SUPER SALE going on at: http://frommeandmyhouse.com

Hey everyone - there's a great sale going on from November 15-30th at the website of Me and My House, a great homeschooling resource, specializing in L.E.D. (Lifestyle Education through Discipleship). Plus, they are giving away a bunch of bonus gifts for ordering this month. Go to their website and check them out! They are big on bonuses - so if you've been looking for a good deal, time's a-wasting - head over to http://frommeandmyhouse.com today!

FREEBIE THIS MONTH!!!!

Hey Folks ~

I'm a big believer in celebrating one holiday at a time, and the next one is Thanksgiving. We each have much to be thankful for, and I encourage everyone to make a Blessings List and then sit down with your family and thank the Lord Jesus Christ for all the wonderful gifts He bestows on each of us.

So...I'm having a Thanks and Giving Giveaway! I'm truly thankful that the Lord has blessed our business this year. The extra editing customers I've picked up have been a real blessing to our home, as well. As many of you know, my husband was let go from his school district job this past June. He has decided to go back into business for himself, but as many of you also know, that can take a while to build clientele. So - the money we are making from editing and selling books and ebooks has really come in handy! SO --- since I'm thankful, I'm going to give something away!

I know many are thinking ahead to the holiday of Christmas, and because many do not have a lot of extra cash floating around for buying gifts, I thought I would help someone make a Merry Christmas for someone else! I may even do this a few more times between now and Christmas, with different products!

Between now and the end of November, I'm going to be collecting names for a drawing.
I'm going to be giving away a FREE BOY'S HANDYBOOK (value $19.95) to someone on the last day of this month (November 2008). Here's how to enter your name for the drawing:

Simply go to my website, www.kapandpen.com, and find a product you think looks interesting, or suggest an ebook idea you would be interested in seeing offered, and then leave me an email about it at kapandpen@bellsouth.net. In the subject box, put NOVEMBER FREEBIE so I can put all the replies in one folder. Make sure you sign your name so I know who goes with what email address!! One name will be chosen at random. Make sure you tell all your friends, relatives, co-workers, customers - whoever! - so they can participate, too!

If this goes well - look for more giveaways in December! The more emails I get....the more I'll give away!!!! Tell everyone!!!!

Going with God

Recently, there was a dear 69-year old lady in our church who passed away due to lung cancer. Mrs. Barbara Thompson was a tremendous blessing and an example of Christian character all the way to her last conscious moments.

Going to and from her radiation and/or chemotherapy treatments, she trusted the Lord He would do what was best for her - regardless of whether or not it was healing. She fully knew and understood that it might be God's will to allow this disease to bring her into His presence, and she accepted that with grace and dignity.

She told me once a few weeks ago that when she went in for her radiation treatments, there were all these sad and down-in-the-mouth cancer patients up there with her, waiting or receiving their treatments, too. She understood their sadness, but did not wish to participate in it. She said she'd march in there and say things like, "Hey - put on a happier face - we're gonna beat this together!" She said she tried to make the others smile and think about things beside the disease that was slowly killing them. She tried to tell them of the Lord and all that He's done for her.

Mrs. Thompson's trust in the face of death reminded me of another dear lady I had the privilege of knowing many years ago. Her name was Theresa Bartlett and she was one of the most godly women I've ever known. She developed leukemia when she was in her mid-40's. She would try and witness to the nurses and the doctors while she was in the hospital. When she wasn't really conscious and would mumble in her sleep, the nurses said she quoted Bible verses. I have a tape somewhere of her singing, and it still causes me to cry - I still miss her, and I can't wait to see her again!

What a Friend we have in Jesus - what joy and peace in knowing we will see our brothers and sisters in the Lord one day. As this old world becomes more and more ready to receive a decieving one-world leader, (anti-Christ), we know each day brings us closer to our forever home with Jesus! What a glad day of reunions that will be - seeing all our loved ones who died of diseases like cancer having brand new glorified bodies and running the streets of heaven!! And we'll have new bodies too-no more creaky joints and arthritic hands and glasses and dentures and whatever else we may have to deal with - everything will be new and maintenance-free!!!

If you think of it - please pray for Mr. Thompson. He's almost 89 and he's an incredible man, but he deeply misses Mrs. Thompson, and this time of transition will be very hard on him. I think he shows incredible character and strength...Barbara was his second wife; he buried his first wife when she was only 50. I couldn't help but think how terribly difficult it must be for him...having to go through the loss of a spouse not once, but twice in his lifetime. He's a very dear man - we are thankful we have the opportunity to know him and be his friend!

I wonder...

I wonder, Why do people use milk in their cold cereal and then throw away the milk? Do they do that with soup, too? Just eat the veggies and meat and pour the broth down the drain? What do they do with cream soups? Hmmm.

I wonder, Why do people sweat the little things? Why have a nervous breakdown over whether or not the purple shoes match precisely with the purple purse?

I wonder, Why cats scratch on the glass to be let in, and then turn around five minutes later and scratch on the glass to be let out? Can't they just stay one place or the other for a while?

I wonder, Why do dogs like to tear up trash bags and spread the contents around the neighborhood? Why can't they be happy with the food they receive?

I wonder, Why do Greenville technical colleges give passing grades to people who turn in papers with improper spellings, words that are not even words, missing punctuation, sentence fragments, sentence run-ons, and other general grammar mistakes?

I wonder, Why can't I ever find a pair of baby shoes? I have one baby in the house. He's not quite two. He owns several pairs of shoes. Well...that's not quite accurate. He owned several pairs of shoes. Now he owns several individual shoes that do not match. Where does the matching shoe go? One is a camoflage tennis shoe. I guess it's hiding from me.

I wonder, Do other moms wonder the same things? I suppose if my life was devoid of dogs, cats, and children, much of my wonderings would not exist. However, I wouldn't enjoy life if I had no children, so that's not an option. (The dogs and the cat, I have discovered, I could definitely live without. Especially when I had to lay out mouse traps recently. Helloooo? Cat? You are supposed to be earning your keep around here!!!)

Responsibility Bears the Pain

Ah youth! The crispness of the fall air, the leaves turning hues of orange at every turn of the head, the thrill of the souped-up go-cart...

My just about 18-yr old son, C.J., was taking our neighbor's son for a spin around the block. However, the go-cart is in need of a few minor repairs...and a new set of tires. Something with a little tread left on it would do nicely, I think.

Oh...I should mention that he rolled it once in our garden before he later took it for the spin around the block. The one his father has been telling him NOT to do....

Now, to misquote from a favorite ballad, "Then a whine and a jolt and a great roadside roar, and it laid my Curtis James on that cold asphalt floor."

Well, when the skidding stopped and the dust settled and my son and Eli crawled back up the hill, CJ was quite a mess. But he managed to walk back to the house.

I have to say, I'm very proud of him. No, not for crashing the go-cart (which actually doesn't even belong to us - he was fixing it for someone else!). But he showed a great deal of responsibility in relation to the neighbor's son. When he realized they were going to roll, he placed himself between Eli and the pavement. Eli sustained a few bruises; C.J. removed several layers of skin on the palm of his hand and on the backside of his leg. The pants were trashed, and we actually cut them up while he was in them so his sister could doctor his leg while I tended his hand. I was glad that he was concerned enough for Eli that he didn't want him to get hurt. Now... if only he had been thinking more responsibly before leaving the yard, he wouldn't have been hurt. But, I think he learned a valuable, albeit painful, lesson.

Funny Turkey Poem

From Lori Hayward:
Need a new Turkey recipe??
The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there'd never been turkey before.
It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn't a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I'd never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

Excellent blog post on vaccines - see link

This was a very well presented article. It states both sides of the vaccine issue, yet stresses the point that deciding whether or not to vaccinate should be a PARENTAL choice not a governmental mandate.

Here's the link: http://www.parentalrights.org/blog/parents/vaccines-autism-and-parents#comment-39749

If you want to take about 6 mintues of your day to read this, it's a good article.

I'm a firm believer that this is a choice issue. If you feel, (after doing research - not just blindly following what we've all been told for 30 years), that vaccinating is a safe and protective procedure for your child, then go for it! If, after doing research, you feel your child may be put at greater risk by receiving the vaccines offered, then you should have the right to decline. It's as simple as that.

After reading this article, if I lived in NJ and had to use public day cares...I'd move out of state.