I posted about the new CPSIA law as of January 9, 2009. This update today:

"We are so excited to announce that the Commission has voted for a "Stay of Enforcement of Certain Testing and Certification Requirements of CPSIA" — which means that they are proposing a 1 year suspension of the burden of lead testing and certification while they take more time to review the rules and plan enforcement! All of your hard work is paying off (for the time being at least!). You wouldn't have to pay to do the certification and testing, though you are still liable if your products are found to have lead. We are so pleased that artisans and vintage sellers got their voices heard. Your hard work is not over; we must continue to play a role in advocating for small business people throughout the coming year."

from Etsy, their announcement: Breaking News: The CPSIA Mandatory Testing & Certification Proposed 1 Year Suspension

More info: Cool Mom Picks

Also, from the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and the 600ppm blog. The suspension really is allowing time for the CPSC to work through the legislation in the next year and has only delayed the testing and certification:

"This has only relieved the CPSC from having to "police" the law and give them more time to figure out how they will do that after they figure out who all should be policed and to what extent. Meantime, because small businesses are still expected to uphold the law as it is written the State Attorney General's offices can enforce it." Bama Babies and Birthdays blog

"The release not only made a point of mentioning manufacturers “large and small” but also cited this stay to be “temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers.” (The emphasis in bold is mine.) Once again, they are ensuring that they have an out. They are telling us, ‘this law will stand but hey, I’ll throw your way what appears to be a little break. Don’t expect much more than this.’ " The Adventures of Whimsical Walney

A very famous bear, one of our favorite bears, has a wonderful definition of a "good" book -- at my Seven Pillars Book Nook blog: What is the definition of a good book?

Salmon Noodle Casserole

Preheat over 400 degrees

Ingredients:

1 12 oz package Amish wide egg noodles
2 TBSP butter
2 26 oz cans Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup green beans, drained
1 cup carrots, drained
1 cup peas, drained
2 6 oz. cans Salmon (in water), drained
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
Mrs. Dash to taste
1 to 1 1/2 cups crushed potato chips for topping

Directions:

Prepare egg noodles as instructed on package, when done drain, put into large mixing bowl add 2 TBSP butter, set aside.

Combine 2 cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and 1 1/2 cups milk, mix well, it will still be thick but can be made the thickness preferred. Add the remaining ingredients of Salmon, green beans, carrots, peas, cheese, and Mrs. Dash. Mix well then add to egg noodles and mix well again. Put mixture into 13 X 9 baking dish.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until hot. Sprinkle crushed potato chips on top and bake for 5 additional minutes.

There's usually not much of this left over but once in a while there will be a couple or three servings so I'll add stewed, diced tomatoes and Parmesan to taste, for a variation. Very tasty on a cold, winter day!

I talked with my mom on the telephone for an hour and half while making this and washing dishes. I told her I had some for her and my uncle. She loves this casserole so she's really looking forward to getting it tomorrow. My dear mother-in-law loves it too so I also be taking some to her. My mom, 78, mother-in-law, 83, and uncle, 89, are alone and I help them out by making meals for them from time to time. This is one of their favorites. The girls are making muffins later to take to take along too.

I love to read so I'm always interested in resources about books and reading. Last week, Why Homeschool hosted the first Carnival of Homeschooling of the New Year: Week 158 The Third Anniversary and reading through the Carnival I found a particular resource of special interest to me.

It's data bank of 700+ cataloged books (with more to come) designed with a search so I'll be to find books for my lesson plans and our reading. Mark, of Every Good Path, and his daughter, Grace, of Sing me to Heaven, have been working on their online catalog Every Good Book.

From the front page:

The reader's dilemma - so many great books to read! As a book-loving homeschool family, we've collected dozens of reading lists over the years, literally thousands of recommendations. We used these to find great books for a certain reading level, historical period, or type such as fiction, biography, etc. We found some books on almost everyone's "Classics" list, and many more on multiple lists, giving us a sense of each book's importance. We'd look online to find which were in-print and affordable, and so on... A rewarding, yet difficult process of categorizing, prioritizing, searching - just the things a website can do so well.

EveryGoodBook finds just the right book - new or old for homeschool, classical education, and personal enrichment. Search and sort through hundreds of possible books according to any combination of reading level, type, historical period, or rank...

It's been snowing on and off since last Friday with more snow forecast throughout the rest of the week. Starting late tonight is another front moving through with the possibility of four inches and windy conditions. Daisy took these pictures with her new camera at a local natural area not too far from where we live. These are from a few snows ago and I'm late at getting them posted. Yes, it's truly a real winter this year - cold, white, snowy winter. We haven't been able to say that for some time.

I've been concerned about lead in many of the imported items we use daily for some time. I'm rather klutzy and break glass quite easily so I really like the ease and safety of plastic. It fills my kitchen cupboards. My concern has made me go back to good old glass, the glass made in the USA. In the past couple of years, I've gradually phased out and replaced some of my glass items marked "Made in China" with ones I'm sure are safe but just because a product says "Made in America" doesn't always mean the materials it's made of are free of harmful toxins. An item may be made in America but manufacturers may get materials else where. To find out about a product, requires research and I haven't got very far into this yet--I'm only on kitchen items. Some good sites for researching and buying American made products are Made in the USA, Still Made in USA, Buy American, U.S. Stuff, USAB2C and a blog, Made in the USA. I've been doing this on my own without federal legislation. I'm a fairly cautious person by nature and I'm always looking for ways within my power to prevent accidents, have good health, and maintain a peaceful atmosphere for all of us in the family. My personal caution doesn't get to the problem of products being made and sold with harmful ingredients so I'm very glad for the concern to keep products safe and I welcome *good* legislation for children's safety.

I did not know about federal legislation, H.R. 4040. This is the Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008, which became law last August 14, 2008, to regulate unsafe products made primarily for children. It passed overwhelmingly with a vote of 424 to *1* and that *one* NO vote, I'm glad to say, was Congressman Ron Paul, who is still working at preserving our freedoms. This law will apply to *ALL* merchandise made for children (12 and under) and will require extensive safety testing, which comes with high costs and certification fees. This could mean retailers, thrift stores, and small businesses, even some homeschoolers, could possibly be forced to close their doors, to go out-of-business. I have been a part of a used book group, owned by Val Jacobsen, a homeschooler, also owner of Valerie's Living Books, who was interviewed about her family business by World Net Daily. As the law is now, it can only have a negative effect on their business. It will be more enslaving than restrictive of items with high levels of toxins and imported items. Once again, the governing laws seem to be of hasty, extreme measure with little thought given to the far reaching effect and it falls short of what I consider good regulation/legislation. Quite the opposite, it is not good legislation.

Homeschooler, Dana of Principled Discovery, has written about this at her New Federal Law to Affect Microbusinesses, Homeschoolers. She shares info, links, and current updates to the clarifications/exemptions. Another homeschool mom, Karen, of Simply Amusing Blog, has information about how it could possibly affect book distributors, used book sellers, and small homeschool businesses: Used Children's Books In Jeopardy - Please Help!. Lisa from, Me and My House, has similar concerns and writes Amputating the Arm. Another point of view: Consumer Safety's War on Thift - Joel McDurman.

Pheisty has her say:

Have any of you heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008? If you have, you probably heard that it was passed to protect children from imported goods that may contain lead or other harmful contaminants. Well did you know that the bill also includes the government-sanctioned testing of resale children’s clothing?

That’s right. As of February 10, 2009, you will no longer be able to sell or buy children’s used clothing under the CPSIA. Not at the Goodwill, not at a consignment shop, not on eBay. Not even at a yard sale. If you do, you face a $100,000 fine and 5 years of imprisonment. That is, unless the seller can find a government-approved way to test the garments that won’t force them out of business...

Everyone of you–liberal and conservative–should be outraged. This isn’t about party politics, anymore. This is about a runaway government that seems intent on destroying our entire way of life under the ‘good intention’ of saving us from ourselves. So while everyone’s busy bickering back and forth over which party can ’save’ America, we–the common American citizens–are losing everything.

Dr. George Grant is the president of the King's Meadow Study Center, coordinator of the Gileskirk Curriculum Project, author of the blog Grantian Florilegium, and more. At the 2007 Veritas Teacher Training Conference, he talks about the idea of "sphere sovereignty" and what is the legitimate role of government, church, and home. He discusses the beliefs of Abraham Kuyper, who was homeschooled by his father and later became the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. Dr. Grant explains how Kuyper took this view of "sphere sovereignty" and lived it and was able to instill it in the Dutch people to change the political culture of their country. There's also an small, interesting story about President Teddy Roosevelt.

By "sphere sovereignty" what Kuyper really meant was that God, in His redemptive economy, has established the world in accordance with overlapping, checking and balancing jurisdictions. There are separate authorities, there are separate responsibilities and societies go awry when these authorities, these spheres are either blurred or obscured. When the family assumes responsibilities that actually belong to the church or when the church assumes responsibilities that are actually the responsibility of the family or when the state attempts to supersede them all...

He [Kuyper] asserted Christ's lordship over it all and if Christ was Lord, then His directives about where lines should be drawn, distinctions should be made, authorities should be established, well, this was an essential aspect of the declaration of the gospel.

In 1892, he [Kuyper] made a famous speech entitled "Blurring the Boundaries" in which he said, "virtually all the modern world's ills come down to this: even the state was claiming authority, that was not the the state's or was abdicating authority where it had legitimate authority. All the ills of the modern world comes down to this: the church has not had the background to stand against the state. The family has been left unprotected and parental prerogatives has been stolen so that society as God had intended it is no longer able to function under the Lordship of Christ and therefore, new principles and new ideas and new authorities and new sovereignties and new messiahs had been raised up in Christ's stead."

By establishing the principle of "sphere sovereignty" Abraham Kuyper enabled the Dutch people to know real authority when they saw it and real tyranny when they saw it and they understood how to resist it. Abraham Kuyper had instilled in the Dutch people a basic gospel principle...

Abraham Kuyper said the beginning of freedom is knowing where the lines are drawn. Liberty comes from this: knowing how to make distinctions, where walls are to be built and where walls are to be torn down. Jesus Christ is Lord over every institution and it is Jesus Christ who determines which institutions have authority, in which areas, how they are to carry out their responsibilities, and which jurisdiction belongs to whom.

By making this kind of practical application from the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ, Abraham Kuyper was forging in the Dutch, without even necessarily confessional adherence, a vision for how the world worked... Abraham Kuyper has this notion that the Lordship of Jesus Christ necessarily means that we all must come under the bar of Scripture in every single area of our thought, of our habits, of our lives. We should be unflinching in yielding our self to Christ's Lordship in every detail of life... He used a peculiar German word to describe this notion: "Weltanschauung" - it literally means the worldviewishness, the comprehensive vision of everything... Abraham Kuyper understood the Sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ over every single detail and as a result, he analysed every problem, every dilemma through the lens of the authority of Christ's revealed purposes in the world in the Scriptures...
~Dr. George Grant~ on Abraham Kuyper and "Sphere Sovereignty"