A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Blog

Words and Thoughts

By 1 Comment

This passage is all about our words and thoughts isn’t it?  What do we think about and how do we say what we do? 

Proverbs 16:20-24
Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
21 The wise of heart is called discerning,
and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
22 Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it,
but the instruction of fools is folly.
23 The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

words and thoughts

Words and Thoughts from Proverbs 16

I had to think today about these first few words “whoever gives thought to the word will discover good“.  Like… do I remember that when I look at scripture?  Do I seek for the good that God promises I will find?  Is reading scripture just another thing to add to my already busy day? Or do I see the good that it brings me?  The quiet heart I feel after spending time ruminating on God’s word.  That quiet heart is important you know?  That time of letting God himself seep into my life.   This is the good you know?

And then after that we hear “blessed is he who trust in the Lord”.  Sometimes I think, bah.. I got that.  I trust God and then something happens and suddenly I realize there is yet ANOTHER area of my life that I have to trust the Lord with.  Frustrating sometimes, humbling others. 

I guess this is how wisdom is built into my life you know?  The learning to discern, the learning to trust God in places I haven’t considered the need for it.  

But going back to that quietness of heart after spending time in the word  Since God tells us his word never comes back empty right?  So that word (that sharper than a two-edged sword word) changes us.  Makes us consider things differently and that changes how we talk, how we think, and how we do. 

So the more time we spend in his word, the more it influences what happens within us.  And so the wisdom that we gain changes our speech.  Because when one has wisdom, one is apt to share it yes?

And Proverbs here tells us that being wise is being discerning.  The discerning are careful with their speech making us more persuasive and gracious and our speech more judicious. 

Sometimes I wonder about that you know?

I wonder if I am becoming more gracious and persuasive with my speech.   Seeing it is something I have a hard time with for I’m rather too blunt I think!   Perhaps I need to be a bit older???  Or perhaps, I need to be more quiet and let God work in my heart before I open my mouth.  That way, God’s graciousness and mercy will be more prevalent in the things I say. 

HA… perhaps… just perhaps I’ve learned a bit of wisdom there???   🙂  (I’m grinning to myself here). 

If I can indeed be more quiet and let God work it would also prevent the urge to shoot oneself for words spoken that shouldn’t have been.  Would DEFINITELY stop the need to apologize for stupidity.  And most assuredly would give God the time to correct me before I speak. 

Lest angst in my life would indeed me that  “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”  Just maybe I’d stay healthier too?

Your thoughts?

Foreign Body

By 2 Comments

I’m going to try to intersperse reviews of books I’m listening to or just reading.  Just so you know, I tend to prefer mysteries and fantasy.  🙂  I read the occasional historical based fiction, and I’m trying to read more non-fiction faith based books.  I also have this rather large stack of WW2 books from the lad’s studies that I want to read that he told me were excellent. 🙂   So LOTS and LOTS of books!    By the bye, I’ll link to the book on Amazon and if you purchase through that affiliate link it helps me keep sharing books with you.  🙂  Today I’m going to review a Robin Cook book entitled Foreign Body. 

I think almost every Robin Cook book I’ve read is about something medical and something that is not right with the medical community.  There are times when it makes me somewhat suspicious so I don’t read a whole bunch of them in a row!  Foreign Body is one such book and the scenario feels rather plausible.  I could see money being a big factor in this area. 

Robin Cook - Foreign Body

Basic Details You’ll Want

Title: Foreign Body
Author: Robin Cook
Publisher: G.P. Putnam & Sons
Copyright: 2008
Pages: 438
Type: Mystery, Fiction, Medical thriller, medical fiction
Formats: Audio, paperback, kindle, hardcover
Age Range: Adult
Book 8 of 12: Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery

About Author and Book

Robin Cook lives in the world of medicine from training in surgery, working in the medical field with the military and working as an ophthalmologist.  He uses his medical knowledge throughout his 37 medical mysteries.  When I browsed the books he has written I realized there are many I haven’t read yet!   There’s about 16 of them I need to introduce myself too in time.  🙂 

Foreign Body. Take a company in the medical field that wants to make money and discovers they are losing money due to medical tourism.  Add a fixer to the problem and promise good rewards upon success and suddenly people start dying in hospitals.  A sticky wicket in the form of a young medical student becomes a thorn in the side to the fixer and thus a thriller is formed.  

What did I think?

I liked it or I wouldn’t have finished it!   It was compelling. I wanted to know if Jack and Laurie could help Jennifer solve the mystery of her grandmother’s unexpected death. 

Mr. Cook does an excellent job of creating desire to see how all the pieces fit together.  Could cremation actually help solve the case?  Or could they find a doctor who will buck the system? 

I was fascinated to discover how the medical and forsenic rules differ between countries.  Jack and Laurie were, admittedly, lucky to not get caught circumventing the rules.  If this were a true story I would wonder what would happen with the people who helped them. 

The characters felt real due to their errors in judgement, their desire to make amends, real reasons for hesitations, and such like.  No character felt too good to be true, or too evil to exist.  They were all just people making good and bad decisions.  

I don’t recall any use of inappropriate language, or at least if there was, there wasn’t enough to turn me aside. 

It was great to delve into the India and catch a glimpse of the disparity in their system.  The other poverty as well as the beauty. The reactions of the Americans varied greatly… with most despising the utter poverty some people live in. 

If you like a good mystery, and don’t mind questioning the medical system, Robin Cook’s Foreign Body will delight you and take you into a different world for a while. 

Seek the Lord

By 2 Comments

Isaiah 55:6-9
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

seek the Lord, text over cave with cross

We see it throughout the bible don’t we?  The injunction to seek the Lord.  Isaiah puts it plainly here, seek him while he may be found.  There’s a time coming when it will be too late and absolutely no one outside of God the Father knows when that time will be.  Might be tomorrow…. might be in a decade.   In the meantime, we need to be about seeking after him.  

Once finding him, we continue to know more of him, to seek to do his will, and to be more like him don’t we?   So our seeking, our desire to know, never really stops. 

God’s call is always upon people to seek him out, to come back to him.  For compassion is something he wants to show us. 

Why?

Why would God be wanting to show compassion to the wicked? 

He tells us.   He is NOT us!  His ways and thoughts are different than our ways and thoughts. 

    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I don’t think we can truly comprehend how much MORE God is than we are.  We so often… well, I don’t know about you, but I know about me… So often I fail to truly comprehend the greatness of who God is.  To think about how much higher his thoughts and ways are than mine. Do you ever have that? 

I guess as we seek the Lord more, we get to catch more glimpses of his greatness don’t we?  Something to think on a bit more eh?

Am I A God?

By 4 Comments

Jeremiah 23: 23-29
23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. 29 Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
sunset with text am I a God

Am I am God?

I read these words in Jeremiah and what comes to mind is the hurt we do God.   God who is fully mindful of us, and yet, some feel compelled to lie about him.  Saying “I had a dream” and then making out like the dream was from God with words of their own to tell.  People who pretend to be prophets. 

Lest you think I make up the words that we hurt God, read his own words here from earlier on in this chapter:

My heart is broken within me;
    all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
    like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
    and because of his holy words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
    because of the curse the land mourns,
    and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course is evil,
    and their might is not right.
11 “Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
    even in my house I have found their evil,
declares the Lord.

I know there are the ungodly outside of the church who speak ill of the Lord.  But that’s to be expected and is inherently DIFFERENT.  When people within God’s ranks lie about what God says or pretend to have been told in a dream?  

That’s rather like one of your children telling another child that mom or dad hit them when their parent never did.  Wouldn’t you as a parent feel betrayed or hurt?  And as we are made in the image of God… can you see how HE would feel?  

What should we do?

So first up… we MUSTN’T ever pretend anything about God.  Be careful in your words, be clear about who God is.  Don’t lie about him.  AND NEVER make up stuff about him that just isn’t so. 

Secondly test it.  Test the words that others say about God.  If something seems off, it most likely is.  But double check if what someone says aligns with God’s word.  Don’t accept it as “new revelation”.  God’s word stands as it is. 

Third, remember this.  God has made us part of his family.  So treat God like family.  And would you deliberately want to hurt your family?  I hope not!   

Anyways, those are just my thoughts after a long busy day.  🙂 

The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

By 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie) through Ascot Media Group. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Are you looking for short stories to read with your youngsters?   The adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie are short, easy to read stories, great for bedtime reading.  Be inspired to share stories from your own youth, and to encourage your children to tell their own. 

The adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

Basic Details

Title: The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie
Author: Tony Walker
Illustrator: Chuck Jones
Designer: Kimberly Corbett
Publisher: Tony Balony, Inc.
Pages: 34
Intended Audience: children
Formats available: Hardcover
Genre: Children’s dog books, Children’s action and adventure books,
Reviewed for: PrimeStar Publicity

Author and Book Details

Normally Tony Walker writes books on finances, having been in that field for 38 years.  This is his first book for children, taking stories from his childhood to impart life lessons, in short adventures.  Set in the 1960’s he aims to use nostalgia as part of the delight of adults reading with their children.  Married, with three children, along with grandchildren.  He has a black Russian terrier as a pet. 

The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie tell the made up story of Tony as a child.  Aiming to impart life lessons through short stories with him and his dog. Set in the 1960’s, work, fun trips, time with family, and growing up fill the pages. 

the adventures of tony balony

A Closer Look at The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie

Twelve short stories round out the page of The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie.  Most are told over two pages, with accompanying illustrations. Most of the stories have good life lessons, but generally just make for a quick, fun read with young children. 

All the stories are done in couplet rhyme.  This makes for a quick reading story that flows easily off the tongue. The nostalgia in the stories should encourage parents to tell children their own stories of their youth. 

Colourful illustrations accompany each story, bringing aspects to life!   I absolutely adored the cute pup, and how his friends looked, for the most part, like children.  The heads of the children often looked rather “bobble-headish”.  

Read it with your littles?

I have to admit to being distracted by the very adult (to me) looking child Tony.   I found it distracting from the simple stories being told.  12 stories fill the pages, these stories encompassing the lives of children 4-7 years old. 

Do the stories have merit?  I think for the most part they do.  I didn’t care for the “learns to potty” story, but many of the other stories were decent.  Part of me wishes that the stories had a bit more oomph to them as the life lessons were very light.  But all told, these are stories for littles to read quickly for fun.  Perhaps to inspire stories from their parents, or to encourage stories from the children.   The Adventures of Tony Balony and Cookie are stories I’d be happy enough to read once or twice with littles for sure. 

I would use these stories as bedtime stories, they would be an excellent way to close out a day and give a child something to dream on.  🙂 

The Holy Spirit’s Guidance

By 4 Comments

Did you know that I used to have a couple of friends that were on the mission field?  I used to want to be on the mission field as well.   I sometimes wonder what leads people to a certain area to minister in and today’s lesson speaks to that.  It’s all got to do with the Holy Spirit’s guidance. 

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
the holy spirit's guidance. White dove black background

The Holy Spirit’s Guidance

The Holy Spirit’s guidance is what I see going on in this passage.  Paul et al, had their own plans, but weren’t able to do them.  The Holy Spirit nixed their plans to go into Asia, and stymied their goal of heading into Bithynia.  So it’s a case of.. now what?

The now what turned into a vision where a Macedonian man was saying “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  I’d call that an invitation to go to Macedonia just like Paul and his companions did!

And yes I know!   I do.  I know that not everyone gets a vision making their direction clear.  But what this passage does show is GOD AT WORK.  It shows us how clearly the Holy Spirit guides his people.   This shouldn’t be a shock should it?  

We find throughout scripture that God helps his people.  The Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead, so helping us is part of what he does.  

In Galatians 5 we learn more about walking with the Spirit.  “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”  The Spirit helps us to know what we should or shouldn’t do, but we need to do our part too right?  We need to purpose to do the things he wants of us you know? 

The holy spirit's guidance

Application

So I’m trying to think here because I want to see this well in my life.  And I do I think.  Like the other day when I wanted to change the price tag on a coat and didn’t.  That was the Holy Spirit’s prompting.  But it’s just a little thing you know?  Well.. okay, perhaps not little, but more like ordinary… part of me having to remember whose I am you know?  

But sometimes I wonder would I be able to tell for sure about something big.  Like an really big decision.  Would I need a vision like Paul did? Would I just have a deep heart knowledge of rightness?  It’s probably just me stressing over nothing since the Lord is gracious to me all my life.  Always making his presence known when I so need him to make himself known.  He let his people know right?  Through one way or the other… whether it a closing firmly of the door (like when Paul knew not to go to Asia), or through a vision (going to Macedonia), or just a deep heart knowledge that this is the right thing to do.  

God, moves in us through the Holy Spirit, guiding us to be the people as like him as we can be.  Rather cool eh?  At least I think so.  🙂 

Ewww! Lulu meets the King of Poo

By 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Ewee! Lulu Meets the King of Poo) through Janice Condon.  Affiliate links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and it is so much appreciated.  🙂 

Okay, so… poo is not exactly something I talk about on my blog, but it one of the necessary functions of life, and one that yes, children will ask about!  🙂   Ewww! Lulu meets the King of Poo helps children and teachers, to answer those questions in a matter of fact manner.  Loads of information and colourful illustrations make this very easy to do.  Come, let’s explore shall we? 

ewww lulu meets the king of poo

The Basic Details

Title: Ewww!  Lulu Meets the King of Poo
Author: Janice Maximov Condon
Illustrator: Steve Ferchaud, Chris Ficken
Publisher: Bowker
Pages: 34 pages
Formats Available: Paperback, Kindle
Age Range: young children
Type: picture book
Genre: Children’s sleep issues, children’s diet and nutrition books, children’s science
Received: Paperback
Reviewed for:  Jan Condon

About the Author and Book

Janice Maximov Condon is a part-time occupational therapist.  She has a keen interest in nutrition for wellness. Her passion to share about gut microbes comes from personal experience.  In her childhood she suffered through the overuse of antibiotics in childhood and the problems it led to. Condon and her husband live in California.  They enjoy brisk, long walks, yoga and the joy of being alive. 

About the Ewww! Lulu Meets the King of Poo is about a young girl who isn’t feeling well. She has a dream where she swallows herself and learns how her digestive system works. 

ewww lulu meets the king of poo

A Closer Look at Ewww Lulu meets the King of Poo

Lulu is a young girl worried about her science project and heads off to bed.  Not feeling well her momma helps her settle to sleep where she has a fantastic science filled dream.  This dream is the story. 

ewww Lulu meets the king of poo

I love the brightness of the images.  The colour palette is consistent from page to page and makes sense.  One would expect the browns in the lower intestine, the red/blue/purples in the gut wall, and the yellows in the stomach and upper intestine.  

You may have noticed already that everything is in rhyme.  Normally I don’t mind rhyming in picture books for children, as it can make the reading flow more easily.  But this time I found it irritating!  But that’s me, might not be you.  It felt forced at times, I think that’s what set me off. 

Proper terminology is used throughout.  A few more difficult words come with pronunciation tips.   You will discover a glossary at the close of the book to further assist.

Use it?

Okay, while the topic isn’t one that is the easiest to approach, helping children understand how their bodies work is fantastic!

ALSO using picture books to introduce subject matter is one of the best things we can do. It introduces complex topics in a simpler way enabling youth to be more comfortable knowing what topics to further research.  I didn’t know the functions of Acidophilus in my digestive system, did you?

Ewww! Lulu meets the King of Poo does this in a colourful, informative way. 

Due to the rhyming nature and bright colour I expect many young children would like this book as well.   It’s good to read educational books that are well put together don’t you think?   🙂