Am I a Prude?

This is the exact illustration of the super hero Dark Phoenix that is in the level 4 DK reader Marvel Heroes Greatest Battles that I purchased at Barnes & Noble tonight. I flipped through quickly before I purchased it and thought it looked like a great book for the boys. They love super heroes. As always, I looked at it more thoroughly when I got home before giving it to the boys to read. Glad I did. I will be returning it and Marvel Heroes Amazing Powers, which also has disturbing images. Keep in mind this is a book for approximately 3rd through 5th graders. I'm used to the female super heroes being a bit more "sexy" than I would like but this is downright pornographic.

Pictures From Our Wreck

The kids and I were in an accident on Monday of this week. We were at a stop sign waiting to pull onto a divided highway when the woman in front of us pulled out to make a left turn and stopped right in the middle of the road. The GMC Sierra that was speeding toward her swerved to miss her and slammed straight into my driver's side door.

This is the last thing I saw before impact. Laine says she will never forget seeing the big, red, GMC in my widow when we finally stopped moving (he pushed us 29 ft.).

Our van at the junkyard. We ended up facing ninty degrees right from where we started.

My sister had just given me this sticker. How true it is!

One comment I heard over and over after the accident was "God was with you." I believe he was. Not because we are all o.k. but simply because I know he never abandons his children. Bryan and I are going to have a talk with the kids because I don't wan't them to think that God abandons you when bad things happen. If I had been killed the last thing I would want is the kids thinking God was not with us. He is the one I want them to turn to first in difficult situations.

I'm am so thankful for the life I've been given. This is a reminder not to take any of it for granted.

They're Onto Us

Conversation overheard between Mason and Eli;

Eli -"With mom you can ignore her 'till she actually turns off the T.V. Then you'd better get up and get ready."

Mason-"Yeah.....with dad it's when he counts to three that you'd better get going."

Like.........You Know?

Prince Caspian

I took the boys to see Prince Caspian last night. I don't take them to see movies on the big screen very often, maybe twice a year or so, so it was a treat for me. I say for me because they actually get to go quite often thanks to Aunt Heather & Miss Holly. Anyway, it is a great movie with many wonderfully presented life lessons. It's been a while since I read the book so I can't actually say how it compares. If you're interested in a good review go here.

Renaissance Festival Pictures

Here are some pics from our recent field trip to the Georgia Renaissance Festival.

The Mona Lisa.........



The Barrel Ride. This guy was hilarious. He yelled at the kids and threw water on them but they loved it. Go figure.

A Peregrine Falcon from the Birds of Prey show. This bird can fly up to 120 miles an hour. We had a front row seat and we felt a major rush of wind as he did a fly by.





Posing with a knight..........


The Junior Joust.......

Sword fighting while waiting for the Lipizzaner Stallions.........

One of the Lipizzaner Stallions........


Ice Cream before the two hour ride home......

No More Naked Men Please

So.....next Thursday we are going to Georgia's Renaissance Festival for their home school/elementary school day. I've decided that in preparation we will skip ahead about 1500 years, give or take, in our history studies and do a crash course on the time period of the Renaissance.

So far.....

• We've read an overview of the Renaissance in A Child's History of the World by Hillyer.
• We've studied the art of DaVinci and Michelangelo. (Eli says he's tired of naked men, lol)
• We've read a child's version of The Tempest by Shakespeare. Mason loved this.
• We've learned how men and women from different classes greeted each other.
• The boys learned how to "make a leg". It seems men in this time were especially proud of their calves and took every opportunity to show them off. They wore stockings and short pants and would stand with a leg forward and foot turned outward to make their calf more prominent.
• We tried to learn how to bow but still need more practice. They flat refused to kiss my hand.
• We've learned that people in this era tried to be as wordy as possible.

We've got so much more to cover. Henry VIII, knights, more Shakespeare, more Renaissance culture, King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin.......etc. I can do anything for a week, right?

I hope that going from the uber interesting culture of Classical Greece to the just as interesting culture of The Renaissance won't make the boys' eyes glaze over when we have to study the less interesting parts of history.