This video is 17 minutes long and may be too much for some children but let them at least watch the march at the beginning and see and hear the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. And do watch it yourself.

Here are more free audio resources for MLK day from Learn Out Loud:

I've Been to the Mountaintop
On this Martin Luther King Day, listen to Dr. King's final speech which he delivered the night before his assassination. In this prophetic speech Dr. King looks back over his life and thanks God that he was able to take part in the victories of the civil rights era.
He makes a passionate cry for nonviolence and freedom throughout the world, and confesses that no matter what happens to him that humanity will make it to the Promised Land. This speech is available on MP3 download and streaming audio & video from American Rhetoric.
I've Been to the Mountaintop
You can also download and listen to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and Robert F. Kennedy's "Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr." on LearnOutLoud.com's Great Speeches in History Podcast (these two speeches are listed toward the bottom of the podcast feed).

Festive Cake

I love old community cookbooks. Specifically Church cookbooks. I find that the recipes that women submit to these cookbooks are either a special or unusual dish or something they make particularly well that garners lots of praises. Looking through these books I often find recipes that are "family pleasers." Here is one of them from the Overland Park Christian Church in Overland Park, Kansas called "Cooking with Friends". This makes a large cake and instead of using the ten cup pan I have also used a 9X13 pan with success. It is so moist and delicious you'll have a hard time stopping at one piece. Enjoy!

He Had A Dream

In our house we take time on important days to explain to our children why we are observing something important on that day. Martin Luther King, jr made some praiseworthy contributions to the history of our country and is worth remembering on the day our country has set aside to honor him. He is also an excellent example of a godly man who gave his live for the cause of freedom.

When I'm teaching my children about something important I always like to use books and last year I blogged on my favorite book for children in early elementary, My Brother Martin. My children also viewed a video "Our Friend Martin" about two boys who go back in time to meet Martin Luther King, jr.

Please let me know in the comments if you have found other good resources. Whatever you do on this day take time to remember this great man and to say thanks to God for people like him willing to speak out for all God's people.

Theme for a New Year

I am so very blessed to have a group of friends that I never see, but talk to every single day throughout the day. The are a group of like minded Christian homeschooling women but we are also different in enough ways to keep things interesting! I'm so thankful for them.

One of us introduced the rest of us to an idea we have been using for the past two, maybe three years. My friend Dana listens to God to discover what it is he would like her to focus on in the coming year. You'll enjoy reading her post on her theme this year which is "consider the lilies."

As I said most of the group picks a theme and I thought you'd be interested in some of the others as well. You might find a blog you love as well!

Rachel is focusing on "simple, beautiful." There are so many praiseworthy thoughts in this post.

Dee Ann will spend the year thinking about "simple, lovely, grateful." She is simply lovely and I believe you will enjoy her blog.

Crissy will be "going live" and may be giving up the internet all together, so hurry over. Look for the post "It's (almost) a new year folks..."

And last but certainly not least...Brooke is hearing voices - but it's the good kind!

I'm calling my theme "first things first". Taking care of what's most important first. Carefully prioritizing my day. But that also means seeking God before opening my mouth. Making sure the log is out of my eye, etc...those are first things too. I've already started keeping a list of verses and quotations I come across on this subject that I hope will help to inspire me. If you all can think of some please leave it for me in the comments. Thank you Dana for introducing us to this wonderful way of preparing for a new year.

Even I have been tagged

My dear sweet friend Rachel has tagged me and I feel that I should comply:

1. One book that changed your life:

For The Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer McCauley. This is the book that started me on the homeschooling path I'm still on.

2. One book that you have read more than once:
To Kill A Mockingbird. Forget Mobey Dick, this is the great American Novel.

3. One book that you'd want on a desert island:

As cliche' as it sounds it would be the bible. It's all there: romance, adventure and wisdom

4. One book that made you laugh:

A Walk In The Woods. I had just had a baby and would read this book in the bathtub and LAUGH. It was sort of like therapy.

5. One book that made you cry:

Technically a short story but A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote always makes me cry.

6. One book that you wish had been written:

A manual for my husband

7. One book that you wish had never been written:

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence. I grew to hate the main character so much I couldn't finish the book. That is rare for me. And of course I've already mentioned Mobey Dick. But that could have more to do with reading it in a two day period for a graduate English class.

8. One book you are currently reading:

Does Country Living Magazine British Edition count as a book???? This season has been so busy I haven't read any books in awhile.

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

Are you kidding me??? I have a book list of books I want to read that is 70 pages long!!! I am not exaggerating. That doesn't even include the stack beside my bed that I've picked up at sales and want to read. Well, the most recent addition to my huge list is Switched Off by Eric Brende. Several of my friends have read it and recommended it and then I found out at Christmas that he lives in my Uncle's neighborhood.

Ten Two Studios Christmas Countdown

For you paper crafters out there Lisa Volrath still has her Christmas Countdown up at her site . But hurry because she'll take it down soon!!

Merry Christmas!

Advent was a busy time for me this year. Truly the picture of a world waiting for a Savior! But today I am celebrating the birth of our Savior and I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas.

Stopping By The Woods on a Snowy Evening

Take caution as with all youtube videos, but this Robert Frost poem read by the author is something wonderful to share with your children. The illustrations are by Susan Jeffers and from this book.

The Reason for the Season

I came across this writing by Charlotte Mason in Volume 5 of her series on education that I think helps to put a parents focus in proper perspective for Christmas. It was very convicting for me and I plan to read and reread it during this season.

Actions do not speak louder than words to a young heart; he must feel it in your touch, see it in your eye, hear it in your tones, or you will never convince child or boy that you love him, though you labour day and night for his good and his pleasure. Perhaps this is the special lesson of Christmas-tide for parents. The Son came––for what else we need not inquire now––to reinstate men by compelling them to believe that they––the poorest shrinking and ashamed souls of them––that they live enfolded in infinite personal love, desiring with desire the response of love for love. And who, like the parent, can help forward this "wonderful redemption"? The boy who knows that his father and his mother love him with measureless patience in his faults, and love him out of them, is not slow to perceive, receive, and understand the dealings of the higher Love.
But why should good parents, more than the rest of us, be expected to exhibit so divine a love? Perhaps because they are better than most of us; anyway, that appears to be their vocation. And that it is possible to fulfil even so high a calling we all know, because we know good mothers and good fathers.
"Parents, love your children," is, probably, an unnecessary counsel to any who read this page; at any rate, it is a presuming one. But let me say to reserved, undemonstrative parents who follow the example of righteous Abraham and rule their households,––Rule none the less, but let your children feel and see and be quite sure that you love them.
We do not suggest endearments in public, which the young folk cannot always abide. But, dear mother, take your big schoolgirl in your arms just once in the holidays, and let her have a good talk, all to your two selves; it will be to her like a meal to a hungry man. For the youths and maidens––remember, they would sell their souls for love; they do it too, and that is the reason of many of the ruined lives we sigh over. Who will break down the partition between supply and demand in many a home where there are hungry hearts on either side of the wall?

Her admonition to parents is well taken. It is not enough to teach our children the facts of Christmas...the birth of a savior, the plan of our God. We must also speak to their hearts. We must SHOW them the love of Christ first hand as we love them despite their failings and let them know we do, just as God does us. I'll be striving for this through "Him that gives me strength" and I hope that you will too.