I am a 13-year-old homeschool boy who is involved with boy scouts and plays the piano. This is were I post insights I have, events that happen in our family and neat snippets from books such as the "Uncle Eric" series
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The sunlight speaks, and its voice is a bird:
It glimmers half-guessed, half-seen, half-heard,
Above the flowerbed, over the lawn -
A flashing dip, and it is gone,
And all it lends to the eye is this -
A sunbeam giving th air a kiss.
Harry Hibbard Kemp
Positive thinking is sometimes difficult but it will bring superior results to our lives. I personally think that the primary building block in positive thinking is that what you believe can be accomplished. A saying from Napoleon Hill says 'Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve'. You can decide how your day will be, it could be a bleak, gray day and nothing happens or it could be a bright sunny day to get lots accomplished. Whether you think positively or negatively your day will turn to be more like the one your thinking. Like the saying above, if you can believe something can happen than you have a far better chance of reaching that goal than if you don't even believe it could happen. Now, I don't mean to say that we should decide what we will do and what we will accomplish. This all must happen inside our scriptural boundaries.Then, truly believing something can help us accomplish the scriptural task that we are given by God. Positive thinking can also be in our mood. If we wake up and greet people with a bright "Good morning" and are cheerful and positive, than other people will see us and say to themselves, "Wow, look at how positive they are this morning. Even though my day is not going well I will still be cheerful and greet them with a good morning". But if we are grumpy and unfriendly then people will be grumpy and unfriendly to us. People react the way you act. We can affect other people by our attitudes. Here is a story: There were two men who went up into the mountains to look for gold. They got up to the top and the first man went to work sifting through rivers and digging up the ground. The second man just sat under a tree. When he was asked why he replied, "Well, I'm waiting for the gold to come up to me." This is how people are who hope for a day that will be bright sunny and that they get much accomplished. They want the positive things to happen to them and people to be cheerful to them. Instead of being like the first man who worked for the gold, they are like the second man who wanted it to come to him. Let us be like the first man and be cheerful and positive and then other people will be cheerful and positive to us.
After going on the campout this past weekend I thought I would tell a little about it.
We arrived after dark, set up tents, made some campfires and played chess. Next morning I got around to cooking a delicious breakfast. After breakfast they took us through a shotgun safety lesson and then headed out to the range. The shells were a little bit overpriced (excuse me, did I say a "little"?) so I didn't buy a whole lot of them. After shooting down clay pigeons for a while we decided to head back to camp for lunch. Another patrol was frying wings, so they had a pan full to the brim with popping oil, which sprayed into people's faces everytime they put more wings in. I challenged another patrol leader to a chess match, in which I totally defeated him. That afternoon we began preparing fires for the evening, played football and blindly struck at a pinata that our host kindly provided. At five we started getting our dinner around that would be judged in the cooking competition. We won second place with our delicious dinner! At dusk we had a flag retiring ceremony.
Thanks for Stopping Inn, I'll post some Puzzlegrams soon!
Howdy,
I went along on my sisters American Heritage Girls campout this past weekend. There wasn't really much to do, but it was a really cool place to camp. This weekend I will be going on a Boy Scout trip to a former scoutmaster's private property. Were going to be doing a cooking competition, shotgun shooting and rank advancement. I have to say I like a campout a little better when there is something planned to do. I've never been to this private property before, so it will be neat to see it.
Yesterday I got the neighbor to lock the dogs up all day with an elaborate plan that involved dangerous tactics. As the dogs howled and groaned all morning long, we sat there happily knowing that they wouldn't ruin the fence or dig into the garbage cans.
To help learn spanish faster, our family is going to be speaking spanish on all Wednesday evenings. So I will finish up my blog in spanish:
Aqui es un poema corto, porque no conocer muchas palabras:
EL HENO APARECAR
El heno aparecar, y la hierba tierna apariencia su, y hierbas de las montanas estan juntar.
Gracias para Paradan Enn!
Our neighbor owns two hideous dogs. One is this gray-white spotted mutt and the other is a brown. Everytime we go outside the dogs howl and bark at the fence pickets. Several times they have busted fence pickets out and smashed the tops of the pickets off. The white dog can jump very well and often times jumps over the fence into our yard or another neighbors yard. One time he kept jumping one yard at a time until he was halfway across the block and then came back. We have found out that the dogs are scared of switches, weed whippers and metal rods. This is probably due to the couple of times that they have tried to make it into our yard when somebody was out there. Then it comes in handy to have willow switches, metal rods and weed whippers on hand to get them back on the right side of the fence. These dogs are obviously mistreated and forgotten. There is no use of talking to the neighbor because he doesn't do anything about it. He leaves his dogs outside 24/7 unless pouring rain. I would love to have your advice!
Thanks for Stopping Inn!
As October rolls around
The rainy weather comes
and the leaves fall to the ground.
The tiny sparrow will eat
to satisfy his hunger
while the rain falls to his feet.
The harvest will be ready
fresh and cold with dew
will be the pumpkins many.
Author: Unknown
I thought that this was a nice poem. It is very simple, but nice. Have a great Autumn!
Check out my cool new blog template!
Done by NicholasP Template Designs.
Thanks for Stopping Inn!
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame they fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was the brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the Lamb, make thee?
Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Lately I've been buying some more tools for my leatherwork shop. I've been thinking about posting some of my projects up on my blog. I will be opening a leatherwork blog (www.homeschoolblogger.com/leatherwork) where I will post ideas and directions for tools, dyes, lacing and much more. Hope you will stop by!
I was thinking that it would be cool to start a home leatherworking buisness, but I am not sure how to get started. If you have any thoughts or ideas on starting buisnesses, I would love it if you would comment.
PUZZLEGRAM:
An animal lover has seven pets. Some are cats, the rest are dogs. Each dog eats five biscuits and each cat eats four biscuits. Thirty-two biscuits in all are eaten. How many dogs and how many cats are there?
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Wow! It has been a long time since I've posted. We have been off school for the past month or two and I have not been routinely posting. A couple posts ago I said I would post directions on assembling a motorized fan. Here they are:
Step #1: Collect Supplies
A toilet paper tube, 3-volt motor*, Popsicle stick, pushpin, paper-towels, paper, scissors, 3 pieces of 24 gauge wire about 6" long**, D battery, masking tape, scotch tape, 2 brad fasteners and a thick rubber band. Warning: Fan will not work if wires are not stripped bare of insulation at least 1 inch in on each end!
Even though this project requires lots of supplies, almost all of them are standard household supplies.
*available at an electronics shop such as Radio-Shack
**doorbell wire works great, available at a home improvement store
Step #2: Assemble Motor & Battery
Wrap the end of one of the wires around one of the output/input tabs on the motor.
Take the second wire and wrap it around the other tab on the motor.
Next take the thick rubber band and punch the brads through the rubber band(must be thick)making sure that rounded top of the brad is on the inside of the rubber band and that the brads are exactly across from each other. Stretch the band over the D battery. Bend the brad tongs over like you would with a stack of paper and wrap one of the wires coming from the motor(does not matter which one) around on of the brads.
Step #3: Connect Wiring
Take the third wire and wrap it around the unused brad. Take the pushpin and poke a hole in the side of the TP roll. Slide the motor and battery in the paper tube and take the two loose ended wires and stick them through the hole so they poke up outside the toilet paper tube. You should now have wire #1 going from the outside of the tube through the hole and to motor tab #1. Wire #2 going from motor tab #2 to battery tab #1. And wire #3 going from battery tab #2 through the hole and outside the tube. Therefore there should be two wires coming out the tube.
Step #4: Testing and Finishing
Test the fan by touching the two wires coming out the hole together (must be stripped). You should here the motor buzzing when they are connected. If the motor does not buzz then check your wire connections and make sure they are stripped bare of insulation at least 1 inch on each end! When everything works, stuff several paper-towels around the motor and battery so they do not slide around. Tape the bottom up with masking tape. Now tape the top but make sure to leave the shaft of the motor sticking about 1/4" above the masking tape. If your motor has a vent on the top, tape around the vent, so as not to cover it. Cut paper to size and wrap the tube in paper and tape it with scotch tape. Decorate how you like or leave it white. Make sure to leave a slit in the paper cover to let the two outside wires through. Bend the two outside wires into hook shapes so you can fit them together to turn your fan on.
Make sure your fan still works when you press the switch.
Step #5: Assembling Fan Blade
Mark the middlemost point on one side of your Popsicle stick. Take your handy pushpin and place it on the dot. Twist it back and forth until it goes all the way through the stick. Place the stick on the motor shaft. Be careful about widening the hole too much because you need the stick to fit stiffly on the shaft to insure that it will spin with the motor.
Press the switch 
Feel the breeze! 
For a fun twist take a permanent marker and color a portion (or all) of the Popsicle stick black. When running it looks invisible!
Thanks for Stopping Inn!
A couple days ago my two-year old sister did a very laughable thing. Mom was urging her to eat her chickien and rice that had sugar in it and was very sweet. She sat there in her chair yelling, "More veggies! More veggies!" She was referring to the carrots and peas that we were having with dinner.
It struck me especially funny that most toddlers would be very picky and would only eat the sugary stuff. They would most likely refuse their veggies, but she wanted more!
Children need to learn early on(between the ages of 2 and 4) that sometimes they have to eat something that they particularly don't like. When you eat the stuff you don't like continously, you develop a taste for it. It's even proven that if you eat something that you hate 30 days in a row you'll love it! But today, parents give their children to much slack in the rope. If they don't like vegetables, than they don't have to eat vegetables, the parents give them something else instead. This just encourages the child to refuse the things they dislike to eat because they always get something tasty, and oftentimes sugary, in its place. If a child eats what is put in front of them, they will slowly decide that, if they have to eat it they may as well like it. And all of the sudden they are asking for veggies instead of chicken!
Here is some pictures that I've been wanting to upload:
Naomi in bed with her favorite monkeys!
Beautiful marshmallow type clouds.
Red hibiscus flower in our backyard
Brand-new lettuce seedlings
Spanish flag on a spanish ship
Oreo laying on the train tracks. Watch out!
Sand dune on the beach
Ocean horizon at Galveston Island, Texas
Thanks for Stopping Inn to check out the pictures and feel free to leave a comment!
It looks like any building
When you pass it on the street,
Made of stone and glass and marble,
Made of iron and concrete
But once inside you can ride
a camel or a train,
Visit Rome, Siam or Nome,
Feel a hurricane,
Meet a king, learn to sing,
How to bake a pie,
Go to sea, plant a tree,
Find how airplanes fly,
Train a horse, and of course
Have all the dogs you'd like,
See the moon, a sandy dune,
Or catch a whooping pike.
Everything that books can bring
You'll find inside those walls.
A world is there for you to share
When adventure calls.
You cannot tell its magic
By the way the building looks,
But there's wonderment within,
The wonderment of books.
I thought that this was a very fun and interesting poem. Well written and rhymes well but does not sound corny. Thanks for Stopping Inn!
A whirlpool is a rapidly revolving current of water that usually appears inbetween islands and in shallow water. There are two very dangerous ones that sailors avoid in between two Norwegian Islands. One of the whirlpools is called Maelstrom. Edgar Allen Poe writes a story called "A descent into Maelstrom".
A Puzzlegram:
If you add the age of a man to the age of his wife you get a combined age of 91 years. He is now twice as old as she was when he was he was as old as she is now. How old are they?
I've recently finished reading a book by the name of Early Thunder. A fiction book that takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1774. In Salem there is a growing, grinding tension between Tories - the political group who believes that the people of America should submit to the king of England and make peace - and the Whigs who trust that the only way away from England is not peacefully settling a deal with the king but resisting, fighting and destroying the redcoat army. The main character is a 14 year-old named Daniel who, like his father, is a devoted Tory. As the redcoat army begins to occupy the town, the tension grows. Then Daniel's father does something dreadful (at least from Daniel's point of view) and Daniel decides to be a Whig. His Tory friends hate him now and the other Whig boys in Salem don't trust him. Then one night, their house is burned to the ground. The ending tells of how Daniel and his father decide to support the new nation.
This was a well written book. I would recommend that you should read it if you find it. Rated 3 out of 5 stars.
How about a poem. Hm-mm. What about the End-of-Summer Poem by Rowena B Bennett???
The little songs of summer are all gone today.
The little insect instruments are all packed away:
The bumblebee's snare drum, the grasshoppers guitar,
The katydids castanets - I wonder where they are.
The bullfrogs banjo, the cricket's violin,
The dragonfly's cello have ceased their merry din,
Oh, where is the orchestra? From harpist down to drummer.
They've all disappeared with the passing of the summer.
The Greatest Themes of the First Two Millennium's of Earth History
Presented by Dr. Paul Jehle
CD #2 in the B.C. Audio Series
This is an overview of the first two thousand years of history. Does not necessarily focus on one particular subject. Well organized and presented. This CD, which covers things like creation, the fall, the flood, and some similar themes throughout all of them. Mildly-complicated. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 
.
Wow, that was short. Maybe I can add a little something on if you, the blog reader, don't mind. Hmmm, What about a Puzzlegram? One of my favorite non-visual ones:
At a secret meeting, everyone shakes hands exactly once with every other person present. Altogether there are forty-five handshakes. How many people attended the secret meeting.
Thanks for Stopping Inn.
I am going to start summarizing and rating the twenty lectures on the B.C. Audio series available at Vision Forum.
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Compact Disc No. 1:
Six Thousand Years of Earth History in an hour.
Douglas W. Phillips
This is a good CD to start with. It covers(very briefly) everything throughout the six thousand years of earth history. If you don't like to spend a lot of time on one subject, you'll like this CD. It moves very fast from subject to subject. Doug is a very good speaker and I think that this was a great CD.
Mildly Complicated
4 out of 5 stars 
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FYI, FRS(Face Rating System):
1 out of 5 stars: 
2/5 stars:
3/5: 
4/5:
5 out of 5 stars: 
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This was a historical fiction book I read about a Israelite boy who lived in Capernaum at the time that Israel was being invaded by the Romans. After the Romans murdered his mother and father, he left his grandmother to care for his younger sister, Leah, who was possessed by demons. He decided that all he would live for was to avenge the Romans. Up in the mountains there is a band of outlaws who are gathering men to fight against the Romans. Daniel, the Israelite boy, joins them. He makes friends with a dumb slave they rescued from a slave caravan coming from Africa. The slave is huge, very strong and follows Daniel everywhere he goes, so Daniel names him Samson. Daniel meets a rich boy named Joel from town who hates the Romans almost as much as Daniel does. So Daniel tells the outlaw leader about Joel who assigns him a job in the city. One day Joel is spotted and is arrested by Roman soldiers who put him into a slave caravan. When Daniel hears he realizes that they must do something, so he goes to Rosh, the outlaw leader, and asks for help. Rosh tells Daniel that he isn't going to do anything to help Joel because he never really liked him. Daniel leaves the band lead by Rosh and returns to the city. He collects all his friends and they head out to a narrow canyon that the slave caravan is passing through. They get prepared and then just as the caravan is coming through the canyon, they jump. Out of the middle of nowhere comes a huge boulder crashing down on top of the head gaurd, then Daniel sees Samson come running down the cliff from where the boulder came. He didn't know that Samson had followed them! But as Samson gets to the bottom the last guard killed him. Daniel and his best friend quickly freed all the slaves, incuding Joel. When Daniel gets back to town, he is offered a house and a job by his friend Simon. He takes up the offer, knowing that he can't avenge the Romans right now. Then one day he hear's about a teacher going from town to town preaching and so Daniel goes to see him. He is not sure what to think about Jesus, until one day Jesus came to his house. The book ends where Jesus heals his sister from the demons.
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