Artsy

The day we went to the maple syrup festival, we passed an antique festival on the way from one camp to another, out in the middle of nowhere, that was in an old farmhouse. In the bathroom was a framed print of a poem called "'If' for Girls" by J.P. McEvoy. I debated about buying it and wish I would have, but didn't. (You can see the same print here. Very sweet.) The poem is available easily on the internet, though. Here it is after printing it out on watercolor paper and decorating a bit. And framed to give as a gift at a party the girls went to last weekend. I have plans to make a whole series of these (though each one decorated differently) to give away. The poem is at the end of this post if you would like to read it. While digging through supplies for embellishing the poem, I came across these pictures from going to see a movie ("How to Train Your Dragon") that I had already gathered with this paper, and got motivated to put it all together. That would be the first page I've completed in probably close to a year now.

I still go back and forth about scrapbooking and its place in my life, but my memory is getting sketchier all the time and there are definitely some stories that I'd like to tell, or leave for my kids. Here is the poem from above:

"If" for Girls

If you can hear the whispering about you And never yield to deal in whispers, too; If you can bravely smile when loved ones doubt you And never doubt, in turn, what loved ones do; If you can keep a sweet and gentle spirit In spite of fame or fortune, rank or place, And though you win your goal or only near it, Can win with poise or lose with equal grace;

If you can meet with Unbelief, believing, And hallow in your heart, a simple creed, If you can meet Deception, undeceiving, And learn to look to God for all you need; If you can be what girls should be to mothers: Chums in joy and comrades in distress, And be unto others as you'd have the others Be unto you - - no more, and yet no less;

If you can keep within your heart the power To say that firm, unconquerable "No," If you can brave a present shadowed hour Rather than yield to build a future woe; If you can love, yet not let loving master, But keep yourself within your own self's clasp, And not let Dreaming lead you to disaster Nor Pity's fascination loose your grasp;

If you can lock your heart on confidences Nor ever needlessly in turn confide; If you can put behind you all pretenses Of mock humility or foolish pride; If you can keep the simple, homely virtue Of walking right with God - - then have no fear That anything in all the world can hurt you - - And - - which is more - - you'll be a Woman, dear.

From the writings of J. P. McEvoy

It's been a while!

While skimming back through posts looking to see what/if I had written about a particular movie a while back, that for some reason made a really emotional impact on me (I didn't, and at this point need to re-watch it in order to write about it), it appeared that it has been a while since posting any movie "reviews". One reason is that I haven't watched many for a while, and when I have, they have been ones I'd already seen before.

Here is one I watched 3 times in the past month or so though. It is just funny. There is one brief scene with some flesh and some conversations that aren't particularly moral, so if you try to avoid that completely (it's definitely not for young children), I wouldn't recommend this. But there's no "you-know-what" in it, and lots of laughs.

Fun movie

It was a special treat to go to a movie at the theater last week and see this:

Observations from the movie:

It doesn't matter what size of kitchen you have or whether you have a bunch of fancy tools and gadgets - you can be a good cook in limited circumstances.

There was another observation, but I forgot it in the walk to the computer from the kitchen...

Up

We rarely (almost never) go to see movies at the theater. But after reading a really encouraging article about it in World Magazine this week, decided this would be one worth making the effort (and forking out the dough for) to do so. This was L's first time to go to a movie at a theater.
Here is another article about it that touts its praise, as well as the review on the Focus On the Family site that spoke quite highly of it as well. That last one gives away quite a bit, so if you don't like knowing too much ahead of time, don't go there.

Geoff and I really liked it, but to warn you just a bit, in my 9yo words, "I liked it but it was kind of sad." There are a lot of cute and funny parts, and little ones will probably enjoy the colorful scenes, but it is not an entirely light and fluffy movie. Truth and reality are not avoided.

In conclusion, I think that this movie should receive our support for many reasons including its exclusion of inappropriate language and innuendos, as well as it's portrayal of some of life's realities. If you're looking for a movie you can safely take your kids to, this is it. Let me know what you think, too!

Another one to put you in the frame of mind for Memorial Day

We watched this one last night. It was yet another reminder of the courage, bravery, and sacrifice of those who have served to keep our country free. We thought it was really good and have been debating about whether or not to let our almost-10yo boy watch it. The verdict is still out on that. There were a couple of words/phrases... Its PG rating probably comes more from the intensity and violence, which I'm OK with showing him to some extent. Kids from America are so sheltered (thank God) from the reality of war, but I think it is beneficial for them to have a little visual dose of reality.The sermon at church today was on leadership in the church from Titus 1:5-9 and Pastor Mark had a Marine Sergeant come up and tell a bit about leadership in the military. I thought this movie gave several illustrations of leadership and revealed facets of it that we don't often consider.

Some recommended viewing

My son enjoyed this one: It was a documentary produced by the war department of this B-17 bomber's final run, and was very informative and helpful in getting a tiny bit of a glimpse into what the war was like. It was a bit slow by today's standards, but good. I wasn't watching it with them for entertainment purposes anyway...

We just finished this one tonight:

If you are studying WWII with your kids, or have an interest in it, or just enjoy history, we thought this was a great presentation. I would go so far as to highly recommend it. If it isn't available through your local library or other convenient rental source, Amazon offers a "view on demand" option. It was pretty long though - a couple of hours I think. And while it was primarily documenting the amazing sacrifices and courage and bravery of one relatively small, specialized group of men during WWII, it covered several battles of the war and was very informative. It was another reminder of the indebtedness we owe (and many other countries in the world as well) to the men who have fought for freedom and liberty, especially watching some of the elderly men who had flown the gliders describe their experiences.

Geoff and I watched this one:

You should watch it too, if you haven't already, no matter what you believe. It was incredibly enlightening as to the closed-mindedness of American academia. I would write more, but feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it and think it would be best not to further elaborate at this time. I would show it to the kids at some point too, when they are a bit older.

Family movie recommendation

One of the titles that came up when searching under "World War" at the library, was "Water Horse: Legend of the Deep." It turned out to be a really clean, sweet (though there were some scenes where they were shooting at the Water Horse that were kind of intense) movie. Geoff watched the whole thing with the kids. I was supposed to be working on my piles of paper, etc., but walked out into the living room half way through and got sucked in!

Multimedia addition

One more school/WW related post...for now anyway.

Little L went to bed early the past two nights after missing her nap both days, and the rest of us watched this:

I thought it was a great addition to our reading and we all learned a little something from it. I really liked the role of his conversion and how his strong belief in the Bible affected him and was represented in the movie (something that would never be shown in a film today, at least not positively). The first hour of the movie is building his character and showing who he is and where he came from with the second half delving into the war and related events. It doesn't have the speed or graphics of modern films (it was made in 1941 I believe) but in my opinion, is all the better for it!!!

Any more WWI related resources you might be aware of that we could look into?

Fascinating and hard to believe

Geoff checked this out at the library:So much I never knew. And I still don't "get" it. Why flirt with death to do this? Every one is motivated by something different. For some people it is climbing the unclimbable.


Anyway, it is sort of documentary/reality TV format and takes place over several episodes. A few teams of men are making the climb to the top. We are all enjoying it, but there are a few words in there that didn't get bleeped, though between the foreign accents, the wind noise, etc., I think the kids missed them. You get to see what all they go through, and learn a little bit about the effects of altitude, etc.

movie review/recommendation

Wow.

Wow - in an I-am-so-excessively-blessed sort of way.

Wow - my have-compassion-for-others meter just went up.

Wow - not with an exclamation point, but a very sober "wow."

Last night I watched the following movie while Geoff finished up the taxes:

God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary film about the Lost Boys of southern Sudan. Tens of thousands of children (mostly boys for some reason, which I didn't catch) were orphaned or separated from their parents when their villages/families/homes were raided by religious militants. In my comfortable life, the hardships and suffering these young men have faced are completely unfathomable, though their commentary and the pictures and video footage helped me to have a clue. This is not entertainment, rather something to see to increase understanding of others, and to increase one's gratefulness to God for life, liberty, and up to this point anyway, the freedom to believe in Him without the impending likelihood of being tortured, losing your family as a young child, etc.
(It moves a bit slowly, but is worth hanging in there for the educational value, in my humble opinion. I'd also recommend sticking it out through the Special Feature: "Finding the Lost Boys.")