I always enjoy some brainless activity on Tickld.com at night. This sight can be very insulting for those that are sensitive. However, did find this little pictorial about a birthday Oreo.

I know I will be doing this one day, just to say I did. 

There is something, that if you don' t know me already won't come as much of a shock, I'm very ADD in my thinking. 

Let me give you an example. While I was listening to the radio this morning the Glenn Beck show came on. (It happens.) Either way, I remembered awhile back about Beck getting onto a tirade about books that every parent should force their child to read. 

That got me to thinking: what books should every child read at some point in their education? What books will they actually get something out of. 

Many would say to look at the classics like Homer's epic poems, or something from Charles Dickens. Um, not so much. I've been forced to teach The Iliad and The Odyssey along with David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. My students gained nothing from these novels. They actually stopped reading them after the first few "chapters." 

This is a short list of books that I found gave great life lessons and that students actually took an interest in.

# 5: All of the Above.  This novel is written by a Cleveland, Ohio native about a school in Cleveland, Ohio. Actually, it's about the students at the school in Cleveland. 

Students at a Cleveland middle school have lost all interest in their math class. Not that they had any to begin with. Yet, their burned out math teacher has one last thing to try; building the world's largest tetrahedron. 

During the process, students who are unlikely to work on anything together manage to get a whole community to support their project along with new friends to help support them.

This book is great for teaching conflict. Not just the typical Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self, Man vs. Society, but it is perfect for teaching internal and external conflict. Students tend to relate to these characters also. The language used is modern (clean) slang and the students have always easily understood what the characters are going through.

Out of all the years I have taught this book, my entire class finishes it on their own before they even think about finishing it with me.

# 4 Fahrenheit 451: Want to talk to your children (or students) about Big Brother, try this novel. 


A local fireman is getting board with his job. Almost no one needs firemen anymore. At least not for the job that the government has intended it to do: burn books that encourage free thinking and creativity. The world has become a place of government induced fear and socialism in it's purest form. 

Just like All of the Above, Fahrenheit 451 has great lesson in conflict. It also teaches about different government systems and takes a "What if..." approach to the extremes. Bradbury made sure to give a staunch warning to all of his reader about a world to freedom was only a delusion and the government had full control over everyone's lives, much like George Orwell's 1984. 

Beware, however, of the language. Fahrenheit 451 has been banned in schools because of the amount of cursing. The "F" bomb is dropped more than a couple of times. 

To go along with 451, Bradbury has some other great classics that teach about science fiction and other social issues:

There Will Come Soft Rains - A short story about a house surviving a nuclear attack where the people of the house have died. A eye opening reminder of how fragile human life is and how the world will go one when we die. Also great for teaching history and personification.

All Summer in a Day: Imagine living on Venus. In All Summer in a Day, a group of school children get to enjoy the planets entire summer season in the span of one hour. This is an interesting short story because it opens up conversations about space, weather, and bullying.

The Dragon: This science fiction short story plays with the idea of someone from the past reacting to technology from the future. Written in a foreboding tone, this story is great for teaching mood, tone, personification, creativity, and the idea of time. 

# 3 The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School: For something silly, but meaningful, this is the perfect book. 

The Fourth grade class at Aesop Elementary School has managed to terrorize every teacher they have ever had. That was until they met their new fourth grade teacher. 

Each chapter is one of Aesop's classic fable's retold and ends with a moral. This is a nice way of teaching hyperbole and fables. It is also a great way of starting conversations about things that our students (and children) actually care about. 

This book is written at a lower level, but even my upper leveled students enjoyed it. They find the ideas and antics humorous and each student has the one "chapter" that sticks with them more than the rest. 

# 2 Animal Farm: Back to the serious novels. 

After managing a successful coup the animals on Animal Farm are looking for a new group of leaders that will treat each animal as if they were kings and queens. They find the pigs instead. 

This novel walks students through the progression of a true socialistic society and boldly points out the hypocrisies found in the inner workings of that type of political society. 

This is also a fable in it's purest form. The animals talk, the pigs are the leaders, and all other animals are considered stupid. This book is amazing for teaching different governmental systems and for getting students to truly think about what is happening in the world around them. 

Oddly enough Orwell was a believer in socialism when he wrote this book, yet he was still inspired to write a novel warning others about what could happen if (in his mind) leaders perverted socialism and became too greedy. 

# 1 The Holy Bible: No list is complete without a real non-fiction read.

Christ said it best, "Jesus saith to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one doth come unto the Father, if not through me;" ~ John 14:6 (YLT) 

The Bible is the ultimate truth. Every child should read it with their entire family. Pick any literary concept and it can be found in the Bible. Vocabulary enhancements run rampant for students who need an extended vocabulary and the moral, social, government, and life lessons in this book are obvious.  

For our children to be truly successful in their life they need to know Him. The only way to know Him is through His word. The best part about the Bible? No matter how many times you read it, you gain something new each time. Finishing the Bible used to be something that people were once proud of, now it seems equivalent to scaling the world's tallest mountain. Something rarely.

Next time you're wondering what to have your child read next, this list should help. Granted it's only five books, but these books lead to many others that are just as inspiring and worthy as any classic for every child to read.

That is all I can say at this point.

There has been an on-going battle in my house. It is the war on meat by my four-year-old. To be specific, white meat. Like me, he enjoys red meat more and doesn't complain when I force him to eat something that came from a cow. 

I don't know why. We just like beef more.

Either way, my husband gave my son the decision last night. Eat your meat (as he had eaten everything else on his plate) or go to bed. The child chose bed. 

Not a bad choice. We put him down at 7:00 and he was out by 7:30. He was one sleepy fellow. Sadly, this meant that he would be up extremely early. 

I expected his usual 12 hour sleep cycle. NOPE! 2 AM folks. He woke up with nightmares at 2 in the morning. This means that I was up at 2 in the morning with him.

My little man is now still going strong at 1:23 in the afternoon. He did fall back asleep at  7 and woke up at 8. (Yeah! One hour nap!) I'm exhausted and unmotivated. He's happy as can be playing in his room. 

Oh to have that energy again.

One thing I've always wanted to try since my husband and I first moved into our house was planting a vegetable garden. There were a few different reasons for this. It was something to do outside during the summer that my son could help me with. It is more cost effective than buying fresh produce from the supermarket, and I know where the produce came from! 

With as much as we eat fresh veggies in the summer, I figured this would save us a lot of time and money from running to the store several times a week. 

One thing I have for a garden is a lot of space. As you can see from the picture, we have a large, empty backyard. 

Sadly, today is a cold, wet winter day so not so nice to take pictures in. Yet, planning waits for no one!

This is just one view of our backyard. 

Only three things are taking up space back there, the old concrete pad from the garage that used to be there, a small shed, and my son's swing set. 

As you can see, I pretty much have a blank canvas to work with. : )


I do know what I want to plant, but I am having the same problem that I have every year I attempt a garden and it gets squashed by something else. 


Where do I start? At first I thought it was just getting ideas. Well, thanks to Pinterest, I have more ideas than I can shake a stick at. I have all sorts of how-to's saved and awaiting my perusal.

This is it. It's 10'5" x 7'. Not a bad piece of land for a starting garden. It gets full sunlight most of the summer since it faces the north. (Thank you Lake Erie for making it easy to determine direction where I live.) 

Now I just need to know how do I actually get started and WHEN! I'm hoping to start planting during my spring break, but that isn't until April 13th. (Oh, the joys of being a teacher.) I'm hoping that won't be too late for somethings, like strawberries. 

I also want to start from seeds and not baby plants. That is easier  to accomplish since I can start that in the house. 

I can't wait to see how these pictures change through out 2014 and I complete my to do list this spring and summer. I guess I'm going to have to wait for the Ohio winter to pass first. After all, we do need the refreshing of the soil from the snow and freezing weather before we can start to enjoy God's creation again.

When I first had my son, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law recommended the book from the Pearls To Train Up a Child. The title was taken from the famous Biblical verse: 

In my circle of friends and sisters in Christ there seems to be a consensus, the Pearls take things a bit to the extreme. That's okay. It works for them. I think that they have some great and helpful lessons to tell, but I'm not one willing to do what they call "Baby Boot Camp." 

That said, there is something that I think is important for my son to learn at a young age: our beliefs. For awhile I had a hard time trying to figure out what to use. Everything I have is more than a little beyond him, but I want him to know that the answer to every question in church is not always "Jesus." There is more to our beliefs than that. 

That is when I started paying attention to what one of my pastor's is using with his son. Then I started seeing it with one of my friends from church. Finally, I saw a copy of it during the toddler church that my was attending. 

It was a Toddler's Catechism. Yeah, never saw that before. I kinda like it.  

While the questions seem simple, they are the foundation for what we believe and what our church teaches. I really think if we teach our children young about who God is and help them to know Him younger they will be more willing to stay in their faith. 

There is something behind the verse from Proverbs. 

If you would like a copy of this catechism please click here. You can also visit Gratia Dei Sola Media's Free Download page here. There are a lot of resources that a great for all ages so peruse carefully. 

One thing I learned about this Christmas season was how important it is to spend time with God as a family. Each night, before bed, we would gather at our table, read a passage of scripture, read a short devotion, and pray. Some of the prayers made my husband giggle a little, but I wasn't saying the prayer for his humor. 

This time at our table led me to thinking, what is really important in our life? Some will say money. Money fixes everything. 

I want to be very clear with this, money fixes nothing. 

Think of the people who win large amounts on the lottery. We hear (sadly, more often than it probably happens) about people who went from rags to riches and back again. Money can be a great help, but money cannot be the most important thing. 

There is just so much in this life that cannot be brought. The cliche is often you can't buy love. I'm not even thinking of love. I'm thinking of righteousness. 

Righteousness can only come from Christ. Righteousness is a gift. It cannot be brought. It can only be given through the grace of God.

While money may not be our main answer, may be just living a moral life will help our family. 

Morality is nice, but if its not done for the right reasons, then it isn't worth anything. Morality is easy. Just follow the laws and behave yourself and you are moral. An atheist can be a very moral person. I know a few. They are great people who are kind and generous, but they will die and fade into dust one day. (Unless you talk to Pope Francis who said that an atheist can go to heaven by living a moral life.)

Dear Pope Francis, Please read the following:

I love this section of John because of the hope in it. He's preparing his apostles for his death and explains that in Heaven there are mansions for all of God's children. 

Notice I said "God's children." This means that we need to belong to God. In all we do, it should be for his glory and not our own. An atheist does nothing for God's glory  because he doesn't believe in God. An atheist doesn't know Him. 

While I may not have given my life over to a specific Christian denomination, I can read. This verse is not meant to be take as a figure of speech. It's pretty clear. So is 1 Timothy 2:5.

With that in mind, I need to also point out an observation: morality is subjective. What is moral in the eyes of one, is immoral in the eyes of another. Let me pose this question to you, if a person steals to feed his family is this a moral act? Stealing is wrong, but taking care of his family is the right thing to do. d

When I was in college I had a philosophy teacher who taught that "no one errs willingly." Yet, many choose to make these type of decisions. They choose to do what is wrong and then try to excuse it away as a moral act in which they had no choice. 

This brings me to my final point, the one thing that I found to be the most important part of life. No matter what I do, I need to do it for the glory of God. 

Many moons ago there was a fad out there called WWJD. Most of us remember what those letters stand for, "What Would Jesus Do?" I think this question is poorly stated. If we what to be filled with God's gift of grace and glory we need to just accept him and remember it's not just thinking like Jesus, but also making choice to please God.  

We tend to do a job according to who we do it for. Think about it this way: if someone hires you for a job and you know that they will accept anything you give them, are you going to put as much effort in it as you would for someone who is willing to pay more for it, but demands more out of you? Probably not. 

God is our ultimate boss. He has the largest payout in the universe; eternal life. Why not do things for him heartily? It would be foolish  not to.

One way I wanted to start this blog a few months ago was by stating a fact. In life, and existence in general, it's not about me. 

In America, today, children are taught at a young age that everything is about them. Laws are created to protect them. Houses are padded and plugged up to protect them, and schools are telling students to worry about themselves first. After all, that's a good way to keep children in a classroom to stop involving themselves in other's affairs. However, the phrase "Worry about yourself first." is taken the wrong way by students. 

When children are taught that the world does not revolve around them it is an amazing shock. Heaven forbid someone teach them at a young age that there is a more important person out there than they are. 

We are told in the Bible that (1 Corinthians 10:31) That no matter what we do, we should do it for the glory of God. This single verse points out that what we do has nothing to do with us. We are not here for our glory. We are here to give God glory. 

At this time of year it is hard to remember that sometimes. People are busy shopping and worrying about what gifts they will be pulling the wrapping from on Christmas morning (or eve in some houses.) The reason we celebrate Christmas is to give Christ glory. The reason we celebrate it in December is something completely different. Either way, Christmas is about CHRIST, not about us, our friends, or even our families.

This coming year, in all that I do, I will work towards making everything about Christ and not about me. That's my first step in being a better me.

One of the first things they teach a new college student in "teacher college" is to no over use worksheets. In some classes it is even considered a form of blaspheme. Yet, there are times when doing worksheets are helpful. For example, teaching a reluctant 4-year-old how to write.

Either way, there is a time when a teacher (no matter where the learning is taking place) needs a good worksheet. 

Last year I found a great site on Pinterest that made handwriting worksheets. And, in true Sara style, I didn't save the link. Now I can't find that site to save my life. 

Here is where google came to the rescue. I did a couple of nifty searches to find a site that would take what I typed and turn it into dotted lines for my son. I ended up finding worksheetsworks.com

The best thing about this site is that a person can create and print more than just handwriting worksheets for their "students." In my case I used this site to create cursive handwriting worksheets for my 5th grade students and basic handwriting sheets for my preschooler and his classmates. 

After doing some exploring, there are a lot more supplemental sheets I can use to help both my son and my students.  I don't get to share too many free things with people on the wide web, but I'm thrilled to share this one. 

This is one of our family staple recipes. Most people call it Shepard's Pie. However, my father dubbed it Garbage years ago. 

Why?

He started calling it garbage because my mother would take all of the left over veggies in the fridge and throw it in with some ground beef and give it to us with a side of mashed potatoes. 

That's pretty much what this is, or at least what it could be. Considering I live in the house with a hollow legged child (shown on the right) we rarely have left overs anymore. 

This is such a filling meal it is great for using up left overs and for families on a budget. 
here is what I end up doing:

What you'll need:

• 1 - 2lbs of Ground beef. We usually go the 2lb route.
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 Green Pepper, chopped
• 1 - 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8 potatoes boiled, and mashed
• Frozen mixed or left over veggies 
• 2 cups cheese (we like a lot of cheese, you can use less if you prefer.)
• 1/2 cup of milk
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Order of Operations:

1. In a large skillet fry the onion, green pepper, garlic salt and pepper, and meat.
2. Boil and mash the potatoes at the same time.
3. While everything is cooking take your veggies and rinse or defrost them in the sink. I usually just run warm water over frozen veggies for this.

4.     Once the potatoes are cooked and mashed and the meat, onion, green peppers, and garlic are fried, mix the veggies and meat mixture together in a greased 10 inch round deep pie pan. (Word to the Wise:  Place the pie pan on top of a cookie sheet with raised sides. It makes it easier to clean later.)

5.     Cover the mixture with the mashed potatoes.

6.      Cover the mashed potatoes with the two cups of shredded cheese.

7.    Pour the milk on top of it all and baked in the oven for 30-45 minutes.

You'll know it is done when the cheese is not just melted, but starting to brown on the edges.  The end product is a beautiful cheese lava topped meal with manly mix on the inside. 

Considering I live with only males, the manly mix in the center is a perfect meal for our family.