The children had much fun cutting and pasting and labeling and learning about human skeletons.

Next week we’ll help our newest members bulk up in the muscle department!

The down-loadable file for this life size paper skeleton can be found at Eskeletons.org under the Resources tab and then Under Activities/Teaching Resources. There is an adult version and a child’s.

Dale McGowan is the author of Parenting Beyond Belief and one of the primary reasons why Kirby and I were able to write the letter that we did.

I had identified myself as an evangelical Christian for over twenty years. I came to my recent conclusions about my faith without reading any views from “the other side.” I didn’t want anyone telling me what to believe anymore. I wanted to figure out what I believed. I slowly came to realize that I could no longer hold all the inconsistencies together. I couldn’t figure out how to make it all work in my head. It occurred to me that in order to end the disharmony I would have to admit that much of what I was supposed to believe in, I didn’t. It was at that point I began wonder how a person could define their worldview without the supernatural and I began to seek out “the other point of view.”

I have to admit, what I read actually scared me – vitriolic anger. There seemed to be as much hate and intolerance in the “other camp” as in the one I felt I had left.

So it seems very apropos that Dale linked to our letter when it was his book, Parenting Beyond Belief, that actually made me relax and realize that life would probably be okay. Dale’s was the first book that didn’t make me feel stupid for wasting my life for years on a silly religion. His was the first book that seemed, in my mind, to honour all belief systems, including atheism. His was the first book that gave me hope that some of my friendships might survive this monumental announcement.

And so I just want to thank him for the link (our Google Analytics went crazy!) but most importantly for his book and it’s sequel Raising Freethinkers. His rationalism and compassion is a much needed voice in a world rife with intolerance and condemnation on both sides of the issue.

Here are some I’m working on right now:

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Wherever You Go, There You Are also by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World by Craig and Marc Kielburger

Here are a few that my children asked me to read so we can share the adventure:
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Confession Of An Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Here are some I am reading for educational purposes (mine and my children’s)
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier
Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas

What are you reading?

Now I’m looking around and feeling like I missed part of the trip. I was so busy digging around in the luggage I forgot look out the window.

Well, there isn’t any going back. I may travel the same road again, but I won’t be the same, and the road will probably have changed as well. So I am deciding I need to try and forget about the luggage and just enjoy gazing out at the brilliant vistas of my life.

My life is good, whether I believe it not.

This shirt is an adult small, but it fits my 11 year old daughter well, except that the neckline is a little more plunging than she felt comfortable with.

My children are not very fond of wearing undershirts so instead, I hemmed the three sides of a triangle and then hand sewed it onto the neckline.

It looks great and my daughter loves her “new” shirt.

All in all, I thought it funny that my morning cream of wheat looked like this:

Happy New Year Everyone!

First I made a template of the bird on cardboard, traced it onto the back of some pretty patterned paper, and cut it out. Then I made a slightly larger template, traced it onto some contrasting solid coloured cardstock, and cut it out.

I glued the patterned paper onto the solid coloured paper using a glue stick and then added a thought-filled sticker to each one.

I opened up some coloured paperclips and hot glued them onto the back of the cardstock and then attached some adhesive magnetic tape.

And now there are some pretty birds for my neigbour’s fridge!

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love.