Links Worth Sharing

Just a few websites, blogs, articles that recently made me laugh, stop and think, or were useful in my everyday life.

1. Grammar Girl

I stumbled on this site when trying to teach the boys (and learn for myself!) the difference between affect and effect. She offers clear explanations, and mnemonics to help remember them. Yes, she even explains how to pluralize last names (and Phyllis and Emily were right!)

2. Youth Groups Destroy Lives (or do they?)

This link leads to Ron Hosmar's (youth pastor at Calvin CRC) blog, where he comments on an article by David Fitch. A lot of food for thought on how we treat our young people; what is the best way to disciple them in a relationship with Jesus.

The following paragraph really struck me, probably because it speaks to (one reason) why we home school as well.

It’s a fact that, due to the economic and cultural changes of modern society, children/teenagers have been segregated in school classrooms, and targeted as a separate niche consumer market by culture industries. As a result, they look increasingly to their peers for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity, codes of behavior. They have less connection with adults either in or outside immediate family (you need both) as role models for life. This undermines healthy development and fosters hostile and sexualized youth culture. Children lose their true individuality, become overly conformist, desensitized and alienated. Being “cool” matters more to them than anything else. This is American culture! In the words of child psychologist Gordon Neufeld (a book I’d recommend), peer orientation undercuts the necessary parental connection in that parental nurturance cannot get through, is always insecure, cannot bring the child to rest, and is unable to be fulfilled (closeness unmet). As such peer orientation crushes individual development.

I could go on, but I think these two men have said it more wisely than I could; for the most part...I concur!

3. Sheila Wray Gregoire

I've heard Sheila speak at many different events over the last couple of years, and recently started following her blog. She's not afraid to hit some of the tough, politically/socially incorrect topics.

Some of my recent fav's are:

Planning Your Daughter's Future


Does Modesty Really Matter

and she recently posted the following article on her Facebook Page

Hands Off My Dishes


4. And for a good laugh for those of us who grew up in the 80's...

The Most Exciting Bad Paid-For Photos Ever

7 points of Happiness

1. Home Depot finally had the doors we were dreaming of putting on our pantry on sale. $139 off each door X 4 doors = very happy Dutch people! Here's the before:


Very rough cut wood, slab style door, but at least they protected visitors from seeing the scattered contents of our pantry.

2. Here's the after:


Sigh of contentment!

3. Now I just have to decide if I let my neurotic persnickety side win, and ask Mark to try to re-stain the trim to see if it will come out a little darker.

4. Did you notice the BASEBOARDS?! Also a new little addition to our entire living area. No more pencils, marbles and dust bunnies hiding between the wall and floor!

5. AND...the screws we had used as door handles for the last 5 years...


6. Have also been replaced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Skipidy-Do-Double-Da!!




7. I'm STILL in love with new paint colour!

7 Quick Takes Friday

In an effort to post more often, I thought I'd give this a try... 7 quick thoughts, once a week.

1. This will probably be more difficult than I think, as I've discovered that when I get a keyboard in front of me I discover my love to gab.

2. I will not fret about whether my thoughts are profound or not; I will not try to change the world through my blog.

3. I will not share only the funny things my children say, or the amazingly intelligent things they do, or the creative activities we participate in. I will make every attempt to be real.

4. It is 8:05am. Only Brent is up. I've had a bowl of porridge, but am still in my pj's and need to shower. Enjoying a cup of Bengal Spice Tea from Celestial Seasonings. If you love Chai Tea, try it!

5. Our Christmas Tree still stands in the corner. The children took off the decorations, a few days ago. The box remains in the living room. I will take off the star and lights this weekend so that we can toss it outside.

6. We brought Mom and Dad to the airport this week Monday for their 2 week trip to Dominican. Believe it or not, we had a lot of fun as we waited the 1 1/2 hours in line for their check-in. Their flight was a direct Ottawa-DR so the whole plane load was checked-in in Ottawa, by the three CanJet check in ladies. As time progressed the children got more antsy, and more silly, and more giggly. I continued to reassure the people around us that they would not be spending the next 5 hours sitting next to them. We went home and the kids enjoyed the rest of the week skating on the pond (after their school work was done...)

7. How I wish I could have just pulled out our passports and the cash to buy a few extra tickets that day!!! Oh well, our day will come, maybe. For now, we will look forward to our camping trip with the deHaans in June, the Norgs in August, and try to plan something extra in between. Any ideas?

7b. See. I knew it would be tough. When you pluralize last names do you just add an s or 's?

Photo Editing

I've been learning a lot about photo editing recently; just picking up the colour a bit, making eyes sparkle, skin a little softer or doing complete overhauls and adding textures and turning the photo into art.

Here's a quick example of what I did with the picture of the kids jumping. Not a total do-over, just a few little things (including covering up Brent's Belly Button! (which he is so ashamed to have showing))

In discussing the possibilities of photo editing with a friend yesterday, she said they had discussed it back in university (before this even became a possibility to the average Joe) and their prof asked the question: "Is altering a photo a little like altering history, and not leaving the true story behind for future generations?" Hmmmm.

So here is the original Straight Out Of the Camera (SOOC)



And here is the touch up...



I think history will be OK with that.

Catching up...

This year I will try to update more often. Promise. To start off, let's go back to December to get caught up...

For those that aren't on Facebook, or didn't receive one in the mail, here is our Christmas card for this (past) year.

I loved this layout, but the photo of the kids originally showed Brent's belly (as in the blog header picture...will have to change that too!), and he didn't want that being 'publicized,' so we went with the other picture. Now that I've had more time to play with the photo (and a great tip from my sister-in-law on what technique to use) I was able to photoshop it! Don't believe anything you see in a photo any more!