NZ Filbruns

Product Review—Page A Day Math

June 3, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

Every summer when we stop doing school for a couple of months, I start looking for worksheets for my younger boys to do, so they don’t lose all their math facts when they aren’t using them every day. Every year, I try something different, and I haven’t been very happy with anything I’ve found. Now, though, I think I have what we need! I looked at Page A Day Math when it came up for review, and was immediately interested. We’re in the middle of our school year right now, but it looked like just what we needed for extra practice now, and I definitely plan to use these kits in the summer when we’re taking a break.

Page A Day Math offers kits for each of the four math operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Each kit also includes some handwriting practice books, which I didn’t use so can’t comment on. You can buy either physical kits or digital ones; we were given the digital ones, which are to be downloaded and then printed. They can be used for as many children as you have—I like that! They are quite easy to print and staple together and make a great supplement to any math curriculum.

I printed a couple of the booklets from the Multiplication Starter Kit for Mr. Sweetie. He knows his multiplication facts, but is still pretty slow, so I thought he should get some more pratice. He times himself for a minute every day and does as many problems as he can in that minute. He’s getting faster! Each booklet introduces a new times table. The front and back of one page are to be done every day. First, the student is to trace each fact, and then write the answers. I don’t require Mr. Sweetie to do all the tracing, although he does a lot of the numbers because they are faint enough that he has trouble seeing them otherwise. (I’m guessing that when I get a new drum for our printer, later this week, the pages will print a little darker!)

Mr. Imagination is working through the Subtraction Starter Kit. These each focus on subtracting by one number (-1, -2, etc). As with the multiplication books, each page also has a lot of review of previously taught facts.

Little Miss is working with the Pre-K Math Starter Kit. This introduces the concept of addition; Book 1 teaches adding 1 to 0-10, Book 2 adds 2 to each number, and so on. I’m not sure what the difference is between these books and the Addition Starter Kit. Little Miss is doing well with these books. She’s been making up addition problems for me, and then she remembers the answers the next day, quite often.

Each kit comes with flashcards to print. I like the looks of them! They are meant to be printed on paper, then folded with the fact on one side and the answer on the other and glued together. Instead of just one fact on the addition and multiplication cards, there is a pair of “twins” such as 0+7= and 7+0=. I like that the facts will be correlated in the child’s mind that way. Of course, the subtraction and division cards only have one fact on each.

Each kit also comes with an assessment, which is useful to determine where to start the child. Based on the results of these assessments, I started Mr. Imagination in the first subtraction booklet, and Mr. Sweetie in the fourth multiplication one.

I really like that the children can work independently with these materials. I had to show them how to use the booklets the first day, and since then I just ask if they’ve done their page. So simple! I’m impressed with this product, and it is one we’ll be using for many years, I believe. Click on the image below to see what 52 other families have to say about it!

Daily Math & Handwriting (Print + Cursive) {Page a Day Math Reviews}

April 2020 Photos

May 31, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 4 Comments

Esther took this picture from her bedroom window one evening. See how Simon’s red van is cocked up? He had just power-washed it inside and was letting it drain and dry.

Simon also spent a day power-washing the other vehicles. Here in our wet climate on the Coast, moss and lichens grow on vehicles, and they need a good cleaning every so often.

I’m not sure what these two pictures are all about! This is Mr. Diligence, followed by Mr. Imagination.

Someone was playing with candle wax!

One day, I made play dough. Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss spent a couple of afternoons playing with it. Mr. Imagination made this strawberry.

All three of them worked together on this sculpture. I had found a set of playdough cutters at a shop, and they had great fun with them.

Princess loves the fire!

Little Miss says that she was pretending that her bears had a broken leg, but they didn’t.

One afternoon when Miss Joy had been quiet for a good while, I found this. She had found that the lid on the white flour cannister isn’t tight! Such fun! She was puzzled when we all stood there laughing.

I read the book A Grain of Rice to Little Miss recently, and got out some rice to illustrate what was happening.

What a happy baby!

It’s fun having two little girls.

We’re able to make all the cheese we need. Each of these cheeses is made from about 20 L (five gallons) of milk, and weighs a little over 2 kg (5 pounds). We let it sit on the counter, turning it once a day, for a week or two. When it has a good rind on it, we label it with a pencil and put it in the fridge. I have a notebook in which I write down times and temperatures for each step of the process of making the cheese, so we can trouble-shoot if one isn’t good. We’ve been making Colby for the past six months, and it’s turning out the way we like it, every time.

Product Review—Reading Kingdom

May 29, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

When we were given the opportunity to review Reading Kingdom again, Mr. Imagination and Little Miss were pretty excited to use it. Little Miss has been wanting to learn to read, and Mr. Imagination remembered having fun with it a couple of years ago, the first time we reviewed this product.

Reading Kingdom uses a variety of activities to help children learn to read fluently. Each lesson introduces one word. In some lessons, the child must pick the word out from several choices of similar words, several times. Next, she must look at several words with blanks in place of some letters and choose which one would make the word being studied, then fill in the missing letters by typing them from the keyboard. After that, the word is used in various sentences, which are read to the child, who also needs to choose the proper words to make the sentence. After clicking on the words, he/she has to type them, too. Finally, at the end of the level, the child gets to read a whole story! In earlier lessons, the focus is more on learning the letters that make the word. For example, here are several activities from the lesson in which “cat” is taught.

After a week or so, I saw that Mr. Imagination was pretty bored with Reading Kingdom. He is a fluent reader now, and his abilities are way beyond this program’s usefulness for him, so I let him quit. Little Miss, however, is loving it still. She’s been using it an average of 3-4 days a week through the review period (about 5 weeks, I think), and still enjoying it. In fact, it’s a great incentive for her to get her other work done, so she can do Reading Kingdom for 20 minutes! She often does two sessions a day, which is all the program allows, although I allow her to stop whenever she wants to. She enjoys getting to do computer work like the older children, and the activities are just games to her, for the most part. She was quite frustrated at first as she learned how to click in the right places and where the keys are on the keyboard. She struggled with correlating the lower case letters shown her on the screen with the capital letters on the keyboard, but it helped that a picture of the keyboard often popped up with both capital and lower case letters on the keys and the correct one highlighted. I still did have to help her find the correct one for awhile, but for the last couple of weeks she’s been doing great.

Each child has his/her own dashboard, reached by clicking on their name on the main dashboard. The child is to click on a picture of an owl to continue with the program. You can also check their progress by scrolling down a little; here is the chart showing where Little Miss is with it. By clicking on the title of one of the sections, you can see the individual lessons, and also use this area to redo a previous lesson.

Now, the real question is, does the program work? Will it teach a child to read? I think it can. I know for sure that Little Miss is much more aware of individual words on a page; she was picking out words in the Bible one evening last week as we were reading together. I was pointing to the words as we went, and she learned to recognize a few, quickly, which she had never done before. I haven’t spent enough time watching her do her Reading Kingdom lessons to know if she can read all the words she has been introduced to, but the one time I did stop by her and check, she was able to read the sentence fairly easily. One thing I noticed that she’s picked up from it is the skill of moving from left to right on a page, which is quite important for reading well.

Would I buy a subscription to this program? I might, if it was a matter of needing something educational for my young child to do and I was overwhelmed and not able to spend the time to teach her to read. For children with no major learning issues (I have dealt with severe dyslexia, so that colors all my experiences with this sort of program), it would likely result in a child being able to read fairly well. I don’t see it building a very strong foundation in phonics, though; it seems more like sight reading to me. That being said, though, awhile after we used it two years ago, I introduced “ing” to one of the boys who had been using Reading Kingdom, thinking he had never seen it and would not know what it said. He easily read it, and when I expressed surprise, he told me he had learned it with Reading Kingdom! That showed me that this system can work. Maybe I just think it’s too lazy on my part! Anyway, I’m going to allow Little Miss to continue using it as long as she enjoys it, and see how she progresses. It sure helps me out!

Check it out for yourself! If you go to this page, hover over the Resources tab and you’ll see several sample lessons. Go through a couple of those, and see if this program would be a good fit for your child. Also, click on the image below to see what 31 other families have to say about it. Three families have also used ASD Reading, developed for children on the autism spectrum, from the same company. I always enjoy reading other people’s reviews after I have posted my own.

Harvesting in April and May

May 24, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

When I dug potatoes one day, I found this funny duck-shaped one. Mr. Imagination loved it and took a picture of it.

A few days later when the boys harvested pumpkins, he brought this one in to weigh it. He was quite impressed with its size! (That’s 6.3 kilos, or around 13 pounds.)

As usual, we had a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season. This lot was ripe and could be canned as whole tomatoes or juice: but we also had this to deal with:

I went online to find recipes, and discovered that green tomatoes are as safe to can as ripe ones, or maybe more so, since they are more acidic. I decided to make green tomato salsa first. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but the changes I made would have made it safer, since I reduced the volume of peppers. This is the proportions I used; you can find the original recipe here:
1.5 kilos green tomatoes

400 gm onions

2 small HOT peppers plus several milder ones (recipe called for 250 gm; I used more like 50-100 gm)

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup vinegar (called for lime juice, which I didn’t have)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

I coarsely chopped the tomatoes and onions, then put the peppers and garlic in the blender with the vinegar. After adding the vinegar mixture to the pot, I mixed in the salt and pepper, then brought the whole lot to a boil. I did 4-7 times this amount in each pot, using three pots at a time. And here’s a tip if you do something like this: weigh the tomatoes after chopping, then use a dry-erase marker to write the weights on the outside of the pot. It washes off easily when you’re done, and you don’t lose track of how many batches you’re making! I just discovered that this year. After the salsa has boiled for a little while, put in jars and seal. We don’t like this for eating as salsa, but it’s great in soups. I’m planning to use it through the year when I am making a soup that I want some spice in; I won’t have to chop onions for the soup, either!

Here are the jars of this salsa that we canned. A lot of the tomatoes were half ripe, which is why it looks fairly red. (I should mention that the reason we didn’t leave them to finish ripening was that the slugs were getting them and they would have rotted before ripening.)

I also experimented with pickling green tomatoes (results aren’t in yet), and made a few pots of half-ripe ones into juice. It’s not quite as tasty as juice from ripe tomatoes, but when I use it with ripe ones, we don’t mind it at all. Just a way to squeeze a little more production out of the garden!

All fruit and vege shops were shut down during lockdown, and we don’t have any on the Coast anyway. However, I have my own private one. One day I went out “shopping” and this was what I brought home for dinner. So much fun! I love walking out to the garden every afternoon to harvest what we need for that evening’s meal, and getting the rest from the freezer or jar room. We are rich, and I am thankful God has given us this place where we can grow so much food. (I think it’s good for my mental health as well as our physical health, too!)

Book Review—Avalanche

May 21, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book

Book: Avalanche
Author: M. Liz Boyle
Genre: Christian YA
Release Date: September 27, 2019

When fifteen-year-old Marlee Stanley joins her two sisters and the sons of their family friends on a secretive hike in the middle of the night, she is thrilled and nervous. Battling her conscience, she prays that the hike will go flawlessly and that they will return to the safety of their campsite before their parents wake. The start of the hike is beautiful and wonderfully memorable.

In a white flash so fast that Marlee can barely comprehend what has happened, an avalanche crashes into their path. Buried in packed snow, Marlee is forced to remember survival tips learned from her dad and her own research.

This group of friends, ages eleven through seventeen, is about to endure bigger challenges than many adults have experienced. Digging out of the packed snow is only the first of many challenges. Injuries, cold, hunger, fatigue, aggressive wildlife and tensions in the group make this a much bigger adventure than they ever imagined. As the kids strive to exhibit Christian values throughout the trials, they learn numerous life lessons. But they are nearly out of food, and their energy is waning quickly. How will they ever reach help?

My Thoughts:

My boys love stories of outdoor adventures, especially if they include survival in some sort of emergency situation. When I saw Avalanche, by M. Liz Boyle, available for review, I thought my crew might enjoy it. We read a different book by the same title several years ago, and they really liked it, so I took a chance on a YA book (I rarely read them because I don’t like most of them) and requested it.

Marlee narrates the story. She and her sisters, Ellie and Lydie, and their two friends, Sawyer and Marshall, and both sets of parents, are camping in Colorado, as they do every summer. The five young people decide they are going to climb a mountain at night so they can see the view from the top in the light of the full moon. They wait until the adults are all asleep, then slip out of camp with their packs. All goes well—until an avalanche sweeps them down the mountain, burying some of them. They all survive—but some are hurt. Can the ones who are well find a way to get help for the others?

Without much food, and no tents, the night is rough, and so is the trek off of the mountain. Interpersonal relationships are strained, especially between the girls and the boys. Marlee learns some earth-shaking facts about boys and their feelings, and Ellie confesses to her sisters that she has a crush on Sawyer. All this complicates things. Can they lay aside their feelings and work together so they all survive?

I started reading this book aloud. We got about halfway through before my boys had had enough. I skipped over a number of passages that had to do with boy/girl stuff, and they still thought there was way too much of that. All they wanted from the story was the adventure part. I read the rest of the book myself and told them what happened. So, the moral of this story is, Avalanche is not a book for boys! If you have girls who like adventure and light romance wrapped up together, it would be a good fit.

Another thing my boys didn’t like very well was that the children in the story took off at night, without their parents’ approval. The young people in the story did come to realize they had done wrong, and they apologized, but they ended up being rewarded at the end. I don’t really care for this example, either. On the other hand, this is a story about teenagers being resourceful when they needed to be, and working together to help those who are hurt. I liked the way they learned to get along together.

I received a free copy of this book from CelebrateLit, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Any links may be affiliate links; if so, they will benefit Esther’s website.

About the Author:

Liz is an author, the wife of a professional tree climber and the mom of three energetic and laundry-producing children. She received her Associate’s of Arts at the University of Sioux Falls, where she received the LAR Writing Award for her essay entitled, “My Real Life Mufasa.” Liz once spent a summer in Colorado teaching rock climbing, which she believes was a fantastic way to make money and memories. She resides with her family in Wisconsin, where they enjoy hiking and rock climbing. Liz and her husband have also backpacked in Colorado and the Grand Canyon, which have provided inspiration for her writing. She likes making adventurous stories to encourage others to find adventures and expand their comfort zones (though admittedly, she still needs lots of practice expanding her own comfort zone). She has thoroughly enjoyed working on her first novel, Avalanche, and the sequel Chased, which will release in the summer of 2020.

More From Liz:

Have you ever been tempted to take a risk even though your conscience was screaming at you? Were you able to justify the pursuit of the thrill, actually convincing yourself that what you knew to be the unwise decision made perfect sense?

I did. So did my sisters. And so did Sawyer and Marshall Miles. When Sawyer first proposed the idea of the moonlit summit on our families’ annual backpacking trip, I was terrified. But I was also hooked. Sawyer convinced us that we would be fine, and we would be back to camp before our parents woke up with the sunrise.

Hearts racing and hands trembling, we five kids snuck away from camp in the middle of the night. Hiking toward the peak, the full moon was breathtaking, the wildlife abundant, and the experience unreal.

It became a whole lot more unreal when an avalanche, roaring, white and enormous, thundered into our path. Buried in the packed snow, I would have given anything to go back in time and change my decision to go along with this foolish idea.

Digging out of the cemented snow was the first of many challenges in the coming days. Physically, emotionally and spiritually, we were all pushed to our limits.

I had always loved hiking Colorado’s peaks. But, of course, I had never had to evacuate my own sister. I had always trusted Dad’s orienteering. Now I had to trust Sawyer, who, by the way, was the brain behind this dilemma. I usually slept best while backpacking. But, mountain nights are warmer when spent in a sleeping bag. But I can’t let my mind go there. I must keep a positive outlook and trust God to bring us to safety. That’s easier said than done.

Avalanche is a Christian teen and young adult novel. This engaging journey, told by fifteen-year-old Marlee Stanley, captures a timeless sense of adventure. The five young adults strive to exhibit godly character throughout their escapade, but they have not been in such a dire situation before. It will take immense strength and cooperation to hike out of this mess.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Taking a Tramp Part 3

May 17, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here is the last installment of Mr. Diligence’s story about the boys’ tramp. Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. I have added captions to the pictures in those two posts, in case you want to go back and read more about them.

As we went on we slowly went down. We came to a scree slide that we walked across. P wasn’t feeling well. We gave him the last of our water then went on. Simon and J were carrying his pack again.

Mr. Intellectual going onto the scree slide.

Taking a break on an island on the scree slide.

An hour later we stopped for a break. We still hadn’t found water. Fifteen minutes later we found water. It was delicious. P was able to take his pack again. We came back into the bush as we went down. It was around 4:00 p.m.

Simon with an antler he found. See the trees in the left background with red/brown under the bunches of green leaves? Some locals call them monkey trees; the branches go every which way like a Dr. Seuss tuttle-tuttle tree.

These four pictures show the descent to the river.

We followed a creek down to the river. We knew approximately where the hut was. We searched for half an hour, then finally found the hut. We had rice and tuna for tea.

The track going out to civilization from the hut.

Looking back at the scree slope they had crossed the day before. This was taken after leaving the hut on Sunday morning. They thought the scree slope looked like Australia!

Sunday morning we left the hut at 8:30 a.m. We found the track and followed that. The track eventually came out on the river. We followed the river for a while, then went back to the track. We saw a couple blue ducks. Later we couldn’t keep following the creek, so we guessed there had to be a track. We finally found the track. We cleared it a little so other people could find it. One of the track markers fell down so we used a couple of J’s zip ties to fix it. Later we saw another couple of blue ducks. Blue ducks are extremely rare. They are grayish with a white bill, and on their underside they have a slight reddish tint.

Three pairs of these ducks have been sighted in this region; this group saw two of them.

There were a few boulders in the creek the size of a small house. We ate lunch near the hot springs. Then we walked out. We got home at 3:30 p.m.

Book Review—Volition

May 13, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

About the Book

Book: Volition
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian fiction, futuristic
Release Date: December 31, 2019

“I should have made that left turn at Tucumcari.”

It’s Doctor Who meets mail-order brides when “rescuers” from the future arrive to save Andi Flanders from a happy life with her loving family and fiancé.

Okay, so they meant to get her suicidal roommate, but hey. Mistakes happen, right?

And as far as Andi’s concerned, they can fix them—by sending her home.

However, when she learns what happens when she disappears from home, Andi has an impossible choice. Stay in the government-controlled futuristic world she despises and never see her family again or return to the twenty-first century and doom an innocent person to death.

Volition— Life and death decisions are so overrated.

My Thoughts:

I actually posted a review of Volition on my blog already, a day or so after it published. You can read my review here. So, why did I sign up for the tour? Simple—if I helped Chautona out by promoting her book again, she would send a copy of it to my mom! I really enjoyed the book, and I love helping Chautona out, so here we are. And I hope my mom doesn’t mind my saying it, but I hear that she told my daughter that she had to exercise great self-discipline the day that Volition arrived in the mail! I know what she means—that’s the way I am with a new book by this author! So, if you enjoy futuristic sci-fi, check out this book! Or, even if you don’t. I don’t like time travel, and I don’t like sci-fi, and this book is both—but I couldn’t put it down. And now, with the way things have happened in the last couple of months, with the COVID 19 pandemic and governments seemingly using it as an excuse to establish a police state, Volition sounds quite plausible.

I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Also, links in this post are likely affiliate links.

About the Author:

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More From Chautona:

What Happens When You Explore Logical Progressions?

She used chopsticks. Me? I’m a fork kind of gal. But over plates of sesame chicken and fried rice, we hashed out what our NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) books would be. Every year, I challenged myself. Once by writing drippy romance (Discovering Hope). Once by turning a sermon into a story that wasn’t preachy (Argosy Junction). (psst… links are affiliate links—they provide a small commission at no extra expense to you!)

This time, I’d decided the challenge would include writing in the first person. Anyone who knows me knows how much I don’t like the first-person perspective. As we tried to figure out what our plots would be, my friend added another challenge. “Do science fiction.”

I’ll be honest. I almost laughed her out of the restaurant. But then an idea hit me. Why shouldn’t I? I could kill two dislikes in one book. Bam! Done!

That kicked off a book I probably never would have written otherwise.

I knew doing major techno-science stuff wouldn’t be conducive to trying to write 50,000 words in thirty days, so I immediately chose futuristic over space travel. The decision to go with a form of time travel was probably inspired by Doctor Who, now that I think of it. I didn’t back then. I just went with what I thought I might be able to make interesting—to write, if not to read.

That kicked off an idea that sent my brain spinning.

What would happen if you got kidnapped and taken to the future, but returning to your former life means someone’s soul will never be redeemed?

Of course, it would take a really strong, amazing character to pull off that kind of thing. Not everyone could do it. But who… who give up her life for someone else?

That’s when I knew. That soul saved would have to belong to someone my character didn’t even like. Gotta raise the stakes, you know?

That’s also when I discovered that I wouldn’t like her—not at first.

Andi Flanders jumped onto the page with hands on hips and eyes flashing. She was livid that people in the future had interfered with her life. Then she’s broken when she realizes she can’t go back.

Fiercely independent, Andi enters futuristic Rockland with a critical eye and condemning spirit. Since most sci-fi stuff I’ve seen focuses on sleek, pristine futures full of glass and steel, I wanted to go a different direction. But how?

That’s when my solution came to me.

I’d take today’s world and push everything to logical exaggerated conclusions.

Environmentalism? We’ll have a world that tries not to encroach on nature any more than necessary
Population? I took China’s “one child” policy and made it worldwide… and then let the future deal with the fallout.
Globalism? I let them have their one-world government that protects everyone from themselves.
Apathetic faith? I didn’t persecute Christians. I just let their faith die a slow, natural death.

And then I threw in a character with a love for Jesus and a minor obsession with Ayn Rand’s objectivism. Yes, I’m aware that those two things can be mutually exclusive. That was the fun of it.

This Rand-spouting, Jesus loving, freckle-faced, fiery redhead had to deal with all if this stuff in a world as opposite from her freedom-loving self as can stand.

Ninety-thousand words later, I was done. And then I shelved the book.

For ten years.

On December 27, 2019, I got a message from my son.

He’d found a book cover design contest and wondered if he should enter. And if so, with what book? We hashed out ideas when I remembered Volition. It wasn’t edited. Done, but not edited. Could I possibly get the whole thing cleaned up before December 31 rolled over into January 1?

I decided to try.

Nolan got to work on a cover while I began editing like nobody’s business.

With the help of my amazing launch team, an incredible editor, and no sleep, the book was live on New Year’s Eve with three hours to spare.

Then my son decided not to worry about entering this year.

He lives. This is a testimony to God’s grace and control over my life. And my hands.

Or maybe it’s because he lives three hours south of me, and I’ve only seen him once since then. You don’t kill your son at your daughter’s wedding reception. Just sayin’.

But let’s go with the first reason. It makes me sound more spiritual or something.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Product Review—Beyond the Stick Figure Art School

May 12, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I have a son, Mr. Imagination, who loves to draw and wants to learn more about art. When we were offered the opportunity to use the Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course Plus 3 Bonus Courses from Beyond the Stick Figure Art School, he was very enthusiastic. This sounded perfect—a step-by-step, incremental guide to art.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss working on an art project.

The first several lessons went very well; both he (age 8) and Little Miss (age 5) loved doing the projects, and even Mr. Sweetie (age 10) joined us. We learned about circles and dots, and curved lines and straight lines, and practiced looking for these in objects around the house. We drew circles on paper, and made pages of bubbles, then colored them in with markers. We drew designs with each of the other components of pictures, too, and colored pretty designs. Then, we started drawing flowers. I really liked the projects where we drew a flower in the foreground and then more behind it! I have never considered myself an artist, but I could do that!

As we moved on, however, my little ones got bogged down in the repetition. We ended up skipping a large section of lessons so that I could see what the rest of the course was like, in order to tell you in this review, and found a project that they liked better. We got to draw hills, cover the nearest one with grass, and paint the picture with a watercolor wash. Everyone enjoyed that! Unfortunately, because of the lockdown due to COVID 19, we did not have proper watercolor paper. We had to use printer paper, because that’s all we have (we were not able to get more because it’s nonessential), and it doesn’t work well with watercolors.

We also were not able to get the markers that are recommended. I think if we had been able to, the earlier projects would have been much more satisfying. She recommends Prismacolor markers, and they aren’t sold in this country anywhere that I could find, even without lockdown, so I bought the only ones I could find. They were washable, which means the color ran and mixed in ways we didn’t want it to. If you want to use this course, try to find the proper markers (if you live in America, they are on Amazon—shipping is much too high for me to be able to get them that way here).

Anyway, back to the course. The next section, which we haven’t done anything with yet, is about watercolor painting. It looks fun! Even though my little ones are tired of this course, because of the constant repetition, I think I can interest them in the painting part of it. I watched a few of the instructional videos, and in them she was teaching how to create different tones of paint. Once we are able to get watercolor paper, I want to try this. As with all the other lessons, these techniques are taught baby step by baby step.

Further lessons cover acrylic painting and sculpture. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to those lessons. They sound interesting; it’s just that Mr. Imagination feels pretty bored with the lessons we have done. I feel like this course, although it is simple enough for young children to do, would be better for older ones who can understand the need for repetition.

All the lessons are presented as 1-10 minute videos, with the instructor, who happens to be a homeschooling mother herself, talking through what she is doing and wants her students to be doing. She has a lovely British accent (and I can now tell the difference between British and Kiwi!). We did have some issues with the videos. The worst simply had to do with our computer. These videos are from Vimeo, and my computer often freezes when I play Vimeo videos. We had to do a lot of reloading to make them work. Also, the sound is very quiet on some of them, and even with our speakers plugged in, we had to strain to hear her talking. Here is a picture of our dashboard. It is very easy to move from one lesson to the next, although we have to mark each one complete in order to move on. It’s extremely easy to go back to a previously completed lesson!If you have a child interested in art, this might be something to look into. It certainly is easy to use; just watch a video to see what materials you will need for a given section, then move on and watch each instructional video and follow directions. Click the image below to read what 80 different families have to say about this course.

Beyond the Stick Figure Complete Drawing Course {Beyond the Stick Figure Art School}

Taking a Tramp Part 2

May 10, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

This is the rest of Mr. Diligence’s story.

From Elizabeth Hut we wanted to go to Cone Creek Hut. There is no trail going between. We would have had to go back to the hot springs and back up another track. So we decided to find our way over the mountain.

That morning P said he was sick. We asked if we should just head down. He said he could make it to Cone Creek. We set out at 9:00 a.m. We headed up the mountain behind Elizabeth Hut. It wasn’t very steep at first. As we headed up we were climbing over logs. We came to a few cliffs but were able to skirt around them or over. After about an hour we had to go on all fours. We stopped for a rest then went on. By 11:00 a.m., we had made it to the ridge line that we were going to follow up. Half an hour later we came to a cliff where we could look down the valley. J took both tents so P wouldn’t have to carry as much weight. We decided to have lunch at the top of a steep climb. We got to the top and P collapsed and promptly fell to sleep. J crawled up and collapsed.

Looking up the valley during a rest stop.

The bushes from the center to the right of this photo are called turpentine bushes.

The ditch is a fault line. Mr. Intellectual is about in the center of the photo. They walked through the lower right area here, up to where he is and on.

They walked up the spur in the center of the photo to where Mr. Diligence is standing to take the picture.

We had lunch around 12:00 p.m. Simon and C took both tents so J wouldn’t have as much weight. P was feeling a lot better after his rest. We continued on and were soon out of the bush. P was not doing very well so J and Simon started taking turns carrying his pack. We got to the top by 2:00 p.m. We had climbed about 1000 meters. We walked along the ridge. In one place on the ridge there was a rock face that we could go around. But Simon and C decided to climb over. By that time P had taken back his pack.

Going on up the ridge. This is C, J, and P.

Looking ahead where they needed to go. They walked across the scree slope, up to the top near the right side of this picture, then followed the very top of the ridge.

Mr. Intellectual, then Simon, then P on the ridge.

Looking down the valley from the top of the ridge.

Looking back to where J and C were coming along behind.

A rock formation that some climbed over–and Mr. Diligence and some others were “smart enough to go around.”

Mr. Intellectual taking a rest on top of the world.

Lichens on rocks on the top of the ridge.

We were having a rest on the ridge before we began to go down. Some chamois ran below us. We saw one standing on a hill about a hundred meters away. Some of the others started to baa. The chamois came running toward us and got within ten meters. Then it started running circles around us. P said he had never seen that before.

Mr. Diligence took a couple of video clips of the young chamois running around, so I put them together here. It was disoriented, and trying to find the rest of the flock. The baaing in the video is the boys/men trying to get it to come closer. It ran all the way around them, and then off to join the others.

to be continued…

Book Review—Oh, Gracious!

May 7, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

About the Book

Book: Oh, Gracious!
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian fiction, contemporary Romance, woman’s fiction
Release Date: March 31, 2020

Life is too short to settle for just anyone.
Grace gave her whole heart to Jesus, but now he wants a part of it.

All she ever wanted was to be a homemaker.

Sure, she has a degree in physics. Yes, she could have a lucrative job in Rockland, but Grace Buscher enjoys her life as a single homemaker. As they say, it’s her choice.

As a successful business owner, a handsome guy, and heir to a small fortune, it’s no wonder Nolan Burke is one of Rockland’s most eligible bachelors. The problem is, he hasn’t met anyone who isn’t looking for a “trophy husband.”

Don’t family-centered women exist anymore?

Grace isn’t exactly eye candy. Nolan is a bit blind. So when an “accidental meeting” forges an unlikely friendship, it becomes obvious to everyone that it’s likely to become more.

But is Grace ready to give up the life she loves for the man she loves?

Find out in this completely updated, revised, and improved version of Chautona Havig’s first novel, Noble Pursuits.

My Thoughts:

One of the few books by Chautona Havig that I hadn’t yet read was Noble Pursuits. I believe it was the first book she published, and she has just now finished rewriting it as Oh, Gracious! I enjoyed reading it as she finished sections—I could hardly wait for the next installment to come along. Now, the entire book is available for your enjoyment and inspiration.

Nolan was fed up with women flirting with him and doing their best to get him to take them out—but yet he wanted to get married. He wanted a godly woman who wanted to be a homemaker; was such a person in existence anywhere near Rockland? Did he really have to move to a different area in order to find her?

Grace canned fruit to sell to friends, babysat children, and made handcrafts for her living. She had a degree in physics—but she wanted to be a homemaker. For a year now, she had proved that she could stay at home and make a living for herself, even if money was tight at times. She had given her whole heart to Jesus, she loved her life, and she wasn’t interested in changing.

And then, Nolan moved into the house across the road from Grace and they met in a rather dramatic way. Nolan was intrigued by this woman who seemed to be everything he wanted in a woman, and who wasn’t throwing herself at him. Could she learn to share her heart with a man, when Jesus already had all of it?

I love this story! It is delightfully sweet, but not mushy. I loved Grace; her focus on doing traditional woman’s work is something I really like. Her heart for God is wonderful to see, as well. Nolan was a great hero, too. He was loving, strong and sensitive—and real. There were times when both of them lost their cool, and then we got to see them calm down and make things right. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Christian women’s fiction.

I received a free copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Also, links in this post are likely affiliate links, and anything purchased through the link will benefit Esther’s website.

About the Author:

More From Chautona:

Wow, My Beloved First Book Was a Hot Mess

On my blog, I sometimes answer readers’ questions, and one of the earliest ones was, “Since you zip out your books so fast, do you ever later wish you had done something differently with them?”

My answer today is the same as back then—usually. No. Yes, I sometimes regret not being able to tell a supporting character’s story because the book has given away that person’s past and/or future. Still, most of the time, I tell the story as I want it.

But in that post about “regrets,” I said that as I learn, I definitely wish to improve sentences here, and others there. I did this already with Argosy Junction, the second book that I published. The first two or three books were experiments where I made many serious mistakes. Took bad advice. Didn’t know the right things to research. All the mistake-ness.

Total transparency here. I chose Argosy Junction to revise first because I made fewer mistakes on it. Still lots, but not as many as my first book, Noble Pursuits.

Bad editing advice, horrible cover design (twice), and just basic writing craft stuff that I didn’t know when I started this whole journey all culminated in a book I both loved (the story) and hated (the final result). Many reviewers said the same thing, too. That poor book has the worst reviews of all of my books combined.

And for good reason.

But it’s a good story—one I love, as I said—and it has some strong fans. Some readers were able to look past the problems and see the heart of what I tried to do with it. And that was a beautiful thing. Those readers, actually, are the ones I’ve rewritten this book for.

Yes, I rewrote Noble Pursuits. While every sentence isn’t completely rewritten, enough are that I considered it a new book, not just a revised one.

A few readers have panicked to see the title changed, the story rewritten. They’ve asked if I took out this or even that. I took out and added nothing that 99.9% of readers would ever notice. And it’s a better book for it.

I am updating the original Noble Pursuits file with the new text. I’m doing this in hopes that those who already own that book can go into their digital content on Amazon and get the updated version. I don’t know if it will work, but I pray it does.

Meanwhile, for those who’ve asked why they can’t buy the first book on my Suggested Reading Order list, well… now you can!

Oh, Gracious! has been a long time coming, but she’s here with a new title, rewritten content, and even a lovely new cover by the brilliantly talented Perry Elizabeth. It took what seems like forever to settle on a title, but we finally did. Why we chose Oh, Gracious! however, is a story for another day.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.