Today we were reading Salamander Rain - A Lake and Pond Journal by Kirsten Joy Pratt-Serafini.   I bought several nature books from half.com that are published by Dawn Publications.   They are all really nice nature books with beautiful illustrations.

Today we were reading about the wood frog.  They are found in Alaska, and I think we saw one at the homeschool retreat.  When their body temperature reaches freezing, the body cells produce this glycol-type substance that acts like an anti-freeze, keeping the cells from being damaged.   The water inside the cell does not freeze, only the water outside each cell.  Then the frog stops breathing, the heart stops beating, and the muscles stop moving - the frog looks frozen solid.   When spring arrives, the frog thaws.  The books says that how the frog starts breathing and heart beating is a mystery - of course Tristan quickly stated that God makes the frog start breathing and heart pumping of course!  

Reminds me of the vhs/dvd set Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution .   They are so incredibly interesting - my boys love watching them.   We rented them once,  and I hope to buy the whole set someday.   When one starts to learn about the complexities of nature, how anyone could not believe in a Creator is beyond me.

Along the same lines, the Moody Science videos are extremely useful too in proving a Creator rather than evolution.  My mom has these at the public library where she works, and we especially liked the City of the Bees.   This is another collection I would love to have someday.

Since I'm already discussing creation vs. evolution, came across an interesting quote the other day:

"To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances… could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."  - Charles Darwin

I haven't read this book, and don't own it (yet), but found it here:   America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations By William J. Federer

My boys love Curious George books, so we were excited to hear about the movie.  We don't actually make it to the theater here very often, but we just rented the dvd and watched it tonight.

Sorry to be negative, but we were kind of disappointed.  My pet peeve came to fruition - they took a great book and just modernized it, changing the original stories and intent of the book.  Firstly, why does Hollywood have to make men look like bumbling idiots?   The man with the yellow hat was a self-confident, assured, masculine man (hey, he flew a helicopter to save George in the kite episode).   In the movie, "Ted" is an insecure, clutsy, goof-ball.   In the book the man with the yellow hat CAUGHT George and STUFFED him in a bag and TOOK him home, ooh, but that would be politically incorrect to take a animal out of its habitat, so we have to make George follow the man.

George is curious, and gets into trouble.  There were a few curious scenes, but not enough, they tried too hard to make it a movie with a plot, when they should have just made little curious shorts.   And where was this scene?:   "After a good meal and a good pipe George felt very tired.   He crawled into bed and fell asleep at once."    

OK, I'm getting a little carried away here.   The best part of the movie was Jack Johnson's melodic singing and the scene where George gets carried away with the paints in the opera singer's apartment.

It was nice to have a G movie to enjoy with the kids, but I just wish they could make innocent, simple movies like the old Disney's The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and stick to the original story.   The creators of that classic knew Pooh.  

The sun came out for a few really nice days, so we spent some time outside.   Here's some pics (of course).   I have to apologize to anyone with dial-up internet, my blog probably takes forever to load   , but I'm a visual person, and just love photos, so sorry...   Here's Nathan and boys digging in dirt at Auke Rec (and look - SHORT sleeves - a rarity here):

The boys and I at Mendenhall lake with glacier in the distance:

Nathan and boys crossing stream:

We finished our second week of homeschooling.  Its going well, I'm still ironing out the kinks, but we are having fun.  The boys LOVE Muzzy Spanish on dvd- Tristan and Morgan can count to 10 in Spanish now, and all three watch it on their own - they just love it.   They are doing well with Rosetta Stone too, but they don't think its as "fun".

For anyone unfamiliar with Muzzy, it is a dvd program where they just talk and sing in Spanish, for all ages.  The grande monster is Muzzy (in Spanish that's "moo-zy").  They have Muzzy in other languages too.  Lukey already knows a few Spanish words as well.

Ever get one of those emails that warn you about parasites in bras, spiders under the Olive Garden toilet seat, or pet-killing swiffer WetJets????

Truth or Fiction to the rescue.   I first learned about this site when I emailed every woman I knew about toxic tampons, then had to (with tail between legs) email back every woman I knew that it was a hoax.

It is a great site for determining which emails are true and which are just plain made up.  But sometimes I visit the site just for a laugh (mouse sets house on fire as revenge, most embarrassing date, cow tipping - although I knew several gullible girls in college who were ready and willing to go cow tipping).   And sometimes they are funny and true:  soldier unhappy about shaking hands with Hilary!

Some stories are inspiring and true:  whale thanks rescuers, prayer in Kansas legislature, and forest fire picture:

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While others are inspiring - for a hoax - Bill Gates's 11 rules of life.

And if you have ever seen the movie Napolean Dynamite, you have to check out the story of the Liger!

A couple weeks ago Nathan and I had a date night (hmmm... we've been having lots of those lately with the little mice away... the cat's are at play ) and saw Dead Man's Chest.

We really enjoyed it, its just plain fun adventure and action. Johnny Depp is back in high form. Tons of sword fighting, interspersed with humor and suspense. If you enjoyed the first one, I think you'll enjoy this one.

If you avoided the first, or didn't care for it, this one is much of the same as first. Lots of walking dead men, this time in the form of crabs, barnacle-encrusted hammerhead sharks, and octopus-bearded pirates. I personally would feel ok with my 6 and 8 year old watching it (in fact, I can picture them on the edge of their seats with excitement), but might get a babysitter for my 4 year old (or do the old hide-the-eyes during the scarey sea creature scenes.)  

 You can read a review at pluggedinonline.

It is long - 2 1/2 hours, but Nathan and I really didn't mind, it held our attention and was 2 1/2 hours of fun. I know they are already working on a third movie, but Nathan and I can't wait to see this one again when the boys get back!  We'll try to hit the bargain matinee this time.

"Guard the boat, mind the tide... don't touch my dirt." - Captain Jack Sparrow.

Nathan and I watched End of the Spear on DVD last night.

I am a bit of a movie snob, so I'm not going to rave about this movie, but I do think the story itself is amazing. I read Through the Gates of Splendor and watched the documentary, so I knew the story going into the movie, however, my husband didn't know the story, so for him it was a bit confusing at first.

The director did not do a very good job of explaining who was who, what they were doing, etc. Some of the narration was a bit mumbled and hard to understand. So for someone unfamiliar with this missionary story, I thought it could be a bit confusing. My husband had to pause it a couple times to clarify what was going on (and hubby is no dumb bunny).  Of course, it probably doesn't help when you are eating tacos, slicing strawberries, and whipping cream during the movie.  Had we watched it on the big screen, maybe it would have made perfect sense??  Also, it tended to jump from scene to scene sometimes without flow.  One scene Nate lands his plane on the beach (presumably out in the jungle), next scene he is saying goodbye to his family (presumably at their house.)

The acting was OK, not Oscar contenders by any means, but not cheesy soap-opera acting either. The fighting scenes, although not "Hollywoodized", were probably more real-to-life than most movies, in my opinion (although I admit to never witnessing a spearing in real life).   And there is some nudity, although a nude Waodani woman doesn't seem to bother me much, as long as she's not played by J. Lo.

Overall, it was the story that made the movie. A story about grace, about forgiving the very people that murdered your husbands and father.  A story about reaching out to a tribe filled with violence, and giving them hope and something more to live for. Although Jesus was never mentioned, it was a story about sharing the gospel of Jesus to those He died for.  It was truly amazing that these missionary wives were willing to risk their lives to continue to try to reach these people, that Steve Saint was able to forgive and later on have such a close relationship with the very man who killed his father.   Although perhaps a little foolhearty or naive, these missionaries truly gave their lives for the Waodoni, and God used this tragedy to reach these people, to bring an end to the spear.

Rather than posting a movie review for each of the movies we've seen lately, I'll just post them all together.

Walk the Line - life story of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.  I really liked this movie.  Superb acting.  Although it may follow a typical plot of "star" as far as the path to success, family life suffers, divorce, infidelity, drugs, it really drew you in with the music and characters.  I could judge the movie by Cash and Carter's life choices and values,  but instead I will say that what I loved about the movie was the grace that June and her parents showed Johnny when he was at his lowest.  She was there for him as a friend, and supported him, and helped him when he had no one else in the world.  I wish it would have shown more of his life once he became a Christian, but thats hollywood.   My favorite line of the movie is when Cash is wanting to go sing at a prison and is told by his execs:  "Your audience is Christian. Go play some gospel music. They don't want you singing to murderers and rapists." His response: "Well, maybe they're not Christians."

King Kong - Nathan loved this movie.  Great special effects, King Kong takes on 3 T-Rex's and whoops on em, adventure, suspense, tragedy.  I on the other hand- mmm, it was ok, just not my type of movie.  I did like the special effects of the time era and island.  I pretty much got the heeemie-jeeemie's when the natives give the sacrificial blond to King Kong.  It just reeked of voodoo and spirit worship that was kind of creepy.  Of course it was more graphic than the earlier versions.  Did I mention that Nathan LOVED this movie?

Where the Red Fern Grows - 2003 version.  This was a really cute movie.  I can't really remember all the details of the older version to compare, but I know they both ended similar.  The acting was so-so, but my boys could care less.  All they knew was that there were two little adorable puppies on screen chasing racoon tails and getting into mischief, and going to hunting competitions.  They were practically jumping off the couch watching, they were so excited by it.  A person could nitpik about some moral/discipline issues I suppose, but that's not me.  Rated PG.  I thought it was a great family movie.

Keeping the Promise - this is a made for TV movie (1997) that I rented through FamilyPass.com  Its about a colonial family making a new claim in Maine (I'm a poet).  The boy has to hold down the fort while the dad goes to get the rest of the family.  Lots of great family values, like honor, responsibility, and keeping your promises.  Its not one that would make it on the big screen, but for a tv movie, it was pretty good.   

We watched this movie last night, starring Russell Crowe and Renee Z... you know who I'm talking about.  It was so very inspiring, he really gave the common people in a depressing era of time something to cheer for and inspire them.   He was a true role model of a husband, father, and man - refusing to let his family be separated, paying back the government the money he took in assistance, sacrificing his own needs for the needs of his family.  The best thing about it - it was based on a true story.  I'll have to read more about the true story, but as far as the movie, I really liked it, good acting, good plot, kept me on the edge of my seat, and one I walked away from feeling inspired.