I will start this by saying that I haven't read The Hunger Games, my husband hasn't read The Hunger Games, and my kids have not read The Hunger Games. These are purely my opinions, and I am not judging anyone who has a different opinion (and I'm quite sure that I have many friends who disagree with me). :)
I've known about the books for quite a while, but decided not to read them or have the kids read them. Then, the movie came out. My kids weren't asking to see it, but since all MY friends were talking about it, I considered it. James and I read lots of reviews of it, and in the end, I decided that we could take the three oldest kids to see it (12, almost 14, and 15 years old).
Were there any redeeming qualities to the movie? Yes. The overall message was good: the devaluing of human life and use of violence and killing for entertainment is a very bad thing. Sacrificing for others, even if it meant death, was also a prevailing theme in the main character Katniss as was going against societal norms for the sake of what was right.
But while the message of the movie was good, it was not lost on my 15 year old that we were sitting in a movie denouncing violence for entertainment sake, and yet there was an audience in the theater cheering when kids were killing other kids. I understand that the plot line of children killing other children for a television show is a means of showing the absurdity of it all and pointing to what happens when we become desensitized to violence. However I can't escape the fact that the target audience of the books and movie (young adults aka teens) many times doesn't have the analytic skills to process the message. The result is a bunch of kids that are participating in exactly what the movie/books are speaking against.
So what are my ultimate feelings about it? I'm not sure. It was a thought-provoking movie, but I'm not sure that I want to read the books. From what I understand, the violence in the movie is a very "clean" version of what happens in the books. The idea of the movie was disturbing, but it wasn't visually hard to watch for me. But books in general tend to have a much more emotional and deep connection, and I'm just not sure I want to go there with the violence and the very thought of what is happening. Is it something that I really want to give that much room in my mind? James is going to read the books (when we finally make it through the waiting list at the library). And for the kids...I'm not sure. I think the older two would be able to handle it (we'll see after James reads them), but I'm not sure that my oldest daughter wants to read them after seeing the movie. I know that my 12 year old daughter, who was pretty disturbed by the movie, won't be reading them any time soon, not that she wants to. So, I don't really know.
If you want my advice on whether or not to take your kids to see the movie (and I know you didn't ask, but I will give it anyway), I would say it depends. If they've read the books, I can't see how it would be worse for them seeing the movie. But if they haven't read the books, I wouldn't take a child who couldn't really process what was going on and why. I know that these books have been compared to Lord of the Flies, but the difference is that reading Lord of the Flies isn't "the cool thing to do" and movies of said book aren't box office hits. Most people wouldn't have their kids read Lord of the Flies until they were able to comprehend it on a deeper level, and most kids (or adults) wouldn't read it of their own accord.
I guess it all boils down to this....the movie (and I'm assuming the books) definitely had a message that made you think. And thinking is good. I'm just not sure that dwelling on that message, especially for kids (and some adults) on whom the message is lost, is a good thing. And it just might be a bad thing.
Phillipians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, September 5, 2011
Just how big was Noah's ark?
This week we are going backwards from ancient Egypt (what we have studied for the last 3 weeks) to study the creation through Noah's ark. Our first project of the week was to measure just how big Noah's ark really was.
Genesis 6:15 tells us God's instructions to Noah: the ark was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (with three decks).
Historians have determined that a cubit is approximately 18 inches, so that makes the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. That sounds big, but it is a bit hard for the kids to wrap their heads around just how big it really is, so we measured it out.
We went to the field by our church and took our cubits and measure (and measured, and measured some more).
Genesis 6:15 tells us God's instructions to Noah: the ark was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (with three decks).
Here's everyone with their cubits!
Historians have determined that a cubit is approximately 18 inches, so that makes the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall. That sounds big, but it is a bit hard for the kids to wrap their heads around just how big it really is, so we measured it out.
We went to the field by our church and took our cubits and measure (and measured, and measured some more).
The distance between the kids in the picture above is the width of the ark.....50 cubits or 75 feet.
So this was 300 cubits or 750 feet, the length of the ark. Hannah is standing at one end, and way, way down at the other end, you can barely make out a speck (otherwise known as Dakota) near the doors to the church. 300 cubits is the length of 1 1/2 football fields. It was a long way between kids...even I was surprised how big it was.
We also determined (by best guess) that the ark was also about as tall as the point at the top of the church in the above picture. This was a great visual for the kids, as well as a fun project to do on a beautiful Labor Day holiday!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
My plan v God's plan
Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3
So this last few weeks is not what I had envisioned. Back last November, when we first started discussing homeschooling, this isn't how it was supposed to go. I had a grand vision of starting school with a completely put together classroom, everything planned, all copies made, and things organized to the "T". We were going to start with fun activities, a great breakfast out to celebrate not going back to school the day when all their friends went back to public school. Nathaniel was going to have an amazing first day of Kindergarten at home, and we were all going to have a great first day of Super Friday, the homeschooling enrichment classes the kids are attending on Fridays. I committed all my plans to the Lord.
But that's not how it played out.
In June, we made a trip to the hospital with Nathaniel. We were there several days and found out that he needed surgery on his kidney. And guess when the surgery was scheduled...the week that I had planned to start school. So I changed the plan to start a week earlier and give the older kids two weeks to finish up the first week's work. Of course, in between the time we were in the hospital the first time and August when the surgery was scheduled, Nathaniel broke his arm and had to have surgery on it as well. Another 5 days in the hospital and 3 long weeks of treatment/recovery. The week after his pins were removed, we started school, and it really was a great week. Not what I had planned, but a great week nonetheless.
The next week was the surgery on his kidney. We spent about 5 days in the hospital after the surgery, and things were awesome. He was doing well, and we were released to go home. The other kids hadn't gotten the few things from Week 1 complete, but James and I got them caught up and we were ready to start Week 2.
But Monday happened. We had to make a trip back to the ER.
Nathaniel started having complications from surgery, and now we are at the end of the week and still in the hospital. Not the plan at all.
But you know what...it's OK. And just because things didn't go according to MY plan doesn't mean things aren't a success. And that's something that I really needed God to teach me from the very beginning. Homeschooling WILL be a success because it was a desire and plan from Him for my family, but God may (and probably does) have a little different way of getting us there than I had planned.
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9
and besides....seriously, it's only the second week, and I really need to just get over it. This is really so minor in the whole scheme of things. We've got many more weeks, months, and years to go :) God already sees the end, and it is good!
So this last few weeks is not what I had envisioned. Back last November, when we first started discussing homeschooling, this isn't how it was supposed to go. I had a grand vision of starting school with a completely put together classroom, everything planned, all copies made, and things organized to the "T". We were going to start with fun activities, a great breakfast out to celebrate not going back to school the day when all their friends went back to public school. Nathaniel was going to have an amazing first day of Kindergarten at home, and we were all going to have a great first day of Super Friday, the homeschooling enrichment classes the kids are attending on Fridays. I committed all my plans to the Lord.
But that's not how it played out.
In June, we made a trip to the hospital with Nathaniel. We were there several days and found out that he needed surgery on his kidney. And guess when the surgery was scheduled...the week that I had planned to start school. So I changed the plan to start a week earlier and give the older kids two weeks to finish up the first week's work. Of course, in between the time we were in the hospital the first time and August when the surgery was scheduled, Nathaniel broke his arm and had to have surgery on it as well. Another 5 days in the hospital and 3 long weeks of treatment/recovery. The week after his pins were removed, we started school, and it really was a great week. Not what I had planned, but a great week nonetheless.
The next week was the surgery on his kidney. We spent about 5 days in the hospital after the surgery, and things were awesome. He was doing well, and we were released to go home. The other kids hadn't gotten the few things from Week 1 complete, but James and I got them caught up and we were ready to start Week 2.
But Monday happened. We had to make a trip back to the ER.
Nathaniel started having complications from surgery, and now we are at the end of the week and still in the hospital. Not the plan at all.
But you know what...it's OK. And just because things didn't go according to MY plan doesn't mean things aren't a success. And that's something that I really needed God to teach me from the very beginning. Homeschooling WILL be a success because it was a desire and plan from Him for my family, but God may (and probably does) have a little different way of getting us there than I had planned.
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9
and besides....seriously, it's only the second week, and I really need to just get over it. This is really so minor in the whole scheme of things. We've got many more weeks, months, and years to go :) God already sees the end, and it is good!
Friday, August 12, 2011
One week down...a lot more to go
Today completed our first week of homeschooling, and I am so pleased with the way everything went. Was it perfect? No...we still have some kinks to work out and a couple of other subjects to include (those will start in a few weeks after we are done with Nathaniel's surgery/hospital stay next week). But, overall it was a great week in my humble opinion. :)
And can I just say, I am SO proud of my kids. They all surprised me, however I guess I shouldn't really be surprised. They are great kids! We had a few tears, but not many. This is so different for all of them, and they are really just getting in there and doing everything I am asking of them.
I also love that we've been able to start routine morning quiet times, something I wish I had made a habit when I was a kid. I really think it helps get the day going smoothly for everyone and it is so exciting to see them start the day in God's Word!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Love to cook, hate to plan.....
I know, I know....it's been months since my last blog. That's part of my problem, I am really bad with finding time to do all the things I want to do....
...and my post title is a little off....I do love to cook, and I actually like to plan too, I'm just horribly bad about it. It's a little bit of ADD and a whole lot of a crazy life that gets in the way. But the thing is, I NEED to plan my family's meals so that we don't end up just picking up something or going to an actual restaurant. And like I said, I actually like planning meals. It's just so time consuming to look through all my recipes, write the ones I want in a calendar, and then make up a shopping list. Because it requires at least a little bit of undivided attention (which is in short supply many times), it often doesn't get done, and therefor it's either eating out or really quick (and not the healthiest) meals at home. I am quite envious of my friends who this comes easy to.....they have no problems making a meal plan with paper and pencil. But I was not gifted that way in the least bit. Considering my affinity for all things high tech, I decided that was the route to go in finding help with my meal-planning woes!
Quite a few months ago, I found a wonderful site www.e-mealz.com. It is a GREAT meal-planning site, but it is a service that provides preplanned meals with recipes and a shopping list included. I still highly recommend this service, and I used it for about 6 months, but what I REALLY wanted was a meal-planning service that allowed me to enter my OWN recipes.
So for quite a few months now, I've been looking for a good meal-planning program or website that meets my needs. First, it has to be easy to use, almost as easy as having it preplanned for me like e-mealz. But specifically, it needed to be easy to import recipes. I have quite a few recipes stored in Word documents, plus I LOVE LOVE LOVE www.allrecipes.com to find great recipes. I also visit several cooking blogs and find recipes there as well as always copying recipes that get posted on Facebook or shared at church gatherings. So, I needed a program that was very easy to import or input all those recipes. I also wanted something that made it super-easy to do the actual weekly planning. Finally, I wanted a really easy to use shopping list. I was willing to pay for something like this (if it worked, it would be saving me lots of money), although I wanted the price to be reasonable. I also wanted to be able to try it out with full functionality before I had to pay for it.
So, after looking at just about everything there was out there, online and off, I finally found my ideal meal planning help in Plan to Eat.
Plan to Eat is a web-based program that allows you to enter recipes, share recipes with your friends, drag and drop recipes into a calendar for meal planning (so easy!) and then generate a shopping list (you set the dates that you want the list for) for your meal plan. It is SUPER easy to enter recipes, and you can group them by course, cuisine, and/or your own keywords. This makes it incredibly easy to pull up what you are looking for to add to your calendar. For instance, say I want a Mexican chicken dish. All I have to do is pull up main course, and then narrow it to Mexican, and then keyword chicken. Voila! Chicken enchiladas it is (or whatever recipes that you've entered for those categories)! It is super easy to import recipes from other websites too. All you have to do is enter the web address for the page the recipe is on, and it auto adds the recipe. It's very cool, trust me!
The drag and drop feature for adding items to your calendar makes things SO easy too! The recipes are listed on the side and you drag them over to your calendar. You can also add individual items to your calendar such as "canned peas" or "frozen broccoli" that you don't need a recipe for, but they are auto added to your shopping list. You even have the option of posting non-food things on your calendar that might affect your meal planning, such as an evening school event or even a reminder to defrost something for the next day. I LOVE this feature! You can also save a group of meal plans for later if you want. For instance, if you have a really good week of meals planned, you can save the whole week and use the same plan again at a later time. You set the dates, so you can save as many or a few days as you want.
The shopping list is great as well. Items are auto added and grouped into grocery store categories (you can change the category if you don't like where it puts it). You can remove items that you already have, and put them back on the list if you change your mind. You can set the dates of the shopping list to whatever you like, depending on your shopping preferences. You can also set it up to have lists for separate stores, but I haven't used this feature. Another nifty feature is that there is a mobile website where you can access just your active shopping list from your phone. You just pull up the site and when you put the item in your cart, you check the item off the list and it disappears. I find this to be SO handy since I don't have to print off a list (although you can) and then keep up with it!
Plan to Eat does have a subscription charge of $5/month or $39/year, but they do give you a whole 30 DAYS to try a fully-functional site for FREE without ever entering your credit card. I tried it for 2 weeks and knew that it was exactly what I was looking for. I went ahead and signed up for the year subscription, but they are still giving me the rest of my 30 day trial for free. That's pretty cool too!
So, if you are like me and have the best intentions but need a little help with meal planning, you might check out Plan to Eat. If you do try it out, let me know what you think. We can even share meals using their recipe sharing tools!
...and my post title is a little off....I do love to cook, and I actually like to plan too, I'm just horribly bad about it. It's a little bit of ADD and a whole lot of a crazy life that gets in the way. But the thing is, I NEED to plan my family's meals so that we don't end up just picking up something or going to an actual restaurant. And like I said, I actually like planning meals. It's just so time consuming to look through all my recipes, write the ones I want in a calendar, and then make up a shopping list. Because it requires at least a little bit of undivided attention (which is in short supply many times), it often doesn't get done, and therefor it's either eating out or really quick (and not the healthiest) meals at home. I am quite envious of my friends who this comes easy to.....they have no problems making a meal plan with paper and pencil. But I was not gifted that way in the least bit. Considering my affinity for all things high tech, I decided that was the route to go in finding help with my meal-planning woes!
Quite a few months ago, I found a wonderful site www.e-mealz.com. It is a GREAT meal-planning site, but it is a service that provides preplanned meals with recipes and a shopping list included. I still highly recommend this service, and I used it for about 6 months, but what I REALLY wanted was a meal-planning service that allowed me to enter my OWN recipes.
So for quite a few months now, I've been looking for a good meal-planning program or website that meets my needs. First, it has to be easy to use, almost as easy as having it preplanned for me like e-mealz. But specifically, it needed to be easy to import recipes. I have quite a few recipes stored in Word documents, plus I LOVE LOVE LOVE www.allrecipes.com to find great recipes. I also visit several cooking blogs and find recipes there as well as always copying recipes that get posted on Facebook or shared at church gatherings. So, I needed a program that was very easy to import or input all those recipes. I also wanted something that made it super-easy to do the actual weekly planning. Finally, I wanted a really easy to use shopping list. I was willing to pay for something like this (if it worked, it would be saving me lots of money), although I wanted the price to be reasonable. I also wanted to be able to try it out with full functionality before I had to pay for it.
So, after looking at just about everything there was out there, online and off, I finally found my ideal meal planning help in Plan to Eat.
Plan to Eat is a web-based program that allows you to enter recipes, share recipes with your friends, drag and drop recipes into a calendar for meal planning (so easy!) and then generate a shopping list (you set the dates that you want the list for) for your meal plan. It is SUPER easy to enter recipes, and you can group them by course, cuisine, and/or your own keywords. This makes it incredibly easy to pull up what you are looking for to add to your calendar. For instance, say I want a Mexican chicken dish. All I have to do is pull up main course, and then narrow it to Mexican, and then keyword chicken. Voila! Chicken enchiladas it is (or whatever recipes that you've entered for those categories)! It is super easy to import recipes from other websites too. All you have to do is enter the web address for the page the recipe is on, and it auto adds the recipe. It's very cool, trust me!
The drag and drop feature for adding items to your calendar makes things SO easy too! The recipes are listed on the side and you drag them over to your calendar. You can also add individual items to your calendar such as "canned peas" or "frozen broccoli" that you don't need a recipe for, but they are auto added to your shopping list. You even have the option of posting non-food things on your calendar that might affect your meal planning, such as an evening school event or even a reminder to defrost something for the next day. I LOVE this feature! You can also save a group of meal plans for later if you want. For instance, if you have a really good week of meals planned, you can save the whole week and use the same plan again at a later time. You set the dates, so you can save as many or a few days as you want.
The shopping list is great as well. Items are auto added and grouped into grocery store categories (you can change the category if you don't like where it puts it). You can remove items that you already have, and put them back on the list if you change your mind. You can set the dates of the shopping list to whatever you like, depending on your shopping preferences. You can also set it up to have lists for separate stores, but I haven't used this feature. Another nifty feature is that there is a mobile website where you can access just your active shopping list from your phone. You just pull up the site and when you put the item in your cart, you check the item off the list and it disappears. I find this to be SO handy since I don't have to print off a list (although you can) and then keep up with it!
Plan to Eat does have a subscription charge of $5/month or $39/year, but they do give you a whole 30 DAYS to try a fully-functional site for FREE without ever entering your credit card. I tried it for 2 weeks and knew that it was exactly what I was looking for. I went ahead and signed up for the year subscription, but they are still giving me the rest of my 30 day trial for free. That's pretty cool too!
So, if you are like me and have the best intentions but need a little help with meal planning, you might check out Plan to Eat. If you do try it out, let me know what you think. We can even share meals using their recipe sharing tools!
Friday, November 20, 2009
One of my kids' favorite things about Thanksgiving....
....is, believe it or not, sweet potatoes :) Not just any sweet potatoes, but the sweet potato casserole that I only make at Thanksgiving. And it is REALLY REALLY good, even for ones like me who are not big sweet potato fans. About 6 or 7 years ago, my friend Shannon brought this to a Sunday School Christmas party, and it was so good that I got the recipe. Every year since, I've been making the recipe at Thanksgiving, and the kids start asking several months before if I'm going to make it again.
So, I thought I would share the magic with you :) Here's the recipe...it's not a super quick one, but not too hard and definitely worth the effort!
Ingredients:
- 4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 t. nutmeg
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
Topping Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
1) Wash sweet potatoes (skin on) and poke a few holes in them with a fork. Cover potato with oil, and wrap in aluminum foil. Cook potatoes at 375 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until very soft.
2) In large bowl, mash sweet potatoes (without skin). Mix together sugar, eggs, 3/4 cup butter, evaporated milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallows. Scoop mixture into greased 9X13 baking dish.
3) Bake 20 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.
4) While baking, mix together in a small bowl the crushed cornflakes, brown sugar, pecans, and remaining 3/4 cup melted butter.
5) After baking casserole for 20 minutes, remove from oven and spread the topping over the casserole.
6) Return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.
This recipe works well if you want to put it together (without the topping) the night before and pop it in the oven on Thanksgiving day. Hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!
So, I thought I would share the magic with you :) Here's the recipe...it's not a super quick one, but not too hard and definitely worth the effort!
Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients:
- 4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 t. nutmeg
- 1 t. cinnamon
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
Topping Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed cornflakes
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 3/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
1) Wash sweet potatoes (skin on) and poke a few holes in them with a fork. Cover potato with oil, and wrap in aluminum foil. Cook potatoes at 375 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until very soft.
2) In large bowl, mash sweet potatoes (without skin). Mix together sugar, eggs, 3/4 cup butter, evaporated milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallows. Scoop mixture into greased 9X13 baking dish.
3) Bake 20 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.
4) While baking, mix together in a small bowl the crushed cornflakes, brown sugar, pecans, and remaining 3/4 cup melted butter.
5) After baking casserole for 20 minutes, remove from oven and spread the topping over the casserole.
6) Return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.
This recipe works well if you want to put it together (without the topping) the night before and pop it in the oven on Thanksgiving day. Hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
My cool new toy
So my hubby and I have been looking at cell phones for a few months now. Our 2 years on our contract was up and we could upgrade our phones in September, but James really wanted to wait until the new phones came out for the holiday season. I had already decided that I wanted the new HTC TouchPro 2 that came out online a few weeks ago. They don't actually have it in the Verizon stores yet, but we went to another carrier and tried out their version, and it was pretty cool. It's been out of stock online though pretty much since it's been released, so I hadn't gotten one yet.
Well, in the meantime, Verizon launched a new phone, the Motorola Droid, that runs on Google's new operating system (I guess that's what you call it....I'm really not too tech savvy about stuff like that) Android. I wasn't looking at anything new, but in looking for himself, James read about the Motorola Droid and told me I ought to check it out.
I am so glad I did, because it is SO cool! Now, I realize that I could live without all the bells and whistles, but all those bells and whistles are SO fun (and many are useful). It's a touch screen phone with a slide out keyboard. An actual keyboard was one of my requirements and this one works well. The touch screen is really easy to use as well and works so much better than my last phone (the technology has improved SO much in 2 years). My favorite part is that there are TONS of free apps that you can download....and they are so cool.
One app that I really like is the Bible. Now, you've got several choices of Bible apps, but in most you can search, browse, bookmark, and take notes all with about 20 different versions of the Bible. Very cool!
I also love the Facebook app as well as the Pandora Radio, where you can tell it your favorite artist or song and it will put together a playlist of similar songs and artists. I typed in "Todd Agnew" and pretty much liked all the music that came up.
It also comes with Google Maps and it's navigation system. You can actually get the street view as you are driving, but I'm thinking I should watch the actual road instead of the road on my phone :) I has verbal driving direction too, so not to worry.
My FAVORITE app, however, is the barcode scanner. It uses the phone's camera and you aim it the barcode on a product and it scans it and locates the product. You actually use this in all sorts of other cool apps. I have definitely played with this one the most :) ShopSavvy is this really cool program that lets you scan a product barcode and using the GPS feature, it searches for the best price on the product locally as well as online. This will be a really handy feature when Christmas shopping! I also found this really cool app that lets you make a meal plan and keeps track of all your nutritional info for the day. You just scan the barcode of the ingredients you use or on the food that you eat and it automatically calculates it. You can also look it up in it's extensive database of foods and restaurants. It's probably not an app that I will use, but it's very helpful none the less. THE VERY COOLEST thing that I found was a little app called Key Ring. You know all those little cards for stores' loyalty programs that you carry on your keychain? You use the barcode scanner and scan them in your phone. It stores them, each with the store's logo, and you just hit a button and it pops on the screen. You hand that to the cashier to scan, instead of having to carry all those little cards. Since I've already lost my Kroger card and my others are getting pretty beat-up, I can't WAIT to use this!
I know there are tons of other things that I will discover about the phone, but I just thought I would take few minutes away from playing with the thing, and tell you about it. Seriously, it's a pretty cool phone :) I know that the iPhones have been around for a while and do many of the same things, but this was my first "smart phone", and I'm just loving it!
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