For Young Men Only: A Guy's Guide to the Alien Gender - Jeff Feldhahn & Eric Rice with Shaunti Feldhahn

Blog Tour & Giveaway!

I have two copies of this book to giveaway. If you'd like a copy, please leave a comment. Be sure that I can contact you from the info. Please note that in the future I will hold a book for one week after a winner is announced. If you do not send me your address within a week, we will pick another winner.

Winners will be picked on Tuesday.

You can see more reviews and order a copy of it here and here.

Publisher's Summary:
The best-selling ONLY series returns with a one-of-a-kind guide for teen guys on how to figure out girls

Drawing on a fresh national survey of 600 teen girls, as well as hundreds of personal interviews, For Young Men Only reveals the real truth about what teenage girls think, what they want, and how average teen guys can build healthy friendships with high quality girls. Full of surprising revelations and practical advice, For Young Men Only delivers help straight from the girls themselves in a fun, easy-to-read, easy-to-talk about format.

Warm, witty, and honest, authors Jeff Feldhahn and Eric Rice tell plenty of personal stories and draw on solid biblical principles to guide young guys through the often daunting world of the opposite sex. Their goal is to help teen guys build self-confidence and understanding, and show them how to pursue a relationship with a girl while giving her the respect and protection she deserves.

My Take: Hmmm...I did find the authors warm and witty. I did find this to be an easy read. The book does have some information that could be useful to young men. The book did have encouraging and surprising results from the survey of teen girls.

I need to say up front that our family does not buy into the whole "guy/girl dating" thing as it's practiced in our society. I think the practice of giving your heart away, knowing that there is no future in the relationship as most 15 yo's will not marry, simply sets us up to jump in and out of relationships. We can also end up with scars and baggage that we end up carrying into future relationships. I know, I know.....but that's our family's view. We have not told our children they cannot date...but they have all chosen (to this point) to wait to enter into relationships. I believe that God desires not only physical purity but emotional purity for singles....and so I found this book to be jarring because the premise is that normal teens will spend much time thinking about the opposite gender. I simply don't know that a young teen NEEDS to be spending quite so much time trying to figure out what girls want or don't want...and I think how they treat women, how they form their views of what women think and want, should come from the Bible and not from a survey of "600 teen girls" - who to be honest - don't always KNOW WHAT THEY WANT to begin with. ::snort:: I did NOT find anything that I would say was "anti-Scriptural" but the advice given to young men IS based on the survey and the support for the advice given IS quotes from young teen girls.

One other thing that I didn't appreciate in this book is the fact that we are told "girls want" or "girls think" or "when a girl does this..." These sorts of books where an author tells you "women think", "men mean"; I, personally, find to be counter-productive. I remember a couples home group we were leading. We were using a popular marriage book. Finally, one man got brave enough to say, "I feel like the authors are beating up men. I also don't believe that the authors can speak for ALL men." He had a point. Now....I realize that speaking for all men/women IS the premise of these books. I did, however, find myself thinking, "No, not all girls are going to think that way." LOL

I DID like the writing style of the authors. I DO think that a young man will not go wrong applying the wisdom in this book. If you have a young man who is dating, this would be a recommended book for him. If you have a young man who is of the age to seriously be thinking of finding a wife - I would recommend this book. If you are a single mom and want a bridge to discuss some of these issues, I would recommend this book. A lot of it seemed to me to be the sort of advice that a father would give a son.

Author Bio:
Jeff Feldhahn is an attorney and the owner of the tech company, World2One. With his wife, Shaunti, he wrote the best selling FOR MEN ONLY.

Eric Rice is the owner/director/producer of 44 Films. Eric lives in Atlanta area with his wife, Lisa, and their four teenage children.

Shaunti Feldhahn is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, public speaker, and best-selling author whose books include FOR WOMEN ONLY, FOR YOUNG WOMEN ONLY (with Lisa Rice) and FOR PARENTS ONLY.

©2008 D.R.G.

Hot & Cold Water

Yes, we did another science experiment today. I don't KNOW how the boys and I got ahead but I'm glad we did. We are enjoying a week of lots of hands on activities. I hesitate to share our science speculations sheets as we are NOTORIOUS (or I am) for having science plans go awry...but we seem to be doing o.k. I'm not sure we ALWAYS hit on the right solution but we ARE following the steps and recording what happens. ::snort::

Materials Used:
Large Clear Bowl Paper Cup Pen/Nail
Blue & Yellow Food Coloring Spoon Hot & Cold Water

Procedure: (What you will do or what you did)
Fill bowl with hot water. Fill cup with cold water. Punch a hole in cup. Let cup in bowl. Which way does the cold water move as it enters the bowl?

Fill bowl with ice water. Fill cup with hot water. What happens? How is it different? What is this happening?

Based on this experiment, which is heavier: hot water or cold water?

Hypothesis: (What you think will happen and why)
Zander – The waters will mix up.

Nolan – I think they’ll be on top of each other. The cold will be at the bottom.

Arielle – I think the same as Nolan (Arielle gets to guess first next time! LOL)

Results: (What actually happened)
When we mixed cold water into hot water…it all mixed together but the yellow (cold) dropped quickly to the bottom – mixing colors (temps) on the way down.

When we mixed hot water into the cold water…the hot swirled around the top more before mixing with the cold water. The layers of the water were more noticeable when we put hot water into ice water.


Conclusion: (What have you learned)
Cold water is heavier than hot water. Blue and yellow make green and if you mix red and blue with it too you get black!

Close observation is necessary for any true Scientist.


Unexpected lesson for the younger bunch: mixing all the colors makes new colors! I really do enjoy the one room school house experience. LOL (We do keep food dye around for science - note we keep Zander away from ingesting or touching it with his allergies).


Lunch Break seems to be a good to time to upload quick updates....now to remember to EAT LUNCH! ::snort:: Oh SHOOT - now KOA is saying our family is too big to stay at their site....I'm on the phone...we shall see.

©2008 D.R.G.

Lungs & Air Pressure

Scientific Speculation Sheet
Name _____________________________ Date ______6 Oct_______

Experiment Title _______Lungs & Air Pressure____________________

Materials Used:
2 Liter Plastic bottle with lid
Balloon
Person with a foot

Procedure: (What you will do or what you did)
Blow up ballon….keep it inside the bottle.
Step on the bottle…watch to see what happens to the balloon.
Step off the bottle ….watch to see what happens to the balloon.

Hypothesis: (What you think will happen and why)
Nolan – pop the balloon.
Airelle – balloon will get smaller and then bigger when you step off of it.
Zander – balloon will pop.

Results: (What actually happened)
The balloon got smaller when the person stepped on the air-tight bottle.

The balloon got bigger when the person stepped off the bottle.

Conclusion: (What have you learned)
When Jared stepped on the bottle the air pressure increased inside the bottle. The pressure pushed on the balloon and made it get smaller. When Jared stepped off the bottle, the pressure got less and the balloon got bigger. This is like our lungs when we dive deep into the ocean. The deeper you dive, the stronger the pressure gets and your lungs shrink (compress). When you come to the surface, the pressure is less, your lungs go back to normal size. Oxygen tanks help divers breath and also controls the air pressure.















©2008 D.R.G.

Mini - Gyres

We find ourselves with a light history week and we're 2 weeks ahead in lit. This is the perfect time to do all the hands on activities from module one in Zoology 2. We made the following pages for our notebook - photos are embedded where the step is discussed in the real thing. LOL

Scientific Speculation Sheet

Name _____________________________ Date ___6 Oct__________

Experiment Title ________Making a Mini-Gyre____________________

Materials Used:
2 blow dryers
Cheerios
Casserole dish
water

Procedure: (What you will do or what you did)
Blow air opposite directions along the side of the dish. Sprinkle Cheerios on top.

Hypothesis: (What you think will happen and why)
We thought they would go in circles. Because the water is going in different directions, because the air is going in different directions, that will make the Cheerios go in a circle.

Ocean currents do this and it is called a gyre.

Results: (What actually happened)
The Cheerios eventually went around in a circle.

Conclusion: (What have you learned)
When the air blows from opposite directions over water it creates a gyre.

Note: Zander is engaged! LOL

©2008 D.R.G.

SHEW......

I have been screaming busy but focused....focused...except when the phone rings. ::snort::

At about 6:00 p.m. Mike walked in the door, pulled my fingers from my mouth, told me to quit biting my nails, told me he'd take Jared to basketball practice, and redeemed 2 entire hours!Yippee! What a MAN!

Speech was speech.

School was great. We focused on science fun. I'll have photos and such tomorrow - no time tonight to post.

I got part 1 of Bills done.

I got the portfolio and such mailed.

I began making new TOG grade charts for the boys for this school year (since I took so much time to get them right for last year's work - it only seems right I do the same for this year and use them from the START of the year this year). ::snort::

Did some more co-op stuff...inputting orders, fielding questions and phone calls...both co-ops are in a time of growth.

New Developments while I "focused":
1. Bre IS coming to watch the younger set for us when we go to the PWOC International conference. I'm excited, they're excited. This is good.

2. Krista called and she IS coming home for Christmas. I'm doubly excited.

3. My sister in law called and they are coming to visit us TOO.....this weekend but we'll not be here... so they'll catch us 10 days later...I think.

4. Heard from a friend that a base in AK is losing all of their Protestant Chaplains this summer....hmmmm.....AK or Eurpope? ACK.... Good thing God is in control because I'm incredibly fickle! ::snort:: Besides the Mid-west and East Coast sound great too.....We'd like to see more of the world than TX as we've spent 7 years here...but 3 in SOUTH TX and 4 in WEST TX and they are not the same. LOL

5. We received the return postcard saying that Jamin's Novel has arrived at Operation First Novel....God's will alone...that's all we crave.

Jamin should be home from work soon. I'm outta here!

©2008 D.R.G.

Lunch Break

Ah - lunch break and I'll quickly update.....because I was discipline and did NOT update during the weekend....I stayed focused on my projects....a list that is not dwindling down as fast as it could. LOL I was GOING to write devotionals for SHS, PWOC and my blog, I was GOING to write up an SSS entry....all waited. I'm learning.

Saturday a.m. bright and early I headed to the gym. It was so early that it was DARK. I reached into my drawer and pulled out what I thought was an over-sized t-shirt. At the gym I've been working on one lady who is a tad bit too aloof for my personality. I noted she was SMILING...BIG and I smiled back thinking to myself, "finally, she's loosening up!" Then I caught a glance of myself in one of the many mirrors in the locker room.


Oops - I was at the gym in a night shirt. Oh well - I was NOT going home and missing a workout.

I spent the rest of Saturday working on Jamin's portfolio for NARS. Yes, I was minutes away from being done with it 3 weeks ago. BUT I found some forms on the TOG yahoo group that I liked better. Then I realized that most of the forms weren't set for redesign content so I reworked the charts. I like them MUCH better than what I had used the past two years. This all took time. In fact, I worked ALL DAY on them.

Mike came home in time to shower, dress and take me on a date night!!!! Earlier in the week we were given these:

I'd never been to the symphony and enjoyed myself immensely. I did NOT understand why they have to tune up before each and every piece. ::snort:: I thought it hilarious to watch the harpist dig in her purse during one number....a trumpter had me seriously alarmed at how red his bald head got during his solos...the music was great. The seats were AWFULLY uncomfortable...but that's the price you may for culture. ::snort::

Before the concert Mike took me to Joe's.....we LOVE Italian food but haven't been happy with what we've found to this point. This was good. We'll have to try it out again when we have more time to savor a meal.

Sunday - two services.....a high point was the worship band from a local church, Christian Faith Center, coming up to play in our Contemporary Service.

I had a great talk with Bre. She thinks she may be able to come out and watch the kids for us the week that Mike and I are both at a conference. She thought it was in Oct and so has to check again now that she realizes we need her in November. We did NOT think she would be able to do this but I sent out a "Can anyone fly out here to help - we'll buy you a ticket" to the girls and Mom and Dad. LOL I have an entry to write about Bre - I assured her it is coming but that I needed time to think before I wrote. ::snort::

Josiah showed up at the Contemporary Service at base and then came over for Sunday Night Ice Cream.....The only good thing about children leaving home is the visits when they come back...though Mom and my older friends are telling me that grandkids are the best thing about kids growing up. I wouldn't know. ::snort::

I finally finished the portfolio late last night. That means that before I can work on "other things - normal things" I need to do school today, pay bills, work on some lingering projects for PWOC Central Region, take Nolan to speech, update the PWOC blog and do Bre's entry on THIS blog.

BUT this is LUNCH BREAK so I quickly caught up! LOL Now it's time to finish up one more Science activity and head for speech, take Jamin to work, Jared to basketball and sometime work on the above list. LOL

©2008 D.R.G.

Weekly Fitness Goals (click button for more info)

Here's my Moms of Many Exercise Challenge update.

EXERCISE
Tuesday - 65 min AMT - 740 calories
Wednesday - 65 min AMT - 742 calories
Thursday - 65 min AMT - 769 calories
Saturday - 40 min AMT - 460 calories

Weekly Totals - 235 minutes - 2711 calories

Weight: The scale at home has stayed the same for WEEKS or moved up. The scale at the gym weighs more (until the last couple of weeks was always 7 lbs heavier than home) but it's been going down consistently. I haven't a clue what I weigh.

Notes: I'm having a hard time getting 5 workouts in a week. If I don't make it on Friday a.m. (co-op) or any other a.m. I'm very unlikely to make it in the afternoon or evening.

For more exercise challenge entries click here.

©2008 D.R.G.