I emailed it to her. I did get her a card and a bottle of her favorite type of wine though!

It may make it more likely, I suppose. But a 1 in 1,000,000,000 chance of something happening (say, life on Earth) and a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (say, life on another planet) are still both a chance. (Of course the real numbers would be much higher.) Keep in mind though, if it were discovered that life is on Earth and elsewhere also, those chances would be 100% of life being on Earth and elsewhere. Before you flip a coin, it has a (roughly) 1:2 chance of landing on heads. After the coin is flipped and lands on heads, there is a 100% chance of it having landed on heads. All this is to say, for such a life-form to be discovered, would be incredibly unlikely, even more unlikely than life developing on Earth apart from a Creator. But if you believe that life could develop on Earth apart from a Creator, then it is just more unlikely that life also developed elsewhere apart from a Creator. More unlikely is not the same as conclusive proof. SO, in conclusion, no. I don't think the existance of intelligent life "out there" would prove or disprove the existance of God.

A democracy is just mob rule. A Constitutional Republic seems to me to be the best form of government, even if the elected representatives enact immoral laws.

It seems to be appropriate timing for me to share this, since today is our anniversary. :D http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2012/08/06/dear-stay-at-home-mom/ I am hoping it could encourage some of you.

How would it prove or disprove the existence of God?? That doesn't make any sense to me.

For a 9 year old? Where would you say her reading level is?

1. Emergency Fund - it really is Murphy Insurance 2. Budget for a whole year at a time. Birthdays, holidays, back to school shopping, etc... they happen the same time every year. Spread those expenses out evenly throughout the year. 3. Envelope system - helps with the behavioral side of not spending what you don't have. 4. Don't go into debt for anything that loses value. A house (and possibly education) would be the only things to even consider going into debt for. - even then, try to avoid it. 5. Career planning. Basically, follow the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt. I don't care for his investing advice, but the other stuff is pretty solid.

Thanks. I couldn't find anything about the revisions on her website.

:iagree: I think I agree with you here. I definitely agree with the last sentence. I think the prevelance and acceptance of pornography in our culture has certainly led to an increase of people objectifying eachother (male and female). For people that struggle with that (the vast majority of Americans, I imagine), immodestly dressed people will catch their attention, and probably these people will have lustful thoughts. In our men's group, we spend a HUGE amount of our time focusing on purity. Yes, modesty is important, especially for the ladies, and they deal with that. But for the men, we definitely focus on changing our hearts and minds to be more like God. We have memory verses to help us when we are tempted. Internet filters, accountability partners, etc are all encourage. We definitely take the responsibility on ourselves to not lust after people.

We try to teach our daughters to "act like ladies." They wear shorts under their dresses if they are out in public, and often at home too. We expect them to sit without their legs sprawled all over the place, and that their skirts should cover their shorts at least. If not, they will have to change to a longer skirt/dress or shorts or pants. If there is a decent chance that a top is low enough or loose enough to show nipplage, we have them wear some type of undershirt. We have a hard time finding bathing suits that fit my oldest, she it pretty tall and very skinny. So she usually wears a two-piece tankini style that pretty much covers her belly. As they get older, we will continue to teach them to be modest. I do think modesty is cultural though. What is modest in Hawaii is different than what is modest in the jungles of South America, which is different than what is modest in Saudi Arabia, which is different than what is modest in West Texas. The bulk of modesty is not drawing extra attention to yourself. If you are doing handstands, cartwheels, and splits in a thong bikini at the public beach where I take my daughters hoping to see sea turtles (really happened), I am going to consider you to not be classy. If you are doing that in private in your bedroom for your husband, then I won't judge that in a negative way at all. Regarding cleavage... sometime a woman can help what she is showing and she is showing off to be noticed. Sometimes a woman can't really help it. If you are built in a way that you are wearing a regular shirt or top or dress or whatever, and it shows a little bit, well then, I have no issue with that. But if you are wearing a shirt cut to your belly button and complain that some guy has trouble keeping his gaze away, yeah, you have some responsibility in that. Now, regarding rape, assaults, etc... I don't care if a woman is walking down the street completely naked, she doesn't deserve to be assaulted. That is purely the fault of the aggressor. And while we can strive to simply teach people to not rape each other, the fact is that there are evil people out there. Avoiding situations that could lead to danger is a critical part of self-defense, and you can believe that my daughters will know how to defend themselves.

While I disagree with the idea of the Sinner's Prayer (I agree with David Platt here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/juneweb-only/david-platt-sinners-prayer.html), it sounds to me as if your son heard a clear presentation of the Gospel, and now is making a decision to turn his life whole-heartedly over to Christ or not. I do believe 11-14 year olds are certainly old enough to hear the truth of God's love and His justice. Consider that his peers are, in some places, making babies, watching PG-13 and R - rated movies, waging war, doing drugs, etc. An average child his age ought to be able to handle the truth about Heaven and Hell, IMO. There isn't anything in the Bible that I would shield a child from at that age. You are correct, again- in my opinion-, that this is a decision best not to be made out of fear, but out of love for God.

I don't think she has had that talk yet lol. Thanks for the link!

I have taken Prednisone, along with several other things, and it made a huge difference in the symptoms I was having. It is a steroid, like Cortisol but much stronger. If you take it too long (like for 2 weeks or more, I think) it can cause bone and other problems.

I saw that now there is a revised version of Math Mammoth. I see that the cover is different, but does anyone know what else may be different (I'm looking specifically at 1A and 1B here)?

?? There wasn't a link in the last post...

Well, we finished it. Enjoyed it. It felt almost like the preface to a longer story, but it did feel like it wrapped up decently, for what it was.

So, I ended up wearing it sans tie, untucked, with dark Levi's and the brown Skechers from a previous post. Then, DW informed me she expected me to be barefoot and this picture will be on the beach. So, I switched to some khaki cargo shorts and bare feet, same shirt. The picture was more casual than I expected it was going to be..of course, dw knew what she had in mind lol.

So, we sent the letter to SCHOOL A. They called us and asked dw a few questions about it. They said then they would send it to SCHOOL B, I guess that's where it should have gone in the first place. But, very nice of SCHOOL A to send it over for us.

This weekend, dd6 called hockey "ice golf."

My belief is that peace is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. One who is walking in the Spirit will have peace. I do think our natural instict is to let the Flesh takeover when certain circumstances occur. This is a problem if we stay there and live our life like that. If it is the exception though, and if we walk in the Spirit in general, we will have peace.

I second putting it in a family room. I hear good things about Covenant Eyes as well. An important thing to know though, is that if he really wants to look at that stuff, he will find a way. Kids are clever and resourceful. And eventually, I assume, he will move out on his own. The key isn't just blocking access as best you can and constant monitoring, the key is for him to have a heart that loves God and detests sin. The filtering software and parental monitoring are supplementary tools. I suggest prayer with him and for him.

I believe result would be, eventually, schools getting more affordable. The higher education bubble needs to pop.

Out of curiosity, what are their beliefs on Hell? And is there another church that lines up with your beliefs better? Perhaps if you were attending there it would be easier to say, "Sorry, but I am going to Church XYZ now, it matches up with my beliefs better. See you afterward for supper!" Or something similar.

Nope, that's not it. Order tracking even gives estimate dates of delivery weeks in the past by the time we actually get an order. Someone I know suggested it could be due to USPS cutbacks...

We have contacted them about some of the orders, basically they said, "They are on the way." Except one, which had apparently never actually left their warehouse, so they canceled that order, gave us a refund, and sent the item for free, and we got that in the normal 3 days. The only difference in Prime out to here is that it isn't 2-day shipping, but standard. Usually though, that is a lot faster than it has been lately.