Years ago I heard a budgeting tip that you should only spend your paper money and save all your coins. I have done this for years and then I save the change for something outside the normal budget (gifts, vacation, savings, etc). But it always takes a good chunk of time to so the rolling. I have looked at those CoinStars at the store but the bottom line is that I am cheap, or should I say frugal;). Well, I was reading Dr. Helen’s blog the other day and she was talking about the CoinStars. If you choose to get your money back as a gift card or e-card you get free counting. Amazon and a variety of others are options. To top that, right now if you choose to get an Amazon e-card, get at least $30 counted and complete the printed receipt and mail it in you get an additional $10 card. You can always use Amazon for curriculum, gifts, books, etc so that is what I am going to do!

I just wanted to jot a little intro to my new blog. Nerd Family Things will serve as a forum to review and just talk about books and products that I and the rest of the Nerd Family use. I will focus greatly on all the books I get for homeschooling as a living record for when the rest of my kids hit this stage. If you would like to post a guest review, please let me know!

Check out this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling over at Why Homeschool. They are looking at the top 10 reasons to homeschool according to a survey by the Department of Education.

Recently I read The Train-of-thought Writing Method: Practical, User-friendly Help For Beginning Writers by Kathi Macias (Published by AuthorHouse. She uses the easy to understand imagery of trains to enable you to successfully write. This is a wonderful tool that even includes areas to fill in with exercises she gives you. I am a person who loves the ides of writing but find the blank page and the initial organization very daunting. By going through her train steps (Laying the track, the cow catcher, etc) you never really deal with a blank page and everything seems to fall into place. I really enjoy her tone. Even though she is a very accomplished writer, she has a common sense approach that make you believe that anyone can write. Given that this book is only 78 pages, she is concise and straight to the point. Having taken a college writing course, I believe this is what every aspiring writer needs. I give this book a resounding 5 out of 5, a NerdMom first! So go read and write!
(I recieved this book from ACM for the purpose of reviewing it.)

Now that Christmas is over here is a new gingerbread project. According to the instructions it took 6-7 hours over 4-5 days. Then they played the game and the ate it! I will have to think about doing this as a NerdFamily project.

(HT:BoingBoing)

I have been blessed to once again host the Christian Carnival. We have received many great entries. Please read them all and let the authors know how you feel!

In the current events/media area there are some interesting posts. The Sun and Shield’s entry for this week is “Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon, is an agnostic,” and Martin documents this by quoting from Paolini’s work. Paolini wrote Eragon, which will be released as a movie on December 15th, when he was a teenager. He is not suggesting that Christians shouldn’t see the movie, or read Paolini’s books, just reporting. AllThings2All is offering Review: The Nativity Story. Go check it out before you go to the movies. Gena over at Home Where They Belong has a post about Homeschooling in Germany. Tidbits and Treasures offers Pastor Reaches out tho the ‘unchurched’. It is about a young pastor goes after those that have a hunger that has not been filled.

In this carnival we have a few philosophical posts. They primarily deal with the opposition to Christianity. Welcome to the Fallout presents No Further Questions. This discusses how secular critiques of the doctrine of divine punishment close court before they ever get started. Thinking Christian offers Talking Past Each Other? It deals with philisophical arguements dealing with God and how we should have them. The Romans 15:4 Project has a great post on Science Points to God! Resources are even included. Matt Jones at Random Acts of Verbage announces Letters of Faith Through th Seasons.

Veracity-The Way has a great post, Keeping Light in the Darkness, that teaches the importance of Channukah beyond the miracle of the oil. Just to remind everyone, Channukah begins December 15th!

Thursday’s Child has a thoughtful piece on Communion. Nancy at What I Learned Teaching Sunday School has a scriptural discussion on God’s Views on Marriage and Divorce. Chasing the Wind has an interesting post, Seizing New Opportunities. It is about a study of the book of Ezra chapter 1-3 shows how God can use unbelievers in order to faithfully fulfill His promises, and He sometimes answer prayers in unexpected ways. Parableman offers up Explanations for Evil, Part II. This continues a series on the problem of evil, this time looking at why God wouldn’t just restore things to their final, perfect state much earlier than has happened. Strategic Christian gives us Sure-Fire Guaranteed Success! Tom tell us, “Yes, you too can be a guaranteed success! Just follow this proven, can’t-fail formula, and your dreams and goals are just waiting for you! Well, that sounds cheap–not something you’d expect about being a Christian with impact on the world, is it? Amazingly, though, in terms that are (ahem) a bit less breathless, there’s a promise just like this in the Bible. You can be guaranteed effectiveness, fruitfulness, never stumbling, and a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of God.” Every Square Inch offers us Spurgeon on Choosing Your Occupation. Charles Spurgeon offers timeless advice on faith, work and the choice of one’s occupation. Whether you’re a college student embarking on your career or a 45 year old executive in the midst of a midlife career change, these are truths worth remembering. This week at Light Along the Journey John explores the relationship between faith and fullness, emptiness and hope in the post Of Fullness & Faith. Everyday Liturgy offers a very interesting post with A Gendered View of God. Participatory Bible Study Blog offers us The Camp and the Cloud. As an example of finding spiritual applications in Bible stories he looks at the importance of focusing on God’s presence as illustrated in the movement of the cloud and fire of God’s presence as it guides the Israelites in camping and moving. If you’ve ever spent time waiting for that paycheck to come in, perhaps you can relate to what rev-ed is writing about in the post, Payday, at Attention Span. What does it take to achieve fulfillment of your life’s purpose? Alex Jordan of Jordan’s View addresses this theme in his latest post, On Fulfillment. Recognizing God’s sovereignty over life and His omnipotence in bringing His purposes to pass (an emphasis found in Reformed theology) may help us remember that life is not about mere self-actualization, but about living in such a way that we bring glory to God.

Thanks for joining me and please submit an article for next week at BlogCarnival
. Then tune back in for the next Christian Carnival.

The next Carnival of Pregnancy will be on December 15th. All entries will be due sometime on the 13th. Please go to BlogCarnival to submit your entry! Anything about pregnancy, be it humerous or informative, is desired!