Phillis Wheatley -- Slave and Poet #womenshistorymonth

March is Women's History Month. Even though I have a bookshelf full of books to review and share with you, I thought I would take time out to share about Phillis Wheatley. Hazel has a history presentation today on Phillis Wheatley so we have been learning quite a bit about her lately. I can't wait to see Hazel dressed up as her and do her presentation. There is a photo below. 

Easter Around the World--France, Spain and Portugal

Today we are going to continue exploring Easter Around the World. Today's stops will be Spain, Portugal and France. Now my first knowledge of Easter in Spain came when my grandparents toured Spain and Morocco at Easter time. They brought back for me a doll which was filled with candy. The doll I had in our doll collection, however it always made me feel uncomfortable, because if you do not know about the Easter celebrations in Spain, it looked like a member of the Ku Klux Klan. It did not help that the doll was wearing a red robe with a white headdress (so red where the picture above is white and white where it is blue or similar to the ones below without the black capes).

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Source: By Alessio Damato (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Now these marchers are called penitents. They represent feeling sorry for any bad acts. They often carry the cross or Jesus on the cross and find it a heavy burden to carry for their sins. In Spain, Holy Week is called Semana Santa. People drape black clothes from balconies and statues of Mary are dressed in black lace. As they are mourning the death of Jesus. There are parades like the one above and people dress up in clothes that were worn in Jesus' time. On Good Friday men take part in Los Tamborados. It is a ceremony where they beat drums to mourn the death of Jesus. Even when the drummer gets tired he does not stop. No candles are lit in the church on Good Friday or Holy Saturday. On Easter a special candle is lit in the churches to symbolize Christ's victory over death. Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are not a big thing in Spain. For children too young to receive the First Communion, the dessert on Good Friday is mona. Mona is a large bun decorated with colorful eggs. Once a child receives their First Communion, they have more serious things to think of and no longer get the special mona.

Source: By Fun25 (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Source: By Joseolgon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

Portugal has a very similar celebration as Spain. On Good Friday crowds gather in town wearing the white hoods as a sign to God they are sorry for their sins. They pray and carry torches. In some parades children carry floats that tell a story from the Bible. In the evening there are Easter fireworks to show light comes out of darkness. The new hope and new life are born. In Braga, there have a funeral procession for the Lord.

Source: By Joseolgon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

France Source

In parts of France there are similar Good Friday parades. In Sartène, a man in red robes and hood covering his face, called the Red Penitent, carries a cross through the streets (see picture above). He is followed by men in black robes chanting a hymn. This goes on until midnight. In Corsica the penitent repeats the suffering of Christ by carrying a heavy cross. Otherwise Easter or Pâques in French is very similar to Easter in the United States. Children who go to their first confession on Holy Saturday may bring eggs as a gift to the priest. La Semaine Sainte or Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday where people bring branches to church. The decorated branches can be from palm trees or many other types. Palm Sunday is also called Pâques Fleuries or Easter in bloom. In France the children are told that on the evening of Holy Thursday the church bells fly away to Rome. No bells are rung until Easter morning when the bells fly back. The bells drop chocolate bunnies, bells, and eggs for the children to find when they fly back. The chocolate is from the Pope who the bells visited. In some parts of France children look for little chariots of goodies. The Easter Bunny also makes an appearance by hiding little nests that the children make and leave out Saturday night. The children have a great time looking for all the treasures. A game children play in France is to throw raw eggs in the air. The first person to drop one loses the game. 

That is our look at Easter in Spain, Portugal and France. I find the similarity of the hooded outfits so interesting. All of my information for this post came from the books shown above and from Euroclub Schools - Easter in France which has some great information about the holiday from a child's perspective. If you live in one of these countries and want to correct or add something about your celebration, please let me know!

For more Multicultural and Easter Posts check out:

• Easter in Ukraine and Russia
• Multicultural Easter Books
• My Easter Craft Round-Up
• Easter in Guatemala
• My Easter Pinterest Board
• My Multicultural Resource Pinterest Board
• Easter in Ethiopia
• Easter in Sweden 
• Legend of the Sand Dollar (an Easter Story)
   

Parenting, Discpline and God

So I was all set to publish a fun little craft we did today and tie it into some books from the library, but that will have to wait. I am going to get serious and deep here, so if you don't want to go there with me you may want to skip this post.

I've been reading Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. I am going to apologize now, because I learned about this book on someone's blog, but apparently I did not pin it. So if it was your blog, please let me know so I can source you!! I'm only in the beginning of Chapter 4. Tedd Tripp is a father and a minister (possibly retired). I have been reading a chapter here and there for a few months now. In this book, Tedd Tripp discusses how everything you need to know about parenting and discipline are in the Bible. He also says any age child should know God and show a tendency to love God or to disobey God (and be self-centered). Or at least that is what I have taken from what I have read. 

Now Hazel is three and a half and I have to say I do not totally agree with the knowing God or being self-centered here. One example he used was when two children fight over a toy. Most parents, teachers, etc. say the toy should go to the person who had it first, but he says actually both children are in the wrong since God wants us to treat each other as we would want to be treated so the first child should have given the other child the toy if he/she is following God. Now I don't know too many any three-year-olds willing to give up a toy they are enjoying because another child wants it without some adult intervention. I honestly do not think the child's reasoning is far enough along at that point to understand that. 

However I do agree with many things said in the book. Today I was beginning Chapter 4 and he gave an example of disciplining his own son (a typical conversation between them) with him telling his child he must discipline (ok, he said spank but I will not spank Hazel) because that is what God says must happen when a child does not obey his/her mother/father. 

So this evening at dinner, Hazel and I were discussing spilling her juice. I explained if it was an accident it was all right, but it is not something she should try to do. We have had this discussion many times. About ten minutes later I watch as she takes her closed hand and pushes her filled juice cup over. Needless to say, I was not happy. (I should add that this is a day where we did not see Steven. He went with friends from work on a hike. When we first talked about him going I did not realize it would be an entire day thing. He left at 6 a.m. and now after 8 p.m. he is not home. Hazel amazingly slept until after 7 a.m. which is basically unheard of in our house, so she is missing Daddy since she did not see him at all.) 

While cleaning up the mess and trying to keep it from damaging anything, I explained to her that doing it on purpose was not funny or fun and for that she would need to be disciplined. I went into the whole story of that God wants me to discipline her like the book said. She was not happy with the discipline which was that I would only read one story to her this evening instead of our normal three and only told her one without a book as well which I often only tell her one and then Daddy tells her more. Yes, she was crying and upset about this, but I did not cave. I really try not to cave when she cries since her father and my mother-in-law often do. I do not want her to think she can get whatever she wants by crying. 

Well before she fell asleep we had a long discussion well I guess I had a long discussion about God and my beliefs. I had asked her if she had any questions about the discipline or my reason or about God. She answered yes, but asked me to tell her. She doesn't quite get what a question is all the time. So I told her I could tell her my beliefs, and she said she wanted that. Somehow, I feel awful about the whole experience. I'm not sure why, but I do. I'm hoping it is just because it has been a long, busy day. 

I have been trying to introduce God to her more. We do almost nightly prayers, but I'm not totally sure she gets it all. We go to church, but at church she goes to the nursery and plays with high school students (who are also her babysitters mostly) during the school year. It is only in the summer when the nursery is not open or when she goes to mass with Steve and his mother that she is in church. Oh, and the Christmas pageant when we are angels. I have found this book helpful to start introducing God to her and what being a Christian means. 

How have you introduced God to your child? Do you use God in your discipline? Any thoughts?

Mother Daughter Religion Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you look for ways to help your daughter grow in her relationship with God? Several years ago I found Just Mom and Me Having Tea by Mary Murray.
I have wanted to do it with Hazel and thought about having friends do it with us. I decided to finally plan one. Hazel and I checked out Oriental Trading's religious page to see what fun things we could use with the first chapter. The first chapter is God Made Me Special, so we looked for things that were either garden themed (since we wanted a garden tea party) and about our how God created us and loves us. 

Review of Indonesian Children's Favorite Stories -- Multicultural Monday

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

January is always an exciting month here at Crafty Moms Share. It always represents Multicultural Children's Book Day since it is held the last Friday in January and the books are reviewed throughout the month of January. I am co-hosting once again this year as well as one of the many book reviewers for the event. Tuttle Publishing is always a sponsor of this event and although this book qualifies to be part of it I am not reviewing it today for Multicultural Children's Book Day. It is one I have on my review shelf before I started getting the books for the event. 

Sharing Saturday 17-14

Have you entered my current giveaway for 18 amazing books having to do with not your typical princesses?

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts.

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party! So many great ideas as usual from Easter to books and more!  Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have three groups of features: Easter and Spring, Lessons, and Other Great Features.

Tulsa's Greenwood District -- The 1921 Tulsa Racial Riot and a new YA Historical Fiction Novel

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am going to share a young adult novel set in 1921 in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Do you know about Greenwood? Perhaps you have heard of it as the Black Wall Street? Or maybe have heard of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot? Before I share the novel with you I thought I would tell you about Greenwood and the Tulsa Race Riot. 

Black people arrived in Oklahoma with the Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. Some were slaves and some were freed. Some of these Black people became citizens of the Native American nations. After the Civil War, due to the negotiations between the U.S. Government and the Native Americans land some of the Black tribal citizens were granted large parcels of land. As a result some of the Blacks welcomed other Southeastern Blacks and were able to form dozens of all-Black towns in the region. In fact in 1890 Edwin McCabe met with President Benjamin Harrison to try to get the Oklahoma territory turned into an all-Black state. 

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Raisel's Riddle

This week we are traveling back to Poland for another Jewish Cinderella story. Earlier this month we reviewed The Way Meat Loves Salt. So for the history and information on Poland, please go to that post. 

Polish Flag (Source)

Today's book focuses on the Jewish holiday, Purim. Now Purim is a celebration of when Queen Esther saved the Jews from death in Persia. For those who are Christian the Book of Esther is in the Christian Bible as well in the Old Testament. I have had the pleasure of teaching this unit in Sunday School twice now. 

The story of Esther is she lives with her uncle (in some versions he is her cousin), Mordecai in Persia. They are Jewish. Mordecai is a guard/gate keeper at the palace of King Ahasuerus (King Xerxes in some versions). At some point the king becomes angry with his queen and throws her out of the land after the suggestion of his aid, Haman (the villain of our story). Now the king needs a new queen so he send out his army to bring back all the beautiful eligible maidens in Persia so he can choose one as his new queen. Esther is taken. Mordecai warns her not to let anyone know she is Jewish and in fact in some versions it is said this is when her name became Esther. Anyway, Esther is chosen as the new queen. While she is queen, Haman convinces the king to sign a decree to kill all the Jews in Persia. Mordecai gets word to Queen Esther that she must do something to stop this and even though it is against the law and punishable by death, she goes to the king without being invited after fasting for three days. She invites him and Haman to a feast. At the feast she invites them again the next night. Finally she tells the king that someone wants to kill her and all her people. When he asks who, she tells him it is Haman since she is Jewish. Haman is ordered to death by the king and all the Jewish people are saved. 

Hamentaschen (Source)

This holiday is celebrated usually in March. Since the Jewish calendar is different than the Gregorian calendar most commonly used today, the date actually changes each year. This year it was celebrated at the end of February. The holiday is celebrated with costumes (often like the people in the story of Esther) and noise makers called gragers used whenever Haman's name is mentioned. The story is retold during the celebration. It is also custom to send food and drinks as gifts as well as give to charity during Purim. Another custom is making triangular cookies filled with jam called hamentaschen. (Source) 

Now onto our book. This week we are looking at Raisel's Riddle by Erica Silverman. In this story Raisel lives with her grandfather in a small village in Poland. He is a scholar and many people in the village seek his advice and pay for it with food, fire wood, etc. She asks her grandfather to teach her to be a scholar. He tells her that learning is more valuable than rubies and gold since it can never be taken away from you. One cold winter her grandfather dies. She leaves the village since she does not want to be a burden on anyone and goes into the city to look for work. After knocking on many doors she comes to the house of a rabbi. The cook answers the door and tries to turn her away, but the rabbi comes to the door and says that the cook/housekeeper could of course use some help. The cook is not happy about it and is worried Raisel is after her job. She treats her badly and gives her some straw to sleep on behind the stove. Raisel grins and bears it.

One day Raisel is carrying firewood and the rabbi's son bumps into her and causes her to drop the wood. He stops to apologize and helps her carry the wood to the kitchen. The cook is very upset that she talked to the rabbi's son and threatens to lock her in the pantry if she cannot stay out of sight.

Haman, Mordecai, Esther and King Ahasuerus

On the day of Purim, the rabbi and his family have company over for a feast before going to the Purim Play. While serving the food Raisel hears the young women telling the rabbi's son riddles. She wants to stay and listen more but the cook pulls her into the kitchen threatening her again. When all the dinner guests leave for the play, Raisel comments how she would like to go. The cook laughs at her and tells her to get her dinner from what is left and then to start on the dishes. Raisel takes her dinner outside where she sees an elderly woman who looks extremely hungry. Raisel gives her dinner to this woman. The woman tells her she will grant Raisel three wishes for her kindness, but to remember magic only lasts until midnight. Raisel wishes for a Purim costume and then a horse drawn wagon to go to the play. 

Raisel turns heads as she walks into the play. She is told she has the best Queen Esther costume in the room. After the play a band starts up and the rabbi's son comes over to talk to Raisel. When he asks where she lives, she realizes he does not recognize her as the rag girl from his kitchen. She avoids answering by telling him a riddle which she makes up based on what her grandfather said about learning. Then she hears the clock to start striking midnight and she rushes away. When she gets back to the house and sees the huge pile of dishes and pots and pans she makes her third wish to have the kitchen clean.

The next day she notices people coming over again and asks the cook about the company. Since she used the term "we" in asking, the cook locks her in the pantry. In the pantry there is only one ray of light coming in and it is from a hole to the dining room. She is able to see and hear everything going on in there. The Rabbi says that his son met a woman who told him a riddle the previous night and that is the woman he wants to marry. All the young woman come forward telling him their riddles again, but none of them are the one. He finally says how it had rubies and gold and forever in it. Raisel realizes it is her riddle and knocks on the door as loudly as she can. The son comes in and asks the cook what is going on and the cook says the rag girl is cleaning the pantry, but Raisel tells him she told him a riddle the previous night. He lets her out and she begins the riddle and he finishes it and then asks her to marry him. Her response is only if he can answer her riddle. He of course knows it is learning. They get married and live and learn happily ever after.

For our crafts this week I made our clothespin doll with her dressed as Queen Esther. I also shared the cardboard tube characters Hazel made in Sunday School when we studied Esther. If we have time I may make some hamentaschen with Hazel, but since we were too busy celebrating Easter today, we did not get around to it.

Books to Build Faith, Self Confidence and More for Teenagers and Young Women

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books as part of the BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you have or know a child (especially a girl) who struggles with being enough? Today I am sharing two Christian books that use faith, God's love and more to help teenagers and young women realize their own potential, faith and self confidence. The first book is Unshakable Hope Student Edition Promise Book by Max Lucado. 

Sharing Saturday 16-35

Reminder: This link party is for child-oriented crafts and activities and parenting/teaching posts!! 

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts,crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts on Sunday). 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groupings of features: Educational and Crafts & Activities. Be sure to check them out and the ones I didn't pick!!

The Formation of the Iroquois League

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you know what the oldest living participatory democracy on earth is? It is the Iroquois League or Iroquois Confederacy. It was formed in 1142 and some of our Founding Fathers like Benjamin Franklin actually learned from them and used ideas of their set up when forming the United States. They even have a constitution that was recorded and kept alive on a wampum belt.  (Source) Today I am going to share a new picture book that shares the story of the formation of the Iroquois League. It is written for ages 10-14, so it is not your typical picture book. The author and illustrator are both Native American. The book is A Peacemaker for Warring Nations: The Founding of the Iroquois League by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden. 

Fun Facts about Apples -- with Apple Craft Round-Up

Our autumn weather has hit New England. The past couple of months have been unusually warm for the most part. One of my favorite fall things are the apples. I love the fresh apples in the fall. A couple of years ago we explored apples as part of our fruit explorations. Today we are sharing some interesting facts about them!

2022 is the Year of the Tiger--Tiger Fun Facts & Craft Round-Up

 

The lunar new year begins on February 1, 2022. Many countries celebrate the lunar new year and see it as one of the most important holidays of the year. I have shared about different countries and different celebrations over the years. I always enjoy checking out the Chinese horoscope that goes with it. The legend says that the Jade Emperor wanted twelve animals to be his guard. He sent an immortal to tell the animals and they raced to the Jade Emperor. The first twelve animals became his guard and are the animals of the Chinese Horoscope. This year we are on the third animal of the horoscope, the tiger. 

Valentine's Day Crafts & More from Oriental Trading with Free Printable Valentine Cards -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? We are, thanks to Oriental Trading. Now Hazel's school has a Father/Daughter Snow Ball the Saturday before Valentine's Day every year and this year I am co-chairing it. As a result I had even more Valentine's Day stuff to get than normal. I got the tablecloths we need for the Snow Ball.

Sharing the Easter Story with Little Ones

I have been trying to find some good ways to explain Easter to Hazel. It is such a hard concept to really understand especially for a preschooler who is still trying to grasp death, heaven, etc. We have been reading the Holy Week stories in her Bible story book. We also got some more picture books about Easter. We hit the used book store after Hazel's appointment for allergy testing and bought quite a few new ones. I will admit we have not gotten through all of them yet, but am sharing them here so you can check them out. Please note: Two have the same illustrator and thus the same picture on the covers.

Besides reading these books we have also been using toilet paper roll characters to act out the crucifixion and resurrection. We colored in the characters and scenes that you can get at Catholic Icing (if you subscribe you can get her water color painted ones as a subscriber bonus). Hazel still has many questions like "Why did they kill Jesus? Why did they want him to die? Why was he put between two thieves? Why were they killed?" She is however enjoying acting it out.

You have the crucifixion with the Roman soldiers. The crucified Jesus can come off and be put in the tomb.

I glued the large stone to a piece of a toilet paper roll so it could be moved back and forth. The middle picture is the inside of the tomb. She suggested a small tissue box, but we didn't have one and we used a large one.

The other people you get are two angels, the two Marys, Peter and the Risen Christ.

I noticed after I glued it that the Risen Christ's arms are suppose to be cut so they can be open and they have the nail marks on them.

I truly think giving her these puppets to act out the story is helping her at least understand some of it.

I Take My Coffee Black -- An Eye-Opening and Humorous Book about Being Black & Christian in America

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Remember back in June of 2020 when all over Facebook and social media white people were looking for ways to learn more about what it is like to be Black in America? We wanted book recommendations. We were asking our Black friends for information. We wanted to stand with them. We wanted to support them. Black Lives Matter protests were happening everywhere. And now a bit more than a year later it seems to have died down. Like we often do we have moved on but that does not mean there isn't still a reason to be concerned for or support Black people. It does not mean we shouldn't be looking for ways to better understand what it truly is like to be Black in America. Today I am sharing a wonderful book full of one Black, Christian man's life experience. This book is full of humor, truth and life. It is I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt. 

Sharing Saturday 15-1

Happy New Year!! Welcome to the first Sharing Saturday of 2015!! This New Year's Eve was the first time we really celebrated with Hazel. We counted down to 8 p.m. with her and let her have noise makers, jump on bubble wrap, wear hats and drink sparkling cider. She loved it!! Did you have a fun New Year's celebration? If you want ideas for celebrating with kids, make sure to check out last week's Sharing Saturday. There were some wonderful ideas shared. Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and a very special thank you to all of you who come to see what others are up to. For this week's features I picked nine non-New Year's posts to share. I hope you will check them out!

Features

Let's Talk about Race

There has been a lot of talk about race in the news and all over the place lately. With the Trayvon Martin shooting and his killer's trial and of course with the not guilty verdict, it seems everyone has an opinion about it. I've heard on some stations that this whole case has nothing to do with race whereas others say it has everything to do with race. Either way, let us remember that a 17-year-old walking home from a quick trip to a convenience store. His home was in a gated community that had several break-ins and other issues recently, so they started a neighborhood watch led by George Zimmerman, the shooter. Zimmerman had a gun because of a lose pit bull in the neighborhood. Zimmerman called the police to report a suspicious looking male in the neighborhood. The police dispatcher told him he did not have to chase him, but he did. After getting off the phone, Martin had been shot by Zimmerman 70 yards from the townhouse he was staying at. Now this happened in Florida and the state of Florida has a Stand Your Ground Law. This law is what got Zimmerman acquitted. (Source)

Listening to all the different points of view and trying to make sense of it is hard and confusing. Even President Obama has given his opinion on it all. The truth of it is we as a society/country and world need to find a way to co-exist. We need to realize we are all creatures of Earth and have all been created by God (at least in my beliefs). We need to remember that each of us no matter what we have done are loved by God. We need to get rid of our institutionalized racism (as well as the other -isms) and learn to accept our differences. We need people to have a sense of responsibility for themselves again and not to blame the other guy (whether a person or a business). But most of all we need to teach our children by example to love one another and to end the violence in our world. 

I am going to share a true story with you. This story breaks my heart and I think it is a perfect example of how much our media has influenced our youth. I was Christmas shopping with a good friend one year at a mall. My friend was making a purchase in Macy's Children's Department. While waiting for her (she was in line) I was just looking at the nearby displays. One display was of Holiday Barbie dolls. A young black girl came over and saw the display. The first doll she saw was the Black Barbie doll. Her response was, "Oooh, pretty."

Then she came around the display to the white Barbie dolls. Her response was, "Ooooh, prettier."

Now it broke my heart. As a teacher and an adviser to a multicultural club at the high school I was teaching, I felt like I needed to do something, but I also assumed the adults who were with the child (but not in hearing distance) would question me, a stranger, talking to their young child (she was probably six or seven). At this point my friend was finished and the girl's mother called her over, so I had done nothing, but the incident has always remained with me.

I have gone through many years of diversity training and have also chaperoned many student trips to diversity trainings. I have even spent a week as an adviser for a session of the National Conference For Community and Justice's (NCCJ) Anytown .  I have to say I had my most interesting night there before the kids arrived spending most of a night talking to my two roommates about how we knew whether we were heterosexual or homosexual. They were both lesbians. I know about affinity groups and have heard many stories from them after being broken into them. I know how much prejudice there still is in our country. I also know it is wrong. I understand people are upset about how messed up our welfare system is and I agree it is. I also think our entire society needs a responsibility check. When someone can sue a company for giving them a hot coffee that burns them when they spill and win the case, we have problems and this to me is where the welfare issues stem from. We all seem to feel entitled to something even if it is not ours, and we have not worked for it and it does not seem to matter the color of your skin.

The United States use to be a country where people came and worked hard and had a good life getting ahead. Now if we are born here we feel entitled to that good life and if people come here legally or not, they feel entitled. We seem to be missing the working hard. Some may say there are no jobs, we have a bad economy, but these entitlements go back much too far for those to be our reasons. 

But I have digressed onto another topic than the one I wanted to discuss. We all need to think before we act or say something. We need to be responsible for our own actions and not judged by those of someone like us. We need to step out of our comfort zones sometimes to meet others part way. We need to learn more about other cultures so we can find some similarities. And we need to remember there are bad and good in every culture, race, group and the bad does not define the whole. As a Christian I know the Bible tells me that Jesus taught us to love everyone as we love ourselves for this is how God loves us. I know I strive to do this. I am human so I know it is probably not completely possible for me, but I can still strive for it. Since I have been focusing on this, I know I feel much happier and more satisfied with my life. Will you join in me in striving to make the world a more loved place by trying to love others how God loves us? Remember God gave us freewill, but with freewill comes responsibility.

Animals Help Deliver Important Messages: Would a Worm Go on a Walk? & Busy, Busy First Look Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Worthy Ideals. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I get to share with you two new books that use animals to deliver important messages to children. The first book is a religious book that delivers the message that God created animals to do what they do and His masterpiece is you. The second book's message is that no matter how busy a mother is she always has time for a snuggle with her child. 

Would a Worm Go on a Walk? by Hannah C. Hall and illustrated by Bill Bolton is a picture book that has animals doing funny things like the worm on the cover walking with sneakers.

Our World and the Great Outdoors

Disclosure: We were sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own.

Well Earth Day happened last month and my life has been so crazy I never got around to sharing the amazing books I have gathered for it. So I am going to share some of them with you today. We will start with Champion: The Comeback Tale of the American Chestnut Tree by Sally M. Walker.