I'm not really big on sports movies. I'll admit it. My favorite sport in high school was curling up on my bed with a good book. If you haven't done that for a while, you should try it. Reading while reclining really burns the calories, baby! Um, okay. Back to reality. We had the opportunity to curl up on the couch this last weekend and watch a new movie: A Mile in His Shoes. Even though sports movies don't really move me all that much, what pulled me into this new movie is one of the main characters, Mickey. He's 18, has a form of autism, and is pretty much kept at home, sheltered from the world. His life consists of taking care of the animals and doing other necessary chores on the family farm. Because I know several friends who have children with various forms of autism, this drew me in to the story. And I was hooked. Almost as quickly as my high school years when I was curled up reading a great book. Based on the book "The Legend of Mickey Tussler", this film follows the story of eighteen-year-old Mickey Tussler, who lives on a farm with his father and mother and who has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. But he can throw apples at an amazing speed. When a chance meeting occurs with the baseball manager of the semi-pro team the River Rats, from Clayton, Ohio, Mickey gets a chance to pitch for the team and to prove to his father he can do more than live hidden away on the family farm, taking care of his pig Oscar. ...or, if you're an email subscriber, you can view the video here. I don't want to give away any more of the plot in this movie, but it was really great! We all enjoyed viewing it together as a family. Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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Chasing Mona Lisa, by Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey, is set in 1944 Europe. Two Swiss agents are fighting to save the world’s most famous painting from the hands of the Nazis. If this sounds like an adventure book, that would be “right on.” The very first chapter starts off with high drama and continues every other page almost the whole way through. Lots of heart palpitations for the reader (!!!), but this isa book that is hard to set aside, as one must know what is going to happen next—and hope for resolution! The setting is France, mainly Paris, at the very close of World War II, a highly dramatic time for the people of France who have been held hostage by Germans for four years. Emotions are riding high, especially at The Louvre, home of many, many very famous and valuable paintings, and one, especially, the Mona Lisa (La Joconde). During the War, many of the paintings have been “stolen” by high ranking Germans (Hermann Goring) who had an insatiable appetite for such works of art, understanding their beauty and, obviously, their great value. Other works have been hidden away in various parts of the country. Numerous spies, differing political views, atrocities known to all wars, amazing rides across the French countryside, and accounts of personal dealings with many recognizable historical names from that era, are only some of the events recounted in this story. From a historical point-of-view, Chasing Mona Lisa is a great way to learn what was going on with the European side of World War II; the background story of Mona Lisa’s history is obviously true and told in great detail, so it is an eye-opener in many ways. It seems to be a realistic view of what was going on in Paris during a two-week period in August 1944 and a very accurate accounting of what was going on for people caught up in a war which they could only barely survive using their own skills and the depths of their own spirit. There are many surprises in this novel, which continue to the very end. There is never a dull moment and even timid readers of violent events will be assured a “good read.” It is a worthwhile read and a learning experience, as well as entertainment! At the time of this writing, Chasing Mona Lisa is on sale at ChristianBook.com for 40% off the regular price! Wow - even less expensive than the eBook version. Chasing Mona Lisa is available January 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Disclosure: I received one free copy of Chasing Mona Lisa in exchange for an honest review of this book. No other compensation was provided. Our history studies here at home have been chronological, so we haven't yet touched on U.S. History except for Christopher Columbus. This is why I was excited to have the opportunity to view two episodes from Learn Our History's "TimeCycle Academy" series of animated history lessons. Learn Our History, launched earlier this year by Governor Mike Huckabee, is a series of animated feature films that follow five teenagers who voyage through time and space as they learn the truth about United States history. A variety of themes are presented to the viewers, such as:
Learn Our History's mission is to help children get excited about learning American history by making history fun. TimeCycle Academy is an adventurous group of five students (ages 14-17) who build a time machine out of a bicycle and use it to travel back in time to experience history in the making. Four of the students are ages 14-15 and are in a classroom together at school, and one of the students, Connor, is big brother (age 17) to Addison. Our family was able to view two movies from Learn Our History: The historical content presented in both videos we viewed was accurate, interesting, and factual, without bias. I was pleased to see an accurate representation of two separate historical events in our nation's history. The artistic content wasn't quite what we expected to see. Especially in the first movie we viewed ("The Birth of a Revolution"), some of the artistic content was disappointing. The dialogue didn't always match with the characters' mouth movements; the drawings of the inside of buildings was sparse and uncharacteristically plain. Addison's head was disproportionately larger than it should have been, and my girls, from an artistic point of view, were disappointed. Our family was disappointed to see that Connor, age 17, looked and acted like an eleven-year-old. Sure, he was whiny and disrespectful, but in a 5th grader way, not like a typical 17-year-old. The younger students acted far older in their behavior, speech, and mannerisms. My girls didn't care for Connor's character, who wore a t-shirt that said, "I rule, you drool." The girls wished that he hadn't been a part of the movie. I think that if it had been a younger brother, age 11 or so, who acted immature but not so disrespectful and bratty, we could have tolerated it better. We also noticed that Addison, the girl, was definitely the leader of the pack, and she was dressed in masculine clothing, including a man's tie, and we didn't care for that, either. It seemed that the characters were designed around stereotypical public school students, and we all would have preferred to see the characters be designed more like role models for our children. Our girls were adamant about wishing the characters had been presented in a more mature, encouraging way. However . . . I must say that I enjoyed watching "9/11 and the War on Terror" much more than "The Birth of a Revolution." The artistic content in "9/11" was much more developed; the backgrounds and scenes were portrayed clearly with detail. In only one scene, where a large crowd of people were cheering and singing, did the artistic content on the people in the crowd dip slightly from the rest of the movie. And, the music in the background seemed more applicable to each scene - and could be heard throughout the entire movie. Overall, I look forward to hopefully being able to view more of these movies in the future. Learn Our History is using this series to relate the truths of our nation's history for students, and I appreciate that. |
On Librivox, you may download an excellent rendition of Stepping Heavenward in audio format, read by a woman who has a solid and interesting reading voice. Librivox.com also has links to the Gutenberg e-text, the M4B format available, and a zip file of the entire book. |
Have you read through Stepping Heavenward yet? If so, how has it impacted your life and your thoughts?
Have there been other significant Bible studies you've worked through by yourself, with other groups of women, or with your daughters?
Practicing these three recommendations will bring much peace to your life, and to those around you.
Praying that you have a very JOYful and blessed New Year!
Yup, I'm a bit slow in figuring this out.
This is part of what you SHOULD have seen in the email I sent out today about the fun "countdown to midnight" family New Year's Eve party printables!
So, to access the FREE printables for the New Year's Eve party ideas, just follow this link here:
http://www.joyinourjourney.com/1/post/2011/12/fun-family-new-years-eve-party-idea.html
and you should find the printables readily available and easy to print out!
I'm sorry for the confusion. I'll get it figured out eventually! Please let me know if you have trouble printing it out. Thanks!
Happy New Year!
I wouldn't say we do anything exotic or extraordinary...but we always have a lot of fun!
Yes, our girls now stay up until midnight (or later!) with us. I know - we're crazy.
And this year, with New Year's Day falling on a Sunday, and our worship service at church starting at 10:45 on Sunday morning, me thinks we're going to have some very tired children - and adults - come Sunday afternoon.
Can we say, "NAPTIME?"
I love planning the food and decorations, but I've never been all that great at planning games and activities. When I saw this neat "New Year's Eve Countdown" idea on www.TheIdeaRoom.net, though, I knew this was what we were going to do this Saturday night. I mean, how fun is this? However, I wanted different colors for our own family's party. So...even though I don't do this as often as I'd like, I took some time to have fun and design a set of printables for you to have your own New Year's Eve Countdown for your own family - in shades of blue and silver glitter! |
For our party, I'll be having one bag for each 30 minutes of the evening together.
6:30 ~ Eat Italian food!
7:00 ~ Glowstick "Maffia" game outside for the children!
7:30 ~ Silly String outside for the children
8:00 ~ Foosball competition for the children
8:30 ~ Wii games for the children (Bananagrams and other board games for the adults)
9:00 ~ Ice Cream Sundaes!
9:30 ~ Movie for the children (on the computer in the schoolroom)
11:30 ~ Bible devotional time led by my husband
12:00 ~ Happy New Year! Noisemakers and poppers for everyone!
The bags will have the graphics on them, below, and inside will be a slip of paper that explains what the activity will be, plus any additional supplies needed for that activity (if they will fit!). As you can tell, we'll have 9 bags lined up on the dining room table, and every 30 minutes, a child will be selected to open one bag to announce the surprise or activity!
Page 1 of Happy New Year Printables:
Page 2 of Happy New Year Printables:
I'd love to know how your own New Year's Eve celebration went for your own family, or more ideas for how to plan a fun New Year's Eve party, family-style. Please share in the comments, below!
And if you decided to go ahead and use these free printables for your party, please come back and let me know how it went!
Because I love them so much, I chose to not get onto the computer yesterday and write on my blog. :)
On Christmas morning, we were all showered and dressed by 8 a.m. for when my parents would arrive. Normally, we'd be enjoying Christmas a little bit later in the morning, together, but because Christmas was on Sunday, we were excited to spend some of our morning at church, with our church family!
We opened our stockings, enjoyed my mom's delicious homemade cinnamon rolls (yum!), mandarin oranges, and the oven omelet that I usually make, and then opened our presents.
That's the part where we usually take our time.
A lot of time.
Even though Brittany (age 11) would LOVE for us to tear into all of the presents and have everything opened in 5.3 seconds, we take our time.
She can hardly stand it.
My husband passes around one gift to every person, and then we all watch each person open the gifts one by one.
I know - if you're like Brittany, you already feel like jumping off of a cliff.
But the rest of us like it this way.
We love seeing the looks on each person's face when they open their gifts. We love hearing the "oooh's" and "aaah's" of the moment.
We weren't sure we'd finish opening up gifts before we left for church...but with Brittany urging us on, we did. :)
After a delightful worship service at church, we came home. My parents came back over to our home and we enjoyed visiting, munching on appetizers and leftovers from our Christmas Eve dinner, and taking closer looks at our gifts. It was a peaceful time together.
My parents went back home around 4:00, and I took a nap. Yes!
Or, attempted to. Hubby was putting together his Foosball table he bought for the family (well, for himself!) on Black Friday. While put together, it looks far better than the $39 he paid for it, the directions and parts were definitely of the $40 price range - quite frustrating.
But I did get a little bit of rest on the cozy couch. Ah, yes.
And later, we played Bananagrams, which I was given for Christmas (more about that on a later date).
It was a delightful Christmas. I hope you don't mind me wishing you Merry Christmas after the fact. At our house, it still feels like Christmas today, since it's a day off and we can do almost whatever we want to do, although I would love to start reorganizing our master bedroom. We'll see.
A friend sent this video to me, of the "Dancing House" Christmas tree lights, and it was so much fun to watch! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have!
Hi! I'm Julieanne!
You'll find me in the kitchen
trying new Trim Healthy Mama recipes, loving God, and carrying out that love as I bless my husband and teen daughters.
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