Sounds of Greek Vowels

During September I spent nine days proofreading a friend's doctoral thesis. The project was to gather in one place all the textual criticism, notes, variations, etc, for the first half of the book of Job. It was the hardest thing I ever proofread. But the project had the felicitous, unintended consequence of teaching me something about Greek vowel sounds.

This year I am tutoring Greek for one of the kids' friends. Leah's mom had purchased a Greek program a few years ago, but they didn't go very far with it. Now I'm teaching her with those same materials. My problem is that the pronunciation I learned from my Greek prof is not the same pronunciation used by our Greek program. The situation is not unlike the pronunciation differences between ecclesiastical Latin and the way Wheelock's teaches the sounds.

As I proofread the dissertation's decisions on textual criticism in Job, I kept noticing the word itacism. I'd never heard the word before. I learned that itacism is the cause for variations in spelling: one sound can be spelled in different ways. For example, there is Cathy versus Kathy. There is hear versus here, or there and their and they're. Or maybe a better example would be spelling your fizzy barley&hops German beverage b-e-a-r because "ear" and "hear" have the same vowel sound as "-ee-."

Same thing happens in Greek. The scribes would hear a word and accidentally write down one vowel-sound (that sounded right) instead of the other spelling for that sound. Amazingly enough, some of those spelled-differently sounds revealed that I am pronouncing two different vowels with the same sound, exactly as the scribes were doing ... and not as our Greek program's CD pronunciation-guide demonstrates. It makes me think that there's probably as much flexibility in the "proper" pronunciation of classical Greek or Koine Greek as there is in that dead Latin language.

And thus I have an excuse for my funky way to pronounce Greek words. Yes, I do. I just hope that it doesn't mess up the students when/if they listen to the CD for homework help.

Great Picture Books

Books that are not to be missed:

Margaret Wise Brown - Color Kittens.
Virginia Lee Burton - The Little House.
Virginia Lee Burton - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
Marjorie Flack - The Story of Ping.
H H Swift and Lynd Ward - The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.
Robert McCloskey - Make Way for Ducklings.
Robert McCloskey - Blueberries for Sal.
Robert McCloskey - One Morning in Maine.
Watty Piper - The Little Engine That Could.
Beatrix Potter - Peter Rabbit.
Richard Scarry - Storybook Dictionary.
Richard Scarry - Please and Thank You Book.
Assorted Dr Seuss.

and for the very young:
Goodnight Moon
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Today's Laugh

Two men were talking. "My son asked me what I did during the Sexual Revolution," said one.

"I told him I was captured early and spent the duration doing the dishes."

How Little Is Accomplished

Kids were gone from yesterday morning at 9:30 until they arrived home from church today. Gary and I were here alone. Think of all we could do! Think of all the jobs that could be accomplished!

I seriously underestimate how long tasks take.

I made granola, hotdog buns, corn relish ala Nourishing Traditions, kombucha, stewed and picked a chicken, and cooked for Saturday and today's dinners. I finished nearly all the paperwork for bills and schoolwork. I blogged a little. I didn't clean. I didn't do yardwork. I didn't begin the project for church that I hoped to start. I didn't sit on the couch and cuddle with Gary and watch a movie. I didn't take a nap. I didn't play piano.

Doing school in a schooly way sure does interfere with real life. There just isn't time on the weekend to catch up.

A Distressing Spirit from God

Saul had been made king of Israel. After only a couple of years, he disobeyed God's prophet and took matters into his own impatient hands. God declared that the kingdom would be taken from him, and Samuel the prophet anointed David who would be the next king. At the end of 1 Samuel 16, immediately after we hear that the Spirit of the Lord came upon David when he was anointed to be the next king, we hear that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. Lest we miss the point, it is said three times that this distressing spirit is from God.

What do we do with that when we consider depression and mental illness? Not only do we not say that depression may come from God, but we usually argue that it comes not from God but from Satan or the fact that there is trouble in the world.

But here, in Saul's case, the depression clearly came from God. Why?

To soothe Saul, his servants suggested a musician. They found David. And what did David do? He played the harp and sang psalms to Saul. At the start, before his impenitence grew greater, Saul loved David. He received comfort from the word of God that proceeded from David's lips and in his music. Saul had sinned. In His infinite love, God sent him the distressing spirit so that he would have a need to listen to one who could bring him the comfort of the gospel.

God does send distressing spirits. But He does not send them to punish. He does not send them to be cruel. He sends them so that we will have motivation to hear his word, so that we will be drawn to Him in face of our distress, so that we will find our joy and comfort in Christ alone and through faith in Him be saved.

And that's what happened initially for Saul; David's message of gospel brought comfort to the king and kept him in the faith for a while. And then there was that little incident with Goliath, and Saul became jealous of David. And then the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul again. God wanted Saul to need the sweet words which had previously comforted him. But when David played hymns and psalms for Saul, the king threw a spear at him and banished him from the court to the battlefield. After Saul got rid of the psalm-singer, it was pretty much all downhill from there, his sinful nature taking the upper hand.

This really ought to teach us something about depression and the medicine of God's Word.

Today's Laugh

An airliner was having engine trouble, and the pilot instructed the cabin crew to have the passengers take their seats and get prepared for an emergency landing.

A few minutes later, the pilot asked the flight attendants if everyone was buckled in and ready. "All set back here, Captain," came the reply, "except one lawyer who is still going around passing out business cards."

Change or Stability?

In the last chapter of More All -of-a-Kind Family, the family is preparing to leave their home, their extended family, their synagogue, their neighborhood, to move to a new neighborhood. On their last night at home, three of the girls are lying in bed quietly trying to hide their tears and distress, while another sister is hyped about the excitement of the move.

Charlotte's voice broke the stillness. "It'll seem funny living someplace else."

"Yes," agreed Gertie. "We've lived here our whole lives!"

"Well, it's about time we made a change," Henny said cheerfully. "Mama and Papa kept talking about it, but I honestly never thought we'd do it. I'm sure glad. I'm sort of tired of this old place. Doing the same old things and seeing the same old faces all the time."

Oh, thought Sarah, how could anybody ever grow tired of the things that were part of her? Knowing things and people so well made them dear to you. Taking on new ways and new friends, that was hard -- almost terrifying.


I know people who thrive on change and excitement. I don't understand, but I know and can accept that that's how they are. I expect those kind of folks can't understand the ones who find dearness in the "boring things" they know well and are used to. I wonder sometimes how many errors and ill motives are wrongly assumed to be in others when they differ from us greatly with regard to this personality trait.

Today's Laugh

Shamelessly stolen from Bekah because not all of you will see it:

Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So if you give her any crap, you will receive a ton of s***.

APT

A four-minute video which captures some of why I love this place:

Taking the Book Along

Today some of us homeschoolers attended Henry V at APT. As Janelle and I were talking afterward, there were ideas and character-development and quotes we wanted to go back to and explore. But when we get home, do we remember what we wanted to look up? Do we bother to haul out the books or hunt on the internet, or do we just get to cooking supper?

I recalled to her how Pastor Wiest took along a copy of the play. One evening he and his wife took me and Gary and another couple out to "Merry Wives of Windsor." It wasn't a terribly good production, but we were with people we loved. Afterwards, Steve said we should go out and discuss the play. So, well after our bedtime, we headed to a diner for coffee and talk. He had his copy of the play, so he could look up exact quotes, refer back to them, or make theological points.

As I was thinking, "Hmmm, maybe that's something we should do next year when we come to APT," I recalled that today is St Michael's, and it was six years ago today that Steve went into that hospice room. And then it was time to shut off my thoughts before the tears flowed, and divert the conversation back to something more Shakespeary and less memory-ish.

Unschooler Meets a Schedule

For twenty years of homeschooling, we looked at "school" as part of life. People read. People solve problems. People learn what they need to know. All those educational activities (the fun ones and the not-so-fun necessary ones too) just had to fit into real life. "School" was done during summer, during Christmas break, on weekends, in the evenings, just as frequently and easily and naturally as it was done during typical school-day hours.

Now Gary is working away from home during the days Monday through Friday. Now we are attending chapel each M-F morning that our congregation's academy is in session. Now the kids have schooled friends, and homeschooling friends who operate on a Sept-to-May, M-F, 8-3:00 calendar. Their free time affects our schedule. My youngest two students also need more help from me with their schoolwork, be it cracking the whip motivational encouragement or some hand-holding. So this year we are trying to be more schooly, more organized, more scheduled, etc.

I'm dyin' here.


What's really getting to me is the priorities. When there is a list of daily textbooky and workbooky school assignments, it seems that the checklist takes priority over real-life needs which are actually more important. I resent it when I feel naughty to work in the garden instead of grade a math lesson. I get cranky when I think that taking the car in for an oil change is detracting from history or logic class. Mowing and supper-prep should not be seen as "interferences" with schoolwork. I could never understand homeschool moms who didn't have time for a fieldtrip because they'd get "behind" in their schoolwork. But now, even though I know better, those illogical feelings have become my own thoughts.

Getting on a schedule and sticking to it presents its own struggles and benefits. But the part that is super-hard is how it messes with my mind, how it rearranges my whole view of what things in life are Most Important and need to be tackled as top priority each day.

And then, on top of that, I find that it almost gives us permission to unplug our brains on days the conventional schools aren't in session.

There must be a middle ground. Somewhere.

How does a person commit herself to a schedule intended to serve good ends, submitting to the schedule's demands when she doesn't feel like it, and yet not let the schedule become task-master, keeping it in its place as a mere servant to the goals?

Jogging Again?

One day down. Only 160 or so to go.

I need to jog. Outdoors, not on a treadmill. When the sun is up, not before chapel or after Gary gets home. I jogged for four years, and I had more energy, more lung capacity, a better outlook on life, and didn't feel so chilled during the winter. A year ago I was forced to quit for health reasons. But now I'm looking at the impending arrival of winter and short days, with no garden or lawnmower enticing me away from the kitchen sink and the laundry room, and I'd best git to gittin' on reestablishing the jogging habit.

I seriously doubt my ability to keep at this. The time-crunch seems crunchier than ever. But now I've said it right out loud, in front of y'all, so maybe I'll keep at it (except Sundays and Thursdays) so that I don't have to hang my head in shame when asked how it's going.

Hey, at least I could keep going for the whole mile today. So even after the year off, I'm still in way better shape than I was five years ago!

a la Psalm 136

Oh, give thanks to the Lord,
for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 136 is the one where the psalmist rehearses the history of Israel, with every phrase followed by the litany refrain: for His mercy endures forever. It is important to see that line not as a simple refrain, but as an explanation or elucidation on the words immediately preceding it.

But you know what? You can do that with the rest of the liturgy too. It's cool. Try it.

"Glory be to God on high ..."

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"This is the word of the Lord,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"and renew a right spirit within me,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"For mine eyes hath seen Thy salvation,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

"which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people,"

for He is good,
and His mercy endures forever.

Think about it.

Old Words with New Tunes

At chapel this year we are praying Matins (LSB pg 219) on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and using Service of Prayer and Preaching (LSB pg 260) on Tuesday, Thursdays. A couple of years ago, when Pastor began teaching us the canticles in Service of Prayer & Preaching, I liked 'em. We sang them for a few months. But when we stopped, I didn't miss them. It's nice to be singing/praying those Isaiah and Pauline passages again on a regular basis.

But you know what? I suspect that by the end of the year, I may have had my fill of them. (Not unlike how much I utterly adore garden tomatoes, but right now I'd rather see them go into the canning jars than into my mouth. Never thought I'd see the day that I didn't want to inhale tomatoes but would prefer to have a short break from them!) As much as I love these canticles, there's something about the Venite and the Benedictus and the Magnificat and the Te Deum (from TLH and now in LSB) that is transcendent. I can sing/pray those every day -- even multiple times a day -- and they grow more and more beautiful and precious.

And that's what got me to wondering. When I read about the new music being written for the church, good churchly music, I've wondered sometimes about the constant pursuit of new settings for hymns and liturgy. There's nothing wrong with the new things. Many of them are very good. Many of them become my new "fave" for a few months. But why the frequent desire for something new? Is it the difference between what's beautiful and what's exquisitely sublime? Do we eventually tire of the beautiful and well-written new church music, whereas the old (at least, the old that is still with us!!) never becomes tiresome?

Trip to California

Looking ahead to the day when Maggie will be grown-up and no longer covered by our health insurance, I have been looking into some options that other families use. If she were to apply for any government help for the disabled (or whatever the current PC term is), we have to show need and disability. Well, how do you do that when you've been homeschooling her in a safe environment? The government will want me to show them that she's failed at her schooling and needs special accommodations. Well, good grief, homeschooling IS the epitome of "special accommodations."

I have learned that we need to have some behavioral-developmental evaluations and at least one neuro-psych evaluation. They tell me that this is par-for-the-course for what the schools provide to special needs kids. But my kid isn't in school. Well, we need these evaluations, and they are mega-expensive. But .... ! There is a researcher at University of California who is studying VCFS and the way kids think. We've applied for Maggie to be a research guinea pig, and she's been accepted. The other vcfs families who've participated say that it's a fun experience.

So at the beginning of December, they will fly Maggie and me to Sacramento. For three nights, they'll put us up at the Kiwanis House (like a Ronald McDonald House) next to the hospital. Maggie will spend time with a psychiatrist and a behavioral evaluator. But mostly she'll be be playing video games and doing puzzles and things like that. They want to see which sections of her brain are busy while she's doing certain kinds of thinking tasks. Then they'll discuss the results with me and later send me the official reports.

Ahead of time, I have hours of evaluation forms to fill out. I've done quite a few already. I'm going to need to photocopy the long form which included all the history of Maggie's surgeries and hospitalizations and when she learned to walk and talk and dress herself; with all the work I put into gathering that information into one place, I want to keep a record of it myself. The only surprise to me on the forms was one aspect of Maggie's personality that I hadn't noticed until filling out the behavioral evaluation forms. I guess her obedience and cheerfulness and contentedness just kind of overshadowed that one aspect that I'd never before realized.

So Maggie is going to get her first plane ride. And I'm going to go west of the Rockies for the first time. It will be a short little girl-trip for us together. With lots of video games for Mag!

VCFS Pictures

A lot of people who google "vcfs pictures" or "vcfs photos" end up coming to my blog, and that post unfortunately has no photographs; it has only what I learned one day about the face-shape of kids with velo-cardio-facial syndrome. What if we help folks out a bit? Maggie and Katie have facebook pictures that may illustrate one example of what the "f" in VCFS looks like.

So we have here two sisters who look a lot like each other. Katie, the older one, does not have vcfs. Maggie does. In this picture, Katie is the one not sticking out her tongue.


Here we have four pictures of Maggie. The vcfs experts tell us that the "look" to vcfs includes almond-shaped eyes, an elongated face (often heart-shaped), a wide nose bridge, and small ears.




For comparison, here's her sister from when she wasn't too much older than Maggie is now. (Katie is the one on the right. The one on the left isn't blood-family, though we'd love to claim her.)

And now we need a picture of Katie that shows off her deeper-set eyes and the bridge of her nose. (I'm sure she's just thrilled about Mom's comment here!) But, hey, for the sake of comparison...



The top one of this pair is Maggie handing out bulletins at her sister's wedding. The bottom one is Katie at her goddaughter's baptism.



And finally, a couple of pictures with Katie's daughter. The top picture is Maggie (who has vcfs) and the bottom one is Katie (who does not).

I Love the Law

Pr Petersen has a wonderful post on the law, and how it should and shouldn't be preached, and what it does. Amen to what he says, especially the middle paragraph. I find that the usual type of "law" in sermons does me no good; it doesn't kill my sinful flesh; it bolsters my self-righteousness. What I love and what I need is the law that isn't fun for either the preacher to preach or for me to hear. But it's what is true and good.

Homeschoolers Who Don't Do Anything

We occasionally hear complaints about homeschoolers who are goofing off, playing outdoors. And it crossed my mind today that the neighbors are seeing Andrew outside on a scooter. They don't know that he's doing schoolwork, memorizing chunks of the Augsburg Confession, rehearsing what he's learned. They don't know that Maggie, when she's out taking a walk or shooting hoops, is not just getting her exercising, but may be conjugating Greek verbs in her mind or making sense of the chapter of the story we read. A kid who's mowing during the schoolday is not being put to menial use as a child-slave, but may actually be writing a story while he's shoving the lawnmower around the yard. Just because it appears that a kid is "doing nothing" does not at all mean there's no schoolwork percolating in his head.

Graphic Content

You gotta wonder what's up with our society when a cooking show is doing a segment on barbecuing, including roasting a pig on a spit, and the show starts off with a parental advisory warning:

This program contains graphic content.


I thought Gary was joking when he told me about the warning. But he wasn't.
So, Erin, why didn't you have a warning on your Labor Day blogposts?

Education as a Means of Grace?

At a conference I attended last month, the Lutheran speaker told us that a classical education will better prepare the heart to receive Christ (or to be open to the gospel, or something on that order). Maybe EC has the exact quote jotted down somewhere?

So when Kerry commented here the other day, pointing out the CiRCE site on classical education, I was surprised to see a related statement there:
The classical Christian teacher asks God to use his teaching, dispositions, and actions as an instrument in His hand to cultivate the students' souls toward holiness. In this sense, learning can be a means of grace.
Thing is, the CiRCE site looks very Reformed.


If it is true that holiness is promoted by classical education, then classical education must not be about teaching Latin, or about grammar, logic, and rhetoric, or about a particular core curriculum, or about critical thinking, or about rigorous academics. Surely we would not say those things (good though they may be) are tools of the Holy Spirit to create and sustain faith.

So which is it? Is it wrong to say that classical education inculcates holiness and/or helps draw a person to Christ? Or is it that classical education isn't really about the things we usually speak of when we discuss the topic?

Drying Soap

In spring we noticed that the bars of my home-made soap lasted so much longer than store-bought soap. But when I made another batch in May and began using it in August, the soap was dissolving quicker than it had been. Eventually we noticed that a fresh bar of soap would lather and smell soapy, but as it was used and we worked our way further toward the middle of the bar, the soap wouldn't bubble so well, and it smelled more piggy from the lard. Apparently it hadn't had time enough to get good and dry all the way through the bar, but just on the outside.

The theory now is to rotate the bars. I can use the outside of all the bars, and then let them sit and dry some more. That should solve part of the problem.

The bigger problem, though, is making the soap far enough ahead of time that it can sit for at least half a year, preferably a year, drying thoroughly. That takes discipline. And forethought. And making something a priority even though you won't benefit from it for a full year. Yikesy!

In other words, I should be making another batch. Or two. Or three. I haven't yet found a place to buy tallow and lard (other than where I used to buy it, which is now an 80-minute drive one-way). So I tried making soap from Crisco. I used one bar to see if my skin had an adverse reaction ... and so far, so good. I guess I'd better head to Aldi for some more shortening.

Touching the Ark

Remember in the story (in 2 Samuel 6) about David bringing the ark to Jerusalem? I always felt so bad for Uzzah that he was struck dead for trying to stop the ark from falling. After all, it was tipping off the cart; he wanted to prevent an accident.

In our story yesterday, Pastor pointed out that the ark wasn't even supposed to be on a cart. It was to be transported by its poles, carried by the priests. So if they'd taken God's word seriously about how to move the ark, the potential for an accident wouldn't have been there in the first place. How 'bout that?

Cinnamon Everywhere

Can a person have taste-bud hallucinations?

For the last year or so, I've been tasting cinnamon in Snickers. Never tasted it there before. Assumed they'd changed the recipe slightly.

Then I started tasting cinnamon in chocolate chip cookies. And I don't mean other people's choc-chip cookies, where somebody might've put a pinch in the dough. I mean my choc-chip cookies, that I baked, where I know there is no cinnamon.

And this morning I tasted cinnamon in the granola. The granola that I made. The granola that has no cinnamon.

At least I'm hallucinating cinnamon and not liver or kale.

Classical versus Progressive Education

Classical education seems to be a topic of interest to many people in the last decade or so. Try as I might, I cannot get a handle on what it is, though. Some say classical education is about the content of the curriculum. Some say it's about the methodology of teaching. Some say it's about teaching subjects such as Latin and logic and rhetoric. The one evaluation I heard consistently was that classical education is NOT progressive education.

Even this, though, I am beginning to wonder about. The self-proclaimed goals and methods of progressive educators seem to me to have a lot of similarities to the self-proclaimed goals and methods of classical educators.

Both camps say they value

• critical thinking and problem solving,
• de-emphasizing textbooks and instead using other resources,
• educating children who will grow up to be of service to the neighbor,
• life-long learning,
• seeing the interconnectedness of academic subjects, and
• evaluation methods that do not depend on standard testing procedures.

Even in some of the areas of greater difference, I still see similarities.

• Progressive educators greatly value learning by doing, hands-on projects, and experience. Most classical educators recognize that much book-learning is cemented in the mind by projects or experiments or experiences.
• Progressive educators value understanding over rote memory. Classical educators see great value in rote learning, but not for its own sake. Classical educators want children to use their rote learning to grow in understanding, to be able to reason with the information they have memorized.
• Some classical educators see great value in doing unit studies and learning-through-literature, connecting different academic subjects in the one project or one book. Progressive educators often present information in integrated ways such as unit studies.

There are differences. Progressive education puts more value on group work than does classical education. Progressive education will often set aside rote work altogether instead of ensuring that rote work is explained and understood and used later. Progressive education is more concerned with figuring out what skills and information will be necessary and practical in the future, and concentrates on imparting those, whereas classical education spends more time on reading the great books from ages past.

What's hard to take seriously is when each side accuses the other of the same things. Some say that we should all do classical education so that our children will learn to think critically; progressive educators accuse classical educators of failing to teach critical thinking. Progressive educators throw stones at classical educators for teaching separate academic subjects so that the children never learn the interconnectedness of it all; classical educators promote their view by insisting that children need to see how the subjects interrelate instead of studying many disjointed topics. Sometimes the two sides sound more alike than different. But there is a difference. What I can't figure out is just those differences are.

If the same thing is done in two classrooms, but done for different reasons, arising out of different philosophies, will one way be right and the other wrong? Will those philosophies show through in hard-to-pin-down ways?

What I can't take seriously is "Listen to my side because we value thus-and-such" while the opposing philosophy is saying the exact same thing. Surely there must be a way to get down to what the real differences are, and how they play out, and how the different aspects mesh or conflict with Christian doctrine. (The unfortunate thing is that when I ask these questions, the conversation usually resorts to name-calling, guilt by association, or knocking down straw men. This is not attractive amongst those who say they value teaching logic.)

Reading Progress

Four years ago, Maggie read, for the first time, a book that hadn't been read to her previously. It was a short and easy chapter-book, and it had a lot of white space, but I was thrilled. This week, her friend Mary loaned her a copy of Ella Enchanted, a "real" book, a grown-up book, and she read the whole book on her own in two and a half days. Isn't that fabulous?

A Visit from a Friend

On Monday, my friend S had a chance to come visit. We were seldom able to get together even when we lived relatively near each other. So it's a real treat when she is able to make a quick trip to the Milwaukee area.

One of the things I learned from her is what's killed my cucumbers and is in the process of killing my watermelon vines. Apparently there's a fungus among us this year. After what she mentioned, I've discovered that other people are having the same problem, and I'm lucky that it hasn't bothered my beans or tomatoes or herbs -- just my cukes, squash, and melons. We were wondering what-on-earth we were going to do with all those watermelons... Well, I guess this is a lesson in "Don't count your watermelons before they're hatched."

This reminds me (in an ADD way); I'm not killing grass for a garden expansion. Wonder when I'm going to get to that?

My friend can play organ and piano, and one of the things I appreciate so much when she visits is her request before leaving: "Let's sing a hymn or two together." Hooray! Yes! Let's! Why don't I do that with other friends? (Maybe because it's easier when somebody can play the piano for it?)

APT

Last Friday and this Friday we spent gorgeous days, outdoors in southwestern Wisconsin, watching Shakespeare. This week was The Winter's Tale and last week was The Comedy of Errors. This week's play was good, but we enjoyed Comedy much more.

The attendance was amazingly low. Oftentimes the theater is full; I usually order our homeschool group's tickets in early April so that I can ensure we have reservations for the dates we choose. This year, though, the theater was only between half and two-thirds full. Last week we attributed the low attendance to its being the first week of school in many school districts. But seeing low attendance again today, maybe it's the economy.

Donna (one of the moms who attends these plays with us) pointed out that Shakespeare wrote today's story with a 16-year interlude between acts, between the time the princess was abandoned as a baby and the time she grew up and had fallen in love with her father's best friend's son. So here we are in the story, with a 16-yr-old prepared to marry a prince a few years older than she. But APT changed it to be a 20-year gap in the story. Can't have 16-yr-olds getting married, I guess.

Learning a Language

I'm not talking about a normal foreign language, although I suppose the same lessons apply.

In the last week, I became familiar with the language of textual criticism. A friend is finishing up her doctoral dissertation on Job, and she needed a proofreader. When she introduced me to her 500-page dissertation, she was throwing around words like obelus and lemma and catena and asterisk (no, it's not what you think it is) and names like Symmachus and Aquila and Theodotion. So, I'm taking notes, writing down what she wants me to check, trying to figure out what ALL these numbers and punctuation marks mean. Oh, and then there's Greek and Hebrew and Latin and Syriac and Aramaic and German and a bunch of other languages in this book. The first day or so, I was just checking format: margins, vertical spacing, indentations, etc. I could handle that.

But then I got into the text and the evaluation of the critical apparatus. I never felt so stupid in my life. I didn't know what was going on. It all seemed so hard. I had to keep looking up information to make sure I was catching the typos and errors. It was pretty overwhelming. But I kept going, immersed in this project I told my friend I'd help with. And slowly it became easier. Slowly I learned which manuscript numbers were associated with which manuscript-groups and what the code-numbers were. Slowly I began to make sense out of all those symbols and jottings which aren't words. Slowly I began to recognize the players, the ones from the second century and the ones in the last couple of centuries. And slowly I began to speed up on the proofreading because I was no longer looking at something so foreign.

Come to think of it, when Gary taught himself Latin, he had the same experience. He plunged into translating a book, and it went slowly and clumsily. But as he continued working, the translating came easier to him. It also seems to fit with the experience of Nathaniel Bowditch (whose story I greatly enjoy) as he taught himself languages.

Come to think of it, my friend Laura is doing this now, as she learns all the details and routines involved in her new outside-the-home job where she has to learn the language of investing.

I guess I really ought to install Rosetta Stone. I've been procrastinating for three weeks. We can't even pretend to immerse ourselves in German (for tiny little bits of each day) as long the computer program sits in the box instead of on the computer's hard drive...

Oh, yeah,...

Today's mail contained an envelope for Andrew. I told him there was a birthday card for him from Grandma and Grandpa. He didn't ask which set of grandparents. It took me a few seconds to figure out why he didn't ask.

Seems like there are a whole lot more memories swirling around in my brain, more things being "processed" from last June, now that we're to the time of year when there are memories of another loss too.

Beautiful Day

The weather in September has been more summery than the July or August weather this year. Today the kids played educational games while the moms were occupied at Bible class, then we brought Leah home with us. After Greek class, lunch, more Greek, and a little basketball, we all settled down to our books: I did some editing while the kids sat on the deck with math or history or whatever, enjoying a gorgeous day.

And herein lies the idyllic part of homeschooling.

Health Care

It's that time of year when I get to pondering the luxurious awesomeness of hot water flowing from my faucets.

I remember how much our backs were hurting by the end of the cold-&-quick shower month. We have so much pain relief (that usually goes unappreciated) just from hot showers.

I found fleas on the cat a week ago. I put the Frontline Plus on her. And I wondered a bit as to why we don't get fleas from the cats. For one thing, we usually discover what's going on before the fleas get bad. But if we didn't? Ah, but we take showers each day, and that would wash those little buggers down the drain. (For some reason, kitties don't want to immerse themselves in water daily...)

And think of all the germies that are washed down the drain when we shower daily, and when we wash our hands multiple times daily. Ooooooh -- running water is a lovely thing to have!

There are so many little things we have that preserve our health, things we don't even notice. Fruits and veggies for nutrition, instead of living on potatoes or cornbread. A D.O. or chiropractor who can straighten a back to alleviate pain. Aspirin to counteract inflammation after an injury. Glasses and hearing aids that keep us connected to the rest of the world when age begins to rob us of sight and sound. Enzymes and probiotics (in capsule form) to help counteract the effects of all the over-processing of the food we eat.

It used to be that 60-yr-olds were old. It's not that way so much anymore. I think a lot of it has to do with these little benefits that we take for granted.

Easy Raspberry Vinaigrette

I don't have raspberry vinegar, a basic ingredient to most raspberry vinaigrette dressings. But I have raspberry jam and blackberry jam.

Take a spoonful of jam, an equal amount of apple cider vinegar, maybe with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add a pinch of salt. If you wish to add other spices, hunky-dory. But the jam, vinegar, and salt will do quite nicely. Stir (or shake) it well.

Use this dressing on a spinach salad, with some onion slices, and if you're lucky you can toss in a few raspberries, and yum yum yum....

The Tongue

Today's [three-year series] epistle is from James 3:
We all stumble in many things.
If anyone does not stumble in word,
he is a perfect man,
able also to bridle the whole body.
Then James goes on to talk about how animals can be tamed, but the tongue cannot. And how it is wrong for a mouth to spew forth cursing when it has been used to bless God. And how the evil tongue can defile the whole body.

Usually this passage is used to tell us how important it is to control our speech, to watch our language and choice of words, to not fly off the handle and say words that are unable to be taken back.

But today I'm wondering if maybe it has more to do with doctrine than it does profanity or angry outbursts.

Is the person who doesn't "stumble in word" the person who controls what he says or the person who confesses true doctrine?

... with regard to Classical Education

Our Bible verse for the week has been from Psalm 111:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever!

It was chosen because we are currently meditating on the commandments and their meanings, and talking about the purpose of the Law and how the sanctified life is wrought by God.

I noticed today the context of the verse. The whole psalm talks about God's covenant, God's promises, God's righteousness, God's gifts. The wisdom and understanding in this verse is to know Him, to be united to Him, to trust in Him to provide what we cannot do and to make us into what He wants us to be.

Some who promote classical education use this verse and others like it to promote academic wisdom and scholarly understanding. It makes me mad! We can certainly value academics and education and the achievements of the world without demeaning God's wisdom in Christ and the "knowledge" of faith & trust. Not only that, when I see these kinds of misapplications of God's word, I wonder what else the classical-ed adherents might be misstating.

Torture

So I am, once again, helping my 14-yr-old wash and RINSE her long, thick, curly hair and detangle it. And she asks,

"Why didn't they use this as one of the ways to torture people during WWII?"





I think she may have a job someday -- running Gitmo according to Congress's pleasure.

Great Quote

On our way home from APT today, we were listening to Belling. The topic was politics and how we tend to lose objectivity and rationality when it comes to politics; we believe what we believe, we hear what we want to hear, and the facts don't matter much.

As he discussed this "faith" he was trying to explain that we need some logic mixed in with faith. One example was the creation of the world. Some people believe that God created the world in six days. Others believe that the Big Bang started it all. But (as Mark asked), "What banged?" Something had to be there to explode, and logic requires an answer. Mark said that he's a creationist and he believes that God created the world in a week as the Bible describes. He said this is logical for a Christian to believe because ...

Why would God lie to us about how the world began? After all, the Bible is His word, and if the world began via a Big Bang and evolution, then why wouldn't have God said that in the Bible???

Betrayal

In the ongoing saga of how King David is set up to look like Christ, but not quite ...

In today's story from 1 Samuel 23, David hears about a city of Judah that's in trouble from the Philistines. God tells him to go save the city. David's men are afraid, but God assures them that the enemy will be delivered into their hands. David goes and saves the city.

Saul hears about David's location and goes to capture him. The men of the city are afraid of King Saul. They will hand over David to Saul. How come I never realized before that not only are these David's countrymen, but they had just been rescued by him? And yet, they hand him over to be killed?


What punishment so strange is suffered yonder?
The Shepherd dies for sheep who love to wander.
The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him
who would not know Him.

Caramel Bars (aka "The Best and Most Evil Dessert")

I made a half-batch of Glenda's caramel bars on Saturday afternoon. With self-control, we made them last until after church on Sunday. We made a slightly-tweaked full batch on Sunday to take to the pig roast on Monday. The bars were as popular there as here. Some people were disappointed to find an empty pan when they went back for seconds (or was it thirds? or fourths?).

The top and bottom crust is flour, oats, brown sugar, and butter. (Sounds caramelly already, doesn't it?) That is filled with chocolate chips and caramel. Glenda's recipe calls for 1 cup of chocolate chips. I thought the bars were delicious but could be improved by a bit less chocolate. So on my second try of the recipe, I reduced the chocolate to 3/4 cups, added 1/3 cup chopped pecans, and added a couple of tablespoons of Skor butter toffee chips leftover from a recipe way back when. Mmmmm.

(By the way, for those of you who, like me, don't usually buy caramels, the 42 caramels called for in the recipe equates to about 14 ounces. I had homemade caramel in the fridge and had to do the math to figure out how much of the caramel to weigh out in my kitchen scale. The amount for the recipe is about half a batch from the Better Homes and Garden recipe book.)

Today's Laugh

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a "great" writer.

When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft writing error messages.

Today's Laugh

George was trying to reassert himself as head of the family, king in his home, a strong man. He came home and slammed the door open. His told his wife Trudy that he was the man of the house and his word was it! "I want you to make my supper, a special meal that my mother always made. I expect you to have the newspaper ready for me. Then you better get my shower ready with just the right water temperature. And guess who will have my clothes ready and comb my hair when I get out of the shower?" Trudy quickly answered, "The funeral director."

Definition of Unschooling

Unschooling. Child-led learning.

Letting the kids do "whatever they feel like"???

When most people hear about unschooling, they imagine kids who are indulging every lazy fantasy. They imagine loads of tv, video games, comic books. Couch potatoes in both body and mind. Because, after all, that's what they'd do if they had oodles of free time to do "whatever they wanted."

Is it possible for kids to thrive academically when unschooling? Common sense (especially from those who have been raised in conventional schools) says "no." But many of us have seen that children do thrive and learn and excel in unschooling. Why is that?

"Unschooling" is how most of us learn most things. We have a need, we find a way to gather information or gain skills, and off we go. We learn to walk without formal lessons. We learn to speak our native language without grammar lessons or vocabulary flashcards. We learn to ride the bike with help from Grandpa or Mom or training wheels, some of us learning in 20 minutes and others of us learning over the space of 2 months. We learn to cook. We learn to swim. Even though we have academic classes for drivers' ed, learning to drive is a hands-on activity; the classroom part is there to teach about braking distance or seat-belt use or penalties for DUI's.

Much geometry is learned through quilting or woodworking. Baking requires the use of fractions and measurement. Even video games [gulp!] can be educational: Age of Empires teaches players about various kingdoms throughout history. Some formal academics (at the right time) can be very helpful for those who have been unschooling: in a short time, all that divergent material can be summarized and presented in an orderly fashion.

Formal academics, textbooks, workbooks, and lessons is the way most of us experienced schooling. It has its strengths and it has its drawbacks. But it is by no means the only way to learn.

Why do we assume that reading, writing, math, history, and science cannot be learned in an unschooly way, as are talking and driving and gardening? Is it because we assume that no child would be interested in learning to read or do math or discover how societies functioned in previous centuries? Do we not recognize that people are created to learn and to think? It is sad to find people who can't conceive of a student who would learn for the sheer joy of learning.

Today's Laugh

If we weren't supposed to hunt animals, then why did they make them out of meat?

1 Samuel 22:23

King Saul wanted to eliminate David, the one anointed by the Lord to be the next king. David was in hiding. He even tried hiding with the enemies, where Goliath was from. He found a safe place outside the country for his parents to live. David is living in forests and caves. Saul slaughters many priests and laymen because one of the priests assisted David (unaware that there was any trouble betwixt Saul and David). One priest escapes and comes to David. And David says to him,

Stay with me. Do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you shall be safe.

It sounds like David is promising Abiathar the priest a safe place to live. Like as if David will defend him and protect him. But what position is David in to protect anybody? It seems he can't even protect himself! The man who is #1 on the king's hit-list, the man who has been driven from his home, the man who is in hiding in his own land and feigning madness in neighboring lands -- this is the man who promises to protect Abiathar?? If I were Abiathar, David wouldn't look like a good bet.

But there is one thing about David: he has the Lord's promise. David may not be able to protect himself or his followers. But the Lord has promised that he will be king. So against all evidence to the contrary, to be in David's band is to be in the place of safety.

David believed that. That's why he could promise the priest, "With me you shall be safe," even though it sure as heck didn't look safe.

Would that I believed God's promises to me with the same certainty that David believed God's promises to him, even when it appears God is botching things up.

Fine Bread

I seldom let bread rise only once before shaping it. It's not discipline; it's disorganization. The bread is rising. I have things to do. I punch it down and plan to deal with it later. Forty-five minutes later, I punch it down, planning to deal with it later. Forty minutes later, I see the bread getting bigger and bigger, and don't want to deal with shaping it into loaves right then, so I punch it down.

And so it goes.

Eventually the bread dough is shaped into loaves, placed into bread pans, rises that one last time and is baked.

Having made a very late start on my bread-baking last week, and the freezer being bereft of frozen loaves, I was in a hurry to get that bread baked and ready for supper. It rose once. I shaped it and baked it. And it turned out crumbly.

Big ol' fat crumbs. Messy cutting board. Harder to spread the peanut butter over the bumpy surface. What's up with that?

After a couple of days, I realized. Repeated risings make for a finer (that is, smaller, tinier, smoother) crumb. My dawdling on the bread, punching and repunching and repunching, actually creates a nicer loaf than allowing the dough to rise only once.

This week, that knowledge provided me the kick-in-the-tusch to do the bread right, with all those repeated punch-downs. (I wonder how long my new resolve will stick with me?)

Seeing Jesus in the David Stories

Right now we are reading David stories from 1 Samuel. Pastor has been pointing out how David is set up look like Christ ... but not quite.

In the story when Saul gets so ticked that he throws a spear at David, he misses. But later, a spear would pierce Jesus' side.

Jonathan sounded out his dad about whether Saul really hated David enough to kill him. When he went out to the field to deliver the coded message to David, David was hiding behind a rock. Our safety is found when we hide behind the Rock of our salvation.

David took five loaves of the showbread from the tabernacle to give to his men. Jesus, the Bread of Life, took five loaves of bread to feed the 5000.

When David was on the run, those who were discontented, who were in debt, who were in distress, came to him. Centuries later, the outcasts came to Jesus.

Around here

Last week Maggie had the blood test done to verify whether she has VCFS. Results came back today. Now we can mail the application to participate in research out in California.

A kid may be able to stay up late talking to friends via the computer and still be able to arise in the morning to make it to chapel on time. But he may need to nap during the afternoon when chores and school lessons are supposed to be done. Bedtime must be set earlier.

Pulled out the old bean plants that are no longer producing; the second planting is slowing down; the third planting is flowering. The cucumbers are failing. The tomatoes are still doing nicely. I harvested some very nice romaine lettuce today for our BLTs. Turnips are almost ready; they will only make one supper's worth.

We had our first Greek class today, tutoring Leah. I think she and Maggie will probably do well working on the language together.

The newsletter from our old church came today. The man who's been preaching most frequently has agreed to take on a little midweek responsibility too. They are joining a dartball league, have organized a Car, Tractor, & Cycle Day, and are gearing up for the annual turkey dinner. A neighboring pastor is going to help them implement another stewardship program. The Sacrament is celebrated twice a month there now instead of weekly.

Andrew and I wiped the virus-laden downstairs computer and reloaded programs. It's time to install the program for German study, but day after day, I don't get around to it. I keep putting off the job until I read the instructions. Maybe we should just wade in and give it a go, trial-and-error.

A friend at church is getting ready to defend her dissertation and asked me to proofread her work on Job. I think it will require a week's vacation from my involvement in the kids' schoolwork, but it will be a treat to read what Nancy has written.

I hate shopping so much, and I have been trying to be so diligent about the kids' schoolwork (in other words, not running off to the store), that the grocery list keeps getting longer and longer, and that makes the icky job of restocking that much more intimidating.

Saturdays are going to have to be jealousy guarded. It's the one day to sleep in and kick back and relax (or catch up on chores!) and it's going to take work to make sure we don't fill up our Saturdays with cool things to do that leave us unrested to face the coming week.

I miss my computer time, but I'm enjoying the things I'm reading with the kids.

Awesome Pork Chops

I was googling a recipe for pork chops that used plenty of basil, and I found this one that is brown sugar and basil, with a little salt and chili powder and oil mixed in. Weird combo, but when rubbed into the pork chops, it was highly agreeable to our tastebuds! The pan drippings were fabulous drizzled over the rice. We're thinking this rub/glaze could be used very nicely on chicken too.

Helicopter Parents

When Philip went off to college, I first heard about "helicopter parents" who hover and make decisions for their kids and don't allow them to make their own mistakes & learn from them.

I think maybe it starts early. Do we let a kid bump his head on the underneath side of the table as he's learning to walk? Do we fret when the budding bike-rider scrapes up her knee, or do we matter-of-factly wash away the blood and send her on her way? Do we teach children from their earliest days that any bump, bruise, cut, splash of water in the face, is something for which they need comfort and soothing?

Of course, we don't want to be callous to sorrow and pain. But look at how we've been training the children: dumbing-down playgrounds, the widespread use of helmets and knee-pads, and the fear among parents of tree-climbing and mosquito-stings. No wonder we end up with a society where the adults think they have a right to a life without pain, where lawsuits allow outrageous sums for "pain and suffering," and where somebody else should be paying for my health insurance and my new & more-gas-efficient car and my house that was destroyed by the river after I built in a flood plain.

If we're afraid to let a toddler fall-down-&-go-boom, then it makes sense that we're afraid to let them make their own mistakes 15 or 20 or 30 years later when the stakes are even higher.

First Day of School

After chapel this morning and an hour of doing schoolwork in the narthex at church, we headed to the library. That's when we learned that only one computer at the library has the German program we wanted to use. Well, if we have to use it one-person-at-a-time, we might as well use the program at home ... at least until we get so far that the library has lessons beyond what we have.

Apparently there was no spyware on the downstairs computer. Andrew and I have had to wipe the computer, reinstall everything, and get up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall. I think we did something wrong and will have to start over. Until that's fixed, the computer German lessons are on hold.

Gary and I went out to dinner this evening. Thanks to our parents for the anniversary gifts to provide this treat!

We need to readjust the daily schedule now that the library's computers aren't going to cater to my time-needs.

It's a long bike-ride to church when you haven't exercised in several months.

Maggie and I saw the doctor today. Her back was straightened for maintenance to fight against the scoliosis. I was straightened to fix that out-of-place bone from earlier this month. The doctor showed me what to do to pop it back into place, but no matter how much I try to do it at home, I can't adjust it myself. I gotta work on that some more.

Too Many Cucumbers

After enjoying plenty of cucumber salads and other uses for abundant cukes, we were still being overrun there for a while. We caught up by cutting thin slices of cucumber and using them (instead of pita chips) to scoop up hummus for lunch. Ooooh! Yummy combo!

Storing Tomatoes

You're not supposed to store tomatoes in the refrigerator. They're supposed to sit on the counter. If they ripen and you put them in the fridge to keep from over-ripening, the texture and taste changes.

So when you get up on an AUGUST MORNING and it's all of 45° outside, what does that do to the tomatoes???

Schedule

We've never before "started school." This year, for various reasons, I think we're going to need to do that. Tomorrow is the start of the school-year for our congregation's academy, as well as the start of school for several homeschooling families in the congregation.

I am totally lost as to how to make a schedule work. There is more to fit into a day than is fit-innable. Schedules have always failed in the past because we (well, okay, I) over-committed the time. There must be time in the days and weeks for housecleaning, laundry, rest, mowing, shopping, visiting with friends, being with Gary in the evening, and phone calls to Katie, Mom, & Paul. If we don't allow time for those things, the schedule isn't sustainable.

And yet, when I look at the schedule and take into account the realities of everyday life, we're left with only four hours for schoolwork per day, scattered throughout the day. And it's just not enough for our situation of two kids -- one of whom is going to need adult interaction for wrestling with ideas and college-prep work, and the other of whom needs a lot more teaching-from-mom than self-teaching. I've been puzzling through this for several days, gathering curriculum ideas, and trying to make a schedule, and it's just not working out.

I have no idea how to plow into this tomorrow. It looks like a recipe for disaster, and I don't need disaster right now. (I've got plenty of that going on in non-school areas.) Besides, I just have this deep-seated aversion to making Real Life take a backseat to bookwork. But I have to find some way to fit in some bookwork. Don't I? I think?

Today's Laugh

After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the board following the close of the service.

The first man to arrive and greet the minister was a total stranger. "You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board members," explained the minister.

"I know," said the man, "but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, then I'd like to meet him..."

Who Does the Housework?

As we've been looking toward the approaching school year and considering curricula and schedules, I'm overwhelmed with all there is to do. I keep coming back to something Jane said during her session at the Wisdom and Eloquence conference:
By the time the kids are teenagers, the mom shouldn't be doing housework anymore.

I think this is true.

I am SO bad at it.

I feel guilty asking them to do housework unless I am actively, at that very moment, doing housework too. But there's all sorts of housework and cooking I do when they're reading or chatting on the computer with friends. I also remember with guilt that I did almost no housework growing up; my mom did everything, and my brother and I sabotaged my parents' plans to get us to do chores.

I need Jane in my head, several times a day, poking and prodding me into requiring the kids to do the dishes and the sweeping and the mopping, and much more. I might (???) even allow them to intrude upon my laundry room ... but that's really going out on a limb.

Today's Laugh

With the help of a fertility specialist, a 65-year-old woman has a baby. All her relatives come to visit and meet the newest member of their family.

When they ask to see the baby, the 65-year-old mother says, "Not yet."

Finally they say, "When can we see the baby?"

And the mother says, "When the baby cries."

They all ask, "Why do we have to wait until the baby cries?"

The new mother says, "Because I forgot where I put it."

Canning or Freezing

So far I've canned a dozen quarts of beans. I'm wondering whether I should can more.

One of the jars in my last batch didn't seal. The kids and I ate the beans for lunch yesterday. Canned beans just are not as good as frozen. And frozen are not as good as fresh. I knew that already, but yesterday my tastebuds gave me a vivid reminder. It seems such a waste to bring in those lovely beans and not enjoy them in the fullness of their blow-ya-away deliciousness. Canning seems to overcook them and make them too mushy.

The prospect of our nation's future makes me want to can so that I will have shelf-stable food where preservation does not depend upon electricity to operate my freezer. But I'd much prefer to eat the beans that have been frozen than the beans that have been canned. So basically, I'm gambling premium taste against confidence in my access to electricity.

I hate gambling.

Coyotes on Leave

When we first moved in, two different neighbors warned us about the coyotes and that our outdoor cats would be in danger. We were not terribly concerned. Rosie and Athena survived the first summer here without being gobbled up or even bitten or clawed.

This summer, we have not heard the coyotes. No howling. No yipping. Just occasional barks from neighborhood dogs. But no coyotes.

Gary thinks Athena chased them off. Not in a confrontational sort of way: "This is now my territory and it's time for you varmints to vacate!" But she is hunting. The prey is going into Athena's tummy. There isn't as much left. Why should the coyotes hang around here if Athena ate their supper? Plenty of gophers available half a mile away.

Awesome kitty!! Here's hoping for long life and good health for the huntress.

Wow -- she gets rid of a pack of coyotes.... Wow.

Today's Laugh

An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He was fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear 100%.

He went back in a month to the doctor. The doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."

To which the gentleman said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times already!"

Where Are We Headed Anyway?

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us. (LSB pg 311)


I've been trying to cope with three huge stressors in the last few months. Then there are lesser stresses such as
financial problems from three pay-cuts since the beginning of 2008,
the national political & economic scene,
and problems which have forced me to pretty much hush on email lists where I long kept in contact with many friends.


Add to that mix
Dad's death,
kids' moves,
back problems,
garden work,
rethinking and planning for the new year of homeschooling,
Pastor's absence for half the summer,
and still adjusting to the new hymnal.


We may not know where we're going. We may not know much of anything. But He promised to stay with us, and His love and grace support us. The Gospel is what gives us faith to go out with good courage.

I think I need more of the Gospel.

Suffering versus Punishing

Yesterday's Day by Day included these sentences by Luther:
At the same time suffer evil and injustice and yet punish evil and injustice. At the same time do not resist evil and yet do resist it. For in doing the one you look upon yourself and your own interests, and in doing the other you look upon your neighbor and his interests.



Wow. That should help clear up some things I've been trying to make sense of. I keep wondering how forgiveness fits with standing up against wrong-doing. If we wish to defend and protect our neighbor, we must resist evil. But we forgive those who sin against us.

(If only this "right-hand kingdom" and "left-hand kingdom" stuff were as easy to make sense of in real life as it is when you're discussing theology in a classroom.)

Today's Laugh

A noted psychiatrist was a guest at a National Organization for Women gathering, and his hostess broached the subject in which the doctor was most at ease. "Would you mind telling me, Doctor," she asked, "how you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?"

"Nothing is easier," he replied. "You ask him a simple question which everyone should answer with no trouble. If he hesitates, that puts you on the track."

"What sort of question?"

"Well, you might ask him, 'Captain Cook made three trips around the world and died during one of them. Which one?'"

The woman thought a moment, then said with a nervous laugh, "You wouldn't happen to have another example, would you? I must confess I don't know much about history."

In summer ...

... you never know whether it's hot flashes or whether the day is just really warming up and you're just now beginning to notice. In winter it's a no-brainer.

Cute Alia Pictures

From August 7

Katie lost her pictures from the move. We had an error on our camera setting, so most of the pictures are blurry. Here are some of the best.

Today's Laugh

A married couple was celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. At the party everybody wanted to know how they managed to stay married so long in this day and age.

The husband responded, "When we were first married we came to an agreement. I would make all the major decisions and my wife would make all the minor decisions. And in 60 years of marriage we have never needed to make a major decision."

Washing Herbs

Today's discovery -- It is much easier to wash sand and mud off the fresh cilantro and fresh basil when the leaves are still attached to the stems. And drying the leaves is way way easier to do when you've got a stem and attached leaves instead of of individual leaves!

I wish I'd known this yesterday. Or last month. At least I know now.

Happy

My heart for joy is springing
and can no more be sad;
'tis full of mirth and singing,
sees naught but sunshine glad.
The Sun that cheers my spirit
is Jesus Christ, my King;
The heaven I shall inherit
makes me rejoice and sing.

Moving Day

This is Katie's birthday this year:


Their home in Fort Wayne:

The moving truck:


Andrew and Paul loading the mattress:


Helpers galore! Thank you so much to the Rhein crew (which also included a Grobien and a Harrison) and to the Casey crew. I can't imagine how much longer it would have taken (and how much achier and sorer we would've been) without your help.
In light of the helpers we had, I was amused by a post recently by Pr Weedon about breaking out into song. I had "Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me" stuck in my head. Then I noticed Sarah was singing it too. And then it spread. Funny to be walking in and out of the apartment to the parking lot, and meeting different segments of the song in various spots, but if we'd been gathered all in one location, we were all on the same words at the same time, like a choir. Of course, we didn't just sing Gerhardt. There was a copious amount of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in there too.

Almost done. Nothing to carry. Just the last few pieces to finagle into their places.


Not much of a chance to celebrate their wedding anniversary, in amongst all the moving boxes. So Nathan bought Katie flowers. Aren't they pretty?!!


Some snacks for Nathan to eat in the truck.

(Notice the empty lawn chairs in the background? They weren't empty for most of the day. The 70ish neighbor fellow watched us as we moved the kids in a couple of years ago. And he sat on his patio and watched us load up the truck again for moving out. He reminded me of Dad.)

We want calories! We want calories! We want calories!

Neti Problem?

Grossness warning --
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You have been warned ...


With ragweed season upon us, it's taking forever for me to use the neti pot because my head is stuffy, and the saline leaks through slowly instead of flowing through my sinus cavity. Sometimes it leaks out my tear ducts. Rachel talked about that once and I about barfed.

Last night I noticed pink eye. (I slept with garlic taped to my eyelids, and the pink eye has improved dramatically.) I am wondering if having some of the water from the neti pot exit via the tear ducts is giving me the pink eye. Yuck yuck yuck!

Today's Laugh

During the Super Bowl, there was another football game of note between the big animals and the small animals. The big animals were crushing small animals and, at half-time, the coach made a passionate speech to rally the little animals.

At the start of the second half the big animals had the ball. In the first play, the elephant got stopped for no gain. For the second play, the rhino was stopped for no gain. On third down, the hippo was thrown for a 5-yard loss.

The defense huddled around the coach and he asked excitedly, "Who stopped the elephant?"

"I did," said the centipede.

"Who stopped the rhino?"

"Uh, that was me too," said the centipede.

"And how about the hippo? Who hit him for a 5-yard loss?"

"Well, that was me as well," said the centipede.

"So where were you during the first half?" demanded the coach.

"Well," said the centipede, "I was having my ankles taped."

Is It Supposed to Take This Long?

At 4:00 I went out to pick beans. Brought 'em in. Gary and I snapped and washed. Put 'em in jars and canned 5 quarts. It took over FIVE HOURS!

Now, to be fair, while they were bubbling away in the pressure canner, I made some freezer pickles. And we watched some Big Bang Theory while working on the beans. But still -- five hours?

Am I doing something wrong? I know these are nice, organic beans. Well, almost organic. Half of them did get one sprinkle of Sevin Dust back when they were tiny plants. They will taste much better than store-bought canned beans, and probably better even than frozen beans. But that's still a long time to work for only five quarts of beans.

Or maybe this is not an inordinate amount of time, and I just don't know what to expect from gardens and canning.