"Be The One" : September 2014

Monday, September 29, 2014

Maestro Classics Special Offer

You may recall a review of Maestro Classics that I wrote last May. We had the privilege of reviewing two different story CD's from Maestro: "My Name is Handel" and "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel".

The Maestro Classics take classic children's stories, and set them to classical music performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. They are very professional and entertaining, and the music is lovely. It is a great way to expose children to classical music on a level that they can appreciate.

In order to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Maestro Classics is having a wonderful sale, just in time for Christmas shopping. They are offering a straight 20% off all their current CD's!!

This is a great deal, and one that I am going to take advantage of personally.

Maestro Classics stories are available as CD's to purchase, or as mp3 downloads. All come with a study guide that has games, additional information about the songs, and interesting facts.

The regular price for CD's is $16.98 and for mp3 downloads is $9.98. (plus you will get 20% off that price!)

Stories are recommended for ages 4 and up.

To purchase, visit the Maestro Classics website before December 10, 2014, and use the discount code "ACLASSOFONE" to receive your 20% discount, which will be taken off at checkout.

Sale includes all titles, both Spanish and English.

*This code is an affiliate link, and I will receive a small commission on all sales that it is used for*

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Obscure Bible Heroes {Blogging Through the Alphabet - V}

V is for "When VIRTUE left Jesus"

Mark 5:25-34: "And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Thinking of who to write about for the letter 'V' made me think of the woman with the long standing health issue, that came to Jesus for healing. So many people had crowded around Jesus that she could not even get near him to ask for His touch. She handled the problem as best as she could - she crept in and touched the hem of his garment.

I believe this woman is a hero because of the great faith that she had, as well as the honesty that she displayed when Jesus asked who had touched him. Now, because Jesus is God, who knows all things, He knew exactly what was going on with this woman, and why she pressed so hard to be near Him.

Perhaps the reason why He makes this such an interesting story in the Bible is to demonstrate her faith and sincerity to the people around her. Several times in the Bible when Jesus is healing people, it is described as virtue leaving Him.

According to the dictionary, virtue is moral excellence and righteousness. Jesus, of course, was the perfect example of virtue personified.

I believe that those who wholeheartedly choose to be His follower receive a measure of virtue from Him as well. In our own selves, there is no reason to just 'be good' or virtuous, but the presence of God with us when we receive Him as our Savior and begin a personal relationship with Him allows us a measure of his virtue, just like this woman who was healed. This God-given gift of virtue heals us inside. It gives new meaning and purpose to life. With God's help, we are able to be 'whole' and live a holy life that pleases God and encourages others.

For this woman, it all started with a great faith. She is a hero because of her great faith, her persistence in getting to Jesus for help, and her love and desire for Him. In return, He gave her healing and a brand new life.

May I also have such a great faith to get to Jesus for help, and allow Him to add virtue to my life.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Field Trip Friday: Buffalo Zoo

While this field trip didn't necessarily take place on a Friday....I am linking it to the Field Trip Blog!

Recently the girls took a trip to the Buffalo Zoo. They took over the camera and captured things that caught their eye.

Here, in an unfiltered way...is their favorite animals at the Buffalo Zoo through their eyes!

Kangaroos

They were fascinated by the colors and this bird kept playing peek-a-boo.

Hands down - favorite animals: polar bears playing and swimming!

Can you find his eye?

Birds are always a favorite.

And tropical birds are even better!

Swimming capybara

The squirrels come very close to people and don't run away!

Such a neat looking creature!

Beautiful deer

Picture of the herd

This post is linked with "Field Trip Friday" at Chestnut Grove Academy

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Obscure Bible Heroes {Blogging Through The Alphabet - U}

U is for Uriah

1Kings 15:5 - "Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."

Obscure people and tragic stories in the Bible make me delve deeper into God's Word to seek out the purpose for why they are there. God must have had a reason to place them in His Word.

Uriah's life is one of those stories in the Bible that falls into this category: a seemingly senseless tragedy that leaves no uplifting thoughts.

Uriah was a faithful man. He was one of the bravest soldiers, enough to be listed amongst David's mighty men. (2 Samuel 23:39). The thing I find fascinating is that Uriah was not even an Israelite. He was of the tribe of Heth, a heathen people whose remnant remained in the land when the Israelites conquered Canaan under Joshua. For some reason, he believed in the Israelite God, Jehovah, and joined up with David's forces.

Under David, he served faithfully and valiantly. He lived right near the palace, and served on the front lines during the Israelite army's battles. The Bible doesn't tell us much about his background but we do know that he had a lovely wife, Bathsheba.

As the story goes, while Uriah and the army were out fighting, his wife Bathsheba was home, in their house that was close to the palace. Through a series of events, David ended up taking Uriah's wife, committing adultery with her, and conceiving a child. When David became aware of the situation, he then tried to cover his sin by bringing Uriah home from the battle to spend a little time at home with his wife.

Uriah was such a faithful soldier and man that he stayed at the king's palace and determined to get back to the battle in short order. When David saw that his little cover up scheme backfired, he made an awful decision - to have Uriah be killed in battle. David actually wrote a letter, sending it to the army captain by the hand of Uriah, that sealed Uriah's fate. In that letter, David instructed that Uriah was to be placed on the front lines, in the hottest part of the fray, and then abandoned, insuring a certain death. The captain followed the orders, and it was reported back that Uriah was dead.

As the story continues on, we know that David took Bathsheba to be his wife, yet the child that was conceived died shortly after birth. Nathan the prophet came and preached a blistering message to David, condemning him for his actions. David, and his entire family, suffered greatly for his sin.

What lessons can be drawn from this tragic story? Many Bible stories end up showing how blessed the faithful man was. Those are the kinds of stories we like. We like happy endings tied up in nice, neat packages. Yet Uriah's story is anything but happy.

One lesson I have drawn from Uriah's story is that God sees everything. No sin is hidden from him. Though David might have thought that his scheme was covered, and all would be well, God exposed it for what it was, and dealt quite harshly with it.

Another thought is that we are to let God repay misdeeds that are done to us. Because He knows, and He is perfect and just, He can do a much better job sorting out offenses than we can. We might try to take matters in our own hands, but we will never do well with it.

Romans 12:19 - "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

The last thought I have is that the story is not over. We tend to think of situations in our own finite terms. If we think of this story in the setting of this life only, we will automatically think of the injustice that was committed against Uriah, a faithful man who was minding his own business and faithfully serving the king, yet lost everything, including his own life. Yet God measures things in the sense of eternity. God rewards according to that which was done here on earth. We will not know the end of this story, how Uriah's faithfulness was rewarded, until we get to Heaven.

Matthew 25:21 - "His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

While I still think that Uriah's story is unfair, and I have struggled to find any good in it, from his life I can learn lessons of faithfulness and of not fighting back when I think that people have offended me, but allowing God to fight my battles for me.

Uriah is a hero because he was a strong, faithful man who followed God and was faithful until the very end.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Review: My Student Logbook

If you regularly read my blog posts, you know that we have really been focusing on organization in our home and home school. While trying out various planners for myself, I also have tried out different methods of record keeping and accountability for the kids with their schoolwork and daily tasks. While each child is different, I have noticed that all have picked up my penchant for list making. Melissa, who is in 8th grade, has really picked up the pace with her studies this year, and I was hoping to find a planner/tracker that would help her keep track of everything. Just as we were getting ready to start school, we had the opportunity to review a dated My Student Logbook from My Student Logbook.

A little history: This is a company and a product that was created by home schoolers for home schoolers! The logbook came about from a need to keep multiple students in a large family accountable for their daily lessons and assignments. Being designed by a practical, in-the-trenches home school mom means that the logbooks are very adaptable to each unique student's situation.

What is My Student Logbook? It is an 8 1/2" x 11" spiral bound book with a customizable cover and protective plastic covering. Each page covers an entire week of tasks, with boxes ready to be marked off when tasks are completed. There are so many different options to make the logbook suit your own personal needs.

How many different options are available?

"Freedom" Cover

There are currently nine different cover selections with many choices of kids' favorites. (We chose the "Freedom" cover shown)
Inside, logbooks can be purchased in dated or undated options.
Currently, dated options come in a 2014-2015 academic year, or 2015 calendar year.
Undated options have only blank squares to fill in for dates, so that the logbook can be started at any time of the year.
There is also an instant pdf download, where pages can be printed off at home and set up as you wish.

What makes this logbook unique and different from all the other student calendars out there? This logbook is just plain simple to use. There is nothing complicated at all. There is even an easy setup guide video available to show you how to do it! The main difference that separates this logbook from any other student planner that I have seen or used, is that this one has a folded flap that can be reused repeatedly for many weeks at a time. In other words, Melissa and I can write her list of tasks that need to be completed daily or weekly on the list on that flap, and then use it until it is either worn out or no longer applicable, simply be folding it over the new week's calendar. Each week gets a fresh start, but eliminates the need to waste time copying over the same list of tasks from the prior week. Let me just tell you that Melissa loves this feature!

Is it hard to set up? Not at all! It took us about five minutes! And here are some pictures to show you exactly what we did:

First we cut out the page that is used as a "flap"...

Then we folded it in half on the line.

We taped one side of this flap to the back of the first page of the logbook's calendar section.

We made sure the lines were "all lined up" so there would be no confusion.

You can see that under the flap there is an area to write notes about that particular week.

This is the same list of tasks that Melissa started off with during our first week of school. She has not had to rewrite the list, but has only had to tuck each new week's page under the flap, and continue on in the same habit as the previous week.

What if I need to change the list of weekly tasks? There are several extra fold pages included that can be set up and used whenever the list changes or the stack of calendar pages gets too thick to fit under the folded list easily.

Is there anything else included? The logbook encourages student growth and participation by including several other pages for the student to fill out, and make a record of the school year, such as:

An "All About Me" page
A prayer list
A goals page
A page to record Bible verses memorized
A book reading list (which comes in very handy for high schoolers!)
Pages to write scheduled events, projects, field trips, presentations, and also record favorite memories and highlights of the school year.
Test records pages

What age can use this? I think this would be useful for any student who can read and learn to start working independently and being accountable and responsible for their assignments. While it is suggested for 2nd grade and above, I think middle school through high school will find this most helpful.

Logbook vs. planner: An important fact to remember is that this is a logbook, not a planner. There is only one line to write a task. If your student needs lots of room to write out assignments, they will need something different for that, such as a small assignment pad or notebook. This is only a way to track if the assigned tasks have been completed.

How did "My Student Logbook" work out for us? It is actually working quite well! Both Mom and Melissa are pleased with the logbook. I wrote some of tasks on her list, and she wrote the rest. She has been faithfully checking off her boxes everyday as she completes things off her list. She has been able to see areas that need improvement as well. As a teacher, I am able to quickly look over her logbook page and see how much further she has to go in her work before she is finished. It has helped us track her music practice and chores as well, since I added much more to her daily list then just schoolwork!

Positive thoughts: One compliment I would like to give this logbook is that it is very sturdy. When something is intended to be used on a daily basis for an entire school year, it needs to be built to last, and this logbook so far has seemed like it can handle almost anything!

Final thoughts: I think this logbook is a wonderful way to help teach your child accountability. With their parent's help, they are taking the responsibility of completing their daily tasks into their own hands and learning to manage their time and responsibilities well. This logbook has helped us have a really positive start to our home school year, and I am glad for the privilege to review it. At first I was apprehensive because I wanted everything in one place, and using the logbook as a tracker forced us to have two different 'books' for Melissa - one for writing out longer assignments, and the logbook for marking off when they were completed. Melissa has adapted well to this system though, and it seems to work for her. She enjoys having them separate, not having her assignments 'lost' in the long list of daily tasks. She gets satisfaction over seeing her list 'checked off' at the end of her day. I am grateful for the help this logbook has been to her.

How much does it cost? My Student Logbooks can be purchased for $15 each. PDF downloads cost $10 for a single use license or $20 for a family use license, which gives you the option to print out pages for more than one student.

Connections: You can connect with My Student Logbook on Facebook or watch their videos on YouTube.

See what the rest of The Crew thought after trying out the logbooks....

Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week

September 14-20, 2014 is

National Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week.

Perhaps you have heard of it....or perhaps you are wondering what it's all about?

The mitochondria are the "power houses" of the cell. They are in every living cell in our
bodies. Through a complicated process, they are responsible for taking the food we eat and the oxygen we breathe in, and changing it into energy that our bodies use to live. They are like little battery packs all throughout our bodies.

Unfortunately, for some people, these little battery packs fail them, and their organs and muscles don't function properly because of it. Often, problems with mitochondrial failure is due to a genetically inherited dna mutation that causes them to not function properly, or not replicate themselves entirely.

Here is a little video that explains simply how energy is made and the job of the mitochondria:

When the mitochondria are impaired, the person can be mildly to severely ill, depending on which organs are most affected, and what type of problem is causing the mitochondrial dysfunction.

When cells fail on certain levels, the organs start to lose their ability to function properly. Each person with mitochondrial disease can be affected a little differently. It is estimated that 1 in 4,000 people suffers from a mitochondrial disease.

Imagine trying to run your whole household off of one battery. That is what it is like to live with mitochondrial disease. There is just not enough energy to go around to power everything. The person can look healthy and typical, but even the smallest energy drain (from exertion or illness) can send them into a rapid decline and make them desperately ill very quickly.

Please help spread the word about this powerful disease. Little is known about it, and what is known is very misunderstood by most. Yet those who live with it know the truth of the daily struggle that it brings.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Review: The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner

Busy moms, especially home school moms, are always searching for better time management and life organization strategies. I am no exception. I am a chronic list maker, and thrive on setting and achieving goals, "checking" things off my daily task lists. I was very interested in the opportunity to review The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner from The 7 Minute Life.

The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner is much more than a daily planner. It is an entire life/time management system! The creator, Allyson Lewis, designed this program after a serious health situation in her own life caused her to re-evaluate her life's goals and daily priorities, examining where she wanted to spend time and what was important enough to focus on, eliminating those things that were just taking up space in her life. She used this experience, and her planner, to develop a system of life coaching to help others achieve success in time management and fulfill their life's purpose.

What is the planner like? It is a spiral bound, square shaped planner that is about 8" square, and 1" thick. There is a clear plastic cover overlaying a thick card stock cover, that includes a small pocket on the inside for storing receipts.

What is included inside? The front of the planner has nineteen pages of instructions for starting the program and making it a success in your life. The next seventeen pages are worksheets for implementing the plans, and include pages to sort out your own personal priorities, preferences, strengths, and goals. There is plenty of room to list tasks, set goals, and break down the tasks into smaller, bite size pieces so that you can actually see them move from hopes and dreams written on a page to reality. Following that introduction, there are ninety days worth of daily progress reports.

This is a short video I made to describe the planner in more detail:

What is the significance of 7 minutes? There have been studies that show an average adult's attention span is about seven minutes. Allyson Lewis also emphasizes spending seven minutes at the end of each day to assess your daily accomplishments, record your progress, and plan your priorities for the following day.

How does the system work? There are multiple videos on the 7 Minute Life website that explain the time management strategies involved in using this planner. I found them all very interesting, especially the ones that explain how to use your brain to change your habits. At the heart of this system is teaching yourself to recognize what is (or should be) a priority in your life, and then striving to organize and simplify your life so that your priorities get the attention they deserve. In fact, that is the three steps of this system: Prioritize. Organize. Simplify.

Have you ever felt like your daily task list was just too much to accomplish? I have. Sometimes my list seems so long that I don't even know where to start. It just feels so out of control.

What have I learned from using this planner? I have learned to break down huge tasks into manageable pieces. I don't ever have an uninterrupted day set aside to clean and organize an entire room. After using this planner a bit, I realized that I can take an entire room that needs organization, and instead of writing that in my planner and feeling discouraged that I couldn't accomplish it, I can actually work to see it happen, (though it will take a few weeks), by taking one small part of that room and writing one task a day in my planner. For example, instead of writing "clean & organize the sun porch" I wrote "remove one bag of unused items from the sun porch". At the end of the day, I was able to feel success and accomplishment over doing a small part, and over the course of the week, I was slowly able to see the sun porch come back to life!

What was the most valuable aspect of this planner for me? I would say that I benefited most from the "5 before 11" section of the daily progress reports. In this small section of the daily progress report, I was able to choose five things that were a priority for the next day, and as soon as I woke up and finished my daily morning routine, those were the things that I tackled. Having a goal set to have those five items accomplished before 11:00 made me much more productive. Rarely did I miss finishing my "5 before 11" items. I learned to make sure they were priority items, but not things that were big projects that would get me bogged down. For a goal setter like myself, accomplishing tasks early in the day definitely gives me a mental edge on the rest of my day and makes me much more productive.

Who is this planner for? This is definitely a planner for busy adults, or possibly college students. It is not a student planner. I think people who are trying to balance work and family life would find this planning system most helpful.

Some adjustments: While I definitely did enjoy using this planner, there were a few things I either adjusted in it to personalize for myself, or would outright change if I could. The main thing I adjusted was the headings on the daily progress reports. Since my main focus in life right now is home making and home schooling, I found several areas that were not really applicable to my life. I do not have many voice mails or messages to return, and I don't really have daily contacts. My thank you note writing comes in spurts, not daily, and I definitely need more "free space" to write tasks that need attention. I ended up crossing out the headings and using them in completely different ways than what they were intended for.

The other drawback that I found with this system is that it only lasts for ninety days. I am in the habit of using my planners for a year at a time, and my kids call my planner "Mom's Brain". Everything I do is written in there, and I often have to refer back to previous months for information I need. While I love the concept, I am not sure that I could break down my life into ninety day segments like this planner suggests. My life is just more complicated than that, with medical information and school information that I need at my fingertips for the entire year.

I really enjoyed the introductory pages in the front of the planner. I found them valuable and a helpful and simple way to think through my life and choose priorities and tasks. I think it would be a wonderful idea to be able to purchase just those introductory life planning pages as an independent booklet. I would definitely use that in my own life, as goals and priorities change over time. I would also use it with young people that I mentor.

I also found many pages that I skipped over because they just weren't applicable in my life right now. For example, there were pages that had "meeting planning" strategies to write down. I currently don't run meetings. When I started, I thought perhaps I could use them for "family meetings" that we have sometimes when working through decision making, but I found it too cumbersome.

I think it would be most helpful if people could customize their planners with different sets of pages that were most useful for their own life. This planner definitely has more of a "business" tone, but there are many other walks of life that would find the system itself useful. Some pages or headings that I would love to see in future editions of this planner would include a daily devotions tracker, spiritual goals, savings goals (and possibly weekly ways to track savings), prayer lists, more free space for writing uncategorized tasks, budgeting, "screen time" for myself and the kids, and more room for homeschooling needs. I enjoy planning ahead for our home school year, and having the planning pages tailor made for schooling would be extremely helpful.

Final thoughts: Overall, I think the 7 Minute Life time management system is very thorough, and would help any user accomplish more in their life, fulfilling goals and desires. I think one must really buy in to the system and overhaul their life using the strategies included to make it work. I enjoyed the planner, but would definitely make some adjustments to make it more user-friendly for my own life personally.

What is the cost: The 7 Minute Life Daily Planner can be purchased on the website for $24.95.

Connect with 7 Minute Life on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google+
Youtube

See what other members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew thought of this planner:

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Obscure Bible Heroes {Blogging Through The Alphabet - T}

T is for Tryphena & Tryphosa

Romans 16:12 - "Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord."

Buried in the list of names at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans, is a pair of ladies that simply had a reputation as "laborers for the Lord." Most Bible commentators have suggested that these ladies were sisters, although the Bible tells us nothing more than their names.

Paul made special mention of them, though, when writing. I like to meditate on just what type of ladies these were, that made them so special as to be recognized and 'saluted' by the Apostle Paul. I'm sure they never sought for this recognition. I'm sure they were quite content to be in the background, laboring and helping the early church.

There are several verses that come to mind when I think of special people who are in their place, doing a work for the Lord. Though man may not notice, and they may never receive earthly gratitude, God knows and I believe He is pleased by their humble efforts.

1 Corinthians 10:31 - "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Colossians 3:23 - "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;"

The first thing that comes to mind when laboring for the Lord is that all our work is sacred. God has assigned us a task, and doing it heartily and completely for His glory is pleasing to Him. It doesn't matter if that work is mundane household work, or homeschooling, or fixing cars. If our attitude is one to please the Lord then we will do our work thoroughly and completely for Him and to Him.

Also, God is well pleased with humility in our labors. There is plenty of work to go around, especially when you consider ministry. God has called each one of us to minister and serve others, not just the pastors. If each Christian would just do their part, look around and see the need, and try to fill it, how much more could be accomplished for the Lord? How quickly this world could be reached for Him! We do not need titles or positions - we simply need to "labor" for the Lord and look to serve others. There are plenty of people out there who need to know God's love.

Like Tryphena and Tryphosa, I would like to be a lady who is simply known as one who labors in the Lord. My wish is that all my work would be done for His glory, and be a help to those around me. That is the goal I will work towards!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Safari Adventure Vacation Bible School

This past August we had the privilege of being involved in VBS at our church. Our family was able to help with planning, preparing, and then working throughout the week. It was so much fun, and we made great memories. I would like to share some ideas of what was done. Feel free to use them if you ever plan a similar theme.

Our program was called "Safari Adventure" and we based it on traveling to Africa. Our decorating crew really outdid themselves and I am including a whole bunch of pictures of all their neat ideas.