Out of Ancient Civilizations and the Bible

Just wanted you to know - our sale is going very well, and we are now out of the Diana Waring History Curriculum Ancient Civilizations and the Bible. We still have a few of the Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries set.

If there's anything in our store you would like - now is the time to buy!

Hope you all have a great weekend! We are going out to Ohio to celebrate our nephew's high school graduation. The second in our family to graduate from homeschool! He is such a great young man, and it's exciting to see how he is going to be used by the Lord in his adult life!

It's such an encouragement to me to see those who are going before me. In the days when I doubt myself - whether or not I can actually see this calling to the end, it helps to be surrounded by those who have gone before - kind of like the great cloud of witnesses who HAVE gone on before and done it - I feel like they are cheering me on and giving me the courage to keep on keeping on.

Shameless promotion of a great sale!

I wanted to let you all know about the sale my husband has going on over at his ebay store. Here is his note about it:

We are moving ... and you get to benefit from it!

You see, I've got a bunch of boxes full of excellent inventory. I could load them up and take them to my new house later this month ... or I could just offer you a wonderful incentive to help me out! I would much rather ship these items to you than to lug them to the new place.

So, I am offering some incredible discounts between now and May 17th. I've taken an additional 25% off many items in my ebay store. Now that's 25% off the already marked down prices, so you'll be saving 30%, 40%, 50% or more on many items.

Here's a few examples:

Ancient Civilizations and the Bible History Curriculum set by Diana Waring retails at $156.93, but you can get it now for $97.46! That's nearly 40% off retail! Here is the link to take a look at this ebay listing.
We also have the Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries set by Diana for the same discount -- $97.46!
Exploring the World of Physics, the excellent book by John Hudson Tiner can be yours for only $8.21! (other "Exploring" books are also available at this discounted price).
In Freedom's Cause, the classic G.A. Henty book on MP3 CD is now just $18.71! (take a look for other Henty titles as well for this price).
Founding Fathers CD-ROM package featuring the works of John Jay, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Rush, Charles Carroll, and George Mason, along with David Barton's book Original Intent -- all in searchable CD-ROM format! Get them now for 35% off retail!
There are way too many special deals to mention here. Just take a look at my ebay store for all the details.

I thank you for your assistance with this ... and my back thanks you for saving me from having to move all of these boxes!


Larry
Ancient Paths Christian Bookstore

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my 15th Mother's Day! It's so hard to believe! On the other hand, I really don't remember much about life before motherhood. I really don't recall exactly what it feels like not to be thinking about my children in the background of everything I do. I have loved motherhood. I have bad times, like most, but I am so blessed to have been given children to raise for God's glory. I would do a million things differently, if I could go back and relive my mothering years. I know so much more now, I'm much more confident about being a mother, and I have finally learned a very important lesson that God wanted to teach me - I need to RELAX! (though I know I don't always put this learning into practice.) My children are not out to get me, and they are not the slowest moving children on the face of the earth - they just think, move, and act like children! The nerve!

Children are great mirrors for us. I know by looking in my children's eyes if I have spoken too harshly, if I have said something that encourages them, if I have acted too quickly, if I have fanned their own dreams, if I have listened to them well, or if I have to take some time to meet their need for love and understanding. Sometimes, I don't like to look in that mirror, but if I do, I can see if I'm being a good mother. Sometimes, all I remember is the times I have failed, and I am sure my children must hate being my children. But then some little (or not so little - they grow up so FAST!) person will come along with a hug and a kiss and tell me I'm the best mommy in the world, or the best cooker in the world (I believed I'm tied with my Mother In Law for this - and we both recieve the compliment for making chicken nuggets!), or the best clothes folder, or the best reader, or the best planter - something to let me know that the bad in me is not all they see, and that the Lord has been gracious to help them not hang on to hurts I've inflicted.

I wonder how they can forget those things. I would be crushed if someone treated me the way I have treated them at times. But, I guess one lesson my children have learned well is to forgive someone when they confess their wrong, and seek forgiveness. We practice that a lot in our family. Even us parents will go to someone we have hurt, and we will apologize for the wrong attitude or action, and we will ask for forgiveness. This is humbling to do with a three year old. Maybe even humiliating. But I believe because of this, my children are able to shed the terrible hurt feelings, and move on.

We remind them that when they have done something wrong to someone else, they need to make it right. Three of our children have already come to a saving knowledge of Christ - and the other two are asking questions. We will remind the Christians among our children that they can forgive everything anyone else does to them, because the Lord has forgiven every sin they have ever committed. We can forgive, because we have been forgiven much.

Mothering is all about growing Mom up to maturity in Christ. The children get to watch it happen up close, and they know when Mom has failed. But they get to see how to correct mistakes, and even how to avoid them - when they see me walk away from the temptation to do something they know I shouldn't - like yell at them for being kids! - or when they experience my coming to them and apologizing for the latest failure and asking for their forgiveness. I have even had times when I have come to them for forgiveness, and they respond with something like "I knew you would come to tell me you are sorry!" Making up is the best part of relationships. We are going to fail - but we don't have to live in that failure!

So, do all you can to live a peace and in harmony with those around you and have a great Mother's Day!

NotebookingPages.com 3rd Birthday Sale!

Well, I have been so busy having fun painting at the new house, and running errands and making a thousand decisions about the new house, that I've completely neglected my blogs! Well, I can't promise that will change in the next month, but I will do my best not to wait so long between posts anymore!

I wanted to let all my notebooking friends know about what Debra has going on over at NotebookingPages.com. Her company is celebrating it's 3rd Birthday - and you get all the gifts! Everything in her store can be purchased for only $50! If you only need one or two sets of notebooking pages, those are 50% off, too! These are incredible deals! I love her stuff! We use notebooking as a part of our school on a fairly regular basis. Each of my children is creating his or her own binder of his or her own work for the school year. The pages Debra has available are wonderful for this! You can get pages on birds, character study, presidents, other famous people, state studies, on and on! She also has a basic set that you can use for any study you are doing. These are great deals! But, hurry over there, the sale is only good until May 8th!

I have been enjoying the time to be working on our new home, and the children have been able to get together with friends more often than usual for the school year, and we have been having fun watching the house transform from a bunch of wood planks and boards to a real home with walls and floors, and everything! There have been moments when the children have tired of being run all over Jersey county on errands to get "One more thing!" for the house. Their patience has run thin a time or two (So has mine!), and we have had to take a day here and there to say - NO RUNNING AROUND TODAY! just to catch our breath and get caught up on laundry and housekeeping at the current house.

There have even been a number of times that we have done something, or someone has said something, and I thought, "That would make a great blog post!" (Like when we were shopping for church shoes for the girls, and Samantha saw some high heel shoes, and exclaimed as loud as she could [as usual!], "Look! Tip toe shoes!") Alas, I would be too tired at the end of the day to do anything about it! Many nights, I have fallen asleep on the couch at 9! Well, I pray that our life will settle down soon, and we will get back to some sort of a routine! I'm looking forward to days spent at the new house, and being able to just walk into my own bedroom and go to bed!

Meanwhile, why don't you go ahead and check out what Debra has at her NotebookingPages.com 3rd Birthday Celebration Sale - Save 50% You'll be so glad you did!

Before the Kiss

We have a teenage daughter, and we have always known we were not going to do the American way of dating. We knew we wanted to help our children find their mates through some process of courtship, but we have discovered that there are many 'flavors' of courtship out there. One site that has some great resources is Before the Kiss. I like their approach, as it seems to strike a balance. They don't promote arranged marriage. They also don't promote the way of the children dating and breaking up with multiple people until they 'find' the 'right' one. This is no more than divorce practice, if you ask me!

Anyway, this is a great site to check out for articles, resources, and encouragement that it is possible for your children to get to their wedding day with their hearts as pure as their bodies! I wish I had known about this approach when I was in my teen years!

The Charlotte Mason Girl

I have started a blog just about homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way. You can see my new blog, The Charlotte Mason Girl, by clicking on the name. If this is an interest of yours, join on in the conversation. I just started the blog about a week ago, and I've been having fun outlining the patterns for educating your children in the gentle ways of Charlotte Mason.

Guest post!

Last weekend, we attended a local home school conference and hosted a booth for our online bookstore. We left the youngest two children at Mama and Papa's house for the weekend. Here is a story my Mother in law shared with us about our four year old:

"Today, at supper, we had pork chops...the kids gobbled their food up, telling me that I was the best cooker in the world and that it was yummy.
When we noticed some meat on the floor, your dad asked Samantha (I was not in the room at the time) if she had thrown her meat on the floor. She denied it, so your dad went on.
Later, I was in the room while your dad was in the kitchen. The kids were finishing their meal. Samantha turned to me and said, "Mama, I lied about my meat. I'm sorry, will you please forgive me?".....I told her that I would, of course.........how precious was this!!!....but I said, you really need to tell Papa too. She agreed. As soon as she finished eating, she asked to be excused from the table. She got down, and told me she was going to apologize to Papa now. She went in and told him about telling him the lie about her meat, and asked him to forgive her and then gave him a great big hug. I am here to tell you two that you are certainly doing something RIGHT! Praise the Lord for such a precious happening...yeah, I know ... she lied.........but it bothered her!!!!!! Hallelujah for that!..."

Thanks for the encouragement! You get Mother in law of the Year - wow! 20 years running!