An EXCELLENT Movie Recommendation

Our family is always on a mission for a good movie. Unfortunately, they are hard to come by. :( My parents are big into foreign films, and they introduced us to a movie called "The Secret of Kells".

This is a good clean movie with some creative-amazing animations. The story is set in the eighth century and gives a fictionalized account of the creation of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables.

There is so much history to recover in this movie. 
~The Book of Kells is one of Ireland's finest national treasures. I am personally intrigued by this book, and hope to someday see it with my own eyes. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier. The text of the Gospels is largely drawn from the Vulgate, although it also includes several passages drawn from the earlier versions of the Bible known as the Vetus Latina. It is a masterwork of Western calligraphy and represents the pinnacle of Insular illumination.
~ The Vikings were such intriguing people full of such horror they bestowed on their victims. This movie gives a glimpse of the common attacks on the abbeys by the "Northmen". In this movie, the main characters uncle- Abbot Cellach, is focused on creating a wall of protection for the Abbey of Kells. It portrays his fears of the vikings and their attacks.

There is also many Biblical/Spiritual parallels.
~The whole point of the movie was to create this book- so it may "Turn the Darkness into Light". The movie doesn't talk about the gospels, but we all know the Book of Kells is full of God's written Word, or as said in the movie "sacred texts".
~ The young boy, Brendan, ends up being the ultimate illuminator. He is such a humble boy and ends up going away and  completing his mighty work on the book. He comes back with the book completed and saves the day. He looks just like Jesus when he comes back. We have marveled how symbolic this part of the movie reflects Jesus fulfilling God's will. 

Our family has had many many dialectic conversations stirred up from this movie. We even own the soundtrack and listen to it all the time. The6Stricklands LOVE this movie.

Be mindful- there are a few weird characters, who all bring a creative element to this story. There are no big scary parts, but a few spook moments while he is out and about searching for Crom Cruach.

The best part about this movie review, is you will find this movie anywhere! It is also on instant watch on Netflix.

Hope you all can watch and enjoy it! Reply to this comment and tell me what you think of the movie. OR maybe you do a movie review and reply with a link to your blog. Would love to learn of more wonderful movies!

Grapes

We were SO blessed today to get to hand pick grapes from a beautiful large vine behind Joel's grandparents yard. It was not easy handpicking those grapes, and I'm so glad we 6Stricklands pulled together to get it done! 

Once we picked them, we boiled them in a huge pot. Oh the aroma!! We then strained the mush to savor every drop of the juice. We then bottled the juice for canning- 2 gallons of grape juice! PLUS I was also able to sweeten a pitcher to drink over ice. Yum!

We then brought home the juice and we made it into a ton of grape jelly. I was also very delighted to make a low sugar grape syrup for our snowcone machine. YUMMY! 

Below is a picture tutorial from start to finish. 

We are SO thankful the Lord has blessed us with generous grandparents and so thankful for grapes- of course!!

Marble Run fun!!

Just in case you haven't noticed, I have been adding fun things to do with the kiddos this summer. These have been SUPER SIMPLE activities that require little money. We recently set up a marble run out of the swimming pool noodles. You cut the noodle in half, there is a crease in the middle- perfect for a marble run! Set up a track using several noodles, and masking or painters tape. Then get your marbles lined up for some fun!

Grocery Shopping

Goodness, I hate to go grocery shopping. 

So, I try my hardest to eliminate shopping trips by taking two major trips a month. I know what I need to get and how to make it work for 2 - 2 1/2 weeks. I cook almost everything from scratch. I learned alot of money saving tricks from this book, which I highly encourage anyone to read, FAMILY FEASTS FOR $75 /WK.

This is what the back of my suburban looks like after making all my stops.

Boy oh boy does it take alot of time to shop and unload all of these goods! There is nothing like having an empty and nicely cleaned cupbard and fridge- then filling it with goodies!!

Harvest

We have been enjoying our produce from our garden. Since this momma has been working hard to eat CLEAN, having a garden is paramount! 

Here are a few things we've been munching on. 

FUNDRAISER!!

We are selling playdough to earn money for the girl's upcoming mission trip to College Station. The large tub has about 1 1/2 cups of dough. The small tub has about a cup of dough in it. All are fresh and could last up to 6 months with normal use. Email if you are interested! :)

GOO! EWW!!

So, we did another fun hands on project. GOO.

Basically you mix 1 HEAPING teaspoon of Borox with half a cup of warm water.

Then you mix half a cup of liquid glue (we used clear) with a little less than a cup of water, add 2-3 drops of food coloring. Mix the two together until it forms a solid. Take the lump sum out with your hands a mold and form it. BOY OH BOY we have had some fun with this stuff!!