgiveness. Thankful.

Pierce: self entertainment.

Pierce dumped out his shoes this morning, then started cleaning them up.

Then he realized I was laughing and taking photos, so he dumped them all out so he could start again.

Cheap entertainment. Unfortunately, as soon as I put the camera away, he gave up, walked away, and left the shoes everywhere. We’ll get there… one day at a time. In the meantime, I’ll marvel that he can actually use a broom and dust pan rather effectively.