The Truth In Blogging Act of 2008

I feel obliged (by my conscience - - - and by my friend who pointed it out) to tell you that I may have misled you when I posted the list of items I bought at the convention. Perhaps there were a couple of books I neglected to "report", and perhaps it was because they were still in my van. Perhaps I wanted to protect my husband's heart by not coming in the house with all the bags at once. And if that was perhaps the reason....It wasn't something I do often, honey. In fact, there's no reason to go out to the van right now and start looking for things. And you don't need to look in my closet either.

Had I found this particular bag o' books before I blogged about my Favorite Purchase, I might have changed my mind.

I still love the book I mentioned before, Bound for Glory, by that Meanie R.C. Sproul, Jr., but I'm equally impressed with a small pink book I bought for my daughter, called (appropriately)"little pink book", by Cathy Bartel. I bought the special gift edition, because I like to spend as much money as I can on a book (that was a joke, honey...Where's your sense of humor?), and it is actually a compilation of three little pink books for teen girls. This 4X6 hardback, glossy pink book has sections on a teen girl's spiritual life, a teen girl's friendships, and a teen girls' gab. It is also full of quotes like this:

"In the cookies of life, friends are the chocolate chips." - author unknown

What is not to love about a book with chocolate quotes?

This is a Girly-Girl's book with chapter numbers ensconced in pink stars - and it has really good advice hidden within lists, like this:

5 attitudes that are friend magnets
-Happiness
-Encouragement
-Generosity
-Objectiveness
-Helpfulness

I don't want to infringe on the copyright laws - anymore than I already have - so I won't tell you the wise text that goes with each of those attitudes, but suffice it to say that this book is chock full of things I'd like my teen daughter to know. And if it happens to be written in pink, curly-Q lettering, so be it.

And here are the other purchases I neglected to broadcast earlier

From David Quine's booth, I bought Answers for Difficult Days (Surviving the Storm of Secularism), a sure thriller (!), as well as How To Read Slowly (but of course.....I'm not finished with that one yet :), and a small booklet containing the famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Now that's a "feel good" booklet if I ever saw one.

I bought my friend, Emily, a copy of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's book For The Family's Sake, The Value of Home In Everyones Life, because it will be the first book in our Mom's Summer book club. Emily wanted us to start with the very long, yet I'm sure not dry, A Thomas Jefferson Education, so I'm giving her the Schaeffer book as a consolation prize/bribe.

One book I bought that I sort of regret (after hearing a tape by the author and being turned off by her tone ...and voice... and style...) is Finding Authentic Hope and Wholeness, 5 Questions That Will Change Your Life. I'm such a sucker for things that promise to change my life. The book has a 'testimonial' on the back cover by a pastor I respect that says in part, "....we were blown away by the material. We couldn't write notes fast enough." I'll let you know if I'm blown away.
In the mean time, if anyone has any tips for how to read a book and not hear the author's voice in the background, let me know.

I bought about 10 Dover Coloring Books (Backyard Nature, American Presidents, Pirates and Buccaneers, etc.). All of my children, from 9-16 love to color while I read aloud to them or while they listen to a book on tape. The key is to get them quality colored pencils. Buy extra black and silver if you want to maintain family harmony. I have no idea why that is, but I absolutely know it to be true.
If you click on the colored pencil link it will take you to a site where you can buy single colors of pencils. It just makes life easier, especially in a large family.

I bought a bunch of CDs of workshops given at the convention. They are getting So Expensive (but they're still a good deal, honey). Although I doubt if he's still reading this far down in the blog. When my HOH "confessed" that he reads my blog, he also mentioned that he occasionally "skims" when he notices a long post (are there any other kind?) Let's hope he's skimming now.

Here's what I got:

The Seasons of Life (Gregg Harris)
Teaching Your Child the Constitution (Michael Farris)
Identifying If Your Child Has A Learning Glitch (D. Craft)
It's Onomatopoeia, Mom. Using Children's Stories To Teach (Adam Andrews)
Teaching the Right Brained Child (D. Craft)
Discipling the Strong Willed Child (Phil Downer)
another tape by Gregg Harris that I already loaned out to my fellow bookaholic/tapeaholic friend, Jodi

Dianne Craft and Phil Downer both have a nice chunk of my husband's money right now.
I spent quite a bit of time at their booths. If you've ever heard the old adage, "It doesn't cost anything to look", it's not really true when it comes to homeschool conventions.

Anyone else notice that May is almost over?!
What in the world are ya'll going to do with the extra 2-3 minutes in your day when you don't have me to enlighten you on these vital issues?

Off to bed and it's only 11:02.(11:25 by the time I got through editing. My haughty, know-it-all word processing program thinks I use too many commas. What, in the world, does it, being inanimate, know about that?)