Books your kids will fight over...

Looking for something new and exciting for your youngster to read? I have a few new books to share with you that my kids and I went a little bonkers for.

Disclaimer – I really did read each of these books (mostly while waiting in the pickup line at school). They were not written by Christian writers, but none of them were overly violent or had unacceptable language or plot lines. My children really did fight over some of them. And just so you know, we didn’t receive any bribes or free stuff for this post, we just really liked these books and wanted to share them with you.

That said, lets dive in.

 The House of Secrets- Chris Columbus

Released Aprils 2013, Ages 8+

Cordelia, Brendan and Eleanor Walker were your typical American kids with two happy parents and all the portable technology their little hearts desired. That was before the incident. The incident that led them to their father’s unemployment and his decision to relocate the family to a mysterious new house with a creepy old woman living next door.

It’s not until after the creepy neighbor destroys their new house, causes their parents to disappear, and banishes them to a mythical land, that they realize how much trouble they are now in. Together, the siblings must learn to depend on each other, and face their own fears as they encounter all the trials this new land holds. From epic beasts to medieval warriors to a power hungry queen; the trio, and their new found companions must work together to save not only themselves but ultimately the whole world.

Mom adds: The fact that my kids literally fought over this book should tell you something. Did I mention it was written by an award winning director? Yup. Can’t wait for the next one in the series.

The Paladin Prophecy book 1- Mark Frost

Released Sept 2012, Ages (according to Amazon – 12+, but I think my 10 year old would love it)

Will West just wants to be normal. Ever since he was a small child his parents have preached normalcy. Don’t stand out. Don’t get noticed. Blend in as best you can. He has never been able to truly show his academic and athletic abilities. When he accidently scores in the highest percentile on a standardized test, men in black sedans pull up and begin to ask all the wrong questions. In order to escape their unwanted probing he takes refuge in a center for other exceptional students.

Will and his new friends must learn to embrace their extraordinary gifts to embrace a battle between epic forces that have been around for thousands of years.

Mom says: There’s probably a really good reason why there’s already a waiting list for this one at the library. Kids haven’t read it yet, because I can’t get my hands on a paper copy. I had to read it on my phone. Again, written by an award winning director, I couldn’t put it down.

Seven Wonders Book 1: The Colossus Rises- Peter Lerangis

Released Feb 2013, Ages 8+

After collapsing on the street, Jack McKinley is whisked away from his friends and family to a private institute full of weird professors, strange kids, and an island full of dangerous creatures that lurk in the woods.

Jack and his new friends must overcome their differences and work together to solve the mysteries of the island, figure out how to use their super powers, and locate the seven loculi before they fall into the hands of the enemy.

Mom says: Is it bad when your kids tell you to put down the book and pay attention to them? Yeah. If you aren’t on vacation, don’t pick it up. It’ll cause you to neglect responsibility for a few days. You’re better off just giving it to your kids and letting them duke it out.

Abide in Him Wall Art Giveaway!!

Yesterday I showed you the first thing Dayspring sent me for review, today you get to see the other one. I can't decide which one I like better. They're both stunning, and they totally make me smile each time I walk past them.

So here's a little about today's item
(from the website)

Abide in Him

Abide in Him is a beautiful piece of wall décor that is ideal for hanging in any room of your home!  The stylish, brown metal finish adds a nice touch to any décor. This display of faith is a wonderful reminder that God’s plans and His purposes for each of us are being fulfilled as we Abide in Him.

Product Details:

• Size 18 ½ x 11" 
• Metal with distressed finish

Again, the product sells itself. Beautiful, heartfelt, and oh wait. It's half priced this month. Dude.

But today is your lucky day! I've had a hard time keeping this a secret, but I have one to give away.
Yes, I do feel like Santa Claus.
So  to enter, leave me a message and tell me where you'd hang it in your house. You have all week to enter, I'll pick the winner next Friday. 
The winner does have to pay for shipping. But it's totally worth it!

I was given this wall art from the Dayspring (in)spired line of products in exchange for a review. Although I was given a free product, all opinions are all my own. This disclosure is in accordance to the FTC guidelines.

(in) courage wall art: Lord bless this home

Last week I was the luckiest girl in the world. I got not one, but two items from Dayspring and (in)courage for review purpose.

Upon opening the packages I totally did a little dance in my kitchen. No lie. You can ask my children.

So here's a little about the first item they sent:

Bless This Home Wall Art

(from the website)
This beautifully designed wall art, composed of a simple prayer, makes a bold statement of faith as it brings style to your interior or exterior home  décor.  Whether making its visual, inspiring impact on an interior wall or hanging outside by the front door, it is a witness to all who read it of the heartfelt desire for God's blessings to be upon the abode you affectionately call 'home.'

Product details:
    *  Size:  20 1/2" L x 12 1/4"H
    * Hue:  Antiqued silver
    * Material: Metal, slightly textured
    * Screws for hanging included

What's to say about this item... beyond the obvious selling points - it's stunning, and it echos a prayer of my heart, and I love it.

I would buy it in a heartbeat. You should too.

I was given this wall art from the Dayspring (in)spired line of products in exchange for a review. Although I was given a free product, all opinions are all my own. This disclosure is in accordance to the FTC guidelines.

Celebrating St. Patrick's day with music...

I'm not Irish
I've never been in an Irish pub
I don't even like beer.
 But I love Celtic dance music. So in honor of St. Patricks day here's my favorite scalawag group, Gaelic Storm making a ruckus. Give it a listen, warning you might just have to do a jig while listening to it...

I also really like this one:

A taste of home...

One of my favorite thing about our time in Russia is eating pelmeni, a simple dish, easy to cook and loved by children. We like to think of it as the social equivalent as Kraft mac 'n' cheese. Our friends in St. Petersburg introduced us to it, and ever since then we've been dreaming about it. But alas, the super easy to fix premade kind is not really available here in the states. Of course.
For Christmas I received a pelmeni maker, but hadn't gotten around to using it until recently. I"m not much of a cook, and making meat filled dumplings from scratch just sounded way labor intensive. But I ended up with a free Saturday I decided to give it a chance. I'm not going to lie. It was labor intensive. It's the sort of thing you take an entire day to make several batches and freeze them for another day.
But we found this video which shows how to make it using the traditional method, in addition to using the same type of maker I have

You can find the recipe here.

I can't say the other children were terribly impressed, but Max and I both gobbled it up. The recipe was spot on, they tasted just like the ones I had in Russia.
The Pelmeni maker was easy to use, and rather fun to play with once we got the hang of the dough thickness.
So yes, having something that Max recognized for lunch was a joy, as was sharing one of his favorite meals with the rest of my family. Even if they weren't all that impressed.

Jory and I are already thinking of ways to make our own versions with cheese and perhaps some tex-mex flavored meat.

Digi scrapbook give away

Our first sponsor that I'm rather excited to tell you about is a scrapbook software called My Memories. My Memories is easy to use digital scrapbooking software, that comes with thousands of papers and embellishments to use on your pages. I found the software easy to use, and was impressed by the variety of options (patterned paper, page embellishments etc) already available for use.

What I liked:
Access to an active online community / blog for tech support and access to others who are using the same software. I spent a few minutes skimming the articles and really learned a lot about taking the software to the next level. Impressive.
The program is a simpler version of adobe, (which is what I use for my graphic elements). You can do almost everything that you can do with adobe, but it's more user friendly.
In addition to the millions of preprogrammed page options that the software comes with, the My Memories website ofters a large variety of free page elements that you can download. I was also able to use page elements from other sources, which I really liked.
I've also had a chance to chat with the people in tech support. They were very prompt at returning my emails, and very helpful with answering my questions. 

What I didn't like:
I'm an adobe girl, and I like creating my own and importing paint brushes. This software doesn't let you do that. Not a crisis, especially if you don't need to make your own brushes.
I also had difficulty saving my work as anything other than an .mms file, while it is possible to save it as a .jpg, it takes a little figuring to get it to work. But again, there is an online community to help dunce's like me to figure these things out.

So now that I've told you what I think, I am busting at the seams to give away a copy of the software to one lucky reader, so they can see what I'm talking about. Software is valued at $40 (which is a steal in my opinion), and can be downloaded directly from the site, so you can start playing in moments. Sooo... if you want to win, leave me a comment before midnight (eastern time) next Friday (Jan 13) and I'll enter you in the drawing. Winner announced on Monday January 16, 9:30 AM Eastern...

New! Blog sponsors

You may (or may not) have noticed that we now have a sponsor section in our left hand sidebar. These sponsors have either purchased an ad spot or offered us a rather generous commission (between 50-70%) on their product. A few have even offered free product for give aways through out the year (who doesn't love free stuff?) We wanted to assure you that these sponsors have been carefully selected, AFTER we have personally seen the product they sell. We didn't open our blog to random ads, and won't promote a product we wouldn't use ourselves.
Now that we are clear on our position on sponsorships, go check out our sponsors! and if you know of someone who'd like information about sponsorship opportunities you can find it in the contact information tab at the top of the page.
Woo-hoo!

Book Review - Problems in Plymoth

This week we are doing a review of the AOI The Imagination Station series. Yesterday we reviewed books #4 Revenge of the Red Knight and book #5: Showdown with the Shepherd . Today we're on to the final book in our series, Problems in Plymouth.
In the story Patrick and Beth travel back in time through Mr. Whittaker's Imagination Station to visit the Pilgrims as they are preparing for the first Thanksgiving. The cousins continue to search for the villain, Hugh, in order to return him to his proper place in time.

Mom says: Perfect timing for a Thanksgiving book! I loved reading this one with my children just as much as I enjoyed reading the others.

Alex (9 years old) says: This book was great for a bedtime story. There were quite a few chapters, so it'll take you quite a while to read. There are even more books coming out, and I can't wait to read the next one, because this was so good.

Annie (7 years old) says: I like it so much I hope they make more. I like the costumes of Beth and Patrick.  I also liked the cover.  I hope they make one about pirates.

Louisa (7 years old) says: I am sad that there was only 6 books in the series. I hope that when the author writes another one that she sends it to us.


If you'd like to hear what we thought of the other books in this series, you can read our past reviews here:
Book 1: Voyage with the Vikings
Book 2: Attack at the Arena
Book 3: Peril in the Palace
Book 4: Revenge of the Red Knight
Book 5: Showdown with the Shepherd


Please Note: We received this book for review purposes. As always, our opinions are 100% our own

Book Review - Showdown with a Shepherd

This week we are doing a review of the AOI The Imagination Station series. Earlier today we reviewed the fourth book: Revenge of the Red Knight. Today we're on to book # 5, Showdown with the Shepherd.
In the story Patrick and Beth travel back in time through Mr. Whittaker's Imagination Station to visit Bible times. They meet up with David, a beloved Bible hero, on his way to take a meal to his brothers.As the story unfolds it becomes clear that Hugh, the antagonist, means to change the course of events of one of the most well known Biblical battles between David and Goliath.

Mom says:
I loved the modern twist on the classic tale that my children have heard multiple times.

Alex (9 years old) says: It was a bit scary during the catapult part, and you should recognize the Bible story of David and Goliath. It's a great bedtime story.

Annie (7 years old) says: I think it's interesting when Beth plays her harmonica and gives Patrick a clue.

Louisa (7 years old) says: I like when the bad guy makes all the trouble, and I like it when Patrick makes the end part fun.


If you'd like to hear what we thought of the other books in this series, you can read our past reviews here:
Book 1: Voyage with the Vikings
Book 2: Attack at the Arena
Book 3: Peril in the Palace
Book 4: Revenge of the Red Knight


Please Note: We received this book for review purposes. As always, our opinions are 100% our own

Book Review - Revenge of the Red Knight

This week we are doing a review of the AOI The Imagination Station series. Yesterday we reviewed the second book: Palace in Peril. Today we're on to book # 4, Revenge of the Red Knight.
In the story Patrick and Beth travel back in time through Mr. Whittaker's Imagination Station to visit the middle ages. This book picked up right where the last book left off, in the middle of a quest to help rescue Albert from a heap of trouble. 

Mom says:
Another great addition to the series that we are very hooked on. We met a fantastic antagonist in this book that my kids loved to hate.

Alex (9 years old) says: It was a little mysterious when the Imagination Station took them to another time instead of taking them back to Mr. Whittaker. And just so you know, they met a knight named Sir Andrew.

Annie (7 years old) says: The part with the cave was a little scary. Hugh (the antagonist) was really mean to Sir Andrew. The part with two treasures was kind of weird.

Louisa (7 years old) says: I think Hugh is kinda mean. I liked that we met the mysterious knight from the last books.

If you'd like to hear what we thought of the other books in this series, you can read our past reviews here:

Book 1: Voyage with the Vikings
Book 2: Attack at the Arena
Book 3: Peril in the Palace


Please Note: We received this book for review purposes. As always, our opinions are 100% our own

Book Review - Peril in the Palace

This week we are doing a review of the AOI The Imagination Station series. Yesterday we reviewed the second book: Attack at the Arena. Today we're on to book # 3, Peril in the Palace.
In the story Patrick and Beth travel back in time through Mr. Whittaker's Imagination Station to visit ancient China in search of a golden tablet for Mr. Whittaker. On their adventure the meet up with Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.

Mom says:
Again, my children and I couldn't put the book down. Everything that we loved about the first two books was evident in this book. Even though the Christian theme was slightly forced in this one compared to the other books, I was happy that it was there, and it wasn't obvious enough that my kids thought it was out of place.

Alex (9 years old) says: My favorite part was when they met Marco Polo and relatives.

Annie (7 years old) says: I thought it was a little scary when the eagles came. I liked the princess.

Louisa (7 years old) says: I liked the costumes she picked, and I liked the way it ended.

If you'd like to hear what we thought of the other books in this series, you can read our past reviews here:

Book 1: Voyage with the Vikings
Book 2: Attack at the Arena

Please Note: We received this book for review purposes. As always, our opinions are 100% our own

Book Review - Attack at the Arena

This week we are doing a review of the AOI The Imagination Station series. Yesterday we reviewed the first book: Voyage with the Vikings. Today we're on to book # 2, Attack at the Arena.
In the story Patrick and Beth travel back in time using Mr. Whittaker's Imagination Station to visit ancient Rome. In this adventure they are searching for the monk's chalice and end up having an interesting encounter with a monk and the Emperor.

Mom says: The first book set the mark pretty high so I was hoping that the second book wouldn't just be a rehash of the plot line with different characters and setting. While the tone and rhythm of the story remained consistent with the first book of the series, I was thrilled to be whisked away by a brand new and completely engaging plot. More than anything, I was  excited to see the Christian faith woven through the story with the inclusion of a true Christian hero - Telemechus, and used the opportunity to teach my kids a little of the history of the church.

Alex (9 years old) says: it's the perfect bedtime story. They still had the two main characters from the first book. It was perfect for a journal entry

Annie (7 years old) says: I love it. Beth is my favorite character. I hope they make more. You should read them too.

Louisa (7 years old) says: I love their costumes. So far the series is great. I like Patrick, I think he is funny. And I like the name of it too.


If you'd like to hear what we thought of the other books in this series, you can read our past reviews here:

Voyage with the Vikings.

Please Note: We received this book for review purposes. As always, our opinions are 100% our own

Book shelf

I am such a distracted reader. I can never read only one book at a time. Right now I'm currently reading four. Yup, four (strange things happen when you go 6 weeks without television). Some are better than others, but all spur me on in a different direction. I thought I'd share with you all the different directions my bookshelf is pulling me, and hope that something catches your eye too and pulls you toward a better version of yourself.

Max Lucado - Outlive Your Life: first of all I'd like to recommend anything this author has ever written. Talk about an author who knows how to craft an image. But this one I just picked up last night and it's already killing me. The first chapter gives a statistic that I shared on facebook this morning about how many orphans are on the planet vs. how many Americans claim to be Christian, and how we could eliminate orphanages altogether if each person who claimed the faith would step up to the plate.

Shutter Sisters' - Expressive Photography: nearly every photography book I've ever picked up catered to the technical side of photography, which I don't need. After I learned the ins and outs of how my camera works I sort of gave up on reading books about photography because I just couldn't find anything that spurred me on creatively. This book does exactly that. Not only does it touch on different ways of using photos to tell a story, but also how to create photos that make your heart sing. Those are the photos that I want to take. Good, good stuff.

Adam Nicholson - Sissinghurst: This one is slightly obscure, even for me... but I love memoirs, the more obscure the better. The author grew up in Sissinghurst castle in the English countryside. (Dude that's cool enough right there.) But then as an adult he partners with the national trust to turn the castle from a tourist trap to it's original state as a working farm. Castles are cool. Natural gardening practices at castles are even cooler. Plus there's a lot of local history thrown in that's kind of fascinating (even if it is slightly obscure).

And last but not least:

Sage Cohen - The Productive writer: I'm not sure I'm getting as much out of this one as I am with the others. It's hard to tell others how to write, whether it's technical or creative. But if you're interested in having your voice heard than this is a great resource.

So that's what's on my bookshelf this week. I have a rather voracious appetite for the printed word, so if you know of any good reads, please please pass them along!

Our Russian Adventure part 8 - Winding down

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who has been following the story of our adventures in Russia over the last week and a half (there were over 700 of you! Wow!) Today our story ends for now, but before we go, I have few more tidbits to share. I have a handful of pictures and a selection of resources that Jory and I have used to learn about the culture ourselves, and some books my children devoured in the process.

Ok, so I got these books for the kids (for homeschooling of course) but I really learned a lot from them. Picture books are a fabulous thing...

(The Church of Sts. Isidor and Nicholas in St. Petersburg)

These are nonfiction...
Russia: The People (Lands, Peoples, & Cultures)
Spotlight on Russia (Spotlight on My Country)
Russia (True Books)

(cool lamp post in front of St. Isaac's cathedral - St. Petersburg)

And some folk tales:
The Scarlet Flower: A Russian Folk Tale
AT THE WISH OF A FISH: A Russian Folktale
The Kingfisher Book of Tales From Russia

(The Angel on top of the Alexander column)

This is the book that Jory read to prepare for our trip: Cultureshock! Russia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette it came in handy more than once.

Sadly in most movies, the Russians are the bad guys. We're sort of working our way through as many movies where the Russians are the good guys as we can. Here are some we've seen recently...
Dr. Zhivago
Anastasia

And we haven't watched this yet, but I'm hoping my girls will like it.
The Magic of Russian Ballet

(cool buggy outside the Winter Palace in St. P'burg)

And last but not least... music.
Peter and the Wolf (one of my childhood favorites)
Russia's Most Beautiful Songs

The Russians have such a beautiful culture and heritage, we have enjoyed drinking in as much of it as we can. I hope you'll take a moment to unpack some of the treasures the Russians have to share with you.

Percy Jackson - the new Harry Potter

Perhaps you've eard of him? He's Alex's new best friend...

Alex and I were recently introduced to the Percy Jackson series. Percy, the son of Poseidon, is an unlikely superhero who in his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians takes on the likes of Ares (the war god) and Medusa, he also challenges no good mythological creatures like Cerberus, Cyclops and a host of others. While I personally find the story line of to be slightly reminiscent of the Harry Potter series, they are equally well written, and a joy to read.
Besides, who doesn't love discussing Greek mythology with their 8 year old?
When Alex finished his first book The Lightning Thief I had him design his own project based on the book. Alex decided to make a book illustrating Mt. Olympus as it is described at one point in the book. Some of the illustrations he could draw based on what was described, others needed a little bit of research. (What exactly does a hippodrome look like?)

So move over Harry Potter... a more educational, less scary, Percy Jackson is here to stay.

Blog Carnival

Ever heard of these? I discovered these earlier this week. What a fun way to "audition" new blogs (like I really need more to follow, but whatever). The basic idea is that someone agrees to host one, and then whoever has a blog post related to that topic can send in their submission.
Here are some that I've been following this week:

Homeschooling Carnival

Photography Carnival

Anyone else have a carnival we should know about?

General Nerdiness

Whether you homeschool or you just have nerdy kids like I do, here are a few fun things that we've enjoyed this week.

Brainpop - a website with fantastic learning games, movies, activities. You can register, but they have a ton of great free activities. I broke the "no video games" rule with this one and let them play the animal classification and the US symbols games

Worldmusic.net - we've been studying world cultures this year, and our public library has a handful of the cd's from this site. I recommend starting with World Music for Children (my kids loved it) and branching out from there. The only one that was a little "too out there" for our tastes was Balkan Gypsies - it sounded like cat scratchings. Everything else has been delightful.
I recently discovered that you can listen to the cd's on the website, so I can pull up something random (like the Scottish Folk that I'm listening to right now) while I'm working and not have to put up with the crap that comes up on the radio...

Oh, and in our world cultures studies this week we've been learning about the Mayans, so we made some fun little weaving using a makeshift loom. This will become a scarf for Louisa's beloved Foxy. There are also plans in the works for a warm blanket for Foxy and perhaps Alex's favorite stuffed critter, Sparky.

Theme song

Ever hear a song and it speaks to you on a deeper level? This one totally does. So much so that I like to pretend that it was written just for me. My own personal theme song.

Give it a listen