Recently a friend commented on FaceBook that it seems that PG movies aren’t really PG according to the standards that we grew up with. In fact, it seems that a PG-13 movie is more like an R rated movie was ten years ago!
Could it be that gone are the days when you could comfortably rent a PG or PG-13 movie? And watch it as a family, with the assurance that it’s not going to offend you by the rude, crude or sexually explicit language or the “suggestive scenes” that leave little to the imagination? It’s a shame, some movies are really entertaining and could’ve been really good, if not for those few words, few lines or few scenes added to get a thrill from a more approving audience.
This is the reason I visit Plugged In, before renting a movie. Plugged in is a review of movies, DVD’s, TV shows and music from a Christian perspective. Movies and DVD’s are reviewed according to the positive elements, sexual content, violent content, crude or profane language, drug and alcohol content, other negative elements and finally, the conclusion. After reading their take on the movie, I feel better equipped to determine whether the movie is going to be a good fit for our family.
Sometimes we run across movies that have a good message, if only you can weed through all the garbage. This has led us to consider the purchase of a ‘cuss box’. The cuss box is a DVD player that doesn't just remove foul language. It actually removes gory or brutal violence, disturbing images, sexuality, nudity and a slew of other negative elements in 14 different categories that are now common to the movies that we so often rent. Called a ClearPlay Player, you can select exactly what you’d like to edit out of each movie before viewing. The movies are not permanently altered, so you are able to use the player on rented or borrowed movies. For the program to work, you will need to have access to the internet. For under $130, you’ll receive the ClearPlay player, a one-year membership, product replacement warranty, and the cables you need to hook everything up.
And finally, sometimes, it’s just an all-around lousy movie and you just have to turn it off. That’s why we rent out movies at RedBox locations. The movies are only $1 plus tax and the Redbox is popping up at select Wal-mart’s, Walgreen’s and McDonald’s food chains and if it's not any good, we certainly don't feel as though we've wasted a lot of money. Since the movies can be returned at any Redbox location, it’s the perfect fit for a thrifty or traveling family.
So happy movie watching. And if you’ve just watched a really great family movie, why not leave a comment so we can watch it too?
© 2009 Tonya Prater/Live the Adventure
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This morning while I was listening to the K-Love radio station, I heard something that really piqued my interest. They were talking about a church group from New Mexico that embarked on an RV trip across country on July 4th. As soon as I heard the word RV, I knew I'd be checking out their website. Called the What do you Believe America Tour, the goal of the adults and youth involved in this ministry is not only to reach the lost, but to do so by understanding what it is that sociey believes. They are asking tough questions that we can sometimes struggle with. Questions like What Happens when you Die? Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People? or What is Freedom? They are making a video documentary of their cross country trip and though they have reached their destination of Washington D.C. and will soon begin their return trip West, you can follow them on their blog and watch their clips on YouTube.
© 2009 Tonya Prater/Live the Adventure
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My friends have commented that I’ve given the impression that our life is all hunky-dory (is that even spelled right????) and seem to think that I don't mention enough of our struggles on the road or at home. Though I never thought my readers would enjoy reading depressing blog posts of me whining and full of self-pity, hatred and loathing, apparently that would make me 'real' to them. So, I have decided to share about our past week in the hopes that I will now be real to you and at the very least; maybe you'll get a good laugh or two.
First, I was really dreading our trip home. Though I always thought I'd love to travel all over the country and used to enjoy driving and found it soothing, it has now become just another task. I was shocked to see that my vehicle now has almost 135,000 miles on it- almost 20,000 more than it had at Christmastime! I also noticed a couple sounds coming from the vehicle that weren't there last week. Not a good thing...but thankfully, we did make it where we needed to go.
Friday night, my husband was planning to fly to Columbus and meet me. I'd gotten him a great deal on a flight if he flew out of Nashville (only an hour or so from our campground) and was surprised when I talked to him on the phone and he commented that he wasn't sure he'd make it to the airport in time. I assured him that he would but, didn't realize just how close he was to missing the flight.
I picked my husband up at nearly midnight and returned to the hotel. By this time, I'm sure he was wishing that he'd stayed in Alabama because I was so stressed out about my workshop. Don't ask me what the problem was, I love to speak in front of people. Not this time. He assured me that I'd feel better in the morning, but I awoke in tears. Still not sure what was going on, I asked him to pray for me and instead of watching me, he decided he'd pick up the kids from our friends house and spend the day with them and planned to drive back to Columbus to pick me up later in the day.
By the evening, I had really made myself sick.
I should mention that I tend to be hard on myself or as my husband says 'overly critical' so when things don't go as well as I've planned, let's just say that I tend to react poorly.
As if I wasn't stressed enough at that point, we discovered that we'd made a huge, huge mistake in our checking account and doubted we'd have enough money in our account to return to Alabama. Well, not to worry, the Lord supplied our needs. My parents now receive our mail since I never know where we'll be to have it forwarded and my dad commented that I'd received payment for an article I'd written. We also received another check. Perfect timing. The only problem? We no longer bank in the area. Well, Wal-mart has check cashing services, so for $3 each, we were able to cash our checks.
Sunday we had a family crisis and my husband decided that it would be best if he flew back to Alabama and we'd join him later in the week. I made the flight arrangements and left to do some errands. I was 45 minutes from home when I realized that my husband needed to be at the airport in an hour and I wasn't going to make it to take him. Talk about making myself sick! In tears, I called my husband and told him that he needed to get to the airport an hour from our home and he needed to leave right then and I had the vehicle! Not good. Calm as usual, he suggested that possibly a friend could take him to Columbus. So, he rode to the airport with a friend and I prayed that he would make his flight. He didn't. At this point, I'm thinking the stress of his last two flights has really shortened my husband's life. He called me later from the airport and told me that he they were able to get him on a plane that left a bit later so he'd make it in time for work the next day. Whew...
I forgot to mention that while he was home on Monday, we found out that our plumbing was clogged when my daughter let the water out of our tub upstairs and the water poured out of my kitchen cabinets below. Flooding the entire area. Thankfully, I had blankets that we threw on the floor to absorb the water and my husband was able to repair the plumbing.
It wasn't until after my husband’s flight that I remembered that he had almost all of our cash and my debit card.
If I thought things were stressful for me, my husband's week wasn't any better. After missing his flight, he hurt his back, his truck needed repairs and the refrigerator in the camper broke. He was beginning to think he should have stayed with us in Ohio or at the very least, we should have returned with him. That would have solved the flight issue and my money crisis.
Well, thankfully we made it through a stressful week at home. The kids and I headed back to Alabama on Friday with just enough money for gas and sandwiches from McDonald's Dollar Menu.
Along the way, we ran into stopped traffic due to a motorcycle accident. We sat on I-65 South for an hour while emergency workers responded. It was apparent from the scene that someone very likely may have lost their life. I was appalled when someone in a nearby car actually had the nerve to honk and blare their horn several times in impatience. My problems were all put into perspective and well, didn't really seem like problems anymore, that's just life.
Now, to clean out that refrigerator......
© 2009 Tonya Prater/Live the Adventure
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I guess I've been kind of quiet lately on my end, haven't I? I've spent the past couple weeks preparing for my workshops at CHEO. I'm really excited that one of them will be about our life, Homeschooling on the Road. Yesterday, while putting the finishing touches on my workshop, I pulled out several homeschool portfolios from previous years. The entire family crowded into my tiny bedroom, carefully arranged themselves on the bed and read and reminisced about some of our adventures. We all laughed aloud as I read this entry:
March 8, 2006, (Virginia Beach) - We have completely caught up on our Bible, Reading and Math lessons this week while staying at the Comfort Inn on Pacific Avenue. This hotel is one block from the ocean. Yesterday after completing our book work, we went on a walk to check out the hotel we will be staying in next week. We were not overly impressed. It is right on the beach, but the room was tiny and the pool was green. Yuck! I'm certainly going to make reservations somewhere else. On our walk, we passed by the King Neptune Statue at 38th St. before heading to the post office to mail letters to family and friends back home in Ohio. The man that worked at the post office was quite insistant about why the kids weren't in school so finally, I told him that we homeschooled. I guess he's not ever met any "real" homeschoolers before- judging from the barage of questions he began throwing my way. He questioned whether I permit my children to speak to people outside of our family, if they are allowed to have friends and why we homeschool. Finally, he suggested that I be on wife swap so the new mom could send the kids to school. As we left, the kids commented that he was the wierdest man they'd ever met. Funny thing is, though we consider ourselves perfectly normal, he probably thought we were the strangest family he'd ever met- though he did seem pleasantly surprised to know that my children are 'permitted' to speak to non-homeschoolers. The kids wanted to see the Neptune Statue again so we went back to the beach and spent quite a bit of time making sand castles before returning to our hotel room, thankful that no one else asked why the kids weren't in school.
Ahhh....memories....
© 2009 Tonya Prater/Live the Adventure
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When I had my first child nearly 16 years ago, in the back of my mind, I dreamed of one day traveling the country with him and any future children that I would have and homeschooling them on the road. Taking advantage of each and every opportunity that presented itself. As my children grew and it became closer to the time for them to enter school, I knew that would never be a reality for our family. That didn’t stop my husband and I from allowing the kids to experience the world around us in the form of trips to the zoo, COSI, walks at local nature centers, etc. We did what we could, when we could and in the back of our minds dreamt of how it could be.
As the kids grew, we became busier and busier and one day I woke up and realized that I didn’t like the direction that our homeschool was taking. The kids were enrolled in several classes outside the home, tennis, art, phys.ed. as well as several co-ops, geography, Ohio history and science. None of them were really working the best, and that's also when I began to think that I needed ‘me time’ and would get that if I got a job and went to work. So now, I felt guilty because I loved my job, but also had to step up to the plate as super mom because I wasn’t always home with my children and husband. I had to overcompensate by planning more field trips, more volunteer outings, more, more, more. I was beginning to see attitudes in myself and my children that I really didn’t like. I already knew what I had to change, but instead of listening, I began praying about our situation and hoping for a different solution. It wasn’t long before the Lord answered me and of course I already knew the answer, I really needed to cut out all of the activities that I was a part of. All of them Lord? Really? Surely you must mean that I can cut out tennis and art and phys.ed., but to drop all the co-ops? And field trips? And the volunteering is good for the kids…. Well, God was patient with me, but each time I heard my children utter something that I felt was contrary to the values I wanted to impart in them, or each time I snapped at the kids, because I was preparing for another co-op class at the last minute, I heard that voice in my head telling me to let go…
It was at that time that something unheard of happened. My husband’s job slowed down (that’s not the unheard of; he’s in construction so that is a pretty much given every winter), but we were offered the chance to go to Virginia Beach to work for a few months. Never before had I dreamed that we would be able to travel with my husband’s current contractor job! We packed up, and headed out. I made a few phone calls and was able to get out of our many obligations graciously, but certainly not happily. I had no idea when I took my job, how the Lord would use it. My job actually allowed for us to stay together as a family. For the past year, I’d been working as a front desk representative at a great hotel, just for the perks of traveling discounts, and the opportunity to take my kids to the pool whenever I wanted. The travel discounts allowed us to rent rooms right on the beach for as little as $25 per night, all I had to do was continue to work when we were back in town. If we’d had to pay full price, we’d never have been able to afford to go, but the Lord knew what we’d needed long before we did. There was just one catch. We were only allowed to stay at each hotel for 7 days and then we had to move to another one. So each Sunday that we are on the road, became our ‘moving day’. Some weekends we would drive home to check on our house and visit family and friends. We were in Virginia for quite some time, off and on. While we were there, the kids and I went on a ton of field trips and outings and I think it was one of our best school years ever.
At home, we’d often spread out and do our own thing but in the small space of the hotel room, we were forced to see each other through the good and the bad. As parents, my husband and I had to deal with the tough attitudes and character issues that were taking root in our children. It was not easy as I realized it wasn’t only my children that needed to be dealt with, I saw much ugliness in myself. I’m ashamed to say that in the beginning, I didn’t necessarily think about our journey as wonderful, we missed home, family and friends. Sometimes the pressure of constant contact was too much for me and I’d lock myself in the one spot I could find quiet and solitude, the bathroom and the tears would flow. It took me awhile to be grateful for what we’d gained. Though the first months were extremely difficult, it was a time of healing for our family, a time to draw closer to the Lord and now, looking back, one of the best times in our lives. I’m so thankful that the Lord allowed us to be eased into this lifestyle, step by step and that we have learned to trust Him fully as He continues to lead us on this adventure.
© 2009 Tonya Prater/Live the Adventure
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