Mother Should I Trust the Government {Book Review and Giveaway}

  This book, Mother Should I Trust the Government, was one I started my "relationship" with having not so good of opinion of. When I first heard about it I thought "That's a weird title" but thought that the content sounded of interest to me. Then I got the book and looked at the back cover and saw that the author had two people who had reviewed his book and one was his mother and the other was his daughter - both with very cheesy reviews. It made you wonder if he couldn't get anybody else to read it. And then I started reading the preface (which is what I normally do) and found it quite dry and really struggled to get through it. But.... After I got to the first chapter things started going much better!

   Mother Should I Trust the Government, The Making and Keeping of Our American Republic by Jake Jacobs PH. D. is about the forming of our country with it's Whig/republican ideals and then our challenges today with progressivism and then on to what we should be doing to protect our country and help in return to the godly principles that it was founded on.

   This book seems to be quite well researched, has a lot of interesting information and is one that I think I may use in the future to read aloud to my kids as a Government class. There are a lot of interesting facts about our founding fathers which is pretty fun. Throughout the book Jake suggests other books for further reading. It was fun to see that we already had several that he mentioned and I look forward to checking out more of them.

    This book reminds us over and over again that our country is supposed to be one that is run by the people. We the people simply need to remember to stand up, get involved and not just let whatever happens, happen. You have a say! Use that right. This is something I feel pretty passionate about and our family is actively involved in politics. I know that not every christian family can be actively involved the way we are but if more would be and if everybody would at least take the time to be informed and vote for christian principles our country would go in a much better direction.

  This book is available to buy on Amazon. I noticed that the Kindle Version is available free.

    

 I am excited to be able to offer a giveaway of this book! I have an extra copy to send to someone who comments on this post.

If You Would Like to Win.....

• Please leave a comment on this post. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether we should trust the Government or not.
• Be sure to leave some way for me to contact you should you win.

This giveaway will end on July 4th. At that point I will randomly pick a winner and contact them to get their address so I can send them the book.

Disclaimer: I received this book for purposes of reviewing. I received no other compensation. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Making a Chalkboard Door

 Chalkboards are the current trend and though it is not my goal to keep up with all the current trends I do think chalkboards are pretty fun and I quite liked the idea of having a chalkboard door.

  We bought nice pre-finished exterior doors for our house but in the buying of them we totally forgot about the door in between the house and the garage. So when it was time to put one in Ken told our contractor to just buy an in stock door to put in. It doesn't match the other doors and it was only primed so I thought it would be fun to turn it into a chalkboard.

   I bought a quart of chalkboard paint at Menards for around $10. I put two coats on the door and it used around 1/2 of it. It didn't cover very well with the first coat but with 2 coats it did great.

  After painting it I had to let it sit for 3 days before using it. That was sad because I did it just before the kids arrived home and I was hoping to put a welcome home message on it.

 After 3 days we were supposed to rub chalk all over it and then wipe it off.

 That was kind of messy but fun. Megan helped me. Now it is ready to use.

 We are having fun using it. I like the idea of writing messages and bible verses on it and also having a changing art scene on it.

What fun to be able to have new art whenever the inspiration hits.

Megan is now thinking of other places that it would be fun to use chalkboard paint - we shall see.
Have you ever used chalkboard paint? What projects have you done with it - or think would be fun to do?

Why I Believe we need to Train and Disciple Our Children

   I have been thinking about child training  lately. The combination of having my kids away at camp (they are back now - Hooray!), and teaching pre-school Sunday school class and other kids that have crossed my path have just had me thinking on those lines.

  When sending my kids off to be with others it is always my prayer that we have trained them well enough that they will be a blessing - not a headache for others to be around. In various kids lately I have had the opportunity to observe both the absence of training and the result of training. The results are SO different!

  Anyway I think it is extremely important part of being a parent and here are some verses that express that importance as well:

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6
"Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart." Proverbs 29:17
"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4
"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Colossians 3:20 (If this is going to happen, we are going to have to make it happen.)
"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." Proverbs 13:24
"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:6-7
"Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death." Proverbs 19:18
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Ephesians 6:1-3


Another great resource in encouraging you as you raise your children is this video called "A Peaceful Home" by Elisabeth Elliot. It is long but I think you will find it very encouraging and helpful. There is also a part 2 which is very good and you can find on Youtube.

May you always seek God's wisdom as you train your children. 

A Week of Camp in Pictures

I mentioned last week that we kids were headed down to camp with our aunt and uncle.

Jonathan packing.

 On the way we went to church with our cousins.  They were having a Hmong Chinese day, and so Beatrice is dressed up.

We reached Sharon Bluff Camp Sunday evening. 

Megan on her bunk.

 Two little boys in the bell tower.

Practicing volleyball.

  Nathan leading songs before chapel on Monday.

Jonathan waiting his turn for carpetball.  That's the major free-time entertainment there.

The driveway.

 Some recovering elk were kept in pastures by the camp.  We enjoyed watching them.

The camp bell.

Aaron and some other boys playing foosball.

My uncle Benjamin preached on Absalom Tuesday.

 Older group Bible class in the bell tower.

Aaron and Megan playing outside.

   Jonathan got to man the soundboard like he does at church.

A skit by Tribe Three.  (The campers are dived up into teams for activities.)  Megan as Rahab is behind a Delilah in black and white stripes.

My tribe did a Joshua skit.  I was the narrator, wearing a pink towel head covering. 

A birds' nest with a tragic fate.

The bell tower.

Taylor (a ten year old in my tribe) and I picked wildflowers on Wednesday.

  A team doing a group song for Music Night.

Taylor did a solo.  (Our tribe leader is working on the technology.)

  Aaron and Megan singing bluegrass.  Aaron looked a little lost without his mandolin, but we didn't have room to bring it.

Amazing Grace on Banjo and Ocarina.  (Ocarinas are smaller than mandolins, so it came along.)

  A bird in a mulberry tree out my window.

  All things must come to an end... Pictures on the last day of camp.  This is my tribe.

  Benjamin, Aaron and Megan were in Tribe Three.

Jonathan was in Tribe One.  (Tribe One won.)

  The cooks in their orange shirts.

Keren and Benjamin before we left.

  Blue sky out the van window.  I'm left with the little hollow feeling that always comes at the end of camp, but a lot of peace.  Home is good.  After all, there's always next year.

 

Glimpses of Our Garden

  I was out working in our garden this morning and had such fun checking out all the new growth going on there so I took some photos to share with you too.

Some of the tomato plants from my Dad are already blooming. Hooray!

 I think bean plants look so cute and they are so fun to watch since they make such fast progress.

 The zucchini plants are coming up.

 The peas came up really well. The are beautiful!

 The corn is up nicely too. My sweet corn I planted earlier and they are looking good but the Indian corn (that we use for decorations and for grinding for cornmeal) and popcorn which got planted later are up nicely as well.

 The onions look so sweet. I wonder if they will grow well - so often I don't have very good success with onions - we shall see. I will probably start using some of them as green onions soon.

 Radishes are so quick to come up - I love having them in my garden!

How is you garden doing? Do you have a favorite garden veggie?