Author Archives: Lisa @ Me & My House

A Cry from Egypt tells the story of the days leading up to the Exodus from Egypt from an Israelite family’s perspective. In the Bible we see this story from the viewpoint of Pharaoh’s palace and the miracles and pronouncements Moses made there. In A Cry from Egypt we see a fictional account of this story from the perspective of Hebrew slaves, living in Goshen, who aren’t quite sure what’s going on but are trusting God. The author, Hope Auer, leads you to compassion for them from the first page.

The main character of A Cry from Egypt is Jarah, a young Hebrew slave girl. Your middle aged children especially, (about ages 9-13,) will be drawn to her and her family and friends. They’ll see life that isn’t “fair”, a family’s love and struggles, and friends that make even a very hard life enriched. They’ll see the tension in a home where one parent is a believer and the other isn’t. They’ll see prejudice overcome by kindness. They’ll see love blossom and be led aright. Miss Auer shows that family life back then and today have many similarities in the issues it deals with, and packs in a lot of Biblical thought in working through those universal issues. Above all, she shows that universally, God is sovereign, and He loves and cares for His people in all ages and times.

I enjoyed reading this book. It presents a familiar story from a fresh outlook, and has plenty of action to keep the storyline moving. Miss Auer did her research, and documents it, and does a good job of showing what it was like to live in that time and place. I think it would be a good book for either your middle aged readers to read on their own, or for reading together as a family read-aloud. The story is not so deep that it will go over your younger children’s heads, but the action and older characters will keep your older children interested too.

For our studies of this time period in Ancient Egypt, in addition to the Bible, we have read and enjoyed two other fictional works, both written in the 1800’s, The Sign Above the Door, by William Canfield, written from the perspective of an Egyptian Governor’s household during these events, and The Cat of Bubastes, by G.A. Henty, (audiobook) more a story of Egyptian life. Both of those are written at a little higher level of understanding. A Cry from Egypt, written for a little younger audience than those and from a Hebrew slave’s perspective—and as truly Christian fiction, without preachiness or moralizing—is a welcome addition to our recommendations for this time period.

A Cry from Egypt is published by Great Waters Press (the authors of Raising Real Men) and is available from the author here. Book 2 in The Promised Land series is coming soon.

Journaling or Notebooking is a huge part of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™. It is the method we use for documenting our studies in our  Book of Remembrance Journals, as we don’t use workbooks, quizzes or tests. Journaling can be done on plain paper, but we like to make special Notebooking pages. Why?

1. It adds interest to their papers – and a more visually pleasing Journal.
2. It keeps before them what they need to write about.
3. It helps them see at a glance what a paper is about.
4. And this is all in addition to the benefits of just Journaling itself! These are just some of the benefits of having designed Journaling pages.

But, of course, designing Journaling pages takes time and some effort. Since this designing of pages isn’t vital to our education, (I think MyMini Books of Remembrance – Lapbooks –  need to be more so,) I’m happy to utilize Notebooking pages that have been designed by others, when they fit the topics we study. And Debra Reed, of Notebooking Pages has designed plenty to fit most of our needs (and perhaps yours too.)

You can buy individual sets of Notebooking Pages from Debra, or for a super deal, you can become a Treasury Member and have access for a full year to thousands of Notebooking Pages that Debra offers (including some 3-D ones for designing your MyMini Books of Remembrance – lapbooks), both current and future (while you are a member.) Debra adds new pages every 4-6 weeks. Inexpensive Annual Renewal will keep you getting everything to come.

But, something even greater is in the works at Notebooking Pages. The Notebooking Publisher™ is a new web app being added to the Treasury Membership site that will help you and your children create completely customized Notebooking Pages, easily. You’ll be able to customize text, photos, clip art, and add pre-loaded embellishments to the 100’s of pre-designed  templates there, or design your own! Your students can also type their papers right onto the templates before printing, rather than writing on them by hand. (More about that tomorrow.)

The Treasury Membership is already a super value, at $74.95  for over $600 worth of Notebooking Pages (plus all the new updates over the next year). The Notebooking Publisher™ is no doubt worth this amount also, all by itself. But it will be included FREE for members. But that’s not all. (I feel like a infomercial salesman. But this truly is so exciting!) Debra is giving a 25% discount AND an Additional 3 months Membership to those that join the Treasury Membership (or renew) this month. This is a super outstanding value. And NOW is the time to join, and save yourself a lot of time and headaches trying to design your own Journaling pages.

Me & My House will continue to offer our exclusive Journaling Pages specific to our Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ studies. But, with our new affiliate partnership with Notebooking Pages,  these will be of great help for your general studies.

Tomorrow morning I’ll share more about the new Notebooking Publisher™, and a special party to launch it tomorrow night!