Elsie Dinsmore

After having several people ask me about the Elsie Dinsmore Series, I decided to post a link so that you can find out more about them.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this series (I've read through book 16), and learned many character lessons from them! I would also highly recommend these on audio books. I have listened to the first book, read by Mr. Bill Potter, and I know the sweet lady who has done books four through seven.

Preparing for Marriage Set

I wanted to share this excellent deal from Vision Forum with you all! This set contains some of my favorite resoures, such as messages from Doug Phillips, Voddie Baucham, and Anna and Elizabeth Botkin. So go check out the Preparing our Son and Daughters for Marriage Set!

July's Best Books!

Hello, everyone! I can't believe it's been *gasp* three weeks since I blogged!!! Life is flying by so fast, it is unbelievable! :)

Anyway, I wanted to share with you all the best books I read in July, and they were really good!

The first was Conquer Your Fear, Share Your Faith by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. What a reminder of the importance of sharing the Gospel with those I come into contact everyday. I was very convicted of my unbiblical beliefs about salvation and evangelism, and challenged to reevaluate my terminology and views concerning these subjects.

Another wonderful book I read in July was Bringing Them Home, which I picked up at the Baby Conference. It was a novel about a family that begins home educating, and it was so encouraging! What a blessing it is to begin seeing novels about home educating families, like this one and Glory, Duty, and the Gold Dome!

God bless, and I hope you are all doing well!

Last Day to Save!

I wanted to remind you all that today is the last day to save using the Vision Forum unlimited coupon, so it's a great time to stock up on gifts for friends and family!

A Free Coupon!

I love it when I get a coupon! That's why I'm so happy to share with all of you that Vision Forum has an unlimited coupon of $25 off your order of $75 or more! Just enter the code  NOLIMIT25 when you check out, and you will automatically recieve the discount. Happy Shopping!

Click here to begin browsing the Vision Forum store.

Even Sweeter!

Even sweeter than ice cream is the joy of the mother and daughter relationship!

A Sweet Ending to the Texas Faith and Freedom Tour

We had a wonderful ending to the Texas Faith and Freedom Tour- we stopped at a Blue Bell Ice Cream Shop in Fredricksburg, Texas!! Even better, Doug Phillips and filmmaker and actor, John Moore, got in on the action-- serving people in the ice cream shop!

"May I take your order?"

Dishing it up

Huzzah for ice cream!

This is good!

Mission Accomplished, my friend!

May's Best Books

It is so hard to believe that June is almost over! It's also very exciting because that means that it is only ten days until we leave for the Baby Conference! :) 

I also just realized that I hadn't posted about the books I read in May! Since we did the Great Authors Webinar, I read many of the books that those authors wrote during the month. But overall, I think the two best books I read were Killer Angel: A Short Biography of Planned Parenthood’s Founder, Margaret Sanger by George Grant, and The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum by R.J. Rushdoony. Both of these books reflected a common theme that has been on my heart and mind these past few months as I've contemplated babies, birth, children, education, and life in general. (Perhaps this has been encouraged by my great anticipation of the Baby Conference, and also that my Mamma and I are attending a Doula Course in late July)


Not a book for young children, Killer Angel, while being very discreet, was shocking and nauseating. While I  knew that Margaret Sanger was a wicked woman, as I read the book I gained a chilling realization that she was even more despicable and vile than I realized. It is easy to see how she was one of the most dangerous people in history, falling in the ranks of Hitler.

The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum was a wonderful book, as well. It caused me to stop and consider some of my own ideas about education, and curriculum in particular. I would not recommend this book to the new home educator, simply because of Rushdoony's stance on home education. However, I would highly recommend it as a very useful tool, when read with caution, and most of all, a Biblical view of education, as according to Deuteronomy 6:7.

Something that was once again thrust before my view as I read these books, was that ideas have consequences, and also that culture is religion externalized.


The way we look at education impacts our view of curriculum, and our methods of teaching our children. In the same way, the way we look at babies and children impacts our view of family, church, and state.

Margaret Sanger's view of children (and, in some cases, entire people groups) as a burden, inconvenience, etc. gave us the Pill, abortion, and euthanasia. We must embrace a Biblical view of life, babies, children, and family if we will reform our culture! And for that reason, I would greatly encourage you to attend Vision Forum's major 2010 event- The Baby Conference: A Historic Summit on the Triumph of Life over the Culture of Death.

 I hope to see some of you there!

Why Read Elsie Dinsmore?

Why read the Elsie Dinsmore books??


Girls Discuss Martha Finley's Literary Classics: The Elsie Dinsmore Library from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Update

Hello, Everyone!

I just wanted to thank all of you who have been praying that we would find somewhere to move! We now have a piece of property, and are looking for a used doublewide to put on it. I would ask that you please continue to pray with us for guidance and wisdom (especially for my Daddy) as we clear a place on the property for a trailer. It's beautiful land!! I am so excited, and really enjoyed picking Huckleberries there Thursday! :)

I don't know how many of you knew it, but I tutored a young lady in math from the end of January until this past week, and it was such a rewarding experience! I've always loved math, so helping her was really enjoyable. It was definitely a growing experience, though, too- I'm not very organized,  :) so I had to learn to prepare ahead! It made me really appreciate all that work my Mamma did when I was in school!

I am also VERY excited about the upcoming Baby Conference in San Antonio, Texas! It is only a month away, but you can still register if you'd like to go. Let me know if you're planning on attending-- I'd love to see some of you there!

Before I go, I would encourage all of you young ladies to visit my friend Sierra at Feminism to Faithfulness and read her wonderful post on modesty- Candles Among Gunpowder. I am sure you will be blessed!

Last Day to Save!

Just a quick reminder that today is the last day to save on Vision Forum's sale! This a great time to stock up on some of Vision Forum's best products, like the R.M. Ballantyne books, John Calvin's Commentaries, or the Moody Science DVD Collection-- all of which are on sale!

Now Available: The 2010 European Online Tour!

I'm excited to tell you all that Vision Forum now has available the 2010 European Online Tour & MP3 collection! If you, like my family, simply couldn't afford to go to Europe this year, why not do this? If you are interested, find out more here.

More Reccommendations

I thought I would share some more of my "favorite" products from Vision Forum:

Another of my favorite books is Glory, Duty, and the Gold Dome, just published last fall by VF. It is a wonderful story about a home-educated young boy who works alongside his father in the defense of life and liberty. I read it in one night! (It is that good!!)

Also, I'm sure that most of you have listened to Jonathan Park before, but if you haven't, they are really good! I have been an avid fan of the audio series for many years now, and when I took Biology, I would tell my Mamma, "Oh, I knew such-and-such, because it was on Jonathan Park!"

As far as films go, VF sells many films that my parents and I have enjoyed, like The Widow's Might (produced by Christian, Independent, Home-educating filmmakers),The Return of the Daughters, and Homeschool Dropouts. However, probably The Mysterious Islands would be my favorite, though. If you haven't seen it, the film chronicles the journey of a 16 year old young man (Joshua Phillips) to the Galapagos Islands with his father and other Christian men,like Dr. John Morris who show that Darwin was wrong, and that the islands are not a "labratory for evolution", but rather a "showcase for creation". It is REALLY good! :)

Save on Vision Forum Now through April 30!

As many of you know, the Lord has greatly used Vision Forum to impact my life, and change my heart in many areas. In fact, if it were not for the influence of Mr. Doug Phillips and many VF products, such as this, my blog would not exist, and if it did, it would look very different!!!

That is why I am so excited to let all of you know that Vision Forum is having a wonderful sale now through April 30, where you get a $50 gift certificate for every $95 you spend! To see some of my recommended products, click here, here, here, here, here, and here!

And, don't even think of mentioning that I'm slightly addicted to Vision Forum products! :)

God Bless, and happy shopping!

Modesty and Christians

I know that modesty is a difficult issue in modern Christian churches (as a whole- there are some exceptions). Recently, I read a couple of excellent articles on modesty and Christians, and wanted to share them with ya'll. Read them here and here and here.

If you are interested, some other resources I would highly reccomend can be found here and here.

May we all become modest daughters, who reflect the beauty of our Heavenly Father!

Ah, the Life's Giveaway!

Ah, the Life! is having a giveaway on the Great Authors Webinar, and I wanted to let all of you know about it! To register for the giveaway, click here, and let them know I sent you!

Click here to find out more about the Great Authors Webinar.

The Baby Conference!

My parents and I are looking forward with great anticipation to Vision Forum's July 2010 Baby Conference in San Antonio, TX, and I wanted to let all of you know about it!

Click here to find out more!

The Father & Daughter Retreat

The Lord has used the Vision Forum Father & Daughter Retreat (and Vision Forum as a whole) to draw me closer to Himself and my Daddy over the past five years, and I am looking forward with great anticipation to attending our fourth retreat in two weeks! I was just curious, are any of you going to be attending? If you are, I would love to meet you there! Even if you are going to be unable to attend this year's retreat, if you have been there before, please leave me a comment and tell me a little bit about how the Lord used it in your life. It would be a great encouragement to me, and others as well. :)

If you've never heard about Vision Forum's Father & Daughter Retreat, click here.

Pray for the Rescue of Haiti's Children

I and my family have been praying for the survivors of Haiti's Quake, especially the orphans, and have been following the updates on Doug's Blog. What a blessing to have a Christian reporting about the work down there!

For any of you not familiar with Vision Forum, here's an article by Mr. Doug Phillips posted on his blog about a week ago:

In less than 24 hours, I will be boarding a plane on an important mission bound for Haiti. I am writing because I need your help.

Here is the story.

My mission to Haiti is four-fold: First, I will be establishing one of the only distinctively Christian reporting operations to tell stories of both the present crisis and the work of Christians on behalf of the sick and the widows and the orphans in the midst of Haiti’s present horror. Second, I will be working to facilitate the rescue and delivery of orphans to Christian families in America. Third, I will be identifying specific families that need direct support from the people of God in America. Fourth, my team will be providing specific relief to people in distress.

My starting team is seven individuals, including an experienced medical doctor, a logistics crew, and a film production team for news reportage. I should be joined by additional team members in Haiti including a driver, translator, and possibly more physicians in the days to come.

I believe that I can play a special role in getting important stories out to the people of God in a timely and meaningful way. I also believe that I can be effective in helping some of the most important Christian ministries to get the attention they need. I believe that we can be successful, by God’s grace, in meeting urgent medical needs of the sick and wounded in the wake of the recent disaster, documenting the needs of orphans in crisis, and helping to facilitate a plan to connect orphans with the very best families who can care for them.

Our camera team will document the story, and I will be posting regular video updates and written commentary on our outreach to Haiti as it unfolds. You can follow these updates on my blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. My staff will also be making them available through YouTube to the general public. WorldNetDaily has agreed to publish articles I write on Haiti as exclusive commentary on their website to help maximize the reach of our message. Our goal is to reach a broad audience with the details of our ministry in Haiti, and the outlet through WND will help in accomplishing this.

As I’m sure you know, the devastation in Haiti has been overwhelming. More people have died as a result of this earthquake than died in either the Nagasaki or Hiroshima bombings at the close of WWII. Already, the death toll from the earthquake ranks it among the top five most deadly natural disasters in the last century and the top twenty in recorded history. And the death count only continues to climb.

Our goal is to be ministers of Christ in the wake of this enormous disaster — to help rescue Haiti’s children — and we would solicit your prayers and support for this enterprise.

Here’s where things stand: Our transportation to Haiti has been secured. A private jet has been made available for our use to the country. We have transportation and an interpreter who will be guiding us through the disaster zones. We have a clear plan in place to make the most of our mission.

But we need help with the expenses including our technical needs, satellite broadcast feeds (which are expensive), equipment, supplies, and air transportation back through the Dominican Republic to America, in the likely circumstance that we are unable to get out through Port-au-Prince.

I have had to move quickly: I have made the decision to go even before all the funds have been provided; but I would sincerely ask for your consideration in supporting us on this important project. I would appreciate your support, be it prayer or financial assistance, for our mission. Donations to help our effort can be made online. Click here to donate.

Please stay tuned for our broadcasts and articles. May the Lord be pleased to use our humble efforts at this time of intense crisis.

Your friend in Christ, Doug Phillips