And now...the time has come

Well...it's done. Christmas is over. The children have their gifts. No more major baking until Valentines. The crowds at the stores will begin to diminish in a few days. We are making plans for New Years Eve. The Christmas decorations will come down soon.

And then the holiday season will be over.... like a huge wave pulling back into the ocean after a storm.

I'm relieved in a way. This year has been a hard one.

We are blessed though. We have a roof over hour heads, food on our plates, clothes on our backs and friends and family who love and adore us.

Which prompts me to ponder this question......

How do we return to the years when the holiday season ENHANCE these simple joys instead of DISRUPTING them?

Why should the season devoted to friends and family, charity and the celebration of the greatest gift ever given to mankind...that of sacrifice....tear our families apart.

We argue over which side of the family we should spend our time with. We worry about what we will wear to the too many social events we schedule. Most of the time these social events then keep us from spending time with our children. And we spend too much money on gifts that we 1) Probably don't need or 2) could get at ANY other time.

Yesterday we spent our Christmas day in a very nice, old fashioned way. We went to a friends house, ate simple yet delicious food, spent time talking and played games.

During the course of our conversation we discussed the commercialism of the holidays and upon further contemplation I wish to set forth a challenge, to you...and myself, for the coming year.

Spend more time with those you love during the year leading up to Christmas so that you don't feel so obligated to do so during the holidays.

Make the birthdays of those you love a bit more special and put more energy into making Jesus birthday about HIM. (This is not my idea...it was relayed to me by a friend. Thanks Tonnie!)

And I have this notion that if we would use our talents to come up with more handmade gifts it would force us to put more thought into what we are giving. It would make us plan ahead because we would need time to work on our projects. And it would teach our children the value of truly CONSIDERING what another persons interests are.

Now....there will always be room for that Christmas Eve engagement ring....or tickets to that holiday production.....but time spent on a photo album filled with family pictures, a handmade quilt, an original t-shirt design, a hand bound short story or a framed drawing....these things will be remembered and treasured forever.

Don't think you are creative enough for a handmade gift. You'd be surprised.

Like I said...I do not believe what I have proposed is "THE ANSWER"....it is more of a challenge towards creative thinking.

The point is this.....in a world filled with instant gratification and super sized EVERYTHING..... let us remember that we as believers celebrate Christmas because of a TINY baby born in the very simplest of circumstances.

Miracles on Maple Hill

Today I emailed my friend Kate and was telling her that I have just read "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen. It is a children's book written in the 50's and was a Newberry winner. I found it as I was unpacking my children's Christmas books and as I was looking at it I thought "What is this doing here....it isn't a Christmas book is it?".

I decided to go ahead and read it just to be sure. I read children's books all of the time.....cause I LOVE THEM.....and it was such a wonderful little book!!!

It was about a family who moves the mountains in Pennsylvania after the father comes home from a WW2 prison camp and can't seem to function in Pittsburgh anymore. It was told from the little girls perspective and is full of lessons as to the importance of family....and how the neighbors all help each other to live in times of crisis.

And DANG IF I DIDN'T CRY!!!!

It may have been written in the 50's...but it's lessons are timeless. The importance of making sacrifices for members of your family even if it isn't what YOU want....and how the Lord blesses us for it. The importance of community and helping each other. Respect for your elders. Learning to appreciate the beauty of nature. How everything in it REALLY is a miracle....and how we REALLY CAN live on the things that God provides in it.

I was struck as to how a tiny little children's book could move me so much....and I think it proves a very important point. We strive SOOOO incredibly hard to dig deep...to be smart...to read and discuss the "heavy stuff"....to try to find a deeper meaning in EVERYTHING.....when sometimes the lessons just aren't so hard. They are right there on the surface. We're just so busy, so stressed, have been taught to work so hard for EVERYTHING,and take EVERYTHING SO SERIOUSLY.....that we forget to take joy in the very simple things.

So read a children's book...even if your don't have children...or your children aren't little anymore....it's okay! And you might be blown away by what you take away with you.

Oh....and my father,Earl, was born and raised in the hills of Pennsylvania about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. He grew up on a hill surrounded my his family. That's his picture up there ....it was taken about the time this story took place.

Christmas Favorites....

Favorite Christmas.....

CD- Harry Connick, When My Heart finds Christmas

Movie-Miracle on 34th St

TV Movie - A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart

Kid's Program-A Charlie Brown Christmas

Food-My Mom's Homemade Fudge...it's not any of that evaporated milk crap

Song-Traditional....O Holy Night.... Non-Traditional..... I Pray on Christmas, Harry Connick

Book-The Christmas Box

Memory-When Kirsten was 9 and Kaitlyn 7 Mom wrote the girls a book, Annie and Betsy's Colorado Christmas. I bought them each a doll, Annie and Betsy...and Mom, Jeff and I made them the dolls clothes and furniture and quilts. We read the book out loud and as we got to the appropriate spot in the book the girls would open a box and their doll would get the dress, nightgown or quilt that was mentioned in the book. IT TOOK HOURS...and it was GREAT!

My next favorite is the Christmas my Mom bought me the "Sunshine Family" a Barbie type family...but they were hippies. Then she hand sculpted all of these TINY dishes that were painted green with daisies in the middle and all of this TINY little food.

Okay...It's December and I can NOW talk about Christmas without getting mad.


Here's the deal. I really do LOVE Christmas. I USUALLY start my Christmas planning as soon as the kids go back to the school at the end of August. I start wanting to listen to Christmas music right after Halloween. I decorate the day after Thanksgiving and I start planning my Christmas baking soon after.


This year....not so much.


Our impending move, separation from family, financial issues and Jeff's being in WA so much have just kinda crushed the Christmas Spirit right out of me.


Soooo....I thought I would post my list of Christmas "faves"..... and maybe when you guys come across them in the days to come....you'll send up a little prayer for me. That the trials of this "season" of my life....not rob me of the of the joys of this "Christmas" Season.

Lyrics...I Pray on Christmas
I pray on Christmas That the Lord will see me through
I pray on Christmas He'll show me what to do
I pray on Christmas He'll help me understand
And I pray on Christmas He'll take me by the hand
I pray on Christmas That the sick will soon be strong
I pray on Christmas The Lord will hear my song
I pray on Christmas That God will lead the way
And I pray on Christmas He'll get me through another day
I pray on Christmas I pray on Christmas
I pray on Christmas He'll get me through another day
I pray on Christmas All our problems gonna be worked out
I pray on Christmas God'll show us what love's about
I pray on Christmas To do your will each day
And I pray on Christmas That I'll be with you in heaven some day
I pray on Christmas Oh, the sick will soon be strong
I pray on Christmas The Lord will hear my song
I pray on Christmas That God will lead the way
And I pray I really pray on Christmas He'll get me through another day
He'll get me through another day...

Picture is me...my first Christmas 1967

WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!!!

If your house had broken into you'd call the police.

Who do you call when a whole HOLIDAY is stolen from you!?!?!

I KNOW you know what I am talking about.

Somehow we went right from Halloween to Christmas, skipping Thanksgiving altogether.

I blame the retail outlets, advertisers and radio stations...and US..for letting them do this to us.

The day before Halloween the stores began to move what was left of the Halloween merchandise on the clearance shelves and the Christmas merchandise was set out front and center. Even before that the Christmas stuff was out....it was just a few aisles over. Not quite the focus of attention....but it WAS there...in the ready...playing Jedi Mind tricks on us. "This is NOT the Holiday you want."

Now...don't get me wrong. Those of you who know me well KNOW that I love Christmas. From the cookies, to the gifts, to the gatherings, to the decorations. ALL of the decorations. Our living room usually looks like Santa threw up in it. All of our OTHER home decorations are removed and they are ALL replaced by our various collections. We even have a "nutcracker" clock that plays music EVERY hour on the hour.

I LOVE Thanksgiving too though. I love the colors, what it represents and the fact that it makes us stop and be thankful before the insanity of the Christmas season begins.

BUT WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED!! The commercials for Christmas sales and shopping began several weeks ago as did the Christmas songs on the radio. I was listening to the local "oldies" show a couple of weeks ago and one of the DJs was reading the hate mail he had received for playing Christmas music the morning before.

And this year "Black Friday" has bled over into Thanksgiving day itself. I just finished reading a news article that said MANY stores were opened THANKSGIVING morning at 4 am. One lady said she put her turkey in the oven and left her daughter to watch it.

We live across the freeway from the outlet mall. This year the owners of this and 21 other outlet malls opened at midnight on Thanksgiving night. The local coffee shop which our friend Kimmie manages and where Kirsten works was there selling coffee and Jeff and I thought we would go over just to say "Hi" and support the baristas as they stood around in the cold.

Now, when I say we live right across the freeway I mean it. As we drive out of our neighborhood we can see the roof of the mall. We can see the top of their 77 ft Christmas tree! It takes us about three minutes to get there if the five lights between us and the mall are green. But last night...we couldn't even get out of our neighborhood much less make it across the freeway.

Why you ask?...because as FAR AS WE COULD SEE there were headlights. Just a few hours after our last piece of Thanksgiving pie it had started.

For miles to the north on I-25...for miles to the south...up Founders PKWY which runs in front our neighborhood and at both exits....there was total and complete gridlock. We managed to make it ACROSS Founders but dared NOT turn into the traffic going to the mall lest we become mired in first waves of the commercial insanity of the season.

We drove around to a point in the bank parking lot..... and just sat and stared at the hundreds of cars trying to get into the mall.

And I became very, very sad.

I don't know if there is anything we can do to stop the retail juggernaut which threatens to destroy the JOY of the holiday season ON THE WHOLE.....but we HAVE to be able to stop it's effects on OUR FAMILIES!

I'm not sure how we are going to do it yet...but I PRAY that over the next couple years I,my family and YOU are OVERWHELMED by the true meaning of the season and we are granted Divine inspiration as to how to do this.

Maybe that's the key. To treat the season as a prayer. We are taught as believers to Begin prayer with Thanksgiving, that the middle should be filled with OUTWARDLY focused intercession...and we are to finish our prayers by calling upon the name of Jesus. What better way to finish our year than by LIVING the last couple of months...when all of the rest of the world is going CRAZY....as a prayer.

Jim Henson would be rolling over in his grave.....

Have you ever heard something so INCREDIBLY insane that you think yourself, "The world has OFFICIALLY gone MAD!!"?

Well, it happens to me at LEAST once a month. Just when I think it can't get any worse I let my guard down and then BAM!!!

Today I am watching the news and I hear this...... "A new DVD release of old episodes of Sesame Street comes with this warning, "These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." "

Why? Cookie Monster carries a pipe in one parody—and then eats it. There are also concerns that his obsession with cookies may cause health issues for toddlers. Oscar the Grouch is too grouchy and mean. And in the first episode, a grown man—Gordon—asks a little girl to come home with him for milk and cookies... and she does!

Please Jesus....just take me home now.

Now, I do NOT think that Sesame Street is the BEST children's programming ever created. According to my mother I was scared of the cookie monster and hid behind the couch whenever he came on the screen. And although I love the newer character Elmo....I am a purist...and Kermit will forever be my frog prince. But FOR YEARS Sesame street was all we had as far as educational television. Until The Electric Company came along at least.

I digress though...AND show my age.

My point here is this.

Well....give me a minute...I'm trying to think of ONE point. There are just SOOOO many things wrong here I don't know where to start.

Ok...How bout this? .....LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE!!!!

WHY....WHY do "THEY" have to twist and pervert EVERYTHING that we held sacred as children!?!?! Heckle and Jeckle, Song of the South, Candy Cigarettes. There are TONS of other examples too.

My OTHER thing is this...If we are watching TV with our children it seems to me that WE could USE these questionable things as a way to explain that smoking, eating too many cookies, going into a strangers house...or even TALKING to strangers are BAD!

I admit. I let my children watch WAY too much TV...but when they were little I WATCHED what they were watching WITH them. That is how I fell in love with Bear in the Big Blue House. (Which by the way is also a Jim Henson Production.) And there is NOTHING like watching GOOD children's programing curled up under your child's blankie with them.....or lying on your stomach on the floor coloring in their favorite coloring book while you "watch".

Or hey....if you don't watch TV...pick a good children's book.... and if you don't have one of your own ,borrow a niece or nephew, or offer to babysit for your friends....and curl up under a blankie and READ. You'd be surprised how good it'll make you feel.

This is what I think though. I think we should buy those Sesame Street DVDs....bake about 10 dozen choc. chip cookies....throw a party and invite EVERYONE we know....and every time the Cookie Monster eats a cookie....WE EAT A COOKIE!!!

That'll show em!!

Topics of conversation overheard at this afternoon's Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner......

Upcoming wedding

Dogs

Upcoming birth

Jobs

Upcoming surgery

Church

Upcoming graduation

Cars

Upcoming move

Children

Upcoming Star Trek Movie

Pie

Upcoming Holiday Plans

Immigration to Canada

Upcoming Election

Starbucks Plan to take over the world

In some "zen" type of attempt to close a circle which began several years ago, Jeff and I hosted a Pre-Thanksgiving "Linner" for about 22 people this afternoon.

The "INVITEES" were mostly comprised of the original members of a small group formed as an effort to stem the lameness of the fine arts in the "church". This effort soon failed and was replaced by a move of the Holy Spirit to create a SERIOUSLY odd "family" led by an old chick and a revolutionary. It didn't take too long to before we all began to realize that the old chick might ALSO be a revolutionary ...and the revolutionary might just be wise beyond his years.

This move was of course hidden from us at the time.....

cause that's the way God rolls.

ANYWAY..... As you all know we are TRYING to move to Washington State. Because of this we will be hosting several different social events in order to spend as MUCH time as possible with the friends we have made in the eight and a half years we have lived here. We have to break it up into chunks though because we have so MANY friends. Today was the first event.

So.... one balmy June night several years ago several people met in our living room to discuss fine arts in the church...and why in OUR opinion is SUCKS. It was me and some kids???..... youth???.... young adults???......people lacking in years???

Since then two of these young people have graduated from college, two have gotten married, one has had a child, one is engaged and has started his own business, and one is getting ready to graduate from High School.

We also rotated in....and out...upwards to 25 OTHER people....settling at a consistent 20 or so. Within THIS group of people we have had two MORE marriages, a baby on the way, the OTHER half of that new business, three MORE college graduations, ANOTHER almost High School graduation, and one of our members now tours with an up and coming band.

We have gone through births, deaths, illnesses, weddings, loss of jobs, the start of new jobs, and at LEAST seven out of country trips...that I can think of right off the top of my head. We have gone to each others plays, concerts and family gatherings of ALL sorts. The most recent being an engagement party on Friday night.

We consist of Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Couples, Singles, Writers, Artists, Vocalists,Actors, Musicians, Photographers, Nurses, Teachers,Engineers, Baristas and students.

We have shared tents, condos, apartments and houses and more than one wayward son has moved out of town and then moved back...and a couple brought their future wives back with them!!!

We have gone on camping trips, day trips and to more than a dozen movies. We have watched even more movies and a couple dozen episodes of "Lost" on TV. We have played lots of games, have shared lots of music, read lots of books together and have had a LEAST a dozen "family" dinners.

We have taken hundreds of photographs, prayed for each other,picked each other up at the airport, chatted online until the wee hours of the morning, sent hundreds of texts, used thousands of cell phone minutes ......and I personally have baked a million cookies, consumed several hundred Rock Stars and sent an UNCOUNTABLE number of emails in order to "wrangle" this ever changing, ever growing family.

So .....this is what I learned this afternoon...... There is no EARTHLY way on God's green earth that we are EVER going to be able to close this "circle"!! How do you close or try to create an end to something that continues to grow change and become stronger with each passing day!?!?!??

What am I supposed to do......quit caring, not come back for future graduations or weddings, not bake cookies,not rejoice at the births of the newest members of our "family", not pray for future illnesses, exams and jobs or weep at future deaths?

GET REAL PEOPLE! I'll just have to mail the cookies....and some cards. We'll all use more cell phone minutes, chat on line more, send more texts, and we'll have to plan some more road trips.

It has been said that the quote, "Blood is thicker than water." does NOT mean what we have been led to believe. It actually means, "The blood of Christ is thicker than the water of the womb."

This I know is truth .... for there is no other way that a group of "rebels" seeking to eliminate mediocrity from within our body......

became a family.

If you're looking for a movie check these out.....

The kids and I have seen a few movies on DVD lately that have really impressed me. It may have been a big coincidence but all of these movies carry a common theme....or I am just super sensitive and see this theme in EVERYTHING. The theme....community...and the fact that we can NOT get through this life separated from it.

First.....Reign over me. Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle....who are both GREAT in this movie buy the way. Rated R....for sexual references and language. If you can get past these things I HIGHLY recommend it. I have been very hesitant to watch any movies concerning 9/11. It is just too hard for me. They don't just made me cry...they make me quit breathing. The trailers make me quit breathing! But this movie is about the aftermath...what has happened to those left behind. And although it made me cry they were tears born out of truth.

Next.....In the Land of Women. Meg Ryan, Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart. Quirky,chick flick, good date movie, great soundtrack. Once again....how do we get through the difficult times in our lives without the help of others?

And last.....Evan Almighty. DON'T LAUGH!!! I SERIOUSLY challenge ANY believer to watch this movie and NOT be blown away by the strong themes of family... and following God at all costs. OF COURSE it is silly....and there are probably serious theological flaws.... but the good FAR outweighs the bad. I LOVE Evan's prayer!

Once again....the themes of family, community and communication are VERY strong through all of these movies. Rent them if you haven't already!!

Wedding showers and showers of blessings

There's this "fun" thing women are asked to do at most wedding showers.......no, not design a dress out of toilet paper. It's the one where we have to write our best piece of advice on marriage or love on a slip of paper and drop it in a jar. Then as their first year of marriage passes the newlyweds are supposed to pluck one of these slips out and read it. I went to one shower where the brides MOTHER wrote, "Never fry bacon in the nude." Pretty wise if you ask me.......

BUT ANYWAY.....I always write the same thing at every shower, "Be careful what you say.....because once it is out there you can't take it back." Why....because that is one of the hardest things for me to remember. I screw it up EVERY time.

I don't mean to. I start of well. I am calm. I remind myself that "words hurt". And then when the conversation doesn't go the way I feel it should.... BAM.......WORD VOMIT!

Get this though....I don't do it to just anyone. I do it to the person I love most in this world. My husband Jeff.

Can someone please explain that to me why is it that we really do "always hurt the ones we love"? Why is it in our effort to build a better relationship through communication we end up saying things that HURT our relationships.

I don't know....maybe I am the only one that does it. I know my husband doesn't. As far as I can remember he has never said a hateful thing to me. How IS he able to do that?

Of course how does he do anything he does? The man is freaking amazing to me sometimes. He is so patient and kind and loving and funny. He is a better mother than I am and a better cook too. He allows me to be a stay at home mom and puts up with my fits of insanity whether it be a two month crafting marathon leading up to a craft show were I MIGHT make a couple hundred dollars, my insistence that he stop in the middle of the road so that I can take pictures of flowers, or my need to fill our house with young people and then proceed to stay up til all hours of the night talking with them. He bought me a camera when I thought I could be a photographer, a guitar when I wanted to learn to play so that we could sing around the fire on camping trips, every CD I ever ask for whether he likes the artist or not and a Rock Star or a Monster when he knows I'm draggin' a bit.

Yes, he is a flesh and blood HUMAN man. He has issues. But somehow I don't seem to remember those issues when he is clowning around with our friend Dann and making me laugh until I bray like a donkey and tears are pouring down my face. Or when I watch him doing cartwheels with a bunch of teenage girls on our daughters 18th birthday outing.

I love that he can build a shed AND design a piece of stained glass. That he pushed carts at Sam's Club full time and went to school four hours a day when I was pregnant with our oldest. That he makes a mean apple crisp AND is great at physics. That he busts out in fluent Spanish to our children almost daily just to keep them on their toes. That he watches Star Trek in all of it's incarnations with me even though he doesn't REALLY like it. That he can speak to the guys working in the shop where he works with the same respect with which he addresses the president of his company. That he puts one arm around the men he admires and loves at the same time he is shaking their hand. That he is the same man on Sunday morning in church as he is in the office on Monday morning. That he doesn't cuss or smoke. That he LOVES babies and baby talks our chihuahua. That he cried during "The Color Purple" and turned purple from laughing SOOO hard during "Taladega Nights". That he will stop someone in the store if he notices that they are wearing an insulin pump like him and that he WEARS that insulin pump 24/7 in order to live a longer more productive life with his family. And I LOVE that both of his ears are pierced although he works in the "corporate" world AND that without planing it we bought each other diamond earrings for our 21st anniversary.

And I guess more than anything...I love that that he still loves ME when I totally forget my favorite piece of advice to newlyweds.

I am blessed.

The Tiny Dog Rant

I am sitting here in my bed, wide awake since 4am....well awake, if not wide.....because our Chihuahua, Gidget, has decided that THIS....4am.....would be a good time to go to the bathroom!!!! For the second day in a row! She is over two years old and has ALWAYS slept through the night and NOW she decides she wants to get up at 4...like some OLD MAN. So here I am, awake and hour and a half before I need to be...and she's back in her crate SNORING! What gives? Is it the time change? Is she punishing me because I am making her stay in a playpen during the day? Which be the way is HER fault. She shouldn't crap on my floor! She's smaller than a cat. Do you think she could use a litter box? Or maybe I could just buy a cat that would mistake her for a rat and eat her.

ARRRGGG!!!

For those of you who have been following the daytime drama, "As the Ankle Turns" for the past FIVE years....which is a spin off of the REAL drama, "It Takes a Village to Raise Cheryl"....I went back to my favorite podiatrist, Jeanne O'Roarke yesterday.

I have been having some problems with my ankle lately and decided that I probably needed to have it checked out. For my troubles I will now have to have and EMG/NCV...which as far as I can ascertain has something to do with sticking some kind of needle into my ankle in combination with electricity. I am SOOOO looking forward to this.

More on that after the test.

And on the "moving" front. It looks like....unless we get an offer on the house first....we will be moving to WA Dec. 21st when the kids get out of school for the Christmas holidays. We will be leaving this house empty and living with my mom and dad until this house sells.

More on THAT soon too.

K.....Well, my alarm just went off! I should go wake the kids up.

Maybe to be mean I'll just wake Gidget up and throw her out front with Benji. It's in the 20's...that should wake her up. Her snoring is making me MAD!

True Love, Teenagers and Tankless Water Heaters

I got a call from our friend Kate on Wed. morning. She is visiting CA with her boyfriend Noah and his family..... and on Tues night he asked her to marry him. We've known Noah's family for about 6 years now so we are very happy for ALL of them. Kate is a beautiful young woman, inside and out, and when Noah started dating her and brought her into our circle of friends she was a welcome addition to our group.

My joy for them is a TINY bit clouded by the fact that we will not be here as they spend the next few months planning for their wedding due to our fast approaching move to WA. There is nothing like the excitement of being around a couple who are truly in love as they prepare for their future together. Especially when they also love the Lord and seek to do his will.

Just wait though Kate and Noah.....one day YOU might have two teenage daughters with beautiful, long, thick hair. Ours just spent about 10 minutes arguing about who was going to take their shower first. Kirsten "called it" first....but Kaitlyn argued that she should go first due to the fact that Kirsten always drains the water heater. Kaitlyn DID have a point....but how do you argue with the "I called it" rule??

THANKFULLY in choosing all of the upgrades for the house we're having built in WA....we're getting a TANKLESS WATER HEATER!!! YES!!

So Kate and Noah....make sure you get one of those before you have teenagers......because you MAY just end up with a SON whose hair is just as long and thick as your daughters!!!

Congratulations Noah and Kate!! We love you both dearly.

(Since this blog was posted our contingency ran out and we will NOT be getting the new house we were about to start building...so NO tankless water heater!)

The Golden Compass....use it as a topic of conversation...not a ANOTHER wedge....

Hey Everyone,


There are a couple of emails going around about the new movie, "The Golden Compass". They are saying somethings about how the movie/book bashes the Catholic church and stuff and I just thought I would weigh in.


First a little background.....

I LOVE and collect children's literature.

I started working in the school library when our oldest was in kindergarten and continued doing so until last year when our youngest was in the seventh grade. A) So that I could catch up and monitor children's literature since so much had been published since I was a child. and B) So that I could stay close to what goes on in the schools.

Also...on a spiritual note....

I do tend to read books with a "spiritual eye"...for lack of a better term. What I read, be it religious, spiritual or TOTALLY secular IS colored by my relationship with the Lord. I see God where others might not tend to see him....and I am fairly sensitive when something is even mildly "anti-God".

With that said.....

You will never be able to let your children read MOST classic children's literature if you do not let them read anything with magic, witches or other things supernatural. AND if that is what you choose to do...that is FINE...but it means they will miss out on a LOT of GREAT children's literature INCLUDING the Narnia, Tolkien and L'Engle series. All of which were written by Christians. I know because I RESEARCHED IT....ON MY OWN. I did NOT take anyone else's word for it. I read their books and bios and interviews.

ALSO....I have read all of the Harry Potter books. They ARE the next classic children's literature. I have read and watched MANY interviews with JK Rowling and she has never said one thing, that I have seen, to lead me to believe that any of the GARBAGE you read in mass emails about her "pushing" witchcraft or bashing the church is true. She DOES NOT bash the church in her books and the "heroes" in the book do not hate "muggles". They, in fact, spend most of their time trying to protect them.

My problem with her books.....It CAN promote witchcraft. Among young people who DO NOT HAVE parents that care enough to read it with their children and/or might not be believers. These books hold NO danger to those with parents who sit down and explain to them that magic is ALWAYS a bad thing but for some UNKNOWN reason MOST great authors use it in their books. So....I feel a real sadness for all of those children who don't have anyone to "protect" them from Satan's insidious ways.

The DiVinci code....read it....loved it....love his other books too. I do feel that Tom Hanks was a VERY poor choice for the main character in the movie though. ;)

Liberals like to talk about how IGNORANT Christians are. Well....the ignorant ones are the ones who can't read the forward of this book and SEE VERY CLEARLY, IN BLACK AN WHITE where this guy, Dan Brown, says that this is a WORK OF FICTION PEOPLE!!!! How much MONEY and time was spent not ONLY by the Catholic church but by many evangelical churches giving seminars on how to BATTLE the book and movie that could have been used to buy food for the homeless or for the widows and orphans??? Satan must have had a GOOD laugh about that one!!!

Now...the Golden Compass. I have felt an overwhelming sense of "evil" from maybe a half dozen books. So much so that I was compelled to SHUT THE BOOK after two pages or so. One of them was an Anne Rice book. DUH!!!

But another one....was the Golden Compass. Now this is where you will think I am nuts. This book was SOOOOO "weird" to me that I HAD to continue reading it! I KNEW that this guy was bashing NOT just the catholic church...like these emails are saying.... but "THE CHURCH".

So...because I HAD TO KNOW where the heck this author was coming from and what he was trying to promote.......I read the whole book....and the next one.....AND started on the third one....before I finally got to about the second chapter and just shut the book. I was not willing to feel the way I felt when reading those books for the sake of research. I just decided to tell everyone I know to keep those books away from their kids. Not something I usually do.

AND....it is one of the handful of books that I have told my children that they can not read until they are adults and can make their own decision. And they have not argued with me. Because we have a history...an established routine....and they understand our background...... BECAUSE we have talked about it.

I have known the movie was being made for A LONG TIME. And guess what.....I am going to see it. I ...for myself...would like to see how they approach many of the things that bothered me about the book...as a believer. The kids aren't sure that they want to. They know what I have said about it. So we will see how that all plays out.

And you know what. My kids are almost grown now! I can't read or watch EVERYTHING they want to read and watch now. During the summer they might read 3 to 5 books a week!!

BUT....We pray that we have laid a good foundation. I still kind of flip through most of their books. I give my opinion....but most of the time they make their own choices. Some they put down ....some they don't....and most of the time they surprise me by making AMAZING choices before they even leave the library. The girls both read a LOT of Shakespeare this summer....which I NEVER read because it is HARD!! ;) But guess what.....Shakespeare sometimes used "supernatural" elements in his stuff.

ANYWAY....I guess you know what my "soapbox" is now huh?!?!? Sorry....but children's literature REALLY is one of my great loves. Anytime I can couple that with my love for Christ...well that's just a bonus!!

Here is a link to Snopes where you can read one of the emails going around and some other info
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

And here are a few interviews with Philip Pullman. The first one is probably the most telling.

http://www.surefish.co.uk/culture/features/pullman_interview.htm

http://www.powells.com/authors/pullman.html

http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-pullman-philip.asp


C.