Reuben is 5!

It's been 5 years since we welcomed our third child into the world, but it hardly seems a minute. Not long after moving to Louisville, we found out we were expecting him and were greatly surprised but happy that God was blessing our family again.

Five years later, Reuben is still such a blessing and delight to our family. We are so thankful for his quiet and laid back spirit. He does a wonderful job of playing by himself as well as collaborating with his siblings to play games and build. We also love his sensitive spirit that is so sweet towards others. His docile personality is such a blessing in a house full of chaos!

Reuben loves to build and create with blocks, especially Legos. While a calm spirit, he is still a boy and enjoys a good fight or wrestling match with his Daddy and brothers. He LOVES "Star Wars" and "The Hobbit" and builds a lot of these characters out of blocks to have battles.

Reuben also loves to learn! He worked through a Pre-K program this year and loved every minute. He loves having something for his mind to focus on. We are excited to see how much he grows in learning this year.

Reuben makes us all smile with his love of singing and dancing. This boy knows so many praise songs, it makes my heart melt! It is such a joy to listen to him sing about God and the truths of His Word.

We are so thankful to have Reuben in our family and greatly look forward to seeing how God will use him in our lives and to further His Kingdom.

Father, make Reuben a man after Your own heart and teach him to know and love you with all that he is. Use him for your Kingdom that many may know of your great love because of this precious boy!

The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose

This book was part of our poetry study in our Core A curriculum from Sonlight.

Really, what can I say about this book? It's Mother Goose and the more I read Mother Goose, the weirder I think it is. This book is fine for a Mother Goose anthology with lots of poems and rhymes to teach from. The pictures are also fun and colorful. The kids really enjoyed reading them and laughing at the absurdity of most of them.

I'll give it 4 stars because my kids liked it and it was a very full book of nursery rhymes, though I personally did not care for it because I don't like this kind of thing.

I Heard Good News Today

This book was part of our history and culture studies in our Core A curriculum from Sonlight this year.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It is a compilation of stories about the Gospel going into the World, or at least that's what it's supposed to be. There are some great stories about well known missionaries, early church leaders, and other unknown missionaries and how they worked in different ways and different areas to bring the Good News to people who had never heard.

Sadly, there were a lot of moralistic stories in here as well or just stories of good works with no connection to the Gospel at all. In a book called "I Heard Good News Today" I would expect all of the stories to be about sharing the Gospel or how the God protected them in taking the Gospel, but about 25% of the stories had no mention of Jesus, the Gospel or God. I did not understand why they were there and found myself having to change things that were said because they were moralistic.

On the whole the book is OK. I would recommend it with caution.

Because of that I can only give this book 3 stars.

Murder On The Orient Express

I read Murder on the Orient Express as my 5th book in the Back to the Classics Challenge this year, for the category of Classic Detective Novel.

This is one I have been wanting to read for quite sometime, and I am so glad I did! Agatha Christie writes very clearly and knows how to tell a good story. I really enjoyed the character development and how she went about divulging the information from the characters. It was very enticing to follow and watch the story unfold. It definitely had me thinking and wondering what was going to happen. The end wasn't a total shock, but was a bit surprising.

I highly recommend this book. 5 stars for this Detective classic.

The Hundred Dresses

This book was our last read aloud in our Core A curriculum from Sonlight this year.

I really liked this book and the lessons that it teaches about loving others, not standing up for those who are weaker, and fighting the battle of right and wrong inside. It was a great book to talk about what really loving your neighbor as yourself looks like. It was also an excellent book to discuss pride and false assurance of what is going on. It shows, too, the dangers of idolizing people because of money, status, clothing, etc.

The book focuses on a couple of girls at a school, one foreign who is made fun of and others that seek to make fun of her. One of the girls in on the fun wrestles with how they are treating Wanda in the book, especially when she is missing from school.

The conclusion is a bit odd, in my opinion, but for a kids book, it is an easy and simple read with much to discuss about Christian principles and character.

4 stars for this kids book.

Product Spotlight #9

Today I want to share with you a great special for customers in August with one of my Top 10 favorite products: Kitchen Cloths/Kitchen Towels.

Both the kitchen towel and cloth are wonderful for drying dishes. They are super absorbent and can handle drying a sink full of dishes with no problems. They do a great job drying, better than any other kitchen towel I had previously used. The dry quickly and efficiently and after hanging them up they quickly dry out for use the next time we need them. They are excellent for quickly drying spills on the table, floor or counter as the microfibers absorb so much liquid. They also contain Baclock so they will pick up germs and prevent them from growing.

This month you can get one of each with an All Purpose Kitchen Cloth ready to clean anything in your kitchen.

How would Kitchen Cloths/Kitchen Towels help you around the kitchen?

Please Contact me with any questions
Emmie Manor Independent Norwex Consultant
Emmie.reducingchemicals@gmail.com
www.emmiemanor.norwex.biz
Catalog (p. 16-17)

I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give

I will ever love and trust Him

In His presence daily live

I surrender all

I surrender all

All to Thee my blessed Savior 

I surrender all

This hymn has been sung for at least a couple centuries and often holds a place in the hearts of Believers. It is often sung as a hymn of invitation in services that have a special time of response. As we sang this at church on Sunday in our normal sing time, it really hit me. Do we mean this? Do I mean this?

I shared last month about the song "All I Have Is Christ" and the deep in pact that song is having on my life. This beloved hymn is doing the same, especially this week. I'm am anxiously awaiting the birth of our 7th child and I can tell you this past week as been fretful, anxiety ridden and demanding for God to bring this baby NOW because it's what I want. It has made me angry and ill-tempered as well as stressed out. Singing "I Surrender All" on Sunday reminded me I have no right to demand anything of God because I have surrendered all of my life to Him and I am to trust His best for me.

This doesn't mean that I cannot ask and cry out to Him in my struggles. But my asking should be done in a posture of humility, Thy will be done.

Jesus, give me the grace to fully surrender every aspect of my life to You! How much I need Your grace and love to fill me as I wait. Help me to live for You in the power of the Holy Spirit while waiting and asking in humility. Let me be Your hands and feet no matter my circumstances.

What do you need to fully surrender to God today?