February 18, 2006
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I Just Can’t Think of a Clever Title for this Post!It’s Saturday! I’m still not sleeping well, but I figure God knows all about it. So, I’m not going to fret. Maybe next week I’ll sleep better. Thanks for all your prayers, kind comments, and encouragement (especially about laying off those chocolate chips!). I was feeling low last week, probably from not enough sleep, so it meant a lot to me. But, hopefully, I’ll be back to my usual, cheerful self soon. You could pray about that and also that God will finish the play script for me. It’s gone really well so far!
We are having/have had a great time visiting with the Loeschers. Little Kendall, 11 months, just grins and eats and grins. Kayla is a lot of fun to play with at age three, and my kids are all willing slaves to both of them. It’s Kristen’s birthday, although she didn’t want anyone to know. So, go wish her a happy day, if you are so inclined!
I worked hard this morning on AP stuff and tidying up many details of my life and inbox. Still not done with everything (like mailing you those videos, Cassandra!), but I feel that I’ve done a lot. I’m in the middle of grading a set of timed essays for the AP class, but I thought I’d take a break and type an entry. This afternoon, I had to go into town to buy some things for the Loescher lunch party tomorrow, so I called up a friend (Linda W.) to come with me and have lunch. It was a lot of fun and an encouragement. She’s turned into a coupon queen, and I hope to follow in her footsteps in about nine weeks when my class is over and I have a bit more time.
I’ll review Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by Sarah, Stephen, and Grace Mally in case you were interested in reading it.
I was loaned this book by a mother of eleven, so I thought it might be worth reading. The book is written by three homeschooling siblings: girl age 22, boy age 16, and girl age 12. They take turns writing on the same topic. The book is filled with humorous family stories which help to illustrate the points they are making. Their father illustrated the book, so there are plenty of homespun pictures to keep your interest.
The book begins with a general overview of WHY it is important to want to have your brother or sister as your best friend. When I began reading it myself, I thought, “Dull. Why doesn’t this book move faster?” But, as I have been reading it aloud to my kids, I see that it moves just fast enough to convict, but not so fast to overwhelm.
The book continues with talking about how doing big things for God requires us to begin by doing “little things” for our siblings, how different people view the world differently, and covers the topics of forgiveness, humility, birth order, praising one another, and truly building friendships. It’s a logical progression with more and more practical ideas as the book goes on.
The book is geared for a Christian audience, although not necessarily a homeschool one. It makes a great read aloud as you can read a whole chapter (long) or one of the three sections (shorter) or even part of the shorter sections each day. There are plenty of useful lists which you can read aloud to your children to help them to remember what it is that a servant would do, etc.
Once I finished reading my borrowed copy, I got online and ordered my own! I have seen changes in my children since we started the book, but it’s not been a magic wand. Sigh. I wish I could get one of those from Amazon…
Comments (3)
Grins, eats, grins…you must be feeding her that “un-granola” food!
You seem like such a nice lady I am going to tell you my secret for getting sleep. I have had industrial strength sleep and cyclical mood problems that began at about 42 with the dreaded perimenopause…. I find if I take Magnesium Taurate or Magnesium Glycinate if I can’t find the other, and calcium citrate or a chelated calcium tablet about an hour before bedtime, and occasionally a melatonin tablet, (NOW two stage release 1mg melatonin ordered from iherb) that I can sleep pretty well. (If I am getting enough magnesium, I can go for days without thinking about chocolate.) I take about 5-600 mg of mag when I am having trouble and 6-900 mg of calcium. I have never heard if your Dr J is an M.D. or what, but even my brother, who is an M.D., has been known to take melatonin.
Mary thank you for the review of the siblings book. I am going to buy it! I had heard of or seen it in my peripheral vision at some homeschool convention but now I am really interested. It’s never too late. My kids are 17, 15, 12 and 8 and it’s not too late.
Melatonin doesn’t seem to do anything for me, sorry to report. Neither does valerian tea. Neither does hot milk. The only thing that seems to help a little is getting a great deal of exercise, preferably outdoors in the sun. But even getting my muscles sore from an indoor exercise class helps me sleep . . . or at least, it feels good when I lie down, and seems like it’s going to be a good night’s sleep.