Books

Have you read more than six of these Books? The BBC believes most people will have read only six of the 100 books listed here. 

Instructions: Copy this into your POST. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started, but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds if desired.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (plan on finishing eventually)

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (read most)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (read a few chapters with Trista, she is finishing the rest herself, don't know if I'll finish it myself or not)

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis 

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (I couldn't finish this because it was too disturbing for me)

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Read:22

Started but not finished: 5

Many of these books I plan on reading eventually!

Bringing in the New Year

I hope anyone who stumbles upon this had a great Christmas and New year.

My New Year night went pretty well. My hubby and I helped out with the youth group at church. We had fun. Then, when we got home we found that one of our dogs was missing. He has been missing before, but this time he hasn't come home. :( The kids have been at my parents for the last two nights so it has been really quiet around here. I'm enjoying the peace, but looking forward to them being back home again.
............................................................................................................

I don't really believe in New year resolutions, but I think the beginning of the year is always a good starting point to begin any goals and plans that you may have. Below are a few of the plans I have for this upcoming year.

• For one, I would like to actually update this site more often. I want to be able to actually document things that are going on around here. I also have things I would like to share and haven't gotten around to it. 
• I want to lose weight....who doesn't!? I only want to lose 10 pounds, which is not a lot, but that is my goal. The 10 Ibs. that I want gone all seems to be in my midsection and I want it to go away!
• I really really want to be more organized. This last year things haven't been very smooth and I need to get a lot of things back in order including finances.
• I would like to have a baby.......Ok, that really isn't up to me, but I'm just throwing it out there..lol!
• I'm pretty sure there are more I just can't think of anything else right now. The above are the main goals for the year.

What are your goals for the new year?

FREEBIE ALERT

free crochet patterns for making pillows

http://freecrochetpattern.weebly.com/crochet-patterns-pillows.html

Free printable gift tags!
http://www.eatwisconsincheese.com/assets/pdfs/ButterGiftTags2010.pdf

Free online homeschool planner

http://www.home-school-inc.com/

Free homeschool resources page! 

http://www.hstreasures.com/resources.html


Educational games FREE

http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm

January Homeschool Planner - Free Download 

 If you are ready to begin making plans for January's homeschooling,
here is a free downloadable planner for January 2011. This download
comes complete with month and week calendars, 3 different lesson plan
forms to fit your individual needs, and a variety of forms for unit
planning, daily assignments, spelling and vocabulary words, library
books, reading log and chore charts.

Preview the January planner now!
<http://www.examiner.com/homeschooling-in-denver/preview-the-january-201\
1-homeschooling-family-planner-before-you-download-picture>
Ready to download? Click here
<http://christianhomeschoolhub.spruz.com/downloads.htm?a=&act=get&guid=0\
9985A0C-A362-4900-AEB6-2069107CBCE3>

Christmas Curriculum 2010

Bible:
Read the Christmas Story from the Gospel of Luke


Picture Study:
Adoration of the Shepherds by Bartolome Esteban Murillo

Read Aloud
Keeping Christmas by Henry Van Dyke
Christmas Every Day By William Dean Howells
The Gingerbread Boy


Poetry
In the Week Christmas Comes Eleanor Farjeon
People, Look East by Eleanor Farjeon


Hymns
Tell Me the Story of Jesus

Handicrafts
Make Gingerbread cookies

Copywork
Isaiah 9:6, Galatians 4:4-6, John 3:16

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
~Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Math
Christmas Math and Worksheets

C-SPAN's New American Presidents Timeline Poster

C-SPAN is delighted to announce our new American Presidents Timeline poster for classrooms. The 6ft long poster details the lives and public service careers of every president, plus key historical events, Supreme Court cases, and technology milestones throughout 280 years of Presidential history. They are free of charge to C-SPAN Classroom members. To reserve yours, simply log-in and click on "Get Offer" below! *(limit of one poster per member and only available to members with an address inside the continental U.S.A.)

Click Here

Great Moments in Public Education

A school district in Massachusetts has banned the Pledge of Allegiance from its classrooms, Fox News reports:

Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School in Arlington, Mass., has offered to allow students to recite the pledge before school begins--but in the school's foyer and not in the classrooms, as 17-year-old Harrington had hoped.

Kathleen Bodie, Arlington superintendent of schools, told Fox News Radio that "The principal wanted to be very respectful about the pledge and be sensitive to the Supreme Court ruling that students are not forced to say the pledge. He wanted to be sensitive to the diverse group of students we have."

Bodie said there has been reluctance to put the district's teachers in a position of reciting the pledge, and she acknowledged that some have raised concerns about its inclusion of the words "under God."

Now you may think these teachers are unpatriotic. But there's another possible explanation. Consider this Associated Press dispatch:

The school superintendent in Springfield, Mass., has taken responsibility for tests given to the district's 11th- and 12th-graders that were rife with spelling, grammatical and factual errors.

Two tests given in May to about 2,600 students contained about 100 errors combined.

The mistakes included the phrases "truning around" and "For God's skae," as well as a note on one test that read "This is the end of the Test," when there were two more pages.

If Massachusetts teachers can't get simple phrases like these right, how can they possibly be expected not to bungle the Pledge of Allegiance?

Help oppose United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Today parental rights are coming under assault from federal judges who deny or refuse to recognize these rights. Adding further danger to the child-parent relationship, international law seeking to undermine the parental role is advancing on the horizon. Together, these threats are converging to create a "perfect storm" that looms over the child-parent relationship.
According to Amazines.com:
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, often referred to as CRC or UNCRC, is an international convention setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. Nations that ratify this international convention are bound to it by international law. Compliance is monitored by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child which is composed of members from countries around the world. Once a year, the Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the CRC Chair, and the Assembly adopts a Resolution on the Rights of the Child.^[4]
Governments of countries that have ratified the Convention are required to report to, and appear before, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child periodically to be examined on their progress with regards to the advancement of the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in their country. Their reports and the committee's written views and concerns are available on the committee's website.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989 (the 30th anniversary of its Declaration of the Rights of the Child).^[5] It came into force on 2 September 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations. As of December 2008, 193 countries have ratified it,^[1] including every member of the United Nations except the United States and Somalia.^[4][6]
Two optional protocols were adopted on 25 May 2000. The first one restricts the involvement of children in military conflicts, and the second one prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Both protocols have been ratified by more than 120 states.^{[7][8]
This poses a serious threat both to parental rights and to U.S. sovereignty, as the UNCRC dictates not only that the federal government must intrude into the family sphere to an unprecedented degree, but also how the federal government is to monitor and govern the actions of our families.  Parental rights would be replaced by "the best interests of the child" as defined, ultimately, by an international committee of 18 people in Switzerland.}
To read more on the dangers of this treaty, and how it poses a serious threat to parental rights and American freedom, please visit parentalrights.org
Download actual UN Convention documents here.
SR 519 Approaches Half-way Point
The Senate resolution opposing ratification of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child is very near the half-way point, with 16 of the needed 34 cosponsors already signed on. To reach this level of success in so short a time is very encouraging – but they still have a ways to go, and need to get there quickly!
If your senator is a Republican, there is no reason for him not to sign on, so parentalrights.org is targeting that group this week. The only reason many have not cosponsored yet is that they don’t think it is important enough to make the effort – and your phone calls are needed to change that perception. If they get enough phone calls about an issue, it becomes important, so we need you to make SR 519 vital to them!
If Your Senator Is a Democrat...
...don’t quit calling. This is not a partisan issue, and there is a chance your senator may sign on. Find their Washington number at ParentalRights.org/Status, and urge them to oppose international law by co-sponsoring SR 519. And tell your friends so they can call, too!
If Your Senator Is a Republican and Not a Cosponsor...
...he is one of the targets this week. Please take the following actions:
1. Call your Senators. Tell them we don’t want international law running our country. Tell them to seize this opportunity to win a victory against the Obama agenda.
To easily check their status and get their Washington phone numbers, find your state on the list at ParentalRights.org/Status. If you have already called their D.C. office, please call their District Offices at the numbers listed below. Alternate every couple of days and keep calling both offices!



AL  Sen. Richard Shelby
(334) 223-7303


AK  Sen. Lisa Murkowski
(907)-271-3735


FL  Sen. George LeMieux
(904)-398-8586


ID  Sen. Mike Crapo
(208)-334-1776


IN  Sen. Richard Lugar
(317) 226-5555


KS  Sen. Sam Brownback
(316) 264-8066


KS  Sen. Pat Roberts
(785) 295-2745


LA  Sen. David Vitter
(225)-383-0331


ME  Sen. Susan Collins
(207) 622-8414


ME  Sen. Olympia Snowe
(207) 622-8292


MA  Sen. Scott Brown
(617) 565-3170


MS  Sen. Thad Cochran
(601)-965-4459


MO  Sen. Chris Bond
(573) 634-2488


NE  Sen. Mike Johanns
(402) 476-1400


NH  Sen. Judd Gregg
(603) 225-7115


OH  Sen. George Voinovich
(216) 522-7095


SC  Sen. Lindsey Graham
(803) 933-0112


TN  Sen. Lamar Alexander
(615) 736-5129


TN  Sen. Bob Corker
(615)-279-8125


TX  Sen. John Cornyn
(713)-572-3337


UT  Sen. Robert Bennett
(801) 524-5933


UT  Sen. Orrin Hatch
(801) 524-4380


WY  Sen. John Barrasso
(307)-772-2451


WY  Sen. Michael Enzi
(307) 772-2477



2. Tell your friends. Every chance you get, tell your friends about the dangers of the CRC, the UN’s treaty that would transform parental authority into a treaty obligation of the national government, making Washington responsible to ensure that you raise your kids according to UN standards. Send them to ParentalRights.org to sign the petition (or have them sign a printed copy), and encourage them to join you in calling your senators! If Your Senator Has Already Sponsored...
...please send him a thank you letter or card expressing your appreciation:



Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
7550 Halcyon Summit Dr., Suite 150,
Montgomery, AL 36117


Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
2200 East Camelback, Suite 120
Phoenix, AZ 85016


Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
5353 North 16th Street, Suite 105
Phoenix, AZ 85016


Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
100 Galleria Pkwy., Suite 1340
Atlanta, GA 30339


Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
1 Overton Park Suite 970
3625 Cumberland Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30339


Sen. James Risch (R-ID)
350 North 9th Street, Suite 302
Boise, ID 83702


Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)
721 Federal Bldg., 210 Walnut St.
Des Moines, IA 50309


Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY)
600 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Place
Rm. 1072b
Louisville, KY 40202


Sen. Roger Wicker (R- MS)
245 East Capitol St., Suite 226
Jackson, MS 39201


Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
400 S. Virginia St., Suite 738
Reno, NV 89501


Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
201 N. Front St., Suite 809
Wilmington, NC 28401


Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
100 North Broadway, Suite 1820
Oklahoma City, OK 73102


Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
1900 NW Expressway St., Suite 1210
Oklahoma City, OK 73118


Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
1901 Main St., Suite 1475
Columbia, SC 29201


Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
320 N. Main Ave., Suite B
Sioux Falls, SD 57104


Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
961 Federal Building
300 East 8th Street
Austin, Texas 78701



Call Your Congressman If your Congressman is not already a cosponsor of the Parental Rights Amendment (HJRes. 42), call and urge him to sign on. As the elections approach, candidates from both parties are beginning to realize that the parental rights issue is vital to all Americans. Representatives from either party may wish to sign on now to help their re-election campaigns. You might want to mention this to them, as well.
To take action, visit ParentalRights.org/States and click on your state. Then, if your Congressman is not already a cosponsor, click on his name to get his contact information – and give him a call. Tell him you believe parental rights will be a major issue this election, and that it can only help his chances if he defends parental rights by cosponsoring HJRes. 42, the Parental Rights Amendment. Be courteous, and thank the staff workers for their time.

Review: God's Promises for Boys

God's Promises for Boys By Jack Countryman & Amy Parker

God's Promises for Boys is a children's book directed to boys, hence the title, though my daughter  enjoyed it also. The appropriate age for this book would be anywhere between 4-8 years(depending on how mature your child is) This book has 127 pages of God's promises as found in the Bible. There are many different subjects that pertain to a young boys life. Each subject has several bible verses to implement that part of the book. There are also cute pictures throughout the book to peak your child's interest.

My son who is 5 has enjoyed looking through the pictures(he isn't a reader yet). I have been reading to him and he doesn't seem too interested in what I am reading. On the other hand when his sister read this to him they sat on the couch soaking everything in for about 45 minutes. I like the strong scriptural references in this book. They show how the Bible has answers and solutions to every day life. Even for a little boy! The only frustration I have with this book is that the translation of the Bible verses are from "International Children's Bible"  we are King James readers and my kids get a little confused by the different wordings.

I think this would be a great reference tool for all growing boys. This is a book that may not stay on the bookshelf.

I received this book free to review, as a member of BookSneeze.

Why Public School Is Not An Option

Excerpts from Leah's Labyrinth

1.“You shall not steal.” (Ex 20:15)
The public education system is inherently corrupt and breaks the eighth commandment. The government forces people to pay for the education of other people’s children.

2.“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30)
There is no neutrality, especially when it comes to education. All information is coming from someone with a particular world view.

3. “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40)
Who will be my child’s teacher? Someone with Pharaoh’s stamp on them, who teaches in Pharaoh’s courts, approved by Pharaoh?

4. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deut 6:6-7)
The Bible says I, the parent, am to disciple my children from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to bed.

5.”Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Prov 22:6)
Who is doing the training? The anti-Christ government?

6. “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14)
My immature, sponge-brained children have no business being shaped and molded with heathen and pagan children.

There is so much wisdom in this post. Please click here to read the full article.

My Birthday

Last Saturday I turned 31!  Though I am a little perturbed about getting older I feel very blessed and fulfilled.

No, I don't have a college degree or a career. I don't have a big fancy house with a two car garage. I'm not loaded with money nor go on exotic vacations. I don't have expensive cars. I don't have a supermodel body and I'm more plain jane than beautiful(Chris may disagree). I don't have all the things that most of society would count as important. My motto is of course "The best things in life....are not things!"

What do I have you ask? I have God's saving grace which is by far the most important thing to have. I have a wonderful husband who makes it his business to take care of his family. I have two of the most wonderful children I could of ever asked for. I have a home, albeit it's a small home, but that is all I ask. I have this and sooooo much more. I can't really describe how blessed I feel right now!

Thank you Lord for everything you have given me!