What’s going on with Entrecards? It’s been slow since Saturday, but I’ve been unable to sign in for almost three hours now. Can’t access the forum to see what’s up. Anyone have any ideas?
Doesn’t that sound so exotic? Jewels of denial… It reminds me of those old movies I saw, Far Pavilion, A Passage to India, Jewel in the Crown… images of dimly-lit rooms, beaded curtains, and bejeweled ladies come to my mind.
Jewels of Denial is a website. 
It’s not exactly exotic, but it has a beautiful collection of lovely, and what I would consider, exotic pieces. Look at this earring set. Does that look exotic to you? I think it is exquisite. They are Diamond-Inlaid Teardrop Chandelier Earrings and the sale price is… wow, it’s pretty incredible. Take a peek and see. These would make a lovely gift for a graduating young lady, or as an anniversary present, or anything! (I’ve bookmarked this site, by the way).
They also have some absolutely adorable little ladybug earrings. I love ladybugs! They are so sweet! Dolphins, butterflies, ducks, and more. There’s also a ton of other beautiful pieces– necklaces, pendants, bracelets, very nice rings (wowsa, they are nice!), and more. Prices are outstanding. Signing up for the newsletter will get you a coupon for 20% off. This is a Frugal Hacks dream come true! Seriously, the prices are incredible.
When I was younger, fine jewelry wasn’t very important to me. Now that I am older (and very, very much wiser, lol) I appreciate fine-crafted jewelry. Check out Jewels of Denial for some classy stuff, for young and… not so young. 
I am finding the most wonderful blogs (and bloggers! 
) online through Entrecards. I am just amazed at how blessed I am by some of these people! I am especially overwhelmed at the graciousness and femininity of the Filipina bloggers. These women (and many times, their husbands) blog about their families and family values. It is marvelous to see. I admire them.
I came across one blog this morning, Pinay Wife Speaks, and read her post “On Marriage: Think Again.” She had posted a story she got from her husband via email. What a story! READ THIS!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her
hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate
quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let
her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic
calmly.
She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me
softly, why? I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away
the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we
didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find
out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a
satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Dew. I didn’t love her
anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which
stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my
company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who
had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt
sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take
back what I had said for I loved Dew so dearly. Finally she cried loudly
in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was
actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me
for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing
something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep
and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Dew.
When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just
did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t
want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce.
She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal
a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a
month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked
me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that everyday for the month’s duration I carry her
out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was
going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her
odd request.
I told Dew about my wife’s divorce conditions. She laughed
loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she
has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce
intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the
first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is
holding mummy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From
the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten
meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t
tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put
her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove
alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned
on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that
I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she
was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair
was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I
wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of
intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her
life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of
intimacy was growing again.. I didn’t tell Dew about this. It became
easier to carry her as the month slipped by.. Perhaps the everyday
workout made me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a
few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my
dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so
thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness
in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry
mum out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an
essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer
and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I
might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms,
walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her
hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly;
it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I
held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to
school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life
lacked intimacy.
I drove to office… jumped out of the car swiftly without
locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…
I walked upstairs. Dew opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Dew, I
do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do
you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Dew, I
said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she
and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love
each other any more. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home
on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Dew seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then
slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove
away.
At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers
for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled
and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.
The small details of your lives are what really matter in a
relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the
bank, blah..blah.. blah. These create an environment conducive for
happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be
your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that
build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I cried when I read the story. I’ve been married for almost twenty years, and we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs like anybody else. This story is a wonderful reminder that marriage is more than just a convenient contract, it’s a lifetime covenant.
There is a stunning post at EastCoast Life about the abhorrent practice of foot-binding in the Orient. The photos are both sickeningly fascinating, and inexplicably horrendous.
The kids and I have studied the missionary work of Gladys Aylward, a hero of ours. She was an Englishwoman in the early 1900s who desperately desired to evangelize China, but was considered too old and too inexperienced to join the missions group. Aylward decided to be a missionary, anyway, without their help. She got a job and saved up her own money to take a train through dangerous Russia and on to China– Manchuria, specifically. Her story is INCREDIBLE and I highly recommend the book Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime (it’s a young-adult book and very readable).
At first, the Manchurians treated Gladys like a hostile intruder, but after seeing her compassion, love, and incredible generosity, named her “Ah-wei-dah,” which means “virtuous one.” The Manchurian leader became a Christian by observing her love and compassion. Gladys also adopted dozens of orphaned children; she quelled a violent prison outbreak and then negotiated for the starving prisoners; and she rescued hundreds of Chinese children (she led them on a dangerous– but life-saving– journey over mountains when the Japanese invaded during World War II). What a wonderful woman she was! (By the way, you just know that the modern Christian Chinese church is a direct descendant of the work of Gladys, Hudson Taylor, and Eric Liddell among those children, because all foreigners were expelled from China during WWII. These little Christian children were all that remained of the Christian faith in that country). Gladys is buried in Taiwan, facing her beloved China. Eric Liddell died in a concentration camp in China by the hand of the Japanese occupiers; he is buried in China.
During her missionary ministry, Gladys helped enforce the new law in China against foot-binding. Foot-binding, practiced for centuries in China, had been outlawed by the Nationalist government. They were finding it hard to enforce, because Chinese men still wanted it. Like EastCoastLife says, the perverted disfigurement and torture of little girls’ feet was for the sole purpose of their selfish, perverted pleasure.
It made me think that nothing new has really changed, has it? In our Western culture, it has been the same way, too. There were corsets, which restricted a woman’s waist so badly that mothers died during pregnancy or during childbirth. The female mortality rate was horrific. In Gone With the Wind, it is made notable that Scarlett O’Hara had an 18-inch waist. Talk about disfigurement!
What is it today? Being super-skinny, having watermelon-sized implants, Botox, etc. I shake my head and really wonder why men like their women so disfigured and unnatural and why women tolerate it and allow the perversion to continue on to afflict their children.
It’s something to think about. Are we really any different now? Are we still ruled by pressures to contort our bodies so as to appear more enticing for men? Is it really worth it?!
It irks me to no end to see so many businesses discriminate against homeschoolers. Any good business realizes how much money homeschooling parents spend on equipment for their kids. To ignore the growing homeschool movement in this country is to seal your own failure! I am always paying attention to business that discriminate against us, and businesses that see our worth.
I am proud to say that Cost Captain is a business that welcomes homeschoolers with open arms. They offer excellent discounts on educational name-brand software materials, like Symantec, Corel, Adobe; and they are a Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller. They’ve got the Office 2007 Suite and Vista at incredible prices! Cost Captain has served schools, colleges and libraries, and they do not bar homeschoolers! And they also offer the ability to purchase gift certificates, perfect for hinting to those grandparents who don’t know what to get your kid. Cost Captain deserves our support. If you need genuine name-brand software from a reliable company who values the money of homeschoolers as much as other schools, check out Cost Captain.
This is for my young son, who has not been feeling well. It’s also been difficult to concentrate on the books while the sun is shining and the birds are calling him, outside. Hang in there! Remember not to look at the mountain– just do what you know to do right now. 
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Yes, ladies and ladies. I must be on a quiz binge or something. I usually don’t do so many quizzes, honest! I took the latest quiz and here’s my result.
Take the Quiz here!
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.
This quiz was very nice– quite thorough and one of the most specific quizzes I’ve done. I admit I am not too terribly familiar with Jane Austen. I was never much for her books; I did read Pride and Prejudice as a girl, and saw the movie Sense and Sensibility several years ago. I much rather prefer Philip Johnson’s Reason in the Balance, or other droll non-fiction history books, such as Letters Between John and Abigail Adams. (Remember, I’m classified as Elinor Dashwood, about as romantic as steam cleaners!).
It was a well-done quiz and a sweet little diversion, at any rate.
It’s Memorial Day, so I’m not doing much blogging today; plus, I’m not feeling so well today :-p so I am late with my Manic Monday. I’ll do what I can and still make it interesting. The questions are very thoughtful; it’s just that I don’t feel like thinking today.
Do good things come to those who wait?
Yes.
Your best friend’s spouse is being unfaithful. Would you tell your friend? If so, how?
Of course I’d tell my friend!! I cannot for the life of me comprehend how “friends” would keep such things from each other! I’d get a babysitter for all the kids, go to her house, and have a heart-to-heart chat. Here’s hoping I’d never have to do it, though. I’d probably kill the cheatin’ creep first.
(I told you I wasn’t feeling well today!)
Which part of your body do you like the least? Would you change it through plastic surgery, if possible?
Hello, Lord? Can I get a refund?
Actually, I’m looking forward to that day when mortality will be swallowed up by life. And no, plastic surgery could never cut it. Maybe some nice, quality fitness equipment… but who’ll need fitness equipment in heaven???
Get it, “cut it”? HAHAHHA!
OK I go back to bed now. 
I’ve been very blessed with four wonderful children who read like university students (and one like a college professor). They have been very good and proficient readers from the very beginning of homeschool lessons. It helps that both the Husband and I are voracious readers. However, good reading skills are not “talents” that are ingrafted into one’s DNA like eye-color. Every person who is able to read can learn to read well. I just thought I’d jot a few things down that I have discovered through my own experiences that make for good reading.
I’ve sectioned off my two checklists into two categories: the first one is “quick fix” for moms who have older kids or established anti-readers in the house; the second list is an “early development” list that contains tips for getting off on the right foot. You may not agree with everything in these lists, but a) they’ve worked well for my four, and b) it’s good entertainment at the very least. Shall we begin?
The Quick Fix:
1. Throw out your television.
2. If you just cannot bear to throw out the TV, exercise extreme self-discipline and severely restrict its use. If a kid has to choose between Bugs Bunny cartoons or Pilgrim’s Progress, what do you think they are going to choose?
3. Fill your house with books. Good books! I’m sorry, but Sweet Valley High and Harry Potter are not good books. Those books are entertaining (we call those kinds of books “junk” books as in “junk” food). Yeah, everyone needs a break and likes to read just for entertainment. But don’t offer your kid junk books on a regular basis, or he will become what I call a “Reader’s Digest” reader– he’ll be barely literate, only enough to read road signs and more junk. Writing research papers and disseminating legal documents and arbitration will be very, very hard for the kid when he grows up. I do notice that libraries, like candy stores, fill their lower shelves with the tastiest and emptiest trash. Beware of the Candy Man! At the end of this post you can take a peek at some things my own kids have read and have loved.
4. Approve everything your child reads. Yes, it can be done.
5. Start a new tradition– have your child write out ten verses of the Bible and read them aloud a few times a week. Stand back and watch some amazing things happen– your kids will be better readers, spellers, orators, be better behaved, and get wise for eternal life! See more detail about this in the next list #3.
The Early Development:
1. Read to your kids, yeah, just like all the cute commercials tell you. But here’s the clincher– read to yourself. Kids learn by example. If you are a reader, they are readers. It just happens.
2. Stubbornly refuse to teach your kid the “Look Say” method. Here’s a funny little story: as a kid, I was a voracious reader. I mean, really. By Third Grade, I was reading high school level books. The elementary school didn’t know what to do with me, so I was allowed to join the Sixth Grade class for their reading sessions when my Third Grade class had theirs. And even then I was far beyond their Sixth Grade level. Why? I had learned phonics before Kindergarten; and my very first year in school had been at a different school which still adhered to the Classical method of education. (My family had moved when I was halfway through Kindergarten, but my English teacher uncle encouraged me to continue my reading in the Classical method). The new school I attended implemented the “Look Say” method, and their pupils were dunces. These poor kids were so stilted in their reading skills and comprehension because the school system has adopted the fad of the “Look Say” method. After forty years of this drivel, some school systems are returning to phonics now.
So, anyway, when I was in Third Grade, I was teaching Sixth Graders to read, and was giving them spelling tests. Really! And thus, because I’d worked with schoolteachers at a very early age, I came to have solid ideas (aka “opinions”) about certain reading methods, and all by the time I was eight years old.
I remember at that age being stunned one day when my younger brothers came home with the most idiotic book I’d ever seen: Dick and Jane. My brothers loved it (had lots of pictures). Earlier, I had attempted to teach my brothers the phonics method (my mother gave me a nickel per lesson), but the schools literally enforced the “Look Say” method. My brothers do not read nearly as well I do to this day.
“Look Say” is now being attributed to the problems associated with dyslexia. This method uses images and the shapes of words to teach reading. Therefore, the student must memorize thousands of images (”eat” looks like the shape of a boot, etc). It is barbaric.
Adversely, phonics teaches students that symbols have meaning, which is how the brain is hard-wired. I consider it debasing to all elements of learning to use the “Look Say” method, because it requires image cognizance and a cumbersome heap of memorizing. This kooky method trains the young brain to have image-based thinking, when reading is really comprehensive-based. “Look Say” greatly reduces reading cognizance and comprehension.
3. Read the Bible. The Bible was once the premier textbook in public schools. As a matter of fact, when President Thomas Jefferson was also serving as president of the Washington, DC, public school board, he said the only two necessary books for students were the Bible and Watts hymnal. The Bible is an amazing collection of literature, poetry, prose, history, and not to mention, the instruction manual for moral living and eternal salvation. Just being exposed to the Bible has made my kids excellent readers, spellers, and thinkers.
4. Have your child write out a portion of Bible verses and read them aloud to you every day. I know I had this under the Quick Fix list, but it is something very helpful when you are beginning. Your kid will benefit, believe me.
5. Finally, cultivate a true love for reading from the start. Buy books, discuss books with your spouse, share books, and have a family time of reading together. Videos, DVDs, computer games, X-Boxes and such distract from reading, and, if your child is suffering under the “Look Say” method at school, furthers the damage by making the child image-cognizant instead of word/symbol-cognizant. Ever since my kids were little, movies and computer use have been regulated and strictly enforced. It has benefitted them greatly.
Well, there’s my handy-dandy list of the 10 R’s– the 10 reading tips! They’ve worked for me! It sounds like a lot of work, and it is. Excellent reading habits and skills take some time to cultivate, but the benefits are very much worth it. Every additional skill a child learns hinges on his ability to read and to comprehend what he is reading. This is so important that it bears repeating– the child cannot fully develop in other areas of his education without comprehending what he reads. This takes time and effort, but it is worth it!
Remember Helen Keller? Her teacher persevered for months, trying to get that girl to understand– to comprehend– the things in her world. Helen just couldn’t catch on at first, and she even grew more frustrated for a time. Yet once that trickle of water got flowing, and once Helen realized what that water was and what symbols represented that water, understanding flooded her like a rushing river. It unlocked her mind and enabled her to not only communicate with the world, but comprehend the world.
After the age of 10 or 11, I am against the use of fiction books for reading. Read more about my views on it in this post here. When the kids were young, we did read fiction from time to time– however, the language had to be slightly “advanced.” That is, I stuck with the more classical fiction books and I also tried to give books that were slightly advanced in its language level than where my child was currently at.
Here are some of the books we have discovered and love. Some are fiction, some are non-fiction, and some are non-fiction but read like fiction (those are so much fun!) I am sure you can get these at your local library or at Amazon.com or ChristianBookDistributors. I have not organized the books by age, simply because all the kids have found them readable. The links take you to to Amazon.com, where they are available, although your local library probably has most of them.
Why Don’t You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?
Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution
Martha Speaks (Sandpiper Paperbacks)
Stuart Little
Aaron and the Green Mountain Boys
Emmett’s Pig
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? (Paperstar)
The Swiss Family Robinson
Little Bear’s outdoor adventure guide for the all-American boy
Bread and Jam for Frances
Daniel Boone: Frontier Legend (Historical American Biographies)
Black Beauty
The Bulletproof George Washington
A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael
Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime 
Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems 
Eric Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold 
Little Pilgrims Progress
Best Little Stories from the American Revolution
The Childhood of Famous Americans series (literally hundreds of books from the 50’s and 60’s– my library has them all. They are outstanding! Here’s Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator
The Little House Collection Box Set
Robinson Crusoe
Heidi (Children’s Classics)
The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories
George Washington the Christian
Jesus Freaks: Martyrs: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus: The Ultimate Jesus Freaks
Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs
Into All the World: Four Stories of Pioneer Missionaries
The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun
Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
The Penguins Are Coming!
Harry the Dirty Dog
No Roses for Harry!
Harry and the Lady Next Door
A Children’s Companion Guide to America’s History: History and Government
Smithsonian Presidents and First Ladies
Meet George Washington
I’m having a blast with my new membership at the health club. It’s helping my back and abdominal muscles already! 
Even after five days, I feel healthier! I haven’t had to take any medication in a long time, so it’s helping on the medical bills, too. I used to be in such good shape– I took dancing in drama school– but after having four children and injuring my back, I’m a ball o’ skin. So I’m looking for every opportunity to muscle up again (and stay far, far away from those terrible pain medications, too). Every little bit of beneficial activity helps. You girls know what I mean.
So I am enthralled with what I found online, something called Fitflops. Isn’t that just the coolest name?! Apparently these FitFlops are just that– they make you fit while you flop. LOL. Flip-flop shoes are very popular in the summer, so some smart person invented these Fit Flops. They are all the rage in the UK, because they give your legs and “bum” a terrific workout merely by walking. I think they are extremely stylish, don’t you? They look much, much more comfortable than those cheapo, flat flip-flops that I find at WalMart. Better still, get those legs toned up while you Fit Flop! This amazing footwear found at “SweatyBetty,” rofl!
