You asked for it, you get it!

Too bad all things in life don't work that way. ;-)

Anyway, you might notice a couple changes here and there.  On the left sidebar, under the search tool, is a place to sign up for email updates.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone.  In fact, I won't even see it.
We're also going to work on possibly doing more posts in a little while, as well as a monthly or maybe bi-weekly poll.  If you have any ideas for a fun poll, or want to consider writing a guest post for this blog, feel free to leave a comment with an idea!  We're always open to new ideas, guest posts, and such.

Because my family and I are going to be moving sooner than we thought, and I won't be able to have internet access very much, I am pleased to introduce our newest writer who will be writing for me and might even become a full time writer: Miss Hope. :-)  She'll do her first post on October 4th. EDIT: October 11th.

Apologies for not having a post this past Friday; Pip was sick and since I was out of town I didn't notice, or even know she was sick, until late Saturday night.

There, a nice business update. 

Blessings,
~Laura

Movie Review - Singin' in the Rain

Movie Name: Singin' in the Rain

My Rating: ***** Five out of Five Stars

Singin' in the Rain is such a great musical! The bright colors, lively music, amazing dances, and lovable personalities make it such a fun movie to watch.

Don Lockwood: Cosmo, call me a cab!

Cosmo Brown: Okay, you're a cab.

The year is 1927, silent movies are all the rage, and Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are famous movie actors. With the release of "The Jazz Singer", the first talking picture, all the major movie companies are putting in sound equipment so that they can film "talkies" too. But there is a problem. Lina has a terrible voice. Don, his friend Cosmo, and a girl named Kathy try to think of a way to save the talking movie Don and Lina have just made.

This film is a lot of fun. There is much talent to be seen in it, you will be wowed at the dance numbers, and a few days after you watch it, you'll probably find yourself singing some of the songs.

The movie is pretty clean, other than a few immodest dresses and one rather immodest dance, but that scene has nothing to do with the plot, and you won't miss out on anything if you skip it.

Have fun with your movie nights, everybody!

God bless you,

Taylor

Beef Macaroni Casserole

Hello! As you may have read in Laura's previous post, I am Emma, I will be filling in for Lauren from now until October.

Here's a recipe that I've made twice now.

(Sorry that the images are not very clear.)

Beef Macaroni Casserole

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(Feeds about 6 people.)

Ingredients:

3 lbs ground beef

1 onion, chopped

16 oz can tomato sauce

2 T flour

1 cup water

2 cups uncooked macaroni noodles

2 cups shredded cheddar

Mix water and flour until smooth. Add tomato sauce. Mix again. Brown meat and onion together. Drain meat mixture. Simmer for 13 minutes. Meanwhile, boil macaroni. Drain, and combine macaroni and flour/tomato sauce with meat mixture. Turn into casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

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I hope you enjoy it!

~Emma

Tattle-Tale!

One of the biggest problems my siblings and I have is a bad case of "Tattle-Tale".

"You hit me! Moooom!!! He hit meeee!"
"Well you started it! I'm telling Mom, and you're going to get in biiig trouble!"
"I wanted the last cookie! I'm telling! Moooom!!!"

*wince*

Mostly, it is the little kids that do it, but sometimes I do. Mostly when I am trying to write or talk with friends, I'll pull the "You have five seconds to leave me alone before I tell Mom!" deal.

Sound familiar?

Why do we feel the need to constantly drag our problems before our parents? Heaven knows they can probably hear us. [and sometimes the neighbors too, I bet] Now, if Little Sister is playing with matches, then YES of course you should tell your mom. But if Little Sister wants to play with you, let her!

One of my brothers recently started going around, whenever he saw someone get an "angry face", and sing "Do everything with complaining or arguing! And treat others like you wanna be treated!"

Treat others like you wanna be treated. :-)

Again, I'm not saying that running to your parents to tell them something wrong is bad, but every little thing that goes wrong in your world? I don't think so. Emergencies? Sure. But let's try to not be so very picky. You don't go calling your best friend's parents when he/she does something you don't like, right? And since we're supposed to view our siblings as live-in friends...

Think about it. :-) I know that I am certainly going to try and work on my "tattling".

Blessings,
~Laura

Ps: If you haven't already, there are polls on the sidebar that want your opinion. :-) Also, because Lauren and I are going to be very busy with a lot of things soon, during the rest of September and October Miss Emma will be posting for Lauren, and during November and maybe December she will be posting for me. Thank you, dearie!!

"But I want you to play NOW!"

Many of you reading this have seen me mention how crazy my life has been lately. And while I'm not rushing around town with jobs or anything, my hours have been consumed by the blistering fire of Writing A Book (and thankfully, as of last night, finishing it!), and studying for the SAT. Well good, you might say, she's being productive. Productive yes, but social? Hardly. The amount of work I'm been wading through required me to cut down on the time I spent with my family and while I'm thankful to be spending a lot more time with them this week before school starts, it taught me a valuable lesson in tolerance.
I've bragged to people about my skills in the grand art of annoyance. Ask anyone, I know how to push buttons if I want to. I attribute this to the fact that I'm a little sister, as well as an older one.
When my older sister was at the age I am myself, I would be an unholy terror towards her strain of concentration. I would hide behind her desk and jump out at her, drag her to watch movies with us, whine about how she didn't spend any time with me anymore. I was, I suppose you could say, extremely unsympathetic to the stark fact that she was having to grow out of the home and drown herself in new responsibilities that left me less than satisfied with the amount of time she and I spent together. There is a lot to the relationship that I have with my older sister but if I could reverse time, I wouldn't have complained so loudly. Now that I'm having to step into new shoes and put on more hats, I can understand a lot of her logic. And while this new wardrobe is sucking much of my time, I am learning how to integrate the nifty stuff I learn, the scene I'm writing, into my conversation with the Girls in my spare time. There must be a balance between doing things by yourself and including your siblings in your affairs. Especially little ones, they're into everything and they are interested in what you're doing, what your life is like.
This is a shout out from a little sibling to other little siblings; it's a fine line between being nosy and annoying, and being truly interested in your older siblings' lives, but a line which you can recognize with some practice. Be sympathetic towards the time that they're needing to get things done, and when they do have the chances to talk or play, take advantage of that and enjoy it without hard feelings for your own wants, your own convenience.
Note: I apologize for not getting to a post a couple Fridays ago; thank you all for your grace!

Movie Review - The Great Escape

Movie name: The Great Escape

My Rating: ***** Five out of Five Stars

The Great Escape without a doubt makes it on my Top 5 Favorite Movies. I would suggest it for ages 10 and older, because I don't think kids any younger than that would fully understand the story, and therefore would not enjoy it as much as older kids.

Here is what it says at the beginning of the movie.

This is a true story. Although the characters are composites of real men, and time and place have been compressed, every detail of the escape is the way it really happened.

When WW2 ally soldiers are brought to a German prisoner of war camp, they are told by the German soldiers to give up their attempts to escape. After many minor unsuccessful attempts to break out, the prisoners meet together and decide to do something that no one else has done before. They decide to dig three tunnels, 30 feet deep and 300 feet in order to escape. How many men are they planning to take out? 250.

It is amazing to watch this movie and realize that all of what you are seeing really happened. These men really did this. They had to be so resourceful. They used whatever they could get their hands on in order to escape. And to see all the jobs there were to do is incredible. Tunnel Diggers, Tailors, Manufacturers, Scroungers, Forgers, the list goes on and on.

There is some mild language throughout the movie, and some violence towards the end, but it is the least amount of violence I've ever seen in a war movie.

I really hope ya'll will choose to watch this movie, you will be amazed if you do!

God bless you,

Taylor

Book Review : Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Book Name : Inkheart

My Rating : ***** Five out of Five stars..

One night, Meggie's father, Mo, reads aloud from a book called Inkheart. An evil ruler named Capricorn appears in their living room. Along with a fire eater named Dustfingers. Meggie's mom disappears into the book.

"Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering rain. Many years later, Meggie had only to close her eyes, and she could still hear it, like tiny fingers tapping on the window pane."

Meggie is suddenly caught up in adventures, magic and books. They go to Meggie's Aunts house. Where Mo is fixing the covers of Elinor's ( Meggie's Aunt ) books. Mo hides the book Inkheart from Meggie. But then Mo is forced to read from Inkheart to Capricorn. Meggie must rescue Mo from Capricorns village, and read aloud from Inkheart..

"Some books should be tasted

Others devoured.

But only a few

Should be chewed and digested thoroughly."

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This is a great family read aloud book. Though I must warn you that Meggie's Aunt, Elinor, does use some language.. So reading it aloud to your younger siblings/family would be better, than you can skip the language, but your younger siblings can also enjoy the book!

Blessings!

~Lauren