Praiseworthy Toy: The Box

One of the highlights of my children's week is when we go to Costco and they pick out a new box to take home. It may sound crazy, but with all the toys in their rooms, they are more excited about getting a box to take home and cut up, color or do whatever too. Then at the end of the week, they throw it away and get a new one. Well, if this sounds like your kids I found this great site call Mr. McGroovy's Project Ideas. The projects are made out of cardboard boxes! I suggest you look for your materials in the back of an appliance store by the dumpster. Have fun!

Praiseworthy Video - A Different Frosty

I'm really loving this jazzy video of Frosty the Snowman today. I have actually never been a big fan of the Rankin Bass cartoon but I really enjoyed watching this and plan to share it with my children. I thought perhaps some of you might enjoy doing the same! I can't vouch for everything on YouTube, but this is a lot of good, clean fun.

Something fun! Ten Two Studios Holiday Countdown

There is just so much sharing goodness going on out there on the web during the Christmas season. You can find some of it at Lisa Vollrath's interesting craft site called Ten Two Studios. There are lots of ideas on this site for paper type crafts...artist trading cards, altered books, and the like. I love paper ephemera just because I do and she is sharing some right now! On several holidays throughout the year Lisa sets up a "holiday countdown." Each day she shares something new for download. She's doing it right now with Christmas themed items. Check it out here everyday between now and Christmas and start downloading!

Praiseworthy Review: The Glorious Coming

I hear so many at this time of year asking, "how can we make Christ the focus of our Christmas season?" One way is by doing Jesse Tree devotions. Last year I went on a quest to find the best Jesse Tree devotions. I think I have found it with Ann Voskamp's new The Glorious Coming.

What is a Jesse Tree? A Jesse Tree traces the lineage of Jesus. The idea is inspired by the bible verse in Isaiah 11:10 which prophecies the coming of Jesus, "At that time a root from Jesse will stand like a signal flag for the nations. Nations will look to him for guidance, and his residence will be majestic." There are a number of different ways to do a Jesse Tree, but most include daily devotions with a small symbol of that days devotion to hang on a tree or banner.

Ann Voskamp is a writer that I have long admired. Her writing can be sampled at her blog, The Holy Experience of Listening. It's beautiful, simple, and straight to the point. Ann graciously allowed me to preview The Glorious Coming and it did not disappoint. The devotions are simple for any child yet powerful enough for any adult. A wonderful activity for a family to engage in to focus on Christ during this Christmas season.

Another thing I like about this devotion is that, like so many of Ann's ventures, it benefits a fine charity, The Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. And it's a downloadable e-book. This makes it easy to print out the ornaments included to go with each devotion for your kids to color. AND it makes it nice for anyone who has waited until the last minute to start devotions as you can download them today and get started! Visit her page to see samples and download A Glorious Coming today!

Praiseworthy Audio - The Cinnamon Bear

I have blogged before about how much my family loves listening to audio books in the car. It is really a life saver! For years we have listed to this old radio series, The Cinnamon Bear, about two children who discover an incredible bear in their attic at Christmas time. The Chirotoons have made this wonderful series available on mp3 for free at their site. There are 26 episodes so you could listen to one a day until Christmas. This offer also includes a free downloadable coloring book to go with the series. I encourage you to check out the Chirotoons other offerings at their site. They have a lot of very good quality old radio shows available in mp3 format at their site, Living Books for the Ears.

Happy Thanksgiving & The Thrifty Homeschooler!

I subscribe to the Thrifty Homeschooler newsletter written and edited by Maureen Wittman. If you haven't checked this out yet I urge you to do that by subscribing here. This newsletter is a valuable resource full of tips from Maureen and her readers. She also has a blog now!

Recently Maureen wrote this on her newsletter. I thought it summed up so much of what I am thankful for that I asked her if I could post it here.

Dear Thrifty Homeschoolers,

I was thinking today how blessed I am to be 'not rich.'

I may drive a junker car, but I don't have to worry about being carjacked anytime soon.

I may buy most my clothes at Goodwill, but I don't have to fret when one of my littles gives me a big hug before washing hands after eating a fudgesicle.

I can't afford to buy loads of premade, prefab, precooked foods, but my family is healthier because of it.

I may live on the other side of the tracks, but I don't have to worry about snobby neighbors.

My kids may wear hand-me-downs, but they're as non-materialistic as you can get.

I may not have cable TV, but my kids read and play a lot more.

I may not have a lot of stuff, but I am grateful to God for what I do have.

Blessings,Maureen :)
www.thriftyhomeschooler.blogspot.com

Like Maureen, I am so thankful to God for all He has blessed me with. I hope you all have a wonderful day giving thanks!

Librivox.org

Our family loves to listen to audiobooks. I have two children and sometimes the bickering in the car can be too much, especially on the 4 hour trip to Grandma's house. But I discovered a few years back that my children, then 4 and 6, will listen to an audio book for HOURS in the car. So, I started checking out audiobooks at the Library. We follow the free online Ambleside Online Curriculum's literature reading selections and we can get many of them from the library on audiobooks. Things such as the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Charlotte's Web, and Winnie the Pooh were borrowed from the library, but there were many classic books I could not find on CD at my library. Then I discovered Librivox. Librivox calls itself "an acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." Basically that is a completely free site which provides mp3's of books in audio read by volunteers. I have found the readings to be of excellent quality and as a former teacher of Theatre I might have an informed opinion of such things. I'll leave that for you to decide. We have downloaded and listened to several Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Velveteen Rabbit and Heidi so far. My children loved them all. There are so many Ambleside selections here that I have to wonder if someone on the list of volunteers uses Ambleside. Next we will be listening to Peter Pan and Pinocchio. Our Island Story is another Ambleside selection available there.

But don't think this is a site solely for children's literature! There is a collection of works for adults from Aristotle to P.G. Wodehouse that includes novels, poetry, short stories and non-fiction. There is so much here my family could be listening for years. There are also volunteer opportunities for readers as well as listeners to help check recordings. So I urge you to check out Librivox. It's a most praiseworthy thing!

Free Printables

Everybody with children loves free printables right?! Well, I just found a new site, Just Print Something. In addition to lots of printables from gift tags to miniatures for dollhouses, there are articles covering things such as How to Print on Fabric to Questions on Copyrights. This stuff is ideal for scrapbookers, doll house lovers and artists of all types. There is also an area for authorized members to upload printables. All images should be safe as the user agreement states: "By registering at Just Print Something, you agree not to post anything that could be considered abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented, or any material that may violate any applicable laws. Posting these types of materials may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, and your service provider being notified of abuse. The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. " Hopefully they take that seriously. So head over there and sign up for a free account!

The Almost Perfect Day

Today was an almost perfect day for me. First it's autumn and that makes it pretty good right off the bat. Today was sunny but with a slight chill in the air. I spent the morning reading blogs and email and then I got into a cooking mood. I made this wonderful recipe for Bratwurst Stew from Taste of Home. This was recommended to me by another friend and I have made it several times with anything but bratwurst! I have used ham and turkey in the past and they were very good in this recipe. I actually like it with bratwurst the least. My husband and I decided today that it would actually be just fine without any meat at all. Those of you who are vegetarians could use a vegetable broth and it would be lovely.

Then I made Pumpkin Muffins using this recipe from Vegetarian Family. Since I am not a vegetarian (I eat a plant based diet, but only semi-vegetarian) I changed the recipe by using an egg and milk. I also added one cup of pecans which were really good. This recipe is exceptional. Probably the best pumpkin muffin I have had. I enjoy the Vegetarian Family blog as they always have great recipes and things that kids like.

Another cooking project today was Hummus. I made a recipe out of The New Best Recipe which is one of my favorite cookbooks. I made a double batch and plan to freeze part of it. Yes, I recently read that you can freeze Hummus! Amazing. Tomorrow I plan to make some pita bread to go with it.

My almost perfect day ended with a trip to Goodwill, one of my favorite stores where I scored two glass pie plates. Every almost perfect day needs a trip to at least one thrift store!

Hope your day was as perfect as can be.

Contest ends today!

Have you heard about the contest to guess the number of new products in the Vision Forum Catalog??? Well check it out over at the Life in A Shoe blog. But you have to hurry because the contest ends at midnight tonight! You could win up $700 in Vision Forum products or one of two $50 gift certificates. The Vision Forum catalog is a most praiseworthy catalog full of wonderful, classic toys and books for your family. I suggest you check it out too by following the link on the same blog. Let me know if you win!