Unconditional Book & Movie Review...

As I stated before, I was very excited about this film, especially when I found out that the writer and director was Brent McCorkle.  Or, as I know him, Brenton Scott.  Brent(on) was a local name in Christian rock in the days when I first started listening to "Power Mix" and then Power FM.  I know exactly where his CD is in the "local/indie" section of my music library, lol.  I knew he had gone on to become a "movie guy," and that he was a really talented director. It was very exciting to his name up there on the big screen, and in all the promo that's been going on for the movie too.

I was sent Unconditional: A Novel based on the movie and Brent's screenplay, written by Eva Marie Everson by BuzzPlant.  I haven't had a lot of time to read lately, but I managed to read the novel in two sittings just a few days before the movie released! Ms. Everson did a fantastic job writing in all the little details that helped me get a clear image in my mind of what was playing out in the story.  I could easily envision Sam's read hair and Samurai Joe's "pajamas." And as I later watched the movie, I was amused at how well the images matched what I had seen in my head!

The book and movie are based on the true story of "Papa Joe" Bradford, an extraordinary man who faced all kinds of obstacles in his life, but still spent his time inspiring young people to do their best.  Sam and Joe were friends as kids, but grew apart, only to meet up later in life while both were in the midst of personal trials and tribulations.  Their reunion serves to help both of them in one way or another.  Sam lost her husband in a tragic situation, and cannot get past her grief, but finds life again as she begins to pour love into the "Papa Joe's" kids.  Joe is fighting a terminal illness, living in the projects and trying to do his best to show those kids that they can be better than their situation.  It is a deeply inspirational and touching story, but what I loved about it is how true-to-life it really was.  It didn't feel fluffy or overly simplified.  It's cliche to say it, but there are parts that will make you laugh and there are definitely parts of this story that will make you cry.

In the story, Sam is a children's book writer, who is in the beginning stages of writing a book called Firebird.  When her husband is murdered, she doesn't want to write the book anymore, but is inspired in the end to finish it.  I love that they have actually created a Firebird book you can get.  It is beautifully illustrated (ok, not by Sam, but by artists who formally worked for Disney), and written just as you will read or hear in the novel or movie.  My kids enjoyed hearing the story, and thought the little bird was just "so cute!."  It's true, it is quite adorable.  It is, again, an inspiring story of a little bird who wants to know why God allows the storms to take away the sunshine, and he has to learn that despite the rain... the sun is ALWAYS shining.  I LOVE this message.  This is a fantastic book that answers that difficult question, "Where is God when bad things happen?"  This children's book is written by Bren McCorkle and Amy Parker.

I really, highly suggest you go see this movie while it's out in the theaters.  Please support a fantastic faith-based film with a strong message of Jesus.  You will not be disappointed.

[I was sent the two books from BuzzPlant, to help promote and review, however I was not further compensated and the statements posted here are my own, personal opinion.  There are AmazonAssociate links in the post, which means if you click on them and purchase something, I get compensated a small percentage at no extra cost to you. You are not required to do that, obviously, but if you choose to, thank you for helping to support my family!]

Homeschool Recap, September 21st (Week 9)...

In my life this week...

Last week was our break week.  We went to see a production of Winnie The Pooh at Artie's Playhouse (The Artisan, in Hurst).  The boys enjoyed it, as did I.  We ran lots of errands as well, and had a bunch of meetings to attend... AWANA start-up meeting, Cub Scout meeting, our last regular Wednesday night church class and on Sunday I attended one of my Usborne recruits' kick off party.  So, even though it was a "break," we certainly kept busy.  As for this week... same story, meetings, errands, etc., but we mixed in school again, hehe.  We had our AWANA registration night, and quickly signed up over 50 kids!  Exciting.  I am the Puggles Director... that's kids that are 2 and 3 years old... I already have 6 in my class, and probably more after Sunday's registration as well.  Wow!

Enjoying the weather at the park.

Places We're Going & People We're Seeing...
We are looking forward to this weekend because I'm hosting a Fisher-Price Joy of Leaning Playdate through House Party. They sent us a TON of brand new Fisher-Price toys to try out.  I couldn't believe how much they sent... I'll be posting about the party later.  But we're looking forward to seeing lots of friends on Saturday.  Then, Preston and Michael are going on their first camp out with the Pack!  I am praying it goes smoothly!  Dear Lord, PLEASE let it go smoothly for both of them!  Lol.  Also, tonight, Michael and I are getting a date night, as we're going to see the new movie called Unconditional.  I finished the novel last night and am excited about seeing the movie, since I know the guy who wrote and directed it.  Soooo neat!  Go see it this weekend if you can and let's give him a fantastic opening!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "E" for egg!  We worked on our Tot Notebook and read lots of egg-themed books: Tillie Lays An Egg, Egg! A Dozen Eggs, What will they Be?, The Egg, Duck & Goose, Eggday and The Egg Tree.

This craft was NOT toddler-friendly.  Oops.

Callen enjoyed finding the egg in each picture!

Bible:  We used Mama Jenn's printable up on our Morning Board to help us continue to memorize Matthew 7:24 this week.  We are learning about Jesus as our rock, and Preston had the verse completely memorized by Thursday (it's kind of long, but he's got it perfectly!).  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that described Jesus as our rock and shelter, and we listened to a bunch of songs with that theme as well.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston aced both spelling tests he had this week.  Continued with lessons 13-15 in Primary Language Lessons. We did some conversational questions and went over the difference between to, too and two.

History:  Last week, during our break, we started the book The Sign of the Beaver.  We finished that earlier this week and Preston really enjoyed the story.  We also started a new read-aloud, Sarah Whitcher's Story.  This week's main lesson was about George Washington, prior to the Revolutionary War.  We read about early life in our history reader, made a tri-corn hat like Washington wore, and we read several books from our collection and the library about Washington, Adams and Revere: George Washington: A Picture Book Biography, Big George, George Washington's Breakfast, Paul Revere's Ride, And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? and Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?  Also, on his own, Preston looked through the book called Go Go America, we are getting ready to start learning more about the individual states soon!

Tri-corn hats like Colonel Washington!

Math: Preston got an 89 on his Chapter 3 Math Mammoth test, and we started up on Chapter 4.  We're going over addition or subtraction that goes over 9 into a new 10.  We had a bit of meltdown on Thursday because he refused to use "the trick" I was teaching him, instead insisting on using his fingers.  He was just being so stubborn.  I finally gave up and had him go over it with his dad later that day.  It's crazy because the days before he had done so well, pretty much on his own.  I left him with the sheet and he completed it, no problem.

When he was doing well!

Science:  This week's science focus was on seasons, how timely with FALL officially starting tomorrow (yeeahhhh!)  We read from First Encyclopedia of Science about the seasons and read The Reasons for Seasons, Sky Tree and Month By Month A Year Goes Round.  We went outside a couple of days, and he drew our tree and some leaves.  We also used some of those leaves later in his art work.  It was nice the weather was cool in the mornings and we could really enjoy our outside time.

Drawing/Chalking our tree

Tracing/Drawing a Leaf

Callen trying to reach a leaf.

Music/Art: We continued in the My Very First Art Book, using some of the leaves we had collected to create prints on our paper.  We slathered pain on the leaf, then pressed it down and pulled it back up, like a stamp.  Preston made a pretty image.  We listened to the rest of the Story of Tchaikovsky CD, telling us about his life interspersed with examples of his music.  And we started learning Yankee Doodle (not to be confused with Yankee Doodle Dandy, geez) from our Celebrate America CD.


Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Viaje" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we went through our fourth lesson of La Clase Divertida! continuing to go over the vowels, days of the week and going over some new alphabet letters, now we have A-Ñ.  There is a catchy song for the days of the week and Callen was singing it the other day to himself when he was playing, so cute!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Unconditional Is Coming...

I first head about the movie, Unconditional, a few weeks ago when I received an offer from BuzzPlant to do a review... I read a brief synopsis of the film and thought it sounded like a really interesting story.  Then, a few days later I received a Facebook Invite to the "Unconditional Opening Weekend Event," from a friend of mine by the name of Brent McCorkle.  When I opened the invite, I realized... this was Brent's movie!  As in, he wrote it and directed it!  How exciting!

I just received the books, Unconditional: A Novel (which is based on the motion picture screenplay) and Firebird: He Lives for the Sunshine (as seen in the motion picture) from BuzzPlant.  I am excited to dig right into these and then see the movie this weekend!  I'll be doing a review of all three in the very near future!

I hope you make plans to go see it as well... with a date, with your family, a church group, whatever!  And do me a favor, help spread the word about it!

Check out the trailer...

Homeschool Recap, Jan 13th (Week 16)...

In my life this week...

Things settled down once we got our car back, completely fixed!  Woo, again, Praise God for that miracle!  We threw a Going Away party for my in-laws on Sunday, it was a success, I'd say!  They officially closed on their house this morning and have to be OUT by Sunday, wowzers!  It's also my Mother-In-Law's birthday today... crazy times, for sure!  Michael had two meetings with his new school just this week, he's so pumped about being a professor.  We're excited about the opportunity!

My favorite thing this week...

After all the craziness lately, it was fun to get out and be with other homeschool moms on Thursday evening (sans kids!).  It was our monthly homeschool group meeting, and we ended up spending the time chatting, laughing and playing Book Bingo.  Oh, you know how I love books!

I'm dieting...

Michael and I have been doing pretty well on our diets for nearly two weeks now.  I have lost 6 pounds as of this morning, even though we've slipped a few days (um, a going away party with food everywhere - not exactly perfect dieting conditions!).  But I'm feeling good about it, and still certainly motivated to keep at it.  Super proud of my hubby... I was wondering if he'd be able to stand it, and he's doing so great at it so far!  Go guy!

I'm praying for...
My in-laws as they have to tie everything up, get the house cleared and get going to Michigan by Sunday morning!  It's a lot of work, and they're pretty stressed, but I think it'll all come together.  Also praying for Michael as he starts his new professor job next week and doesn't really have a solid plan (eep!).  We thought they were going to give him the outline and have most things ready to go, but now it's not looking that way.  He has just a few days to prepare before class starts on Tuesday! Wow!


A photo to share:

My silly gooses!

Studying the counties of Texas.

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School:  Callen has been being a monkey about napping.  A few times this week, he just played in his room for HOURS when he should have been laying in his bed.  I'm hoping the novelty of being in a big-boy bed (which means he can get OUT of it anytime he wants) wears off, and he realizes how important naps are.  Wishful thinking, ok?

Peg Board Time!

Bible: Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere; watching over the wicked and the good."  We also talked about Jacob and Joseph.  Planning to watch the Dreamworks movie, Joseph: King of Dreams, later today.  I've never seen it, but we own it.  Weird.

Joseph was thrown in jail.

Reading/Writing: Preston is getting better and better at writing, as long as he is interested in what he's writing, of course.  And reading is steadily improving as well!

Writing the scripture verse.

Math: We talked about money this week.  Read several money books and did the Complete Book of Math sheets on the subject.

Money Math!

Science:  We skipped most of the science this week as I just got lazy and it was more of a review about measuring than anything else.  We read the pages in Things Outdoors, and measured the kitchen table in standard and non-standard ways.

Music/Art: This week's hymn was "Amazing Grace!"  Preston really enjoys listening to the Hymns CD we have when he's resting, and usually falls asleep to it.  But I like it when he ASKS me to listen to it!  We also talked about maracas and cabacas.  For art we looked at some modern symmetrical wood prints, and worked on shades of gray in positive and negative spaces from Drawing with Children.

Spanish: This week we continued with the face and some emotions. 

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

Blog Hoppin' with:
 

Homeless For The Holidays Review

Homeless For The Holidays is a story based on the experience of the film's writer, producer and director.  A story of having it all (or thinking so anyway) and then losing it all, only to realize what's really important.  This story is all too familiar for some of us.  Jack Baker is a hard worker, doing everything to move up the corporate ladder, including sacrificing time with his wife and kids, but finds himself unemployed and unable to support his family.  In desperation, he takes a job at a burger joint, and tries to make the most of it.  The family begin to lose their possessions, their friends and to a point, their faith.  

What I liked about this movie is that most of the situations were extremely real.  These days it is so easy to go from top of the world to down in the gutter. The Baker family was living above their means to begin with, they started out with a lot of debt, and when the money stopped rolling in to cover those luxuries, they were able to realize how unimportant they really were in the long run.  I feel that the lead character, Jack, was portrayed well... you could really get a sense of his desperation and angst.  The other characters in this film, however, were not as well established or defined... they were all over the place, making them difficult to identify with.  There was even one really odd, unnecessarily long scene in the supermarket involving comedian Brad Stine as a creepy store manager with too much power.

Overall, the movie was made on a very low budget, and hence was lacking in the area of production and some acting abilities.  It was a good storyline, though.  The heart of the film was there, and the main idea was definitely delivered in a way that made you think while not coming across overly preachy or forced.  What would you do if you found yourself homeless on Christmas?  Would you be able to find the joy in the little things?  Would you be willing to give your last $40 to someone else?

View the trailer or find out more about Homeless For The Holidays here.  I was provided with a free copy of this movie on DVD for review, however the opinions expressed here are my own.