Like many other homeschooling families, we start each day with a reading from the Bible. We teach our children to explore each subject, from history to science, by examining what God’s word has to say about it first. Whether parents educate their children at home or not, giving them a Biblical worldview from which to judge all things is the most important job a Christian family has.

As I’ve found out from hard experience, teaching my children the way they should go is an uphill battle, and the world fights me every step of the way. Our science books, our reference books, even our storybooks are filled with an evolutionary, secular worldview that must be examined constantly by the light of God’s Word. Rather than insulate our children from the claims of the world, as some would have us do, we prefer to teach our children what the world is saying, and how to trust God in the face of their evolutionary claims.

Charlie and Trike’s Grand Canyon Adventure is the first in a series of adventures written by Ken Ham to help parents do that very thing: teach their children to trust the Bible from the very first verse.

Charlie and Trike take a trip to the Grand Canyon and discover during their adventure that there is more than one way to interpret all kinds of things–from eyepatches (pirate or adventurous hero?)  to the fossil record (millions of years or thousands?).  The book is written to appeal to children ages 4-8. It has bright, beautifully drawn pictures, pop-out features that keep children interested, and most importantly, a firm Biblical message.

As you can see, my 6 year old is eating it up! I read it to him as soon as it arrived, and he was thrilled to recognize Bible themes in his new storybook. It is a little too wordy for a younger reader to tackle on his own, but it’s a great read-aloud for even younger children. David has kept this book at his side since we got it. He keeps coming back to unfold the mini-books and look at the images and maps. To my delight, he was also very eager to explain it all to his grandfather last night! I enjoyed the story of Charlie and Trike as much as my son did, and I know you will, too.

Buy it: Charlie and Trike’s Grand Canyon Adventure is available at Amazon.com for $15.99 $12.47. (That’s not an affiliate link, btw.)

Win it! Two easy ways to enter: New Leaf Publishing is going to send four of my readers a copy of Charlie and Trike’s Grand Canyon Adventure! I’m going to do this giveaway a little differently than my usual ones. Two of the books will be given to random commenters who follow the rules for this giveaway. Two others will be awarded based on merit. You can enter both ways to increase your chances!

To enter for the random draw (2 winners): Just leave a comment telling me who you’d be sharing this wonderful book with!

Extra entries: For extra entries, you may do any or all of the following. Just leave a separate comment for each.

• Subscribe to my RSS feed
• Subscribe to Get Along Home via email
• Follow me on Twitter @getalonghome
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link in comments. You can do this once a day, if you like!
• Follow Get Along Home via Networked Blogs
• Follow Get Along Home via Google Friend Connect (see side bar)

To enter the link-up and share your own ideas (2 winners): I would love input from the Christian blogger community on this question, please. Either in your own blog post or by emailing me your answer, tell me:

How do you teach your child to trust the Bible in the face of an unbelieving world?

It could be as simple as a prayer, or as complex as your very own Bible curriculum. This newbie mama needs ideas. Please help!

Your post can be as long or as short as you like.

If you’ve already written a post that touches on this subject, feel free to submit it from your archives. It doesn’t have to be fresh to be good!

You can link up your own review of Charlie and Trike, if you have one. Other participants in the blog tour are welcome to link here to share. I couldn’t send you  a prize for that, of course, but I’d love to include your post!

I’m going to leave this linky up for 2 weeks, so you can take your time thinking about it.

Details: This giveaway is open to anyone in the US. (Sorry, Canadians!) This giveaway will be open until midnight, September 17, 2010. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to my email. Please use a valid email address in your comments so that I can contact you if you win! Please use one email address per entrant, per household, per IP address. Cheaters will be permanently banned from this site. Good luck!

My No-Legalese Disclosure

Disclosure: New Leaf Publishing Group has included Get Along Home in their campaign to promote Charlie and Trike’s Grand Canyon Adventure. I received payment to post the Charlie and Trike button ad and a book for review, as well as a copy of Your Guide to the Grand Canyon: A Different Perspective. New Leaf Publishing will provide the 4 winners’ copies of Charlie and Trike’s Grand Canyon Adventure. In addition, this post qualifies me to compete for a grand prize to be given to the blogger with the best overall response. (So wouldn’t you love to help me by entering? )  My opinions are my own, and I do not speak for new Leaf Publishing.

I’ve found a sweet little shop online for baby clothes! Actually, My Baby Clothes Boutique found me, and offered to send my new little guy an outfit to review. After looking around their site, which has everything from baby hats to baby gifts, I decided to make a little football player out of this fella.

I’ve been holding on to this cute little outfit for a couple of weeks, just waiting for a baby to put it on. Now that I’ve got a model, I can finally show you the product!

Doesn’t he just look ready to tackle somebody? Watch out, world!

Win! To help me celebrate the birth of our son, Benjamin, My Baby Clothes Boutique is offering one of my readers a $25 gift certificate to their shop! $25 is enough to buy a precious outfit like the one I got or lots of other outfits!

To enter, visit My Baby Clothes Boutique and leave a comment here, naming an item that catches your eye. That’s it! No extra entries for this one. Let’s keep it fair for those of you who don’t have time for extra entries.

Details: This giveaway is open to anyone in the US. This giveaway will be open until midnight, September 24, 2010. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to my email. Please use a valid email address in your comments so that I can contact you if you win. Please use one email address per entrant, per household, per IP address. Cheaters will be permanently banned from commenting on this site. Good luck!

My No-Legalese Disclosure I wasn’t compensated in any way for this post. My Baby Clothes Boutique provided me with an item for review purposes. Opinions are my own. Your mileage may vary.

After two and a half weeks of false labor, 4 half-doses of castor oil, a great many tears, and 20 hours of labor (10 of those HARD), we have a baby to show for it!  Our third son, Benjamin Mark Dyer:

Born August 25, 2010
10:26 a.m.
7 lbs, 8 oz
20.5 inches

Don’t you love those baby bottoms?

About the birth: Some births are harder than others, and for no discernible reason. Maybe it was because he was late, or because this was a VBAC, or just because I’m getting older, but this birth pushed me to the very edge of my sanity. I was stunned that it hurt this much, having done it three times before and never experienced it quite this way. Maybe I’m just weaker than I used to be?

I prefer to keep things as unmedicated as possible, not just in childbirth, but in day-to-day life. It’s just how I’m built. But for this baby, I asked for help. I got a shot of something (Nubane?) when I just couldn’t take it anymore, but the pain did NOT ease off. The nurse said it was too late for it to work much, and couldn’t give me anything else because the baby was too close to being born for it to be safe for him. So I’m not sure if this counts as medicated birth or not. I certainly got no relief!

The baby never descended properly, for some reason. One time the nurse would check me, and he’d be at 0, then he’d float back up to -2. He really did not want to leave me! I suspect the umbilical cord wrapped around his shoulder may have been pulling him back, but I’m just a mom. I don’t even know if that’s possible. I know very little about these things. I nearly gave up when pushing time came and I heard the doctor say, “You’ve got a long way to push, Mama.” The nurse told me to wait and let my body do some more of the work for me, because he was still at -1!

Well, undescended baby or not, I was hurting so bad I had to push. I knew I’d give up or pass out if I had to endure one more contraction passively. So push I did, and 12 minutes later (yes, I am SUPER!), I had a son.

My other labors hurt, but this one was actually traumatic for me. I’m still having trouble thinking about it. Once it was over, though, I praised God just as loudly for this one as I did for the others! My praise after a baby is born always makes me think of the shouting in Heaven when a sinner is born again! Imagine that chorus! I’ve got nothing on the angels, of course, but I know that exultation, as any new mama does.

A woman giving birth has pain because her time has come;
but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish
because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

~John 16:21

All Cleaned Up

His siblings are wild about him. I’m blessed with unselfish children who don’t get jealous easily. Even his 20 month-old sister is handling it well.

He is perfect, and worth every moment of it. This is the most content, laid-back baby I’ve ever seen! He doesn’t cry much, but he has this adorable little squeak he makes when he wants something. I could almost pinch him, just to see if I can elicit that sweet sound from him. It’ll be a struggle, but I’ll try not to do that…much.

I know I’m a crappy blogger lately. I can’t think about anything but babies. I’m also a horrible wife, housekeeper, mother, daughter, friend, and sister right now. Being miserably, hugely pregnant can do that to the best of us. Some observations I’ll try to remind myself of if (when) my next baby is “overdue”:

1. Doctors are just as capable of wishful thinking as mamas–even doctors who have delivered 6,000+ babies. Example: “Yeah, I think maybe your cervix is a leeeetle bit softer and thinner than last time. And maybe half a fingertip wider.” Gimmee a break, doc. I know you don’t want to disappoint me, but we are STUCK, aren’t we? And don’t you have a vacation looming in a few days? Bet we’d really like to get this thing moving, wouldn’t we?
2. Castor oil does, in fact, cause massive discomfort. Plan on it. Oh, it didn’t bother me much last time! Stop a second, Cindy. Think. Remember. Did you take the whole dose last time? (No. Just 2 tablespoons.) Was it on an empty stomach? (No.) And most importantly, weren’t you a few years younger and stronger? (yeah, but only 3 years!) And did it work? (Maybe. Hard to say.) And now I’m sorry I decided to try that–but I am also having contractions, so that’s, uh, nice. (Update: While my tummy did hurt, and I did feel a little nauseated, the castor oil never produced the yuck that I was expecting. Yay! We’ll have to wait and see if those contractions mean anything…)
3. Babies come out when they’re ready! So stop worrying so much. They really do!

That’s it! God willing, I’ll have a real blog post in the form of a baby announcement the next time you hear from me. I’m going in Wednesday for induction, if things don’t happen before then. I can pretty much guarantee no blogging until this boy arrives, so you won’t have to listen to any more pregnant lady whining from me! I’ll have a completely different kind of whining for you next time. Thanks for hanging around, and have a wonderful week!

Don’t miss this one, home cooks and foodies!

I’m sure a lot of you have seen the giveaways around the Momosphere for Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. I hope you’ve been entering those giveaways. I’ve been skipping past them, thinking I didn’t want to bother with a giveaway for “just oil”. Well, I am positively kicking myself now. Oh, my goodness this stuff is good! Whatever you do, do NOT skip this giveaway. Your life on this planet may not be complete without it. Well, it’s still just food, I guess, but I’m certainly glad I got the chance to try it.

Tropical Traditions was kind enough to send me a 32 oz. jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. Being a good product reviewer, the first thing I did was get a spoon and take a little dip into the jar. I don’t go around eating spoonfuls of oil, as a rule, but it seemed like the best way to get acquainted with the stuff. While I don’t recommend making a whole meal of it, it is a pleasantly scented, light-tasting oil.  I always lick the spoon after using the oil in my cooking. It’s very tasty, even for someone who doesn’t particularly like coconut flavorings, and I wouldn’t want to waste a drop.

The first thing I tried with the Coconut Oil was replacing the olive oil in my homemade breadsticks with it. This was so good that when my husband shared his leftovers with a co-worker the next day (and I am NOT making this up), she actually got goosebumps on her arms. Goosebumps! She asked “What kind of butter is that?” Whereupon my husband informed her that I am a genius, and used coconut oil! Anything that can get my husband to call me a genius has to be good! Here’s the recipe I used:

Italian Breadsticks with a Tropical Twist

1 cup warm (not hot) water
2 tablespoons honey
2 1/4 teaspoons or one packet of quick-acting yeast
1/2 cup Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
2 Tablespoons Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 cloves minced garlic
Coarse sea salt or Kosher salt

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one, whisk together the water, honey, and yeast. Let it sit for a few minutes until frothy. Add the 1/2 cup coconut oil and the salt. Stir the flour in, one cup at a time, until dough forms. My dough was stiffer with coconut oil than with other oils, so you may need to compensate for this by adding a tablespoon of water at a time until you reach the right consistency. Knead the dough until it is a uniform consistency, and not too sticky to handle. Let it rise in a well-greased bowl for one hour.

After the dough rises, shape it into breadsticks. I’m lazy, so I just roll it onto a cookie sheet and use a pizza cutter to make “sticks” of it. Mix the melted butter with the other 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (make sure the oil is in its liquid state) and garlic, then brush it over the dough. Don’t be sparing. Put it all on there! Sprinkle with salt. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until golden brown.

You can use coconut oil in practically anything, and I have been: I’ve put it in rice, spread it on toast as a substitute for butter (yum), even cooked my pinto beans with it. It adds a new layer of flavor to everything I’ve tried. My husband is laughing at my new obsession, but he’s not complaining about the food!

You can find coconut oil recipes at the Tropical Traditions Recipe Blog.

Buy it: Buy Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil (scroll down a bit to find the link to buy)

Win it: Tropical Traditions is offering one of my readers a 32 oz. jar of Gold Label Virgin Coconut oil to try! Just leave me a comment letting me know what you might do first with this luxurious treat.

Extra entries: After you’ve completed your first entry, you can increase your chance of winning by doing any or all of the following things. Remember to leave a separate comment for each:

• Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions email newsletter. Leave a comment letting me know what email address you used.
• Follow me on Twitter @getalonghome
• Follow Tropical Traditions on Twitter @TropTraditions
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave the link to your tweet in comments. You can do this once a day if you like.
• Subscribe to my RSS feed or email updates.
• Follow Get Along Home via Google Friend Connect (right sidebar)
• Follow Get Along Home via Networked Blogs
• Like this post on Facebook by hitting the “like” button at the bottom of this post

Details: This giveaway is open to anyone in the US or Canada. This giveaway will be open until midnight, September 17, 2010. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to my email. Please use a valid email address in your comments so that I can contact you if you win! Please use one email address per entrant, per household, per IP address. Cheaters will be permanently banned from this site. Good luck!

My No-Legalese Disclosure I wasn’t compensated in any way for this post. Tropical Traditions provided me with a sample of their product for review purposes. Opinions and recipe are my own. Your mileage may vary.

I love Christians. You people are awesome. That would be because I love our Savior, and count myself in your ranks. So I hope you’ll all forgive me for what I’m about to say.

I have a big, big quarrel with modern Christian music. We seem to have lost all discernment in our quest to produce “our own” music. Maybe it’s an outworking of this strange need for cultural relevance that I’m always hearing about. Or maybe we’re just products of our environment and haven’t given it any thought. Whatever the reasons for it, when it comes to music, we just steal and sanitize whatever the latest secular fad is, and call it Contemporary. The Christian radio station I listen to from time to time is well-stocked with angst, squeaky, whiney vocals, and self-centered navel-gazing. It’s just like the secular stations, but without the dirty words and sexual themes. This isn’t counter-cultural! This is pining to be a part of it!

I guess we don’t want to leave the culture too far behind. They might think we’re dorks or something.

Why is it that we will put up with absolutely any amount of musical and theological nonsense, just as long as the artist is willing to throw a bone to Jesus in there somewhere? Maybe we’re just too nice to say “nope, that’s not good enough”? I can see that. We are, except for your humble blogger, a nice, uncomplaining bunch of people, aren’t we?

I, however, have had it up to my eyeballs (earballs?) with singers actually whimpering while singing praises to the King. Chris Tomlin, I’m looking at you. Why do you sound like you want to cry? Dude, did He reject you? What has our Savior done to make you so unhappy? Don’t get me wrong! The music itself is tolerable. The lyrics are fine. But the singing! It could be so good, if you just sounded like you understood what the words you’re singing mean! But no, the lovelorn schoolboy voice is what is selling, so it is what we’ll use. Who cares if it makes sense?

And how is it that certain other artists can sing about salvation with those angry guitar riffs in the background? Glad you found such a nice lyric and all, but while you’re glorifying His name with your words, your music sounds like you just want to beat somebody up. Could we get some lessons on mood before writing the next one? Please?

Since I’m on a tear and I’m gonna make somebody mad anyway, let me address some theological confusion, too. For instance: Would you take the place of this man? I like Jeremy Camp. Good music. Fine man, no doubt. But NO! Not only would I not take the place of this man, I’m glad He did what He did! If I had the choice, jumping up on the cross for him would pretty much ruin the existence of the universe, now wouldn’t it? Taking the nails from His hands is precisely what Satan now wishes someone had done, I assure you.

I know the writer doesn’t mean any harm, and I doubt God minds much, since the artist’s heart is certainly in the right place. But this is a silly, sentimental approach to a serious, cosmically important event: the salvation of mankind. But why spend any time thinking about it? It sounds good, so let’s sell it!

That is only one example, and I don’t like to pick on such a good artist all by himself. There are dozens of others I’ve noticed, but a blog post really ought to be short and sweet, and I have laundry to fold. Maybe I’ll edit this post later and throw a few more in.

I have noticed an encouraging trend toward more praise music and less of the stuff that screams “Oh, God, if only the world understood my tortured relationship with you!”, so I’m probably a couple of years behind on this post. Sue me. I’ve been busy. It is, fortunately, not all bad! I hear lots of songs that manage to sound appropriately happy, sad, grateful, or whatever, while still carrying Christ’s message to a lost world. The Newsboys, for instance, had a big part in my salvation.

I’m not saying it’s all bad, and throw out the evil drums. (Oh, the horror! I love drums!) I’m just saying that the ratio of good, thoughtful music to bad, pointless music is way, way off. It’s not just a few stinkers sneaking through. It’s MOST of the music that gets aired. I guess we have fill the silence with something. Can’t “be still and know that He is God” on the radio, now can we?

What think you? Should we be just a little bit pickier about what we listen to? Or am I, as my husband says, a music snob?

I love working with MyBlogSpark! They keep sending me coupons for free food. Mostly yogurt, but I’ll take what I can get. Times are tough, ya know! My kids and I got to try Yoplait‘s new Splitz yogurt this week. The package says to try it frozen. Being a pliable sort, I did, and it was good! I can’t vouch for the healthfulness of these yogurts made just for kids, but I can vouch for the yummitude!  I was so absorbed in eating mine that I forgot to take pictures of my kids enjoying their frozen treat. One word of warning, if you freeze the yogurt for too long, you’ll need to let it thaw for about 20 minutes before serving. If your children are like mine, that’s 20 minutes of whining, so plan ahead!

Yoplait would like to send one of my wonderful readers a fun prize pack like the one they sent me. The pack includes:

• A coupon for free Yoplait Splitz yogurt
• A handy picnic blanket (mine is in the back of my van waiting for our next spur-of-the-moment picnic!)
• A heavy-duty insulated picnic tote to keep your yogurt frozen until you’re ready to eat it. (The bag alone is worth taking the time to enter!)

Win it: Just leave me a comment telling me you want to win! That’s it! No extra entries for this one. I have a hunch people prefer a giveaway that doesn’t make them take 20 minutes to win a cup of yogurt. Good luck!

Details: This giveaway will be closed for entries at midnight, Friday, September 10, 2010. This giveaway is open to everyone in the US and Canada. This coupon offer for a free pack of Yoplait Splitz is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, North Dakota and Tennessee. Of course, you can still use the tote and blanket, so don’t let that stop you from entering!

Please use a valid email address in your comments so that I can contact you if you win! Please use one email address per entrant, per household, per IP address. Cheaters will be permanently banned from this site. Good luck!

Disclosure The prize package that I received and the prize package that will be sent to the winner are courtesy of Yoplait and MyBlogSpark.

Just FYI, when I changed themes and rearranged my widgets, I somehow deleted about half of the blog buttons in my scrolling button-roll. If I’ve entered a giveaway of yours and you come looking for your button but don’t see it, please let me know so I can put it back! I’m so sorry! I’m trying to get this all sorted out.

If I don’t have your button and you’d like me to, just ask!