It’s been awhile since my last Bible reading update – I’ve failed to post any news for the last two weeks or so. However, I’m still reading away! I reached 1 Samuel this week, which makes me feel like I’m really covering a lot of ground in the Old Testament. But, what I’m finding is really neat is that my children and I are on pace with our Bible readings at the moment. We have a 1 year story Bible we’re reading with them at the moment, and it seems that even if I read 3 or 4 of their readings, or 1 or 2, we’re never more than a few days off from each other (both story Bible and Bible are chronologically arranged).  This makes it REALLY easy to double check for accuracy, and so far I’m pretty impressed .

Don’t forget that you can also visit Operation Actually Read Bible to sign up, or see how other Bible reading folks are faring in their journey to actually read the Bible!

Of Zenni Optical’s super cheap glasses, please let me introduce you to them!  Not only are rave reviews being spread around the ‘net, like the recent article in the Brooklyn Liberal Examiner online by Eric Hammer, but I’ve tried them myself.  After paying $50 to replace an arm that my 2 year old tore off my $300 pair of glasses, I sprung $65 for two rather top-of-the-line styles from Zenni, which are still going strong.  I bought lightweight, flexible pairs in a hope that they wouldn’t be maimed so quickly by my children, and so far so good.  Comparable pairs would cost around $500 at the local eyeglasses store – seriously, flexibility isn’t cheap!  My mom has her family buying them now too, how can you resist the savings? Starting at around $8/pair, they are affordable enough to get a bit wild, and even try some holiday eyeglasses frames if it strikes your fancy.

Congratulations to the two winners of our My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Adventure DVD giveaway!  Congratulations to Lynn Matthews and Michelle!  Please send me your mailing address within 72 hours, and I’ll get these in the mail for you!

Thanks to everyone who entered!  Stay tuned for some more fun giveaways in the near future!  I’ve been a bit slack this past week, but I figure that everyone’s pretty busy at this time of year .

I’ve never taken advantage of guest posts, or free content articles on this blog.  I write most of what you read here myself, with the exception of canned blog tour posts, and the rare guest spot or interview with an author.

Some bloggers do like to mix things up a bit, or take an editorial approach to blogging – if you’re one, there’s a site you might want to check out that features free home and family articles.  Many of them seemed geared towards home renovations, and decorating – not really my thing, but there are certainly blogs that focus on these areas.

Brrr, it’s beginning to feel a lot like….Christmas?  Well, it depends where you live – it’s certainly getting cold up here in rural Alberta, the windchill tonight is dipping down to -58 below zero Celcius.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s edition of The Homesteading Carnival!  I just opened the draft of our huge, black cookstove to get some more heat out of her, and away we go!  Curl up in a comforter, grab a up of cocoa and settle in for some reading.

Don’t forget to submit your posts for next week’s carnival, Abi will be hosting at a Lighter Side.  There’ve been some technical problems lately (last week was missed), but hopefully everything will be smoothed out soon!  Take care, and God bless!

David J. Smith’s award-winning book, If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People has done much to popularize the concept of shrinking the world’s population down to a representative 100 citizens and exploring demographic statistics on this much smaller, and therefore more understandable, scale.

In the animated DVD rendition - If the World Were a Village: A Story about the World’s People – of Smith’s popular work, expressive narrator Jackie Richardson sweeps young viewers into a bucolic village. There the inhabitants are cheerful and good-natured despite gross economic disparities; shielding children from the brutal realities of poverty while still evoking their empathy. The use of consistent named characters helps children to associate accurate demographic facts with colorfully animated characters.

The facts are presented gently without a great deal of sermonizing, but the call to social action is clear in the small acts of kindness that the villagers perform for one another. Questions about the wide spread in education levels, amount of available food, income, clean water etc. are sure to follow this awareness-raising film.

In the fact of such objectivity, a closing statement in the section on world religions is quite surprising. While the creators of the DVD (and possibly the originating book) are clearly in favor of peace throughout the world (as we should all be), the statement that all religions are at their core the same is fallacious at best. Few devoted followers of any of the faiths discussed would agree with such a statement, regardless of their dedication to inter-faith loving kindness.

Increasing numbers of school children find themselves living in bubbles that extend no further than their own communities and states. With the deplorable attrition of the study of world geography in most North American classrooms, engaging springboards like this DVD can (and should) be used to launch into previously unexplored territory, and ignite an interest about the global village in which we live.

Production quality is top-notch with bold, colorful illustrations based on the original title’s textured artwork by illustrator Shelagh Armstrong. An enthusiastic, eclectic soundtrack embracing a variety of musical styles from around the world adds greatly to the flavor of the animated feature.

With a total run time of only 25 minutes, the asking price of $29.95 will most definitely seem steep to individual families looking to explore this concept in an animated context. For schoolroom teachers and librarians the cost is more affordable considering that limited public performance rights are included along with the DVD purchase. A four-page free downloadable teaching guide is also available online.

Little is provided by way of extra features. English subtitles are optional on this English edition of the disc. Separate DVDs are available to purchase from Master Communications in French, Spanish, or a combination English/French/Spanish DVD. Each of the single language discs is $29.95; the tri-language disc is $59.95. Chaptering is excellent, allowing educators to zoom in on desired demographics: Nationalities, Languages, Ages, Religion, and so on are chaptered separately for easy navigation from the menu, or while the DVD is playing.

My young children have all found If the World Were a Village: A Story about the World’s People a pleasure to watch, proving its aesthetic and interest-maintaining qualities alongside its more apparent educational ones. No librarian’s DVD collection should be considered complete without an inclusion of this disc. Homeschoolers, if your library doesn’t yet own a copy, ask them to get one, it’s worth taking the time to track down.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

Kathleen Kent’s offering, The Heretic’s Daughter, is a stunning debut novel –  truly one of the best I’ve ever read. Hewn from her own family history and intensive research, Kent shares the life of her grandmother nine generations back – Martha Carrier – who was hanged for witchcraft during the trials of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. While not falling within the generally prescribed boundaries of traditional Christian genres, this beautiful work of historical fiction is a must-read for all believers – if only to prevent similar atrocities from taking place in the name of Christ again.

Written from the perspective of Martha’s daughter Sarah, readers are immediately immersed in a bleak, harsh landscape. Living under the shadow of smallpox, threat of attacks from surrounding natives, and the oppressive leadership of religious zealots in most towns, 11-year-old Sarah’s life offers little in the way of warmth or comfort. Born into a stoic, and mysteriously set-apart family, the trails of Sarah’s childhood will soon pale in comparison to the terrible impact the Salem witch-trials will leave in its wake.

Deftly drawing together the strands of historical detail, coming-of-age story, and rich, spell-binding prose, The Heretic’s Daughter is both unforgettable and heart-breaking.

“We rose each day to put on steaming, dirty clothes, we chewed out flattened bread and moistened it with water so that it would not catch in our gullets, we wiped the sweat and chased the flies, and ate our soup at noontide, and pounded our fraying implements against post and stump, shredded our meat for supper, and laid ourselves down again at evening-tide to wrestle against our dreams and our fetid sheets.”

Though an exceptionally long sentence, this excerpt somehow encapsulates the struggle that the Carrier family faced. The bleakness of their situation more apparent as Martha stood by her conviction to maintain her innocence even as she was confronted with threats of death. Both lyrical and haunting Kent’s prose would be unbearably dark without the hope of family solidarity and the slow unfolding of understanding that maturity brings in relation to one’s parents.

Believers may be concerned with how Christians are presented in this work. Kent correctly portrays a harsh, religious spirit of judgment, condemnation, manipulation, and fear, as the travesty that it is. However, she balances this portrait with characters who express God’s loving-kindness through their words and acts; those who preach grace and mercy, those who pray with and minister to the falsely accused, those who work to discredit the trials and eventually result in their closure.

The Heretic’s Daughter is not a happy, feel-good novel, but it is a necessary one. In my life as a former witch I was terribly misinformed as to the nature, motivation, and victims of the crimes committed in Salem. After my rebirth as a Christian, I hadn’t taken the time to re-examine the history surrounding that town’s blighted past. I am deeply thankful for Kent’s balanced, accurate, and oh – so deeply moving, sharing of her family’s history with us.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

The latest release in Lisa Tawn Bergren’s God Gave Us series of picture books is the sweet and charming God Gave Us Love. Populated by a loving family of Christian polar bears, Little Cub and Grandpa Bear explore the many ways that God’s love is displayed in our world, and in our relationships with each other.

There’s the need to love those who we find annoying, the special love between Mamas and Papas, the love between family members, and, most of all, God’s love for us as shown through the gift of His Son. There’s also, of course, the love for our younger siblings when they’re acting troublesome, the love we see expressed when God provides abundantly for our needs.

Not only does Grandpa Bear explain various types of love to Little Cub, but he also explains how all love is an expression of God’s big love for us. Through all, he says, Grandpa shows that because God is love, we are called to love others as we strive to be like Him.

Illustrated by long-time series collaborator Laura J. Bryant, her soft, action-filled watercolors are downright adorable. The family of bears frolics in their winter-wonderland home while ice fishing, hanging laundry (in the winter!), and tumbling about in the snow. It can easily be argued that her consistent illustrations throughout God Gave Us You,God Gave Us Two, and God Gave Us Heaven have cemented the series as a mainstay for families who collect Christian picture books.

As much as parents find the series incredibly sweet, God Gave Us Love may prove somewhat wordy for the youngest read-aloud audiences. Explaining spiritual concepts like loving when you’re not feeling loving, and trying to encompass the entire concept of love in a picture book is hard to do without becoming a bit wordy. My three-year-old’s attention span drifts if I try to read this title to her in a single sitting, and even my six-year-old looks a little distracted while I’m reading it. I’ll try them again with this title as they grow, and see if it catches on at a future date.

Loving the soft, whimsical artwork, pastel palette and gentle spiritual lessons, I’m disappointed that God Gave Us Love hasn’t captured my children’s imaginations the way I hoped it would. Still, I can’t part with it – it’s just too cute.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK OR AMAZON.COM!

This is a big one!  I must have received God Gave Us Christmas by accident, as I only asked to tour God Gave Us Love and Treasured from Waterbrook Multnomah, but I’ll post the blurb here in case anyone is interested.  We don’t do Santa at all, so I’m afraid I can’t give it a good review or recommend it.  A full length review of God Gave Us Love is coming (hopefully tomorrow); Treasured will have to wait awhile longer .

Treasured: Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures–the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we’ve loved, how we’ve lived, and what matters most to us.

God is a collector, too, whose treasures are tucked securely into the pages of his book: a golden bell here, an olive leaf there, a scarlet thread, a blood-stained cloth, a few grains of barley. Each of these saved artifacts reveals a facet of his heart and tells the story of a Father whose most precious possession is…us.

In Treasured, Leigh McLeroy considers tangible reminders of God’s active presence and guides us in discovering evidence in our own lives of his attentive love.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK, AMAZON.COM, OR RANDOM HOUSE!

God Gave Us Love: As Little Cub and Grampa Bear’s fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the young polar bear begins to question why we must love others… even the seemingly unlovable.

In answering her questions, Grampa Bear gives tender explanations that teach Little Cub about the different kinds of love that is shared between families, friends, and mamas and papas. Grampa explains that all these kinds of love come from God and that it is important to love others because…

“Any time we show love, Little Cub, we’re sharing a bit of his love.”

This sweet tale will warm the hearts of young children as they learn about all the different sorts of love, while the gentle explanations of each provide a valuable opportunity to encourage children to share with others a “God-sized love.”

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK, AMAZON.COM, OR RANDOM HOUSE!

God Gave Us Christmas: As Little Cub and her family prepare to celebrate the most special day of the year, the curious young polar bear begins to wonder… “Who invented Christmas?” Mama’s answer only leads to more questions like “Is God more important than Santa?” So she and Little Cub head off on a polar expedition to find God and to see how he gave them Christmas. Along the way, they find signs that God is at work all around them. Through Mama’s gentle guidance, Little Cub learns about the very first Christmas and discovers that… Jesus is the best present of all.

This enchanting tale provides the perfect opportunity to help young children celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to discover how very much God loves them.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK, AMAZON.COM, OR RANDOM HOUSE!

“Books left, books right, books up, books down. Books, books, books everywhere!”

Mayra Calvani’s Humberto, the Bookworm Hamster shares a passion of mine. Like me he is a bibliophile, perhaps even more devoted than myself. He reads when he cooks, when he eats, when he brushes his teeth, and when he takes walks. He even reads audio books on his iPod while he sleeps. This little hamster is one avid reader.

Indeed, Humberto’s passion consumes his entire life. He doesn’t have time to be friends with the blind beaver, to play cards with the rabbit and squirrel, or otherwise enjoy life in the forest. That is, until a great storm brings devastation to his community. When Humberto must choose between saving his few remaining undamaged books and helping his neighbours, what will he choose?

Most children’s titles revolving around the role of books in a child’s life focus upon creating excitement for reading, encouraging children to dig in and gobble up some words. Humberto’s story, however, takes a different tack; it serves almost as a moral tale to those of us whose lives threaten to be consumed by literature. As a book reviewer I can relate, and my children are certainly acquainted with the “books right, books up, books down” syndrome. I’m thankful however that they didn’t relate to mommy being too busy to be their friend because she was reading.

Illustrated by Kit Grady in a bright, computer-generated style, the artwork is fairly simple, filled with charming woodland creatures, and — of course – many books. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of this artistic media. Unless handled expertly it often results in a lack of depth, background detail, and warmth, as is the case in Humberto. Sometimes I wonder what adult opinion counts for though, as my three-year-old daughter grabbed the book as it emerged from it’s packaging, paged through, and exclaimed, “Mommy, I love this book more than any other book in the entire world!” We have quite a personal library, so I respect her input.

People over possessions, service over self – Humberto’s message rings with truth. While many picture books are read once and then forgotten, this little, word-loving hamster has dug himself into the hearts of my children. His tale is one that has been frequently requested in recent days. Humberto brings the book-addict in us back down to earth, and into the loving arms of family and friends.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!