Christian faith

“Life with Lily” by Suzanne Woods Fisher

August 12, 2014 by Amy Leave a Comment

Lily is six in this story, just starting first grade in a one-room schoolhouse in upstate New York. Her parents are busy building a farm, and soon animals join the family—Jenny the cow and Chubby the miniature horse. A baby brother arrives, too, which Lily has mixed feelings about. (She wanted a sister!) Aside from a mischievous friend like Mandy Mast, Lily is happy at school and even happier at home.

Trouble is brewing at the schoolhouse and change is on the horizon for Lily and her family.

I loved Life with Lily! It’s the perfect book for a young girl. While the book itself is quite thick, the prose flows smoothly and with clear, colorful vocabulary. Better yet, each chapter is its own small story within the context of the big book, so the the readers reach mini resolutions with each chapter. For those readers not accustomed to reading full-length chapter books, this is the perfect way step on that ladder!

As a mom, one of my favorite aspects of this book is the wholesomeness of the book. Lily is an adventurous, fun girl who enjoys simple beauty and helps her family. She’s brave and kind, yet has problems that most young girls can identify with – with obeying her elders, with making wise friendship choices, and with fear of the unknown. Her parents are wise and their instruction will teach young readers bold lessons.

As a teacher, I love all the hands-on activities that Lily does in this book – because it presents myriads of choices for lessons and for exciting, real-life interactions with Lily’s life! My daughter’s book club will be reading this soon, and we’re planning to do many of the activities that Lily enjoys in the story – like baking, making indoor windows, and sewing a quilt square.

This a series that will definitely grace our bookshelf so that we can enjoy it for many years. I can’t wait for the next installment!

To read other reviews on this tour, click here.

Suzanne Woods Fisher lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has one husband, four children, one son-in-law, a brand new grand-baby, and a couple of dogs. She graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

Suzanne has contracts with Revell for six more books about the Amish, both fiction and non-fiction. She is also the host of “Amish Wisdom·” on toginet.com, a weekly radio program featuring guests who are connected to Simple Living.Find out more about Suzanne at http://suzannewoodsfisher.com/.

I received a free copy of Life with Lily in exchange for an honest review.

Write Your Own Thanksgiving Psalm

July 21, 2014 by Amy 1 Comment

One thing that I love about homeschooling is the flexibility to go with the flow when inspiration strikes, and sometimes that springs from the scripture I read during my own early morning quiet time.

A few months ago, when I was reading the Psalms, I was struck by the repetition in Psalm 103. I liked the detail, the way that David listed what he was thankful for, and it reminded me of parts of the New Testament and how we are to give thanks always. I decided that this would be a great way for us to recognize just how many blessings God showers upon us, and so the Psalm 103-Bradsher-style began.

We started with a roll of easel paper and our favorite smelly markers. We chose to keep the first and last stanza of the psalm but to make our own list in between. We also kept the sentence “May we never forget the good things He does for us.” I acted as scribe so that the kids could think creatively and not worry about spelling or grammar.

They soon were shouting out things they were grateful for, and as their list grew longer, their sentences became more poetic. After writing a full door-length worth of blessings, we ended our psalm as David did.

Then the kids took the smelly markers and drew small pictures near the nouns in their psalm. They made it colorful, and by the time they were done, it was a great visual reminder of God’s provision.

We’re definitely going to do this again.

Want to see the real Psalm 103? Here it is – the parts in bold are what we kept in ours.

1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
    with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
    may I never forget the good things he does for me.

3 He forgives all my sins

    and heals all my diseases.

4 He redeems me from death

    and crowns me with love and tender mercies.

5 He fills my life with good things.

    My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

6 The Lord gives righteousness

    and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

7 He revealed his character to Moses

    and his deeds to the people of Israel.

8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful,

    slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

9 He will not constantly accuse us,

    nor remain angry forever.

10 He does not punish us for all our sins;

    he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12 He has removed our sins as far from us

    as the east is from the west.

13 The Lord is like a father to his children,

    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

14 For he knows how weak we are;

    he remembers we are only dust.

15 Our days on earth are like grass;

    like wildflowers, we bloom and die.

16 The wind blows, and we are gone—

    as though we had never been here.

17 But the love of the Lord remains forever

    with those who fear him.

His salvation extends to the children’s children

18     of those who are faithful to his covenant,

    of those who obey his commandments!

19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne;

    from there he rules over everything.

20 Praise the Lord, you angels,

    you mighty ones who carry out his plans,

    listening for each of his commands.

21 Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels

    who serve him and do his will!

22 Praise the Lord, everything he has created,

    everything in all his kingdom.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Have you ever written your own psalm?

“Lamb of God” Cupcakes

July 19, 2014 by Amy

I recently saw a picture in passing of fluffy cupcakes decorated as lambs for Easter, and since My Little Man loves to bake, I knew this project would be right up his alley. I don’t remember where we saw the picture, so we decided to make up our own ‘recipe.’

These cupcakes are not exactly a low-sugar treat, but they’re definitely fun to make – and to share. We took them to our weekly playgroup meeting and shared with our friends, and then shared more with several neighbors. Spread out like that, it makes a much more reasonable treat – and it’s a great way to spread the Good News, too.

During our school time, we read about how Jesus is the Lamb of the World, taken from John 1:29. We talked about how that means that Jesus paid for all of our sins when He died on the cross, just like the Israelites used lambs to pay for their sins before this. For his daily writing practice, My Little Man wrote, “Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.”

To create your own flock of Godly lambs, simply:

We started with our basic Goofy Cake recipe and baked them as cupcakes (20 minutes at 350 for regular sized ones.) Note: Most of our recipes work well with white-wheat flour and are already fairly low in sugar, but this recipe is not conducive to these changes. It works best with white flour, though it isn’t bad with white wheat, and the full amount of white sugar. This recipe makes about 24 regular sized cupcakes.
When cool, ice each cupcake with a thin layer of Mom’s White Icing (See recipe below.)
Stick a large marshmallow near one edge to be the head. Ours were turned every which way, and we thought as a whole it made the ‘flock’ look pretty interesting.
Cover the rest of the top with mini-marshmallows.
Near the edge opposite the head, place a black jellybean between marshmallows as a tail.
Create a face. Slicing another black jellybean in half gave the sheep an interesting bug-eyed look, but for most we opted for simple gray dots made out of icing. We piped pink crescents for smiles, and voila! you’ve got a herd of Godly lambs.

To make Mom’s White Icing, mix the following until well blended:

2/3 c. shortening
3 c. 10X sugar
1 t. vanilla
dash of salt
5 T. milk

Making Job-Inspired Snow Art

July 19, 2014 by Amy 1 Comment

http://anestintherocks.blogspot.com/2014/03/job-inspired-snow-day-art.html

I love the end of the book of Job. I realize that might sound a bit strange, but I love the way that Job, Elihu, and God talk about just how amazing God really is.

One of those sections talks about how He controls the weather. It says in Job 37:6-7 that “He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down. Then everyone stops working so they can watch his power.”

I happened to see a random Pin about how some noodles look like snowflakes, and this project was born. Our church’s elementary-aged youth group made these one night, and we all had fun. Some kids painted snowmen, others painted buildings or trees or entire scenes, but My Big Helper decided to go for symmetry.

Here’s what you need:
– snowflake-shaped pasta
– white paint, two parts
– rubbing alcohol
– blue paper
– paint brushes
– a printable of the verses above (optional)

Directions:
1. Mix your pasta, a few tablespoons of white paint, and 2 T. of rubbing alcohol in a zip-top bag. Shake and squish carefully until the pasta is covered.
2. Spread out the pasta on old newspapers until dry.
3. When you’re ready to be creative, pass out the painted pasta, paper, brushes, and glue. Paint a snowy scene on blue paper.
4. Embellish with painted pasta.
5. Add scripture verses or write on by hand.

How do you connect scripture and art?