“The night wore on. The waters rose and rose. The moon rose likewise higher and higher, and shone full on the face of the dying prince. The water was up to his neck.
“Will you kiss me, princess?” said he feebly. The nonchalance was all gone now. “Yes, I will,” answered the princess, and kissed him with a long, sweet, cold kiss.
“Now,” said he, with a sigh of content, “I die happy.”
-The Light Princess by George MacDonald
Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, it is time for some good love stories. My very favorite love stories are contained in George MacDonald’s book “The Golden Key and Other Stories”. There are four rather short love stories making up the entire book. Written in the eighteen hundreds and by an astonishingly wonderful author, these are in my opinion, the most divine fairy tale stories of all time. They do contain witches and evil but also light and goodness and true love. There is no nasty smut to keep you from sharing them with your children. If you are OK with your kids watching Snow White or Cinderella, then you’ll probably be OK letting them enjoy these stories too. Not only are they sweet stories, but George MacDonald ingeniously creates theological parallels with Christ our Savior and his sacrificial death to bring us life, the ways that God is ever changing us and bringing us closer to him, and others;echoing the real, ture love story of all time. Hunt for them as you read.
Happy reading, and Happy Valentine ’s Day.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Mouse House
As a little girl, I spent hours out in the garden with my set of plastic gnomes or tiny stuffed animals. I would make them houses from sticks or bricks in the moss and use the flowers and plants as props in the stories I would make up for them. Imaginary play is really important for children's development and most kids these days don't get enough of it. Some kids don't even seem to know how to play anymore! Our yard includes a section where the boys are allowed to trapse around, dig ditches and pick any and all the flowers. I decided they needed a little mouse house for their garden play, similar to the one I made my niece(see the crafts page). So, I crocheted a gourd, dyed it in Kool Aid and made little mice to fit inside it. This is a durable toy that can be carried outside or to the grocery store and the little mice bounce aruond inside their gourd without much risk of falling out. The boys love them! They are also for sale in my etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/HILLSIDEminiFARM
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Love In A Mist
I made myself a felted cloche hat last year, and started wearing it to save my ears from the winter chill. It is so sturdy I feel comfortable wearing it out in the garden, but I also wear it to church and out shopping becuase it makes me feel pretty. I get compliments on it everywhere I go. This winter I decided to make one for my etsy shop. Other women deserve to wear these hats too and I am now making them available for sale. Copy and paste the below link to see it in my shop.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89966940/love-in-a-mist-cloche-hat
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89966940/love-in-a-mist-cloche-hat
Monday, January 2, 2012
Gum Ball Machines
With all that has been going on with the economy and our own experience with trying to make a living, my husband and I have been putting extra thought into how to best prepare our boys to support their families when they are men. We came to the conclusion that above all, they must possess the entrepreneurial spirit. So, we set out to help them develop that. Our first attempt has been to help them start a gumball machine business. We found some machines and bought them as a family. They boys are buying a share in the business by using some of their profits to pay us back for as many machines as they’d like. Recently, we sold some of our machines to generate the funds to better place the rest. Texas and Mechanism helped with cleaning the machines before we delivered them to the buyer. Instead of just cleaning it, they took the things apart, every piece. Then they gave me a tutorial on how the coin mechanism works to dispense the gumball. Then they put them all back together. I was a little dumbfounded. It made me think of the Wright Brothers and their bicycle shop. Well, I don’t know exactly where my boys are headed, but this confirms my theory on sticks. (Refer to last posted entry Just Give Them Sticks).
Just Give Them Sticks
The more I observe boys, the more I think they should be spending less time at a desk doing “work sheets” and more time with technical manuals and sticks. Yes, yes, I know we must teach them the three R’s or we are all doomed. But even those can be learned without doing so many actual work sheets. It just gets me that they are so amazing with sticks! And their curiosity about the laws of physics is so unavoidably dangerous. Boys also have an uncanny ability to understand complex technical ideas. Did you ever know a boy who couldn’t sit still and couldn’t STOP TOUCHING EVERYTHING! But you put five of those boys around a table with a pile of odds and ends in the middle and watch out, you are about to see some amazing creations! Weapons of mass destruction and little robots begin to appear. If boys learn so well this way, why don’t schools use it more? Maybe because that kind of thing is hard to grade. Maybe because the teachers don’t feel up to the task. I know I don’t feel quite up to it, but I’m finding it doesn’t matter so much what I am up to doing. Boys will take over in this kind of environment and do most of it themselves.
At the end of the summer this year the boys and I started a robotics club. Not because I know what I’m doing…at all. But because my boys can’t get enough of this stuff and I couldn’t find any robotics groups for kids in my area. I bought the Junk Drawer Robotics curriculum from 4-H and invited some kids. The curriculum is inexpensive and lets the kids actually build all their own components instead of just having them put together a kit. It starts off pretty easy with engineering and design principles and moves into some problem solving and trebuchet building. We are working up to building a simple, air powered robotic arm.
Recently, we had our club meeting and started building our trebuchets. I had spent days researching the subject and trying to build my own lame trebuchet to prepare for the club meeting. I wanted to know what I was doing so I could help guide the group if someone needed help. I finally gave up and got bored with it. Just then my two boys walked into the room, “watcha doin mom?" They grabbed those paint sticks and just put together a couple of catapults and started slinging marshmallows. Wouldn’t you know that’s exactly how the club meeting went too? It was a flurry of industrial activity. (And I was glad I had done my research or I would have been left in the dust). Each boy had at least one new idea that no one else had thought to try. At our next club meeting we had time to see who could launch a payload of marshmallows the furthest. I’ll just tell you, I’m still finding marshmallows behind the furniture.
So, if you know a boy who has “behavioral issues” or is struggling in school. I might suggest, just give him some sticks and let him use his imagination. You may begin to see him in a whole new light.
At the end of the summer this year the boys and I started a robotics club. Not because I know what I’m doing…at all. But because my boys can’t get enough of this stuff and I couldn’t find any robotics groups for kids in my area. I bought the Junk Drawer Robotics curriculum from 4-H and invited some kids. The curriculum is inexpensive and lets the kids actually build all their own components instead of just having them put together a kit. It starts off pretty easy with engineering and design principles and moves into some problem solving and trebuchet building. We are working up to building a simple, air powered robotic arm.
Recently, we had our club meeting and started building our trebuchets. I had spent days researching the subject and trying to build my own lame trebuchet to prepare for the club meeting. I wanted to know what I was doing so I could help guide the group if someone needed help. I finally gave up and got bored with it. Just then my two boys walked into the room, “watcha doin mom?" They grabbed those paint sticks and just put together a couple of catapults and started slinging marshmallows. Wouldn’t you know that’s exactly how the club meeting went too? It was a flurry of industrial activity. (And I was glad I had done my research or I would have been left in the dust). Each boy had at least one new idea that no one else had thought to try. At our next club meeting we had time to see who could launch a payload of marshmallows the furthest. I’ll just tell you, I’m still finding marshmallows behind the furniture.
So, if you know a boy who has “behavioral issues” or is struggling in school. I might suggest, just give him some sticks and let him use his imagination. You may begin to see him in a whole new light.
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