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The Pray-ers {A Book Review}

I was given a free e-copy CTM Publishing Atlanta’s book by author Mark S. Mirza entitled The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles in exchange for this fair and honest review.

The challenge in a book review is not to give away the plot, especially the ending, of a book, so I won’t. I won’t tell you any of the plot at all. I will tell you this:

Pray-ers is a story of demons, angels, humans, and the power of prayer, partially in ancient times, partially in modern times. That’s all I’m telling you about the story. If you want more plot, read what other reviewers have to say by clicking on the banner below:

Instead of a plot summary, I’m giving you some thoughts.

I first dove into this book ready for a fast weekend’s read, but I soon gave that idea up. This book is not something you read lightly on vacation. I had to go back to the beginning and re-read with my Bible (app) at hand. The book is loaded with Biblical references and teachings on prayer. It is definitely a novel, but it could also be used as a Bible study about prayer. In fact, that is what it has become for me, as I research each verse as it is notated in the footnotes and read the context to make sure the lesson in the book is Scripturally sound.

I really appreciate the explanation of prayer as a relationship. While it was hard to hear, it was also interesting to learn about how to pray and when God closes his ears. I’m still studying up on that a bit, since it doesn’t entirely jive with my understanding of child-like faith.

The examples of the men of prayer in the book can be taken to heart and applied to our own lives. The historical context is educational and intriguing.

Here’s where it gets touchy: the demons and angels.

Reading about the demons made me feel…creepy. Seriously creeped out people. Like sleep with a light on creeped out. It was almost worse when the demons were kind than when they were outright ugly.

The angels had the exact opposite effect. I felt protected. Well done, author! (Here’s a picture of the author, so you know whom I’m talking about.)

A couple writing issues:

I would have liked to see a little more editing. While the author is indeed an excellent writer, some tightening would improve the readability. It is a deep read and weighty stuff, and it would be more accessible to a wider audience if it were just a bit, well, “tighter” as my editor calls it. Otherwise, there were a few errors that jumped out at me as a writer, but probably wouldn’t bother people who didn’t have errors scream at them.

The demon names are not capitalized. I completely agree with the author’s decision to do this, but it makes it difficult to read until you get used to it. It took me a long time to get used to it, especially since the demons names are not “normal” and I thereby thought they were words I didn’t know…since there are so many. You get used to it in time…probably more time for me than for you.

Also, the author begins the book with a lengthy explanation of what he wants you to get out of the book. I don’t like that. Let the book do the talking. The writing is good enough to convey that meaning. In fact, the writing itself is very well done, moving the heart to want a closer relationship with God and a stronger prayer life. The author moves you to want to take up arms against the demons by getting on your knees, or, in my Lutheran circles, bowing your head and being very quiet and still.

I recommend this book for very mature high schoolers and adults. My older daughters did not want to read this book because of the demon factor. While I respect this, the demons themselves often mention the power their Enemy (Jesus) has over them. Battle fought, battle won, victor—Jesus.

It’s a great read, but more important, it’s a great prayer life builder. I’m still studying up on some of the doctrine to compare it to Scripture, and tossing some things around with my husband—I’m not a Scriptural know-it-all, but if I see anything that I believe is amiss, I will mention it here.

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A Workable Solution to Kids Email

We were offered a free Annual Subscription from KidsEmail.org in exchange for this fair and honest review.

As you know, we travel the USA full-time. There are 10 of us. My kids make friends along the way, and some of those kids want to stay in touch with our kids. It’s like having a traveling penpal, which has the potential to be really cool! For some reason, most everyone who chooses to write my kids wants to use email instead of good ol’ snail mail—none of them seems to believe that we can receive real letters, even though we can! Oh well.

Before Kids email, this was a little trickier, since penpals had to email Steve or me and we would (hopefully remember to) tell the kids they had email. If you have ever heard about how the teeth fairy works around here (we finally told them the dog ate her) or about last month when we debated for days about our wedding anniversary date and finally decided it was the 29th instead of the 28th, and celebrated it on the 29th, only to look up our marriage license after 20 years and discover we were married on the 30th, you understand that we don’t remember very well. So, sorry, penpals, if the ball is still in our court, like, forever. You might want to re-serve.

Once the kids hit 13, they can have a gmail account, and they are no longer under the torment that it their parents’ memories. But even then we are more than a bit leary. Google does a great job of keeping out the bad stuff, but it still goes into their spam folders if they should choose to look there. Also, kids t that age are not necessarily as discerning as they think they might be, and they could fall prey to creepy creeps. (I know, Jesus died for creeps, too, but I don’t want them getting hold of my kids.) So…

Along comes KidsEmail.org. Can I just say I love it? I can? Okay, I love it.

Here are the great perks:

It offers two levels of email: kidsemail.org or kmail.org, the first for the younger set (Rebecca, 8, uses that) and the second for the older set (Elijah, 10, and Emily, 13, are using that). The images and user interface are different, easier and cuter for the younger set, more complex and non-cutesie for the older set. Apparently, you outgrow cutesie.

Parents can control who is allowed to email the kids, but parents may also choose to turn that control over to the kids. Parents can also control whom the kids can email.

That reminds me of a joke:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
To.
To who?
It’s to whom.
That warms my grammar nerd heart.

Back to my review—more good things:

Parents can see a copy of each email that comes in or goes out. I have access to entire conversations, mostly crazy made up song lyrics and other things my kids did to waste time while they were getting over the flu that hit my family three stinkin’ times in one month!

Parents can determine if potty words should be banned. (We banned potty words, so be careful what you say to my kids if you want them to get your mail. I don’t think stinkin’ is a potty word, do you?)

Parents can set time limits. Ah, bliss. What? It’s not my fault! The computer kicked you off. It’s tired.

Parents can ground their kids from email. (I keep telling Elijah to skip out on his chores so I can ground him, because it’s really cool. A message comes up that says essentially, “I’m sorry. You cannot send this email message. You’ve been grounded.” So far he hasn’t bitten and is still in good standing, the stinker.)

The parent/guardian interface is simple to use, including adding children. Seriously, there is no learning curve here, even for Old School Mama (that’s me).

The full account allows you to add up to six children. My version allows three, which we maxed out on.

Essentially what kidsemail.org does is allow your child the use of the internet under a highly controlled situation. It’s like freedom within boundaries, and it’s an excellent way to introduce your kids to the wonders of email. It’s also an opportune environment to teach children email social skills, like to not send 150 poopy emoticons to their cousins. Ick. Who designed that thing anyway? I give it two thumbs up.

Will we pay for it after our test period has expired? I think we just might do that. It’s that good.

Learn what other homeschool families have to say about Kidsemail.org by clicking on the banner below:

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KidsEmail.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KidsEmail
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kidsemail1/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+KidsemailOrg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsemail/

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Talking Shapes–An Online Reading Program

We were given a one-year subscription to the online version of Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy from Talking Fingers Inc. in exchange for a fair and honest review from my four-year-old daughter, Eliana…with a little help from me. Just a little.

We previously reviewed a Talking Fingers Inc. program called Read, Write, & Type here. Eliana really wanted to try Read, Write, & Type, but was nowhere near that level. Talking Shapes came along as an ideal tool to prepare children for the reading and typing involved in Read, Write, & Type and the other Talking Fingers Inc. programs, but ultimately for reading itself. Happy little Ellie!

Tell me about Talking Shapes.

The idea behind Talking Shapes is to help children understand that their mouths make shapes when they make (or read) a sound. That sound is represented by a letter or a group of letters. Those of us who know how to read sort of take that for granted. Pre-readers, however, need to make the connection between what their eyes see, what shape their mouths form, and what their ears hear.

That is the premise behind Talking Shapes, invented by a neuro…neurophy…by a really smart gal who went to school for a really long time. Her name is Dr. Jeannine Herron. She based the program on reasearch intended to help children engage both sides of the brain as they learn.

It’s ideal for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and other younglings who may be struggling to learn to read.

That’s all fine and good, but what’s the program about?

Essentially the seven-part story involves two girls who invented the alphabet back when togas were all the rage. Each shape the girls talk about corresponds with a letter and an object or animal that begins with that letter sound.

They also emphasize the shape the child’s lips make when they say that letter by looking into a pond while they make shapes. You can use a mirror if you don’t have a pond handy.

That’s great, but does the child like it?

If Ellie is like your kiddos, this program is a hit. It is not dull and repetitive like some phonics programs. It’s a screen–she likes it. I have to put time limits on or she would sit at it all day, even when it gets too hard.

Essentially, she begs to do her lessons. Okay, fine, you can learn, Ellie.

She’s not reading yet, but I don’t push it–I let it happen when it happens. By the end of this program, however, she will know 40 phonograms. Cool, eh? How many do you know? (Are you looking up phonograms in the dictionary right about now?)

What do I think?

People, you know by now that I’m old school and will take a book over a screen any day. I have learned over the past nearly two decades of homeschooling that it isn’t always my preferences that matter. What is most effective and ensures a love of learning is ideal. Of course, I don’t want everything in the world to have to be entertaining to a child in order for them to participate, so a balance is important. You, of course, have your own screen guidelines for your family, so…there you go.

I would rather have Ellie drawing her letters in the sand or on paper than using the mouse to trace a letter on the screen. If you have a touch screen, this is not an issue, but we don’t. That said, when I saw how she maneuvered that mouse, I was very impressed. There was a lot of hand-eye-brain stuff going on there, so I enthusiastically let her continue. Honestly, though, I would prefer it as a quick and convenient app I could whip out on my phone or a tablet rather than a computer program.

Additional thoughts for my fellow roadschoolers:

Internet access–that blessed, cursed subject again. You must have internet access. There are images and movies and this will take a few cookie size bites out of your data. We had a lot of trouble with internet access during this review period, and it did make it difficult. Still, the program wasn’t glitchy or flashing in and out like some do when our “free if you can stand it” access is poor.

Space considerations? None. You already have a computer. Ideally, this would work best on a touch screen, so that’s even less space.

Find out what more conventional homeschoolers think by clicking on the banner below:

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkingFingers/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/talkingfingersvideo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReadWriteType/with_replies

CTCMath–An Online Math Program Review from an Old School Non-Techie English Major

Note: We were given a free one-year CTCMath Homeschool Membership from CTCMath in exchange for this fair and honest review.

CTCMath is a top-ranked math curriculum that is available completely online. While there are individual memberships, the family membership that we have is for use with up to 10 children. (Whoa. That’s a lotta kids. I know because we have to feed almost that many.) I think it’s 10 because that’s how many the instructor Patrick Murray has.

The program is completely online and covers almost any level of math you could want. I’m not sure if they have Einsteinian genius level, but it does cover kindergarten through calculus. Is there anything beyond that?

There are more topics in each grade than I knew existed! This is great, because you can hone in on where your student needs help and use CTCMath as a tutor to increase comprehension and grades. This is a popular reason why non-homeschooling families use CTCMath.

Think about it. In class, it isn’t possible for the teacher to act as personal tutor to each student. It takes a brave student to repeatedly ask questions and essentially demand that the teacher halt all forward progress until that child’s personal math needs are met. That means if a child is struggling, he will continue to do so without help. CTCMath is that help.

Advanced students can move ahead of the class–nothing holds them back when they have access to CTCMath. No more bored math geniuses.

CTCMath is also popular among homeschoolers because a child can move at his own pace, reviewing as often as necessary to attain mastery. Plus there’s that 60% price discount. Cha-ching! Even my faulty math knows that’s a good thing!

How does CTCMath work?

A child can take the diagnostic assessments to determine where his struggles are, so he only needs to work on those areas and not topics that are already easy for him. I’m big on not boring children by teaching them what they already know.

He can then watch the video lesson, which uses a multi-sensory approach to learning:

Visual. They watch the graphics on the screen as the math is being taught.
Aural. They listen as Mr. Murray explains the approach.
Kinesthetic. (Hands on.) They put their new skills to use immediately with online practice or on printed worksheets.

Obviously, the next step is number 3 above. The student does the online practice problems or printed pages if you go that route. He can also use the online drills to improve quick mind math skills. Who doesn’t forget those when having to give a customer change or when someone finds out your kids are homeschooled and volunteers to test their knowledge? ARGH! I knew this two seconds ago!

What parental features are included?

CTCMath records all the child’s results and sends you a weekly update so you can see where your child needs more practice or whether they’re ready to move on.

The program also allows you to assign tasks and deadlines for each student, and it alerts you to the child’s progress. The child will see the tasks when he logs on.

Did you catch what I just said here? The computer does both the nagging and the record-keeping for you. Sweet!

Can I say something about the budget?

I don’t like online memberships, because you can’t “hand them down” to the next student. Know why that’s a good thing? Not every child learns the same way. In my household, you use the math book your older sibling used because that’s what we have and we want to eat. That’s not the best approach to math curriculum selection.

Want to know why that’s a bad thing? You have to repurchase memberships every year.

That said, if you had 10 kids (or 8 like me), you can really stretch that membership and those homeschool dollars! Not bad. Still, no hand-me-downs.

Our Experience

I used this program with my seven-year-old, which was really a mistake of children to choose for the review period. My ten-year-old was begging to be able to use it, but I said I had access for 1 student. When I came here to write my review, I realized I had access for 10 students. That “0” at the end of the “1” has meaning. This is why I don’t teach math without a curriculum like I do English. Yup. Ten. Not one. Ten.

So, as of this week, my 10-year-old son will be jumping on board. He is doing great in math, so CTCMath will serve as a reinforcement and to spackle some putty in the cracks of his learning. I’m also making it available to my 17-year-old college sophomore who is considering studying calculus “just for fun.”

See that attitude–just for fun? I don’t think calculus is fun. Calculus has cooties. I know, because I had to study it for a year in college to get my English degree and become a writer. I did well in logic, and the philosophy behind that last sentence contains absolutely no logic. Therefore, I throw up in my mouth a little when I think about calculus. But with CTCMath at our disposal, my oh-Mommy-calculus-is-so-fun daughter can take it all by herself without my having to get anywhere near the cooties. That’s like Christmas…except not quite, because it has the word calculus in it…and the cooties.

Back to my original point…

The reason it was a mistake for me to jump in with my seven-year-old is that, with our unexpectedly barely-there internet access over the past couple months and our consequently severely limited online time, I needed to have someone on board who could speed over the technological learning curve that throws me almost every single time I have to do something different online. She wasn’t it. For math, I need a book…with pages…I can turn.

On my tombstone will be written “Here lies Christy. She was old school.”

That in no way detracts from the lessons themselves or the program as a whole. It just points out that I’m a techno-idiot, even on a program that the rest of the homeschool world uses with ease. Yes, I feel dumb. Thanks for noticing.

My kids–they could figure this out faster than I did…and would have, had I know that 1 does not equal 10. All this to say that my learning curve issues will not be your learning curve issues, and you will get to the good stuff a lot faster than I did.

I don’t think I will ever prefer computer math over paper math, because I’m 43.5 and 2 days old, and that’s how I roll. I like the kids to work things out with pencil and paper. It feels right to me. Still, the approach to these lessons is great:

They are short.
They are interesting.
The teacher doesn’t sound like Lina LaMont from Singing in the Rain, which is especially good since he’s a fella.
They don’t cover too much in a single lesson.
They engage you visually and aurally while giving your hands interactive practice.
If you want, you can print out lessons and your kids can work out the problems on paper using a pencil while you sit close enough to sniff the paper and listen to the sounds of graphite gliding across the lightly dimpled surface.
They show how the solution is done, in case your kiddo says, “But why, Mom?”

As my other children move deeper into this program, I will let you know right here what the kids think. Meanwhile my little girl is having a great time with her subtraction facts, and getting quite good at them, although she sheds tears over the diagnostic assessments. Is that just my kids? Really, I want to know.

Additional Notes for my Fellow Roadschoolers:

You know what I’m going to say here. I’m going to gripe about internet connection…and you’re right. We struggled with our ability to use this program due to internet connection. We had terrible connections and limited data during the majority of the review period and couldn’t use the program to its full extent. Sad face. This is a pretty big deal if you paid for a year’s membership and can’t use it for a couple weeks here and there. Sorry kids–no math this week. (If it’s computer math, that makes my kids sad.)

Now bear in mind these aspects of our unique situation that do not apply to the majority of roadschoolers:

We are in a new place every few days. Not every month or even every week–every few days! Sometimes every day.
We are often out in the boonies. (You can look that up on a map. It will say “Boonies.” That’s where we often are.)
We have (actually had until a few days ago, but that’s a review for another day…and another blog) very limited data for roadschoolers with online businesses and a music mission. We had to count our gigs like most people (should) count their pennies.

There is an option. You can print out worksheets and review summaries for your students if you know you will be somewhere that requires old school schooling. Just pop the papers in a flexi-binder and take up a fraction of the space of traditional math programs.

I know roadschoolers who use this program without that issue, so consider your own situation and don’t let ours scare you away by any means!

You know my other major consideration when evaluating roadschool curricula is how much space something takes up. This takes up none. SCORE! There is the option of printable worksheets, which do take up space, unless you’re like me and you throw them away when they’re completed instead of saving them or plastering them on the refrigerator. You also know I don’t like printing in the trailer, because it’s a pain the backside, so you know I didn’t print those pages anyway, which saves even more space. If I’m going to have math papers, they’re going to be in a book. But you…you might not be as math-paper-averse as I am.

So, summarizing:

Internet-dependent, space-liberated.

Want to know what normal homeschoolers think? Click here or on the banner below:

Social Presence:

CTCMath has an active online presence. Go peek at them or get totally connected here:

~CTCMath (US and Canda)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctcmathofficial
Periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/ctcmathofficial
Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/ctcmath/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn5e6974bpIEAe46VnovZw

~Maths Online (Australia Only)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathsonline.com.au
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MathsOnlineAU

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Christy’s Simple Tips: Simple Storage Solution

Use a shoe holder to contain the little things that clutter up cupboards and shelves.

The one pictured above is hanging inside a laundry closet and is being used to store cleaning supplies.

We have one in our tiny bathroom in our travel trailer. We use it to store personal hygiene and first aid supplies—hairbrushes, shampoo, My Little Pony bandages—all the goodies!

We’ve used them for outdoor items, such as jump ropes, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. We’ve used them, for dusters and rags. We’ve used them for random homeschool helps and putzy little game items, such as decks of cards, wrap-ups, card holders for little hands, and the all-important place to store lonely game pieces. Poor little lonely game pieces. And, get this, we’ve even used them for shoes—I know, crazy!

The pocket holders are simple and cheap, can be cut down to size, and hide easily on the back of a laundry room door, in a bathroom, or on any wall.

Best of all, they pocket all your stuff–most of which you should just get rid of anyway. Ahem.

To submit your simple tip and receive a link to the page of your choice (blog, Pinterest, Instagram, website), please use the contact page or send an email (pictures are optional) to TheSimpleHomemaker at gmail dot com with SIMPLE TIP in the subject.

3 Things to Do Before You Lose Your Wallet

Three simple steps to take today in case you lose your wallet tomorrow.

Because sometimes I’m a loser, I have left my purse in random places. Most recently I was grocery shopping with my alpha and omega girls–my 18-year-old and my 3-year-old. We were in the pickle aisle, because I was pregnant, when we decided to split up. Hannah set off to snag what she needed, and, after drooling over pickles a while longer, little Ellie and I headed off to look at watermelons. Pickles and watermelon–yummy!

It wasn’t until Hannah showed up that I freaked out, because she no longer had the cart–you know, the cart with my purse in it–my purse which was open. (Don’t tell my husband.) I said, “Where’s the cart?!” and she said, “I left it with you!” which was, unfortunately, true, because when you do something totally and inexcusably lame, you always hope it’s someone else’s fault. We went running through the aisles to try to remember where we–we as in I–left the cart…and the purse…which was open. We found it by the pickles where I left it. No harm done…but still, don’t tell my husband.

So that brings us to the topic of this post–what you should do before you lose your wallet, in case you’re as totally and inexcusably lame as I am.

What to Do Before You Lose Your Wallet

This is a simple three-step process:

1–Purge your wallet. (I know, I know, I always say to purge, declutter, cut back. That’s because it’s good advice.) Keep only what you need on hand. For me, that means the following:

What I Need:

Driver’s license/ID
Debit card for household purchases like food
Debit card for gifts and homeschool material
Cash ( A ridiculously small amount)
Insurance card
Sam’s Club membership card (or they won’t let me in for their good deals on cheese)
The Simple Homemaker business cards (because people ask for them)
Library card (this can also stay in the glove compartment)

What I Don’t Need:

Credit cards
Gift cards (I keep them elsewhere and only bring them along if I will use them…and it’s Christmas)
Shopping cards (I can enter my phone number or use a phone app instead of scanning my loyalty cards)
Social security card (you’re not supposed to carry this around anyway)
Receipts, papers, phone numbers, old lists, etc. (I’m fairly paperless, thanks to my phone; if you need some of these items, sort through them weekly so you don’t have too many)
Chocolate (that’s a lie)

2–Document the information on all your cards, front and back. Replacement information is almost invariably on the back of the cards that you will lose if your wallet is missing. Don’t you love irony? Update your information as needed. There are four ways to record this info:

Copy all the information by hand.
Photocopy all the cards together, first the fronts, then the backs. Number the fronts and backs so you know which fronts go with which backs. It’s always embarrassing to call the library and tell them your debit card was stolen–they really don’t care.
Record it digitally by typing it into a document and saving it somewhere, although you may not want to include your credit/debit card numbers if you’re launching it up to the cloud.
Take photos of the fronts and backs of all your cards with your cellphone and save the information someplace safe, deleting the photos after they have been saved, in case you lose your phone…because you keep it in the purse you left in the pickle aisle.

3–Store this information someplace safe. I think we’ve already established that the wallet is not a safe place to store the information you will need if you lose your wallet, right? Of course right. Here are some storage options:

Safe
Filing cabinet with other important documents
Digital storage facility, like Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs, or a secondary hard drive; info on a universal storage locale like Google Docs can be accessed if you lose your wallet on vacation, where you likely won’t have your info along. (If you have other ideas or advice for digital storage, please share in the comments.)
Someone reliable, like your mom–I laughed out loud, since this mom is the one who left her purse wide open and unattended in the pickle aisle. Your mom is probably more reliable than my kids’ mom.
Post office box

Nobody plans to leave her purse in the pickle aisle, but it can happen to anybody, right? Right? Right? Right? Do you ever get the feeling that nobody really “gets” you?

Anyway, it’s better to be prepared. This will take you 10 minutes or so if you just buckle down and do it. Now would be a good time.

This is where you share your inexcusably lame moments…and your wallet advice.

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Enjoying the Extras in Life Without Letting Them Take Over

When my husband “gave” me this blog and told me to start writing, his original intent was that I share how to clear your queue. You Netflix lovers know what a queue is, and you know how easy it is to fill your queue with hundreds of shows you want to watch but will probably never get around to.

Isn’t that life? Don’t we have drawers and cupboards full of supplies for potential projects, shelves full of unread books, heads full of unfulfilled dreams for “when we have time.”

Here’s the problem with a full life queue:

It weighs us down mentally, even subconsciously.
We never get to it because there is so much to do that we don’t know where to start.
We dabble if we get to it at all, and never really finish.
It detracts from life, because it requires repetitive thought, tidying, organizing, planning.
It ends up costing money and taking up space. Boo.

I cleared my life queue ages ago, and keep clearing it over and over and over again. Still, there so many things that I would like to do, that I can’t just lie down and meditate until I die. That’s not living!

So here’s what I do to keep on living without filling my queue.

1. List it.

I love lists. They’re my favorite. I have an ongoing list of things I want to do or learn. We also have a family bucket list of things we want to do, like eat pizza in Italy. Mine is a bit more realistic, but my kids dream big–go kids!

2. Choose it.

I pick one thing from the list–just one. Tempting as it is to think I could learn to quilt and tap dance and make a family cookbook and learn to grill without burning the hair off my arm and memorize all the burn sounds of the North Woods feathery friends all at the same time, I know I can’t.

(I do sometimes choose one fun thing and one professional thing. For example, right now I am editing my book and learning the Charleston–one’s for work, one’s for the amusement of my baffled husband. Plus we always have a character trait that we’re working on, but that’s different, like breathing and eating.)

3. Do it.

Whatever it takes to do it, do it, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize peace, family, or faith. Don’t by any means make the “thing” more important than what really matters in life. Since it’s only one thing, it really shouldn’t take over your life, but rather add a little icing to your cake, chocolate chips to your cookie, salt to your giant pretzel. If it involves your family, even better.

I don’t spend time or money on anything else in my queue. If I come across something I would really love to learn or do, I add it to the list, but I don’t dabble in it yet, because I know I can’t handle a dozen dreams going at once…nor do I want to.

Will I die with undone dreams in my queue? Most likely. Will I have lived for the moment? Most definitely.

List it, choose it, and do it. It’s simple.

So, what one thing do you want to learn or do right now?

Me? Right now (July 2016) I’m learning the Charleston with my teens while Hannah learns to play it on the piano. We’re using this fun video and a few others for kicks…no pun intended. What are you doing?

I’ll update this, just for fun, as we choose new items from our queue.

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