Thursday, February 26, 2009

Cactus Pass Jamboree

Shalayne has been involved in Kids on Broadway, a community musical theatre group, this year. Their big performance was this week and they did an awesome job! Shalayne played Madi from the Putnam family. There is a feud between the Putnams and the Ludlows over stolen prize money from a hog-calling contest 80 years ago.




Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Homeschool Showcase
Travis entertained us with "Inflated Language" and Shalayne played and sang. I'm proud of you two!


Friday, February 20, 2009

Mom (grandma) came out and showed the girls how to create icing flowers. Everyone enjoyed this, and the results were impressive!





Saturday, February 14, 2009

Shalayne shows the quilt she made(!) at Contos' annual Valentine Tea. I'm so proud of her!

Sunday, February 1, 2009


This was my latest project. I made this quilt for our upcoming fundraiser for those of us going on the Mission Trip to Mexico in March- it will be part of the silent auction. It's pretty cute, and soft; I may have to make another one, or two...

Friday, January 23, 2009

How Hollywood is Poisoning Our Daughters

While at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival we had the opportunity to hear Geoff Botkin present “How To Analyze a Hollywood Movie”. It was very enlightening! And oh, so important! This is definetely a skill I want to develop and teach my children. Here is a review by Adam McManus...

How Hollywood is Poisoning Our Daughters: A Review of Geoff Botkin’s Message “How To Analyze a Hollywood Movie”

Review by Adam McManus
Host of KSLR’s The Adam McManus Show

When Geoff Botkin warned the 2009 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival audience that the G-rated Walt Disney film entitled “Princess Diaries 2” was filled with toxic messages antithetical to a biblical worldview, you could have heard a pin drop.

But, in scene after scene, Mr. Botkin revealed how this seemingly innocuous movie wasn’t innocuous at all!

Indeed, in the very opening scene, Mia Thermopolis portrayed by Anne Hathaway — the Crown Princess of Genovia — is graduating from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Policy. Mr Botkin described Woodrow Wilson as the second most treasonous president in terms of constitutional fidelity — the one who instituted the income tax system and established the Federal Reserve Bank. We learned that in the world of film making, nothing is there by chance. It’s all scripted to a “t” - including the decision to honor Woodrow Wilson over Ronald Reagan.

Throughout the movie, we hear the Princess declare over and over again the politically correct mantra “This is the 21st century!” — a notion no doubt instilled in her in the classrooms of the Ivy League. The message? Throw off the constraints of family, tradition, and religion and find your own “truth.” While the servants are conducting a slide show of possible suitors in order to help to get married within 30 days and retain the crown, Anne Hathaway’s character and a friend, without pause, yell out approvingly when they discover that one young man has embraced the abomination of homosexual behavior. In other scenes, materialism, lust, rebelliousness, and rudeness are all exalted as character traits in keeping with a Princess who wants to rule the country of Genovia as Queen.

Honor is a concept far from her mind, as Mia sneaks out the window to meet the cute boy, despite the fact that she is not only engaged, but literally hours away from holy matrimony. From Disney Company’s perspective, I suppose, it’s totally innocent since they don’t engage in sex.

I believe Walt Disney himself would be horrified at how the good, masculine, and honorable guy is presented as boring, and the bad, effeminate, skirt-chasing guy is seen as desirable. What messages are we sending both our young girls and boys if we allow them to watch this movie without an immediate biblical critique, or watch it at all? And why would a Christian pastor claim that Princess Diaries 2 was “loaded with virtue”?

Isaiah 5:20 comes to mind: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.

For too long, parents and pastors alike who profess to follow Christ have allowed the pagan culture to desensitize them to the dangers in the world’s films, TV shows, and music, missing critical moments for Christ-like discipleship. If, as Geoff Botkin suggests, we are to “take every frame captive for Jesus Christ,” we all need to look at the world through a biblical lens, not at the Bible through the world’s lens.

You Must See This Moive!!