The people at Snapily , a photo-technology company, developed a new 3-D, animation technology that literally allows you to bring your photos to motion (flip-book style) on a card, invitation, wallet sized business card, scrapbook, or stationary. In a nutshell you can customize a card where 2 to 5 photos can be brought to motion on a card.

Aside from Snapily just being a cool new gift idea, it has a strong eco-friendly value. Over 7 billion greeting cards end up in the trash every year – something tells me, you’re less likely to throw out photos let alone ones that come to life.

These high-quality, plastic-coated lenticular photographs, or “living prints”, start at just $3.50.  With Snapily you can:

• “Blow your mom a kiss” from a far
• Morph an old photo of your children as babies into a photo of them grown up
• Wave “hi” to a grandparent all the way across the country
• New dads can create a family scrapbook by uploading photos of his precious newborn to the first family photo

Snapily is simple to use. It took me less than 3 minutes to make a Father’s Day card using a picture of my boys from 1999 and one from 2005. Make sure you check out Snapily today and order your Father’s Day cards.

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Each week you input that week’s spelling list and then your child can study his spelling words even when you aren’t available to dictate the words to them. We used it this week for our Bible class. My boys had to know the books of the Bible in order and be able to spell them correctly. I input they words, it just took a few minutes to set up, and then they used SpellQuizzer to practice the words. It worked great!

The SpellQuizzer website has some downloadable spelling lists that you can use over the summer for enrichment or homeschoolers could use them too. Since you create the spelling list in SpellQuizzer, it works with any spelling curriculum.

SpellQuizzer is very affordable at $29.95 and, since it is customizable it will last for years. If you’re still not sure if SpellQuizzer is for you check out their free 30 day trial. This is a great offer-you get to try it before your buy it.  Go to the website, download your free trial and check it out. If you think this is something you’d like to share with a friend please use the ShareThis button below to share it, stumble it, tweet it or Facebook it. Thanks!

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As parents we can have many setbacks. Our setbacks come in various forms. Sometimes our setbacks are due to our own choices and failures. Other times it is a health issue, or a job or financial problem that causes the setback. Our children can also be the source of those setbacks with behavioral issues, educational problems or illness being the cause. Whatever the cause of our setback, we need to persevere, move forward and past the problem and push into our new reality.

In the article by Mr. Gonzalez he listed 5 principles to follow to break through the set back and find success.

1. Go all the way-don’t quit
2. Create a “Dream Team”- surround yourself with encouraging people
3. Give yourself a Pep Talk-“I CAN do this”
4. Learn from Your Mistakes-learning is growing
5. Recover Quickly-When life knocks you down, get up and take immediate action

We need to apply these principles to all areas of our lives, and teach them to our children so that they too can quickly rebound from the inevitable setbacks that they will face in their lives.

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The Glue of Society

Johann Christoph Arnold
for Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009

Thank God for mothers! Mother’s Day is an opportunity to make life special for them. It is a chance to celebrate family. I thank God for my mother, who died some years ago. There is one thing I regret: for too many years I did not appreciate her enough and took her for granted. She was always there for us. I thank God for my wife. We have been married for forty-three years and have eight children. God has blessed us with forty-one grandchildren.

Mothers are the backbone of our society and the glue that holds a family together—their work is vital but often unseen. We all need to show greater appreciation for them. I pity the man who does not have a good wife to take care of him.

My favorite Hasidic saying goes, “God could not be everywhere at once, so he gave each child a mother!” Mothers should be proud to be mothers. It is a God-given task and privilege. Actually there is a mother’s heart in every woman, whether married or single. In the past, motherhood was regarded as the noblest calling of a woman. Today it is too often pushed aside by more “desirable” occupations or careers, and seen as an inconvenience or even an embarrassment.

A true mother thinks day and night about the well-being of her children, and is the first to praise, comfort and protect them. She is willing to sacrifice her life for them. The pains of pregnancy and childbirth are borne by the mother, and she continues to carry the child in her heart her whole life.

Motherhood is a mystery. It is something truly divine for which every human heart longs. This is why mothers provide the most powerful influence on a child’s life, and are the most important role models for positive change in our society. When anyone is in trouble, or knows that they are dying, the first person they think of is their mother. When children start going wrong ways a mother’s prayer is powerful. Mothers remind us that there is a loving God above us who will take good care of everyone, especially children. Whenever a tragedy occurs—no matter where in the world this happens—you will always find mothers both weeping for the dead and bringing comfort and security to the living.

As we seek to improve the education of our children, let us start by taking better care of our mothers. This will enable them to provide better homes for all of us, and ensure the survival of our society. Never before in our history have so many men abandoned the children they fathered. Fathers are vanishing from their children’s lives, not just physically, but legally as well. Therefore, congratulations to all single mothers and grandmothers who do their best to raise children on their own. They often struggle under the most difficult circumstances. They are the real heroes of the family—and not just on Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

You can find this and other articles at http://www.plough.com/articles/theglueofsociety.html

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There is hope but it will take work, planning and follow-through. Kid’s behavior changes for the positive when they understand the “why” behind the rule. Take the time to sit down parents and teens together and talk about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior and why it is or isn’t. Discuss things like-Anything that is said or done to purposely hurt another person physically or emotionally is not acceptable. I always take these discussions and point back to God’s Word. Scripture tells us what is and isn’t appropriate behavior-it also tells us the consequences for our behavior. I’ve listed a few ideas here:

1. Work hard and do your best, don’t procrastinate. Proverbs 14:23 NIV “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”

2. Take care of your body. Do not use cigarettes, drugs or alcohol. 1 Corinthians 6:19a NIV “Do you not know that your body is temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you.”

3. Respect the authorities in your life. Parents, pastors, teachers etc. Obey them and do what you are asked. Romans 13:1-3 NIV ” ¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.”

Use these as a staring place to discuss actions and consequences. I suggest working as a family to create a teen behavior contract. On this contract list offenses and consequences. Kids crave boundaries and often once they know what is expected of them they thrive. Create it together with your teen, allow them to have a voice. When it is complete-type it up have the teen(s) and the parents sign the document and then make photocopies so everyone involved has their own copy as a reminder of the agreement.

Don’t let this discussion end with the contract though. Use this time and the contract as a springboard for conversations about behavior, consequences and rising above the tide of disrespect for others that is so prevalent in our society. What do you think about this topic? What would you tell this mother? Please leave a comment and let me know.

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