Choices and Consequences

Choices and consequences is a very strong theme in the Sassy Pants series. For children to become successful members of society they must learn that consequences always follow choices! Another way to say it is that choices always lead to consequences. Some we will like and some we won’t! So we need to think carefully about our choices and the possible consequences and make choices in line with the type of consequences we want or think we can live with! The ability to project to the effect of our choices is a life skill and that is what parenting is about—equipping our children to be successful members of society.

Since Sassy Pants is about animals there seems to be no defensive reactions to seeing issues clearly. Children laugh and while they are laughing, the lesson hits home. It is not a large step for them to make the connection personally! Even adults love the story, identifying with various characters or situations along the way. I did a reading for an adult group and for one gentleman the reading created waves of nostalgia, as that was the way his mother had read to him when he was a boy! Another gentleman identified with the name calling when Sassy Pants was into her “barnyard bully” phase.

The story shows the different kinds of sorry, which fit in with choices and consequences nicely.

Several character traits are easily identified in the various characters in the story. As the child reacts to the different characters conversation can quickly go to, "did you like it when . . . ., how would you feel if someone did that to you?" To, "how did that work for him/her? Was it a good idea? And how would you want to be treated? Is that how you are going to treat others? What kind of consequence do you think will follow?"

Learning the easy way rather than the hard way becomes abundantly clear in this story! This theme is also is woven through other stories in the series.

The final issue is that of bullying which has become such a problem in schools today. Again, the consequences of Sassy Pants’ bullying are very stark: no one liked her or wanted to play with her or be around her. The story makes it quite clear that Sassy Pants chose to learn the hard way. She was given ample opportunity to change her ways and much advice to do so—yet she continued in her headstrong direction! Book I ends with her soaking her tush and her throbbing snout in the mud wallow and no one consoled her! The second book in the series begins with her friendless, crying her eyes out down in a little ditch where no one could see her cry!

The second in the Sassy Pants series, Sassy Pants Makes Amends, will be coming out around the end of the year. Stay tuned for a release date.

Blessings, Carol

Review to share!

Below is a review of Sassy Pants by Pamela Swearingen on her home school curriculum reviews blog. If you have friends who home school please pass this along. I remember my teaching days—you are always in the market for an interesting reader! Each book comes with a free audio version, aka, a good distraction on a long car ride! For more curriculum reviews: http://mustardseedhomeschool.blogspot.com The second book of the Sassy Pants series, Sassy Pants Makes Amends, will be coming out toward the end of 2011! Sassy Pants learns how to fix a friendship when she is the one who broke it!

Sassy Pants by Carol Brown

The book Sassy Pants by Carol Brown is a short easy-reader book that chronicles the misadventures of one aptly named pig, Sassy Pants. Once the pitiful runt of a litter of 19 piglets, Sassy Pants spends infanthood in home of the farmer where life is easy and the food is good. After gaining weight and growing a huge self-serving attitude, Sassy Pants is sent back to the barnyard where she begins to bully all of the other barnyard animals. Although she feels very entitled to live out her whims and desires, in the end Sassy Pants does learn a lesson about where she truly belongs and about what her place is in barnyard society.

For adults reading Sassy Pants, this elementary-aged reader is clearly about much more than a mischievous little pig in the barnyard. By anthropomorphising Sassy Pants, Carol Brown has created a farm world kids can easily understand, but with many complex issues hidden not-so-deeply inside. A few of the many topics touched in this short book include selfishness, bullying, different kinds of "sorry" and respecting boundaries.

To help parents and teachers highlight Sassy Pants' very human lessons, author Carol Brown has created a 3-page study manual which outlines several Talking Points on Sassy Pants' important lessons. The Teaching Manual can be downloaded for free at: Sassy Pants Parent/Teacher Manual.

At the end of the book, Sassy Pants learns her lessons the hard way and the barnyard animals purposefully don't console her. A sensitive child might really feel sorry for Sassy Pants in the end. So for this "tough love" reason, the Teaching Points in the Parent/Teacher Manual really are important. Kids might need to talk about Sassy Pants and the consequences of her naughty actions.

Pages: 78
Year originally published: 2010
You might want to know: This book is the first in a series of four books.
Source: In exchange for an honest review, I received a complimentary copy of this book and the downloadable parent/teacher manual directly from the author but the opinions stated here are all mine.

My Philosophy--or something like that!

Here is my philosophy!

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in heaven with a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming...Wow!! What a ride!" Anonymous

Ya, lots of times I feel that's my philosophy--on my good days--but I think it goes deeper than just my good days. It is a core value that I want to totally use up all the resources my Heavenly Father has put at my disposal, wisely of course, as a good steward! Feelings associated with good or bad days go up and down with my energy level; they come and go. As I elaborated in my book, The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity, they give us some information (just information--it is not eternal reality), sometimes it is accurate info and sometimes not. Sometimes feelings reflect our core values, sometimes they don't. I do not want to make decisions or come to conclusions about myself, God or others based solely on feelings, I need information from other sources such as Scripture, the Holy Spirit and trustworthy people to come to a wise and judicious conclusion, to a wise and judicious decision!

So, what's your philosophy?

Blessings, Carol

On Monday Morning

When I listen to Christian speakers, often they will build a concept, then to bring it from the abstract to where we live they will say, "Now what does that look like on Monday morning?" I want to paint a word picture of what spiritual sensitivity can look like on a Monday morning. To do this, I want to share part of a blog my daughter posted some days ago.

If life were like the wind....

Some days would be hurricane gale forces.
Some days would be refreshing gentle breezes.
Some days would just plain blow . . .
And some days would blow your skirt up!

Today, Monday, this is what high sensitivity looks like at our house. I am sitting in my recliner looking out the window. The sky is blue; trees, lawns--everything else is vibrant green. Spring flowers are out in their glory; the breeze is making a lovely sound blowing through the trees. Birds are singing their little throats sore but rather than being out there soaking it all up, I am having a hard time moving. It is laundry day but it sits in its basket. I'll have writers group tonight but I'm not preparing for that either.

What is the matter? Why is it that my body does not respond to my passion for tidiness, for sharing what is on God's heart, and for writing? And what does spiritual sensitivity have to do with it? This past week was a hurricane force wind. My husband had one of those weeks . . . you know, where he gave 120%. I brace myself to survive those kind of weeks! Because of the oneness of spirit, I quite literally share the week with him! I'll find myself distracted or in intercession or distracted because of intercession--it's hard to concentrate, stay focused or accomplish much. I understand. God designed me to be able to carry some of David's burden so that he can function with clarity. That's part of what the marriage covenant is about--what it does--makes us one. Of course when I said "I do" I didn't have a clue about what I was signing up for! You can find more about how burden bearing works in marriage in The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity (www.fromgodsheart.com). Sheesh! Why don't they tell us these things! Anyhow, I was looking forward to the refreshing gentle breeze of the weekend only to find out he had scheduled himself for an entire weekend webinar! Due to the size of our little apartment, I attended as well. It requires a huge outlay of energy to follow concepts that challenge both mind and spirit, even more energy when they had problems with audio!  Now add to that unexpected company for the weekend to view the webinar! Oy! The gentle breeze I was looking forward to developed a quick gust--it blew my skirt up and I was too pooped to even squeal! Anyone relate?

Being highly sensitive means I must now give myself grace. And . . . what does that look like on Monday? Recharing batteries does not happen with a 15 minute break. Each day over the next few days my schedule will have several two or three hour blocks of time for watching my fern grow, listening to good worship music, and/or long conversations with my bf (Jesus). Oh, I might squeeze laundry in sometime this week. But I figure, as long as there is a clean set of undies in my hubby's drawer, we are golden!

How do you recharge your batteries? Is it okay for you to be kind to yourself? Or, does your list drive you?

Blessings, Carol

The Spiritual Sweet Spot

In the pursuit of growing and developing in maturity in Christ we want to be in alignment with the heart of God; we ask Him to make it so. It is a prayer to which you can be assured God will say YES! However, we give little thought to how He might go about answering our prayer!

Here is one possible scenario: Someone we trust betrays us. We go crying to God: “Look what he did to me!!” We are deeply hurt and wounded—we want that so and so to know how badly he hurt us, and then we can forgive—maybe . . . well, yes, we will forgive because scripture says we must forgive others’ sins if we want Father to forgive ours. Matt. 6:14-15 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV) Through gritted teeth we forgive. As an addendum to the prayer of forgiveness, we ask that Father help our betrayer know how badly he wounded us. I've noticed that what is only a flesh wound for many, for us highly sensitives ones, hurts cut more deeply, hurt excruciatingly and heal slowly.

But our original prayer was to be in alignment with God’s heart . . . so God does not relent. Scripture goes on to say, ^{Matt. 5:44} But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (KJV)

Jesus has given us the formula for alignment with God’s heart! To come into alignment with His heart I must do what His word says. I must put aside my desire to hurt back—to cause as much pain as I feel. Then I must bless this person and do them good rather than harm. I must pray for them! God sets the bar very high; yet He knows the stuff from which we are made. He knows we have it in us to do this—and if we don’t have it in us, He made provision. We can call on Him to give us the grace to do what he says we must! He is eagerly waiting with His gift of grace. It is as we do what He says and avail ourselves of His grace that we come into alignment with His heart.

It is simple—not easy, but simple. At times I have told Him I wish He didn’t think I was so strong! The process of coming into alignment may not be easy, but very sweet when we get there! Alignment is the spiritual sweet spot!

If you wish to learn more about spiritual alignment see www.slg.org. Either explore the site or put the word alignment into the search feature. Happy hunting!

Introducing the Spiritual Growth Books

After saying in my mission statement that I want this blog to be helpful, I think I need to introduce you to the books I've written for adults! The first is The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity, and the second is Highly Sensitive. They will be the next two posts, so it you want more, you are welcome to come back to the blog and read more, again! High sensitivity is neither right nor wrong--it is how your central nervous system is designed. High sensitivity means that your nervous system takes in more sensory data than most. Therefore, it may take you longer than most to process the abundance of data. You are not slow, dumb or somehow defective! High sensitivity just is; it is on a spectrum and you may be on the high end.

I want you to know that at least half the craziness you feel may not be your own!

Blessings, Carol






The The Mystery explains our connectedness, how we affect each other, how that can become a blessing rather than be a curse and some of what God intends to accomplish with this particular design! Highly Sensitive is about reining life in so that it becomes manageable. Many have found help with a chaotic life and freedom from the weight of thinking there was something terribly wrong with them! I am here to tell you that 1/2 the craziness you feel may not be your own!   



From here on I will be blogging from the perspective of being a highly sensitive person. As I share how high sensitivity affects me, you may be able to see that you are not alone. There are actually lots of us out there, we just don't make a lot of noise. Generally we don't want to attact attention!



Ocassionally I will delve into a pertinent question from a reader or the children's books for something of an emotional relief! Yet, even in the children's books you can find issues! Oy! Hopefully those issues are presented in a way that make you laugh even though it is a serious issue. And laughter is good medicine!  By the way, the second in the series of Sassy Pants stories is in the pipeline. We are hoping it will be available in time for this Christmas! I'll keep you posted.



Blessings, Carol

Sassy Pants Update

My new story "Sassy Pants Makes Amends" will be coming out at the end of the year. Keep watching, there will be updates. As I receive info I will let you know. Sassy Pants Makes Amends is about “how to fix a friendship when you are the one who broke it!”

Meanwhile have you had a chance to acquaint yourself with Sassy Pants? If not click here to watch a video about this lively character. To order a copy of the original Sassy Pants story about choices and consequences click here.