I'm pretty impressed with Tim

This morning (Saturday, mind you!) he gets up at 5:30 a.m., reads his Bible, has breakfast, and wakes me up just after 6:00 to take him to the armory for an O-flight.

He's growing up to be a wonderfully responsible young man.

To share with Raphael

Good stuff for talking about Jesus to a Jehovah's Witness, with thanks to kevinquick.com

John 20:28,29-Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Acts 20:28-Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

Col 2:9-For in Christ ALL the fullness of the Deity [or, Godhead] lives in bodily form

1 Ti 3:15-16-God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body...

Titus 2:13-while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Heb 1:3-The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Heb 1:4-So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

Gen 1:26-27-Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness..." And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him.

Is 44:24-Thus says the Lord [Jehovah], your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the Lord [Jehovah], am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone..."

John 1:3-All things came into being by Him [the Word], and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. [If Jesus was created, then he created himself]

Eph 3:9-...God, who created all things...

Col 1:15-16-And He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born [cp. Ps 89:27, Gen 41:51-52, Jer 31:9] of all creation. For [Gr. because] by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created by Him and for Him.

Micah 5:2-"Bethlehem...out of you will come...ruler over Israel, whose goings out are from of old, from days of eternity."

Heb 7:3-[Melchizedek]...having neither beginning of days...like the Son of God

Rev 5:11-14-And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, [be] blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Matt 4:10-Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord [Jehovah] your God, and serve Him only.'" [Quote from Deut 6:13]

Matt 14:33-Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

Matt 28:9-Suddenly Jesus met them [the women]. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

Matt 28:16-17-Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him...

John 9:38-Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. [He recognized Jesus as the Son of Man-vs. 35]

Heb 1:6-And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."

Rev 5:8-And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.

Rev 14:7-He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water."

Jesus is worshiped many times in the New Testament; the worshipers are never rebuked. An angel is worshiped twice in the New Testament [Rev 19:10, 22:8-9]; the worshiper is rebuked both times. Peter is worshiped once [Acts 10:25]; the worshiper is rebuked.

John 5:18-This is why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 10:28-33-"...no one shall snatch them out of My hand...no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God."

Is 9:6-And he [Jesus] will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Rev 21:6-7-"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End...I will be his God"

John 2:19,21-Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

Acts 2:24-"God raised him from the dead"

John 5:18-For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

John 8:28-"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM [Gr. ego eimi-cp. Ex 3:14; LXX-no "he" in Gr.]"

Ex 3:14-God said to Moses, "I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

John 8:58-59-"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I AM! [Gr. no "he"-cp. Ex 3:14; LXX]" At this, they picked up stones to stone him...

Acts 20:28-Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

Phil 2:6-Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God...

Col 2:9-For in Christ ALL the fullness of the Deity [or, Godhead] lives in bodily form

Titus 2:13-while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

2 Pet 1:1-To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours...

Jesus Christ:

aa. He is from everlasting (Mic 5:2).

ab. He was in the beginning (John 1:1).

ac. He is before all things (Col 1:17).

ad. He had glory with the Father before the world was (John 17:5).

ae. He existed in the form of God (Phil 2:6).

af. He was God (John 1:1).

ag. He is the Firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15).

ah. Through Him are all things (Heb 1:2).

ai. All things were made by Him (Col 1:16).

aj. God attributes Jehovah's creative works to Him (Heb 1:8,10).

ak. All things were created by Him and for Him (Col 1:16).

al. He made man in His own image (Gen 1:26,27).

ba. The Father sent Him (John 6:57).

bb. He sought not His own will, but that of His Father who sent Him (John 6:38).

bc. The way was prepared for Jehovah, then Christ came (Matt 3:3).

bd. He was Immanuel-God With Us (Matt 1:23).

be. All the angels of God worship Him (Heb 1:6).

bf. The magi worshiped Him (Matt 2:11).

bg. He was the Son of God (John 10:36).

bh. He who has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:7-9).

bi. The Father was greater than He (John 14:28).

bj. He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:19).

bk. He did nothing of Himself (John 8:28).

bl. His Father gave Him the words which He spoke (John 12:49).

bm. He knew not the day nor the hour of the end (Matt 24:36).

bn. A cured blind man worshiped Him (John 9:38).

bo. He would raise up His body (John 2:19,21).

bp. No one has greater love than Him (John 15:13).

bq. He was one with the Father (John 10:28-33).

br. The Jews believed that He made Himself equal with God (John 5:18).

bs. He forgives sins against God (Luke 5:24).

bt. He gave men power to be born of God (John 1:12,13).

bu. Those in the boat worshiped Him (Matt 14:33).

bv. His 11 disciples worshiped Him (Matt 28:16,17).

bw. The Father's name has been given to Him (John 17:11,12).

bx. He is heir of all things (Heb 1:2).

ca. God raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:24).

cb. He ascended to His God (John 20:17).

cc. He appeared in the presence of God (Heb 9:24).

cd. He sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

ce. God highly exalted Him (Phil 2:9).

cf. God glorified Him (Acts 3:13).

cg. He was made better than the angels (Heb 1:4).

ch. God made Him Lord and Christ (John 2:36).

ci. All men should honor Him as they do the Father (John 5:22,23).

cj. He is the First and the Last, as is Jehovah (Is 44:6, Rev 1:17,18).

ck. In Him dwells all the fulness of the Deity in bodily form (Col 2:9).

cl. He is the exact representation of God's nature (Heb 1:3).

cm. He is above all (John 3:31).

cn. He sustains all things (Col 1:17, Heb 1:3).

co. He is eternal Father (Is 9:6).

cp. He is Mighty God (Is 9:6).

cq. All things that are the Father's are His (John 16:15).

cr. All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Him (Matt 28:18).

cs. The Father has given Him power over all flesh (John 17:2).

ct. He is mediator between God and men (1 Ti 2:5,6).

cu. He is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18).

cv. He is Lord of lords (Rev 17:14).

cw. "Whoever calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved" applies to Him (Rom 10:9, 11-13).

cx. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8).

a. Jesus is the creator of all things.

b. Jesus is the sustainer of all things.

c. Jesus is the Savior.

d. Jesus is the giver of things of God.

e. Jesus has authority to forgive sins.

f. Jesus is the judge of all.

g. Jesus is all-seeing.

h. Jesus is all-knowing.

i. Jesus is omnipresent.

j. Jesus was eternally preexistent.

k. Jesus never changes.

l. It is proper to serve Jesus.

m. It is proper to pray to Jesus.

n. It is proper to give glory to Jesus.

o. It is proper to worship Jesus.

p. Jesus is Lord.

q. Jesus is sovereign with His Father.

r. Jesus is the Son of God.

s. Jesus is God, as is His Father.

t. Jesus is Jehovah, as is His Father.

Blech!

Feminist garbage on Moody today!

Shakespeare

Well, I had Becky's Shakespeare class all figured out. I had carefully and logically figured out which plays to read and in what order to read them. Now, I'm looking at it and wondering what I was thinking when I did so.

So far, she's just been reading some introductory stuff about William Shakespeare and his theatre, but today we're supposed to start into a specific play. I had Romeo and Juliet scheduled first, and A Midsummer Night's Dream last. I'm thinking I may switch them, but I can't remember why I scheduled it that way.

It would be just like me to get far enough into it that we can't really turn back, and then realize, "Oh! That's why I was going to do it that way. I wish I'd stuck with it!"

Jeans

They're a bit snug, but I'm wearing a pair of jeans that a month ago I couldn't even come close to buttoning!

Hopefully, in another month or two, they'll be as baggy as all the jeans I wore last winter are now.

Rafael

For close to a year, I've received occasional visits from Raphael, a Jehovah's Witness who comes to our neighborhood. Sometimes he's been with an older man, several times with his wife, and at least one other time with the young man who came today, Eric.

We've done a lot of dancing around the areas we disagree on, but today we were more direct. I know I haven't done the research and put the time into studying in order to give an answer that I should have, considering the eternal importance of what's involved. I'm going to try to do better.

I haven't seen him in a while. I thought maybe he'd given up on me... What's interesting is that this morning I asked God to give me an opportunity to share the gospel with someone today...

Large public university

We have two nearby schools that would give the kids a chance to see what a large public university is like, Kent State and Akron. Considering what a liberal place Kent State is, I doubt I'd actually want one of our kids to go there, so I'm leaning toward visiting Akron.

Both are nearby, both are big and in an urban environment, both are less than 10K a year for tuition, and close enough that room/board wouldn't need to be an issue.

I know other homeschoolers who've gone to Akron, and I think they're probably the more homeschool-friendly of the two. Besides, Kent State is very liberal and has welcomed and defended at least one jihadist on the faculty, so we'll probably visit there.

Malone University

I've also been looking at Malone. Again, like all the schools we want to give early visits to, it's nice and close. It's in Canton; and unfortunately, Mapquest suggests it's in a very built up area.

However, it's a Christian school, so definitely worth looking into. Doug thought it might be only a business, Bible, and education school, but they have a major in computer science and several in the natural sciences.

It's not a very small school, at almost 2500 undergrads, and the tuition + room/board is over 25K a year.

They have three kinds of visits: group visits, personalized visits, and overnight visits. I like the sound of their group visit days, but unfortunately, they are on weekdays and so would require Tim missing a day of school. They have one each month in October, November, and January - April. I think we'll probably do it... maybe in November?

Church tonight

Boy, am I looking forward to church tonight!

I'm grateful to God for bringing us to a church home that feels like home, and where the people feel like family.

First day!

Well, we survived the first day of school. Becky's done with all her work (with only a small amount of grumbling) and Tim's almost finished with physics (phynished with fisics?)

His class at CVCC seemed to go well. I'm so impressed with that program I'm about to bust!

Somewhat challenging schedule today

Dropped Tim off at around 8:35 a.m. Becky is planning on getting started with her schedule at 10 a.m. We let her choose her start time this year. I usually do a lot of the first day stuff with them to introduce new books and methods.

BUT, I need to leave hear by 10:15 at the latest to get gas and pick Tim up at 10:45. Believe me, I'd get grief if I'm late!

So through the late morning and early afternoon hours, I need to take my walk, work with the kids on school, iron Tim's CAP uniform, and hopefully get some of my actual normal work for the day done.

Then from 3:20 until almost 5 p.m. I'll be with Becky at horseback riding lessons. Once I get home, I'll need to find something for everyone to eat. (It's probably good that Doug isn't home this evening until later so I don't have to have a formal dinner ready!)

Take Tim to CAP around 6 p.m., and then try to be on time to church at 7 p.m.

A lot to answer for...

Ted Kennedy's passing is a very sobering and sad thing. Not because I will lament his absence, but because of the lack of any sense that he trusted in Christ for salvation. He has a lot to answer for!

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Becky's school this year

Becky's in 10th grade. This year, we are trying HOPE for the first time. She's taking two full credit courses there, and five half credit courses.

The full credit courses are Chemistry, using the Apologia text, and Geometry, using Teaching Textbooks. Both of these are the same courses, using the same materials, she would have taken at home. The half credit courses are music, current events, church history, logic, and speech.

Since only speech would count as a language arts credit, I'll do a half credit at home, too... some composition and an introduction to Shakespeare. I've decided that we'll watch movies of two Shakespeare books I read to the kids a couple of years ago (Julius Caesar and Macbeth.) I'll also read aloud with her one tragedy and one comedy (Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream) and I'll have her read Romeo and Juliet. I'll shoot for her writing two essays, reading several of his sonnets, and hopefully writing one as well.

She'll also take Spanish at home, using Switched on Schoolhouse. For P.E., she'll take horseriding, and read a good portion of Total Health, a Christian high school level health text.

The courses she'll do at home will start tomorrow. The courses we'll do in the co-op don't start until September 11. She's very happy about that!

Tim's school this year

Tim's in 11th grade.

Half of his credits (3.5) are being taken in something as close to a public school as I ever expected my kids to get before college. The Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (a much improved version of the old Vocational/Technical classes of my day) offers a two year course called the Computer Networking Academy. Tim will attend there from 7:45 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Monday through Friday. In addition to computer networking, they learn a lot about computer hardware and systems, which at this point is his real interest.

In addition to that, he'll be taking Physics with Dad, the rocket scientist, as his primary teacher, using the Apologia text. He's also taking Precalculus using the videos from Chalkdust. I watched one of them and didn't like it as well as Videotext. I hope Tim will like it and be able to learn from it. If there are any problems understanding it, Doug will have to be the go-to person.

All I'm really teaching Tim this year is a course in 19th Century British Literature, as well as directing some reading in a health text for part of P.E. He'll be continuing in Karate for the rest of it.

I hope he can learn a lot from the CNA course without it being too much work, since Physics and Precalculus sound to me like a pretty tough row to hoe!

Better late than never...

I mostly finished yesterday and over the weekend, but the very last details for school are finally complete. I don't think I've ever procrastinated this badly before. (About school, I mean. Unfortunately, I procrastinate pretty badly about a lot of things.)

School starts tomorrow.

Christmas

I'd really like us to spend Christmas with my family this year, but four airfares to Albuquerque isn't something to take too lightly. I found great fares if the kids and I could spend almost three weeks there, but Tim would have to miss four days of his class. THAT'S THE BENEFIT OF HOMESCHOOLING, which we've given up as the kids take more outside classes.

I think I'll talk to Tim's teacher and to Doug about it. The three of us could travel for only $776. Doug would cost more, since he'd probably only come for a week.

Mt. Union College

Info from their website

Close by, though I'm not familiar with the area
Located in Alliance, a town of about 25,000.
Seems to have decent computer and biology departments
Has a nice looking nature center
Has Saturday morning visits
Expensive... just under 30K per year room and board
The website says they have 'religion life organizations' but not info on them

Hiram

Thoughts on Hiram College

Plusses:
Close -- only about 45 minutes to an hour away.
Rural -- I really like the area.
Small school -- only 1200 undergraduates
Has a Christian club
Has a good biology program with the field station
They have Saturday morning visits from Sept - May that seem short and informal.


Minuses:
Expensive -- tuition and room/board exceed 30K a year
Not sure if they have a good program for Tim's (current) interest

Notes to me

Tim is a junior... Becky's a sophomore. One of the scariest parts of homeschooling high school is being the 'guidance counselor.' I've discovered that college visits usually start in 11th grade, but I don't exactly have kids who are chomping at the bit to go visit this school or that school because it's a good school for this or that major.

Becky: I don't want to go to college. I hate school.

Tim: Ho, hum. whatever.

So, I've decided to do some college visits to local places. It (hopefully) can't hurt, and will at least give them some exposure and a base of experience with which to compare other schools. (Though for all I know, they'll just end up at home and going to community college for the first two years. It's certainly the most cost-efficient option.)

These are the ones I'm thinking of so far: Hiram, Mt. Union, Malone, Kent and/or Akron. If we decide to go further afield, Grove City and Cedarville. I need to check into what majors they have, though. Tim is definitely leaning toward something like computer systems administration, but this year hopefully go a long way toward confirming or changing that. Becky has leant toward something in the biological sciences for a long time, but I don't think that's certain any longer.

School next year

Tim will be taking a neat program next year. It's called the Computer Networking Academy and will be three hours every day (M-F) at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center. It will count for 3.5 credits, so we still need to figure out English, Math, and Science.

Becky is still up in the air, although I'd really like her to take at least 3-4 courses via the homeschool co-op.

I'm glad we only have a few more years of this left, to be brutally honest!

Why?

Why was the stone rolled away from the tomb?

Jesus showed up in the upper room where his followers were hiding, though the doors were shut and locked. The stone could have stayed in place and he would certainly not have been trapped behind it.

The stone was rolled away for the sake of his disciples, then and now, so that they could see and we could know that his body wasn't there.

The Lord is risen indeed!

Submitted!

Once again, I have finished the 'last rewrite' of Free Indeed. Hopefully this time is is the last! I've gone a little further with it than last time, anyway; I've actually submitted to a couple of agents. Here's the query letter text:

Obsessed with freedom and desperate to get away from his master’s new religion, Onesimus plots his escape from Colosse to Rome, seat of the empire. After years of living a charade, he meets the apostle Paul, a friend of his former master and emissary of the faith he once despised. A close spectator to Paul’s life and teaching during his Roman imprisonment, Onesimus’ heart is so changed that he realizes true freedom is only found in Christ, and chooses to give up his liberty and return to slavery. How will Philemon respond to a runaway slave who betrayed and stole from him, yet returns with a letter from the Apostle Paul pleading for mercy?

FREE INDEED is a completed Biblical fiction manuscript of 98,580 words. My target audience is readers of Christian fiction, especially those who enjoy works like LaHaye and Jenkins’ MARK’S STORY, Bunn and Oke’s THE CENTURION’S WIFE, and a number of recent similar novels. I am submitting to you because I appreciate your blog and would enjoy working with you, however, this is not an exclusive submission.

This is my first novel, and though I do not have any publishing credits, I submitted the early chapters to the Christian Writers Guild critique service. In their response, they stated, “You have a great story well worth developing and a strong skill that will surely lead you to publication, if you aren’t there already.”

I would be a hard worker and a tireless marketer if given the opportunity to publish. As a long-time homeschooling mom, I would reach out to contacts within that community, as well as within a number of churches to generate interest in the book.

I have pasted the first 10 pages below my signature line for your perusal. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

The two letters weren't exactly the same... For example, only one of the agents requests that pages of the novel be pasted into the query email. And, of course, the reason I picked each agent was different. Now, I wait.

I have decided...

After struggling for several days with unanswered prayers, worries for my kids, and feelings of failure, I heard Doug playing his saxophone. He was playing I Have Decided to Follow Jesus, one of my favorite hymns. It was a good reminder. The decision about how to respond to difficult circumstances has already been made. I have decided to follow Jesus, and to follow him means to do what he did. When he was faced with circumstances and a future from which he shrank in utter detestation and unwillingness to suffer, he said, "Nevertheless." That one word makes all the difference. "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."

So, when I find my mind whirling with fear and frustration, unwilling to tolerate any realities behind my imagined forthcoming disasters, I too must say, "Nevertheless."

Nevertheless, I will trust your promises and choose your will. Not my will, but thine be done.

Writers' Retreat

Our Writers' Circle at the Twinsburg Library had their annual Writers' Retreat today. Cari Dubiel, who runs the group, did a great job of setting everything up.

It's good for motivation... now I just need to get cracking!

Emergency Preparedness

I don't like to think of myself as a paranoiac, but with the currently shaky economy combined with the 'just in time' nature of retail systems, I've decided to stock up on some basics. It's the sort of thing I hope I never need, but given a choice between having it and not needing it, or needing it and not having it... well, 'nuff said!'

I did some shopping today, and got most of what I think I should have on hand. I'll go again in a few days and try and finish it off. It will be a good feeling if for no other reason than I can finally throw away the pages I printed about it several years ago when I first started thinking about it, and which have been living at the bottom of my 'to do' pile ever since.

Is progress always good, always bad, or somewhere in between?

I ask this because I'm reading a grammar text which states the following:

"This flood of language has had its effect on writing and thinking styles within the culture at large. Ideas today no longer need be expressed in full sentences. Rather, the ideas of today seem to come out in a continuous flow of ongoing language. Sooner or later the idea seems to be “out there,” and then the word-stream stops. But this style, based on flow and quantity, is not
the language style of yesterday. In the past, the carefully structured sentence was the medium for encapsulating and precision-stating our thoughts. Today, precision and structure seem to be less important than the ability to “wax eloquent” at the drop of a hat." [Quote by Robert Einnarsson, found in http://www.classiclanguagearts.net/resources/TESS.pdf]

A few paragraphs later he states that he wants his textbook "to stand against the current culture of language as quantity and flow..." My initial reaction to this introduction of the book was very positive, but then I found myself wondering if this is akin to publishing a guide to excellence in classical carriage manufacturing in the early 1900s.

As a homeschooler, do I want my students to be more facile with last century's methods of communication than with the next century's methods? In terms of writing, I suppose I'd like the best of both worlds. I want my students to be able to write an elegant essay, deliver thoughtful, well-reasoned oratory, and understand their peers' texty lingo.

Unfortunately, taking a hard look at things, I'm not sure I've succeeded in any of those goals.

Sundays

I love the idea of taking Sunday as a Sabbath, spending extra time in Bible study and prayer, and just hanging out with the family. Unfortunately, I usually spend Sunday trying to get ready for the week ahead.

I know that if I were completely honest with myself, it's because I "sabbath" when I'm not supposed to! If I were more efficient and especially more disciplined the rest of the week, I would have enough time to get it all done.

This has been an issue for me for a long time, but just recently I'm starting to get serious about changing things. I just don't really know how.

CVCC

So now I'm starting to work on next year's school, and I've come across a two year program at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center that might be really neat for Tim. It's called the Computer Networking Academy, and consists of spending half days at something like a Vo-Tech program. Fortunately, unlike the Vo-Tech programs of yesteryear, it's not a replacement for college, but can lead into it, as well as give a head start on certain classes. It could lead to direct employment after high school, which may be a bonus in paying for college, too!

Tim built his first computer just after his 13th birthday, and just recently rebuilt it with components he got from us for Christmas. He seems to enjoy the hardware side of computing much more than the software side, so I would expect him to enjoy the program. It may also be a good indication of whether or not this is indeed the field he would like to pursue in college.

I haven't been giving time to the 'thoughts on marriage' idea

I was reminded of it recently by a column by Dennis Prager (http://townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2008/12/23/when_a_woman_isnt_in_the_mood_part_i)

I think I'm going to distribute it to all the young couples in our church. I'll wait for Part 2 to come out, and perhaps distribute both. From a New Testament perspective, though, I'll add a couple of thoughts to Mr. Prager's article. (He's Jewish.)

The primary point of his column is that men take s*x (word altered to keep from being flagged as p*rn or found on searches by p*rv*rts) as "I love you" and the denial of same as "I don't love you," and there is nothing more powerful for good or bad in marriage.

I'll add two thoughts to it, though: First, a reminder that the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we have not the right to deprive our spouses, and secondly, that God never allows us to predicate obedience to His ways on someone else's. In other words, nothing my husband does eradicates my obligation to obey God's revealed will regarding my behavior as a wife.

Blame?

1. The schools and everyone related to them, which for decades have been more interested in trying out new fads, lining their own pockets, making themselves look good, and keeping life easier for teachers than in education. As a result, we have a populace of sheep with no ability or inclination to think for themselves.

2. The media, immoral and thoroughly liberal, shamelessly manipulate the sheep.

3. The GOP, who had the White House and Congress, and went whole hog into big spending big government.

4. Black racism.

School has begun

This year, we're teaching a 9th and a 10th grader, since we have decided to skip Becky's 8th grade. Fortunately, that is not an irrevocable decision should she not have the maturity to handle high school level work. There's no doubt about the intellectual capacity.

Both are taking courses online, which gives a different twist. Their science classes are online. That's not a change for me, as Doug has been their science teacher for years. It may add a little, as I am the one overseeing their online classes. Becky's taking Earth Space Science, and Tim is taking Anatomy & Physiology. Both are outside of the normal progression of 'Biology-Chemistry-Physics' because their science has gotten ahead of their math.

They are also both taking writing classes with Home2Teach, although that doesn't begin until October. Becky, in addition, is taking a Microsoft Office Applications course. Doug is teaching Tim a robotics class for a computer class, and he's teaching Becky's math, too.

That leaves with, theoretically, with less, so I'm hoping to find time to write this year. However, the American History course we're using (Notgrass Exploring America) involves reading a lot of historical source documents and speeches, and I believe they will get much more out of the course if we read the more important things together and discuss it.

So far, the online courses have taken a lot of my time to help each of them get comfortable with the format and the software, etc. etc. etc. I don't expect that to continue past next week or so.

I also want to spend more time developing some of my thoughts about marriage with the goal of encouraging and helping the young couples in our church.

Of course, if we end up buying this 120 year old house we're looking at, I don't know if I'll have time for anything anymore!

More on marriage

As I've spent the last few days pondering what makes a good marriage, I remembered a principle I came upon many years ago...

Most people tend to come into marriage with the expectation that their spouse will meet certain needs. I think this is a big mistake. As a believer, I am confident that the Lord is able to meet all my needs. Compare two marriages: The first is composed of two people seeking to take from each other that which they think will fill their gaps; the second consists of a man and woman, each of whom are filled and overflowing from their relationship with God, and who are continually pouring love into each other from the overflow of their primary source -- their walks with God.

It is not hard to see which of the two had a stronger foundation.

Respect vs. Love

It's wonderful how well God's commands provide for our deepest needs! I was talking with a good friend last night about healthy marriages, and was reminded of the fact that while men are admonished to love their wives, we women are told to respect our husbands.

Women, do you know that your husband's need for your respect and admiration is a deep and real as your need to be loved? Our criticism hurts them as much as their indifference would hurt us. Be your husband's biggest fan. Appreciate his efforts without finding fault with the results.

More to come, I hope....

Trip Highlights

Friday, 7/18
We drove to Waltham in one day… about 11 hours on the road, going to church after driving past our old house, and arriving shortly before the picnic began. Enjoyed getting to talk and visit with folks. Becky found to her distress that her memories of five years ago were somewhat inaccurate. In addition to the expected, “Everything looks so small,” Becky found the dense, urban nature of the area a very unpleasant shock.

Saturday, 7/19
Spent the day visiting favorite places and old friends, primarily in Belmont, Waltham, and Cambridge. We walked several of our favorite old trails, including Waltham Woods, next to the Paine Estate where Doug and I had our wedding reception. We also drove by our old house, and spent a little time talking to the folks who bought it – the kids were disappointed not to be invited in to see it – and a lot of time talking with our former next-door neighbors.

Sunday 7/20
Of course, we went to church and it was amazing how little some things change. The building has been markedly improved, though. They’ve been doing renovations, and have done a TERRIFIC job. Alex has been leading the occasional ‘faith field trip’ this summer, and so a large group drove to Newburyport after lunch in the fellowship hall. We went to a church started by George Whitefield, and learned about his part in the Awakening of the 1740s. We were allowed to go up into the open steeple of the church and see the bell, which was actually made by Paul Revere. VERY COOL.

Monday, 7/21
Thus begins the camping… we drove to Truro, Mass., out near the end of Cape Cod and camped for three nights. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the greatest, so we didn’t end up spending a whole lot of time on the beach. We got there early enough in the afternoon that Doug and the kids went to the beach closest to our campground for a while that afternoon. I think the weather was okay. The next day was pretty cloudy, and a little cool, so we spent much of the time going on ranger hikes. One I enjoyed a lot was across a tidal flat with nets and buckets at low tide. I found a live, closed razor clam, which even the ranger thought was pretty cool. Rained a little that night.

Tuesday, 7/22
Another hike looking at plants in the highland dune areas before all three of us went to another Truro beach for a while. The water was too cold for any of us, but some folks went in. The waves were pretty high, so I snickered at some impressive wipeouts. We also visited some interesting historical sites. Rained a little that night.

Wednesday, 7/23
Another ranger hike – this time examining tracks and scat in a wooded area near Provincetown. It was very interesting to see the different things they measure – not just the size of the track, but also the length and width of the distance between tracks. Since we were at Provincetown, we spent much of the afternoon at the beach there. Poured that night, with lightning and thunder. Only one strike close enough to make us all jump.

Thursday, 7/24
Clear and sunny and beautiful the next morning, so we went to the beach for a while giving the tent, canopy, etc. some time to dry off. I thought it was another one of our typical Cape Cod (or most others, too) camping trips, where the weather’s fairly rotten until the day we leave. However, on the way out, the weather turned seriously nasty, and though it wasn’t fun to drive through, we were glad not to be in tent. As we drove through Boston on our way to our long-time favorite campground in New Hampshire, we heard on the radio that the storm was widespread and had hit New Hampshire pretty badly. Reports were coming in about a possible tornado in Epsom. I was driving, so Doug pulled out the atlas… “Oh, great,” he said. “That’s only about 20 miles from our campground.” We expected to see some wind damage as we drove in, but there didn’t seem to be any. There were puddles everywhere and it was still raining, so we sat in the car for an hour hoping it would stop. Eventually, it slowed down a lot, so we went ahead and set up the tent. Eventually, the rain stopped completely, so even though everything was wet, it was our first night with no rain overnight. Doug managed to get a roaring fire going, even though all the kindling was wet. (Cape Cod doesn’t allow campfires, which definitely takes some of the fun out of camping.)

Friday, 7/25
A fun day and warm and sunny! One of the things we loved about this campground was the blueberries all around the pond, so we took our old favorite walk, and found lots of ripe blueberries along the way. We hung out at the swimming area of the pond for the afternoon, and had another campfire that night. Another rainless night!

Saturday, 7/26
I, at least, was looking forward to a hotel after five nights in the tent. We drove to Bar Harbor, Maine. Bar Harbor is on Mount Desert Island, most of which is taken up by Acadia National Park. We did laundry and went out for pizza that night.

Sunday, 7/27
The weather was beautiful again. We took a morning puffin/whale watch trip, which didn’t turn out to be as fun as hoped. We went to an island with puffins, but they’re fairly small birds, so although some flew near us, we couldn’t see them well without binoculars. We only saw one small whale, but I would have just enjoyed the boat ride except that it was cold, and Becky got motion sickness. So, after a while, I just sat with her and made up a long, fairly plotless story about our cats to keep her mind of it. It worked pretty well, fortunately. In the afternoon, we took a long drive exploring Acadia National Park, which I think all of us enjoyed. Acadia was not actually a ‘nostalgia’ part of the trip, as we’d not spent time there together, but Doug had visited and wanted to return.

Monday, 7/28
Back to camping… We drove past Unity College, which Becky found on the internet looking for colleges that are small, rural, and strong in Biology. Unfortunately, the biological sciences being what they are these days, it’s also very big on environmentalism and presumably, evolution. But it wasn’t far out of our way, and since she starts high school this year, anything to strengthen her motivation is a benefit. We drove on back roads all the way through rural Maine and into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It took a while, but was very scenic and interesting. We stayed at a campground in Crawford’s Notch. It was on the same river as another campground we had stayed at before, but when we got there we decided it wasn’t the same place. No rain.

Tuesday, 7/29
Nostalgia day… We took the kids on the same hike where 18 years, 1 month and 13 days earlier Doug had proposed to me. It’s a trail that goes along a very rocky, fairly steep streambed up to a very pretty waterfall. Partway up, Doug and I had had lunch on a huge boulder in the streambed, and he had popped the question. We actually found the same rock, and Becky took our picture sitting on it. The stream was much higher though. It took some fancy rock jumping to get across the water to the boulder. Afterward, we took off our shoes and socks and did some wading, just like 18 years ago. The water was just as cold though. The rest of the day, we drove the Kancamagus highway and stopped at all the scenic overlooks. The weather was perfect. No rain.

Wednesday, 7/30
Short, but somewhat steep hike in the morning… up to Ripley Falls. It was only about half a mile each way. We should have realized it was steep when the information said it takes 20 minutes! But it was a nice hike, and Becky had fun climbing all over the rocks at the bottom of the falls, and partway up, also. We had lunch at a nice stream by the road, then tackled our major hike for the day. We took the Davis Path trail up to the top of Mt. Crawford. It was about 2.5 miles each way, with a vertical climb of more than 2000 feet. We didn’t figure out the vertical climb until afterward, but we would probably have done it anyway. It was similar to a hike we did at Ouray, Colorado two years ago. The difference is that this one had a long level beginning, so once it started up, it was relentless. I was breathing so hard in places that Becky kept trying to urge me to go back. Tim wanted to stay behind me – to make sure I made it, I guess – but the pressure of him behind me was making me go too fast, so I finally ordered him to pass me. Doug was in better shape than I, but had to take enough rests that I didn’t end up too far behind them. He tells me he stopped for his own rest, not to wait for me.

It was beautiful on top, but then of course, comes the trip downward. After a while, I could tell they were waiting for me and asked them not to. I won’t say much about the trip downward… the word misery should suffice. Doug waited about 30 minutes after they got down and was just thinking about coming to look for me when I came limping across the bridge. He’d very thoughtfully moved the car near the foot of the bridge, so I didn’t have to walk across the parking lot. He’d had a lot of pain going down, too, so he knew what kind of shape I’d be in.
I don’t remember much of that evening. Fortunately, it was the night we were eating out instead of cooking at the campsite, since neither of us were up to much cooking. After dinner, we made a campfire and, as we’d been doing most evenings, read outloud around the campfire and in the tent. We’ve been reading David’s story in the Bible, and a book called The Giver, and example of what is called ‘dystopian’ literature, like Orwell’s 1984. At about 3:30 that morning, the rain came, and pretty much stayed for the rest of our time in the White Mountains.

Thursday, 7/31
Sore, sore, sore. I was limping around like a 90 year-old lady! My plan had been to stay at the camp by myself while Doug and the kids went on a hike, but the rain prevented that, so we had an unexpectedly nice few hours at a Laundromat. It was reasonably clean, dry, warm, and had comfortable chairs, outlets to plug in various electronics to charge, and even WiFi! We had an uplanned meal out – lunch at a really nice and reasonably priced place in Jackson, then found a waterfall we could park near, and Doug and the kids got out of the car – it was one of the ‘offs’ of the off and on rain all day – and walked around it for a bit. I still wasn’t doing much walking. After that we drove around for a bit, then went back to the campsite early, since I wanted to get started with some of the packing up. While I did that, Doug and kids went to the river beside our campground. With the almost constant, sometimes heavy, rainfall, the river was up considerably from our first day, when we’d gone walking and wading there. Or so they said. I was still avoiding walking.

Friday, 8/1
Up early, packed the rest, and out of our campsite by 8:45 a.m. It stopped raining sometime during the night, but everything was soaked. We put the tent, canopy and chairs and laundry in the car top carrier, and just hope it won’t get mildewy in two days of driving. Of course, it was a beautiful day as we drove away. We took back roads across the top of NH to Rt. 89 and drove south through Vermont to Route 90, which takes us most of the way home. We spent the night in a Best Western in Syracuse. After 4 nights camping, we were eager for beds and a bathroom. Doug and the kids watched Discovery Channel shows about sharks while I checked email and started typing this.

Saturday 8/2
Last day. Up and out early, eager to get home and reassure our cats that they aren’t forgotten and abaondoned.

Surprise!

I successfully pulled off a surprise birthday party for my husband on Saturday!

I didn't want to attempt the delicate dance of timing it such that everyone arrived while he was away, however. Instead, I just didn't tell him about it. He did know that his mom was coming over, but she usually does for a birthday, so that wouldn't give it away.

He commented several times on how hard I was working that day... he wondered about the size of the pots I was using, but I wouldn't let him look and told him I was making something special for his birthday dinner. (It was really just spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread, but enough to feed over 20.)

Eventually, one of Doug's brothers showed up with his wife and kids. At that point, I think he figured that maybe I'd invited them for dinner without telling him. He did make a comment about that explaining the large pots on the stove. The next to arrive was our pastor and his family, and that is when the light bulb turned on... I heard him exclaiming, "My wife is a sneak."

Happy 45th birthday, Sweetie. I love you.

Almost there!

Over a year ago, I started the process of editing and revising Free Indeed. I only have the last few chapters to go, though they will be the toughest as the ending needs revision, rather than just editing. Unlike a lot of writers, I enjoy doing it, but I'm still excited to be almost done.

My goal is to have it done in time to enter Christian Writers Guild's 'Operation First Novel' writing contest. The deadline isn't until October or so, so I'm pretty confident I'll be done by then.

Short Story

Another story I wrote; this one is titled NEMESIS

Terry looked up as Marsha crumpled her burger wrapper and expertly tossed it in the trashcan two feet away. “Would you like me to check again?” Marsha asked. “It’s been about fifteen minutes.”

Glancing at her watch, Terry nodded. Principal Hawthorne and some teachers were counting votes in Room 126, not far from Room 123 where she waited. She knew her nemesis was also waiting in a room nearby, accompanied by his best friend, Tom. The campaign had been fun, but tonight she wished she had never thought of running for senior class president.

Steven: she had been competing against him for as long as she could remember, and usually she lost. Her mind drifted back to one of the earliest times she recalled competing directly against him. She remembered how painstakingly she had worked on her picture for the third-grade art contest. In the end, she had to admit the judges were right. She had never been able to best him in drawing ability. Fortunately, she had more musical talent. A slight smile curved her lips. She was often the featured soloist in school shows; Steven was just another face in the choir.

Marsha returned. “It’s good. You’re still ahead, but he has caught up a little.”

“What are the numbers?” Terry spoke a little more slowly than usual, trying to keep the tension from showing in her voice.

“You have 175 votes; Steven has 138. There are only about three stacks left to count.”

Not trusting her voice, Terry nodded without speaking. She glanced down at her largely uneaten dinner. Although she usually liked fast food, most of her hamburger and half her french fries remained. Terry picked up a fry and nibbled as memories of the most painful defeat of all rose in her mind. Her eighth-grade teacher had announced that the school was hosting a spelling bee. She could still remember the excitement she had felt as Mrs. Wood told them that the winner would get his name and picture in the paper, and would advance to the tri-county bee, with the possibility of competing at the state level and beyond. Terry had always been a good speller and was determined to win. For weeks, she had pored over the word lists in the booklet her teacher had distributed.

On the day of the bee, she had felt ready. Her confidence increased as the bee progressed. She was able to spell every word with ease, even words given to the other students. Most were eliminated in the early rounds. In the end, only four remained, including Steven and Terry. Terry was able to spell each of the words her competitors received, but the pronouncer gave her a word that seemed unusually difficult. “D, A, N, S, E, U, Z., danseuse.” Her heart had broken when the buzzer signified her error. Sorrow turned to resentment as she was able to spell each word for the remainder of the contest, including ‘eglantine,’ the word with which her nemesis had sealed his victory. Terry stood up and paced around the edges of the room, avoiding tables and chairs haphazardly left by the departing students earlier that day. She glanced at her best friend, and Marsha rose without speaking and left the room.

They must be almost done with the counting. A sick feeling tightened her stomach. Her nemesis would beat her again. She was certain he would win – Steven the golden boy. Suddenly, she winced at the conviction that her heart and her attitude toward Steven were completely wrong. “I’m sorry, God,” she whispered. “Your will be done. Please help me have a better attitude.”

A few moments later, Marsha rushed into the room, her smile lighting her face. Terry sank into a chair as her friend announced, “You’re still ahead, 216 votes to 189, and they were almost done counting the last stack. You’re going to win!” Marsha threw her arms around Terry and hugged her tightly. Besides Steven, Marsha was probably the only person who knew how much this meant to Terry.

“Do you want me to go back and wait until they’re done counting?”

“No,” answered Terry. “Let’s just wait until they come tell us.”

They did not have to wait long. After several minutes, her twin brother walked in the room, a rueful smile on his face. “Good campaign, sis. You won fair and square. Congratulations.”

Terry stood up and hugged her brother. “Thanks, Steven.”

Jaw-dropping Astonishment

Several weeks ago, I decided to stop lurking and get involved with the FaithWriter's website... for me, that meant registering for the site and the forums, and entering the weekly Writer's Challenge.

Every Thursday, a prompt is given, and participants have one week to respond with a 150-750 word story, article, or poem. Winners are chosen in four categories: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and masters. Beginner was the obvious choice for me, having never been published or won any contests. (Actually, it was only the second time I've ever entered a contest like that.)

The prompt was to illustrate, without quoting, the saying, "Behind every cloud is a silver lining." Having had a storm deposit about a quarter-inch of ice the day before writing it, my story dealt with God using a traffic jam and a near-accident on a highway to reach a stubborn teen's heart. Perhaps my writing was influenced by the immediacy of the weather conditions, as well as living with two teenagers, because all the comments I received were very positive.

A few days after the close of the contest, the winners were posted, and (here comes the 'jaw-dropping astonishment) my story took first place in the beginner category! It gave me a big smile on an otherwise unpleasant day. (To me, it's a sign of God's goodness that the details of why the day were unpleasant are completely gone -- I just remember the incongruity of smiling that day!)

Gee... may I should post the story here! It's called 'Icy Day.'

For the third time, Sherry checked to make sure Arianna was wearing her seatbelt properly before turning her attention back to the icy road. She eased up on the gas and glanced at the dashboard clock. Gripping the steering wheel with both hands, she leaned forward slightly.
“Do you think we’ll get there on time?” her daughter asked.

“I hope so, sweetheart, but I didn’t realize the roads were so icy,” Sherry said. “Are you sure you brought everything? Do you have an extra copy of the scholarship application and essay?”
“Yes, Mom.” As usual, her daughter’s tone was insolent and slightly contemptuous. “Although they wouldn’t have made me a finalist if they didn’t have my paperwork, would they?”

Sherry clenched her teeth to keep an angry denunciation of Arianna’s ungrateful attitude from escaping. Unexpected brake lights glared in front of her, and she pressed the brake pedal hard – too hard, as the sedan immediately began to skid toward a concrete barrier on their left.

“Mom?”

Sherry ignored her daughter to concentrate on her driving, taking her foot off the brake and steering into the skid before gently pressing the brake pedal again. Her fingers were claws gripping the steering wheel as she tried desperately to stop the car before hitting the bumper of the black SUV now stopped in front of them.

“Hold on, honey!” Sherry tried to speak calmly as she braced herself for the sickening crunch of metal on metal. It never came. The SUV rolled forward a few feet, and the sedan slid to a stop a few inches behind it. Sherry lowered her head to the steering wheel and silently gave thanks for their safety.

“Arianna, are you alright?” Sherry could tell that her voice was shaking to match her hands.
Wide eyed, Arianna nodded. When she spoke, her voice was also shaky. “I can see now why you always bug Dad about tailgating. If you hadn’t left so much room, we’d have hit him.” They both looked at the imposing black SUV in front of them.

Sherry took a deep breath and released it in a long sigh. “I guess God’s watching out for us today.” Arianna did not answer at first, and Sherry glanced over, expecting to see the usual angry reaction to anything religious.

After several minutes, Arianna spoke and Sherry leaned forward to make out the quiet words. “Yeah, Mom. I guess you’re right.” They drove in silence for about twenty minutes, but the traffic was bad and they were going slowly. Finally, Arianna spoke again. “We’re going to be late, aren’t we?”

“Yes, honey. I’m so sorry. I know you had your heart set on this scholarship.”

Sherry glanced at her daughter, and was amazed to see a genuine smile on her face. “It’s alright, Mom. I’m sure they know about the traffic and the icy roads. Remember? God’s taking care of us today.” Tears pricked Sherry’s eyes when her daughter added, “Thanks for bringing me, Mom.

I am officially...

a veteran homeschooler! Of course, if doing it for ten years didn't qualify me as one, I'm not sure anything would. On Saturday, March 8th, we made the decision to pull Becky out of school and bring her back home. By Monday morning, I had her course of study for the next 12 weeks laid out, all the materials foun either at home or at libraries, and my notification form filled out and ready for the school district.

Although I'm very glad to have her home, it will affect my writing. I'd been trying to write at least a little every day, as the advice goes, but I doubt it will be possible. As an example, she's interrupted me about half a dozen times just in the time it's taken to type this entry...

patience, patience, patience!

A little respect and admiration...

As a woman, I think I sometimes lose sight of how powerfully I can affect my husband. I've been told many times how much his wife's respect means to a man, but it's easy to forget... until I get a reminder.

One morning last week, at 6:30 a.m., I was sitting in my warm bed drinking coffee when my husband came in from shoveling a foot of snow off the driveway so he could go to work. I wasn't particularly eloquent, but I told him how much I admire and appreciate his work ethic, or something like that.

I probably wouldn't even remember having said anything if he hadn't mentioned later that those simple words had bouyed him up all day. I want to try and remember to tell him how much I appreciate him more often.

And, if my admiration can be such a lift for him, what a blow it must be when, in frustration over silly, meaningless issues I express the opposite.

Being Prepared for High School

How should the parent of a middle school aged student prepare the student for high school work? What should the parent of an 8th grader make certain is covered?

Much of what students must learn is content-driven, but some is more skills-based. Even in content driven areas, possessing certain skills makes mastering the content easier.

Let me try to put this in practical, though generic terms. Overall, since these courses won't go on their high school transcript, worry less about making sure this, that, and the other curricula is covered; instead, make sure the student is ready for high school level courses. In English, and this may be the most important area, make sure the student can write and write well, and has a grasp of standard five paragraph essay structure. I would make that a priority. Second, work with your student on strengthening his grasp of literary analysis. (Many high school courses teach this, but knowing it ahead of time will give your student a head start.)

In Math, make absolutely certain the basic concepts are rock-solid, and if ready, it's a good time to begin Algebra. If not ready, do whatever it takes to get ready.

Other skills I'd consider important to have at least a good start on before entering high school are logic, and understanding how to do good science. In addition to the scientific method, this would include how to carefully, systematically perform an experiment and write an excellent lab report.

For those of us who've homeschooled all the way, high school is the last lap. What a simultaneously terrifying and exciting thought!

Family Matters

Two snow days this week... As a homeschooling mom, snow days have never been necessary, so I've never given them. This year, it's a little hairy! Day One of little sister not having school, Tim handled it pretty well. Yesterday, however, he was a little grumpy. It doesn't help that these last couple of weeks have been unusually heavy for him, and his schoolwork is taking longer each day than he thinks is fair already.

Next year, assuming we stick with the plan of bringing Becky back home and skipping a grade, I'll have a 9th grader and a 10th grader. I've been focussing on planning the last month or so and this is what I have so far:

Tim - 10th grade
Language Arts: We'll definitely do the literature component of the American history curriculum, adding in literary guides like Progeny Press and Sparknotes for 4-6 of the books. We'll continue using Vocabulary for Achievement, and Rod & Staff for grammar work. I'll decide about the writing component after I see how the online writing course he's taking goes this spring.

Math: This one's easy. We've loved Videotext for Algebra, so we'll continue it for Geometry.

Science: Physics, but where? Science is one of his strong points, so I think a good choice for him to take outside of the home. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to locate any co-ops around here that teach Physics, so we may end up trying it at Cuyahoga Community College.

History: Notgrass's Exploring American History, with Teaching Company videos added in. Thanks to Sharon in MD for schedule dovetailing the two!

Computer Science: Another uncertainty... possibly an online Visual Basic class at The Potter's School.

Spanish: We'll continue with Rosetta Stone, but somewhere along the way I need to add the written workbooks in with the computer time.

PE: He'll continue in Karate, and I'll find some health books to read and call it a half credit in PE.

That comes to 6.5 credits, which is pretty standard. It's also very similar to what he's doing this year.

Becky - 9th grade
Language Arts: ? I may have her do that entirely as an online course. This is her strength, so she probably doesn't need the level of intensity in English that Tim has had this year. I'd like her to be challenged with a strong course. Of course, she's doing the same history as Tim, so that's a literature component right there...

Math: Her private school math this year was a joke, and I will not consider her to have mastered Algebra 1 at the end of it. I'm planning on having her use Videotext. Since she's had some Algebra at school and is so darn smart, I think I'll try to get her through Alg. 1 & 2 in one year. That way she won't be so behind, having wasted 7th grade at VCA and then skipping 8th.

Science: Also a big question mark. She never wants to do the 'expected' in science. She could do Physical Science. It would be the logical science after what she's done this year, I think. She could also repeat Biology, since in 6th grade she took the course and comprehended it, but didn't take tests or do all the experiments. She could also take some kind of advanced Biology like Marine Biology or Human Anatomy. Of course, she says she wants to take Geology, but I haven't managed to find a source for that yet. It's not a standard high school course, I guess.

History: Also Notgrass American, which of course means there will be times when they both want the book at the same time and I'll get to play referee. Maybe some day they'll grow out of the bickering?

Foreign Language: She says she wants to learn Chinese or Swahili. Rosetta Stone has both, but I can get the Chinese, at least, online through Potter's School or similar programs.

That's only five credits. I'd like to find an art class for her, and she'll also probably be involved in Karate next year. Perhaps we could find some computer applications course for her, instead of computer programming? Also, she hasn't had as much Logic or Ohio History as Tim has. Not having her home this year has really caused problems academically!

So, I've made progress in planning for next year, but I'm far from done.

Writer's Retreat

The Writer's Circle at the Twinsburg Library hosted an all-day retreat on Saturday, Feb. 16th. Cari Dubiel arranged it and did a great job. A couple of professional writers attended: one who writes mysteries and one who writes children's books.

After presentations in the morning, we took at lunch break. I found the presentation on agents particularly helpful. In the afternoon, we split into two critique groups. One went with the children's author, and critiqued a children's story one of our members had written. The other half stayed in the room to critique my 'Jairus' story. Actually, only part of it -- which was a good thing since I had to read it aloud... whew!

It's always good to get feedback. My need to get a better handle on POV was confirmed. In general, the group was encouraging. The mystery writer, Annette Dashofy, did say that she felt my writing was good enough to try for publication.

I guess I won't quit yet!

Oh, my!

I knew it had been way too long since I'd posted anything, but I just looked to see what was under today's post... I didn't realize it had been that long.

I should give the update on my first ever NaNoWriMo... I did it! I'd basically given up, and on Monday of the last week of November I had 32,000 words to go. Here's how it went:

Monday: almost 6K

Tuesday: about 7K

Wednesday: about 7K

Thursday: about 7K

Friday: a little over 5K

I was exhausted at the end of it. I told my husband, "I'm tired; my soul is empty; and I have no more words."

Identity Crisis?

I have to confess that I've always regarded agonizing over one's identity as a kind of unnecessary and narcissistic navel gazing. Now, however, the decision to have my daughter start 9th grade instead of 8th next year means that both kids will be in high school.

So, having been first a SAHM (stay at home mom) and then a homeschooling mom for the last 15 years or so, what will I be in five years? Or I could even ask (here comes the narcissistic navel gazing) who will I be in five years?

Fortunately, there is an easy answer to the second question, and it takes care of the first question, too. In five years, I will be what I was not just five years ago, but even twenty five years ago: a Christ-follower. I find that comforting because I know that the journey of motherhood has changed me in many ways, so it is clear that there's no going backwards. Going forwards is a question mark. I'd love for my writing to succeed, but I don't have to get my identity from that.

I was, I am, and I always will be... a Christ-follower. Everything else will fall into place around that.

AAARRRRGGGH!

Well, looking at the last week of November, I got the bright idea yesterday morning, that if I just average a little over 6000 words a day for the week, I could actually come out on top with 50,000! I came in just under 6000 yesterday, so now I need to average 6500 for the next four days. I've done over 3000 today and I'm TIRED. My hands are tired, by eyes are tired, my brain is tired. I really don't have time even for this short of a post, but I just needed to complain a little.

I can't forget to mention...

... on this particular day: I am thankful for Doug, and our 17 year journey which began on this date in 1990.

I always think of Doug when I read in Proverbs 20, "A faithful man who can find?" and I'm very grateful to God for finding him for me!

Thankful

Well, we got through another Thanksgiving! Actually, I really enjoy hosting our family dinner, but since cooking and domestic activities are not one of my strong points, I always approach the date with some degree of trepidation. Added to the sheer amount of work involved, and I'm always glad it's over.

We did not have a dinnertime discussion of what we're thankful for this year. If we had, after acknowledging the primacy of gratitude for the Lord and my family, I'd have said that I'm most thankful for freedom.

Perhaps that's because of the current story I'm writing, which envisions America in the future as a very statist nation with little respect for privacy or freedom. It definitely causes me to think about things.

Nano is not gonna happen this year!

O.k., I'm making dinner tomorrow for 12-15, which, taking into account the shopping, cleaning, and cooking, means I'm losing about 4 days. Last weekend we spend three days at Niagara Falls, and the weekend before that I was sick for a couple of days...

All of which means, I'm just under 18K words, and probably won't get much above 20. I guess 50,000 words in a month is not in the cards for me until I no longer have kids at home and/or I no longer host the family's Thanksgiving Dinner.

I'm still glad I'm doing it. First, it has the potential to be a great resource in terms of asking questions on the forums. I haven't done it yet, nor spent much time reading there, since I didn't discover them until November had already started and time was precious. I noticed that a lot of folks post in October, so that might be a good opportunity to get some information.

The biggest benefit, though, is getting my Jairus story out of my head and onto paper. I don't know if I'll ever do much with it. At the moment, it's short-story length, and I'm inclined to leave it that way. Like most Nano writing, it's pretty awful, but I want to use my editing time on Onesimus. I also am quite enjoying the new and totally different story I had to begin when Jairus petered out. It's unlike anything I've done before, and does have potential to be a book-length story, although perhaps not one I'm capable of writing.

Oh, well... lots of housecleaning yet to do. I've done four things on a list of about 50 for today, and I'm already tired, so this was just a break. I'll get out the whip and try to spur myself on, now.

Yesterday's Election

Okay, here's the scenario: You're standing at a voting booth, reading the ballot. Three tax issues are on it: One is a school tax. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it was pretty straightforward. It also failed. They just raises our school taxes a year or two ago.

BUT, the other two both had at the top, "Tax replacement and decrease." Doesn't that make it sound like the tax will go down? But, no.... in both cases it goes up. One of them approximately doubled the tax. Surprise, surprise... they both passed.

Argghh! No wonder Ohio is one of the most heavily taxes states in the country.

Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad

I was so pleased when my 12 year old daughter decided to do her own NaNoWriMo. I'd never have thought of doing something like that at such a young age! And she was doing it well. Three days into it, she had over 5000 words written, which put her a little ahead of the pace. She's been ahead of me a lot of the time.

The first night, we backed both of our stories onto a flash drive... but neglected this minor detail the next two days. (Can you guess where this lovely story is going?)

Morning #4: her laptop is completely dead.

There's a little history here. First, you should know that she used three years of paper route savings to buy this laptop over the summer. Second, you should know that this is the fourth time it has died like this. They keep replacing the hard drive (taking weeks in the process), but clearly something else is causing this.

So, I'm MAD at myself for not backing her story up every day, and I'm MAD that this keeps happening, and I'm MAD that something she sacrificed so much to buy turned out to be such a lemon, and I'm MAD that her story is lost, and I'm MAD that even if it's recovered, it will miss the November NaNo window. I'm also really hoping that her wonderful talent and interest in writing isn't discouraged by this setback.

sniff.

And They're Off!

It's five o'clock in the afternoon on November 1st, and I've been writing off and on all day. I got almost 900 words done during my son's karate lesson this morning. I skipped lifting weights, shortened my walk, and didn't do either the Grammar or Spanish study I normally would. (I've also ignored some pending housework, but I'll keep ignoring that, thanks!)

So, my current grand total is.... (drum roll, suspense, etc.) 2106 words written! It's fun, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep this pace up for a month.

I'm enjoying my story, though I'm having the same problem I've had with the Onesimus stories. I have an overall direction for the work, and several 'stops' on the journey in my mind, but I sometimes struggle with connecting the dots. I wonder if that's normal for writers?

Okay, I'm truly sick of typing, so I'm done now.

Two more days...

Okay, I was pretty iffy about the NaNoWriMo. It's difficult to imagine where the time to do this will come from, BUT... I was poking about the website today, and noticed in the rules that although you're not allowed to start writing until Thursday, working on a plot outline beforehand is allowed (and even encouraged!)

Trudge, trudge, trudge. As I walked my pleasant, but not too exciting circuit through our neighborhood this afternoon, I turned off my radio and started thinking through the plot of the story I'm planning to write. WAY COOL! Now I'm all kinds of excited about doing it.

I'll try to put updates of how I'm doing. I figured out one would have to write 1666 words per day to reach 50,000 in thirty days. Since there will doubtless be days I can't do it, that means I'll need to have quite a few 3K plus days... Yikes.

Language Arts

Everyone has their own strengths, and Language Arts isn't Tim's! Unfortunately, while someone who isn't good at science, or even math, can often thrive in well-chosen career paths, being able to write and speak well is important in any occupation. (Fortunately, his weakness doesn't include reading, except that he's somewhat slow.)

So it seems that this year, in an attempt to begin compensating for this weakness, we are spending about one-third of our time on it! His primary curriculum, the one that we are following exactly, is called Put That In Writing. As you might guess, it's a writing course. For some reason, although IEW is big with a lot of homeschool families, it has never appealed to me. Fortunately, I've been very pleased with PTIW. Level 1 teaches the paragraph. It takes a very systematic approach to writing; perhaps more so than would be necessary for a student who is naturally a good writer, but it's perfect for us. We began it last Spring, and in just that short time, I noticed decided improvement in his writing. So, this year, we went back to the beginning and are going through it again. I did skip through some of the early parts we'd done last year, as I'm hoping to get to Level 2 (essays) in early 2008. I'm especially grateful that the creators of PTIW have a yahoo group to which I can post questions about using the curriculum.

In addition to PTIW, we're going through the first half of Rod & Staff English 8. The current plan is to finish it next year. Don't let the '8' fool you. We're using this primarily to beef up grammar and do fun things like diagramming sentences, and it's more in depth than some high school texts in those areas. R&S is only done three days per week.

Of course, in high school, one ought to be doing some formal literature study, so he's also doing most of Lightning Literature and Composition 8. We skip a lot of the composition; although as he gets further along in PTIW, I'll start using LL8 to practice writing skills learned elsewhere. In this case, the '8' level is a bit of a problem. Since this is a weak area, I wanted to start him off more gently. I'm trying to beef it up with high school level literature guides for some of the books he has to read for Notgrass Exploring World History. Fortunately, from his perspective at least, the pace of LL8 isn't too difficult.

And just in case that isn't enough... vocabulary is important, too, right? With ACTs, PSATs, SATs and whatever other alphabet soup tests looming, he also does a separate vocabulary program each day -- Vocabulary for Achievement. I've used both this and Wordly Wise. I don't have a strong preference for either; I just managed to get these very inexpensively (used) at Follett.

He rarely spends less than two hours on Language Arts, and usually more. I feel like this both subtracts from his ability to give his best work to other subjects, and also causes him to feel/be overloaded at times. I'm hoping that we'll be able to lessen this load over time, but it seems both necessary and beneficial for him at present.

He does have a lot of strengths, by the way. In 9th grade, he's taking Chemistry and Algebra II and doing well in both. (He will do Geometry next year.) A year and a half ago, he built his own computer, buying the components with money earned from a paper route. (I just had to add all this, after talking so much about his weaknesses above!)

NaNoWriMo

What in the world is that???

It stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea behind it is to commit to write -- just write -- from November 1 - November 30. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel. Of course, it would have to be pretty rough writing; there'll be no time for agonizing over just the right word, no time for editing, and no time for revising.

I've signed up, although I'm not entirely certain I'm going to do it. If so, I'll give up my English and Spanish study (see previous post) to make time. The reason I'm thinking of attempting it is that I've been carrying a story around in my head for at least a year, but I haven't wanted to start it while still finishing and revising my first two books.

If you're interested in trying, check it out:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano

I'll try and post on my progress, although 50K words in a month -- or even anything close -- will severely limit blogging time.

Homeschooling Just One

This year, my 7th grade daughter is at a small Christian school, so it's just me and Tim, my 9th grader, at home during the days.

It's been two months, and I still feel like crying every day when I see my daughter get on a big yellow school bus; yet we made the decision to have her there for good reasons, and I still think it has the potential to be a good place for her.

I'm using the time I would have been homeschooling her to.... homeschool myself! Seriously, I've often envied the kids their education, but I've only had time to supervise, rather than learn it with them. So this year, I'm 'taking' English and Spanish. Last year, my son started in Rod & Staff English, and I realized how much I don't know! I'm sure it will be beneficial for my writing to get a more solid grasp of grammar and punctuation.

The reason I'm learning Spanish is just that when I tested the Rosetta Stone software in preparation for Tim to use it, I thought it seemed like a fun and easy way to learn a language.

Computer literate kitten?

Lesson to be learned... a laptop is a warm place in a cool house; don't leave it sitting open!

I'll bet you didn't know that a kitten sleeping on a keyboard can not only open a help file, but print it, too. I'm just glad it was only a couple of pages.

Bad timing!

It's not that I don't ever think deeply about things -- it's just that it generally happens either in the shower, or during my daily devotions! Neither are ideal times to hop on the old keyboard, unfortunately.

That's another reason my blog has been so neglected.

A third reason (the first was in yesterday's post) is that I have so little time for writing much of anything lately that I save it for working on my book.

Yikes!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here or updated my webpage. I probably jumped the gun by trying to do all this at a time when my life is too busy to keep up with it...

I'm hoping to find a little more time this year, however....

Yippee!

A couple of months ago, I sent a portion of my book to the Christian Writers' Guild critique service. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought it would give me a good idea if I should push forward with the idea of getting it published, and continuing to write.

I was quite nervous when the critique arrived in the mail... To be honest, I expected more criticism than encouragement, and wouldn't have been surprised if the overall gist was something to the effect of, "Don't waste your time!"

Instead, I was so encouraged. The best part was the statement that they suspect I am already a published author, based on the strength of what I gave them. Wow!

So, I'm very excited, but now I have to figure out what my next step should be!

Amazing

I loved the movie Amazing Grace. William Wilberforce is a wonderful image of tenacious righteousness!

Would that the whiny, wimpy politicians of today might exchange their spinelessness and self-absorption for his self-sacrificing courage...

Are you the One?

In my ABF -- Adult Bible Fellowship, basically adult Sunday school -- this morning, our teacher was talking about John the Baptist's question of Jesus, "Are you the one, or should we expect someone else?" It's an odd question, considering that John was the first to recognize the Lord, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

The discussion as to why one who knew Jesus would ask such a question focussed on the times when life and circumstances leave us doubting God's goodness or faithfulness. But my thoughts were different. It occurred to me that each time we find ourselves in a difficult situation and try to deal with it without God we are, in a sense, doubting whether Jesus is the One: the One who is all the answer to our problems we truly need.

As a woman, I'm thinking of women who think a man in their life is the answer to their problems, or closer to home, looking for rest and comfort in distractions like entertainment and food instead of finding our rest and comfort in Him. In a sense, we're asking, "Are you the One?" when we turn for the answer to our problems to anything or anyone but Christ.

Church growth

Our church is facing the blessing of being a bit crowded in our facility. This has been the case more or less in the 3.5 years since we moved here. I like the way it's been handled.

First, when we were still quite new here, a couple of church planters in the area were invited to come to our services and make appeals for people to come help plant. I was impressed at the willingness of our pastors to encourage the congregation to leave and help get new churches established.

I'm not sure how many left then, though I know of some who did. But a year or two later, the blessing (being overcrowded) was back. This time, they introduced the idea of 'venues.' That is, of holding the church service in more than one location. Another large room in the church was opened up. In it, coffee and pastries are served, a live worship band plays (more upbeat than in the sanctuary) and the sermon is piped in from the sanctuary on two large screens in the room. It was also very successful. In fact, after six months, they started doing it during two of our morning services, 10: a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (The 8:45 a.m. service, which we attend, is *not* overcrowded!)

Now, they're wanting to expand the concept of the venues, and using internet and video-streaming technology, enable venues at further distances, so we can get bigger and get smaller at the same time! For lots of reasons, I kind of like the whole idea.

More later, I hope.

On being blind

An epiphany yesterday! I read about a newly diagnosable 'disease' the medical community has come up with: face blindness. (It has a long name that begins with a 'p' but I'm better at the layman's terminology.

It's not that I never remember faces -- there are actually quite a number of people whom I recognize by sight, but it seems I require excessive exposure to someone before I can do so. And if I don't see someone in a while, I can 'lose' who they are. Example: We spent two years meeting once or twice a month with a group of about 3-4 other couples. Several months after our last meeting, we ran into one of the men in a store. I stood with my husband and talked to him for 10 minutes. (Fortunately, my husband did most of the talking!)

Just as we wound up the conversation, he said something which made me realize that I'd mistaken him for a totally different acquaintance, with somewhat of a similar hairstyle. The man I thought he was is the husband of a good friend... We've had them over for dinner, I've been in their house, we've done a number of social activities in a group with them... If it was only once, I might not think anything of it, but this sort of thing happens often to me. I was beginning to think I had some sort of mental disability. I guess I do, but now it has a name, prosopagnosia. (I went and looked it up.)

Another impact it makes: When I'm in a restaurant, and I want to summon our server for something, I find it very difficult, because I never know which of the waiter/waitresses running around is ours.

But, it's really encouraging to know I'm not the only one. The newspaper I read about it in says that 1 in 50 people have it.

Momentum

Things got so busy this past fall that I went several months without working on my book. I'm really hoping I'll have more time this winter and spring...

I worked on it last weekend, and decided that it was a good thing to have gone for so many months without looking at it, though. Having started the sequel just after finishing the first book, I'd not re-introduced some characters and situations adequately. It took reading it fresh to see that, though.

The other thing I've not had any time for is looking for a publisher. I'm hoping to find time for that too, one of these days, but if I can only do one, I'd rather just do the writing.

Mohammed

It's amazing how much of an impact one person can have in the world. In the case of the founder of Islam, I doubt that anyone has ever brought so much suffering and evil to the world...

If I believed in Dante's 'circles of hell,' I'd expect to find him at the bottom!

Democracy

A townhall article by Michael Barone got me thinking... Although the change in power to the Democrats leaves me feeling a bit queasy, and I know it leaves others feeling much worse, we're not in the streets demonstrating and Pelosi didn't have to point a gun at anyone to get that gavel. What a truly wonderful country America is!

Here's the column, BTW:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2007/01/08/storm_approaching_on_the_hill

Dumb cat!

Have you ever noticed how well those two words go together?

Here's what happened... I am blessed with a wonderful husband who wakes me up every morning with a cup of coffee. So, I usually sit partway up in bed, and take sips of coffee until my eyes can stay open.

However, this CAT we acquired a few months ago is one those who demands pets by ramming her head into peoples' hands. Visualize: semi-prone position in bed, hot cup of coffee held in hand resting on upper abdomen, cat approaches half-awake person looking for love....

AAARGH!

Goals for 2007

Like my skeptical daughter, I'm not a huge fan of New Year's resolutions. One reason is that for myself, in most areas at least, I feel like I'm already doing the best I can. A better reason has a somewhat scriptural basis. In Romans 9:16, these words referring to salvation can be applied to most 'self-improvement' plans, I think: "It does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

With that in mind, I have the following four goals for myself this year. (I also have the word 'grace' written all over the page in a manner reminiscent of falling rain, just to make sure I remember the source!)

1. Live a life of sacrifice, service, and self-denial instead of ease and self-indulgence.
2. Work more on non-academics (e.g. character, spiritual life) in our homeschool.
3. Finish Faithful unto Death, the sequel to Free Indeed.
4. Work on finding a publisher.

I'd also say that they are more or less listed in order of importance.

The Innocence of Children

In the mornings I listen to an AM radio show called Quinn and Rose. Rose is a Christian, but surprised me this morning with a comment along the lines of 'All that is best in adults is the child which still lives inside them.' She may have been reading someone else's words rather than her own at that point, and I'm sure I butchered the exact wording, but nonetheless she expressed the sentiment with no qualifications and in seeming agreement.

Biblically, the idea is absolute nonsense. It's the humanist worldview that holds that children are naturally innocent and good and are only corrupt by the evil of society, because humanism rejects the concept of original sin. The Biblical worldview, as expressed in Proverbs 22:13 is that "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him." Biblically, our adorable infants are steeped in sin, and though they may not have facility to make sinful choices yet, as soon as they are able to start making choices, the choices will be sinful and selfish.

The whole notion is nonsense even without a biblical worldview. Just by observing reality, how can anyone say that the best in us is our leftover child, especially around Christmas. Sure, kids love Christmas, and if you love your children, the joy they receive from Christmas brings you joy, too. But WHY do they love Christmas? Mostly because they're getting toys and candy and presents, etc. etc. etc. How can anyone watch a family, in which the children are primarily interested in self, and the parents sacrifice on a daily basis for the good of their children, and not see the truth? Of course, I'm referring to functional families. In fact, 'disfunctional families' are probably those headed by adults who still haven't left childhood behind.

Okay, enough. I've made my point, but boy, she should have known better.

Come out from them....

I was reading in 2nd Corinthians 6 today, and was struck by the end of the chapter. Just after the admonition not to be 'yoked together with unbelievers,' which is generally applied primarily to marriage, comes the following:

"What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?" (M note: Belial signifies the devil.) "What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God... 'Therefore, come out from them and be separate,' says the Lord."

I don't disagree with applying this to marriage, but I think it has much wider application than that. It makes me long for believers who send, or intend to send, their precious, impressionable children off to be trained, discipled, taught, and schooled by those referred to here by Paul 'unbelievers,' 'wicknedness,' 'darkness,' 'Belial,' and the 'temple of idols' to read and seriously consider this scripture in light of their children's education.

Final comment, 'temple of idols' really does seem an apt description for government schools these days.

Stuck in thorns

We had uncommonly warm weather here early last week, so one afternoon the kids and I happened to take a ramble in the woods near our home. (I actually intended it to be a walk the the lovely, paved path through the woods, but with my daughter Becky along, that was unlikely.

Thus is was that I found myself standing with Becky in front of me calling me forward, and Tim standing impatiently behind, while I had approximately half a dozen thorns attached to various parts of my clothing and anatomy. (On a side note, did you know that a thorn can pierce your fingernail and cause a little spot of blood to well up in the middle of it?)

So, this morning I read the following in Proverbs 15:19:

The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns,
but the path of the upright is a highway.

I can quite relate, especially as my daughter had offered to take a big stick and smash down all the thorns for me, but I didn't want to take the time. (After all, she'd slipped through it all quite easily, but that's another topic!)

Global Warming?

This is the 4th day in a row that's been warm enough to take my walk outside instead of on the treadmill in the basement... I've heard that some are saying that instead of global warming, we're actually headed for another ice age. I'd much prefer the warming, thank you. Bring it on!

Achoo!

Woke up sneezing and sniffling Saturday morning... I'm very grateful that it came when it did and not before!

Friday night. the kids and their cousins put on a Christmas play in our basement, complete with costumes, lighting, sets, etc. It's kept me quite busy for the last couple of months, so I'm glad I didn't get sick until afterward.

Took most of the weekend more or less off; now, it's time to finish Christmas preparations. After that, two more big projects (creating a 'bible study badge' program for the Keepers' group, and running a Valentine's Day party for our homeschool group) and then I coast for the spring!

Sunrise!

One of the (many) things I like better about living in Ohio than in Massachusetts is the sun factor. What I mean is that in spite of being approximately an 11 hour drive straight west, Ohio is in the same time zone as Boston, so we have more evening light and less morning light.

So, only in the shortest part of the year does Doug leave work after it's already dark, which is neat, but one drawback is that I see fewer sunrises. This morning I did, though and it's just beautiful.

Thanks, God.

I'm impressed!

I talked to my friend last night... She said that although she'd been floored by the diagnosis, she knows God isn't surprised at all, and she trusts that this is part of his plan for her... "He wants me to walk through this without complaining and with a smile on my face and that's what I'm going to do."

Praise God for his grace to us, and for his faithfulness which allows such a godly response.

Sad...

Found out yesterday that woman I respect and have great affection for has cancer. She had an operation to remove her thyroid, and they found cancer not only in the thyroid, but also elsewhere in her body. I know quite little about cancer (for which I should be grateful) and no more about her case than I've mentioned, but it sounds like she's got a tough road ahead.

Memo to self: God is still good; God is still sovereign; This family is still under his care.