It’s February, it’s been winter for a long time, and everyone is starting to feel a little bit stir crazy.  Enter the infamous groundhog, checking for its shadow to determine when spring is going to arrive.  In Brownie the Groundhog and the February Fox, Brownie is the groundhog in question, who sadly discovers that she can indeed see her shadow.  Spring is another six weeks away.

Undaunted, this groundhog breaks from the mold and strikes out on her own to explore the winter landscape in search of any budding signs of spring.  She doesn’t find any, but she DOES find a hungry, February fox.  Relying on her wits to convince the fox to delay devouring her, she eventually finds a sign of spring and strikes up an unusual friendship with her new acquaintance.

Brownie is a charming little creature who shares just how hard it is to wait for spring.  Whew.  We live in central Alberta, Canada and can certainly relate.  This delightful tale is engaging enough to draw children in even outside of the month of February.  Hopefully, it will provide some respite from cabin-fever as it has done for my own young ones.

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Our family has adored Susan Marlow’s original ‘Andi books’ as we call them around here.  We were so excited to learn about the new Circle C Beginnings series for young readers.  Where the original Andi books followed the twelve-thirteen-year-old Andrea Carter through her many adventures and life lessons, the beginnings series follows the five-six-year-old Andi through her earlier escapades, adventures, and story background.

Our family has read through most of the Andi books together as read-alouds, and we’ve found the Beginnings books to be just as charming and full of life – if not more so!   Fans of the original Andi books will be excited to see a major piece of back-story filled in as Andi longs for her own real horse in Andi’s Pony Trouble.

Written for 6 to 8-year-olds, this series has met my oldest daughter right where she is in terms of reading ability.  After I read the first few chapters of this first title in the series out loud, she took off on her own.  It is so exciting to see her digging into this book – she even reads the “New Words” and “A Peek into the Past” sections! It wasn’t long before she’d found the series’ website and was checking release dates for the rest of the books! I continued to read it aloud to my four-year-old and toddler, and they also loved the simple text and cute artwork.

It has been all Andi and Riley all the time around our house when it is time for creative free play at our house!  My girls absolutely love the characters and I’m happy to have another entertaining, wholesome series from Susan Marlow for them to read and listen to.  One of my favorite aspects of Marlow’s writing is that her characters are realistic; they have flaws but learn character-building faith lessons along the way and little Andi is no exception.

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

We are having such a beautiful day that we are ‘spur of the moment’ butchering one of our steers!  Homeschool is on hold in favor of impromptu lessons in cattle anatomy.  ”Look children, the liver!  Wow, look at all those stomachs!  This is the rectum!”  I even took baby out in her fleecey because it is SO NICE and I have to admit, I like seeing how God puts cows together too!

Most children just don’t get educations like this – 1000x better than a field trip or science lab!

Substance addictions seem to be a bit of a taboo subject for Christians.  We all know that accepting Christ as savior and Lord does not mean we automatically become sin-free (oh, if only this were the case!  Not on this side of the river unfortunately.)  However, there is OFTEN the assumption amongst communities of faith that a Christian could never suffer from drug addictions.

While it is true that many, many people have been instantaneously delivered from addictions (both physical and spiritual) through faith in Jesus, there are others who continue to struggle.  Just think of all the Christian men who struggle from an addiction to pornography!  Somehow the hidden sins, struggles, and addictions are less shocking – more acceptable amongst us than, say – alcoholism.

The truth is that we are all still broken, sinners ourselves living in a sin-filled world.  Let’s extend grace and fellowship when we learn that those we love are in need of drug rehab.  This is a time to extend love and compassion, a time to undergird, not a time to condemn, not a time to break fellowship.  Let’s support those who struggle, and love on those who need it.  God, give us the grace we need to do this!

As quiverfull families continue to come to the forefront of media reporting on ‘quirky trends’, interest in our conviction continues to build.  I was recently contacted by a student researcher via email who is looking or QF families to interview, and I volunteered to pass her email along in case any of you would like to participate.

You can get in touch with Janna at jfrieman@haverford.edu

My name is Janna, and I am a senior at Haverford College. I found your lovely blog by googling “quiverfull blogs.”

I am a political science major with an interest in social movements, and I think that something really dynamic and interesting is happening with communities of faith in America. In the coming weeks, I will be putting together a survey (about 10-15 questions) for Quiverfull couples trying to understand how people find the Quiverfull movement, why they join, and why they stay invested in the Quiverfull community. I would love for you and your husband to participate. The identities of all participants will remain confidential, and I have no plans to publish my findings, but if you wanted to see the finished product, I would be happy to send you a copy.

If your family would be interested in participating in my research, I would be deeply grateful, and very happy to have your input. If you know other families that might be interested in participating, feel free to pass on my contact information.

All the best,
Janna Frieman
Haverford College Class of 2011

I’ve been thinking about getting a nose ring!  Did you know that Rebecca of the Bible was given a nose ring by Abraham’s servant as a sign of her betrothal to Isaac?  Just think…you could wear it even when your fingers were swollen during pregnancy!  I like the idea of replacing my wedding ring with a nose ring .  In Ezekiel 16 God talks about giving jewelry to Jerusalem – nose ring included!  Nifty-do.

I don’t think I’d go for belly button rings though. No biblical support AND I have had 4 children….!

Our oldest daughter (7) is really struggling with nosebleeds these past few days.  She is the most likely of our little ones to have a nose bleed, and after having one four days ago, she’s been having repeated bleedings on the same side of her nose.  It just hasn’t had the time to heal up before breaking open again.  She was pretty upset this morning when her nose bled again.

Thanks in advance for the prayer support!

Webmasters have a broad, and seemingly ever-changing list of things they need to know and accomplish in the maintenance of their websites.  I’d actually argue that the term needs to be replaced, as most people are actually blog-masters because content management systems are just easier to update!  Here’s a website to check out for Webmasters.