Christian Sex books shouldn't be something to giggle about.

Growing up in church, our "Christian Sex Education" was more like "Sex Mis-Information".  While I appreciate what the adults were attempting to do, I don't condone their methods of "keeping us pure" by frightening us with stories of those infected with HIV, abortions, and teen pregnancy.  Fear only works for so long.  I stayed in the teen group a little longer than most, and in the early 1990s I can remember all of the youth group being herded into the basement of the church.  The church's TV and VCR was down there.  We were not separated by gender, and we constantly giggled when the man on the Christian videos mispronounced "puberty".

Any questions?

Of course, any normal teenager wants to know EVERYTHING about sex even if they are not sexually active.  However, no normal teenager is going to ask questions in front of the youth leaders, their husbands, and 15 members of the opposite sex.  The adults may have even planned it this way so they wouldn't be caught off guard with any questions they didn't want to answer!

Twenty years later. . .

Dannah Gresh publishes the book  What Are You Waiting For?: The One Thing No One Ever Tells You About Sex .  I've been seeing links to CNN's religion blog with her article My Take: There's Nothing Brief About a Hookup .  In fact, this link was shared quite often by my Facebook friends, so when I had the opportunity to review her book, I jumped at the chance.

What you will NOT find in What Are You Waiting For?:

You will NOT find exaggerated facts to scare teens into not having sex.  You will NOT find mis-information.

What you WILL find in What Are You Waiting For?:

You WILL find honest facts.  You WILL find reasons (mainly spiritual and emotional) she believes teenagers and other singles should wait until marriage.  You WILL find honest talk about subjects my youth leaders shied away from 20 years ago. 

You can watch Dannah Gresh's book trailer here:




Obviously, with the content of the book, I would recommend it for high schoolers and above.  It is not for the faint of heart (and my youth leaders likely would have fainted with this book in the 1980s.)  But it's real!  I have a number of friends who are young adults, and this is common knowledge to them even if it wasn't so much talked about when I was their age?

Ready to dive into a frank discussion about God's plan for sex and why she believes people should wait until marriage?  You can read chapter one right here on my blog.



What Are You Waiting For by Dannah Gresh (Chapter 1)


Ready to buy this book to read to yourself or give to your daughter?  You can do so here:




This is a book I wish we would have had available to us in the 1980s.  Maybe we could have had our questions answered better with less giggling!  I'm glad to see there are books like this for this generation of young people!

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher.  In no way did that influence my opinion of the book.

If you could take a moment and rank my review (based on the quality of my review) that would be fantastic! Thank you!

How many guinea pigs do you have?

I often get the question "How many guinea pigs do you have?"  Currently the answer is three, but these are the guinea pigs I've had over the years.  I have a photo of them in my room with the title "Guinea Pigs are Love with Fur".    Also listed is the years we had them, we give forever homes, but we have gotten pigs that had lived elsewhere for a while, so the dates are just from when they were with us, not how old they were.

Tilly aka Mr. Piggy Man

1980s

(Photo coming soon, I don't have one in my computer)

Hamlet (left)

2000-2004

Sherman (right)

2002 - 2004

Archie

2004-2007

Pepin

2004 - 2008

Ceasar

2004 - 2008

Charlie

2008 - 2010

Baby Crockett

2008 - present

Fuzzbutt (left)

Einstein (right)

2009 - present



Review: Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil

I recently was given the opportunity to try Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil .  Prior to this opportunity, I had never known anything about coconut oil!  But Tropical Traditions gave me a link to learn about their coconut oil! It is all processed by hand and is USDA certified organic!



Finally, my jar of coconut oil arrived.

Of course, I wanted to know how it tasted when used!  I posted on Facebook when I got this review, and a friend of mine told me how wonderful popcorn tastes when you make it on the stove using coconut oil!  I bought a bag of popcorn to try that as well, but still haven't done so because I've not really wanted a snack of an evening since I received the oil.

So, I decided to use it in baking for my review.  After all, then I'd be able to take my finished product to church and share with friends and see what they think.

I visited the web page with lots of coconut oil recipes.  One thing I disliked was many of them required ingredients I don't think the average household would have.  I did find a recipe for Toasted Coconut Ginger Blondies and decided I would make that!  I didn't have any ginger, so I had to adapt it a little.

One thing I noticed is although I used the size pan the recipe called for, they seemed extremely thin, but that didn't hurt the taste any.

I thought they looked very yummy, but the real test is the taste.

I have to say I felt they were okay. I liked them but these would never be a favorite baked treat of mine. I might make them again in the future because they were rather simple to make for a home made treat, and they were a huge hit with my friends at church. 

When I say a huge hit, I'm basing it on the ones who were able to eat a blondie.  Six of the fourteen blondies I took to share were eaten by one of my friends.  One friend ate two, and the other seven were quickly eaten as well!  So these were very much enjoyed by my friends. 

 

This is my friend eating blondie number five.

Although I've so far only used it in blondies, I'm hoping to try it in more of my cooking! 

Want to try it yourself?  You can puchase it here:  http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm and if you use referrer number 7762660 when placing an order, you will receive a complementary copy of their book about Virgin Coconut Oil.

FTC Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review in return for the free product.

Time to give Fur - Cuts

Each summer I always trim my guinea pigs' fur.  (If you do this be very careful not to trim whiskers!)

Last night was my annual "Fur Cut" night.  I had so much fur off the three of them, it almost looked like another guinea pig!  I should have taken a photo of that!  It was pretty impressive to see how much extra fur these guys had!

Here is Baby Crockett sporting his new 'do.

Cool Springs Park, Rowlesburg, WV

This is the first in a new series I'm doing on my blog of some of the things to do in the North Central West Virginia and Western Maryland area.  I decided to make Cool Springs Park the first post because I think it is one of the most interesting places I've ever been and it amazes me how many people who live in this area have never been there! It is located near Rowlesburg, WV and is about 11 miles from my home.

From where I live, Rowlesburg, WV is almost entirely down a mountain.  Because of this, our car gets 81.5 miles per gallon on our descent to the park.  (Let's not discuss the gas milage on the way UP the mountain!)

The park has a lot of trees, and parts of it are just beautiful.

But the real fun is for kids!  As I was there yesterday, I heard a little boy looking at all kinds of old  farm equiptment that is rusting through the park and exclaiming "Wow! Look!" at everything he saw.  Supervision is a must at the park because of the rusting equiptment, and children can play on the equiptment.  Also there are animals at the park that wander around.  Yesterday I saw some donkeys or burros.  They were big with hooves and looked equine-esqe but were not horses.  Because they can wander around you need to watch where you step!  There are fish you can feed as well.  (The store next to the park sells small bags of fish food for 10 cents a bag!)

These guys were in a cage.

In addition to farm equiptment to play on you can play on trains!  What little boy wouldn't adore spending time in this park?

It's not just children who love playing on the old tractors.  This guy was running all over one of them!

I used to love playing in the caboose when I was a child.  I didn't go inside yesterday to see how it has weathered the years, but do remember standing in it when I was little.

There is also an old-fashioned water wheel in the midst of the park.

Across the road there is a teepee up on a hill.  I've heard there is a geocache hidden right behind it, so if you're into geocaching then you might want to try and get this one, but one word of warning, the hill is very, very steep.  I've never walked up there myself and used to marvel when I would see people at the teepee!

Before you leave be sure and stop in the store and order a foot long hot dog.  They have great food, and the atsmophere is none like you'll find anywhere else.  There are taxidermied animals who keep watch over you and some of the most unique items ever sold in one place.  When was the last time you ate at a place with a cow on top of the building?



Book Review: Out of a Far Country by Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan

FTC disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

To call a book a “must read” may sound cliché, but I skipped lunch and dinner to finish Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's Journey to God. A Broken Mother's Search for Hope.
 in one day. As an avid reader, I often read a book and then not think much more about it, but this book is so amazing it will be one I never forget.

As it starts, Christopher Yuan admits he is a homosexual to his parents. His mother, Angela, in a desperate attempt to “fix” him, tells him he needs to change or leave forever. Christopher decides to leave, and Angela realizes she made a mistake and goes on a relentless pursuit of him, as does God for the both of them.

This book is not your typical church testimony. There are drugs, homosexuality, HIV, and a prison sentence. But this was Christopher's life.

Early in the book Angela becomes a Christian. She prays fervently for her son who rejects both her and her God. Until he reaches rock bottom and lands in prison for drug dealing. At which point he starts reading the Bible and even playing piano for a men's prison choir.

This book is full of coincidences. Or more likely God opportunities. When Christopher is going to be released from prison and wants to go to Bible college and his parents meet the president of Moody Bible Institute is just one of these amazing events.

While this book would be a great resource to those in the middle of these issues (drugs, homosexuality, or the parent of someone dealing with these issues), that's not the core focus of this book, in my opinion. To me, it's how God can change someone's life even when you think that would be the last person to allow God to change them.

Christopher mentions the verse Acts 17:28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” He says that Christ is above all, he isn't defined by anything except that he is a child of God, and the goal of the Christian life is holiness.

As for marriage in his future? Christopher says that he used to think he needed to be attracted to women to desire marriage, but he has realized he only needs to be attracted to one woman. The chapter entitled “Holy Sexuality” is alone worth the price of this book.
I enjoyed how Angela would write one chapter, and Christopher would write the next. It flowed well and it was wonderful to see the events from each of their perspectives.

This is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I hope that both Christopher and Angela Yuan will write more in the future. I hope to see this book become an instant Christian classic. It is a book that is sorely needed today, and it even includes a study guide should it wish to be read and discussed in a small group setting.

You can read a sample here:

I'm no longer 12 years old!

I considered calling this post "My Church Split" but usually "church split means something else entirely.

I'm in a Wednesday night class at church with mainly 18-23 year olds.  Never mind the fact I'm the same age as some of their mothers. . . and for the most part I feel like they are my peers.  I really do try to avoid words and phrases such as "USSR", "When I was your age", "video cassette recorder" or even "I remember the first time I got on the Internet".  I almost slipped the other night and said I had a 20th high school reunion coming up this summer.  Some of them weren't even alive 20 years ago.

Anyway, after church a group of us were sitting around goofing off.  "L" asked if anyone could touch their palms to the floor instead of just touching your toes.  I may be obese, but I am flexible.  So I said, "You mean this?" and demonstrated.  "L" asked me how I did that.

Well, I couldn't just leave it at that.  You would think 20 years of life beyond my friends would teach me something, but no. . . .

I just HAD to show off how I could sit on the floor and put my foot on my head.  Impressed the teenagers.

So then someone else showed off a yoga pose that is difficult, and I said to no one in paticular that I used to be able to do splits really well and hadn't tried in years.  (I'm sure you're seeing where this is going.)

I have never had any athletic prowess whatsoever, but I discovered in jr. high that not everyone can do splits.  Overweight even then, I did splits better than some of the cheerleaders.  I was able to on my left leg in front split get totally down on the floor. Of course this was 25 years ago.

So I tried a split at church.  Was about 3 inches off the floor.  Made an "oooooh" noise that could be translated as "I'm middle aged.  This was a stupid idea" when  my friend "T" noticed me and called out "Wow!  You CAN do that!"  I, of course, was thrilled that I impressed a 20 year old man who is extremely in shape.

I was still thrilled with my accomplishment when I took some Aleve later.  Wasn't quite as thrilled with my split the next day as my muscles ached from being stretched like I hadn't done in a very long time!

I really think I need to remember I'm no longer 12 years old and should take a second thought before trying to do something I did 20+ years ago even if it did impress my friends!  LOL