The main goal for our family is to hand down our Christian faith and heritage to our children.  Of course, they won't automatically "be" Christians just because they are our children.  They have to come to a point in their lives where they realize they need Christ as their personal Savior, and desire to love Him and serve Him.

    Perfectly Ridiculous is a great title for this new book for teens by Kristin Billerback.  How one teenage girl could get into that much trouble does seem to be a mite far-fetched, but it does make for a good story to read.

    Daisy is an average teenage girl, with not much money, and a penchant to get into
some really sticky situations, like with Max her Argentinian boyfriend.  Well, not
exactly her boyfriend, she only danced with him one time, but he could have been
if only he hadn't had to go back home to Argentina. 

    Clair is her very well-to-do best friend, and Claire's parents have agreed to help the girls go to Argentina for their graduation trip.  It's all planned, but Daisy's parents, it seems, worried that the girls might have some problems, scrape up the money and go along.  Some graduation trip, right? 

    Could things get worse?  Of course they could!  You will laugh along with the misadventures, boyfriend troubles, and a really off-the-wall missions trip complete with even more problems for Daisy to face, including J.C.  Who?  Read
Perfectly Ridiculous to see how he fits into the picture.

    The book is not only fun to read, but has some real life lessons for Daisy and the reader.

    No, Kelsi doesn't call her daddy "Bane" or think he's an evil criminal.  Well, at least not most of the time.

    If you - or someone you know - owns a Kindle Fire, and you use it to read and store books that you own, you are going to love this! 

    One of the great features of using a Kindle is that I no longer have to purchase bookshelves to store books that I have either bought or have been given.  However, the Kindle Fire wasn't designed to have a method of organizing books into collections. 

    This has been the #1 complaint of Kindle Fire users.  (The other regular Kindles easily organize books into collections as a built-in feature.)  If a person has hundreds, or thousands, of books stored on their Kindle Fire, however, the only option has been to flip through the carousel or list of books until you find the one for which you are looking, or to do a "search" for the book.

    Well, it's finally happened!  A small, independent company hired some app developers to build a book collections app for the Kindle Fire that will help us gather our books into organized collections.  Hooray! 

    When you go to the purchase/download link for Book Collections, you'll notice that there were quite a few disgruntled people leaving low ratings when the app first became available.  For those of us who had hundreds or thousands of books stored on our Kindle Fires, the app was freezing and needed to be "force closed" repeatedly. 

    However, several frantic days later, the Book Collections app developers had solved this problem and had resubmitted the app to Amazon for future purchase and download.  Within a few days, I was able to update my original download of Book Collections, and now I'm happily organizing my books!

    These app developers are serious about making this an excellent app that will work well for each person.  Their next update, probably within a couple of weeks, will be to enable Book Collections users to nest folders within folders, a great option!  I'm also hoping that I can place a book in more than one folder, although I don't know for certain if that will be a possibility or not. 

    Kindle Fire Department is now offering Book Collections at Amazon.com for a special 50% off new release discount ($2.99). 

    You can read more about how and why the Kindle Fire Department decided to pursue developing a Book Collections app HERE.

    They also have some information on their Facebook page for updates on the contests they are holding, and how to enter them.

 
   If you click on the graphic above, it will take you to Big Huge Labs' free I.D. badge making site.  This is my favorite website to make our I.D. cards.  My I.D. card at the top of this page was made using Big Huge Labs' website.  Here's the direct link:

http://bighugelabs.com/badge.php

    Big Huge Labs provides a bit more flexibility with what you would like your I.D. card to say and how it will look; you can choose colors and text in a lot more places.  The Homeschool I.D. card at the top of this posting is a sample of what I've made, using Big Huge Labs' free website.

     Big Huge Labs won't laminate your card for you and send it to you in the mail, like Homeschool Buyers Co-op, but that's okay!  I found a more frugal method of laminating our I.D. cards than what Homeschool Buyers Co-op will provide.  I was able to easily laminate all three of our I.D. cards for the same price as what Homeschool Buyers Co-op charges for one Homeschool I.D. card.    In fact, I found that I could laminate five Homeschool I.D. cards for not much more than what the Homeschool Buyers Co-op charges for one laminated card.


    See the bottom of this post to find out how to inexpensively laminate your cards!


     One of the most common problems people have when making their own I.D. cards like this is that they find that the photo they want to upload from their own computer or camera is too large in size.  This wasn't so much of a problem in years past, when cameras had a much smaller megapixel capacity.  I found that when I have made our I.D. cards, I must use another website to "shrink" or reduce the size of megapixels in the photos before uploading them to make our own I.D. cards.


     One of the easiest and free ways to do this is to use www.Picmonkey.com .


How to resize your photo (skip this section if the photo has already been reduced in size):

1.  On the left side of the screen, you'll see "Edit a Photo."  Click on that.

2.  After selecting "Edit a Photo", it will automatically direct you to your computer.  You'll need to find the photo that you wish to shrink in size, and double-click on it to select it.  Depending on the size of the photo, it may take a minute to load up the photo, so be patient.  :)

3.  If you want, you can select "Auto Adjust" on the top left hand side of the screen, but that's up to you.  Select "Crop", "Rotate", "Exposure", "Colors", and "Sharpen" as desired.  (Use "Crop" to remove background so that you'll just have a head shot of the person.  You can always go back and delete a change you made to your photo if you liked the previous image better.  Just click on the LEFT arrow at the top center of the screen ("Undo the last action.")

4.  The last step you'll want to do here is to resize your photo using the Resize selection on the left side of the screen.  Make sure that the "Keep Proportions" box is checked.  On the left box, change the number to around 150.  If you have placed a check in the "Keep Proportions" box, the number in the right box will adjust so that your photo won't appear wonky and sized incorrectly.

5.Click "Save" at the top of the PicMonkey screen.  Name the file (something like "Julieanne's ID Avatar").  For the quality, select "Mel" or the lowest quality.  Then click "Save Photo."  Your new, resized photo will be on your computer, ready to upload it to the Big Huge Labs website.  This may seem complicated to do all these steps, but it should go rather quickly after your first photo.  You'll get the hang of it!


     If you have any questions, feel free to contact me here or leave a comment. 


    After you have saved your resized photo back to your computer, you're ready to make your photo I.D. card!


Using Big Huge Labs to make your new Homeschool I.D. Card:

1.  Go to http://bighugelabs.com/badge.php

2.  Underneath their logo, you'll see "Choose photo".  You can upload from your computer, or select a photo from Flickr or Facebook.  If your resized photo is saved on your computer, choose "Upload."  It will display "Choose a file to upload".  Click on the "Browse" feature and double click your resized photo from your computer (or Flickr or Facebook, depending on where you have saved your resized photo).

3.  Next, you'll see, "Keep this part of my photo visible if it must be cropped:  Center...Top/Left...Bottom/Right.  I recommend selecting "Top/Left", because that's what worked for all of my photos, but you may need to experiment with this.

4.  For "Style", select "Photo Badge (landscape)".

5.  For "Badge Color", you can stick with their default color (blue), or you can select your own color.  Just click on the blue color square and select the color you would prefer.  Or, use an HTML color code to select your favorite color.  ( http://www.computerhope.com/htmcolor.htm#03 )

6.  For "Header Text", delete the word "PRESS" in the box, and enter "HOMESCHOOL I.D. CARD".

7.  For "Footer Text", delete the word "OFFICIAL", and enter the name of your homeschool.  For more authenticity, I recommend selecting a name that doesn't include your family's last name in it.  Our homeschool is called, "Heritage Classical Academy," for example.

8.  Place a check in the box that says, "Include an official looking barcode?"  You'll want this!  It won't actually scan or do anything, but it does make your card look more official.

9.  In the "Name" box, I recommend typing your child's first name, middle initial, and last name.  This will also make the I.D. card seem more official.  For you as the parent, mom can type "Head Teacher", and dad can type "Principal."

10.  In the "Text" box, erase anything already written there.  You can type whatever you would like, but here's what I did with mine.  I made sure to double-space between each line so that it would fill the blank white space on the card:

Head Teacher (or Principal)
(skip a line/hit Enter twice on your keyboard)
The name of your school
(skip a line/hit Enter twice on your keyboard)
2012-2013

For your children, you may want to include:

7th Grade (or the grade of your child)
(skip a line/hit Enter twice on your keyboard)
The name of your school
(skip a line/hit Enter twice on your keyboard)
2012-2013

11.  For the "Member Since" box, type in the year you began homeschooling - or the year your children were born.

12.  For the "Expires" box, type in a date that is right before your new homeschool year begins, one year from now.  For us, I type in September 1, 2013, because we'll be starting a new school year, and I want this current I.D. card to last for this entire school year.

13.  For the "Birthdate" box, it's up to you if you would like to enter this.  I choose to do so, because I rarely need to show the card to anyone, so it doesn't bother me to have this on my card.  After all, it's on my driver license, too, so that information is already in my wallet.

14.  Next, click on the blue CREATE button! 

15.  Your new I.D. card will show up nice and large on your computer screen.  If you would like to go back and change something on the card, click "Edit" at the top of the screen.  Then, click on the CREATE button to view your newly edited I.D. card.

16.  If you like what you see, and you're ready to save it to your computer, click "Save". 

17.  On a PC, select "Save File."  Once it downloads, right click on the file, and select "Open Containing Folder."  Now you can drag the ID card file to your Desktop or wherever you would like to save it on your computer.  You will want to also rename it, because the name it is given is just filled with numbers, making it difficult to find in the future. 

18.  To print out your new I.D. card, here's what I do.  I make all four Homeschool I.D. cards for my four family members, saving them in a file that is easy to find on my computer.  Next, I open up Microsoft Word and choose "Insert" and "Picture" to place the images into a new Word document.  I could also do this using a graphics program like PrintMaster or PrintShop or other word processing programs.  If the images don't like sitting nicely on your screen, you can right click on the image (on Microsoft Word) and select "Wrap Text - Square". 

19.  You'll want to size your ID card graphic so that it fits within the laminating pouches you purchase.  For me, I need to have mine sized at 2.75 x 3.75 inches.

20.  After all of the graphics are appropriately sized and spaced on your Word document (or word processing or graphic design document), place a piece of cardstock/index card thick paper into your printer.  (Or, make a test run with regular printer paper first.) 

21.  Print out your page containing your new Homeschool I.D. cards.  Cut them out and laminate them for your family's use!  (See directions at the bottom of this screen on how to inexpensively laminate your own I.D. cards.

     When looking for laminating pouches online or at office supply stores, you will want to look for the words, "self-adhesive" or "self-laminating," or "cold laminating" if you don't personally own a laminating machine.  For the Fellowes brand, look for the laminating pouches that have snowflakes on the bottom right hand corner. Scotch, as well as other brands, also sells small self-sealing laminating pouches.

     I choose to use the Business Card sized self-adhesive pouches, since I want them to be about the size of my driver license, the typical standard size for most cards carried in wallets.  You may choose whichever card size you prefer.  Just make certain that the measurements of your printed I.D. card are about 1/4" smaller all around than the outside measurements of your laminating pouches, or you may find that the pouches begin to peel apart over time.

    Michael's craft supply stores are now offering 15% off all purchases every day of the week for teachers...and they will include homeschooling families in this discount if you have some sort of Homeschool I.D. card or "proof" that you are educating your children at home.

     This also makes sign-up for JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts painless.  Instead of being grilled by the staff on proving to them that I'm a home educator, as has happened to me before, you can just show them the card and get signed up for their educator/homeschooling discount without a hassle.

     How useful have you found homeschooling I.D. cards?  For what have you used them the most?

    In our current culture of "hooking up" and casual dating, what you'll read below may seem rather strange to some of you. 

    What's wrong with going out with a new guy friend, a new guy friend every month or every week? 

    What's wrong with hooking up and spending little time truly getting to know someone new?

    You may think the following list of questions that a young woman should ask a potential future husband are downright silly.  Why spend so much time on such a thing like this? 

    Especially since so many couples are living together before marriage, why don't they just wait until they move in together to find out this information?

    Marriage is not for cowards.  It is a lifelong commitment to one person, and it is the second most important decision a person will ever make.  The most important decision is whether or not to follow Jesus Christ in a personal, active relationship.

    Choosing to live together is not marriage.  Not only is living together an act of rebellion against God, it is disrespecting your girlfriend/boyfriend and her/his parents. 

    And did you realize that the divorce rate is significantly higher for couples who lived together before getting married?  So much for the #1 reason couples quote for choosing to live together:  "We're trying to get to know each other better, to see if we'd be good lifelong partners."

    Did I use this question list while being courted by my husband?  Well, I didn't know such a list existed, but I did find out many of the answers to these questions during our two-year courtship together.  We didn't have to live together to find out these answers.  We didn't have to sexually defraud each other to learn the answers to these questions.  Instead, we did what every couple should do before marriage:  talk, talk, and talk some more.  We also received pre-marital counseling, which was very beneficial!

    The document below has been provided by www.SolveFamilyProblems.com, a family ministry of Dr. S.M. Davis.  If you are an email reader, you may need to click to view this webpage in order to see the PDF document.  My husband and I have heard Dr. Davis speak at a homeschool convention in the past, and we also own a few of his DVDs.

    I highly recommend that every young adult read through this list of questions multiple times before entering into any type of courtship or serious dating relationship - or even a first date.  Remember, every marriage started out with a first date!  Besides being friends with a potential spouse before dating, remembering to ask many questions right away can help confirm whether or not this is the type of person God has planned for you or your adult children.

    If a young woman doesn't feel comfortable at first asking these kinds of questions, then her father should take the lead and begin asking Mr. Potential Husband these important questions.  There may be a few questions of a very sensitive nature, that aren't appropriate to ask immediately, but this will vary from situation to situation.

    This novel takes place in Corpus Christi, Texas, shortly after the end of the Civil War (1865).  Texas, at that time in our history, was a state of many conflicts:  between Union and Confederate supporters, the different cultures, races, and religions—and those who would prefer it to go back to being a Republic without the support of the American states.  In the minds of some ex-Confederate soldiers, the war was NOT over and they intended to take back their state and get rid of all the Unionists.

    This is a historical time in our history and one that merits study and understanding of what was going on in this defeated state; there was much resentment and agony over what had happened and for a proud people, and it was extremely difficult at times.

    Amidst the conflicts resulting from the war and the former way of life, arises mystery and romance (of course).  The stories of the various characters weave an interesting tale of people from various stations of life and meshes them together in an exciting story.  The focus is on the Marquardt family, father, mother, and two grown daughters; a family which is staunchly Union in belief that unity between the states is the most practical and desired way of life.  They have lived in Corpus Christi for many years and have no desire to leave.  It is a struggle to mend the relationships which were severed during the war and to rebuild trust with former friends and associates.

    The younger daughter, Carissa, is flighty and eager to be married and finally does so to a very unsavory character.  Laura, the elder daughter, has much insight into what is going on all around her and does her best to dissuade her sister from marrying this man.  Laura, on the other hand, meets a nearly “perfect” Union soldier who is stationed in the city, and in spite of her determination not to “fall” for him, things begin to come together for them.  Many conflicts arise with Carissa, and Laura does her best to help her sister cope with her new life.

    The intrigue and danger arising from a group of rebels greatly affects this family.  Laura also desires to help those less fortunate around her, specifically the former slaves, and decides that God is leading her to teach them to read and write.  Despite her father’s misgivings about this, she begins covertly to teach first a household maid, then the maid’s two young sons, then others who begin asking for help with this learning.  Eventually, both Carissa and Laura face a danger greater than either of them could ever imagine.  “Touching the sky” is an expression used by the maid in the household, meaning to reach for something that is quite impossible.  It is a fitting title for the many endeavors facing this family.  Touching the Sky is an exciting story with a surprising conclusion.

     It's not often that I'm asked to view a movie that combines science and Christianity in regard to the creation narrative in Genesis.  I was excited about receiving this movie to review here on Joy In Our Journey.  After I learned that The Genesis Code is rated PG and received a great review from the Dove Foundation, I was even more excited to show this to my family!

     I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I was after we finished watching The Genesis Code. 

     I don't recommend this for Christian families or non-Christian families.  I don't recommend The Genesis Code for anyone.



Below, you will find:

•  a summary of the movie
• 8 of the core problems our family noticed with this movie 
• an explanation of the faults of this movie by Gary Underhill, Ph.D., a scientist, engineer, and mathmatician.
  

Problem #1:   Inappropriate romantic relationships are made to seem natural and okay. 

    Kerry, one of the key characters in The Genesis Code, was portrayed as a very strong Christian, one who lives out her life based on biblical truths and principles.  Yet, almost right away in the movie, she begins to flirt with Blake, an obvious unbeliever - in his own words.  She is presented as a very mature Christian, but obviously the producers aren't familiar with 2 Corinthians 6:14 and the command that Christians are not to flirt with nor have romantic associations with unbelievers...and even believers who are not as committed to Christ or are much weaker in their spiritual growth. 

    Toward the end of the movie, Blake seems to begin to accept that maybe there is a God, and Kerry takes that as a sign that he must suddenly be a "strong believer" now, even though he hasn't professed faith in Jesus Christ, so she kisses him and obviously takes their relationship to a deeper level.  Even the demons believe that there is a God - but it doesn't make them followers of Jesus Christ.  Our family could tell that the producers have a low view of Scripture when discussing romantic relationships.

Problem #2:  Genesis is portrayed as "too difficult" to understand. 

    The main goal of this movie is to portray the struggle between Christians who believe in the six literal days of the Genesis creation, and the assumed 16-billion-year age of the universe.  We noticed that Kerry's father, who was a senior pastor of his local church, should have been able to clearly demonstrate the factual reasoning behind a literal six-day creation.  Unfortunately, this pastor isn't able to defend the Bible and the Christian faith, and mutters that the book of Genesis is a hard book to understand.

    Our family disagrees.  We have read the book of Genesis for many years, and we feel it is a simple book to understand.  Kerry's dad (the pastor) is shown to be a very intelligent man who has studied hard over his lifetime, but it was obvious to us that the pastor is not able to understand the plain reading of the Bible.  This is very sad.  It is only when someone believes in the 16-billion-year old universe that the Bible in its literal, plain reading is difficult to understand.

Problem #3:  Scientific "evidence" is presented with enthusiasm and delight, while biblical evidence is muttered about and compromised.

    Unless children and teens - and adults, too, have studied the Bible in depth and are raised with a strong belief in Scripture, they will get caught up with the excitement and enthusiasm of the mixing of the scientific and the biblical.  But even my 12-year-old noticed that the Bible always was discussed as being compromised and having to take second-chair to the scientific concepts which were being discussed. 

    She noticed that the producers are assuming that death was a part of creation, before the Fall of mankind (Adam and Eve).  Not so!  The death of an animal to provide animal fur coverings for naked and ashamed Adam and Eve was the first death in creation.  The Genesis Code producers believe that billions of years of life and death existed before Adam and Eve were created.

    The film, “The Genesis Code” (2010), is an interesting film in that the acting is excellent, although the story line is contrived to provide the best possible “propaganda” setting for the basic tenants which the film makers hope the viewer will adopt.  First, there is very little “biblical” content to the film---the film works to equate the 16 Billion-Year age of the earth from “Big Bang” Cosmology and the first chapter of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.  Second, the film uses a standard “propaganda” technique of multiple repetitions to convince the viewer that the statements made are totally true, accurate, and impossible to reject.  A major issue missing in the film is an explanation of how billions of years of death and extinction---of evolution theory ----aligns with the “fall of man” and the introduction of sin and death to all living organisms.

    The film relies almost exclusively on the Cosmology of the “Big Bang”, which event is explained quite well.  However, the “Big Bang” theory derives from a solution to Einstein’s General Relativity equation (a macroscopic equation which deals with large gravitational forces, enormous distances, and large masses).  The solution---in terms of time---leads to a “singularity” at zero time.  The problem with singularities (at any time) is that the solution to the equation fails to exist at a singularity.  The second problem with “Big Bang” Cosmology is that Einstein’s General Relativity equation does not provide an answer to the question, “How does the universe begin at time zero (at the singularity)?”  “Big Bang” Cosmologists invoke the quantum theory of fluctuations to explain how energy and mass appear at time zero.  The cosmologists say that a quantum fluctuation is the source of the energy (and mass) appearing at the singularity.  However, the theory of quantum fluctuations (and quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, for that matter) is a theory of describing microscopic particles of matter, microscopic quanta of light and energy, and microscopic spatial dimensions.   It does not deal with anything macroscopic, unlike Einstein’s General Relativity equation, which does not deal with anything microscopic.

    According to the “Big Bang” Cosmology, at time zero, the spatial coordinate system of the universe was reduced to a microscopic point---which satisfies the microscopic spatial dimensions within which quantum mechanics attempts to describe how matter behaves.  However, the extremely large amount of energy (mass)---necessary to be concentrated at the singularity (time zero) at a microscopic point---does not correspond to the restraints of quantum mechanics.  Hence, the “Big Bang” Cosmologist must find a macroscopic explanation of how the enormous amount of energy (mass) was “deposited” at the singularity.  There has never been an explanation.   Further, nuclear physics research has never found quantum fluctuations which produce more than a few microscopic particles and/or a few light or energy quanta, all in a very restricted microscopic region of space.

    It is important to note that there has been, both early in the discussion of the “Big Bang” theory, and more recently, vigorous dissent by a significant number of cosmologists concerning the correctness of the “Big Bang” Cosmology.  It is also important to note that cosmology is not a science (as nothing concrete can be proved) but a philosophical pursuit.  There are many different cosmologies of the universe (the steady state theory [many variants], the “Big Bang” theory [many variants], and “quasi” steady state theories.  Science has never provided any proof of any of these different cosmologies---there are, however, inferences which provide some support for each of them.  So, when the film states over and over that “science has proved” or “science tells us”, or whatever similar statement inferring that science unequivocally supports the “Big Bang” Cosmology and thus the supposed equation of “Big Bang” Cosmology and “biblical” cosmology, these lines voiced by the actors are simply untrue and are one of the most simple of “propaganda” tools.  Science does not equate the 16 billion years of evolution with the 6 days of Genesis.  Note:  the film never gives any proof for any of the cosmology statements except one---the background radiation found by research conducted using radio telescopes---the “Big Dishes” found at Stanford, at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.

     The “Genesis Code” is a clever film made by individuals who are essentially evolutionists and are “anti-creationists”.  It is not an enlightening comparison of “creationist” interpretations of scientific observations and “evolutionist” interpretations of scientific observations.  The film does not accurately nor justly deal with the “creationist” world view at all.  The reviewer recommends that one find appropriate materials (videos, films, books) which provide a better comparison of the two world views or find materials—from each world view---which present those world views well.

Gary Underhill, Ph.D.