Remembrance Day

I have a sweet nephew in the navy (he's very tall now and claims to be an adult but I think of him as little guy who I held the day he was born and as he got older was willing to accept hugs but not kisses from his auntie and was hesitant about going to a musical with me but then loved it). 

One of my church babies is joining the reserves (he insists that he's 18 but I still remember that little guy running down the hall at church and posing for pictures with Star Wars characters at the symphony and learning to read with a book about castles and knights).

I wish they were never in the military because I want to keep them safe. I'm proud of them for choosing the military to keep everyone else safe.

Wednesday Mornings

With the arrival of fall came the start of the women's study at church. There are over 100 women registered for the morning sessions, which had given me around 72 children to care for. It's a bit crowded in places, but I managed to fit everyone in.

My older boys are unsupervised this year; they have been told that if they behave properly, I will not need to find an adult to watch them. If there is trouble, they will have an adult in the room with them. We're two weeks in and they're doing okay!

The rest of the groups are running normally. The older girls (a group that suddenly includes the older 10 and 11 year old girls with the junior high -- high school girls attend the study) are on their own as always and doing well. I may need to find a little more time to spend with them as they are a slightly younger group. The other three groups have some older teens supervising them, and I spend some time with them as well. The oldest ones get trivia games; the littles get story time; and the middles get a story and then trivia. It's a lot of fun.

Next week is a fellowship week. The ladies bring food and spend the first hour or so in fellowship and brunch and the second hour with a guest speaker or in a special prayer time. My kids spend an hour working and then have game, craft, and play time. It's a lot of fun (even though it leaves me extra tired!).

I really, really love spending this time with my homeschool groups. There's always a lot of laughter and it's just fun for everyone.

Sunday School

A new year of Sunday School started last week. Things seemed to have gone well for the first two weeks; there were a couple changes to be made (some of the 4-year-olds weren't quite ready for Sunday School after all, so I moved some people around and fit in everyone on the wait list), but overall it went smoothly.

I'm teaching my children The Pilgrim's Progress this year. Someone gave me a curriculum that breaks it up nicely into sections to read to them with worksheets already prepared. Each chapter also includes vocabulary, very useful since it's in the original 17th Century English. The children have enjoyed learning about having a surly carriage and deriding people. 

It's a bit of a change. For the past several years I've written my own curriculum. Even when I reused material, I was always updating, changing, and trying to improve it. Having it all here in front of me is nice. To prepare, I just have to read it over, go over the Scripture verses, and go through the worksheet pages. There's still work, but much less of it.

Also, I love The Pilgrim's Progress and I'm delighted to be sharing it with the kids.

As You Wish

I was first introduced to the movie The Princess Bride at a World Vision 30-Hour Famine gathering. A rather large group of high schoolers from various churches would gather every year at two churches (they were side-by-side) to do the famine and have fun together. One year, around 1990, The Princess Bride was our late-night movie. I loved it from the start and have watched it many, many times since then. As such, I was pleased to stumble upon As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (aka Westley, the farm boy who became the Dread Pirate Roberts).

The book was an interesting and entertaining look into the making of the movie, starting with the day Elwes first heard he was being considered for the role of Westly. As he is the author, most of the story is his experiences, but Elwes also provides the backgrounds of many of the major (and minor) players in the making of the movie. I particularly enjoyed learning about Andre the Giant's life. There are also text boxes throughout giving the perspectives of various actors, Rob Reiner (the director) and William Goldman (the author) on different aspects of the making of the movie.

The book almost ends sadly because the movie was not marketed well and did not have great box office success. People who watched it loved it, but it was hard to get people to watch it. Then everything changed when the movie came out on video. Suddenly everyone was watching it and quoting from it, including strangers on the street, waitresses, Pope John Paul II, and President Clinton and his daughter. From box office disappointment to cult classic that is still loved today, 37 years later.

If you enjoyed The Princess Bride, I definitely recommend As You Wish as a companion to the movie. Learning about how it was made in no way detracts from the movie; in fact, I found that it adds to it as I read about the work that went into preparing for the sword fight, the challenges along the way, and the absolute fun they had making it.

Fall is Here!

Yes, okay, not technically for a couple more weeks, but I am tentatively rejoicing in the coming of fall. Tentatively because it was around 31 degrees on Sunday and that is just too hot for September (or for any season). I am not a fan of summer and heat, so I've been waiting for fall since June.

(Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy summer. There were some very nice parts: vacation, rest, reading, catching up on stuff, more rest and reading; it's just that I don't like the heat.)

There are some out there who think that if you complain about the heat in summer, you can't complain about the cold in winter. That, of course, in nonsense. It is perfectly possible to dislike -30 as much as you dislike +30.

And I know that both summer and winter are necessary parts of life. I accept that. I just don't love them (but winter is still better because it's possible to keep adding layers to stay warm, but you can remove all the layers in summer and still be hot).

Spring is nice. I like the new green everywhere and flowers blooming and no more heavy clothing. The only drawback (for me) is that spring can be muddy and messy. And short: spring always seems too short to enjoy properly.

But fall...now that 's a lovely season. It's cooler and the leaves change colour and it feels good outside. It's time for my favourite sweater-jacket (the blue one with the bluebirds) and it's getting to be soup time. It's a lovely time of year and I'm so glad it's here.

Trying New Recipes

In my quest to be more healthy, I've been trying new recipes. Happily, the internet is full of recipes that claim to be some combination of healthy, cheap, and easy. Although sometimes we have differing definitions of "easy" and anything that requires fish is not going to be cheap! At any rate, it's been fun trying new foods with various degrees of success.

The Stuffed Peppers were pretty good, but next time I'm either going to use fresh chopped tomatoes with some Italian seasoning instead of the canned ones or I'll get the canned ones that are seasoned. And rather than order peppers in my regular online grocery order, I'll go to the store and buy them so I can make sure they are big enough!

The Modern Tuna Casserole was a bust. It wasn't terrible and I didn't mind eating it, but lacked flavour. I guess I could fix it by adding more spices of some sort.

Caramelized Beef with Rice was good, but I think if I make it again, I'll cut back on some of the seasoning.

Saucy Tomato Pork Chops were good and I'd make them again, but I have two other pork chop recipes that I still want to try!

This week was a very "chicken" week because chicken breasts were on sale. I had Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad (very good); Chicken Stir-Fry (also good, although I changed up the veggies a bit); and Pineapple BBQ Baked Chicken Foil Packets (such perfectly moist chicken; it was amazing).

This week's meals were very good, but I think I'm going to take a little break from chicken next week and try some other sources of proteins! 

Favourite Insults

They story I'm currently reading has some nice insults:

"I envy the people who haven't met you."

"Somewhere, a tree is crying because it worked so hard to make that oxygen you're wasting.”

"You remind me of someone I’d like to forget."

"You’re so dense, light bends around you."

“As an outsider, what's your perspective on intelligence?"

But my favourite comes from the movie Billy Madison:

"Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

Yes, they're all a little (or more) mean, and no, I'm not likely to use them (although there are times as a teacher when the Billy Madison quote comes to mind). I still think they're funny.

Scheduling Woes

I thought, when I left my last job, I'd be done with scheduling issues. Back then it was parents who did not send in their summer and/or fall registrations on time and then were upset if I couldn't get them in on their preferred days and times. Or who set up times but then changed them. And changed them again. And again. Oh, and this one more thing came up. And then there were teachers who were definitely available on certain days until suddenly, with little or no notice, were not.

At my current job, for the most part, the scheduling is easy. Most of the parents at my current job are flexible enough and my schedule is flexible enough that we can set up meetings. They're pretty good at responding to emails and the only glitches comes when someone gets sick. It's much easier.

Sunday School has given me new scheduling issues. These ones aren't related to time but to classes. After registration day I sorted and organized and figured out how to make the classes work and to fit in all the students.

The next day, I had 3 more requests to register students. One I could accommodate; the others went on the wait list. Then this week there were two families who suddenly can't attend Sunday School. The kids are the wrong age, though, so I was only able to get one of the wait list families into the classes (and that by putting their older child in the class a year below his age group). And again I wanted to point out to parents that they should figure out if Sunday School will work for them before they register their children! On the other hand, at least they let me know rather than just not showing up.

I think that there will forever be scheduling woes to deal with; it's just a part of my life now!

When Time Stopped

 My most recent read was When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains by Ariana Neumann. 

Ariana grew up in Venezuela with a Czech father and a Venezuelan mother. She knew nothing about her father's experiences in World War II. She did not even know he and his family were Jews. He never talked about it. Only after his death did Ariana start to learn about those years. Her father left her a box of documents and her cousin sent her more (her uncle had also not talked about the war year). There were letters, government documents from Czechoslovakia and Germany, and photographs of people Ariana had never heard about. All of this led her on a journey to find out what happened; in the process, she found family she had never known.

I quite enjoyed this book. It starts with Ariana's childhood memories, especially of her father. It then becomes a mix of the story of her father's life and the story of Ariana's quest to find the truth. The book is heartbreaking at times; after all, it is the story of a Jewish family in Prague during the Second World War. It is very intense at times as well. Even knowing that Ariana's father survived the war, there were still some very tense moments where it looked like he might not.

It is the story of survival, of a man who hid right under the nose of the Nazis, working in a Berlin factory for roughly the last two years of the war. It is the story of how a carefree boy became a careful man. It is the story of secrets kept, not because they were dirty secrets but rather because they were too painful to talk about.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in World War II from the human side.

Sunday School Time Again

It isn't quite time for Sunday School to start; that will be the middle of September. It is, however, time to get ready for Sunday School. I've been looking over curriculum, ordering supplies, making up prize boxes, and sending email. 

Yesterday was the annual Sunday School Registration. Because there are a lot of children at the church and not enough room for everyone, registration day is a big deal. Registration opens online at 10:00 and there are moms sitting by their computers waiting. Within the first minute, I had 10 emails; within 7 minutes, there were 33 emails. It slowed down after around 10 minutes, with only the occasional email after that. I went through the registration forms, organized the information on my spreadsheets, and tried to figure out classes. After a quick reminder to people, there were a few more emails, and then in the early afternoon I closed registration.

We have 90 students from around 40 families registered this year. There are 7 classes of between 9 and 16 students each (depending on the class and the size of the room). 

Now it's time for teacher meetings, handing out class lists and supplies, making sure everyone is good to go, and more emails.

Only 24 days until Sunday School starts for the year. 

Taken From a Paper I Wrote for School

I've been going through papers that I wrote for my Master's Degree lately. This bit here, the conclusion to my last term paper, seems important even for now. I have seen and heard many people focusing entirely on "God is love" to dismiss sins. They argue that a loving God wants them to be happy or does not really see certain things as sinful; that's how unloving people interpret Scripture, or things have changed and those verses don't mean anything now, or it's just the writings of man. They cannot deal with God telling them "no" to their desires because they think it makes Him unloving somehow. Here I try to explain that yes, God is love, but He is more than just that, and His love is so much greater than we sometimes make it.

The paper was written based on a popular book that I am not willing to name (although you may be able to guess if you have any familiarity with popular "Christian" books). I also removed the author's name from my essay. I refuse to give any sort of publicity, good or bad, to authors and books I would never endorse.

Finally, does love win? Yes it does, but not the sort of love ------ describes in his book. His love is too small and too man focused; ------ shows God acting only because his love for man is great, not because God Himself is great, and when he loses focus of God’s overall greatness, he diminishes the greatness of God’s love. ------ also ignores the other characteristic of God. God is love, but God is also just (2 Thess 1:6), holy (Is 6:3), righteous (Ps 7:11), sovereign (Jude 4), wise (1 Cor 3:9), and true (Jn 14:6), to name a few of His character traits. All of these characteristics work together to make up God, and all are equally important. Most problematic, ------- tries to divorce God’s love from His justice and in that he makes a serious mistake and gives a one-sided view of who God really is and what His love is. God’s infinite justice shows the depths of His love as He forgives sins that deserve death and is “the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). Yes, love wins, but so does justice. In the end, God wins in all His fullness and glory.

Things that Stuck with Me

 Bits from books that stuck with me....

"Having the money doesn’t make someone bad. It’s when money has them, their focus, their heart, their obsession, that’s what makes monsters."

 “You can’t just sit around and wait for men and women to appear. You have to raise them.”

"God has no problems, only plans."

"A child should be led, not left to wander."

Before Green Gables

 A few years ago I read Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy and I quite enjoyed it. It gives the backstory of Marilla Cuthbert, with the author imagining her experiences growing up through her teen years and into early adulthood. My only major quibble was that Matthew was not quite right and had that one romance (when Anne of Green Gables makes it clear that he had never even considered courting). It was a good story and didn't mess with the character of Marilla too much.

This summer, I read Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson. It purports to be the prequel to Anne of Green Gables and fills in Anne's background. I liked it even more than Marilla; I thing the author stayed more true to the character of her heroine. There were bits that I remember Anne talking about later in life, about her parents, the Thomas family, and the Hammonds with their three sets of triplets. Anne seemed as real to me as she did in the books. My main problem was remembering that she was much younger in Before Green Gables; she was written as an advances, precocious child. Granted, she was very smart and was forced to grow up too quickly. As she says in the book, "Sometimes I hope I get the chance to be young before I get too old to enjoy it."

The book begins with Anne's parents as newlyweds and ends as Anne gets off the train on Prince Edward Island, right before Anne of Green Gables starts. Now I need to read Anne of Green Gables again!

Farmer's Markets

Back when I worked at my former job, there was a farmer's market that I could stop by on my way home on Thursday evenings. It was a nice set-up with plenty of fruits and vegetables, some bread, and fudge. I often stopped at the hotdog stand for supper as well; it was my weekly treat. I left that job a few years ago and I don't know if that farmer's market is still there. I did enjoy going. Since then, I haven't often gone to a farmer's market since they were no longer as convenient. In my attempt to be more healthy in my eating, and because the fresh fruits and veggies taste so much better, I thought I'd look up any places close to me this summer.

Last weekend I had a disappointing experience. I last went to one particular farmer's market in the summer of 2020, and it was a great market. I checked out their website recently and it shows shows several vendors that I like, and since they're not too far from me, I thought I'd check them out. I'm pretty sure no one has updated the website for years; there were very few vendors and not much there. They've also moved back a bit to where they are no longer seen from the road, so their drive-by business is limited. If I hadn't needed to be in the area for another errand, I would have been very miffed to have gone all that way for pretty much nothing.

On Wednesday evening, I tried another farmer's market, this one even closer to me. It was much, much better. It had all the regular vendors, as well as a few that I may try. This week was just about getting some fresh fruit and veggies. Going forward, I may try a "new vendor each week" approach. I might also try some of the food trucks. The food is a little more than I like to pay, but I can experience new things and see what I like (that I can maybe try finding recipes for this winter). Also, they have the wonderful lemonade truck. I'm only a little sad that it was the end of July before I made my first visit!

And I was right: The fresh produce is so much better than the stuff at the grocery store!

Update

I was doing so well at my goal of posting more often and then this month things fell apart! Part of it was the heat; it was too hot to think for almost 3 weeks this month. Happily, it cooled off completely for a couple days and now it's nice, normal summer temps. Part of it was lack of planning. I usually plan my weeks carefully and include "blog" two days each week (only 1 when I'm very busy with work, but summer is not that time); I realized that I was planning less because of the heat and I had forgotten to add "blog" to my days for the past two weeks. I'm back on track now and catching up with things.

To catch up on a bit of news.....

In June, my friend and I went on our "we're turning 50 this year" road trip. We drove south through the mountains, spend a couple days in Salmon Arm exploring the area, and then headed back home through the Banff area. 

The highlights of the trip: 8 used bookstores, 6 museums, and a kangaroo farm. One of the museums was the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre; I've wanted to go there since I first read a novel that takes place during the time of the Frank disaster. We also went to the Revelstoke Railway museum and learned a lot about trains and the building of the railroad through the Rockies. Oh, and on the way home we stopped at the Spiral Tunnels just a the right time to watch a very long train going through one of the tunnels. There were also some smaller museums, and we made one lady happy by coming into her museum and reading everything (it seems most people come in, look around, and leave without learning all the things). The kangaroo farm was so much fun: we fed and petted capybaras and wallabies, met a very large turkey who seemed to be very full of his own self-importance, admired some beautiful peacocks, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

The best news of summer though: I have a new baby granddaughter! She was born a couple weeks ago and is absolutely adorable. She all chubby and squishy and has a lovely amount of hair and I love her very much. Her big sister adores her and always wants to hold her. 

And now it's time to buckle down and get ready for fall!

Mandy: A book review

While visiting one of the many used bookstores my friend and I went to while on vacation, I stumbled upon Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards. I knew that the book existed, thanks to reading Julie Andrews' autobiographies, but I had forgotten about it until I saw it in the store. She had originally written the story for her daughter Jennifer as a forfeit in a game (it was going to be a short story, but it grew). In fact, Julie Andrews has written several stories, many with Emma Walton Hamilton, her daughter from her first marriage. Mandy is the first of her books that I've read.

Mandy is 10 and lives in an orphanage (a nice one, not one of the miserable ones that show up in many stories). She is exploring one day and finds a small cottage that seems abandoned. Mandy starts to clean up the cottage and the garden, clearing weeds and planting flowers. She keep the cottage a secret and enjoys having a place of her own.

In time, there are troubles with her constant disappearances, a mysterious stranger leaving her messages, and a very bad illness that leads to everything being discovered. And....I will not spoil the ending, but of course Mandy gets her happily-ever-after!

Mandy is an interesting and well-written story. The main character is sympathetic and, despite her faults, is a rather likeable girl. The other characters generally exist to keep the story going and lack a lot of depth, but it's meant to be a story about Mandy. It's a fairly straight-forward story with no major plot twists (although younger readers may not see the ending coming as quickly as I did; as an adult, I have a lot more book experience); even with it being somewhat predictable for me, I quite enjoyed the story. It's the type of book that I would have read over and over as a child and probably invented my own day dreams about.

Mandy intended for the 8-12 year old range, and I think they will enjoy it. 

Unfocused

 There are a pile of things to do this summer, some of which I should be working on today, but I am feeling very unfocused. 

Why?

1. I went to the library this morning, and it's very hot today, so I came home already tired.

2. Hot outside = warm inside, even with the fans going. 

3. I had a cold for most of the past week and I'm in the last bits of it (the mild cough and bit of stuffiness that seem to go on forever after a cold).

4. They're working either on my balcony or on one close, so the noise is disruptive. Mostly I'm able to tune things out when they're working on other parts of the building, but not banging right outside my window or the sound of sawing (especially sawing metal).

So, I'm very unfocused. I suspect that this will go on for a while until it cools down again. I'll try to get things done, but it may be slow!

Almost a book review by a student

One of my tutoring students has been reading Romeo and Juliet. She is not overly impressed by it; in fact, rather than view it as either a romance or a tragedy, she has declared it a comedy. She finds the entire story over-the-top absurd! I love talking with her about it because I view it as a cautionary tale: don't rush into a relationship and always listen to your parents. Between the two of us, we've really torn the entire story apart and it's been so much fun!

A couple quotes from her essay:

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous dramas in history, and yet it is quite silly.

It goes on and on. In the end they are both dead. There is quite a lot of drama in this drama.

Suffice to say, she is not a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet! It's quite nice to teach young ladies who don't think the whole thing is just sooooo romantic!

Watching by Proxy

There is a Very Important hockey game on tonight. I don't have the means to watch the game, but I long ago discovered the art of "watching by proxy". I just leave the window open and listen for loud cheers or cries of anger and I know exactly who is winning.

Summer

It is summer, sort of. Officially it doesn't start until later this week, and the weather hasn't exactly shouted "It's Summer!" quite yet. There have been some warmer days, but it's mostly been cooler and wet, although that's supposed to change later this week as well.

For me, though, it's summer. All the school year stuff is done: Sunday School, work, women's ministry, history class, whatever. In summer, I have a bit of tutoring and prep for fall. Otherwise, it's free time.

The challenge of summer is using the time wisely, both to get ready for fall, take care of stuff that I'm too busy during the school year (especially towards the end) to get done, and find time for rest. I have a list of things to do, and each thing seems to be getting bigger as I look into it more clearly! 

June is a bit funny because it's downtime, but there's still a lot going on, and I have a week of proper vacation coming up (in which I actually leave the city for somewhere else), so there's also prep for leaving to take care of.

Then there are two months of proper summer with things to do and books to read. I'm working on getting organized now and getting into the routine of summer, but it's hard when I know that soon it will be disrupted by the lack of routine of vacation time. Still, things are slowly getting started and ideas are percolating in my head.

I like summer. I like the time to rest and the time to study and the time to prepare for fall. And by fall, I'm ready for things to start up again.

Once Upon a Wardrobe

I recently found Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan on a suggested list of books about the 1950s. I had read her book Becoming Mrs. Lewis some years back and enjoyed it well enough, so I thought I'd give this one a try.

It is a wonderful book. The story starts with George, an 8-year old boy with a bad heart and the knowledge that he is going to die, probably soon. He has recently read a new book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and absolutely loved it, and he wants to know more: where did Narnia come from? George has an older sister, Megs, who is attending one of the colleges at Oxford, and he asks her to find Mr. Lewis (who teaches at Oxford) and ask him where Narnia came from. 

Megs is a mathematician and loves numbers and figuring things out. She does not understand George's love of fantasy and his insistence that Narnia is real somehow. Because she loves him, Megs agrees to at least try talking with Mr. Lewis. And we discover that Once Upon a Wardrobe is really Megs's story, as she visits Mr. Lewis, learns about the role fantasy can play in the world -- neither more nor less important than her beloved math equations, and begins to see a bigger world than the one she knew.

The visits don't go exactly as Megs expected; Mr. Lewis answers her questions by giving her stories about his childhood, growing years, schooling, war years (both World Wars), and faith. Megs goes home and tells the stories to George, and so we get stories within the story. 

The book was fun to read, even the tough parts. The main story is well-written and interesting, and the stories-within-the-story are delightful and, so far as I know, quite accurate to Mr. Lewis's life. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Narnia.

Thoughts from Acts

I've been reading through the New Testament and I'm up to the book of Acts right now. Most mornings I read a chapter and make some notes of things I find interesting. These are just some of my thoughts.

Jesus gives them a job and then the means to do the job.

When God sent the Holy Spirit, the noise was enough to attract the attention of the people in Jerusalem, so they were gathered to hear the gospel.

The apostles were quick to give glory to God (in contrast to various other people who wanted glory/power/etc. for themselves).

The gospel was not limited to any particular group (Jews, Gentiles, men, women, rich, poor...).

Every meeting was a chance to spread the gospel.

Timothy was "well spoken of" by the believers; that and his parentage are all we know about him, but he became Paul's faithful companion.

Luke just sort of joins the narrative, switching from "they went" to "we went" with no mention of how or why he joined them.

From the Children

I have a group of Sunday School girls over and the conversations are... interesting...

"You could cook a hotdog on his mustache."

"We're not a bunch of old ladies to sit around and gossip."

"I was ironing one of my siblings..."

A song: "Doritos... Doritos... where are the Doritos?"

"Oh, no... that was the other red yo-yo!"

"Do you like moose...or pizza?"

"If someone gave you a pet deer, what would you do with it?"

"She's my best friend, so I can be rude to her."

"I need a calmer craft than agonizing painting, like gluing with deadly glue guns."

"There's so much things you have to learn about growing up."

Home Education Conference

I was at the AHEA Home Education Convention over the weekend. It was fun and overwhelming and busy and full of books and learning!

My highlights:

I met Douglas Bond! He writes Christian historical fiction, speaks about church history, and does European church history tours. I was in his sessions of Renee of Ferrara, John Knox, and Anne of Bohemia. He's brilliant, he knows so much, and he tells the stories so well! I learned so much listening to him and now there's so much that I want to research and learn more about. Meeting him was a bit overwhelming and I may have fangirled a bit. (But who else would I fangirl over than a historian who writes Christian historical fiction?)

There were so many bookstores represented in the exhibit hall. There were home education stores with educational books, some Christian bookstores with a wonderful variety of books, and some used bookstores as well. The one used book section was large and crammed with books (mostly children's books given that it was for homeschoolers). I bought a pile of picture books, some novels (two of Douglas Bond's books, one of which he signed for me), and some history books. I also bought a pile for the church library.

Among the crowds were several people I knew, some of whom I hadn't seen in a long while. It was fun to have some time to chat and catch up on the news. 

I also learned about some different curriculums, sat in a session about parental rights, bought shirts from one of my students who was selling custom designed t-shirts (one for me, one for the small granddaughter, and a onesie for the baby due this summer), and found some new decks of trivia cards for the Wednesday morning kids.

In all it was a good time, and I was happy to come home and recover after!

Sermon Thoughts

I found some papers where I had written lines from various sermons, just things to think about:

You don't get to pick your hills; your hills pick you.

They aren't actually ashamed of you; they are ashamed of Christ.

We do not obey to be saved, we are saved to obey.

Don't settle for mortification mediocrity.

Conviction and condemnation are distinctly different.

The Balcony Work has Started

In fact, the balcony work started a week or so ago, but it started at the end of the building, and I'm near the middle. At the end of last week, the scaffolding went up outside my windows and a note was left under my door saying that they would start this week. They have started.

They put up blue netting around the scaffolding and such to keep tools and such from flying too far if they are dropped. When I look out the window, everything has a blue tinge and it doesn't look quite real. Also, if I have the blinds open, the light coming in is slightly blue.

I can't go out on the balcony. They put up caution tape and a sign, but also blocked the sliding door and the second door to the bedroom. Of course, once they have the balcony torn up, I won't want to go out there! It might be done already; I've kept the blinds shut so strange men can't see in the apartment.

It has been very noisy this morning as they are working on my balcony and the ones around me: hammers, saws, drills, and so much banging. They are also putting up scaffolding further down the building, so there is the noise of metal against metal. I can also hear the voices of the men, although not usually words, and sometimes I can hear their radio.

I may have to work elsewhere this summer. The library and I may become best friends as I seek a quiet place.

Slowing Down

Things are starting to wrap up for the summer. There are two more weeks of Sunday School, one more Bible Study, one more Women's Discipleship class, one more Women's Ministry event, two more work-related things (a conference/staff meeting and a book club call)…and that's it. It sounds like a lot when it's all written down, but by 2:30 on June 4th (11 days from now) it will all be done!

I will have piles of spare time starting in June (and a fair amount most of next week as well, until the conference on the weekend). The only thing left on my schedule is vacation and a bit of tutoring Of course, I also have a long, long list of things to take care of this summer.

Things I need to work on:

-- Preparing for Sunday School in the fall (including figuring out how to adapt a curriculum for The Pilgrim's Progress for my class)

-- Going over the Christmas concert costumes, making repairs, and making more costumes as our numbers have increased

-- Going over the first year Church History curriculum, making corrections and adjustments, and creating outlines

-- Preparing items for the Women of Grace blog

-- A whole lot of reading

It's a lot of stuff, but it's all things I can work on as I wish rather than "this needs to be done now!" and there will be plenty of time for fun reading and relaxing and such.

And by fall, I'll be looking forward to everything starting up again.

Faithful Mothers

On Saturday I will be speaking on Women of Church History at the wrap-up for this year's women's study. It took some time, but I finally decided upon three very different women who served in very different roles to talk about. I want them to see that God uses women in different ways and that God is sovereign and faithful. Our responsibility is to do the job God has given us to do and love the people He has given us to love. 

Two of my women are famous in their own right: Jeanne d'Albret was queen of Navarre and Lillian Trasher started an orphanage (quite unexpectedly) and cared for hundreds of orphans, widows, and the blind. 

The third woman, though, is only famous because of her son. I could find very little about her and she show up mainly in the first chapter or so of her son's biography and then disappears. She is only a footnote in the history of missions in China, but she played her part faithfully.

Amelia Hudson was the daughter of a Wesleyan minister and became a Christian at a young age. Her family was poor and she had to start working as a governess when she was 16 years old. By then her neighbour, James Taylor, had already expressed his desire to marry her; however, they had to wait for him to finish school and establish himself. They were married on April 5th, 1831; eighteen months later, they were joined by a small son, James Hudson Taylor, called Hudson to distinguish himself from his father. He was followed by Amelia Jr., and other children.

Amelia was kind and gentle with a rich sense of humor. She was respected in the local church where she taught Bible classes for girls. She was also known for her hospitality to strangers, especially believers. She and James were committed to raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. When Hudson was born, they had committed him to the Lord, specifically for work in China (Hudson did not know this until he was much older).

The Taylor family attended church regularly and had times of family worship together with Bible reading, prayer, and singing. Early on, Hudson developed an interest in spiritual matters and even missionary work. Things changed, though, when a teenaged Hudson started working at a bank. There, he found that many people mocked the Christian faith and he soon joined in with them. He also became drawn to the love of money and the pleasure it could buy. He was on a slippery slope to rejecting Christianity altogether. 

When he was around 17, poor eyesight forced Hudson to resign from his work at the bank and he went to work with his father. Although his father loved him, he was too impatient with his wayward son and risked driving him further away. Amelia, however, understood Hudson better and remained kind, gentle, and patient with him. While she continued to talk to him about his need for God, she knew that the best thing she could do for him was to pray, and she did, for two years. When she was on a holiday away from her family, she felt compelled to increase the length and earnestness of her prayers. One day she felt burdened to pray for Hudson right away and spent hours in prayer. Then she suddenly believed that her prayers had been answered and began to praise God for her son’s salvation. 

Meanwhile, back home Hudson had been bored and was looking through his dad’s bookshelves for something to read. He found a tract called “Poor Richard” and, after reading the story and the words “the finished work of Christ”, he fell to his knees and committed his life to Christ. When his mother returned home and he went to tell her the news, he was surprised that she already knew because she had been praying for him all that day. He later learned that his younger sister, Amelia Jr., had committed a month earlier to pray for him three times a day until he was saved.

Hudson Taylor left as a missionary to China in 1853, knowing that his mother was still praying for him. He was instrumental in starting China Inland Missions, which was dedicated to bringing the gospel to all of China (until then, most missionaries stayed near the coast; Hudson and his organization brought the gospel as far inland as they could). When Hudson Taylor died after 54 years in China, CIM had 825 missionaries and more than 18,000 Chinese Christians had been baptized.

This is what we learn from Amelia Hudson Taylor: Even children from godly homes may turn from God to the pleasures of the world. When that happens, the best thing you can do is to pray for them. When they won’t listen to you, pray for them. When they seem to be turning further away from God, pray for them. Trust God with your children. Love them, be patient with them, and most of all, pray for them.

That's it: that's the legacy of Amelia Hudson Taylor: she was faithful to pray for her wayward son and kept trusting God for his salvation. And in that, she is a model for mothers today.

I recommend Devoted by Tim Challies if you would like to learn more about mothers of famous Christians, and the important roles they played in the lives of their sons.

The Boys in the Boat: A Review

Confession time: I only put The Boys in the Boat on hold at the library because I thought it was written by Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Unbroken. It isn't; it was written by Daniel James Brown. It was a happy mistake, though, because I quite enjoyed the book.

The full title of the books is The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The library copy had a picture of them rowing on the front. There was no big mystery about the topic or the ending of the story. Despite this, it was a very, very good book and there were times when I was concerned that they wouldn't win one of the key races (to be America's team to the Olympics; their heat in Germany) even though I knew how it ended. There were other times when I wondered how they would overcome the obstacles. Keeping the story interesting and the tension of the races high when I already knew the ending is the sign of a good writer.

The book centers on one of the boys, Joe Rantz, a young man who had been abandoned by his family more than once, who was fighting to find his place in the world, and who saw rowing as a way to stay in university. His story alone is worth reading the book. It also delves into the backgrounds of other major players: the rowers, to various extents; the coaches; the man who makes the boats and knows the art of rowing inside out; the young lady Joe marries in the end. Brown weaves all their stories together.

Brown also delves into some of the history of rowing and its various events. He talks about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl years. Periodically, he moves over the Germany for a glimpse into Hitler's plans and how the Olympics were designed to make the world think that everything was fine and dandy in Germany (even though it was already getting dark there).

Overall, I found this to be a well-written and very interesting book. I'm thankful for the happy mistake that led me to it!

Among the Books

We have been sorting through the immense donation we received for the church library. Among the regular books you would expect to find in a pastor's library -- theological works, commentaries, a really large number of Bibles, doctrine, creeds and catechisms -- are the others, among them:

-- a nice collection of hymnals and songbooks (not really strange to find in a pastor's library, except for the number and variety of them)

--health and home remedy books

--a few novels, most of which would show up under women's fiction

--one of the Dear Canada books (a series of historical fiction for grades 4-7) with a school library stamp in it; I wonder if it's missing from the library

--most perplexing: three very small board books for very small children; each page has a picture on one side and a word on the other

Also interesting are the things we find in the books: receipts, invoices, letters, shopping lists, to-do lists, pamphlets, photographs, a bill of sale for some cows, reminders about appointments.... among the things he used as bookmarks, there has so far been exactly one actual bookmark!

It's been an interesting experience going through the books!

To Think About

I found this quote while researching Richard Wurmbrand; it is from his book Victorious Faith:

“There was once a fiddler who played so beautifully that everybody danced. A deaf man who could not hear the music considered them all insane. Those who are with Jesus in suffering hear this music to which other men are deaf. They dance and do not care if they are considered insane.”

Working on Hospitality

Yesterday I had a family from the church over for dinner. They have 3 children; the oldest is in my Sunday School class and she has two younger brothers. I don't know any of them very well, which is why I invited them over: so I could get to know them a bit.

It was awkward at times as we tried to get some sort of conversation going. The kids were happy playing with Lego and the dad joined them. The mom and I were able to talk about books as we're both readers so that helped. I'm not always much of a talker so it was challenging for me, but it was my house and my job to make them feel comfortable, so I did my best. We did better as we ate; I remembered to ask good questions, asking for specifics about what the dad does (not just what his job title is, but what does he actually do and how did he get interested in that career), which helped and I think we all relaxed and were able to branch out from that. I also did a round of "what do you do for fun?" with the kids.

Overall, it was a good evening. We all learned a bit about each other and the kids had fun playing. They found my Mr. Potato Head collection and had fun making the silliest creations. Conversation didn't flow the way it does with some people, but it wasn't bad. I'm pretty sure I said some "let's make things a bit more awkward" things as I tried to keep going, but nothing that seemed to kill the conversation.

Next time we're together will be a bit easier because we're over the first "getting to know each other" hurdle. Now there's a bit more of a link between us.

Hospitality can be hard. I'm not always good at conversation and I'm always a bit nervous when I have new people over. It's worth the effort, though; I've made some of my closest friends because I've taken the plunge and invited them for dinner. Other people have not become close friends, but we're friendlier at church and different events; letting them into my life by having them into my home helps bridge any differences between us.

It's still a work in progress, but I am trying to step outside my comfort zone in this little way.

Balcony Work

The roofers seem to be done; they're working on the next building over now (there are four buildings in my complex). However...the notice came on Thursday that we had to remove all items from our balconies because they are starting on the balconies on Monday. There are flower pots and planters stashed all over my apartment now.

Last summer they did the balconies across the parking lot. Actually, the didn't finish the entire building until almost spring. It seems there were unexpected issues. They basically seem to take down the railings, tear apart the balconies, rebuild them, redo the pillars (they're white now on the other building instead of brick), and put the railings back up. It took all summer and into fall to do the front of the other building and most of fall and winter to do the rest of the building.

I don't mind them redoing the balconies and I figure the have a reason. I can even live without the balcony for the summer. It's just the part where there will be workmen on the balcony so I'll have to keep things closed up or have strange men looking in. The roofers weren't a problem; I could see them going up and down sometimes, but they didn't bother me. Also, I am not looking forward to the noise.

It's going to be a different summer. I may sometimes have to flee to work at the library on the very noisy days.

The Last Day

Wednesday morning women's study ended today, a couple weeks earlier than planned. That means the end of my Wednesday morning homeschool rooms. I brought them suckers to celebrate surviving another year, so the kids were happy. I'm good with a break now, although I know I'll miss them by the time we start up again in the fall.

This year I read at least 44 picture books to the little kids. Between the middles and the board room kids, we played around 42 trivia games from around 16 decks. We also did a variety of crafts with varying levels of success. They would like to do most of them again: the puzzles, puppets, cards, and woven friendship bracelets. 

I already have a stack of books on my "for later" list at the library to start us off in the fall, as well as a list to look for at used books stores this summer. I would like to find more trivia cards since we're missing at least half the set, although they are hard to find (at least for a price I'm willing to pay). I have more craft ideas running through my head as well.

So I'm ready for a break and planning for fall all at the same time! I really love my homeschool kids and I love Wednesday mornings.

Pandita Ramabai, Bible Translator

Rama Dongre, later known as Pandita Ramabai, was born in India in 1858 into a Marathi-speaking family, belonging to the priestly Brahmin caste. There were no schools for girls, but her parents gave her a thorough education in the Sanskrit language. They were, however, very poor. During the great famine of 1876–78, both her parents died from starvation. Pandita went to live with her older brother and became well known for her intellectual abilities and teaching skill, to the point that the University of Calcutta gave her the title Pandita, meaning ‘wise teacher’, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1880 her brother also died and she married a friend of her brother; however, because he was from a lower caste, she was thought to have polluted herself. They had a daughter, and then her husband died too. At 24, she found herself destitute: an impoverished, orphaned widow.

In 1883, Pandita travelled to England for her studies and was invited to stay at an Anglican community. In the community’s London Rescue Home, she saw first-hand how women who had fallen on hard times were helped. This experience moved her enormously. In particular, the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 impacted her. Back in India, she came to know Christ. She wrote: ‘The Holy Spirit made it clear from the Word of God that the salvation which God gives through Christ is present and not something future. I received, I believed and I was filled with joy.’

Her new goal was to translate the Bible into her own language. A translation into Marathi had already been completed in the early 19th century, as well as subsequent revisions too. But Pandita thought that these translations relied too heavily on Sanskrit words and phrases and did not speak to women of lower castes. Her translation had a specific audience: uneducated women of lower castes. She learnt Greek and Hebrew in order to translate the Scriptures into Marathi, and completed her translation just before her death in 1922.

For more information, check out Wycliffe Bible Translators' article about Pandita Ramabai her life and work.

The Imagination of a Small Child

The family I met with yesterday has two girls of school age and a small boy (he's about 2 1/2). The small boy was very happy to see me, to tell me that he plays basketball, and to show me how he can drive a train by straddling his dad's guitar case and making all the train noises. He drove that train all the way to the Philippines. 

Later, when I was in his sister's room as she told me what she had been doing in school, there was a small voice coming down the hall, saying over and over, "Penguin, penguin, penguin..." When I turned to look, the small boy was standing on a blanket, holding the front part up in front of his legs with the rest trailing behind. He was shuffling along like a happy little penguin. When he got to us, he smiled and said, "I'm a penguin!"

He loves the story of David and Goliath and, using his sister's headband as a sling, pretended to throw a stone at me. I fell backwards on the couch and stayed very still. The small boy laughed and then said, "Wake up, giant!" so he could get me again.

Almost Done

I've finished 7 weeks of home education facilitator meetings and I have about 2 more weeks to go (a bit longer since one meeting is going to be May 6th and one is unconfirmed because someone in the family has pneumonia, but for the most part there are only 2 weeks left). I tell myself that it's only about 2 months twice a year that I'm really, really busy, but that still seems like a lot when I'm in the middle of it.

Part of it is that the rest of life doesn't stop for those few months. I still have Sunday School and history class and Wednesday morning homeschool kids and all the regular stuff of life. It's usually moderately busy anyway; it just gets really, really, really busy now!

On the plus side, I have summers off (except for a bit of tutoring to keep me from getting bored). Of course, I have a list of projects for summer, but I'm ignoring it for now!

Just a couple more weeks and life will slow down again.

Monarch Song

When I teach my tutoring student, I sometimes let him watch a video that goes along with what we're learning or that just amuses me (and him). We watched a clip from a movie showing someone learning about the concept of writing for the fist time; a video about Gutenberg's printing press; some VeggieTales about grammar (Schoolhouse Polka with Larry); the St. Crispin's Day speech from Hamlet; and various bits and pieces that I've found. We particularly like some of the songs from Horrible Histories and one of our favourites is the Monarch Song. We've listened to it enough that when I hear the name "William" I start to sing in my head "William, William, Henry, Steven, Henry, Richard, John!"

For your entertainment:

 

 I like the lyric one because it's easier to follow the song, but the updated one includes Charles III:

 

From the Kids

A conversation with a 7-year-old boy:

Me: What do you want to do when you grow up?

Him: I'm going to have a job.

Me: What type of job?

Him: You know, a job, like dads do!

Me: Dads do different types of jobs. I don't know what job you mean.

Him: Yes you do! Like dads have jobs and they go to work.

Eventually we got to the idea that he wants to be in construction like his dad and build a skyscraper. Also, his dad now works in the office, which led to his final plans.

Him: When dad is old and I'm taller than him, I'll take over in the office.

A conversation with a 6-year-old girl whose mom is trying to get her to tell me that she finished a level in swimming:

Mom: What did you pass recently?

Her: I don't know.

Mom: When we were at swimming on Monday, you passed...

Her, thinking very hard: Um...a hula hoop!

So Many Books

Recently someone died (I didn't know him) and he left his extensive theological library to GraceLife. We sorted through boxes of books a couple weeks ago (piles of yes, maybe, no but someone else might want them, and never books, as well as a few "we don't need them in the library so we'll take them" books). We didn't have a chance to get them into the system or figure out where to put them all, and there were piles on the tables and boxes on the floor. Today I was up in the library and discovered that there are MORE BOOKS! I think the first load was around half of the total. We didn't have this many books when we started the library.

I am absolutely thankful for the books and the man who thought to leave them to us. Not only are they a blessing to the library and church family, many of them will be excellent to have around when we start a branch seminary. I'm just not sure what we're going to do with them all! We need more bookcases and more time to properly sort, catalogue, and shelve them. Probably more help too. 

And to think, I was just planning our next shopping spree to get new book!

Roof Work

The roofing people are doing work on the roof of my building. This is all well and good, but their scaffolding is right outside my bedroom window. From my desk in the "office" (that small space between the living room couch and the dining room table), I can watch the men when they go up and down. (I could watch them from the bedroom as well, but I'm keeping all those blinds closed.) It's a bit strange; my apartment is on the second floor, so I never thought I'd have to worry about someone right outside my windows. They may be renovating all the balconies on my building this summer as well, so that will mean workers everywhere.

It's worse for my downstairs neighbours. Most of their windows are blocked by the wooden walls they erected around the scaffolding and their patio is mostly shaded by the walls as well. At least I can open my living room blinds and have some natural light while I watch the workers going up and down.

Blood Work

I saw the doctor a couple weeks ago (nothing major; just a bad knee from a couple falls and some "I am getting older and need help dealing with the symptoms, especially the one where I don't sleep enough"). My doctor, of course, sent me for blood work, because that's what doctors do.

Today was blood work day. For those who may be wondering why it took me almost 2 weeks: Today was the first day I was free enough to book an appointment. I wouldn't go without one; when I was in the waiting room, I heard them say that the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. 

My issue with having blood taken: I have small, rather hidden veins. Only once has someone been able to get the blood on the first try. Today it took the phlebotomist two tries. First she tried in my left arm (the right one is even worse) and finally found a vein and stuck in the needle, but the blood was flowing slowly and eventually gave up. She tried to find a vein in my right arm but that arm was having none of this "blood work" nonsense and all the veins hid too well for her to even try poking me with a needle. In the end, it took warm water compresses on my arm and then my hand before she was able to get a good vein on my hand and, with the other phlebotomist switching vials for her, was able to take my blood. They actually took extra in the second vial just in case the blood stopped before they had enough in the third one.

The ladies were very nice and apologized for having to stick me twice, but I assured them that I was used to it. The worst was the time I had to be poked three times (each arm and a hand), so they did well!

And that was my adventure in having blood taken. 

Happy Easter!

Subbing in the Kindergarten Class

I sometimes sub at one of the Christian schools in my area. It's fun to teach for a while and it's nice to go home after and enjoy the quiet. This year all of my subbing (all 2.5 days) has been with the kindergarten class. There are around 19 of them (maybe 20, but they've never all be there) and they're all pretty good kids on the whole. There is the occasional dispute over toys, but those are easily handled. There are sometimes tears for whatever reason 5-year-olds get emotional (partly because change is hard), but they are also easily dealt with. The kids are also very sweet and I got a lot of hugs on Friday!

These kids are also pretty smart. They told me all the letter sounds, including short and long vowels, and were able to read words and simple sentences. They are also learning how to tell when a vowel makes a long or short sound. They know their numbers and can count to 60, and backwards from 10. 

What they did not know was where food comes from. We were talking about where their snacks came from. They're city kids, so for them, food comes from the store. It took an extra question: "Where was it before it got to the store?" for them to remember that apples and oranges come from trees and cheese and yogurt come from milk which comes from cows. (There was the suggestion that cheese also comes from trees, but he may have been joking.) Bread was a bit more complicated, but we managed "bread is made from flour, flour comes from wheat, and wheat comes from the ground." And yet they had not problem with "Carrots come from in the ground".

It was a crazy, busy, noisy, tiring day, but I quite enjoyed it. I don't think I'd do it for a living, though. I would do much better with older students on a regular basis.

First Lines: Picture Book Edition

 Because picture books deserve some love as well, here are the first lines of the books I have been reading the littles lately:

Hodges' Cafe was busy as usual last Friday night.

Mrs. Rogers was all in a dither.

When Joseph was a baby, his grandfather made him a wonderful blanket to keep him warm and cozy and to chase away bad dreams.

In the town of Aldo, Ohio, there lived a boy named Lentil.

In the walled Old City of Jerusalem, which some call the Center of the Universe, Avi waited.

Ivan was a happy boy.

Frank wanted to fly.

A Bad Simile

 I have recently finished The Staff and the Sword trilogy by Patrick W. Carr. I definitely recommend it if you want some Medieval-style fantasy from basically a Christian viewpoint.

There was just one bit that I'm not sure about. After they had a scare, he wrote a line something along the lines of "her heart was still skipping like a calf."

All I could think was "You might need to see a doctor about that."

Which only goes to show that you can have a good writer and a good story and still manage to get a bad simile past the editors.

First Lines

 From books I am reading or have recently read:

Sometimes I teach old books to young people, and recently I was teaching the Epistles of the Roman poet Horace to a group of undergraduates.

Deep within, Adora continued to harbor the possibility that her uncle, King Rodran, might still live, but the pallid faces of those on the ship, especially Errol's. refuted all hope.

The Percys lived in a large, old-fashioned stone house in New England.

The parcel came while the family were having breakfast.

As a veteran homeschooler and author, I field many questions about the lost educational and social opportunities homeschoolers face by not attending school, especially "How will my children get into college or find work without a proper school transcript?" and "How will my children socialize if they're not in school?"

Patrick Murphy hurried through the dark streets of Belfast.

In my fifteen years, I have stuck my arm in a vat of slithering eels, climbed all the major hills of San Francisco, and tiptoed over the graves of a hundred souls.

Redeeming Productivity

A bit of a review of Redeeming Productivity by Reagan Rose

I really enjoyed this book. The chapters switch between the "why" and the "how" of being productive; so many books have only focused on one or the other and I was happy to find both. I found the "why" chapters to be clear and demonstrating, through Scripture, a proper motive for our actions (e.g., to glorify God, to use the gifts He has given us, and to bear fruit). The "how" sections were very practical and had ideas that I could implement without too much trouble (e.g., establishing a morning routine, getting organized, and sorting out tasks and projects). It wasn't so much "you're doing everything wrong" as it was "this is how you can do better". 

I read the book slowly, taking time to consider the "why" parts and then to implement at least some of his ideas after the "how" parts (adjusting things to fit my life and preferences) before moving on to the next pair of chapters. By the end, I found that I was more organized and productive and that, since I had the proper motivation, it was easier to keep on track. The author also encourages regular reflection (weekly and yearly) to see how things are going, make adjustments, or get back on track. He doesn't expect (or promise) perfection, but improvement.

I read Redeeming Productivity several month ago and have found that, for the most part, I am getting more done for the glory of God, as the subtitle suggests. It wasn't a "good intentions that fail in the second month" thing, but a gradual movement towards using my time wisely. I enjoy the morning routine (although mine doesn't quite match his) and the end-of-week tidy and planning time. Not only my workspace but also much of my apartment is more organized, which just feels good. Planning my days, especially during my slower times of the year, has helped me get more done, although there will be more to work on in that area over the summer.

I definitely recommend Redeeming Productivity for anyone who wants advice on how to be organized and productive in a way that brings glory to God rather than self.

Daydreams and Prayer

When I was a child, I made up stories in my head regularly: when falling asleep, going for a walk, riding in the car, sitting in school; basically, if it was quiet or I was bored, I was daydreaming. I realize now that what I was coming up with was basically self-insert fan fiction: I put myself in the lives of my favourite book characters and worlds and had adventures. Sometimes my stories were about people and places I knew, but usually they were from the world of books. 

(As a side note, I still make up stories, but the subjects have switched: now, while I sometimes include fictional people and places in my stories, they are more likely to involve real-life situations and people.) 

The other day I was thinking about prayer and I remembered my younger daydreams. In my stories, people sometimes prayed, sometimes at mealtimes and sometimes for help. When that was going to happen, I would stop and pray a little prayer explaining to God that the prayer that was coming up wasn't a real prayer; it was just part of a story. Then when the prayer was finished, I would let God know that the pretend prayer was over!

My understanding of God was somewhat lacking at that time as I obviously didn't realize that God can tell the difference between real prayer and prayer that is part of a daydream. My understanding of prayer may have been better: I believed that God listened to my prayers, so I didn't want any confusion about what I expected Him to listen to and what He could ignore. I also knew that some prayers were real and some were pretend.

Now that I'm older and have learned more, I know that if people pray in my daydreams, God knows they aren't real prayers. I still believe that God listens to my prayers and that prayer is important. I know that the difference between real prayer and not-real prayer is not always "do I mean this or is it part of a story" but "where is my heart when I am praying and am I just going through the motions." And I realize that when people pray in my imaginary stories, the prayers often reflect my heart and what I believe (they pray what I think they should pray or what I would want someone to pray for me in the situation).

I think there was something very sweet, though, about younger me earnestly explaining things to God so that there would be no confusion about the pretend prayer!

Dwight Moody

 As taken from my history class, here is Dwight Moody's “Greatest Mistake”; something to think about as we bring the gospel to people:

Moody was preaching the evening of October 8, 1871. He concluded his gospel message that night by asking the question, “What will you do with Jesus?” Then Moody added, “I wish you would seriously consider this subject, for next Sunday we will speak about the cross, and at that time I’ll ask again, ‘What will YOU do with Jesus?”

That evening someone knocked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn and started the Great Chicago Fire. Although it is often blamed on a cow, people actually thought that it was done be a robber; later, a man named Louis M. Cohn confessed that he was running away from an illegal card game in the O’Leary’s barn and accidentally knocked over a lantern. It had been an unusually dry summer and fall, and a strong wind spread the fire quickly, destroying 17,500 buildings and 73 miles of street. Ninety thousand people were left homeless, and it is believed that 300 people died in the blaze. After 24 hours, the rains came and helped quench the fire.

Moody’s church and home were both destroyed, as well as the YMCA, but what felt more keenly was the possibility that among the dead were people who had been in church that evening and whom he had sent away to think about their answer. He viewed that as his greatest mistake. “Now, whenever I preach,” Moody said later, “I press for a definite decision. I would rather lose my right hand than give people even a day to decide for Christ, for I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. The Gospel invitation is a ‘today only’ offer!”

Getting Kids to Read

Some of us were reading at an early age (I don't actually remember learning to read; I just read), while other children took longer. And some could read but didn't want to. Children are different and not everyone will be a reader and not everyone will learn at the same rate. That's okay. Still, you want children to read something, if for no other reason than to practice so they can read the important things as they enter adulthood (recipes, contracts, emails, love letters, menus, street signs, etc.).

So how do you get a child who does not want to read to actually read? 

First, make books a good thing. Start by reading to your child. You can start reading to them in infancy and keep it up until they leave the house (I still like being read to). And don't worry if they don't seem to be listening: the babies are enjoying being with you and the sound of your voice; older children may listen best if they are doodling or something; wiggly children are actually listening. Picture books are great, but don't be afraid to start reading chapter books to them when they are still young. Share books that you enjoyed as a child or that just look interesting. Make reading time a fun time that you enjoy (don't read to them because you have to and with a goal of getting it over with).

Conversely, don't use books and reading as punishment (unless you have a devoted reader, in which case taking away the current book for a bit may be a good deterrent). Forcing a child to read won't make the child enjoy reading, especially if it's seen as a consequence for bad behaviour (which are supposed to be negative to discourage the behaviour).

Have books in the house. Go to the library regularly. Surround your child with books of various genres, topics, and reading levels. Give your child options of what to read (within reason; there are things that you may hold back because your child isn't mature enough for that topic yet). Don't worry if your child prefers either fiction or non-fiction; many children will find some overlap in time and expand their horizons. Just provide the books. You won't get a reader if there aren't any books around!

Very importantly: You need to read. Your child won't think that reading is important if you never do it. More, it will seem like a kid thing to do and all children want to seem very grown up. So pick up a book that you will enjoy and read it.

Limit screen time. I have dealt with kids who "don't have time" to read, but who have time to play on-line games, watch movies, and spend hours on social media. Books can take time and effort to read and understand, and for a child who is used to the easy entertainment of computers and television, it can seem like too much work. Limit screen time and encourage reading time.

Be careful of finding a long series that "turned my child into a reader". Did it turn the child into a reader or just a reader of those books? The challenge is that these tend to be books that are easier to read and getting the child to read anything else can be almost impossible (I speak from experience here; there is a series that I will not name that I dislike for that reason). It's not always that bad, but you're better off finding a book, or even a trilogy, that your child likes, and then finding similar books to keep the reading going.

Do all that and I can guarantee that you still may not have a reader on your hands.  Again, some people are not readers and that's okay as long as they can read and comprehend well enough to enjoy life and not get sucked into a cult. Nothing I've suggested will harm your child and it just might get him or her interested in reading.

Muffins!

Today is National Muffin Day, so in honor of it, I am once again sharing my favourite muffin recipe. It is a banana muffin recipe that I got from my friend Faith many, many years ago, and I use it all the time. I have it memorized, which was helpful when I was visiting friends and they wanted to make banana muffins to use up the "definitely ready to be bread or muffin" bananas!

I also use this recipe for many types of muffins: zucchini chocolate chip; strawberry; blueberry; ugly muffins (using frozen mixed berries, which give the muffins an interesting colour). Just use whatever fruit or berries you have on hand instead of bananas.

With no further ado, I present my banana muffin recipe:

3 bananas (well, 3-ish; if you have 4, by all means use all four, especially if they're small)

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

a small container of yogurt (the size you pack in lunches) or the rough equivalent*

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

Mash up the bananas, add the egg, oil, yogurt, and sugar, and mix well. Add the baking soda and flour and mix just until everything is wet and mushy; do not over-mix.

Fill your muffin cups and bake at 350 for around 20 minutes or so minutes. You should get 12 muffins.

*The yogurt is optional. The original recipe didn't call for yogurt, but one day I was making muffins and discovered that I didn't have any eggs. I searched on-line for a solution and discovered that yogurt can replace eggs when making muffins, so I threw in a small container of vanilla yogurt. I liked the texture and now I add it all the time, even when I have eggs. The muffins are moister and the vanilla flavor is nice. You can leave out the yogurt or try different flavors.

Wednesday Morning

Yesterday my board room helper was not available (he was at a family reunion) so I had decided to grab one of the other big boys to help. Of course the least responsible, most likely to either be too bossy or just talk the whole time, young man wanted to help! I turned him down and got one of the boys I wanted instead: one of the oldest in his family, responsible, and likely to do his work and make sure the others did theirs. 

Our trivia cards were about reptiles and amphibians. We had fun, and I made sure they knew the difference between poisonous and venomous creatures. They tried to name every turtle some variation of "Giant, Huge, Enormous Turtle" only to find that they were actually named things like "Green Turtle" and "Leatherback Turtle". One young girl had both of her older brothers in the room and they kept suggesting the wrong answers when it was her turn...and she kept believing them! My middle group boys thought it was funny when I referred to them as the "unusual reptiles" (the girls thought it was hilarious). 

My little ones enjoyed Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin (written by Chieri Uegaki and illustrated by Qin Leng), although they thought her brothers were very mean to her (they were at the beginning). They also liked the story A New Coat For Anna (written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Anita Lobel), especially seeing the sheep, the spinner, and the weaver. I try to make sure that the children will enjoy both the story and the illustrations, and these were definitely successful. 

In all, it was a good Wednesday morning.

Church Stuff

We moved into our new building 7 years ago; I wrote about that here:   https://dorothysthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-church.html

Things went along fairly normally for a while, although we lost a pastor to a church up north and gained another one. Then covid came and everything changed. You can look up past posts from those years if you want to know more about that. When the dust settled, we had pretty much doubled in size. We have two services now because we couldn't all fit (and in first service, full of crazy morning people, there are chairs in the library and in the foyer; second service is smaller but still sometimes sees families up in the library). Sunday School is full and there are more children every year, both from new families and many new babies.

Plans are in process for a new building with a sanctuary big enough to hold everyone, and then a later building for education (with so many Sunday School rooms!). We're at the paperwork, permits, petitions and permission stage. If things go according to our plans, we may have the first new building in a couple years, and then Sunday School can stretch out and fill up the current building. Of course, our plans might not be God's plans. I know that the elders pray a lot for wisdom in all this, and that we do things in a way that will glorify God, not us. I pray this too.

It's all very exciting. It's sometimes overwhelming as well, trying to manage the number of children and cope with a very, very crowded foyer between services. Sometimes I would like to go back to when there were fewer people, but as I told my history class once: I want fewer people, but I don't want anyone to leave!

A Word of Advice

If you find yourself caring for a group of 7-10 year-olds, and for some reason decide that making friendship bracelets is a good idea (because they have been asking to make them): stop and reconsider! Maybe another activity will be better.

But if you do it anyway, have the thread precut to save time, have everyone make the same pattern (especially if most of them don't know what they're doing), and be prepared to repeat the same instructions at least 87 times in the hour.

(This might be mostly for myself so I remember this for next time.)

Something from Nothing

Last week I read the little guys Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman. It's a retelling of a Jewish folktale about a grandpa and his small grandson, Joseph who firmly believes that Grandpa can fix anything. Grandpa made a blanket for baby Joseph, and as Joseph grows the blanket becomes tattered and worn and mom wants to throw it out. Joseph brings it to Grandpa who makes it into a coat for Joseph. The story is basically how Grandpa keeps making new (and smaller) things as the items too small, dirty or tattered. I won't tell you the end!

It's a pretty simple story with a lot of repetition, but the kids seemed to really enjoy seeing what Grandpa could make. The illustrations are wonderful as well. There's so much to see on each page and I had to make sure to take time for everyone to see everything. A family of mice live under the house and use the scraps of fabric from Grandpa's sewing for pretty much everything, including blankets, clothes, curtains, and a tablecloth.

It's a delightful story with delightful pictures.

A Grammar Lesson

Semicolons are used to connect two complete sentences. "The child did not want to go outside; he was afraid of monsters."

Semicolons are used when two complete sentences are linked by a conjunctive adverb (e.g., however, moreover, therefore, thus, consequently, furthermore, unfortunately). "The man wanted to leave; unfortunately, he had lost his keys."

Semicolons are used to separate items in a list when a comma would be confusing (e.g., when the items in the list include a comma and/or are longer items). "We visited Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Montreal, Quebec."

Do NOT use a semicolon if you use a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to join two sentences; for that, you would use a comma. "The bird flew away from the house, so the cat ran after it."

Do NOT use a semicolon if you are combining two sentences and use a subordinating conjunction (e.g., although, because, since, while, after, before, until, as soon as, if, unless, provided that, wherever, as long as, so that, in order that, though) at the start of one sentence; you either need a comma or no punctuation. "Because she was tired, she decided to stay home." or "She decided to stay home because she was tired."

Finally: Do NOT use a semicolon if you don't know how to use a semicolon.

Official Ages of Adulthood

 Today I found the "official" ages of adulthood (according to at least one organization):

Early Adulthood (ages 22--34) 

Early Middle Age (ages 35--44) 

Late Middle Age (ages 45--64)

Late Adulthood (ages 65 and older)

You may note that there is no "Middle Middle Age"; you just go from Early to Late. Also, all the younglings who claim to be adults when they turn 18 are not mentioned here at all. I knew they were just babies!

A Story From the Kids

 Yesterday we had only a few minutes left after I finished reading the second book to the little guys. I didn't want to start a new book, so I suggested that they tell me a story.

First they amused themselves by telling "stories" that were variations on "Once upon a time there was a knight. The end!" These seemed to be incredibly funny to them, especially when they used someone's name instead of a knight.

Finally one young man started a story: 

"Once upon a time there was a knight and a prince, but he said that he could be a knight too. They went into a forest and there was a bear."

At this point he seemed to be stuck, so I suggested the game where everyone tells a bit of the story. They loved the idea, so I had the next person in line continue. 

As the story progressed, the bear found some honey, but he was stung by bees. He ran away and then the knights killed the bees. The knights returned to the castle. Then seven bears came so the knights went back outside and were surrounded by bears.

That's when the moms started coming to pick up their kids, so I don't know what happened next! 

Things to Consider When Studying History

Teaching history is challenging, sometimes because of poor records and other times because of conflicting accounts. I find it best to read widely, trying to consider the world view, historical biases, and purpose for writing of each author. If you're writing for a particular group or ruler, your view will likely be biased in their favour; if you definitely dislike a group or person, your writing will likely be biased against them. It's a challenge to find the truth. There is also the challenge of "when did it happen" when there are conflicting dates or different calendars used in different areas. As a history buff and teacher, I do the best I can and allow for differences when necessary.

There is also the question of how to teach history. Do I teach it in perfect chronological order (which seems impossible), by event, by country, or just randomly? When I taught the early church, I tried for chronological order as much as possible; this was easier because the major events took place in a smaller geographical area. For the Reformation, when things were happening in different countries all at the same time, I taught more by country. Next semester, which is primarily about the 19th and 20th centuries, will be both: I have planned several weeks on mission work in various areas, and then a slightly more chronological overview of major events ("slightly" as there are still things that will overlap and require us to go backwards sometimes, but always with an overall forward trajectory). It can be confusing and challenging, but I do my best to avoid confusing the kids too much!

This is what I tell my history class the first week:

History is not always easy to break into pieces and teach in a nice, chronological order, as there is a lot of overlap between people and events. As a result, despite my attempts to keep moving forward, sometimes we have to move backwards in time. Other times, we move back and forth between places or people to get things somewhat in order and to show how different people intersected in time. It helps to keep a timeline going with the key dates so we can see when things happened in relation to everything else. 

Another challenge is that historians don’t always agree on exactly what happened, why, or when. There can be several different dates for when people were born (although their death dates are usually agreed upon), and different details about what happened. Some of that is due to limited record keeping; some of it is due to different points of view. The winners and losers of battles will have different opinions about what happened, and each side will speak better of themselves than of their opponents. Sometimes it is very difficult to determine exactly what happened in various events. When there are differing records, I have sometimes given multiple options; other times, I have chosen the most prevalent option. If you read something different from what I teach, that’s fine. You can decide for yourself why there are different records of events, who might prefer one or the other view, and which one seems most accurate to you. For the most part, the differences are in smaller details or in the events leading up to the main event, not in the major ideas.

Wednesday Mornings

Wednesday mornings are women's ministry time at the church. I have a pile of homeschool kids to care for those days. I'm not sure how many of them there are; some who were registered have never attended and others started late and I just deal with each week as it come! The children are supposed to come with 2 hours of work, although I'm pretty flexible about "work" as long as they are doing something quiet and independent.

My groups:

1. The older girls (the 11 and older group) meet in a corner of the auditorium. They're technically unsupervised, but with a group of ladies meeting across the room, I'm not too worried about them!
2. The older boys (the 12 and older group) meet in a classroom and are supervised by one of the dads who is also one of our pastors. Past experience has shown that this group should not be left alone as they tend to neglect any school work as they get louder and louder.
3. The little guys (5 and 6 years old) have a couple of the young ladies supervising them and helping them with work. There's a lot of colouring going on in that room and probably more chatting than there should be, but they are very small. They're also the exception to "bring 2 hours of work"; after the mid-morning break, we have activities for them to enjoy.
4. The middle group (somewhere around 6-8 years old, with a couple older ones thrown in) are sometimes supervised and sometimes not, depending on whether or not I can get one of the older girls to help. They're pretty good on their own; they're old enough to do their work and young enough to feel very grown up when I leave them alone!
5. The boardroom kids (around 9-11 years old) have a couple boys who were causing some trouble by talking too much and being inappropriate (bathroom talk and pictures), so one of the high school boys supervises them now. When he's not available, they try very hard to prove that they can behave on their own!

Those are my kids and I love hanging out with them, although I don't spend much time with the older kids. The study runs from 9:30-11:30, and my morning is broken up into 30-minute blocks. The first block is for making sure everyone is settled; helping with computer issues for the older kids (and reminding them that their technology is only to be used for school purposes); doing a quick check on the older girls to say hi, make sure all is well and answer any school questions they may have; making sure the activities are ready for the littles; making sure there is extra work for any middles who finish early; going over things with the middles (I'll be in the board room, if there's a real emergency go across the hall and get Pastor Adam first, you can take your break when the big hand is on the 5); and greeting the latecomers.

Then it gets fun. The next two blocks are trivia times, first with the boardroom kids and then with the middles. We like Professor Noggin and have many, many decks of nature, countries, history, and science cards. There is a lot of laughter, some arguments (fewer now that "argue with Miss Dorothy about the answer will result in your team losing a card), stories based on the questions, and a general increase in the knowledge of random facts. This month we added the Human Body deck, so there's also some appreciation of the more disgusting information!

Between the two groups is break time (10 minutes regardless of when they start; the boardroom group sometimes goes over a bit as we're finishing the game). When I finish with the boardroom kids, I pop in to let the older boys know they can take their break and to talk with them for a couple minutes. The other groups know when to start their break (I suspect that Pastor Adam does as well, but he waits for me to come anyway). 

After I finish playing trivia with the middles, I stop by the littles' room to tell them to tidy up whatever activities they've been doing and I'll be back after I check in with the boardroom kids. I do a quick check to see that all is well and answer any questions they may have, and then head back to my littles for story time. Depending on how long I take in the boardroom either they're just finishing tidying up or I have a row of students sitting on the tables waiting for me (sitting on the table is a story time treat). We read and discuss the books until the moms show up and another Wednesday morning comes to an end!

Studying (and Teaching) Church History

I've been teaching Church History for a while now. First it was the occasional lesson to my Sunday School kids, followed by a few years of teaching it to the Wednesday morning homeschool group. A friend of mine convinced me to try teaching a proper class, and that led to Miss Dorothy's Church History Class for high school students. I'm in my third year now; I did year 1 twice and am now teaching (and writing lessons for) year 2. It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying both the learning and the teaching.

A pretty standard question is always: Why bother teaching Church history (or any history for that matter)? Why do we have to learn about the past? How can it be important now?

This is what I teach the kids:

First, we need to see that history repeats itself; what is happening in the world now (no matter what is happening) is nothing new and nothing to be shocked about. It has all happened before and will all happen again if the Lord continues to tarry. 

Second, we need to know what battles have already been fought so we can recognize the same old errors when they pop up under a different name and know how (and why) to fight against them. 

Third, we can draw encouragement and strength from those who have gone before us to help us as we face our own trials and persecution.

Finally, we need to remember that our study of history is not meant to be simply an intellectual pursuit, but is intended to teach us more about the God who is sovereign over all history. If we learn people, places, and dates, but do not learn more about Him, we have not learned history properly.

There you have it: Four reasons to study history in general and Church history in particular.

Reading to Children

I read to children a lot. I've read to my nieces and nephews when they were smaller and I've read bedtime stories to children when I babysat. I read to my Wednesday morning homeschool kids (one day I was reading to the older ones and even the "too cool for story time" kids joined us). I read to classes when I sub and we have a bit of time at the end of the day. One evening I was babysitting for friends, and after the little ones were in bed I started to read the older ones The Story of Doctor Dolittle. It was only supposed to be a few chapters before their parents came home, but their parents were later than anticipated, so I read them almost the whole book. When I was working as a tutor two days a week for friends, I read to their children for part of class (it was historical fiction, so very educational). When I visit one family, their youngest is always eager for me to read to him (and any of the older children who are around; they're so used to being read to by their parents that they don't even pretend to not listen). 

So yes, I read to children a lot. I think it's an important part of childhood and even adulthood. I've read to babies and high school kids and they all like it. I have friends who read to each other on road trips (the person not doing the driving does the reading). I remember the joy of being read to. Audio books are popular not only because you can listen while you do other things, but you're experiencing the joy of being read to.

Reading to children is beneficial for a variety of reasons. First, it introduces children to books in a way that is enjoyable for them and makes reading a good thing. Books are associated with happy times and people who care about them. When they learn to read, they're finding old friends in the pages of a book and it's easier. In fact, if they already have an idea of the story, reading goes faster and they get better at it without even realizing it.

It also allows children to enjoy stories that they aren't ready to read yet. This is obvious for younger, non-readers, but is true for older children as well. They may not have the reading ability for novels, but they have the listening ability to enjoy them. They may not understand everything just yet, but they can usually follow the story line, and they will get more in a few years if you read it again. I have a friend who reads to all her children at once regardless of their ages; she rereads favourties every few years and the children get more out of it each time.

Reading to children teaches them to understand how stories flow and how good writing sounds. When they cuddle up with you for picture books, they can see how reading goes from left to right, and they may start to recognize words. Listening to stories can teach thinking skills as they learn to wonder "what next" and to think about why someone might do something or if the story makes sense. They also sometimes apply what they hear to the world around them, noticing that someone is acting like a character in a book for example. And they learn to narrate stories as they tell someone (or everyone) about their new favourite story.

Besides all this, reading to children is fun. It's also a very relaxing activity: you're curled up on the couch or sitting on a comfy chair, sharing a favourite story with someone. The world around you may be crazy, but you get to sit in a little bubble of calm and just read.

2023 in Books, Part 3

 As I was thinking about making the "Year in Books" posts, I realized that there is one more category now. Wednesday mornings is women's study at the church, and I take care of the homeschool kids. In previous years, my responsibility started with children who were 6 and in grade 1, but there were way to many nursery kids this year, so I gained some younger ones. As a result, I have one room full of children who are 5 or 6, and I spend the last 30 or so minutes of the morning reading to them. I tried a chapter book as that worked for the past couple years, but these kids are a bit younger and, I think, many of them are not used to being read to regularly. I eventually switched to picture books and that worked much better.

All that to say, here are some of the best picture books that I read my little guys this fall:

Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin, pictures by Betsy Lewin. This is the book that started the switch to picture books as it was given to me one Wednesday morning, so I read it to the kids. It's just so much fun to read and the kids loved it. We also read a couple others by the same author.

I'd Really Like to Eat a Child by Sylviane Donnio, illustrated by Dorothee de Manfried. He's a wee little crocodile who rejects all the food because he wants to eat a child.

Anatole by Eve Titus, pictures by Paul Galdone. Anatole is a brave, smart little mouse who lives in a mouse village just outside Paris. We started another one of his adventures but did not have time to finish. It's on my pile for when study starts up again in January.

Come Back, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish, pictures by Wallace Tripp and Bravo, Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish, pictures by Lynn Sweat. The kids find her incredibly funny, even though they miss half the jokes because they are also very literal minded.

Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile by Gloria Houston, illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb. This one is a true story about a lady who wanted to be a librarian and started by driving a bookmobile. I wasn't sure how well they would listen since it lacks the humor of the other books we read, but they seemed to really enjoy it.

Fly High, Fly Low by Don Freeman

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

The Story of Babar the little elephant by Jean De Brunhoff, translated by Merle S. Haas.

No Clean Clothes by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.