If you read my post about Noah and the Ark, you know that I have a big beef with the way this story is typically covered in children’s materials. I have had people tell me that they never realized until they were reading their Bibles as adults why God had flooded the earth – this story is almost always focused on the cuddly animals on a cute cartoon boat!

If you want to teach it in a Biblically accurate manner, though, it gets much trickier to not make this an utterly terrifying story to children. God is wiping out all of humanity and all of the animals because of the extent of mankind’s wickedness. Only a handful are saved in order to repopulate the earth. Cheery!

Well, if I were wearing a hat, I would take it off in honor of Darrell Wiskur’s wonderful children’s book entitled Timothy Whale’s Rainbow. Wiskur authored and illustrated the Dinky Dinosaur books that I have reviewed in the past, and once again, he surprised me with the quality, beauty, and detail in the illustrations of this book. (the cover really doesn’t do it justice!)

Even better, though, is the wonderful, accurate, and unique way he approaches the account of the worldwide flood and Noah’s ark.

Timothy Whale (who apparently has a Scottish accent, making this a bit more challenging for me to read – “aye” and “right before me very eyes” sounds ridiculous if I read it in my normal midwesternese!) notices that when he blows his spout at the surface of the ocean on sunny days, the spray makes a rainbow. He wonders why that would be and asks his grandfather, who explains to him the account of Noah and the great flood.

The text and illustrations concentrate more on Noah building the ark in obedience to God and the people mocking than on the animals going on board, which is refreshing. There is actually only one page in the book that focuses entirely on the animals – find another kid’s book about the flood like that, I dare you (I’ve tried)! The illustrations of the ark are Biblically accurate, and Wiskur honestly (but age-appropriately) deals with the fact that the people were afraid and were destroyed because of their wickedness and rebellion against God.

After Timothy Whale’s grandfather has explained the flood account and the rainbow as God’s sign to Noah, the story ends with Timothy saying, “I give up me spray, we look through the mist, those beautiful colors just prove God exists!”

Lovely, lovely book.

As an added bonus, the last two pages include information about all different kinds of whales and a glossary of terms and important aspects of the Biblical flood account.

**For more information or to purchase a copy, click on the book cover image to be taken to the publisher’s website. I am an affiliate and will receive a small percentage of the sale of this or other products. I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my review from New Leaf Publishing Group. The opinions expressed in this review are my unbiased thoughts as in keeping with my disclosure policy.

If you are a blogger, you are well aware that quite a number of fellow bloggers are partying away in Chicago at the huge BlogHer conference. Twitter is full of updates from hotel rooms and meet-ups… my google reader is full of updates and references to BlogHer.

Am I sad I’m not there? Well, to be perfectly honest… no. While I can be very friendly and outgoing when I’m on comfortable turf, deep down I’m a bit of an introvert. Ie: during our rehearsal dinner for our wedding (held at my parents house full of our closest friends and family), I slipped upstairs for some time by myself. (my sister correctly predicted this).

In other words… the idea of mingling and making small talk with hundreds of bloggers doesn’t really sound like my cup of tea! When I heard that Pensieve Robin is hosting a “blog hop” and Garibay Soup is hosting a BlogNerd Bash for bloggers not attending BlogHer, this sounded like more my speed of partying. Welcome to my “turf” – sit down, have a cup of coffee, let’s chat.

“Nice to meet you!”

I am a full time homemaker, wife to a wonderful man, mommy to my 3 year old daughter AG and 1 year old son LB. I love them deeply.

I long to love my Savior even more.

I love Jesus Christ and I love God’s Word.

“So, what do you do?”

I clean, cook, change diapers, wipe noses, play with blocks, paint with watercolors, and make a wide variety of animal noises. It’s the best job ever (most of the time)! I am trying hard to start referring to myself as a homemaker rather than a stay-at-home mom – God has called me to a much bigger job than “not working outside the home.”

I teach women’s Bible studies and am addicted to hearing people say that God is changing their lives through studying His Word! Teaching Bible studies was what initially motivated me to start this blog, in order to share devotional summaries of our studies for women who would miss a week here and there. God had bigger plans.

“What do you do for fun?”

I enjoy the zoo more than most adults I know. I wish I could live there. I’m not kidding. My three year old knows what capybaras and lemurs are, and will confidently tell you that “jellyfish” are not fish because they have no bones – we call them jellies.

I find geocaching addicting and fun when we actually have time and have planned ahead to do it!

And let’s face it… we’re a bit low-key and boring. (girl who escaped upstairs during the rehearsal dinner, remember?) My husband really is my best friend – I’ll take a quiet night of watching Friends re-runs and drinking coffee with him on the couch over most things. :)

Speaking of, he’s on his way home. Thanks for stopping by – I’d be thrilled if you stick around and have some coffee with us! [It's decaf, don't worry.]

For Things I Love Thursday, I thought I’d share some of our favorite children’s music. I find the cd shelves at the library a bit daunting… it’s always nice to have some leads on good things to try!

Here we go… in no particular order.

Steve Green’s Hide ‘em in Your Heart cd’s are fabulous for Scripture memory. There are two different volumes, both are wonderful. Frequently when we discuss different things from the Bible or learn a new memory verse, AG will excitedly say, “that’s like in my Bible verse songs!” She has learned quite a bit of Scripture without realizing it! Steve Green also does a little introduction to every song explaining the context of the verse or a child-friendly application.

Beethoven’s Wig – Oh, my goodness. These things are hilarious to me! There are four cd’s (I think) in this series, all filled with funny spoofs on famous classical pieces. They have legitimately good opera singers and musicians seriously singing songs like, “Please keep your bull out of the china shop.” “It’s the same every verse” is my favorite, while “Stuck in the saddle again” is by far AG’s favorite! [This song lends itself well to riding our stick-horse with gusto!!] These cd’s introduce kids to a large number of famous classical pieces in delightfully silly and memorable ways!

On the Farm with Ronno is cheesy but very educational and actually it doesn’t annoy me for some reason. Our favorite song, hands down, is “Hooray for farm machines!,” closely followed by “Wake up, Farmer John!” (our Little People farm lends itself to singing this song since the farmer gets flung out of his bed with a lever!) I don’t know how many times we have gotten this at the library. I noticed that used copies are on amazon for under $3. I should just order one… the fines would eventually pay for it. ;)

For pure marching/dancing silliness and accompaniment to our percussion set, we do enjoy some Laurie Berkner. Under a Shady Tree is our favorite – I think I probably sing “Who’s That? [lookin' in the mirror]” almost every day, and “Drive My Car” often seems quite appropriate when we… drive cars. Real or play. “Boody Boody Ya Ya Ya” was one of the first songs AG could “sing,” and our friends found it quite amusing that if you started singing the “boody boody” she would finish “ya ya ya.” We also like her “We are the Dinosaurs” and sing that frequently, especially when our dinosaur pull-toy is visiting. When AG would hear this song come on, she used to run as fast as she could to find the dinosaur to take for a “march!”

Do you have some favorite childrens’ cd’s that we should try?

A few years back, I realized how many paper towels we were going through just to clean AG’s hands and face after meals. A lot. I bought a couple packs of cheap white bar-mop type towels, put them in a basket, and voila: our clean-up towel solution was born.

I usually use one per day – I get it damp to clean hands and faces and then hang it back up between meals. At the end of the day I use the dirty towel to clean off the the high chair and the mat beneath LB’s seat… and sometimes the table legs, depending on the menu! :) Other than the originally planned benefit of not going through so many paper towels (a good choice for environmental stewardship, but also thrifty!), I love using these because they clean so well! Especially when LB has been smearing spaghetti sauce through his hair, in his ears, all over his chair, you get the picture… these towels work SO much better than a paper towel to scrub that stuff off!

I keep the basket on a low shelf where AG can reach it, and she knows the drill – if she finishes a meal or snack when I’m upstairs with LB, she’ll help herself to a clean-up towel and hang it back up.

Beauty.

For more Works for Me tips, check out WeAreThatFamily.com!