Author Archive

Book Review: “Start Here”


Start Here is  the sequel of Do Hard Things, which I reviewed yesterday, and covers many of the same subjects that were covered in it, except in greater depth. It’s always hard to review sequels, as I find myself always trying to compare them to the original book without even trying to, but I guess I’ll just continue in and compare the two books anyway! This book focuses more on the practical side of doing “hard things”, and covers more real life examples, rather than Do Hard Things, which had a lot of examples, but wasn’t able to have as many as are in this book since not as many people knew about their concepts. I like this book almost as much as the original, but the fact that it does focus more on the practical means that it doesn’t have as many spiritual concepts, which were nice to read about in the first book. It also isn’t quite as original and groundbreaking as the first, so if you absolutely had to choose between one or the other, I’d say that Do Hard Things would be the best, but I would also  highly recommend Start Here as well, and I would give this book 4 out of a possible 5 stars.


Book Review: “Do Hard Things”

Do Hard Things is a book that was written by two teenage guys to encourage other teenagers like them to “do hard things”. These “hard things” could include anything, whether it be raising $30,000 to build a well in Africa, or simply doing your homework when you’d rather be doing something else, or choosing to be respectful to your parents and siblings, and that is their point- it doesn’t matter how “big” the thing that you set out to do is, it only matters that you set about it to the glory of God.

These guys have started a movement called the “rebelution”. The word is a mixture of the words rebellion and revolution and reflects what they want their movement to be about- it’s not just another way that teenagers can rebel against society, but it’s a way that teens everywhere can rebel against the extremely low expectations that society puts on them. They say in their book that the teen years of your life shouldn’t be a time where you just goof off and party, but it should be a time when you develop skills that you can use later in life, and work to make yourself a better person.

I really enjoyed how Alex and Brett Harris not only tell how we should go about rebelling against the low expectations that our culture puts on teenagers, but it shows how they and those they know have already gone out and put their principles into practice, showing that their concept isn’t just a nice idea that they came up with while they were sitting around with nothing to do, but a concept that, if used, can actually do things that can impact people.

I really enjoyed reading this book (3 times!) and would give Do Hard Things 4.5 out of 5 stars


Train render

Here’s a render of a train that I modelled in Blender. We might use it in a movie later, but don’t get your hopes up!


Book Review: Tortured for Christ


Tortured for Christ.
The title of this book alone can tell you that you’re in for a read that’s not all feel-good and flowery.
This book was written by a man named Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor from Romania who lived under the cruelty and injustice of the USSR. Amazingly, even though he was brutally tortured, and saw many of his friends die because of the atrocious conditions in the jail they were in, he emerged from jail not with a hatred for communists, but with a hatred for communism, not with a hatred of the sinner, but of the sin. Although in his book he repeatedly denounces the evils of communism, he never once even hints that he has the slightest feeling of hatred towards the ones who tortured and imprisoned him. He thought of communism as a disease that destroyed a man’s senses of right and wrong, and said, “I am very sorry if a crocodile eats a man, but I can’t reproach the crocodile. He is not a moral being. So no reproaches can be made to the Communists. Communism has destroyed any moral sense in them. They boasted that they had no pity in their hearts. I learned from them. As they allowed no place for Jesus in their hearts, I decided I would leave not the smallest place for Satan in mine.”
That quote alone is amazing and humbling, but so are many, many other portions of the book, as Mr. Wurmbrand talks about the state of religion in Russia. He said that, “A man really believes not what he recites in his creed, but only the things he is ready to die for”, and repeatedly asked if we “westerners” would be willing to do as the Christians in the had done- lay down their lives for the gospel.
He told of how there was once a young man who served as a captain in the Russian military, who barged into a room where a pastor of the Underground church was praying. He asked him if he was a Christian, and when the pastor said he was, the officer said that if he didn’t denounce his faith and turn to communism, he would shoot him. The pastor, with a pistol against his head, said that he would never denounce his Lord, and the officer dropped his pistol and embraced him, saying that he wanted to be sure that Christianity was true, and the pastor, by not denouncing his faith, had shown him that it was truly a faith that was worth dying for.
Mr Wurmbrand asked if we would consider our faith worth dying for.

Although I wouldn’t recommend this book for younger readers, due to the graphic violence it depicts,  for older readers  I would give Tortured for Christ 5 out of 5 stars, and would highly recommend that you get it.


Redwall poem

Here is another poem I wrote a while ago, and lost. I wrote it as an assignment for my Potter’s School English class.

“I’ll sing thee a song of the Abbey’s Delight’s
There’s good food for all both by day and by night;
There’s succulent shrimp and fine juicy fish,
Many a tasty mouthwatering dish;
There’s chestnuts and acorns and good apple chews,
A seat at this feast you wouldn’t want to lose.
And when you’re done eating grab a chair if it’s handy,
and wash it all down with some elderberry brandy!”

(Disclaimer: I’m not advocating that you consume any alcoholic beverages!)


Francois the Mouse, Chapter 5

The chipmunk brothers had told  Frank that alligators have very poor eyesight, so he was not worried about his position, which was well hidden by the shadows, being discovered. What he was worried about was the possibility of the alligator taking it into it’s head to cross the stream. If that happened, Frank would be in grave danger, as and alligator, he knew, could run 10 feet to every one of his. Much to his horror, the alligator began to lower itself into the water, Frank’s heart raced. He knew he couldn’t run, for if he did the alligator would be able to see him, and would run him down. But, he thought, if he stayed where he was he could be stepped on by the beast, as hi hiding spot was directly in his path. He decided to take neither options, and instead plunged into the water, letting himself drift with the current for some time before he struck out towards the other shore. He reached, and then flopped down on, the muddy bank, wet, cold, and thoroughly exhausted. He tried to fight it, but he soon drifted off to sleep. Hours passed by, and several frogs hopped by the mouse, wondering what he was, but not caring enough to investigate any further.

Francois the Mouse, Chapter 4

Frank was used to little sleep, trained by his life on the seas where one could be called out at all hours of the night, and woke up before anyone else. Last night’s conversation was still fresh on his mind as he pondered what he should do until everyone else awoke. They had decided to send out a scout to reconnoitre the exact location of the alligator’s nest, so Frank thought it would be a good idea to get ahead of schedule by doing the scouting. Besides, he thought, maybe the enemies will be asleep, since it’s so cold an early. Little did he realize his mistake.

Frank crept through the dense vegetation of the bayou, going deeper into it’s heart- and farther from his friends- with every step he took. After he had walked for the better part of an hour, he suddenly found himself staring down the side of a steep bank. To a human it wouldn’t have been too frightening, as the bank was only 2 or 3 yards from top to bottom, but to a mouse like Frank it was a towering cliff- a veritable mountain!

Not being one to do anything without thinking it over carefully, Frank surveyed his surroundings, looking for away that he could slide down without braking every bone in his body.
While he was doing this, he noticed that the thick, glutenous, mud at the base of the bank was a patchwork of footprints. Frank had never seen anything like them before, but he knew without a doubt what they were. They were exact replicas of the tracks of the lizards and newts that he’d seen as a boy, except at the end of each toe was the mark of a long, vicious looking claw- these were no lizard tracks, they were ten times larger! They could have been left by nothing other than an alligator! Proceeding with the utmost caution, Frank walked to a spot where it looked as if the bank had slid down considerably. There, the bank was much less sheer, and Frank could clamber down it with little difficulty.

He followed the alligator tracks with ease until they led him straight into one of the many streams that bisected the bayou. There the tracks all but disappeared, and Frank was about to despair and turn back when he heard a loud crashing sound, coming from the other side of the stream. A moment after he heard the sounds, he saw their sours emerge from the dense undergrowth. It looked like an immense green log on short, stubby legs. It’s entire body was covered in large green warts, except for it’s eyes, which were small and evil looking. This, Frank was sure, was an Alligator!


Francois the Mouse, Chapter 3

Frank woke up to the smells of breakfast. They wafted through the house, creating an aroma that roused all the mice and caused them to unconsciously lick their lips. “Stuffs ready!” Chubba soon said, and all the mice piled out of their beds to get a share of the feast, which was fried pigeon eggs, broiled minnows, acorn coffee, (which none of the mice cared for, due to it’s bitter taste), and oatmeal cakes, slathered with liberal quantities of raspberry jam. The mice ate with gusto, making up for the meals they had missed and then some, and after they had eaten as much as they could possibly hold, they sat back and talked over the last few day’s events.
Bubba told them that they’d landed in the middle of a large bayou in Florida.
“We’ve got a good life”, he said. “We trade with our cousins up north for acorns, an there’s so much food around that really the only work involved in gettin’ it is uh reachin’ up and pullin’ it down. Life’d be just ‘bout perfect if ‘tweren’t for all of them thar gators that live all ‘round. The big un’s ain’t bad, but the little un’s that chase us all over tarnation just for fun! But it ain’t fun, ‘cause if they’d catch us, it’d be all over!”
Bubba slid a stubby finger across his throat to emphasize his point.
“Is there not something that you can do to stop them?” Frank asked inquisitively.
“Wall, if we was to somehow git rid of them gator babies and gator nests, their Pa and Ma might decide that the middle of our land ain’t necessarily the best place to raise their young un’s, and they might just move somer’s else, some more invitin’ place- see?”

Then why has your plan of action not yet been executed?”
“Wall, yuh see, it sounds awful easy like, just ago-in up and bumpin off them little villains, but it’s harder done than said! Little villains have big villains as Mas and Pas!”
somehow git rid of them gator babies and gator nests, their Pa and Ma might decide that the middle of our land ain’t necessarily the best place to raise their young un’s, and they might just move somer’s else, some more invitin’ place- see?”
Then why has your plan of action not yet been executed?”
“Wall, yuh see, it sounds awful easy like, just ago-in up and bumpin off them little villains, but it’s harder done than said! Little villains have big villains as Mas and Pas!”

“True”, Frank said, “But there must be some way that we can rid you of these villains!”
“That’s awful sweet of ya’ll”, Bubba said. “But gettin gators ain’t necessarily all game and fun- it’s dang’rous work, and I wouldn’t want any of ya’ll to git busted up just ‘cuz of some little trouble of ours”.
“But, my good chipmunk”, Frank said. “Now that you have rescued us we are indebted to you- your problem is ours. If we must risk ourselves, so be it. We will, right mice?”
His question was answered by a chorus of cheers and exclamations of assent, so Bubba said, “Wall, I guess that’s that. We better start planning the least hare-brained way to go about what we’re gonna do!”
The sun went higher in the sky, and then lower, yet no one seemed to take any notice whatsoever. Everything- lunch, dinner, snacks, bed- were completely forgotten as the 20 creatures sat and plotted. They talked of only one thing- peace to the creatures of the bayou- and they all knew that the only way that peace could be achieved was by the absence of the alligators!


The Lego Party

This is the second movie I’ve done that includes stop-motion animation, and also the second movie I’ve done entirely by myself. It was a challenge to try to film myself, but it was more along the lines of a good challenge than a bad one, if you know what I mean. I think it turned out a little better than Army Men, my first attempt at stop-motion, did, and I hope you enjoy this little project as much as I enjoyed making it!


Series book review: Henty novels

I really enjoy reading novels written by G.A. Henty. He was alive during the late 19th century, and served as a war corespondent for the British in some of their wars with their rebellious colonies. All of his novels are written for boys, as their heroes are always boys, and Henty isn’t squeamish about delving into the “gory details” of fights and battles, but in each of the stories there is also a maiden in some degree of distress, who the hero loves and eventually marries, so there are a few “romantic” parts for any girls who like that sort of thing. The books are all pretty hefty, ranging is size from “small” (300 pages) to “large” (well nigh 500) but they are all worth reading, and make history seem very interesting and vibrant. They will make you expand your vocabulary a bit, as they use some older words and double negatives, but if you take the time to read a few of them, they will become much easier to read and understand, and much easier to appreciate. As I said, these books are all very good, and of the 99 that he wrote, I’ve read 70, but at times G.A. Henty’s theology can get a little bit off. All of his heroes from the 17-1800′s believe that Islam is exactly like Christianity, except that the Muslims believe in one extra great teacher, and when his heroes do discuss religion, they often talk of salvation that is based almost solely on works, and rarely discuss how Jesus has changed their lives, but, when faced with the decision of renouncing their religion or being killed, they always stick by their beliefs, even though doing so will result in their death (SPOILER: although in the end it never does!). Other than that, and the fact that Henty’s heroes are sometimes a bit too “perfect” at everything they do, I would give the 70 books of Henty’s that I’ve read 4 to 5 stars depending on the book. I am not ungrateful that Henty wrote these wonderful books!
Here are a few of my favorites (although all of them are worth reading):

In Freedom’s Cause, which is a story of a boy named Archie Forbes who helps William Wallace in his fight to free Scotland.

The Cat of Bubastes, which tells of a young man who was captured and taken to Egypt, where he meets Moses and learns of the true God.

For the Temple, which tells of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 72 and the events leading up to it.

In the Heart of the Rockies, which tells of the adventures of a boy who accompanies his uncle on a gold mining expedition, and ends up being chased by Indians and taking a trip down the Colorado river.

Beric the Briton, which tells of a young British chief who fights the Romans in the first century, and of the adventures he has in Rome, were he meets some of the early Christians.

And finally, if you’re looking for a really interesting read, you could check out True to the Old Flag, which is a story about the Revolutionary war- but the hero is British!

I’m going to stop listing my favorites, as if I kept going until I’d listed all of them, the list would be 70 books long, but I hope my review of this wonderful series has encouraged you to read at least one of these great, well written books! They’d all make great movies, but it’ll probably be a while before I undertake a project as enormous as turning a Henty book into a movie would be!


Lego Skateboarder Megaramp

Here is one final Lego skateboard animation. I tried to crank up the quality a little bit, and by John’s request, I gave my skater a face. Enjoy!


New boom

This afternoon I fixed a boom that I had started building over a year ago and had given up on. I made it out of scrap wood, nails I’d salvaged when we remodeled our garage, and a garage door hinge that I’d also gotten from our garage remodel. It works much better (well, actually, It just works, it had never worked before) and thought you might enjoy some pictures of it.


Lego Skateboarder falls

Even CG characters aren’t perfect skaters!


Lego Skateboarder

I like to skateboard, and I also like to do computer animation, and since my skateboarding skills aren’t all that great, I figured you’d rather watch a computer animated video of skateboarding than a live one of me. My skateboarder is Lego because modeling a semi-realistic Lego guy is a ton easier than modeling a human. I hope you enjoy it!


Effects test

This is an effects test that I filmed a little while ago. There isn’t really any plot, other than me, Isaac, and Jared Reid blasting away at each other with PVC pipe and rubber balls. This movie is second only to “Lightsaber Duel” in the amount of post production timme spent on it, and I hope you see a little bit of improvement in the VFX compared to our very early movies.
Enjoy the show!


Me with a flamethrower

I recently made an effects test with Isaac and Jared Reid. As I was going through the footage, I couldn’t find a place where one short clip could fit in, so I’ve uploaded it separately. I made the “flame” in Blender.
Enjoy!

(longer effects test coming soon!)


The Highwaymen-bloopers reel

Here are the bloopers of “The Highwaymen”. Some of them are purposeful, some are funny, and some are there because someone didn’t get out of frame when they should have. Enjoy!


The Highwaymen

Here is yet another wonderful movie that SixSibs Media Group has made. It’s the first movie we’ve ever made that includes people other than our family. Unfortunately, the Reid’s won’t be in many more movies, as they were only living by us temporarily. It isn’t all that great of a movie, as we basically decided that making a movie would be a good idea, whipped out a camera, and started filming, but, I guess that’s kinda how we do most of our movies anyway!
So, talking aside, here is our latest movie,”The Highwaymen”.


Francois the Mouse, Chapter 2

Here is chapter two of my story:

“Francois woke up with an awful headache. Groaning, he opened his eyes. He was surprised to see a chipmunk looking right back at him.
“Wall,” the chipmunk drawled. “Lookee here! Looks like yuh fin’ly came to! I just about gave up on ya! You’d swallered about 10 gallons of sea water! What’s your name feller?”
“Francois”, Francois answered.
“Fran, Fran- what? That ain’t no name at all! I’ll just call yuh Frank!”
“Oh, that will be fine”.
“Oh boy!” The chipmunk said. “I just ‘bout went and forgot my manners! I didn’t tell yuh my name! It’s Bubba!”
“Pleased to meet you Mr. Bubba”, Francois, or, as Bubba had re-christened him, Frank, said. “I must ask if you know where any of my fellow shipmice are”.
“Oh, they’re all over this beach. There’s 16 of ‘em in all”.
Frank sighed in relief. That was the number of mice who’d set out with him.
“May I go see them?” He asked.
“Wall shore yuh can! Just foller me!”
Bubba pulled Frank up easily, almost losing his balance, since he’d expected Frank to be heavier. He exclaimed, “Yikes feller! You don’t weigh nuthin! Yuh need ta come home with me for a few weeks. My older brother’s cookin’ will plump you up a bit!”
“Yes, yes”, Frank said. “But really, I must go and see how my shipmates are doing!”
“Okie dokie! “I’ll take yuh to ‘em”
Bubba led Frank down the beach to a small cove. A quaint little house was situated on the far side of it, and the sounds of singing and merriment could be heard issuing from it. Bubba walked right up to it and, without even knocking on the door, walked right inside.
Frank followed and was relieved to see all of his crew inside, along with 2 other chipmunks, one short and one round. Bubba introduced them as his brothers, Stubba and Chubba. Frank was greeted warmly by all his shipmates, and then he retired to a pile of oak leaves that the chipmunks had prepared for him, exhausted yet jubilant.

Francois the Mouse, Chapter 1

If you haven’t figured out by now, I looooooooooove to write! I’ve written two stories so far, each of them about 25 notebook pages long, and I am working on transcribing them so you can enjoy there literary genius. (?)

Here is the first chapter of one of them, titled Francois the Mouse:

“The gale blew fiercely as the young mouse tried to keep his course. How many days has this been going on? He wondered quietly to himself. He’d just been on a routine mission, collecting tribute from the outlying islands when this very out of routine storm had stuck. He glanced at his log, now almost illegible, due to the salty spray. He squinted his eyes to read the running ink. “November 12”, it read. “Barometer falling. Wind from northeast quadrant. Location-” And there the words ran together, making them impossible to read. Oh well, the mouse thought, the 12th was 5 days ago, and we’ve travelled miles from where we were then. Then they were only a dozen miles from mainland, and now who knew where they were; they could be- The snapping of the jury mast brought the mouse back to reality. An older mouse, rather stout, but tough looking, came toward him.
“Cap’n sir. What do we do now? The jury mast took the stump of the main mast with ‘er when she went over. We can’t put up another mast, ‘specially in this storm, and without ‘er we can’t steer at all! We’ll drift about for who knows how long!”
“The currents will at least keep us away from any rocks or reefs”, the captain, whose name was Francois, replied. “The storm will abate sooner or later”.
“But sir”, the mouse replied. “We only have enough supplies for another fortnight, on half rations at that, and our water is getting tainted by salt. Better to face the risk of getting bashed on some reef than to face the certainty of us starvin’”.
“True, true mate. Take soundings. I’ll head towards the nearest land.”
Soundings were taken for the rest of the day, but the cable never touched bottom before it ran out. The mice were all getting restless, until suddenly a monstrous black object towered out of the darkness. It was moving at great speed, and smashed right into the side of the little ship. The ship scraped along it’s side for what seemed like hours until the end of the smooth black object finally came in sight. The mice cheered, but as they slid off the object’s side, they realized they’d spoken too soon. Two huge, spinning blade were thrashing the water, sending up jets of spray and creating an enormous current. No matter how hard the mice rowed, they could not withstand the force of it.

Chop, Chop, Chop. They got sucked closer. Chop, Chop, Chop. Francois closed his eyes and tried to close his ears. Chop, Chop, Chop. Francois heard an awful crunching sound. Then everything became a confused jumble of sounds and flashes and he knew no more.”

I hope you’ve liked the first chapter, I’ll have more coming soon!


My Siblings


This isn’t exactly a new poem, as I wrote it about three months ago, but I forgot to post it in my huge poem post, and will post it now. I hope you enjoy it, although I feel sorry that you can’t personally know all of my delightful sibs!

My Siblings
I’m blessed with five siblings, I love them each one,
They are all first-class, second to none.
They all bring me blessings every day,
If you asked me to trade them, I would say nay.

There’s Paul, he’s a blessing, a gift from above,
He brightens our home with his laughter and love.
Whenever Paul’s near, fun is not far away,
He brings special joy to every day.
I am so glad that God gave us Paul:
He is such a blessing to us all.

Isaac’s a fireball, a boy on the run,
He is the one who brings us such fun.
If it were not for Isaac, my life would be dull,
But since I have Isaac my life is so full.

John is a corker, a really good guy.
(Though sometimes I worry he’ll blow us sky high!)
He has many talents, he’s sharp as a tack,
If you listed them all they’d make quite a stack.
He brings us great blessing, he brings us such fun,
I am so glad that our fam’ly has John!

Rachel is loving, always so kind.
Such a good sister is sure a rare find;
worth far more than rubies or diamonds or treasure,
To be her big brother is sure a real pleasure.
She brings all of us so much great joy,
I’m so glad that our fam’ly isn’t all boys!

Luke is my brother, for which I’m glad;
If he were not I would be so sad.
He’s been my brother as long as I remember,
I’m glad that our fam’ly has him as a member.
He blesses us with his personality,
I’m so glad that he’s in our fam’ly!

I’m blessed beyond measure to have all these sibs,
To say that I’m not would be a great fib.
I’m so glad to be their big brother,
I am more blessed than any other!


Poetry

I really enjoy writing poetry, and have amassed a pretty good quantity of it over the pas few months.
Here it is, in all it’s glory:

A poem I wrote as an assignment for my TPS class
I’ll sing thee a song of the Abbey’s Delight’s
There’s good food for all both by day and by night;
There’s succulent shrimp and fine juicy fish,
Many a tasty mouthwatering dish;
There’s chestnuts and acorns and good apple chews,
A seat at this feast you wouldn’t want to lose.
And when you’re done eating grab a chair if it’s handy,
and wash it all down with some elderberry brandy!

A poem I wrote for Rachel’s birthday.
“Rachel was born many long years ago,
She came in the winter, she came with the snow.
We shovelled a path so that they could get in,
And bring Rachel home so the fun could begin.
December eleventh, 2000 A.D.,
That day will always seem special to me-
Why? You might ask, I’ll tell you; you see,
That was the day Rachel joined our fam’ly!
She’s been such a good sister, she’s been such a huge blessing,
She is so great that I must be confessing:
That Rachel’s the best sister there’s ever been,
She blesses me so much I cannot begin,
To tell all the wonderful things she has done,
But I’ll just say this: Rachel is Fun!
She’s beautiful, sweet and wonderful too,
I’ve listed all these things but I’ve just said a few,
Of all of the wonderful things she can do!”

Why I love Christmastime
“Christmastime is lots of fun,
With lots of yummy, tasty treats,
Of all the days it’s number one,
But not just because of all the sweets.
It is the day Jesus was born,
Over two thousand years ago,
He came for us on Christmas morn,
So we his saving love could know.
That’s why Christmastime is best,
Because it’s when our savior came,
He took our sin, he gave us rest,
He carried all our guilt and shame.
If he hadn’t come we would be lost,
Condemned to suffer for all time,
But since he came we all are found-
That’s why I love Christmastime!”

White Christmas Re-mixed
“We’ll prob’ly have a brown Christmas, just like the ones we always know,
Where the snow is missin’,
And no trees glisten,
And our Christmas tree is faux.
But, that does not matter one bit, we’ll have lots of fun I know,
‘Cause we’re all together,
What’er the weather,
With my fam’ly who needs the snow?
We’ll surely have a good Christmas,
My fam’ly always does it’s true,
When my fam’lies around,
Joy surely is found,
With my fam’ly here who can be blue?”

Christmas in the Heironimus house
“Christmas in the Heironimus house,
There’s no room for grumbling, no need to grouse.
There’ll be fun for all ages, both young and old,
So come in and join us, get out of the cold!
We’ll talk for a while and sip some hot tea,
And stare at the twinkling lights on the fake tree.
We’ll read Christmas books and sing lots of carols,
In our crazy family fun comes in barrels.
We’ll play lots of games, maybe ping-pong,
Fun in our family lasts all year long.
So come in and join us, I know you’ll like it,
I know you’ll enjoy it,“Why?”, you might ask,
Answering that is quite a large task-
Because of the things that we all do together,
Because all our spirits are light as a feather.
Because of about 2 million more reasons,
Because all these things go on through the seasons,
Because my fam’lies the best of the best,
So come in and join us and you’ll see the rest!”

2011
“2011 was a lot of fun,
In it a lot of things were done.
We went to Boston and DC,
All that was lots of fun to me.
You very soon will all have past,
To honor you till next year I’ll fast!”

Christmas is a happy time
“Christmas is a happy time,
We scrubbed and shined to get rid of grime.
I’m grateful for my delicious food,
It is very, very good.
I love my sister and my brothers,
They do bless me like none others.
My fam’lies loving, very kind;
No better fam’ly could you find.
I cannot wait for Christmas dinner
When it’s over I’ll not be thinner!”

I hope you’ve enjoyed these, and I’ll probably post a new poem sometime soon!


Book Review: Autumn Days With The Moodys

I was able to buy my siblings Autumn Days With The Moodys for Christmas.
Like the other five books in the series preceding it, it is very good, and while I don’t think that Tolkien or Lewis are going to have too much competition from Sarah Maxwell as far as writing style goes, I would still recommend that you take the time to read it.

This book is a good story about a Christian family as they go through everyday life, shining the light of the gospel wherever they go. In the process of the book, as in 4 of the other 5, one of their unsaved neighbors is saved. The chapter in which this book takes place has some good ideas on how to share your faith with someone, using the “good person” test developed by Ray Comfort.

My only real complaints about this book is that the children in it always act “perfect”. While this may make for a pleasant reading experience, it doesn’t really help children see how to deal with problems with their siblings in a constructive manner, as the Moody children hardly ever have arguments or fights. While the Moody books show how families “should” act, they don’t really tell how families that are having trouble with arguing or fighting can get to the level of “perfection” of the Moody family.The other thing about the Moody books is that the Moody family has kind of just sealed themselves off from “the world”, making it hard for “real” people to glean any information on how to live holy Christian lives while still having a few friends and going to a real church, rather than a nursing home where the children’s father preaches.

I might have made Autumn Days With The Moodys sound too negative, but it’s a very good book, which I would give 4 out of a possible 5 stars.


Luke and Adam’s Pasta House

I have made numerous special dinners with my siblings, and yesterday Luke and I made one.
It was Italian themed, and we decided that pasta and meatballs would be a good idea to make. The only hitch was that our family is on the Daniel Fast right now, which means that meat is off limits. We decided to be resourceful and made “meatballs” out of spinach, lentils and portabella mushrooms. I got the recipe from Mrs. Kristen Feola’s book, The Ultimate Daniel Fast. We all had a great time, both preparing and eating the meal!



Copyright © 1996-2010 SixSibs. All rights reserved.
Jarrah theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress