Book Review of Bible Stories for Little Children

Sophia Institute Press sent me a complimentary copy of this book to review.

Bible Stories for Little Children is an excellent introduction to Sacred Scripture. The stories are broken up int bite-sized chunks that are perfect for reading before bedtime or prayers, or what-not. The language is simple but elegant, filled with endearing phrases such as "dear children." It carries a childlike wonder for the events of scripture, told in simple terms. There are a few larger words, but these can easily be explained and could be helpful for expanding vocabularies. There is a in-depth treatment of many of the stories from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Sometimes a sentence or two show up at the end of a story to help connect them with the other stories and other traditions of our faith. The chapters are all listed in the table of contents, along with page number, to make it easy to find a particular story.

The only drawback I have found is that nowhere does it specify for what age group this book is intended. My five-year-old enjoys the stories, but gets a little restless. My younger children (ages 2 and 3 years) do not have the patience to listen to stories this long with so few pictures. However, I am hopeful that as they get a little older, this will become a much more favored tomb in our household library.

This review was part of Sophia Institute Press's Books for Bloggers program.

My Husband IS AMAZING!!

This picture probably does not look like much to you. It is not exactly a fancy new sink or anything but if I had taken a picture of the old one before he ripped it out, you would be just as impressed and excited as I am - trust me! :)




New Sink

New Drain

New Faucet



ONE amazing husband



And this was just one of the MANY MANY projects he got done this weekend (without my asking/nagging/reminding in ANY form). Yes, yes, he is TRULY amazing. I love you, Gordie!! :)

State Fair

We had a REALLY good time at the State Fair. Big THANKS to Grandma and Nana for helping wrangle all the kiddos! We were blessed to have my two nieces, Julianna and Brooklyn, with us as well. Notice the absence of men - they were off hunting pigs in Texas.

Group shot at the very beginning (minus me)

L-R back row: Grandma, Nana

middle row: Paul Brooklyn, Rebekah, Julianna

front (stroller): Jacob, Samuel

Julianna and Jacob playing at the splash park

more Julianna and Jacob playing at the splash park

Rebekah playing at the splash park

Rebekah all wet

my niece Julianna on the Sky Lift

Samuel on the Sky Lift

view from the Sky Lift

more view from Sky Lift

fried oreos

surprisingly not that bad, but I probably would not have ordered them on my own

(someone actually gave them to us - bizzare, I know - don't worry, no one died)

Jacob, happily eating pizza (he gets more happy as he gets tired)

more Jacob

Rebekah enjoying the pizza

going home - grumpy faces

Rebekah would not stand with the others or look at the camera

Paul asleep on the ride home

Jacob on the ride home

Samuel & Rebekah totally crashed out - they all slept the whole way home and then for another 40 min or so as I unloaded the car - I finally had to wake Jacob up to bring him inside.

Small Successes Part 1

Ok, I'll jump on the bandwagon here - I feel like celebrating.

1. I really tried to implement my new schedule today and got my floor mopped on time this afternoon and oh it looks so nice!! Who would have known I really could do that in 15 min? Giving myself a set time to do things really gives me an energy boost - I'm calling it done in 15 min so I better get as much as I can finished before it is time to move on.

2. I have read at least three books with each kid (together or separate - their choice) every day this week.

3. I started up a weekly holy hour again (once again, trying to implement the new schedule this week) and I only wish it could be more like a holy half day, or maybe a daily holy hour because it was such bliss, to just be quiet before the Blessed Sacrament. Oh and bonus, I just happened to still be there when a few other parents get together and pray a weekly Rosary for family life! Could it get any better?

And of course, if you want to share your successes as well or check out those of many many others click over to the successes page at the Faith and Family website.

Blessings!

The Rule. . . part 1

So I finally have SOME of my Rule done. Here is our schedule (daily and by week). It makes me happy, but. . . Paul trumps all, so if he is fussy it goes out the window in a flash. But like all things I guess it is really a work in progress. In any case, it is in the routines where the magic really happens. I gotta get those cleaned up and posted. I'm hoping they will make everything smoother for the kids, too.

More Paul

Almost 4 months old. . .

(our part-Asian baby - just kidding :)

Yes?. .

That's hillarious!

Shhhhhh . . . baby sleeping

More brainstorming for The Rule

It seems like my daily life is really under-going a major change with having two kids in school (Samuel only half day, 4 days a week), coupled with adapting to having four children to run after. I find that my time to spent on projects is rather broken up into small pieces. This is difficult because I cannot actually finish any project unless I stay up late and finish it once the kids go to bed - but the trouble is that I usually only stay up another hour or two after I put them to bed and this is normally time I spend reconnecting with the hubby. Although he does not mind giving me an occasional "work-night" I do fill guilty and somewhat over-worked to consider my evening hours a fitting time for "projects." So, as I am designing my new battle plan I am taking this into consideration. Even this very project (re-doing my rule of life) is seeming to take forever as I can't just sit down and do it, but rather sit down and think about it for five minutes here or there. I have some charts started on excel, but not finished. However, I am trying to take this to my advantage. By not doing this all at once it gives me lots of time to stew on things and really ponder what is best and why.

Last night as I was nursing Paul to sleep and pondering my new rule I remembered a story once told to me. A religious brother was playing cards during recreation time with his fellow brothers. He was asked what he would do if he was suddenly made aware that Jesus would be returning to earth in an hour. He answered that he would keep on playing cards as recreation is what he was supposed to be doing now. Initially I though this little antidote was to show that one's life needs to be in order at all times so we are always ready for Christ to come again - and it does show that - but it also has another meaning I just realized as I was remembering this story a second time. This religious brother understood that for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Likewise, in vain is your earlier rising, your going later to rest, you who toil for the bread you eat; when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber (Psalm 127: 2). He understood that it is not all about what we get done, but more so, what we are doing. God does not expect us to do everything all at once - I think that is one of my biggest struggles. I want to get it all done right now! But that is not how we work. We work in time. The work will never be all done. I think I need to tell myself that again. The work will never be all done. So it is not so much a matter of completing tasks, as it is living in the moment and doing what needs to be done at this time. I am a very "do it" kind of person. I find much satisfaction in doing things (well, not just in doing, but in finishing things). But now, as my time is not my own, finishing things does not happen very often. Rather, I must stop working on one thing in order to work on another. This, for me, is being faithful to my calling. And it seems contrary to my very being to move on to something else before my current task is completed but once I am able to do so, I believe I will find my "Rule" much more helpful and livable. Plus, just allowing myself to put it down and get back to it another time/day should make me feel less stressed about - since I allow myself to not complete it and I have a plan for returning to it later.

An example of what I'm talking about is a little project I began for my daughter. She wanted a princess bible for Christmas last year. Well, there probably is such a thing made my someone but feeling frugal I decided I would make her a princess bible. I found a photo album with princesses on the cover and began to write my own stories from the bible - with pictures - printing them off and then cutting them to fit into the photo slots in the album. It was really brilliant and seemed to work rather well. Unfortunately, I did not get it finished. If I remember correctly my last little story was about the ten commandments. Now, perhaps I bit off a bit more than I could chew (this album held 200 photos - that is a lot of stories!) but I still feel called to finish this project. I gave her the Bible at Christmas time and explained that the blank pages would be filled as soon as I could get to them. Well, it is August of the next year and I have not "gotten back" to this project. In any case, I believe this is because I have spent too much time on other things - my giving of time is imbalanced and needs to be re-adjusted. Now, I'm not saying I should have just done nothing but this project - that would have been impractical - but surely I could find at least some time to allot for this - even if it is 30 minutes every other week. I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine I have spent too much time as parent and provider and too little time in prayer and on my own person (where I consider this task to fall - I'm not just doing this for her (which would be under Parent) - writing kids stories (aka re-telling bible stories, etc) is something I really enjoy doing. The categories go in order - Prayer, Person, Partner, Parent, Provider - for a reason. I have not respected that order and I think that is why I have been so stressed lately. I think I'm re-acting, rather than acting as it comes to parenting and my main focus has been on providing - Is there dinner on the table? Is the floor clean? Good, then I am doing my job - or so it would seem to an outsider, but inside my life is chaos as I am not just a mindless servant - I have inner thoughts and desires that need to be met and expressed. I need to spend time in prayer re-connecting with God and keeping my focus on why I am cooking dinner and cleaning. Likewise with parenting, I feel like I am going from one crisis to another. I am only dealing with what is in front of me - breaking up fights, so and so is hungry, etc - I need to be encouraging structured play, reading more books, focusing on chores for the kids, etc (not that they don't need time to just play on their own, too - but that is really all we have going right now). Anyhow, with this said, my family is DEMANDING my time and I have spent quite a bit here on this post, so I must go now and move on, even though I am definitely far from finished on this little project.